Driving down the quiet road just past the "Leaving Storybrooke' sign Emma silently curses the fact that her bug isn't a convertible. She has both windows down and the breeze feels amazing, especially on such a hot yet beautiful day. Perfect day for a getaway road trip. Emma muses to herself. The blonde checks the clock on her dash and notices with a start that she's only been on the road for thirty minutes or so. Has it really only been thirty minutes? The blonde questions herself. Well I guess when you're hoping to get away your whole life actually leaving just seems to take so much longer. Emma sighs aloud at this, wishing, not for the first time, that her life had gone down a different path.
The young girl finds herself wishing for the parents she never knew. She had made herself stop thinking about the people who given her up before she could even walk or talk. Now, with tears suddenly streaming down the blondes face, she remembers why she had stopped thinking about them.
Emma begins to violently sob, tears and mucus now streaming down her face. The blonde stops driving the bug only when the tears become too much and she can no longer see the road ahead of her. She parks on the side of the road and turns her hazard lights on, fearing another car will hit her on this one way road, and lays her head on the steering wheel. She lets herself cry, which is something she rarely allows herself to do. Except for this past week. Emma half laughs half sobs to herself.
Now that she's letting herself cry and really think about her life everything begins to flood in all at once. Why did they abandon me? Why didn't they want me? Why did that family give me away after they had their own kid? Why has every family I've been placed with hate me? What's wrong with me? Why are people letting this happen to me? Am I bad? Is that why my parents gave me up? Is that why Karen let's Mark beat me? Is that why Mark… A giant sob over takes the blonde upon the thought of Mark and what he did to her. She begins pounding her fists against her steering wheel violently, fresh tears mingling in the tracks of the old ones.
Regina speeds down the quiet road, slowing only when she comes up to the 'Leaving Storybrooke' sign. She muses to herself about how she has never left this town, finding herself slightly anxious to do so now. Emma pops into her head though and she picks up speed once more, passing the sign without looking back.
The brunette is wondering to herself how far Emma could have managed to go when she sees someone's hazard lights blinking in the distance. Checking the opposite lane for any cars and finding none, Regina switches into the lane planning on just passing the car up. It could be a killer. I can't stop. They probably have help coming. I have to find Emma anyways. The brunette thinks, hoping to quell the guilt she begins to feel.
Regina nears the car and can only make out the color. Yellow. The brunette's heart skips a beat. Inching closer now she can make out the model of the car. VW Bug. Regina slams on the brakes, putting her car in park simultaneously and throws her car door open so fast she thinks she may have broken it. In two quick strides the brunette is now facing the driver's window of the car. Peering in, she gasps and clasps her hand to her mouth. Oh Emma. Regina wrenches open the door of the bug to reveal Emma; passed out with blood all over her arms and hands.
Ruby stares at her phone for about the twentieth time. Where the hell is she? And why the hell isn't she answering? The brunette is perched on the stairwell leading to the front doors of the school. The starting bell rang ten minutes ago but the teen had no intention of going in. Not if she couldn't get ahold of Emma.
Ruby had been sitting here for 40 minutes waiting for the blonde. Since it was a small school she was able to watch everyone enter. Well everyone except for Emma. Which could only mean that the blonde wasn't here today. That coupled with the missed texts and Emma's state of mind this last week set Ruby on edge and she began to seriously worry about her blonde friend. Oh god I hope she didn't do anything stupid… With this thought floating in her mind the brunette teen jumps up from her seat and starts running in the opposite direction from the school.
Ten minutes later Ruby finds herself panting on the front porch of Emma's house. She rests her hands on her knees and tries to calm down her breathing. It was a far run from school. I guess it's a good thing I like running. Ruby chuckles to herself as she straightens up and gently knocks on the door. While she waits for an answer, the brunette silently prays that it's Emma that answers and that she's just sick or something.
Her face falls however when Karen opens the door and peers down at the teen suspiciously. "Shouldn't you be in school dear?" Karen asks, cocking her head to the side in correspondence with her question.
"Uh, yeah, but I was just wondering if I could talk to Emma? She's not answering my texts and I really need to talk to her." Ruby replies, peering around Karen, hoping to get a glance of Emma in the house. Karen furrows her brow and Ruby's heart starts to sink before the older woman can even get her sentence out.
"Emma's at school dear. Where you should be. Now run along before I call the truancy officer." The woman says before rudely closing the door in the shocked brunettes face.
If she isn't here…And she isn't at school…Oh god Em where are you? Frantically Ruby runs from the porch, heading in no particular direction. I need to find Emma.
"Oh God. Oh God. Emma. Emma please wake up! Emma what did you do?!" Regina yells at the unconscious blonde who she has now pulled from the car. The brunette cradles the blonde in her arms as she fumbles for her phone in her back pocket, now uncontrollably whispering, "Please. Emma please." Over and over again. Once Regina finds her phone she quickly dials 911 and yells out the situation to the operator screaming at him to send someone quickly, not able to calm down as the man was now telling her to do. Emma could be… No, she couldn't calm down.
Ruby runs to the only place she can think of that will be of any help in her Emma search. The cellphone store. As she enters the building a bell dings to signal her arrival and the store owner walks up to the counter to greet her.
"Hello Ma'am. What can I help you with today?"
"Uh yeah, I lost my cellphone and I was hoping you could track the GPS for me?" Ruby smiles and tilts her head in a begging manner.
The clerk laughs. "Ah, teenagers these days, always losing things. Alright Hun, what's your name and phone number?"
Ruby quickly scrawls Emma's number on a piece of paper along with Emma's name and hands it back to the clerk. "Thank you so much!" The brunette yells after the woman who has retreated to a computer in the back.
Five minutes later the woman calls Ruby over to her computer and points at the phones location on the screen. The brunette leans in closer so she can see the location and she freezes. She can feel the blood drain from her face so she isn't surprised when the clerk turns to her, gasping, "Are you okay?"
Ruby shakes herself, "Yeah. Yeah I'm fine. I'm sorry. I just…forgot that's where I left it. Thanks!" Quickly the teen runs from the shop and heads in the direction of Emma's phone, tears rolling down her face as she runs faster than she ever has before.
