Emma's feet echoed off the pavement. She darted to the left and started running down main street. Emma had woken up from a restless sleep an hour ago.
Although she had fallen asleep fairly easy, she had woken up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. She was used to this recently.
Almost every night she would have the same dream. A car retreating from her view as she stared at it in disarray. In the dream one of her many foster families had just abandoned her on the side of the road.
The part that haunted her about last night's dream was instead of one of her foster families being in the car this time Regina and Henry were in the car, seemingly, ignoring her behind them.
Emma was no stranger to feeling alone. However, she had desperately needed to shake off the dream.
Normally, after a dream like this a run cleared her mind. This time her run just reminded her of her days longing for a family.
Even though she had a family and friends now, she still felt somewhat alone. This was part of the reason why she was scared to tell Regina of her feelings. Did she really want to risk feeling even more alone if Regina rejected her?
It was not that she thought Regina would take Henry and leave her. Emma just didn't think she could handle if she lost her and Regina's current friendship. Especially if it transformed back to how distant their relationship was when they were fighting over Henry.
Emma pushed herself further into her run. Would I even be able to make Regina happy? She thought to herself. After all that's all Emma wanted. Even though it pained her to think about Regina with someone else, if she was happy Emma would never abandon their friendship.
She sped up and rounded the corner on the sidewalk that led to Granny's Diner. Emma continued to think about Regina. As she thought about Regina her thoughts drifted back to Operation Mongoose.
Did the author really control Regina's fate? The thought of someone controlling Regina's or her destiny frightened her.
They needed to find the author soon. If he thought he could get away with controlling all of their lives he had another thing coming for him.
Emma stopped running as she reached the sign outside of Granny's. She caught her breath before walking into Granny's.
It was still early and the diner was sparse. Emma didn't even have to look for a seat before sitting near the counter. Once she sat down she waited for Ruby who was with a customer.
When Ruby was finished with the customer Ruby bounded over to her. After Ruby was behind the counter she looked at Emma sympathetically before saying, "long night?"
"Is it that obvious?"
Ruby looked at her again before saying, "Maybe not to someone who didn't know you, but I can see through this. What's wrong?"
"Don't wanna talk about it."
"You sure?"
"I don't know," Emma replied grimly. Ruby waited for her to continue. "It's just sometimes… I wonder," Emma stopped before ending her sentence, "if I'm really needed around here anymore."
"Emma, so many people need you, we all love you."
She looked at Ruby unsure, but responded, "Thanks, Ruby. I've had a rough night."
Ruby seemed placated and must have noticed how uncomfortable she looked because Ruby then asked her, "So one hot chocolate extra whip cream with cinnamon, right?"
"Yep, you're the best," Emma replied.
Ruby winked and said, "I know," before preparing her cocoa.
When Ruby was finished making her cocoa she gave it to her and left to go give the same customer another refill of coffee. Emma stared at the cocoa despondently before looking around the diner. She then noticed a few more people had entered.
After Emma noticed there was more people around she tried to put on a happy face. She was the savior after all, the daughter of Prince Charming and Snow White. The one who had broken the curse. It was kind of expected of her to be content all the time, but today she anything but happy.
Emma faked a smile. She barely even noticed someone sitting down beside her. Until a curious voice asked, "Why are you up so early?"
Emma instantly recognized Henry's voice. She turned towards his chair. Not wanting to explain herself she asked, "Well, why are you?"
"You first."
Emma sighed, "I was up late last night. Nothing to worry about."
"Okay," Henry said sounding unconvinced.
"Well why are you up, kid?"
"I didn't want to wake up mom, but I wanted to get an early start on Operation Mongoose."
"Did you find anything?" She asked.
"Not yet, but I was going to look through the book again now." Henry stated.
As Henry flipped through the book she thought about how distant she been lately. Emma had been closing herself off from a lot of people including Regina, Henry, Ruby and even her parents. It was mostly because of her recurring dream.
However, another thing had been bothering Emma on top of this. She felt all her emotions were unusually amplified. At first Emma had attributed it to repressing and discovering her sexuality as someone who was bi and asexual, but quickly Emma realized it wasn't just that.
Her emotions had always been something she ignored, yet now they felt like they were about to bubble over the surface. Sometimes out of the blue she would feel angry or guilty. These strong emotions scared Emma. She felt different somehow and she wasn't sure she liked the change.
"Ma, Ma," Henry called out. "Did you hear me? Look at this," Henry said excitedly.
Emma felt bad for zoning off and enthusiastically stated, "Sorry kid, what is it?"
Henry looked happy at the change in her mood. He flipped through the pages and turned over the very first page. "Look, its Mom."
"Where?" Emma stated only seeing a blank page.
"Right there Mom. It's obvious. She's looking into a bar don't you see her."
"Are you joking, kid? I don't see anything."
Henry looked at her in contemplation, before saying, "Maybe it's just you who can't see it. Let's go show it to Mom."
Emma and Henry both hurried towards the door wanting to get to the mansion quickly. Emma really hoped Henry had found something.
Author's Note: I wanted to get more into how Emma's feeling before getting back into Operation Mongoose. Do you Like it? Hate it?