A/n: Thanks so much to all of my wonderful reviewers: AlexaAres, Mary, KaiaRay, tangled6, Crystalkyubbi-chan, Fallen Outcast, moviegeek03, jaceyb1, Booth Seeley Booth, katididnot, Arocksprpl2, vapor2008, Lia MarieDaughter of Hecate, Lady Elena Bella Petrova, red lightning, ladyoftimeandangels.
A huge thank you to all 38 people who added this to their alerts, and the 9 people who added it to their favorites! The numbers alone make me smile!
Enjoy the next chapter!
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter, the Second: For a Reason
Emma trudged her way to the apartment door of Mary Margaret Blanchard, and had no sooner put the key in the knob when the door opened. Mary Margaret swept Emma into her arms in a big hug, a relieved sigh escaping her.
"Thank goodness!" She exclaimed, squeezing Emma one more time before releasing her. "It's almost three in the morning; I was worried!"
Emma chuckled and hugged her back, having gotten used to Mary's affectionate nature. "Well, I am fine. Sheriff Graham…well that's a different story."
"Sheriff Graham? You don't look alright – you've got a bruise on your left temple. Oh, let me get some ice, please? It will make me feel better. Should I make some cocoa too?"
Mary's nervous, motherly pacing and babbling had a calming effect on Emma, who began to feel all the tension drain from her body. "Sure, to both the ice and the cocoa."
Once the ice pack and cocoa had been handed out, the two women settled into the couch in preparation for the long talk ahead of them.
"So, what happened tonight?" Mary Margaret asked, gentle curiosity in her tone.
"A lot," Emma replied half joking, half serious. "Um, God, the beginning would probably be a good place to start, huh?" She sniffled and sipped her cocoa. "Graham had been acting strangely since I ran into him this morning. He was talking about – about a wolf, and not having a heart. You remember that, I'm sure. He visited Henry and, between the two of them, they came to the conclusion that he is the Huntsman."
"They came to the conclusion?" Mary Margaret asked, one eyebrow raised. "I mean, I suppose that would explain why he thought he'd hurt me – the huntsman was supposed to kill Snow White, right? But he believed Henry, like actually believed him?"
Emma nodded wearily, taking comfort in the smell of the cinnamon. "Yeah. And, it was the strangest thing, but…I think I'd finally got him calmed down, got him back inside the realm of sanity when I look over his shoulder and sure enough, there's a wolf staring right back at me."
"No way!" Mary Margaret exclaimed, her mouth popping open in surprise.
"Yeah, and suddenly I can't help but wonder, just for a second, if there wasn't something to all the fairytale stuff Henry's been spouting. The next thing I know, Graham is tearing off after the thing, and then I'm tearing after him!"
"Where did it take you?"
Emma scoffed slightly, shaking her head in disbelief. "To the mausoleum of Regina's father. We're standing there, in front of the damn thing, and Graham says that his heart is in there, that that's where she stashed it."
"She as in Regina, the woman he's been sleeping with?"
Emma nodded. "She as in the Evil Queen, who punished the Huntsman for his betrayal and failure."
"Oh, now you've got to be kidding me."
She shook her head. "Nope, I'm really not. And then, just our luck, guess who shows up to bring flowers to her father's grave?" The look on Mary Margaret's face displayed both disbelief and sympathy. "Yeah, it's just one more thing to add to the list of really weird crap that happened today. So, she and Graham get into it and Graham dumps her, just like that. Told her to her face that he didn't feel anything with her, and never had,"
Mary Margaret's eyes shot to her forehead. "I'm going to make an educated guess and say that Regina somehow attributed this to you,"
"She did, even as Graham repeats himself over and over that it's not about me. Eventually she actually asks me what she ever did to me, to make me take everything she holds dear."
"She actually blamed it all on you?" Emma found Mary Margaret's innocence incredibly sweet.
"Oh yeah. I…well, I might have lost my temper a bit and pointed out the fact that Henry came after me, and that Graham kissed me. I told her to take a good look in the mirror, because I was just the person they were running to, and she was the one they were running from."
"What did she say?"
"She didn't say anything. She just punched me – threw me right into Graham."
Mary Margaret gasped. "What? Has she lost her mind?"
"No more than me; I hit her back. I would have done more, had Graham not pulled me off of her."
Mary Margaret made a noise between a snicker and snort, which she tried to cover up by taking a sip of her cocoa; she was blushing.
"You know," Emma began, observing Mary Margaret's cheeks inflame. "It's perfectly natural to laugh when someone you don't like gets a little Karma back. You don't have to be little Miss Mary Sunshine all the time – people aren't going to think less of you for it."
She looked, for a moment, rather sad, but pressed on. "Thank you. Sometimes, it just doesn't quite feel that way."
"I'd imagine not," Emma muttered under her breath. "Especially not with Regina lurking around every corner threatening to get people fired if they don't obey her."
"So," Mary Margaret said abruptly, changing the subject. "What happened after you punched her?"
"We left her at the mausoleum. I went first and then Graham…followed. We went back to the station so I could get my things, and clean me up. He – he was tending my battle wound," Emma said jokingly, gesturing to the bump on her brow.
"And?" Mary Margaret inquired, seeing the look on Emma's face.
"I might possibly have kissed him," Emma admitted reluctantly, feeling a little sheepish.
In the two and a half months that Emma lived in Storybrooke, she thought had come to know Mary Margaret Blanchard, in her opinion, fairly well. Yet, despite this, the thought that Mary Margaret could be capable of smirking had never occurred to her – until now, when Mary Margaret very clearly was smirking. "Really?" She asked, trying to feign surprise; the smugness could still be heard. Emma smiled, finding brief reprieve in the amusement Mary Margaret was supplying simply by being Mary Margaret.
"Yeah," Emma replied, sighing wearily. She would have continued and explained immediately, were it not for the fact that her eyes had begun to well with tears again. She shuddered and tried to stop; she was supposed to be done with crying for the night.
"Oh, honey, what's wrong?" Mary Margaret asked, her teasing tone having been replaced by true concern and alarm.
"He – he went to kiss me and…" Emma choked a little, feeling her throat close up as it sometimes did when she was upset. When she was finally able to speak, to breathe, again she simply let the words tumble out of her mouth. "His eyes rolled back into his head and he – he fell, and then he wasn't breathing and…" She had to stop again, had to take a minute to calm herself down. "Dr. Whale said he suffered a massive heart attack. The paramedics arrived in the nick of time and were able to resuscitate him, but he's…he's very weak."
"Oh my gosh!" Mary Margaret exclaimed, setting her cocoa aside and moving to sit next to Emma to embrace her. "That must have been…awful. But, Emma," Mary Margaret released her and looked her in the eye. "Don't you go blaming yourself for this, alright?"
"Blame myself? Why would I–" Emma began to say, began to deny, but stopped when Mary Margaret looked at her in that way – that maternal 'Don't you lie to me' way. Emma rephrased what she was going to stay, and continued. "Don't heart attacks happen because of excess stress? How do we know that my overreaction about him and Regina, or my and Regina's fight didn't cause this? Did I cause this?"
Though Mary Margaret knew the last question was not directed at her, she felt she should answer it anyway. "Listen to me, Emma. You did not cause this. Excess stress can cause heart attacks, but not someone of Graham's age. There had to be something else that caused it. And now, don't you go thinking that you don't belong here either, or keep pointing the finger at yourself for Grahams trip to the E.R. That man is a good man, Emma, one Regina doesn't deserve. He has always been pleasant, eager to lend a helping hand, and an excellent influence on Henry – but Emma something was missing. For as long as I have known him, he's carried this emptiness around inside him that no one else seems to see – he wears his badge and his grin like it's armor, and no one notices. That changed when you came, Emma. He changed. Well, we all have, really, but him the most. He started living again, and not just existing. When you blew into this little town, it was like seeing the sun rise for the first time – in human form, no less."
Emma felt incredibly uncomfortable, but took Mary Margaret's words into consideration – even though, in her opinion, Mary Margaret had romanticized the situation more than reality.
"I'm going to head to bed, if you don't mind," Emma said apologetically, getting up and walking to the kitchen to rinse out her cocoa cup. "It's kind of been a long night and I need to be up in…five hours to walk Henry to the bus stop."
She paused outside her bedroom door before turning to look back at Mary Margaret, who was still sitting on the couch with her cocoa in her hands. "I feel better, after talking to you," Emma clarified, before clearing her throat a little. "But you'll have to forgive me for not believing you about filling the void Sheriff Graham seemed to have. His sun rising or setting isn't dependent on me – it's dependent on him." She finished with a teasing smile,
Mary Margaret smiled and chuckled, bidding Emma goodnight. It wasn't until Emma's bedroom door clicked shut that Mary Margaret made any sort of movement, which was to rinse out her own cocoa cup. Before she herself went to bed, Mary Margaret found herself responding to Emma's final words with a glimmer of hope, though Emma would never hear them.
"Maybe so, but I'd be willing to bet that he would be more than happy to let it depend on you."
-onceuponatime—
Regina let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, felt all of the anger she had been feeling fade away as the Huntsman's heart turned to ash and dust in her hand. She felt only a glimmer of remorse at destroying such a fine specimen, but sighed in content when the feeling dissipated. Destroying Graham had, truly, been a waste, but he had outlived his usefulness. Though she was loathe to admit it to herself, she knew that she had forgotten – well and truly forgotten – that Graham wasn't hers by choice. They had been together for almost thirty years, when all was said and done.
Thirty years of companionship thrown away because little Miss Emma Swan couldn't leave well enough alone. Telling her that he had felt nothing when he was with her had hurt, she could admit that much, but the depth of that hurt would go unacknowledged. Killing him had not been about hurting him, exactly, because all men were prone to be liars and cheats – her sixty years of life had taught her that. No, killing him had been about hurting Emma. That girl had no idea who she was dealing with, had no idea what was in store for her. The day Henry had come home with that wretched book had been the day Regina knew that the winds of change were blowing.
Given her wisdom, her experience, she should have known better than to ask him for a favor, for a deal, but she had grown so lonely… Graham could only satisfy one part of her lonely life, but it wasn't enough to fill the rest. When she asked Gold to procure a child for her, a boy, she should have known that there would be strings attached; every magic has a price. She just hadn't imagined that the price would be so high – how foolish of her. So, Emma – the savior of the good and just – had come at last to free the miserable wretches from the confines of the curse. Well, she'd freed Graham alright; Regina couldn't help but smirk. Should the time ever come when she and Emma would do battle in their true forms, and should Emma win, Regina would make sure that Emma knew the truth of Graham's demise with her dying breath.
"Quite a collection,"
Regina whirled around, her head snapping to the voice she knew all too well. "What are you doing down here? This is my sanctuary!"
"So sorry, Madame Mayor," Mr. Gold replied, sounding not particularly sorry at all. "I thought you summoned me; you were thinking about me."
"That damned power of yours is quite a nuisance. I was thinking about Henry, if you must know," Regina replied, unsettled by the fact that he had passed her wards without her noticing.
"Ah, I see. Where you got him, then? Of course, with Ms. Swan in town I would say that that would definitely warrant a thought or two."
"Cut the bullshit, Gold. I want to know, and I want to know now, why did you bring me Henry out of all the children in this world? Do you want the curse to be broken? Do you want to go back stealing and sneaking to get by in a world that hates you and denies you power?"
Abruptly, there was a change in the air. A cold wind blew and all too quickly, Regina's sanctuary became still and silent, as though all the air had been sucked from the room. The candlelight was gone, the room gone dark.
"Do not pretend to know me, Regina, for you do not. The magic I used to bring you your son did not let me pick a child for you – all it did was bring the one who was meant to be here. Now, I know that your narcissism has probably not allowed you think in this matter, so let me enlighten you. Your triumph over Snow White, this curse, was just the battle Regina, one that you were destined to win, but the war is far from over. Your winning of the battle is not any indication that you will win the war – destiny will not be stopped, and if it is your destiny to lose, than lose you shall. Henry being the grandson of Snow White, and thus bringing his mother, the savior, to Storybrooke is no accident – but neither is it something I have orchestrated. Do not lay such accusations against me again," He said, coldly.
"Regardless of your motivations, Rumpelstiltskin, help me send Emma away – you will not go unrewarded."
"You'll have to forgive me, Madame Mayor, if I do not."
"Excuse me?" Regina asked through clenched teeth, snapping her fingers to once again light the candles so she might read his expression. It was inscrutable.
"I have helped you enough, I think. I am not so keen to offer Ms. Swan my support, but neither shall you have aid from me in this matter."
"This curse is the only reason you have anything!"
"Oh yes, Your Majesty, everything I have I owe to your curse. But, you see, I'm bored."
"Surely you would not give up everything I have given you, everything we have worked for in placing this curse, simply because you are bored?" Regina asked, outraged and alarmed.
He did not reply but smiled at her cheerily before turning his back to her and taking the stairs two at a time.
Regina shouted after him "Don't you turn your back on me, Rumpelstiltskin! I own you, and everyone else in this town!" The door slammed shut behind him.
Mr. Gold continued to make his way home, whistling a merry tune and ignoring her outraged shouts. "Oh no, Madame Mayor, don't you turn your back on me."
A/n: So that's it for now. Updates might be few and far between, or they might be very, very close together. It all kind of depends on how busy I am and how inspired I'm feeling.
The chapter title comes from the song "For Good" From Wicked, though the version I like best is the Glee version. The title comes from the line "…People come into our lives for a reason, bringing something we must learn…" Chew on that!
I would like to say thank you again – the response I received from chapter one was simply overwhelming and it made me feel incredibly happy all day. Also, about the teaser last chapter, I hope you all didn't think I'd shove it all in one chapter – spread the love, and the scenes. I am currently not taking the Episode 8 promo into account for this story, only the first seven episodes. That being said, you may notice some astonishing similarities in future chapters as things get more intense.
Thanks again! Please review and let me know what you think; theories, thoughts, things you want to see in this story, etc,. Let me have it!
P.s. - These chapters always look so much longer on a word document. Hmm...