Henry enjoyed school but he missed his friends. Emma took him to see Regina every night though nothing changed. She grew more and more worried as time went on and she could see the same was true of Henry.
He didn't have his mother, his home, his stuff around him. The people of the town welcomed him with open arms, though. Granny seemed on a mission to fatten him up, even Mr Gold toned down his scariness for him.
Emma asked around about apartments and found a loft in the same building as Mary Margaret.
She seemed lonely too but it was a different kind. She seemed like a part of her was missing. Everyone in this town kind of seemed like that, but Mary Margaret especially so.
"What you got there, kid?" Emma asked, locking their apartment door behind them.
"Miss Blanchard gave me a book" he said pulling it from his school bag.
"Could she have given you a bigger one?" She asked, watching him lug it up the stairs.
"Night Emma" he said and she heard his door close.
She sighed and looked around the apartment. It had everything they needed but it wasn't home. She looked out of the window at the town. She missed her view of the city. She missed her life and her friends. She closed her eyes and leant her head against the cold glass.
She thought about how Regina had stood at her window trying not to be too impressed by the view. She thought of the neon signs that reflected in her dark eyes as they walked through Chinatown that night. She thought of the touch of her skin and how they curled around each other at night. How when Regina wanted to be let go, she kissed Emma's arm before moving it like a little peace offering.
That dragging feeling returned. She opened her eyes again. It was all so far away, like another lifetime.
She thought about calling Harper but she didn't want to worry him. She also got the sense he thought she had made a mistake going there, and didn't want to have that conversation. He might be right, and she couldn't think about that.
She sighed again and crossed the room, flicked the lights off and went to bed.
The days passed quickly and soon they had been there for two weeks already.
"I'm lost, Max, I don't know what I'm doing here" Emma said as she paced her room.
"How many times have you just set up somewhere completely new? Why is this place any different?" He asked
"I don't think I have ever done that somewhere like this, I mean this is small for a small town! Everyone knows everything about everyone. I feel like there's no room to reinvent myself here. Plus I've got Henry, somehow I'm responsible for him. Sometimes he seems more grown up than I am"
Her head rested in her free hand as she leant on the balcony of her room, which looked out at the woods.
"And Regina?" Harper asked
"No change" Emma said. She rubbed her forehead. "How did I get here, Max?"
"You followed your instincts, as usual." He replied "you're there for a reason, Emma"
She sighed. She knew that, but she had never imagined being here without Regina.
"What if she wakes up tomorrow?" He asked
She looked out at the moon rising over the trees.
"I don't know" she said "things might actually be ok. She knows who my parents are for a start" though that was no longer her primary concern.
Getting Regina back at all was the thought that filled her mind all day long, interspersed with panics about making sure Henry was ok, then she might think about her parents and lastly herself.
"Have you met anyone you would consider friend material?" He asked.
Emma could hear him brushing his teeth on the other end if the line.
"I think so. There's a woman who works at the diner who is cool, and the school teacher who lives downstairs, I like her a lot. She's kind of a dork but really sweet."
"Mmhmm" Harper replied, presumably with a mouth full of toothpaste.
"And the sheriff" Emma started though she wasn't sure what, if anything, she should say about him.
She heard Harper stop brushing and spit.
"Yeah?" He asked
"Yeah" Emma said, though it came out as a long, unsure sound.
"What are they like?" He asked
"He's kind of...aloof, but he's really nice once you've broken through that. He seems like a bit of a tortured soul to be honest"
"Ah, I know the type." Harper replied "Would the sheriff have access to documentation about your parents?"
Emma paused. "That's a good question" she said. How had she not thought about that before?
"Thank you" he replied "and the sheriff may be able to access the mayor's office, if the records aren't with him, they might be there"
"You're a small town criminal mastermind" Emma said
"Thank you, I'll add it to my resume" he laughed.
"How are you? How are things with your lovely wife?" She asked after a pause
"Things are going pretty good" she could hear him smiling
"I'm happy for you, Max. I'm proud of you" she said
"Thanks" he replied "you know, even when things were hard and I didn't know what I wanted and she didn't know if I was worth the trouble, there was always something tying us together that we didn't understand. And that's not enough to base a relationship on, but it was something" he said.
Emma listened and smiled.
"I'm really happy for both of you, Max. If I'm about to become an aunty at any point, you let me know and I will be back before you can say 'we're painting the nursery gender neutral colours'"
Harpers laugh boomed down the line and her heart lifted a little.
"Ok" he said "let me know if anything happens with the sheriff" he said
"And the birth records?" She asked
"Sure" he said "love you, kid"
"Hey, I'm older than you. Love you too"
Emma stared out across the forest for a while longer. The last slivers of orange light caught the tops of the trees.
"Regina" Emma said quietly to herself, or maybe to the forest, or maybe to anyone who was listening.
"Come back"
"Sheriff" Emma said as she entered the modest office.
"Hello" he replied with a rare smile.
"I've come to enquire about the position of deputy" she said, putting a cup of coffee down in front of him that may or may not have been a bribe.
"I didn't advertise one" he replied, looking at the coffee with a frown
"Then there won't be too much competition" she smiled at him.
Emma left the station after a couple of hours of intense grilling from the sheriff, with the promise of the deputy badge and a smile on her face.
"What do you look so pleased about?" Henry asked when she got home
"I actually achieved something today" she said
"You found your parents?" He asked
"No, but I'm a step closer" she smiled and opened the fridge to find something to cook them for dinner.
He hummed and she turned to look at him.
"What's up?" she asked
"I don't know if you're ready to hear it" he said.
That caught her attention. A hundred different problems a child might have suddenly came to mind. She closed the fridge and leant on the counter beside him ready to listen.
"I think I found your parents" he said
"Are you serious?" She asked, though she knew he was she couldn't help it tumbling from her mouth. She was relieved it wasn't about him. Answers for bullying, schoolwork and awkward questions about puberty all slunk out of her mind.
"Yeah, but you're not going to believe me when I tell you who they are" he said, curling up the corner of the pages.
Emma's brow wrinkled.
"You don't have to tell me now if you're not sure" she said, not sure if she even wanted to know "How did you find them?"
"That's the other thing. They're in the book" he said.
Emma stared at him for a moment. He was being completely serious.
"They are in your book? The one Miss Blanchard gave you?" she asked
"Yeah, and so are you" he said with a squint, like this would be the moment she gave up on the whole thing, but she didn't move.
"I'm in your book?" she asked
He flicked through the pages until he found a story about Snow White and Prince Charming putting a baby in a wardrobe. Emma recognised the basics of the story from what Regina had told her of how the curse came about. It was pretty coincidental that Henry's book had a similar story.
"So I'm the baby?" she asked
"The saviour" Henry said, encouraged by how seriously she was taking him
"The saviour?" she asked
"You're going to break the Evil Queen's curse" he said
"The Evil Queen?" Emma asked
Henry looked away from her
"My mom" he said
She stared at the side of his face. She knew Regina had done some bad things, but she was hardly evil, was she?
"Do you think you might be taking this book a bit literally?" she asked him "a lot of the time stories are about one thing, but they're meant to be interpreted in a way that makes them relevant to the real world"
He didn't respond.
"You've read Harry Potter, right?" she asked.
She knew he had because she had seen them on a shelf in his bedroom at Regina's house. The spines were cracked and peeling.
He rolled his eyes "obviously"
"Right" she said, settling in because she could get a lot of mileage out of those books "there's a lot of stuff in them about like blood purity and stuff, but we don't have that in the real world, so do you think it could be a metaphor for another kind of prejudice?"
His eyebrows knitted.
"Do you know what a metaphor is?" she asked
"Yeah, but I don't know what you mean" he replied
"Ok well in the magical world they have blood status, it creates a divide between people but they're no better than muggle-borns, are they?" she asked
"No, Hermione is better than all of them!" He said
"I agree" she smiled "but we don't have blood status here, maybe it's a metaphor for prejudice that we do have here, like racism"
She thought this might go over his head. Regina's voice presented itself in her mind. He's a middle class, white twelve-year-old boy Emma, how much social injustice do you think he has experienced?
"It's ok if you don't get it right away, it's hard to think about this stuff" Emma said
"I think I do" he said "but the book isn't like that"
She could argue. Fairytale knights could just be good people in the real world. Evil Queens could just be women in trouble. Dwarves could be, well, it was pretty late in the evening to get into all the things the dwarves could represent. Henry disagreed, so she dropped it.
"Ok" she said "so if this is me, my parents are Snow White and Prince Charming?" she asked
"Yeah" he said, though his voice was deflated "I knew you wouldn't believe me"
He slid off the stool and sloped up to his room.
"Henry!" Emma said "I didn't say that, it's just a lot to take in"
"Yeah" he said over his shoulder
"I'll call you when dinner's ready" she said, in a final attempt to reengage him.
His door closed.
"Emma" Mary Margaret caught up to her in the stairwell
"Oh hey" Emma said, reluctantly slowing down.
"I haven't seen you in ages, have you been busy?" She asked
"Yeah, well, you know, new job" she pointed to the badge on her belt
"Of course! Congratulations!" she threw a hug around her and Emma's heart leapt.
She was too surprised to hug her back and before she knew it, it was over.
Emma stared at her for a moment. This was the first time she had really interacted with the woman Henry believed to be her mother.
"You ok?" Mary Margaret asked and jolted Emma back to the present
"Yes" Emma said "how are things with you? Henry being good in class?"
They walked down the rest of the steps together
"Of course" she smiled brightly "he is quiet though" she said "that's why I gave him that book"
"Yeah where did you get it from?" Emma asked
Cloudy confusion passed over the other woman.
"I don't know" she said "I didn't know I had it. But Henry seems to like it!" she said, smiling again.
"Yeah" Emma said "he has some strange ideas about it"
"Oh I know, I've heard some of them" Mary Margaret smiled "I think he just needs a world to escape into, you know? Like he needs something external"
"Do you think he needs to talk to someone external?" Emma asked, thinking of Dr Hopper
"Well he's always welcome to" Mary Margaret replied, assuming Emma was talking her.
Emma didn't correct her. Mary Margaret walked ahead and opened the building door. Henry had already rushed down and was waiting by Emma's car talking to the sheriff.
"Graham, hi. Er, what are you doing here?" Emma asked
"I was just passing" he said.
Henry rolled his eyes and got in the car. He was getting used to the way people spoke to Emma. Most people here were nice to her, but a few were "gross" he told her, which she believed meant he knew they were hitting on her. Graham was obviously one of them.
"Just passing with coffee and breakfast?" Emma asked, eyeing the cups balanced precariously on the roof of her car.
"I forgot you'd be taking Henry to school. Why don't you let Miss Blanchard do it?" He asked
"Because I barely see him enough as it is, it's not a chore" she said, annoyed but she couldn't put her finger on why.
She opened the car door. And he stepped away from the vehicle.
"Do you want your coffee at least?" he asked
"Thank you" she took it and closed her door.
"Can you hold this for me?" she passed it to Henry so she could put on her seatbelt.
"You couldn't have got the bagels too?" He asked with a grin.
Emma smiled out of the corner of her eye at him. Cheeky little guy.