A/N: For my readers who found the first chapter interesting and are moving on to the 2nd one, thank you endlessly for the support on my first Halloween theme story ever. :) You guys are amazing! I hope you continue to enjoy it. Happy reading!
Emma walked around the town, her hands tucked inside her jacket pockets as a cold chill of air blew in her direction. A few eyes looked in her direction, but that didn't bother her. She was used to people looking at her.
Her feet walked her as far as the diner Henry had pointed out on their drive into town. She looked up at the neon light sign that read Granny's Diner. It flashed bright red, even in the daytime.
There didn't seem to be a bar anywhere in this damn town, so the diner would have to do. Emma's pale hand reached for the cold door handle, her fingers gripping tightly, when-
"On your left!"
Emma turned to the female voice that blew in her direction, followed by a slender brunette, jogging along her left side, casually dressed in a pair of running shorts and a light gray hoodie. The same girl she had spotted outside the bed and breakfast window. The girl showed up spontaneously, that Emma jerked back, her eyes wide.
"Hey! Sorry!" The girl huffed out with a few heavy breaths. A smile to her. "I didn't mean to scare you." The brunette eyed Emma with curiosity. "You're new in town, aren't you?"
"Just arrived today." Said Emma, watching the girl as she grabbed one of her ankles and stretched her leg as far back as she could.
"Ruby." The girl extended her hand, feeling Emma's hand grip hers immediately. "And yeah, I know. I could smell a new arrival a mile away." She chuckled.
The corner to Emma's lip tilted into a private smirk, releasing Ruby's hand. "Emma." She introduced herself.
"Emma," Ruby echoed, testing out the new stranger's name. "Is it just Emma or do you have a last name to go with it?"
This time, Emma felt free to smile. "Swan." She said.
"Swan," Ruby echoed once again, grinning from ear to ear. "I like it. You can tell a lot about people and their names, you know?"
Emma grinned. "Is that so?"
"Oh, yeah! For example, yours is very simple yet mysterious." Ruby twirled one of her hoodie's strings with her finger in a playful manner that Emma's eyes took notice of before they looked into the girl's blue eyes. "Are you here for a late breakfast?"
Emma looked into the diner as she turned her head in its direction. "Well, to be honest, I was aiming for a bar, but I guess a coffee will do." She smiled.
"Early drinker?" Ruby's brow lifted.
"Is that a problem?"
Ruby shook her head and smirked. "Hey, one needs an early drink every now and again. It's five o'clock somewhere, right?"
Emma smiled, and Ruby nodded her head toward the diner.
"Come on. I think I still have a bottle in the back I can share."
"Wouldn't you get in trouble for that?" Asked Emma, her brow furrowed.
"Well, I could," Ruby shrugged carelessly. "But, I won't."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because I work here." Ruby winked and pulled open the door, stepping aside to allow Emma to enter first.
As Emma entered the diner, all pairs of eyes fell on her. It felt as if the diner turned silent for a moment, but then resumed to its normal chatter.
"Don't mind them. A lot of us aren't used to newcomers around here." Said Ruby, standing behind the counter and motioning to a free stool. "Have a seat. I'll go bring that bottle."
"On second thought," Said Emma, seeing Ruby jerk back. "I'll just have a coffee."
"Are you sure?" Ruby's head tilted.
Emma was sure. Not only because she had promised Regina she would 'try,' but she also promised herself that she would be a better wife. For Regina. And a better mother for Henry. Like she was before it happened. "Just a coffee will be fine." She smiles as she welcomes herself to an empty stool.
"Coffee it is." Ruby turned her back, reaching for the hot pot of coffee and a mug, while Emma looked around the diner, noticing Mr. Gold, the same man from earlier sitting at the end of the counter, raising his cup of coffee in Emma's direction, a smile to him.
Emma heard liquid pouring into the cup that had been placed before her, which made her give her attention back to Ruby. "Ruby," she called to the brunette, watching her place a small creamer before her and a plate of sugar cubes. "Who's that guy?" Emma nodded in Gold's direction without turning.
Ruby gave a quick glance in Gold's direction, seeing him too busy reading the morning paper. "That's Robert Gold. He's sort of… The owner."
Emma's hand brought down the creamery. "Of the diner?"
"Of the whole town." Ruby chuckled, and saw Emma's brows skyrocket. "He owns the only mansion around here. Creepy place, if you ask me."
"I take it you aren't a fan?" Emma drops one sugar cube inside her cup, hearing it slosh.
"No one is. He keeps raising the rent for everything around here. My grandmother has even thought about closing down the bed and breakfast because of it. It's outrageous how he keeps bringing up the prices. Even in here. Like that coffee you're drinking," she nods to the cup Emma sets down after having taken a sip. "Seven dollars."
Emma's eyes bulge out of her skull. She looks over at Gold in a quick glance and turns back to Ruby. "Well, I might just reconsider coming back in here or bringing my son in here, then."
"Oh, you have a son?" Ruby's face lights up, her eyes look down at Emma's left hand, spotting her wedding band. "So… You're married?"
Emma nods after taking another sip of her coffee. "Happily married for five years."
"That's a shame." Ruby spots Emma's eyes lock onto hers. "And here I thought, you were alone on this trip into town."
Emma locks her gaze with Ruby's, and wants to smile. She's ready to respond but her thought is interrupted by a police hat being tossed on the counter, right beside her, followed by a police officer, young, scruffy look and ruffled hair, joining her on the empty stool beside her.
"Hey, Sheriff." Ruby smiles his way. "Coffee?"
"Please, black, and as strong as you can make it." The sheriff breathes out.
"Coming right up." Ruby retreats into the kitchen.
Emma is taking a quiet sip of her coffee when she catches the Sheriff's gaze looking in her direction from out of the corner of her eye.
"Business or pleasure?" The Sheriff asked, seeing Emma turn her head in his direction.
"Excuse me?"
"The town." He smiles a friendly smile. "Are you here for business or pleasure?"
"Pleasure." Emma mutters into her cup as she takes another sip.
"Bringing the family?" He asked, noticing her ring.
Emma's eyes look down at her ring, following the officer's line of sight as she nods. "That's right. I was given the location of this town by a friend back in New York."
"New York, huh?" The officer's brows hit his hairline. "I didn't think we were very popular these days. Who's your friend? Maybe I know them."
"You wouldn't know them." Emma shakes her head reassuringly.
"You sound so sure." He adjusted in his stool. "Well, where's your family?"
Emma turns to face the officer. As a cop, she knows how it is with the line of questions, especially when she was the stranger in this town. "My wife and son are at the bed and breakfast. My wife's a lawyer, and I'm a cop, like yourself," she sees his brows lift once again. "Our schedules finally aligned to take some time off of work and spend some much needed time with our son, so, here we are. Although, I can't say everyone in this town has been friendly." She muttered that last bit into her cup, taking another sip.
The officer's line of sight looks over his shoulder at Gold, following Emma's nod. "Oh, I wouldn't worry about him. His bark is worse than his bite. Believe me." He smiles. "A fellow cop, you say?" He sees Emma nod. "We don't get many cops around here. In fact, I think you're the first to ever come around our neck of the woods. Are you looking to relocate?"
"No, just visiting." Said Emma. "Our life is pretty much in New York. My wife; she prefers it there."
"You gotta make the wife happy, right?" He chuckles, slapping along Emma's back, which makes her pause from taking her last sip of coffee. "Well, welcome. I hope you and your family will like it enough to visit us again sometime. I'm the Sheriff in these parts, as you can see." He points to the obvious star pinned to his breast pocket. "Anything you need, don't hesitate to look for me. Graham."
Emma looks down at the man's outstretched hand and shakes it with a kind smile to her. "Emma."
As Ruby steps out from the kitchen with a fresh pot of the darkest coffee imaginable, and Emma stands, reaching into her back pocket for her wallet. "Thank you for the coffee, Ruby. It was the best I've had in a while." She smiles, withdrawing two five dollar bills.
"I don't know about that, but thank you." Ruby takes the money, and her eyes look up at Emma as she's walking toward the cash register.
Emma gently pushes Ruby's hand back with her change. "Keep it. I'm sure I'll be back for more coffee."
Ruby smiles. "Well, thank you. You're welcome back anytime."
Emma gives her last smile and heads toward the door.
"Let me know if I can ever interest you in that morning drink." Ruby calls out, seeing the corner of Emma's lip tilt upward before walking out of the door for good. She grins until she notices Graham's gaze trained on her. "What?"
"Ruby," Graham glares. "What have I told you about flirting with every fresh new face you see come into town?"
"No harm in flirting. Besides, this one's interested." Ruby grins.
"No. This one is married." Said Graham, and Ruby snorts.
"Anyone who comes in here asking for a morning drink is either having something emotional going on, or they like the drink a little too much. Her and this wife she speaks of, are clearly on the rocks. She wouldn't be here alone if that weren't so." She shrugs.
"And you're going to be the first in line to offer her a warm bed when shit hits the fan, right?" Graham shakes his head as Ruby's smirk tells him everything.
"Ms. Swan," The old woman from earlier greeted Emma with a smile. Her glasses at the tip of her nose. "I wasn't aware that you had stepped out."
"Just me. I needed some air." Emma smiled.
"Of course. Don't we all from time to time? Is your family-?"
"They're upstairs." Said Emma.
"Oh. Well, I do hope you enjoy your stay. Breakfast is always at seven thirty if you care to join in."
"Thank you." Emma nods and begins heading up the stairs.
"We also have a diner. It's owned by my granddaughter, Ruby. She would be more than happy to serve you and your lovely family." She smiles.
Emma nods. "We've met."
"Have you?" She adjusts her glasses.
"Just a few minutes ago, yes. She seems very…"
"Strong willed, I call it." The woman chuckles. "But don't mind her. She's harmless, I assure you. I'm Eugenia, by the way. I'm here to serve you or your family in anything that you might need."
Emma stood in thought, the gears in her head turning as she walked up to the woman's desk. "So, you must know the town pretty well, then?"
"Like the wrinkles on the back of my hand, yes." Eugenia smiles.
"Do you know of any place around here where we could take our son? You know, spend time together as a family."
"There's plenty of places. We do have a park just a few blocks away, near the school. There's also the beach, followed by the docks. We have a boat you could rent if you're into sailing."
The beach. They hadn't gone to the beach in such a long time. "Those sound great." Emma smiled. "Thank you." She said, heading up the stairs again.
"No problem. Oh, Ms. Swan…" Eugenia called out, seeing Emma turn in her direction. "Your wife…" How could she put it? "She's very…"
Emma's brow furrows. "Yes?"
"She seems very friendly. Very uh, regal. Doesn't she?"
"She has her moments." Said Emma. "Don't mind her if she ever comes off as private. We're just," she pauses. "We've been going through a rough time, and we've been meaning to get away to-"
"Get away from everything?" Eugenia smiled. "Of course. I understand. After my divorce from my one and only husband, I couldn't possibly remarry. It was too nasty, too exhausting to have to go through another divorce with someone else."
"How long were you married for?" Emma asked.
"Oh, Winston and I were married…" She counts on her fingers. "For a good forty years. Yeah, it was rough divorcing him after he broke my heart, but, in the end we both decided that it was for the best. He's much happier now that he's not with me."
Well, Regina and Emma weren't divorcing. That was the last thing Emma wanted, and she hoped Regina did, too. If it was the last thing she did, the last breath she took, she would hold her family together.
"Thank you." Emma gave the woman a small smile and moved up the stairs.
"Enjoy your stay." Eugenia murmured, turning her attention back to her book, until her eyes looked up at Emma once more.
"Mama!" Henry bounced off of Regina's lap to run and leap into Emma's arms, who quickly picked him up in her embrace.
"Hey, kid!" She smiled, her eyes taking in her son's new haircut. "Look at you! You look so handsome." She combed it over.
"Like a little prince?" Henry asked.
"Better." Emma grinned.
"Henry lost his airplane." Said Regina, standing up from the other bed and walking up to them. "He swears he placed it on the bed, but I already helped him look and it's nowhere to be found."
Emma's brow furrows as she looks at her son, her hand tucking inside of her jacket pocket. "Well, you are a lucky duck, because guess what?"
"What?"
Emma pulls out her hand and reveals Henry's toy airplane to him. "You did leave it on the bed."
"My plane!" Henry snatched it, holding it tightly close to his chest.
"Try not to do that anymore, okay?" Emma smiled, placing him down on the ground.
"Are we going to get ice cream now?" Henry beamed.
"Absolutely. But before we do that," Emma kneeled down to be at her son's level. "You, mommy and I will go down to the beach for the day. How about that?"
"Yay!" Henry exclaimed, rushed off by Emma to place on his shoes as she stood to her feet.
"Is that where you were just now? Down at that diner?" Regina asked her wife in a hushed voice.
"I needed some air. And some coffee." Said Emma.
Regina nodded before turning to their son and smiling. "You ready?" She asked him.
"Ready!" Henry leaped up, reaching for both of his mother's hands as they headed out the door.
Emma released Henry's hand to lock the door before catching up with them.
Henry loved the beach. It was his favorite place to be. Emma could recall a time her and Regina went to the beach when Henry was just a little bean, growing inside of Regina's belly. And right now, he was running around like crazy, flying his plane and landing it on the sand. The wind was blowing, but it wasn't a discomfort. The waves were picking up, but not dangerous enough to where they needed to be away from the location.
"Can I play near the water?" Henry asked, looking up at both his mother's for permission.
Emma and Regina exchanged a quick look.
"Maybe, some other time, sweetheart-"
"Go ahead, buddy."
Emma and Regina looked at each other again in question before Emma gave Henry one last nod and he ran off.
"Henry. Right where we can see you." Emma glared at him before sitting against a rock.
Regina's gaze remained on their son as she joined Emma to sit against the rock, feeling her scoot away a little. "You still can't stand to be so close to me?" She asked Emma.
"I was just giving you some space to sit." Said Emma.
Regina chuckles, and shakes her head. "How much longer are you going to keep holding that over my head, Emma?" She looks at Emma. "How many times do I have to tell you that nothing happened?"
Emma looked at Regina without saying a word, studying her eyes.
"I really don't want to talk about this now, Regina." Emma stands and walks two steps away from where they were sitting before Regina rushes to stand in front of her.
"That's your problem, Emma. You never want to talk about what happened. How are we supposed to move past this if you never want to talk about it?" Regina watches Emma look away toward the dancing waves. "You can't even look me in the eye anymore every time we have a conversation."
Emma's eyes are on Regina's again. "You call this a conversation?" She asked. "Talking about the time you almost fucked up and destroyed everything? Everything we built together."
"That wasn't-!" Regina wanted to shout out of the top of her lungs, but stopped as a pudgy looking man, unkempt came up to them, holding out his hand toward them.
"Hey, any of you's two got a quarter?" The man asked, slurring through his words.
Regina's brow furrowed, while Emma glared at him, but dug inside her pocket and reached for a quarter, placing it in the palm of his hand.
"You got anymore?" He asked Emma.
"No. Get the hell out of here." Emma said matter-of-factly. She sighed when finally the man walked away, leaving them be.
"Emma," Regina breathed. "I don't want to keep doing this with you. Okay? Now, we both came here to try and work things out. To give our son the best time of his life-"
"Where's Henry?" Asked Emma, looking over her wife's shoulder, not seeing Henry anywhere in sight.
Regina whipped around, seeing only sand and water. "I don't know," she murmured. "Henry?"
"Henry!" Emma walked along the beach, looking everywhere. Because where could he have gone? There wasn't anywhere to hide along this beach. "Henry, come on now, buddy. We didn't agree to play hide and seek."
"Henry!" Regina called out, anguish sparkling in her eyes.
"Henry!" Emma ran, and Regina was quick to run right behind her near the waves where he had been playing.
"Emma," Regina cried, looking along the water current. "Do you think he-?"
"No." Emma shakes her head, her brow frowned and worried. "No, no, Henry's- he's just hiding. He's a smart kid, he would never go deeper into the water without us by his side."
"Well, then where-? Henry!" Regina called out, time and time again. Tears sliding down her cheeks.
It wasn't until Emma ran further near the wet sand where she spotted Henry's toy plane. She looks at the wing in search of his name written on top of it. There it was. It was his plane.
"What is it?" Regina asked, standing behind Emma until she stepped closer. It wasn't until Emma turned around, exposing the plane that she gasped.
"It's his plane." Emma breathed, her eyes already irritated from held back tears.
"Oh, God- Henry!" Regina took off in a sprint, being followed by Emma.
Both searched and searched for Henry to no avail. The beach was endless and the water went on for miles into the horizon. They both had gotten so wrapped up in fighting that they hadn't even realized the sky had turned a little gray. The air had grown colder. Thicker. Emma and Regina had both run so much, until they reached the town, it hurt their lungs once Emma decided they had ran enough.
"Henry!" Regina cried out, not caring about the prying eyes of the town. All she could do was wrap herself in Emma's welcomed embrace as the blonde tried her best to calm her down.
"Regina, that's enough." Emma shushed, stroking the back of her wife's hair.
"Emma, we have to find him." Regina cried in a plea, feeling Emma's hands cup the sides of her face. "Please, we have to find Henry. We have to find our son."
"I know, I know," Emma nods, quickly wiping away a fallen tear of her own. "And we will."
"We have to find him, Emma. If something happened to Henry-"
"Nothing happened to him." Emma shook her head.
"I'll die, Emma. I promise you, I will."
"We will find him, okay? We'll find him. I promise you, we'll find him. He couldn't have gone far." Emma couldn't think of anything more to do than hug her wife. Hold the woman she loved as they cried together for the sudden disappearance of their son.
"Sheriff!" Emma breathed.
"Sheriff, please. You have to help us." Said Regina.
Graham shot up from behind his desk, watching in horror as Emma and Regina came storming into his station. "I'll help however I can. What seems to be the problem?" He asked.
"It's our son-" Said Emma.
"He's gone missing." Regina finished.
"Missing?" Graham quickly moved back to his computer, logging in.
"Yes, we- we were at the beach with him, he was playing in the sand and Regina and I were talking," Emma motions between herself and Regina. "And I don't know what happened, we- we just turned our backs on him for one minute, and he was gone."
"Alright. How long ago was this?" Graham asked.
"About an hour ago." Regina cried.
Graham's shoulders relaxed. "An hour ago? Well, then he's probably not missing."
"What?" Regina's brow furrows, as does Emma's.
"What are you talking about not missing?" Asked Emma, glaring his way.
"Look, you're a cop, right? You know the procedure-" Graham motioned toward Emma.
"Yes, I'm a fucking cop but what does this have to do with my son gone fucking missing?!" Emma shouted, the vein on her forehead ready to pop.
"Emma, please." Regina grabbed her wife by the arm.
"Normally, we can't report a person missing until it's been twenty-four hours." He watched as Emma ran her hands through her hair. "Now, I understand how you feel. I do, but believe me. This is a small town. You folks just arrived today. I'm sure your son just decided to go into town somewhere. Maybe back to the bed and breakfast."
"Are you kidding me?" Emma scoffed out a chuckle.
"No," Regina shook her head. "No, he- Henry wouldn't do that. He's a small child. He's barely five years old. He wouldn't go anywhere without our say so."
"There's always a first time for everything." Said Graham as calmly as possible. "Now, look, I understand this is the last thing you want to hear right now. As parents, I understand-"
"Do you?" Emma walked a step toward him, being stopped by her wife.
"Emma," Regina sighed, her eyes landing on Graham. "Sheriff. Please. Just, let us show you where he was playing. Please."
Graham could see the desperation in Regina's face, in Emma's too, but Emma's bared more anger than anything else at the moment. "Alright," he nodded, motioning toward the door. "Let's go."
