When Emma Leaves Storybrooke

By Schroederplayspiano2

The Past is Prologue Part 2

Friday Morning

"So!" Mary-Margaret's voice awoke Emma the next morning. "I hear you made an interesting arrest last night."

"Okay," Emma started, turning over with her eyes still closed. "I know this is a small town, but does the gossip mill really open at," Emma opened one eye slightly to look at the time, "6:45 in the morning?" she asked, before closing her eye and trying to pull the covers over head.

Mary-Margaret caught the covers as they passed Emma's chin, forcing Emma to open her eyes and let out a deep sigh of annoyance. "I shouldn't have heard it from the Storybrooke gossip mill! You should have woken me up as soon as you got home!"

Emma looked at Mary-Margaret seriously and said, "My bad," before taking the covers, wrapping them around herself, and closing her eyes again.

"Emma!" Mary-Margaret cried, shaking the body next to her. When nothing happened, she shook Emma again. "Sit up!" She demanded, "and tell me give me details. And then after that, you should go to the station and give him the breakfast I made for him."

"Oh. My. God." Emma remarked, slowly sitting up. "You made him breakfast. Are you a love-sick puppy or what?"

"I just thought it would be better than whatever they fed him in jail," Mary-Margaret responded softly, and then thought to herself, "What do they feed people in jail?"

"Probably nothing since I'm going to let him out this morning." Emma answered coherently for the first time that morning. When she looked around, Emma noticed that her roommate had brought her a mug full hot chocolate to make up for her rude awakening. Reaching her hands towards the mug, Emma said "Thank you" to Mary-Margaret.

Mary-Margaret pulled the mug back from Emma's reach. "No!"

"Excuse me," Emma teased. "That was for me, wasn't it? It's in my usual mug."

"No details. No hot chocolate."

"Huh," Emma shrugged. "Okay. Just as well. I am getting fat from all hot chocolate served around here."

"Emma!" Mary-Margaret repeated her cry for details. "Please."

"You have a problem, you know that right?"

For a second, Mary-Margaret looked offended, but quickly wiped the expression off her face. "It's not a problem. It's called love."

"It's called obsession." Emma retorted. "And he's married."

"Not helping!" Mary-Margaret started to become impatient.

"Okay!"

"Okay." Mary-Margaret made herself more comfortable on the bed and gave Emma her mug.

"It's not that interesting." Emma started, responding to her roommate's moved position. "The guy got drunk and ran himself into Ruby's new sign."

"I know!" Mary-Margaret said, with a little too much excitement over the situation. "Ruby's pissed about the sign. She worked hard on it."

"If you knew, why did you ask?"

"I want details!" Mary-Margaret begged.

"Oh!" Emma remarked, finally understanding. "This is code for 'I'm still in high school and I want to know if he talked about me.'"

"Or Katherine," Mary-Margaret added. "Or other things," she paused to think, "Like why he got that drunk in the first place."

Emma's look on her face was cute and full of understanding but told Mary-Margaret nothing. "All of those things might've come up," Emma said with a very casual tone.

"Oh, really," Mary-Margaret's voice rose in interest. "And?"

"And then, he hit on me several times."

"What?" Mary-Margaret's secret smile left her face and her tone was replaced with a serious one.

Emma laughed at Mary-Margaret's half-serious, half-worried tone. Finally deciding it was time to get up, she placed her mug on the side table and pulled the covers off of her body. "He was clearly drunk and did not have his head on straight. Nothing to worry about," Emma told her and rose from her bed to walk to her closet.

"He hit on you?" Mary-Margaret questioned.

Emma rolled her eyes at Mary-Margaret. "I need to get ready for work," she said simply hoping to avoid the direction of the current conversation.

"What exactly did he say?" Mary-Margaret pressed.

Emma turned back at her impatiently. "You realize the sooner I can get dressed the sooner I can let him out and you can see him, right?"

"He hit on you." Mary-Margaret now repeated her words as a statement.

"Oh. My. God. He said I had your eyes." Emma smiled at her roommate and her eyes teased Mary-Margaret's. "Crazy woman."

Mary-Margaret smiled back. "Oh. That's not bad." She took a deep breath. "Kind of nice, actually." She paused for a moment, wondering if she would regret her next words. "No wonder Henry thinks we're related."

Emma ignored Mary-Margaret's deeper meaning. "I'm glad I found a way to calm your nerves." Emma sighed dramatically and the two women shared a smile of understanding. "Now, can I get dressed anytime soon?"

"Oh!" Mary-Margaret exclaimed, jumping up from the bed and heading towards the door. "Yeah. Sure."

"Mr. Nolan!" Emma said loudly as she walked into the station. "Good Morning," she announced to the room without looking at David. Emma plopped down her bag on her desk and then turned on her police radio without thinking; her actions clearly part of a daily routine.

"Good Morning," The hollowness in David's voice made Emma look up from her desk of busy work to David's cell.

David looked worse than last night.

Emma picked up her keys, walked to his cell, and leaned on the same wall as she did the night before. "How's that hangover?"

"I didn't sleep at all last night."

"What? The bed not comfortable enough for you?" Emma quickly retorted.

"No, not that. I couldn't stop thinking about what you said."

"Uh-huh," Emma said casually. "And what did I say that was so interesting?"

"Three things. You called me Charming, said I had a role in this town, and stated that the two were the same thing."

Emma's eyes widen and straighten her position on the wall. "Well, clearly you had your head on straighter than I thought."

"It seems I did," David stated, and then silence came over both of them. "Anything you would like to add?"

Innocence filled Emma's face. "No," was all she said.

Silence fell again. The pair starred at each other. This time there was a difference in their interaction: their physical actions were all the same but the meaning behind them totally different.

"Aren't you going to ask me if I had anything I would like to add?"

"Nope."

"No?" David asked, surprised.

"No." Emma shrugged and pulled her keys out to find the right one for David's cell. "Don't care. Don't want to know," Emma's casual tone disappointed David as she unlocked his cell door. "You're free to go."

"You're lying," David said, still in his cell.

"Excuse me," Emma's eyes went into slits. "Is there more damage you did last night that I should know about before I let you go?"

"No," David said and started to walk out of his cell. "You lied. You clearly care."

Emma's straighten herself, turning serious. "Okay, let's be clear. I care about my son and how his theories affect his life and mine as a result. I may have spent too much time with him yesterday and his theories might have rubbed off on me a little too much. So, I do apologize for my unprofessional behavior. But I was just playing with you last night and like I said, your behavior was very ironic considering the role my son thinks you play," Emma paused and then added. "Which I don't believe in at all."

"You don't believe that I'm Prince Charming?"

"And you do-"

"Well, I -"

"You believe that you're somehow Prince Charming in this town because I called you that casually last night?"

"No."

Emma crossed her arms and held them tight against her chest, suddenly forgetting about her son and wishing she was miles away. "Then what? What did you stay up all night thinking about?"

"You."

"Me?"

"It still feels like you are a long lost family member," David blurted out quickly to Emma before he could stop himself.

"Then you are still drunk," Emma snapped back.

"Are you sure we haven't met before? I was in that coma for a long time."

"I-" Emma started.

"Emma!" They both turned at the sound of another voice in the room. Mr. Gold had just entered the office, walking in with his usual cane and cardboard box under his arm. "Oh," he added feeling the tension in the room. "I am so sorry. I didn't interrupt something, did I?"

"Mr. Gold," Emma left David's side and went to meet her visitor. "How can I help you?"

"Well, it seems that somebody broke into my shop and damaged my Charming Mobile."

Fascinated by her new project, Emma looked from Mr. Gold to his box. "Really?" She started. "Your shop seems like something you would protect pretty closely, especially considering you had a break in a couple months ago."

"I know. It seems like this thief was smarter than the last one."

"You're calling him a thief even though he didn't take anything?"

"An introducer, then," Mr. Gold corrected himself, smiling at Emma's retort.

"Well, you know that it is your responsibility to take care of items in your shop."

"Yes, but considering the value of the object, I thought you could help me out."

Emma sighed. "Alright. I'll look into for you, but considering nothing was stolen I don't think there's much I can do."

"That's all I ask," Mr. Gold said simply and put the box on Emma's desk. "Thank you." He walked to the door with a knowing smile, but before leaving he looked at David and added, "Good Day, Mr. Nolan," and left.

"Freaky guy," David commented to Emma once they were alone.

"Every town has one." Emma added, approaching Mr. Gold's Box.

"That mobile is beautiful. It was one of the first things I noticed when I entered his shop for the first time," David told Emma following her to check out the box.

Emma lifted the lid, pulled on the mobile's top string and watched as what was left dangled out. "Well, it's clearly not anymore. What a shame." Emma's heart sank as she watched half-unicorn bodies spin around on their stings; some had only their bodies while others were now just horse heads – flying around hornless. "You can still tell, somebody put in a lot of love to make this for a child," Emma smiled and put her finger on one of the heads, spinning the little mobile. "I wonder what kind of life that child would have…to have parents who would buy such a beautiful glass mobile to use for such a short amount of time and then just give it away to a pawn shop," she wondered to herself, forgetting David was still beside her.

David watched Emma play with mobile. He watched her smiling softly, touching half a unicorn every time it slowed down spinning it back to a normal speed. It was then that something suddenly clicked within him. "Oh. My. God."

David's words made Emma drop the precious mobile. It fell to the floor and shattered the remaining half-pieces. When Emma moved down to the floor to try and salvage whatever was left of the beautiful object, she felt David's hand on her arm, forcing her up to look at him.

"What?" Emma demanded. The two stared at each other yet again. Now Emma could not mistake what was in his eyes: something Emma had never seen before – unconditional love.

David put his hand on Emma's check, his thumb tracing soft lines on her skin. With his voice cracking, he said softly, "Emma?"

Emma closed her eyes at his touch for only a second. When she opened them again, she saw heavy tears running down both his checks.

Author's Note: Thank you to and HarrylovesGinny09 and OncerSwarekJateBazeGirlscout. Reviews keep me updating. I really hope everyone is enjoying my story! What do you want to happen next? Who do you think broke the mobile?