Emma woke up with a startle and pain in her back. She definitely wasn't sleeping on her king size bed that she shares with her wife. It was way too hard and uncomfortable. Her bed was soft and felt like sleeping on a cloud. Still in a groggy state, she
lazily reached over for her wife to try to bring her closer to cuddle. When her hand hit the wall, she shot up.

This wasn't her bed. She thought.

"Where the hell am I?" she whispered.

She looked around the room to what looked like a prison cell. A very familiar prison cell. Nope she definitely wasn't in her own bed.

"Shit," she breathed out.

What the hell happened? She wondered. The last thing she remembered was lying in bed cuddling with Regina thinking about baby names for Squirrel. A nickname she gave to the baby because at the first sonogram it looked like a squirrel. Regina detested
that nickname which is the reason they were trying to come up with a name for her. She smiled at the memory. She looked down and started to rub her belly. She was only about 5 months but she was showing as much as she did when she was about 7 months
with Henry.

She was startled out of her thinking with a loud clinking noise of the door opening and woman shouting.

"SWAN! Today is the day. You will be getting out of here in about two hours. Are you excited?"

"What?" she asked looking very confused. She recognized this woman for when she was in prison. She was one of the nicer guards there. Damn. She doesn't look like she has aged one bit. What is happening?

"Don't tell you forgot what today was. You're getting free. Come on you've been excited about this for weeks."

"What's going on?" Emma asked the guard still confused as to what was happening.

"Are you alright, Swan? You don't look so well. Do we need to send to the doctor? It would push back your release…"

"NO!" Emma shouted before the guard could even finish her sentence. She didn't want to stay in this hell hole if she didn't have to. Maybe if she gets out she can figure out what the hell is going on.

"Sorry, no. I need to get out of here," she said in a quieter but stern voice.

"Alright alright. No need to get your panties in a wad. We'll start the process here in a few minutes so gather up anything that's here that you might want to take. We will have your belongings that you came in with up front."

"Do you…Umm do you have any clothes that I could maybe wear because I am definitely not going to be able to fit into the clothes I came in here with," she asked. She looked down towards her protruding belly as she was rubbing it.

The guard just chuckled at her and said, "I'll see what we can find."

"Thank you"

The guard left to go get the process started which left Emma with her thoughts. Is this some sort of weird dream? Have I time traveled back in time…again? Could this be an alternate universe? All these things could be true she thought.

Shit. If this is some sort of weird time travel- alternate universe thing then that must means that… she looks down at her baby bump.

"Your Henry." She said as she looks down and places a palm on her stomach and receives a strong kick in response.

Before she could process anymore of what she just figured out the doors opened again.

"Alright, Swan time to go," the guard announced.

Emma slowly eased up off the uncomfortable bed and walked towards the door where the guard was standing. She hesitated for a few second when she got to the door as she looked at the guard for some sort of okay to walk through the door.

The guard just smiled and nodded her head, "This is really happening, Swan. You're getting free"

"But how?" Emma asked in shock and a little confusion as they start walking to the front of the prison so she can be released.

"Don't act so surprised. People get out for good behavior all the time. Plus I doesn't hurt when evidence comes about that proves you were innocent." She states.

Evidence? What evidence? This didn't happen last time. She figured she would keep quiet for now.

They walk into a room where they need Emma to fill out some paper work. There is a desk and a couple of chairs along with a filing cabinet standing next to the desk along the wall. The guard motions for Emma to sit in one the chairs as she gets the paperwork
from the filing cabinet.

"Listen, I know that you don't have any family or friends for that matter so I'm going to give you a list of shelters. I also have a few places that provide housing up to 30 days. If you want to choose the housing, I will need to fill out some paperwork
for you" she says as she is pulling out all the needed paperwork.

"Thank you, but I won't need it I know where I am going. I actually have family up in Maine and I need to get to them,'" she states as she grabs the paper work from the guard.

"When did you find out that you had family up there?" the guard questioned.

"Oh, not to long ago," she said hesitantly now wanting to go into the subject any further.

"Well that's nice. What part of Maine do they live?"

"Umm it's a small town called Storybrooke. It's about an hour or so outside of Portland." She says hoping she doesn't ask any more questions about the town.

"That's about 2 ½ day or more drive isn't it?" the guard questioned

"Yeah something like that," she said in short tone.

"Well alright then. Good luck with that. So we are required by law to give you at least $50 as gate money plus we give you whatever is left in your commissary. Which it looks like you have about $200 in there. It won't get you there but it will help you
get to Maine. Here is all your stuff from when you came in also whatever you was sent to you by mail," she tells her as she is handing her clothes and the envelope with the key to her yellow bug.

"My car!" she says excitingly as she grabs the envelope and empties the contents into her hand.

"You going to be able to drive that thing in your condition?" she asks as she looks down at Emma who is sitting in her chair rubbing her belly with one hand and staring at the key with her other.

"Oh" Emma said disappointedly. She forgot about not being able to fit behind the wheel comfortably. She has been letting Regina drive her for the past couple of weeks. She thought for a minute before she spoke up.

"I'll figure something out. I have to get to Maine though and if I have to drive myself there, I will. Even if it is uncomfortable," she stated.

"Well, whatever you do just be careful. I don't want you getting hurt or wind up back in here. You know a lot of young girls like you wind up back in jail because they can't handle it out there," she informed her.

"Yes, I do know that and trust me I'm not one of them. I'm not coming back here that's for sure," she said as she thought I've been through this before. I'm not some dumb teenage kid. I'm not a kid at all. I'm in my 30s for crying out loud!

"I hope you're right. You're a good kid and I think you'll be one of the lucky ones that make it," she said as she started smiling and patted Emma on the shoulder for reassurance.

She internally groaned and huffed but decided not voice any of that and thought that maybe she should be polite so instead she said, "Thank you that means a lot."

"You're welcome. Now, let's finish filling out the papers. All you have to do is sign and date and we will be finished."

She signed her name where she was supposed to and paused when she got to the date. This is it. This will let her know… well sort of know what the hell is going on. All she had to do was ask what the date was. She was about to when…

The guard saw the hesitation and looked at her curious.

"What's the matter? Forget what day it is?"

"Ye…yeah. The days just sort of run together when you're in here. Ya know?" she said sheepishly trying to sound convincing.

"It's Friday June 8th."

"Of 2001?" she asked hesitantly.

"Yes? Are you sure, you don't need to see a doctor?" she asked with concern in her voice.

"Yea…Yeah I'm fine. I'm just a little tired and I'm not thinking right. You know pregnancy brain and all that," She tried to play it off as she finished writing the date and handed the papers back to the guard.

"Well alright. If you say so."

"I'm fine I promise," he said trying to sound reassuring.

"Alright then. Well, that should do it," she said as she took the papers and put them up to file. "You going to be alright?" she asked as she looked down at Emma's belly.

"Oh, yeah I'll be fine. Hopefully, once I get to Maine my family will help out and if not Henry and I can make it on our own." We've done it before she thought as she remembered that year they spent in New York.

"Henry? That's old timey name isn't it.? How'd you come up with that?

"Oh. Well it sort of just came to me and I like it. Plus, I can't see him as anything else now so I'm not going to change it," she said wistfully thinking about her not so little boy now. In her world, or timeline, or whatever Henry is 17 and a senior
in high school.

"Well alright. You don't have to change it. I was just saying that you don't hearto many Henrys anymore."

"Yeah I guess not."

"Well I guess you're free to go" she said as she clapped her hands together.

"Really?" Emma asked excitedly. Finally. She needs to get out of here so she canget to Regina and figure out what is going on. Hopefully, she will have some answers.

She gathers her things and puts them in a bag that they provided for her, she gives the guard a hug goodbye, and she walks outside. She pauses and she takes a deep breath of fresh air and relaxes just a little because now she can go home to her family
and figure out what's going on.

She starts walking and looking around for her bug. She isn't paying attention when she runs into someone. She almost loses her balance due to her belly and all the stuff in her hands but the other person's strong masculine hands catch her in time.

"Woah there. I got you," the other person says

"Sorry. I wasn't.." she trailed off.

Wait, I know that voice she thought as she regained her balance. She looked up to see the other person. No.

"August?"