It had been twenty-eight years. Twenty-eight long years. Adjusting to this new land was not easy and at times Cameron thought she wasn't going to make it. Life certainly had not been easy, but she made it. She figured out this new world and how it worked and now she no longer had to steal for the things she needed. She made enough money that she could actually buy the things she needed, and the things she didn't need.

Her childhood had been a lonely one, with no place to call home and no friends. She had moved from place to place, never staying in one place too long. She had finally made a home in Massachusetts with the one person who became her only family.

"Tell me again why you brought me to a bar?" Her friend asked as they entered.

Cameron glanced at her. "Because you need some fun in your life."

"I have fun in my life."

"Not enough. Come on, Emma." Cameron pulled Emma toward the bar to order drinks. With drinks soon in hand, they sat down.

"It has been a while since we did something like this," Cameron said.

"Yeah, I know," Emma said. "I have just been busy with tracking people down."

Cameron nodded. "I understand. Just promise me that no matter what we will always be friends and let nothing stand in our way."

"I will drink to that," Emma said as she raised her glass.

Cameron raised hers and they clinked their glasses together.

A waitress came by and set two drinks down on their table.

"Oh, we didn't order these," Cameron said.

"These are from the gentlemen over there," The waitress said as she pointed to two men sitting across the way from them. The waitress then left.

"Should we pretend to be lesbians?" Cameron asked.

"That just might turn them on even more," Emma said.

The two men smiled at them. Cameron smiled back as she gave a small wave.

Emma pushed Cameron's hand down. "Don't encourage them."

"Would you rather I flip them off?"

"It might send the message we aren't interested."

"Or that we're bitches."

Emma shrugged.

Cameron was thankful she found Emma again. She would be dead if it weren't for Emma. Of course, Cameron never told Emma about that. The first few days they traveled together were filled with mostly silence. Both of them had been alone for so long that neither of them knew how to act around each other. It wasn't until about a week later that they finally started filling the silence with small talk, and eventually, they started talking more and opening up a little.

The first time Cameron and Emma had bonded was when they talked about their childhood. They both had lonely childhoods and had no family to call their own. Emma had said that her own parents left her on the side of the road. Cameron had told Emma about her parents being killed. She just left out the part that she was from another land and the evil queen killed her parents. If she had said that she would be locked up as crazy for sure.

"Call me crazy," Cameron said. "but I think destiny brought us together."

Emma raised an eyebrow. "Destiny? You actually believe in that stuff?"

Cameron shrugged. "I don't know. Just what are the chances that out of this whole world we met a second time?

"It was just a coincidence."

"If you say so, but I'm sticking to me theory that it was destiny."

"Hello, ladies." A voice said.

Cameron and Emma glanced up to see the two men who had bought them drinks were standing at their table.

"Hello," Cameron said, not wanting to be rude.

"We were just wondering-"

"Not interested." Emma cut them off.

"You didn't even hear what we had to say," The other man said.

"Probably some lame pick-up line to get us in to bed with you."

Cameron, who had been taking a drink, almost choked as she tried to hold back a laugh.

"That's not-" The man tried again.

"Still not interested," Emma said.

"Thank you for the drinks, but we are not looking for any relationships right now," Cameron said. She had always been the more tactful of the two.

"Not even just to talk?" The man asked.

"We have each other." Cameron said as she put her arm around Emma.

"Oh, are you two … sorry we didn't realize. We'll leave you alone." The two men then walked away.

Once the two men were out of earshot, the two girls burst into laughter. "I can't believe that made them go away." Emma said.

"I'm actually surprised too." Cameron glanced over and saw a pool table open. "Hey, want to play some pool? We can even hustle people like the good old days."

Emma rolled her eyes. "All right, one game, but no hustling."

Cameron sighed. "Fine, we can still have fun without hustling people out of money.

Emma just shook her head.

The one game turned in to a few games and a few more drinks. After their fourth game they decided to call it a night and headed home. The bar was close enough to where they lived that they just walked. Once Cameron found a job, she had saved her money for her own car. It was nice having a car, but sometimes Cameron would still walk everywhere.

They soon arrived at their apartment complex. The two of them lived in the same complex, but they did not live in the same apartment. Emma may have opened up to Cameron, but she was still closed off a lot of the time. Emma didn't want to live together. She said she wasn't ready to live with someone. Cameron knew the truth, but she never told Emma she knew.

Emma was afraid that one day Cameron would be just like everyone else and leave. Emma didn't want to wake up one day and find Cameron's room empty. Cameron didn't blame Emma for that and she never pushed to live together.

They said their good-byes and then went to their separate apartments. Once Cameron was in her apartment, she changed into pajamas then flopped on her bed. As Cameron sat in the quiet of her apartment, she thought about the past few years. She was glad she had run into Emma again. If it weren't for meeting Emma again, Cameron would be dead. But even though Cameron now had someone in her life, there were times she felt depressed and alone.

She couldn't talk to Emma about where she came from. Emma would never believe her. Oh, how Cameron missed everyone from the Enchanted Forest. She especially missed her best friend Pinocchio. They had been through so much together in their short lives and they always stuck together.

Trying to remember everyone's faces was getting harder. She would occasionally look through her sketchbook of the faces she once knew. Looking at them now they just looked like strangers to her. There had been times Cameron wanted to go searching for everyone. Maybe the curse had brought them to this world. It was a slim chance, but a chance just the same. However, two things stopped her. One, she had no idea where to look. This was a big place and they could have ended up anywhere. And two, Emma. Cameron couldn't abandon her especially after everything she had been through. So, Cameron stayed.

Some days were harder than others, and sometimes she had to force herself out of bed. She tried to put on a happy façade because she didn't want Emma asking questions; questions she couldn't answer.

Pushing all her thoughts away, Cameron drifted off to sleep

Cameron jumped out of bed in a panic. Glancing around, she saw that she was in her room. Once she realized she was safe, Cameron sat on her bed trying to calm herself.

She had not dreamed about that day in a long time, and now she was having that dream … no, that nightmare … for a few days now. Almost every night she would wake up in a panic, thinking the evil queen was there and was going to kill her.

But the evil queen was not here. And the evil queen was not going to kill her. She had escaped the dark curse and for that she felt guilty. If only she knew who the savior was. She could find the savior and they could break the curse together. And then, she could finally see Pinocchio again.

Cameron shook her head. What would the chances be that the dark curse took everyone to this world? In the same exact world that she ended up in? It was a very slim chance. Besides, it had been twenty-eight years. Pinocchio was probably not the boy she remembered.

Cameron sighed. Knowing that she would not get any more sleep that night she made her way to her work station in the next room.

Over the years, she had expanded on her artistic skills and had begun painting. It was something she really enjoyed and it helped calm her and make her feel better. The current painting she was working on was not much. She did not even know how she came up with the idea or why. It was just a painting of a road with trees boarding either side and a sign that read Welcome to Storybrooke.

Why this place was called Storybrooke she had no idea either. After one of her nightmares a few nights ago she came in here to paint and without knowing why she began to paint this. Did it mean something? Or was it just a place her imagination thought up?