Chapter 2: More to Learn

Emma looked at the city limits sign as they passed it, identifying that they had finally arrived in Storybrooke, Maine.

"Okay, kid. How about an address?" Emma asked.

"Forty-Four Not Telling You street," Henry replied.

Emma stopped the car in the middle of the road and she and Henry got out. "Look, it's been a long night and it's almost … 8:15?" she said as she looked up at the clock on the side of a nearby building.

"That clock hasn't moved my whole life," Henry said as he glanced at the clock. "Time's frozen here."

"Excuse me?"

"The Evil Queen did it with her curse. She sent everyone from the Enchanted Forest here."

"Okay, the Evil Queen sent a bunch of fairy tale characters here," Emma said skeptically.

"Yeah, and now they're trapped."

"Frozen in time, stuck in Storybrooke, Maine," Emma said with a shake of her head. She had been right she should have just dropped the kid off at the police in Boston. "That's what you're going with?"

Henry smiled as he clutched his book to his chest. "It's true!"

"Then why doesn't everybody just leave?" Emma wondered.

"They can't. If they try, bad things happen."

Just then someone called out to Henry causing him and Emma to turn around toward the voice. They saw Archie, and his dog, Pogo, walking toward them.

"Henry! What are you doing here? Is everything alright?" Archie asked.

"I'm fine, Archie," Henry said.

Archie glanced toward Emma, slightly surprised to see her standing there. "Who's this?" he asked.

"Just someone trying to give him a ride home." Emma said.

"She's my mom, Archie."

"Oh. I see." Archie said with a shake of his head.

"You know where he lives?" Emma asked.

Archie nodded as he motioned back the way he came. "Yeah, sure. Just, ah, right up on Mifflin street. The Mayor's house is the biggest one on the block."

Emma glanced at Henry as her eyes widened. "You're the Mayor's kid?"

"Uh, maybe," Henry said with a shrug.

"Hey, where were you today, Henry?" Archie wondered. "Because you missed your session."

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I went on a field trip."

Archie looked to Henry as a frown appeared on his face. "Henry. What did I tell you about lying? Giving into one's dark side never accomplishes anything."

"Okay," Emma said with a roll of her eyes. "Well, I really should be getting him home."

"Yeah, sure. Well, listen. Um. Have a good night and, uh, you be good, Henry."

"So that's your shrink," Emma glanced at Henry as they walked back toward her car.

"I'm not crazy," Henry replied.

"Didn't say that," Emma replied. "Just, he doesn't seem cursed to me. Maybe he's just trying to help you."

"He's the one who needs help because he doesn't know."

"That he's a fairy tale character?" Emma asked with a roll of her eyes.

Henry nodded as he made a sweeping gesture with his hand. "None of them do. They don't remember who they are."

"Convenient. Alright, I'll play. Who's he supposed to be?"

"Jiminy Cricket."

Emma sighed with a shake of her head. "Right, the lying thing. Thought your nose grew a little bit."

"I'm not Pinocchio!" Henry said. He glanced down at the book and remembered reading that before Snow White had placed Emma in the wardrobe, Gepetto had put Pinocchio in with the instructions of watching out for Emma and trying to find Snow White's sisters and Emma's aunts.

"Course you're not. Because that would be ridiculous."

0 – 0 – In Glasgow, Scotland – 0 – 0

Faith Lehane disembarked from the plane that had brought her from her layover in London. She nodded when she spotted Dawn waiting for her. "Hey, little D."

"Hey, Faith," Dawn said. She would have given Faith a hug, but she knew the brunette Slayer was not a touchy-feely kind of person. "The gang is researching our dreams so they sent me to pick you up and take you back to the ISC."

"Let's go and see about getting my luggage," Faith said as they walked toward the baggage carousel. "So, you did have a dream, too?"

"Yeah," said Dawn with a nod. "And one common denominator between yours, Buffy and mine is this Snow person who maybe the fairy tale character Snow White. At least that's what the man in my dream called her and you said on the phone the woman in yours called her that also."

"That's right. I know Buffy faced a demon that used the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale," Faith said. "Do they think this is a repeat of that only this time with Snow White?"

Dawn shrugged. "I don't know. It's a possibility of course."

Faith grabbed her luggage and they made their way out to Dawn's car. "So how have things been, little D?"

Dawn shrugged as they got into her car. One thing Dawn had never been too much in the loop on, even now as she was attending the University of Glasgow when not working at the ISC as a secretary, was Buffy being the Slayer. She understood why of course, Buffy wanted for her what Buffy herself had never had, a normal life. But Dawn knew she would never have that, she had seen too much and knew too much not to want to help her sister and their friends. "Alright I guess. We haven't had a new apocalypse lately. At least none that they have told me about anyways. That's good right?"

Faith smiled. "Yeah that's five by five."

Thirty minutes later Dawn pulled her car into the parking lot of the ISC. "Leave your luggage, here for now," Dawn said as they got out. "We'll bring it upstairs after you see Giles."

Dawn led the Dark Slayer into the lobby of the ISC and stopped at the front desk. "Any messages, Molly?"

"None," Molly said. "Mr. Giles did say he wanted you to bring Ms. Lehane up straight away though."

"Thanks, Molly," Dawn replied as she led Faith through the building and up to the third floor where the senior members of the ISC, the Scoobies, held their meetings. It was also the floor that held the Scoobies suites and Giles and Buffy's offices.

They found Willow, Xander, Giles and yes even Buffy deep in the books.

Giles looked up as Dawn and Faith stepped through the doorway and motioned for them to have a seat, "Hello Faith, how was your flight?" he asked.

"It was five by five," Faith replied with her favorite catchphrase. Everyone had long since gotten the meaning that everything was alright with Faith. "You guys got anything yet?"

Giles shook his head. "We so far have found no reference to demons using the Snow White fairy tale. Have you had anymore dreams?"

"No."

Buffy looked up from the book she had been going through at Faith, "So, Faith. Did you see two little girls in your dream or was it just the woman and the man?"

"Just the woman and the man, her father she called him. Though she did mention her daughters being taken from her."

"So, then we only have one connection Snow White between all three dreams," Dawn said. "And the children between mine and Buffy's dream. Though we don't know for sure if they're the same children."

0 – 0 – In Storybrooke, Maine – 0 – 0

Emma drove up to a large, white house.

"Please don't take me back there." Henry said as they got out of the car and walked through the front gate and toward the front door.

"I have to," Emma said. "I'm sure your parents are worried sick about you."

Henry shook his head. "I don't have parents. Just a mom and she's evil."

"Evil?" Emma said skeptically. "That's a bit extreme, isn't it?"

Henry nodded. "She is. She doesn't love me. She only pretends to."

"Kid … I'm sure that's not true."

Just then Henry's mom, Regina, opened the door to the house and rushed towards Henry and Emma. "Henry! Henry …" she said. "Are you okay? Where have you been? What happened?"

"I found my real mom." Henry said before running into the house.

"Y—You're Henry's birth mother?" Regina asked shocked to see Emma.

"Hi …" Emma said.

"I'll just go … check on the lad. Make sure he's alright," said a man who had come up behind Regina.

"How would like a glass of the best apple cider you've ever tasted?" Regina asked.

"Got anything stronger?" Emma wondered.

0 – 0 – The Enchanted Forest Sometime in the Past – 0 – 0

"Elizabeth," her mother said. "How many times do I have to tell you to treat your sister better? You're a princess and princesses don't wrestle in the mud with their sisters."

"Mom!" Buffy said in only the high-pitched voice a child could produce. "Faith started it. She called Snow evil. Snow isn't evil."

The mother sighed and shook her head. "Of course, she's not, sweetheart."

0 – 0 – In the Present at the ISC – 0 – 0

Buffy woke and sat straight up in bed. "First Dawn and now Faith."

0 – 0 – In Storybrooke, Maine – 0 – 0

"You know what? It's none of my business. He's your kid. And I really should be heading back," said Emma.

"Of course."

Emma walked down the walkway to her car she glanced up at a second story window and saw Henry who closed the curtain. She got in her car and drove off down the road before noticing a book in the seat beside her. "Sneaky bastard."

She looked back to the road and spotted a wolf in front of her car. She swerved to avoid it and ended up hitting the city limits sign of the town of Storybrooke, Maine.

0 – 0 – At the ISC – 0 – 0

Dawn sat straight up in bed and smiled. "Storybrooke, Maine."

0 – 0 – In the Enchanted Forest Sometime in the Past – 0 – 0

A woman looked over the balcony of the castle down at a young girl as she placed a white rose on top of a coffin.

"Goodbye, Father." The girl said.

The woman made her way down to the girl and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Snow."

"I loved him so much." Snow White said.

"So, did I, dear. So, did I," the woman said. "The loss I feel for my husband must be nothing compared to the loss you feel for your father. The way it was when your half-sisters, my daughters, disappeared. If there is anything I could do, please, let me know. I may only be your mother through marriage, but I'm here for you, dear. Truly and forever."

Snow White turned and hugged the woman.

0 – 0 – In the Present at the ISC – 0 – 0

Faith sat up in her bed and thought of the girl. "So that's what Snow White looks like or at least looked like."