Hey, s'up guys? So I decided to write this little AU thing at about 4 in the morning - don't judge! Insomnia's a bitch. Anyway, this is something that may or may not have taken place if things happened and Neal somehow wound up adopting Henry instead of Regina. Meaning, that Neal raised his own kid, not knowing that they were actually blood-relatives.

Does this strike your interest? Read on! Got some sad feels as well as happy feels sorta shoved in there, so enjoy!

Neal Cassidy loved his son. And he knew his son - his little boy - loved him. More than anything. For all of Henry's eight years, they'd only had each other. No mother, no grandparents, no friends. And that suited them just fine. Not like they stayed in one place for too long, anyway. Maybe that came from Neal's upbringing, that restlessness - but either way, he learned quickly that he could never really stay still. A couple years in Boston, couple years in Tallahassee - hoping for...what? That somehow he'd see Emma again? Nah, bullshit. Maybe he was just trying to recapture some of that amazing swelling in his chest that he felt whenever he'd seen that beautiful blonde - same feeling he got whenever he looked at his kid. He'd never really put a name to it before, but now he knew that it had to be love. What the hell else could it be, really?

But no matter how much they loved each other, it didn't change the fact that he'd just adopted him. That while Neal loved the kid with his whole heart and more, he wasn't his own flesh and blood. They were really just two lost boys, when they stripped away their age and their city. In the safety of their New York apartment, Neal listened to Henry as he cried, comforted him when he woke from a nightmare, soothed every fever that dared to pain him. And while he knew that Henry tried to hide it from him, some of those dreams...some of those tears were for the parents that had given him up. As he grew, Neal watched the boy struggle with that question. The inevitable question. Why had they given him up? What had he done wrong? And most of all, was he just not good enough?

And no matter how much he dreaded it, the day came when Henry finally asked the question. "Who are my real parents?"

He wouldn't have thought so, really, but hearing the words, Neal really wished he could tell him. He wanted his son to see who he'd grow up to be - where he came from and what he was destined to do. Some of that shit...was just natural. He didn't know where Henry had gotten so incredibly kind-hearted, because it sure as hell wasn't from him. Neal knew nothing about Henry's biological parents, except that they had to be some damn exceptional people if their kid was anything to go by. "I dunno, man," he'd said, placing a comforting hand on the little boy's shoulder. "Wish I did." And then, Neal nudged his son lightly, causing Henry to look back at him, a confused expression on his small face. "I do know one thing, though."

"What?" the eight-year-old had asked, in that way only a little boy could.

"They'd be pretty damn proud of ya," Neal had gone on to admit, offering Henry a gentle smile. He didn't doubt that. Most likely, they'd been two kids too young for the responsibility, in a bit of trouble, with no way they could support a kid of their own. Maybe one day they'd come looking for him, and then...well, Neal's son would have to make a choice. Leaning over, he pressed a kiss to the top of the boy's head, softly rubbing his back. "God knows I am."

o0o0o0o

A couple years later, as Neal watched a ten-year-old Henry hug the mother he'd never known, he was sure that fate got a kick out of giving him a royal kick in the ass. All those dreams and all those tears cried, when the parents he'd always wanted had been there all along. All those years wishing so badly that he was the kid's biological father, when it turned out that he always had been.

But is that all that parenthood is, in the end, biology? Nah. Neal had learned long ago that parenting had nothing to do with blood. It was so much deeper than that. Love was so much more than that.

A small smile crossed his face as he met Emma Swan's green eyes over their son's head, and for the slightest flash of a moment, Neal Cassidy could see a future. For that slightest moment, he remembered what it felt like to have hope.

Fin.

Hope you guys liked it! Leave a review and tell me what you thought.

Cheers!