"So… you have a really nice place," David said, sitting on Cora's bed.

The girl only shrugged a little. "Thanks."

He frowned a little. It was hard trying to get this girl to seem comfortable around him, and he wondered why. Looking around for something to catch his eye and hopefully cheer her up, a book captured his attention.

"Hey, what's that book up there?" he asked, pointing to it. It looked really old, but interesting all the same.

That did it. Cora's face lit up as she grabbed the book, sitting next to him and opening it. "They're stories. But every story in this book actually happened. Everyone in this book is in the actual town. Cursed."

David stared at her. This sounded insane.

"You think I'm crazy too, don't you?" she said, her tone turning sad when she noticed the stunned look on his face.

"Oh no! Not at all I just… didn't expect to get hit with that kind of news, that's all!" David said, shaking his head. He hadn't meant to make her feel crazy. "So… what kind of stories are they?"

"Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, The Mad Hatter…" Cora explained, flipping through it. "They were transported here by the Evil Queen from Snow White. They don't remember who they are."

She stopped on a page, turning the book so the page faced him. David glanced down and stared.

It was Mayor Mills.

"No way… that's your mom!" he said. "Your mom is the Evil Queen?"

It explained why he felt so uncomfortable around her, at least.

Cora nodded. "And my teacher, Miss Blanchard is Snow White."

"Where's Prince Charming?"

The girl hesitated, flipping to the back of the book. "He was gravely wounded trying to save his daughter from being killed by my mother. He's in a coma now. Sometimes we go see him during school."

David looked at the page, smiling a little at the man sword fighting with a baby in his arms. The baby was wrapped in a purple and white blanket… and David found himself frowning as he looked closer at it.

"Is there a better picture of the baby?" he asked.

Cora nodded, flipping to the last page of the book, and David gasped in complete and utter shock.

It was his mother.

His mom's name was common, after all, there were a lot of Emma's in his school, but he knew that blanket. His mom would sometimes let him sleep with the blanket if he got scared or upset by something.

"That's my mom," he whispered. "She has a blanket exactly like that."

"She does?!" Cora asked. "Then… then she's The Savior! She's the one that's going to break the curse!"

A smile that David had never seen on someone before erupted on the girl's face. "She can save everyone."

He shrugged a little. "Getting her to believe is going to be hard," he said. "My mom's kind of a cynical person. She had a rough life." David didn't know all the details, but he knew enough to know that his mom had a rough life before he was born.

"But we have to do it."

"We will… but how will it happen?"

She bit her lip. "Well, the one thing these stories have in common is a kiss. Someone kisses someone else, and the curse breaks, especially Snow White."

His… grandparents apparently.

"So we need to find my mom's true love?" he asked, frowning a little. His mother did not seem like the type of person to want to fall in love, aside from with him, of course, but David knew that was a different kind of love.

Unless that sort of thing worked?

"I guess… unless she does something else. She is the savior after all. She must have some sort of power or something," Cora said, shrugging a little.

His mom was the savior.

This was so cool.

"First day of school, David. Are you ready?" Emma asked, looking down at her son a few days later. It had been a whirlwind trying to get everything together – after the play date, David had nearly demanded that they stay, chattering eagerly about a storybook that Cora had. Emma was surprised – she thought he'd grown out of fairytales, but it made him happy, and, as much as she didn't really like the stories herself (most variations she knew of were way too sugarcoated and sweet), she would allow him to be excited.

Besides, they were just stories, and even she would admit the ones in Cora's book sounded far more interesting than the Disney versions she was used to. A bandit Snow White? Rumpelstiltskin taking the place of the fairy godmother in Cinderella? Quite honestly, she wanted to read the book now too.

"I'm ready Mom… and thanks for moving us," he replied with a smile, hugging her tight.

Emma chuckled, returning it as she looked around the school yard. His first day would consist of a field trip to the hospital. Not exactly what Emma had in mind when enrolling him, but she couldn't control it, coming in during the middle of the school year.

"There my teacher. Miss Blanchard," David said, nearly dragging her across the parking lot to the bus.

Emma stumbled a little, laughing. "Slow down kid, and have a good day, alright?" She smiled and pressed a soft kiss to his hair.

"I will!"

David shot off toward the bus as the teacher, Miss Blanchard, walked over to her, a kind smile on her face.

"You must be David's mother."

Emma nodded, unable to shake the feeling that she knew the woman from somewhere. "Yes, I am. You're Miss Blanchard, right?"

"I am… it's very nice to meet you."

"Listen… I just wanted to talk and make sure nothing happens to my son… he had a rough couple of months before we decided to move here and I just wanted to make sure everything was going to be okay."

"Of course, I'm sorry to hear that. What was the problem?"

Emma shrugged, looking at the woman a little guiltily. "I was a… a bail bondsperson. I tracked down people who skipped out on their bond and brought them back into custody. Some of the kids at David's school in Boston started to make fun of him for it and… the teachers didn't do much. Neither did the parents."

The other woman gasped. "Oh God, I don't tolerate bullying of any kind in my classroom."

Emma let out a bitter chuckle. "That's what his other teacher said."

"Miss Swan… David would not be the first student that went through bullying in my classroom," Miss Blanchard explained. "Trust me. It is not tolerated."

"Well… that's good. Thanks."

She looked up, David and Cora sitting in the bus, waving at her. She smiled and waved back.

"Seems like David's already made a friend," Miss Blanchard said.

Emma nodded. "Yeah. We met Cora and her mother a few days ago when we were exploring the town. David's become really close to her… she's part of the reason why we're staying."

Miss Blanchard smiled. "Good. I'm glad to hear that. Sometimes the students don't appreciate Cora's creativity. I'm glad to see that David does. A friend will be good for her."

"And for David…" Emma said, wondering what Miss Blanchard meant, but also knowing it wasn't her place to ask. She wasn't her daughter – she was Mayor Mills'. "He's very good at drawing… he was in a special program for it at school in Boston. Does Storybrooke have anything like that?"

The teacher nodded. "Yes, we do. I believe Ms. Nolan teaches it. I can talk to her for you, if you want."

"That would be great. Thank you," Emma said, before glancing at her watch. "Oh geez, I'd better go. It was very nice talking to you."

"It was nice to meet you too Miss Swan. And please, the next time we talk, you are allowed to call me Mary-Margaret."

As she walked away, Emma couldn't shake the familiar feeling she got when talking to Mary-Margaret.

"You know, I'm looking for a deputy," a thick-accented voice said as she sat in Granny's, drinking a hot chocolate (with cinnamon, of course), and looked at the real estate noticed in the paper.

Emma's blue eyes lifted from the page, finding Sheriff Graham standing next to her. His words had her frowning, shaking her head a little.

"Look, it's not like I don't appreciate the offer, but… I was in law enforcement in Boston and it didn't exactly end well for my son," she said, choosing her words carefully.

"Don't worry," he said, taking a seat on the stool. "Not much happens in Storybrooke. I'm sure it will be fine. Plus, I give awesome benefits."

Emma snorted, grinning a little. "Oh really now? How kind of you."

"Will you at least think about it?" he asked.

Emma nodded, though she had a feeling she already knew what she was going to say. Quite honestly, of all the jobs in this town, the only one that seemed interesting to her, was… being his deputy.

"Alright… I'll do it."

But if anything happened, they would be out of Storybrooke so fast no one would know they were gone until the dust behind the yellow bug settled.

"Miss Blanchard, maybe you should read to him," she heard her pupil say as she stood in the hospital room of one John Doe. The man had been here as long as she could remember, and the fact that no one claimed him… it made her heart break for him. She hoped his family would find him soon, but as the years passed, she had less and less hope. It wasn't like Storybrooke was a big town.

"Read?" she asked. "Cora, I don't think reading to him will work. If he hasn't responded to the treatments the doctors have given him, why would he respond to me?" She was just a simple volunteer, she had no formal medical training at all.

"I don't know," the girl said. "But sometimes normal things don't work, right? What could it hurt?"

Mary-Margaret smiled as she arranged the small bouquet of flowers on the bedside table. Perhaps if she just said she would… that would appease the young girl.

"Alright," Mary-Margaret told the young girl. "I'll try tonight when I get here for my volunteer work."

After all, what could it hurt?