A knock on the door of the station startled Emma as she looked up at the visitor.
"Oh – Kathryn, right?" she was terrible with names. Plus Mary-Margaret didn't seem too fond of the woman so Emma tried to ignore who she was. "Is everything alright?" If she had to go looking for David again she was going to rip her hair out.
Kathryn seemed to realize what it looked like to walk into a sheriff's station unannounced looked like. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry. This must look strange. Yes, everything is fine. Perfect actually. Dr. Whale said David can come home today, and I'm throwing a welcome home party for him. I'd love to invite you and Sheriff Graham and Mary-Margaret."
Emma smiled, relief flooding her as her shoulders relaxed. "Oh well, thanks Kathryn. That sounds really nice. I'll tell Mary-Margaret about it but I think Graham might be stuck on night duty tonight. But I'll double check with him."
"Oh great. It starts at six and you don't have to worry about bringing anything, okay?"
"Okay. I'll be there," Emma said with a smile. "What time?"
"It starts at six."
"I'll be sure to be there right on time," Emma joked. She wasn't sure what it was Mary-Margaret disliked about this woman – Emma thought she was nice.
Kathryn laughed and smiled. "Well thank you. My father always says punctuality is the golden rule!"
Emma snorted and grinned. "Right. Got it. I'll see you tonight."
Kathryn turned to leave, before pausing and looking back. "Oh – by the way… David and I were wondering if you'd found out the cause of the earthquake? I asked the mayor last night but she didn't have an answer."
"Well… I hate to disappoint you but I'm actually not sure. I think it was maybe something in the mines. I wasn't looking too hard frankly. I was more concerned with getting Henry and Archie out of harm's way."
"Oh, of course. Right. It's still so weird though. We've never had an earthquake in Storybrooke. At least, as far as I can remember. Well, I'll see you tonight!"
"Yeah…" Emma said with a small frown. "See you tonight."
It was so strange. Every time she asked someone about something that happened in Storybrooke, they never seemed to know the answer. Or if they gave her an answer, it was 'as long as I can remember'. Why did no one remember these things? Once, she'd asked Mary-Margaret something simple: When was Regina elected as mayor? And Mary-Margaret had offered the same response Kathryn had. "As long as I can remember".
Something was off about this town.
"Deputy Swan."
Emma looked up to find Regina standing in the doorway. Speak of the devil herself.
"Can I help you?" Emma asked, quirking an eyebrow. As usual, she looked generally annoyed, but Emma could see something else in her eyes. Almost like fear.
"There's an emergency that I want to keep quiet from the town. No one can know about this except for you and Graham, understand?"
Yep. It was fear.
"What's wrong?" she said with a frown, leaning her elbows on the desk.
"There was an… escape from the hospital," Regina said, her voice low. "Two patients from the lower ward."
"Lower… ward?" Emma asked slowly. "What's the lower ward?"
"An asylum."
Those words were the last things she expected to hear from the mayor. An asylum. Which meant there were unstable people running around that were a little… unstable.
"Regina, are you insane? You want me to keep escaped mental patients quiet from the rest of the town? These people could be dangerous!"
Regina sighed heavily. "No. Trust me. The two of them won't harm anyone. And I want it kept quiet because you're supposedly good at finding people quickly and efficiently."
"You know this how?"
"I just do."
"You do know that we're going to need more information than that if you want us to catch these escapees, right Regina?" Graham suddenly said from the doorway. "So who are the ones that we're looking for?"
"Neither of them have names. But here are their pictures," Regina said, pulling a file out of her coat and sliding it across the table. "Only start asking around if you feel like you must. Graham, I trust your judgment."
Emma rolled her eyes as she looked down at the case file. Both of the women were younger than she was – neither could have been over the age of twenty-five or so. And neither woman looked like they could ever harm a fly.
"You're kidding, Regina. Why were these girls even in the asylum to begin with?" Graham asked with a frown.
"I already said. I don't know. They don't have any records."
That didn't sound right to Emma.
"Why don't they have any records?" Graham asked, frowning.
"Seriously. My records are sealed but there's still a record of my hospital stay when I gave birth to Henry." If someone didn't have a record for being in someplace like an asylum, where they weren't free to leave, then someone was seriously wrong.
And Emma was going to find out what that was.
David had never felt more uncomfortable in his life.
Or, well… he didn't think he had. But regardless of whether or not he had or hadn't, David was incredibly uncomfortable. Most of the people here seemed to be more friendly with Kathryn than they were with him. The smiles seemed false, or at least, not as genuine as they should have been considering he was supposedly in a coma for years.
Maybe they had started divorce proceedings.
David rubbed the back of his neck as one of Kathryn's friends, Jim – someone that David did not get a good feeling about – walked off, exhaling in relief when he got the chance to breathe. This night was turning out to be longer than any night in the hospital. It was only made worse by the fact that it didn't appear that Mary-Margaret was here yet. If she was coming at all.
A sinking feeling in his stomach told him she wasn't.
Looking up, David sighed in relief when he spotted Henry Mills and Emma Swan, and quickly made his way over to them.
"It's so good to see some familiar faces," he said, with a relief-filled voice.
"You look a little nervous about being here," Emma remarked. "Are you alright?"
"Ah, yeah. It's just a little hard to be here when I don't exactly remember these people. I was hoping that Mary-Margaret would be here. Is she not coming?" David asked with a frown.
Emma looked vaguely uncomfortable at the question. "No. She's busy doing some grading for work. She says she's glad you're out of the hospital though."
David could tell she was lying. Well, mostly. Still, he didn't want to cause a fuss, especially in front of Henry, so he dropped it.
"Did you know that you have a scar on your chin, Mr. Nolan?" Henry asked.
David blinked in surprise, a hand automatically moving to his chin and giving the boy a weak smile when he felt it. "Is it that obvious? I was hoping using Kathryn's concealer would have stopped you from noticing."
Laughter erupted from both Henry and Emma.
"You probably got it from a rock. Maybe Miss Blanchard hit you over the head with it," Henry said, his dark eyes wide with a childish innocence that seemed mixed with something David couldn't tell.
"Henry!" Emma snapped, staring at him.
David blinked in surprise at the boy's words. This kid had some imagination, he wouldn't deny that. "It's okay Emma. Henry, I don't know if I'd go that far. Besides I'd never met Mary-Margaret until she found me in the woods," he said with a small smile.
"What about a sword? Have you ever used one of those before?" he asked.
The man could only chuckle. "No, I haven't. But it sounds like a fun thing to try." Too bad he couldn't think of a way to be able to use a sword in his life.
"Maybe you used to."
"Henry, I think that's enough questions for Mr. Nolan," Emma said. "Sorry about him, David."
He laughed. "It's okay Emma, really. He's a kid, he's bound to have questions. I just feel bad that I can't give him the answers."
"You'll be able to one day," Henry put in.
David smiled at him. "I hope so Henry. I think I need to get some air. I'll talk to you guys later."
"Bye David!"
David left the house and took a deep breath of fresh air, glad to be away from the party. He knew he had no right to complain – he didn't have his memories of before the accident that had caused his coma, and Kathryn was only trying to help. It was hard to argue with their marriage license but… there was still something that felt wrong about it.
Shaking his head, David made his way down the street, where he saw a familiar figure by a tree.
"Mary-Margaret. I thought you were working on grading papers tonight," he said softly. "That's what Emma told me."
Mary-Margaret seemed startled. "David. I thought you'd be inside enjoying your party. Kathryn worked really hard on it."
"I needed some air, and you're avoiding the question."
She exhaled. "I just get the feeling that Kathryn doesn't exactly like me much, so even if she invited me, I wouldn't have wanted to cause any awkwardness. The party is a happy occasion. I wouldn't have wanted to make anyone feel awkward by showing up. Why did you need some air?"
"Because I wasn't comfortable in there. I get the feeling some people aren't happy with me for some reason," David said, shaking his head slightly.
"Oh. I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault. I… I want to see you again even though I'm out of the hospital. And you're the only one that feels right in this place. Is that okay?"
She took a deep breath. "Of course David."
He felt a weight lift off his shoulders. "Great. I'll see you soon."
She nodded. "See you."
David felt more relaxed as he made his way back home, slipping back into the party.
"David! There you are. I was wondering why you'd disappeared," Kathryn said with a wide smile. "Is everything alright?"
People stared at him as he instinctively reached to wrap an arm around his wife. "Yes, of course. It was just getting a bit warm in here so I wanted to get some air."
"You should have told me. I would have opened some of the windows…" Kathryn said.
David smiled at her. "You were enjoying some time with your friends. I didn't want to interrupt that after you've spent so much time working with me trying to get my memories back. You deserved to have a night off, same as me."
"Oh David… you're such a Prince Charming. How lucky am I to have someone like you?"
Prince Charming. Yes… that sounded about right. But not when it came to Kathryn.
But still, it was a clue, and David was going to hold onto that.
Later that night, before David went up to bed, he flipped through a box of items Kathryn had brought out for him in order to help jog his memory. Maybe doing it by himself, without the help of Kathryn or Mary-Margaret hovering over him would help.
He leaned back against the couch, looking at a photograph of he and Kathryn and the dog – where was that dog anyway? That was something he'd have to ask her in the morning.
He closed one of the photo albums and made his way over to the bookshelf to grab one of the other boxes Kathryn had brought to the hospital, hoping there would be something in there that would jog something in his mind. When he lifted it up, he heard something slip off the back of it and reached to catch it before it got stuck, forgotten, behind the other things on the shelf.
He went back to the couch and took a seat, deciding to look at the piece of paper he'd caught. It was probably nothing – a list of things to do today, notes from a phone call…
What David didn't expect it to be was a love letter, written by Jim to Kathryn, dated before David's accident.
Which meant Kathryn had been cheating on him before the accident.
That explained why he'd been so close to the town line. Why he'd crashed his car.
He looked up at the clock – it was too late to confront her about it now, so David laid back on the couch, the letter tucked under the pillow as he fell into a restless sleep.
"He tried to poison me!"
"What happened?"
It was Mary-Margaret he was looking at. But with longer hair, her face tired and battle-weary. She was wearing what he could only describe as a costume.
"One of his soldiers kidnapped me and brought me to his palace. He offered me something to drink but I didn't trust it. So I pretended. It was an infertility potion."
His fists clenched. "Oh Gods. I'll kill that bastard. After what he did to you and what he did to my mother – "
A gentle hand was placed on his shoulder. "No son. That's not the right way."
"But mother – "
"No. You have to be the bigger person here, David. George did terrible, evil deeds, but being a benevolent ruler is something the people in the kingdom need after years of terrible rule by him. You know that as well as I do. Perhaps what he needs is the opportunity to see what doing the dirty work is like," the woman – his mother? – said.
"I like her," another voice – gruff and low (was that the janitor from the hospital?) said with a wide grin. "We could use some help in the mines."
He looked at the raven-haired woman. "Snow, what do you think?"
"Well Charming… I don't think we can argue with your mother. We avoid his death if we can."
He sighed. "Very well. If possible, we avoid his death."
"Hey – Snow? There's a woman out there. She says she's a friend of the prince but I wasn't sure," another woman said. He turned to find Ruby, the waitress from the local diner dressed in period clothing.
What the hell was going on here?
"What's the woman's name?" he asked.
"Abigail."
"Bring her in."
He shot up off the couch when he saw Kathryn and Jim walk into the tent.
Breathing heavily, David put a hand on his chest as the scene in the forest faded into nothing more than a memory. But it had felt so real, so right. Like it truly was meant to be a memory, and not just a memory of a dream.
"David? Are you alright?"
He looked up to see Kathryn – dressed in normal attire and not the weird, costume-looking thing the people in the dream were wearing.
"I'm – I'm fine Kathryn. It was just a strange dream. Can I… can I talk to you about something?" he asked with a small frown.
"Of course you can. I'm your wife, aren't I?"
"I don't know. Are you?"
"What are you talking about? Of course I am."
David pulled out the letter he'd found the night before, and Kathryn went white.. "I found this last night before I went to bed. It's dated before I had my accident."
"Oh… that… yes. It's true. I was having an affair before the accident. But I realized while you were gone that I loved you and missed you desperately!"
"Then why did I lay in a hospital labeled as a John Doe for two years?"
Kathryn didn't respond, so David stood and quickly made his way upstairs, pulling out a suitcase he'd found under the bed.
"David wait! Where are you going?!"
"I'm going to find a room at Granny's. I can't stay here, Kathryn."
"David, please, let's talk about this!"
He didn't say anything as he passed by her and made his way downstairs and to Granny's Bed and Breakfast, his heart heavy.
