Author's Note: You guys are amazing, you seriously are the best! Several people asked about this and as some were from Guest reviewers, I will answer here as well. Yes, the vial that Hook threw against the wall was the vial of Regina's tears that Gold used on Snow in "Second Star to the Right". That is all I'm saying right now. As for the multiple comments about Esmeralda's continued safety and well-being…we'll see, Dearies. We'll see.

Chapter XV

Unexpected Discoveries

Henry stabbed his macaroni and cheese with his fork and scowled at it. His Mo-Regina's macaroni and cheese was better. She made it with three kinds of cheese and the swirly pasta that came in different colors and it always had this really yummy crust on it because she baked it. Well, at least the school lunch ladies hadn't burnt it. Em-his real mom had actually set a pot of macaroni and cheese, from a box, on fire. Snow had run in and poured baking soda on it and fixed it, but still it had been on fire. He half-heartedly picked at the rest of his food, no more appetizing then the macaroni, and flipped through his book.

No Mulan, no Aurora, no Hook, no Cora and no Esmeralda. He blew out a puff of frustrated breathe. His book had never let him down before. It had always had the answers he needed. He pushed his fingers through his hair. He already knew Aurora's story, and Mulan seemed like a good guy, well girl. He really wanted to know about Cora, Hook and especially Esmeralda. He didn't care what Regina said, he knew she was bad. Regina was the Evil Queen and if Esmeralda liked her, she had to be evil too. He just wished he knew who she was. She had to have a story. He flipped through the pages he had looked at a thousand times already and knew there was nothing there.

"So that's the famous book?"

He looked up sharply, he ate lunch alone, and nobody ever talked to him.

Gretel, or Ava as she demanded to be called, stared down at him and his book. Henry looked around and didn't see Nick, or Hansel.

"He's off with his friends. We don't always have to be together." Ava answered the question without his asking it and he felt foolish for even thinking it in the first place.

Ava sat down beside him without asking and plopped her tray on the other side of the book. "So the curse is broken, why are you still lugging that thing around?"

No one, besides Emma and Archie, had ever cared about the book or his interest in it. It was kind of neat but weird. What could it hurt, though? No one thought he was crazy anymore.

"I'm trying to figure out who the Gypsy Esmeralda is. She got here with Mulan and Aurora and I think she might be evil."

"I thought the pirate and the witch were the evil ones."

Henry blinked, how had Ava known about Cora and Hook?

"Everyone knows, Henry. It's kind of a small town and the Dwarves all have really big mouths." She shrugged, "Well except for Doc, I mean."

Ava tossed her blonde braid over her shoulder. "But seriously, you haven't figured it out yet?" She rolled her eyes, "And you're supposed to be some sort of genius with this stuff."

He slammed his book shut, "Oh and you know who she is?" Ava hadn't even known who she was until his mom broke the curse.

"Duh."

He crossed his arms over his book and raised a single eye brow. He had spent weeks and weeks practicing the move in the mirror when he'd been six. He knew it was silly, but at the time he'd wanted to be able to raise his eyebrow because his mo-Regina did so often. Now that he was older, and wiser, he knew that this particular Evil Queen movement intimidated people. She did it to make people tell her things she wanted to know, even if they didn't want to tell her.

"Stop that!"

A hard punch landed on his shoulder and he jerked away, "Ow!"

"You look like her when you do that."

Apparently he had gotten a little too good at raising his eyebrow. "Sorry."

Ava stood up, "Whatever. If you're too stupid to have figured it out by now, then I'm not going to tell you."

He was not stupid.

"Fine, whatever. I'll figure it out. I was the one who figured out the curse anyway. No thanks to any of you."

She looked like she was about to punch him again. "You only figured it out because someone gave you that stupid book. If you hadn't had that you would still be a confused little boy who's upset because he found out he was adopted. Boo-hoo, poor little rich kid who has everything but a Daddy. You would have never made it out on your own. Not like Nick and I had to. Not without your mommy to hold your hand."

Henry jumped up so fast he knocked his chair back, "Shut up!"

He could see Hansel heading towards them, he could also see the lunch monitor three tables away and walking closer.

"You may be adopted, but you sure have her temper." Ava turned to leave, "You won't find your answer in that stupid book anyway. Wake up and join the twenty first century, Henry. I mean, honestly, the school has, like, every Disney movie ever made." She smirked, "Well except for Snow White, of course."

He looked over at the lunch monitor, "But we can't check out the movies, only teachers can."

Ava plucked his pudding cup off of his tray, "You're a double-prince, why do you have to ask permission?"

A double prince? Oh yeah, he was the grandson of Snow White and he had been adopted by The Evil Queen. He was sort of a double prince. Cool.

That idea distracted him enough so that he didn't even mind that Ava had stolen his desert. He could sneak into the AV Room during recess. Mrs. Potts wasn't nearly as good as watching them on the playground as Miss Blanc-his grandma had been. That was okay, though, he was still pretty good at forging Mary Margaret Blanchard's signature to check out the DVD when he found it. He even back-dated the check-out to before the curse broke so no one would be the wiser. Stupid, huh. Yeah right.

Emma eyed the newspaper warily, like it was some kind of beast sitting on her desk. She wanted to read it, but felt like it was a trap. David had been really pissed about yesterday's article and she couldn't handle another Prince Charming melt down tonight. The man had said words that Emma hadn't even known existed, but she was pretty sure she should have covered Henry's ears.

She had heard Snow and David arguing about it late into the night. She hadn't even been able to escape the argument by plugging into YouTube because Henry had hijacked her laptop to watch some cartoon. Damn Kid had totally ganked her stuff and she had really needed to watch some dudes get whacked in the balls repeatedly. The charming argument had ended eventually with what she assumed were charming kisses and hugs, because her parents were apparently practically perfect in every way. They set the bar really freaking high: true Love, a fairy tale romance that stretched through time, comas and dreams, they had the whole package. Most of the time she had just wanted to make sure her dates weren't high, on the run from the cops, or ax murderers.

Not that the paper had portrayed David and Snow as the picture-perfect couple. Oh no, The Daily Mirror had turned it into an arc from one of the Soaps her foster-mothers had all seemed to enjoy. There had been betrayal and treason, underhanded deals, pre-marital sex, sword fights, bloodlust, and a surprising amount of trickery. Plus, apparently David was a twin, which made her very glad that there was only one of Henry. She had to hand it to the writer, he certainly had a flair for the dramatic. Daniel S. Glyss definitely had an inside track on what was what in Storybrooke. Of course, he had been Regina's pet weasel for twenty-eight years, so that was not surprising. Why did crooks always think scrambling the letters of their names around made for such good cover-names? She'd figured out that trick years and years ago. Was Sidney working for Regina again, or was it something else?

She bit the bullet and picked up the paper. The front page was dedicated to Princess Aurora's arrival in Storybrooke and how happy her parents were to have her home. There was a small mention of Mulan, and Prince Phillip, and even a line or two about her and Snow. Nothing scandalous or noteworthy. Mr. Glyss, and wow had he dropped the ball on that last name or what, seemed pretty copacetic today.

She propped her boots up on the corner of her desk and leafed through the paper, just to make sure another scathing article hadn't been tucked away in between recipes and hardware store ads. There was nothing, well there was a mention of her bar brawl in the crime blotter, but that was it.

Sidney had covered the Sheriff's Office for years, or so Regina had told her. Why wasn't there something more scandalous, or a snippy word about her performance? If Regina was trying to undermine them she'd missed a perfect opportunity. Except, Regina had said that she hadn't had anything to do with the article. Which was hard to believe, this was exactly Regina's sort of thing. So why did she believe her? Everything in her gut told her the brunette was innocent. It was hard to scheme against people when you were busy recovering from whatever it was that had Esmeralda so worried, finding out your sadistic mother was in town, and making up time with your long lost nanny.

Ugh, Emma sighed, Esmeralda. She'd heard all about the other woman's outburst at the Diner. On the one hand she was pissed. That was her Kid and her father, technically, that the woman had been talking to. On the other hand, she sort of admired the balls it took to stand up and say what she had said. She'd been alone in a room full of people that didn't like a damn word that had been coming out of her mouth and she'd said it anyway. That was her kind of woman. That must have been where Regina had gotten her stubborn streak. It was, Emma mused, amazing to watch the two together. There was less Evil Queen and more of something else in Regina lately. It was like there were two completely different people living at 108 Mifflin Street. The Mayor and Evil Queen, whose mother was Cora, and then there was Regina, Henry's mother, who had been raised by Esmeralda.

Wow, that was really complicated. Emma closed the paper and tossed it on the desk. Everything was complicated these days. She longed for the simpler days, when Pongo had been her biggest problem. When Operation Cobra had been a passing fantasy that The Kid would grow out of. When she had been able to ogle the mayor without worrying about fireballs flying at her.

"Hey Mom!"

Henry barreled in with Snow and David close behind. Her peace and quiet was immediately shattered, but that was okay. She didn't actually mind that much, anything to get her mind off of the whole Regina situation.

"How was school today, Kid?"

Henry shrugged, "It was okay, but tomorrow will be way better."

Okay, she'd bite. "What's so special about tomorrow?"

Snow chuckled, "The big Science Fair, Emma. Henry's project has won first place in his grade for the last three years running."

His project?

She forced herself to grin, "So what's your project on, Kid?" Cause he had done it at school and it was all ready to go, right?

"I dunno, we haven't done it yet. I thought we could put it together tonight."

We, as in her and him?

Okay, correction, she would much rather think about Regina. She didn't do science, or math or any subject other than lunch, recess, study hall and detention. She'd been a pro at detention. A real Nelson from the Breakfast Club, only with blonde hair and girl parts.

"Oh, Kid, this sounds like a job for your grandmother. Like, as in her actual job."

She sent her best, her very freaking best, puppy dog eyes at Snow.

"Emma I can't help Henry with his project, I'm a teacher it would be unethical and unfair to the other students."

Okay, time to whip out the big guns. She fixed a pout on her face that had made grown men (Neal) melt into puddles of goo. "C'mon Snow, you got your teaching degree from Curse University, just bend the rules a little bit. For me and Henry."

"I got my degree" Snow, or Mary Margaret, narrowed her eyes, "from Saint Joseph's College of Maine, thank you very much."

Emma had blown that one big time. How was she supposed to have known that M.M. had crazy love for her imaginary college years? Well, the fifty-five thousand mugs, glasses and the ratty old tee-shirts should have been a clue. Strike one.

"David." She could totally be a Daddy's Girl if he helped her out.

Snow leveled a glare at her husband, though. He shrugged and smiled good naturedly before raising his fist in the air, "Go Monks." Strike two.

"It'll be fun, Mom. We are supposed to do our project out of the Biology unit of our book!"

So that probably left out foam ball and hangar solar systems. Shit. She had failed Bio in high school twice. Strike three, she was out. Double shit.

She looked to her parents again, in full panic mode now. She couldn't let the Kid down, but she was drowning here.

"I-uh, it's been a long time since I did a Science Fair project." Like the other side of never. "And we don't have a whole lot of time. Can't you just resubmit last year's project?"

Twin stares, one from her son and one from Snow, told her that her idea was not going to fly. She looked to David, but he had found a very interesting spot on the far wall to inspect thoroughly.

"Right."

Snow seemed to take this as an agreement and grinned, "Well, we'll let you two get to it! I can't wait to see what you're going to come up with."

She led David, the traitorous dog, out and that left her and Henry in the office.

"We're screwed, aren't we, Mom?"

No one could say that her kid wasn't smart.

"Totally."

She could not believe she was about to say this, but they only had one option at this point.

"We're going to have to bite the bullet on this one, Kid."

Henry plopped down in the chair in front of her desk, the one that wasn't filled with paperwork she was supposed to do sheriffy things with. "That sounds dangerous."

There was that sarcasm again.

"Kid you know there is only one person in town that can save our collective as-butts now."

Henry scowled, "You can't mean-"

Oh she did. She was just desperate enough to go to Plan R. R for Regina. "Kid, we're going to march our as-butts over there and beg like dogs for your mom to help us whip you up a last minute project."

"This sucks."

Emma agreed, the last thing she wanted to do was show up at Regina's and confess that she was a for-shit parent who couldn't help her son with a simple science project. If it helped Henry, though, she'd do it.

"C'mon, Captain Procrastination, let's go see your other mom."

Mayor Regina Mills had a standing order at Game of Thorns that was automatically charged to her Visa every week. If Maurice thought she hadn't noticed that she had started paying double for her dozen white roses after the curse broke, then he was a bigger idiot then she had always thought. Still, it didn't matter how much the roses cost, she would pay it. She always brought her Daddy white roses. They had been his favorite. She put the flowers on his tomb reverently, the same way she had every week for the past twenty-eight years. She came to see Daddy every week, more if there was something on her mind.

"Hello, Daddy."

She had started talking to him within two months of being in Storybrooke. He had been the only person she'd had to talk to. For years he had been the only person in her life that she could trust. He had been the only person who had given a damn about her, and she'd killed him. She missed him so much, if there was one thing she could undo, just one, then she would go back and save her father from herself.

"I've brought someone to see you. Not Henry, he's still living with Emma Swan and the Charmings." She sighed at that statement, "He's still mad at me, Daddy. He called me evil in front of everyone, again." She was evil, but to hear it from Henry hurt her. It hurt like a knife in her already ragged heart every single time he said it.

"She wasn't dead, Daddy. She came back to me. She's here, in Storybrooke. Esmeralda came back."

Esmeralda had not brought flowers. She stepped up and laid her hands on the cold stone tomb. "Hello, Henry." A number of emotions played across Esmeralda's face and Regina felt her heart fall at the sight. She wasn't the only one who mourned her Daddy. Tears pricked behind her eyes and she wrapped her arms around herself. She always hurt those she cared about the most.

"I miss you, My Love."

It hit her like a slap to the face. She had known, since she was a tiny girl, that Daddy and Nan loved each other. Hearing it, though, was something completely different. Hearing Esmeralda call Daddy something so soft, gentle and heartfelt broke Regina's heart all over again.

AN2: How picky do I get about details? I spent 30 minutes googling colleges and universities in Maine to find Mary Margaret's perfect alma-mater and I don't even like her.