Emma Swan was tired.
Physically she was fine but she was mentally exhausted from spending all day fighting with both her parents "Snow White" and "Prince Charming" and her son's adoptive mom, Mayor Regina Mills
On whether to stay in Storybrooke or not.
Sure she could understand their point of view:
Regina had raised Henry for his first ten years and now that they had been apart during that necessary time of escaping Peter Pan's curse. She obviously wanted him back in her life. And her parents…well after being separated from their offspring and grand offspring for two curses. Is it any wonder they wanted their family to stay together?
The problem was that their family and their town were far from ordinary.
Seemed that everyday there was some sort of unnatural catastrophe hand delivered right to their door step they had to deal with.
But now that she'd actually had a break and lived in the "real" world with Henry for a year. She was really tempted to go back to that life and deal with the secret she'd kept from her son.
Little did Emma know that evidence of said secret was in Granny's Bed & Breakfast… "Fill her up Rubes"
said Emma as she placed her whisky glass on the counter of the bar of Granny's Diner.
"Emma that's your third one tonight, what's the problem?" asked the young woman (known as Red Riding Hood back in their land) as she wiped down the surface with a rag.
"-Family Pressures, what else?"
"-You do know that Snow loves you. She just wants you and Henry to be happy…"
"Here," the blond finished,
"But nothing is as simple as that. I'm tired of being the mythical magical Savior and cleaning up another's mess. All…The…time. I didn't ask for this job. It was hammer into me before I was conceived. I elected to be town sheriff, not town bloody Messiah-" "
"Mom?"
Henry questioned peering around behind his grandmother as she marched over to the stool where Emma sat, her long white coat blowing against the fan.
The sheriff stood up and crossed her arms. The red leather jacket creaking a little from the motion.
"-Can't you just leave me alone for one night? I've listened to you, David and Regina all day about what you want. It's my time now and I need to decompress before facing you all again tomorrow."
Henry's eyes widened,
The last time he saw his mom like this was when that idiot Mason guy skipped bail for abducting a child. She nearly went crazy those six weeks she spent trying to find him from all the pressure her superiors put on her. He never wanted to see that expression in his mother's eyes again and yet here that look was…in Storybrooke no less!
Sensing that Emma was about to blow, Henry put his hands on Snow White's shoulders
"Okay Mom, I get it. We will leave you alone. Just try to relax and have a good night. Come on Grandma," he said trying to gently nudge Snow to turn around and leave.
"-But I- ah"
"-Grandma," her grandson warningly hissed in her ear "If we don't go now, there will be ugly things said. Some that could never be taken back, I know… Mom almost lost her job because of it."Snow looked from Henry to her daughter, This was clearly a side she had not seen.
Watching Emma glare at her, It took all her strength not to flinch. But she decided to trust Henry's judgement.
Barely holding her head up, not a hint of pride or happiness on her fair face.
Snow took his hand and headed for the door before looking back at her first born "Good night then…Emma" she spoke her eyes glistening with wet tears as she followed her grandchild out and home to, Charming and her infant son…
Once they were gone Ruby reached underneath the counter and placed a room key in front of Emma.
"Number 4, on the house?"
"Thank you" she breathed after inhaling a tall glass of water.
With a relieved sigh, the sheriff hopped off her stool, clutching the key as she made her way out towards the back and up the stairs. Finding the right one, Emma turned the lock. Went in and collapsed on the bed in tears.
It wasn't long before there was knock on the door. "Come in,"
Ruby appeared with medium sized cardboard box balancing on her hip.
"-Hey, sorry to disturb you but Granny and I finally got around to cleaning. We found this in Neal's room. I thought Henry or you would like to have it."
Emma didn't know what to say as she stared at her late ex's things.
Breaking the awkward silence, the wolf girl replied "I'll just leave these here…Good night Sheriff, hope you feel better"
After she was alone Emma ran her hand over the box's contents:
Coming across an old recording CD with neat Sharpie black marker writing entitled "Enchanting Memories of the Past" by "Laura Cassidy"? And several old VHS tapes each written with that same marker.
Selecting one Emma walked over to the player and TV in the corner and popped it in.
The screen was blank for a moment or two before captions came on:"Christmas Karaoke, Dec 2nd 2007 BY Neal Cassidy & Laura Michaels"Someone had recorded this with their own camera…