A/N: I apologize to anyone who's disappointed that Emma doesn't exist yet. And I'm still not sure if she's going to appear in this story at all. But I hope I'm at least still doing the premise justice at this point. Especially since parts of the character's backstories no longer match up with canon. I'll admit I'm kind of glad I had to do my own backstory for Cora though. Finding out that-SPOILER ALERT-she ripped her own heart out and became an evil witch because some kid tripped her when we already know Regina became evil because her fiance was murdered in front of her, Cora forced her into a loveless marriage with a man older than her father, and Rumpelstiltskin taught her that dark magic was her only outlet was like when we found out that second dimension Doofenschmirtz took over the tri state area because he lost a toy train.
Anyway, I thought I'd share what actors I'd imagine playing my OC's if this story were canon:
Young Henry-Asa Butterfield
Grown up Henry-Misha Collins
Helena-Lea Michele
When Cora opened her eyes, she was standing upright and facing a vast purple smog. This clearly wasn't the new realm she was supposed to be headed for. But this wasn't The Enchanted Forest, either.
"Hello?" she called. "Regina? Henry? Other idiots?"
"They can't hear you, dearie!"
"Rumpelstitskin?"
A transparent image of The Dark One floated towards Cora. "Is that you?" she asked. "Are you dead?"
"Of course not," said Rumpelstiltskin. "None of us are dead. I'm just here to help you get started. Follow me!" The dark one took Cora's head and pulled her straightforward at an alarming rate through the smog. When he pulled her to a stop, they were facing a thick crowd of transparent souls. Cora recognized her daughter and The Stable Boy immediately. They were standing together and holding each other.
"Regina!" yelled Cora. No one answered her.
"They can't hear you," said Rumpelstiltskin. "You need to decide where you want them after the curse."
"I want him dead," said Cora.
"I'm afraid that's not possible," said Rumpelstitskin. "From this point on: no one ages, no one dies, no one is born or conceived, and no one suffers any serious injury or recovers from any serious injury they have suffered. And if you want anyone to fall in love or out of love, you have to decide that now."
"I want her to forget he ever existed."
"Then make that happen," said Rumpelstiltskin. "You are looking at the population of only this village right now. For the next thirty-five and a half hours, this entire kingdom is at your disposal. Even the animals if you care what happens to them."
"I care that Regina is separated from all those horses."
"Like I said, in terms of who remembers who else, it's all up to you," said Rumpelstiltskin. "However, there is one thing I'd like you to take care of right now."
"Right," said Cora when she realized what he must be talking about.
After the dark one and his servant girl were in the places he'd wanted them, Cora decided where she wanted Daniel and Regina and then moved on to the royal family. She separated all of the royals and nobles in her kingdom from their spouses and true loves, particularly the male ones. You never know when that might come in handy.
Thirty-four hours were now left for her to comb through the rest of the kingdom and decide who would be of use to her. Thirty-four hours and all of this would belong to her.
Henry let out a scream as the outside of the tree burst open and suddenly, he realized he wasn't in the same tree anymore. Helena's cries followed. Henry checked to make sure his baby sister was unharmed and Mr. Horse was still in the basket with her and sighed with relief when he saw they were okay.
"Mama? Daddy?" called Henry. He knelt and wriggled closer to the opening. "Ruth? Grandpa? Anyone?"
The small boy recoiled in fear as a strange sound pierced the surrounding silence. It sounded like a giant spinning wheel spinning really fast up in the air, but he didn't see anyone or anything.
"It's okay, Helena," said Henry. "I'll find Mama and Daddy. I'll get us back to the farm. I promise."
Henry wondered if babies were supposed to be so wrinkly as he stroked his tiny sister's soft head. The little hair she had was blonde, and her eyes were a very dull grey. She didn't look anything like Henry or their parents. Maybe Mama had given birth to the wrong baby somehow. Oh well. Didn't matter now. Helena was his sister, and Henry had to get her back to the farm in time for supper.
"Let's go," said Henry once the strange noise has passed. He cautiously picked up the basket and set it on the ground, almost tumbling out after it because he had to lean to lower it down. Then he climbed out after it.
"These aren't the woods around the village," said Henry worriedly. "I don't know where we are."
Henry took a few tentative steps forward in the direction of the faint sound of music playing. Then he glanced around and not seeing any other option, continued. It didn't take long for him to reach the source of the music. It was a small painted building with colorful twinkly balls of fire hanging off of part of the outside trim. Once he was close enough to look through the window, Henry could see music was coming out of a large red box and some device with buttons on it was turning blobs of dough into biscuits like an oven.
"What kind of an enchanted cottage is this?" Henry wondered aloud. Helena just cooed in response.
A few minutes later, Henry saw a young looking man and woman exit the building together. They looked much younger than his parents, maybe even younger than James, and they were wearing very strange clothes and talking about how righteous and tubular something was.
"Excuse me?" he asked. Both turned. "What's that?" Henry pointed at the building.
"It's a diner," said the guy.
"A what?"
"You go there to get food," explained the girl. "Why are you carrying that baby in a basket?"
"This is my sister," Henry explained. "I need to get her home by dinnertime. Do you know how to get to King George's Kingdom?"
The guy and girl just glanced at each other and laughed. Henry scowled.
"I mean it!" he yelled. "My sister and I climbed into a tree, and it took us here, and now we're lost, and we need to get back to our farm now or Mama will get worried!"
"Do you really live on a farm?" asked the girl. "That is so…um…radical."
"Yes I do," said Henry. "Now can you tell us how to get back to King George's Kingdom? Please?"
The guy laughed. "There are no kingdoms around here, kid."
Henry gulped. "We're not in the enchanted forest anymore, are we? What realm is this?"
The guy and girl both laughed some more. Henry felt a tear roll down his cheek and wiped it away.
"This realm is earth, kid. Just plain old earth."
Henry sighed impatiently under the perplexed stares of two men with shiny badges.
"Did you just ask us to take you to the enchanted forest through a magic portal and help your grandpa fight an evil witch?"
"Exactly," said Henry. "I need to get my baby sister home by dinnertime."
"How old are you, kid?"
"Four and three quarters."
"And how old is the baby?"
Henry shrugged. "She was born sometime today."
"Okay, let me see that."
Henry held out the basket for the men to look at and screamed when he reached down and scooped out Helena.
"It's okay, kid. I'm not going to hurt your little sister. Does she have a name?"
"Helena. And my name's Henry.
"What's your last name?"
"Huh? I'm not a prince. I only have one name."
The officers glanced at each other again. One of them nodded. "I would definitely say our day just got interesting. Okay, Henry. I'm Officer Hart and this is Officer Hudson, and we're going to help you guys find your parents."
Henry smiled a little. "How are we gonna get there? Do you have a carriage?"
"Oh, we got something better than a carriage. Come on." Officer Hart held out his hand for Henry, who took it and followed the men along but not before snatching Mr. Horse out of the basket.
"What is that?" asked Henry when the men brought him to a long flat blue-and-white carriage. "How do you hook up the horses?"
Officer Hudson laughed. Henry didn't understand what made everyone on earth want to laugh at him, but he didn't like it.
Officer Brenda Lee was the only female police officer who worked at the particular station she was at, and it being 1977, she had to prove herself on a daily basis. So she didn't mind taking on the unusual cases. Over the last two years, she'd spoken with retirees trying to justify their possession of fifty or more cats, children who thought it was a good thing that their parents teaching them how to sell drugs, and men who'd been caught in bed with prostitutes insisting that "it's not what it looks like". At this point, she doubted that anything could really surprise her. Up until today.
"And then Daddy told me to go find somewhere to hide."
"And that's how you ended up at the diner?" questioned Officer Lee.
"Yup," said Henry. He kicked impatiently at the desk she was sitting behind. "A magical wardrobe dropped us off there."
"Ah…right. Was this "magical wardrobe" a car by any chance? And your parents wanted you to get out and go hide somewhere?"
"Nope. My parents didn't want the evil witch to cast a curse on me."
"Mhmm. Does this evil witch have a name?"
"Nope," said Henry. "Where's my baby sister?"
"She's just at the hospital getting checked up," Officer Lee assured him.
"What's a hospital?"
The woman's eyes grew sympathetic. "Do you really not know what a hospital is?" Henry shook his head. "It's a place where sick people go to get better. But it's also a place where babies are supposed to be born."
"Helena was born at home," Henry responded. "Our neighbor Ruth delivered her while I waited in the stables with Daddy and Grandpa."
Officer Lee made a note of that. When someone knocked on the door she called them in. It was Officer Hart.
"As far as we can tell, there are no married couples by the names of Daniel and Regina in the area, and none in the state who work at a stable or have a four-year-old son named Henry."
"Henry, are you sure you were telling the truth about your parents' names?" asked Officer Lee. The boy nodded diligently. She sighed. "I think it's time we call social services to pick him up."
"I'll get right on it," said Officer Hart. "The little girl got lucky, by the way. Perfectly healthy, not even a bruise from bouncing around in that basket full of apples, and she's definitely only a few hours old."
"That god," muttered Officer Lee.
Henry just sighed and leaned back in a chair hugging Mr. Horse to his chest as Officer Lee did something with papers on her desk. He closed his eyes and wished over and over that he could go back to his farm where everything was familiar and crawl back into bed with his parents.
Henry was reunited with his sister the following evening. She was set up in a crib in the kitchen at Mr. and Mrs. Roskin's house, where he'd been taken to stay after Officer Lee had finished talking to him.
"Can I hold her?" he asked.
"Fine," said Mrs. Roskin. "But I expect her to be back in the crib where she belongs by bedtime." Henry sat down in the living room armchair while the woman placed his little sister in his arms still wrapped up in the blanket that came with her. Helena looked up at him with her innocent gaze.
"Mrs. Roskin?" asked Henry. "When are the officers going to find my parents?"
"Shut up, kid," she snapped. "You've asked me that twenty-six times, do I look like I have the answer?" Henry shook his head. Then she walked away to yell at some of the other kids for chatting too loudly. Besides him there were six kids there, three girls and three boys, and Henry was the youngest and smallest. Henry stroked Helena's cheeks with the back of his hand and started humming a lullaby while tears streamed down his cheeks.
"Hey crybaby, shut up!" snapped the oldest boy as he stormed past.
Henry sniffled and tried to blink back his tears. "Hush a bye, don't you cry, go to sleep little baby. When you wake, you shall have, all the pretty little ponies. Blacks and bays, dapples and greys…"
Henry stayed there singing his little sister until bedtime, when the oldest girl came over and helped him put her back in the crib. Meanwhile, somewhere in Maine, a new town was coming into creation and the mayor was resting peacefully in her queen sized bed.