The baby she gave up for adoption came to find Emma, and she doesn't know what to make of it.

***

"What?!"

"I'm your son," Henry repeated.

He watched as Emma shook her head in denial and looked at the two next to her. "Mum? I thought you didn't have any other family?" The other boy, who seemed to also be Emma's kid, looked at her with tears in his bright green eyes.

Around them, the shop rattled slightly, and Emma's eyes widened as she kneeled to the boy's level. "Harry, I didn't think I did. You knew I'd had a baby when I was a kid, bud, but I just never thought he'd try to find me," she told him.

Harry nodded resolutely, wiped his eyes, and walked over to Henry and held his hand out as Emma quietly talked with the other woman, who happened to be watching him closely as she listened to Emma. "I'm Harry Potter-Swan. I'm Emma's adoptive son and your adoptive brother. That's my mum Emma Swan, as you know, and my aunt Queenie." Harry had a feeling it was probably best if he didn't tell Henry that he was technically blood-related to him just yet, at least until they figured out what he was doing here in the first place.

Henry shook his hand with a smile as Emma finally shook herself out of her shock and looked at Henry curiously. "So I guess I have two kids now, then? What're you doing here, Henry?"

"I need your help." With a huff, he looked at the clock above the door. "Look, I'm sorry about this, but we kind of need to get going."

"Going?" Harry asked. "Where?" He'd migrated back over to Emma who rubbed his hair, proud of him for introducing himself to Henry like he had her when they'd met all those years ago.

"I need you to come home with me," Henry said, and he sounded so much like Emma in that moment she had to take a moment to just look at him.

"Where's home, kid?" Emma asked, frowning.

"Storybrooke, Maine," Henry smiled proudly.

Emma looked at Queenie and when she nodded, shook her head. "Storybrooke? Really?"

Henry smirked. "Yep. Storybrooke, Maine, where fairytales come to life."

Harry laughed and looked at Emma. "We can't just leave him on the streets, Mum. We kind of have to help him." His eyes pleaded with her, and she sighed.

"We'll only help if you tell us what you need our help for," she told him seriously and Henry sighed, running a hand through his brunette hair.

"I need your help breaking a curse." With that said, he pulled the backpack off of his back and pulled out a large, brown leather storybook from it. On the front in beautiful gold lettering were the words "Once Upon A Time" and he held it up for them to see.

"A curse? On what? Fairy tales?" Emma asked. "Kid, come on." She scoffed. "I can call the cops to take you home, you know?"

"I could tell them you kidnapped me," Henry crossed his arms.

Emma narrowed her eyes. "And they would believe you because I'm your birth mother," she sighed.

"Mm-hmm," Henry nodded with a pleased grin.

Emma's inner lie detector went off. "I have this thing, let's call it a superpower, that tells me when people are lying, and you kid, are." She felt Queenie's magic pulling on her own, and she sighed, knowing it was a silent warning she needed to bring it in.

"They're not fairy tales. They're true. Every story in this book actually happened!" Henry refuted, and Emma raised an eyebrow as she grabbed her bag.

"Sure they did, kid. There's no way fairy tales are real," she sighed

Harry tugged on her hand, and she looked down at him, he gave her a pointed look. "Mum, you can't say that, and you know it," he whispered.

Emma threw her head back in a groan. "Alright, I'm sorry, Henry. It's just been a lot to wrap my head around."

"It's okay, Emma. But I swear they happened. Use your superpower! See if I'm lying!" he told her.

Emma huffed, wishing this kid wasn't so like her. "Just because you believe something doesn't make it true," she muttered quietly.

"That's exactly what makes it true. You should know more than anyone," Henry told her.

"Why's that?" Emma asked.

Henry grinned. "Because you're in this book."

Emma shook her head. "Oh, kid. You've got problems."

Instead of looking insulted, Henry grinned as he nodded. "Yup. And you're going to fix them!"

***

The doors to the kitchen swung shut behind the blondes, and Emma blew out her breath in a rush and buried her face in her hands. "OK," she inhaled slowly. "Inner lie detector . . . and yet the only thing I thought he lied about was when he said he would call the cops."

"I sensed the same from him," Queenie nodded. "Everything else he's saying . . . "

"A town called Storybrooke?" Emma gestured wildly. "A curse? I mean . . . come on, Queenie! I know magic is real, hell, my adopted son shares my blood because of a potion . . . but fairy tales?" She leaned against the counter and groaned. "What the hell am I supposed to think about this?"

"Well," Queenie folded her arms and tapped one perfectly manicured finger on her sleeve. "You should think about getting Henry home. In your inheritance test, you saw he was adopted by someone else. The woman must be worried about him. If he's from Maine? That's a very long trip."

"Yeah, no kidding," Emma checked her watch. "God . . . forget me. What the hell was he thinking?"

"That there's a curse that needs to be broken by you," Queenie shrugged. "And remember what Gornuk and Teenie said about your inheritance test, too."

"I know," Emma muttered. "Damn it, I know." She shook her hair out of her face and looked at Queenie. "Have you got a few Invigoration Draughts I can take?" she asked heavily. "I want to make the drive tonight. Best get him home before his mom really sends the cops to look for him."

"Give me a few seconds to get them from the reserve," Queenie smiled and patted her shoulder. "Just remember not to drink them right after each other."

"No, I'll space them out," Emma shook her head. "Thank you."

Queenie nodded and headed for the fireplace, and Emma summoned her courage before walking through the doors. Harry immediately stopped talking to Henry, and Emma couldn't help but roll her eyes when she saw the array of bakery delicacies he had taken to show Henry. "Alright, kid," she ruffled Harry's hair, smirking when he squeaked and tried to flatten his hair back into place. Like always, it was a hopeless endeavor. "Looks like I'm getting Henry back to Storybrooke."

"Great!" Harry grinned. "Road trip!"

"Whoa," Emma blinked rapidly and held up her hands. "Harry - "

"Mum, I just got back from school," Harry gave her puppy eyes. "And he's my brother!" Henry looked both startled and pleased to hear that, and Emma fidgeted. "Mum, pleeeeease - "

"OK!" Emma threw up her hands, and Harry cheered. "But you stay with me the entire time, you hear me? After everything you went through at school, I'm not taking my eye off you."

"What happened at school?" Henry asked curiously.

"Long story," Harry began.

"Leave it alone," Emma said at the same time.

Henry leaned back, eyes wide at the words, then Queenie bustled through the doors, three thermoses held perfectly balanced in her hands. "Here," she set two on the table. "For the road."

Harry sniffed one of the thermoses, and his green eyes lit in delight. "Your hot chocolate!" he whooped and grabbed his personal thermos, easily identified by the red and green checkered pattern with snakes circling lions. "Thank you, Aunt Queenie!"

"You're welcome, hon," Queenie kissed the top of his head, and as Henry took the second one, she passed Emma's personal one to her with a whisper. "One Draught is mixed in. I put the other in your jacket pocket. Call when you're coming home."

"Thank God for you," Emma muttered in return, then coughed meaningfully. "Harry, grab your jacket." Harry nodded and ran for where his jacket was draped over another table, and Emma slung on her red jacket, hearing the tiny chink of the crystal phial of potion in one of her pockets. "Alright, kid," she beckoned to Henry, who brightened and jumped from his chair. "Let's get you back to Storybrooke."

***

Welcome to Operation Cobra everyone! If you've seen the Ao3 tags, you know things are gonna get wild. Stay tuned! How'd we'd like the prologue?

As always, stay safe, stay reading, and stay cool xx

~ Miss Singer <3 <3

P.S. Everyone go listen to the song "Arwen's Promise" it makes me think of Emma <3

***

Queenie held the braincell in this situation, didn't she? XD Thank God for her.

Actually, Emma is going to be thanking a whole ton of people by the time she's been in Storybrooke for a while because hoo boy, if she didn't have them, she'd be insane. XD

We're hitting the ground running with this one! "Pilot" continues in the next chapter!

~ Miss Moffat

P.S. A bit of trivia for folks . . . the idea of Newt and Emma being this AU's version of Mulder and Scully was one of the seeds that planted the whole darn thing! ;)