Chapter 4

"Nothing." Emma muttered as she pressed Stop on the security camera footage again. "Nothing, nothing, nothing."

Graham walked over to his wife, massaging her tense shoulders. "Em. Relax."

"I can't!" Emma said, shaking him off. "I've watched this damn video forty times, and the same thing happens every time. Look." She jabbed her finger at the screen.

Graham obediently watched as the video began to play. He watched the on screen Archie sit at his desk, writing something, when suddenly he stood up, appeared to be gasping for breath, and just dropped dead in the corner where he was found earlier that day.

He hit Pause. "Looks like a heart attack."

"It's not." Emma argued. "The autopsy came back clean. He was perfectly healthy."

"Well obviously he wasn't." Graham pointed out.

Emma continued as if she hadn't heard him. "Healthy people don't just drop dead on their own accord. Something had to have happened."

"Poison?" Graham suggested.

"No…" Emma said. "They didn't find any traces of poison. Besides, who would wanna hurt Archie? He's a therapist, for God's sake!"

"I don't know." Graham said, but it was clear that Emma was ignoring him.

"It's almost as if, as if…no that's not possible. The only person…but why would he want to hurt him?" Emma muttered mostly to herself. She hit rewound the video and hit Play again, staring intently at the screen.

"Emma. Come on." Graham said. "It's late and we're tired. Can't we just go home and pick this up tomorrow?"

"No!" Emma insisted. "Graham…don't you get it? Somebody was murdered. We can't just sit on our asses and do nothing."

But Graham wasn't backing down. "Em. We have a daughter now. A daughter who needs us." He argued.

Emma sighed, taking off her reading glasses. "You're right." She closed her laptop and stood up. "Let's go."

~Long Gone~

"Let's try this again." Regina said, pacing around the dark room where Archie sat bound to a chair. They were in one of the rooms in her underground safe house in the graveyard. "You're going to tell me everything you know about Ms. Swan, and you're going to tell me now."

Archie shook his head defiantly. "Whatever evil scheme you have planned in mind, Regina, it's not going to work. I won't let you destroy Emma."

Regina seethed with anger. Who did this cricket think he was, defying her? In a flash of purple smoke, she crossed the room and faced him, her nose inches from his. "Listen to this, and listen well, cricket. Everybody thinks you're dead. We did a damn well job faking it. Nobody knows you're here. You're alone, bound to a chair underground, miles from town. I have magic." Her dark eyes bore into his watery ones. "I can make you suffer in ways you can't even begin to fathom."

"And so what?" He countered.

Regina had to give him credit. He was displaying an incredible amount of bravery despite the circumstances. Still, she was here to get information and she was going to get it. "I can kill you just like that." She snapped her blood red polished fingers. "After all, you're nothing more than a mere cricket." She sneered.

Seeing that the defiant expression was now gone, she smiled. "That's better. Now, tell me, what do you know about Ms. Swan?"

~Long Gone~

Graham squinted at the bright red digits on the clock. 2 am. Briefly, he wondered what he was doing awake in the middle of the night. He was about to roll over and fall back asleep when he noticed that Emma's side of the bed was empty; the sheets were cold, as if she'd been out of bed for a while. He looked over at the bathroom. It was empty. Pushing himself out of bed, he walked down the hall toward Scarlett's room. Maybe she was in there. But Scarlett's room was empty, save for the sleeping toddler.

Just then, he heard a soft cough that sounded like it came from outside the room. Planting a kiss on top of her dark curls, he strode towards the living room. Sure enough, there was Emma, huddled on the couch with her laptop. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a messy know and there were dark circles under her eyes. Of course she'd be doing that.

"Em?" He said, confused. "What are you doing?"

She looked up irritably. "What does it look like? I'm watching this stupid video."

He walked over and sat down next to her. "The security footage from Archie's office again?" He scratched his head, confused. "Why?"

"Why do you think?" She snapped. "I'm the sheriff. It's my duty to solve the case."

"It's the middle of the night." He protested. "The case isn't going to go anywhere."

She ignored him, hitting Play and squinting at the screen. The video began to play for probably the millionth time of the day. "I just don't get what happened." She said, keeping her eyes trained on the grainy image. "How can a perfectly healthy person just drop dead with no apparent reason?"

He grabbed the laptop out of her hands and slammed it shut, holding it high out of her reach. Luckily, he was taller and a lot stronger than her.

"That's not funny, Graham." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Give it back."

Dimly, he was aware of how cute she looked when angry, but now wasn't the time for those thoughts. All he could think about was how tired and pale she looked. "You need to go back to sleep." He said firmly.

She started to protest, but he cut her off. "I'm serious, Em. Go to bed." He said.

Emma looked murderous for a second, and she narrowed her eyes at him, weighing the options. Fight him and try to get her laptop back, most likely lose and wake up Scarlett, or just go to bed. He held his gaze steady, his brown eyes meeting her green ones. Finally, she rolled her eyes angrily but shuffled off towards their room.

Graham placed the laptop on top of the fridge, where he knew Emma wouldn't be able to reach without the aid of a stool. Making a mental note to hide all the stools, he followed Emma back down the hall.

Author's note: See that lovely box on the bottom of the page? It's meant for reviews! So plz review! I won't post the new, already written ch till i get at least 5 reviews! I needa know what y'all think in order to know how to further cont this story