A/N: Very quick next chapter. Plotted it long ago, wrote it yesterday in the evening and today during the day. Barely managed to proofread it, but it seems pretty much ok. It answers the blanket and jewelry question actually, and - I hope - poses some new ones for our dear girls.

Journey to the past

In the end, they didn't really tell Henry all that much. They explained that August was a friend of his grandparents and he would help them all find the family. They left the details about fairies and magic for some later occasion, when he would be able to understand the nuances better and keep the secret.

They also didn't tell him about Elsa's being no longer a relative, as Emma felt it was not relevant at all and would only serve to upset him. Elsa felt some weird relief, as Henry was her favourite thing in the world and she didn't want to lose the connection she had to him - being his guard and protector from crazy nurses and overzealous teachers - because of the things they had learnt about their past.

The change that occurred was on Elena's initiative, as she dragged home a thick tome of Nursery Stories and Fairy Tales.

"Is it Andersen?" Elsa asked innocently, peeking inside the covers.

"No way. Andersen is way too depressing. The girl with matches, dying in the snow, brraugh. I'm not going into these. No, this is a baby-level standard of slightly-optimistic, mostly-happy-ending stories from different corners of Europe. There may be some Andersen remakes here, but not his own stories directly."

So they put Henry on a steady diet of fairytales and provoked discussions about them, usually between themselves, to see what would be his reaction to questions like "What would Cinderella use to get home from the ball in US in XXI century" or "How do you think Red Riding Hood would dress?"

Sometimes Henry joined the fun, suggesting Prince Charming riding a bike - like August's - or saying seriously that Sleeping Beauty would be better off as a patient in a modern hospital, not asleep in a castle overgrown by brambles. Sometimes he just laughed when they made their crazy suggestions or corrected them when they tried to make wild changes to the known tales.

Based on what August had told them, they tried matching the "facts" to the tales they knew and quickly understood that even the best research into available material was not going to prepare them for the actual meeting with the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest. The tales they knew - or read for the first time now - were all very contained and unlinked from each other, and of course none of them mentioned anything but a Happily Ever After, without details, and they already knew that this was what the Evil Queen took away from everyone.

So apart from delving into theoretical past as re-written by Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault, they decided a little delving into their own much more recent past was in order.

"I was wondering when you three would show up" Annabella Hanners peered at them from over her glasses. "And who is that young gentleman?"

"That's Henry" Emma hugged him tightly as he pressed himself into her side.

"I see. And you two, nothing…?"

Elsa reached for Henry and ruffled his hair.

"Henry is quite enough for the three of us, I think."

"Ah. So, what brings you here today?"

They looked silently at each other and finally Elsa spoke up.

"Why did you do this?" she gestured to the three of them. "Why did you make us sisters?"

Annabella Hanners sighed.

"I'm guessing either one of you needed some medical procedure and you found incompatibility or the boy managed to find you" she stated calmly. "Well, in any case, I did it because you already were sisters by the time we shuffled the papers. I couldn't separate you from them anymore than I could separate them" she gestured towards Emma and Elena. "You probably don't remember it, but you twisted an ankle when you were three. Both Emma and Elena cried from the moment it happened, showing all the typical reactions of the so-called twin syndrome. Which is not taken very seriously by psychologists, but I'm not a psychologist. And my great-grandmother was a Scottish witch, or so they said. They say my family line always inherited a bit of a shine - or a touch, or a sight, whatever you want to call it. I just knew you three belonged together, and everything that happened seemed to confirm it."

They sat in silence for a moment, Henry still holding tight to Emma and Elsa working very hard on breathing deeply and evenly.

Even then there was something at work she thought and dared a look at Elena, who was biting her lip in concentration.

"It wasn't only that" Emma suddenly stated. "What aren't you telling us?"

They looked intently as the older woman bit her lip and considered the question.

"There were people adopting little girls" she finally said. "And killing them. Because it happened all over the country, there was no reason for single state to see more than one or two cases and so the authorities in the system…" she snorted. "Well, they didn't see any reason to block adoptions, even temporarily and even ones matching only certain characteristics. Specifically, blond girls born around the same time as the three of you. It ended when one girl survived and was able to tell her story - as much as an almost-four-year-old can. There was investigation, but the actual culprits fled long before police located them."

"So, why…?"

"Because it took more than half a year in total" she explained darkly. "And there were people trying to get one of you all the time. They were getting confused seeing three girls, and never asked too much, but someone was going to notice that one of you is available. So I asked my hacker friend to deal with it, and she did. She changed Elsa's entry to match yours, and so she disappeared from the potential list of victims. I never knew what it was that these people were after - just any random blond girl or if they were looking for some specific girl and if so…"

Elsa looked at her sisters with one brow raised. Emma nodded shortly.

"You think they were looking for a specific girl and that specific girl was, in fact, Elsa?"

"I know it sounds awful, but that was my feeling. Remember, witch for a great-grandma, I get these flashes of knowing from time to time. And every time I read about one of the cases, I saw you three in my mind's eye."

Elsa shuddered and Elena covered her hand with hers.

"It's good that you're here" their host added. "There was that other thing I wanted to show you, and I've had the worst of luck with it."

She raised and took a big cardboard box from one of the shelves.

"This was stuck in a bank vault for ages and by someone's idiotic… Well, they removed the deposit box from the list of ones we're allowed to access, even though we did have the key. Later I was ill, and so, time passed and nobody could get the box. Only two weeks ago I managed to remove it from the bank and kept it here ever since. I kind of guessed you'd be coming around sometime soon."

She raised the cover and unwrapped first layer of paper.

"When you were found in these baskets, you were not just lying there naked on the wicker, you know" she smirked. "You had these on" she shook out tiny, baby-sized dresses. "If a child comes to the home with something more than standard romper set, I try to keep it - maybe someday they will be able to find their family with it? Or at least keep it as a souvenir? Well, here you have it. This one is Emma's, this is Elena's and this is Elsa's" she pointed one by one. "You were also wrapped in blankets…" she sighed. "I kept them, despite some people's ideas to put them to daily use, and then wanted to give you when you left, but you were pushed out before I came back from that PT month, so…" she shrugged. "Now, the funny thing about these blankets, you see, is, well. This one is Elsa's" she handed her a thick piece of woven wool with "ELSA" painted in fading blue in one corner "This one is Emma's" and the second blanket was knitted, with purple "EMMA" embroidered across one side "…and this one is Elena's".

What Elena actually was handed was not a blanket. It was, in fact, a big ball of white yarn with a tiny piece of paper stuck into it.

"Her name is Elena. Make sure she gets this and knows that we didn't expect her, but we still love her."

Elena's voice broke on the last word.

"One of the reasons I hid them was that they were so… different" Annabella said. "Someone would have picked up on it and there would be no way to disprove that Elsa is not your sister. Also, it seemed unfair for Emma and Elsa to have theirs when we couldn't provide one for Elena. I'm a terrible knitter, I'm afraid."

Emma nodded slowly.

"They also would have gotten dirty and torn" she added. "I'd much rather have them now, when we can try to use them to - maybe - track down our families, than at the time. It's not that we had no link to our parents at all - we had each other, so it's not like with these kids whose only link are the clothes they were wearing."

Elena turned her wool ball a few times and sniffed it carefully.

"I think I will keep it like this" she decided finally. "I can knit, but I'd much rather have it as it came with me" she stuck the piece of paper where it was very carefully and hugged the whole non-blanket to herself.

"But…" Elsa started, looking at her. "If this paper says you were not expected, then maybe these people who were looking for little girls were not looking for me?!"

Emma blinked in surprise.

"Right. Because if our parents weren't expecting Elena, then whoever else knew about the coming child would only be looking for me. Not for twins."

"And they must have lived in some pretty rural area if the first moment they knew there are twins was when you two were born" Annabella added. "At the beginning I thought you were born in some weird religious community and maybe out of wedlock - or they thought twins are brought by demons, or whatever else. But now that I see this all together…" she shook her head. "I'm positive, and I'm saying this as a descendant of a girl who escaped burning, point one, your parents - both sets - left you in that forest because that was safer, somehow. And point two, these people were looking for one of you. Maybe Elsa. Maybe Emma. Logically, it couldn't have been Elena, but still… They were only looking for a single girl. So once you became a set, they lost your trail. Even when you were modelling, nobody came asking for you."

"You muddied the trail" Elena provided quietly. "Thank you."

"Well" Annabella shrugged. "Did what I could. Now, this is the last part, and if blankets can't tell you much - I wouldn't really expect them to - this may have more value. Both monetary and information-wise."

With this she pulled out three ziplock bags full of glittering trinkets.

They spent some time sifting through the jewelry in utter silence, as Annabella looked at them curiously and Henry stole a tiny figurine of a unicorn from Emma's stash and played with it on the table quietly.

"I must say" the older woman said slowly "You seem - I don't want to presume or to be patronising - uncommonly well-adjusted. We have a lot of children coming in much later than you did, already socialised, and then leaving unable to take care of themselves. We try as much as we can - and as we're allowed but the law - but most cases we just can't help at all. You three not only managed to stay on the right side of the law, get education and graduate, but you have actual jobs… and you have an actual family, with Henry. I must admit I am a little surprised."

Emma smiled, looking at Henry's dark head.

"The education part was your doing, so it's not so much of a challenge. Most kids don't have money for college, and you managed to get it for us."

Annabella snorted.

"If you hadn't had proper grades in the school, no amount of money would have helped you. Most other kids have been submitted for financial aid and scholarships, but even the ones who managed to get them mostly dropped off a year or two after leaving the home. I have a feeling we're not preparing you all too well for the realities of life, but…" she sighed. "We're not really allowed to. The System doesn't care, as long as you're clean and fed until 18th birthday and out of the list the day after."

"I think that's because there are three of us" Emma suggested. "If I was here alone, I would never have had good grades… I see myself running away, or doing stupid things, like other kids. Like the ones that got shipped back from their 'families' after the first offence. There were so many of them, leaving and coming back. If I got sent back like a faulty package, I would have been a bit resentful, too."

"And I only function socially thanks to these two" Elsa added. "Otherwise I'd have ended up on some couch - or as a drug addict - simply because I can't really work well with people."

"And they two balance me" Elena pointed out. "I know I'm volatile, because I can compare myself to them. Also, Emma has excellent aim and a well-thrown bottlecap is a great reality reminder if I get too involved in something."

"So, I suppose you could say that we're sane, stable and in a reasonable situation in life because you put the three of us together" Elsa smiled slightly. "Who knows what might have happened to us if had grown up separated."