Hey there! Okay, so this is totally different than what I normally do even though I'm sure I will find a way of interjecting my take on the Charming Family into it somehow! Haha and just to clarify, everyone is still alive – no one fell through a portal or turned into a little boy so we still have Neal and August! I just wanted to try something new – and what could be more different than a mystery? I hope you all enjoy :)
Alas, I do not own OUAT.
Emma was at the table when her phone buzzed. Her spoonful of cereal mid-air, she deliberated over whether to answer it or not, really not in the mood for a conversation right now. Taking a chance, she shovelled the cereal into her mouth and checked the caller I.D.
Regina.
Ugh, she had to answer it.
"Hello?" she answered with her mouth full.
"Am I disturbing you Miss Swan?"
Emma rolled her eyes and placed down her spoon. "What is it, Regina?"
Regina hesitated on the other end and unconsciously, Emma sat forward, leaning an elbow on the table, curious. "It's Dr. Hopper," the brunette declared. "He's missing."
"What do you mean he's missing?"
Regina scoffed. "Do I need to look up a dictionary for you? It means that he's not in his office and there's no sign of him around town."
Rising from her chair, Emma wedged the phone between her shoulder and her ear as she carried her bowl and glass over to the sink. "Well have you checked his apartment?"
"If by apartment you mean that shoebox on the next floor, then yes I have. He's not there."
"That shoebox is the home you gave him with the curse if I remember correctly," she pointed-out candidly. "And how do you know he's not there? He could just be in the shower or asleep or something."
"Well thank you for that insight, Sheriff Swan," Regina drawled, clearly unimpressed. "I used magic to let myself in and I can safely say that he's not there."
Emma rested her back against the sink and crossed an arm over her chest, her hand clasping her elbow. "You do realise that's breaking and entering, right? I can arrest you for that."
"I'd like to see you try," she challenged. "Now are you going to help locate Dr. Hopper or-"
The blonde sighed. "I'll be at his office in ten," she said, hanging up the phone.
She was sure that there was some reasonable explanation to Archie's apparent disappearance but if there was any truth to Regina's claims, Emma wouldn't be doing a good job as Sheriff or as a friend if she didn't follow it up.
But it was just so cold out.
And things had finally just started to settle down.
Emma huffed as she collected her coat and slinked her arms into the sleeves, praying that she had the patience to deal with the Evil Queen. Huh, that's something she never thought she'd ever hope for.
With her hand hovering over the door handle, she heard footsteps from behind her coming down the stairs and she turned to meet her mother's accusing eyes.
"Going somewhere?" Her voice was soft but displayed just a hint of that parental authoritative tone that Emma was so desperately trying to learn to use on Henry. It would seem that Mary Margaret had perfected it.
"Regina called. She said Archie's missing. I'm gonna go check it out."
She twisted around to open the door but her mother was quick to react, hopping down the last few steps and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Wait, he's missing? I'm going with you."
"What?"
Mary Margaret gathered her coat and hat and put them on as if against the clock. "Your father is out with Henry and I was hoping to spend some time with you today, so I'm coming with you. Besides, you might need back-up," she surmised with a small smile.
Emma's eyebrows shot up. "Back-up? What, against Regina? I think I can handle her." Mary Margaret fired a glance at her. Emma quickly continued, "It's just a routine check-up; I'll make a few inquiries, have a look around and see if I can figure out where Archie is. No big deal."
"Well, if it's no big deal then you won't mind if I tag along," she replied sharply as she opened the door and exited the apartment before Emma could summon a response.
The blonde shook her head at her mother's pro-active spirit. There was no point in arguing – she would win anyway. So, without complaint, she closed the door behind them.
"Just think of it as an adventure," Mary Margaret smiled.
"Yeah sure, whatever you say." Unfortunately, she couldn't suppress her smile either.
Maybe policing her with mom wouldn't be so bad.
Regina, in all her regal glory, was perched on the edge of the couch in Archie's office when Emma and Mary Margaret arrived. Of course the first thing she would think to do would be to make herself comfortable.
"Well it's about time you showed up Sheriff," she said, rising up to meet them. "Ah and I see you've brought your mother with you. Is that so she can hold your hand while you work?"
Emma narrowed her eyes briefly. "So why exactly are you here?"
Regina flicked her hair off her face and clucked her tongue. "I have a session with Dr. Hopper every day and we were scheduled to meet this afternoon. But when I arrived, he wasn't here and so I had a look around town and in his apartment only to find no trace of him. It's as though he's vanished into thin air."
"People don't just vanish into thin air," Emma remarked but then corrected herself, "Well, in Storybrooke I guess that's actually possible." Moving over to his desk, she rifled through his papers, trying to get a sense of the last thing he was reading. Nothing jumped out at her but she repeated the action over and over again as if somehow something would catch her eye.
"Wherever he is, he's without his jacket." That little tidbit was courtesy of Regina. At least she was observant.
"And he left in a hurry," Mary Margaret noted.
Emma put the papers back on the desk. "What makes you say that?"
She lifted up a lunchbox from the locker next to the window. "He didn't touch his lunch."
"That means nothing. He could be having it later."
"No, Dr. Hopper always takes a half-hour lunch at noon. We have our sessions at one."
The blonde sighed and took the box in her hands. "Are you sure he's not in Granny's? Or out for a walk?"
"Without his jacket?" her mother commented.
"Why would he go to Granny's when he already had lunch?" Her tone insinuated that Emma was an idiot. Sometimes she just wanted to punch her…
"Fine," she surrendered, "but where's Pongo? If he had been taken or whatever, the dog would still be here."
"Not unless they were trying to cover their tracks." Great, now her mom was a super sleuth. Just what her family needed – their own personal Sherlock Holmes. Did that make her Watson? Ugh, now her head hurt. Why couldn't Archie just walk through the door and proclaim himself alive and well? She didn't like to think that something bad had happened to him – Archie was a friend above all else – and the thought of something terrible befalling him created a knot in her stomach that only twisted with every passing moment.
They needed to find him.
"Okay so maybe something has happened, but I can't declare a missing person until twenty-four hours have passed. Until then we just keep an eye out for him."
"So your plan is to just…wait? There's been an abduction and you want to go and do whatever it is that you do? That sounds like a good plan Sheriff," the woman snarled sardonically. "I guess I'll just leave this little matter to you and the two idiots and hope that Dr. Hopper comes out of this ordeal alive." She started for the door.
"Why do you care so much Regina?"
Keeping her back to them, she spoke softly. "Because regardless of what you think of me Miss Swan, I do actually have a heart. I brought this town here and I ruled over it for twenty-eight years and I know all of its inhabitants. Dr. Hopper is one of only a few people who haven't treated me like the Evil Queen. And that is a luxury I would much rather keep." And with that she stalked out of the room, the sound of her heels clacking against the floor fading as she moved further away.
If there was one thing Emma admired about Regina, it was that she sure knew how to make an exit.
Mary Margaret shuffled beside the blonde and rubbed her hand lovingly along her arm. "We'll find him Emma. If there is one thing this family does, it's find the people that we care about. There's no one better for this job."
She sure hoped so.
With the help of David, Mary Margaret and Ruby, Emma searched all over Storybrooke for any sign of the doctor, but to no avail. An examination of his apartment for clues ended in more disappointment than enlightenment, a visit to Granny's for information proved useless as no one had seen or spoke to Archie since the previous day, and even Gepetto had nothing to tell them. It was looking like a hopeless case.
"I can't catch his scent," Ruby bemoaned, desperately sniffing his jacket. "Maybe he's underground."
"But we checked with the dwarves and they hadn't seen him," David answered, his hands placed firmly on his hips.
"He has to be in Storybrooke somewhere; he can't leave. We're just missing something." Hopeless situations seemed a common occurrence to Emma when she was younger; she always appeared to be fighting a losing battle or swimming against the tide, but giving-up was not in her vocabulary and she definitely wasn't ready to throw in the towel now. She was still the Sheriff – albeit to a land of Fairy Tale characters – and she was going to assert her authority and do everything she possibly could to find their friend.
She was Emma Swan after all. Finding people was what she did.
"Maybe we need to call it a night and start afresh in the morning?" Mary Margaret suggested.
It was getting pretty late. The moon hung ominously in the sky, casting a pale, ghostly shadow on the ground and the breeze was just cool enough to send a chill down the spine. Rain swept up the town, giving an extra bite to the menacing sky. Everything felt off balance, like there was a greater force at work, conspiring against them.
"No, wait," Emma instructed. "What about Gold? He can help us."
Ruby's eyes widened. "He can give us a potion like the one he gave you when you were trying to find Jefferson," she said to David.
The man smiled. "Right."
"You were trying to find Jefferson?" Mary Margaret questioned, tilting to her head to the side.
He nodded. "When you were both in the Enchanted Forest. I thought he could create a portal so I could get you home. Gold gave me a potion that led me to him."
"How?" Emma's natural scepticism liked to rear its head from time to time.
"I had to spill it over something that belonged to him. If we get the potion, we can sprinkle it over Archie's jacket and it should lead us to him."
"Then let's go!" Emma exclaimed, grabbing the opportunity with both hands.
Thumping the door to the shop, David called for the man. "Gold! Open up!"
After three more attempts, the door finally swung open revealing a tired-looking Rumpelstiltskin. "Oh, well if it isn't the new A-Team. What are you all doing here?"
"We need your help," Mary Margaret explained.
"Archie's missing and we need something to help us find him," Emma continued, trying to sound as friendly as possible. Though she knew it would be wasted on him.
Gold smirked. "And what exactly do you expect from me?"
Ruby spoke up. "A potion."
David, exuding his royal stature, moved in front of the group, his face mere inches from the other man. Emma couldn't help but be awed at her father. Every time he snapped into Prince mode, she felt herself utterly fascinated by the way he held himself. "Like the one you gave me. Back when I needed Jefferson's help."
"What makes you think I have something like that in my shop?"
"Because you like to keep things for a rainy day," her father emphasised.
With an impish chuckle, Gold raised a finger. "Wait here." He waded into his shop and returned a few moments later with a vile of navy liquid in his right hand. "Is this what you're looking for?" He dangled the vile in front of David's face like he was taunting a child with some candy.
"What's your price?" Emma demanded, fearing his request.
"Oh I don't know yet, Dearie. But let's just say that you'll owe me a favour. Do we have a deal?" His smile was too wide and Emma shuddered involuntarily.
The group exchanged glances with one another. "Deal," Emma stated.
"Here ya go!" Gold shoved the vile into David. "Now if you don't mind, it's getting late."
They backed away from his shop as he closed the door.
"Always a pleasure," Mary Margaret mumbled.
Ruby thrust Archie's jacket into the air, presenting it to the Prince. David uncorked the vile and with a deep breath and a glance at his family, he tossed the liquid all over the item of clothing, making sure to use all of it.
They waited.
Suddenly, the jacket glowed blue and escaped from Ruby's hands, flying wildly through the air, looping around in all directions. All of them chased after the cloth, following its tumultuous path. They ran for what felt like ages until the jacket plummeted onto the damp gravel in the middle of nowhere.
Gazing all around them, Emma stopped to catch her breath. She put her hands on her knees and inhaled deeply. "Well, where is he?" she quizzed in between breaths.
"I…I don't know," Ruby responded, sniffing the jacket again. "There's nothing around here."
"Maybe he's in the forest?" Mary Margaret offered.
"No the jacket should have led us right to him," David said angrily, squeezing his eyes shut and locking the bridge of his nose with his thumb and finger.
Emma yelled out for Archie and waited for an answer.
Nothing came.
All four of them called out at the top of their lungs, disturbing the wildlife.
Still nothing. Nothing but eerie silence.
"Now what?" Though she tried to fight it, Emma was getting tired.
"I think it's time we go home," her mother said quietly. "Try again in the morning."
"I'll keep his jacket and try to track him if I get a whiff of his scent." She had to admit, having a wolf as a friend was pretty handy in times of trouble.
"Thanks, Ruby."
Defeated and exhausted, the four of them ventured home, hoping that they'd have better luck in the morning but Emma couldn't help but wonder if they'd ever find out where he was. Gold's potion seemed a sure thing but now it looked as though nothing was a sure thing. The knot in her stomach twisted tighter.
Maybe tomorrow would be better.
It couldn't get any worse, right?
With Neal taking Henry out as a distraction for the day, Emma, Mary Margaret and David had their focus set on the search for Archie. They had rested well and decided on revisiting the area where the jacket had taken them the night before in the hopes of having the daylight on their side.
The drive was silent with each of them wrestling with their own thoughts. As they pulled up, Emma's phone buzzed and she eagerly answered it, thinking it news of Archie's whereabouts. Any news was good news, she told herself constantly.
"Hello?" she answered, breathless.
Mary Margaret and David listened intently to their daughter's side of the conversation, their eyes locking as they waited.
"Okay, we'll be right there." The blonde hung-up the phone.
"Emma, what is it?" her mother asked, worried.
Emma met her eyes in the rear-view mirror. "It's Ruby," she whispered. "She's missing."
So now Ruby has joined the missing persons list! I hope to end each chapter in sort of a similar style – that is, of course, if people are interested in this idea! I'm really just experimenting to see how it goes! If you have any feedback or suggestions please do let me know!
What do you think happened to Archie? And Ruby? ;)
If you have time, please drop me a review and let me know what you thought! :)
