Chapter 14

I walked into Granny's, aware of the looks I was getting but in no mood to care. As I approached the counter, I noticed my brother sitting at one of the booths, and switched directions mid stride to approach him.

"Mind if I join you?" I asked, smiling slightly as he started, glancing up at me. He smiled back nervously, hands motioning towards the seat across from him.

"Sure, go ahead." He said, glancing back at the door, before refocusing on me. "I'm supposed to be meeting Henry, my son, here in a bit, if you'd like to meet him." I scooted into the booth, smiling over at Ruby as she began to walk towards us.

"I'd love to." I replied, raising an eyebrow. "Fair warning though, I'm not great with kids. Hell, it took Alice forever to warm up to me." Neal began to ask a question when he was interrupted by Ruby asking for our orders.

Neal ordered a black coffee and a sundae with everything for Henry when he got there, while I got a black tea, thinking it might help with the homesickness that my call with Skulduggery had inspired. Ruby walked off, and Neal looked towards me questioningly.

"Who's Alice?" He asked, catching me completely off guard.

Right.

Regina was the only one here who knew anything about my adoptive family, the one I had thought of as mine for almost 30 years. I cleared my throat, trying to muster up the will to explain everything to my new brother.

"She's my little sister." I said, rushing to clarify when more confusion sprouted across Neal's face. "Adopted little sister. After I was…taken, the Blue Fairy dropped me off with a family in Ireland, wiped my memories of the Enchanted Forest, and gave them, and everyone around them, false memories of the last 6 years of my life. My adoptive parents had a child when I was in my teens, Alice. She-" I paused, a rush of emotion silencing me for a moment. "She was a finicky baby." I smiled up at Neal. "The first time I held her, she threw up all over my favorite pair of jeans. I'm fairly certain it was intentional." I raised my eyebrows in a joking way, and he laughed quietly along with me.

"Well," Neal responded. "I'm fairly certain Henry won't vomit on you. And if he does it will be unintentional, I promise." I nodded at that, watching out of the corner of my eye as the front door began to open again.

"I'm holding you to that big bro." I snarked, pleased at the smile that grew in the corner of his mouth when I called him that. Henry and Emma walked into the diner, Henry seeming not to notice me or his father, but Emma's eyes immediately connected with mine, her gaze narrowing slightly. Henry's voice echoed around the room.

"Why did you bring me here?" He huffed, heaving a bag over his shoulder. "I don't wanna talk to you." Emma turned away from me to glance down at her son as she guided him towards our table.

"You don't have to." She sighed out, ignoring me as she directed his attention onto Neal, who grinned widely at Henry, gesturing towards the seat next to me.

"Hey, buddy." He said cheerfully. "Saved you a seat." Emma began turning away towards the counter, calling over her shoulder to Neal.

"I'm gonna get a coffee." Neal nodded at her as Henry's eyes met mine, excitement lighting up his face.

"You're the lady from the docks, my aunt!" He exclaimed, dumping his bag next to Neal and scooting into the seat next to me. I grinned at that, holding out my hand for him to shake.

"Valkyrie Cain, detective at large, Aunt extraordinaire." I responded, shaking his hand as seriously as I could, though my smile was permanently affixed to my face. Neal shook his head at the both of us as Ruby came over with our drinks and Henry's sundae, stopping any questions that Henry might have been about to ask.

"Here you go." She announced. "One large sundae. Extra everything."

"Thanks Ruby." Neal said, sliding the sundae over to Henry and leaning towards him with his hands locked together. Henry, for his part, looked unimpressed.

"Extra everything?" He asked, his hand touching the base of the glass. Neal smiled innocently.

"What?"

"You think I don't know a bribe when I see one?" Henry shot back, sliding the dessert towards me. I raised an eyebrow towards Neal, smirking mockingly. He sighed heavily.

"That obvious, huh?" he asked, amusement coloring his face. Henry nodded, and I considered briefly what the ramifications would be if I took on Henry as a detective apprentice. After all, I started when I was about his age, and I turned out mostly fine...

"So," Henry said, interrupting my ill advised train of thought. "What do you want?"

"Well," Neal sighed, looking off towards where Emma was standing at the counter. "Your mom has told me about what's been going on, and we thought that Storybrooke might not be the safest place for you right now." Henry nodded along, though it was clear to me that he was never going to agree to whatever plan my brother had cooked up. "So I was thinking…why don't we go up to New York?"

"New York?" Henry exclaimed, looking over at me. I shrugged back at him.

"Yeah, the three of us." I started, surprised that I was being included in their plans at all. "Regina can't cast…" he glanced at me for a moment before refocusing on his son."…that curse if you're in New York. There's no magic there." I snorted, recalling about sheer number of times that some idiot of a Mage had tried to kill me in New York, to the point that I was unofficially banned for a few years due to the disturbance my presence tended to cause. I waved off the weird looks that Henry and Neal shot towards me, taking a sip of my rapidly cooling tea.

Henry tilted his head towards his father in thought. "Someone should find a way to get rid of the magic here. My mom wouldn't be able to cast the curse. My family wouldn't wanna kill her." My brows raised sharply at that, and I shot a serious look at Neal, who shook his head in confusion. "It-it'd solve everything."

Neal took a sharp breath in. "Yeah. You know what? You're right." I scoffed at that, leaning back in my seat. "But until then, why don't you come with me?" Henry nodded lightly, smiling up at Neal before turning on me.

"So." He began, looking curiously up at me. "What's your deal? Why are you spending so much time with my mom?" he leaned in, and, out of the corner of my eye, I could see Neal doing the same. I winced slightly, unsure of how to explain the weird family dynamic that I had been becoming more and more aware of as I met more people in this town and, subsequently, my family.

"Regina is my biological mother." I began, ignoring the twin looks of shock on my brother and my nephew's faces. "I came here to meet her and my father, who I discovered is Neal's dad too." I sighed deeply. "So, technically, I'm both your biological aunt, and your adoptive sister, and I think I might also be your step grand-aunt? Since Mary-Margaret is technically my stepsister…" I trailed off, both other occupants of the table looking at me in slight horror. "But maybe we can just stick with Aunt, for simplicity's sake." A new look came over Henry's face as he seemed to process something.

"Wait a minute, you're from Ireland!" he exclaimed, surprising me in his enthusiasm. I looked towards Neal, hoping he might have an answer for what the hell Henry was talking about, but he looked as confused as I was. I glanced down at Henry.

"I am."

"You're in the book!"

My eyebrows furrowed. "What book?" I questioned, which was apparently the wrong thing to say, as Henry frowned at me.

"The fairy tale book." At my continued look of confusion he carried on. "Well, you're not in in the book, but there's a passage about an Irish girl with dark hair who is lost and found again, and that's gotta be you! No one else in town even comes close to matching that description!"

I looked over at Neal again. "Right, ok. Can I read this passage?" I asked gently, concerned about any work that mentioned me. He shook his head.

"Sorry, I left the book at David and Mary-Margaret's, I don't have it with me right now. You could come over though, and read it there?" He said, puppy eyes boring into me. I smiled tightly, unsure of how to break it to Henry that I didn't want to be around my grandmother's killer at the moment, when Neal saved me the trouble.

"Hey buddy, why don't we bring it with us to New York, ok? Then you can show Valkyrie in the car on the way, sound good?" Henry nodded, and it immediately set off alarm bells in my head. My gaze narrowed on the boy, watching him subtly edge his hand towards him backpack.

"Ok, I'm going to run to the bathroom first. Be right back." Henry said, slipping out of the booth and walking to the back of the diner, backpack in hand. I watched him for a moment before turning back to Neal with a raised eyebrow.

"He's making a run for it you know." I said casually, taking a sip of my tea. Neal frowned, adjusting his scarf.

"No he isn't." He scoffed, nodding towards where Henry had disappeared. "Didn't you hear him, he just needed to use the bathroom." Emma appeared next to our table, glancing around for Henry.

"How did it go?" She asked carefully.

"Went good. He said yes." Neal replied. Emma looked suspicious.

"Really?" She asked in a surprised tone. Neal grinned, pointing towards the restroom.

"Yeah, he's in the bathroom right now. I'm just-" Emma turned towards the back of the diner. "I'm gonna go home and pack. Not bad for day three as a dad, if I do say so myself." Emma glanced at the seat next to me.

"Wait." She said, alarmed. "Where's his backpack?"

Neal shrugged. "Well, I don't know. He took it with him." Emma looked furious at that.

"To the bathroom?" She exclaimed, glaring slightly down at Neal. "Did you really fall for that? He's your son." A look of realization came over Neal's face.

"He's running." He said under his breath, to which I raised an eyebrow.

"Told you so." I muttered as the pair raced out of the diner. I sighed heavily, placing money down on the table to pay for our drinks and the untouched sundae, before following my brother and the mother of my nephew out of the diner.