Chapter 7

"You were right. Your medical records were in the hall closet at the Gilberts' house. I found a record from when you were a baby. You were in a hospital in Phoenix. But I thought you were born in Boston?" Emma watched Mia carefully to gauge the girl's reaction.

Mia screwed up her face in a way that reminded Emma of Henry when he was trying to figure out the answer to a tough math problem that just didn't compute in his brain. "I was. I never lived in Phoenix. My first foster family was in Boston. I was with them for, like, two years. They even filed for adoption, but the mom got sick…I think it was cancer. I don't really remember though. I just remember she was in the hospital and I was back in foster care."

Emma nodded in acceptance…the girl was telling the truth. "I'll look into it. When's your birthday?"

"August 15th…2011."

Emma stared at Mia in surprise. That was Henry's birthday. It wasn't that strange a coincidence on its own…Emma knew Henry wasn't the only kid born on August 15, 2011. But it was more than just the shared birthday…it was the shared birthday and Phoenix and the girl's last name – Neal's last name. That right there was a hell of a lot of coincidences. What were the odds?

If she didn't know any better, Emma might think Mia and Henry were twins. They looked enough alike…their hair was the exact same shade of brown and their eyes were the same color hazel and the same almond shape. They even had similar facial expressions.

They couldn't be twins though. It wasn't possible. She didn't have twins…she had a son. She knew she didn't have any other kids, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something. It felt like she was trying to solve a puzzle with a key piece missing. She just didn't know what she was missing exactly.

She was reading too much into things. The girl's date of birth and the hospital record from Phoenix, even the girl's last name, were just coincidences - they had to be. They didn't mean anything. It was ridiculous and impossible to think they did even for a second. She pushed the crazy thought to the back of her mind and focused on the girl standing in front of her, looking like she felt extremely uncomfortable. It was only then that Emma realized how long she'd been staring, even if she'd been lost in thought for most of the time.

"Sorry. It's just…that's Henry's birthday."

"That's cool…?" Mia didn't seem to know what to say…or to think it was that big of a coincidence.

Everyone but Emma was asleep. She helped Henry with his math homework, made dinner, and played Mortal Kombat until it was time for bed - at least for the kids.

After they were in bed, Emma went through Mia's medical records carefully. She skimmed over the records from recent years since her focus was on where Mia was born. It didn't really help to know that the girl broke her arm when she was eleven or that she got stitches when she was seven.

There were a lot of hospital records from when Mia was a newborn. It was clear she'd been sick as a baby from documentation of a two month long stay in Newborn Intensive Care at Phoenix Children's Hospital. What wasn't clear was why – at least not to Emma, who didn't have a medical degree and didn't understand the vast majority of the medical jargon filling the paperwork in front of her. She didn't think they would have moved a sick baby from Boston to Phoenix though so she ruled out Boston as Mia's place of birth.

The first call Emma made on Monday morning would be to Phoenix Children's Hospital. With any luck, they would have some kind of a record of the girl's birth – preferably one that included the names of the girl's birth parents.

Even though she knew there wasn't anything else she could do that night, Emma couldn't sleep. All of the many coincidences were still bothering her. She tried to tell herself that they were just that…coincidences, but every instinct she possessed was screaming that there was more to it than that.

Emma lay awake on the couch for hours. Every once in awhile she glanced at the clock and mentally calculated how much sleep she would get before her alarm went off if she fell asleep right that second.

A little before 3:00 am Emma gave up. She wasn't going to get any sleep that night. She threw back the blanket and got up from the couch. She went to check on Henry. He was sleeping on his side facing her. His mouth was open slightly and he was drooling on his pillow. If it were any other kid drooling, she would think it was gross, but it was different when it was her kid. He must have started out hot because his comforter was folded back, but he looked cold now. There were goose bumps on his arms and they were wrapped around his stomach. Emma pulled the comforter over his sleeping form. He let out a soft sigh and burrowed into his pillow. She watched him sleep for a few seconds with a soft smile that was reserved for her son.

Next Emma went into her own room. Mia was asleep, but it was clear that the girl had been tossing and turning. The blankets were a tangled mess at her feet. The girl was wearing Emma's Yankees sweatshirt so she should have at least been warm even though she'd kicked the blankets off, but she shouldn't have been hot and there were beads of sweat on her pale forehead. She was talking in her sleep again. The mumbled words may have been unintelligible, but the girl's pained expression said more than enough. Emma was willing to bet Mia was having another nightmare - and she bet she knew what it was about.

"Mia?"

The girl startled awake at Emma's voice. She sat up slightly and looked around the room. It was like she was making sure the man haunting her dreams wasn't there. She seemed to relax slightly when she saw Emma, sagging against the headboard.

"Emma? What are you doing in here?" Mia sounded groggy and confused.

"You were talking in your sleep," Emma said instead of answering the girl's question.

"I was?" Mia's eyes widened. "What did I say?"

Emma surveyed the girl. "Enough to tell me you were having a nightmare. Was it about Trey?"

Mia wrapped her arms in front of her stomach like she was trying to hug herself and nodded. "Did I wake you up?"

"To do that, I'd actually have to be asleep."

A guilty expression flitted across Mia's face. "Do you want your bed back?"

Emma offered the girl a small, reassuring smile. "That's not why I can't sleep. You know Trey's in jail. He can't hurt you."

"I know…"

Emma sighed, not knowing what else to say to make the girl rest easier. "How about some cocoa?"

"Uh, sure…"

Mia followed Emma out to the kitchen. As Emma put a pan of milk on the stove, Mia took two mugs out of the cabinet. It surprised Emma that the girl knew exactly where the mugs were, but maybe it shouldn't have…Mia had been helping out in the kitchen for almost every meal. Emma measured out chocolate mix and poured the hot milk into the ceramic mugs. She added cinnamon without thinking…she was used to making cocoa for Henry and he liked cinnamon.

Mia didn't seem to mind. She took a sip and gave Emma a halfhearted smile. "Thanks."

Emma moved over to the couch with her mug and found an old episode of Friends on cable. She turned the volume down low so it wouldn't wake Henry. Mia joined her on the couch after only a moment's hesitation.

They watched in comfortable silence and nursed their drinks. After the first episode of Friends was over and a new one was about halfway through, Emma heard Mia's breathing even out and glanced over at her. The girl had fallen asleep with her head on the arm of the couch at an awkward angle and her knees drawn to her chest in a tight ball. The couch was comfortable, but that position didn't look one bit comfortable. Emma woke the girl up for the second time that night – or more accurately that morning since it was almost 4:00 am.

"Mia?"

"Mmm-hmm?" Mia murmured, sounding half-asleep.

"That doesn't look very comfortable. Let's get you in bed."

Mia just blinked at her through heavily lidded eyes.

"Come on, kid." Emma put a hand on Mia's shoulder and guided her up off the couch. She remembered a second too late how badly the girl had reacted to that form of address before, but it seemed like Mia was too tired to protest this time.

With a little help from Emma, Mia reluctantly got to her feet and trudged tiredly toward Emma's room. "G'night, Emma."

"Are you wearing that to school?" Henry asked with a confused frown…Mia was still wearing the clothes she'd been sleeping in - Emma's Yankees sweatshirt and black yoga pants.

"I'm not going to school…"

Henry glanced at Emma and lowered his voice. "My mom never lets me miss school. The one time I skipped I thought she was going to kill me."

Emma tilted her head to look at her son in exasperation. "Hey, I heard that! And that's a little dramatic, don't you think? If I remember correctly, I told you that you couldn't play video games until you got caught up on everything you missed at school. No one's ever died from video game deprivation."

"You took my phone."

Emma shot him a look. "That's because you were playing Subway Surfers on it instead of doing your homework."

"That might be true," Henry acknowledged a little sheepishly. "Are you really going to let Mia skip school?"

Emma glanced at Mia out of the corner of her eye. "Ah, kid, it's complicated."

"Complicated how?" Henry questioned.

Mia set her fork down with a little more force than necessary. "Because my social worker's looking for me."

"Oh…" Henry bit his lower lip as he processed that. "What happens if they find you?"

"Nothing good," Emma answered for Mia so the girl wouldn't have to try to explain.

"Maybe I should stay home…keep Mia company," Henry suggested with a hopeful look on his face.

"Nice try, kid," Emma said with a soft chuckle. She nodded toward his breakfast plate. "Are you almost done? You're going to be late for school."

Henry shoveled the last of his scrambled eggs in his mouth and then downed his cocoa. Emma rose from her chair and took his dirty dishes into the kitchen to load the dishwasher.

Henry started shoving notebooks and textbooks in his backpack. "Mom, do you have my permission slip? It's due today, and if I don't hand it in, I'll miss the museum trip next week."

Emma dried her hands and grabbed the signed permission slip from the top of a stack of paperwork on the kitchen counter. "Yeah, your permission slip is right here."

Henry stuffed the permission slip in his backpack and slung it over his shoulders. "I gotta go. See you, Mia. Love you, Mom."

"Love you, too," Emma told him.

Mia brought her own plate into the kitchen and started washing it by hand in the sink.

Emma turned to the girl. "So listen, I have to make some calls for work. I'm going to go downstairs to the business center. Will you be okay on your own for a little while?"

Mia stared at her. "I was living alone before you brought me here so yeah, I think I'll be okay."

The sarcasm wasn't lost on Emma, but she was just glad the girl wasn't worried one of her calls would be to Social Services. It was just on Friday that Mia had been really worried about that. Sometime in the last two days and three nights, Mia had started to trust her, even if it was just a little.

"Right, dumb question," was all Emma said even though inside she was celebrating what felt like a major accomplishment.

Emma set Mia up in front of the TV with Netflix and then gathered up the file folder she'd started with all the records she'd found on Mia in the Gilberts' house and her own notes, her laptop, and her cell phone. She went down to the business center in the apartment. It was one of the amenities she rarely if ever used, but she didn't want Mia eavesdropping on the calls she was going to make.

If she found the girl's birth parents - and that was a big if, Emma wanted to talk to them first. She didn't want Mia overhearing their names and running off to find them on her own…not when she didn't know who they were or if they wanted anything to do with the daughter they gave up…she didn't want Mia getting hurt.

Emma knew the sting of rejection from all the times foster parents had sent her back when she was in the system. She didn't have to find her own parents to know it would be even worse if they were the ones rejecting her. She wasn't going to let Mia's parents do that to her - not if she could help it.

After spending the better part of the morning sitting on hold and being transferred to different departments, Emma finally got to an actual live person in record keeping at Phoenix Children's Hospital. The guy sounded young and over-eager. This was probably his first job out of college. She pretended to be Mia's social worker since they weren't going to give out personal information on the girl to just anyone. She explained that some of the girl's records were missing and she was trying to track down the original birth certificate. In other words, she told the poor guy a pack of lies.

Emma held her breath as she waited for the guy on the other end of the phone to respond. She knew from digging into her own past that there were rules about how much information could be shared on an adopted child. Even when she was the child in question and it was her birth certificate she was after, it had been really hard to get a copy of her original birth certificate. A new birth certificate had been issued when she was adopted. It had her correct birthday, but it had the city her adoptive parents lived in for place of birth and they were named as her parents – never mind the fact that they gave her back when she was three and they had their own kid. Emma had finally gotten a hold of her original birth certificate, but it was blank where the names of the mother and father should have been. She hoped it would be a little easier in Mia's case since the girl was never adopted, but she didn't exactly have high hopes.

Emma wasn't surprised when the guy finally came back on the line and told her that Mia Cassidy wasn't born in Phoenix Children's Hospital. But she was completely and utterly shocked when he said a Baby Girl Cassidy was transferred to Phoenix Children's Hospital from the Arizona State Prison Complex…the same prison she'd done eleven months in for Neal's crimes...and the same prison she was in when she had Henry.

Emma felt like the air was being squeezed from her lungs and she couldn't breathe. It took her several seconds to even manage a thank you to the guy on the other end of the phone.

She just sat there after the call ended. Forget all the other coincidences, this was just too big a coincidence. And none of the other women in the prison had even been pregnant – just her. It was kind of hard to hide a pregnancy in prison, even if it was minimum-security. She couldn't ignore this new piece of information or explain it away.

The thing was she remembered having Henry…she thought she would remember if she'd had twins. But the thought that they could be twins had crossed her mind before. Hell, it had been nagging at the back of her mind ever since she found out Mia and Henry had the same birthday. Now she turned the thought over in her mind, trying to wrap her head around it…it just didn't make sense. She couldn't reconcile it with everything she knew to be true. She would remember if she had a daughter.

The two conversations she'd had with the guy who was stalking her came to mind...conversations where he insisted there were things that had happened that she didn't remember. He had sure seemed to believe what he was saying. Maybe...just maybe it was actually true.

"Who are you?" Emma demanded the first time he showed up on her doorstep with crazy claims.

"An old friend. Look, I know you can't remember me, but…I can make you."

He kissed her then, and she promptly kicked him in the groin and threatened to call the cops.

"Look, I know this seems crazy, but you have to listen to me…you have to remember."

Emma slammed the door in his face, but he came back the night she brought Mia back to her apartment with her.

"I've come to apologize."

Emma stared at him. "For trying to kiss me?"

"I was simply trying to jog your memory."

"It's time for you to go. Now."

But he didn't leave. No, that would've been too easy. "Your parents are in great danger, Emma."

What parents? She didn't have parents… "You really have no idea what you're talking about."

"Because you think you're an orphan? Because that's haunted you your whole life? I'm here to tell you everything you believed is wrong."

"You don't know me."

"Alas, I know you better than you know yourself. I have proof. Take a gander." He handed her a slip of paper with an address written on it…as if that proved anything. "Here's an address. If you want to know who you really are…who your parents are, go there."

"Leave. Now."

"You've been there before…a year ago. You just don't remember."

Emma had thought he was crazy at the time, but now she wasn't sure what to think. She had to know the truth if there was any chance at all that Mia could be her daughter, no matter how hard the truth might be to swallow.

Emma made it to Central Park on autopilot. She found the guy right where he said he'd be...by the zoo.

He looked really happy to see her. "Swan! I knew that'd work."

Emma narrowed her eyes. "Knew what would work?"

"The address I gave you. You went there…that's why you're here."

"Actually I didn't." Emma wondered if maybe she should have just gone to the address instead of trying to talk to the crazy guy first.

The guy blinked in confusion. "You didn't? Then…why are you here?"

"You said some things happened that I don't remember..."

"There's a lot you don't remember, love."

Emma's annoyance rose. She felt an overwhelming urge to punch him in the face. He just seemed to have that effect on her.

"I can help you remember," he said quickly…apparently scenting danger.

"How? By kissing me?" Emma said in a tone of disbelief.

"No, with this." He offered her a glass vial filled with a strange dark liquid. "Drink it. It'll help you remember everything you have lost."

Emma didn't take it. "Drink the thing the crazy guy just offered me? No, thank you."

"It's the only way you'll get your memories back."

Emma eyed the dark liquid in the glass vial warily. She couldn't believe she was even considering drinking it. "What is it?"

"It's a memory potion."

"A potion?" Emma repeated. "Do you even know how crazy you sound?"

"I'm sure I sound like a mad man, but it's true. If you don't believe me at all, why did you come here? Because as much as you deny it, deep down you know something's wrong…deep down you know I'm right. If one small part of you senses that I'm right, don't you owe it to yourself to find out? Trust your gut, Swan…it will tell you what to do."

Emma gave him a speculative look at his choice of words. "Henry always says that…"

"If you won't listen to me, then listen to your boy."

After careful consideration, Emma took the glass vial from him. She took a deep breath and brought it to her lips, hoping she wasn't going to regret this. The guy was crazy…he could be a rapist or a murderer – or Captain Hook? She closed her eyes as her memories came rushing back to her. Yes, he was Captain Hook…and her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming - as insane as that was. She had twins…a boy and a girl. She gave them up for adoption…the Evil Queen adopted her son…he found her on her twenty-eighth birthday and brought her to Storybrooke, Maine. And her daughter was…Mia. Her daughter had been living in her apartment since Friday and she had no idea because of the damn curse and Regina's fake memories.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Some of the dialogue between Emma and Hook was taken directly from S3E12. I tried to keep Emma figuring out that Mia was her daughter as realistic as possible considering she didn't remember having a daughter.