Little Red

FORTY SIX

"And then we played cowboys versus aliens, and I ended up winning!!" Frankie said as he jumped up onto a log.

Dani gave the boy a half-hearted smile.

It had been a few days since she had spent the day with Greta, and to say she had been a little stressed out would be the understatement of the century. Adding on to her worries about Mikey, Dani hadn't exactly told her parents about Greta's discovery. Yes, she had promised that she was going to tell them everything going on with her —and she most definitely was— but she had wanted to be sure that she actually showed some signs of it before adding on to their already worried minds.

To take her mind off of her current stresses, if even for a little while, Dani had decided to spend the day with her baby brother at the park since their parents had finally trusted her to get behind the wheel again.

"That's great, bud! Now I know who to call when I need help from the alien invasion," she said with a playful smirk as Frankie held her hand to keep balance.

"But there's not really any aliens, Ellie! It was just pretend!!" he said with a giggle while looking up at her.

Dani raised an eyebrow. "Says who? You know, I've heard that there's proof that aliens actually do exist," she said with a shrug, and watched as the boy's eyes widened in obvious fear at her statement.

"Really?" he asked while coming to a slow stop.

And the firm grip on her hand caused Dani to sigh as she began to fill up with guilt at the fact that she had managed to scare him.

Sometimes, she could honestly forget how young he was.

"Hey...Hey, I was just kidding, bud. There aren't any actual aliens," she reassured him with a small smile while kneeling to his level.

Frankie didn't look like he had fully believed her words, however, as the worry continued to shine in his eyes and he asked,  "Are you sure?"

Dani laughed softly and nodded. "Yeah. I'm sure. There are no aliens in StoryBrooke, and besides...If there were? I'd kick their butts before they'd have a chance to even think about taking a step towards you," she told him with a confident smirk, and it only widened as he physically relaxed at her words before throwing himself into her arms.

"I love you, Ellie," he mumbled into her shoulder.

Dani's smirk grew into a smile as she returned his hug just as tightly and said, "I love you too, bud."

The sound of laughter from a distance then caused Dani's head to turn over in its direction as she had noticed that whoever was laughing...their voice had sounded extremely familiar.

And her entire world instantly froze up once she had spotted them.

Mikey walked alongside some obviously unnatural redheaded girl as they laughed at something that had probably not even been that funny. Her eyebrows furrowed at the lack of distance between the two before she felt the familiar lump in her throat as Mikey had placed his arm around the girl's shoulders.

"What?" she whispered before jumping as a small voice suddenly came from beside her.

"Ellie?"

The sound of Frankie's voice snapped the girl out of her trance as she turned her head to meet his worried stare and asked,  "Yeah, bud?"

Frankie pouted as he examined his sister's face and asked, "What's wrong, Ellie? Why are you crying?"

Dani turned her head back towards them to see that they had stopped walking to look at something in the pond before she looked back at Frankie with a sad smile. "I'm okay, bud. I just...got something in my eye," she said with a slight laugh.