Once Upon A Time ~ Book 1

Chapter 50 - The Father Mystery

"This it?" Emma asked Ava and Nicholas in the back of the car, looking out at a blue two story house.
She parked the car and opened the door.
"Please. no." said Ava before Emma got out of the car. "If our parents see you, they'll be so embarrassed."
Emma closed the door and leaned to the side to look at them. "Did Henry tell you about my super power?"
They looked at each other and shook their heads. "We just met him."
"I have the ability to tell when anyone is lying. So tell me the truth. Money problems aside, is everything okay at home?"
"Yeah, we're great." said Ava.
She raised her eyebrows.
"Can we go?" asked Ava.
She glanced at each of them once more. "Alright."
They got out of the car and walked up the steps to the house. They stopped and waved at Emma as she started the car.
She waved back and drove ahead.
"She's gone. We're good." said Ava, her hand on the door knob.
They both ran down the steps and around the back of the house. They climbed over a fence and jumped down on some trash bins. Then they ran accross a small road and pushed through some bushes. On the other side of the bushes was a small, abandoned house with boarded up windows and doors. They sneaked through the cellar door and shut it after themselves.
Ava placed the groceries on an old sheilf and Nicholas sat on an old bed.
Suddenly they heard a noise from above, in the house. They looked at each other fearfully. Then they sneaked up the wooden cellar stairs and up onto the first floor. They walked into the kitchen, searching for the source of the noise.
"Why did you guys lie to me?" sais Emma from behind them.
They jumped and turned to her.
"Where are your parents?"
"We don't have any." said Ava.

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Ava and Nicholas sat at the table in Mary Margarets apartment, eating diner.
Emma stood near by with Mary Margaret speaking quitely.
"Did you know them? Do they go to your school?
Mary Margaret stared at the children. "I've seen them, but I had no idea. None of us did."
Emma opened a file and read from it. "Ava and Nicholas Zimmer. They said their mother was a woman named Dorrie Zimmer. She died a few years ago."
Mary Margaret shook her head.
"No one seems to know her or remember her.
"And the father?"
"There isn't one. At least not one that they know."
"What does....... What does Social Services say?"
Emma said nothing, guilty.
"You didn't report them." said Mary Margaret.
"I report them, I can't help them. They go into the system."
"The system that's suppost to help."
"Yeah, says the woman who wasn't in it for sixteen years. Do you know what happens? They get thrown into homes where they are a meal ticket. Nothing more. These families get paid for these kids. And as soon as they're too much work, they get tossed out and it all starts over again." "They're not all like that."
"All the ones I was in."
"What? We're just gonna adopt them?"
"I wanna look for their father...... They don't know him. He may not know they exist."
"And you think if he knows he'll want them?"
"I don't know....... But what I do know, is its hard enough finding foster families to take one kid that isn't theirs. Let alone two. It's their best shot or......."
"We're gonna be separated." said Ava from behind them, tears in her eyes.
Emma turned around to her. "No. That's not gonna happen."
"Please. Please don't let it." she glanced around at Nicholas at the table then back at Emma and Mary Margaret.

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"Excuse me......." said Emma to a man at the register at the Hall Of Records. She looked down at the name plate on the counter. ".........Mr. Krzyszkowski?" she tryed to pronounce.
"It's Krzyszkowski." he said getting out of his seat. He had very little hair and wore a suit. "Everyone calls me Mr. K."
"Mr. K, I am Sherif Swan. I'm hoping to look at the birth certificates of Ava and Nicholas Zimmer."
"Alright, just fill out this form........." he put some forms on the counter. ".......in triplicate." he stamped all three of them with a stamper and gave her a pen.
"Okay."
He leaved through some filing cabinets while Emma filled out the form.
"I'm so sorry." he said. "Those documents have been recently removed."
"By who?"

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"Don't worry, Miss. Swan, you can relax." said Regina waking to her desk in her office. "I've contacted Social Services. Turns out these kids are in their own. They need help."
"Which is exactly what I am trying to do. I'm trying to find they're father." said Emma.
"Well, he doesn't exist." she handed her some files.
"He has to." Emma looked at the birth certificates, with no information about the father.
"Of course, biologically, he exists but there is no record of him. Which means we have no choice. These children need a home. So they will be put into the foster system."
"Storybrook has a foster system?"
"No. But I've contacted the state." she walked to the other side of her office. "Maine's group homes, unfortunately, are filled, but they put us in touch with two homes in Boston."
Emma closed the files and followed Regina.
"A boys home and a girls."
"They're separating them?" asked Emma sternly.
"I don't like it either. But we've got no choice. You need to have them in Boston tonight."
"Me?"
"Well, you wanted to be sherif. This is what sherifs do. Yes, you're taking them."
"No. I promised them they wouldn't be separated."
"Well, then perhaps you should stop making promises you can't keep." she walked closer to Emma. "These children need a home. I'm just trying to find the best one."

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Hansel and Gretel followed the queen through the forest.
"What is that?" asked the queen, indicating to the compass around Gretel's neck.
"My father's compass. He gave it to me so that I could find him. But now it's broken."
The queen said nothing and just looked ahead.
"When are you gonna tell us where we're going?" Gretel asked.
"This is close enough." said the queen stopping and looking ahead.
"Close enough to what?" she went on.
The queen turned to her. "The home of the Blind Witch."
They looked at each other.
"That doesn't sound good." said Hansel.
"She has something of mine. And I need you to get it back."
"What is it?" asked Gretel.
"Something I need to defeat a very wicked and powerful enemy. It's kept in a black leather satchel...... inside her house."
"Why don't you get it yourself? How come you need us?" she questioned.
"Because the house is protected by magic. I can't enter. But luckily the spell doesn't work on children......... You'll have to wait here until nightfall. And then, once the witch us asleep, you can sneak in."
"And if we do this, you promise you'll find our father?" said Gretel.
"Oh....... Indeed I will. But there's one more thing. The witch's house is....... Unique. And because of this, you have to take special precaution once you're inside."
"Like what?" said Gretel.
"No matter what you do, no matter how you're tempted......." she leaned towards them. ".........don't eat anything." she said slowly.
The queen stepped forward and pushed away the branches to reveal a huge gingerbread house.
The children looked at one another.