Emma sighed and pulled at the hem of her skintight red dress. She didn't hate dressing up, quite the opposite. No, she hated getting dolled up in order to catch her sleazebag clients who jumped bail and are hurting their families. Tonight the game plan was to pretend it was her birthday. The birthday rouse always worked in securing her target.
Her 'date', Ryan, was already seated at a secluded table towards the back of the dim restaurant. If she hadn't have spent so much time with his wife and kids lately trying to help them out, which he should have been doing, she might not have recognized him since his mugshot was very outdated. Smiling, she sat down across from him.
"You're actually here… and you look…"
Green eyes narrowed slightly as she watched his beady eyes trail up and down her form. Shifting uncomfortably, she reached for her water glass. "Surprised?"
The dark haired man nodded. "Most women don't use their actual photos so you never know who is going to show, but you are by far the sexiest woman I have ever laid eyes on."
"I doubt that." Emma barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. This man was absolute alpha scum. "Man like you can't possibly be single."
Ryan's eyes widened slightly as he glanced down at his bare ring finger. There was a slight discoloration from where his platinum band usually was, but surely this woman couldn't know.
Emma smiled brightly, hand reaching out to cover his own. "Hey, it's okay. We all have needs. It can be our little secret."
"So, Emma," the deadbeat returned her megawatt smile and inched closer across the table, "tell me about yourself. What's a gorgeous woman like you doing out all alone? I'm surprised your nights aren't filled with fun and excitement, clubbing perhaps?"
"It's my birthday today, actually. A dinner sounded perfect."
The man instantly squared his shoulders, feeling his luck getting better and better. Birthdays were always a good excuse to get a girl drunk and more inclined to continue the date at her place. "You're spending it with me? I'm honored, but what about your friends? They didn't want to do anything with you tonight?"
Shrugging, Emma ran her finger around the rim of the water glass. "I'm kind of a loner. That's why dinner sounded so enticing. Good food and hopefully even better company." She smiled and studied him under her lashes knowing he was falling right into her trap. Cocky alpha males were so easy to manipulate.
"I can show you a night you've never even dreamed of." Ryan waved the waiter over before turning back to his date. "I can't believe your family didn't put up a fight to spend time with you today."
"Don't have a family to fight over me." Emma frowned slightly as her pig of a date ordered for her without even giving her a chance to see the menu. She rarely ate steak, was feeling more baked white fish tonight than red meat, but apparently her 'birthday' wasn't even going to include a decent meal.
"Everyone has family. Surely-"
Emma's gaze narrowed, Ryan noticing for the first time and pausing mid-sentence. "Technically I suppose so, but not everyone is lucky enough to know them. Scared off yet?"
Ryan flashed her a dazzling smile, reaching over to cup a velvety soft cheek. "Not a chance. I am going to make sure you remember this birthday for years to come."
Emma scoffed, thankful that a bread basket was placed in the middle of their table as distraction. It saved them from awkward conversation until their plates arrived and the man wanted to know what she thought of him.
"Come on, darlin'. I'm showing you a good time. The least you could do is tell me if we're going to continue this little party at your place."
"You want to know what I think?" Ryan nodded causing Emma to shift from saccharine sweet to intensely pissed off. "I think that you believe just because you're handsome and charming that you can get any woman under you. That you think no one knows how much of a douche you really are."
"What?!"
Emma leaned across the table to stare closer into beady blue pools of deceit. "I think you're a pathetic excuse for an alpha, abandoning your wife and three kids. Fiona put up your house as collateral to get you out of jail. You repay her by being out on a date with me when you haven't been home in three weeks. Your little girl, Livvy, cries every night you're not there to read her a story for bedtime. Gavin has started acting out in school, refusing to listen to your wife, and hurting his younger brother. Jesse just sulks around, lost interest in everything. Do you even care that you're ruining your family? No! You're out gallivanting around like a single teenage male ready for a frat party."
Balking, Ryan jumped up from the table, knocking his chair backwards to the floor and earning attention from the rest of the restaurant. "Who are you?"
Entirely unimpressed, Emma dabbed her napkin on the corners of her mouth before calmly standing as well. "The chick who put up the rest of the money, the one who has been trying to make sure your children don't become homeless because you're a pig."
Sputtering, Ryan glanced frantically around the room looking for an exit. "You're a bail bondsman?"
"Bail bondsperson, actually, and surprise." She flashed him a grin, unsurprised when the deadbeat flipped the table towards her and ran. Sighing, she apologized to the wait staff before following the loser outside to his car.
Cursing, Ryan kept trying to rev the engine, going nowhere. Slamming the heel of his palm in anger on the steering wheel, the horn blared loudly.
"This car is going to your wife to pay some of the bills you left her with." Emma watched the man glare fruitlessly at the boot on his car before giving her a pleading look.
"I can pay you. You don't have to do this, please! My wife's parents will make sure they're okay."
Emma glared, crossing her arms over her chest. "Taking care of your family is your responsibility. If you had money, any decent alpha could take care of their own instead of running around town throwing it at strangers to get in their pants."
Ryan glared up at her, ready to take down this omega bitch. "Please, what the hell do you know about family? Stupid bit-"
Without a second's hesitation, Emma reached in through the open window and slammed the man's head against the steering wheel knocking him unconscious. "I really hate being called a bitch."
Unfortunately for Emma, the creep woke up halfway to the station, unbeknownst to her. Ryan kept up the charade that he was still passed out long enough to slip his cuffs from behind his body. Squinting to check if the blonde was still distracted, he waited long enough for her to haul him out of the car before jumping her, slipping his cuffs up around her head, digging into her neck to cut off her oxygen.
Emma struggled, using every trick in her book to get Ryan off her, to stop being choked. She heard the commotion of officer's radios about the scuffle, knowing help would be with her within seconds. The backdoor to the station opened just as her perp slammed her head into the brick wall.
"Swan? Swan, wake up."
"Huh?" Groggily coming to, a paramedic was leaning over her with a flashlight aimed at her eyes. She quickly squeezed her eyes shut and flinched away, head pounding with pain. "Did he-?"
"Officers have your bounty secured in a cell. I'm Kyle. Can you tell me how many fingers I'm holding up?"
Emma begrudgingly sat through the endless screening before the paramedic cleared her to return home. She barely made it inside her apartment, happy to drop her heels on the carpet and sink into her sofa before her cell blared again. "Swan."
"Emmie?"
Surprise filled the young blonde as she pulled the phone away to look at her caller i.d. "Mo-… Sarah? Are you okay?"
Smiling in relief, Sarah nodded before giving a verbal response. "I was concerned about you. I know you were working tonight and when you didn't answer…"
"I'm… okay."
"Emma, don't lie to me." Sarah knew just from the young woman's tone that she was not alright. "Tell me what happened, baby."
The woman had been the closest thing to a mother Emma had ever found before she was snatched away, the government fearing what a single female alpha would do to an omega child. Emma had tried running away back to her, had cried for weeks afterwards, never finding someone she felt a parental connection to again. "Mommy."
Hearing how exhausted and defeated her baby was, Sarah quickly ran all possible scenarios through her head. "Emma, talk to me."
"I'm just so sick and tired of trying to live in this stupid city. No one lets me get any peace. Everyone feels entitled to try and be stupid around me. This latest perp got aggressive, and-"
"Aggressive how?"
Emma knew Sarah had just gone into alpha mother mode. The woman was terrifying when she thought Emma was in trouble or hurt. "Just some scrapes and bruises. The paramedics cleared me. Promise."
Sarah sighed, unsure how much to believe of Emma's reassurances. Her daughter always tried to be tough and independent, trying to prove an omega could stand alone in a sea of alphas and betas wanting to conquer her. "Baby, take a break. Come home and stay with me awhile, away from the city. You can finally meet my mate. You'd get on so well! It's quiet here, lots of parks and the ocean… you love the ocean. Please-"
"Okay."
"Just think about it. Sleep on it. You know I miss you and-"
Emma giggled, listening to her mother ramble on. "Mom, I said okay. I'll start out first thing tomorrow."
Elated, Sarah talked to her daughter for a while more before bidding her goodnight and safe travels. "Love you, baby."
"Love you too." There was no hesitation in Emma's words. She never second guessed herself with Sarah. She knew the woman loved her, recognized the older blonde as her mother despite the years of separation. She felt a huge weight lifted off her as she drifted to sleep. Her mother would take care of her. She was safe from the obnoxious people of the world around her mom.
Maya had only heard the last part of her wife's conversation and immediately grew jealous. She sidled up behind Sarah and wrapped her arms around the woman's waist. "Since I'm right here, I know you weren't expressing your undying love for moi."
"Relax, my love. That was Emma." Sarah turned in her wife's arms, smiling gleefully up into stormy green eyes. She loved when her wife got all jealous and possessive over her at times. "She's coming home."
"Emma? As in…?"
Sarah nodded, leaning up to kiss Maya. "My baby girl is coming home." She paused, stepping back slightly, full of sudden nervousness. "Is that… is that okay?"
"Of course!" Maya tucked a strand of hair behind her woman's right ear. "So long as you're not expressing your love to any of the unworthy townsfolk." She smiled at Sarah's blush. "Your child is my child. We are mated for life. You are mine and I am yours. I shall welcome Emma into our home as if she were my own."
The pair anxiously waited, nervously cleaning the entire house waiting for the young woman to show up. Emma, with her few prized possessions and her wardrobe in a mere three boxes in the back of the bug, felt utterly lost in the middle of the vast expanse of forest, nothing telling her she was in the right direction or not. The only thing that stopped her from turning around and going to find a motel in the nearest city was the 'Welcome to Storybrooke' sign, the antique wood block fitting the charmingly quaint demeanor of the seaside town.
"Where is she? Boston is only a few hours away."
Maya pulled Sarah into her arms to stop the woman's frantic pacing. "Baby, calm down. I'm sure Emma is fine."
"Easy for you to say. You haven't formed your bond with her yet. She's-"
"She's pulling into the driveway, dear." Maya smiled and turned her wife to face the large bay window where an obnoxiously bright yellow bug was pulling up to the house. "Let's go welcome our daughter home."
Sarah pulled her wife down for a kiss. Her mate was truly remarkable. She hoped Emma took to her quickly. She laced her fingers through Maya's and practically dragged the taller woman out of the house with her to envelop her daughter in a tight embrace. "Emma!"
"Mom!" Emma returned the hug just as tightly, not really having realized just how much the woman truly meant to her and how much she needed her until she was back in her arms. "I missed you."
"I missed you too, baby." Sarah stepped to the side slightly, arm still around Emma in order to introduce Maya.
The taller blonde smiled warmly at the pair. "Hello, dear. I've heard so much about you. I'm Maya."
Green eyes narrowed slightly as Emma stepped closer into Sarah's side while she appraised the woman married to her mother. "Hi."
Sarah knew the response wasn't as warm and welcoming as both she and Maya had hoped, but Emma was a guarded girl, having to be tough in order to be independent. She had grown wary of most people by age seven and her nineteenth foster home. A 'hi' was better than nothing at all. "Let's get you inside. Have you eaten? I bet you're hungry. Come on, I can make you anything you'd like."
It wasn't until the ladies had Emma inside sitting at the kitchen table under the bright lights did Maya notice the severe purple bruising around the young woman's neck and right temple, the scrapes and scratches. She growled as she moved closer to inspect the girl. "Who hurt you?"
"It's nothing." Emma was taken aback by the woman's natural motherly instincts towards her. She was so unused to people caring for her, especially a virtual stranger, mated to her mother or not. "Job related injuries."
"Like hell." Maya snarled, pissed at whoever dared hurt this fragile child. She stormed to the freezer while her wife wrapped Emma in a hug, gently kissing the bruised temple.
"I'll take care of you, angel. You're safe now." Sarah gently rocked her baby as her wife placed an ice pack gently across Emma's neck. She could barely hold back her frustrated sobs. Clearly Emma wasn't fine, and judging by the injuries, she could have lost her daughter before getting to ever fully reconnect with her.
Emma snuggled in, letting down her defenses as the women doted on her. She knew she was safe now, didn't have to worry about life for the moment. Storybrooke could definitely be good for her. "I'm home, Mom."
