Chapter 5: Where's Henry?

The Enchanted Forest. Past. The Castle.

Geppetto and Pinocchio were working on the trunk as the nursery door opens.

"Nokio!" yelled a 5-year-old girl running towards the two. "Momma said you might be here!" she hugged the little boy.

"Hello little one."

"Hello, Petto." She walked over and hugged him too. "Is Nokio able to play with me?" she asked, seeing the tools out. She looked over at the tree trunk, and then at the table, one door beautifully carved, the other blank. "Is this a tree house for Emma?" she asked.

"It is, little one, and I am going to need my boy's help. Little Emma could arrive any time now."

The little girl looked at the items on the table, then back at Geppetto. "Can I help?" she asked, picking up one of the carving tools, a smile forming. Geppetto sighed. Normally he would allow the young girl to help, but this wasn't an ordinary project. He was about to answer when the three heard a bell. They looked out onto the balcony and saw a cloud of purple and green smoke.

Storybrooke. Present

Aliyah jerked out of her sleep, hearing a loud buzzing. She looked over at her nightstand, yawning. Her phone read Emma. Moaning, she grabbed her phone and answered.

"Hey, you made it home okay?" she asked suppressing a yawn.

"Never left."

Aliyah gave a smirk, "decided to stay, huh?"

"Not exactly, look I'll explain later, but the kid is missing. You think you could meet me at the Mayor's house?"

"Did you try the school?"

Aliyah could feel the eye roll, "do you think the Mayor would have thought of that?"

"Just asking."

"Look, could you come to the Mayor's house and help?"

Aliyah cleared her throat, still waking herself up. "Yeah, no problem." 'This is for Henry.' "I need to get dressed."

"See you when you get here."

She placed the phone back on the stand then got up for a stretch, staring out of the window into the woods. 'Now where would a 10-year-old go in this town. Better question, if it were Emma, where would she go?' She got dressed, then headed down towards the diner.

"Good morning. No breakfast?" Granny asked.

Aliyah stopped to stare. 'That look.' She felt like she caught her doing something wrong. She shook it away. "If you could make it to go? A blueberry muffin and a hot green tea?"

Granny nodded grabbing the muffin "Is your sister okay? Heard she ran into our lovely Storybrooke sign."

Aliyah took the muffin, laying her cash down. "She did what?"

"Wow, you are the last one in town who hadn't heard." Ruby said, coming from behind Aliyah. She went behind the counter, grabbing the tea. "How do you take it?"

Aliyah blinked, where did she come from? "Sugar."

Ruby placed the sugar and tea in front of Aliyah while Granny handed her change. "Thank you...?" she didn't know what to call them. She grabbed the sugar, fixing her tea to her liking.

"Call me Granny, everyone in town does." Granny answered, watching Aliyah.

"Ruby." Ruby grabbed the sugar and placed it back behind her. She looked like she wanted to say something, but Aliyah interrupted.

"I would love to chat but… you wouldn't know where Henry could be, would you?"

Granny and Ruby looked at her, confused. "I would say school."

"And when he isn't at home or school? Is there somewhere a 10-year-old would go?"

The two looked at each other than back at her. "You might try his castle." Ruby stated. Granny nodded in agreement.

Aliyah, nodding her thanks, left the diner. She took a deep breath as she looked around. She didn't see the castle and was going to look further into it, but headed towards the Mayor's mansion to see what Emma had come up with.

Brushing the crumbs off, Aliyah knocked on the door. She heard someone yelling a come in and went inside. Aliyah looked around the white pristine house. 'Not too shabby.' She thought.

"You're on salary; I get paid for delivery. Pounding pavement is not a luxury that I get. Ah, there's a receipt for a website, —it's expensive. He has a credit card?" Aliyah heard coming from the stairs and followed.

"He's ten."

"Well, he used one. Let's pull up a transaction record. Mary Margaret Blanchard, who's Mary Margaret Blanchard?"

"Henry's teacher."

"Now why would a teacher give a student her credit card?" Aliyah asked after finding them in Henry's room.

Regina looked at Aliyah, "Kind of you to drop bye. You think stopping for coffee and a chat is more important than my son?"

"No, I was asking if anyone had seen Henry. There is more than one way to look for someone. And this is tea, not disgusting coffee."

"Let's go to Henry's school to see if his teacher knows where he is." Emma chimed in before an argument broke.

"You two go do that, I'm going to check something. Do you know if he has any special places he likes to go?"

"No."

"Okay, I'll wing it. I'll call you if I find him." Aliyah looked back at the mayor, who was still glaring at her. She glared back, then headed out. 'That was intense.' She dropped her empty cup in the Mayor's trash before heading outside. "Okay, now where to start?" Aliyah contemplated, but headed towards her gut feeling. Towards an area where there looked to be a top of a castle.