"Earth to Emma." Ruby laughed. She raised an eyebrow and waved her hand in front of her best friend's inattentive gaze.

Emma snapped out of her thoughts, pressing her lips together as they curled softly into an apologetic smile.

"You were doing that thing again... and quite frankly, Emma, this is getting out of hand," Ruby teased, trying her best to impersonate someone in a role of authority. "Still daydreaming about her?"

Emma laughed and leaned her head to the right gently. "That depends. If I say yes, will you grill me for details, or will you drop it and we can get back to our lunch?" She reached down to grab what was left of her greasy grilled cheese sandwich and swallowed it in one large bite.

"Do you really have to ask? Spill."

"Rubes, there's nothing to spill. She's not real, remember? Besides," Emma paused and glanced down, surveying the time on her wrist. "Our lunch break is over. We need to get back to the station. Are you gonna finish this or what?" She pushed Ruby's plate in her direction before sliding out of her side of the booth.

Ruby looked up at her from her still-seated position, her lips curled into a childish pout. Emma shook her head, laughing softly. Instead of giving into Ruby's moping, she grabbed Ruby's sandwich and finished the last bite on her behalf before tossing both their plates into the waste bin and heading toward the exit.

"Hey!" Ruby huffed before running after Emma who was already half way to the patrol car parked out front.

"Okay, can you at least tell me if you had another dream about her last night?" Ruby continued as she climbed into the passenger seat, evidently not allowing Emma any leeway to avoid the subject.

"You're a real pain in the ass, you know that?"

Ruby shined a pearly white smile in Emma's direction and nodded. "Of course I do, it's one of the things you love most about me."

Emma chewed on the tip of her tongue, suppressing an amused smirk as she rolled her eyes. "Whatever helps you sleep at night."

Ruby ignored her dig. Instead, she sighed. Her gaze burned into the side of Emma's face, urging her to spill the details.

Emma could feel Ruby's eyes on her, but kept her own gaze fixed on the road as they made their way through the bustling streets of Boston. After several moments of silence, Emma groaned.

"Fine, I'll tell you."

Ruby's childish squeal made Emma laugh. She combed her fingers through her long, dark hair then swept it all over one shoulder before rotating her torso to face Emma.

"We went out to dinner last night," Emma began. She paused and looked at Ruby. "Well, not really – you know what I mean." She pressed her lips together, but when she saw Ruby's gaze still locked on hers, she continued. "I finally asked her out. Well, dream Emma finally asked her out. I was surprised she said yes."

Emma shook her head as she realized how ridiculous this sounded as she tried to make sense of it out loud. Here she was, telling her best friend about a woman who doesn't even exist as if she were truly dating her.

"Anyway… I only remember bits and pieces. But I remember pulling up in front of her house and panicking when I saw it. It was one of those homes you'd see in a catalog or something. Big, white, neatly manicured lawn, a quiet suburban street. Anyway. I got out of the car—"

"Pause. What were you wearing? You can't just brush over the important details, Em!"

Emma rolled her eyes and then shrugged. "It was a dream, I don't remember what I was wearing," she started, but she knew Ruby wouldn't let her skimp on the details. After a few seconds of raking her brain, the answer flashed in her head.

"I was in jeans I think. Wait, yes. I remember! I was in jeans because I felt underdressed when she opened the door. Now, do you want me to continue or not?"

Ruby lifted both of her hands up in defense.

"So I rang her doorbell and immediately felt my palms getting all sweaty but I didn't want to wipe them on my pants in case she opened the door and caught me like that. I swear it took her ages to open the door and I started wondering if she gave me the wrong address or if I'd managed to fuck this up somehow, because, for one, it's me. And two, this woman isn't even in my league. It's as if she's playing a whole different game than I am. But, then the door opened and there she was. Her smile looked apologetic. Maybe she knew she'd kept me waiting."

"Are you going to get to the good part?"

"You just asked me not to skimp on details," Emma pointed with a raised brow, as if amusing this conversation wasn't bad enough. "I was standing there trying so hard to be discreet while I checked her out. But, of course, she caught me and called me out on it," Emma laughed, the memory fresh in her mind again.

"Well, you aren't exactly an expert at subtlety, Em. No matter how much you'd like to believe otherwise."

"Yes, I'm aware. And apparently, so was she."

"Did you learn her name yet? You've been dreaming about this woman for weeks and you still don't know her name."

Emma shook her head, her lips pressed together in a wash of both disappointment and frustration. She struggled to stay focused on the road.

"Nope," she answered flatly. "Weeks of dreaming of her and I can tell you exactly what she looks like, right down to the scar over her top lip. I know exactly how it feels when her arms are around me. I know what her perfume smells like. Hell, I sometimes wake up and swear I can smell it lingering on me." Her mind wandered for a moment before she continued. "I could even tell you how her lips taste against mine. But I don't know her name."

"Okay, okay, fine. Go on! What was she wearing? Did she look hot? I bet she did," Ruby urged, her eyes wide.

"Of course she did. And of course that's all you want to know," Emma swatted at Ruby's shoulder. "She was in this tight, black dress that showed off her curves. Her legs looked as tan as they always do but longer than usual because she was in those fancy black heels with the red bottoms you always tell me about."

She didn't pause to acknowledge Ruby's mumbled comment.

"I wish I could somehow show you what she looked like. You know I'm not very good with words like this, I feel like I don't do her justice. Oh, and what was weird was that her hair seemed longer than I remember it from my last dream. The ends of her hair were hitting at her collarbone. I only remember that because she called me out when I was staring at her cleavage."

At this comment, Ruby broke out into laughter. "Oh, god. Please tell me what she said. Of course she called you out. I love this woman."

Emma joined in and laughed as well, ignoring how stupid she felt for indulging in all of this because, although she'd never admit it to Ruby, talking about this woman out loud made her feel even more real.

"She just smirked and then when we locked eyes again, her eyes looked darker than usual. She raised her eyebrow as if she'd invented the move and said, 'Like what you see, dear?' And all I could do was blush like an idiot and bow my head to try and conceal my embarrassment."

Ruby was nearly in tears from her laughter. "So did you guys even make it to dinner or did you just end up fucking right there in the doorway?"

Emma squeezed tightly on the steering wheel, tensing her hands to force her mind not to wander again. "Ha. Ha. Very funny. Yes, we made it to dinner."

Ruby groaned, "Ugh, this is a lame one. I was hoping it was another good one. My favorite was the one when you ran into her at that secluded bar downtown and you both were too drunk to make it back home so you spent three hours—"

"O-kay," Emma cut her off. "We seriously need to find you a woman of your own so you can obsess over your own sex life and stop living vicariously through my dream-world sex life." Emma chuckled.

"Well, then you better step up your wing-woman game. Oh, off topic but I forgot to ask you… I'm going to visit my Granny this weekend since I haven't seen her since Christmas last year. Since we both aren't working any shifts, I figured you'd want to tag along? She lives in Maine. It's not the most exciting town, but it beats you staying here without me." Ruby laughed. "Everyone there is annoyingly friendly but since it's you and me, we'll find ways to start trouble and have fun. What do you say?"

Emma didn't hesitate before opening her mouth to answer. "I'll take any excuse to get away from here every once in a while. I'm in."

"Yes!" Ruby practically squealed. "I can't wait! Okay, I'll pick you up tomorrow after your shift at the station and we can head out from there?"

"Works for me."


"Emma, dear. It's nearly 10 a.m., it's time to wake up."

Emma stirred as she felt the sensation of warm breath tickling her ear. She sighed and rolled over in the direction of the voice, wrapping the woman tightly in her arms. She placed a soft kiss on Emma's lips and Emma smiled against the fullness of plush lips. When they broke away, Emma let out a sigh of contentment and let her eyes flutter open.

Emma combed lazily through the woman's dark tresses and stared into her deep, chocolate eyes. "You're not really here, are you?" Emma's own eyes averted downward, attempting to mask her disappointment.

She laughed gently and placed a delicate finger on Emma's strong jaw, lifting it until she met her gaze. "Of course I am. Where else would I be?" She placed a tender kiss on Emma's forehead and nuzzled her body closer. "I'm right here."

Emma let her body relax against the other woman, knowing this would come to an end shortly but needing to imprint every moment of it into her memory, desperate to never forget the way she felt when they were lying together like this.

"What's your name?" Emma whispered to the woman in her arms.

"Swan!"

Emma tilted her head, progressively confused. She saw the woman open her mouth to answer, but the only audible sound she could make out was the sound of someone yelling in the distance.

"Swan, hello?"

Emma's eyes opened quickly and then blinked a few times, taking in her surroundings. When she realized she was at the Boston police station and allowed herself to fall into such a deep daydream once again, she shuffled to sit upright, barely containing her embarrassment.

"Earth to Emma Swan…"

She snapped her head quickly to face Detective Booth. "Sorry, August. I've been… distracted lately. What did you say?"

August laughed. The warm and genuine smile Emma was used to seeing made her feel less tense. He reached out and placed a friendly hand on Emma's shoulder. "I was asking why you were still here? Your shift ended 15 minutes ago. I thought you and Ruby were going away this weekend?"

"Shit!" Emma raised her wrist to check the time and frowned before tugging her phone out of her back pocket to call Ruby. "Thanks, Booth." Emma said with a smile as she pressed the phone to her ear. He returned the smile with a slight shake of his head and walked back toward his desk.

Ruby answered on the third ring. "Hey, sorry… I'm on my way! I got held up because I decided to grab us some dinner that we can feast on in the car. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Okay, I'll grab my bag and meet you out front."

"See you in two."

Emma clicked to end the call, then shoved the phone back into her pocket. By the time she pushed open the main door to the station, Ruby was pulled up front in her red sport's car.

Emma tossed her bag into the backseat then dropped down into the passenger seat. "What did you get, I'm starving?"

"I just got us some burgers and fries. Speaking of food… I can't wait for you to eat at Granny's!"

Emma took a bite out of her cheeseburger as Ruby merged onto the highway.

"Storybrooke, here we come!"