Chapter 2
'This woman is something else,' thoughts like this kept clouding Tony's mind during the beginning of his trip back to Boston.
Regina Mills was not only his type (with her petite figure clad in this form-fitting dress, luscious brunette hair, deep russet eyes, in which you could drown and drown a happy man), you could just tell that she is very intelligent, sassy woman, and this power that surrounded her... All in all, she was everything he liked in his women and Tony definitely would have gone after her, if not for only one little problem.
One little ten year old problem.
Anthony strongly believed that all serious relationships are doomed from the start, so he preferred fun fulfilling and most importantly short-lived interactions. However, when there is a child in the middle of everything, relationships just can't not progress into something more. And in the end, when everything comes crashing down, child's feelings would surely be damaged the most.
So, when their paths cross again, Tony decided to keep his distance from Ms. Mills, even if he wanted so much to get to know her better. For Henry.
Talking about Henry. During the conversation with Ms. Mills in her study they still weren't able to deduce, how the boy managed not to only find his biological father, but to run away to Boston.
This topic led to some other sensitive issues for both parties.
108, Mifflin St.
1 hour ago
"So tell me, Mr. Swan, should I be worried about Henry's biological mother showing up on my doorstep too?" Tony didn't expect this matter to come up.
He took a sip from his glass of water, put it on the table in front of him and leaned back on the luxurious leather couch to look straight at the woman in front of him.
"She was not in the picture since Henry's birth. So no, nothing to worry about," his voice was strained, because even after all these years, thoughts about her made his blood boil. However, with time he learned to conceal his true feelings behind the mask of indifference and only the tone of his voice occasionally betrayed him.
"Do I need to be worried about you, Mr. Swan?" Regina asked her guest with a raised elegant brow, still standing in front of the fireplace with a glass of apple cider in hand.
"Absolutely not," Tony was bloody tired of this seemingly endless day, and he had no intention to seat through the whole interrogation from concerned mother, so he took matters into his own hands. "With all due respect, Ms. Mills, it's been a long day and I have no time for any of this," He stood up and put his hands in the pockets of his slacks. "So I'll just tell you, what I came here to tell you, and be on my way."
Regina was speechless. No one has ever talked to her like that: not in the past, not now. It really irritated her, how this man stood there and didn't show any respect or fear, she was so used to. But at the same time it was somehow refreshing.
Tony didn't give her time to reply.
"Please, make sure that this situation with Henry didn't happen again. The big city, as it is, is a dangerous environment for a child to wander alone, but through my job I acquired quite a bunch of enemies. And they won't spare anyone, even an innocent child, to get to me," with that said, Tony made his way to the door of the study. "I hope we understood each other."
"Yes, yes, of course," Regina was truly horrified. If what this man said was true, then Henry got extremely lucky to get home unharmed today. She needed to have a serious talk with him, even if he thought her to be evil.
They walked to the front door of the mansion in silence. Each of them was deep in their own thoughts. Only when they reached their destination, Tony stopped and turned around to say something, but, because Regina didn't pay much attention to her surroundings, she walked right into the father of her son. If he didn't put his hands on her shoulder to steady her, her posterior would have had a meeting with the wooden floor of the hall right about now.
"Wow... You okay?" asked Tony with worry in his voice. They were so close that he could feel her breath on his face.
Regina was mesmerized by this sea-green eyes. It seemed, they managed to put her in some kind of trance, because she just could not look away.
"Y-yes," Regina collected herself and took a step away from the man, but still didn't look away.
"Okay," Tony gave her a sheepish easy-going smile. "So I'll be going. Please, don't let Henry seek me out again."
With that said he opened the front door and stepped out. But before Regina could close the door, Tony turned around and added.
"And, Ms. Mills, you might want to check this ancient storybook, Henry couldn't stop talking about. Maybe it'll help shed the light on some of his issues. Have a good night," and Tony made his way to the car.
For a couple of seconds Regina stared at his departing figure and then slammed the door shut.
Only one thought was on her mind.
'What the hell was all that?'
Something about this town unnerved Tony, and he had all the intentions to find out what it was.
However, for now he decided to head back to his apartment in Boston, finish some business there and return to Storybrooke as soon as possible.
Buried deep in his thoughts, Tony didn't pay much attention to the road and only at the last moment noticed that something was blocking it.
Everything escalated too fast.
Here was a huge wolf right in front of his car. Then Tony abruptly turned the wheel to avoid the animal. In the next moment his beloved dark-green Mitsubishi Lancer was stopped by the sign "Storybrooke" at the side of the road.
Tony immediately jumped out of his car to survey the damage and see the culprit of the accident at closer range.
The wolf was nowhere to be seen and, if the smoke coming from his car and the state of the townsign were any indications, he had more pressing matters to attend to.
Tony fished the phone from the pocket of his jacket and dialed a number.
...
"Good morning, Sheriff. There was an accident right by the south townline..."
"So Regina's drinks really do have a punch..."
After the Sheriff came to the scene of the accident, he quickly examined the site and took the culprit to the station, leaving the car in the hands of evacuators.
Now Sheriff Graham was sitting behind his desk and merrily chatted with Tony Swan. There were not many visitors from the outside world in Storybrooke and Gram just couldn't miss the opportunity to get to know someone new. All in all, Sheriff was intrigued.
As for Tony, he found the company of the Sheriff rather interesting and he could easily see them becoming friends.
"I already told you, Gram, I'm a responsible driver, so I had no chance to enjoy Madam Mayor's drinks," Tony grinned. "There was some animal standing in the middle of the road and I had no choice: either kill it or find yourself at the side of the road."
Tony decided not to tell what kind of animal it was or the size of it. 'No need to look crazy in the eyes of the town's Sheriff. Especially, if I'm planning on staying in this Storybrooke for a while.'
Gram wanted to say something, but staccato of heels on the tiled floor interrupted him.
Frantic looking Regina Mills rushed into the Sheriff's office. "Graham, Henry had run away again. We have to..."
She didn't finish the last sentence, because her gaze fell onto the other occupant of the room. Regina hadn't expected to see the father of her child ever again. After all he pretty clearly showed that he did not want to do anything with Henry and tried to live town as soon as possible. But here he was, sitting in the sheriff's office, friendly chatting with said sheriff...
"What is he doing here?" she asked Graham. "Do you know where is my son?" the woman turned to Tony.
"Do I look like I know?" Tony sassed. "And for your information, no, I don't know. I was with the Sheriff all this time."
"Yes. Well, he wasn't in his room, when I checked on him," Regina's expression was unreadable, but Tony could still feel all the worry and fear for her son coming from the woman in waves. So he decided to help her out.
Tony stood up from his sit and looked straight at Regina.
"Madam Mayor, I can help you find the boy. After all, finding people is my job."
It was obvious Mayor didn't want Tony's help, but for the sake of her son she swallowed her pride and agreed.
First of all, Tony decided to use his most favorite and effective method, even if there was a risk of getting caught. Upon exiting the station Tony stopped and concentrated on the power surrounding him. But nothing happened.
'Hm... Interesting," thought Tony and went after the Mayor to her car. Everything he did was too fast for anyone to notice.
After this failed attempt Tony proceeded with good old methods, though they were not as fast and effective as the first, if it did work
A search through Henry's laptop proved rather useful. They managed to find out how Henry found his father, that he payed for the bus to Boston via credit card, and discovered the name of the owner of said card.
Mary Margaret Blanchard.
Only one mention of this name changed Regina's expression for a second, but a second was enough for Tony to notice that. 'There must be a history between these two.' and if only he knew, what a history it was...
So here they were standing in a classroom in front of a woman with a short dark hair and kind-looking eyes.
Regina marched right to the woman, and Tony tried to keep his distance and give the women some semblance of privacy, but at the same time hear them.
"Ms. Mills, how may I help you?" asked the woman.
"Where is Henry?" demanded the Mayor.
"I thought he was sick and stayed home," the woman looked rather confused.
"You think, I would be here if he was?" irritation seeped through the Mayor's voice.
This talk seemed to lead them nowhere and just waste their time, so Tony decided to intervene.
"Ms. Blanchard, why did you give the boy your credit card?" asked Tony walking closer to the women. The teacher's expression grew only more confused.
"I'm sorry. Who are you?"
"I'm just helping Madam Mayor find her son," answered Tony, before Regina could even open her mouth. "Name is Anthony Swan." he curtly nodded. "So it seems you have no idea, what Henry did behind your back?"
She shook her head and whispered as if to herself. "I should never have given him that book..." However, it was loud enough for the two other occupants of the room to hear.
"What in the hell is this book I keep hearing about?" with every second Regina grew only more agitated.
"Just some old stories, I gave him. As you know..."Ms. Blanchard tried to clarify, but was interrupted.
"Okay. Have you any idea, where Henry could be?" asked Regina. She grew tired of all this merry chit-chat and just wanted her son back.
"No, I'm afraid not," squealed Mary Margaret at the harsh tone of the Mayor.
"This is a waste of time," sighed Regina and made her way to the door.
"Madam Mayor..." Tony tried to stop her, but this was futile.
Regina turned to him as if just remembering about his presence.
"Ah, yes. Mr. Swan. It seems, you are not as capable as you think," she gave him a belittling stare and turned to the door. "Have a nice trip back to Boston." And she was gone.
Tony just smirked at the insult. His interactions with Mayor greatly amused him. 'I'll dwell on it another time. Now I have some lying teachers to interrogate.'
"Okay, Ms. Blanchard. Why did you lie?" Tony looked at the teacher with a reprimanding eyes.
"W-what do you mean?" she tried to play innocent, but Tony was too good at reading people.
"You lied about not knowing where the boy might be. So tell me kindly about it or should I call Madam Mayor back, tell her about my little discovery and let her deal with it?"
"Okay," Mary Margaret didn't want any more of Mayor's wraith directed at her. "You might want to check his castle. It's like a sanctuary from everyone and everything."
"Why didn't you tell it to his mother?" Tony just couldn't understand the logic of this woman.
"It may sound strange, but... I just have this feeling that I know you from somewhere, that I can trust you," she smiled at Tony and for some unknown reason goosebumps ran over his back. "As for Mayor Mills..." Mary Margaret frowned, but Tony didn't let her finish.
"With all due respect, Ms. Blanchard, you only met me five minutes ago and..." he was too tired to deal with all this shit now. 'I'll just tell Madam Mayor, and let her deal with it.'
"Just tell me where is this castle?" sighed Tony.
'And then I'll have my well-deserved sleep.'
A walk to the old wooden playground by the sea took Tony longer than he thought. But in the end his efforts were rewarded. He finally fond Henry.
The boy was just sitting there and looking through his beloved storybook.
"Are we done playing hide-n-seek, kid?" Henry didn't notice him coming, so he jumped a little at the voice of his father.
"Emmet..."
"Ow... I prefer Tony," the man sat next to Henry. "You'd better stop running away, Henry, or your mother will soon have a heart attack."
"She is evil! She doesn't care about me! She just pretends to care about me!" stubbornly repeated Henry. 'It must be genes.'
"Okay, listen to me, kid," Tony was fed up with this bullshit; he put his left hand on the base of the boy's neck and made Henry look him in the eyes. "Even if your mom is evil, which I just can't believe, she still loves you with abandon and will do anything for you..."
"She cursed everyone in this town and won't let anyone have their happy ending!" Henry jumped to his feet and now he was looking down on his father. "Life here sucks!"
"Oh, you really don't know what 'sucks' means," Tony tiredly sighed. "And I'm really sorry to burst your bubble, kiddo, but happy endings don't exist. You'll just have to fight through life and be as happy as you can. End means there is nothing afterwards, but where's the fun in that?" Maybe it was too harsh to tell something like that to a 10-year-old boy, but Tony didn't see any sense in sugar-coating anything.
Tony looked at the boy, but he clearly still wasn't convinced.
"Kid, let's make another deal. I haven't slept for 40 hours, I'm too tired to talk now. So I will stay in town fir a while and we will talk later..."
Tony was interrupter by the excited squeak. "Yes!"
"Not so fast, kid," Tony raised his index finger and seriously looked at the boy. "There are some terms. No more running away, okay?" Henry nodded vigorously. "And you have to try to forget about the Evil Queen from your book and concentrate your attention on your loving mom, who took care of you for 10 years."
"But..." Henry tried to protest.
"Do we have a deal or not?" Tony raised a brow and stretched his hand out for a handshake.
For a moment, Henry hesitated, but then nodded and shook his father's hand. "Yes, deal."
Tony smirked. "Then, for now, let's get you home."
When they walked to the front door of the mayoral mansion, it was already getting dark.
As Tony reached out to knock, the door was opened and out rushed a worried Ms. Mills.
"Henry," she sighed, put her hands on his shoulders and started to look him over. "Are you okay? Where have you been? Again..."
"I'm fine, mom," Henry's voice was not as harsh as in the morning, but was still kind of aloof. "I was just wandering around," he shook his mother's hands off and tried to sneak upstairs, but his mother's voice stopped him.
"Henry Daniel Mills," reprimanded Regina. She looked rather intimidating. "You are grounded for a week. Now go to your room; we will discuss your behavior later."
Henry understood that now was not the time to argue with his mother, so he quickly retreated to his room.
Regina turned to the man still standing on her front porch.
"Mr. Swan, I have to thank you for finding Henry," she practically forced these words out of her mouth. "And I must take my words about your incompetence back."
"No big deal, Madam Mayor," answered Tony with a tired smile.
"Now, as you have no more business here, in Storybrooke, have a nice trip back to Boston," Regina
"Truthfully, Madam Mayor, I decided to stay in Storybrooke for a while. There is some business I need to address to here. Besides my car is broken and I just physically can't leave."
Regina grit her teeth. "And what is this business, Mr. Swan?"
"It's for me to know and for you not to find out. Have a good evening, Madam Mayor."
Regina couldn't leave it like that. She grabbed Tony's elbow and turned him back around to look him straight in the eyes.
"Mr. Swan, I hope there is no misunderstanding here," she spat. "Don't mistake all this as invitation back to Henry's life. He is my son and your appearance won't change that. Do you know what closed adoption is?"
Tony took a step closer to Regina, and now his lean frame was looming over her petite once.
"I know what it is. I can assure you, my business has nothing to do with Henry. I won't purposefully seek out his company, but if he wants to communicate with me, while I'm still in town, I won't stop him."
Regina didn't back down.
"Stay away from MY son, or I will destroy you, even if it is the last thing I do," Regina turned around and walked into the house. "Goodbye, Mr. Swan."
A blond man stood in front of a window in a room of B&B, looking at the Main street, and talked with someone on the phone.
...
"Yes, yes, I know."
...
"Listen. I fond this strange town in Main and I'd like to stay here for a while to investigate."
...
"Yes. I just feel magic buzzing in the air around me and it's so intense. It's the most potent magic, I've ever felt. However, when I try to reach it... Nothing happens, as if something's blocking it, prevents me from accessing it."
...
"Yeah, I know. It's really strange."
...
"'kay. I'll be..."
...
"Love you too. Say 'hi' to everyone for me."
...
"Bye."
With that he closed the curtains and rushed to bed.
A/N: Thanks to everyone, who followed, favorited and reviewed the previous chapter.
Hope, you enjoyed this update, and, please, tell me of any mistakes you see, so I can correct them.
Answer to the guest's question: yes, he'll stick with this name. I plan on telling the history behind it in later chapters.
