"New case," David said, dropping a file on Emma's desk. "Little girl went missing. Went to the park with her brother after school, but only he was found."
"Who placed the call?" Emma asked, picking up the case file. She opened it, her heart immediately aching at the smiling picture of the little girl inside. Her phone went off, most likely indicating a concerned text from Regina.
"The little brother did. He saw the car pull up and drive away with her inside," David said, sighing. "So far no one has been able to get anything out of him. He says he doesn't remember anything."
"I can talk to him," Emma said, standing up and closing the file.
David nodded, watching her go. "Emma," he called. She turned around to face him, waiting for some warning about controlling her magic. "Are you going to be okay? I know how kid cases get to you."
Emma smiled at him. "I'll be fine. See you soon." She walked out of the office before he could say anything else, heading down the hall to the interrogation rooms. A little boy shouldn't have to sit in one of those.
She went to open the door when her phone rang, causing her to jump. Pulling it out of her pocket, she smiled at seeing Regina's name. "I'm fine," she said, answering the call.
"Then why are you feeling this overwhelming mix of sadness and anger?" Regina asked. "And so suddenly too, like something happened. Did David say something stupid about Hook again? I swear if he did-"
"He didn't," Emma interrupted, smiling. She had moved on from the whole intervention incident, and both Snow and David agreed to never meddle in her love life again.
Regina sighed in relief. "Then what's going on? Are you okay?"
"There's a new case," Emma said. "Missing little girl."
"Oh," Regina said. "That explains the emotions. And the suddenness."
"I really am fine," Emma said. "But I have to go, I need to talk to the brother to see if he remembers anything."
"Okay," Regina said softly. "Don't hesitate to call. You know that I can feel if you're overwhelmed and I'll just keep pestering you."
Emma laughed. "Yes ma'am. I'll talk to you later." She hung up the phone, a smile plastered onto her face. How Regina managed to make her smile no matter what still amazed her.
Taking a deep breath, Emma walked into the interrogation room. This was going to be a long interview.
In the end, Emma ended up taking the little boy to Granny's. The interrogation room clearly made him uneasy, and Emma felt like a kid that young shouldn't have to sit in the same room that criminals sat.
She had talked to him for a couple hours before his mom came to pick him up. Emma had barely any clues, but there was no way that she was going to give up hope.
"I thought I told you to call me if you were overwhelmed," Regina scolded gently, sitting across from Emma.
Emma sighed, rubbing her hands over her face. "I don't know what to do. He was so traumatized by the whole thing that he doesn't remember anything at all. No plate, no colors, nothing."
"This is a small town," Regina said, placing her hand over Emma's. "There aren't very many places to hide."
"Really?" Emma asked. "Because I distinctly remember Zelena keeping Rumple prisoner and none of us knew about it."
"That was different," Regina said. "We're looking for a little girl. There's no special place that she has to be hidden to keep her magic away from her. She can't be controlled with a dagger."
"You don't know that," Emma argued. "We don't know anything about her other than that her mom and brother came with her to this world and they live in a cute little house down the street from you."
"Little house?" Regina asked.
Emma looked at her curiously. "Yeah, that's what the kid said. A little house. Why?"
"Emma I built that part of town with huge houses that no one could afford so people would leave me alone," Regina said. "There is no little house."
"He lied?" Emma asked. "Why would he do that?"
Regina shrugged. "Guess you have more digging to do."
Emma smiled before getting up and kissing Regina. "You're amazing. I'll see you later."
"You know, the point of seeing me later is to actually come home," Regina said, walking into the sheriff's station.
"I can't," Emma said, not even looking up from the pile of papers on her desk. "I looked into the house detail, and you're right. No sign of a little house anywhere near where you live. But why specifically mention it then?"
"To throw you off," Regina said, leaning against the edge of Emma's desk. "I highly doubt that whoever fed him that story expected you to actually question that detail of the story."
Emma groaned and dropped her head onto the stack of papers. "So what, we have a family mastermind who enjoys watching the sheriff's run around town looking for a girl that isn't even missing?"
"I don't know," Regina said. "But what I do know is that you need to come home and sleep."
"I can't, you know that," Emma said. "There's a little girl out there who's probably scared out of her mind. She isn't with her family, so she probably feels alone to top it all off!"
"You cannot solve a case running only of coffee," Regina argued.
"Watch me," Emma said, getting up to go refill her mug. She had no plans at all to leave. That little girl was still out there, and until Emma could return her safely to her home, she wasn't going anywhere.
"I don't want to argue with you," Regina said tiredly, leaning on the doorframe.
"So don't," Emma said, pouring coffee into her mug.
Regina sighed. "I can't let you stay here all night working a case that has no leads or witnesses. You need to sleep. Come back tomorrow morning and start fresh."
Emma was about to protest when she focused on the emotions that her brain was alerting her to. She could feel the worry and desperation coming off of Regina in waves, so strong that Emma wondered how she hadn't noticed it before.
"Fine," Emma said, admitting defeat. She set down her coffee mug, and couldn't help but smile at Regina's happy expression. "You don't need to look so pleased with yourself."
"I don't need to, but I want to," Regina teased. "Now come on. Bedtime."