Onto the final stretch now people, landing lights are up, seatbelt sign is on, please ensure you are strapped in and have your table-tray in the upright position.

~88888~

School was uneventful.

It always was.

Especially now.

Henry had spent his life knowing that something was different about his life and about the town he lived in. He couldn't help it, he just knew. Getting that book from Mary Margaret two years ago had only confirmed his suspicions. This town was full of fairy tale characters, time didn't move in Storybrooke because of the Evil Queen's curse, and the Evil Queen was the woman he called 'mom'. And the woman who was his real mom, she was the only person who could save them all.

And she did save them all, not just once, but twice. If ever Henry had had a moment in his life where he felt unloved, like he had no family, seeing his parents and grandparents barging into Pan's camp with swords aloft served to remind him that he never had been alone, and he would never be alone again. They had saved him. Peter Pan had finally failed.

But then they had returned to Storybrooke, and Henry was learning what a happily ever after felt like; boring.

Oh sure you were safe, your loved ones were safe, your world was safe, but the excitement, the adrenaline of defeating the story's villain, that was gone. Henry imagined that for his grandparents, Snow White and Prince Charming, life would have been much different because they were adults. But he was a kid. He didn't have the life choice of moving on and making his own family. He was eleven years old!

Moving on for him meant going back to school.

But maybe, his happily ever after was what was happening with his parents, Emma, Neal and Regina. He loved the fact that now he could come and go between the three of them easily. He would always prefer to spend his time with Emma, but once or twice, he had seen the pleasure of spending time with Regina. Last night was no exception. Who could sleep in that heat, especially in winter! Plus Regina was a much better cook than his mother, David or even Mary Margaret.

But the thing that made him almost buzz with happiness was the fact that his parents were back together. Was it possible for there to be anything better for a kid with single parents than for them to get back together? Every afternoon he hoped to see them both standing at the bus-stop. It had only happened once, and on that occasion, they hadn't looked particularly happy. Henry later found out that they had had an argument about Emma learning magic.

He didn't understand what the fuss was all about. Snow and Charming's love was True Love; it was a phenomenon that was startlingly rare in the Enchanted Forrest. Henry had once asked Mother Superior about it; apparently the reason couples experiencing True Love were so rare was because often they were torn apart by outside forces; the woman was cursed, the man was imprisoned, one of them was killed, they were forced into marriages with other people and chose to find some semblance of happiness in their enforced life, etc etc. But what she also said was that often, the children of True Love couples didn't even know how special they were because they never needed to fight for things that they wanted. That's why Emma was unique. She had been prophesized to be the savior; that was it. She could have spent the rest of her life not needing to fight for anything else, but fate conspired against her. She had repeatedly been put in situations where she had to fight for what she wanted, and as such, her power had been revealed.

Henry didn't understand why there was an issue about Emma learning what that meant. Emma was good, wholly and completely. Magic was a power that was a force of its own, but Henry knew that his mother was too good to let the dark side of magic sway her. If his father didn't believe that, then that was his problem. Henry couldn't be happier.

Still, the sight of seeing one or the other of his parents every afternoon since did cause him some level of upset. Today was no exception. As he stepped off the bus he saw Emma a few steps away; just Emma. As usual, he looked around quickly, trying to see if his dad was around somewhere. But he wasn't anywhere to be seen. He shook away that disappointment, and instead focused on the fact that his mother was here, that she had shown up since this morning. But there was something wrong; he could see it etched all over her face. She looked like she had when she had told him that his father had been shot and then fallen through a portal. But maybe this just had something to do with whatever she had been doing this morning.

"Hi Mom." He greeted as he reached her. "Are you okay? Did Grandpa find you this morning? He seemed pretty worried."

"Yeah, I was at the station catching up on some paperwork." She responded as he met her. Her voice sounded different, off, like she had been thinking about something else.

"I figured that's where you were. Dad too." He said as they turned and started walking down the street. "Are you okay?" He asked again

He and Emma had only walked a few paces before Emma stopped walking abruptly and turned to him.

"That was a lie." She said looking at his feet, then at him.

This wasn't like her. Henry was confused. "Mom, what's going on?"

"I need to talk to you, kid. Let's sit down." She gestured to the park bench on the other side of the street.

"Mom, what's going on? What was a lie?" He asked again as he sat down beside her.

"I wasn't at the station this morning; that was a lie." She said simply not looking at him. "But I'll get onto the truth later." She looked to her lap then back up at him. "Henry, I don't know what you think has been happening between me and Neal recently, but I need to tell you, that whatever it was, it's over now."

Henry stared at her, not really quite figuring what she was saying. "But, it hasn't even been a week." He countered.

Emma nodded. "I know, and I promised you I wouldn't lie to you. That's why I'm telling you. I don't want you to get your hopes up to high for your dad and me." She reached for his shoulder. "But Henry, the truth is, I don't love him."

"But you haven't given it enough time." He cried shrugging out of her grasp and standing up. "If you just spent a bit more time-"

"I'm sorry Henry, but this is something that I know isn't going to change." She looked away from him at the ground again. "Don't get me wrong, I do love him, I always will, but it's the love of a girl towards her first love and the father of her child." She reached for his hand. "I'm just not in love with him anymore; you can't love two people at the same time."

Henry wasn't sure what his emotions were; he had learnt that there were many things he couldn't know as a child. It felt strange, he wasn't sure why, but he didn't feel angry about Emma's words. Upset yeah, disappointed, of course, but not angry. It was like he knew what it was she was saying before she had said it, like he agreed with her. But hearing her say that she loved two people had him cease his staring contest with her shoes and look up at her face with great interest.

"Are you in love with someone else? Who?" He asked eagerly.

He saw her face falter. He realized that she had said words that she hadn't thought about. But whatever she was feeling now, whatever confusion she was experiencing, her words were true. She was in love.

"Truthfully, I don't know. I think I might be." Her face flushed as she looked away from him. "But I do have feelings for someone else." She admitted slowly.

"Really? Who?" He was so excited by this information; it was like the news that his parents relationship was over before it even began meant nothing compared to this. "If it's meant to be a secret, I promise I won't tell anyone. I just want you to be happy, with whoever that may be."

No matter what happened, Henry loved his mother. He knew and understood her reasons for giving him up when he was born, and he didn't hold it against her. She had done exactly the same thing that her mother had done to her when she was born. Giving the ones you love, your children their best chance at life was a gift that parents in difficult circumstances understood far better than anyone else.

Emma smiled up at her son's enthusiasm. "Promise you won't judge me?"

"Why would I judge you?" He was confused. "Do you judge Belle for falling in love with Rumplestiltskin?" He countered. He took her silence as a response. "See? Now tell me who! I already have two mother's; its time I got a second father!" He demanded with a broad smile.

Emma chuckled weakly. "Hold up kid, let's not go that far." But she didn't say anything more.

Henry took his seat back beside her waiting for her to speak. He sat there quietly, watching her when it suddenly hit him.

"Wait, is it Hook?"

Emma stared at her son with stunned eyes. His jaw dropped when he realized he was right. That moment he had seen them together on the deck of the Jolly Roger as they left Neverland hadn't been a figment of his imagination.

"That is so awesome!" He cried earning a couple of people nearby to stare at him. "Rumplestilskin is my grandfather; Snow White and Prince Charming are my other grandparents, the Evil Queen adopted me, and Captain Hook is going to be my stepfather!" Henry jumped out of his seat, excitedly recounting his family tree.

"Quiet, I don't want the whole town to know." Emma shushed him.

"Sorry." Henry smiled sheepishly.

"So you should be, shouting my personal business for all to hear." She teased.

Henry's laughter faded as one pressing thought struck him that seemed unavoidable. "Does my dad know?" He asked in a quiet voice.

Emma's smile faded as though it had never been there and a look of sorrow replaced it. In the blink of an eye that euphoric trance on her face fell and she suddenly looked like a woman who had just been told she had terminal cancer. Henry found the change disconcerting.

"Yes." She said quietly, looking away from him. "And trust me when I tell you that it wasn't a good conversation."

"Oh." Henry slumped in the seat beside her.

"I don't know what's going to happen there." She continued sadly. "I really don't." She went on wistfully, looking straight ahead, staring into space.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" He asked eagerly.

Emma jerked to look at him. "I don't know what good that will do. I think he just needs to be left alone, work out what he wants now in his own time." She sighed.

"Do you think he'll leave?" He asked.

"No." The answer was out of her mouth before she had a chance to think. "No I don't think he will."

Henry nodded, a silence covering them.

"I want you to go and spend a couple of days at Regina's." Emma eventually said, breaking the silence between them.

"Why?" Henry asked, startled.

"I thought you'd be happy?" Emma's voice was concerned.

"It's not that, I just wasn't expecting you to say that." He said simply. "Do you want to spend alone time with Hook?" He asked with a look that made her shudder.

"No." She responded a little too loudly. Henry watched her face darken with poorly suppressed glee. "No, the apartment's still sweltering, and I figured it would be good for you to spend some time with Regina. You haven't really seen much of her in the last few months."

"Yeah, I suppose." Henry nodded. "Do we have time to go to Granny's, or do you have to take me to Regina's now?" He asked.

Normally whomever it was that picked him up from school or the bus took him to Granny's for an afternoon bite – and of course a hot chocolate – but with the plan now him going to Regina's he didn't know if they would have time. Regina and Emma might have decided to get him to the Mayor's house sooner rather than later. He hoped that wasn't the case. He wanted to spend a little bit of time with his birth mother today.

"We have a few minutes." She smiled, standing and reaching for his hand.

~88888~

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