Not My Homeland Anymore
Chapter 4: Time Went On For Everybody Else
As soon as he got off the bus, Henry headed for the nearest taxi and knocked on the window.
"Uh, do you take credit cards?" He held up Miss Blanchard's credit card (which he would return to her Monday morning).
(It wasn't as though he had any other options- that bus ride had cost more than Henry had expected, and he'd only barely had enough cash on him to cover a one-way ticket to Boston. Besides, this was what Miss Blanchard would want. Or, at least, she would once she remembered who she really was.)
The driver dropped Henry off at the address he'd printed off of the website, and, taking in a deep breath, he knocked on his birth mother's door.
Less than twenty minutes later, they were on their way back to Storybrooke.
("You know, the librarian in Storybrooke has a car this exact same color. His is a convertible, though."
"Yeah, that's nice, kid. Don't distract me while I'm making my turns.")
His birth mom said they weren't stopping for snacks, so Henry pulled out his book to pass the time.
"What's that?" Emma asked. (It felt weird calling her that, but he didn't think she wanted him to call her 'Mom,' and 'Miss Swan' felt too distant.)
Henry opened his mouth, about to tell her the truth, but then he remembered what Mr. Cassidy had said when he'd tried to tell him about the curse.
"Maybe it isn't a good idea to go around telling other people about this."
"Why not?"
"Most people would find this sort of thing pretty hard to believe. And even if they do believe you, how would you like to hear that you were cursed and there was nothing you could do about it?"
There was something Emma could do about the curse, of course, but maybe it was better not to overwhelm her with too much at once. (She was already hesitant about coming back with him, telling her that the place was cursed probably wouldn't make her any more excited about visiting.)
"Just a book," he said innocently.
"Just a book, huh?" She raised an eyebrow, and he remembered what she'd said about her superpower.
"Alright, fine, it's my favorite book," he admitted.
"Aren't you a little old for fairy tales?" Emma asked, sounding skeptical.
"You're never too old for fairy tales," said Henry, repeating what Mr. Cassidy had told him when he'd complained about reading what he'd considered 'kid's stories.'
It seemed to convince her, and she didn't say another word about it.
Neal had just gotten home after dropping Ruby at Granny's when he heard a noise outside.
Looking out the window, he saw Henry climbing out of a vaguely familiar-looking yellow car.
Henry!
He'd been worried when the kid hadn't shown up. He'd called the mayor's office, but Mayor Mills hadn't known where he was either and had panicked when Neal told her that her son hadn't shown up at the library. (She'd snapped at him for not looking after the boy properly, despite the fact that Henry wasn't really his responsibility until after he arrived at the library, but Neal hadn't taken it personally. After all, her son was missing.)
Throwing his coat and shoes back on, Neal ran out the door just in time to see the car pulling away.
The little yellow Bug reminded him of his old car, but it was the license plate that really made his eyes widen.
Massachusetts? Who could that be? And why did they have Henry with them? I should probably call the mayor.
Emma wasn't sure exactly what the shrink meant about Henry 'missing his shift at the library' but the address he gave was definitely helpful.
The door flew open as they were coming up the walkway.
"Henry!" A dark haired woman ran out the door, a man who was probably the local sheriff following behind her. "I just got a call from the librarian, he said he saw you in a car with a Massachusetts license plate? Where have you been?"
"I found my real mom," the kid yelled, running past her. Emma took a step back, not wanting to risk Henry's mother's wrath, but the mayor just took a deep breath and invited her inside.
(It was only as Emma was driving back that she realized that the kid had left his book in her car. Smart.)
(She'd forgotten about that book, actually.)
Mary Margaret was grading papers when she heard a knock on her apartment door.
"Miss Mills! Always lovely to see you!" She noticed a blond woman standing behind the Mayor, looking uncomfortable. "And who is this?"
"Where's my son?" Regina demanded, glaring at her. Mary Margaret wrinkled her nose in confusion.
"It's Sunday morning- isn't he at home with you?" Why would Henry be here, of all places?
"Would I be here if he was?" The mayor gestured at the woman behind her. "Did you give him your credit card so that he could find her?"
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Mary Margaret tried to address the stranger, but the blonde just stuttered and stumbled until Regina interjected.
"The woman who gave him up for adoption," Mayor Mills spat bitterly. Mary Margaret felt her lips make a slight 'o' of comprehension.
"You don't know anything about this, do you?" Henry's birth mother said kindly.
"No, unfortunately not," Mary Margaret pulled out her wallet- sure enough, one of her credit cards was gone. How long had that been missing?
"This is a waste of time," the mayor said, turning around. "Have a nice trip back to Boston." Then she stormed off.
"I'm so sorry to bother you," said the stranger, holding out her hand. "I'm Emma."
"Mary Margaret," she said, shaking Emma's hand. "That's a lovely name, by the way."
"Thank you. Look, are you sure you don't have any idea where he might be?" Emma asked, sighing. "I just met him last night, and I don't really know anything about him other than that he hates his life and what his favorite book is. Which I still need to return, because he left it in my car…"
"His favorite book, you say?" Mary Margaret asked, thinking about what she knew about Henry. "Have you checked the library?"
Emma checked her watch as she parked in front of the clock tower, which apparently doubled as the local public library. 11:15. Mary Margaret had told her that the place opened at eleven on Sundays, so she should be good.
She pulled the book out of the passenger seat, then headed for the library door.
A little bell rang as she pulled the door open.
"Can I help you?" She heard a male voice call. Moving into the building, she turned and saw a man standing my a shelf, his back to her.
"I hope so," she said, shifting the book slightly. "I was looking for-"
Whatever words she was about to say flew out of her head as soon as the librarian turned around.
"Yes?" She didn't react as he stepped towards her. "What was it you were looking for?"
"Neal?" Emma spat out, confused and bewildered. First, the kid she gave up for adoption over a decade ago just randomly showed up on her doorstep, and now, apparently, his father, who she hadn't seen since before she went to jail, was the librarian in this middle-of-nowhere little town that she hadn't even been able to find on a map? "Neal Cassidy? What are you doing here? Is this some kind of giant prank? I swear-"
"I'm sorry," Neal said politely, his face looking exactly the way she remembered. "Do I know you?"
Neal squinted as he stared at the angry-looking blond woman standing in front of him. She hadn't sounded like a crazy person when she first walked in, but he supposed you could never tell.
How does she know my name?
"Do you know me?" The woman's face got even angrier. "Are you kidding me? It's Emma, for Pete's sake. But I suppose my name wasn't important enough to remember, oh no, I was just some stupid girl you needed to take the fall for you! If you think I'm going to let you do to Henry-"
"Henry?" Neal interrupted. That was the first thing this stranger- 'Emma,' she'd said her name was- had said that made any sense. Then he spotted the book in her arms. "Hold up, is that Henry's book? Are you looking for him?"
"Uh, yeah," Emma said, her anger giving way to confusion. "But what are you-"
"Oh, you must be Henry's birth mother," Neal said, nodding slightly. Now this was starting to make sense. Henry must have told her about him. "He's mentioned that he wanted to try to find you, but I didn't think he would actually just leave like that. Is that where he went yesterday? I was wondering why he didn't show up."
"Um, I guess so," the woman said, now sounding very lost. "Look, is he here right now?"
"No, he doesn't usually come in on Sundays," Neal explained. "Although I'd hoped he'd at least stop by to explain himself. Kids will be kids, I guess."
"So if he's not here," said Emma, "where would he be?"
"I'd try his castle."
"You left this in my car," Emma said, handing Henry the book and sitting down next to him. "This is a pretty crazy town, huh?"
"You have no idea," Henry said, smirking. She was getting curious. That was good. "Please don't go?"
"Look, kid, I can't stay here," said Emma, sighing. "I have a life, and-"
"It's okay, you don't need to make up excuses," Henry said. "I know you don't like being around me because I make you feel guilty. But you don't have to be. I know why you gave me away- you wanted to give me my best chance."
"How do you know that?" Emma asked, her face softening.
"It's the same reason Snow White and Prince Charming gave y-their baby away," said Henry, catching himself.
"Snow White and Prince Charming, huh?" Emma looked down at the book. "That's not how I remember that story going."
Henry opened the book, flipping to the page with the picture of Prince Charming putting his daughter in the tree trunk.
"See?" He pointed, making sure that his hand was covering the name on the blanket. "They put their baby in the wardrobe to make sure she would be safe from the Evil Queen's curse."
"A curse?" He could tell that she was getting curious, so he decided to play one more card.
"Look, I know you're leaving and everything," Henry said, turning to face her. "But before you go, could you maybe read one story with me?"
"I don't know…" Emma trailed off.
"Please?" Henry begged, mustering up his best puppy-dog eyes. "Mom never read any of these with me when I was little- she thinks they're stupid."
"Oh, alright," said Emma, throwing her head back in defeat. "Which story are we reading?"
Henry flipped back a few pages.
"This one," he said, pointing. "Start here."
Emma wasn't sure what to think about all of this. Henry, Regina… Neal. (What on earth was he doing here?)
But this book was important to Henry. If it helped him out, if it let him process and understand the world around him, and even her own choices, then it couldn't hurt to take a break for a few minutes and indulge him, right?
Besides, maybe it could help distract her from the mess her life had become in the past twenty-four hours.
"Okay, let's see," she said, shifting the book onto her lap. "'I say we fight!' Prince Charming said, slamming his fist on the table. 'Fighting is a bad idea,' replied Jiminy Cricket- Wait, what's Jiminy Cricket doing in this story?"
"Just go with it," Henry said, giggling. He shifted closer, leaning his head on her shoulder.
"Fine," Emma said, smiling. "I've got to say, though, I'm liking the sound of this Prince Charming guy. Where was I? Oh yeah, here. 'Giving into one's dark side never accomplishes anything.' And what does he know, self-satisfied little cricket? He doesn't have to take responsibility for anyone but one bratty little wooden kid. 'And how many wars has a clear conscience won?' Charming asked. You tell him, dude."
Henry laughed again, and she wrapped her free arm around his shoulder.
"Shh, don't distract me. 'We need to take the Queen out before she can inflict her curse!' Ooh, is this that curse you were talking about? Wonder what kind of curse it must be, to scare someone like this guy…"
After they finished the story (which was kind of depressing for a children's fairy tale, all things considered), she drove him back to the library so he could return the book. (She glared at Neal over Henry's head, but he didn't seem to notice. Oh, if Henry weren't here, she'd be ripping him a new one just for that. Another time, then, when she didn't have an impressionable child with her.)
Then she dropped him off at his house and tried to talk to Regina, maybe find some common ground.
Regina, however, didn't seem interest in making friends, and Emma left even more disconcerted than she'd been before.
She really needed to eat something. There was a diner by the clocktower, wasn't there?
Ruby looked up from the magazine she'd been flipping through as the door to the diner opened.
Weird. They didn't usually have too many customers on Sunday, especially in the evenings. She'd been planning to close up soon, and then maybe look through one of the study guides Neal had loaned her.
The blond woman who stepped in was a stranger, but Ruby had heard enough of the gossip floating around town that day to have an idea of who she was.
"Can I get you something?"
The woman, who was presumably little Henry's birth mother, smiled gratefully, sliding into the booth Ruby indicated.
"Yeah, just get me whatever's good," she said, rubbing her hands down her face.
"Long day, huh?" Ruby made a sympathetic face. "You look like you could use some fish and chips, a glass of wine, and… you know what, why don't I add on a slice of pumpkin pie and some hot chocolate, on the house."
"Wow, you're good," the stranger said. "How'd you know about the pie?"
"Oh, my best friend always says that there's nothing better after a long, stressful day than a nice slice of pumpkin pie," said Ruby, heading back towards the kitchen.
"Sounds like a smart friend," said the older woman. "Any chance I can get some cinnamon in that hot chocolate?"
"He is!" Ruby called back. "And sure, no problem." (It sounded kind of gross to her, but Henry and Mary Margaret both took theirs the same way, so she was used to preparing it.)
After paying her bill, Emma decided to find out if there was a place where she might be able to sleep that wasn't her car or another jail cell.
"Hey, is there a hotel or something around here?" The waitress handed her the receipt and smirked.
"Sure, let me lock this place up, and then you can follow me down the hall," said the young woman, whose name tag read 'Ruby.' "Granny also runs a little bed-and-breakfast, although I can't remember the last time anyone actually rented a room. How long did you say you would be staying?"
"I don't know," Emma said, following her across the hallway. "A week, I guess? Maybe longer?"
That was when she heard the yelling.
"Ruby! Where are you, you ungrateful brat! You should have closed up the diner and been back here twenty minutes ago!"
"Ahem," said the young woman, ignoring her grandmother's scolding as though she'd heard it a million times before. "Granny, we have a guest."
"A what?" The old woman adjusted her glasses, gaping.
"Granny, this is- I'm sorry, I just realized that I didn't catch your name," Ruby said, pulling out a ledger and dropping it in front of her astonished grandmother.
"Emma," she said, smiling at the exchange. "Emma Swan."
"Emma?" She startled- she hadn't even noticed that the gentleman (and there was absolutely no other way to describe the man who'd spoken) had even come in the room, let alone that he'd been standing right behind her. "What a lovely name."