happy endings | ouat (slow updates)

pilot

s01ep01 - pilot 

"She's amazing, Graham," Henry chattered as he hurried busily around his bedroom. "She's the one I told you about. For Operation Cobra."

"Henry, slow down," Graham ordered, putting his hand against the boy's forehead once he was sat still on the end of his bed.

The boy sighed. "I'm not hurt."

Graham removed his hand and went over to turn on the radiator. "You're freezing, Henry. Now go into the bathroom and brush your teeth. It's hours past your bedtime, young man." The edge of authority was fading from his voice as they went through the motions that followed a runaway. It was replaced by exhaustion and the type of complicated affection that put Graham's job and Henry's best interests at odds. He couldn't tell, now that he stood in Henry's room amongst his things, if whether it had been him to find the boy, he'd have possessed the resolve to return him to Regina.

The boy got up and grabbed a pair of UFO pyjamas from a drawer. As he left the room, he looked up at Graham again. "Will you have dinner with me at Granny's tomorrow if I behave?"

Graham bit his lip. "You know that your mom-"

"Please," Henry asked with his well-perfected look of innocence, and a small shiver that proved he was, in fact, cold. Graham conceded, and he nodded at the boy so that he scampered out of the room and down the hallway.

The sheriff spent a few pensive moments drawing Henry's curtains and making his bed, before heading grudgingly downstairs. There he found Regina and Henry's birth mother staring coldly at each other over literally frosted glasses in the living room.

"Ah, Graham," Regina greeted him in her familiar dangerous tone. "You will show Ms. Swan out. I believe she is quite aware of her role in Henry's life."

Graham's eyes fell to the blonde, who gave him a small smile and began shrugging on her red leather jacket. He looked away after a second too long.

"I will," he agreed with slight reluctance, as Henry's birth mother stood up and came to join him at the corner of the room. He didn't miss Regina's viciously victorious smirk as they left into the atrium, but filed it for later alongside her allergy to the word please, because his companion spoke.

"Your name is Graham, right?" she confirmed, keeping the front door open for him with her boot as they left, seemingly determined to show herself out. "I'm Emma."

"Hi," Graham said awkwardly, almost tripping over his own accent, smiling tiredly at her. She laughed clumsily and unlocked her car with a click.

Her true intent became clear a moment later. "Is Mayor Mills always so-"

"Intense?" Graham guessed, continuing towards the car, and Emma cocked her head to the side. "She cares about Henry, in her own way."

The words felt heavy on his tongue. He dug his nails into his thigh as he delved his hand into his pocket. Meeting Emma Swan's eyes was giving him a migraine and a shot of clarity all at once.

"She said as much. Call me paranoid," Emma said, her tone conveying a sigh, opening the car door.

In the glow of the headlight, her hair looked more yellow than blonde.

He thought she deserved a bit of honesty, if only because there was no precedent for this kind of encounter, and he was generally averse to lying.

"Henry's a great kid. He's really creative, and normally he's well-behaved," Graham attempted. Reassurance was not his forte. He dug his hand free from his pocket and rested it on her car, leaning into the space between them. She seemed to relax slightly, but the gesture was minute.