New York City was bustling. A tide of people constantly flowing in and out. Bodies grazing and crashing together, an unrelenting hurricane that sometimes seemed it would never stop. And it didn't. People could call the city many things, but to Emma, it was just home.
And now she was packing up her bags and uprooting her life from the one place that she felt loved. It wasn't easy. Emma had put copious amounts of time and effort to mull over the decision. But she just didn't see any other option. They had failed her and now they had to pay.
She took one last sweeping glance across her desolate apartment. The memories, good and the bad, assaulted her brain. She thought about all the times she had sat in her bedroom, drunk off of cheap red wine, and wished she could go back and change how her life had panned out. She never deserved the hand she got in life, the abandonment from everyone she ever loved, but she decided a long time ago that showing weakness gets people nowhere. So Emma played the cards that she got dealt.
This small dose of nostalgia and longing was all she would allow herself to feel. She had a job to do. She had a town to crash.
Emma handed her apartment keys over to the Super and walked out to her car. She had recently given up her Yellow Bug for a more sophisticated and sleek brand, a black Mercedes Benz. It gleamed in the morning sunlight and filled Emma with anticipated promise.
She got in her car and the slight purr of the engine made Emma smirk. She put the car in drive and pulled out on the busy streets of New York. The last thought she had as the city was fading in her rearview mirror was, Storybrooke wouldn't know what was coming for them. Emma Swan was coming home.