A/N: A lot of this and future chapters come straight from the show, because there's a lot of stuff in the show that won't change. But there's also a lot of things that are changed simply because Emma has a knowledge of the curse. Besides, we will actually get to see a little bit of what's going on inside Emma's head.

This story is dedicated to the Satan Squad who are the best Squad ever! Lots of love to all of you!

Thank You to my beta IUsed2bcool for taking this chapter and giving me the suggestions I needed to help make the writing style flow more with the chapters I've written in the last few months. You're the greatest!

Chapter One

When Emma Swan blew out the blue star candle on the cupcake she had purchased to celebrate her 28th Birthday, she wished that she would no longer need to be alone. For a split second, she wished that Ellery was there to celebrate with her, but she knew that Ellery was exactly where she needed to be; waiting for Emma to join her. The knock that sounded from her front door startled Emma from her reverie. She wasn't expecting anyone to be coming over; she didn't know anyone who would come over.

With this thought, she swung her door open. To her surprise, she saw a young boy about ten years old that she had never seen before standing there. "Uh…can I help you?"

The boy smiled up at her, "Are you Emma Swan?"

Emma was sure she didn't know this kid, so how did he know her? "Yeah, who are you?"

The boy grinned and Emma was struck by how familiar his smile looked, "My name's Henry. I'm your son."

Emma felt her heart skip a beat as Henry slipped under her arm and into her apartment. There was no reason he should be here, especially not alone. Turning quickly, Emma responded to the bombshell Henry had just dropped. "Whoa, hey kid! Kid! I don't have a son." Ellery does, she added mentally, but I don't. "Where's your mother?"

Henry sighed, "Ten years ago, did you give up a baby boy? That was me."

Emma felt the room start to spin. "Give me a minute," she said as she walked into her bathroom. Yeah, she had given up a baby boy ten years ago, to Ellery. So where was she? Why was Henry here alone?

"Hey, do you have any juice?" Henry called, "Never mind, found some!" Emma realized that leaving the ten year old she barely knew alone and unattended in her kitchen probably wasn't the best idea she'd ever had. She walked back to the kitchen, still slightly dazed, and stared at Henry who was drinking straight out of the only bottle of juice Emma had in her refrigerator. He wiped his lip after he finished before saying, "You know, we should probably get going."

Emma was confused, "Going where?"

"I want you to come home with me." Henry stated matter-of-factly, as if Emma should have known he expected her to accompany him.

Emma ignored the brief thought that she could confront Ellery for letting Henry travel to Boston alone from wherever they were living. Instead, she picked up her phone; she really didn't feel like answering the questions Ellery was sure to have for her. "Okay kid, I'm calling the cops."

Henry's eyes widened, "And I'll tell them you kidnapped me."

Emma put the phone down, "And they'll believe you because I'm your birth mother."

Henry nodded, "Yep!"

Emma was impressed, he was a smart kid, and manipulative. Emma wondered if Ellery was even aware that Henry had come to Boston. She looked at the kid's face, he wasn't serious about the kidnapping threat. "You're not gonna do that."

Henry responded stubbornly, "Try me."

Emma was surprised at the hint of fear Henry hid behind his defiance, but she didn't call him out on it directly. "You're pretty good, but here's the thing. There's not a lot I'm great at in life, but I have one skill, let's call it a super power, I can tell when anyone it lying. And you, kid, are.

Henry's face fell and Emma felt bad for the kid as he pleaded with her, "Wait! Please don't call the cops. Please come home with me."

Emma felt her resolve slipping, "Where's home?"

Hope grew in Henry's face as he answered, "Storybrooke, Maine."

"Storybrooke? Seriously?" Leave it to Ellery to find a place to live with a name like Storybrooke.

Henry nodded excitedly, "Mm-hmm!"

Emma sighed, "Alrighty then, let's get you back to Storybrooke."

Henry smiled, "Great! Thank you!"

Emma laughed, "Give me a minute to get changed and then we can leave." Forgetting her earlier thought that she shouldn't leave Henry alone, Emma went back to her bedroom to change out of the dress she'd worn to catch the bail-jumper earlier that evening. As she changed, the thought crossed her mind that there was no way Henry's finding her on her 28th birthday was a coincidence. But she didn't dwell on the thought. She didn't want to think about the implications of going somewhere on her 28th birthday.

Henry was holding a picture frame in his hands and staring longingly at the picture Emma was unable to see. "Whatcha got there kid?" Emma asked as she gathered her car keys, wallet, and red leather jacket.

Henry quickly stuck the picture back in his backpack, "Nothing."

Emma chose not to comment on Henry's action, "Well come on kid, we need to get moving if we're going to get you back to Storybrooke."

Henry grinned and jumped up excitedly, "What are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Emma had to bite back a laugh as Henry practically ran out of the apartment, stopping in front of the elevator and waiting impatiently for Emma to slip on her red leather jacket and lock up her apartment before joining him.

They'd been on the road for less than 15 minutes when Henry piped up, "I'm hungry. Can we stop somewhere?"

"This isn't a road trip; we're not stopping for snacks," Emma responded, already planning to stop for gas and food sometime soon.

"Why not?" Henry challenged Emma's statement.

"Quit complaining, kid. Remember, I could have put your butt on a bus, I still could. " But she wouldn't. He didn't need to know that though.

"You know I have a name." Henry said, obviously annoyed, "It's Henry."

Emma knew what his name was, but she didn't want to talk about that. She watched as he pulled a brown leather book out of his backpack, "What's that?"

Henry looked hard at Emma, "I'm not sure you're ready."

Emma glanced at the book again, and this time she caught the title written in gold block letters, Once Upon a Time, Emma hid her racing heart by responding nonchalantly, "Ready for a bunch of fairy tales?"

"They're not fairy tales," Henry said confidently, "They're true. Every story in this book actually happened!"

"Of course they did," Emma sounded patronizing, but she meant exactly what she said.

Henry only heard her patronizing tone, "Use your superpower. See if I'm lying."

Emma didn't need to use her 'superpower' to know he was telling the truth, but she couldn't tell him that she believed him, "Just because you believe something doesn't make it true."

Henry was getting worked up, "That's exactly what makes it true. You should know more than anyone!"

Emma needed to know why he thought that and exactly how much he knew, "Why's that?"

Henry's response was exactly what she had hoped it wouldn't be. "Because you're in this book."

She shouldn't still be in the book. Those pages should have been removed years ago, "Oh kid, you've got problems."

Henry smiled and nodded, "Yup, and you're gonna fix 'em!"

Emma had to hide a smile, the kid really had no idea.

The next four hours were spent mostly in silence as Henry read his book and Emma mulled over all the possibilities for why Ellery wasn't with Henry and why Henry hadn't mentioned Ellery yet. Emma wondered briefly if Ellery had found what she had been searching for ten years earlier. Emma pushed down the hope that Ellery had found it, but after almost 12 years spent searching, Emma wasn't sure she or Ellery ever would find it.

As they pulled into the center of Storybrooke, Emma turned to Henry, "Okay kid, how about an address?"

"44 not telling you street," Henry answered, sounding as if he was proud of his cleverness.

Emma stomped on the brakes, climbed out of the car, and slammed the door shut. One of the street lights above her shattered and sparked, but she didn't pay attention to it, she was too angry. "Look, it's been a long night, and it's almost…eight-fifteen?" That clock couldn't be right, unless…

Henry's response broke through her pondering and verified the thought she didn't want to think, "That clock hasn't moved my whole life. Time's frozen here."

"Excuse me," 8:14, it couldn't be a coincidence that the clock was frozen at the exact moment she'd been found on the side of the road 28 years ago. It wasn't a coincidence. Emma's heart started racing, why now? Why on her…? The implications hit her all at once. It was her 28th Birthday. She was exactly where she'd always been told she would be, even if she didn't want to be there. She couldn't let one that she knew everything.

Henry's response to her question was exactly what she thought it would be, "The Evil Queen did it with her curse. She sent everyone from the Enchanted Forest here."

Don't let him know that you know Emma, she was proud of the incredulity in her voice, "Hang on. The Evil Queen sent a bunch of fairy tale characters here?"

Henry nodded, "Yeah. And now they're trapped."

Emma was proud of Henry's deduction skills, he was a smart kid, but she was smart too. "Frozen in time, stuck in Storybrooke, Maine? That's what you're going with?"

"It's true!" Henry insisted desperately. He was right, it was all true. Every word of it.

"Then why doesn't everybody just leave?" Emma should have changed the subject and figured out a way to get Henry home so that she could leave. But she was curious as to how much Henry knew about the curse.

"They can't. If they try, bad things happen." Henry's response was vague, but it was exactly what Emma knew was true. Before she could probe more, however, a tall, thin man walking a Dalmatian came up to them.

"Henry! What are you doing here? Is everything alright?" The man asked Henry as his dog nudged at Henry's hands to be petted. Henry complied while answering the man's queries.

"I'm fine, Archie."

Archie looked up and noticed Emma, "Who's this?"

Emma didn't feel like answering the many questions that were sure to come if she mentioned that she was Henry's birth mother, "Just someone trying to give him a ride home."

Henry didn't share Emma's qualms, "She's my birth mom, Archie."

Archie looked surprised at Henry's revelation, "Oh, I see."

Emma felt uncomfortable as Archie stared at her, so she changed the subject, "You know where he lives?"

Archie was visibly relieved by Emma's question, "Oh, yeah sure, just, uh, right up on Mifflin Street; the Mayor's house if the biggest one on the block."

Emma knew Ellery would have never run for Mayor, which meant something had gone wrong. "You're the Mayor's kid?"

Henry scowled, "No! I am not her son! I just live with her."

Emma was taken aback at the venom in Henry's tone. She wasn't sure how to respond to his outburst because she wasn't sure how she was supposed to bring up Ellery. Fortunately, Archie seemed familiar with the outburst and cut in, "Hey, where were you today Henry? Because you missed your session."

He was a shrink, her kid was seeing a shrink. It figured. Now if only Emma could figure out who the man had been before becoming a shrink.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I went on a field trip." Henry's answer almost made Emma laugh. Henry's 'field trip' had been unsanctioned and four hours out of town.

Archie crouched down so he was eye to eye with the boy, "Henry, what'd I tell you about lying?" Henry hung his head and scuffed his toe on the ground, unable to look his shrink in the eye, "Giving into one's dark side never accomplishes anything."

Emma was shocked, it had been over 12 years since she had heard that phrase, accompanied by an introduction to the phrase's original speaker. Archie was Jiminy Cricket. But he wasn't a cricket anymore, obviously. Emma needed to get Henry out of here before she called the man Jiminy, that wouldn't go over well. And it certainly wouldn't help in keeping Henry from figuring out that she knew about the curse. "O-kay! Well, I should get him home."

Archie nodded and waved goodbye to Henry before jogging off with his dog.

"So, that's your shrink?" Emma asked, smirking at Henry.

"I'm not crazy," Henry insisted desperately. Emma felt so badly that she almost told him everything, almost.

Instead, she responded directly to directly to his statement, "Didn't say that. Just – he doesn't seem…cursed to me." Except he did, and she knew he was. "Maybe he's just trying to help you."

Henry sighed in exasperation, "He's the one who needs help. Because he doesn't know."

Emma finished his statement, "That he's a fairytale character." Of course he didn't know, that was the whole point of the curse.

"None of them do. They don't remember who they are." Henry was obviously getting frustrated with having to explain everything to Emma.

"Convenient," Actually it was a brilliant move on the Evil Queen's part. "Alright, I'll play." She ushered him back into the car, "Who's he supposed to be?"

"Jiminy Cricket," The fact that Henry knew made Emma proud. He really was a smart kid.

"Right, the lying thing. Thought your nose grew a little bit." Except he was definitely not Pinocchio!

Henry knew that, "I'm not Pinocchio!"

Emma drove off in the direction Archie had pointed out to her, "Course you're not. 'Cause that would be ridiculous." Because it would be, but his theory wasn't.

When they pulled up in front of the very impressive and incredibly imposing looking house on Mifflin Street, Henry was doing everything he could to convince her to take him anyplace else.

"You could take me to my teacher's apartment," he begged, "Or to the Bed and Breakfast. Then I could not have to spend the night here."

Emma made the boy climb out of the Bug and started walking him towards the house, "Sorry kid."

"Please don't take me back there." Henry pleaded and once again Emma wondered what had happened to Ellery. Henry wouldn't be this upset if she were around, Ellery would have been a fantastic mother.

"I have to. I'm sure your mother is worried sick about you." Emma knew Ellery would be worried sick if she knew Henry had disappeared.

Henry's response to Emma's statement was very similar to his response from earlier that evening and it confused Emma, "She's not my mom! She's just my Foster parent, and she's evil!"

Why was Henry in Foster Care? It didn't make any sense to Emma, "Why are you in Foster Care? I made sure that was never going to happen."

"It's a long story," Henry had stopped in the middle of the path leading up to the front door. "I've only been in Foster Care since right before my 7th Birthday. But my Foster Mom doesn't love me, she's just trying to hurt… never mind."

Emma wondered briefly who Henry had been about to name, but she was interrupted by the door to the house opening. Emma felt like she'd been punched in the gut, the woman who was rushing down the sidewalk towards them was The Evil Queen.

"Henry, oh Henry," The concern the Queen was showing towards Henry was fairly convincing, but Henry wasn't convinced. He was limp when the Queen pulled him into a hug, "Are you okay? Where have you been? What happened?"

Henry jerked away and glared angrily at the Evil Queen, "I found my birth mom! I won't have to stay here much longer!" He pushed past the Queen and the man who had followed her out of the house, Emma assumed he was a police officer, and ran inside.

"You're Henry's birth mother?" Emma felt a smug sense of satisfaction at the slightly fearful look that crossed the Evil Queen's face, served her right for cursing an entire land.

"Hi, I'm Emma Swan," Emma needed a name from the Queen, she wasn't ready to show her hand just yet.

"Regina Mills, Henry's Foster Mother," Of course she would go by Regina here.

"I'll just go check on the lad, make sure he's okay." The man behind Regina sensed the awkwardness between the two women and obviously wanted to get as far from them as possible.

"So, why is Henry in the Foster System?" Emma asked after the man went inside. Instead of with Ellery?

Regina hesitated, "Why don't you let me get you a glass of the best apple cider you've ever tasted and I'll explain."

Emma hated apple cider, but she wasn't about to reveal that piece of information to Regina, "Got anything stronger?"

Regina chuckled and led the way into her house, "I think I can find something. Wait here while I get the glasses."

Emma looked around at the impeccably decorated foyer while she waited for Regina to come back. When Regina walked back into the room carrying two glasses, Emma asked as Regina poured the drinks, "How did he find me?" If Regina knew the answer, her choice to keep her knowledge of the curse secret wouldn't be valid anymore.

But Regina didn't know, which meant the curse was somehow protecting her identity, "I have no idea, when he moved in with me just over 3 years ago I was told that his birth mother had requested a closed adoption and his mother was unaware of your identity. Was I told wrong?"

Emma shook her head, accepting the drink Regina offered her, "No, you were told right." Ellery had a good reason for not revealing Emma's identity and Emma wasn't about to tell the Evil Queen anything. "Why isn't he still with his adoptive parents?"

"There's only a mother," Regina interjected, "And she had some psychological issues a few years ago and Henry was removed from her custody for his safety."

That was shocking and definitely not what Emma was expecting, Ellery had always been the most stable person she knew. Emma knew there was more to what had happened then what Regina was insinuating and she would hold her judgement until she'd had a chance to talk to Ellery herself, "I see…What did he mean when he told you that he wouldn't have to live here much longer?" She took a sip of her drink and held back a grimace, she really hated apple cider, even with alcohol in it.

"Henry has gotten it into his head that his birth mother can either gain custody of him or move him back to his mother's custody." Regina obviously thought he was wrong, he wasn't. Emma had given him to Ellery because it would work exactly like Regina had just described. "What he doesn't seem to understand that you gave up all rights to him when you gave him up."

"I see," Emma have to bite her tongue to keep from telling Regina just how easy it would be to take custody of Henry.

Regina must have seen through her simple phrase, "Do I need to worry about you, Miss Swan?"

"Absolutely not." Emma replied, but Regina absolutely did.

Before any tension could grow between the Creator of the curse and the Savior, the sheriff walked down the stairs and come over to Regina. "Madam Mayor, you can relax. Other than being a tired little boy, Henry is fine. He's getting ready for bed and calling his mother."

"Thank you, Sheriff." Regina sighed and the Sheriff nodded in farewell before letting himself out of the house. Regina then turned her attention back on Emma, "I'm sorry he dragged you out of your life. I don't know what's gotten into him lately.

Emma could tell Regina was trying to dismiss her, probably to stop Henry's call, and she felt she owed it to Henry to delay Regina for as long as she could, "Kid's having a rough time, it's understandable. His whole life is up in the air and, as far as I can tell, he want nothing more than to find a reason for everything. Which is where his theory comes in."

"The one where I'm evil?" Regina let out a strained laugh, "I'm the one who took him in when his mother couldn't. I'm also the one who has to keep him from staying with her more than two weekends a month like the courts have ordered. Does that make me evil?"

"I'm sure he's just saying that because of the fairytale thing." Emma needed to make Regina believe that she didn't, "And the fact that you're just the easiest person to blame for his situation."

"What fairytale thing?" There was a sharp edge to Regina's voice that proved that Regina definitely knew about the curse.

"Oh you know, his book." Which she was fairly certain Henry had left behind in her car, "How he thinks everyone's a cartoon character from it. Like his shrink is Jiminy Cricket."

"I'm sorry," Regina's sincerity was forced, "I really have… no idea what you're talking about."

It was probably a good thing that Henry had left the book in the Bug, "You know what, it's really none of my business. He's in your custody and I really should be heading back." Or to Augusta at least, she would be coming back in the morning to find and talk to Ellery. But she needed to lull Regina into a false sense of security.

"Of course," Regina smirked and led Emma to the door, giving a false smile as a farewell. Emma returned the false smile and made her way to the old yellow Bug parked in front of Regina's house. As she opened the door to climb into the car, she looked back up at the Mayor's house to see Henry watching from an upstairs window while talking into what looked like a walkie-talkie. She waved and climbed into her car before driving back through the town the way she had come earlier.

As she drove towards the town line, she glanced at the passenger seat and saw that Henry had indeed left his book on the seat. No doubt to try to make her stay in town. "Sneaky bastard," she said, slightly proud of Henry's manipulation skills. When she looked up, she was shocked to see a wolf with one black eye and one red eye standing in the middle of the road in front of her. She slammed on the brakes and swerved to avoid the wolf; she lost control of the car and it spun out of control, hitting the 'Welcome to Storybrooke' sign and hitting her head on the steering wheel. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was the storybook on the floor of the car opening to a picture of a very pregnant Snow White and her Prince Charming standing in front of a wardrobe carved from a tree.