Henry Mills loved his family, even if it was beyond weird. His mom ran the town, and his dad was a big goof.

And then there was his "uncles" and the aunt who rarely visited. The only one he saw with any consistency was Uncle Fon, and that was because he moved to town in order to raise his own adopted daughter I-Pin, who was a martial arts prodigy. Apparently whoever his uncle worked for before had done something to anger him to the point he had to avoid them for a while.

(Lal agreed to let him stick around after finding out that one of the Triads had threatened I-Pin to get to Fon, and that he had opted to "disappear" for a while so they spent more time trying to find him than bothering his family in Japan. After he annihilated said Triad stupid enough to hold his adopted daughter hostage in the first place.)

So when his favorite teacher found a book that she knew he'd enjoy reading, he had no idea of the fact it would act as a catalyst to some major changes in the town.

Mary Margaret knew the Mayor's stance on fairy tales...namely that she refused outright to let Henry read them.

Lal Mirch despised Disney and would use the VHS copies of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" as target practice for her sniper rifle...she found it incredibly cathartic. Colonello found it hilarious as he was usually the one throwing the tapes in the air like a clay pigeon for his wife to blow into pieces.

"What you got there little man?" asked Christopher, ruffling his son's hair.

Henry still didn't know why his mother or his uncles all called his dad "Colonello".

"My teacher gave it to me. She seemed to think it would be good for me," said Henry.

His dad took one look at the contents and winced.

"Yeah... let's keep this from your mom until I have a better idea which version it's about."

"Why does mom hate fairy tales anyway?"

"Most of the current books tend to whitewash the more 'gritty' details. And they never get the whole story right. Besides, she leads you read the 'Brothers Grimm' books doesn't she?"

Henry nodded, turning the page.

"Hey, this woman kinda looks like my teacher!"

His dad blinked and looked at it.

"Huh... it really does. Weird."

In fact the more they skimmed the book, the more his dad started to get a really weird look on his face. Henry didn't know it, but his dad borrowed the hardback book once he was sound asleep for the night.

"Babe, you might want to have a look at this," said Colonello.

"What is it?"

"Henry said Mary Margaret found this in her closet and she loaned it to him," said Colonello.

Lal took the book from his hands, opened it up to a few pages in...and damn near dropped the thing from shock. There, staring back at her on the page was the Evil Queen.

"You said that twit gave this to him?" she said seriously.

"Yeah. What do we do about this?"

Lal skimmed the text and her eyes widened even more as she realized what this was.

"I heard rumors about this thing, but I never thought it was real. A book that contains all the stories of the Enchanted Forest as they actually happened, not the whitewashed version that are around here."

"Wait... so that chick in black..." started Colonello with wide eyes.

"Is what I used to look like before that idiot hit me with a curse," said Lal.

Colonello looked at the Evil Queen before he gave a wolf whistle.

"Damn babe, even when you were evil you were hot as hell!"

"Shut up, idiota!" she said blushing.

"So what do we do about the book?"

"Keep an eye on Henry. I have the feeling this is the opening act to the curse being broken," said Lal. "If I'm right, then it's going to be a total headache later."

"So make sure to have the trackers in Henry's clothing active at all times, got it," said Colonello.

There was paranoia, then there was being prepared. And all of Henry's clothing and his backpack had trackers discreetly sewn in that would go off if he even stepped one foot over the town line. It wouldn't take much for them to find him if that happened, or follow from a discreet distance. Colonello in particular was good at tracking his son, who still had no idea about their odd curse.

It was only because of her paranoia that they were fully prepared when Henry's tracker suddenly went nuts. He was outside the city limits and making steady progress away from town.

Lal had his computer hacked in an hour and she was fuming.

"What was his class working on again?" she asked.

They had told Henry he was adopted when he was old enough to understand the information. He had taken it well enough, mostly because it had been so soon after meeting Fon's daughter I-Pin. They had used it as an excuse to bond.

So finding a site dedicated to helping people find their birth parents after an adoption was made had Lal angry and hurt.

Henry knew they loved him as if he were their own, so why did he go looking for his birth mother now of all times?!

"I think it was something to do with family, not too sure," said Colonello frowning.

Lal was already dialing Fon. Within minutes he called back.

"They were doing a genealogy report. A way to help kids learn where they come from," Fon replied.

Lal cursed. Damn that Mary Margaret... she was going to give that fool a tongue-lashing once Henry was safe at home again. Though that wasn't going to stop her from grounding her son.

"Colonello..."

"On it babe. I'll keep an eye on the runt and intervene if anything happens. With any luck he'll get tired and come home on his own, though he's still in trouble for not saying anything," said Colonello.

If he wanted to meet his birth mom, then he should have just asked. They could have arranged a meeting after Lal and Colonello had a chance to see what sort of person she was.

Colonello followed his son all the way to the town he had tracked his birth mother to. Thanks to the fact they had access to the same page Henry had copied from, they had most of "Emma Swan's" information long before Henry even saw her.

The second Lal saw the newspaper article about a child left on the side of the road who was more or less shunted through a broken system for orphans, she had groaned in dismay.

Evidently Snow had given birth to a daughter, one who later gave birth to Henry.

Which meant Lal had been raising Snow White's grandson without even knowing it, and it was almost certain that whatever had driven Henry to searching for his birth mother wasn't entirely his fault.

Though it really begged the question... where the hell did Henry get a credit card to use on the site? He knew better than to take theirs, not that they bothered to keep any since Storybrook didn't really need plastic to buy things. He hadn't taken their bank cards either, since that had been the first thing they checked upon finding out he was past the town limits.

In any case Henry was beyond grounded for the month for this little stunt.

A few hours later...

Emma Swan was attractive enough, he guessed. Though the shocked expression on her face upon seeing her son show up without any warning at all was rather hilarious. Colonello liked her already, if for no other reason than the fact she didn't have the annoying "rose-tinted view" of the world that her mother did. She had seen cold, hard reality in the face and came up swinging.

Seeing his son blackmail his birth mother into driving him home was somewhat hilarious, though.

Colonello could already see the cogs of Emma's curiosity kicking in. If Lal was right about this being the opening act of the curse being broken, then odds were that she'd likely stick around.

He was already pulling out his cell... he knew Lal would be outside city limits just in case, or Fon would be.

"Well?"

"He found her. She seemed pretty damn shocked he bothered to look, much less managed to find her. She has the same jaded look as most orphans lost in the system. You might like her."

He could tell Lal had a lot of conflicted emotions about this.

"Hey babe, we knew this might happen eventually. Just because he wants to get to know his birth mom doesn't make you any less his mother,"said Colonello gently.

It was almost a sure thing that Lal would take this rather personally. As if Henry was deliberately telling her she wasn't good enough to be his mother. In a way Colonello had it easier... Henry had no idea who his father was and already had several male role models in his life to chose from. He had long since gotten used to sharing him.

"Where did he get the credit card from?" she said finally.

"I intend to ask, because that struck me as really odd. Storybrook doesn't really use plastic and both our cards were still in our wallets. Our boy was smart though... saw him disable some pervert with a move we taught him before he managed to get on the bus," said Colonello.

"... You are not helping things," said Lal flatly. Colonello grinned.

"Anyway we should be home soon. Apparently she lived really close by."

"He is still grounded though."

"I completely agree," said Colonello with a fierce smirk.

Emma POV

Storybrook was...quaint. And more than slightly outdated, though there were a few things that looked mostly modern. Like the coffee shop, the theater and the tasteful Chinese restaurant.

"So what's the deal kid, why did you come find me?"

On my birthday, no less, she thought.

Henry squirmed.

"I had a class assignment, and Mom told me I was adopted last year when Uncle Fon brought I-Pin with him. It was bugging me for months, so I thought I might as well see if I could at least get a lead. I wasn't expecting to find you so easily," he admitted.

"Fon? I-Pin?"

Talk about weird names.

"Uncle Fon is Chinese and I-Pin's his adopted daughter and apprentice. He teaches martial arts at the community center and is the owner of the restaurant called the Stormy Dragon," said Henry absently. "He's always giving out weird quotes and stuff, but he's a really good listener."

Henry suddenly made a face.

"At least he doesn't use me for target practice like Uncle Reborn does whenever I let my grades slip. Those paintballs hurt."

Emma felt a twinge of alarm hearing that comment.

Her eyebrows rose in disbelief when she saw the house. It was a nice, calming blue with an indigo colored door and purple curtains on the windows. It was in the nicer side of town.

"Who did you say your mom was again?"

"The town Mayor," said Henry sheepishly.

"HENRY ADRIEN MILLS! YOU ARE BEYOND GROUNDED!"

Emma's eyes widened at the very pissed off looking woman and her very hot husband. It didn't take a genius to figure out the woman had military training...everything about her practically screamed she was used to giving orders.

Henry yelped when his ear was grabbed, though Emma noted it was more of a painful pinch than anything truly damaging.

"Thanks for bringing him back. We were worried when the trackers in his clothes went off saying he had gone outside town limits."

Emma blinked.

"You put trackers in his clothes?"

"Very heavily wooded area, and there's an abandoned mine that has natural tunnels under the town. We'd rather be paranoid than sorry," shrugged the man.

Okay, that was far less alarming and more bordering cautious paranoia. Having trackers in his clothes meant that he'd be easily located if he was hurt or got lost, especially if there was an abandoned mine nearby.

Kids went into places they shouldn't all the time, and accidents did happen.

"...So does his uncle really use him for target practice with paintballs?" she had to ask.

"Reborn's an ass, but he's a certified tutor. Besides, it's a lot less dangerous than some of his other suggestions and it's not like Henry hates it that much. He's usually too busy being annoyed that he can't hit him back."

"Isn't that a bit one-sided?" asked Emma.

"No, I mean Reborn is better at dodging Henry's counter attacks than he is at hitting him," said the man. "And then Reborn starts irritating the hell out of him with his usual condescending snark, which only spurs him into trying harder. I swear Henry sometimes lets his grades slip just so Lal will call Reborn to 'encourage' him to do better."

Well that sounded a lot more like the guy was deliberately goading the kid into being a better student than a one-sided torment from an adult.

"So how much trouble is he in?"

"A lot. If he had wanted to meet you that badly we would have arranged a proper meeting after doing a background check," he said flatly. "No offense, but we'd rather exercise caution when it comes to introducing him to new people."

"None taken," said Emma.

It sounded like he had responsible, if slightly paranoid parents that genuinely cared about him. The guy checked his watch and saw the time.

"There's an inn near the town diner. You can crash there for the night, since I doubt you'd want to drive all the way back this late."

"Thanks."

She was rather exhausted... being confronted by the kid she gave up was rather emotionally draining.

"What's your name, by the way?"

"Christopher Mills, and my wife is Regina. Everyone knows pretty much everyone around here, and they generally know where someone is if you ask."

Emma drove to the inn (the woman looked very surprised to see a customer, but this was a pretty out of the way place) and crashed for the night.

All in all, from what she could see her son was being raised by a loving, if somewhat strict family.

Lal POV

"You are in so much trouble mister. Where did you even get a credit card?"

"I borrowed it from Mary Margaret."

Lal blinked.

"She has a credit card?"

This was just further evidence that something was deliberately setting things up to bring "Emma Swan" to Storybrook.

As far as Lal could remember, Mary Margaret had used only cash or check to pay for anything. She had no recollection of the woman ever owning a credit card, much less a bank card.

"Never mind that. You are grounded for a month for this stunt."

"But mom!"

"No buts! If you wanted to meet your birth mother you should have discussed it with us first. We would have found a way to arrange a proper meeting, not dropped into her the way you did. What if she had been a drug dealer or something? Did you ever consider that?" scolded Lal.

Henry sulked.

"She's not a drug dealer."

"I was using it as an example. At the very least we would have had Dr. Shamal escort you to her home if you had just said something. I know about the pervert who tried to pick you up at the bus station."

Henry stared at her.

"How..."

"Did you forget all your clothes have trackers in them?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Henry made a face. That was mortifying...they had known almost immediately when he had left!

"Wait... I didn't see either of you."

"That's because we're better at observing from a distance than you are at seeing us," said Colonello. "The punishment stands, by the way. You're restricted from the gun range and anything fun for the next month."

Henry looked like a kicked puppy... too bad they were standing firm on his punishment.