Emma wasn't really surprised to hear the news. The sheriff was gone and it was due time to find a replacement, but did Regina really have the power to appoint a new sheriff ? Not that Emma cared because she would rather not be in any leadership position whatsoever. As long as she wasn't considered for the position, Emma didn't care what Regina did. David was the most likely candidate because he was a deputy before Graham died. Emma looked to her fellow deputy and watched as he paced across the office, waiting for Regina's imminent arrival. He wasn't oblivious to his role and knew that he was a likely candidate as well. The very idea seemed to make him anxious as he continued to pace. By the tired look on his face, he didn't look like he wanted to be sheriff.
The sound of heels clicking in the hall could be heard on the other side of the office. Regina's shoes signaled her arrival. Emma thought she heard Regina's voice out loud in the hall. Regina didn't seem like the type of person to talk to herself which meant she brought someone along with her.
Emma gave David a questioning look, and he held out his arms in a shrug. He was as clueless to the whole entire situation as well.
Regina entered the office dressed in professional business attire. Her attention was to her male companion beside her, ignoring David's and Emma's presence in the room. He was old dressed in a gray suit. His face was a little too entranced in whatever Regina was saying, and his body's proximity was too close to her to be considered proper.
"As you are familiar with what I need you to do-" Regina froze almost like a deer staring at headlights when she saw Emma.
"What are you doing here?" Regina's tone was accusatory. Emma had to hand it to the queen to maintain a calm voice and hiding her shock well.
"I work here," Emma answered calmly, taking a bite out of her doughnut. She was eating it rather slow to pretend that Regina's presence wasn't bothering her.
"She has no experience as a deputy." Regina pointed at Emma for emphasis.
Emma really had nothing to worry about because who would Regina send to kick her out? David? Not likely. He was the one to hire her. Whatever Regina did would have no affect at this point.
"She was a bail bondsman. If that isn't experience, then I don't know what is," David answered with a shrug.
Regina looked liked she swallowed a lemon. Her fists were clenched at her sides.
"I see" -she said evenly before her smile turned somewhat devious- "Well, if this is the case, then congratulations are in order. Since you are both deputies, you lack the proper figure head. At times like these, a strong hand is needed to maintain order throughout Storybrooke. I came to inform you that Sydney Glass is the new sheriff," she informed and began walking away. She stopped to look at the sheriff. "Sydney a word." Sydney followed Regina as she walked out of the door.
Emma thought she could handle Sydney, but he was the most annoying person she had met. After he walked in from his talk with Regina, he sent David to patrol. Emma didn't mind letting David have the patrol at first until she realized she had to deal with her boss. His beady eyes were following her everywhere. He made her stay in the office, keeping a close eye on her while David was outside. Sydney even followed her throughout the station when she went to the archive room and filed just to stay away from him. When he wasn't following her, he was asking her a lot of questions, trying to get her life's story. When her phone reached five o'clock, she almost ran out of the Sheriff's office. Sydney's presence was suffocating. She couldn't wait to fetch Henry so they could go home and relax.
"Ms. Swan," Rumple greeted when the door to his shop chimed. He raised an eyebrow at her flustered appearance. She was pretty sure her hair was a mess from running a hand through her hair too many times throughout the day.
"Mom!" Henry greeted, running up to embrace her in a hug.
Emma returned the embrace as she thought, debating whether to tell Rumple what was happening. Would this matter concern him? It didn't hurt to bring it up. "Henry, can you wait outside? I need to talk to Mr. Gold."
Henry nodded and exited the door. When the store door chimed, signaling Henry had left, Emma began to speak. "Regina appointed Sydney Glass as sheriff."
Rumple let out a frustrated sigh, rubbing his eyes. "She wants to make sure the Sheriff's station is under her thumb since Graham died."
"I know the sheriff died of a heart attack. Do you think he died of other causes?" She offered. She wanted to know if she was dealing with magic when there wasn't any around.
"He died of a heart attack the day after I called you. I think there is more to the story, but the truth will reveal itself in time," He proposed before turning around to grab his cane. He limped to a large cabinet. Opening the doors, he began rummaging through its contents.
"I will look at the town charter, and we can play Regina's game." He dropped a binder filled with papers and the book fell onto a counter with a thud. Those papers must weigh a ton. "If I find something, which I know I will, we will see Regina in the sheriff's office displaying her displeasure," he informed with a smirk.
The next day Emma debated how to deal with Henry. He didn't want to be dropped off at Gold's and decided he wanted to spend time alone in the house. Emma didn't want to leave him alone because of Regina, but she allowed him on the concessions of him staying in his room and not leaving it except to use the bathroom or eat in the kitchen. She put off arriving in the sheriff's office early because she took a wild guess that Sydney would be there to greet her. To her surprise, shouts could be heard down the hall where her office was.
Rumple works fast. She wondered how long it took for him to find a loophole. His propensity for making deals made him adept in finding ways to break agreements. She made a mental note to ask him about that later as she stood by the door frame watching Regina stand in Rumple's space.
"I already told you I have a sheriff appointed already," Regina informed unamused. Her arms were crossed, trying to make her intimidating to Gold
"You think you have a sheriff appointed, but his appointment isn't legal. The town charter states that a sheriff can only be elected; however, you can nominate Sydney for the election." Rumple corrected, holding the town charter. He was enjoying riling up Regina way too much.
"Let me see that," Regina snapped, snatching the document from Rumple's hand. Her eyes immediately began to peruse through the contents, trying to find a loophole. The likelihood of her success would be slim, unless she was good at outsmarting the Dark One.
At that moment, Emma decided to make her presence known. Her attempt at trying to slip into the office unnoticed failed as she knocked over a pile of papers on a desk. Emma felt Regina's glare on her, but she sat down at her desk, pretending to not notice Regina's presence. Regina was a poor mayor if she couldn't remember her charter for her town.
"You sure get around fast. Were you and Gold in cahoots the whole time?" Regina observed before redirecting her gaze to Rumple. "I should have known you were involved in this scheme."
"Whatever do you mean?" Rumple pretended to be offended at the accusation. Regina eyes narrowed at his false innocence before she looked at Emma. Emma pretended to be confused as well. She was a little glad that Rumple was on her side. His attempt at manipulation knew no bounds, and Regina didn't realize that they were plotting under her nose.
"Never mind. Forget I said anything. It doesn't matter. Sydney is going to win by default because I am sure David Nolan isn't going to run against him," Regina said with a knowing smirk. The queen was pretty sure that she won this battle. Hell, she had a point. There was no one left to run beside her fellow deputy who just walked into the door, holding a box of doughnuts.
Everyone's eyes turned to David. He seemed uncomfortable with all the attention that was directed at him.
"Good morning. Did I miss something?" David greeted confused, placing the box on his desk.
"You came right on time, Mr. Nolan. We were discussing the potential of you running for the sheriff's position." Regina had a cat ate the canary type grin as she informed David.
David blinked a few times to allow Regina's words to register before he shook his head in negation. "I won't. The stress of the coma is too much. Dr. Whale said I should take things easy since I did wake up a week ago," he said, running his hand through his hair in frustration.
Rumple shifted on his cane, looking at David with a frown. "If you refuse, then I know of someone who will run," he said evenly before he directed his gaze to Regina.
Who else did Rumple know? Sydney was a reporter and he was nominated for sheriff. What other unqualified individual was he going to nominate?
"Who? Her"- Regina scoffed before she continued her protest with a sneer- "She isn't a citizen of Storybrooke, nor does she live here."
Why did Regina automatically assume that Emma wanted to run? Emma didn't sign up to be anything. She looked at Rumple, hoping he would correct Regina. To her horror, he didn't say anything.
"Me?" Emma asked, trying to break the awkward silence that was in the office.
What the hell? There was no way she wanted to be sheriff of this town, especially if Regina was against her. That meant she would be forced to interact with the citizens more, and she would have more responsibilities to the town
"Emma Swan is more than capable to be sheriff, and she is renting one of my houses," Rumple answered, correcting all of Regina's previous qualms against Emma.
That was a total lie. She wasn't renting his house nor was she a good candidate. What was he playing at?
"Do you accept the nomination, Ms. Swan?" Regina asked, trying to gauge her willingness.
"She does," Rumple answered for her.
"I was asking her," Regina snapped impatiently.
"I do." She couldn't say "no" since Rumple dug her in this hole. She hoped he knew what he was doing- not that she was happy about the entire situation.
"Well, we will see you in town hall in a week. Come on, Sydney," Regina warned and walked away. Sydney trailed after her like an obedient puppy.
"I'm going to go patrolling," David informed awkwardly, grabbing his keys and walked out of the office.
When Emma and Rumple was alone, Emma whipped her head to the Dark One.
"Are you insane?!" She berated, rubbing her palms in her face in frustration.
"I'm normally, but we need to make sure that her lacky isn't in office," he answered as though this was the only decision he could make.
"I'm not planning on staying in this town that long." Emma stood in front of Rumple, getting into his personal space.
"It doesn't matter what you plan to do in the future. This town can rot for all I care. We need to make sure nothing stands in our way to finish what we came here to do. This is a minor setback, but once we overcome it, we don't really have to worry about Regina for a while," he said coldly.
Rumple threw her under the bus, not caring what would happen to the town. Making her sheriff was the worse decision ever. Storybrooke needed a sheriff who had its best interest at heart. Emma shook her head at such thoughts. She didn't care about the town. The only thing that mattered was making sure that she completed her task without Henry getting hurt.
"I hope you know what you are doing. To Regina, nothing says I want more power than running for the second highest position of power in this town. She will be onto me more." She sighed, staring into Rumple's calculating eyes.
Soon after Emma made the decision to run for the position, the house she was staying in was broken into and a picture of her and Henry was stolen. Emma had no proof to back her assumptions that Regina or Sydney stole it, but she had her suspicions. When she was walking the streets of Storybrooke holding Henry's hand, the people who walked passed were looking at her funny. What's gotten into them? Emma stopped walking when a picture in the newspaper kiosk caught her eye. She saw her image staring back at her. She put money in the slot and pulled the handle. She took out a paper and before she closed it Henry grabbed one as well. The Daily Mirror had a column of the sheriff candidates. Her profile was listed first followed by Sydney's. It was a little weird that the paper said it was September when it was clearly May. So the curse was indeed centered around her birthday. Ignoring that fact, she began reading.
Emma Swan is a new resident of Storybrooke and a sheriff's candidate. Not much is known about her life. What is known has to be taken into consideration for an important position such as this. She got her GED at age 20. Also at 20, she almost lost custody of her son. Social services were led to believe that she was an inadequate mother... If she has total disregard to her own studies and cannot even take care of her child, how could she take care of an entire town?
Emma's hand was shaking the whole time she was reading the paper. How the hell did they even get this information? Of fucking course, the Sydney column was overflowing with praise and had no dirt on him. Her old life was private. The social service's case was closed and should not have been available.
Henry's soft voice broke her from her thoughts. "What does losing custody mean?"
She closed her eyes, trying to contain her emotions. She never wanted Henry to find out that she almost lost him all those years ago. Finally, she spoke.
"It means that I wouldn't have been able to take care of you." Her tone was tired. Either staying in this town or reliving that memory were putting a lot of stress on her. Opening her eyes again, she directed her gaze to him. "Did you ever wonder why I hardly let anyone babysit you?"
At his nod, she continued." After Angela died, I was busy and I hired a babysitter to watch over you for a while. At the time, you were three years old. The babysitter was a teenager and she would leave the house all the time and leave you all alone to visit her boyfriend. I didn't know that she wasn't watching you. The neighbors across the street were nosy and they monitored the girl. When they found out you were in the house alone, they called social services. You were taken away from me briefly until an investigation occurred. They wanted to make sure that I was not negligent. After two months, they concluded that I was responsible enough to keep you."
"You mean I could have been adopted," he answered.
"Yes, if they decided that I wasn't fit enough to raise you, but it's all in the past now," she confirmed, trying to change the subject. She hated thinking about the memory.
"This was mean to tell our story like this." He said with a frown, throwing his paper in a nearby garbage bin they walked past.
"They wanted to get under my skin. I am not going to let them," she admitted.
"Good will always win in the end," He informed with a smile, giving Emma's hand a reassuring squeeze. She didn't believe in the good versus evil archetype, but this action made her more determined to beat Sydney. No one messed with her family.
Hours later, Emma and Henry were in the sheriff's station using the printer to make signs. They were too engrossed in their task that both mother and son jumped when the door to the office opened.
"What are those?" David asked. Clearly, the duo's presence didn't really bother him at all. He was more concerned for the large poster on the desk.
"I'm going to compensate for the ink," she explained, it was illegal to use the facility's resource for the task. She wasn't unaware of the fact. She wanted to make sure he didn't get the wrong idea. Satisfied with her explanation, she continued."Signs I am making to advertise. I guess. I thought you were off," she admitted awkwardly.
"No, I still have a few more hours of patrolling, but I forgot something. It looks like you both need some help. I can take a break."
Before Emma could protest his offer of help, he began to speak. "Don't you have flyers?" He asked, brows narrowing in thought.
Shit. She forgot that she had to drive around town and hang the flyers up, if she had any.
"Right... I need to make those," she said begrudgingly, turning her gaze away from his eyes. She wanted to do this all on her own without any help. She didn't want to seem incompetent especially in front of him.
After David ignored her look of protest, the trio worked in silence, trying to complete their tasks. Hours later the silence was interrupted by David's cell phone. He looked at the Caller ID and mumbled something about missing the time. Emma couldn't believe that it was almost nine. They had spent five hours trying to get things ready.
"Don't worry about the flyers. Kathryn and I will hang them up. Just worry about your speech. You will be fine." He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze before leaving the room. Emma felt uncomfortable at the gesture, especially from strangers. The only type of affection she would ever accept were from a handful of people she could count off with one hand.
"Told you he was your dad." Henry rubbed in the fact again with a grin.
Emma cleared her throat rather awkwardly. "Still going with that theory?" Her denial was childish. She would be lying to herself when she watched David work with them if she said her thoughts didn't drift to what if's situations. David spent most of his time and helped making the flyers. She wondered if his unconditional support was due to his fatherly instinct.
"I'll humor you for a while, but for the time being, he is right. We need to go home. I have a speech to prepare for." Emma gently guided Henry out of the office. She turned around to turn off the lights. Her eyes drifted to the station where all three of them worked before. Her smile turned fond as she remembered the good time they had, before flipping off the lights and locking the station door.
A week later, the first debate was horrendous. Not that Emma needed a reminder, but she was horrible at public speaking. The town pretty much fell in love with Sydney's eloquent speech. His job as a newspaper reporter definitely showed his storytelling voice. When it was her turn to speak, it was awful. There were too many pauses and she stumbled over her words. Rumple wasn't happy and he drilled her relentlessly on her speech for the second debate that was coming up. He said that there was some damage control that needed to be done. Hence, they were walking on a hill with the sun barely up to meet a camera crew.
"I think this whole idea is stupid. Why do we need a commercial? Wasn't the whole town present at the town hall? The election is tomorrow can we even have a video made ready after the debate tonight?" Emma blew a stubborn lock of hair that kept on falling in her eyes.
"Knowing Regina, Sydney already has you beat on making a commercial. You can be surprised how persuasive I can be," Rumple reminded, his cane threw up dirt after it made contact with the ground.
"Sometimes I forget who I am dealing with," she muttered under her breath. She was tired and she was dragged out of bed at an early time. Rumple promised that she would be back before Henry woke up. They were going to have shots of her doing multiple poses at different locations while she narrated in the background.
"Honestly, this is all a hassle. Why can't we just let him have the position and be done with it?" She admitted, sounding defeated.
She already knew that she made a fool of herself at the debate. The town already had an opinion of her. There was no way she could sway their decision.
"I need you as sheriff so it would be easier for you to take some time and break the curse without Regina finding out. Now, enough complaining. Stand over there while I address the cameraman," He chided, his tone was disapproving. He turned an annoyed glance to her. "We will do this enough times until I am satisfied," he informed before limping his way to the camera crew.
Rumple stopped walking as soon as he saw the figure talking to the cameraman they hired. "It looks like Sydney had the same idea," she observed, her lips pursed.
The man in question pretended to be surprised when he noticed them. He began to walk to them with a pleased smile on his face.
"Emma, it's too late. We already filmed in this location. There is no free location in Storybrooke that is available for you to film. It would look bad if you were to copy me. Why don't you drop out of the election?" Sydney suggested.
Emma crossed her arms and walked in front of him, staring into his eyes.
"I already put enough time in this. I'm not backing out now," she challenged.
As Sydney opened his mouth to challenge Emma, the ground began to shake. The intensity of the tremor felt like an earthquake. A massive sinkhole formed in front of the mines. Black smoke was coming from the mine's entrance. Many of the miners flooded out and were coughing. Emma instinctively went down to meet the miners to make sure they were okay. Sydney walked with her down the hill.
There was a group of eight miners total. Some were hunched over trying to fill their lungs with clean air. Emma had to scrunch her nose when the unpleasant sulfuric aroma of rotten eggs greeted her.
"Did everyone get out okay?" She asked, assessing the situation.
One of the miners looked at her before directing his eyes to each of the member. Suddenly, his expression turned crestfallen." Where is Leroy?"
"He was just behind me." Another member looked confused before his eyes widened.
They were wasting precious time talking. Something had to be done to save the missing miner.
"I'll get him." Emma was shocked at her own words.
"We have to wait for protocol to get him out. If you break the rules, then turn in your badge," Sydney chided.
Sydney was talking some sense, but he was going to wait to get the okay from Regina. Regina was going to take forever to answer him back.
"Fine, if you're going to stand back and let a man die then I will gladly give up my job. I'm not going to let a man die if I can prevent it." Emma pulled off her deputy badge from her belt buckle and shoved the object into Sydney's hands before turning away.
"I'll follow you. I know where to go," a miner said by her side. She debated to tell him to stay in safety, but he knew where he was going. She easily caught up to the short man's stride as he weaved through the tunnels. Her arm shielded her eyes from the smoke. Eventually, they approached a massive object. There was a wooden beam that fell on top of Leroy. He was knocked out cold.
The man beside her helped her remove the beam from the prone man's body and helped her support Leroy's weight. The trek back was more difficult. She was getting tired and becoming lightheaded due to the lack of pure oxygen. Okay, maybe running into a mine was not the brightest idea ever. Her vision was starting to fade as she tried gasping for air.
"Emma!" Was the last thing she heard before everything went black.
Her eyes fluttered awake. Soft beeping noises flooded the room. I need to stop making a habit of blacking out. Emma thought tiredly while rubbing her eyes. Her fingers caught the tubing on her nose, she followed it and noticed she was hooked up to an oxygen tank. She groaned when she realized she was in a hospital. The action caused her to develop a headache.
What the hell happened? She thought, rubbing her temple. She felt like she had a hangover.
There was a soft knock at her door. She opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. Her mouth felt very dry as though she had not drank any water in days.
The door opened and Henry and Rumple walked in.
"Mom, you are awake!" Henry ran and hug his mom.
Emma weakly opened her arms to return the embrace.
"Hello, Ms. Swan. Your son kept on asking for your well being. How are you feeling?" Rumple asked, his tone business like. He didn't sound like he really cared about her well-being.
"Thirsty. What happened?" She croaked.
"I'll get you something to drink," Henry answered, running to his task
"I have to admit your rescue attempt couldn't have happened at a better time. I thought I was going to have get my hands dirty by resorting to measures such as setting Regina's office on fire so you could save her to win the town's trust. As for what happened, you passed out due to lack of oxygen while saving Leroy." Rumple looked really pleased at the turn of events.
Her eyes widened at the news. All that work and all her efforts to defeat Sydney went to waste because she was stupid. "I can't believe I missed the second debate. I pretty much gave Sydney the position on a silver platter, didn't I?"
"Relax. The town made a unanimous decision to cancel the second debate after your condition but keep the election. Word had spread that you put your life in danger to save one citizen while Sydney refused to do anything. I haven't seen Regina so angry in a long time. Congratulations, you are the new sheriff of Storybrooke. We may have dealt a heavy blow to Regina today, but the only way to stop her is to break the curse. Rest up and don't get too comfortable. As soon as you are discharged, we have some work to do," Rumple answered with a smirk.
Next: Unfortunate Revelations