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That was the sound that made Emma cringe. She knew what that meant, she was stuck in Bum Fuck Egypt with a broken down car. Defeated, Emma comes to a halt on a road with a sign welcoming drivers to Storybrooke, Maine, population 5,120. So close and yet so far from Boston, her original destination. There was no way she would be able to get the damn thing fixed; she was hoping it would have lasted the last 500 miles. Opening up the hood, she couldn't see the problem. There was a lot of steam coming out of the engine, that's all she really knew; she didn't know much about cars except for how to drive them, changing a tire and the oil. Realizing that it's almost nine at night, she maneuvers to the back seat where she pulls out a sleeping bag and falls to sleep wondering what to do next.

Emma wakes up the next morning groggy and feeling gross, it had been a few days since she last bathed. She gets a small bag with some clothes to change into, locks the yellow Volkswagen and starts walking into the town, carrying a little less than one hundred dollars on her. Her priority was to feel more human and right now, that meant food and a restroom. She starts walking around the town, noticing the pretty things in windows, the people walking arm in arm with fishing poles over their shoulders and the waiving smell of a bacon close by and sees a neon sign from where the smell was coming from, Granny's Diner. She stops by a diner and realizes that the last thing she ate was a gas station burrito around six in the evening yesterday. She walks in and the bell overhead dings, signaling one of the waitresses to instinctually say "Welcome to Granny's, be with you in a second."

Emma makes her way to the bathroom where she sponges off as best as she can, throws her hair in a ponytail and uses the restroom. When she gets back, she grabs an empty booth and looks for the cheapest thing on the menu before the waitress gets to her.

"Welcome to Granny's, I'm Ruby and I'll be your server today, what can I get you started with?" said the tall, young waitress.

"Um, a cup of coffee and biscuits and gravy?" She says. Subtracting six dollars from the balance she's been keeping in her head.

"I'll get that in for you." The girl says with a smile as she takes the menu and walks away.

Ruby comes back with a coffee cup, a bowl of little individual creams and the pot of coffee in her hands. She smiles as she approaches the blonde girl. "Here you go, hun. Say, what's your name?"

"Emma." She says, looking up at the girl with a grin. "Emma Swan.

"Well that's a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. Are you new in town?" Emma was taken back by both the waitresses comment and her invasiveness, normally people plop your food down and leave.

"No, just passing through, I'm on my way to Boston." She answered.

"What's in Boston?"

"I'm not sure yet."

"Why are you in here then?"

"Car broke down a little ways outside of here, I'm trying to get it worked on. I'm not planning on staying."

"Well, do you know what's wrong with it?" Ruby asks.

"Not really, no."

"A little ways down the street, there's a mechanic named Billy, tell him Ruby sent you and he'll get your car to his shop and take a look at it."

"Seriously, you're using your favor on a stranger from out of town?"

"No, I'm using my favor on a beautiful girl down on her luck and probably needs a friend. But yeah, he owes me one anyways. Let me know if you need anything okay?" Ruby gives her a little smile and walks away. She was a beautiful young woman, probably around her age, maybe a little older. Her legs where a mile long, stopped by her red shorts and black Chuck Taylors. Her long brown hair was straightened and had really red strands in it, held in place by a white headband. She wore a black tank top and a red and black checkered flannel shirt, kept in place by her apron. Ruby looked as if she embraced the color her name modeled.

Emma eats her food and sketches more in her sketch pad; she draws a man across the way who seems to be very concentrated in today's newspaper. She concentrated on him very hard as she captured the detail in his solemn, drooping features and aging face.

"Hey that looks pretty good." Ruby says behind her a little while later. Emma jumps a little before replying with a thank you. "I didn't mean to scare you." She says, nodding to the coffee pot in her hand. Emma gives her the nod to pour another portion of the coffee into her cup.

"Oh, you're fine. The food was really good. Thank you."

"Good, I'm glad you enjoyed it. If you're here tomorrow, the lasagna is awesome."

"We'll see." Emma chuckles. "Can I get the check?" She asks, reaching for her purse.

"Don't worry about it." Ruby says with a smile.

Emma gives her a questioning glance but let's it slide. She's not going to deny the kind girl's hospitality. "Thanks." Emma says, "I can still sit for a bit, right?"

"Of course, take as long as you want." Ruby says and tends to other customers. The breakfast crowd was dying, leaving the diner almost empty, meaning she could stay a while longer without being a bother. At half past ten, Emma finally gets up and walks down to the mechanic's shop where she tells them about Ruby's request and Billy agreed to take a look at the car. They go after it together and he promised that he would get to it later that day. Emma then, bored out of her mind, went to the library and picked out a book and spent the rest of the day reading it in such a secluded part of the library that she managed to fall asleep without anyone noticing her.

Around two, she decides to get up and walk around the town she stumbled upon. She walked by the beach, the docks and saw kids playing in the park. She walked past the baseball fields where a little league game is playing, and she watches that for a bit.

Emma was never a stranger to the loneliness. As a kid, she was brought up in an environment where she was bumped around a lot with lots of kids of all ages around her. She was thought to be invisible, thinking of that as her superpower. She could blend into a crowd with no problems. Her superpower did have its moments, however, and that was when she was wanting to get noticed. By the other foster kids in the homes she wanted to befriend, the teachers who didn't quite see her as a person but just one of "those group home kids" and would do the bare minimum for them, knowing they would leave before too long. It was always so hard for her to get noticed until her case worker, Lacey came along. Emma's knight in shining armor, she called her on more than one occasion, she wasn't the first case worker, but she would be her last and left a good impact on her around when she turned sixteen as a sophomore in high school. She helped her realize how much potential she really had. She would even get her access to tutors she could turn to if she needed. She made her feel worth something, like someone who wasn't invisible. Maybe that's where Emma's love for the classic yellow bug came from. That thing was noticeable for miles away by its color. Emma was sure to turn heads wherever she would take that thing. Lacey filled the young girl with hope, something that someone with the past she's had, didn't have a lot of to start with. Emma thought about she her and how she told her to write her whenever she needed a friend. She had planned on writing to her after the got a good start in Boston. Emma tucked the woman in the back of her mind as she focused on her next course of action.

As she walks down the street, she walks by Billy's Garage.

"Ms. Swan!" Billy calls out. "Just in time, I got a look at the bug. You have a cracked piston in the engine."

"Well hell, how much is that going to cost?" Emma asks, panicking.

"$600 plus the $200 labor fee, I would make it less but I don't make those rules."

There was no way she could scrape together that much money in such a short amount of time.

"I bet there's no bus or something out of here, is there?"

Billy shakes his head, "About once a month, ma'am."

"Some luck. Well, could you get her over to the side of the road or some parking lot until you can fix her?"

"I can keep her outside, sure, but are you sure you don't want her enclosed on the property? We're gated and everything, your stuff would be safe."

But where would I sleep? Emma thought, "It'll be fine. Thank you, Billy, I really appreciate it." she says to the young man. With her help, they get the car safe into the parking lot by the community center, somewhere where there is no loitering rule in place to get her kicked off or arrested. Resting on the hood of the car, Emma basks in the sunlight and digs her Walkman out one of the boxes. After nightfall, Emma spent the remaining time at Granny's only getting a cup of coffee to make her not a solicitor. The diner was really busy and she felt bad that she took up a place in the restaurant. and stays until closing when she pays the ticket and heads to her car where another night will eventually turn to morning.