21Title: Girl Meets Henry
Author: Joshua
Disclaimer: Disney pretty much owns it all, both Girl Meets World, all characters associated with it, and Once Upon A Time, and all characters and concepts associated with that. I own nothing, I get paid nothing for this, and I'm only doing this for fun, please don't sue. Oh, and OUAT is set during the hiatus between the 'Frozen' half and the 'Three Villains' half of Season 4, while GMW is set sometime during Season 2, after "Girl Meets Rileytown" but before "Girl Meets Texas".
Summary: During the year that they were Cursed to Forget Storybrooke, Emma and Henry lived in New York City and Henry went to a regular school. And then the Wicked Witch came and they went back to Storybrooke. But what about the friends they left behind?
Story:
Once upon a time, there was a town called Storybrooke, where all the Fairy Tale characters we know fought for their Happy Endings. They lost. Returned to the Enchanted Forest they came from, the Savior, and her son, escaped the Dark Curse once more, while their Family faced a greater threat in the Enchanted Forest. For over a year, they lived a normal life in New York City, until the Savior was called upon once more, to defeat the Wicked Witch.
This is the story of those the Savior, and her son, left behind…
OUAT_GMW
Things were finally getting back to normal, Emma silently mused to herself as she completed her patrol. Mary Margaret… er, Mom, had finally given up her role as Mayor, which she'd never wanted in the first place. Emma, not to mention everybody else, was much happier with Snow White as a school teacher and pillar of the community, rather than as the Mayor of Storybrooke.
Stepping into the vacated role, and quite happy to have it back from what Emma could deduce of the woman's attitude, Regina resumed her position as Mayor, and aside from a single incident with a tiny bit of almost-arson (she fireballed her mom's painting, for crying out loud), she'd actually turned things around and gotten the town running smoother than ever. A few malcontents were grumbling in the background, but the vast majority, which now included the entire population of the Enchanted Forest, plus a few, were quite satisfied with how she was handling the town.
David… Dad, was quite happy being her deputy once more, and happily doting on her baby brother whenever he got the chance to. Despite being her father, he was really cool to work with, plus he never complained about having to take orders from her, nor doing all the paperwork.
Henry was starting the eighth grade now, and despite still being his teacher, his grandmother promised she wasn't showing any favoritism towards him. Considering the exacting standards she set herself to, Emma quite frankly believed her.
And then there was her 'extended' family to think about. Gold, Henry's grandfather on his father's side, had been run out of town by the man's own wife, Belle. Emma's "sister" in magic, Elsa, and the ice-wielder's own biological sister, had made it back to Arendelle without too much trouble, and was reportedly putting their kingdom back to rights. Robin, Regina's… boyfriend, was actually still in town and seeing Regina at least twice a week for dates, while she and Henry usually took on babysitting duty for Roland.
As for her own boyfriend, although she had yet to say that word out loud, well, she and Hook were… good. At least, she certainly thought so. They'd gone out on more than just a handful of dates, and despite his guilt over trapping the Fairies in the Wizard's Hat, she felt that things were progressing nicely. She definitely felt more comfortable around him than she had at first, and it was getting to the point that she kinda missed him when they weren't together.
Cruising by the last of the "Border" roads, Emma Swan, Sheriff of Storybrooke, truly felt that her life was starting to get back on track, despite all the craziness of the last few years of her life. Maybe there was such a thing as a 'Happy Ending', after all.
And then a large minivan, which looked way too familiar to her eyes, crossed the border from the other side and sped on past toward the center of town, effectively bringing the world crashing down around her ears yet again.
Spin-tailing the cruiser around, while turning her lights and siren on, despite the van going below the posted speed limit, Emma couldn't help feeling that she'd seen this particular van before. It wasn't until she'd caught up and pulled them over, just a few streets away from the town square as a matter of fact, that she finally noticed the bumper stickers and window decals. All of them proudly declaring the driver to be a supporter, parent… and teacher at John Quincy Adams School, NYC!
Turning off the siren, Emma just stared, her eyes refusing to blink as she finally realized how she knew this van. She just sat there, staring, her lights flashing and engine idling, but she just sat there. Probably for nearly five minutes, repeating over and over to herself, "No way, no way, no way, no freaking way!"
Her first thought, after getting out of the spiraling loop, was, "I've got to call Henry!" Followed almost immediately by the dreaded revelation, "Regina's going to kill me!" Coupled with, "My parents are going to kill me!" Her last thought, before finally getting out of the Sheriff's car, was, "I wonder if Hook would be interested in running away together? Maybe back to Neverland…"
Walking as slowly as she possibly could toward the driver side of the minivan, she continued to argue with herself. "C'mon Emma, it's not the end of the world. Just… the only vestiges of your outside 'normal' life coming to Storybrooke… Oh who the hell am I kidding, it is definitely the end of the world. Luckily we deal with the end of the world on a monthly, if not weekly basis around here, so… routine. Except there is nothing routine about… these people. I need to call for backup! Only… that would mean calling my Dad… yeah, no. Just… I have no idea what I'm going to say, and I'm talking to myself. Way to go, Emma. Way to go."
By this point, unfortunately, she'd reached the driver side window and was not surprised in the least by who she saw driving, nor who she saw in the front passenger seat, not even who she saw scrambling to 'look over the shoulder' of the driver and in the driver side passenger windows of the minivan looking out. As the window rolled down, the blond sheriff took a deep breath, forced a friendly smile (which wasn't as difficult as she'd feared, much to her surprise) and said, "Hi Topanga. Hi Cory. Hi Riley, Maya." She waved at the faces in the back windows, "Hi Lucas. Hi Farkle."
Facing front again, she sighed and adjusted the Sheriff's Badge on her hip as she spoke to the New York Attorney driver. "What brings you to Storybrooke, Maine?"
"Oh, I think you know, Sheriff Swan," said the lawyer with her 'shark' look on full.
Emma really hated that look.
Well, when it was aimed at her.
Like it was now.
What was she going to do?
OUAT_GMW
Henry Mills was just getting out of class for the day when his world got turned up on its end, shaken up, put in a blender, used as fertilizer, masticated, shat out, and repeated four times over.
"THERE he is!" a far-too-familiar voice screamed out throughout the hallway of St. Poppins' Independent School, the only school in the whole of Storybrooke.
Freezing mid-step, Henry slowly turned on his heel and bore witness to the absolute destruction of his world in Storybrooke… as the world he'd left behind in New York City came barging in like… like… like Riley and Maya.
The tall brunette and the short blond tweens came barreling down the hall, Maya out in front, snarling at anyone slow enough to still be in their way, while Riley practically danced along behind her. Beyond their general attitudes, they also stood out for wearing their normal attire amidst a building full of uniformed students. Riley, as always, in bright colors and floral dress, Maya in earth-tones, grungy style with 'pre-torn' jeans and jacket, although he did notice that they were 'newer' than the last time he'd seen her.
Surprisingly, but less so after seeing Riley and Maya, Henry caught sight of Lucas and Farkle in the background. Just behind them, standing just outside the Principal's Office he realized, was Mr. Matthews, his wife, their son and Riley's younger brother… and both his Moms.
"Oh boy," Henry gulped and suddenly wished like nothing else that a portal would open up beneath him and take him back to Neverland, or the Enchanted Forest, or Oz, or even Wonderland! No such luck, as Riley and Maya reached him before anybody could throw any magic beans.
"What are you guys doing here?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly, as he was definitely in Fight-or-Flight mode at the moment.
"Duh!" Maya said, throwing her hands up like it was obvious, "Looking for you, Hank! You just took off one day after Lucas and Riley had their first date. One day you were there right behind Farkle, the next you weren't in class and vanished off the face of the earth. What's up with that, Hank?"
"You know I don't like it when you call me that," he replied, annoyed. "My name is Henry. And you guys could have e-mailed me. At least let me know you were coming."
"Yeah, except that whenever we tried to ask you where you went, you either ignored the question, or changed the subject," Riley said, stepping forward. "Why would you do that, Henry? We're friends, aren't we?"
"Yes!" he immediately confirmed. "We are friends. You're all still my friends and I am still your friend. That hasn't changed!"
"Then what has?" she asked, giving him that 'hurt-and-confused-puppy-dog-look' that she didn't even know she did in the first place.
"Something happened with my…" he started to say, but then he began to think, and looked down the hall to see both his mothers staring right back at him. "Something with my… my, uh… my…"
"Yes…?" Maya drawled out the word.
He looked back at his two friends and finally said, "Just… something happened. Something that isn't entirely my story to tell."
"So, what? You've gotta get your story straight?" Maya questioned him with a raised brow.
"Something like that, yeah," he agreed without thinking.
Rushing past them, he made his way toward where all the adults were congregated outside the school office. "Moms, what is going on? Why… how are the Matthews and everybody else even here?"
"Henry, not now," Regina snapped, keeping most of her focus on the adversarial lawyer represented in Topanga Matthews.
"Wait a minute," Topanga snapped, holding out her hand in a 'Stop!' gesture. "Who are you to speak to Henry in that way? You're the Mayor, as I recall. Not his teacher, or the principal, and certainly not…"
"I'm his mother for your information, Mrs. Matthews," Regina snarled, the 'Evil Queen' rearing her head at the confrontation with another Alpha-Female.
All of the visitors looked at the Mayor, stunned, but Topanga went one further than that, shouting out, "No you are not! Emma is Henry's mother! I should know, they lived in my apartment building for over a year!"
Wincing, Emma quickly stepped forward and blurted out, "Regina is Henry's adopted mother. She raised him." At the stares she received, she shrugged helplessly and added, "It's complicated."
"Wait, so Henry," Riley spoke up from just behind the young man in question, "you have two moms? Is it like that old TV show or…"
"Yeah," Maya grinned mischievously, always eager to get more dirt on the people around her. "Is this an 'OR…' situation, Hank?"
"Do not call my son, Hank," Regina snapped, but reigning her tone in enough so it was a gentle rebuke. "His name is Henry. I named him after my own father, if you truly must know."
"Look, before anybody else talks about me like I'm not even here," Henry shouted, "Would somebody please tell me what is going on?"
"Well it's like this…" Riley began, almost trailing off into some kind of flashback conversation/moment, but Henry held up his own 'Stop!' gesture.
"Farkle," Henry called, pointing at the skinny boy in a turtleneck. "Help us out here? Please?"
"Farkle-time then?" he grinned, his whole being lighting up with barely-contained enthusiasm.
"No free classrooms, do the hallway version, please," Henry offered.
"Farkle time?" Regina whispered to Emma, completely confused. The blue-eyed blond just nodded and indicated for the dark-eyed brunette to be patient for a bit longer.
"Well, it all actually started the day after Henry didn't show up for school," Farkle began. "Riley and Maya were curious, which got me curious, and Lucas being Lucas, he just outright asked Mr. Matthews what had happened and that is when he told us that Henry had been taken out of his school, citing 'family issues'." Here, Farkle did the whole air-quotes thing, and his tone indicated he believed they were "family issues" about as much as he believed that the sky was a giant bowl with holes punched into it.
"After class that day, Riley asked her friends if there was anything we could do, or find out to see what had happened to Henry, and then Maya pulled me aside and basically threatened me to find out what happened… or else." He growled out the last two words in a very pale imitation of what the short blond had actually said.
"Maya!" Riley screamed, outraged that her best friend would actually threaten their other friend.
"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" she defended herself.
Emma grew a contemplative look on her face, before the answer came to her in a burst of insight. "Belle," she said suddenly, speaking to Regina. "She's been e-mailing lots of experts and professors and…" the older blond paused and looked right at Farkle, "... and other genius types, to help with… her problem?"
Shrugging helplessly, the boy genius gave them a boyish grin and replied, "Henry and Miss Emma might've come up a few times in our e-mails."
"How exactly did you guys get here?" Emma suddenly asked Topanga and Cory.
"Farkle has GPS coordinates, we went to the coordinates," Topanga replied, arms crossed. "I'll admit, we got turned around a few times, but Riley insisted we find out what happened to you guys, and well, after almost turning back, next thing we know… you're pulling us over."
"Is somebody going to answer the important question here?" Riley interrupted. "What happened to you guys? Why did you leave without a word, and why did you move here of all places? I thought you both loved New York."
Emma winced and looked to Regina for help. The Mayor frowned, keeping her own arms crossed, but consigned herself to having little chance of intimidating these people into leaving. In addition to that, there was the fact that they somehow got past the border, and until they knew how that had happened, it would be smart to keep them all close at hand.
"This is hardly the time or the place for this discussion," Regina finally pronounced. "In addition to it being a school day, there is at least another two hours of lessons that Henry must attend. Have… you all, even managed to procure accommodations for yourselves?"
"Well, no, but then rather than being taken down to the police station, we found ourselves being escorted to the local school. Which, being a private institution or not, really should be observing national holidays that allow for three or four day weekends," Cory defended. "I'm just sayin'."
"Hm, yes," Regina coldly remarked. "Well, if necessary, we can convene at the Sheriff's office, after school hours, and once you have managed to assuage yourselves of our local lodging facilities. I recommend Granny's Bed&Breakfast, just off of Main Street. Henry, please return to class, and after school make your way to Miss Swan's office. Sheriff?" She then spun on her heels and stormed off.
"Yes ma'am, Madam Mayor," Emma sarcastically remarked. She glanced back at her visiting friends and shot them an apologetic grin. "Look, check into Granny's, and I'll meet you all at the Sheriff's office. I'll explain everything then, I promise."
The red-leather-jacket-sporting blond then hurried after the dark-haired mayor, before turning and calling out over her shoulder, "Oh, and welcome to Storybrooke!"
TBC...?
