A/N: Hello everyone! I hope you're having a good weekend! And I hope these past few chapters are alright, I've been spending way less time than I usually do on chapters for other stories so that I'll be able to get them posted more quickly. I might have to do a short-stop and continue the story next year. I don't know how many people will want to read a Christmas story after Christmas Day is over :P I'll try to post more in the next few days but it's going to be busy!


Emma raced through the airport as quickly as she could. She had to dodge people constantly and even bumped into a few, in which case she apologized profusely but did not stop by any means. She needed to get to Regina before the other woman left the airport.

I should have ditched this damn suitcase, she grumbled to herself after her carry-on caught on someone else's and nearly caused a ten-person pile up.

It had already been two hours since their flight from California had landed, but Emma clung to the hope that Regina had waited for her. Maybe she and Henry decided to take a rest before their long drive back to Maine, maybe they were at one of the restaurants having lunch or dinner or whatever meal it was time for in this time zone. Emma knew it was unlikely that Regina was still in Boston, but she couldn't not try. She knew it was entirely possible that she was wrong and that Regina really wasn't into her, but Emma was very good at reading people. Her initial hurt at Regina's subtle rejection on the plane had thrown her off, but after being able to sit in the lounge and dwell on everything that had happened, she knew she was right about Regina.

As she continued to manoeuvre through the terminal, Emma was extremely grateful that she hadn't given in to the temptation of alcohol to drown her sorrows back in the Oceanic executive lounge. All she had eaten that day was sugar, and she knew all of this running around would have made her sick. She needed to be sharp if she was going to track down this amazing woman in this great sea of holiday travellers. Regina was average height and Henry was obviously quite short, so she had to look very carefully as she moved through the masses in Arrivals.


It was about an hour later and Emma was slumped in a seat beside other slumpy, tired and stranded unfortunates.

There had been no luck in locating Regina and Henry, and Emma had finally accepted that they had probably already headed home a long time ago. It was now getting close to four hours since their flight had landed, and if Regina and Henry had left as soon as they had picked up their luggage then it was entirely possible they would be reaching home very shortly.

Emma had in her hand, the ticket to the cancelled flight from Boston to Charleston, and also a voucher for a free night at the Hilton Boston Logan Airport. She knew the most normal thing to do was to take her voucher, redeem her free hotel room and curl up and watch Christmas movies for the rest of the day while treating herself to expensive room service. A normal person in this situation would call her parents, who would tell her everything would work out and that she would be home the next day, with plenty of time to spare until Christmas. A normal person would wait for that standby seat to become available.

Emma on the other hand, apparently wasn't so concerned with being normal. After taking her brief rest, Emma journeyed over to Departures and located the Ajira Airlines check-in desk. When she got to the front of the line she was disappointed to find that the man assisting her was certainly no Cindy.

"I'm sorry, you aren't checking in for a flight?" He asked her in confusion.

"Well I mean, even if I wanted to what would be the point? No flights are going out anyway right?"

"I don't really understand what you're asking me."

Emma sighed. "Okay." She started over. "I just flew in from Los Angeles on an Ajira Airlines flight. We landed a couple of hours ago. On my flight I was sitting beside a woman named Regina. She was sitting in 5B. Could you please give me her contact information? It's really important that I get in touch with her."

"Did the two of you book your flight together?"

Emma wanted to roll her eyes. "Obviously not if I need her contact info." She responded a little short-temperedly, which was probably a mistake.

The man looked up at her, a little annoyed. "I'm sorry, I can't give out the personal information of our passengers, it's against our policy and it's a security issue."

"Screw the policy, it's Christmas and I need to find her! Please?" Emma asked a little more quietly to try to earn his sympathy.

"I'm sorry I can't. I could lose my job."

"Not if I don't tell anyone you divulged information." Emma tried to convince him. "If I don't tell and you don't tell, then how is anyone going you find out you told me?"

"What if this other passenger sees it as an infringement on her privacy? She's a stranger to you isn't she? What if she doesn't want you to contact her? I'm sorry, I can't help you."


Emma had to leave the Ajira Airlines desk before things got ugly. She had nearly started a fight with 'Not Cindy' until she remembered that Regina's original flight reservation had been with Oceanic Airlines.

Currently Emma was meandering slowly towards the airport shuttles, after deciding to take a breather. She was going to check into her room after all, take a nap, and wait for backup. And by that she meant one of her contacts at Oceanic. She had a good friend named Clea who worked in flight-reservations, and she hoped that Clea would be able to access Regina's information from her original flight from Orange County to Boston; the one that had been cancelled the day before Emma's had. Emma had already tried calling Clea but the line had been busy and she knew her friend would return the call as soon as she was able to.

When Emma first stepped outside into the Massachusetts December snow storm she nearly passed out it was so cold. Her thin pea coat did absolutely nothing to protect her from the wind. As she shivered nearly half to death while waiting for the shuttle, she vowed to never ever complain about the cold in California again. By the time Emma was finally dragging her feet across the carpet in the beautifully kept and festively decorated lobby of the Hilton, all she wanted was to kick off her shoes and curl up under a blanket in bed. Her feet were tired and her heart was hurting. She needed wine, ice cream, maybe a salad to counteract all the sugar, and then more wine.

As she crossed the lobby towards check-in, her eye was caught by a little girl reading a classic-looking hardback book. Emma glanced at the title and saw that the child was reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Emma's memory suddenly flooded with the recollection of a name. Storybrooke. The name of the town Henry had said he and Regina lived in. Regina had said she was the mayor of her small town. If Emma could only find this 'Storybrooke', then surely it would be easy to find Regina from there? People in small towns knew everyone right? So it wouldn't take a lot of asking around to find where the mayor lived.

Still standing in the middle of the Hilton's lobby, Emma bit her lip as she glanced towards the check-in desk. Yes it would be nice to wallow in self pity and binge the rest of the day away, but wouldn't it be even more nice if she could find the woman of her dreams? Of course, this could all go very horribly wrong if Regina decided that Emma was a stalker, but Emma had good sense about this. She knew deep down that even if Regina did not yet want to show it, the brunette had feelings for her too.

In no time at all, Emma soon found herself returned to the airport and making a stop at one of the rental car agencies. As she waited in line she made a pact with herself: Once she arrived in Storybrooke, if Regina was upset when she discovered that Emma had followed her Emma would leave immediately and never bother the other woman again. But if on the other hand Regina welcomed her arrival...

Emma couldn't take it. She had already pulled up the location of the strange little town on The Google, and now all she needed was a set of wheels to take her there.


A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think! Take care xx