Who: Emma Swan & Garrus Vakarian What: Looking for Neal, Garrus runs into Emma instead When: Right after Neal went on his journey to Boston Where: The Ranch Rating/Warnings: Relatively low! Status: Complete!
The sun had been out but the days had been grim, overcast with a sense of dread that never exactly left, not even with the storm gone. Most lives returned to normal, others suffered a loss - particularly ones that he was close to, and Garrus did his best to be around. Shove away that snarling inner cynicism about this place, step up, and be there. Just like Neal and Wisdom were there for him when angry faces of the past descended in vengeance and took away what was most important to him.
They kept his head above water. They wouldn’t let him drown. He got her back, thanks to them. He’d considered himself lucky, loving someone who couldn’t be killed. Yet there were worse things than death, and what happened wasn’t something him and Cindy would ever forget.
Food in tow, Garrus had taken the drive to the ranch. He’d never been there, he didn’t know what to expect, but he figured Neal could use a break. A talk, about the entire thing or something completely different. Whatever the fuck his brofessor wanted, he’d do. He walked into the main building with a plain bag of ‘thank you’ with a red smiley face, filled Chinese takeout selections (they’d eaten this so much they knew exactly what the other ate), but there wasn’t anyone there that he recognized…
Spirits, this was awkward. A lot of kids. Looking at him oddly. A teenage girl blew him a kiss. Garrus pretended he didn’t see that.
It wasn’t that the place was understaffed, not really. They had enough people per kids and they had the staffing for around the ranch, it was just that… Well, Neal did a hell of a lot. And Emma was only just coming to realise this now, after having told him it was fine, she could cope, she’d handle it while he handled things with Henry and his aunt and hopefully came to some kind of arrangement where they could still see him.
And sure, it was a good distraction. Emma hardly had the time to stop and think which meant she wasn’t worrying herself over the outcome of it all. But there was just so much. And teenagers, they were difficult, they were different from younger kids. Henry wasn’t at the teenage stage yet, Emma had no clue what to do with these kids.
“Andrea, stop that.” She really needed to take a break. “Maxine, could you get them all set up? Please?” It was probably evident that Emma was about ready to explode, but there was some kind of interactive class going on which meant at least forty-five minutes where Emma could try and catch her breath.
“Hey there, you looking for someone?” She was much better at directing people places, like away from the kids. Best was out to the trails, where she could breath for a second. But even just through the maze of classes and offices was enough at times.
Garrus had always just been one of those (fortunate) people that was never really around kids. Even teenagers - they were a foreign concept, and all their new trends and twitter bullshit and five second trendy internet videos. It’d be an honest goddamn miracle if he even knew how to hold a baby correctly. So, suffice to say, he was severely out of his element.
But lo and behold - here comes an adult. Maybe not the one he was looking for, but someone that could direct him where he needed to go. “Actually, yeah. Neal? Neal Cassidy?” In case there was more than one, Garrus didn’t know. “I’m a friend. Who brought some lunch. Thought I’d catch him?”
He wasn’t gone just yet for Boston, was he? It was time for their ‘manly gossip.’ Only this time without the ambrosia that was their beer - he had a feeling if he’d gotten some he’d end up run over (it was tradition), as it was technically his turn in the karmic wheel to get slammed into the concrete by some asshole.
“Oh,” well, okay, maybe they should’ve thought about actually telling people that he was leaving again. Or at least his friends, Emma didn’t really know who they were or anything. “He’s back in Boston just now, he had to our son--- His son--- Henry, he had to take Henry home.” Did Neal tell his friends about Henry? Presumably, since he’d taken Lina with him to meet Henry the first time, and that left an awkward pang, considering how Neal had told Emma the few things about Lina.
Getting out of the OC was as much for Neal right then as it was for Henry to get home. “He um, last minute thing, had to head out. I’m sorry.”
Talk about a wasted trip. And lunch.
Ah, damn. Too late then. “Here I thought I’d catch him before he left,” Garrus blew a sigh, but the smirk his lips quirked into didn’t mean he was too disappointed. “I’ll catch him when he comes back. In the mean time -”
He caught his words before the sentenced finished, steely blue eyes slendering suspiciously. Well, alright, maybe suspicious wasn’t the right word but now he’d gotten bitten by curiosity and a thought that he couldn’t kick. Neal was his best man, so they were always in the know about each other’s lives - like Henry, and the woman that mothered him in the dreams and here.
“I’m Garrus, by the way,” he first said, as introductions would be a good way to ask this. “You wouldn’t by any chance be Emma, would you?” All he knew was that she worked here, and she was blonde. This woman fit both of those descriptions - wasn’t too much of a longshot, was it?
Normally there probably would’ve been a bit of a better information offering, but Henry needed to get home, and Neal needed some time away, it was for the best really. “No, sorry. It all sort of happened in a rush.” And planes needed to be booked.
“I am, yeah.” She frowned a little, but then, she only really knew of herself as the Emma that worked here -didn’t mean she wasn’t but Emma hadn’t bumped into anyone else. “Emma Swan,” she offered her hand, figuring this was at least another friend of Neal’s to meet, and at the very least someone to give a call should Neal need it later.
There was going to be a fair amount of molly-coddling, regardless of how things worked out in the long run. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you’ve heard about me?” Hopefully not the ridiculously embarrassing things that Neal knew about her.
It was a little hard to not know about Emma. For as long as he’d known Neal - and it sure as hell had been a good awhile - the constant theme was the boy that was his son, and the woman he was forced to fuck over for her ‘best chance’ (his words). Aside from the asinine shithead that was his power-crazed father, Henry and Emma had been the biggest themes for him, and now fate unraveled it all in some sort of cracked reflection for his closest friend.
“I have - and all good things,” Garrus assured, taking her hand for an introductory shake. “That’s a promise. And since I’m the ass with horrible timing, you up for a bite?” If Neal wasn’t here to eat the goods then he’d be more than happy to offer it to her. His chinese food was your chinese food, Emma. “If you’ve got a minute and I’m not keeping you from herding these personifications of hormones anywhere.”
From the throng of kids passing by, a spitball nailed him square in the head - and he sighed. Really?
Good things, that was fine, really. Although it was a little embarrassing it wasn’t overly surprising considering Neal’s background with Henry and searching for him. Emma couldn’t fault Neal talking to his friends about it all. “No I’m--” the spitball was just… hard to not laugh at but Emma was supposed to not laugh at that stuff.
Thankfully she didn’t need to deal with that hormonal mess right now. “Shit, sorry, holy-- C’mon, we can invade Neal’s office while he’s not here, get you out of firing range.” Since someone was already dealing with the spitballer, Emma just directed Garrus through the back into the offices before slipping into Neal’s.
Since Emma had taken on a few of the younger kids from classes and activities Neal usually ran, she was in his office when she wasn’t doing something on the ranch or with the kids, she could understand having the space for a little while to cool down and chill between the horrors of pre-teens. Grabbing a seat and one for Garrus, Emma fished a tissue out of the box on the desk, offering it over to Garrus, “I’m so sorry. They seem to play up a lot during summer.”
Garrus may have hurried behind Emma’s lead all too eagerly, away from the hormonal stampede of teenagers, and desperate to wipe that now damp forehead thanks to the wad of paper doused in spit that hit him point blank. “Kid had decent aim,” he retorted dryly, but took the gracious offer of the tissue. Here’s hoping whoever responsible was up to date on their shots, jesus fucking christ. “It’s fine, really. Just a casualty of youth war.”
Neal and Emma were saints, if this was part of their everyday work routine. Anyway, he set the bag onto the desk, pulling out the contents and announcing their names - she could pick and choose. “Sweet and sour pork, kung pao chicken, fried rice, shrimp egg rolls.” All things lacking lethal nuts and whatever other ingredients were fatal to him; food was bound to be the death of him, one day. “With us chinese is usually accompanied by beer,” a tradition they started back when his pal had been held hostage in a queen’s house for his own good, “but I hear it’s usually frowned upon to consume alcohol during working hours. I had to settle for some depressing cokes.”
Plastic utensils, sauce packs, and fortune cookies were out too, and Garrus finally settled into his seat. “You two holding up alright? Heard about your mid-apocalyptic surprise.”
“I’ll have the pork?” She wasn’t entirely sure what Neal’s usual meal was, hadn’t gotten that familiar with him again yet, although if this was a rest-stop food haul she could blindly pull out everything that Neal would’ve bought, or stolen as they’d often done.
Getting herself relatively comfortable, something oddly easy in Neal’s space, Emma pulled out some napkins, well aware of just how messy she could be herself. “We’re… Coping.” Neal was the best to take Henry back to his aunt in Boston, probably the most level headed person out of the three of them, but it didn’t make it easier that both Henry and Neal were half-way across the country and the only person she could really relate to with it all was Regina. “Henry took it all really well, but I don’t think we really expected too much different.” The kid was just as fascinated by it all here as he was in their dreams.
“Now we just need to wait and see what kind of custody arrangement we can come to.” Hopefully they could get Henry to visit them, or if they could petition for custody, Emma wasn’t sure. They were working on it all and Regina had some hot shot lawyer types and money was going into it all. Emma would just like one thing to work out.
“Cross your fingers for us.”
Actually, Garrus hadn’t had a chance to meet Henry yet but he hoped he would, soon. Everything happened in a whirlwind, back to back, all too fast. All Neal ever wanted was to be a father to that boy and now the chance had risen, the stars aligned, everything was falling into place in one of those ‘meant to be’ scenarios. Things like fate and destiny, he never really gave much thought to. Always an advocate of ‘shit happens,’ no matter what. But he was fond of when ‘shit happened’ in a way that was good, and he’d interpreted this as an example.
“You guys are lucky, then, to have a kid that’s able and willing adjust so well to all…this.” ‘This,’ of course, was in reference to all the horsecrap this particular pocket of strange energies tended to lash them with. He’d hoped they’d gone through the worst of it but realistically, Garrus knew it wouldn’t end. All they could do was be prepared for the unlikely to happen. “If I were in your shoes, I’d be a visibly nervous wreck. I don’t know much about kids. Of any age.”
Clearly, considering he stood there like a well-dressed awkward fucking duck in a hallway invaded by them. Children seemed like a completely different world for him, though he knew that some day - in the future - he wouldn’t particularly mind one of his own. Maybe when the time came, instinct would kick, and then he’d just know.
He snatched a box of rice and flipped the cardboard flaps open, and dug in. “You ready to be a mom?”
Emma had no idea if she was ready. She knew she hadn’t been eleven years ago, she was an awkward teenage mess when she’d given birth to Henry -in both versions of the world- and had little to no idea on just how to take care of anyone. And now, in the OC she wasn’t entirely sure she knew any different. “My saving grace is the fact that one, Henry is grown up. I’m not scared I’m going to put the diaper on wrong, or leave him at the supermarket, or on the bus, I’m not going to drop him or… not know what he’s screaming about.” God, babies, they were hard, right? She wasn’t sure how some people did it.
“Then there’s the fact that I’m not in this alone.” Neal and Regina and her, they were all in it together. The chance that Henry might dream, eventually, Emma wasn’t sure how it would work for him or if they could avoid that for a while, she had a slightly bigger parenting team on this and one of them actually had raised Henry, so that was a plus too. “I guess that helps.”
And the fact that they all wanted him, desperately. It wasn’t just a case of having to get him, they wanted to bring him home and get the chance to see him grow and teach him themselves, to attempt to be a family, however split up and awkward it was. “But I really don’t think I’ll actually be able to just stop worrying if we don’t have him, you know?” Munching on a piece of pork, Emma sighed a little.
“Apparently I internalise my nervous wreck very well.” Although she’d bet Regina and Neal would call her on that shit.
All kids were hard in his opinion, but he’d agree that there was something particularly difficult about a wrinkly infant screeching at the top of their diminutive lungs and not knowing why they were wailing. One of Cindy’s friends had recently given birth; the baby was tiny, breakable, he’d honestly never feel comfortable holding someone else’s child. Again, it might come to him. One day. When the squirming thing he was holding was actually his, but they still had a bit to go. First came the galactic nuptials that were to be held in space. He could barely keep up with the kitten he’d rescued during those seven days of stormy darkness.
“Guess that’s what they call parental instinct; you’ve got them, even if you don’t ever feel all that ready to be one,” he responded, looking oddly contemplative as he continued to shovel into his box of rice. He’d already been brought to speed about how complicated family life was for them in this fairytale dreamland they dreamed about - and got a gist of how things were here, somewhat. “But I think the ‘nervous wreck’ part’s natural. It’s a big change that’s about to come into your lives. For all of you.” If he were in their shoes, he’d come up with all the ways he could potentially fuck up the kid’s life - on accident, of course. Garrus was just settling into a normal routine.
He’d talk like they would get them. Obviously, they wanted Henry - the boy would be loved, well-taken care of, and fiercely protected. “We’ll have to celebrate, then. When you guys do get full custody. Something kid-friendly. Promise.”
The confidence that they’d get Henry, that it was when he’d come and stay with them, not if, that left this little bubbling of hope in Emma, something that the dreams had dampened a lot with how many times she was knocked down and had to drag herself back up. She wasn’t entirely prepared, she was sure that she’d stumble her way through things, but she knew that she wasn’t alone in it either. “Well, he already got to see some of the crazy that happens here, saw a house vanish from next door to Regina’s, so he seems like a pretty durable kid.”
If he was anything like what she dreamed, he’d soak all of this up, the crazy, the chaos, the unnatural aspects of it all. He’d enjoy the mystery and adventure, and the three of them would be running around trying to keep him safe.
Somehow, that still made her smile.
“There’s kid-friendly stuff here?” She knew that there was this place, obviously, but while this was a cool environment for kids, she wasn’t sure it was Henry’s kind of thing. Not enough insanity. “But we absolutely should, he’ll need to meet all Neal’s friends and everything.” Give Henry a large, extended and convoluted family, like he had in the dreams.
Then Henry would fit right in, wouldn’t he? There was a handful of teenagers that were actually dreamers too - weren’t a lot of them, but they definitely existed, and things didn’t particularly bode well for them all the time. All three of them at least knew what Henry would get himself into if he did dream (and from the sound of it, Garrus could see him actually wanting to). His support system was equivalent to iron steel, considering the three that would take the reigns as parents.
He’d be fine. And not a lot of people could actually say that around these parts.
“We’ll try and do something kid-friendly,” Garrus corrected, seeing her point. “Assuming this place doesn’t decide to swap bodies again or make our genders change. But he’d probably find that funny from what everyone tells me. Still, a big ‘welcome aboard’ gathering’s worth it. Considering we’ve all got some weird baggage from living here - it’ll be fun for him.” Maybe even bring out Cindy’s Pumpkin Carriage of War to show that off - he worked hard on that, and was damn proud of it.
All the plans for what to show Henry, where to take him, who had to meet him and get to know him, it was definitely helping to lighten Emma’s worries and concerns. She liked the idea that there’d be numerous people around to answer questions or offer help, who’d be willing to help. And while she knew that they’d take the best care they could that Henry wouldn’t be in harms way, it wasn’t always doable in this place, was it?
“Oh, Henry would’ve loved that. That was actually my first weird experience here, body swapping. And I did not that that well.” Being a boy, very very suddenly, had not been a great experience, but she could absolutely see Henry making something adventurous out of it. He made everything into an adventure.
“I think it will,” it’d be too much fun maybe, “he’ll love it here.” Even if it drove them all to an early grave worrying about him, Henry really would love the OC.
Ah, it was settled then. He’d get in contact with Neal, they’d all come up with a little get-together in the near future - a proper celebration, something to rejoice and be happy about through the murkiness of days they were currently trying their best to plow through.
Finished with his half of lunch, he gathered the excess trash and wrinkled it up, tossing it all in the bag he’d brought it all in. “Well, glad you were here at least - takeout would have gone to waste, I would have been trampled by the personification of hormones, it would have been a terrible demise,” Garrus smirked, hand held out. “Pleasure to finally meet you, though. We’ll have to invite you guys over sometime soon.”
Emma took the offered hand with a shake, laughing slightly, “We’d have held a memorial for you here, ‘Trampled by Hormones’, it’s not a get epitaph.” Not that it was likely, although if the seventeen year old girls had rolled over, being eaten alive was a possibility.
“We’d love that,” she was pretty sure she could talk for the others when she said that, because who didn’t like having a get-together? “Well, I look forward to it at least.” And Neal would probably be fine with hanging out with his friends and Henry needed to meet these people to get a feel for all his dad’s friends too. “It was great meeting you.” And getting lunch -that was absolutely an added bonus. It was easy to befriend Emma with food after all.