A/N: Sorry about the (albeit comparatively short) delay everyone! The good news is that part of the reason is that I got a lot more writing done so now I've got roughly four more chapters written and an additional two or three outlined. So bar any little delays like this one, the regular updates should keep going for a while yet.

Thanks for reading and commenting all y'all lovely folks and please enjoy :)

"Alright." Emma tapped her phone's screen and slid it over to the middle of the table. "We're recording."

Dawn cleared her throat and leaned forward a little. "My name is Dawn, I'm one of the fairies." She hesitated. "Should I just tell you about the fire or everything or..."

"Just start from the beginning."

"Yeah. Okay." Dawn shifted in her seat. "I guess that would be when you and the others returned from Neverland. Everyone was still adjusting to the curse breaking, and then the new curse hit and we were all back in the Enchanted Forest. And on top of that, we had to help the Lost Boys find a place to stay and settle in, too. It was a lot of work, a lot of stress for everyone." She gave a weak smile. "But we fairies are here to help, so Blue figured we could use some of our fairy dust a bit more... pro-actively, I guess. Not just wait for someone to wish upon a star or come to us for help. I mean, we had lived for years with 21st century technology and then suddenly we were back there without toilets or electricity or anything. If we could try to make up for that with our magic, we should.

"And then the curse broke again, and we got back here." Dawn's face darkened. "Blue decided it would be best to stop using the fairy dust as much, since we were back in modern times an all. But– but why shouldn't we help people? There were still a lot of people who needed our help and there was still a lot we could do even here in Storybrooke." She licked her lips, eyes fixed on the table. "So I did it on my own. Just... you know, people who would have asked, but maybe didn't think their problem was big enough for us to care about."

"Just what kind of problems are we talking about here?" Emma asked.

"Normal, small things. Nothing that would hurt anyone. Someone wanted their rosebush to do better. Others wanted to find some old trinkets they had lost. Stuff like that."

"People didn't ask for more?"

"Of course they did, but there's a limit to what our magic can do, and for bigger wishes, the price you pay isn't just the fairy dust. People understood that. Or, at least they usually did." She took a deep breath before continuing. "There was this one man who wanted me to make him young again. That's not possible even with a lot of fairy dust, so the best I could do was to make him look young for a short time, maybe a few hours. He started shouting at me and telling me that I could, but I just wouldn't, and he kept following me and shouting even after I left his house."

Mulan's picked up her pen and opened her notebook. "Does he have a name?"

"Oh!" Dawn's eyes widened. "No, no, there's really no need to talk to him. He wasn't threatening or anything. Or– I mean– he was threatening, but, well, just when I was about to fly back to the convent, Killian showed up and talked him down. I think he – the man, not Killian – was just drunk or sad or something."

"Wait," Emma said, "Killian?"

"Yes."

"Killian... Jones," Emma repeated incredulously. "As in Captain Hook."

Dawn looked like she wished she could sink through the floor. "Yes. Look, I– I know what he did to to Ruby, but this was before that. He was supposed to have turned good, wasn't he? He had helped you all to get to and from Neverland, he had brought you back; we're supposed to give people second chances!"

"What did he do?" Mulan asked.

"Nothing. I mean, nothing bad. He said he had been nearby and heard yelling and come to see if he could help. Then he said he knew what I was doing and that it was admirable and that he would like to help too." Dawn paused, her jaw tightening and brows knitting into a frown. "So I let him. I still had another person I had planned to visit that day so we both went there. We talked on the way but he mostly stayed behind when we got there." Another pause. "He'd show up on my trips more and more the next few weeks, usually just happening to be close by."

"Very convenient," Emma muttered.

"After a while, he wanted to help out even more, to learn to use the fairy dust and everything, but I told him I couldn't do that for him. Eventually, he got really insistent about it. Really insistent."

"Physically?"

"Yes. He had been arguing with me about it more and more–"

"When was this?" Mulan interjected.

Dawn frowned, her eyes losing focus for a moment. "I'm not sure. Maybe... a week or so before the library fire. Anyway, he just wouldn't take no for an answer that day. Eventually he shoved me up against a wall and said he'd let Blue know what I had been doing. And he didn't let me go until I gave him some of my fairy dust and promised not to tell anyone about him. Otherwise Blue would be the least of my problems," she finished, her voice growing shakier at the end.

"That sounds about right," Emma mumbled, sharing a look with Mulan. "Did you talk to him at all after that?"

Dawn shook her head, not looking up. "I tried to forget the whole thing after that. I stopped doing my rounds entirely and mostly stayed at the convent. It wasn't until about a week ago that I saw him again, and when I left the note at Granny's. He was standing in an alley near the diner, looking over there with his spyglass. Then you walked out," she looked at Emma, "and it was clear he had been spying on you. That's when I wrote that note."

"And in that note you said–" Emma pulled out the note in question– "you had information about the fire. What was it?"

"I think Killian was the one who started that fire. Everyone knows he doesn't get along with Rumplestiltskin, and the fire was magical, right? He must have used the fairy dust to start it. And, ah... I think he might have figured out how to use magic to look like Regina." She sighed. "That first day, I might have given a pretty good explanation when we talked about that man who wanted to get younger. Also, when I went to meet you by the Toll Bridge, he got to me on the way there, but he was disguised as Regina, and he told me to keep quiet and not talk to the police."

"If the person looked like Regina, how can you be sure it was Hook?" Mulan asked.

"Who else could it be? He must have seen me leave the note or hear you or Ruby talk about it, and he obviously didn't want me to tell anyone. Of course it could have been Regina, but what reason would she have had?"

Emma didn't argue, but she wasn't convinced. It definitely wasn't as strong evidence as she had hoped for.

"Anyway, I realized I had dropped my phone so I went back to get it, which is when I ran into you."

"And you pretended to be Regina because..."

"I didn't think anyone would see me, but if they did, well, people had already pretended to be her so I figured..."

"So you pretended to be the arsonist instead."

"That sounds pretty stupid when you put it like that," Dawn winced.

A short silence followed. Looking over to Mulan, Emma found her frowning at her notes.

"You said you made that note when you noticed Hook spying on Emma. But that didn't give you any new information about the fire, right? Why did that make you contact us?" Mulan asked.

"I thought he might be planning something else. I didn't know what, just that he might hurt her, or maybe Ruby. So I hoped I could contact you without him finding out, and maybe you'd lock him up without me having to tell Blue about any of this," she ended with a sad smile.

"But you already knew he was dangerous before you saw him that day."

"Look, he was scary when he pushed me up against the wall but he didn't–"

"I'm talking about the library fire," Mulan cut her off, a sharp edge to her tone. "If you thought he was behind it, why did you wait until you thought Emma was in danger?"

Some of the color drained from Dawn's cheeks. "I don't– I mean, she is the sheriff and if Killian wanted to hinder the invest–"

Mulan interrupted her again. "Why do you think Hook set fire to the library?"

"He and Rumplestiltskin has a lot of history, right? He– he probably wanted to get back at him–" she stammered.

"Why not the pawn shop, then? Rumplestiltskin doesn't run the library, after all," Mulan continued.

"He and Belle are together, so I– I figured Hook wanted to hurt her to get to Rumple." She gave Emma a wild, pleading look. "I really don't understand–"

"If he wanted to hurt Belle, he could have done it at any point between the fire and when you left your note. But you didn't care enough about Belle to say anything until Emma was at risk." Mulan paused, her jaw set and eyes hard as flint. "Or am I missing something here?"

"I– I wasn't–" Dawn stammered as tears began to form in her eyes. "I didn't want to get involved in any of that. And he is the Dark One; he can take care of his own, right? I didn't want anyone to get hurt, I– I just–" her voice cracked and she wiped her eyes with a shaky hand.

"But Belle wasn't worth whatever Blue or Hook might do to you." Mulan couldn't hold back a scoff. "Emma was."

Trying her best to collect herself, Dawn took a deep breath. "I didn't think he would actually hurt anyone. The library was empty when it burned, so I figured he just wanted to make a statement. Then when I saw him stalk you I thought maybe he wanted to trick you or mess up your investigation."

"Even though you knew he had fairy dust?" Emma asked.

"You can't kill someone with a disguise spell, and I doubt he did anything more than set fire to some fairy dust at the library. I was more worried he'd try to manipulate you than physically hurt you." She took a shaky breath and closed her eyes. "And I know I'm wrong about that too. I heard about what happened to Ruby in the harbor."

"Well, on that note, do you know anything about freezing spells? To stop people from moving?"

Dawn opened her eyes, clearly confused. "Why? It's a pretty simple spell, but it isn't something you can just figure out on your own."

"Did you teach Hook that?"

"Of course not."

Emma placed the old pages they had found in Hook's boat on the table. "Do these mean anything to you?"

Dawn's eyes widened even as she slowly shook her head. "No. I have that in my spell book, but I never showed Killian that. I didn't teach him any spells at all."

"So these are instructions for a spell?"

"Yes?" Dawn leaned over to get a closer look. "These pages are about the freezing spell you mentioned. Like I said, it's a pretty simple spell." She let out a disappointed noise. "Looks like someone ripped them out of a book."

Emma waited for Dawn to connect the dots, but when that didn't happen, she added, "do you have your spell book with you?"

"Of course, I always–" Dawn abruptly cut herself off, her face growing pale again. "No. No, no. I told you, I never showed him it. I barely even picked it out of my bag when he was around."

"Did he know you had it?"

"He– he might have. I might have mentioned it," Dawn said with a weak voice.

"Can we take a look at it?"

Although hesitant at first, Dawn agreed with a stiff nod, eventually producing a small leather case on the table. It was neatly closed with a small leather band, tied together on one side. She undid the knot and pulled out the book, again hesitating for a moment before opening it and thumbing through it until she stopped with a gasp. Several pages were ripped out, very clearly matching the pages that already lay on the table.

"He must have taken it while I wasn't looking," she croaked as tears began to well up. "One of the first times, too." She looked up with rising horror. "What did he do? Was this after he shot Ruby?"

"He used that spell on me," Emma said tonelessly. She didn't want to be sucked back into those memories right now. "The day after you left your note, he froze me and tried to force me to come with him, but Ruby stopped him."

"T-The day after my note?" Dawn said, her voice cracking. "I didn't know– I didn't think he would–" she stammered.

As Dawn began to sob openly, Emma sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. This had not gone according to plan. She tapped the pause button on her phone and got to her feet.

"How about we take a break," she muttered. "I'll... get you some water."

Emma closed the door behind her and walked up next to Mulan who stood by the one-way mirror, looking into the room with her arms crossed.

"Well." Emma took a sip of her lukewarm coffee. "That was a lot."

"Yeah."

Inside the room, Dawn had stopped crying and was now just staring blankly at the table, sniffling occasionally.

"Any thoughts?"

Mulan sent her a pointed glance. "I think you heard my thoughts pretty clearly in there." She turned back towards the room. "I don't know enough about this world's laws to know what we should do with her, though."

"Honestly, I don't either. Even without all the magic and her being a fairy, this case is already giving me a headache," Emma muttered. "And of course, we don't have a real court or anything like that either."

"Are we going to keep her as a suspect?"

Emma shrugged. "For what? Shooting magic at me in the forest? We probably could, but I'm not sure it's worth it. Lots of paperwork, lots of politics. Besides, she has given us a lot more dirt on Hook."

"Eventually," Mulan scoffed.

"Yeah." Emma looked down into her coffee cup, watching the dark liquid swirl around in it. "I'm not sure if it's criminal what she did, waiting to tell us." She looked up again, shaking her head. "This is starting to feel like it's above my pay grade. Maybe the town council can come up with something, or let Blue deal with it."

Mulan frowned. "I thought you didn't want Blue bypass you like that."

"I don't. But I think that might be the least crappy solution for everyone." When Mulan didn't look convinced, Emma turned to her. "Look, if we want to keep this police force running, we need the people in town to trust us and to come to us when someone's breaking the law instead of taking care of it themselves. It doesn't matter how much we stick to the law if no one else believes we will."

"And you think letting her go is going to help with that?"

"I didn't say we'd let her go. I'm just saying, locking up a fairy won't be popular. You said it yourself when I figured out she was a fairy in the first place."

"I'm starting to reevaluate that," Mulan mumbled.

Emma sighed. "Look.." She sighed again. "I don't know. I can't just do what's popular – obviously – but if I completely ignore it, this whole town might just go to shit again."

Mulan's expression softened a little. "You're not in charge of the whole town, Emma. And if the people here don't like how you run things, they can just elect someone else, right?"

"I... yeah." Emma managed to muster a smile. Still, she couldn't help but wonder how many people saw her as the Savior and not the sheriff.