A little more insight into young Master Jones tonight
As always please review
:)
"Come on, there's no need to be frightened" Snow said crouching down next to Junior, he had ground to a halt and was just staring up at Regina's house with big round eyes.
"I am not frightened" he suddenly said looking her straight in the eyes "Is this really where Gina lives? It is the biggest house I have ever seen!"
Snow chuckled standing back up and pushing the stroller forward "Come on"
Junior skipped after her with a grin on his face and when the door opened and Henry ran out the kid gave a cry of delight.
"Henry!" he yelled loudly running forward and throwing his arms around Henry's middle.
"Hey Killian" Henry replied giving him a quick squeeze
"I am not Killian" he declared wearing a smile on his face "I am Junior, Junior Jones"
"Awesome" Henry grinned back "I like it"
"As do I" Regina suddenly said as she walked out the door too and Snow gave a little laugh as Junior ran forward and held his hands up expecting to be lifted but if Regina had thought it strange she hid it well by just scooping him up into her arms and hugging him "I am glad you came, now come on inside. We have a surprise for you"
"What is it?" he asked sitting back in her arms and looking at her in wonder
"Well if I told you that it wouldn't be a surprise now would it?" Regina said raising her eyebrows bringing her finger up to Junior's nose and gently tapping it.
Junior gave another little giggle as Regina lowered him to the ground but in seconds he was running after Henry when her Grandson yelled
"Come on... this is gonna be so cool"
Snow blew out a breath to take the hair from her forehead as she pulled Junior's bag from the back of the stroller and handed it to Regina.
"Are you sure you're up to this? He is a handful"
"We will be just fine Mary-Margaret." Regina reassured her before giving a little smile "Thank you. Thank you for trusting me with him"
"Of course we trust you with him..." Snow cried "Regina when will you start seeing yourself as we all do? You are no longer someone that we look at with distrust, you are family both our and his"
Regina looked through the door as laughter rang out from somewhere, she gave a little laugh and turned back to Snow
"I think he's found his gift... Henry wanted to get him a Pirate dress up set, I managed to convince him to get him a remote control sailing boat. I'm going to take them to the lake to sail it do you want to join us"
Snow gave her a genuine smile and said "I'd love to"
Snow had nowhere to be, David wouldn't be home for a few hour so she had time and it was such a nice day it would be nice just to get out in the fresh air.
"Great" Regina replied "Come on in while we grab a few things then we'll get going"
Snow maneuvered the stroller into the entrance hall where she parked it up, Neal was sleeping so he would be fine for a few moments. She followed Regina through to the kitchen but as she walked through the doorway she ground to a halt.
"Regina!" she cried out "You only went to the store a few hours ago HOW did you get all this stuff here so quickly"
"I have my ways" Regina said with a shrug but when Snow gave her a look of utter disbelief then looked pointedly at the huge pile of stuff on the table. The former Queen cried out in dismay "What? So I might have gotten a bit carried away but he's going to need these things eventually anyway and not all of this is for here. I got a few things for him to take away with him... I figured that Swan wouldn't have had time"
"Thank you but you really didn't have to" Snow sighed and walked forward flipping through one of the piles of clothes "These are winter clothes Regina!"
"Well, it will be winter soon enough... there are summer ones there too" Regina replied looking like she didn't care that Snow thought she was crazy
Just then the boys ran in and Junior held a rather impressive looking replica of a sailing ship
"Look Grandma, look what I received!" he did a little happy dance as he held it up
"Wow" she said crouching down so he could show her better but before she let him talk she spoke again "What do you say to Regina and Henry?"
"Thank you Gina, thank you Henry... it is wondrous"
"Good boy" Snow said pulling him to her front so that he was leaning into her and she could see the ship better, he seemed a bit calmer now that the initial excitement was over and she watched him as he studied the ship in his hands.
"It really is a nice ship, what are you going to name her?" Snow asked him as he turned it around to look at the other side
"She is already named Grandma" he said suddenly then pointed to the scrolled letters at the rear of the little model "See she is named the H.M.S. Victory"
Snow was a little taken back, did he just read that? Surely not... Henry must have told him but something in the way he looked at the lettering had he wondering.
"Did Henry tell you that?"
"No Grandma, LOOK it is here on the side. What does H.M.S. mean?" he asked looking to her for the answer
Snow was flabbergasted she blinked a few times then answered "Her Majesty's Service, it means that she is a ship from the Royal Fleet"
Snow looked up at Regina hoping she'd witnessed this too but she hadn't been paying attention, her and Henry were putting some drinks into a bag to take to the lake but now Snow needed to know if this was true, had Junior just read at the age of five?! She glanced back at the table, her eyes fell on a stack of story books and it gave her an idea.
"Why don't you put your ship down for a minute and come and see some of the other things that Regina and Henry have gotten for you"
Junior gave another little dance, it was like he couldn't contain his feelings, they were constantly just ready to burst free and it made Snow giggle, he was just such an expressive boy. Junior placed the ship down gently on the floor by the door then skipped over to the table but he was too small to see so Snow pulled out one of the chairs and helped him up onto it. Instead of looking happy the smile fell from his face and he gasped in awe.
"All this is for me?!" he said looking up at her
"It is but it's not all for one place. Some will stay here, some will go to Grandma and Grandpa's house and some will go to the Jolly"
He reached forward and ran his hand over the pile of clothes "I have never seen so many clothes in all of my life, are you sure that they are all for me?"
"She's sure" Regina suddenly said as she came over and Snow had to fight back tears as Junior suddenly jumped up to his feet on the chair and threw his arms around Regina's neck.
"Thank you Gina."
Regina brought her arms around him and hugged him back "You are welcome young man"
Junior looked back at the table but remained standing on the chair so that he could see better and just as Snow had hoped his eyes fell on to the books.
"BOOKS!" he cried out actually clapping his hands "LOOK GRANDMA... I have books, I have never owned a book before"
"Well now you do... have a look then" Snow said eagerly
"I'll help you" Henry suddenly appeared at the table too and picked up one of the books from the pile "This is a good one, I chose it, it has dragons in it. We can have a look at the pictures just now and later at bed time I can read it to you"
"I would like that very much Brother, thank you."
Snow sighed to herself, the teacher in her had wanted Junior to have really read the name on the ship but it looked like he just knew what the Ship was called or so she thought. Within minutes Junior was asking questions about everything in the pictures but when he suddenly frowned and brought his finger to the page he ran it over one of the words and looked up at Henry with a frown.
"What is a "Night Fury"?"
"It's a type of Dragon, in fact it's the coolest Dragon of them all" Henry replied without thought then flipped a couple of pages and pointed to the black dragon and again Snow watched as Junior studied the book.
"Why is he called "Toothless" when he has teeth... look you can see them here"
"Because they are retractable so it sometimes looks like he has none"
Snow's eyebrows were practically up in her hair... Junior could read!
Instantly she wanted to know more, how was this possible? She pulled out the chair next to him and casually sat herself down. Henry hadn't noticed that anything unusual was happening and she wanted to keep it that way for a couple more minutes.
Snow lent in and asked in a light tone "What other kinds of Dragons are there Junior? Can you find them?"
He nodded and flicked another couple of pages before he stopped and pointed at a picture of a green and yellow two headed Dragon.
"This one is a "Hideous Zippleback" I think that is how it is pronounced, these names are quite strange"
And there it was... Killian Jones had learned to read at a remarkably young age.
"Wait..." Henry suddenly gasped "You can read that?!"
"Aye" Junior replied with a little smirk, he seemed to know that it was something special
"How?!" Henry asked in awe
But Junior just shrugged "I have always just known the words"
"Woah" Henry's sat heavily in the chair next to him bringing his hand up to his head "This is crazy"
"Will you still read to me tonight?" Junior suddenly asked as if he thought that now that Henry knew that he could read himself that he wouldn't
"Only if you read to me too" Henry replied with a smile
"Of course, it would be an honor to read for my Brother. I used to read books to Liam, ones that he managed to sneak in at night but after the Captain noticed that one of his books was missing and found it in my bed I was starved for a week and given twenty lashes... we never read at night again. I missed it, the stories were full of adventures and sea monsters. It was so different from our life that I almost found myself hoping them to come true, they took us to a different world, a world where Liam and I could escape the Captain"
Junior spoke in a very matter of fact way, it seemed that talking to Archie had had a good effect on him and as Snow thought back she realized that what the boy had just said made so much sense. This would be why Hook loved to read adventure books. She had seen him practically devour books over the last few months even having more that one on the go at any one time.
Snow's mind was reeling... what else did the boy know?
But right then it looked like Junior was done with the academics for the day. He closed the book gently like it was a precise artifact then jumped back onto the floor.
"May I sail my ship now please?" he asked looking up at Regina with a look of hope on his face
"Sure kid and when we get back we can have dinner, how about lasagna followed by apple pie"
"I have no idea what either of those are but I am willing to find out" Junior replied with a little smile and a shrug. Right then in that moment Snow saw Hook, that was EXACTLY how he dealt with situations just like this... it was more than a little freaky seeing the Pirate in the boy but she didn't have time to ponder it more as Junior suddenly took hold of her hand and gave it a tug.
"Come on Grandma, we are going now. May I help push the babe in his carriage"
Snow gave a little chuckle "Are you not forgetting something?"
He gave a little frown and looked around before his eyes fell on his ship, he gave a sheepish grin and let her hand go with a little giggle.
"Aye... I forgot my ship!"
Yep... All brains but no common sense. Over three hundred years later and still nothing had changed!