Thank you for the wonderful response to this new story. I'm completely blown away by it all.

Biggest thanks go to Kates89, xninafun and resident-of-storybrooke, who not only make this work better, but are also the best friends a girl could ask for, in this fandom.

"Holy shit he's pretty," Ruby sighed.

She'd been trying to get her friend's attention for twenty-seconds, and when Emma remained completely oblivious to the attempts, Ruby had followed her eyes to see what had caught them.

Which just happened to be the moment Dr. Jones had straightened up, ready to start his lecture.

Emma may have whimpered a little, when he did.

"Good afternoon," Dr. Jones greeted, his voice carrying easily throughout the room, without the need to resorting to shouting. "I'm sure Professor Midas explained to you that he was away for a conference this week, and that he's asked me to step in, so you don't miss out on valuable learning time." There was a murmur of agreement around the room, before Jones clicked the small button in his hand, and the digital screen behind him flicked to life. "However, I'm not sure if my colleague would have informed you that I specialize in legal ethics, so instead of your usually planned lecture, you're getting mine." The murmurs in the room turned to a series of groans, at the sudden change in topic.

Ethics was a universally disliked field of study, and for good reason. It was often the most boring part of the course, and its importance was always highlighted, every time it came around.

But it didn't bother Emma. She knew that to be a good lawyer, she had to learn it all, and not just the fun parts (like some of her peers seemed to think). The only thing that annoyed her was her lack of preparation for the afternoon. She hadn't had the time to review her notes from last week, let alone read up on a completely different area of the law, that she hadn't touched upon in months.

The groans didn't seem to faze Jones either, as he gave the students just long enough to slide away their unneeded textbooks, and open a new document, before he launched into his lecture.

For such a dry subject, Emma was surprised to find she actually enjoyed Jones's lecture. He'd prepared the material in such a way that he was not only refreshing the students on what they had been taught throughout the previous years of their study, but delivering new material in an interactive and fun manner, to help it stick. Emma found that far more of the information was sinking in than it ever had before, when their normal ethics tutor, Mrs. West, delivered her lectures. It made the ninety-minutes she spent in the room completely fly by, so she was a little startled when Jones began drawing the lecture to a close. Especially when she looked down to find her laptop sleeping, and not a single note on the subject in sight.

"You okay?" Ruby whispered, having noticed the same thing. Her friend was usually a meticulous note taker.

Having grown up with nothing, Emma had learned fairly quickly that education could be her best way out of things. She had studied hard, earning herself a scholarship to one of the best schools in the country. And she'd studied even harder while there, determined to win herself another scholarship to law school. With no parents to turn to for help, she'd wanted to try and minimize her student debts, as much as possible.

When they'd first met, Ruby had come to understand Emma's levels of dedication fairly quickly. It was why they had clicked so easily. While Ruby might enjoy a good night out every Friday evening, during the week, she never pressured her friend to leave her desk, if she was busy studying.

It was more than Emma could say of other so-called friends she'd had, in the past.

"Um, yeah," she replied, a little shocked by her own lack of notes. "I guess I just really got into that lecture. You didn't happen to record it, did you?"

"Of course," Ruby chuckled. Her own note taking method was sporadic, but she always recorded the lectures to listen to, when commuting. It was her own way of making sure the material stuck.

"Do you think I could get a copy of it?"

"For the material, or to drool over that accent?" Ruby teased. When Emma's face flushed bright red, her friend nudged her gently, before she assured her, "Of course you can, Ems. Lord knows you've loaned me enough of your notes over the years."

"Thanks Ruby."

Emma waited until most of the class had filed out of the room, before she stood to make her own way down the auditorium. It was only when her feet hit the floor that she made the impulsive decision to head over to the small desk in the corner, rather than the open door. "I'll be out in a minute," she told her friend. She didn't wait to see the concerned look she knew would be working its way on to Ruby's face, instead, she took a deep breath in to steel her nerves, before continuing over.

"Um, Dr. Jones?" she called out softly.

The older man had his full attention on his laptop, but briefly pulled his eyes away to mutter, "Yes?" before flicking them back down to his screen. And then up to focus on Emma's face. He pulled the laptop's lid down, to offer her his full attention, before asking, "How can I help you?"

"I um… I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your lecture," Emma praised. "I normally take really detailed notes during class, and I guess I just got so engrossed in yours that I didn't type a single word."

"I hope that's a good thing," he chuckled. When Emma nodded her head, he looked around at the empty room, before dropping his voice to a whisper to add, "Don't tell anyone this, but when I was studying law, I couldn't stand ethics. I used to skip the lectures, they were that boring." At the shocked look on Emma's face he continued, "I was gonna fail that class until one of my other tutors pulled me aside, to try and talk some sense into me. I told him about how I found the subject so dull, and he said he was gonna make it his mission to get me a pass in that class. It took a few weeks but, eventually, he sent me this essay by this little known ethics professor, that he'd somehow stumbled over. That was all it took to have me hooked. He'd made the subject fun, and I found that what I was reading, I was enjoying. So, it stuck. Since then, I've tried to style all my classes the same way."

"That's incredible," she replied, amazed that Dr. Jones had felt so comfortable sharing his past with her. "Who's the professor, if you don't mind me asking? I have to admit, ethics is probably my worst subject, so maybe I should look him up, if he inspired you so much?"

"Professor Winters," he told her. "He worked out of Stanford, a couple of decades back. If you'd like, I can send you some of his papers to have a read through?"

"Oh, that would be brilliant. Thank you." Emma couldn't control the smile that worked itself across her face, at the offer. If Professor Winters had helped inspire Dr. Jones to deliver the kind of lecture he had that afternoon, then she knew he'd definitely help to inspire her to do better, when it came to her finals.

Dr. Jones searched around on the desk for a moment, until he came across a piece of scrap paper, and a pen. "If you let me have your email address, I'll get those sent over for you."

Emma copied out her personal email address as carefully as she could, making sure that Jones wouldn't get it wrong, before she slid the piece of paper back over the desk for him.

"Thank you, Dr. Jones."

Jones looked down at the elegant handwriting on the paper, before he picked it up and tucked it safely into his pocket. "Thank you, Emma Swan. I'm glad you enjoyed the lecture."

He held out his hand for her to shake, and Emma tried to quickly wipe her palm on the back of her jeans, without drawing attention to her actions, before she slipped it into his own. "It was lovely to meet you today," he smiled down at her, before he let go of her hand, picked up his laptop, and left the room.

Emma was still stood staring at the door he'd disappeared through, when Ruby finally got fed up of waiting, and came back to find her friend.

I apologise if I missed something obvious with this update. My husband gave me his Man-Flu, and things are a little woozy right now. I just didn't want to let you all down by not posting this update after promising it today.

Thanks for reading.