Finding a Way Home

by disneylover3212008

What if Regina had given up Henry at the adoption agency as a baby, leaving him with John and Michael Darling? And what if Pan had required them to raise him in the very heart of magic, Storybrooke, to make sure he grew into what was needed? An AU tale of two brothers desperate to re-unite their family and the assignment that tangled them in the familiar story we thought we knew.

14. Runaway

Chapter Fourteen: Runaway

It all made so much sense, and yet it still seemed impossible. John took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose with a deep breath. Michael had left to take Henry home a while ago while he stayed behind to look into the mess his family now found themselves in. Henry had been unwilling, but exhausted enough that they were able to drag him away with the promise to have a very long talk after he got some sleep. Michael and John managed to have an entire conversation with just their eyes, John promising to exhaust this topic fully before they concluded anything.

He had to learn to stop expecting things when it came to his unpredictable son. Here he had come storming in expecting to yell at Henry about becoming so desperate for time on the computer he snuck off in the middle of the night with his keys. He couldn't cause them anxiety like that, despite them really appreciating his consideration to leave a note with his intentions and whereabouts. It would be a lecture and then they could move on with their lives having all grown as a family. But this… oh boy. This.

His first course of action had been to look further into this Emma Swan. Maybe the name was just coincidence. Maybe this whole situation that made obnoxious screaming sense was nothing more than the Darling's taking things too far.

There was not much for one to discover about Emma Swan. At first he had merely found a website for her business in collecting bounties- which seemed entirely too normal a position for the supposed Savior of Storybrooke to have. It even had a picture of the woman, though it did seem to be a bit older. He tried to see if he could spot any of Henry's features in her, but nothing seemed to scream out at him. Not the blonde hair. Maybe the green eyes, though that was a common enough feature if he really thought about it. He was starting to breathe easier with the knowledge that he would have nothing interesting to bring back.

But then he had found the new article. It had been a follow-up to a bigger one, jammed in the corner of some local paper, that reported a family called the Swan's had taken in baby Emma- the baby that had been discovered by the boy in the side of the highway as had been reported previously. It was a real happy ending for the abandoned child who had nothing but a stitched baby blanket. A blanket that in pictures looked suspiciously like the one in the storybook, but that didn't prove anything. Baby blankets were a common thing for both he and Michael had owned one. Maybe this first article would bury all doubts. It only took a minute to find the first article, and it only served to drop his heart into his stomach.

He had read Greg Owen's account of his visit to Storybrooke before they had been given this assignment. He was sure that all of The Home Office had seeing as it was the only account of the town they had to go on. But he remembered something in particular about the report- the very first thing on the page. It had been the date, the date a town sprouted out of forest.

It was the same day Emma had been found. That… she came on the day the curse was placed and appeared about an hour away from the town's location. And her twenty-eight birthday would be when Henry was ten, when Pan had told them the curse on the town would be broken. At the age the Savior was predicted to be.

Something else clicked into place too. They had always wondered how Pan had known Henry had what he was so desperately looking for. They knew he was an unbelievably special kid, but this showed why Pan thought he was. Henry was the son of the Savior, perhaps the Product of True Love's Product of True Love. Peter Pan had insinuated a lot of work had gone into bringing Henry about, and it was starting to become clear just how deep his plans ran.

And that was why Regina gave him up. She couldn't keep him around because she was sure it would lead the Savior to her front door. Which meant that when Emma Swan arrived she would put the pieces together and set her sights on the Daring family well and truly this time. Her relationship with Henry would not be enough to keep her from trying to destroy them. John wasn't sure they were ready to handle that in any capacity, but it looked like it was coming sooner rather than later.

Emma Swan was the Savior who would break the curse. Emma Swan was Mary Margaret's full grown daughter. Emma Swan was Henry's birth mother.

He knew what was going to happen when he got home and he was dreading it. He would not lie to Michael and Henry. They had made that pact long ago. He would tell them he believed that Emma Swan was the Emma Storybrooke was waiting for. Then Henry would insist they leave immediately to get her and bring her back to town. He would beg them to go so that she could save everyone. But he would also want to finally meet his real parents.

John didn't know if he was ready for that. It was a closed adoption- legally she had no rights to Henry and could never demand to know that he was her son. She couldn't take him away from them. But what were they going to do then? Simply try to lie low when she blew into town and brought back the happy endings? Hope she didn't notice them as the only people beside the Evil Queen free of the curse? It seemed ridiculous to even consider at this point. She was coming and that was now inevitable. Somehow Henry's mother would come in less than a year and she would approach them about everything when the pieces inevitably came together. But the other option to actually be the ones who contacted her and set things in motion… that almost scared him even more.

Because part of John Darling was selfish. He told Henry he was willing to fight Peter Pan for his son, and that was true. But a large part of him was hopeful the fight would never come about. Storybrooke would stay under the curse and they could merely remain there as a family. Nothing would bother them and they could remain blissfully ignorant of the whole ordeal. Yes, Jefferson would never have Grace back, Graham would be without his heat, and everyone would stay without their memories, but he had acknowledged the very thought as his most selfish one.

XXX

Henry waited until he heard the footsteps making their way up to throw the cover over his self and lie back in his bed. His dad had been home for about an hour, and the two had spent it talking in the kitchen as they usually did before mentioning anything to their son. Uncle Michael had delivered him home hours ago and ushered him up to get some sleep, but he just couldn't. Possibilities were just clogging his thoughts, making it impossible to drift off as he planned all the ways they could bring Emma Swan to Storybrooke. Henry was fully ready for the curse to start breaking, for things to move so everyone could get their life back. He was also now excited at the larger family that seemed to await him- Snow White and Prince Charming as his grandparents. Mary Margaret was his grandparent and she didn't even know it! Wait until everything happened and she figured it out. It would be great!

He closed his eyes as his parents opened the door and felt both of them staring at him for a long moment. "It's funny, but I don't remember you sleeping with your glasses on," his dad's voice offered with some amusement. Henry cringed and sat up as they joined him on the bed. "We're going to get to how much trouble you're in for sneaking off in a minute because I can imagine your mind is quite distracted by a few other thoughts."

"Is she?" Henry could barely contain himself. "Is my mom the Savior? Am I really a prince?!"

Michael turned to John, who let out a sigh. "I did a lot of research, and I have every reason to believe that Emma Swan is both your birthmother and the Savior." Henry nearly jumped for joy, but hesitated upon noticing his parents didn't seem as excited about this news as he was. "It makes a lot of sense about you though Henry," John continued. "Peter Pan wants the son of the Savior."

"If that's what you're worried about, don't be." They both looked at Henry in shock as he crossed his arms. "This is great news because now we don't have to be afraid about the curse being broken. We don't have to worry about Peter Pan ever touching me!"

"I'm afraid we don't follow," Michael admitted, clearly a little lost.

"She's not just going to save Storybrooke. Her job is to be there for the final battle and bring back all the happy endings. That includes ours and this battle you've had with Peter Pan. She's not just going to save them," he declared with passion, "she's going to save us too."

"I wish I could have as much hope as you, Henry, but I'm still a little hesitant on the whole thing," John politely disagreed, not moved by his words. "We were with him for close to three hundred years."

"And you've never met her yet so you can't know what she can do," Henry countered before moving on to the more pressing point. "So when do we go get her?" He was met by two shocked looks once again. "Think about it. We could get her here even earlier. We could start breaking the curse now. We can look up where she lives and-"

"Henry, I need you to listen," John began in his 'Dad Voice', instantly getting Henry's attention because he was clearly very serious. "I know you want the curse broken. So do we; for a lot of reasons like Graham and Jefferson. But Emma Swan is out there with no idea that Storybrooke even exists, let alone the part she's going to play. Out there they don't believe in magic or fairy-tales and in some cases they don't believe in happy endings. It is too much to just show up and demand that of her… especially as the son she gave up in a closed adoption. She's meant to end up here eventually. We just have to do this like everything else- be patient for when the time comes."

Henry couldn't believe this. He understood what his dad was saying about surprising Emma out of the blue with all this, but there had to be a way to make it work. "Maybe we don't tell her everything at first. Maybe we just bring her here and let her see for herself. We're the only ones she can talk to about it. We can guide her and help her deal with everything."

"We will," Michael agreed. "But when she gets here. Then we'll be more than happy to do whatever it takes. Especially since Regina will be out for her blood… and ours."

Henry knew he wasn't going to convince them. They were set in their points, and they were actually some pretty good ones. But he just still felt like he needed to fight them despite now understanding fully why. "But I really don't want to wait, Uncle Michael. She's my mom and-"

He watched how their faces fell on that word and suddenly Henry understood their feelings a little more clearly. "You're worried she's going to replace you. You're scared that when she gets to town I'm going to want to run off and live with her."

"Not exactly," John said sincerely. "We're just… taking this all in. You adoption is in all technicality closed. That not only means we never expected to encounter your birth mom, but that she never expected to encounter us. She gave you up for your best chance, and part of us wants to honor that for her. She thought your best chance was to give you up permanently. And we know that's hard to understand, but she still might not be in a good place to meet you."

Henry thought on this one for a long moment. Again he understood what they were saying, but I guess part of him thought Emma deserved the chance to meet him. She deserved the choice of having her family here, and she deserved it as soon as possible. But he knew his parents wouldn't budge on this topic, so it was best he try to put it out of mind for the time being. "Okay. I understand. We wait for Emma Swan to come and go from there."

"We know it's hard," Michael said with relief, putting an arm on his shoulder. "We just want to do what's best for you."

Henry could never doubt that. But he still gave a quirked smile. "Promise?"

"Promise," they said at the same time, John ruffling his hair.

"And I promise that no matter who Emma Swan is and how much she wants to be part of my life when she gets here that I will always consider you my parents. She may be my birth mom, but you are my Dad and Uncle Michael. I never regret that I'm adopted. I'm happy here and I love you. I always will. That's why I have faith everything is going to work out… with all of us together." He hoped he could combat some of their fears of losing him. All that he was saying was true. This would always be his home, and these two would always be first and foremost his parents and family no matter what or who came their way.

He heard both of them choking up, so he gave them a minute before looking up. "We love you too," Uncle Michael said. "Now get some real sleep." They both tucked him in and kissed him on the head before leaving him to his thoughts once again. He planned to follow what his parents wanted, but something about it just didn't sit right with him. He just couldn't just quite put his finger on why yet.

XXX

"If you think any deeper, you're likely to drown," Jefferson informed Henry in a sing-song voice. The boy glanced up at him and then back to the hot chocolate in front of him. Regina had a "meeting" this afternoon so the Darling's had asked Jefferson if he was comfortable watching him until John could collect him after dinner. The Mad Hatter had been more than happy to oblige, welcoming the company as always. "Do you want to tell Uncle Jefferson what's on your mind?" He occasionally liked to throw around his title a bit since he enjoyed it so much.

"It's just… this weekend is something big. And I've just been thinking about it a lot," the kid practically whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Nothing to apologize for," Jefferson said with a sip of his tea. "I'm not exactly in tune with the events happening in town, so you might have to be a little more specific."

Henry hesitated, but then quickly surrendered the information. "Sunday is Emma Swan's twenty-eight birthday."

Jefferson nodded slowly, trying to process the information without giving away his excitement. Of course he was ecstatic that his time to see Grace again was sooner rather than later, but the Darling brothers had told him the trickiness of the situation. "Is it that you're worried about meeting her? Because I can promise you Henry your parents will still-"

"I'm not worried about that," Henry shook his head. "I'm never worried about that." Jefferson nodded, glad for that at least. "I'm just worried that she might not show up. How will she even know that she's supposed to come to Storybrooke or where it is? My parents had to use magic to find it. And then if she doesn't get here does that mean that everyone is trapped under the curse forever? You and Grace? Mary Margaret? Granny and Ruby?"

"Henry," Jefferson calmed him with a hand on his shoulder. "If I understand everything correctly, which is always a big question these days, then it was Rumpelstiltskin who foretold she would come." Henry nodded. "Now, I used to work with the glittering imp and I can assure you if he says it will happen you can rest easy knowing it will."

Henry still looked very unsure on the subject, so despite his better judgment Jefferson decided to add his next thought. "But that also means some mixed-up logic might not be involved. He says it will happen but he never says how." Now he could tell he was just confusing the boy. "Maybe you are meant to go bring Emma Swan here. Maybe that's how she's always been meant to come to Storybrooke. We don't always know the details is all I'm saying. You may be debating something that is always going to happen. Am I making at least a bit more sense than a March Hare?"

"You're saying I should go get her," Henry tried his best to wade through all the nonsense and just state the main idea of his uncle's words. Jefferson had found that seemed to be Henry's main mode of attack when it came to some of his more out of the box statements.

Jefferson nodded, slightly fearing the trouble he may have just placed himself in. "Just promise me you'll never tell your parents I said that. You know they'd cut off my head the second time and now sew it back."

"I promise, Uncle Jefferson," he answered as he ran around the counter to hug him. Jefferson returned it immediately, having grown much more comfortable with affection from the kid. "Thank you so much for all you help- well, what I could make sense of."

"Absolutely. But I need you to do one more thing for me." He knelt down to meet Henry's eyes, very serious. "Your parents worry the moment you cross the town line Peter Pan will find you and take you. I worry about that too." He wouldn't be able to stand it if anything happened to the kid he considered to be part of his family now- a very warped family but one nonetheless. "So you need to be on alert and make sure you get to Emma Swan as fast as you can. I suspect once your with the Savior you should be safe. And you had better be safe."

This time it was Jefferson who hugged Henry to him, just holding him tight and hoping this wasn't the last conversation they would have. "I will," Henry vowed. "I will be really careful-try to stay where there are a lot of people. He is not going to take me away from anyone, especially you and Uncle Graham and my parents."

"That's a good boy," Jefferson smiled, pulling back and standing up. "Now I suspect you have some plans to make I need to be blissfully unaware of. So I'm going to clean up here and you have a whole mansion to give me plausible deniability in." Henry took off with a nod as Jefferson took the cups to the sink. As he filled them with hot water he let out a huge sigh and brought his head forward to rest on the cabinet above the sink.

He couldn't believe what he had just done. He was encouraging Henry to leave town and try to find Emma Swan. He was putting him at risk at the hopes of getting his family back together. He knew that fact had pushed him. Michael and John were going to be furious at him. But the damage was done. All he could do now was hope what he said was true and Henry was meant to bring her back- that nothing bad would happen along the way.

He worried what would happen to his mental state if something did.

XXX

"Uncle Michael?" Henry inquired as Michael chopped away at the onions he planned to caramelize for dinner. John was at the station finishing up his Friday shift before hopefully bringing Graham home for dinner. He glanced up as his ten year old son removed his new green coat and draped it carefully on one of the kitchen chair. "Are we up to anything important Sunday night that I can't miss?"

Michael quickly thought on it before shaking his head. "Not that I'm aware of. What did you have in mind Henry?"

"We have a group presentation in class on Monday, and Jake offered that I could come over in the morning and even stay overnight at his place so we could practice and then go to school together." Jake was one of the kids who were currently Henry's age with the group suspecting he had been one of the children who lived in a shoe based on his refusal to ever wear them.

But this was a good sign. When Henry had turned nine it had been a tricky phase for him, seeing as he now officially seemed too old for the likes of Bonnie and Piper. It had been hard for him to almost in a way lose the friends he had grown up with. It got to the point where he told them he didn't want to make friends anymore because he was just going to end up older than them, unable to watch them grow with him. He had openly stopped talking in school for about two weeks. But when the two had approached him, Henry reminded them that even John and Michael weren't aging because of Peter Pan. And despite his never saying so the both knew Henry was terrified he would outgrow them too.

Dr. Hopper seemed to really help though, and they hated to pat their own backs but their parenting also seemed to play a part. They all had worked through it, somewhat reluctantly reminding Henry that soon enough the curse would be on track to be broken and everyone would start aging with him again. They hadn't mentioned how it tied in with his broth mother's arrival though. That subject seemed to remain under lock-and-key though it constantly seemed to be looming just over their shoulder- Henry and John feeling it in very different ways. So overall this was really good progress and Michael knew he had to encourage it.

"Sure, buddy. I'll just call his mom and make sure everything checks out with her," he said, trying not to seem overly excited at the prospect and playing it cool.

Henry gave him a hug. "Thanks, Uncle Michael. You're the best."

Sunday morning Michael pulled the car to a stop in front of Jake's house. Henry looked a little nervous, playing with the strap on his backpack. "Hey, it's going to be alright. You know it's going to happen soon, and then we'll be living a normal life with everyone else."

Henry gave the smallest of smiles, turning to look at him. "Uncle Michael, I get the strong suspicion our lives are never going to be normal." They both shared a small laugh and a hug before Michael watched him walk up the path and enter the house. He then started the car back towards home, looking forward to a day of experimenting with some new recipes.

What he didn't know is Henry entered the house to offer his apologies to Jake's family because there had been a family emergency. He then left and took off, avoiding all populated streets and roads until he made it to the town line. Henry then took a deep breath and stepped over it, making his way to the nearest Greyhound bus station he had looked up.

Michael and John spent the day blissfully unaware of all of this, especially of the fact that their lives were about to become even further from normal than they were before.

XXX

Henry glanced out the window at the shining lights in the heart of the city of Boston. He was trying not to be too blown away by the tall buildings and sheer amount of people that he became distracted from his mission. Part of him was taking it all in seeing as he had never seen what lied outside of Storybrooke and was just starting to get a taste of how big and different the world was from the small town in Maine. But he was also trying to be on his guard, wary that Peter Pan somehow had eyes on him right now and was waiting to move in. He would never see his parents again… and that really scared him right now as he was truly alone for the first time in his life. He had to make it home to them, and deceiving them to run away was killing him inside with guilt. But he had to risk it. He needed to find Emma for the sake of everyone in Storybrooke. It was finally his chance to be a hero like in the story book- do something for the greater good.

It also kept him from thinking about the fact that he was on his way to meet his birth mom. He was so worried what she would say and how she would react to him. He also just hoped he wouldn't be disappointed with the Emma he was picturing in his mind. He hoped she lived up to the persona he had created this last half a year because he needed her to. He needed her to be able to save not just Storybrooke, but his family too.

He turned back to the book, desperate to distract himself, looking at the picture of Prince Charming and Snow White at their wedding. His grandparents. Maybe being a hero was in his blood. He sure hoped so. It was clear reading was doing him no good though, words merely blurring together, so he gently swung it shut.

"That a good book?" Henry glanced over cautiously to see a blonde older woman with a kind smile and felt himself relax a bit. She didn't look like a minion of Peter Pan at least.

"This… it's more than just a book," he informed her.

He instantly recognized the look in her eye. "Oh," she said with a chuckle, clearly not believing him. He was about to say something more when the driver's voice came through the speakers.

"Boston sub-station. Thank you for riding Greyhound." He tucked the book into his backpack as the bus came to a stop, giving Alice a quick pet. It had been hard, sneaking the dog past Uncle Michael when he drove him to Jake's, but Henry had managed. Part of him just really wanted a friend to accompany him on the trip somehow, and she seemed like the safest bet. He then cautiously exited the bus and tried to keep as small and unnoticeable as possible as he made his way to the cabs on the other side of the street. It was a bit overwhelming, but he had to keep it together. He was nearly there.

He approached the nearest taxi and knocked on the window, trying to appear confident. The driver put down his phone and rolled down the window to get a good look at him. He pulled out Mary Margaret's credit card from the side of his backpack and straightened his glasses. "Uh, do you take credit cards?" he inquired of the bulky driver, holding the gold card up.

"Where to chief?" the driver replied. Okay, he seemed nice enough. Henry merely smiled, climbing into the back of the car as he pulled the piece of paper from his pocket to hand to him. He felt his stomach flip as they started driving. This was it. He was going to meet Emma Swan and she was going to save everyone… including himself.