Waiting for the Bus
Ten
"So you'd rather buy a car in my name than let Ms. Swan drive you to work?" Aire said grinning. She was finishing her second cup of double espresso at the Starbucks where she and Danny were waiting for the papers to a brand new car to finish. It was Saturday morning when she was surprised by her housemate about a sudden desire to buy a car but that she needs it in her name.
"It's not free Aire, you're driving me back and forth from home to work and work to home."
"Why can't you just learn how to drive? Doesn't Swan offered to teach you?"
Danny frowned, "How does she do it?"
"Do what?"
"I don't know, no matter how I change my schedule to go to work, she keeps showing up!"
A laugh from the blonde, "Maybe you two think alike so much, she already know your moves and the next. She'll probably trample you over chess again and again or you two would be stalemate every time." she grinned, "besides, Emma is willing to take you from the bus station to work and back every day, she'd probably do it in her off days too if you ask her!" She leveled the stare her friend gave her. "You know what I think?"
Danny raise one brow, "Why do I have a feeling I wouldn't like what you are thinking?"
"Emma is in love with you. She was waiting there at the bus station when the bus hit her head on. And you're the bus." Aire was saying it with her brows playing up and down on her face.
"Are you sure you're drinking espresso and not rhum?" she winced, ugh I hate rhum
"What else would I think? That's hard work and dedication! If I were as dedicated as her, and if Nevi isn't so in love with me, I'd probably be the woman of her dreams! Actually, I think she matches you. From how you tell me how she actually acts around you, she isn't scared of you."
Danny rolled her eyes, "She never is," or was, yes, she keeps me on my feet and I was the EVIL Queen! "Okay, maybe I should just cancel this purchase or, I'd ask Jed and I'm sure he'll be willing to do this." She pose as if she was standing.
"Who said anything about you riding that monstrosity Emma Swan called a car? Stop putting that thought in my head Danny!" she grinned.
"That's what I thought," the grin was returned, but this was wider.
Silence
"But I still think she's in love with you." There was a sudden mischief in the blonde's eyes,
"What is that?" Danny asked pointing a finger on the other woman's eyes.
"it's twinkling," she then batted her eyelashes, "... now it's batting,"
"And why is that?" Danny growled,
"Because I think you like her attention and if I didn't know you, I'd say you too are falling in love with her... idiocy."
Danny huffed and stood, "Don't take me for someone who falls for idiots like Ms. Swan. I am not Neviril."
Aire frowned, "Are you telling me she's in love with Emma too?" she said standing, seriously indignant.
The brunette rolled her eyes, "I wonder what Nevi sees in you... Oh yeah, she loves idiots... you get it?" she pointed a finger at Aire, "Idiot number 4, I wonder if perhaps you are related to Ms. Swan."
Aire blew a breath, "I thought she was in love with Emma..." then she frowned, "Hey! Were you mocking me? And why am I 4, Emma is 1 and then jumped to 4, are you sure Emma and I are the idiots?"
"Why would I do that? Mock you I mean," Danny asked feigning innocence, "Lets move shall we? It's going to be dinner soon."
Aire grinned, "Have a date?"
"With my bed and Netflix." She sighed, "And FYI, Ms. Swan isn't number 1."
-0-
It has been five days since she had offered to teach Regina to drive, five days since she bundled all that courage and coerced Regina's assistant Jed into giving her an impromptu appointment, five days that she had managed to catch Regina at the bus station and driving her to work... five days that the brunette never gave her an answer.
"I don't get how you keep on getting mom to ride your car. I mean, I could actually imagine her complaining about it every time she enters your bug and yet, you manage to get her to ride."
Emma grinned, "Its the number of commuters that convinced her every time, and between riding my car she calls death trap, which if I didn't know she has amnesia i'll say she actually remembers, and riding with unhygienic, smelly commuters, my death trap is the least of the two evils." she watched her son looked at her unconvinced,
"She'd been taking the bus probably since she left Storybrooke, that's almost two years Emma."
She sighed, "Maybe her having amnesia makes her much easier to manipulate?"
"There you go! You are manipulating her! Emma we talked about not doing that!"
"I was just using the pout! That's the most manipulation I've ever done, promise!" she raised one hand in the air in the universal 'I swear' pose. "But seriously kid, your mom is giving me a hard time saying yes to me teaching her how to drive."
"Maybe if you try asking her with a different car, she'll say yes."
The blonde looked at her son as if he had grown another head from his neck, "I don't have another car, its not as if we found your mother's car in her abandoned mansion..." she frowned, "and about that, I wonder if your grandparents found out how it was that Spencer got your mom to agree to transfer her house and land title to his name, and how it could be reversed."
"Maybe Spencer threatened her?"
"Your mom scared of Spencer? Sure kid, and we are in twilight zone." She chuckle at the look of confusion on her son's face, she was about to call on it when her mobile phone rang, she opened her phone and frowned, then she answered. A few minutes passed before she said her goodbye and closed her phone, "SIA kid, I finally got an assignment, I guess no one wanted to get on this case, probably complicated-"
"So you're taking it? Why? If their regulars won't take it, and those before you won't too, then why would you?"
Emma shook her head, "Someone has to do it Henry,"
"But..."
"Don't worry, its not as if I'm not used to doing complicated issues, I fought a dragon remember?"
Henry frowned, "I think Dragons are much safer than humans."
She stood and stepped close to her son, "Don't be like that, I'd rather face human maniacs than dragons, its what I am used to. I don't need to go into battle blind, right?"
"You'll be careful then? I don't want to end up running this mission solo."
"I am always careful," she saw Henry's brows raise silently saying, you, careful? "Hey I am careful, my middle name is CAREFUL and my last name is DANGER."
"And here I thought you're a Swan."
Emma grinned, "That too," she took her jacket that was hanged at the back of her chair, "Lock up kid, and make sure you don't get over board with your games, you got bags under your eyes."
"What, you're leaving now? As in right now?" He saw his mother nod, "Can't it wait tomorrow?"
"I'm not off tomorrow kid, besides if I get started on this early on, I could finish the assignment early... then we'll got money for extra ice cream and pizza."
Henry frowned, "Call me at least every hour or leave me a message, I need to know you're alright."
"You should be sleeping..."
"I won't be able to sleep if I don't know what's going on with you, promise me."
Emma sighed, "I promise."
"Okay,"
The blonde leaned and gave her son a kiss on the head, "Be good kid, no partying in here while I'm out, and NO GIRLS in your bedroom!"
"Haha funny Emma."
"Good night Henry, lock up." Then she wore her jacket and left.
-0-
As it turned out, her bounty was an easy target. His name was Adan Martin, 34 years old, a known junkie but lately was apprehended for actually pushing drugs. About three days ago, he jumped his bail and knowing that SIA was a decent agency, they had suspected an inside job either from the office or someone from the government and these suspicions was the reason SIA decided to give the case on satellite agents than to the regulars since all the regulars are under investigation at the moment.
A day after A.M. Jumps bails, a homicide report came to the agency's attention and all proof leads to him being the perpetrator. This man's case was not what shook Emma, but it was the victim. The picture of the woman murdered resembled Regina so much, from the hair down to her toes, ethinicity, height, eye color, possibly even her weight. Now Emma needs to know if this is a case of missed identity or if the murder was committed to send a message to the brunette because...
There at the crime scene as per photograph was a single stationary, not even folded and saying: DEAL IS OFF and what bothers her the most was that the stationary bears the logo of the townhall of Storybrooke.
Perhaps she had been prolonging this mission of hers for far too long. Regina needs to remember, she needs Henry to kiss his mother ASAP and break the damn curse.
-0-
It was 2am when she finally crept inside their dark apartment, took a beer from the fridge and sat on the couch. She was tired, she haven't started running after Adan because her brain was fast moving to how she and Henry is going to go about breaking Regina's curse. Finding the man was easier than actually making Regina remember. Then her brain went to Storybrooke, who in there would want Regina dead? Okay granted they all wanted her dead the very first day the dark curse broke, Rumplestiltkin even sic a wraith on Regina, but the woman had left the town, they left everyone alone and even accepted having her memories of Henry erased to escape the pain, who would be that angry at Regina that he or she will sic out an outsider to kill Regina and in another state?!
And that message: deal is off...
If she didn't know that Mr. Gold is under a sleeping curse or he will die from Hook's poison, she would absolutely have him as his first suspect, the guy is tricky and who knows how many unsuspecting regular people worked for him? But he can't have written it, not now at least. Belle perhaps? But the woman is more a goody two shoes than her own mother!
DEAL... maybe Whale? He is frankenstein and according to Henry he had made deals with Rumple before and even with Regina once. But she doubts Whale's satellite could go as far as New York. Jefferson? She shook her head. He was content having Paige err... Grace back. As a matter of fact, the moment he learned that Regina was out of town, he was the one who shouted 'good riddance' and from then, he seemed to be happy not having the woman in town plus she doubts he has any connection at all, his life revolves around him and his daughter and that's it.
So right now, all she could think of that maybe has this strong connection to the outside world will be Spencer, or King George, he was the DA for 28 years, way back during the cursed period, if only she could make Regina remember and tell her what deal she had made with the sleazy, old man.
"I didn't think you'd be coming home until the morning," Emma's musing was cut by Henry who finally talked. He heard his birthmother come in so he went out of his room but decided to remain quiet because Emma seemed to be in deep thought. "I was worried you'd get a migraine, I have to stop you." he grinned.
The blonde mother scowled, "Why would I get migraine? And stop me from what?"
"There's actually only one answer to that question,"
"What?" she asked with one raised brow.
"You're thinking deeply," The grin on his face widened. He ducked when one throw pillow was actually thrown his way.
"You are your mother's son!" Emma shouted, but there was a genuine smile on her face. "And since I have open this up now, Kid... we need to move fast."
Henry frowned, "Fast? What are we moving?"
"We need to break your mother's curse, as in pronto." The scowl on the boy deepened.
"Does this have to do with your case?"
"Not sure, but you know me and intuition, I got a very bad feeling about this and I think, if my intuition is right, the only way to protect your mother is if she remembers."
"You are going to tell me right?"
"Not right now kid, but I will let you in the story once we get your mom's memory back." She smiled, "You're coming with me at work tomorrow." She saw the sudden change in Henry's demeanor.
"What if I can't break the curse?"
"You love your mom don't you?"
"I do!"
"So I don't see how you're going to fail."
"Does she still love me?"
"Oh Henry," Emma stood, stepped close to her son and lay one arm around his shoulder. "Your mom may not remember you, but you and I know there's no one in this world that loves you like your mom does. You are your mom's world."
"And I broke her world, remember?"
Emma sighed, "You can keep thinking that Henry, but that's not going to help us with this mission. When everyone else does not believe that fairy tales are indeed true, you believed, you made us all believe, now we need that Henry more than ever."
"And if I fail even if I believe?"
"Then we'll figure out something else, we can probably just abduct your mother back to Storybrooke and hope that the return of her magic would be a blessing in disguise."
Silence
"Okay, I'm scared though."
"Me too."
"You better go to sleep then Emma, we can't have you incapable tomorrow because you had a headache."
"Still with that? The joke is getting old."
Henry grinned, "Yeah, but it still works!"
Mother and son then decided to call it a night.
TBC
Maybe three more chapters? Maybe...