That night Deputy James Jones would dream of blonde hair and emerald eyes, as well as laughter that was like diamonds in the sky.

Emma.

And when he woke up his dream would slip away, but its impression would remain.

Emma.

Emma woke up early the next day and had breakfast sent up to her room. She had planned to spend the day reading Henry's book, but that was abruptly interrupted when someone started pounding on her door. Quickly, Emma shoved the storybook under her mattress before opening the door.

"Where is my son?" Was her greeting by an angry Regina Mills. Graham and James were standing on either side of her, looking serious.

"What? Is Henry missing?" That kid really does not want to be home.

"Oh cut the crap. You came here to take him from me. Now, where is he?"

"If I came here to take him, why would I still be here?" Regina didn't have an answer for that and before she could form one, Graham cut in.

"Regina found him missing this morning." At least Graham was on track.

"Did you try his friends?" Emma has found that when people run away, there is usually a friend somewhere who knows where they've gone.

"No, he doesn't have any." Still too much like her then.

"Did you check his computer? If he's close to someone, he'd be emailing them."

Graham and Killian looked at each other then. Graham turned back to her asking, "Do you know how to get ahold of those emails?"

Emma nodded, "Just take me to his computer."

Henry's smart, he cleared out every folder in his email. Unfortunately for him, Emma had a hard recovery disk.

"I'm a little more old-fashioned in my techniques: pounding the pavement, knocking on doors, that sort of thing."

"That's nice, and those are perfectly good techniques, but you have to adapt. I don't think those tricks are going to find you Henry." Whatever his response was, Emma didn't hear it because her disk brought up a receipt for the website .

"Bingo." Regina moved closer, hovering over her shoulder, which was more obnoxious than her pacing.

"He couldn't afford this, he doesn't have a credit card."

"No, but he did steal one from a Mary Margaret Blanchard. Know her?"

"Henry's teacher." Regina stormed out of the room then, slamming the door behind her.

James turned to her from his spot against the wall, "Well, Swan, guess you're riding with us." With his hand he motioned for Emma to follow Graham out the door. It was in this gesture that Emma noticed his left hand. She spent last night trying not to look at him, and this morning doing the same thing, but now that she has finally looked at him she sees it. Emma quickly followed after Graham, not wanting James to see her face.

In the Army, Emma had been shot, blown up, stabbed, and taken hostage. Her left leg was partially metal and she lost her best friend.

She knew Killian was in the Navy, but in her idea of what his life turned out to be it never included him losing a hand. Emma always wished the best for him.

Emma had to guess that the best didn't happen and– Where's Liam? Oh my god, what happened to his brother? He fought so hard to get back to him. He couldn't have lost Liam.

Henry. Focus on Henry right now.

Regina was forcing her way through a horde of children pushing their way down the hallway. Graham, James, and Emma were following at a much less hostile pace.

"Where's my son?" Regina apparently only has one greeting, and it always sounds like an accusation.

"Henry? I assumed he was homesick with you." Emma had seen enough of Henry's storybook to recognize Mary Margaret as Snow White, and she had to say, it was strikingly accurate.

"You think I'd be here if he was?"

Mary Margaret didn't answer, she wasn't even looking at Regina now. Instead, she was staring at Emma, like a person trying to place a memory that they just can't get their hands on.

"Did you give him your credit card so he could find her?" She never looked back at Regina, only at Emma, and asked,

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Emma stepped forward, and stuck out her hand.

"Emma Swan, I'm his birth mother."

"She's the woman who gave him up." Still Mary Margaret didn't look at Regina, and when she heard that comment she smiled at Emma.

"I'm glad he found you." Emma couldn't meet her kindness, but she appreciated it nonetheless.

"Henry used your credit card to find me."

"What?" She set down her purse and dug out her wallet, "Oh, Henry. You clever boy." She shook her head, "I should have never given him that book."

"What book?"

"Just some old stories that I gave him. As you well know, Henry is a special boy, so smart, so creative, and as you might be aware… " Mary Margaret's voice became harder, her face fierce, "lonely." The weight of her words hung in the air, digging into Emma's heart, embedding themselves under her skin.

I never wanted this for you.

"He needed it."

Regina's response was cold and heartless, "What he needs is a dose of reality. You're a waste of my time." Turning, she walked away, purposefully knocking things off of the children's desks as she did so.

What he needs, Emma thought, is someone who will listen to him.

"Have a nice trip back to Boston."

Bitch.

Emma moved to help Mary Margaret pick up the items off the floor, "Sorry to bother you, it's just that you were the only lead we had."

"It's okay, it is partially my fault." If she gave Henry the book, then she might know something about the curse.

"Why did you think stories would help?"

"What do you think stories are for? These stories… the classics? There's a reason we all know them. They're a way for us to deal with our world, a world that doesn't always make sense. See, Henry hasn't always had the easiest life. He's like any adopted child. He wrestles with that most basic question they all inevitably face: why would anyone give me away?"

Why didn't they want me? Emma should have realized sooner that today wasn't about Regina, the Evil Queen, or the curse. Today was about the fact that he found his mother and he still doesn't know why she gave him up. He still doesn't know that it's not because she didn't want him.

Emma has to find him.

"Oh, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to judge you. I gave him the book because I wanted Henry to have the most important thing anyone can have: hope."

Hope. Just because Emma lost hope, doesn't mean Henry has to.

"Believing in even the possibility of a happy ending is a power thing." Powerful enough to break a curse? On a hunch, Emma had to ask her,

"You know where he is, don't you?"

"You might want to check his castle. It's on the beach."

"We should call Regina, tell her where he is." Graham is a nice guy, but Emma has decided that he doesn't think things through very well.

"No, we can't do that."

"She's his mum."

"I know, but right now, this isn't about her. This about Henry needing answers from me, about why I gave him up for adoption."

"Emma, I know that–"

"Graham, mate, she's right." Killian stepped into the conversation now, thankfully on Emma's side. "This is between her and Henry."

"Give me an hour tops, and I'll have him sitting with you in the patrol car."

"You realize that if Regina sees you with him you are effectively putting a target on your back?"

"Yep, and I'm fully ready to take a bullet for him. I've taken one for less, but today is about Henry."

Graham's response was to put the car in drive and head for the beach.

Emma leaned forward in her seat and said softly, "Thank you."

James looked over his shoulder and smiled at her.

He was sitting in his castle, facing the ocean with his back to her when Emma walked up. Graham and Killian were further down the beach, sitting in the patrol car, watching but not listening to the moment. Emma didn't speak, but chose to walk up to the platform Henry was on and sat down next to him. He didn't look at her.

"You like the ocean too, huh?" He didn't say anything, and he still wouldn't look at her.

The ocean was Emma's favorite place to be, back in Boston she would walk down to the docks in the morning just to watch the waves splash against the ships. Her therapist recommended trying to capture the calmness and constancy of the waves while she was there, as a type of art therapy Emma could do from home. She had liked the idea, the ebb and flow of the water had been the only constant Emma could rely on in her life. It was soothing, knowing that the lapping of the waves would always be there.

She guessed Henry might feel the same way.

Birds of a feather.

"I talked to your teacher, Ms. Blanchard." Henry was looking at her now, looking for something in that comment.

Emma could guess what it was.

"She's Snow White, right?"

That garnered the smallest of smiles.

"You do believe me, don't you?" Emma smiled back at him, trying to reassure him that she did and to draw strength from the fact that he will believe her.

He'll be the first person she has ever told this too.

"Let me tell you a story, Henry. A story about a girl, who was trying to do her best for the people she loved."

"This is about you, isn't it?"

"Yeah,"

"And me?"

"Yes."

"I want to hear it."

"No games, Henry. I'm going to be completely honest, and it is going to be hard to hear some of it."

He nodded his head, his face was set, "I understand."

"Well, Henry, I wasn't always on the right side of the law. When I was sixteen, I had been dating this guy for a few months. I had run away from my last foster home when I was fifteen and met him in Portland, Oregon. We were living on the run."

Emma paused, watching Henry as he absorbed this information. He gave her a nod to continue.

Taking a deep breathe, she did,

"When I was seventeen I got arrested and sent to a year in prison. It was there that I learned that I was pregnant with you." Emma wasn't looking at Henry anymore, she couldn't look at him. She needed to watch the waves, needed to not feel Neal's betrayal so potently a decade later.

"I tried to find your dad, but I couldn't Henry. I couldn't and I'm sorry." Her voice was getting thick, she needed to move forward, but god, this was hard.

"I had no skills, I had no job, I had no money, and no place to live. I couldn't take care of myself, let alone a baby. And I know that this doesn't change what happened Henry, but I did want you. I just couldn't keep you." She was cupping his face now, looking into his eyes. He was trying not to cry. "Henry, I looked at every single option I could think of and I found the best adoption agency in the country. I never got adopted, but I saw enough kids that did to know how much of an effort it is to adopt a child. How much money. I thought that if someone adopted you, that they would have to have the money to take care of you, it must mean that they really wanted you, and that they had to love you. I thought that was your best chance, Henry."

Through tears Henry said, "You wanted to give me my best chance."

"Yes, I did. It is not because I never wanted you or because I never loved you. Henry, I have always loved you."

He was hugging her now, crying into her shoulder. She held him for a moment before pulling back, hands holding onto his arms. He was so good, he was so strong.

"But that isn't the end of this story, Henry. I also want to assure you that I absolutely believe you." She stroked his arm and took a breath as an attempt to try to center herself before beginning again.

"I gave birth to you in August, and a month later September 11th happened. Do you know what that is?" He shook his head yes. "Good, okay, well, while I was in prison I got my GED and I was able to get some college credit and when I got out it was just after I turned 18. I was dead set on being someone you wouldn't be ashamed to know in the future, when you found me. I always knew you would look for me, just like I looked for my own parents. The only difference is that I wanted you to be able to find me."

Henry interrupted her here, "You haven't read the book have you?"

What did the book have to do with her parentage?

"I didn't have the chance to get very far before your mom was pounding on my door this morning." He started to make a face at that but Emma wasn't going to give him the chance to feel guilty, "Anyway, I knew that the military would pay for school and give me some money, so I enlisted. Having a felony on your record doesn't stop you from enlisting, it turns out. I got mixed up with a special ops group called the Wanderers, and um, I'm not going to get into that.

But, when I was nineteen I was by myself on deployment. I can't tell you where, but I ended up in a country that is not on any map from this world. And while there, a boy the same age as me fell through the sky right in front of me. He told me he was a naval lieutenant from a kingdom called Misthaven in a land called the Enchanted Forest."

Henry's eyes got wide with excitement, "That's–!"

"I know, Henry." That's in the book. "We sought some help and it turned out that he not only fell through worlds, but he also fell through time, which led us on a crazy magic filled adventure." Henry was staring at her with wide eyes, the shock of the story he's just been told setting in.

No one has ever believed him.

"He wanted me to go with him," Come with me. "But I wouldn't, Henry. If I left, you would have never been able to find me and I never wanted that for you. I stayed for you Henry, I have always tried to do what was best for you."

Henry was hugging her again and he didn't let go when he asked, "Why didn't he stay? If he wanted you to come with him, he should have been willing to stay here."

Her hand was cupping the back of his head, stroking the hair there, "Because I wouldn't let him. He had a brother waiting for him back home, a brother he fought so hard to get back to. I couldn't have asked him to stay. I had to let him go." She took a deep breath and gazed out at the ocean in front of them.

"But Henry, that's not all. That boy is impossibly sitting in the patrol car behind us, now a man. I have no doubt in my mind that that man is Killian Jones and the only explanation for it is magic."

Henry was grinning at her, "So you're going to stay?"

"Yeah, kid, I'm going to stay."

They heard the bell of the clock tower strike behind them.

Time to move forward, Storybrooke.

Tick tock.

After piling into the patrol car Emma couldn't help but notice Henry frantically staring at the deputy. She realized then that he didn't tell her anything about James, which means Killian either isn't in the storybook or Henry didn't know how to explain whatever it was that had happened.

Or, and perhaps more likely, the boy was just too emotionally drained to think about fairytale alter egos.

Emma knew she was.

"Henry, lad, we're glad you're alright, but you have to stop worrying your mum like this."

"I understand, Graham. I won't do it again." Killian looked back at Henry then, an expression Emma couldn't identify on his face.

"Henry, you like comic books right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"What's your favorite?"

"I don't know. I don't really have one. I like all of them."

"Easy to please then, ay?"

"I just like to read."

"Alright, mate." James turned back to the front, ending their conversation and Emma couldn't help sharing a look with Henry expressing the weirdness of the exchange. By the look on his face, he agreed.

When they all got out of the car at Regina's Henry grabbed her and whispered, "Was he weird like that before?"

"More awkward than weird, but yeah, kind of."

When Regina opened the door Henry ran past her, not stopping to see her. She looked down for a moment, clear, but not surprised, disappointment on her face. Regina addressed Graham and Killian, ignoring Emma behind them, "Thank you for finding him."

"With all due respect Madam Mayor, but we aren't the ones you should be thanking. Ms. Swan is the one who found him." Graham and James stepped to the side, motioning towards Emma behind them.

Regina nodded her head and gave an unwilling smile, "Of course," but she didn't thank her. "He seemed to have taken a shine to you."

Emma gave an awkward laugh, unsure of where this was going. The sensation of the situation was oddly familiar to Emma, it reminded her of being back in the Pride Lands, trying to escape from the guards chasing after her and the only way to safety was through a river full of hippos. The only way to get through it was to shed all of her extra weight and charge as quickly as she could across the river and hope that she didn't get torn to shreds.

People always talk about how dangerous crocodiles are, but they forget that a hippo will tear you apart before you even have the chance to hope of escape. As least a croc gives you the courtesy of time before it kills you.

And in that moment, Emma felt like she was about to run past a bloodthirsty hippo.

"I hope there's not a misunderstanding here. Don't mistake all of this as an invitation back into his life." Emma moved to speak, but Regina cut her off. "Ms. Swan, you made a decision ten years ago. And in the last decide while you've been… well, who knows what you've been doing? I've changed every diaper, soothed every fever, endured every tantrum. You may have given birth to him, but he is my son."

Emma tried to interject, "I was not–" but Regina was not having it. She refused to lose control of the situation.

"No, you do not get to speak. You do not get to do anything. You gave up that right when you tossed him away. Do you know what a closed adoption is? It's what you asked for. You have no legal right to Henry, and you're going to be held to that." Regina was in her face now, staring down at her, trying to intimidate her.

Too bad she isn't the first villain who has tried to scare Emma.

"So I suggest you get in your car and you leave this town, because if you don't, I will destroy you if it is the last thing I do."

"Regina, you can't–" Graham and James were trying to step in but Emma wasn't going to let them.

"This doesn't concern you, Sheriff." For a quick moment Emma turned her head and made eye contact with the duo behind her. Her military training coming through in the command, her voice was firm and begged no question, both Graham and James stopped in their attempt to diffuse the situation.

Turning back to Regina, Emma looked her in the eyes, refusing to stand down. "Do you love him?"

"Excuse me?" She looked offended and surprised, but Emma needed to know. While Emma wasn't interested in playing games with Henry, his mother was a different matter.

"Do you love him?" She repeated, louder and more clear, "Do you love Henry?"

"Of course I love him." Regina turned and slammed the door in her wake.

She wasn't lying, Emma knew, but it wasn't the truth the either. The feeling Emma got when Regina said she loved Henry, was the feeling she had when people she used to know told her that they loved her. Emma could feel it in her bones, the way Regina loved Henry is the way Ingrid had loved her. The way Neal had loved her. She could just name it now.

Corrupt.

Conditional.

Abusive.

She decided to book a room at Granny's indefinitely.

Graham and James drove her back to Granny's and on the way Graham attempted to justify Regina.

"Look, Regina is–" But apparently, James had had enough of his partner and was not putting up with him today.

"Don't even mate, you know that Regina crossed a line."

"I'm just–," But whatever expression was on James' face quickly made him stop, "You're right. I'm sorry, Emma."

Emma just nodded her head as she continued to look out the window. She needed a game plan, but right now all she had was Henry's storybook. It did seem like the best place to start.

"Emma," It was James, Killian, he had turned around in his seat to get a full look at her and she couldn't stop herself from looking back at him. His expression was kind, and it made her smile. A small smile, but nonetheless in that moment she knew that whatever had happened to Killian in these years, he still had a good heart.

"If you're going to stay in Storybrooke, it might be a good idea for you to see the town. How about we take you on a tour sometime? Give you a much more pleasant welcome than what you've received today?"

Under normal circumstances, Emma would refuse the offer. She doesn't like to impose on people's generosity when she knows they're just being courteous. But what is happening in Storybrooke is not normal and requires exceptions. Plus, Emma had to admit, she wanted a chance to talk to James more and aside from Henry, and maybe Mary Margaret, he's been the nicest person to her so far.

It would be fun. Cursed or not, she's missed him.

"That sounds great, deputy."

"James, if you will. What about tomorrow morning? I'm on patrol and can show you around." He was eager, and he did a terrible job at hiding it. He still had the same nervous tick, reaching for his ear to scratch it.

"Tomorrow works, James." Killian.

When Emma walked into Granny's she didn't expect to interrupt a fight.

"You're out all night, and now you're going out again."

"I should have moved to Boston!"

"I'm sorry that my heart attack interfered with your plans to sleep your way down the eastern seaboard." Now that, Emma thought, was completely out of line and she wanted to stop it right there.

"Excuse me?"

Granny looked surprised by her presence, "I'd like to amend my reservation." The old woman looked nervous now, rubbing her hands together. Ruby walked back around the corner from where she had stormed off, watching the exchange as if it were a spectacle.

"Really?" She started waving a hand in the air and walked back around the desk at the entrance, "What would you like to do?"

"I'd like to make my reservation indefinite for the time being." Granny looked at her in surprise, she had told her last night that rent is due soon, so to sweeten the pot for taking one of their rooms for a long time Emma asked, "How much more do you need for rent?"

Granny froze in what she was doing with the reservation book. "Really?"

"How much do you need?"

"Two hundred." That wasn't as bad as what Emma expected, yesterday Granny acted like her life might end if she couldn't make rent. The person who owns the inn and restaurant must be a real hardass.

"Okay, I'd like to pay for however many nights four hundred will get me right now."

"But that's double what I said."

"I know, can I have my room now?" Emma could afford to let go of four hundred dollars, she had done well for herself in the military and the military paid well to hide the fact that they abused her unit. And honestly, they were all too tired after nine years to go after the most powerful entity in the US. They just wanted peace.

Sadly, peace can be hard to find.

Emma paid for her room, leaving Granny quietly stunned behind the counter.

Emma decided that the best way to keep notes wasn't with pen and paper, that would be too easy to steal. So when Emma restarted Henry's storybook, she opened up an app on her phone that required a password every time she opened it, and made notes as she read. It would be harder for someone to get their hands on her phone, more difficult to guess her password for her phone, and even harder to guess the password for the app.

Good luck figuring out the date I met Killian. It wasn't written down on any paper, or impressed on anyone's memory. No one was with her that day and the only people who could maybe get the answer were impossible to track down.

So Emma took her time with the book, making notes when anything appeared important or like a clue. Emma realized pretty quickly that the stories aren't complete. The book was more like an anthology, full of moments but not developed plot. She would have to stitch together the events in order to make real sense of what happened, but her first impressions of the stories were that they weren't the traditional tales she had hugged closely to in her childhood.

The Evil Queen hated Snow White, but not for being the fairest of them all. She wanted revenge for a man named Daniel, Emma supposed it's a story further in the book because the next one was about the Huntsman. Graham.

Who was missing a heart.

Fantastic.

Emma spent the rest of her evening in this manner. Reading and taking notes, but when midnight struck on the clock tower she went to bed frustrated.

She still had no answers about Killian. He wasn't in the stories that she had read so far about Snow White, the Huntsman, the Wizard of Oz, and the Beauty and the Beast.

Killian Jones, who did you become?

She really should just ask Henry.

Instead of going down to the docks to get a breather and help center her nervousness and anxiety, like she should, Emma started her day off with the storybook.

And quickly regretted it.

Emma Swan had not wanted to start off her day learning that Killian Jones had become Captain Hook.

For nearly two centuries.

Just like all the other stories, this one was only a moment in time. The moment Killian lost a woman named Milah to the husband she left behind, Rumpelstiltskin. He had become the Dark One, ripped out her heart, and crushed it. Milah fell into Killian's arms and died, and when he picked up his sword to fight the Dark One he lost his hand.

Milah had loved him, and the story made it clear that he loved her, but not enough:

"Killian Jones loved Milah, but his heart was never wholly hers. That guilt of knowing she deserved more, coupled with his anger at the gods, the kingdoms, the imp before him, and the rage he still felt at losing his brother as well as the grief knotted in his chest over a Swan, propelled him on a two hundred year old journey searching for revenge.

And so, with a makeshift brace and a fishing hook, Killian Jones became Captain Hook, and sailed for the Neverland."