August's Bike
August and Emma had been riding for about twenty minutes; fifteen of those were outside of the town line. Emma felt a strange tang of guilt whenever she saw the "Leaving Storybrooke" sign, remembering her promise to Henry. She hadn't realized that they were going so out of the way. Her suspicion of August was growing.
They finally pulled over next to some kind of restaurant. A place she recognized all too well.
"What the hell is this?" she asked forcefully as she pulled off her helmet and jumped off the bike, gesturing toward the establishment. What the hell did this guy think he was doing bringing her here?
He barely reacted to her attitude. "Last I checked, it was a diner."
She was tired of his games. She was tired of his enigma. She was tired of everything this damn writer was doing. "No more screwing around. I'm not a character in one of your books. What the hell are we doing here?" She wanted answers.
He reached into his jacket, pulling out a newspaper clipping, "I think you know." Her gaze sharpened on the clip and she tensed. Her entire body froze and she felt like she couldn't breathe. Her lungs had jumped into her throat and she couldn't pinch out a syllable. She couldn't move her eyes away from the printed words on the sheet: 7 Year Old Boy Finds Baby On Side Of Road. "You've been here before. This is the diner you were brought to when you were found as a baby."
Be cool, Emma thought. Poker face. Do what you do best. He doesn't need to know that that means anything to you. This guy didn't know her, not really. She could play it off, if only her voice would allow. "So you found an article about me. So what?" Change the subject. "I thought this trip was supposed to be about you."
He began to fold the article back, "It is. This is my story. And it's your story."
"And how is that?" she asked a little too quickly and defensively.
His expression became serious, "That seven year old boy who found you… that was me."
She hadn't realized it, but her feet had moved her a couple steps back. Her heart dropped and her stomach turned. This couldn't be true. She'd been doing research on her own case her entire life; she'd been hunting down every piece of the puzzle she could find. And nothing had ever led anywhere when she'd try to find any information on that little boy.
He was lying. He had to be. "Yeah… right."
"I can prove it," he turned and headed off the road and into the woods behind the diner. She grew cautious. You weren't supposed to follow muscular men into a secluded area – especially when they were talking crazy. Suddenly she thought back to Dean and what he had told her earlier. He'd warned her about him; he hadn't trusted him. Maybe she'd been too quick to disregard his notion. Even if she'd had her talkie, she was way out of range here. She suddenly wished she hadn't been so distant and had just gotten his phone number. Who knew if it could come in handy.
Especially since she found that her feet had begun walking off road and following the nut job. Apparently her subconscious curiosity had won over good sense.
Finally, she decided to speak up, "Why are we in the woods?'
"All the answers you have been searching for are right where I found you," he said, walking quite hastily and looking around. She couldn't figure out what it was he was looking for.
"See!" the raise in her voice gave away her distress, "you're not that seven year old boy! I wasn't found in the woods, I was found on the side of a highway."
"And why do you think that? Because you read it in the newspaper? Did it ever occur to you that maybe that seven year old boy lied about where he found you?"
She rolled her eyes, growing tired of his bull shit. If this was his way of trying to get her to go on another date with him, he was definitely sabotaging his chances. "No. But it occurs to me that you've been lying to me about everything." She stopped walking. She was emotionally exhausted, though she refused to let him see that. "And I'm done listening." Emma turned to head back the direction they had come.
"When I found you, you were wrapped in a blanket." She froze. Her head was pounding and her heart was beating a mile a minute. Lucky guess, she thought. "And the name 'Emma' was embroidered along the bottom of it." Her hands began to tremble as a flash of the only possession she had ever kept with her through all the homes and all the foster houses and all the shelters and all the cars and all apartments she'd ever temporarily lived in. The only thing she had from her real parents; to her family. She turned and took a few trembling steps back toward him. "That wasn't in the article, was it? How would I know that unless I was there?"
Was he bluffing? Had he seen her blanket in her apartment during one of his many visits? Had Mary Margaret said something to him, or hinted at something after she told her about it? Or maybe those twin kids had accidentally mentioned it to him? Calm down, Emma said to herself. She had to contain her aloof appearance to keep the upper hand. "Ok," she decided to entertain the idea, just to see where he would take it. "Let's say you were that kid. Why lie about where you found me?"
"I lied to protect you." Again with the enigma.
"From what?!" she protested.
He pointed behind him, "that."
She looked in the direction of his thumb. A large, old, moss covered oak. "A tree?"
"You've read Henry's book, right?"
She scoffed. Oh god, she thought, the tree's an evil plant from another world and that's why I needed protecting. He was beginning to lose her belief. Especially if he decided to throw in all of that crap.
"You know about the curse, don't you? Your role in it?" he looked down, giving a dramatic pause. "It's true, Emma. We both came into this world," he turned around and started walking around the tree, stopping in front of what appeared to be a giant hole in the side of it, "through this tree."
She followed him and peered into the opening. Nothing. She couldn't figure out what she was more of: angry, annoyed, insulted, or scared. And all of these emotions climbing for dominance had her fighting back tears that she refused to let fall. Not now; not ever. She refused to let him get to her. "You're asking me to believe that you are a fairy tale character?"
"Pinocchio," he smiled. He actually dared to smile at her as he stood there and talked to her as if she were a fool – a child. A child who was supposed to believe all of this crap blindly.
"Right, of course Pinocchio," she said condescendingly. "Explains all the lying." He looked down and for a second she thought that he looked almost ashamed. Suddenly she realized, "You're the one who added the story to Henry's book."
"I needed you to know the truth."
"The truth is you are out of your mind. And you're not even a very good liar. Why not write the end of that story?"
"Because this is the ending, and we're writing it right now," he pointed down.
"And how does this story end?" she asked facetiously.
His eyes were locked on hers as he leaned in slightly; his expression was… hopeful. "With you believing."
A smile began to slowly form on his lips and she couldn't figure out if he were flat out crazy or if he actually had some kind of mental problem. Was this how Henry was going to become if she continued to let him go along with this fairy tale crap? Like August? Or even Jefferson? Henry had already tried going down an unstable mine shaft just to try to prove that there was a curse; could he go so far as to drug a woman he suspected to be the next savior and try to make her believe him? Was this what her presence in his life could lead to?
"Not gonna happen," she finally breathed out, answering him. His expression was genuine. He was startled; almost afraid. This was her cue. This was her moment to leave. This was her safety window to get out.
She turned around and started walking for the second time in the opposite direction. When she heard him start to walk faster to catch up with her, she started to jogging.
"Emma? Emma, wait!" She heard him hit the ground and groan.
Is this an act? She kept her distance, but stopped to look at him. He was holding his leg. That damn leg. The same leg that had been giving him trouble for days now. "What… is wrong… with your leg?"
He laughed. He was actually laughing. Laying on the ground in pain, for whatever reason, laughing. If there were ever a sign of crazy, this was it.
"I failed," he said plainly.
"What are you talking about?" she asked, tired of the crazy.
"It doesn't matter," he said, laying in defeat, "you don't believe."
He started to roll around, trying to find the right leverage to work his way back up. She was getting angry. She had been playing nice for far too long and she was getting sick of all of the bullshit this damn writer was spouting. "If you think that by making me feel sorry for you, that something's gonna change, you are wrong."
He finally made it up, still limping, "I am not screwing around here. Whatever you believe or don't – this is real, Emma. I am sick."
"That's an understatement," she said dryly.
He was standing hunched over as he rose his head, "You ever been to Phuket? It's beautiful; amazing island full of pleasures. The perfect place to lose oneself. That's where I was," he rose up, still uneasy, "when you decided to stay in Storybrooke."
"How do you know when I decided to stay in Storybrooke?"
"Because at 8:15 in the morning, I woke up with a shooting pain in my leg. That's 8:15 at night in Storybrooke – sound familiar? That's when time there started to move forward again. I was supposed to be there for you… and I wasn't," he hunched over again and she could swear he sounded like he were about to cry. What was his game? What was this? "Because I was halfway around the world. And I got a painful reminder of just how far I'd strayed." He took a seat on one of the nearby fallen trees. "If that tree won't make you believe… maybe this will."
He reached for the bottom of his left pant's leg and started to pull it upward, revealing the top of his boot and his lower leg. She studied the skin, looking for whatever it was that was supposed to make her believe. But she couldn't see anything. Just skin and leg hair. "How does that prove anything?"
His head snapped down to look at his leg; his voice was growing distraught. "Look."
"August," she said seriously. "I'm looking."
His face read an expression of disbelief. "You don't see it, do you?"
"See what?"
"Your denial is more powerful than I thought." Oh god, she rolled her eyes. "It's preventing you from seeing the truth."
What the hell was wrong with him? Was he so crazy that he actually thought that there was something wrong with his leg? "Ok, one of us is losing it here. And it's not me."
"You don't want to believe. After everything you've seen," his voice grew louder and his gestures became frantic, "why can't you just do it?"
"Why is it so important to you that I do?"
"Because I – the town – everyone needs you!"
"I don't want them to need me!"
"Well that's too bad, because we all do."
This was it. This was her breaking point - the last brick to slide away from the dam that held the tears at bay. "You're saying that I am responsible for everyone's happiness? That is crap! I didn't ask for that! I don't want it!"
"Right now. A little while ago, you didn't want Henry either. But then he came to you and now you are fighting like hell for him," he said, trying to reason with her.
"For him!" her voice was starting to break, "Because that's all I can handle right now. And I'm not even doing a good job at that! Now you're telling me I have to save everyone? That is beyond ridiculous – I don'twant any of it!" She thought back to all those people she'd recently met in her new home: Ruby, Granny, Archie, Leroy, Marco, Ashley, Sean, Whale, Kathryn, Gold, David, Mary Margaret. How was she supposed to save all of those people? How had she gone from having no one to having an entire town of people depending on her? People she'd only known for less than a year! Her entire life she had to deal with people walking away; people leaving her alone to defend for herself. Why was it that she was the one who owed this? It wasn't fair! Where was her peaceful, happy ending?
"Well that's too bad, Emma. Because that doesn't change the truth," he stood up and took a few wobbly steps towards her. He leaned in closer, "You are our only hope."
She shook her head, "Then you're all screwed."
Did August really think that a tree with a hole in it was supposed to make Emma believe in magic? Poor Dean, he's going to have one hell of a damage control task!
This chapter was pretty much the middle/end of the OUAT episode, The Stranger - but it's such a vital part of the story that I couldn't just be like "hey, go watch that scene from the episode" lol. The dialogue is pretty much word-for-word; another one of those moments where I didn't want to stray from the original.
Chapters might be a tad more scarce next week (I'll be visiting people who I'm not entirely sure will have wi-fi - and yes, those kind of people do still exist). But I will definitely keep writing regardless so that even if I can't post any this week, when I get back I'll have multiple chapters to post!
"Dede42: Having seen the show, I expect August is going to explain to Emma who he really is and take her to the location where they first arrived in our world. And who knows what's gonna happen next to the Winchesters while they're in Storybrooke." You were correct! :) the next chapter will focus more on the brothers. I like that format, where I spend one chapter focusing on one side, and the other focusing on the other. I think it helps fill in some missing parts that we didn't see during the other stuff. If that makes sense lol.
"xxxJusta1991xxx: I really liked this chapter! :) Emma could have some calm :) Can't wait for the next one with Emma meeting August! ;)" I'm really glad you liked it! I was afraid it was a bit too boring; but you're right, Emma needed some calm lol.
"scifigrl10: This is a really fun story! I hope you continue it soon!" Thank you! I think I've been doing a fairly decent job in the updating. I post at least every other day. No more than a week in between. I've kind of given myself that personal goal lol. But I'm glad you're enjoying the story :) I hope you continue to read!