The Thing You Love Most
Jacob woke up to the sound of the clock tower ringing. Forgetting the fact that the clock hasn't moved in years like Henry mentioned, he groans from tiredness as he gets up and changes into some clothes. As he's walking
down the hall to go to Granny's diner again, he sees Regina, holding a basket of red apples. She smiles at him. "Good morning, Mr. Reed. Care for an apple?" She grabs one and hands it to him.
He accepts it and gives her an awkward smile. "Thank you, Miss Mills. If you don't mind me asking, but what are you doing here?"
"Oh, I came to give this basket to Miss Swan. I heard she had a room here," she said. Jacob noticed that she said it with forced kindness, as if she didn't want to do it, but was just doing it to be a nice mayor.
"Oh, well I'll see you later then," he said, taking a bite of the apple, which he saw was juicy. By the time he arrived at the diner, he had finished it. He thought it was delicious. He threw it away and went to the counter to order his breakfast. "Hey, Ruby."
Ruby turned around and smiled at him. "Oh, morning Jacob! What can I get you?" she asked.
"The usual. Pancakes, eggs and bacon with hot chocolate and cinnamon." He smiled back.
"OK, I'll have that ready for you in a few minutes." She turns around again and walks to the kitchen.
"Hey, Jacob!" said a voice Jacob recognized as Henry's. He turned around and saw him sitting at a booth. Jacob walked over to the table and sat down. Henry smiled at him. "So, are you going to help me with Operation Cobra?"
"Um, I haven't thought about it, but I might. Just to see if this apparent curse is real or not." He then remembers what he said to Emma yesterday about helping her. "Actually, yes. I'll help."
Henry smiled again. "Good. We could use all the help we can get on this."
Just then, Ruby brought Jacob his food. "That was fast," he said.
She smiled at him. "They were already expecting you, so they were just finishing up. Enjoy." She walks away as he takes a sip of his hot chocolate.
"So, what now?" he asked Henry.
"I'll be right back." He stood up and walked to the counter, and Jacob could hear what he was saying. "Hey, Ruby, when Emma gets here, could you give her a hot cocoa with cinnamon like me and Jacob?"
"Uh, sure," she said.
"OK, thanks." He walked back to their table and sat down again.
Feeling his hunger, Jacob began eating. Without him noticing, Henry took a piece of Jacob's bacon and ate it.
"So, Henry, tell me more about this Curse your mom apparently cast."
"Well, everyone here in Storybrooke is from a place called the Enchanted Forest. It's a lot different from this world. Everyone there is a fairytale character, like Snow White and Prince Charming and-"
"And the Evil Queen."
"Yes. But, anyways, the Evil queen, my mom, cast a dark curse on the entire realm and everyone in it, so they were transported here, where all of their memories were erased and replaced with new ones, so they don't remember who they are."
"And that includes me as well?"
"Yes, though I haven't seen you in my book. I've only seen the big characters."
"Big characters?"
"You know, like Snow White, Prince Charming, the Evil Queen."
Jacob mocks hurt. "Well, ouch. So you're saying that I'm not a big character?"
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying."
"I suppose that makes sense. What big characters would be as young as me?"
"Peter Pan."
"But you haven't seen him in the book."
"I know. That's because he would be in a different realm than the Enchanted Forest."
As soon as Jacob finished eating, the small bell to the door rang. He looked up and saw Emma sit down at the counter and start reading a newspaper. A minute later, Ruby sets down a mug of hot chocolate in front of her. "Here you go," she said.
"Thank you, but I did not order that," said Emma.
"Yeah, I know. You have an admirer." Emma turns around in her seat and sees someone. She sets the newspaper down and walks to the person, who Jacob saw was Sheriff Graham. He hasn't met him yet, but he knows
who he is.
"Ah, so you decided to stay," he said. Jacob noticed he spoke in an English accent.
"Observant. Important for a cop."
"That's good news for our tourist business, bad for our local signage." Emma gives him a look for the bad joke. "It's--it's a joke... because you ran over our sign…"
"Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture, and I am impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon in my chocolate, 'cause most people don't, but I am not here to flirt, so, thank you, but no thank you." She sets her mug on the table.
"I didn't send it."
"I did. I like cinnamon too," said Henry, standing up as he says it, with Jacob following him.
"Don't you have school?" asked Emma.
"Duh, I'm 10. Walk me." He smiles. All three of them walk out of the diner and towards Henry's school.
A minute later, Emma speaks again. "So what's the deal with you and your mom?"
"It's not about us, it's about her curse. We have to break it. Luckily, I have a plan. Step one: identification. I call it, "Operation Cobra," he said.
"Cobra? That has nothing to do with fairy-tales."
"Exactly. It's a codename. It'll throw the Queen off the trail."
"So, everyone here is a fairytale character, they just don't know it."
"That's the curse. Time's been frozen. Until you got here." Henry notices Emma is about to take a bite of an apple, which Jacob assumed is one Regina gave her earlier. "Hey! Where'd you get that?"
"Your mom."
"Don't eat that!" Henry grabs the apple and tosses it behind them. Jacob couldn't help but laugh for a second, but they didn't notice.
"Okay, um, uh, alright. What about their pasts?"
"They don't know. It's a haze to them. Ask anyone and you'll see."
"So... for decades, people have been walking around, in a haze, not aging, with screwed up memories, stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious."
"I'd knew you get it! That's why we need you. You're the only one who can stop her Curse."
"Because I'm the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming?"
"Yes! And right now, we have the advantage. My mom doesn't know that." He takes his backpack off and pulls out some pages that have been ripped out of his book. "I took out the end, the part with you in it." Jacob
looks at the page along with Emma and sees Prince Charming putting a baby in a wardrobe, with the baby's blanket having the name "Emma" on it. "See? Your mom is Snow White!"
"Kid-"
"I know the hero never believes at first, if they did, it wouldn't be a very good story. If you need proof, take them, read them. But whatever you do, don't let her see these pages. They're dangerous. If she finds out who you
are... then it would be bad." The three of them arrive at Henry's school. Emma and Jacob stop walking, but Henry continues walking. "I gotta go, but I'll find you later and we can get started. I knew you'd believe me!"
"I never said I did!"
"Why else would you be here?" Henry said happily before going inside.
Just then, Mary Margaret walked up to them. "It's good to see his smile again."
"I didn't do anything," said Emma.
"You stayed. So...does the Mayor know you're still here?"
"Oh, she knows. What is her deal? She's not a great people person. How did she get elected?"
"She's been Mayor as long as I can remember. No one's ever been brave enough to run against her. She inspires quite a bit of.. well, fear. I'm afraid I only made that worse by giving Henry that book and now he thinks she's the
Evil Queen."
"Who does he think you are?"
Mary Margaret smiles and scoffs. "It's silly."
"I just got five minutes of silly. Lay it on me."
"Snow White." Jacob looks at Emma and notices that she looked slightly stunned, which he could understand why. He hears the school bell ring in the distance. "Who does he think you are?"
"I'm not in the book. Can I ask you a favor? Regina mentioned the kid's in therapy; do you know where I can find the doctor?"
"Oh, yeah, he's just across the street from Granny's. Why?"
"Just wondering. And I've gotta go. You coming, Jacob?"
"Actually, I was gonna ask you if you wanted to watch my lesson. Henry's in the class."
"Sure, I wouldn't mind," he said. As Emma left, he followed Mary Margaret inside.
"So how have you been doing, Jacob?"
"Uh, good. Still don't remember anything of my life, but at least I'm making new ones. Oh, and I got a new necklace from Mr. Gold's shop."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's a dreamcatcher necklace. I didn't have any money, so I made a deal with him that I had to work for him temporarily to repay for it."
"How nice of him. Oh, we're here. You can just sit in the back and watch." When they entered, Henry saw Jacob and he smiled at him. Jacob smiled back and went to the back of the room and sat down in a chair as Mary Margaret walked to the front. "Good morning everyone, we have a guest here today. His name is Jacob, and he is just here to watch. Now, let's start our lesson."
Later, they were outside doing a lesson on something. Jacob didn't know what. He wasn't paying attention much. He started paying attention when he saw Regina walk towards Mary Margaret. When she approached her, she cleared her throat. "May I speak with my son?"
"We're in the middle of a lesson. Is it important?"
"Do you think I'd be here if it wasn't? And what's Jacob doing here? He doesn't go here."
"He's just observing. I asked him if he wanted to."
"Whatever." She walks somewhere at a distance, Henry following her. They may have been at a distance, but they were close enough for Jacob to hear, but barely. "Henry, sweetie, I have some bad news. The woman who you brought here... she's been arrested. She broke into Dr. Hopper's office and stole his files. She's a con woman. She's trying to learn about us in order to take advantage of us. That's why she's sticking around. I'm sorry."
"No you're not," Henry said. Jacob couldn't help but laugh silently at Henry's response.
"I know you think otherwise, but all I'm doing is trying to protect you. This is gonna be good for us, you'll see. Things will be better."
In the distance, the school bell rang. Jacob walked over to Mary Margaret as he heard Henry said "I gotta get back to class."
Mary Margaret was gathering her things as her students walked back inside. "Oh, Jacob, what is it?" she asked.
"I'm gonna go for a walk."
"Oh, okay. It was nice seeing you." She smiled at him. He couldn't help but smile back.
"You too." He turned around and started walking towards the forest, but stopped when he heard Henry call his name. "Yes Henry?" he said when he was close enough.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going for a walk."
"But I want you to come with me after school. I'm going to take Miss Blanchard to the sheriff's station."
"Why there?"
"My mom was arrested. She broke into Dr. Hopper's office and stole some files."
"Wait, what? That doesn't sound like something she would do." He was trying to act surprised even though he heard Regina.
"Well, she was gathering intel for Operation Cobra."
"Okay, well, I'll see you later. I'll be here when you get out, now go back to class." He started walking towards the forest after Henry walked back towards the school.
After school, Jacob kept his promise and was waiting outside of Mary Margaret's classroom. When they exited the room, Henry smiled. "You came!"
"Well, duh. I made a promise. I'm keeping it."
"Well, come on! Let's go!" He grabbed both Jacob and Mary Margaret's hands and started pulling them. When they got to the sheriff's station, Henry ran inside to where they had the cells. "Hey!" He runs over to Emma.
"Henry! Henry, what are you doing here?" asked Sheriff Graham.
"His mother told him what happened," Mary Margaret said.
"Of course she did." She looks at Henry. "Henry, I don't know what she said-"
"You're a genius!" he said.
"What?"
"I know what you were up to." Emma gave him a confused look. "You were gathering intel. For Operation Cobra." He whispered the last part.
"I'm sorry, I'm a bit lost," Graham said.
"It's need to know, Sheriff, and all you need to know is that Miss Blanchard's gonna bail her out."
"You are? Why?" Emma asked.
"I, uh, trust you," Mary Margaret said.
"Well, if you could uncuff me," she says as she brings her wrists up so Graham can take them off. "I have something to do."
Later, Henry and Jacob were walking around town as Emma did the something she said she would do. Neither of the two knew what she was doing.
"So, do you believe me about the curse yet?" Henry asked him.
"Uh, I don't know, I haven't really read the book yet."
"I can let you borrow it if you want."
"It's fine." He looked at his watch. "Hey, uh, what time did you say you had to meet your mom at?"
"Five o'clock."
"It's 4:50, you should get going."
"You're right. See you tomorrow!" Henry started walking towards the Mayor's office as Jacob walked towards the forest again.
NEXT TIME: Snow Falls
