Chapter XXXV

Innocence and Experience

Author's Note: Italics indicate written word.

The First Annual Storybrooke Family Unity Ball, which was a mouthful, started in two hours. Her invitation sat on the vanity, mocking her. Her dress, pink and long, was pretty. It was lovely even. Only Aurora wished it wasn't quite so lavish or so youthful or so pink. After her time traveling and her recent discovery of modern clothes. she preferred light, simple, practical clothes.

That was Mulan's influence, it had to be. Mulan. She missed Mulan. It had only been a few days but she was worried, angry, scared and her chest ached. Aurora hadn't been able to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. She had lost both Mulan and Phillip and finally had time to sit and think about them. She dreamed of them. She ached for them.

Aurora sighed and buried her face in her hands. How was she supposed to dance, smile and be merry at the Ball when she felt so miserable? So alone?

"Aurora?"

She turned to see her mother at the door.

Don't worry, Sweetheart." Leah came into the room and stood behind her at the vanity. She rested her chin on the top of Aurora's head. "Modern cosmetics are a magic all their own. We'll make sure that you look glorious." Aurora could see both of their faces in the mirror. They looked very alike. When she was a little girl she had thought that her mother was the most beautiful woman in the world. She had wanted to be just like her. Now she was. She was a perfect princess, right?

Was that all that mattered? That she look pretty and do as her parents said? It had been once when she was a girl. She was older now, different, more than a pretty face. She had lived, had her own experiences, her own adventures. She was not the same girl she had been once upon a time. Right?

Her mother tugged her up and lead her by the hand to her own room. Her mother's room was a calm place. It always had been. There was the scent of vanilla and the bowl of polished amethyst. Her Mother had even cultivated the same plants she'd grown at home, Bella Donna. If Aurora closed her eyes, she wouldn't know she wasn't in the castle she'd grown up in.

Mother sat her down at her own vanity and here things had changed. There were new things spread across it. There were mechanical things and slick plastic pots and pallets. The very idea of learning the names, uses and application techniques gave her a headache.

She didn't have to worry about it, though. Her mother started to fuss over her and do everything for her. As if she was still a child. It had been this way countless times. She'd been to so many Balls, worn so many gowns, danced so many dances. This time should be the same, but it wasn't. She felt restless, uncomfortable, disconnected from herself. Aurora felt lost with no hope of finding her way home.

She rubbed her chest. The place where Mulan had replaced her heart. It prickled and twinged with phantom sensations.

Her mother, already made up, wore a robe. Aurora was wearing a slip, a flimsy silk under-dress. Her dress was still waiting in her room.

"I think we should curl your hair, don't you? Some up and some down." Her mother twisted Aurora's hair around her finger. "It is so red, from all that traipsing around outside. The sun always brings out the red in your hair. Hopefully, it won't clash with your dress."

Aurora didn't care. How could she care about a silly thing like a dress when her whole life was in chaos? Everything had changed, was still changing. She was changing. Aurora didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. Who was she?

"Mother"

Aurora's hand was still over her heart and she tried to massage the ache away. It wasn't helping.

"How do you know if you have True Love?"

Phillip's kiss had awoken her from her sleeping curse. That was True Love, exactly as the stories said.

"Or can you have more than one True Love?" She bit her lip. "Or if your True Love dies can you find another person to love?

Another love, strong and brave, who had a smile just for her. A love that made her ache in more ways than one.

"Can love be real and good but not true?"

All the questions that had been buzzing in her head spilled out. Aurora was confused, about so many things. She had flashes of memory, from her night at the bar, and they made her feel things. They were not romantic feelings, but they were definitely not innocent either. Lust. Want. Desire. She had been on fire from drink and wild sensations.

"Can" She bit her lip and wondered if she should ask at all.

"Go ahead, Aurora. You can ask me anything." Soft fingers carded through her hair, "Aurora?''

She could see her mother's face above hers in the mirror. They looked so much alike. Leah was so proper, so perfect, an amazing queen. She was also her mother and she was smiling. If she couldn't ask her mother, who could she ask? Aurora swallowed her fear. "Can a woman love another woman?" She felt her heart jerk and her stomach jump. "As more than friends, romantically I mean." She watched her mother's face in the mirror. Her nerves jangled as she waited for her mother to say something.

"Oh, Aurora." Mother dropped her chin on top of her head. "I wish you didn't have to ask these questions." She sighed, "Don't worry, Sweetheart, I'm not mad." She backed away and sat on the edge of the bed. She didn't look angry, but she did look upset, unsettled.

"You're not?" She didn't understand. Aurora had imagined how she'd react: yelling, denial, or even casting her out. This quiet moment, this muted sadness wasn't one she had considered or anticipated.

"Love" She sighed, "is the most powerful force in any realm, but it is not simple." She twisted her necklace back and forth, "It is never simple."

Aurora turned around in her chair. "It was for you and father though, right? I've heard the story a million times. He saved you from the sleeping curse like Phillip did me."

Instead of answering, Leah laughed. Aurora cocked her head to the side, baffled. Why was her mother laughing?

"Sweetheart, you are old enough to know the difference between reality and a fairy tale."

Her father's rage. Her mother's icy silence. Their disjointed lives that only met at the dining room table for silent meals. It didn't seem like true love. Had it always been like this and she'd never noticed? Had she been so blind? So sheltered? So innocent?

"Your father and I were betrothed shortly after my seventh birthday. We exchanged a few polite letters that said nothing. I didn't meet Stephen until two days before our wedding. It was after I had awakened. We were strangers. She paused. "Over the years we came to care for each other. We respect each other. We loved being parents. We love you most of all. You brought us closer than years of marriage had."

Theirs had not been a great love story after all. It wasn't anything like the story she thought she knew.

"That is exactly why I made sure you and Phillip knew each other. I wanted you to at least like him. The two of you fell in love and that was a blessing." She frowned and her fingers played with her necklace, twisting it to and fro. "A blessing hidden in a curse."

Her mother was not making any sense. The sleeping curse had definitely not been a blessing. "But if father didn't wake you from the sleeping curse, then who did?" Who was her Mother's true love?

"The curse I was under was different and not broken by a kiss. It was more of a sleeping poison. Someone made a cure for me."

There was more. There had to be more to the story. Leah was tugging on her necklace and staring off into space. It seemed like she was holding something back. Something important, someone important.

"Love is beautiful and bright and when you meet someone and there are sparks-"

She looked different, Aurora realized, softer somehow. She had never seen her mother look like that. She was smiling and she looked more relaxed than she had in days.

"And your heart feels like it is beating so fast that it feels like it will burst. You also feel safer than you ever have. Love isn't an immediate-encompassing bolt from the blue. It is a living thing, it breathes and grows. It is beautiful but it can be the most painful thing in the universe. Love is giving someone the ability to utterly destroy you, but trusting them not to."

She wasn't sure who or what her mother was talking about, but her words resonated. There were tears in both of their eyes. Aurora rubbed her chest and her mother played with her necklace. They were both caught up in the same swirl of emotions. Together, but separate, lost in their own thoughts.

"I wish that Phillip" Her mother started to brush her hair, " was here for you, sweetheart. I wish that you could have had your Happily Ever After. Not everyone can be Snow White, though. There are far more people like Regina Mills in the world, scarred and left bitter by lost love."

She sighed and a tear dropped off of her darkened eyelashes. Now Aurora had more questions than ever.

"But we aren't in the position to chase love." She paused in her brushing, "Our lives are forfeit to our kingdom, to our people, to our family."

Aurora knew that, had always known that, but she'd had Phillip and they had faced that together. It had seemed like a gift, not an obligation. She had thought that hers would be a story of True Love's triumph, like Snow. Would she end up more like the Evil Queen?

When Aurora closed her eyes and thought about love, it wasn't so simple. She didn't see only Phillip. She saw Mulan too. What did that mean? She remembered the heat and euphoria from the night at the bar. She could hear Phillip's laugh and feel the calluses on Mulan's sword hand. Was she fickle? Was she an aberration? Were her feelings wrong?

"But Mother, what if a woman loves another- "

Her mother looked away for a moment. "Love comes in many forms and none of them are wrong." She took a deep breath, "And in this world there so much knowledge and understanding of these things." She sighed again. "But we are not normal people. We have a duty. We must marry well and produce heirs. I'm sorry, my darling girl, but you need to heed your father's wishes and forget about Mulan. You will always love Phillip and Mulan, and it is okay to love both, to cherish them in your heart of hearts. You will see them in your dreams. You can love them forever in your there." She hugged her, "and nobody can take dreams from you."

Aurora didn't know this woman. She was wise, but melancholy. She was revealing parts of herself that Aurora had never seen before. There was so much more that was still hidden in the shadows of her eyes. Her mother was a stranger to her.

"Now we need to get you ready. We'll be the fairest of them all tonight." She chuckled and the sad and serious stranger became her mother again. "Because it is going to be a royal mess."

What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to say? Aurora didn't know. So she sat still and quiet and let her mother do what she wanted to her. She was a pretty doll, perfect on the outside. She was a chaotic mess on the inside, though. No one could see that though, so it didn't seem to matter. Aurora was more lost, more scared, and more alone now then she'd ever been before.

What kind of story was this?

"Can you please-" Ruby asked as she untangled yet another cord, "-explain why I spent my precious morning off pulling Christmas decorations out of storage?"

She looked up from the tangled strand of lights. "It is a lot early for the holidays. Besides Madam Mayor lit this place up like Times Square every December for the last ten years. I know she has her own collection of lights." The woman hadn't missed a holiday since she'd adopted Henry.

When Emma had called and asked her for a favor, this was not what she'd had in mind. Granny was going out of her mind getting ready for the stupid dance. The dance that she didn't get to go to because someone had to be on duty. Her new job did have its pain in the ass moments. Still, Ruby was Emma's friend and she was happy to help with whatever it was she was trying to do.

Emma looked up from her own knot of lights. "Well," She shifted from foot to foot. "If I tell you."

Emma was nervous. Ruby could feel the anxiety coming off of her in waves. Of course, Emma's life had been one train wreck after another since Henry had dragged her to Storybrooke. She couldn't blame the woman for being a little twitchy.

"You can't tell anyone, not even Mary Ma-Snow."

Poor Ems, Ruby couldn't imagine how confusing her life must be.

"Of course I won't tell a soul" She held up her middle finger, "Wolf's Honor."

Emma grinned and returned the gesture, "Princess Promise." She didn't look like the Sheriff or the Savior at the moment. She was wearing her skinny jeans and a white tank top. Her red jacket was slung over a patio chair and she was barefoot.

"So I'm betting this has something to do with the reason you had to call me from Regina's cellphone?"

Emma put her knot of wires down on the patio table and took a deep breath. "So I'm kind of dating Regina."

Ruby stopped untangling. "Like officially?" They'd been dancing around each other since day one. Besides, Emma had spent half of their night out talking about Madam Mayor. She hadn't shut up about how great, amazing, beautiful, smart, and great Regina Mills was. She'd said great twice and had made big goo-goo heart eyes.

Emma's smile has the answer. She looked happier than Ruby had ever seen her.

"Yeah it's official, but its sort of on the D-L since ya know some people might over-react."

Well, that was an understatement. Snow was going to either kill or die when she found out that her precious baby princess was doing the dirty with The Evil Queen.

"If she makes you smile like that, I guess she isn't so evil anymore." It was like Ruby had told Henry. Regina was not the Evil Queen that she'd fought against years ago. She'd changed.

Emma pulled several stands free and straightened them out.

"So she took me out to get a dress for this dance-thing and we-"

She stared off into space for a minute with a goofy look on her face.

"Oh my God, you are such a fairytale wanna-be. Are you going to start singing One Day My Evil Queen Will Come?" Everyone was going to freak. Emma didn't need her nay-saying too.

Emma threw her half-untangled light strand at her. "At least I'm not the fuzzy half of Beauty and the Beast."

Emma grabbed one of the other strands of almost untangled lights. She started to string them around Regina's pristine backyard.

"Yeah right, and who is Beauty, my Granny?"

Ruby untangled her strand and started to run them along the yard too.

"Uh Belle, her name means pretty. I mean she is cute if you're into the nerdy librarian thing."

Because Evil Queen's girlfriend had so much room to talk. "Says the woman dating the HBIC of Storybrooke."

Regina was beautiful, Ruby wasn't blind. She happened to think that Belle was more beautiful. She was also smart, kind, and she smelled like- Ruby stopped that train of thought. Emma's mushy-romance brain had rubbed off on her.

She tried to match the pattern that Emma was stringing around the yard.

"Belle is Mister Gold's girl and he is the Dark One. They don't call him that because he hugs kittens and likes smooth jazz and baseball games."

He was bigger and badder than the Evil Queen and had a few extra centuries worth of bad-guy time to wrack up evil deeds. His scent was revolting.

"But she's not with him- with- him." Emma finished her strand and stepped back to look at what she'd done. "The last I heard she was being escorted to this stupid shindig by Mulan as just-friends. I got a sneak peek at the dress she's getting and it was great. She's going to look amazing."

Yeah, Ruby had heard. Well, she'd heard the Mulan part, not the dress part. She'd spent hours scrubbing the sheriff's station's tiny single stall bathroom. She'd worked through her feelings about Mulan escorting Belle. She wasn't jealous. She definitely was not jealous.

"Rory is gonna turn purple. She is already half-in-love with Mulan. I mean Phillip-Who." Emma cocked her head to the side to look at the lights that Ruby finished stringing around. "Who knew all you fairy tale people were queer." She shook her head, "And Snow acts like it was all heteros and happiness over there. You know-"

Emma blew out a breath. There was a lot going on in her little blonde head of hers.

"Snow wants me to apologize to Rory's parents for our night out. Like they own her. Like Snow owns me. We kind of had a fight over it."

She'd heard. She'd gotten at least a dozen furious texts, three calls and four long rants about it. Ruby loved Snow, but sometimes she made it difficult. She got too wrapped up in her royal shtick.

"So you gonna do it?"

Emma looked comfortable. Her blonde hair was in a messy ponytail. She had a cocky smile on her face. She didn't look like someone who planned to apologize for anything.

"Nope." She grinned, "Are you gonna ask Belle to dance?"

She wished. The idea of holding Belle close and moving to the music was heart-stopping. She hadn't wanted anything so much in a long time. She hadn't felt that way about anyone in a long time, not since Peter.

"I wish" She deflected, "but some asshole has me scheduled to work that night."

"Yeah" Emma picked up another strand of lights, "Regina can't be my date either. She's going to be there, but she's got some plan to shake stuff up."

No surprise there. Making grand entrances and announcements was Regina's signature move. Ruby sincerely hoped that she wasn't planning another "Sorry I'm late" moment.

"I'm supposed to look pretty and dance with our kid." Emma sighed and rolled her eyes. "That's why we're doing up the backyard. It is going to be our first date, nothing fancy like a ball, but still nice."

Emma was smiling from ear to ear and she looked like Snow used to when she talked about David.

"Seriously, Rubes, You know Mulan is only going to see Rory. That rebel is breaking all the rules to see her girl. It is super sweet and so very gay."

Ruby couldn't help it, she laughed. Emma was right about that.

They returned to the patio table and the box of tangled lights.

"I kind of hope they'll get together. Because, you know I bet Aurora is a real" Emma winked, "pillow princess"

Yeah, Emma was a real class act. Total royal material. Ruby pushed her, "You're so damn funny, Swan. You should give up law enforcement to be a comedian. How did SNL miss your comedic styling?" Ruby laughed, "What does Regina see in your goofy ass anyway?"

Between politics, new jobs, newspaper ads, and crises, it was nice to goof off with a friend. Especially one that was so easy to talk to. It wasn't exactly what she'd had with Snow, but it was great. It was a friendship that was unique to her and Emma.

"She outclasses you, Blondie." Ruby held up her arms and flexed. "If she ever got a look at a real woman she'd leave you in a hot minute." She couldn't help herself. "And trust me, she took a peek or two during the curse."

Emma let out a shout and they started to wrestle and rough house. "I'm gonna tell Belle how big of an asshole you are, Wolf Girl!"

"Well, I'll tell Regina" She twisted around and tried to flip Emma onto the ground. "How you spent half an hour talking about how much you adore her ass. What a story, wonder if the Mirror will buy it!"

Emma tried to put her in a headlock as they continued to tussle. "Oh, it is on now!"

It was the most fun Ruby had in what felt like years. Emma felt like Pack.

He finally knew how to get Cora's story, the real one. The Book of Romani was sitting a couple of rooms away. It had been the only thing he'd thought about all day at school. He'd finally have the answers he needed. Not for Operation Hydra, but to help his Mom. She was really worried about Cora. When he learned about her, he would be able to help his Mom. He would be able to help her defeat the bad guy-girl. He, they, would finally be heroes.

He just needed a couple of minutes with that book. So Henry waited. He had to bide his time. It was like a stakeout, like his Ma used to do when she was a bounty hunter. His Mom went to get her dress for the ball. Esmeralda was meditating in the backyard. He was the only one in the entire house and it was finally time.

He sneaked into Esmeralda's room. It used to be the biggest guest room, but he was pretty sure Esmeralda wasn't going anywhere soon, so it was hers now. She'd even made it sort of homey. Her cloak was draped over a wingback chair in the corner. The once bare desk was now covered with projects. There was a pile of weird coins and some wire. There were papers on the desk with writing on them, but it was in a different language. Maybe it was Spanish? Esmeralda had started speaking it a lot more, and when she was talking to his Mom, it was all she spoke. His Mom answered her in Spanish too. He didn't know what they were saying, but it was pretty. His Mom had sung to him in Spanish his whole life, but he had never thought anything about it. It was like he was learning new things about his Mom every day. It was cool and weird at the same time. It was like finding puzzle pieces that he hadn't even known were missing.

Cora was a missing piece, a big one. He knew if he figured out her story, then he would finally have a more complete picture. Everything would finally made sense.

Everyone thought he was just a kid and was too little to understand. They all wanted to protect him from the truth, whatever it was. So like before, he was going to have to figure it out for himself.

Henry stopped, still balancing on his sock-covered tip-toe. He paused to listen. He could hear the air cycle on and off through the vents but nothing else, not even the TV or radio. He looked around again to make sure he was alone. It was just him. The Book of Romani was on the bedside table.

Henry picked up the book. It was heavy, super heavy. Even the big dictionary in the school library wasn't this big. He opened it up and the pages were blank. It was, Esmeralda had explained, a magical book and showed stories when asked. He sat on the neatly made bed with the book balanced on his knees and calves.

"Show me Cora Mill's story, please."

Words appeared on the page, black and elegant, like fancy cursive handwriting.

The Miller's Daughter

He read it out loud and frowned, a little confused. A miller? He knew what that was, sort of. His Mom had been a Queen, and he knew that Cora was the Queen of Hearts. How did that all start with a miller? Millers were peasants, not kings and queens.

The mill sat on the road that stretched between King Leopold's kingdom and-

"La" He scowled and tried to sound out the next word, but didn't know what it meant. "Spanish." He huffed, "What does that even mean?"

The book responded and the words swirled and re-arranged on the page.

The Southern Kingdom.

His mom had told him about that. Her dad had been a Prince there. He was finally getting to the real story. He kept reading.

They sold grain to the merchants who traveled between the two prosperous kingdoms. The mill was very profitable. Until the Miller's wife died giving birth to their one and only child, a girl named Cora.

Finally! Cora's story!

The loss of his wife broke the miller. He drowned his sorrow in wine and ale.

He was a drunk, Henry had seen stuff like that on TV. Oh also Mister Leroy, Ma said he was a drunk.

So Cora grew up in a hard and loveless environment. Her father's fist left scars on her body and his neglect left wounds on her soul that would never heal.

Child abuse, like on the shows Granny watched all the time.

He kept reading and things didn't get better. In fact, it got worse, much worse. Cora's father was angry and lazy and made his daughter work hard. The pictures made it clear that these weren't normal chores. It wasn't like folding laundry, dusting or loading the dishwasher at all. She was carrying bags of stuff that were heavier than he was. Why did the miller do that? He was stronger than she was. She didn't get to go to school or have friends or anything. His Mom had said that life had been hard, but this was crazy.

One day King Xavier came to his northernmost palace and there was to be a great ball.

Well, that felt weirdly appropriate, like he was meant to be reading this story today.

And Princess Eva, the daughter of the King of the North Mountains put her foot out and tripped Cora causing her to-

Wait, Eva was Snow White's mother. In this story, both Eva and Cora were the same age, but that didn't make sense, did it? How could Cora's daughter be Eva's daughter's stepmother if Cora and Eva were the same age? He kept reading and started to see that there was a lot that his book had left out.

"Eew!" He almost pushed the book out of his lap and on to the floor. Rumplestiltskin, Mr. Gold, had liked Cora, his grandmother. No, not just like, they'd liked-liked each other. There was a picture in the book of them kissing, romance kissing. He wanted to know Cora's story but he didn't want to see anything super gross.

He kept reading, though, because he had to know. He stared at the pictures too, it was almost like a comic book. Rumplestiltskin stood in front of Cora with a long rolled up contract. It was a contract for her first born. For his Mom. He couldn't believe it. There was no way that could be right. Right? He kept reading.

Then Cora stared at herself in the mirror, looking over herself with a critical eye. She had a choice to make, love or power.

The picture showed him what she chose. She'd ripped the heart out of her own chest and she'd smiled the whole time. He stared at the picture, unable to look away. She had the red heart in her fist and she looked happy about it. How? Why? Who would do that?

"The Queen of Hearts." He whispered because now the words had meaning. It was kind of scary. He kept reading because he had to find out more.

Prince Henry, the man he was named after, and Cora had a baby-his Mom. There was a picture of his mom as a baby. She was cute and little, sort of like Ashley's baby. It had to get better now. He turned the page and his stomach twisted. It didn't get better. This wasn't a bedtime story, it was a horror story. It was like Goosebumps books or the movies Ruby wasn't supposed to let him watch.

He flipped through the pages. Cora learned magic and used it a lot. She spun straw into gold and took hearts and a ton of other scary things. The pictures were violent and made him uncomfortable. This wasn't a story or a comic book. Cora had really done these things to real people. It was awful. He started to flip through the pages faster and faster. He didn't want to see all these terrible things.

His hand jerked to a stop when he saw a different sort of picture. It was his Mom as a kid and she was in pain. Cora had her hand in his Mom's chest. She was so young. She could be one of his classmates. Cora tried to take his Mom's heart when she was a kid. He flipped to the next page. It had to get better.

It didn't. Cora locked his Mom in a cellar surrounded by beating hearts for days. She dropped her into a giant maze made of bushes that had grabbing vines. Cora hit her and held her up in the air with magic. She used branches and limbs to hold her.

His Mom had done that to him once, and then she had let him go with David. She had scared herself. He'd been glad at the time, he thought he'd been escaping the Evil Queen. Now he wasn't so sure. Had his Mom thought that she was bad like her mom had been? She wasn't! She'd never hurt him like Cora had hurt her. Not ever. He knew that.

Henry flipped further and stopped when he saw the man from the stables. The one that had attacked him. The man who his mom had begged David to let her see. Daniel. Cora crushed his heart right in front of his Mom. She'd been begging and crying and then-

It wasn't like his book at all. His Mom had not wanted to be Queen. King Leopold had been old, older than Cora. They hadn't been in love. They hadn't even known each other. It had not been happily ever after at all. It wasn't a fairytale.

He flipped through pages to see what happened next. He almost cheered when his Mom pushed Cora through the looking glass and into Wonderland. The next picture almost made him throw up. Wonderland hadn't stopped Cora, she had become a queen. She'd taken hearts and cut off heads. The picture was of Mister Jefferson's head-not with his body.

"Off with his head." He remembered when Mister Jefferson had taken Grace away. He remembered the scar on his neck. No wonder he'd taken Grace away. He didn't want Cora to hurt her. He didn't even want her to know about Grace. The same way that his Mom hadn't wanted him to know about him.

Cora was cruel and wicked and - and - she was evil! Way more evil than the Evil Queen. He wasn't even sure the Evil Queen was evil anymore.

"Little Henry!" Esmeralda was at the door. "What do you think you are doing?!"

Caught! He was in trouble, but that didn't matter. Tears burnt his eyes and he could feel his chin wobbling. He didn't want to cry, he wasn't a baby, but he did not understand. He held the book out to her.

"Why?" He didn't understand. "Why didn't you or Grandpa Henry stop Cora? You stopped her once but then you left!"

Esmeralda had magic and Henry had been a prince. They should have stopped her! Why hadn't they stopped her?

"She hurt Mom! All the time! She killed Daniel and made her marry an old man! She is-"

He finally understood why his Mom was so afraid, "Cora was the real evil one, the evilest queen of them all!"

His hands curled into fists, "Why didn't you or the fairies or anyone help my Mom? Where were all the heroes then? Everyone let all this terrible stuff happen!"

He was yelling, which he wasn't supposed to do, but he wanted to know why. Kids were supposed to tell someone. That was what they said in school. If someone was hurting you or touching you in a bad way you told a teacher or a doctor or a police officer or even a friend. People helped you if you were in trouble. Why hadn't anyone helped his mom?

"If her dad was so great and loved her so much, why didn't he stop Cora? Why didn't anyone try to stop her? Heroes stop villains, that's what they do!"

Right?

Esmeralda sat down beside him and took her book back. They sat quietly for a moment. She was calm and not saying anything. Why wouldn't she answer him?

"Why did your stupid book show me all that stuff anyway? I wanted to help!" He was so mad, furious. He wasn't yelling anymore, but angry tears scalded down his face. "This won't let me help anyone. I just wanted to. I wanted-"

"Want?" Esmeralda sighed. "The Book of Romani doesn't show you what you want. The Book of Romani shows you want you need to see. This book is ancient magic, almost as old as time itself. It is powered by the stories of countless lives. One life is, on its own, insignificant. The universe is large and constantly moving. It is always expanding and twisting itself around other universes. Realms are created and fade away, Empires rise and crumble. Everything happens when journeys cross when people meet. When they love and lose, when they fight and learn. Those moments are where stories happen."

Well, that answered exactly none of his questions.

"Henry and I did what we could. You must understand that was a different realm. It was a different time. "That witch." Esmeralda's face darkened and the scar on her cheek wrinkled and ticked. "Cora was-is very powerful." She made a gross face when she said the name like it was a curse word. "I had to leave, my word is my bond, so Henry was alone. Cora could have killed him and then Regina would have had no one. If he had killed or jailed Cora, we were both afraid that the Dark One would have taken Regina away."

The contract for Cora's firstborn. He and Cora had talked about changing it, but what if Mr. Gold hadn't? He could have taken her away. He probably wouldn't have been very nice to his mom, either.

"So we did the best we could. Henry was a smart man. Ruby's mother, Anita, would carry letters and parcels for us. I was not able to see and fight for my Nightingale in person, but that doesn't mean I didn't help at all."

He wanted to ask what she had done, how she had helped, but didn't. He didn't want to know anymore. Cora's story was terrible. His Mom's life had been awful. Was that why she had become the Evil Queen? Because she wanted revenge for all the bad things that had happened to her? She'd got her big and bad revenge, the curse, and then. And then? She'd become a hard-working mayor and had adopted him and hadn't ever done anything evil. She didn't even let him cheat on his math homework.

He knew the story and now he understood why everyone was so scared.

He was crying (like a baby) again. He scrubbed the tears away with the back of his hand.

"My mom sent Cora to Wonderland and then she tried to keep her away from Storybrooke. She put a curse on the well to stop her. Then she took it away because I wanted her to. Now Cora is here and Mom is scared, like really scared. I've never seen her so scared."

Esmeralda didn't say anything but she did hold a handkerchief out to him. It was soft and white, like his Mom's. He took it and held it in his lap, he stared at it. "I brought Emma here. I helped break the curse. I made her take down the curse on the well. Is Cora being here my fault? She wants to hurt my Moms, maybe kill them. That's why she's here, right, to hurt us? If I hadn't-"

Esmeralda wrapped her arm around him in a hug. It was warm, solid and comfortable, like his Moms or Snow and David, like family. Like a real grandmother's hug should be.

"I do not know what is in Cora's mind, Little Henry. She has strayed very far away from the balanced path." Esmeralda frowned a little. "And even before she took out her heart, she wasn't a very kind person."

He nodded, "And not having her heart makes her really bad, right?"

Esmeralda squeezed him a little tighter, "Yes, Little Henry. Taking a heart is a monstrous act. It is one of the very worst things a person can do and Cora has done it over and over again. Without her own heart, she doesn't feel any remorse. She isn't bothered by it at all. She is proud of it, that was why she crowned herself the Queen of Hearts. Wonderland used to be a beautiful place, full of wonder and laughter. She destroyed it, twisted into a place of darkness and fear."

Esmeralda had been to Wonderland too. He wondered if there was anywhere she hadn't been.

"Cora doesn't feel things like you or me. Without her heart, she can only feel echoes of her past emotions and shadows of what she should feel now. Taking all those hearts has damaged her right down to her soul."

His Mom had taken hearts too, lots of them.

"But my Mom-"

Esmeralda squeezed him tight again and one single tear slid down her cheek. "Your mother has a beautiful heart, full of love and compassion. She hides behind her magic and her surly attitude. She is working very hard to return to the balanced path."

Yes, she was, he had seen it himself. It was nice to hear someone else say it though. Even better, it was nice that Esmeralda was talking to him like a normal person and not a dumb kid. She wasn't dancing around anything or leaving parts out.

"I know she can do it." Esmeralda sounded completely sure like it was an absolute fact.

Esmeralda let him go and he sort of missed her hug. "It is time I told you my story. A story that only one other person, my Henry, has ever known.''

She closed the book and set it aside.

"It started a long time ago, on a dark night with a prince and a baby."

Henry listened and learned another piece of his Mom's life.

"So then I left them and started to search."

Henry was trying to keep all the information in his head. He wished he had his notebook to write all this down. "The Swan. You've spent all that time searching for The Swan.

She reached into her skirts, into pockets he didn't even know were there. She pulled out several folded papers. They were old, like the pictures he'd seen of the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Esmeralda unfolded them carefully. The papers were yellow and the colors were fading, cracked, and peeling off in places. She spread them out across their laps.

He tilted his head as he looked at them. "These are the pictures from your story?" It was weird to think of his mom as a kid, even weirder to think of her as a baby. Here was the evidence though, right on his lap. He looked at the colorful blobs. He knew the plot and it still took him a minute to figure it out. He tilted his head to the other side. The blobs could be people and the red and yellow blob had a big yellow blob that could be a horse.

"Or a car," Henry mumbled to himself and it hit him, like a multiplication trick or the capital of Nebraska. "It is not a horse its a car. The Swan isn't a bird it is" He piped up, careful to keep hold of the picture, "Emma Swan. My Ma is The Swan and The Savior. The Sad Queen is the Evil Queen and my Mom."

His book hadn't even hinted at something like that. It was-it was? "But they hate each- " He trailed off because they didn't hate each other, not anymore. In fact, they had been nice to each other lately. Ma had even started staying over and his Mom was smiling again.

"Are they?"

Could they really be?

"Are my Moms in love with each other? Are they True Loves?"

He turned to Esmeralda, "Do you think they could be in love, like Snow White and Prince-uh Princess Charming?"

Thoughts rushed through his head. The Savior had brought back the Happy Endings. More than that, she deserved to be part of one. Henry smiled, he couldn't help it.

"I found her. I found Mom's Swan."

"Yes." Esmeralda let out a laugh. "Imagine my surprise that a child did in a handful of weeks what I could not in years.'' She was being kind of sarcastic. Henry couldn't stop smiling. He'd been a hero and hadn't even known it.

"But they're not together, like girlfriend-girlfriend!" This, he decided, called for an operation. "We have to help them!" He bounced on the bed. "We here to help them see they're perfect for each other so they'll share True Love's Kiss and we can be a real family! Everything made sense.

Esmeralda smiled at him, "I do not thi-"

Henry rolled his eyes," Trust me, they need help. They're super stubborn and Grandma and Grandpa are going to freak when they found out." His thoughts were racing. "And Cora won't like it either."

She'd already fought with Emma and Snow once. She'd scared and upset his Mom so much that she had totally lost it and destroyed a room. Cora was bad news, like Bellatrix Lestrange on a bad day.

"You're gonna help me, right?"

Esmeralda sat for a moment like she had to think about it.

"Please! For my Mom! You're here again and you can help her for real!"

He folded his arms over his chest, "If Grandpa Henry was here, he'd do it. I bet he'd like Emma a lot."

She smiled, "You have altogether too much of your mother in you. She could talk me around to whatever she wanted too."

Yes! He had Esmeralda on his side. This was going to work.

"Operation Swan Queen." It sounded and felt right. " is on!"

"Spirits help us." Esmeralda shook her head like it was funny.

It wasn't a joke, he was finally going to be a real hero.