Emma Swan was just getting to the station when her phone rang, a loud bleating noise breaking through the calm silence that afternoon. Grumbling, she pulled her yellow car into the parking lot, the key cold against her skin as she switched off the engine. She rummaged through her pocket, taking out her red cell phone. The caller ID said "Mary Margaret Blanchard."

"Hello?" Emma flipped the phone open.

"Emma!" came Mary Margaret's frantic cry, "Emma, please come quick-"

"Whoa, whoa!" Emma said into the receiver, "calm down, okay? What's going on?" There was heavy breathing on the other side of the line, Mary Margaret's voice coming in staticky. Emma unbuckled as Mary Margaret began talking, slamming the door behind dyer as she got out. A brisk wind rustled the trees as she approached the station, stopping just short of the front door.

"What did you say happened?" she asked, furrowing her brow as she looked around. A playground down the block was full of screaming children. Across the street from the playground she noticed a small crowd beginning to form, screams of worry amidst cries of pain.

"Are you across the street from the playground on the main road?" Emma asked quickly, ignoring the door to the station completely. A sign hung in the window announcing the place was closed. Emma was supposed to flip it, but by the sound of Mary Margaret she had more urgent business to attend to.

"Yeah, why?" Mary Margaret said. Emma squinted at the crowd- she was already halfway down the block, closer to the group with each footstep. By now the children playing were extremely loud, Emma having made it to the pushed through, shutting her phone and slipping it back into her pocket, "Mary Margaret!"

Mary Margaret nearly yanked her arm out of her socket as she pulled Emma down to a crouch. David was carefully holding an old man, leaves twisted in the long white beard. The blue hooded sweatshirt he wore billowed around his thin frame. There were wrinkles around his eyes, the blue irises fleeting as his lashes fluttered shut.

"What's gong on?" Emma asked, carefully taking the old man from David. He felt like a porcelain doll as he rested in her arms, ready to shatter at any moment. She felt heat come off his skin in waves through the heavy sweatshirt.

"We offered him a place to stay for a bit," David explained, "then he started coughing and just collapsed!" Biting her lip, Emma nodded. The man didn't look like anyone she knew, so he had to be from out of town. She check chis pulse. It was slow, but still there.

"He need to go to a doctor," she announced, and suddenly there were a dozen phones out, everyone rushing to call the paramedics before the other in hopes of being the next big hero in town, saving the life of an old man who had mysteriously wandered down the road. Most of the crowd, however, had gotten bored of watching and went back to their daily lives, and soon it was just the there of hem leering over the stranger.

"Did he say he was from anywhere?" Emma asked, snapping her head up as she heard the distant wail of a siren. Mary Margaret shook her head.

"He didn't even give us a name," she said. That wouldn't be of any help, Emma realized. Then again, Storybrooke often had strangers just waltz in whenever they felt like it, so this man was most likely no different. After what Henry had told her, there was no reason to question things anymore unless she thought it necessary.

And boy, was this necessary.

The ambulance had pulled up alongside them, the paramedics already wheeling out a gurney. Carefully, they loaded the old man on the table, wheeling him into the ambulance.

"I'm going to come later to check on him," Emma told one of the doctors, and they nodded, the siren flashing red as they rode away to the hospital.

"Can we come with you?" Mary Margaret asked, placing a hand on Emma's arm as they got up. Emma nodded, pushing her blond hair out of her face. Mary Margaret was the kind of person to try and take care of everyone, so Emma knew this old man would be no exception to the rule.

"Okay, well, I need to go back to the statin now," Emma said, "I'll see you both later?"

"Of course!" David said, his eyes focused on the ambulance as it turned the corner.

"Alright, well, see you guys later then," Emma waved goodbye, running back up the road to the station. As she ran, she couldn't help but get a nagging feeling that the old man may have had something to with what Henry had told her, but she'd have to get a look at his book before she could be certain.