When Emma Leaves Storybrooke
By Schroederplayspiano2
The Past is Prologue Part 1
Thursday Night
Emma's police car sat on a curb, motionless off the main path of town. Its occupant busy thinking, eating late night takeout from Granny's in the front seat: a cheeseburger and some fries. She paused mid-bite looking down at her meal and her badge attached to her jeans, realizing she could easily turn into a cliché of a small town policeman.
Emma just finished her last bite when she heard it:
STREECH!
BANG!
CRACK!
CRASH!
Emma ran out to the middle of the road after the noise without thinking. Her eyes finally adjusted to a truck that just had ran into a sign announcing Ruby's new lingerie store. Only when Emma noticed the color of the truck did she realize whose truck it was.
"David?" Emma questioned as she approached the vehicle. "Can you her me?"
"Yeah…" David's voice came out with pain.
"Are you hurt?" Emma mentally went through her checklist of what do in these situations while her eyes scanned the scene.
"No…." David blinked and his eyes tried to focus and understand what had just happened. "I don't think so."
"Can you remove yourself from the car?" Emma asked with a serious tone.
David's eyes came into focus. "Emma?"
"Remove yourself from the car."
"Sorry?"
"I am not going to ask you again. Remove yourself from the car."
"Okay…" David started to open his heavily damaged door and climb out when Emma made a noise that urged him to hurry. "Okay!"
Once he removed himself from his truck the two of them stood face to face:
All Emma could do was stare. In his jeans and blue-checkered shirt with dirt all over his face, with tiredness and sadness in his eyes; he looked pathetic. Almost like a very old man who had just realized he had lost everything.
"You're beautiful." He said.
"Excuse me?" Emma's frustration was growing.
David laughed uncomfortably. "I'm sorry." Emma's eyes narrowed. "It's just your eyes." He paused and then added. "They look like Mary-Margaret's."
Emma's eyebrows rose, half-amused. "How drunk are you?"
David's smile widened. "Really, really drunk."
"Okay, so here's what we're going to do-" As Emma reached in her back pocket for her cuffs, David put his hands out in front of him to stop her.
"No! Wait!" He yelled at Emma.
"Excuse me?" Emma said, cuffs in hand approaching him.
"Don't Arrest Me!" David yelled again.
"Don't arrest you?" Emma stared at him again. "You kidding me right? You're clearly way past the legal alcohol limit and you just killed Ruby's new sign…Begging with a police officer is not a good idea in this situation. Turn around."
When David had faced the other way, he announced, "My wife's going to kill me."
"I doubt she'll kill you for getting yourself into a car accident." Emma took a breath in and tightened the cuffs around his wrists. "She might kill you for having an affair behind her back through. "
David's eyes widen as he turned around to face Emma. "Excuse Me?"
Emma kept a serious, impersonal tone. "Is that why you got wasted tonight?"
"You know?" He asked trying not to look at her.
Emma's eyes went straight up to meet his. The two starred into each other's eyes for a long moment before Emma stated, "I know everything."
Another long moment went by where the pair could do nothing but stare at each other.
"Let's go Prince Charming." Emma led David to her car, opened the back door, and helped David into the back seat.
She took out her cell to call Mr. Tillman to tow David's truck. When she finished the call she turned around and caught David starring at her through his side window. Emma turned from him, smirked, and went to the other side of the car to climb into the driver's seat.
"Dude! Don't you have two lovers at the moment? Do you really need another one?"
"What?" David was too distracted with looking at her to hear what she had said.
Emma looked back at him, met his eyes, and raised her voice. "Why are you starring at me like that?"
"I'm sorry," David tried to regroup. "Really I am. It's just that you seem so familiar to me."
Emma nodded, smirked again, and rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, I'm sure…It feels like you just found a long lost family member."
David eyes widen with what seemed like understanding. "Yes! Yes, that's exactly how it feels like." Emma rolled her eyes again and turned around to face the front of the car. In his drunken state, David added, "Do you feel it too?"
David could see Emma's mouth straighten in the mirror. "No," she said seriously and started the car.
Thankfully Emma put on obnoxious music on during the car ride to the police station so she did not have to endure any more drunken rambling from her arrestee. Once the pair had made it into the police station, David pouted, "Do I really have to stay here all night?"
Emma unlocked his cell and gently pushed him into it. "Yup," she stated. David turned around so that could undo his handcuffs.
Once Emma locked his cell, she made her way out the station door.
"Hey!" David yelled at her so she turned around. "Where you going?"
"Don't worry, I'll be back."
Sure enough, within minutes, Emma returned with two hot chocolates and a file full of papers.
Emma approached David's cell and held a hot chocolate through the bars for him. David stood up. "Oh, um, is it customary for the police to offer their arrestees wonderful warm beverages?"
"It's for the hangover." Emma stated wearily.
David smirked. "I didn't know hot chocolates were good for hangovers."
"They cure me of just about anything," Emma shrugged, pulling the hot chocolate back, "But, hey, if you don't want it…" she teased.
"No!" David reached out his hand desperately. "No, I want it." For the first time that night Emma smiled sweetly at David, putting the drink in his hand. David took it gently and said, "Thank You."
It seemed the air between them was finally clear when Emma went back to her desk and both of them enjoyed their hot chocolates in peace.
Within the next twenty minutes both of them had finished their hot chocolates and Emma had finished almost half her paperwork regarding her most recent arrest. David had gone back to his new favorite hobby: starring at Emma.
Emma was grateful she had her back facing him for she could feel him starring at her.
"So!" David said loudly to purposefully disrupt her train of thought. "Prince Charming, Huh?"
Emma turned around. "What?"
"Why did you call me Prince Charming?" David said seriously.
Emma smiled. "I like irony," she said simply.
David's eyebrows furrowed. "Irony?"
"Yes, Irony." Emma looked at him for a moment more before returning to her paperwork.
"Why is it ironic to call me Prince Charming after I get into a car accident?"
"You're kidding, right?"
"No, I don't-"
At that, Emma rose from her chair in frustration and approached David's jail cell. "Do you know your place in this town?"
David looked at Emma, confused. "My place in this town?"
Emma closed eyes to start over. "Okay. How about this? Do you know the meaning of irony?"
"Yes, but I-"
"It is Ironic to call anyone Prince Charming after they are found crashing a car drunk – especially after finding you the way you looked."
"I know, but I-"
"It's bothering you that I called you that." Emma stated with a slip of her tongue.
"How do you know?" David quickly replied.
Emma leaned on the wall close to David's cell and looked at him with a tinkle in her eye. "I told you. I know everything."
"Everything?"
"Everything."
"Which begs the question…" David started.
"Why did I call you Prince Charming and what is your place in this town?"
David nodded with a slight, but knowing smile.
"Well, Mr. Nolan," Emma paused and then added, "I'm afraid to speak of one is to speak of the other."
"What?" David's smile disappeared and Emma walked to her desk to pick up her keys.
Emma looked him one last time. "Think about it," she said and turned towards to the door to turn off the lights.
"You don't make any sense," David said to the darkness.
Emma smiled to herself. "Goodnight, Mr. Nolan."
With that, Emma closed and locked the door to the police station, threw her keys up in the air and caught them. "It's so much fun messing with drunk people!" She said to the night sky.