new york apartment

[done_reading]

Henry is not upset, precisely. Henry is determined. His mom and some mystery lady have found Baelfire- that's the Dark One's son! He's been lost for centuries!- and Henry isn't going to just... stay home and wait for them. He wants to go, to see what happens, to be in the story instead of reading it.

And spend time with his mom, of course. Moms who aren't evil queens are definitely the best.

He knows Emma, by now; she'll throw a few things into a bag, toss it into the back seat, and take off in her bug. She won't check the trunk, because it's still full of random odds 'n ends, blankets, and all sorts of other junk.

And so, if Emma should attempt to depart- she will be doing so plus one stowaway, happily nested under the blankets in the back.

Comments

[my_own_savior]

Emma is going to depart! She doesn't think to check for stowaways, and neither does her companion.

"Soooo," says Emma, to her companion. "I get that you're from another world. But why do you care about Mr. Gold's kid? Do you owe him a favor, too?"

[blooded_poet]

"No, I don't owe him anything in particular. I just - understand better than most the pain of a lost child."

[my_own_savior]

"Oh. Um. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bring it up."

[blooded_poet]

"It was centuries ago. I am... 'over it' is not the correct term. I'm not. I never will be. There is no getting over it. But I'm as fine as I'll ever be," she shrugs. "And that is enough."

[my_own_savior]

"Wait, hold on, centuries? Hold old are you?"

[blooded_poet]

"Five hundred and something or other. I might be approaching six by now. I don't really know. Or, honestly, care."

[my_own_savior]

"That's some age treatment. Do they bottle and sell the stuff?"

[blooded_poet]

Lynn snorts. "In a - way. There was a woman who found a way to grant immortality. She's dead, now, but I was one of the benefactors. The first, actually."

[my_own_savior]

"... Is that why you have the - freaky red eyes? The immortality thing?"

[blooded_poet]

"No. That's another thing entirely. I have a somewhat complicated pedigree."

[my_own_savior]

"What, was your mother a dragon or something?"

[blooded_poet]

Lynn cracks up.

"No, no," she laughs. "I'm a mage. And I've also been slightly altered by demonic invaders. And I'm a benefactor of many of the woman's efforts. It's sort of complicated. And, I admit, something of a relief to not be famous here."

[my_own_savior]

"You're famous?"

[blooded_poet]

"Somewhat. It's annoying. My husband had grown up reading adventure stories about me, apparently. He was rather disappointed to learn that I didn't live up to them." Smirk. "Though eventually he came to like me."

[done_reading]

Henry is in the back being veeeeeery quiet. He has no qualms deciding that "didn't live up to them" is probably just some weird modesty thing like his mom does, and she probably has awesome stories, and he wants to hear them!

(Even if she is not a dragon, which he finds disappointing.)

But! He is hiding until they reach Baelfire. So he'll just be quiet. For now.

[my_own_savior]

"What did you do to become famous, exactly?"

[blooded_poet]

"Long story short? Killed nasty, plane-invading creatures. A lot."

[my_own_savior]

"... How nice."

[done_reading]

Killing nasty creatures sounds like good story material to Henry. But nobody asks him, do they?

[blooded_poet]

It's sort of hard to when he's a stowaway!

The two ladies fall silent, until they reach the border of Storybrooke. Lynn doesn't comment on it.

... At least not until after they're officially outside of the town. Then Lynn's comment is shuddering, bracing herself against the dashboard, and saying, "Urg."

[my_own_savior]

"... You okay there?"

[blooded_poet]

Lynn shakes her head, and - says something in an unintelligible language.

... And then she says several things that sound like curse words. But of course, it's impossible to understand those, too.

[my_own_savior]

"English would be great?"

[blooded_poet]

Lynn gives her a frustrated look, tries to remember the things she said, and how she pronounced the words...

"Trans-la-tion spell," she says, very carefully.

[my_own_savior]

"... Oh. Can you understand me?"

[blooded_poet]

... Her companion does not have enough grasp of the language to understand that. She looks at Emma helplessly.

[my_own_savior]

"Right then. Son? Mr. Gold's son?"

[blooded_poet]

"... Find son," agrees Lynn, carefully.

[my_own_savior]

"... Okay. You can still show me?"

[blooded_poet]

"Find," says Lynn, because she doesn't have a very big vocabulary right now.

[my_own_savior]

"But you lost your magic."

[blooded_poet]

'Lost' and 'magic' both register as words Lynn knows.

Problem is, she doesn't know how to reply. She thinks, then gestures: first to her eyes, then to a spot. She circles the spot with her finger, points to her eyes again, and then to her temple. She can't scry for him, but she wasn't planning to. She already knows how to get to his house.

[my_own_savior]

"I think I got that," says Emma, slowly. "You already know how to get there. Okay, then we don't need to go back."

[blooded_poet]

Lynn manages to catch the meaning from context. 'Don't' and 'back.'

"... No back."

[my_own_savior]

"That sounds definitive enough for me."

They'll continue the drive, this time in silence.

[done_reading]

Well. The translation thing is bad. But Henry can't exactly talk to her until they get there, can he? Too bad, though. He was hoping for stories.

[blooded_poet]

Lynn does have quite a few, but - hard to tell them with no language to speak.

She asks some questions about words by pointing and saying, "Name?" and manages to cobble together a slightly larger pathetically small vocabulary before they get to New York.

It's a long drive, but eventually, they arrive in New York.

Even without the language, Lynn knows the way. She gives slightly clumsy directions, with the language barrier, but they manage. Eventually, Lynn points at an apartment complex, and says, "Son."

[my_own_savior]

"There? You're sure?"

[blooded_poet]

"There," insists Lynn.

[my_own_savior]

"Well, let's go pay him a visit."

[done_reading]

Moment of truth. This is why Henry came. Finding Baelfire! Yesssss.

He waits for his mom and Lynn to get out of the car. Then he extracts himself from the blankets and sets about following them.

Stealth, unfortunately, is not one of Henry's talents.

[my_own_savior]

It really, really isn't.

"... Henry? What are you - did you stow away in the back the entire time?"

[done_reading]

Mission abort! Mission abort!

"...no?" Henry tries.

[my_own_savior]

"Somehow," says Emma, "I don't believe you."

[blooded_poet]

Lynn will just be... Over there. Looking like she's kind of amused with Henry.

[done_reading]

"You found Baelfire! Rumplestiltskin's son! I want to meet him," Henry says stubbornly. "Besides. I'm already here, right?"

[my_own_savior]

"I'd - turn around and put you back, but we are already here," hedges Emma. "... Look, it's not safe for you to stow away in the back of my car. Not to mention Regina's probably worried sick."

[done_reading]

Yessssss! But Henry knows better than to smirk too much.

"I'll call her as soon as we're on our way back?" Henry offers. No way is he calling her first. She'll insist he comes back right away, and he wants to see this!