Broken down
Jade Star asked for a oneshot of Emma and Henry winding up back in Storybrooke early during the missing year after Emma's car "mysteriously" breaks down. They bump into Snowing.
"Do you think this town has a Mcdonalds?" Henry asked, fiddling about with his PSP. Emma sighed, trying to find anything obvious with her torch under the hood of her bug.
"Doubt it kid. I'd be surprised if they have internet access." Emma grumbled. It looked like they were going to be stuck here for the night. Emma had been taking Henry on a road trip down the east coast. As they were cruising through Maine, they were going down quite a steep hill. Emma found that her breaks seemed to have suddenly failed. As she slammed her foot down, they rolled all the way into this quaint little town called Storybrooke before coming to a halt. Now here Emma was, a mysterious fault in her car, a bored and hungry teenage boy crammed in passenger seat with a PSP rapidly running out of battery. It was autumn, they couldn't sleep in the car. Even with blankets. Emma was going to have to find somewhere still open that would put them up for the night. Hopefully she'd find a decent mechanic nearby in the morning. She didn't want the trip ruined.
"Wait here kid." Emma said, slamming down the hood. "Don't get out, don't talk to any strangers. Keep the window rolled up. I'm gonna go search around. See if there's somewhere we can crash tonight…"
"Emma?" Emma froze at the sound of her name. With her career, it was never good when someone in a strange location recognised her. Especially when her kid was with her. She turned around, shining the torch in the direction of who said her name. She found a couple staring back at her. Roughly the same age as her. The woman was pretty heavily pregnant. They were definitely the ones who had said her name. They were now staring at her quite strangely. It made Emma feel rather uncomfortable.
"It is you!" The man said. They came rushing towards her. Emma backed up against her car. They stopped when they saw how apprehensive she was.
"Who are you?" Emma demanded. "How do you know my name?" The couple shared a look, now looking crestfallen. "I asked you a question!" Emma demanded. The man squeezed the woman's hand.
"We're…old friends…of a friend of yours." He said, but Emma instantly knew he was lying. "We recognise you from a picture we saw."
"Uh huh, sure." Emma said, feeling her way round to the car door. "We're not stopping here. Nice to meet you both." Emma got in and tried to start the car, but now it wouldn't even start. She sighed, bashing her head against the wheel. Great. She tensed up when the couple came by her door. "Listen, I've got my son with me. I don't want to do anything in front of a pregnant lady, but I'll protect my kid if I have to, so why don't you both just back off…"
"Your car clearly isn't running." The woman said, sounding emotional. "There's a diner just down the road called Granny's. They're still open, you'll get a room there. Maybe we'll…see you both around." The woman said. She looked like she wanted to say more, but held her tongue. She and the man walked away. Emma waited until they'd been out of sight for a few minutes before deciding to check if they were telling the truth.
"Come on kid." She said. "Diners do good breakfasts."
