A/N: More into this sad tale I wrote. Happy endings promised, though.

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Chapter 8

Henry had done all he could with the resources he had access to. It was time to admit he couldn't do it alone and invest in some bigger guns. Even Superman needed help sometimes, he reasoned. And he was only eleven years old.

The chime on the door announced his entrance into Mr. Gold's shop. "Mr. Gold?"

It was Belle who came from behind the curtain, a small smile curving her lips. Henry really liked her, more than he had thought he would. She could understand him more than anyone in Storybrooke, loving a man known as evil the same way he had admitted to himself to loving Regina. Still, his mom had kept this woman a prisoner for a really long time. Maybe she wasn't the best person to be asking help to.

"Hi, Miss Belle."

"Hello, Henry. It is really nice to see you." She cocked her head to the side and her serious eyes let him know she was more than sincere in her question. "Any news on your mom?"

He shook his head, not allowing the tears to come, for fear they would not stop. "No."

"I'm really sorry for your loss, Henry. And for the pain Regina must have gone through." Belle didn't avert her eyes or say the words as empty consolation. This was a woman who had kindness and compassion to spare. This made him smile.

"Thank you."

"Henry. What a surprise!" Mr. Gold appeared behind Belle, leaning on his cane. "Is everything alright?"

Glancing briefly towards Belle and deciding that he didn't mind her being there, Henry nodded. "Yes. You see, Mr. Gold. I've searched all my books, my mom's books, your books and even some in the library…"

Gold looked amused at that. "Oh… I know."

"You do?"

"Of course. You are very sneaky, boy, but no one comes into my shop without my knowing it", Gold shared, with a conspiratorial smile towards his grandson.

"Thank you for letting me look."

Gold nodded, dismissing it as nothing of consequence. "Have you found anything useful?"

"No… But I've an idea! And I was wondering if you would help me."

"Tell me this idea and I'll be able to answer you better."

Henry breathed in deeply and removed a handheld mirror from his backpack. He'd always thought it looked more like the mirror from Beauty & the Beast, but from his book, the boy knew it to have been a gift from the Genie to his mother.

"I know that you and my mom used mirrors to communicate and to spy on others in the Enchanted Forest. I'm not sure you can use this to go spying around other lands, but I was wondering if maybe there was a way to do that." Henry held the mirror tightly. "Is there?

Gold stared at him long and hard, not saying a thing and Henry didn't turn his gaze away, even when he noticed Belle shifting.

"Yes…"

The smile on Henry's face could light up an entire city. "Really!?"

"Yes, Henry, but it is not a simple spell. It requires something I'm not sure we have anymore and magic I'm sure your mother wouldn't want you to use."

The mysterious answer did nothing to make his enthusiasm falter. "Tell me anyway."

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Henry pushed the door to the loft open and made no effort to be quiet. He had already spotted Emma sitting on the couch, waiting for him.

"Henry."

"Emma."

"We need to talk, kid. And seriously this time. No mincing words and omitting things." Henry watched the mug on her hands and the expression on his mother's face and wondered if the time to come clean had come.

"Is that a two way street?" His eyes narrowed, mimicking his mom's suspicious stare. It had worked for the former Queen and Henry found it to be successful for him as well.

"Y… Yes."

He walked to the couch and let his backpack drop to the ground, before sitting beside Emma. "Ok."

"Henry… I want to find your mom, I do. But I wonder if we can do it and if we can't, I imagine this isn't how Regina would want you to live." Emma found it easier not to look at her son as she spoke. "So, this sneaking around and being all quiet and skulking around has to stop. No more skipping class, either."

"I know we can find her, but I don't blame you for not believing, Emma. And the reason I'm like this is because I'm sad she's gone and I'm looking for a way to get to her".

"Looking for a way?" Emma turned to face her son, worry creeping in at the edges. "How?"

"Research. With Mr. Gold's books and mom's, mostly. I learned that there are all sorts of ways to cross realms, but that these are all hard to find", Henry stated matter of factly. "And I learned that there is a way to get in touch with mom, because it is easier for her to leave than for us to get to her in that land."

"Henry, magic is dangerous and always - always! - come with a price. What were you thinking!?" Emma placed the mug on the coffee table before she felt compelled to throw it against a wall. The panic was rising fast within her.

"I'm not using magic, Emma. I'm researching." His face was set and his answer delivered at if to a child.

"Henry…", her warning tone was cut off by her son jumping from his perch on the couch.

"And I found a way, Emma! Don't you see, we can bring mom back!"

"We? I'm not seeing a whole lot of we going on here, kid. I wasn't included in any of this. Neither were Mary Margaret or David." Emma jumped up as well.

"Snow! Her name is Snow! You won't call her mom, but at least stop pretending like she is normal and someone she is not!" Henry spat, tears starting at the corner of her eyes.

"For Heaven's sake, Henry! It is just a name!"

"No, it is not! You go around acting like magic and fairy tales aren't really real. You went to the Enchanted Forest and you still act as if it doesn't exist. As it if it didn't go by different rules then your world. As if the curse being broken was the only thing you had to do to make it alright again." Henry's chest was heaving.

"Isn't it? You taught me that, kid. All I needed was to break the curse and vanquish evil and all would be as it should be."

"I was wrong…", he whispered. "I was wrong. Because the Enchanted Forest is real, but that doesn't mean fairy tales are real. Life was just as hard there. People died and people suffered. And angry men hurt women who couldn't fight back…"

"Oh, Henry, you didn't… Tell me you didn't go to Jefferson's house." Emma let the steam that had been building within her go. A clutch in her chest reminded that she was dealing with a child, not a stubborn man, and that no child should have seen the inside of that house.

"I did." Henry didn't even attempt to wipe the tears away. "I did and it was horrible." He accepted the hug his mother offered and openly sobbed. "Why would he hurt my mom like that…"

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Jefferson had been to many worlds during his lifetime. He had seen wonderful places and places he would have preferred to have never visited at all. He had lived long years of adventure. Then he had been confined to a never changing day eternally repeating itself until madness was his only option.

And it had all led to this. This place, this act, this decision.

The man sat on a boulder and stared at the grass dancing with the strong wind. He played with a scarf in his hand, twisting it and turning it, until the very fabric started to tear. This was the scarf he had worn around his neck. This was the scarf that had hidden his scar and shame from the prying eyes of people too caught up in their own nightmares to notice anyway.

It didn't matter anymore.

He allowed the wind to sweep the scarf away and watched as it was taken from view. He breathed in deeply and glanced around once more at the meadow, the small cabin in the distance and the bright sky. This was home. His and Grace's, once upon a time. It was empty, though, and it would always be empty, for he had truly lost his daughter. Not because Regina had taken him away from her. Not because a curse had robbed her memories. No. This time, his loss was no one's fault but his own.

Jefferson had crossed the line.

A series of shudders still wracked his frame at the memory of his actions. He could not escape her tears, her screams. It seemed impossible that he would ever erase from his mind's eye the sight of her bruised skin and defeated eyes. And then… Then he had committed the worst act of all. Jefferson had condemned the broken Queen to an eternity of endless pain in a land without time. By the time he had come to his senses, it had been too late.

Homicidal, crazy, psychotic… He was all those things. He had never been, however, into self harm and that had made it impossible to retrieve Regina afterwards, when the guilt had wrought and sanity briefly returned.

God, what had he done?

It would have been easier if he had trouble breathing. It would have been more comforting if his body had borne better witness to his ordeal. It would have been… That was the trouble, though, wasn't it? It could have been, but it wasn't. He had done those despicable things. There would be no escaping that.

He could add coward to the list of things he was. For he was too much of a coward to face her son. Too scared to face his own daughter. He would rather die than see fear once more in Grace's eyes because of him.

He would rather die…

The gun was incongruent with the Enchanted Forest scene. The sound of the shot would surely bring the ogres to this region and if he did not die from the bullet, the giant beast would surely finish him off. There would be no escape and he wanted no escape.

The loud sound echoed through the trees. Loud roars answered back. There would be no one for the ogres to kill, though. By the time they made it to the cabin, Jefferson's eyes were already staring sightlessly into the sky.