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Who: Henry Mills, Regina Mills, Neal Cassidy, + You
Where: Running through the mansion
When: March 8th, late evening, probably about 10, 11 p.m.
Rating: PG at the most probably? Will edit if needed
Summary: Henry returns post 4x12 - spoilers for the most recent OUAT episode
The Story:

Regina

There was no memory of Wonderland in Storybrooke. One moment Henry was heading to bed in his room at the mansion, the next he was standing outside of 108 Mifflin and demanding Regina let him inside. He was convinced now, all that she needed was for someone to not give up on her, and it became pretty clear that he could be that person when Robin couldn't. Except Henry really liked the way Robin made his mom smile, and he liked Robin himself, and Roland. So needless to say, when they left Storybrooke forever because of Ingrid, it sucked for lack of a better word. He felt for his mom, wanted to be there for her and was more determined than ever to find something to help. Was he supposed to be trespassing in the big mansion he couldn't remember ever seeing before? Probably not. But something in his gut told him that the answers were all here. And when he finds shelves and shelves of blank books just like his, he knows he's hit jackpot.

But, there's school to go to, more birds to learn about apparently, and for a while, things are just normal. He likes normal. He likes working with Regina, he likes hanging out with Emma, visiting his grandparents and getting to play favorite uncle to baby Neal. Or something - was it uncle? He has no idea. In any case, it's normal and nice.

And then the two biggest jerks he's pretty sure he's ever met make it into Storybrooke. Cruella De Vil just seems...a little unhinged, and Ursula he isn't sure about yet. But he instantly doesn't like them for the things they say. He leaves when Regina asks him to, knowing she wants to protect him. When he steps outside of the diner again though, it's back into Wonderland. For a second he freezes, just looking around a little until it all clicks into place again. The Queen of Hearts and Alice and mirrors and Jabberwockys. But more importantly, his family. And he remembers Regina left and came back so he takes off running to find her, not even bothering to knock before he bursts into her room. He doesn't even bother to think about the fact that it was dark outside or what time at night it might be.

"Mom? Are you here?"

Neal

After his mom is filled in, when he finds out Emma left about the same time he did, he's not worried. Now that he's experienced it himself, and he knows all of Emma's stuff is still here, he knows it's all okay. But he knows his dad is still here, and there's a twinge of guilt at forgetting him, even though it definitely isn't his fault he did. He's also more aware of the time now and this time knocks on the door, waiting to be let in. He can't wait to tell him about everything that's happened, and Elsa and Anna, and everything.

Everyone else, other family and friends

And now he's starving. He never did get those chocolate frosted donuts for breakfast, and now it's even way past dinner. He makes his way up to the diner, relieved when he finds it still open, then makes his way back down and kind of around the mansion, looking to see if anything had changed, but being wary of anything he doesn't recognize right away just in case it turns him into something. He's not ready to be muppet-ized again or something.

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Henry grins a little. "A little bit. Um...a couple months. Me and Emma have been helping Regina find her happy ending. Robin...kind of had to leave Storybrooke because magic was killing Marian.

The smile's gone from his face at that, because it isn't funny. "We're trying to figure out who wrote my book, who the author is, and I found all of these blank ones. Just a bunch of books that look just like mine, only there's nothing written in them yet."

“I heard about that.” Maybe not all the details, but Regina had told Neal about Robin’s departure at least. Back when they were still making attempts at conversation. But better that Henry think Neal’s serious demeanor is born simply out of sympathy rather than complications. Fighting or not, it isn’t funny. Whatever issues they’ve got aren’t enough for Neal to stop wishing Robin and Regina happiness.

“A bunch of blank books? Like, there could have been more than one written?” That Henry’s book is special goes without saying, but they’ve never really known to what extent. Sounds like that’s the mystery they’re attempting to solve back home.

"Yeah, like we could all have...multiple versions of our own stories. Robin found a page of him and Regina kissing when they were really young, only...she never met him then. So either...she did meet him and someone erased their memories, someone wrote it and it ever happened, or...I guess it could be kind of like what happens here. Some people's version of the world is completely different."

Like there's no zombie apocalypse in his, for example, but everything else, cities and history, is all the same.

"After Emma and Regina freed all the fairies, Mother Superior said there's clues in my book about who the author is."

Has he left some things out? Does he need to backtrack or can he just slide on by here?

Of course when Henry talks about other possibilities, Neal can't help but start wondering just how much of that applies outside of the book too. After all, if someone's been writing about their lives, why think they would just stop with the curse? Maybe somewhere there's a page with him making the right choice when it came to bringing back his father, not getting so desperate that he said screw the cost and ended up dying for it.

But what would that mean for everyone else? Neal's been told time and again his death saved everyone, Henry included. So if he doesn't die, what does that change?

In the end, it's not something Neal's going to point out to Henry. Neal knowing about his own future clearly hasn't changed it, after all. Better to not give the kid more things that he can't change to worry about.

Besides, Henry's still going a million miles a minute. In less than a breath they jump from talking about the book to freeing fairies, and Neal gives his son a look of confusion.

"Wait a minute. Freed the fairies from what?" Yeah, no joy Henry. Neal didn't miss that detail, or the fact that it's gotten zero context so far.

"Oh, right."

Uh oh.

"...Rumple," because he's not sure he should call him 'grandpa' anymore, "Trapped all of the fairies in some kind of a hat to collect their magic. I don't really understand why, I think it was to do something really, really powerful. And after that...Belle used his dagger to make him leave Storybrooke."

Sorry, dad.

“Wait, what?!” It’s the shortened version of the question he just asked a minute ago, but Neal’s head is spinning too quick for him to care. In the span of a few sentences they’ve gone from things being reasonably okay back home to his father going after fairies and being banished by his wife. “Kid, you gotta slow down, or—hell, I don’t know.”

Because Henry’s not skipping over details on purpose, Neal knows. He gets up, suddenly unable to just sit there, anxiously running his hands through his hair as he tries to put this all together.

“Tell me everything, Henry. All of it. What the hell is going on with my father?”

There's no way Henry can lie to his dad, not even by omission. But he feels bad, because he knows that this whole time, Neal's hoped that something good changed in his dad after Zelena. And now Henry has to tell him it might not have at all.

Elbows on his knees, Henry spills. Everything about the hat that he knows, but he leaves out the part about Hook's heart - not on purpose, but because that's the one detail he's been spared.

"After he trapped all of the fairies, all of their magic was going to do something. I don't know what. And I think I'm the furthest ahead now, but maybe Emma will know when she comes back. Anyway, Ingrid, this...Snow Queen, I guess, she put a curse on the town line so that anyone who leaves can never come back. And Belle used the dagger to command your dad out of Storybrooke," Henry says quietly. And he lets that linger for a minute before taking a deep breath.

"But it's possible something else is maybe going on. Because Emma and Regina found a way to let in two people who said they ran into him in New York. They said they stole his phone. Do you know Cruella de Vil and Ursula?"

Somewhere between the pained looks and all the dread running through his own head, it clicks for Neal how incredibly unfair it is to have to ask this of Henry. Emma hadn’t known because she hasn’t been through that yet, but what about Regina? She found the time to tell him Zelena deserved a second chance, but couldn’t mention that Rumplestiltskin had fucked his up so badly, Belle banished him from Storybrooke?

He’s nearly mad enough to press her for answers, despite the fact that they haven’t spoken since he barged in on her memory. Nearly, except Henry himself suggests Emma might be able to give him answers on her return, and that’s definitely the better option. So’s calming down, because as angry as he is, as much as his gut is twisting, that isn’t Henry’s fault. The kid ended up telling him the story he never should have had to, because yet again someone figured he didn’t need to know.

“No.” When he finally says something again, his voice comes out rough. Neal clears his throat, forces himself to keep steady when he doesn’t feel that way at all. “Not the real versions of them anyway. I saw the movies, but those are hit and miss at best.”

And at worst, Pan looks like a mischievous kid who just doesn’t know any better.

“Henry, he can’t hear about this.” Pretty funny, coming from the guy who’s pissed because secrets have been kept from him. But while Neal might end up raising his voice, Rumplestiltskin could do a hell of a lot worse—especially since Neal doesn’t know all the circumstances, what his father was trying to do or even how far he’d been willing to go. Not when once again, he’d betrayed the people who believed in him most. “Not from you. Promise me right now, you don’t breathe a word about what happens to him.”

"I promise, dad."

It's an instant promise, one he doesn't even have to think about because it's his dad asking him. And, truth be told, he doesn't want to be the one to break anything to Rumple. Not that he sees him much anyway; their last encounter had been sort of weird. All Henry had wanted to know was more about how his mom was when she was younger and it handed ended kind of abruptly.

"Okay. Okay, good."

With how quick the promise comes, maybe Neal doesn't have to ask at all. Henry's a smart kid, a survivor like his parents, and he probably knows better than to let things like the end of Rumplestiltskin's time in Storybrooke and his marriage slip out. But Neal still worries; Henry's his son, and it isn't like his father hasn't done terrible things to the people he loves before.

Finally Neal manages to overcome that nervous tension, dropping down next to the kid once more. "Sorry. I just--I'd really hoped that he'd changed." Even though he'd known the whole time that Rumplestiltskin's self-sacrifice had been for the people he loved alone, that sort of selflessness had to mean something good. But then Neal died, and maybe what the Blue Fairy had said all those years ago still held true: Neal had been the last part of Rumplestiltskin's heart that stayed human, so his death meant the death of that small bit of goodness too.

"I did too," Henry admits. "I was...I was working in his shop for a little while. Before things got too..." Too what? He doesn't know how to say it.

"But he's here, and maybe that means something now. I mean, that's important, right?"

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