Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time or the characters. This is just one of the
many sandboxes I like to play in. :)
AN: Thanks for all the great feedback. As you would guess by now, this story is AU, though I will be including many canon events, I will also be including new elements.
Pairings: Primarily Snowing - With eventual OutlawQueen. Down the road, there will also be brief SwanFire and eventually Captain Swan.
Finding You Always
Chapter 12: Jar of Hearts
Emma Swan had been having a really good day. At any other school, she had never known what it was like to fit in and never made more than a couple of acquaintances. She had never been anywhere long enough to make friends or put down roots. But Storybrooke was different. She had her real father now(and her real mother, or she would once she figured out how to make her remember).
In all her other schools, she had simply been Emma Swan, the new kid. Or Emma Swan, that kid from one of the foster homes. But now, she was Emma Swan...Sheriff's daughter. No more Emma Swan the orphan. And that seemed to mean something to the other kids or so it seemed that day.
First, Emma was picked first for dodgeball teams in gym. Emma had never been picked first...for anything, let alone teams in gym class. Always the new kid, always the strange girl with her book of fairy tales. Even in earlier years, before she realized she had to stay quiet about the true identities of her parents, she had been the "freak" that thought fairy tales were real.
But it seemed the kids at Storybrooke Elementary had discovered she had a bit of natural athletic ability and had chosen her first. And it felt good...really, really good.
The day continued to get better after that when she received good marks on her math test. Miss Blanchard had personally helped her study in the evenings. A concept she once didn't understand had finally clicked with Mary Margaret's help and tutelage. She was excited to show Daddy her good grades.
But the best part of the day had come at afternoon recess when she had made two friends. She had so much fun and so when they convinced her to skip the bus and come play with them instead, she had done so. She knew she would be in trouble when she didn't show up at the station after school. But Emma had never had friends before and she wanted so badly to be liked by them.
However, Ava and Nicholas Zimmer hadn't really wanted to play with her. She had just been their distraction while they stole items at Mr. Clark's store. She hadn't stolen anything, but Mr. Clark kept her behind, while the other two had absconded, leaving Emma behind without another thought.
She saw the patrol car pull up and felt both relief and fear. What if Daddy sent her back? After all, she had been sent back for less before. The tears came harder now, as David ran to her.
"Daddy...I'm sorry. I didn't know they were going to do that," Emma sobbed, preparing to be yelled at. But she was surprised when he gathered her in his arms in an almost bone crushing hug.
"Please don't send me back. I'll be better...I promise," Emma sobbed, nearly uncontrollably. David swore he felt his heart actually crack into pieces. He pulled back and cupped her face in his hands.
"You listen to me, Emma Swan Nolan, I love you. You getting into trouble won't change that and I'll never send you away. I will always love you, no matter what you do. I was so scared when you didn't get off the bus," he told her. She sniffed.
"I'm sorry. Nicholas and Ava said they'd be my friends if I helped them. I didn't know they were gonna steal...honest!" Emma cried.
"Shh...I know, it will be okay. But you have to promise me you'll never run off like that again. If something happened to you, I don't know what I'd do, princess. I just got you back and I can't lose you again, okay?" he asked. She nodded.
"Okay...stay here. I need to talk to Mr. Clark and then we'll go back to the station," David said, as he stood up.
"Mr. Clark, I want to personally apologize. My daughter didn't have intentions of stealing and I intend to find the two children that did," David said. Tom Clark had softened at the exchange he witnessed between David and Emma. He had no inkling as to why, but he felt drawn to them.
"I'm not going to press charges against her. I think she was duped into being a scapegoat," Tom replied.
"Thank you. I'll cover the cost of what the Zimmer children took," David said, as they settled the payment.
"Those two urchins are a menace though. They keep running away from the orphanage," Mr. Clark mentioned. David nodded.
"I'm going to find them. I'll do everything I can to help them get on the right track," David said, as he finished taking his statement. Once he was done, he took Emma's hand and was glad she had calmed down a bit.
"I'm really sorry Mr. Clark," Emma said without prompting from her father. Tom smiled.
"You're forgiven Emma," he said, as David led her out to the car.
When they arrived back at the station, he wasn't surprised not to see Ruby there. The haunted look in her eyes after they found the heart had said enough, so he had gently prodded her to reconcile with Granny.
He had sent the heart they had found off to forensics and now he was just waiting for the results.
He was glad to see Mary Margaret come in soon after they arrived.
"Hey...I just heard. Is she okay?" she asked. He nodded.
"A little shaken and sorry. I think she's hurt too. She really wanted to have friends," he replied, as he took her hand.
"Poor girl…" Mary Margaret said.
"Do you have much to do here?" she asked. He smiled.
"No, I'm just waiting on the forensics to come back on what we found in the woods. I don't have to do the waiting here," he said, as he switched the phones over to her landline, which he had programmed into the phone system a few days ago. She smiled shyly, as he took her hands in his own. He leaned in, but the sudden arrival of Regina and a short man, who looked very shy, pulled them apart.
"Well...it's good to see that you're hard at work, Sheriff," Regina said dryly. David sighed.
"Madam Mayor...what brings you here?" he asked.
"Well, Mr. Walker, our forensic analyst, has finished his tests in the lab. He shared the results with me and now we're here to do the same with you," Regina said, with a goading smirk.
"Why do you have the report before I do?" David questioned.
"I'm the Mayor and one of our citizens has been brutally murdered. I told Mr. Walker I wanted to see his findings first, not that I have to explain myself to you," Regina answered. Mr. Walker looked sorry, but was too shy to say anything. David snatched the folder and opened it. The heart did indeed belong to Dr. Whale, according to the DNA tests, but it was the other information that nearly made him fall over. His heart felt heavy and disbelief marred his handsome features.
"David...what is it?" Mary Margaret asked.
"Yes David...tell us," Regina goaded.
"This is impossible!" he refuted.
"Forensics don't lie," the Mayor stated.
"David…" Mary Margaret said anxiously.
"The fingerprints inside the box...that the heart was found in...they were yours," he said. Mary Margaret gasped.
"What?" she cried in disbelief.
"Yes...do you recognize this box?" Regina asked. David snatched the photo away and glared at her.
"That's my jewelry box," Mary Margaret said. David's heart sunk further.
"Well, there you have it. Pretty open and shut if you ask me," Regina replied.
"You think I did this?" the teacher asked in horror.
"No!" David refuted.
"Oh please Sheriff...all the evidence is right in front of your face!" Regina spat.
"Yeah...seems a little convenient to me. All the sudden, all this evidence just shows up! Not to mention, Whale probably has a good hundred pounds on her. She didn't do this!" David hissed.
"Arrest her...or I'll find someone who will!" Regina demanded. David clenched his teeth, but Mary Margaret took his hands. Tears were already falling down her cheeks.
"David...you have to. You're the only one that can prove that I'm being framed. But you can't do that if you're not Sheriff," she pleaded. He drew a deep breath into his lungs, but it helped very little. With thick grief in his voice and the appalling sensation of Regina watching their pain with sadistic glee, he read her Miranda rights to her and put her in the cell.
"Daddy...why are you putting Mary Margaret in jail!" Emma cried. She had been quiet up until this point, having witnessed everything with wide eyes. David knelt down and hugged her.
"I'm sorry princess, I certainly don't want to do this," he replied.
"You did this! You're evil!" Emma screamed at Regina.
"Control your brat, Sheriff," Regina said dismissively, as she glared in victory at the woman behind bars, soaking up the sight of her imprisoned.
"District Attorney Spencer will be by tomorrow to press formal charges," Regina said, as she walked toward the exit with a smile on her face. However, she turned back briefly.
"I expect you to keep your personal feelings at bay, Sheriff. If you don't, then I will replace you," Regina threatened. David glared back at her, as he rubbed his hand soothingly along his crying daughter's back.
"She's locked up. You've got what you wanted," he spat. She smirked and finally left. She did indeed.
David turned back and with his free hand, he reached through the bars and squeezed her hand.
"David...I didn't do this," she said.
"I know," he answered. She swallowed the lump in her throat.
"You do?" she asked. He nodded.
"I'm new at this law enforcement thing, but to me it's more than a little suspicious that suddenly, after more than a week of finding absolutely nothing, all this evidence just suddenly pops up," he said logically.
"I'm being framed," she decided. He nodded.
"That would be my guess and I will find a way to prove it," he assured. There was a fierceness in his tone that sent a shiver through her.
"Even if it wasn't for all that, I'd still know that you didn't do it. In my heart, I know you're not capable of something like this," he told her.
"You've only known me a couple weeks," she said, bringing logic into the mix again. It seemed out of place though. What was between them...this connection, the irrevocable pull they both felt went far beyond logic. Mary Margaret didn't think true love was in the cards for her, before she met David. True love was the stuff of stories and legends, not unlike the ones Emma clung to in her book of fairy tales.
"But it feels like I've known you so much longer," he confessed. Her heart soared, despite her current predicament. So he felt it too. He laced his fingers with hers through the bars. They didn't even hear Gold come in.
"Sorry to interrupt, but I heard of Miss Blanchard's predicament. David narrowed his gaze.
"How did you hear already?" David asked.
"Word travels like fire in this town. The Mayor already has Mr. Glass writing up a front page spectacle for tomorrow's paper," Gold stated.
"Why are you here?" David questioned. Gold allowed himself a small smile.
"Tactless as usual, Charming," he mused to himself.
"I have come to offer my legal services to Miss Blanchard," Gold stated. David raised an eyebrow.
"You're a lawyer?" he asked skeptically. Gold chuckled, further unnerving the Sheriff. Was everything a game to this guy?"
"I am a great many things, Mr. Nolan and legalities are well in my wheelhouse, I assure you," Gold replied. David rolled his eyes. He was a pretty simple guy. He liked straightforward answers. But this guy could never give anything of the sort.
"I can't pay you," Mary Margaret said.
"Money I have, Miss Blanchard. I'll help you and we'll just say you'll owe me a favor someday," Gold stated. David seethed at that.
"I don't trust him," he hissed to her. She squeezed his hand.
"But I do need legal help," she said.
"I'll prove that you didn't do this...I just need time," he replied.
"And I'm the only chance at buying her any time at all," Gold interrupted.
"Fine...then I accept," she replied. David shook his head, but swallowed his protests.
"We need to speak privately," Gold stated. Mary Margaret nodded.
"I want you and Emma to stay at my place," she said. He nodded, not bothering to argue. Emma loved being at Mary Margaret's and he needed all the stability he could for her right now.
"I'll bring you some stuff in the morning," he said. She gave him a grateful nod and smile.
"I don't want you stay here," Emma sniffed. Mary Margaret knelt down.
"I know sweetie, but I need you to be strong and so does your daddy. Can you be strong for us?" Mary Margaret asked. Emma sniffed.
"I'll try," she answered. David spared her another glance and squeezed her hand, before he took Emma's hand and they quietly left after he grabbed the keys to the loft.
Nicholas and Ava finished eating their fill from what they had snagged at Mr. Clark's store that afternoon. They were hunkered down in an abandoned car tonight, but it was still better than the orphanage to them. Nicholas, however, ate with much less gusto than usual.
"What?" Ava asked, noticing her brother's preoccupation.
"We did a bad thing, Ava," he said. She rolled her eyes.
"Emma is fine," she assured him.
"We betrayed her. We used her, Ava and I'm not okay with that!" Nicholas spat.
"We didn't have a choice! Do you really want to go back to the orphanage? No one will adopt us together! They'll separate us!" she reminded him. He was silent then.
"Emma is fine. She has a daddy who loves her, which is more than we'll ever have," Ava said sadly. Nicholas sniffed.
"But she understood us, Ava. She trusted us, cause she knows how it feels to be unwanted. And then we left her holding the bag," Nicholas said, the guilt clearly eating at him.
"Yet she went home with a daddy that loves her. She doesn't understand us anymore," she spat.
"She said she could help us though…" Nicholas said. Ava scoffed.
"Don't tell me that you believe her wild stories! She's a lunatic if she thinks everyone in this town is in her book," Ava scoffed.
"Don't call her that! She's the first person that's ever wanted to help us and you called her a freak," Nicholas said, angry with his sister. Ava rolled her eyes.
"She can't help us...no one can," she spat.
Dr. Sakura signed the forms and handed them back to Mother Superior with a smile.
"Thank you Dr. Sakura. Your support of the convent's involvement in the volunteer program is truly a welcome change," she said gratefully. Whale was usually dismissive and minimized their presence as much as possible. Dr. Sakura was a refreshing change, though she felt guilty thinking such things since it had been discovered that Whale had been murdered. Word had already spread through the town. But she didn't hide her graciousness toward the new doctor.
"You're very welcome, Mother Superior. I admire the Holy works of people like you and your sisters. I can heal the physical ailments of the body with medicine, but that's only part of the battle. You and your sisters heal the soul, which in many ways, is a much more difficult task," he replied wisely, as he left the ICU ward. A flash of dark hair caught his attention and he followed it to the stairwell. He recognized his baby sister even from the back and she turned to smirk at him.
"Mako…" he greeted.
"Satoshi," she greeted in return.
"Paul...I go by Paul now," he reminded. She rolled her eyes.
"Just one more attempt to deny your heritage, it seems," she replied.
"That little display in the square...that was all put into motion by you, wasn't it?" he asked. She smirked.
"Brilliant, right?" she asked. He rolled his eyes.
"Putting people in danger is never brilliant," he retorted.
"It yielded results, did it not?" she asked. He sighed and pulled out a plastic bag from his lab coat pocket, with the sample he collected inside.
"Good work...I'll be in touch," she said, as she slipped out the exit. He sighed and returned to work.