A/N: I own only Morgan and Adrian. All other characters belong to their respective creators.
Chapter 6 - Savior's Advent
It was with great trepidation that Emma Swan continued the meandering road, the headlights on her yellow Bug causing the pavement to glimmer. Beside her, in the passenger seat, sat quietly, still flipping through that damned book. Emma's better judgment was now screaming at her; she should have simply put the kid back on a bus or called the police. Would they have honestly believed Henry over her, particularly when it had been a closed adoption and she'd had no knowledge of where he had gone?
She slowed the car slightly as they reached the sign declaring the Storybrooke town limits. "Okay, kid, you're gonna have to tell me where to go. I don't know where I'm going."
Henry glanced up from his book. "Just keep going straight. I'll tell you where to turn."
Emma regained her previous speed, and soon she found herself at a lonely intersection in what she assumed to be the center of town. The single traffic light flashed red, then yellow, and finally green.
"Turn right," Henry directed.
She did so, and followed his instructions. The clock tower read only 8:15, yet there were very few residents out and about. She attributed it to the supposition that this town, like others of its size, was inherently early-to-bed in its routine.
At length they came upon a beautiful white-washed home, nestled back a short way behind a wrought iron gate. A stone walk led from the gate to the porch. It was larger than the others than Emma had seen on the drive. She threw the car into park and turned it off. She then removed the key from the ignition and dropped it into the pocket of her red leather jacket.
'Nice place,' she thought as she climbed out and took a moment to observe the surrounding area.
She followed Henry to the gate, where he unhooked a latch and walked, albeit hesitantly, up the stone pathway. She debated whether to follow him further, and despite her reservations, she ultimately decided to do so. Henry made no move to open the door, but instead looked at Emma. With a sigh she knocked on the door, which was answered momentarily. The woman who greeted her was dark-haired, with fair skin and striking blue eyes.
"Can I help you?" the woman asked in an accented voice.
"Hi. Um, is this your son?" Emma placed her hand on Henry's shoulder and drew him in front of her.
The woman's eyes widened. "Henry! Your mother has been looking everywhere for you!"
Emma quirked a brow as Henry cast his eyes downward. So this woman was not his mother. The woman, meanwhile, had turned her head to call out over her shoulder, "Regina!"
The sound of heels clicking on hardwood heralded another woman's arrival; she, too, was dark-haired, but of a slightly darker complexion and equally dark eyes, which widened upon seeing the little boy.
"Henry, where have you been?" she demanded. "Do you know how frightened I was? Come inside!"
Henry did so, though not without a final, almost pleading look at Emma. Emma heard the blue-eyed woman say to Henry, "Adrian and your Uncle Killian are here; please go see them, as they've been looking everywhere for you too. You had us all worried."
Begrudgingly, Henry murmured, "Yes, Aunt Morgan."
Once she was certain that Henry was inside and under proper supervision, Regina turned her attention to Emma. "Thank you for returning him to me. Why did he come to you?"
"He found me somehow - I don't know how - and just showed up at my apartment claiming to be the son I'd given up for adoption ten years ago. He refused to come back by himself, and he wouldn't be satisfied until I brought him."
"I will have a talk with him later. What's your name?"
"Emma. Emma Swan."
"Well, then, Miss Swan, would you like a drink before you get on your way?"
It seemed quite rude to refuse the woman, and Emma, in her current mood, needed a drink. With a nod, Emma stepped into the entrance hall and followed Regina into an adjacent room, the walls of which were lined with a myriad of books. In the center of the room were two plush armchairs, while under the floor-length window was a rich mahogany desk. A decanter of brandy sat idly by on one corner, and it was this decanter from which Regina poured two glasses. She handed one to Emma and saved the other for herself.
"Once again, I do sincerely apologize for my son's behavior," Regina began, raising her hip to sit on the edge of her desk. "I suppose you will want to be on your way."
"Actually, it was kind of a long drive. Is there an inn or somewhere I can stay the night?"
Regina sipped at her brandy to conceal her irritation at the proposition. She wanted the Winchesters in her town not at all, and this Swan woman even less. As far as Regina was concerned, all three of them were not visitors, but intruders - they had trespassed into the territory she ruled, and she had no desire to welcoming any such intruders.
Emma, under Regina's scrutiny, cast her eyes down to her glass, which was still partly full.
"Keep in mind, Miss Swan, that Henry is my son," Regina said at length, straightening imposingly. "You are not his mother - you signed away all rights to him when you abandoned him."
"I did not abandon him!" Emma snapped. "I couldn't have possibly taken care of him - I gave him away to give him the best chance I possibly could!"
"See that you keep that at the forefront of your mind." Regina's tone was calm in the face of Emma's annoyance, but that calmness belied the sense of anger that was present in her eyes in the form of a cold, hard veil.
"Fine," Emma muttered, rising to her feet and setting the glass, a little too hard, down on the table by the chair.
"I'll see you out." Regina, too, placed her glass on the desktop and opened the door. Emma, with a slight glare, exited the room, with Regina at her heels. The two women walked down a short hallway and into the foyer, whereupon they found Killian, Morgan, and Adrian at the door. The young boy was thrusting his arm through his black jacket while Killian was assisting his wife with hers.
"Ah, Miss Swan, before you go, allow me to introduce you." Regina's irritation had faded, however slightly, and Emma sensed this.
Adrian had finished putting his jacket on and was now in the process of zipping his jacket. "But Mom, I want to stay with Henry-"
"Henry needs to rest, love, as do you. You both have school in the morning," the woman Emma had seen before countered.
Adrian looked up at the man who stood to his right, almost pleadingly, but the man shook his dark head. "Listen to your mother, Ace."
Adrian sighed, but seemed to brighten slightly upon seeing his aunt. "Aunt Gina!"
Regina acknowledged this with a smile and a nod. "Miss Swan, this is my nephew, Adrian, my sister Morgan, and her husband Killian."
Emma smiled, albeit uneasily; Henry's accusations - his mother was the Evil Queen, and her sister and brother-in-law were evil pirates- rang almost dolefully in her mind. "Hi."
"Pleasure," Morgan returned, adjusting her leather jacket slightly. "I'm afraid we can't stay to exchange pleasantries. Our son is very tired, as are we."
Emma was struck by Morgan's cold demeanor, but did not comment; it served no purpose to draw attention to such unpleasantness, and Morgan, like her sister, did not seem like the type to enjoy such topics of conversation.
"I am not," Adrian protested with a yawn.
"I think you are," Killian answered, placing his arm around his shoulders. "Come on, Ace; out to the car."
Adrian offered another protest, but it was under his breath so that Killian and Morgan had an excuse to ignore it. Killian, using the arm around his son's shoulders, guided Adrian over the threshold and down the stone path.
"I'm so sorry for all this, Morgan," Regina said, having forgotten temporarily that Emma was there.
"It's no problem - Henry's in one piece and he's safe. Now I just have to get Adrian home."
Goodnights and goodbyes were exchanged between the sisters, and Morgan soon followed her family down the path. Emma watched as Morgan joined her husband and son at the gate, and together the three of them walked a little ways down the sidewalk until they reached a black car parked at the curb. Emma could not tell what make and model the car was from this distance in such low lighting. Adrian climbed into the back seat once the car had been unlocked; Killian slid into the driver's seat and Morgan into the passenger's. Presently, the car performed a three-point turn, and drove down the dark street.
"Nice family," Emma commented, almost tonelessly.
Regina quirked a brow at her, but did not comment on the statement. "You had best get to Granny's Bed and Breakfast. Just take a left at the end of the road and go straight for about three blocks."
Emma, sensing that Regina no longer wanted her presence, gave a short nod and walked down the path to her own yellow Bug. Once she had driven off, Regina shut the front door and leaned back against it, heaving a heavy sigh.
'Well,' she thought, 'this development has certainly thrown a wrench in my plans.'
No matter, she reassured herself as she walked to the kitchen and poured a glass of wine. Emma Swan would be of no threat to her, and she seemed to be a woman of reason; she would surely see reason and leave Storybrooke, and thus Henry.
Regina comforted herself with this thought as she took her wine up the stairs and into her own bedroom.
Graham sat at the desk in the sheriff's office, feeling his eyes growing heavy with each passing moment. He was the only one in the station, his only company being a couple of lamps that provided very little illumination. The computer on the desk in front of him had gone into sleep mode, and he was tempted to follow suit. However, he dared not do so. He had received orders to stay for a little while longer, and he dared not disobey the woman who had given them.
Presently, he heard the soft clicking of heels on the hard concrete floor, and he straightened, a little more awake. Morgan Jones emerged from the shadows of the entryway; Graham noticed that she was alone. In her hand was a single sheet of paper. She approached the desk in several smooth, graceful steps, and lay the paper down in front of him.
"What's this?" he asked, looking down at it. On it were copies of three drivers' licenses - Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, and Emma Swan.
"I want you to run background checks on these three," Morgan said, folding her arms over her chest. "Dig as deep as you possibly can; leave no stone unturned."
"I'm surprised you've not gone to Sidney." And indeed, he was - if Regina or Morgan ever needed information, they usually employed Sidney Glass, the town reporter, to get it for them.
"He doesn't have access to all the databases like you do," Morgan answered.
"Remind me why I'm to do this?"
"Because all three of them have arrived in Storybrooke in the same night. I have no reason to trust them, and I certainly do not want my son around them."
Graham woke the computer from sleep mode with a flick of the mouse. "I'll get on it."
"See that you do. Report your findings to me as soon as possible."
He nodded and, despite himself, could not keep his eyes off of her as she walked away from his desk. He, however, quickly averted his eyes; Morgan Jones was a beautiful woman, yet she hated to be stared at, and the gods have mercy on anyone she did catch staring at her. A moment later, he heard the door open, close, and then latch. Her faint heel clicks sounded on the hard floor outside the office, and soon they faded into silence. He was alone now, but he soon fell to work. He started with the Winchesters, which proved to be an excellent undertaking, as a search through the FBI database yielded a goldmine of data on the brothers.
Morgan would be pleased.