Summary: Henry gets some surprising news from England, while Emma does some digging...


Mifflin Street

Henry had missed Storybrooke. Having spent the last two years studying in Oxford, England, as the result of a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, two gap years travelling the world, and three in Harvard, it had been over seven years since he'd left. And my, how everything had changed!

When he'd originally left, he'd worried about his mothers. Regina especially. Still grieving over Robin, she'd been so alone, despite everyone rallying around. He'd felt slightly less anxious over Emma, who at least had Killian and a new-born daughter to deal with. But with the arrival of Marian Locksley, the widow of her former love, everything changed. With Robin returning seven months later, and the subsequent births of his two sisters, he now had a real family to come home to. Even Emma had given him another sister. The family was growing, changing, moving on. And sometimes Henry felt a little left behind. Although he spoke to both mothers weekly, and the rest of the family regularly, it had been over a year since he'd been in the small magically-hidden town. And now, with his studies nearly complete, he decided that after his final term, he would come home before deciding what to do next.

At least, that was the plan before he met Cinderella. Or Ella, as she preferred to be known.

He'd had girlfriends before, but never one like Ella. Unbeknown to his mothers, he'd realm-jumped, with Merlin's assistance, during his gap year. It was a log story which no doubt he would have to tell them about in due course. But the most important thing to come out of the trip had been meeting the tall brunette who would steal his heart. With Merlin based mainly in England, he had grown to know the Sorcerer, and his family, well. As a result, when he brought the princess and her family back to this realm, Merlin had used his mysterious magic to give them all the knowledge necessary to cope with the modern world. Ella had taken the name Jacinda, and started to assimilate to this strange realm. And as she did, they became close. Very close. And he knew he'd never felt like this before.

His thoughts were distracted by a familiar ring tone on his cell phone.

"Morning, Ells! How's things over there?"

"It's afternoon, Hen, as you should know by now! It's nearly one o' clock."

"Well it's just before eight in the morning here…" he yawned as if to emphasis the point. "So, I haven't got up yet. What you doing today?"

"Driving to Cornwall. Merlin's daughter's taking me to a place they came from. It's supposed to be the site of the original Camelot, and there's a hidden town like yours. So what are you up to? Or are you just going to laze in bed all day?"

He smiled at that. "I've got an excuse. Jet lag, remember? I met my grandpa in Portland yesterday before I came here. I was shagged out, but he made me go shopping with him!"

"Poor, hard-done-by you! Don't tell me, shopping, and a bar?"

"Nah. They're not the same as over there. Mind you, Robin's got a brilliant pub in the middle of the forest. We're going there tonight."

"You'll have to take me there one day. Still, I can't talk for long, as we leave in a few minutes and I just wanted to check you got there okay? Could we set up a web call tomorrow, so I can see your ugly mug? I've got something I wanted to talk to you about."

"Something wrong?"

"Erm. Not sure. But I can't talk now."


Storybrooke Cemetery – Later that morning

Henry laid the flowers in front of the grey headstone, next to his grandfather's wreath, dropping down on one knee to brush off some of the dirt from the lettering. It was something he made a point of doing whenever he came back to town. And he always collected his grandfather to join him. The Dark One stood at the foot of the grave as his second son also laid a small third wreath.

BELOVED FATHER & SON

NEAL CASSIDY - 'BAELFIRE'

HE SACRIFICED HIMSELF TO SAVE THOSE HE LOVED

"I can't believe it's been ten years, dad! I hardly had any time to get to know you." Henry said, as he looked at the relatively new stone. He'd paid for a replacement when he discovered the state of the old headstone, changing it to the one his grandfather knew him by.

"His loss still grieves me, but he's in a better place now, Henry," said Rumpelstiltskin,

"I guess. But…I still feel like I've been cheated from having any proper time to get to know him. I know I've got two mums, but it still hurts sometimes."

"I understand completely, my boy. These may be his mortal remains but, I'm sure he's looking down on you. I know he'd be very proud of you and what you've achieved so far."

He sniffled slightly, dabbing a tissue to his eyes. "I hope so."

"Okay, we've had enough melancholy for one day. Join Gideon and I for some lunch?"

"Yeah, I'd like that. Which reminds me, I haven't seen any of the story book changes for ages. Can I come back to your place? After talking to Grandpa David yesterday, I want to check up on something."


The Diner

It was Emma's turn to mind the girls this weekend, what with Killian being on shift most of the day. As usual, Elizabeth was desperate to spend time with her own best friend, so she rang Regina and arranged to meet for lunch at Granny's. Almost the moment they'd arrived, the two girls had charged outside to the small play park out the back which Ruby and Dorothy had built, completely ignoring their mothers.

"Hope, my love, would you mind keeping an eye on your little sister and Honour for us please? I want to have a little chat with Aunt Gina?"

"Aw, mum?" the blonde eight-year-old groaned, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Not again! I'm always having the look after them! You can see them from the window anyway!"

"It's not the same. Just for ten minutes? If you do that for me, I'll get you a strawberry milkshake?"

"And a choccy cheesecake?" she bartered.

Regina intervened, smiling. "That, and a milkshake, is an awful lot of sugar for one lunchtime, young lady! I'll tell you what. Your mother clearly needs to talk to me about something, so if you do her this little favour, for us, and have either the milkshake or the cheesecake, but not both, I will give you a one-to-one magic lesson next weekend, how's that?"

Hope now became much more interested. "And dinner at your place, Aunty Gina?"

"Why, you shameless thing!" The brunette tried not to laugh. "Always trying to get a little bit more than you're offered, aren't you? You sound too much like your father for your own good! But yes, you've got yourself a deal, if you leave us to talk for at least half an hour?"

"Deal!" Hope held out her hand to shake on it, smiling in triumph. Now that was pure Killian Jones!

"You cheeky little mare!" said Emma, chuckling. "Go on – be off with you!"

As the mothers watched her go out the back door to join her sisters, Emma sighed. "Growing up far too quick, that one!"

"They all are, sadly. Now, what do you want to see me about?"

"Just a couple of things we couldn't talk about last night. Henry, mainly. And this Guido guy? It's the first time I heard we even have another dragon in town. Is there any danger? What do you know about him?"

"Not much more than you do. Mal said his real name's Guy, not Guido. He's been here a few years now. And I seem to recall he arrived in that strange airship the same time as Jekyll and Hyde. He's kept himself to himself since buying the nightclub two years ago. I didn't even know he was a dragon till our last evening out with Mal. She confirmed it."

"So they're paired up? If Killian's right, what we saw last night were two dragons mating. Are we going to be facing a whole family of dragons blowing flames over Storybrooke and setting the forest on fire, before too long?"

"Again, I know next to nothing about dragon gestation, other than the fact they produce a single egg. Why don't you go talk to her?"

"I was rather hoping you would? She's your friend, after all."

"I'll think about it. Now, onto more mutually relevant subjects. Namely, Henry. He said he's been going out with a particular girl for over a year. Someone called Ella. Did you know anything about this?"

"He knows I can spot a lie and ignores the questions when I ask, like a bloody politician. I knew nothing about her. You said you thought you knew her father?"

"Marcus Tremaine. Yes. He's long dead, but I knew him once."

"How well?" Emma could also detect avoidance. "Did you kill him when you were the Evil Queen?"

"Certainly not! On the contrary, we were rather close, for a short time. But I only knew him briefly. He was a lovely man."

She noticed the hint of a blush. "Lovely? You were lovers?"

"You know I don't answer questions like that, Swan."

"You're avoiding the question…" Emma gave her a knowing grin. "Which tells me all I need to know. Don't worry, your secrets safe with me, you know that. I more I hear about it, it seems everyone in Misthaven and the forest were either having affairs, little liaisons or just plain swinging!"

"Well certainly not me! Even if I was evil, I never did anything with married men, and I certainly wasn't swinging! Unlike certain people I could mention..."

"By certain people, I assume you mean my parents? Yeah, I can't help thinking that dad doing a runner out of the town the other day had something to do with Ruby. Mum said it wasn't anything to do with her, but I knew she was lying."

"Emma, most of us have had our little liaisons in our past. It's usually best they stay there."

"I know, but it's something that's been bugging me since the girls' night out. You remember when Dorothy said that one about never having slept with a pirate? I'm sure she aimed that at me. She was talking about Killian, wasn't she? You, Mal and Kathryn also picked up a shot…"

"Emma…" Regina had a good idea where she was going, and didn't want to damage their friendship. "As I said, all these things are best left in the past."

"So you did? You hooked up with Killian? What about Maleficent?"

"Emma, this is long before you were even conceived! And I was a very different person then, as were your husband and the dragon. I seduced many people over the years to get what I wanted, and I'm not proud of what I did. I'd really rather not talk about it."

"Killian doesn't want to either. He just says it's all in the past."

"And for once, I have to agree with your pirate. Just…appreciate what you have now. A loving partner and children. And as for Mal, she hasn't lived just hundreds, but thousands of years. She's probably seen and done just about everything, and I mean everything! You know, Marian once brought home an ancient book, a translated autobiography about a fairy called Brighid. she had an affair with Maleficent."

"A dragon and a fairy? Tell me more..."


Mifflin Street - Later that evening…

Henry sat on the bed, his Macbook on his knees, as the video call to the UK connected.

"Hi babe! How're you doing over there?"

"Henry! Great thanks…" then Ella spotted he wasn't alone, seeing a curly-haired much younger boy sitting next to him in his PJs. "Who's that seriously-handsome guy sitting next to you?"

"Don't say anything like that to him - he's got a big-enough head already!" He dug the younger boy in the rib. "This is my annoying baby brother, Roland. I told you about him?"

"Yeah, you did. Hi Roland, nice to meet you! I'm Ella, but they know me as Jacinda over here."

"Hi Ella, lovely to see you too," the fourteen-year-old pushed back against his shoulder, grinning. "And I'm his younger brother, not 'baby' brother. I'm here because I'm having to share my bedroom with this annoying lump while he's here. Henry, you didn't say Ella was seriously pretty?" he gave the woman a cheeky grin, dimples to the fore.

Henry rolled his eyes. "Hey, don't you go flirting with my girl, Locksley! Haven't you got somewhere to be? Like making me a coffee? Or, in order words, sod off?"

Roland merely sniggered, winking back at the screen as he stood. "I know when I'm not wanted. See you around Ella?" Henry waited till he'd left and shut the door properly behind him, before speaking.

"Right, he's gone! Don't you go encouraging him, he's already too bloody confident around girls!"

That made her chuckle. "With those dimples, who can blame him! He must be adopted too, I guess? He looks nothing like you!"

"He's Robin and Marian's. Mind you, she's got a similar look to my mum Regina. Slightly more olive-skinned, like you. Only the girls look like Robin, and they all have those bloody dimples."

"Your family's so complicated! I can't wait to meet them all one day."

"Good, because I want you to come over here soon. And maybe we could both back for Christmas? I've really missed them all. I told them about you, and it seems one of my mums knew your dad. She didn't say much about it though. They were more interested in you."

"Yeah? I'd like that. Listen, I need to tell you something, but I need you to just sit, stay calm, and make sure no one's listening in?"

"He's gone downstairs. Go on…"

"I'm late. Three weeks."

"Late for what? Your thesis? What-"

"No, you pillock, late! As in…my period."

"Oh…" Then the full implication of what she'd said, hit him. "OH!"

"Oh? Is that the best you got?"

Henry knew instantly that how he reacted next would seriously affect their relationship. Possibly sink it! "Sorry, just…a bit of a surprise, that's all. Um…how you feeling?"

"Same as normal. It's not the first time I've missed one, or been irregular, it's just…it feels different."

"Listen, Ells, I'm with you! Whatever you want to do about it, I'm with you. I'd never thought about having kids yet but…well, if you want this, I'll support you, no question!"

"That's sweet of you," Ella quickly wiped away a tear which seemed to have sprung from nowhere. "It may be nothing, and it may just kick in, in the next week. But… just in case, I'm going to get a tester first thing tomorrow. I thought you should know, anyway."

"What time is it over there, eight? Get one today? There's a 24 hour chemist in Cowley."

"Henry, are you serious? If I really am pregnant?"

"Definitely. Go get the test and we'll know for sure!"


Later...

It was just after six in the evening when Henry, having just arrived at the Sherwood Arms, got the call. He told Ella he was in company, but to wait five minutes and he'd walk outside and call her back. She called him back almost to the second. But it was a video call, not just audio.

"Henry? Can you see me okay?"

"Yep. I'm standing outside the pub, on my own. So, what's the news?"

Instead of answering, she held up a small white plastic stick, moving it closer to the camera, turning it around so a little window on it could be clearly seen.

OH SHIT!