A/N: I absolutely love this chapter! I hope you guys do too! If you do like this chapter, or any chapters I've written, please take a minute and send me a review. I appreciate all kinds of reviews and would love to know what my readers think!
This is dedicated to the Squad once again! Seriously you guys are the best and I don't know how you've put up with my angst writing this week! Hopefully I'll be able to take a break from that now, I need to work hard on writing Chapter 13 of this after all so I'm far enough ahead that I don't have to make you guys wait sometime in the future for a chapter.
Special thanks to IUsed2bcool for reading over this and making sure it made sense! You're the best Beta in the world! And a pretty awesome friend too, love you dear! :)
Chapter Six
~10 ½ Years Earlier~
"You're what?" Ellery asked incredulously, staring at her sister across the table in the Phoenix Juvenile Detention Center's visitation room.
"Pregnant apparently," Emma groaned, removing her glasses and burying her face in her hands, "The doctor says I'm about three months along."
"What are you going to do?" Ellery asked, "You're still going to have four months in here after the baby is born. How are you going to be a mom from inside a jail cell?"
"I'm 17!" Emma exclaimed, "I am not ready to be a mother. I can barely take care of myself outside of here, let alone a baby. I mean, I don't have any money. How do you expect me to raise a baby?"
"Maybe Neal…" Ellery began, wanting to judge Emma's reaction before bringing up the fact that she had almost $20,000 Neal had entrusted to her for Emma when she was released. Well, entrusted to her after he'd tried giving it to August and she'd intervened.
"No," Emma barked sharply, "I don't want him knowing about this. Ever. He betrayed me. You were there, you know what he did. How can you even suggest that?"
"Because he didn't want to betray you" Ellery defended her friend and in the spur of the moment she decided to protect August's identity. "It was Pinocchio."
"You know, when you say things like that I'm much more inclined to believe you and Mom are both just insane," Emma rolled his eyes, "And even if you aren't insane, Pinocchio would be stuck in Storybrooke, Maine like Mom said everyone was."
"We aren't insane," Ellery shot back, "And you know that. I bet Pinocchio came through the wardrobe before you did. You were 'found' by a seven-year-old boy and Mom used to say that Pinocchio looked like he was around seven. It's not that big of a stretch."
"Except the part where he's a fairy tale character," Emma complained.
"Technically, we're fairy tale characters," Ellery pointed out.
"Don't forget the fact that your theory means the Blue Fairy, someone Mom trusted explicitly, lied to our parents," Emma countered, sighing in frustration, "If we are actually fairy tale characters then our lives suck. Look, I don't want to fight with you. I want your help figuring out how to put this baby up for adoption."
"I'll adopt him," Ellery stated determinedly, surprising herself with her decision.
"You?" Emma stared at her twin, "You're only 17 too. You think you're ready to be a mother?"
"No," Ellery answered honestly, "But fate has proven to be a fickle thing when it comes to us and with our luck, the baby would end up being adopted by the Evil Queen. Or the baby would end up like Liam in the system. I'm not willing to let either one of those things happen to my niece or nephew."
"You can't be sure one of those things will actually happen," Emma tried to reassure her sister, "We can triple check to make sure the baby goes to a good home."
"I still think the baby needs to stay with family." Ellery said, sounding more sure about her decision than she felt, "and if you don't think you can do it then I will."
"Alright," Emma conceded reluctantly, "But you can't tell Neal anything."
"Deal," Ellery said and sighed as the social worker standing nearby motioned that their time was up, "Well, I guess I'll see you next time."
"Love you too," Emma replied with a smile and then watched as her sister was led outside before she was led back to her cell.
~Present Day~
Regina had gotten on Emma's last nerve and then somehow managed to irritate her even further. She wasn't a felon and Ellery had promised to get her name cleared, but tomorrow morning was not soon enough to keep Regina from calling and getting her kicked out of Granny's. Emma supposed she could always crash with her sister, but she really didn't know if she was ready for that. As she stalked down Main Street angrily, she shrugged a shirt on over the tank top she'd been taken to the Sheriff's station in earlier.
She stopped suddenly as she spotted the boot someone, probably Graham via Regina's orders, had placed on her car. Resisting the urge to curse, she answered her phone harshly as it rang, "Yeah?"
Of course it was Regina, "Miss Swan, I'd be happy to continue demonstrating my power, but am I right in guessing your resolve to stay is only growing?"
"You have no idea," Emma growled.
"Well then, I think it's time we made peace. Why don't you drive over to my office?" Emma had begun climbing into her car as Regina spoked, but the boot on the tire once again caught her eye and she slammed her door shut with excessive force, "Or walk, whatever suits you."
Emma hung up the phone and began to walk towards Regina's office, hoping the walk would cool her temper before she inadvertently gave her identity away.
By the time Emma finally sat down with Regina in her office, Emma's temper had fizzled out. Of course, Regina made her wait over half an hour before the receptionist motioned for her to enter the office, but Emma chose to view the wait as more time to cool down instead of allowing herself to get even more angry at the slight. Emma knew it just wouldn't be prudent for her to give Regina any inkling that she knew about the curse, not that she'd ever admit, even to herself, that she thought she really would be able to break it.
Regina smiled as Emma settled onto a sofa facing her, "I'd like to start by apologizing, Miss Swan."
Emma was not expecting that, "What?"
"I just have to accept the reality that you want to be here," Regina ignored Emma's question.
"That's right, I do," Emma realized that she really did want to be there, despite how many times she'd said something to the contrary.
"And that you're here to take my son," Regina's statement angered Emma and she was barely able to contain her temper as she responded.
"Okay, let's be clear. He's not your son legally or in any other way," Emma reminded herself not to be overly defensive or Regina might realize how close she and Ellery were, "But, I have no intention of taking him from anyone." I won't take him personally, at least. But I will help Ellery take him back.
"Well then," Regina acted confused, "what are you doing here?"
"I know I'm not a mother, I think that's pretty self-evident." She never had been that kind of person after all. But neither had Ellery and yet she'd done a fairly good job raising Henry even with the Evil Queen's obvious meddling, "But I did have him. And I can't help that he got in my head and I want to make sure he's okay. Mostly because he's in foster care and I never wanted that for him. The more you try to push me out, the more I want to be here. Especially after seeing how troubled he is."
"You think he's troubled?" Regina asked and Emma couldn't tell if the Mayor was pleased or upset at the thought.
"Well, he's in therapy," Emma pointed out and then kept on, pointedly glaring at Regina as she continued, "And I only got through a few pages of his file before you had me arrested. But putting all that aside, for one, the things he went through with his mother were obviously traumatic. And he thinks everyone in this town is a fairy tale character."
"And you don't?" Regina asked and Emma could see how calculatingly Regina was watching her.
"How can I?" Emma knew she had to appear as "normal" as possible, instead of as if she'd been raised by Snow White. Whether she believed in her role in breaking the curse or not wasn't the issue now. Lulling Regina into a false sense of security was, "The poor kid can't tell the difference between fantasy and reality and it's only getting worse. It's crazy."
"You think I'm crazy?" Emma spun to see Henry standing in the door to the office with a heartbroken look on his face.
"Henry…" Emma wanted to explain that she didn't mean what he had just over heard, but he ran off before she could say more than his name. Shit, this is exactly what Ellery and I wanted to avoid. He's supposed to think he can count on me. I don't know how I'm supposed to fix this one. She turned to Regina, "How long was he there?"
"Long enough," Regina purred smugly.
"You knew he would be here." Emma realized and cursed the Evil Queen silently.
"Did I know that my son comes to my office every Thursday at precisely 5pm so I can take him to dinner before his therapy session?" Emma wanted to slap the smug look off Regina's face as she spoke, "Of course I did. I'm his mother. Your move."
"You have no soul." Emma spat as she stood to leave, "And I take back what I said earlier, I am going to take Henry from you and give him back to his real mother, because you are NOT his mother and I am NEVER going to allow you to be his mother."
Ellery was folding laundry when the walkie-talkie she kept with her all the time went off, "Henry? It's after five; you're supposed to be getting dinner with Regina before your session."
Ellery heard Henry press the button to answer, but he didn't say anything because he was sobbing too hard. Ellery began to worry when he let go of the button and she tried again, "Monkey, what's going on? Where are you?"
"Outside the store," Henry finally answered, his voice trembling.
Ellery dropped the laundry she was currently folding and walked quickly to the front room. Henry was standing outside the door with tears streaming down his face as he shivered from the cold. Ellery threw open the door and pulled her son inside and into her arms, heart aching as she wondered what had hurt her son so badly, "Oh, Henry. What happened, love?"
"Emma, th-thinks I-I-I'm crazy," Henry stuttered out between sobs. His face was buried in Ellery's shoulder and he was clinging to her hard. "I went to meet Regina and I heard her say it. Mom, I'm not crazy."
"Oh, I know you're not." Ellery reassured her son soothingly as she wondered what would have made her sister say something like that in front of Henry after their discussion that morning, "I bet Emma doesn't really think that either, Monkey."
"But she said it," Henry insisted, pulling back to look his mother in the eye, "Why would she say that if she didn't believe I was crazy?"
"Who was she talking to, Monk?" Ellery inquired, leading Henry gently by his shoulders into the back of the store and digging through the refrigerator to find something to make Henry for dinner before his session in less than an hour.
"Regina," Henry answered, plopping down dejectedly in a chair at the table.
"If Emma doesn't actually think you're crazy," Ellery began, deciding to reheat the leftover lasagna she and Mary Margaret had ordered and split from Granny's two days earlier, "can you think of any reason why she would have said that while talking to Regina?"
Henry caught the emphasis on Regina's name and began to grin, "Because she doesn't want the Evil Queen to know she believes in me?"
"Maybe," Ellery replied, pulling out the lasagna as the microwave beeped, "The only way you'll know for sure is if you ask her. Now, eat, you have a session with Archie in forty-five minutes."
Henry's grin disappeared, but he accepted the lasagna and began to eat hungrily, "Can't I just skip therapy today?"
"Not an option, Monkey," Ellery wrinkled her nose in sympathy as she pulled her own plate out of the microwave and sat down across from Henry so she could eat, "I'm going to be in enough trouble with Regina as it is for not sending you back to her now, but I bet she'll be willing to overlook this after getting Emma to say what she did. I am not willing to face consequences for not sending you to therapy."
"Fine," Henry sighed and kept eating, "but I'm not talking to him tonight."
"That's your prerogative, Monkey," Ellery said, "But it's always good to talk to someone you trust, and you can trust Archie."
"I can talk to you." Henry shot his mother a cheeky smile, "I don't need to talk to Archie."
"Of course, you can talk to me anytime, Henry," Ellery swallowed past the lump in her throat, she didn't know what she'd done in her past to deserve the son Emma had given her a little over a decade ago. But despite everything she'd gone through with him, she wouldn't change her decision for anything. "Anytime."
After wandering the streets of Storybrooke for over an hour, Emma finally knew what she had to do. She had to leave. She couldn't help Ellery and Henry if they couldn't trust her. So she was going to leave, for now. After returning the money her mother had used to bail her out that is.
She stood outside her mother and sister's apartment door for much longer than was strictly necessary before gathering the courage she needed to knock. Mary Margaret answered the door and seemed surprised to see her, so Emma said awkwardly, "Hey. Just wanted to say thank you and, um, pay you back the bail money."
Mary Margaret took the money and stared at Emma searchingly for a second before she stepped aside and pulled the doors open even wider, "You look like you need to talk."
It probably should have surprised Emma that Mary Margaret could read her so well, but Emma supposed that she was aching to speak to her mother so badly that she didn't really care what form she got Snow White in. Emma walked inside and sat down at the table while Mary Margaret went into the kitchen to take a pot off the stove, "I was making some cocoa for myself and Ellery, but there's enough milk for a third cup if you'd like some."
Emma nodded gratefully, feeling as if she was back in high school and about to have a serious conversation with her mother. Which, she supposed, she was. "Where is Ellery?"
"Oh, she'll be home soon," Mary Margaret said as she began fixing three mugs of hot cocoa, "She called about ten minutes ago to say she was on her way."
Mary Margaret walked to the table with two of the mugs and set one down in front of Emma. For some reason, Emma hadn't expected Mary Margaret to like cinnamon on her hot cocoa since that was something Queen Eva had introduced to a very young Snow White and had become such a huge part of Snow White's personality that she was sure Regina would have tried to snuff it out. So when Emma saw the cinnamon stick in her mug, she was surprised, "Cinnamon?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I should have asked." Mary Margaret was so much more timid than Snow White had ever been and Emma hated it, "It's a little quirk of mine that I've passed on to Ellery, I didn't think. Do you mind?"
"Not at all," Emma said distractedly and then remembered the manners Snow White had instilled in her at a young age, "Oh, thanks. Earlier, when you tried to bail me out, you said that you trusted me. Why?"
"It's strange. Ever since Ellery, and then you, arrived here, I've had the oddest feeling like I've known you for so much longer than I really have," Mary Margaret admitted sheepishly, "And I know it's crazy. Plus, you're Ellery's sister and that counts for a lot in my book. She means a lot to me."
"Aww, you mean a lot to me too, Mare," Ellery said as she came through the front door, having overheard the tail end of Mary Margaret's statement, "Em, what are you doing here? I thought we were meeting in two hours at my store."
Emma hesitated and Mary Margaret spoke up, "She came to pay me back for bailing her out earlier. And now we're drinking cocoa and talking. There's a mug on the counter for you if you'd like to join us."
"Definitely," Ellery said, setting her bags and basket of folded laundry down; grabbing her mug of cocoa; and sitting down next to her sister, "I just had dinner with a distraught Henry who thinks you don't believe in him. What the hell happened?"
"Regina," Emma groaned, "I told her that I thought Henry's theory was crazy and he overheard me."
"Do you really believe that Henry's theory is crazy?" Mary Margaret asked, shaking her head slightly as she stared at the identical twins sitting across from her, "Wow you two look the same except for the glasses. How Regina hasn't realized you two are sisters yet is beyond me."
"We aren't going to bring attention to that," Ellery chuckled, taking a sip of her cocoa, "The less Regina suspects Emma can actually do to help me get Henry back, the easier it will be to actually get him back."
"And that fact, along with everything else that's happened to me over the last few days has made me start to re-evaluate my definition of crazy." Emma groaned, "And I don't know what I think about Henry's theory honestly, but after what he heard and Regina having me arrested, things don't look too good."
"For what it's worth," Mary Margaret said, laying her hand on Emma's, "I think you're innocent."
"Of breaking and entering; or just in general?" Emma asked and Ellery snorted.
"Whichever makes you feel better," Mary Margaret said, trying unsuccessfully to hide her smirk at the look Emma shot her sister.
"Well, it doesn't really matter what anyone thinks I did or didn't do." Emma said, ignoring the cheeky grin Ellery sent her way, "I'm leaving. Thank you Mary Margaret, for everything. Ellery, I think me leaving for now is for the best. If I stay, Henry's only going to keep getting hurt."
Ellery looked like she wanted to protest, but Mary Margaret spoke first, "What happens if you go? I think the very fact that you want to leave is why you have to stay. You care about him. You care about Ellery. Who's going to protect and help them if you won't?"
"I can still help even if I'm not here," Emma protested weakly.
"It'll be better for us if you're here and if you make friends in town who can vouch for you," Ellery insisted, "I need you here. Henry needs you here."
"But he doesn't want me here anymore," Emma reminded her sister.
"He will if you tell him that everything you told Regina was a trick," Ellery said slowly, "that you were just trying to throw her off the trail of the curse."
"You think he'll go for that?" Emma asked, not bothering to explain that was exactly what she'd actually been doing when talking to Regina. Ellery probably knew that by now anyway.
"I've already planted the idea in his mind," Ellery admitted, "So let's head over to Archie's, it's almost the end of his session anyway, and find out if he'll accept it."
"You're coming with me?" Emma asked.
"Of course," Ellery smiled, "You're my sister and he's my son. If I don't go with you, one of you is bound to say the wrong thing and then we'll be right back here. It's better if I come to play mediator. We can leave when we finish our cocoa."
Emma stuck out her tongue at her sister, but she took another sip of her cocoa without speaking and just enjoyed the moment.
Emma and Ellery arrived at Dr. Hopper's office near the end of Henry's hour long session, just in time to hear Archie ask, "Is that who you think I am? Jiminy Cricket?"
"I don't think you're anyone," Henry said sullenly and both sisters looked at each other worriedly before bursting through the door to the office.
"Miss White! Miss Swan!" Archie exclaimed in shock, "Look, I can explain. The Mayor forced me to…"
"I know." Emma interrupted, brushing off Archie's apology in her concern to help Henry, "Don't worry about it. I get it. Henry, I'm sorry."
"I don't want to talk to you." Henry grumbled obstinately.
"Monkey, you should at least give her a chance to explain," Ellery interjected from her spot by the door. Henry only frowned harder.
Archie looked at the sisters, "Miss White, Miss Swan, if she knew you were here…"
"To hell with her!" Ellery and Emma spoke in unison and then looked at each other in shock. It had been years since they'd last spoken in unison, though they'd done it all the time as children.
Emma shook her head slightly to focus her thoughts again, "Henry, there is one simple reason I stayed here. You. I wanted to get to know you and to help you."
The unspoken fact that she'd stayed for Ellery too was understood by those who already knew that connection and Henry didn't comment on Emma not saying that about her, which meant that Archie was left blissfully in the dark as Henry spoke sullenly again, "You think I'm crazy."
"No, I think the curse is crazy. And it is. But that doesn't mean that it isn't true." Emma admitted the truth, but refused to look at her sister since Ellery was sure to be smirking, "It is a lot to ask anyone to believe in, but there are a lot of crazy things in this world. So what do I know? Maybe it is true."
Henry looked confused, "But you told Regina…"
"What she needed to hear." Emma reassured her son/nephew, "What I do know is that if the curse is real, the only way to break it is by tricking the Evil Queen into thinking that we are non-believers. Cause that way, she's not onto us. Isn't that what Operation Cobra is all about? Throwing her off the trail?"
"Brilliant!" Henry grinned, snapping out of his bad mood immediately, "But we're going to need mom…"
"I've never not believed in you, Monkey," Ellery said, coming over to sit on Henry's other side, "I just want you to be careful about who you talk to about it. My case for custody is already on shaky ground and I don't want to lose you."
"But the curse being real could prove that Regina sent that man after us and that you weren't in rehab and…." Henry's tone was pleading as he stared at his mother, but Ellery interrupted him.
"Henry, everyone knows we were attacked and that I was in the hospital as a result of that," It was Ellery's turn to avoid Emma's gaze as she tried to shove down the memories threatening to overwhelm her, "But the men who admitted to our faces that Regina sent them after us, told the police I stole drugs from them. Regina used Alex to plant those same drugs in my shop and Graham found them while I wasn't able to be in town and defend myself. Yes, the judge has since decided that I didn't actually steal the drugs, but I was gone for three months, Henry, and in the eyes of the law, that's abandonment. And Regina is the law. She has everything so twisted that if the curse is real then breaking it would be the only way we could get the upper hand."
Emma knew there was something else Ellery wasn't saying, something that would probably help her custody case, but Emma could tell that Ellery desperately wanted to keep this secret from her son for some reason. "I do have one idea on how to keep us ahead of Regina."
Emma's statement drew Henry's attention away from his mother and Ellery smiled tearfully, "How?"
"I've read these pages and, Henry, you are right. They are dangerous. There is only one way to make sure she never sees them," Emma pulled out the pages she'd read hundreds of times as a child, pages that detailed the circumstances of her birth, and threw them into the fire. "Now we have the advantage."
Henry smiled, "I knew you were here to help me."
"That's right kid," Emma smiled back, "I am. And nothing, not even a curse, is going to stop that. Now, let's get outta here."
"Okay," Henry stood up, "See you later, Archie. You coming, Mom?"
Ellery grinned and took the hand her son offered her, "Yeah, but I'm going to have to take you home soon."
"It's not home," Henry insisted, "but I'll go back if I have to; as long as I can still come home when I have nightmares."
"Of course," Ellery smiled as they walked out of the building, "and I guess I should go ahead and tell you that Olivia convinced the judge to reinstate our visitations. We still don't get the whole weekend, but we get Saturday together and two weekends from now like we're supposed to have."
Henry grinned, "Really?"
Ellery nodded, "Yeah. Regina will try to fight it, but Olivia's pretty sure things will continue to remain the way they should."
Henry turned to Emma, "See, you're helping me already."
Emma laughed, "That's why I'm staying kid. I really do want to help you."
Henry took Emma's hand in the one not holding Ellery's and the three of them walked down Main Street, laughing and talking about things not related to the curse for once. After half an hour, Emma and Ellery dropped Henry off down the street from the Mayor's house and watched as he ran inside.
The sisters began walking back up Main Street in silence until Ellery took a deep breath and began speaking, "I was pregnant."
"What?" Emma stopped short and stared at her sister.
"When Henry and I were attacked." Ellery took a few more steps before stopping and turning to face Emma, "I know you could tell there was more to the story earlier. That's it. I'm still not ready to tell you everything, but that was why I left town. The attack sent me into labor 12 weeks early. My doctor was in Augusta, I didn't, don't, trust Dr. Whale since he's under the curse and so I left Henry with Mom while I went to try and stop my labor."
"What happened?" Emma hadn't expected anything her sister was telling her.
"I was put on monitored bed rest for 3 weeks until I was 31 weeks along and then they couldn't stop my labor any longer," Ellery sighed, "She was in the NICU for 6 weeks and then I stayed with her for two more weeks because I was afraid she was going to die at any moment."
"Where is she now?" Emma asked the fairly obvious question.
"With her father," Ellery said, "I came home after two weeks because Mom called me to say Regina had Henry. I had planned to bring her here with me, but hearing what Regina had done made me realize she would be safer out past the town line. I go and see her every few months. It's not enough, but I know she's safe and happy."
"If you told the judge…" Emma began.
"No," Ellery interrupted, "I don't want Regina to know, ever. If she found out, she would cross the town line and stop at nothing to use my daughter as collateral. Look, I know we made plans to talk tonight, but I don't think I'm up for it after what happened in Archie's office. Can we take a rain check?"
"Yeah of course," Emma said, staring at Ellery worriedly, "You gonna be okay?"
"I'm always okay," Ellery smiled sadly, "Good night, Emma."
"Good night," Emma replied and watched as her sister walked away.
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