mettle. henry mills au

xxiii. ice cream and treehouses

one week after her awakening, jess was able to leave the hospital. within that week, she and henry were able to mend their differences.

the mayor's house - jess and henry
she laid in his bed reading a comic. he sat in his desk doing algebra homework. since she didn't care much about learning, and since  she was already one of the most knowledgable people out there (even though she did not know it), jess cared more about surviving.

it was dark outside. the grey clouds had collided and blocked out the sun. rain poured out as if they were tears coming out from a person.

the perplexing equation typed onto henry's textbook frustrated him, and it became obvious when he threw his hands up. his head lied on the desk in front of him and his fingers were tangled in his hair, almost tight enough that they would be easily pulled out.

"you need help there, almighty author?" remarked jess. she laid the comic book open on her chest and looked at the boy ahead of her.

"no, it's fine."

she nodded her head towards the boy and continued reading the comic. henry, on the other hand, did not return to his assignment. instead of studying his maths, he studied the girl before himself. her brown hair spread on both sides of her two shoulders; her brown eyes paralleled his green.

the moment felt perfect.

that was until he realized that he would never see her again.

his head hung in fear, but a sound of raspiness and crackling made it shoot up. he sighed at the thought. henry always wanted to be a hero. he just never thought that he would die in the moment of his greatness. nevertheless, he would still go to extremes for the ones he loved, even if that meant sacrificing himself.

he stood from his seat and laid down next to her.

"you know, i'm not much for comics." she remarked.

he smirked at her. is was evident that she was joking, but it was true.

henry took the comic out of her hands.
"spider man, huh?" he grinned at her childish ways.

"yup." she smiled and turned her head towards him and he towards her. jess and henry were both definitely awkward, and because of that, the two's eye contact was shortly broken.

they laid there in silence. sure they fixed their problems, but they had been so distant it was hard to think up something to converse about. but eventually, something came out.

"jess?"

"yeah?"

"remember when we first met?"

"yeah," she replied with a chuckle, "you were running down the street. i just got done crying from-"

"from pan."

"yeah."

"but then my mom and i took you to get ice cream-"

"-and it was the best thing in the world."

"you did look kind of cute when first tasted it." memories have come and gone, but this one was the only one, other than when he and emma were at his castle when they first met, that he never would forget. he remembered every little detail of it.

jess sat up and held out her hand for Henry to take.

"i want to take you somewhere."

henry replied by intertwining his fingers with her's, and in an instant the two appeared in front of a tree in the distance. not just any tree, but an immense one. despite all of storybrooke experiencing a heavy rainfall, it somehow did not hit it.

"you wanted to make me... to a tree?" henry questioned.

"just come on."

she led him closer to the tree, but he stopped when they reached the cliff separating the land of the tree from the land of the forest.

jess rolled her eyes, "remember when you had  that never ending streak of girlfriends?"

his head hung low, "yeah."

"remember how i moved out of your house?"

"yes! what is it?"

"this is where i stayed."

jess motioned her hand and a wood bridge led to what seemed like a treehouse.

"what? how?"

"just come on."

she took Henry's hand and led him up the staircase. inside stood a bed placed against the left wall. a window was cut on the opposite.

"how?" the wondering boy questioned once again.

"magic." she simply said.

she led him to the balcony which gave a view of the whole town.

"wow." was all he could say.

she looked at him. he was clearly amazed.

"it's how I lived in neverland. I didn't have to camp with pan, i had a treehouse."

"how long have you had this one?"

"ever since I came here," and she continued, "but I haven't been up here in weeks."

jess held tightly onto Henry's had and laid her head on his shoulder. she realized that she loved him once again. the thing was, this time, she knew he wouldn't hurt her.

"well aren't we having fun?" a furious voice coming from inside the treehouse. it was pan.

both turned around at the same time; jess summoning one of her trusty arrows. neither of them had time to react.

pan waved a hand and instantly all three of them appeared on the street that set the clock tower apart from the rest of the little town, but things were different. jess and henry we no longer holding hands, and jess was no longer jess. she was back to tiger lily, who's hands were tied behind her back. a black cuff on her right wrist restrained her from using any magic, therefore, she was hopeless.

coincidentally, the whole storybrooke gang was walking down the street and certainly at the right time. each ran towards pan in different directions, but pan waved his hand so that all the members in the group were frozen in their place once they became close enough.

a devious smirk rested on pan's face, whereas a fearful one rested upon henry's. and he muttered one thing.

"time is up."

↓
this is the second to last chapter omg
bUt
the sequel is up so check that out !!
I told myself to make this a short chapter but tHat didn't work out