Enchanted Forest

"You said you didn't know if you would ever want kids."

Gav stared at Jefferson and tried to figure out what his expression meant. True, she had never particularly wanted to be a mother. But on the other hand, Jefferson stared wistfully at fathers with their kids whenever they went to the market, so she'd believed he would be accepting of her decision.

The Wonderland girl who had clearly been lying when she said her name was Grace was asleep in the room next to them that had been used as storage thus far, unaware that her future was being discussed on the other side of a wall.

"She was just… so little and didn't slobber. When I checked the portal she'd come through the time difference was one hundred and twelve years, her family would have been dead. And… I thought she was cute. She didn't have the strange squishy face that babies always do."

Jefferson groaned and seemed exasperated when he said, "You couldn't just bring home a dog? Fuck, this is a kid. A miniature human being. Do you know what this means?"

Gav rolled her eyes and immediately countered, "She's house-trained! What could really be too hard about the whole thing?"

Jefferson stared at her and seemed honestly baffled when he said, "You have to be joking. Do you know anything about being a parent?"

Gav was extremely offended. Of course she knew what a parent did. Granted, her last experience was with her own parents who had been alive four hundred years ago but still –

"She needs to be protected, okay? She was all alone and lost and I didn't want her to be scared anymore-"

Gav was cut off when Jefferson stepped closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. As much as Gav wanted to deny it, being held was perhaps the most comforting thing in the world at the moment.

"I get it. Honestly, this doesn't constitute a terrible decision. But we have a young girl in our house that you've clearly taken a liken to. I'm happy to see how it turns out – she kind of looks like you. Do not get attached though. She might have to be returned or given to a family that doesn't constantly travel through dimensions."

Jefferson kept his expression stern, but Gav could see that his resolve was wavering. With no mind paid to the proper order of things, Gav launched herself at Jefferson, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist in glee before saying, "I know, I know, I know! We'll be great though, I swear!"

When she pulled back and looked at him, Jefferson had a small smile on his face that he was clearly trying to suppress.

Just like that, Gav's family grew.

Storybrooke

"It's real, isn't it?"

Gav stared at Henry as he spoke. The boy had been perceptive in the time that they had been a part of the queen's curse.

But at the moment Gav was frozen. She had told Henry the barest bones of her own life story –something only a handful of individuals in all of the worlds had known. Looking at the boy she'd spoken to the last three years who now faced her, she tried to keep her face impassive.

"What is real, kind sir?"

Henry immediately cut through her false pleasantries and said in a sharper tone, "Everything you told me. It's real."

If he'd reached this conclusion… to think that he was still speaking to her… Gav truly hadn't held back. She'd told him everything – being the errand girl for a twisted madman, raising the dead, walking through dreams to extract information, tearing open dimensional portals to retrieve whatever her employers wanted. Gav froze, but before she had to prompt some sort of explanation from Henry he pulled a book out of his bag. The book was bound with leather but before Gav could look closer Henry opened it to a page he had placed a bookmark in.

Gav stared incredulously as an illustration of her original face was on the page, depicting her shaking hands with the original Dark One in what she knew had been the deal that changed her life.

Henry cut in to her internal crisis when he asked in a naïve tone, "Why does she look different in different parts of the story?"

Fav didn't see the harm in lying, so she answered, "When a girl has magic, she might as well make herself beautiful."

Henry immediately cut in, however and said, "Yeah, but I don't get it. Gav was super powerful; why would she care about what she looked like?"

Gav tried her best not to cringe. In all honesty, she had been a very plain girl before Zosa had enhanced her magic. Twisting her own face into something beautiful had been easy. But now it was more embarrassing than anything else that changing her face had been one of the first major feats of magic she'd performed instead of something more fantastically impressive.

"Gav may have cared because beautiful people are often treated better. She was young and somewhat stupid."

Henry didn't answer her and instead flipped through a few pages of the book that had remained in his lap. When he halted on a specific page, Gav heard herself gasp before unconsciously leaning in and running her fingertips down the page.

There was an illustration of Grace on Jefferson's shoulder's while Gav stood beside them, laughing in her signature blue cloak with the face she now wore and had for the last few centuries.

With tears in her eyes, Gav turned to Henry and managed to say, "How did you – how did you come across this?"

Henry beamed in response, likely enjoying the fact that his conjectures had not been immediately refuted before he said, "Gav was always a bad guy in the stories, but really she's one of the good guys in Alice in Wonderland. You're her. You're a good guy. I should have figured it out there was magic going on sooner when I was the only kid getting older."

Gav didn't move. It felt as though her breath had left her lungs and wouldn't return. She couldn't have - surely although she hadn't even considered the possibility it wouldn't have blinded her to the something like this, to evidence of his growing older that should have been obvious. When Gav finally spoke her voice came out thin and nearly strangled, studying his face closely as she questioned him.

"Henry, I need you to tell me what you mean."

The boy shrugged and broke eye contact when he looked down as he flipped through the book, answering her with a voice that was entirely too casual for what he was saying.

"Well my mom adopted me, and I've been growing up when nobody else did. Sometimes it wouldn't seem weird, though."

Gav knew what was going on. But she had to be sure, so she asked in a whisper, "What is your mother's name?"

"Regina. She's the mayor. C'mon I had to have told you that ages ago."