Beautiful Lily

Family reunion

"So correct me if I misunderstood something... There's a monster in Storybrooke, Henry can wield magic, he found a spell to travel between worlds, brought back a monster, the monster was created by a deity named Hades, Rumplestiltskin found Henry and brought him back here to Storybrooke, you had him and then he disappeared on you?" Robin said perplexed as he rehashed Regina's situation to him.

"He vanished. No thanks to his grandfather who taught him how. I saw him run off into the woods before he used a vanishing spell to avoid me. But he can't have gone far. Novices of magic don't typically manage long distance travel unless they've been practicing it for years," reasoned Regina.

Robin and Regina were walking through the woods together searching for Henry. Regina continued, "I'm asking you for help, because I trust you and you know these woods better than any other person I know."

"I would be honored to help find your son. After all, you did help save mine some time ago," smiled Robin to Regina remembering a moment when she protected Roland from a flying monkey.

Regina's phone started ringing in her pocket.

"Hold on," said Regina reaching into her pocket for the phone. She looked at it, "It's Emma," Regina said answering the call, "What happened?"

"The Monster we saw earlier was frozen and taken care of by Elsa. She befriended a man named Hercules who came with the monster and helped take it down. Henry's safe. He's right here with me... along with his father."

"Woah, woah. Hold on. His father, Neal? I'm sorry, did you just imply that Neal is somehow back from the dead?"

"Yeah, long story... Henry seems to think he made to deal with Hades."

"How do you know that the person posing as Henry's father isn't Hades himself?"

"I saw Neal's face as he spoke to me. He's not lying. It's him."

"Well, I hope you're right. Do I need to come over to pick Henry up or do you...?"

"No, we uh... are heading over to Gold's house to sort through all this mess. I think of all people that could help us out, it should be Neal's father."

"Alright. Keep me informed if there are any further developments," Regina said as she hung up the phone ending the call.

"Did I just overhear you say that Neal is alive?" Robin questioned.

"I'll explain later. Let's head back to my car and go to a bar. You still owe me a drink and I could really use one right about now."

... ...

"Monster is gone. Town is fine. I am fine. Henry is home, safe and here beside me. Going to chat with Mr. Gold to sort things out. Will call you soon," texted Emma as her thumb hovered over the 'SEND' button on her cell phone.

She meticulously read her text over and over, avoiding words that would incite fear or any additional anxiety that she was sure her loved ones were already feeling. She read the text again, filtering to make sure the message didn't mention Neal. To mention his name would provoke curiosity and she did not want to bring any more people than necessary into their current situation. She wasn't sure how this whole situation was going to play out and didn't want to bring people's hopes up if things turned out for the worse. The last thing she wanted was to have a giant family reunion making things more complicated than they already were. She took a deep breath and finally clicked 'SEND'.

By the time she had finished her text, she, Neal and Henry were already out of the woods and were walking onto Storybrooke's Main Street towards her car. As they got closer to her yellow Volkswagen Bug, Emma couldn't help but eye Neal suspiciously. Neal caught her staring and questioned, "What is it?"