Sidney walked as fast as he could towards the car, after he left Regina's office. He was going to take immediate action, that impossible woman would surely thank him later, he reasoned. The file, containing all the information he could find about Emma Swan, he would use to publish a frontpage article. This way he would ruin her reputation, before she even had the chance to build one up. And then the mayor maybe finally would see his worth. And maybe then he would be able to call her his…

After the conversation with Graham about his job offer, Emma really needed to clear her mind to be able to make a decent decision. She asked Ruby for the best places to go hike. While she was in Storybrooke, why not explore the town and it's environment, she reasoned. Ruby could agree with that and gave her some ideasof nice routes and places to explore Heck, if she wouldn't be needed in the diner, she would've probably have joined her! The blonde took her red leather jacket and went towards the bug. While entering the bug, she noticed that the pocket of her jacket was hindering her and that it probably contained something the size of a human fist. Her hand went inside her pocket and she retrieved an apple. Immediately her mind drifted of to Regina… She remembered the kiss and softly smiled, also while refusing to do anything cliché like touching her lips. Maybe everything would turn out to be alright after all, she thought. And she drove the bug towards the docks.

So Storybrooke had a beach, a harbor, a park and woods? That seemed to be quite nice in her books, this would mean she would have different interesting places to go to for when she would decide to run. She would make sure to explore all that Storybrooke would have to offer. The grilled cheeses in the diner being her favorite, but sharing a first place with Henry and the mayor herself. How on earth would she explain that to Henry? Would she even explain in to him? She decided that it was too soon to tell him anything and first see how this thing between her and his adoptive mother evolved.

She had packed some sandwiches for lunch and decided one of the benches would be the perfect spot to enjoy her meal. Before she even had the chance to take a bite, a dalmatian was nudging her knee with it's head and was hopefully looking in the general direction of her sandwich. "I'm sorry boy, but that's mine. Emma doesn't share food!", she laughed, but at the same time being quite serious about it, she really didn't like to share food.

"Good to know!", a soft male voice uttered somewhere behind her. Emma looked around and frowned when she saw the ginger haired man, he introduced himself, "The name's Archie!". He said, "You must be Emma?" Emma scoffed, "Am I this known in this town already?". Archie smiled, "And that's Pongo! The dog trying to steal your food.", he explained. Emma smiled carefully, "He's that hungry?". "That one's always hungry! Even when he just ate, he still acts like got nothing at all. His stomach seems to be some kind of bottomless pit.", Archie laughed. Emma grinned, "He's a lot like me then!". To which the ginger haired man laughed even harder, "I'm afraid so, of ypu put it like that! And to answer your question from earlier, I know you because of Henry. He talks about you a lot recently. And you're also the only new face in town.".

Emma's penny dropped, "So you're the one giving him therapy?". "Guilty as charged", the therapist smiled. "So how are you, adapting to Storybrooke? Rumor has it, you're staying in town?". Emma looked away, "I might, I probably will….". She sighed, deflated a bit, "Yeah, I'm staying. Not sure how I feel about that yet, though.". Doctor Hopper seemed to understand, "Well, if you ever want to talk about it…". The blonde looked him right in the eyes and felt some kind of sympathy for the man grow. He was genuinely being friendly, which didn't happen towards her a lot, but more and more lately. She softly smiled, "Yeah, I know where to find you, doc!". Archie sniggered softly, nodded and walked away with Pongo following him, wagging his tail.

In the mayoral office Regina was feeling quite irritated. She felt like being stuck between wanting what's best for Henry and what she thought was best for her. Meaning, driving the savior out of town and being a total selfish bitch. But she realized, who was she kidding? Since that kiss she felt her anger towards the woman resolve and felt like actually caring a bit somehow. That same woman who had also talked to Henry, bringing him back a bit towards her. She sighed, deciding she would try to trust the process, however it might turn out, but it felt like to much. Trusting someone or something has never been easy for the brunette. Let alone trusting the one who might be able to break her curse. And maybe, probably, her life was on the line too. She always was used to having a certain degree of control, here she had none whatsoever. She should push the blonde away, but then, her heart just wasn't in it! The brunette felt the frustration build up, slammed her fist on the desk, but didn't knew what to do with the rest of that pent up energy. She sighed again, decided the blonde wasn't a threat for the moment. She growled, did some breathing in and out, trying to calm herself down and continued her paperwork for the day, hoping that she could shift all her attention towards the task at hand.

Later that afternoon, Emma found herself back at Granny's. Mary Margareth joined her at the table, asking her how her day went. "Explored the harbor a little and met Archie", Emma said. Mary Margareth told her about her day at school and a bit about how and why she introduced Henry to the book. And she also mentioned that she didn't seem to know where it came from, it must have been pointlessly lying around in her loft, gathering dust, she reasoned. "Do you still stay at the BB?", she asked out of the blue. Emma told her she did and promptly was invited to be the pixie haired women's roommate, if she wanted to and if she was planning to stay in thetown. The teacher confessed that she found it quite lonely sometimes and that she wouldn't mind Emma keeping her company, since she felt somewhat of a connection between them and found her pleasant to be around. Emma promised her she would think about it. They kept talking while they had dinner together and eventually Emma went back to the BB. But not without noticing that a creepy guy was eying Mary Margareth, the pixie haired woman told her it was the town's doctor and that they had a date once, that failed miserably. Emma didn't need to hear the details, didn't care for it also, so she left, claiming she needed the sleep.

At the mansion, Henry came home to his mom preparing dinner. "Mom, I'm home!", he said while entering the kitchen. "What's for dinner?", he asked while looking up at his mother. "Your favorite", she said quite wary. She clearly was worried about something, so he gave her a hug. She went trough his hair while he was holding her and asked if he had homework. "Yeah, I do! But I'll need help with some of it.", he mentioned. "We'll look into that after dinner. First do whatever you can do by yourself, dear.", the brunette said. "Can we talk then too?", he was looking up towards her with a hopefull glint in his eyes. With that question he had her attention. "I would like to talk about Emma, I'd like to see her sometime this week. Can we talk about that?", he said, not knowing how his mom might perceive that question. "Yeah, we can talk about that.", the brunette said silently and directed her eyes towards the food, but her mind was drifting off elsewhere.

Henry went to his room and after the easy parts of his homework where done, he decided that his mom maybe might not be comfortable with letting him being alone with the blonde woman. So, he would ask his mother to invite her for dinner sometime or at Saturday, in the afternoon. While his mom was doing some work, the blonde could entertain him. Win- win! He could show her his room and talk a bit about the book maybe. That seemed like a plan! So when his mother called for dinner, he took a seat at the table. Regina scooped up a bit of everything on their plates and they ate in silence. He noticed there was a lot on his mother's mind and hoped she might talk about it later this evening, but he wasn't sure she would.

Regina's mind seemed to be quite occupied indeed. By one person exactly, Emma Swan. She wondered what her angle was, but she couldn't think or find anything that would make her say no towards Henry's request. He wanted to see her more. That might complicate things, but only if she and the blonde woman ended up being alone together. She needed to avoid that to happen, she reasoned.

Once dinner was over, she cleared the table to do the dishes, while Henry retrieved the homework he needed some help with. For her it was some basic math, but Henry appreciated her explaining it to him patiently, trying to understand the logic behind how she got towards the solution. So she didn't mind. When they finished his homework, she dreaded the subject to come, but she decided to mention it first. "So you wanted to talk about Miss Swan?, she drawled out. He straightened up and looked her in the eyes, "I would like to see her more often, but if you want to be there with us, it's fine, really. We could ask her for dinner sometime this week? Or invite her on a Saturday? Then you can work and she can keep an eye on me?", he blurted out all at once. Regina knew he probably had thought about it a lot and promised him she would work something out with the blonde, which irronically would end up with them both being alone together again, so she could discuss all the practicalities without anyone easedropping or disturbing them. Henry seemed to be content and when it was time to go to bed, she read him a story and kissed him goodnight when he barely could keep his eyes open.

She went downstairs, sighed and was determined to get it over with. Like ripping a band aid off. She texted the blonde, asking her if they could talk tomorrow about Henry.

"Sure, what time?"

"During lunch. I'll order us something at Granny's. I suppose I can trust you to be able to pick it up?"

"Yeah! No problem! See you tomorrow, Madam Mayor!"

"See you tomorrow then, with lunch, my office. Goodnight, Miss Swan!"

"Goodnight, Madam Mayor!"

Regina sighed again, deeper this time, hoping the conversation would be easy and noticed that she was being quite nervous about it already. She would see what tomorrow would bring and went upstairs to go to bed. Sleep didn't came that easy, but it eventually did.

Later in the evening, quite close to midnight, while the night was pitch black with the lights in the street being the only means of visibility, some lights in the Storybrooke Daily Mirror office where still on, the noise of the presses running being the only sign of life. Busy printing the newspaper that would be available in the morning to everyone in town. Sidney smirked when he held one of the first finished newspapers in his hands. This would set things straight, he thought, this would get the blonde out of town and get him closer to what he desired most…