notes: I apparently put the rough draft of this chapter up. Oops. That has been fix. Coming up in the next chapter, Emma sees Regina and learns about the gossip going around about her. :)
Thanks for your comments so far. Pleas enjoy.
When I first heard about the field office in Idaho, my body cringed with the thought of leaving Washington, DC. What the hell was there to protect and investigate in Idaho? Two years later, I was surprised by my contentment.
I sat in a small office, just one of a little more than a dozen agents. The location nearly forgotten among a farmer's field. The equipment was old. The computer in my office had to have been one rolled out in the early nineties. It still had its original floppy disk drive. But the work was easy, and it actually afforded me a social life. Imagine me, Emma Swan, happy? Imagine me making someone else happy?
Apparently I did. At least that was what Lannie told me when she asked me to move in with her. It had been yet another surprise. We had only been dating officially four months. We met while I was berating her private security firm for interfering with our investigation into a counterfeit credit card ring.
We clashed over the limits the company was trying to put on my team. She thought it was a culture clash between the very private Chinese owners and the American authorities. I thought it was plain bullshit. Luckily we worked it out over a late dinner and an even later breakfast.
Four months later, six months if you count the no string attached faze, we were living together. It all sounded rushed, but maybe it was just time for me to embrace the stability of a simple life. It seemed life was pushing me to settle down. Maybe I should just follow it.
Something was holding me at bay though, I admitted to myself. It was keeping me from moving forward. I did not want to put a name to it though. For me, putting a name to it made it real and gave it power.
I put all thoughts of my leisure life to the side as my phone rang. Retirement could wait tomorrow. I leaned back in my desk and answered what I was expecting to be another call from headquarters about slow moving reports. Headquarters was always a pain about paperwork. But the phone call was not from headquarters. It made me giddy and wary at the same time. Because at the other end of the line was my old buddy, Augustus Booth.
"Emma Swan, they really got you working the field office in Idaho? Shit, I owe someone fifty bucks."
I paused as I let the reality of who I was hearing from sink in. He still had his loud baritone voice. It carried the attitude and style of a rocker without the talent.
"August?" I asked although I already knew the answer.
"Well, it ain't the damn Easter Bunny." I laughed as I heard his vibrant voice. No one else spoke like August, like a man with centuries of stories to tell and only one lifetime to tell them.
We had been more than friends for more than years. In a lot of ways we were witnesses to each other's lives. Through August, I got to watch the clear blue eyes of a boy sharpen with time, and his wavy bright brown hair speckle with gray because of age and war. He was my father, my brother, and my best friend. I considered him my only real family. He was the reason I joined the Navy. The man shaped my knowledge of the world. And though that knowledge was rough, he was alway kind and fair.
"Augee, Idaho is not so bad. I have a set schedule, a nice view and I don't get shot at often."
"Sounds boring."
"Unbelievably so." We both shared a laugh. My body instinctively relaxed while I was on the phone with him. It had been a while since I had heard his voice. The last time we talked the president was heading for an overseas visit in Israel. August was, of course, his lead agent.
I was only hoping to follow in his footsteps when I became a sailor. A single wish to be like the brave man who was my only family led me down the path I stood on at that moment. August was my immediate support officer in the special forces. He was my supervising officer when we served together in the White House. In sync as always, he protected the President. I looked after the First Lady. To this day, I regretted the disappointment I became to him.
I made sure I was comfortable in my seat and prepared myself to hear some stories about his latest overseas trip with the Commander in Chief. The boys can get rowdy when they were away from the White House. If I could not have excitement, I would get a taste of it from him. But before the conversation got underway, I heard several commanding knocks at my office door.
"Who the hell is that?" I muttered. I sat up and sat the phone down, immediately irritated.
"Opportunity, my friend." August's voice drifted from the phone I no longer held to my ear. I picked up the phone, but he was already gone. The beating at my door had not stopped. It rang like a wooden bell tower, muffled while rhythmic. I rushed to the door, ready to rip into whoever was at the end of that hand causing such noise.
When I opened it, the irritation disappeared, replaced with confusion. For I was face to face with a face I had not seen in person in the last two years. Shock hit, then quickly wore off. My training kicked in, and I went to attention. All emotion fell from my face.
"Mr. President, sir. I apologize for my lack of a better greeting. I did not know you were in town."
"That's good, Emma. Because I'm not supposed to be," he said with a light chuckle.
He did not ask if he could come in. He was the president. He did not need to ask. I moved to the side, opening the space for him and his detail, four agents in all. August stood besides the President, grinning like a fool.
We did not hug or greet each other in any way. They were obviously there on business. It was not protocol to behave as friends at the moment. But when the meeting was over, August would hear an earful from me. The sparkle in his blue eyes told me he awaited the tongue lashing with glee.
"It is strangely homey here." President Loxley muttered, trying to fill the silence in the room. He stood in the center of my small office, commanding the attention of everyone as an excellent politician would always do.
"Thank you sir." My reply was automatic. I really was not in the mood to talk. By the stern look on his face, I could tell neither was he.
"Let's make this quick." He paused, looking me over. "I need you back on detail."
My training left my side for one moment. The wall was gone. The surprise was easily displayed on my face. The president saw and frowned. His displeasure was a special kind of reprimand, one an agent could not escape.
Like a bleep on a radar, I quickly replaced the surprised expression with one of emptiness. He could not be suggesting what I thought he was suggesting. What husband would ever ask that of me, of himself and of his family?
"Excuse me, sir." I needed him to verify what he had just asked without asking. His intent needed to be clear. "But I was never on your detail."
His gaze became a glare, hard and direct as it fell on me.
"I need you back with Regina." He said her name with a sharp edge. It was unneeded, I had been cut by it enough to be wary. Exactly what was this man up to? When I made no move to jump at the offer, his glare moved from me and onto the boys.
"We need the room."
The command was simple, uttered so many times by people in power. But the way he said it never failed at bring a chill down my spine. August gave me a look of alarm but nodded. He ushered the entire detail out of the room, before shutting the door behind him.
After the door shut, the president physically relaxed. The hard set of his shoulders fell. His back no longer held him up in a straight, strict line. He leaned against my desk and gave me a barely there smile.
"Go ahead, Emma. Say what you need to say. I am not President Loxley now. I am only Robin."
I stood still, never losing my pose of attention.
"Sir, you were never only Robin."
His smile tightened at my words. He nearly stepped towards me, but he held himself back. As I stood stiff as a board, eyes front, I finally really looked at him. The man was not my friend. We had never been friend. He was my president.
I could see why he was president. It was not his policies, though they were solid. They strengthened the middle class and slimmed down the economic gap in the country. But before Robin Loxley sold the nation on his plans, he sold us on him.
He was America's golden dream come true. He embodied it, born in rural America, raised by parents who were immigrants. He rose to political power by fighting big business in favor of the workers. Those, he said, he would never call the little guys.
He married into political royalty. Regina Mills' had a member from every important office except the presidency. She played at the same level as Caroline Kennedy. When the country elected him they knew they were buying a brand. Out with Kennedy's Camelot. Robin, Regina and their son Henry was the country's new political fairytale.
He had the entire nation in the palm of his hands. His family looked like a gift created from Hollywood. And he was the lead. His shaggy brown hair gave him the almost boyish look JFK once mastered. His warm blue gray eyes politely asked you to trust him. If I had not known any better I would have fallen for it, hook, line and sinker. Sadly, I knew better.
"Look Emma, I know things did not end well the last go round." He began. A scoff slipped from my throat before I could hold it back. He shrugged.
"I nearly lost my job." I reminded him. He did not need it, but it made me feel better.
"Yes, you nearly did." He emphasized the one word, as if I should be grateful. I actually was. He could have not only fired me, but also made sure that I never made a reasonable living again. He had not done that. I was very grateful. But hearing him point it out was like a needle to my side. It was not the most painful but it was annoying as hell. He smirked. He seemed to enjoy being annoying as hell.
"I know you have mad e comfortable life here." My ears perked at his statement. They seemed to be the beginning of a threat deferred. His words caused a new worry in me. He was the leader of the free world after all. I listened with new interest as he continued.
"I was content to leave you here, Emma. But you save our lives. And I never forgot it. She never forgot it." He paused for dramatic effect. I ordered myself to stand still, to wait.
"Regina needs you. She is in danger, Emma." His voice was hushed like he had just spilled a government secret. My eyes wanted to roll. They did not. I probably should have been more concerned, but Regina Mills was not a frail or helpless woman.
She was the First Lady, one I had gone toe to toe with and had barely survived. Plus, she was always in danger. It was why she had a detail in the first place. All of those reasons still did not stop the concern from creeping into my heart.
"I'm sure the First Lady has several trusted agents—" I began.
"She has no one I trust more than you." He interrupted. I controlled my scoff this time and my face. Its expression belied the incredulousness of his words and the moment.
"There is August, sir."
He nodded. He could always demote his top agent if the threat was serious enough. He chose not to do that. Even he could hear the lie in his own words.
"Fair. I'll amend it to say she has no one she trusts more than you. She needs you. She wants you."
The last three words did it for me as he knew they would. I sighed and relaxed my stance, giving up any facade of only following orders. He knew he won. What else was I to do? Regina Mills needed no one. But the president of the United States had just admitted she needed me.
He could have lead with those words. I wondered why he had not. It was all he ever had to say. He relaxed. His body leaned a little more onto the desk as he crossed his legs. I thought the conversation was over. I was an idiot. Robin Loxley would never let a conversation end without asserting his control. Once again, he was the president, not a friend.
"Would you have really said no to my request, Emma?" Those words left his mouth, and I knew what he wanted. With a steel spine, I gave it to him.
"No, sir. I am a public servant of the United States of America."
He stood right in front of me and grinned haughtily.
"You still serve at my pleasure? As always?"
I nodded. What was else could I do?
"Yes sir. I do."