She never really understood the loneliness in her heart. Regina Mills was definitely a woman who, though she had everything, she had a great job as the mayor of a small New England town; she had a wonderful little boy that she adored and who at the age of three was so smart was still lonely. Yet here she was on a Friday night in her study with a glass of red wine and a book while everyone that she knew was probably down at the Rabbit Hole having drinks and enjoying the company of friends. While she was the mayor and a damn good one at that she didn't really have what most would call friends. Now she did have acquaintances like Belle French from the library and Kathryn Nolan the prosecutor in her small town. Yet she'd be hard pressed to call them her friends. She tried to stay out of others' business so they would do her the same courtesy. She had her world in Henry and that was all she needed, at least that is what she had convinced herself of for the past three years ever since he was born. He was her everything especially since his father had up and left two weeks after Regina told him she was pregnant. She knew then that she should have listened to her mother when she told Regina that Daniel was not and never would be good enough for her. It took her a while after he left for her heart to harden and for her to close herself off. Now she wanted nothing to do with men and was anxious for the day when she wouldn't be enough for Henry and he would need a father figure in his life. She was a strong independent woman but she knew that Henry would grow up and need more in his life. She knew however that she had more time, her little prince was only three and not so inquisitive about his parental situation he had Regina, and her parents so right now that was all that mattered. All of that knowledge though didn't do much to quell the loneliness in her heart and neither did the wine that she was drinking. So she stopped put down her book and went to find her son. She had hoped that playing with her father for most of the day had worn Henry out but when her mother had dropped him off that afternoon he was still bouncing off the walls. So now when she walked into the playroom she knew that it would be like a war zone and she was not surprised. However, she was a tad surprised when she looked in the middle of the rubble and there was her son curled up with his stuffed wolf fast asleep, thumb in mouth, and rear end high up in the air. This was she knew that he was exhausted he only slept like that when he had played hard and fast. She picked him up and took him to his room where she changed him and put him to bed. After all of that was done and she had straightened up the playroom the loneliness still felt like cold steel in her heart. Convinced that the night was not going to get better she went to bed hoping that in the morning the loneliness would be abated with the constant moving and plans that her weekend consisted of. She had no idea as she lay down that her world was about to be turned upside down.
Five a.m. was early for the birds and Emery was not excited to be on this side of the sunrise. He knew that he promised his sister that he would come out from Boston to get away from the pain of break up, but damn five a.m. was ridiculous. Then again anything was better than being in an empty apartment that held more memories than he wished. He still felt blindsided that his girlfriend of two years was sleeping with his boss. And he called himself a detective. He was a detective and a damn good one at that but she was just better at hiding than he was at detecting. Plus he guessed that when you love someone you become blind to their shortcomings and this was a big one he thought. That was one of the main reasons that he agreed to come to this small fishing town in the first place. That and he hadn't seen his sister since Christmas last month and she had a new beau that she wanted her little brother to approve of desperately. She was always pestering him to come for a visit because she always went to Boston for holidays and now he had the perfect excuse. He still hadn't figured out how to tell her that because he had found his ex with his superior officer that he had in fact quit his job. So now he had all of his possessions in two suitcases in the trunk. Now he just needed to get his head on straight before he made whatever step was next. He hoped that this was the place for him to do that and maybe he could even write a song or two while he was in Storybrooke, Maine. His sister had described this town as small, quaint, and friendly. He couldn't help but think that it was a made up town. He didn't know of anyplace that was as perfect as his sister thought her town was. Yet, she was in love and the bubble can always make a person bias. It was about seven when he pulled his black 1964 mustang into the sleepy town that would be his home for the next 3 weeks. He decided that he needed coffee desperately and lucky enough for him there was a small diner right on the way to his sisters' apartment he parked his car and got out and stretched his 6'5" frame. The car was his baby that he had bought his first year on the force and fixed up to its original glory but it was not a car for extended travel. He headed toward the door and was about to turn the corner when a woman and a little boy slammed into him. That wouldn't have been a problem except the woman had been holding a steaming cup of hot chocolate that was now soaking through his shirt.