Thank you for all the positive feedback. I'll keep it going. Again, SQ if you squint. Also this would be before the main story I'm writing my main, bloated fic, Everafter. The usual disclaimers...

Part 2

Sheriff Swan's phone rang just as she, and Red got to the door of the office of the late Archie Hopper, PhD. It was James, aka Assistant Deputy David Nolan. He was charged with finding one former mayor after she disappeared the day before. Basically he call to say no luck. Emma told Dad to keep looking, hung up the phone, Moved the yellow table the way, Put the key in the door, And let herself, her mom, and her best friend Enter the office.

Now granted, the Forensic knowledge of the two detectives in the office at that point was pretty much anything they gathered on any random episode of NCIS or even Castle. But based on the theory that Snow rambled out at five in the morning, the sheriff need to know if there was anything might have missed. If Cora DID murder Archie, how careful was she? How much of 2013 life did she pick up?

Red: "So...what are we looking for?"

Emma: "Something obvious that we didn't see the last time. Anything we may have missed."

A pair of scrunched-up faces stood in that office saying nothing for moments. Emma ran through her mind all the things that were picked up as evidence. The she realizes...

His glasses. The one thing they did not see. His glasses.

The pair started to comb the office inside and out to try to find those hornrims. They couldn't, but Red did find something. "A camera?"

A camera. Connected to a well hidden CCTV security system. It was 1982 vintage, like almost everything in Storybrooke. But the system looked like it had been running recently. The other night, perhaps.

Emma took the tape that was in the recorder (Betamax...how quaint) and entered it into the playback connected to a TV that was in the corner. After some trial and error (Emma couldn't work the Dish DVR she had back in Boston to save her life), she finally figured out monitored rewind and the time code. Thankfully the time code shows that it could have recorded the entire murder.

Sure enough, it recorded what probably were Archie Hopper's final moments.

He opened the door, a woman walked in. Wait...that's not Regina. Almost instantaneously, Emma did recognize the woman who throttled and doctor.
"Cora?"

"Who's Cora, Ems?"

"Regina's mother."

"Shit."

The playback showed the smoke. The two people who disappeared. And one person left in their wake. A dead body. Only that body didn't look like Archie. More like...

"Ems, that guy looks like guy who runs the fish shop near the harbor." Emma looked at her deputy/friend with some puzzlement...she still after a year didn't know a lot about the town she was protecting. "His name is...or was...Bill."

"Well, we'll check to see if this Bill shows up to open his shop today, and I would like to see whoever is on that slab we tagged as Archie."

"So why does it show this on the tape?"

"When we were in the Enchanted Forest, Snow and I saw this guy named Lancelot turn into Cora. I'm assuming that Lancelot was an illusion..."

"...and what we've been seeing was an illusion as well?" The wolf was catching on.

"Maybe. And maybe...Cora doesn't know about things like cameras"

Exchanging half-knowing glances, the sheriff and the deputy still were trying to figure thing out, but they both knew one thing: Regina didn't do it.

It was then that Emma's phone vibrated. She picked it up and read the text. It was from Snow:

EMMA...WEST CITY LIMITS...IT'S REGINA...HURRY...

TBC

A/N: again, a thousand thanks to all the people who have followed me or have favorited this story. We are officially in AU land, meaning this may not follow exactly how the show goes.

to Terapsina: As I said to a good friend of mine, this my my version of screaming at the screen and shouting. "ARE YOU BLIND?" (LOL) In essence, I'm using fanfics to put out my own theories. I am also assuming that my Snow is a bit smarter than their Mary Margaret..

to Sinfully Honest: I don't know about brilliant, but thanks.

to sea-ess-eye and rebakathy: Again, this is my version. I know there will be canon wonks who may have problems with this, and to be honest, half the time I'm writing, I don't know what I'm doing anyway. Thank you for your kind comments.

to LilyOfTheValley8: SOmebody has to be in Regina's corner, because no one in Storybrooke is. Even i09 and the Huffington Post are PO'ed that Regina's getting the shaft. Between you and me, these characters live in my head, and I promised them I would do well by them. Hope I'm succeeding. (PS: pretty please with whatever you like on top continue? oh if I wasn't so ooooooold...!)

to Lady Iapetus Roving Wanderer: Don't worry, Jiminy Cricket will be rescued! (spoiler?)

Check out my other fics, including Everafter (at 27 chapters, apt title). Update here in a few days...

One other thing..

to . Thank you for everything. Smooch.