A/N:Holy cow, it's been a long time my friends. Let me say, upfront, I am so sorry for the delay. Life got in the way. Everything got in the way. I thought about this story and all of you at least once a week. I can say now, though, that I now have a college degree in English Education and am currently in process of getting a big girl job. This recent development has also left me time to finish this! This first chapter is just the beginning, I promise I will finish it. What I wrote a few months ago needs some serious work. But let's go! Thanks for sticking with me. I hope to end this story with dignity. This is a short chapter. The ones to follow will be longer :)
"Your paper is great, Emma," Elsa smiled at her over her laptop. "You have a wonderful start. What's the page count?"
"Thirty for this first draft. I have a bit to go."
"There is room for development in your argument…"
Elsa and Emma continued their discussion about her capstone paper, considering whether or not her sources could hold up. Eventually the conversation took a turn towards a subject Emma seemed unable to avoid: Killian.
"You're trying to find him?" Elsa asked.
"Yes."
"And how is that going?"
Emma was silent. It hadn't been going particularly well. There were only small crumbs in a trail that she needed to be more like footsteps. It was frustrating and infuriating and she had hit a wall.
"Emma," Elsa started cautiously. "Have you considered that maybe… he doesn't want to be found?"
"Well I don't particularly care what he wants right now," Emma snapped back. She took a breath and continued. "And no, I think he does. He's left a trail. He still calls David every now and again. I'm just… I'm worried. And I want to see him. And from his songs, it seems like he wants to see me, too."
Elsa nodded, seeming to understand. "Have you asked Ruby for help?"
Emma hadn't considered that. Their mutual friend was an amateur private investigator who was slowly becoming more well known. "Maybe. That could help, I suppose."
The two women wandered back to Emma's apartment, floating in and out of conversation about classes and grocery lists. Outside of the door was a small brown envelope. It was addressed to Killian. Emma and Elsa exchanged a look before heading inside.
"Do I open it?"
"I think you have to."
"What if it's anthrax?"
Elsa gave her a tired and disapproving look, "It's a sign."
"I don't believe in that kind of thing."
"Well pretend for a second you do. You need to find him. you should really think about calling Ruby."
"I'm going to do some searching of my own," Emma insisted, "and if nothing comes up, I will call her first thing."
Searching herself turns out to be much more difficult than she initially intended. Turns out that there's not much on the internet regarding him, except for a few speculative forum posts, credits on bands' websites, and a poorly put together HTML website for what appears to be his manager, Isaac. It links to a disconnected phone number and a bad email address. And all of this took her a few days to put together, with still no substantial lead on where he could possibly be.
Where could he possibly be…