Quick note. Thank you for the reviews. I'm sorry that some of you don't care for my portrayal of Charming, but I write mostly to entertain myself with the hope that others might enjoy it too. Season 1 Mary Margaret/Snow is my favorite character, I cannot stand what the show has done to her. She and Charming always do the 'right' thing and it's always the 'wrong' thing. I switch povs several times throughout my stories. Snow sometimes thinks her husband is dense. Charming sometimes feels useless, he's not, but he did just awake from a 10 year coma in a brand new realm, so it will take a bit for him to catch up. This is the only time I'm going to address this. If it bothers you please don't read it, future reviews that exclusively deal with how I treat Charming will not see the light of day.

Don't Call me That!

If circumstances were different, Snow would be in complete and total love with the 'Real World'. Especially it's libraries. Storybrook had a library, but the large building under the clock tower had been closed for 'renovations' all during her cursed memories. If circumstances were different, Snow would be mighty curious what that was about too. She had spent the last few days in Boston Public Library researching the Commonwealth's policies on foster care and adoption. Scanning local papers for jobs, reading books on building resumes and interview techniques. The problem she ran into time and time again was that she simply had no past. Storybrook had limited interaction with the real world of course. She wasn't sure how it worked, but they did get deliveries on occasion, and she seemed to remember visits from the state board of education…though now she questioned whether or not that ever actually happened.

"Miss, we'll be closing in 10 minutes, was there anything else you needed?"

She gazed at the rumpled man in front of her, frowning slightly. "I thought you closed at 9?"

"Yes ma'am, it's 8:50. You know if you get a library card you could take some of those books home with you."

Snow wasn't sure if she could show the proper id for a card and she knew Charming would be worried about her. She had meant to head home before dark. "Thank you, maybe tomorrow."

The man nodded and made his way to the next straggler. Snow closed her books and gathered her things when the hairs on her arm stood straight. She recognized the young man being ushered out. He had been here most of the afternoon, and the more she thought about it, she was sure he had been here yesterday as well. And could she have seen him at the T station? Their eyes met for a moment before he turned and rushed toward the exit. Snow gasped. She didn't just recognize this kid, somehow she knew him.

Charming was doing his best to stay calm, but watching the box with the moving pictures, wasn't helping much. The talking heads were droning on about burglaries, assaults and even murders as if reading a recipe, then someone would explain about how great these cars were and it was practically a steal, someone else would sing about getting something your way, and then a voice explained why you couldn't miss the next episode of ER. The talking heads came back on and predicted that rain was coming from the east and to expect delays at that airport, whatever that was. Snow should be here. He had made them dinner quite a while ago. He'd given up and eaten without her, then put hers in the small cold box, Snow called a fridge, he'd cleaned up and out of boredom turned on the television?

Finally the door swung open, but instead of his wife, a boy stumbled toward him. "Sit down and start talking."

"Snow? What's…"

"Charming, you remember Pinocchio don't you?"

Emma sighed. It was after ten and she knew she couldn't wait much longer for Auggie to show up. More than ever she really wanted to talk to him. He was the only one she could tell about the weird note. He would probably tell her it was crap, but at least she could believe him. Emma could spot a lie a mile away, and though she knew Auggie wasn't always up front with her, he never really lied, not to her anyway. Like he told people he was Emma's brother and that he was 19, but neither was true. He and Emma had been in a foster home together and he told her he felt responsible for her. He told other people he was 19 so he could get a job and stuff, but he was only 17. Emma wished he was her real brother and that he was really 19, because more than anything she wanted out of the system and to have a real home, and that's what August was to her.

Emma yawned and shook the sleep out of her eyes. She couldn't wait anymore, even if she didn't have school first thing, the hall monitor was bound to realize she wasn't in bed soon. She made her way across the roof to the fire escape and shimmied back inside, hoping that Auggie wasn't going to disappear on her again, because he did stuff like that sometimes, and she hated that.

"How, why, how?" Charming sputtered, looking from the kid to Snow and back to the kid. "I don't understand."

"I can explain…I will explain, but I have to go…"

"That's just not going to happen Pinocch…"

"You can't call me that." He insisted, clenching and unclenching his fists. "I'm August here."

Snow raised an eyebrow, more than anything the name set this kid off. He wasn't denying who he was, not for a minute, but the name upset him. "You'll have to excuse me August…it's been a few years…10 I believe, I haven't been able to keep up with your preferred moniker."

"I have to go…she's waiting for me."

"Who's waiting for you?" Charming chimed in.

Pinocchio's dropped his head into his hands.

"I believe he's referring to Emma." Snow supplied, "That's who is waiting for you, am I right?"

The boy lifted his left arm and pulled back his sleeve. "Not anymore. They do bed checks at 10:30, she won't risk it."

Snow smiled sardonically. "Well then, I guess you have plenty of time to explain. So let's start from the beginning, shall we?"

"You're going to get caught you know." Jessa whispered as Emma slipped into bed. "Where do you even go?"

"Nowhere." Emma hoped it was dark enough that Jessa couldn't make out her baby blanket that she was pulling out from under her pillow. "Go to sleep."

"Lucy was looking for you earlier, I told her I hadn't seen you. I think she has a new 'family' for you." She could hear the smirk in Jessa's voice and tried not to groan. Inwardly, Emma's heart sank. She wasn't happy here, but she knew what to expect and August knew where to find her. She couldn't leave right now. Not when her parents might possibly, probably not be nearby.