Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time. Never will. Only Ally is mine.
A/N: I would like to thank everyone who has favorited, followed, and reviewed this story. Seeing your feedback and that you enjoy it, is what keeps me writing! Once again, thank you!
08- True North
A few days later everything has settled back into the new normal. That's what Henry's taken to calling it. The excitement of the last few weeks has died down, and Emma is now a permanent fixture of the town for better or worse. Ally isn't all too impressed by this supposed new normal though.
Her Mom now spends three-week nights not going out before putting her to bed. The rest of the time she's back out doing the same old, same old. Ally was really hoping that after the mines incident, she'd snap out of it, but that only seemed to work for a little while.
Ally was still stuck in the same damn cast, except that a lot more people have signed it, and the thing was really starting to itch. Gigi had found her more than once using the coffee stirrers as a scratching device. Today after school Henry and Ally had decided that it was time to check the newest editions of the few comics that actually come to Storybrooke.
The only place that stocks them is the local convenience store, owned by Mr. Clark, the short man who had severe seasonal allergies. Henry was looking through the newest Wolverine issue, while Ally was marveling at the Avengers. It wasn't like they totally lived in an isolated bubble after all.
The two are minding their own business reading comics, when a girl a little older than them, with long dirty blond hair approaches them. "Whatcha reading?" She asks Henry curiously glancing at his comic. Ally raises an eyebrow at the interaction, for no one just comes up and talks to Henry. All the other kids hate him for he's the Mayor's son.
It still confuses both Ally and Henry how Rose could be so popular, even with such a despised mother. "The Hulk versus Wolverine." Henry replies uneasily. Ally closes her comic against the counter; since that was the only way she'd been able to hold it open, with one hand.
"I'm Ava. I think I've seen you around school. You're in Miss Blanchard's class, right?" The girl, Ava says. Ally narrows her eyes at her, still not quite liking that she's taking an interest in Henry all of the sudden.
Henry nods at her, and suddenly another boy close to their age comes up beside the girl.
"Almost ready, Ava?" He asks her. Ally takes an uncertain step closer to Henry, for if they chose to attack, it wouldn't be the first time someone tried to beat Henry up. Only this time Ally was down an arm, and that didn't bode well for either of them.
"This is my brother, Nicholas." Ava introduces us to him. Nicholas smiles, and at least he actually includes Ally in that. If anyone would be getting hit in the near future it would be his sister, no matter how friendly he was.
"Hi. Come on – let's go." He says pulling on his sister's sleeve to get her moving. Something really wasn't right with those two. They were far too tense, for a random conversation with two ten-year-olds.
"You want to come hang out?" Ava asks suddenly, this time including Ally in the invite. Henry shoots an excited glance at his friend, and then turns to the two siblings, that they don't even know.
"Sure!" Henry cries, looking forward to making new friends. Ally flashes a halfhearted grin at them, and turns to follow the two siblings out of the store with Henry. Suddenly there is someone grabbing Henry and Ally by their backpacks, stopping them from leaving. Ava and Nicholas freeze as well.
"Where the hell do you think you're going? Open up your bag." The owner of the store Mr. Clark demands. He snuffles into a tissue and glares at the four of them.
"What?" Ally demands, speaking for the first time since meeting the kids. Mr. Clark narrows his eyes at her.
"Don't think I didn't see you rob me. Open your bag." He demands giving Henry a rather pointed look, before opening Ally's as well. She's sure that nothing is in hers, and he comes up unsurprisingly empty handed. That just seems to upset him more. So he goes digging through Henry's.
"I didn't take anything." Henry cries bewildered that this is even happening. Ally glares at the man and the to other kids, for she's irritated with him, and sure that the other two are the reason that this is happening. Mr. Clark pulls out a handful of candy from Henry's bag, and Ally glares at the two uncomfortable looking kids.
"And a liar too." Mr. Clark declares giving Henry a hard look. Henry's eyes are as wide as saucers now staring at the contraband in his bag. Ally turns on the two kids then.
"That's why you were talking to him. So your brother could put that stuff in there." She growls taking a threatening step forward, or at least as threatening as a ten-year-old with a broken arm can look.
"Henry, Ally, … I'm shocked. And you two – just who do you think you are?" Mr. Clark demands, before going back behind the counter, and picking up the phone. "I'm going to have to call your mother." He says ominously, and Henry groans. Ally just keeps switching her glare back and forth between the kids, and the adult, not sure which one she should be more upset with at the moment. No one gets to pick on Henry, well no one but her.
A few tense minutes later Regina Mills comes storming through the door with a murderous look on her face. "Anyone care to tell me why I got a phone call that Henry was in trouble here?" She demands in a deadly tone. Mr. Clark sneezes, and swallows nervously.
"Well, I'm sorry, Madam Mayor, but your son was shoplifting." He says as bravely as he can. Ally has to give the man some credit, even if she is irritated with him. He is standing up to the Mayor and Evil Queen.
"Were you?" Regina questions turning her laser gaze on Henry, then Ally in turn. Both kids quickly shake their heads no. Satisfied with her answer she turns back to Mr. Clark.
"Look for yourself." He says stubbornly though holding up the candy. Regina glares at the man, seemingly angry at him for daring to question her.
"My son doesn't eat candy. And he knows better than to steal. Ally here has access to all the food she could ever want, and for free I might add. It was obviously those two. We're going." Regina says finally. She puts her hands on both kids' shoulders, leading them to the door.
Before they can leave though, Emma comes hurrying through, giving both Henry and Ally worried looks.
"Henry, Ally. What happened?" Emma demands looking them over, obviously worried that something bad had happened to them.
"Miss Swan, must I remind you that genetics mean nothing. You're not his mother and it's all taken care of." Regina says tightening her grip on Henry making him wince slightly. Ally just shifts uncomfortably, not liking being caught in the middle of this family drama, when she has her own.
"I'm here because I'm the Sheriff." Emma says explanatory. Ally has to grin a little at that, since not many people can actually win a point with the Mayor, let alone a whole round, which Emma has been doing lately.
"Oh, that's right. Go on – do your job. Take care of those miscreants. I'm taking these two home." She says, and leads Henry and Ally out of the store and away from the two kids, who are now Emma's problem.
Regina drops Ally back off at the diner so that she can take Henry home, to have some bonding time together. Ally felt sorry for him, for he'd already had a bad enough experience with the siblings, and now he had to deal with his mom. That meant that Ally now had to deal with hers as well.
With a heavy sigh, Ally pushes into the diner. Surprisingly, once she gets through the doors, her mother is nowhere in sight, and Kevin the alternate server is racing around trying to serve the late afternoon rush. Ally is confused since her Mom is always working, for Gigi would be very upset with her, if she thought that she was slacking off in any way.
Ally climbs back up into her normal stool and stares at Kevin intently when he comes back over to her. "Kevin, where is my Mom?" Ally asks him once she has gained a second of his attention finally. He glances down at her, and heaves a sigh. He leans down so that he is at her level, and gives her a look.
"Girl, I would love to know that myself! I've been swamped, ever since Granny called me in, and told me that I'd have to take point." He tells her, and then blows out an annoyed breath when he's summoned to another table. This is not normal, even for her family.
So Ally slips off her seat, and goes back into the kitchen to find Gigi. She finds her grandmother standing over the stove, glaring at the burger that is currently cooking. "Gigi?" Ally asks cautiously as she approaches her great-grandmother. Her head shoots up, and she gives Ally a warning look.
"Don't come any closer child. We don't need to add a grease burn on top of everything else to day." She says, halting the movement of the young girl. Ally bites her lip and glances around the kitchen, trying to see if her Mom is there.
"Where's Mom?" Ally asks softly, not sure if Gigi can actually hear her over the sound of the stove. Judging by the look on her face though, Gigi had heard her. Her grip on her spatula tightens, and she narrows her gaze back at the burger again.
"Home. You mother's not… feeling well." She says stiffly. Ally shifts nervously at hearing that.
"Okay." She says. Ally turns to leave, but not before her Gigi has grabbed her by the backpack, for the second time today.
"Don't be going and bothering her child. Just do your homework, and stay away from there." She orders. Ally deflates a little, and nods her head to her Granny. That doesn't stop her from leaving the diner the back way though, and running to the inn. As soon as she's in the door, she throws her bag behind the counter, and slowly makes her way to her mother's room.
She knows that Gigi told her not to go, but she also said that she's sick, and no one should be alone when they're sick. So quietly Ally turns the knob on the door, and pushes it open to the dimly lit room. She closes the door behind her, incase someone comes into the inn, and starts looking for people.
She creeps over to the bed to find her sprawled out over in on her stomach. Her skin looks paler than usual, and sweat is beading her forehead. Ally moves closer to her, but has to stop a foot away when the sharp smell of alcohol hits her nose. Ally crinkles her nose in disgust, and fights back her tears at seeing that her Mom isn't actually getting any better.
A pang of anger flares in her, but it's soon doused out by the concern that she still feels for her. Ally slips into her Mom's bathroom, and climbs onto the toilet, so that she can reach the higher up shelves of the medicine cabinet. That's where her Mom keeps all her medicine.
She grabs the bottle that she knows is painkillers, and squeezes the top so that it'll unlock. Child proof, they really need to try harder. She shakes two out into her hand, and puts the bottle back. She climbs down off of the toilet, and grabs the cup on the sink, filling it with water.
Once she's done, Ally takes it back over to her Mom's nightstand where she knows that she'll see it when she wakes up. Ally stands there staring at her Mom for a little while, before sighing. She makes her way over to the door, but stops when she gets there. She turns back around to see her still unconscious form.
"I forgive you." Ally whispers, and then ducks out of the room.
The next afternoon Henry and Ally are hanging out front of the diner. Henry had wanted to go inside for hot chocolate, but Ally was trying to avoid seeing her Mom as much as possible today. Trying to reconcile the two pictures of her was proving t be harder than Ally had though.
As t turned out yesterday, Henry had gone back to the Sheriff station to talk with Emma. He shared with Ally that he thought that Ava and Nicholas were Hansel and Gretel since they had no parents and were lost. Ally nodded along in agreement, once he showed her the pages with pictures that looked almost exactly like the two troublemakers she knew.
Henry also told her about what Emma had said about his father. That he was a brave fireman that had died in a fire saving people. Looking at Henry, Ally could see how that would be the case. Having two strong parents like that could produce someone as good as Henry.
Ally wondered what that made her, since her father was dead, and her Mom was… well her mother was definitely something. The kids are about to go to their castle, when Mary Margaret walks up beside them, with a friendly smile on her face. "Henry, Ally. Just the two I was looking for! I was wondering if you two would like to come to my place to make cookies. Ava and Nicholas will be there, and I think it would be nice to have more friendly faces around." She tells them.
Henry nods his head in agreement much quicker than Ally. She's still not over the fact that they had tried to pin the blame on her friend, for a crime that they had committed. But nonetheless, the pair follow Mary Margaret back to her apartment, and up the stairs. Ally suddenly realized that she wasn't going to be much help, since she couldn't use her one arm still.
Oh well, that was fine with her. She could keep an eye on everything that way. When their teacher opened the door, Ally and Henry were greeted with the guilty faces of Nicholas and Ava. Mary Margaret hurried off to the kitchen to get all of the ingredients ready, leaving the kids in the living room to fend for themselves at the moment.
They all eye the other cautiously, until Nicholas sighs, and shakes his head. "I'm sorry about what we did yesterday. We didn't mean to get you in trouble. We just— we just wanted to eat, that's all." He says.
"Yeah we're sorry." Ava adds less sincerely, but Ally can tell that the girl does in fact, actually seem upset.
"That's okay. I can understand being desperate." Henry says forgiving the two of them. Henry shoots Ally a look, and she sighs as well.
"Fine, yeah you're forgiven. Just don't try it again, or at least… be good enough not to be caught." She says finishing quietly. Ava cracks a grin at that, and the tension is relieved in the room, just in time for Mary Margaret to call them to the kitchen to wash up, so that they can help her.
Ally is deemed the measurer since she only has one hand, while the rest get to mix, pound, roll, and mash. The conversation is light, and people are laughing, so it's enough to keep Ally's mind off of her own problems. Everything is going great, as the first batch is put in the oven, when Mary Margaret's cell phone goes off.
"Hello?" She says as she answers it. Ava and Nicholas ignore her, while Henry and Ally pay close attention. "Is everything okay?" Mary Margaret asks worriedly. After a minute she hangs up the phone and turns back to the kids with a strained smile on her face.
"Okay kids, I need to talk to my friend outside for a few moments, so I will be right back. No messing with the oven, and try to not eat all of the batter if you want a second batch." She says, quickly going to her door, and disappearing down the steps.
The four kids look at each other for a moment, unsure what to do exactly. "What do you think that was about?" Ally asks, directing her question to Henry.
"I don't know, but she didn't look as happy as she was trying to get us to believe she was." Henry says furrowing his brow in thought.
"You don't think it was about us, do you? I'm not getting separated from my brother. We'll run away before that happens." Ava says fiercely. Nicholas gives her, a worried look, and Henry and Ally give her apologetic looks for they don't know anything this time.
After a few more tense minutes, Mary Margaret comes back, and the group finishes baking their cookies, though less enthusiastically this time. When they're done Mary Margaret boxes up all but two cookies, and hands them to the siblings. Suddenly Emma is in the doorway, and everyone knows what's happening.
"You can't send them away!" Ally cries. The siblings on the other hand seem defeated, and walk over to her dejectedly.
"Ally, Henry, there's nothing more that I can do. Regina called CPS and they're expecting them there tonight." Emma says giving all four kids an apologetic look. Ally grits her teeth, and Henry grabs her good hand, not liking this situation at all either.
Henry and Ally follow Emma and the kids down to the street. Mary Margaret couldn't come for she was already crying, and had to say goodbye up in her apartment, or she would have really made a scene. Henry and Ally gave awkward goodbyes in the pair, since they never really got to know them, and then stepped away to give them some space with Emma.
Regina came up behind the two and watched the interaction. They watch as Ava and Nicholas climb into the back of the car, and Emma starts to get in the front. "Come on Henry. Let's go." Regina says trying to pull him away. Henry breaks free of her though, and runs to Emma.
"No, you can't take them! They can't leave Storybrooke, Emma! They can't. Something bad will happen." Henry says grabbing onto Emma's sleeve and begging with her. Emma shoots a dirty glare Regina's way and sighs when she looks at him.
"Something bad has already happened." Emma says before getting in her car, and driving away with the siblings in the back seat. Henry stands next to Ally, as they both look after the retreating yellow bug worriedly.
"Something bad is going to happen." Ally whispers, before Regina leads them away.
That night Henry and Ally are having dinner at the diner. They're talking about the good news that the Mueller siblings won't in fact be leaving, but now living with their father. Henry was wondering if that now meant that he and Ally would now have other friends. Ally wasn't sure how much they could push their luck, but didn't shoot down Henry's theory.
When they were done, Henry ordered a slice of pumpkin pie, explaining that he was going to give it to Emma. He also suggested that Ally tag along so that they could talk about operation cobra. As soon as the pie was delivered and paid for, they left the diner to go and look for Emma.
It didn't take them that long to find her for surprisingly she's sitting in her car, looking at a file. Ally knocks on the window, and Emma jumps with a start, seeing that it's only the two kids that she does know. She opens the door so that they can talk.
"Uh, what's that?" Henry asks, gesturing to the manila file in her hands. Emma quickly stashes it away, so that the pair can't get a good look at it.
"Just an old file. What's up?" Emma asks them, turning her full attention to them.
"Pumpkin pie. I… I thought you'd like some. It was pumpkin, right?" Henry says holding the box up awkwardly. Emma smiles at the thoughtfulness of him.
"Right." She says getting out of her car, to join Henry and Ally.
"It's Gigi's first pumpkin pie of the season, so it should be really good." Ally assures her, and Emma sets down the box on the hood of her car.
"I'm sure its great." She tells the girl with a grin. Then she turns to Henry, and shifts rather awkwardly.
"Henry, about your father…" Emma starts, and Henry turns to her with a sad, but happy look on his face. She pauses, and Ally wonders what she's going to say.
"Yeah?" He asks.
"I'm glad I told you." Emma finishes. Henry grins at her and wraps Emma up in a surprise hug that she actually returns.
"Me too." Henry says. Ally still wonders if that was what she was originally planning on saying, but Emma starting to eat her pie interrupts her thoughts. Henry looks at her critically, and Ally wonders what's going through his head.
"What you did – with Ava and Nicholas – you really are changing things." Henry tells her seriously. Ally nods her head agreeing with that, even though she wishes that Emma would hurry up and just break the curse all ready.
Before anyone else can say anything though, the sound of a loud engine interrupts the quiet Storybrooke air, and suddenly a man riding a motorcycle turns onto Main street. He parks his bike, across the street from the small group, and Ally can see that there's a large wooden box on the back of his bike.
The stranger turns off his bike, and gets off, taking his helmet off as well. Once he's done he approaches the three of them with a friendly although mysterious look on his face. Ally supposes that you one would call him handsome, but she doesn't really like that kind of stuff yet.
"Hi." The stranger says coming up to them. Emma gives the man a cautious look, and keeps her eyes trained on the kids so that she can keep them safe.
"Hey." Emma replies not sure what to make of him.
"Is this Storybrooke?" The man asks, looking around the small lit up Main Street. Henry and Ally nod silently, not sure what to make of this, for they never get strangers in town, ever. Emma was the only one, and she was supposed to be here.
"Yeah." Emma answers again, getting uncomfortable.
"Any place to get a room around here?" He asks, and that floors all three of the residents.
"Uh, you're staying?" Henry asks incredulously. The man turns his head to grin at the two kids.
"That's the plan. Just looking for a bed." He chuckles. Ally swallows roughly, and takes over her part of the conversation.
"Granny's Bed and Breakfast is just up the road – another two blocks." Ally says, still not believing that there's a stranger in town, and that he's here to stay.
"Thank you, little lady." He says, and with that, he turns around and starts back for his bike.
"Hey, I didn't catch your name." Emma calls after the mysterious man. He turns around and grins at her.
"Well, that's because I didn't give it." He says getting back onto his motorcycle and driving away. The three of them watch as he drives up the road to where Ally lives.
"I thought you said strangers don't come to Storybrooke?" Emma asks looking down at the two kids, with a cocked eyebrow. Henry and Ally exchange nervous looks.
"They don't." Henry says ominously, and Ally glances back towards the inn.
"I guess that I'm going to find out who he is soon enough." Ally says mostly to herself. Things were definitely starting to change in Storybrooke.
