When Emma Leaves Storybrooke
By Schroederplayspiano
Chapter 5: When You Feel So Tired
David's House. Monday. 6am.
Emma's box of her possessions sat on David's dresser. He had gone to bed staring at it. Now, after a terrible night's sleep, the sunlight had highlighted something shinny and it awoke him.
David kept looking at her box, his temptation becoming harder and harder to fight.
If you want to have a trusting relationship with your daughter, this isn't the way to do it.
Emma's not even here. She won't know I looked in the box. I'll bring it over to Mary-Margaret's before work.
A father should know what's important to his daughter. If Emma's so closed off, how else am I going to know her?
With excitement, David jumped out of bed, leaped to his dresser and brought the box to his living room floor. He sat down with it and scanned over the top of the box.
Folders and papers filled a third of the box. Something inside an orange envelope the size of large index cards was pushing its was out; the envelope obviously too small for its contents. Oh! The Places You'll Go, Oliver's Twist,and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone leaned against some folders. Movie tickets, two old birthday cards, a menu to a small café David didn't know, a thick green ribbon, her first driver's license, blank postcards from Boston, San Francisco, and Arizona, and finally David saw what woke him - a beautiful necklace with a glass pendant in shape of a swan.
David picked up the pendant first. The glass swan had a quality to it that reminded him of her glass unicorns on her mobile that broke three days earlier. It was clearly expensive. Delicate and elegant, the necklace sparkled every time the sun touched it through his window. David wondered who had given it to his daughter.
Next, David picked out the books. He noticed each one of them had a note inside the cover addressed to Emma:
In Oh! The Places You'll Go: For Emma, who doesn't yet know the wonders of the world or the strength of her heart. I know your heart will take you around the world and back (and maybe to a unknown world in between). Congratulations on you elementary school graduation, sweetheart. – Mrs. Hillman
In Oliver's Twist: To Emma, See orphans can be badass! I know you wished to find your parents for your birthday (no matter how many times you try and deny it!), but I hope this book helps you understand you don't need to know your roots to know your place in the world. May your 14th year fill you with fun and adventure – John K.
In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: Emma, I heard about this book from some friends. They said in it, a boy's magical parents die and he is forced to grow up with his non-magical relatives until he learns he's a wizard. For some reason it made me think of you. I am sorry that things ended so badly between us. I know you think it's your fault. It wasn't. I hope Harry and his friends bring you to a magical world where you can escape from your heartache. All the best, Steven.
Silent tears started flowing down David's face from the first note and only increased as he read on. It was so bad that, when he had finished, David put his hand to his heart, leaned against his wall, and closed his eyes. Each of the notes hinted at wishes unfulfilled, potentials not reached, and heartaches.
When David's tears had slowed down, he chose another item from the box. He felt the orange, small envelope in his hands. With a deep breath, he carefully opened the envelope.
Pictures.
From a whole lifetime Emma saved only about 25 pictures: Emma and another girl riding tricycles in a yard, Emma playing dress up with a young boy, Emma sticking her tongue out at the camera, at sundown Emma on in beach – tired, a science project, an elaborated fort made out sheets, Emma eating ice cream, an older Emma and boy with their arms around each other, the same boy giving her a kiss on the check, one of a beautiful horse, another of a diner, a man standing beneath the diner's sign, pictures of Emma and girl posing in park, pictures of high school graduation, Emma in jeans wearing a plastic tiara – laughing, and a bunch of portraits of people that obviously meant something to Emma.
Though the pictures made him sad – he didn't need another reminder that his daughter grew up without him – somehow he was smiling through most of them. Emma seemed happy in the pictures. The collection before him gave him a little hope – especially after hearing from Mary-Margaret how screwed up her life was.
David was about to pick out another large envelop when his phone rang. Quickly he rose to answer it and look at the caller I.D.
Emma.
His heart jumped. "Emma," he answered. "Hi."
"Hi."
There was an awkward pause. "How are you?" He asked.
"I'm okay."
Another awkward pause. Then Emma asked, "Um, how are you?"
"I'm glad to hear from you."
"Yeah…." Emma mumbled off softly. "Look," she said more clearly, "I was wondering if you had breakfast yet."
David's heart skipped another beat. "No," he answered honestly.
"Okay, well," Emma paused. "Mary-Margaret made a huge breakfast and Henry is going to come over and I was maybe wondering if you wanted to join us." She asked him nervously.
"Us?" David almost couldn't believe what she was implying. "Does that mean your back in town?"
"Yeah," Emma told him uncomfortably. "I came in late last night."
A huge smile appeared on David's face. "Really?" He waited for Emma to answer. She did not. "I'll be over as fast as I can!"
"Okay," Emma's voice was shaky with nerves, but David was too excited to notice.
Mary-Margaret's House. 7am.
"Henry!" Emma said excitedly as she opened the door to her son. "I missed you," she scooped up in a hug.
Henry responded by putting his arms tightly around her neck. "I missed you too." They clung to each for a few more desperate moments before Henry pulled back enough to look at her. "I'm glad your back."
"Me too," Emma said softly. Henry responded to her answer by putting his head back on her shoulder.
As the mother and son were embracing, David was walking up to Mary-Margaret's door. He stopped to watch the scene unfold when Emma finally spotted him.
Henry felt Emma tense up and turned in her arms to find the source of her stress. "Did you know he was coming?" he whispered to Emma.
"Yeah," Emma whispered back. "I invited him this morning."
Henry smiled, leaped out of Emma's embrace, and said, "Good morning," to David.
David smiled and said, "Good morning," back to Henry.
After greeting Henry, David looked up back at Emma. She had now crossed her arms and watched as Henry went inside. When their eyes finally did meet each other, both froze.
"Hi," David finally said.
Emma didn't say anything back. David noticed a far off look in her eyes, he didn't know whether to worry or not.
The next moment, thought, the far off look disappeared and Emma pointed inside. "Come on in," Emma said with an apologetic smile.
David followed Emma inside and saw Mary-Margaret and Henry already sitting at the table. "It smells so good, Mary-Margaret."
"Thank you, David." She replied sweetly to his compliment.
All four family members sat down at the table, passed food around, but nothing was said. Henry looked at Emma and David at Mary-Margaret, both men trying to figure out what to say.
"So, Henry," Emma finally broke the silence. The three others turned to look at her. "Did you have a good weekend?"
"Uh," Henry felt pressure to talk, and he didn't particularly want to now – as he saw it as an excuse to fill the silence. "Yeah."
However to Emma, learning about Henry's weekend was anything but an excuse. "Do anything interesting?"
"No," Henry said nervously.
"Hey!" David imposed on Emma and Henry's conversation. "Having breakfast with you grandparents isn't interesting?"
There was a moment where everyone had a small reaction to his words, but Emma tried to avoid it by adding, "Huh, sharing a meal with your grandparents sounds like a treat to me, Henry."
Another moment when everyone at the table, including Emma, had to comprehend what she was saying before Henry said, "Well, um, I-"
"No worries," Mary-Margaret chimed in. "I guess we'll have to do a better job at spoiling him."
Emma, Mary-Margaret, and David shared a smile while Henry looked offended. "No! That's not what I meant!"
The three of them laughed.
When the table had quieted down and Henry had stopped blushing, he said, "Does that really mean all three of you believe David and Mary-Margaret are my grandparents and Emma's parents?"
His comment took all the remaining smiles off the other three faces. When Henry noticed this, he added, "Not to ruin the mood or anything."
"No, Henry. It's not that," Mary-Margaret started. "Personally, I feel like outsider to a club in which you three belong."
"No." Emma said almost on top of her. "I feel that way to, Mary-Margaret. I said this to Henry a long time ago: Believing Storybrooke is town is full of Fairytale characters and I am actually the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming is a lot to ask. It's still a leap for me. It's like something that is too big for me to understand. I feel like David and Henry are on a whole other level than I am."
"Emma," David said her name sadly.
Emma turned to David. "My baby blanket is magical or something." Everyone at the table peeked up at Emma's confession. "I couldn't harm it. I accidentally spilled something on it and the material repelled it. Then I tried to harm it in other ways and nothing happened."
"Really?" David asked excitedly.
"Really," Emma told him.
"So," David began cautiously. "If your blanket is magical, you believe I am-"
"-The closest I've ever been to finding my father." A huge smile appeared on David's face. Emma, however, could not look at him, and turned away embarrassed and sacred. "Is it possible to believe that you're my father and not Prince Charming?" She asked the wall.
Noting the fear in Emma's voice, David said softly, "I'll take it."
"Sure," Mary-Margaret added with a smile. "Supposedly Charming isn't his name anyway."
Mary-Margaret's comment brought laughter back to table, putting a smile on Emma's face, and all of the tension in the room disappeared in an instant.
"Now," Mary-Margaret continued, "All you have to do figure out this time-stopping, age-preventing thing, and you're golden," she said with sarcasm.
Emma finished her food and said in the same tone, "Huh, I'll have to work on that one."
Henry, David, and Mary-Margaret smiled and followed Emma's lead of clearing the dishes.
"Oh, my. Henry," Mary-Margaret said quickly, looking at the clock. "We're going to be late for school."
Everyone followed her lead in looking at the clock.
"Wow," Emma commented. "Breakfast went by fast. Mary-Margaret, do you want to -?"
Mary-Margaret rushed in and out of her bedroom, gathering her things. "Yeah, I'll take him. Henry, let's go." She opened the door for him, and Henry went through it with a quick wave to Emma.
David and Emma watched the rush before them with amusement. When Mary-Margaret and Henry had left, and it was just the two of them, their smiles disappeared when they looked at each other.
"So," David started.
"I actually have to get to work as well," Emma said and pointed to the clock.
"Right."
Awkwardness filled the room.
Emma took a deep breath. "You want to walk me?"
"I'd love to."
Storybrooke Police Station. Noon.
"As promised. Turkey on Rye with Potatoes chips." David announced to the room.
Emma looked up from her desk at his voice. "Perfect. Thank you." They had made lunch plans on her way to work this morning.
David pulled up a chair on the other side her desk. "My pleasure. I'm glad we could have lunch today."
Emma blushed a little. She admitted, "Me too," with embarrassment.
David smiled at her. "How's your day going?"
Emma liked the direction the conversation was going. She could do casual on the surface conversations easily. "Slow, actually."
"Really?"
"Yeah. I hope I don't jinx it or anything, but so far so good."
"Have jinxes ever played out for you?"
Emma smiled. "I don't know. It's more of a physiological than anything else I'm sure. But, yeah, sure, jinxes have factored into my life one way or another."
"Care to share any?"
Emma finished her bite and sat a moment in thought. "Nope."
David let out a small laugh and smiled at her cuteness. "Fair enough."
Careful not to let the conversation go to deep or have any awkward pauses, Emma quickly asked, "How's work going for you?"
"Good. Three or four dogs came in this morning."
"Do you like dogs?"
"Yeah. I'd much rather be around horses, though." Emma said nothing and looked away. David then knew he had gone too far. He didn't want to talk about himself anyway. "Do you like being a police officer?" David tried hard to keep the conversation in the moment.
Emma turned back to him. "Uh, yeah. It's nice to know what's going on in Storybrooke and solving problems when I - "
"Sheriff Swan." Both Emma and David turned at the same moment. Regina had just entered the station.
"What are you doing here?" David asked Regina harshly.
"I could ask you the same question."
"I- " David started, but Emma put her hand on David's arm as if to warn him.
"How can I help you, Mayor?"
Regina looked at David coldly for a moment more before turning to Emma. "I came to reinforced the fact that you and Henry are not able to spend any more time together. You leaving town is just further proof that you are someone unstable in his life."
"Now, wait a moment-" David started again, but Emma managed to stop him.
"I understand." Emma straightly told Regina.
"I-" Emma's comment took Regina off guard. So, she added. "Shouldn't you be at work, Mr. Nolan?"
David looked to Emma to see if he was allowed to speak. "He gets a lunch break," Emma said shortly. "It's not illegal for us to spend time together too, is it?"
With one more cold look to both of them, Regina walked out about the station.
"We'll see about that," she whispered under her breath.
Author's Note: Wow! Thank you all for the reviews, favorites, and alerts. It means so much to me that everyone is enjoying my story. I hope my readers view my promised fulfilled as to my quick update. As usual it wouldn't feel right without thanking OncerSwarekJateBazeGirlscout, Lola, HarrylovesGinny09, fictionfrek101, Kuramaangel, Mila, Lady Elena Bella Petrova for their reviews are the reason the rest of you are enjoying this story. Fictionfrek101, I hope this chapter clears up your question. And,OncerSwarekJateBazeGirlscout , as you might guessed the saga with her box is just beginning! Until next time!
