A/N: Hello and welcome to what is hopefully going to be a long and fun journey. I'm so looking forward to writing this story and I hope everyone will enjoy it as much as I will. It's an AU, no curse, no magic, no anything.

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time and/or any of its affiliates. All rights belong to ABC.

Emma Swan's eyelids flew open as her alarm sounded. Despite it being four o'clock in the morning, she had boundless energy surging through her body, just like it did every day she woke up knowing she was headed to her happy place-Storybrooke Memorial Hospital. Today, she and her fellow classmates were starting their four year period as fully-fledged surgical residents. She and her friends had aced their intern exams and had been rewarded with a six week vacation period. Emma had missed everyone and couldn't wait to step foot in an operating room once again. She flew through her morning routine and was out the door of her tiny apartment in minutes, stuffing a bagel in her mouth as she did.

Emma was greeted by three smiling faces as she stepped into the resident's locker room.

"Emma!" Her closest friend, Ruby Lucas, squealed and rushed over to pull Emma into a tight embrace.

"Hey Rubes! I missed you, how was DC?"

They drew apart and shared sweet smiles,

"Good. I gotta admit as a city girl this sleepy town bores the hell out of me sometimes. I heard you spent your break here hauling ass in the ER!"

"Of course she did, it's Emma." Graham Humbert, their friend who was the only male resident in their tight circle teased Emma as he walked over and poked her in the side.

"Jealous that I was making a little extra money, pretty boy?" Emma stuck her tongue out at him.

"I think he's more jealous that you were booking trauma hours and he wasn't." Aurora Greene chimed in as she turned around to face her friends, still tugging on her red scrub top.

Emma shrugged,

"I needed them honestly, I spent the least amount of time on the trauma service during intern year. But Graham it's all yours, seriously-I'm just going to work the bare minimum for trauma."

He winked at her and headed out the door and Emma shook her head and made her way over to her locker which was sandwiched between Ruby's and a random other second-year whom none of them knew personally. They all knew that while yes it was true that Emma could use the trauma hours and the extra money didn't hurt, the real reason behind why Emma spent her break at the hospital was because she didn't have a home in another city or state or a family to go home and see. She had spent her whole life in foster homes until finally when she was sixteen she escaped to New York City where she lived out of her car, worked her ass off in school and with the help of teachers and what little friends she had, earned herself a full-ride scholarship to New York University where she earned a degree in pre-medical studies and went on to Columbia University. Four years later she'd gotten herself into one of the best surgical programs on the east coast and was ready to live her dreams. Storybrooke had quickly become her home and her friends at work had become like her family. She reflected on the journey she'd been on for the last decade as she slipped into the silky soft red scrubs that she'd at first questioned but now loved more than any other article of clothing.

"Chief Nolan wants us at the board in ten, by the way." Emma was pulled out of her thoughts by Ruby's chipper voice.

Emma nodded at her,

"Sweet. We find out who gets to scrub in with Mills and Hopper, right?"

Ruby nodded. Emma had been anxiously waiting ever since they all found out that doctors Regina Mills and Archie Hopper had received a case of a teenager with a rare brain tumor and the second-year resident who had gotten the best score on their intern exam earned the reward of scrubbing in on the tough procedure. It was Emma's dream surgery-both of her top specialty choices were pediatrics and neurology. Dr. Regina Mills was slowly becoming Emma's surgical idol-she had completed her residency and was now doing her fellowship with Storybooke Memorial. She had been chief resident and was at the top of her class at Harvard for both her undergraduate studies and medical school. Everyone knew she was going to be the next great pediatric surgeon-possibly the best in all of New England. Emma looked around for their missing fifth wheel,

"Where's Ariel? Did she beat us all here again?"

Ruby nodded,

"You know how she is. Always early, always trying to make everything perfect so no one else has to deal with a mess."

Emma let out a breath and thought about how Ariel Drew was probably expecting to win the surgery-and how she probably would be the one to get it, but Emma still hoped she or Ruby or even Graham would earn it. They all visibly worked harder than Ariel-the bright redhead was very type A and so most things came naturally to her, but the rest of them had to study just a little harder in order to achieve what they wanted. Despite all this, Emma knew that the moments that truly counted all took place inside the OR.

Emma finished getting dressed, slipped into her coat, and headed out with Ruby trailing close behind. They chatted about some of the interesting cases Emma had come through the ER as they made their way to the part of the surgical wing that had the various operating rooms and the large whiteboard that showed the schedule of surgeries along with the doctors assigned to each case. The pair joined their three other friends and the dozen other second year residents as they crowded around the surgical board. Dr. David Nolan-the chief of surgery as well as the head of trauma surgery-was standing with a proud look on his face as the residents poured in. Before long he was joined by Dr. Mills and Dr. Hopper.

"Welcome back second-years, and congratulations on surviving your intern year!" Nolan's voice boomed out to them and they all clapped and smiled at one another. "I am so proud of all of you, because aside from your hard work, you are the first class of residents in over a decade that had every single member pass their intern exams. Now, as promised, the resident who earned the top score on their exam has earned the opportunity to scrub in on Dr. Mills and Dr. Hopper's ependymoma resection."

Excited whispers arose from the crowd but they all quickly fell silent once again as Chief Nolan turned towards the board, picked up a marker, and began to fill in the slot for the procedure. He paused before filling in the name under "resident". Everyone held their breath as tension filled the air. Emma's heart jumped into her throat as the first letter written was "S".

'No fucking way.'

Sure enough, Nolan continued to write out "S-W-A-N"

Emma froze as everyone turned to her, a mix of jealousy and joy staring back at her.

"Congrats Em!" Ruby squeezed Emma's shoulder and everyone else joined in. Her friends congratulated her and her superiors smiled at her.

"Alright, everyone back to work now. Swan, come on up. Hey, has anyone seen my sister?"

Nolan called to them as they started to disperse. Dr. Kathryn Nolan was the cardio fellow and Chief Nolan's younger sister. Emma watched as Regina whispered into the chief's ear and he gave her a satisfied nod. It was no secret that Regina and Kathryn were best friends, and in turn Regina and the chief were also close.

As everyone went their separate ways, Emma's heart started to pound as she walked towards the front of the large space where her superiors were waiting. Dr. Hopper was the first to greet her with a warm smile,

"Congratulations Dr. Swan, we're glad to have you join us."

Emma took his hand and immediately felt herself relax. While Dr. Archibald-or Archie-Hopper was not the head of neurosurgery, he was highly respected and very well-loved. He was an incredibly intelligent and kind man that everyone got along with, and all the interns were constantly spoiled by his warm persona and laid-back attitude. Some tried to take advantage of his generosity, but he was not afraid to threaten assigning them to scut or even taking them off his service entirely.

"Now, Dr. Mills here is going to be the one performing the procedure, I'll simply be supervising and answering any questions you might have-and I may ask a few myself to see what you know." Archie gave Emma a wink and they both turned to Regina.

The brunette looked up from the virtual chart she'd been studying and smiled at Emma,

"It's a pleasure to work with you again Dr. Swan. I hope you're excited and ready to learn."

Emma nodded,

"I most definitely am. Opportunities like this are so rare-I feel blessed!"

Regina blushed a little,

"Someday I'm sure you'll be doing plenty of procedures as rare and complex as this one-it's clear you're headed in the right direction, and I'll be looking forward to having you on my service over the next few years."

All of Emma's doubts flew out the window as Regina was clearly speaking from the heart,

"Thank you so much Dr. Mills-your opinion means a lot to me, honestly. I'll be looking forward to learning as much as I can from you and Dr. Hopper."

Dr. Mills was a kind woman for sure, but she sometimes got a bad rep for being cold when it came to work. Emma hadn't had much opportunity for close interaction with Regina during intern year as the only time they ever spent together was when Emma was watching her assist or perform a surgery, and even then it was rare for interns to get assigned to pediatric cases that fifth-year residents were working. All Emma knew was that she got butterflies in her stomach even at the thought of being in the same OR as Regina, and while she wasn't completely positive why, she was pretty sure it was just nerves.

Or, so she hoped.