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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
UNFORGIVEN
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"ARE YOU SURE YOU GUYS ARE OKAY WITH ME HELPING?" Teresa asked as she walked with Henry and Regina toward Granny's Diner. "I wouldn't want to intrude on your mother-son time..."

"Six eyes looking for the author are better than four," Regina said. "It's really okay, Teresa."

"Alright," Teresa sighed.

Regina walked up the steps of Granny's Diner and pulled open the door, allowing Henry and Teresa to walk in.

"Regina!" The three of them looked over as Ursula spoke. "We could use a heart rip over here. Granny needs a little encouragement in taking our order."

Teresa couldn't help but glare at the dark-skinned woman. She had the nerve to pull up Regina's past right infront of her son. What if Henry didn't know about her past? This could immediately drive a wedge between them.

"Yes, a very effective tactic," Cruella commented. Teresa could see from the corner of her eye that Regina took her sons hand. "Didn't you once rip out the heart of every villager in the north woods?"

"Or was it the south?"

Regina gave them book a look before turning to her son. "Uh, why don't you head to my office, get started on the book with Teresa?"

"Sure," Henry nodded. "Make sure to get chocolate frosted doughnuts, not chocolate doughnuts, okay?"

"Mm-hmm," Regina hummed, a forced smile on her lips as she tried to keep herself calm for her son.

"Come on, Teresa," Henry muttered. With a final glare toward the two former villians, Teresa left the Diner with Henry.

Teresa scoffed as soon as they were outside. "They have some nerve."

"What?"

"Bringing up your mother's past like that! I mean, they don't know if you know who your mother used to be."

Henry smiled at her concern, which was really not nessciary. "It's okay, Teresa," he reassured her. "No matter what they say to me I would never listen to them. I know who my mom used to be and I know that she's changed now."

"It still irks me," Teresa muttered. "I have a bad feeling about those two. They've been nothing but bitter since they've arrived."

"They're trying to redeem themselves, at least give them a chance."

"I am, but if they don't knock it off with the attitude someone's getting an arrow immedded in the knee cap."

Henry raised a brow at her. "You've done that before?"

Teresa smirked. "They deserved it, trust me. Guy tried to manhandle me and Snow. He got what was coming to him."

➳

"So I had breakfast with Snow and David this morning," Teresa said. "Have been noticing anything weird about them recently?"

Henry furrowed his eyebrows and looked up from the book to give her a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Ever since those two crossed the town line, Snow's been acting really weird. Like, this morning at breakfast; I was trying to have a conversation with them and they kept spacing out."

"Do you think something happened with them in the past?"

"That's what I'm thinking..."

The door opened behind, and both teenagers looked up from the book as Regina walked in with a pink box, which she then placed in front of them with a smile. "Chocolate frosted doughnuts. How are we doing? You two find anything?"

"Not yet," Henry replied with a shake of his head. "But if the author left clues in the book like mother superior said, we'll find them. How about you, mom? How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Henry."

"You didn't seem fine when we ran into Ursula and Cruella."

"Well...I suppose that's because they remind me of a time in my life I'd rather forget." Regina sat herself down in the chair across from the. "Time when I was a true villain. It makes me doubt if my happy ending's even possible."

Henry frowned. "You can't think like that."

"I know, but sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be as happy as I was when it was just you, me and Alice. Or you, me, Robin Hood, and Roland. After meeting Robin, those feelings were closest I've ever been to happy since Alice. I wanna get back to that."

Alice? Teresa thought. Who the hell is Alice?

"You will, mom. We're gonna find the author, and when he rewrites your ending, everything will be the way you want it to be." Henry gave his mother a smile as he leaned forward and opened the doughnut box. He took one out and happily bit into it.

Regina smiled at her son and walked around her desk. "Careful, Henry. You're getting crumbs all over the book." As she wipped his crumbs from the book pages, she realized that the pages were different. "That's strange. This paper, it's...it's different than the rest."

Teresa leaned closer to Henry to get a look at the page.

"That's because it's Pinocchio's story," Henry replied.

"Why would that story be any different from the others?" Teresa asked.

"Because August added it to the book," Henry replied. "He wanted Emma to know he was Pinocchio as a boy. He wanted her to believe."

"If August took the book apart, he might know something about it that we don't."

"Too bad he isn't around to ask," Henry said.

"August might not be, but Pinocchio is," Regina said with a smile. The mother and son shared a smile.

"Well where we can this, um, Pinochhio?" Teresa asked.

➳

It hadn't taken Regina long to collect Pinochhio and bring him back to her office. The young red-haired boy stood looking at the storybook pages as they awaited for him to announce some good news.

"Is anything coming back to you, Pinocchio? Maybe if you look at the pages again," Regina said, just as Emma walked in. She sighed and walked over to the blonde "Where the hell have you been?"

Emma walked over Pinocchio and gave the young boy a smile. "Hey. Come here." Pinochhio smiled and followed Emma over to the sofa. "You remember me, right?"

"You're Emma, the sheriff."

"But you know that back when you were...o-older...we were friends. You were a really smart grown-up. So smart you knew how to take that entire thing apart and add a story to it. And then you put it all back together. Do you remember doing that? Or anything else about the book?"

Th young boy frowned. "I know everybody wants me to remember, but...I just don't."

"You went to Phuket. You rode a motorcycle. You wore leather and didn't shave!"

"Regina," Teresa said in warning. "He's just a kid."

"No, he's not trying hard enough. All you need to do is concentrate and think! Or is that head of yours still made out of wood?"

"Whoa, stop!" Marco shouted, in worry for his son.

"Mom."

"I won't have you speak that way to my boy."

"Maybe what your boy needs is some motivation," Regina snapped.

"Okay, Regina, that's enough," Emma said. "Let's go down to the vending machine and get a snack." Emma took Pinocchio's hand and led him from the room. "Henry, Teresa, come on."

Teresa rolled her eyes before following Emma out of the room. Before she left, she glanced between Regina and Marco once more.

➳

As Henry continued to look through the storybook, Teresa was shuffling through the bag of August's old belongings, which they learned Marco gave to Regina after she apologized for yelling at his son.

Henry looked up from the book to look over at Teresa, who sat cross-legged on the sofa. "Find anything in there yet?" he asked.

Teresa sighed, "Not yet. How about you? See anything interesting in the pages yet?"

Henry shook his head. "Nothing."

"Do you think — " Teresa stopped talking as she finally found something useful within August's belongings.

It was a page from the book. On the page was a drawing of a door, and in the top corner August wrote author. She grinned.

"What?" Henry asked. "Did you find something?"

"It's...it's a page from the book," Teresa said. She then stood and walked over to the desk to show Henry what she had found. "I believe August found the author."