Chapter 21 –

So who is this mystery man and who is at the door? Will Charming be able to make sure Emma is safe?

Emma knew that her parents probably wouldn't want her to answer the door but she also didn't want to bother them so she decided to go ahead and open the door anyway.

She was relived to see August standing on the other side. She had forgotten she had invited him over in all the chaos. She hadn't even gotten a chance to talk to her parents about it yet.

"Hey August, I know I said you could come over and we could finally hang out but something came up and I didn't get a chance to let my parents know…" Emma was suddenly interrupted by a voice behind her.

"Let your parents know what Emma?" David said coming up behind Emma

"Um hey Dad!" Emma said trying to pull all her thoughts together into a good excuse for why August was standing in the doorway.

"Emma why is August here and what did you neglect to share with us?" David said a little more sternly knowing that Emma was trying to come up with an excuse.

"Well you see I was just telling August that I couldn't have friends over and that I just forgot to tell you both that August and I were put on a project team together for school" Emma lied through her teeth.

"Emma we don't' have time for one of your schemes. August you need to go. I'm sorry that Emma had you come over here for no reason, have a good day" David said quickly as he shut the door.

"Emma we will deal with this later but right now we have a little bit more important things to worry about. Now, Upstairs now!" David said as he placed his hand on Emma's back to gently guide her toward the stairs.

OUAT

As the three began to walk to their car David and Snow made sure to sandwich Emma between the two of them so that they could watch her from all sides.

Grumpy had called to let them know that Emma's former foster dad had in fact crossed the town line and that he and the other dwarfs would be keeping watch to make sure he or anyone else who tried to enter was kept out.

They arrived at the loft with all of their things and looked around feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything that had happened that day.

Mary Margret told Emma to take the upstairs room while she and David would take the room on the main floor.

Thankfully some of the Charming's other friends had come over earlier that day and helped them move their beds and mattresses over to Snow's loft so that way they would be able to sleep there tonight. Tomorrow Charming would go and bring over some of the other furniture but fortunately Snow already had furniture that they had never moved over to David's place.

They were all exhausted so they immediately went to bed as soon as they arrived.

OUAT

The next morning Emma got up as always and headed down stairs but she was surprised to look around and not see her parents. The curtain was still drawn to their room and Emma wasn't about to venture to find out if they were there or not.

She figured that the only logical thing to do would be to grab some cereal and catch the bus to school so that's exactly what she did. She figured though that she should probably leave a note for her parents so they didn't panic when they went up to her room and didn't find her.

Mom and Dad, I went ahead and took the bus to school when I didn't find your guys up this morning. I will be checking my phone so I know if Dad's going to pick me up or if I need to take the bus home.

Emma

With that she was out the door.

OUAT

David woke up to see his wife lying next to him. He loved how peaceful she looked when she slept. He then picked up his phone and was shocked to see that it said 10:30am. He and Snow never slept in like this but after yesterday they were exhausted.

David decided to get up and make coffee for him and Snow as well as check on Emma. When he got to the kitchen though he found Emma's note and immediately ran back to his room to put on clothes and go to school to pick her up.

David was so worried about Emma that he hadn't realized how much noise he was making. It all woke Snow out of a sound sleep.

"Charming, what's going on?" Snow said trying to open her eyes

"Emma went to school this morning on the bus! We forgot to tell her she wasn't going today" David said pulling on his other shoe. "I'm going to pick her up right now"

"Be careful David!" Snow pleaded

"I will" and with that David was out the door.

OUAT

As Emma sat on the bus she continued to try and figure out why her parents weren't up when she was. They hadn't mentioned anything yesterday about taking a day off so it really didn't make sense. Maybe she should have woke them up.

The bus arrived at school and Emma started to walk toward the front doors when she saw one of the dwarfs standing at the door checking ID's. This was a new development and Emma knew it was because of her. She really hated the special treatment.

"Princess" Docs said as he bowed his head at Emma

"Doc, you can call me Emma."

"Okay, Emma, may I see your ID?" Emma complied and handed it over.

"Thank you Prince…I mean Emma. You may proceed"

Emma was about to head in before she decided to get a little intel of her own.

"Hey Doc, has my old foster dad or anyone else tried to come back into town?"

"Not that I know miss. But nothing happened last night I can assure you that. We will make sure you're safe" Doc said with a grin.

"Thanks Doc! Have a good day!" Emma said before heading inside the school. Emma knew she was going to end up giving into her own curiosity and she started to craft a plan of how she could sneak past Doc to try and get herself to the town line to find out what her foster dad wanted.

OUAT

David got to the school and pulled into the first spot he could find. And headed straight for the door. Once he got there he was stopped by Doc.

"Well hello there your highness! I've been keeping an eye on your little princess and she is doing just fine!"

"So she's here?" David asked slightly out of breath

"Of course! She came on the bus with the other kids this morning!"

"Oh Thank God!" David said as he leaned over and put his hands on his knees.

"What's wrong your highness?"

"We weren't going to have Emma go to school today but Snow and I completely forgot to tell her so we were asleep when she got up this morning." David continued "I was afraid something may have happened to her on her way here"

"Well no need to worry sir! She's safe and sound. I'm sure she would rather be here then with you guys at home anyway" Doc reassured him.

"You're probably right" David said feeling relieved, "But I should probably still talk to her and let her know I'll be picking her up after school and explain why her mother and I were asleep this morning"

OUAT

"Emma Swan to the office. Emma Swan to the Office" rang over the intercom between classes. Emma figured that it was one of her parents coming to pick her up and she was too late to try and sneak out.

She walked toward the office and saw her dad sitting outside the office on the little bench that was there. He immediately rose to his feet when he saw her.

"Emma honey I'm so sorry about this morning! You're mother and I weren't going to have you to go school today but we forgot to tell you in all the craziness yesterday!" David hugged her tight feeling a relief that she was okay

"Dad it's fine! I got here safe, you don't have to worry." Emma tried to reassure her dad

"Okay now you can choose, you can finish out the day and I'll pick you up later or you can come home with me now, it's totally up to you"

Emma debated her options. She wasn't a huge fan of school so part of her would love to go home and see if she could get her parents to finally let her watch TV. But then she remembered her plan to go and find the foster dad who came to David's and she knew she had to stay because she would never be able to get out and complete her mission at home.

"It's all good dad, I'll stay here, I mean, I'm already here right?" Emma kinda laughed.

"Alright sweetheart I'll be here at the end of the day to pick you up okay?"

"Okay Dad"

"I love you Emma" David said as he kissed the top of her head

"Dad, stop it! I gotta get back to class I'll see you later" Emma said waving at her dad.

David watched Emma until she went around the corner and then he headed back to his car.