When Regina followed Henry to the medical quarters she found him sitting on a cot, patiently submitting to the doctor's examination.
"Mom!" He exclaimed as she entered, "The doctor says I'm fine. Can we get back to the party now?"
Regina glanced at the doctor and received a nod in confirmation. Carefully suppressing her turmoil, she teased her son.
"Now you want to go the party?" She smiled at him.
"Anything is better than being poked at! Besides," his face grew serious, "the people need to see me healthy. The Prince collapsed at his own party, you know rumour will spread. We need to get ahead of it."
Regina looked at her son carefully. She saw a young man, nearly four inches taller than her with dark bristles beginning to show on his jaw. Tonight Regina was supposed to show the kingdom that her son had reached manhood, but instead he was showing her. He was an accomplished warrior and evidently learning to be an astute politician, but Regina found herself missing the boy that had, simply by existing, drained the rage that had motivated her for much of her adult life.
She had her suspicions about his biological heritage, but no way to know for sure. Rumpelstiltskin had said Henry's birth mother was imprisoned, so even if she were right, it would only mean that Regina had exacted an even greater revenge; Snow trapped, her daughter a criminal, and her grandson at Regina's side. She smiled.
"You're absolutely right, Henry. Would the Prince care to accompany his Queen to the party?"
As Henry rose gratefully off the bunk, he gave a courteous bow and extended his arm for her to take.
"I would be honoured, Your Majesty."
They walked back to the hall and stopped outside the double doors as the herald entered ahead of them. Henry turned his head, cracking his neck loudly and assumed a regal bearing; straight-backed and stern. Regina looked at her son, the very image of a prince, and decided not to worry about his connection to her past.
Inside the hall a short fanfare played and they were announced. The double doors opened and together they entered, arm in arm. The crowd was hushed and most people were staring at Henry. Regina stepped away from him and toward the raised dais that held her throne. She addressed the crowd.
"Thank you for your patience. What happened earlier was a shock to all of us. It seems Prince Henry has discovered the ability to harness magic. As you can imagine, I'm very proud of him and I'm sure he is equally excited to learn that his birthday no longer marks the end of his formal training."
The crowd chuckled at the sudden pained look on Henry's face and began to relax. Regina gestured for him to join her and he strode onto the dais, careful to project a strong, healthy, confident demeanour.
"Thank you, Your Majesty," he said, injecting his tone with as much sarcasm as he could get away with in public, and the atmosphere lightened further. Regina watched him as he judged the mood of the crowd and smiled widely.
"This discovery is a boon to the kingdom, and deserves to be celebrated. You've all waited long enough, so let's get back to the party!"
His words were met with a loud cheer. As he stepped down, he was engulfed by a group of soldiers, one of whom pressed a tankard into his hand. Regina gestured to the musicians and soon the hall was filled with music, conversation and laughter and people's momentary fright was forgotten.
The party continued until well into the next morning. Regina had retired to bed some time before dawn, but Henry stayed up, talking with soldiers and farmers, merchants and nobles, shaking hands and sharing drinks until the last revellers had either left or found a quiet corner to fall asleep. As the palace staff began to trickle in and clear up, Henry made his way to the library. He'd taken many lessons here; history, cartography, geography, politics. He'd learned that power must be understood to be used correctly and that magic had drawbacks. He'd never expected to wield it, knowing where he came from, and now he was in possession of a tool that he didn't know how to use.
His mother would teach him, but would she tell him how he got it? He'd never seen her rattled the way she had been when he woke up on the floor of the hall, and although she'd calmed down by the time she came to him in the infirmary, he had been aware of her attention on him through the rest of the night.
He reviewed what he knew. His mother had gone to a land without magic in order to imprison Snow White. While there, she had enlisted Rumpelstiltskin to find her a child, and adopted him. Any of the traitors she had taken would have been prevented from giving birth by the curse, so he must have been born to someone else, possibly someone sent there before the curse was cast.
Henry went to the shelves containing the recent historical records and browsed through the documents, looking for any that might contain evidence of travel to other worlds. He wrote a few likely-looking titles down, folded the list into his pocket and headed for his chambers, aware that he was in no state for serious research after a long party and a lot of ale.
He fell ungracefully into bed and stared up at the canopy frame, letting his mind wander. If he thought about it, he was aware of the magic under his skin; a slight tingle that was more potential than anything. He vaguely sensed the currents of power around him and remembered his mother describing it to him as a child.
"What does magic feel like?" He'd asked.
"Like walking through the ocean," she'd replied after a moment's thought, "it's all around me, even inside me, and I can channel it and use it, but not control it. It's so much bigger than I could ever be."
"Can anyone control it?" He'd been awed at the idea of something more powerful than his mother.
"Perhaps the Dark One or some of those wretched fairies – creatures born out of magic, made of magic."
Thoughts of his mother led him back to his dilemma. Magic was a powerful tool and if he could learn to use it with the kind of skill his mother had he would be a fearsome opponent, but without knowing where it came from, could he ever really trust it?
He fell asleep.
Weeks passed and, as promised, his mother taught him to use his new abilities. She held nothing back and Henry was a little un-nerved at some of what she knew.
"You can pull people's hearts out," he asked incredulously, "and they don't die?"
"Yes." Regina shifted under his gaze and he got the impression she was ashamed. "If you hold someone's heart, they belong to you. You control them."
Henry hesitated. "I thought when your mother took Daniel's heart, it killed him?"
"She chose to kill him, Henry. She crushed his heart into dust." Her voice became tight and he touched her arm in silent apology.
As time passed and his skill grew, Regina taught Henry the most advanced, most dangerous magic she knew, but always with a warning not to use it unless absolutely necessary. Henry soaked up the lessons, increasing his control and skill, but still the origins of his power troubled him.
Regina had spoken extensively about her dealings with Rumpelstiltskin and he appeared with alarming frequency in the historical records. The Dark One made deals, he didn't give gifts, and the deals always had a price, but he had found Regina a son and asked for no payment in return. His mother assured him that Mr Gold, as he was known in the other world, had no memory of who he was and therefore no reason to do otherwise. However, his mother had also told him about the curse; it altered people's memories, not their natures. Henry doubted whether Rumpelstiltskin would give his mother a son and expect or extract nothing in return, even without his memories.
His birth mother came from this world and he was found by the Dark One and adopted by someone from this world. It couldn't be a coincidence; everything he'd learned about the Dark One told him that. He couldn't trust that this power he now possessed would benefit the kingdom without knowing where it came from. He needed answers. He needed to talk to Rumpelstiltskin.
Finally, after months of training, Regina had taught Henry as much as she could. It had taken much less time than her education with Rumpelstiltskin, as Henry had learned the principles of magic as a child and had only to grasp the practice of it. Despite his misgivings, Henry was learning to enjoy the power. He had taken the heart of his favourite horse, as Regina had under Rumpelstiltskin's tutelage, but had placed it carefully in the vault to keep it safe. Already loyal, the horse had become absolutely devoted to Henry and unwilling to allow any other hand on its rein. This was discovered when a stable-boy was almost killed by the enraged horse, using its battle training to kick, trample and bite at the hapless servant. Henry found the half dead boy attempting to crawl away from the stall and had used his magic in an emergency for the first time, healing his wounds as his mother had healed the kittens so long ago.
The fact that magic had both caused the emergency and repaired the damage was not lost on Henry. He returned the horse's heart to its usual place immediately and redoubled his determination to find a way to Storybrooke and the answers he sought.
His search led him to study the curse his mother had cast on her enemies in detail. It had taken only those she wanted to punish, so clearly it was possible to control the journey, but the more he studied it, the more he wondered if punishment was the right term. The curse had made Snow White and the other traitors forget who they were, it had rendered them powerless and had prevented them from being truly happy, but that was it. They were alive, free and unharmed and from what his mother had told him of the time she had spent there before adopting him, lived fairly comfortable existences.
He had seen his mother order criminals be executed without hesitation. There had been a string of murders nearby a few years previously and when the culprit had been found Regina had killed him herself and shown no emotions other than fury and satisfaction. He knew his mother hated Snow White and her cohorts, so why would she be so…merciful? From what he had discovered, she had cursed them to live their lives feeling a mild sense of disappointment and loneliness, both of which were easily obtained without magical intervention.
He kept looking. He would find a way to Storybrooke, get some answers from the Dark One and if he brought back Snow White's head as a gift for his mother, all the better.
Emma didn't make it back for the fair. The next month she invited Mary Margaret and Ruby to Boston for the weekend, but when Ruby's car blew a gasket before they'd even left town, Emma jumped in her truck right away. She felt a strange draw to the town that she wasn't willing to think about too closely. Despite being a grown woman with several years of therapy between her and the difficulties of her childhood, she still struggled with the idea that it was okay to want things and to enjoy them when she had them. The fact that both Ruby and particularly Mary Margaret enjoyed her company and actively sought it out both baffled her and filled her with a fierce, proud joy that she tried desperately not to acknowledge.
Emma pulled the truck up at Granny's, sparing a thought for her beloved Bug as she carefully manoeuvred the large vehicle. As she opened the door and grabbed her overnight bag, Ruby came loping over, smiling broadly.
"Emma, welcome back!" Emma found herself enveloped in a friendly hug. She stiffened as the urge to retreat fought with a kind of shy pleasure. Ruby noticed her discomfort and stepped back, still smiling.
"Not a hugger, huh?"
"Sorry," Emma scowled and refused to blush.
"No problem. Listen, drop your stuff upstairs, there's someone I want you to meet."
"Uh – sure."
She went inside and received her key from Granny, who peered familiarly at her over the top of her glasses and simply said "Welcome back."
Emma set her bag on the foot of the bed and went back downstairs. Outside the B&B, Ruby was sat on a bench with a heavily pregnant girl who looked painfully young to Emma. Ruby waved her over.
"Emma, this is Ashley; Ashley, Emma."
"It's nice to meet you," Emma smiled as Ashley shook her hand.
"You too," Ashley smiled back.
"Ashley's coming out with us tonight," Ruby informed her, "she is in serious need of a break."
Emma had recognised the aura of barely restrained terror around the girl and viciously shoved any comparisons away. Her run-in with August the previous month had made her some new friends, but it had also opened old wounds. She'd caught herself thinking about the baby she'd given up more than once. He'd be seventeen now, old enough to be thinking about college. With the skill of long practice, she changed the mental subject.
"That's great! I have to drive tomorrow so I'll keep you company with some soda."
Ruby pouted, but didn't argue.
"Mary Margaret's gonna meet us at eight, she's having an early dinner with her new beau."
Emma's eyebrow rose.
"There's a new beau?"
"Oh that's right, you weren't here!" Ruby exclaimed. "You know the comatose guy she reads to in the hospital? He woke up!"
"Seriously?"
"Yeah, but he's a total amnesiac. Doesn't even know his name! Mary Margaret came by the day after he woke up and was talking to the doc about it and somehow she ended up going to dinner with him."
"The amnesiac guy? Isn't that weird?" Emma asked, brow knitting.
"No, Dr. Whale!"
"Dr. Whale? Is that even his real name?" Emma scoffed, and Ashley giggled.
"Look who's talking, Miss Swan!"
Emma grimaced. She considered explaining that she'd been abandoned as a baby and that her surname had been assigned to her, but she didn't want to wreck the mood.
"I'm starving and this little one is squirming like crazy, so can we eat?" Ashley announced, caressing her swollen stomach lovingly.
They trooped off towards the diner. Ashley became a bit more animated after eating, her original shyness falling away to reveal a wicked sense of humour. Emma saw why Ruby liked her so much.
"Okay," Ruby declared shortly before Mary Margaret arrived, "you two can stay on soda but we have to get Mary Margaret to loosen up a little. She's so nervous about dating the doc!"
Emma grinned. "That's easy. Make it a rule that you have to drink anything that sounds like your name. Order lots of Bloody Marys and Margaritas."
Ruby and Ashley stared at her, smiles spreading slowly over their faces.
"You," Ashley informed her, lifting her water glass in toast, "are a genius."
Several hours later, Emma's plan was a success.
"Who knew she could belly dance?" Ashley asked rhetorically, a wide smile on her face.
Emma laughed. "Dr. Whale, maybe?"
Ruby came back to the table, flushed and panting.
"Come dance!" She implored, but Ashley's smile faded and her hand dropped to her belly. Emma glanced at Ruby significantly.
"We're okay right now," she said, and Ruby hesitated briefly, but nodded and returned to Mary Margaret on the dance floor.
"Hey, you okay?" Emma asked gently.
"Yeah," Ashley replied, sounding close to tears.
"I'd hate to see you on a bad day then," Emma observed, "c'mon, let's get some air."
They retreated outside and Ashley began to sniffle.
"I saw Sean today," she said. Emma assumed Sean was the father.
"He wouldn't even look at me!" Ashley sobbed and Emma suddenly found herself with an armful of crying pregnant lady.
"Hey, hey, it's okay," she soothed frantically. "Tell me about Sean."
Twenty minutes later, Emma was fighting the urge to find Sean and punch his lights out. She reminded herself – again – that Sean wasn't Neal and hugged Ashley gingerly.
"If you want this kid you don't need Sean, but if you like, your new scary bounty hunter friend could have a talk with him about his responsibilities," she offered, receiving a watery smile and a shaken head in return.
"Ruby was right, you really do need a break," she said, smiling gently. Ashley gave a half-desperate laugh and wiped her eyes.
"Yeah, I do."
"You're going to be fine," Emma assured her.
"How do you know?" Ashley asked, half hopeful and half angry.
Emma paused. She wasn't supposed to be thinking about this anymore, but the kid really needed some hope.
"Because I got through it and so can you."
Ashley stared at her.
"You had a kid? How old were you, twelve?"
"Thank you, and no," Emma replied sardonically. "I was eighteen and in prison because the dad left me holding stolen goods and skipped town."
Ashley stared at her, jaw dropped.
"Did…did you keep it?"
"No," Emma replied. "I gave him up for adoption. Signed the papers before he was even born."
"Do you wish you hadn't?"
The question hit her like a punch and she was about to retort sharply, but she noticed Ashley was staring at the swell of her belly with guilt plastered all over her face.
She considered her response.
"I gave him his best chance," she said, "and that wasn't me."
Ashley's expression turned desperate again.
"Mr. Gold says he can find a good home, but I haven't talked to Sean and he –"
"Whoa, Ashley. Mr. Gold, as in the creepy guy who runs the pawn shop?"
"Yeah."
"Is he an adoption lawyer on the side?" Emma demanded.
"Well, no, but – "
"Then he has absolutely no business with you, do you hear me? If you don't want to raise this kid that's okay, but you can't just hand it off to anyone that asks!"
"I know that, but he…" Ashley's tone was helpless.
"Did he pressure you into a deal?" Emma asked, gentling her tone once more.
"I don't know, I don't really remember."
"Okay kid, here's what's going to happen. We're going to go back inside and have some fun, then in the morning I'm going to have a talk with Mr. Gold, then Sean, and maybe drop by the sheriff's office, okay?"
"I…okay," Ashley agreed.
The rest of the night wasn't a huge amount of fun for Emma as she stewed over the apparent illegal adoption, but Ashley seemed to relax, having shared her worries. The four of them called it a night around one and traipsed back to Mary Margaret's apartment to watch cheesy movies.
The next morning Emma woke at dawn and slipped out, leaving her three companions in the odd pile they'd fallen asleep in.
Gold's shop wasn't open yet so she went over to Sean's place. He opened the door in vest and boxers, wiping his eyes blearily.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"A friend of Ashley's," Emma replied, gratified to see Sean start paying attention.
"Is she okay?" he asked frantically. His concern was genuine and Emma did some mental re-adjustment.
"Physically, yes." She stared pointedly at him. His shoulders slumped and he glanced fearfully over his shoulder, back into the house.
"Can you give her a message? My dad won't let me near her."
"Your dad won't…how old are you, kid?"
"Eighteen."
"So you're an adult. You're a father, Sean. Ashley's so desperate and so alone that she's selling your kid to Mr Gold."
"What?!"
"She loves you and she loves that baby, but she can't do this alone. So, what's more important? What your father says, or what your daughter needs?"
"It's…it's a girl?"
"Ashley showed me the sonogram last night."
Sean's jaw worked soundlessly for a moment.
"I have a daughter? I have a...I have a daughter. Oh God, I gotta stop her! I gotta talk to Gold, I-"
"I'll deal with Gold," she told him, "you deal with your father and then go talk to Ashley. She's at Mary Margaret's apartment."
Sean nodded and slammed the door. Emma heard him shouting for his father as she walked away, and smiled.
She stopped at Granny's briefly for a coffee and walked over to the sheriff station.
"Excuse me, are you Graham?"
The Sheriff started at her voice.
"Uh yeah, yes! Hi, sorry, I'm not used to people visiting this early."
"I'm Emma Swan, we met last month."
"Oh right, the bounty hunter. How'd that go?"
Emma wasn't interested in pleasantries.
"Do you know Ashley Boyd is being coerced into an illegal adoption?"
"What? No! She's…what?"
"Ashley won't make a legal complaint so I'm giving you a heads-up. I'm going over to talk to Mr Gold now and maybe I can get him to back down without taking it any further but if not, you need to be ready to investigate officially."
"Investigate Mr. Gold? Are you serious?"
Emma paused. "Wow. Yes, Sheriff, I'm serious, but I guess I'll have to do this myself."
She turned and strode out of the office, leaving Graham spluttering in shock.
The bell over the door jangled merrily as Emma stormed into the shop. Mr. Gold appeared from the back room, his curious expression replaced with a smile that Emma really didn't like.
"Miss Swan, what a pleasure to see you again!"
"Wish I could say the same. I want the contact Ashley Boyd signed."
Gold's smile vanished.
"I don't know what you mean," he said airily, turning to fiddle with the globe on the counter.
"Bull. You're coercing a nineteen year old girl into giving up her child. She told me everything."
Gold's expression turned shrewd.
"Well, if she told you everything, you'll know that we have an agreement and my agreements are always honoured. She signed of her own free will, after all."
Emma raised three fingers and ticked off her rebuttals.
"You aren't an adoption lawyer, the father hasn't waived parental rights and the contract Ashley signed is in no way legally valid. You're not getting that kid."
Gold gave her an appraising look.
"I like you, Miss Swan. You're not afraid of me. Now that's either cocky or presumptuous but either way I'd rather have you on my side. If you want Ashley to have that baby are you willing to make a deal with me?"
"No. You give me the contract and you agree to never bother Ashley again or I call every cop and lawyer I know in the state of Maine and bring them all down on your head."
Gold paused for a moment and smiled again.
"Well, we wouldn't want that, would we?" He said, affecting a jovial tone as he brought a locked case out from under the counter. "Very well, Miss Swan, I hereby renounce all claims to Miss Boyd's offspring." His smile became mocking as he unlocked the case and handed over the contract. Emma flicked through it and on the last page, next to Ashley's signature, were tearstains. Emma took a breath and stared at him for a moment but her instincts told her he was telling the truth, so she pocketed the slim contract and turned on her heel, striding pointedly out.
"After all," Gold addressed the empty shop after her, "I have something better now."
When Emma returned to the loft Sean was there. He and Ashley were sitting on Mary Margaret's bed, hugging and crying. Ruby waved her over to where she and Mary Margaret were clutching mugs of coffee and wincing at the volume of the couple's emotional reconciliation.
"You two okay?" Emma asked, torn between concern and amusement. Mary Margaret grimaced in reply while Ruby managed a smile.
"When did he arrive?" She asked.
"Almost an hour ago," Ruby replied.
"Good." Emma pronounced. Ruby's eyebrows rose as she looked between the couple and Emma's satisfied expression and she opened her mouth to comment, but thought better of it and simply smiled.
Emma's phone rang. She checked the caller ID, saw it was her partner and answered.
"Hey Mike, what's up?"
"Hey Emma, will you be back today? We got a case."
"Yeah, I'm leaving in a few minutes."
"Okay, see you later."
She hung up and reached for the coffee when Sean's voice stopped her.
"You're leaving?" he asked, coming over to the counter with Ashley's hand firmly held in his.
"Yeah, I have to get back to work," Emma replied.
"Oh," Sean looked conflicted for a moment, then grabbed her in a strong hug.
"Thank you," he whispered, his voice trembling.
Emma pushed him away gently and addressed both of them hoping they wouldn't take offense.
"You're welcome. But listen, you're both really young to be parents. Just because Gold is a scumbag doesn't mean you don't have options, okay? I mean, keep the kid if you want to, but if not, I know some people who can help, okay?"
Luckily, Sean smiled. "Thanks, but this is our little girl." His hand rubbed Ashley's stomach reverently. "We made her, and we're keeping her."
Emma smiled. She had her reservations, but it was their choice.
"In that case, congratulations. If Gold starts sniffing around again, tell the Sheriff and call me, okay? Now I need to get going."
"Oh, you have come back once the baby's born!" Ashley insisted and the other three chimed in with agreement.
"Sweetie, the way you look I could be back by Thursday! I'll try and get back for next month, will that do?"
"Sure," Ashley stepped forward and hugged her too, followed by Ruby and finally Mary Margaret. Emma's proximity alarms were screaming but she allowed the affection, conscious of the fragile emotions caused by the eventful night.
"See you soon, guys."
"Bye Emma!" They chorused.
As Emma handed her key back to Granny ("see you next time. Don't leave it so long!") and headed out of town, she reflected that every time she came to Storybrooke, she seemed to make new friends. For someone who had been solitary for most of her life, it was as terrifying as it was exhilarating. She realised that as much as she was looking forward to getting back to Boston, she was equally excited about meeting the baby she'd saved from that slimeball.
She smiled as she drove and when she pulled in to her parking space and headed up to her office, Mike called out.
"Hey Jamie, is that Emma?"
"Yeah, it's me, Mike," she replied, raising a hand in greeting to their young secretary. He murmured a greeting and handed her a stack of messages and mail. She walked through to their shared office and greeted Mike.
"Hey. What's the case?"
"The info's on your desk. Did you have a good weekend?"
Emma thought about it. "I had a great weekend."