Emma had gone out of her way to avoid David Nolan after his miraculous recovery. It wasn't as though he was bad guy; from what she heard around town, he seemed to go out of way to be kind and generous. But something about the way he looked at her put her off. It was too intimate, too emotional, and always made her uncomfortable. Shortly after his release from the hospital he'd made several attempts to befriend her, but Emma had brushed him off every time. Bitchy? Maybe. But being around him made her feel exposed and scrutinized.
Right now through, she didn't have the option of giving him the cold shoulder. She wanted Flora Xue freed and reunited with her brother, and she needed David to get that done. The instant he learned of Regina's threat to have Conner sent away, he whipped out his phone and somehow got the previous public defender to agree to foster Conner. The sheriff's department handled child custody cases in Storybrooke, not the mayor, and since that night Henry took all his friends into the woods looking for evidence, Graham had been noticeably less willing to do whatever Regina whispered in his ear.
Mahmud Rahim was a semi-retired lawyer who lived with his son Ali and daughter-in-law Nur in a quaint townhouse a few blocks off Main Street. Apart from the on-going legal battle between his old friends, the Thorne family, with their brother-in-law, Mr. Gold, over their daughter's life support, Mahmud didn't have much else going on and was more than willing to take in a kid with nowhere else to go. He had the town's respect and had raised three boys mostly on his own. His eldest taught at Storybrooke High School; his middle son worked as a physical therapist at Storybrooke General Hospital; his youngest was a fisherman. All successful, all well-liked, all upstanding citizens. Whatever objections anyone could have against Dawn Thorne, they didn't apply to Mahmud Rahim. Even Regina had to concede that.
Conner was grateful that Mahmud had welcomed him into his home, and after the previous disaster, he was determined not to mess up this second chance. The day he had to pack up and leave Dawn's apartment, he apologized to her for being so difficult. Dawn simply told him that she understood he was going through rough time, and that maybe she hadn't been the right person to take care of him after all. He made sure to have Pippa a hug before he left.
Emma escorted him to his new home, but he noticed that she seemed distracted.
Mahmud, Ali, and Nur greeted them warmly when Emma dropped Conner off. Conner had already met Mahmud at the police station, so Mahmud made the introductions. Ali and Nur were a happily married couple in their late-twenties, about the same age as Emma, though they didn't have children yet. Ali looked nearly identical to his father, without the grey hairs and wrinkles and the fact that he had dark green eyes instead of his father's brown. Nur had a warm smile, lovely despite her slightly crooked teeth, her face framed from a violet hijab with a burgundy floral pattern.
"It's nice to meet you Conner," Ali welcomed as he shook Conner's hand.
Nur said, "I hope you're not too big a fan of pork; I can't cook it because it's haram."
"It's...what?" Conner blinked.
"We're Muslims and that comes with certain rules," Mahmud explained. "Basically haram means forbidden and halal means allowed."
"But pork is the best!" Conner protested. Ali and Nur exchanged patient smiles. "Last year on my birthday my sister made this pork stir fry with-" He sobered immediately. Thinking of Flora and what she was going through hurt more than anything else. In a more subdue toned, Conner continued. "Nevermind. I'm fine with eating something else."
The adults become alarmed by his sudden despondency, but they knew now was not the right time to address it. He needed to get settled in before he was even close to being ready to deal with the emotional distress of being separated from his sister.
Mahmud placed a hand on Conner's shoulder in a very fatherly way. "Thanks for bringing him over Deputy Swan. We can take it from here."
Emma nodded, then turned to Conner. "Good luck kid. And don't worry, something tells me everything's going to work out just fine."
Conner offered her a small, half-hopeful smile, which she returned before waving and walking back to her squad car. Emma drove to David Nolan's office next. Normally she wouldn't have bothered, but Regina's relentless pursue of inflicting as much misery on other people as possible had forced Emma to admit she needed as many allies as she could get. Especially after what Graham found in the woods.
Mary walked out of the grocery store with a large bag of feed for her birds, and as she moved to get into her car, someone grabbed her by the wrist. Startled, she looked around and saw Regina Mills glowering over her with barely-concealed contempt. For some reason the mayor had just always seemed to hate her.
"Can I help you Madam Mayor?" Mary sighed.
Regina took offense at her attitude, but she said, "I need a favor from you."
Surprised and suspicious, Mary replied, "Why should I do anything for you?"
"Let me guess, Henry has convinced you I'm the big bad Evil Queen?" Regina scoffed, though there was real concern in her expression. "I've been trying to show him that's not the case. Forget it, that's not what I came to talk about. I-"
"Save it, Regina," Mary interrupted. "You know, I used to defend you. People said you were cold and unfeeling, but I stood up for you. I told them you just had a lot on your plate and couldn't always be friendly, but deep down you were a good person, a loving mom, a caring mayor. But now I realize you're exactly what people always said you were." Regina's cheeks reddened, but Mary continued, "I know what you tried to do to the Xue family. Everybody knows."
At those words, Regina stiffed and looked around, wary of anyone that might be listening in on their conversation. "Everyone knows what, exactly?"
"How you tried to send Conner Xue away from Storybrooke, just like Ava and Nicky Zimmer," Mary's eyes glimmered with genuine anger now. She had been unsure about Emma taking them in at first, but after months of living with them and helping care for them, Mary almost felt like there were her kids too. "I don't think you care about those kids at all."
"I'm the only one trying to do what's best for them!" Regina snapped.
Mary raised her voice as well, "No you're not! Who do you think you're still fooling? You question Dawn Thorne's parenting but not your own? Henry was in the woods too, it was his idea, but you're the ideal mother? You just like hurting people."
Regina sneered, "Let's not forget the two insufferable brats of Miss Swan's were involved as well."
"Yeah, but Emma and I take responsibility for what our kids do. You never have," Mary retorted. "Henry runs away from you constantly, and you blame it on him. He doesn't listen to you, and you blame it on Emma. He accuses you being a literal evil witch, and you blame it on a damn book. Nothing is ever your fault, but the instant someone else makes a mistake you try to tear them down. The whole town is sick of you!"
By now both were flushed with the exertion from their argument, but Regina looked far more shaken up that Mary did. In truth Mary surprised herself with the intensity of her outburst, and a little embarrassed that she let herself get that explosive. Deep down, she realized, that was something more to her anger toward Regina that just the incident with the Xue siblings, or the twins, or even Ashley's baby. Regina had a pattern of separating people from their children, and something deep in Mary's gut, something she couldn't even begin to name, told her that Regina was capable of much worse.
Mulan, Aurora, and Ah Ping traveled through the forest that surrounded the royal palace in hopes of reaching Oswyna, the city of sorcerers. During her initial search for Aurora at the king and queen's behest, Mulan had learned of the place from a wandering witch who had once lived in the city, but had struck out on her own after quarreling with her parents. Oswyna had a questionable reputation as the refuge for outcasts, exiles, and those who lacked conventional morals, but no one could doubt that it had the greatest concentration of magic users in the realms, for good or ill.
During their journey Aurora relayed some tales she'd been told as a child of the mysterious city. Her adopted mothers had to travel into the city every once and a while when they were running low on supplies or needed help with some magical problem that they could not deal with themselves. But they never allowed Aurora herself to visit the city with them. They didn't even speak openly about the city, but sometimes at night, when they thought Aurora was asleep, she would listen in on them as they talked about the city. A handful of her neighbors had been to Oswyna as well, and were more willing to talk about it.
She heard rumors of dark sorcerers operating from the shadows, far from the observant eyes of any monarch or monastery; running from fame or infamy, responsibilities or revenge. Dark spells cast in the dead of night, some mysterious lights filling the night air with awe and visible from miles away. Reports of unexplained disappearances and unexplainable deaths.
Aurora kept the worst of these stories to herself, the once that used to keep her awake at night terrified of what she might see behind her eyelids; both from fear of scaring Ah Ping and from worrying Mulan. Mulan had wanted to leave Ah Ping in some village near the city so he would not have to enter it himself, until Aurora informed that they were no villages within fifty miles of the city. It would take them over a week to reach the city from the nearest village given the terrain; they didn't know how long they'd be required to stay, and after all that it would take another week to get back. At that rate they didn't have enough money to pay for Ah Ping to have decent lodgings and food, so Mulan was forced to take him with them. The remainder of their journey would take them through harsh, uninhabited land, and there was no telling what could happen to them until they reached the city of sorcerers.
David looked up nervously when the knock came to his door. Emma had arrived on time, wearing her signature red leather jacket and a bright yellow top that complemented her brown skin. His relief surprised him, as if he hadn't actually be sure she's show up. Of course she would. He'd only learned what kind of person she was by watching her from distance, due to her clear hostility toward him, but all evidence suggested she wasn't the kind of person who did things halfway. More importantly, unlike everyone else in town she wasn't afraid of Regina.
He was. David remembered the devastation Regina brought with her, both intentionally malicious and accidental. In a bittersweet way, he was almost happy Emma didn't have to grow up in the shadow of her grandmother's crimes. Still, from he could tell she had grown up alone and only started putting down roots when she arrived in Storybrooke.
"So, what have you got for me?" Emma started briskly.
David handed her a folder, "That's Flora's list of alibis. We've got a pretty good list of character witnesses too. The charges won't stick."
"But..." She had sensed the hesitation in his voice.
"The mayor and the DA can drag this case out for as long as they need too. Unless they somehow pay off the entire jury - and I doubt even those two are capable of that - the longer Flora sits in jail, the more disruptive this will be to her life." David explained.
Emma nodded, "And even if we prove Flora's innocence, Regina-" She paused, looking as through she had just said too much.
"I know Regina," David continued, "She's like a bulldozer that doesn't stop until she's flattened everything around."
"That's one way of putting," Emma replied with a half smile. "But I get the feeling we won't have to worry about Regina much longer."
"Don't underestimate her," David warned. "How's Conner?"
The smile slipped from Emma's face. "I don't know. I dropped him off with his new foster family this morning, but he seemed really upset when I left. I'm gonna called Mr. Rahim tonight and suggest he take Conner to therapy. I bet Henry'll be glad to know he's not the only kid who needs to see a shrink."
"Yeah, that's Regina son, right?" David asked. Emma nodded in confirmation. He wondered what parents Regina had taken him from when she cast the curse.
"Honestly," Emma continued, "I think the only person more edger to see Regina get what's to her than us, is Henry."
"Really? I know they don't really get along..."
Emma scoffed, "Oh, that's the understatement of the decade. I think she loves him, at least somewhat, but he really whats nothing to do with her. You know how I got to Storybrooke? Henry ran away from home to come find because he thought I was his birth mother. It took me ages to convince him I wasn't."
"But you still stayed in town?" David puzzled.
Emma shrugged, looking somewhat awkward now. "I only planned to stay a little while, to keep an eye on him. I seemed to be the only person he responded to, and I felt kind of responsible for him. Then I got a roommate, and a job, a couple of foster kids... So, here I am."
David found it incredible that she actually did. Maybe there was more to this curse that what Zelena told them.
"Okay, why to you do that?" Emma demanded, exasperated.
The question was such a non-sequitur, David started at her for a moment wondering what she was talking about. Finally he asked, "What do you mean?"
"You look at me like," Emma had a vague hand gesture, "like... Forgot it. Forget I said anything."
"Wait, have I been making you uncomfortable?" David's eyebrows flew up in surprise.
Emma's expression indicated that if she had fair skin it'd been bright red. "A little," she admitted. The look on David's face only increased that feeling.
"Jesus, I-I'm so sorry, I didn't realize..." David stammered.
"It's nothing," Emma insisted. "I should have talked to you instead of avoiding you. You just seem so...sad, I guess, and I don't know how to handle."
"I'm just dealing with a lot. It has nothing to do with you," David lied. There was no way he could tell her the truth, at least not yet. He hadn't even realized he was being so open with his emotions, and it made him what to kick himself. If Emma noticed it, did that mean Regina was onto him? The last thing he needed was for Regina to know he'd kept his original set of memories.
Emma shook her head, "Right. The memory loss, and getting uprooted from your home. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been so quick to judge."
"There's nothing to forgive," David told her sincerely.
When Emma got home, the kids were helping Mary feed the birds. Their face turned to worry as she approached. "Conner's gonna be fine," Emma began, since she knew that's what they were most worried about. "He's settling in with his new foster family, and they seem like really nice people. You can ask him about it at school on Monday."
They seemed a little more relaxed, but then Ava asked, "So are we in trouble too?"
"Oh, absolutely," Emma stated flatly. "You're grounded for a month with no TV or video games."
Nicky looked aghast, but Ava merely nodded with a grimace. Henry's plan to prove to prove Flora's innocent had yielded no results, and only served to get them all in trouble.
Mary added, "That sounds perfectly fair, considering all the worry you caused us."
"We're just trying to help Conner and his sister!" Nicky protested.
Emma nodded, "We understand, and we're proud of you for wanting to help your friend, but you put yourself in danger. This is the kind of thing you're suppose to leave to adults. Promise us you won't go into the woods alone at night again."
"We promise," the twins said in unison.
Emma pulled her kids into a hug and kissed the tops of their heads, "Please don't every scare me like that again. I don't know what I'd do if anything happened to you."
That night, after Ava and Nicky had gone to bed, Emma and Mary sat on the couch with mugs of hot chocolate with cinnamon, watching some old movie on television. During a commercial breaks, they talked about what had happened that day. Emma mentioned that she was worried about Conner and had found ground with David Nolan. Mary frowned when she heard this, then told Emma of what David had said to her that night at Granny's. They both agreed he was a strange guy, but probably harmless. Then Mary recounted her encounter with Regina, which set off alarm bells in Emma's head. They both agreed she wasn't harmless at all.
As the movie came back on, Emma, without thinking about it first, turned to Mary and blurted out, "When all of this is over, I think I want to adopt the twins."
