Author's Note: This is a crossover.

Disclaimer: I don't own OUAT or Labyrinth (1986).

"If you want to disappear, Emily, you can do it most anywhere."

― Barbara Delinsky, Escape

Chapter II: The Curious Case of Hansel

Henry Mills's morning was average. It was entirely average, which for a ten-years-old was expected; however, when one was the son of Mayor Regina Mills, and consequently the Evil Queen of another realm, it was to be expected that average was not something to be taken lightly. Average indicated that something was off. Something such as the way his mother did not wake up to float down the grand staircase in her silk pajamas and bathrobes like something out of the Nanny before making him a heart-healthy breakfast and lunch.

Instead, as he waked, dressed himself, and walked down the stairs to expect to see his mom―even if she wasn't his real mom―he noticed that everything was quiet. He spared little thought to her location and being when he found the brown paper bag already filled with his lunch and a note saying that she'd be picking him up from school, as she'd had to run in for some emergency regarding a foreclosure or some other nonsense, so then they could go to Dr. Hooper's for his therapy appointment right afterwards. He dutifully packed the bag into his backpack, looked at the time, and made his way to the door. At the first breath he saw, he went back inside and got a coat.

His mom might think he was insane but he wasn't stupid.

He didn't think too much on the faded, little red book that sat on the counter's edge.

The walk to school was average. The talks with his classmates―who never seemed to age as he did but that was another topic for another time―were average. His teacher's lessons were average. Everything was so average that when Nicholas Zimmer, who was really Hansel from Hansel and Gretel according to his Storybook, failed to show up for the fifth day in a row, Henry knew that this was not average. The intuitions of children were hardly ever wrong, after all. At least, that was what the ten-years-old was led to believe from all the dystopian books that were cycling around as they chatted about movies they wanted to see.

Still, Henry Mills was certainly not your average boy. He didn't have many friends or compatriots now that he realized that no one aged, so the schoolyard during recess was his best bet as to why Nick was still missing. They had a class project together and his mom would kill him if he got anything less than an A.

Storybrooke Elementary School was a basin of activity around lunch time. He found Ava Zimmer, Nick's sister, a little ways away from the playground, dribbling a basketball with Sean McGee and a few other boys from Mrs. Holdings class. She was a brutish sort of girl, with an elfish smirk always fixated on her face and a knowing glint in her eyes. She was trouble but her brother less so. When she caught sight of Henry, knowing him by sight if not by name, the smirk presented itself and he stopped short when Sean smiled.

"Henry Mills," Ava sing-songed. "What's the mayor's son doing here with us peasants?"

His neck burned.

"Hi, Ava."

She dribbled the ball. Thud! Thud! Thud!

"What you want?" she asked.

"I… uh," he sputtered uselessly, suddenly aware of all the eyes on him. The last time he talked to this many people was a year ago. It seemed worst this time around now that he realized just how different he was from them all. If it went wrong, he could always ask tomorrow. She wouldn't remember. But as tomorrow was Saturday, Henry mustered up his courage and said, "I was wondering if Nick's alright?"

Ava stared at him. "Who?"

"Nick? Your brother?"

She continued to stare at him, the ball frozen in her hands.

"Ava?" Henry pressed. "You, uh? You OK?"

She didn't answer immediately. Nor did Sean or the other boys who seemed frozen as well. It wasn't until he waved a hand before her face did she jolt back and blink wildly.

"Henry Mills," Ava sing-songed, "what's the mayor's son doing here with us peasants?"

"What the―?" There simply was no answer to it. Perhaps it was the Curse in action. Some invisible force rendering Ava incapable of answering him and forgetting who her brother was. He put on his best Mom smile―the one she used with Mr. Glass whenever he talked to her―and said, "I was wondering if I could play basketball with you."

A lie. Not a convincing one either, he understood, but Ava nodded regardless and motioned to Sean and the other boys.

"Fine," she said, eyeing him up, "we needed another player anyway."

He tried not to gasp or wheeze when she pelted the ball into his stomach. For the next twenty minutes, Henry forgot about Nicholas Zimmer as he raced after Ava. He hadn't had as much fun as he'd had in that moment in an entire year. He tried to think little of that later.

Ms. Blanchard was his next target.

He looked to Ms. Blanchard―who was Snow White if the Storybook was to be believed―for an answer as she was the one who, presumably, would have the most amount of information regarding Nick as she was his teacher. He cornered the young fifth grade teacher with the stealth and precision of a man on a mission after all the other students filed out to go to science with Ms. Benson across the hall.

She was working on fixing an aging birdhouse when Henry popped up behind her and gave a gentle but decisive tap on her back. Startled, she jumped three feet in the air, placed a hand on her chest, gave Henry the biggest, doe-like-est look he'd ever seen, and proceeded to exclaim, "Jesus!" as the birdhouse clattered onto her desk. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, Henry."

Ms. Blanchard made a habit of calling students by their first name every time she talked to them. She explained on a warm September day that she did so as to get to the know the students and to let them know she did not think herself any smarter or wiser than any of the kids because adults already did that enough. Instead, she was a "friend." Henry silently hoped that they'd progressed far enough as "friends" to get the answer he needed.

"Sorry about that, Ms. Blanchard," he said, not sorry one bit. But, as everyone knows, Henry was a Mills, so he oozed sympathy and authority like no one's business.

It didn't hurt that he was positively adorable. The parents all said so.

Henry cleared his throat and teetered on his heels as innocently as he could.

"I didn't mean to scare you."

Ms. Blanchard appeared to deflate in on herself.

"No, no, I'm sorry. I should've heard you walk in." She looked at the poor excuse for a bird house. There would be no fixing of it now. She sighed dejectedly and looked to him. "What can I do for you, Henry?"

"Well," Henry said, pleased pink that this was going so well, "I was wondering if you knew why Nick wasn't here today. He was supposed to be helping us with the jack o'lantern project but he hasn't been here all week!"

Ms. Blanchard quirked her eyebrows downwards in a small frown.

"Nick?"

Henry nodded.

"Nick Zimmer." To clarify, he added, "Ava's brother."

The tiny frown increased.

"I think you're mistaken, Henry. We don't have a Nick Zimmer in this class. Are you sure you aren't thinking of Nick Zeit?" she asked.

"I'm positive." An idea struck him. "What about the seating chart?"

Henry's first clue that something was very much not average was the way Ms. Blanchard teetered and swayed as if stayed by an invisible hand. Her face was torn between a thoughtful visage and a looming frown, and for a second, he thought the fifth grade teacher might collapse. She didn't. Instead, bringing a surprisingly weathered hand to her suddenly aching forehead, his black-haired teacher and fairytale character slumped into the closest chair to her.

"Are you… OK?" he asked.

She waved him off. "Yeah… yeah, I'm…"

Her eyes tore open, wild and uncertain. Henry warily stepped back. Then, just as fast as it came, his teacher slumped forward in her chair.

"Hey… Henry?" she mumbled.

"Uh?"

Her head lolled against the table. "Can you get the nurse?"

Henry didn't need prompting to. He bolted out of the classroom with a speed he wished he'd had during the one mile run. It wasn't long before Ms. Blanchard was tended to by the nurse, and Henry, being the great spy that he was, shimmied his way into the room to take a look at the seating chart atop her desk to find that, yes, Nick Zimmer indeed sat in this class.

He left before anyone could comment on why he was still in there.

When school let out, the mystery of Nick Zimmer was no closer to being solved than before. He was certain that Nick Zimmer existed, more so now that he saw the seating chart, but the memories of those around him was fickle. No longer did anyone realize that there was once a shy boy named Nicholas Zimmer who sat three seats away from Henry. Even his own sister and his teacher didn't know he existed. That was perhaps the most perplexing part of the situation. There was proof that he existed, undeniable proof that would have any rational cop concluding that there was a conspiracy afoot, but Henry wasn't a cop and the one cop there was was the Evil Queen's lackey.

Bemused, Henry resigned himself to the inevitability that he would have to ask Sheriff Graham sooner rather than later. Still, seated in the front passenger seat, he watched the little coastal town pass him by. His mother observed his reaction from afar despite the close distance between them. Had he looked over, he would have seen her face crinkled with concern. Whether it was about his state of mind, her decaying curse, or the foreclosure she'd been working on earlier, Henry would have no idea. Though, that was to say he would be interested to begin with. He wasn't.

October 23 was closing in fast. Soon enough, the Savior would have to be found and brought back to break the Evil Queen's Curse and save them all. It wasn't until his mother spoke to him as the buildings slowed to a crawl outside his window did he tear his eyes from the window.

"What?"

His mother nearly sighed.

"Did you have a good day at school?" she repeated hesitantly.

He shrugged.

Another near sigh.

"I heard Ms. Blanchard went to the emergency room today during science," she continued, picking her words with extra care. She didn't want their conversation to end up in another screaming match like the last handful of times. "Did you have a substitute teacher?"

It was an innocent question. A gateway into a conversation that might have taken place a year ago. He'd probably have an answer a year ago, too. Today, he didn't. Today, he knew he was sitting in a car with the Evil Queen. A woman who had murdered countless innocents and brought on misery and despair to all those who opposed her. Hardly the most motherly of types.

"You don't have to sound so happy about it," he grumbled.

The beginnings of a frown etched itself into his mother's face.

"I… do you have any homework tonight?"

"Yeah," he lied.

His mother came to a stop at a red light. Behind the wheel, she didn't look the part of the Evil Queen hell bent on ruining Snow White's life. She didn't even look like a queen. With dark bags beneath her eyes and her hair lacking just enough volume to say that she hadn't had time to take a shower today, Mayor Regina Mills was hardly the epitome of an Evil Queen. If Henry had looked over, he would have seen her dejected, defeated looks but he didn't. It would have been a different story had he seen the state of his mother.

Instead, he continued to stare out the window as his mother stared at him, wondering just exactly how to cross the ravine that had somehow formed between them. With another soft but long sigh, the mayor watched the light turn green and the car in front of her roll forward.

Henry watched the cursed townspeople mill about and wondered for the first time today whether he had imagined Nick Zimmer and the seating chart up. He blinked and chided himself for being ridiculous. But as his mother drove onwards to Dr. Hooper's practice, Henry caught sight of a white barn owl atop one of the telephone poles. It caught his eyes, twisted its neck all the way around, and gave a low hoot. Then another one. Its final hoot came when its head returned to its normal position.

By the time he sat down with Dr. Hooper, Henry forgot all about Nick Zimmer.