Chapter 1

A radiant smile stretched across her face as she strode into the Maine Bureau of Investigation office. Officer Emma Swan was only a rookie at the MBI, but she was highly accomplished for a newcomer. Within three weeks as an officer, she caught four drug dealers, three assaulters, two prostitutes, and two kidnappers. All the senior officers smiled as Emma made her way to the front desk, pushing along a grumpy, handcuffed felon.

"Jeez Swan," laughed the secretary, "if you keep up at this pace, everyone else won't have a job to do. What is this, number twelve?"

"Yep. Mr. Sloppy here left fingerprints all over the house he robbed, so it was pretty easy finding him," Emma replied, gesturing for another officer to take the man away. Emma took the criminal report, sat down at her desk, and started filling out the paperwork, occasionally sipping some water from her canteen, unaware that she was being watched by a secret admirer. Agent Neal Cassidy stared at the young officer with the golden blonde hair, getting distracted from his own assignments. He was instantly attracted to her; she was a hard worker and tough, yet friendly and charismatic. He couldn't stop thinking about her bright blue eyes, and how they lit up every time she caught a criminal.

"Cassidy?"

"Huh? What? Oh, hey Booth. Anything new?" Neal snapped out of his daydreams, facing his partner and close friend, August Booth.

"You alright? You seem out of it today."

"Oh, yea well. You know Officer Emma Swan, right?"

"Yea. She's the rookie," replied August, glancing over at Emma.

"She would make a great agent, wouldn't she?" observed Neal. "She's so driven and tough and determined and- "

"Yea, yea. Everyone knows that. What's your point?"

"I'm going to promote her to become an agent, so she can work with us."
"You're what?!" exclaimed August, almost choking on his coffee.

"I'm going to promote her. Besides, we could use some help with that annoying thief."

"Have you informed the chief about this? It seems very last minute."

"Yea. I've asked him already. He likes the idea. Should I tell her?"

"Uh… yea. How else is she supposed to know that she's been promoted?"

"Okay, okay. How do I look? Is my hair messed up?" Neal searched for something to check his appearance.

"You're fine. Now go!" August pushed Neal as he walked over to Emma. He looked back at August nervously, who mouthed the word "go".

"Officer Swan, right?" Neal asked as he approached Emma's desk.

"Yea. How can I help?"

"Agent Neal Cassidy. I wanted to let you know that the chief and I have decided to promote you as an agent. So you'll work with me and Agent Booth." Neal pointed to where he was with August before, but August had already left.

"Oh okay! When do I start?"

"Tomorrow. So come in at eight and be ready to work. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Alright. See you tomorrow."

Neal started walking away from Emma's desk, stopped, turned around, and went back. "Swan?"

"Hm?"

"Do you want to, maybe, go get some coffee with me?"

Emma smiled. "Sure, where?"

"Oh, I don't know. Probably the coffee shop across from here. What's it called? 'The Fat Bean'?"

"The Big Bean Coffee Sho- "

"Yea, there."

"Okay, let me get my stuff." Emma got up from her desk and went to grab her jacket from the coat rack. Neal celebrated in his head as he followed her to the door.

At the coffee shop, the two ordered their coffee, sat down, and began talking about the new job and their lives outside of the office.

"So what's your secret?" Neal asked. "You know, to getting all the bad guys. You caught, like, twelve in three weeks. How did you do it?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe it's because I know all the passages and secret hideouts of Maine. I used to be a thief, you know. But after spending eleven months in jail, I quit messing around and decided to become an officer instead."

"Really? Now I see where you get your toughness. Were your parents happy that you gave up on stealing people's things?"

Emma looked down at the coffee. "I don't know my parents," she said quietly. Emma's parents gave her up when she was only a baby, so she never knew them. She spent all her childhood bouncing from one foster home to another. She sighed as she took a drink of coffee.

"Oh God. I'm so sorry," apologized Neal.

"No, no it's fine. Anyway, so why did you decide to become an agent?"

"Hmmm. Let's see. Well, when I've always had a fascination with crime-fighting ever since I was little. I always thought being a police officer or an agent were the heroes of the real world. So I guess that's what made me who I am now."

"That's cool," Emma checked the time on her phone. "I better get going. It was nice talking to you Neal,"

"You too, Emma. Maybe we can do this again sometime."

"Yea, sure." Emma and Neal left the coffee shop and went their own ways. Emma couldn't stop thinking about that past half an hour. Was it a date? She hadn't been on a date before. Heck, she never had a boyfriend. Emma shook those thoughts out of her head. She couldn't let a man distract her now.

The next morning, the alarm clock went off at seven thirty as Emma groggily rolled out of bed. She shuffled to her closet, picking out her outfit for her first day as an agent. She slipped on a pair of black skinny jeans, along with her tall, black riding boots and a red tank top. She put on her red leather jacket, but then opted for a black blazer to look more professional. Emma quickly combed through her golden curls, put on some make up, and left for the MBI.

As she walked in, Emma was greeted by Neal and August.

"Wow," Neal glanced up and down her body, "you look great. You should dress- " he winced as August elbowed him in the ribs.

"You must be Agent Swan. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Agent August Booth."

"Nice to meet you," Emma replied, shaking hands with August.

"Come, this way. We're going to have a meeting about our next case." Neal led Emma to the conference table where other agents were seated. August took out his laptop and began his slideshow.

"This is Killian Jones," he began, projecting a picture of a handsome young man with dark hair and stunning eyes. "He is most wanted for high jewelry and museum theft and art and bank fraud."

"That's it?" Emma blurted out. She felt her cheeks burning as all the agents looked at her.

"Well yes, but he has done over 175 cases in about two years," replied Neal, clicking to the next slide listing all of Killian's felonies. "Word around town is that he's going to strike again sometime soon. Unfortunately, we don't know when and where. Everyone in the criminal world knows him and is scared of him. They think if they tell us what they know, he's going to hunt them own and kill them."

"But Boss?" asked one of the other agents, "Cant we provide protection to the ones who tell us where he's going to be?"

"If we did that, then all the criminals who know him would want to tell us. And then we would be protecting everyone, which is way too much," replied August, passing out papers about Killian and his past achievements. "Here are all of Jones' files. Read it and do as much research as you can. Maybe it will show a pattern in his work. Tell us if you get something."

As all the agents headed for their desk, Emma headed for the door. She knew exactly who to ask.

"Hey! Where're you going?" asked Neal, catching up to her.

"I'm gonna ask around. Maybe I'll get something."
"Highly doubt it. The guys in the criminal world are terrified of him."

"You never know. Maybe someone is brave enough to rat him out."

Neal laughed. "Good luck with that." He walked back to his desk, shaking his head at her actions.

Emma exited the MBI, got in her yellow Volkswagen, and drove downtown. She had a loyal friend from her theft days she knew she could count on. After an hour of driving, Emma stopped her car in front of a dark alley and got out. She made her way down the alley, hoping her friend still hid there. "Jefferson?" she called out, "It's Emma."

A tall man emerged from the shadows. "Emma! Long time no see." Jefferson walked up to her and greeted her with a hug. "What happened to you? I haven't seen you in years."

"God. It's a long story," laughed Emma. "Let's just say I got caught, quit my act, attended the Police Academy, and now I'm an agent." She flashed Jefferson her shiny, golden badge.

"You're not here to arrest me, are you?"

"No, no. Of course not. I just wanted to ask you some questions," she lowered he voice to a whisper, "about Killian Jones."

"Oh, him." Jefferson looked around, making sure nobody else was with them. "He likes to steal the really expensive things. Like diamonds and jewelry, stuff like that. He's done that more than anything else. I heard he's going to strike again soon- "

"When? Where?" asked Emma anxiously.

"I can't tell you."

"What! Why not? Come on Jefferson!"

"If I tell you, Emma, he'll kill me. Being a thief may be difficult, but I enjoy being alive, thank you very much."

"If I catch him, he won't be able to kill you. Please?"

Jefferson looked at Emma, looked around again, "Fine," he said quietly. "You know that twenty-five hundred dollar necklace for the mayor's wife?"

"Regina Mills?"

"Yea, her. Well I heard that he was going to break in to that fancy jewelry store, 'Leroy and Company', so he could take the necklace and replace it with a fake one."

"Holy crap. Do you know when?"

Jefferson shifted in his place uneasily. "Tonight."

"Tonight?!" Emma exclaimed, unaware of her volume.

"Shh! Jesus, Emma. Yes, tonight. So if you want to find him, you better go."

"Thank you so much Jefferson." Emma ran out of the alley, got in her car, and sped back to the office.