Chapter twenty-six
David let out a heavy sigh as he read yet another complaint form. Why isn't the mayor here to do this? He internally grumbled.
"Come one gramps, this is easy. All we need to do is pair people with who they lived with in the Enchanted Forest," Henry pointed out.
David rolled his eyes, "you need to stop being positive all the time," he laughed, "It's hard to believe you were raised by Regina."
Henry tilted his head in mock rage and replied, "she can be positive."
Charming rose his eyebrows, "when?"
"You were in a coma, so you never got to know her cursed version," he replied as he continued to pair people with houses on a map.
"She wasn't cursed," Charming argued.
"Mayor Mills and the Evil Queen is not the same person," Henry retorted. He was sick of having this conversation with people. Since David had convinced people that they couldn't pass the town line (he had pretended that he got the information from somewhere else, and Henry was beginning to wonder why people trusted him and Snow so completely) Henry had been listening to people saying horrible things about his mother. He had nearly punched Hansel, before imagining the punishment his mother would give him for such an act of violence, and had walked away with a clenched jaw.
Charming had so far stayed away from the subject, Henry was pretty sure that he was still trying to wrap his mind around the idea that Regina and Emma were actually a couple. To be fair, the boy had begun to feel sympathy for his grandfather. David had literally woken from a twenty-eight year long coma the day before, and now he was being expected to accept a daughter he had never talked to, and who wasn't even in the same realm.
David held up his hands in surrender, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say anything bad about her."
"Yes you did! Everyone in this town does. They don't know anything about her, and neither do you!"
"I've known the Evil Queen a lot longer than you have, Henry. Forgive me for being hesitant about my mortal enemy being in another realm, with my wife and daughter who is apparently in love with her!" he shouted.
Henry looked at the man in shock, and silence fell over the sheriff station. He knew that Charming was desperately trying to remain calm through everything that had happened, and to his credit, he didn't faint at any point. But it looked like the prince had finally snapped.
"Mortal enemy?" Henry laughed once he had shook away the shock, "do you have any idea how stupid that sounds?"
"I thought that you were into all the fairytale...stuff," he frowned.
Henry nodded, and produced his book that he had been using for research for his pairings from behind him. Running his hands over the embossed 'Once Upon a Time', he sighed.
"I saw what happened in a future where I only saw things from one angle."
David looked thoroughly confused, and he finally deflated. Since they had jumped through that hat, all he had felt was constant stress, despite Henry's assurances that his 'moms' and Snow White would make the 'most awesome team ever' he couldn't help but constantly run through possible plans that Regina was trying to pull. Admittedly, most of them made no sense, but that didn't stop his mind from wondering to the possibilities.
"What do you mean, Henry?" David asked softly, standing from his desk, he went and sat cross legged on the floor, where the boy had set up shop.
"Mr Gold showed me what happens in the alternate future. I was so horrible to my mom, it was like I completely forgot everything good she did. She wasn't just evil, everything isn't black and white here."
Charming nodded, "I guess that makes sense, how did he see into the future?"
Henry smiled, "according to the book, he can see all futures, even if they cannot happen anymore. So he just used some magic in a pendant to show it to me."
Silence fell again, and Henry inspected the man curiously, "what's up?"
David shook his head out of his daze, "what?"
"You look like your thinking about something important."
David offered his grandson a small smile, "am I that easy to read?"
"That's the same face I use, mom said she could always tell if I had a problem or wanted candy."
Charming felt a pang of guilt, he couldn't help but wonder whether Emma had the same expression. Unlike everyone else in town, he's cursed identity was literally a name and an estranged wife. He couldn't remember anything about the way that this world worked, so he had no idea what kind of life his daughter had lived, and it was killing him that he couldn't even ask his wife.
"Emma," he finally admitted.
"She'll be back soon," Henry laughed, "don't you believe that you'll always find each other."
David nodded, "I know that they'll be back soon. It's just...once they are back...what do I say to her?"
"What do you mean?"
"Do I say 'hey, I'm your father, it's nice to meet you,' I don't know anything about her."
Henry frowned and nodded. In that moment, he realised that he was basically in the same position. He had spent much of the past couple days either with or worrying about his adoptive mother. He had spent about half an hour with his birth mother before running away. Though, he didn't regret what had been avoided through his mom's second chance, he couldn't help but long for a version of himself who had two loving mothers, both of whom he knew equally. But from what he knew of the alternate future, it didn't seem like that would have happened anyway.
"I guess I don't know her that well either," the boy frowned.
Charming's phone began to ring, and he looked apologetically at the boy, before looking at the caller ID.
"What's up?" he asked.
Letting out a sigh of frustration, he nodded, "I'll be right there."
"What happened?" Henry asked, though he was still thinking about his blonde mother.
"Some kids have decided to play in the forest, and their parents are afraid that they won't know where the town line is."
Henry nodded, "I'm coming."
"Henry-"
"I am literally the only person who cannot lose their memories."
Charming seemed to think about it for a moment, before he nodded, "fine, come on."
Charming and Henry had decided to split up and cover more ground, with Henry having promised to hold onto a walkie-talkie.
The boy half-heartedly looked for the kids, with his thoughts being focused mainly on Emma.
He was more than happy that he had Regina back, he was also relieved that he had avoided the future that each of his parents had lived through.
Two days ago, he had one parent who he pretended not to love, and now he had a blonde mother, and very soon he would have a father. It was more than overwhelming, and the moment he realised that he knew next to nothing about a mother who had clearly already bonded with him made him feel beyond guilty. He had spent the last couple days blaming her for something that clearly wasn't her fault and trying to force her to believe. Do I always have to blame someone? he thought, while topping a hill.
"I found them," came over the radio.
Henry ignored this for a moment as a huge mansion came into sight, and for some reason he felt indescribably drawn to it.
Shaking his head, he held up the radio, "I'll meet you soon."
"Henry, where are you?" his grandfather asked worriedly, is he like a natural parent figure? he thought with an internal laugh.
"I'm only ten minutes east from where we split up...I found something, can you come and meet me?"
"What did you find?" David asked sceptically, though Henry heard that he had already started to walk.
"It's this big mansion thing that I've never seen before; I think that it must have something to do with the curse breaking. Can we check it out?"
After a short pause his grandfather replied, "just wait for me."
Twenty minutes later, Henry and Charming were searching the mansion, with Charming having refused to split up. Henry had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with not wanting to lose the Evil Queen and Saviour's son, and his clear reluctance last time.
"Henry, this is just someone's house," David frowned, as he inspected the various ornaments, "I don't think there's anything here."
Henry nodded, only half listening, while he looked at the book collection. His hand hovered over the many classics that his mother had read to him, as well as some titles that he didn't recognise, but as he got to the middle of the shelf, he furrowed his brow and pulled out his storybooks twin. Everything about it was the same, except for the title: 'The Queen and her Saviour."
"I found something," he announced.
"A book?" Charming asked sceptically as he threw down a random box on a table.
"I don't think it's just a book," Henry replied, as he fell to the ground into his cross legged position.
David gave him another disbelieving look, before following his lead.
"Then what is it?" he laughed as Henry opened it and began to read it out loud.
'"You're Henry's birth mother?" the distressed brunette asked.
The blonde swallowed hard, and offered a small smile, "hi."
Regina took a moment to compose herself, before asking, "how would you like a glass of the best apple cider you ever tasted?"
"Got anything stronger?" Emma laughed'
Charming furrowed his brow, "I still don't get it."
Henry continued to flip through the book, and saw an image of Emma in the holding cell and then another with the blonde taking a chainsaw to his mother's apple tree.
"No way," he whispered.
"What?" Charming laughed nervously, to be completely honest he found it creepy that there was a book detailing most of his life, he wasn't keen on there being more of them.
"Mom told me that this is what originally happened, this is a book of the alternate future."
David felt his throat go slightly dry, and he took the offered book and began flipping through it. He saw a picture of Kathryn slapping Mary Margaret, Emma kissing Henry with a distraught Regina in the background, he and Snow hugging their daughter for the first time.
"This is awesome," Henry smiled, "we can find out everything about Emma."
Charming ran his hand over a scene of Mary Margaret shooting an ogre, with the words 'stay away from my daughter,' on the adjoining page.
"I think we have some reading to do."
A/N I think they will be in the Enchanted Forest for a few more chapters, but Cora will be in Storybrooke in probably the next chapter.
Sorry if this chapter isn't of the best quality, I have a chest infection :( but let me know if you guys want anything different and I'll try and change it when I'm fully better :)
Anyway, hope you guys enjoy, and I need to thank QueenApples for all her usual help :)