Sheriff Graham had barely let go of Emma's hand before Mary Margaret was frantically opening the door and trying to shove her way past him.
"Whoa, whoa," Emma called. She jumped out of the car and hurried around to block Mary Margaret before she ran the poor man down in the street. "Mom, where are you going?"
"David," she said, an eerily desperate light in her eyes. "Emma, I need to get to David."
"David Nolan?" Graham said from behind her.
Mary Margaret spun to face him so quickly that she nearly lost her balance on the wet pavement. "You know him?" she asked.
Graham blinked slowly. "Of course. Are you... friends of his?"
"Yes," Emma jumped in hurriedly. "Very old friends. And we'd heard that he'd settled down in Storybrooke. So if we had the chance we thought we'd stop by and say hello in the morning."
The look on Mary Margaret's face told Emma that she was not at all okay with that plan.
Graham scratched his head. "Do you know his address?"
Emma gave him a grateful smile. "No, we don't have his current one actually. Would you mind maybe..."
"Of course," Graham said. He pulled out a pocket notebook and a pen with a flourish. "Happy to be of service."
He quickly jotted down a few lines, ripped off the sheet, and handed it to Emma. "Is there anything else I can help you ladies with tonight?" he asked gallantly.
Emma tried to ignore the charm he was radiating in waves. "I don't think so, but thank you."
Graham nodded and turned to leave when suddenly a thought hit Emma. "Wait!"
He turned and she laid a hand on his arm. "Could I... talk to you privately for a few minutes, sheriff?"
He glanced over her shoulder at Mary Margaret who was standing with arms folded over her chest, staring down at the pavement. "Of course."
He allowed himself to be led a few steps away from the car. "What is it?"
Emma took a deep breath, summoning up a scared expression. "I... I need to make sure that you won't tell anyone else that you saw us tonight."
Graham's eyes darkened. "May I ask why not?"
Emma's gaze darted back and forth. "Well... I'm not supposed to tell people info like this, but... you kind of caught us at a bad time and I'm out of options right now..."
He crossed his arms and waited for her to explain.
Emma took a deep breath. "My mother is in the witness protection program. She's being called to testify in a few months against a murder. It's a multiple homicide case and she was the only witness." She took a few seconds to evaluate the stoic look on his face. "Please, this guy has dangerous friends... They're doing all they can to find my mom and usually she has this disguise she wears, but I thought we'd be safe this late..."
Graham sighed and looked over her shoulder at Mary Margaret again. "Do you need my help hiding or anything?"
Emma felt a weight fall off her shoulders. "No, no. We've gotten good at that." She flashed him a wan smile. "I'll make sure she puts her disguise on right away, before anyone else catches sight of her."
Graham nodded slowly. "Yes, I think that would be for the best."
"So, you won't tell anyone?"
He gave her a little smile. "Not a soul, Ms. Swan."
Emma wasn't sure she liked the tone of his voice, but she forced herself to remain calm. "Thank you, sheriff."
"I already told you, it's Graham. Now I'll leave you to make your arrangements. Have a good night." He gave her another short nod before walking around a corner, to where his patrol car was parked no doubt. Emma watched him go with a strange feeling in her stomach that she had no urge to identify.
You have other problems to deal with right now, Em.
She turned back to her mother, a bit disconcerted at the vacant look in Mary Margaret's eyes. She walked back over to where she was leaning on the car, picking her way carefully around a few puddles.
"Mom?" Mary Margaret didn't respond and Emma reached out to touch her shoulder softly. "Mom, we need to get your disguise out of the back. Just like we planned."
Mary Margaret blinked and Emma watched a tear roll down her cheek. "Mom, please keep it together for a few more hours." She reached out a wiped the tear away with her thumb. "We'll find him, I promise."
Mary Margaret grabbed Emma's hand. "I need him, Emma," she whispered. "I need him."
"And he needs you too," Emma said. "Which is why I need you to put your disguise on. The last thing we need is Regina recognizing you. You know she's lurking around her somewhere."
Emma turned to walk around to the trunk, but was stopped by her mother's lingering grasp on her hand. "Do you think... do you think he'll still love me?" Mary Margaret said softly. Brokenly. "After everything... will he still love me?"
Emma's heart jumped into her throat and she swallowed thickly. "You know he will. You know better than I do what he told you the night I was born."
Mary Margaret closed her eyes. "What's twenty-eight years when you have eternal love?" She took a deep, shaky breath and let go of Emma's hand. "Okay, let's do this."
Emma quickly turned away to hide the tears gathering her eyes. It didn't take her long to pull out the dark glasses and cane that she and her mother kept hidden in the bug. As she headed back around the car to join Mary Margaret again, her eyes landed on the box of cupcakes stashed in the back seat and she couldn't help but smile to herself.
"What's so funny?" Mary Margaret asked as she donned the sunglasses.
"I guess my birthday wish worked after all," Emma said.
The women shared a brief smile before turning to face the bed and breakfast. Mary Margaret shifted her feet. "Emma..."
Emma gave her a firm nod. "I'm the Savior, Mom. This is what I was born to do."
She held out her hand and Mary Margaret took it, grateful for the warm strength it seemed to exude. Together, mother and daughter took their first steps away from the world they'd always known.
Emma couldn't help but smile as she looked down at the flimsy paper in her hand. Despite the gravity of the situation, the fact that Graham managed to sneak his number to her already gave her a fuzzy feeling for which she was thankful. It was a minute distraction from the enormity of what was about to unfold.
"You're sure this is the right address?"
Emma pretended not to notice the extra digits at the bottom of the paper as she glanced at the address again. "This is what Graham wrote down."
The white house with blue trim looked like something from a Leave it to Beaver episode. The quaint porch and dainty white curtains made the whole thing feel homey and relaxed. The neighborhood appeared to be quiet and full of average families, the kind that drove their kids to soccer games and went golfing on the weekends. Overall, it was picture perfect, although Emma took an instant disliking to the decorative windmill squatting in the front yard.
Mary Margaret bit her lip, tapping her cane in a disjointed rhythm on the sidewalk. "What if... "
Emma waited for her to continue, but her mother simply trailed off into silence and continued staring at the house. Finally, Emma sighed.
"Mom, you've talked yourself through every 'what if' that you could possibly think of in the past..." She glanced at her watch. "Seven hours. There's nothing that can be worse than what you two have already gone through. You've just survived an evil curse, for crying out loud."
Mary Margaret glanced over at her with her lips curled in the disapproving frown Emma knew so well.
"I'm just trying to tell you to have a little faith," Emma said. She gave her mother a little shove forward. "Now, it's about high time that I met my father, don't you think?"
Mary Margaret took a deep breath and walked towards the house, cane tapping convincingly in front of her, while Emma followed warily. Truth be told, she was more nervous than she'd been letting on and she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep up the support if Mary Margaret didn't snap out of the shock of finding Storybrooke soon.
Mary Margaret navigated the stairs up to the porch and reached for the doorbell. Emma thought she would hesitate again once, but she pushed the button and stood back to wait without so much as flinching. Emma held her breath as steady footsteps approached the door from the other side.
The man who opened the door was exactly as Emma had pictured him. Dirty blond hair, still a bit messy from sleep, deep blue eyes, a strong jaw that looked as if it had been made expressly for smiling. She tried hard not to let her mouth fall open as little details clicked into place faster than she could register them; details that were all... her. Like the way his lips were pressed together as he filed away the sight of the two strangers on his porch or the way his eyes seemed to go dark the instant he realized that he didn't know these people. It was like looking at her reflection in a mirror and finally seeing the parts that weren't Mary Margaret and were distinctly... David.
"David..." she heard Mary Margaret breath, almost indiscernible from beside her.
"Can I help you?" His voice was warm, deep. Emma tried not to let herself imagine what one of her bedtime stories would have sounded like read in that voice.
"We.. ah..." Emma stuttered, forgetting her planned cover story.
"We're old friends of your mother's," Mary Margaret said. Emma turned to look at her. Her voice sounded like it was coming from very far away. "We've kind of gotten turned around in these woods up here and we knew you were in the area so we thought we might ask you for directions." She hesitated. "That is if you don't mind the intrusion."
David smiled. "No, no of course not. Any friend of my mother's is a friend of mine. Please come in." He stepped back, waving them forward.
Emma bit her tongue to keep from saying something incredibly stupid and stepped into her father's house. The walls were painted a deep blue, the same color as the outside trim. A flight of stairs with a white bannister ran up to the second story directly from the entry. Peering to her left, Emma noted a large, comfortable living room, with cheerful yellow walls and tasteful pictures scattered throughout. Once again, the lacy white curtains jumped out at her and a strange fear settled in her heart.
"Won't you both excuse me just a moment?" David asked politely and then he disappeared into the hallway that led past the stairs.
Emma moved slowly into the living room, feeling like she was in a dream. Mary Margaret simply stood and continued staring down the hall.
"Mom. You can't stare. You're blind..." Emma whispered without turning back around. She curiously ran her hand across the thick binding of a photo album lying on the coffee table.
Mary Margaret sighed and turned to follow her daughter. She sat down on the couch rigidly. "I don't know what to do."
Emma hesitated. "Neither do I." She slowly flipped open the album and her next words caught in her throat.
This is wrong. This is wrong.
"Do you think that there's a way to get him to remember me, even before we break the curse?" Mary Margaret was saying somewhere in the background.
This has to be a mistake. This is wrong.
"Mom..." The word came out as little more than a hoarse croak and Emma tried to swallow to give herself enough moisture to speak. She needed to warn Mary Margaret. She needed to tell her about his horrible, awful mistake before...
"Ah, ladies," David was coming back around the corner, looking pleased with himself. "I just realized that I forgot to ask for either of your names."
Mary Margaret twisted her ring. "My name is Mary Margaret. And this is my daughter, Emma."
David smiled. "Well, you both already know my name, obviously. But I'd like to introduce you to someone you don't know." He stepped fully into the room followed by a tall, slender woman, blonde hair falling softly over her shoulders and a shy smile on her face.
"Kathryn, this is Mary Margaret and Emma, friends of mom's," David said, wrapping his arm around the woman's waist. "Ladies, this is my wife."
A/N: Thank you for everyone who has read and reviewed so far! I'm glad you guys are excited for this story! I would also like to apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. I've had a busy couple days. Don't worry though, I have so many ideas for this fic; it's not going to disappear anytime soon. :)
For those of you who asked, yes Henry does exist and he shall be making an appearance very soon! As for his family backstory in this AU... well you can't expect me to reveal everything all at once. ;)