Well, gang, here it comes. I am in no way ready for this.
January 10, 2012
"There's something I have to show you," Ada announced as calmly as she can. Emma looked up from her file to see the absolute seriousness on Ada's face.
Something was up.
"Okay?"
"Come with me," Ada ordered, before practically marching out of the station. Emma grabbed her jacket and followed, still not quite sure what was happening but knowing it was something not good.
She had no idea how bad it was.
Emma clutched a photograph in her hand (she had spent about five minutes staring at a sweet-faced five-year-old Henry before Ada was finally able to bring her attention to the matter at hand), and her eyes jumped from that to the children currently filtering back into the school after recess.
"Ada-" she choked.
"I know."
"And I broke into the newspaper office-"
"Could you not tell me that in the actual Sheriff's office?" Emma hissed, pacing back and forth in the station while Ada sat at Emma's old Deputy desk.
"And the newspapers for the past...god, it was decades- they were all exactly the same until we got to town! And the kids- they aren't aging, and I've been asking people if they remember things- when they met their friends, when the last Mayoral election was, who was the Mayor before Regina, stuff about their parents- and they all say the same thing! It's a haze."
"I feel like we're in the Twilight Zone," Emma bent down, hands on her knees, as she tried to get her breathing under control, trying to repress the tears that were springing to her eyes. How is a person supposed to deal with something like this anyways? She'd tried pinching herself, she'd tried pinching Ada (which had gotten her a loud "ow!" and a smack on her shoulder- Emma wasn't sure why she tried that pinching her sister in the first place, but there was something to be said for shock).
"But Henry's aging," Ada whispered.
Emma's eyes jumped up to the redhead, "You're telling me, in this whole town- only Henry is aging and he's the only one aware of it?"
Ada nodded once with a jerk.
Emma collapsed into her chair, her head buried in her hands. She felt numb. Numb and out of control. Tiny.
"This is-" she stalled, unable to find the words for it.
"I'm going to keep talking to Gold," Ada decided, already planning, keeping busy to avoid looking at the situation too closely, "I'm sure he knows what's going on, and maybe I can get him to give me a few hints."
"Be careful," Emma warned, head still bowed.
Neither woman moved, both limply glued to their chairs as they tried to wrap their heads around everything.
"We have to figure out what's going on," Emma muttered, "No, we have to get Henry out of here. It's not...safe, it's not healthy."
Silence fell over the station.
"We can't just grab him and run," Ada told Emma after a moment's thought. "That will only get us a kidnapping charge and Henry back here at best- at worse Henry's right about something bad happening whenever someone tries to leave."
"But a- a curse?"
"Well, maybe not Fairy Tale characters but definitely something Stephen King-esque is going on here."
The Station phone began to ring and Emma stood, scrambling to pull her walls way up. She'd never needed them more. "Ok, I'll deal with this and you grill Gold. Be careful," she warned as she picked up the phone, Ada nodded and left the station, leaving her sister to repress as she saw fit.
Gold had just finished setting up an antique chess board when Ada walked into the pawn shop.
"I take it you've told Miss Swan of your...investigations," he remarked as he settled himself with the black pieces before him.
Ada sat down across from him, as he obviously wanted her to, "Why am I not surprised that you're a chess player?"
"Oh, one must find something to occupy the time. After all- the years can be so monotonous."
Ada quickly made eye contact with the pawnbroker at that blatant reference to Storybrooke's...issue.
She examined the pieces before her, "I never learned chess," Ada commented dryly.
"Really?" Gold grinned, "You seem to be the type to have an aptitude for it."
"Why don't you teach me?" Ada suggested, leaning back into the chair, waiting for Gold to make his move.
The Pawnbroker picked up one piece and gave a crocodile's grin, "This is a Pawn. They are typically your first move in the game- one or two spaces forwards, only one space forward from then on. They are, predictably, the most expendable of all pieces. Only fools, however, disregard their usefulness. They're rather like foot soldiers in a war. You can accomplish much with Pawns, but only if you know what you're doing."
Ada gave a hum as she moved one of her eight Pawns forward two spaces.
"Excellent start," Gold smiled, moving a Pawn of his own.
Emma was mostly working on keeping her lunch down and stopping herself from jumping at every citizen of Storybrooke when she entered Dark Star Pharmacy.
"Henry," she couldn't tear her eyes from the boy as soon as she saw him, trying to wrap her head around everything he'd faced. He was ten years old, for Christssake, he was supposed to be worrying about how to sneak more dessert and wheedle out of homework. She fought down the instinct to grab Henry and run. "What happened?"
"Miss Swan," Regina immediately started with a sneer, placing her arm possessively around Henry, "Must I remind you that genetics mean nothing? You are not his mother and it's all taken care of." Emma felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up and clenched her fists together. This woman- she ruined Henry's best chance. Emma had given up her baby for nothing.
But she had to keep her cool until she and Ada were ready to make their move- she had spent enough time around her sister to know the importance of playing your cards close to your chest when trying to save a kid from a bad situation. Ada had talked about more than one case where it all went wrong because the parents had figured out something was up. Emma couldn't risk messing things up for Henry.
She had to make sure this went right.
"I'm here because I'm Sheriff," she countered the Mayor, keeping her eyes fixed on the woman in an attempt to control her rage.
Regina sniffed, "Oh, that's right. Go on, do your job," she waved her hand as if Emma had needed that signal to get started. "Take care of those miscreants," she tossed over her shoulder snidely as she and Henry exited.
Emma looked at the kids in question and recognized something in them. She'd had that look in her eyes, too. "Did you call their parents?" she asked Mr. Clark.
"Uh, the number they gave me was disconnected," the pharmacist shrugged and left the the trio alone.
Emma looked at the kids before her: brother and sister, twins around Henry's age.
She sighed.
Oh, this was going to be a long day.
"The Knight," Gold held the piece in the palm of his hand. "There's only two on the board, but they are most unusual- they don't move in straight lines," Ada examined the little carved horse's head, "They move in an "L" shape, and can jump over the other pieces. Rather useful, as long as you keep them with plenty of potential movements."
"A Knight, huh?"
"You only get two, Miss Ward- use them wisely," Gold warned her.
Emma watched as Ava and Nicholas hungrily gulped down the food Mary Margaret provided. She had called Ada to come as reinforcements. Emma just wasn't going to be able to deal with everything on her plate without Ada there. Not today, not after the shock to her system.
Kids- orphaned, starving, stealing to get by, terrified to go into the system.
Yeah, Emma was familiar with that.
"Do you know them?" Emma asked the schoolteacher, pulling her to the side to have a hushed conversation, "Do they go to your school?"
"I've seen them," Mary Margaret shook her head, "But I had no idea- none of us did."
No one ever does, Emma picked up a file, reading it out, "Ava and Nicholas Zimmer. So, their mother was someone named Dory Zimmer. She died a few years ago," she watched Mary Margaret shake her head, not recognizing the name, "No one seems to know her or remember her," Emma remarked, suspecting this is yet another symptom of the...whatever was going on in Storybrooke, but rather hoping Mary Margaret would have proved it all to be some sort of hallucination. If only someone had remembered this dead woman, Emma could have fooled herself into thinking maybe everything wasn't falling apart around her.
Fortunately, Ada arrived before Emma started to have a mental breakdown.
"I'm here, and so, I see are my clients," she gave the kids a cheerful smile as she took off her coat and hung it on one of Mary Margaret's hooks. Emma could see the cracks behind the smile, the stress, the slight wildness in Ada's eyes, but she doubted anyone else could. Just like no one seemed to notice her own symptoms of shock but the redhead. "Hello, I'm Ada. I'm a child advocate, so I'm basically here to work for you. I make sure that you get the best situation possible." She sat on the counter by the siblings and looked them in the eyes, "Why don't you tell me what's been going on?"
As Ada talked with the kids, Emma continued her conversation with Mary Margaret. "There isn't a father listed here, but I want to check the birth certificates."
"What does- uh- what does social services say?" the teacher asked.
Emma was silent.
"You didn't report them," Mary Margaret stated, rather than asked.
Emma dropped her voice even lower, not wanting to risk the kids overhearing- Ada was occupying them for now, but Emma remembered making sure she kept one ear on all the conversations around her as a kid. It was sometimes the only warning you'd have. "I report them, I can't help them. They go into the system." Not to mention, Emma wasn't sure what CPS could actually do in a cursed town.
Oh, dear god. She had actually thought of the town as "cursed." And not in an ironic way.
She needed booze. And her bed.
"The system that's supposed to help," Mary Margaret pointed out as if it was obvious.
Mary Margaret's voice pulled her back to the here and now, and at the mention of the system, Emma couldn't help the scorn in her voice, "Yeah, says someone who wasn't in it for sixteen years. Do you know what happens? They get thrown into homes where they are a meal ticket, nothing more. These families get paid for these kids and as soon as they're too much work, they get tossed out and it all starts over again."
"But," Mary Margaret shook her head, unwilling to believe it, "But they're not all like that."
"All the ones I was in. Ada, too."
Mary Margaret looked over at the kids, who were beginning to give Ada some small smiles, "What, we're just going to adopt them?"
"I wanna look for their father. They don't know him. He may not know they exist," Emma shrugged.
"And you think if he knows, he'll want them."
"I don't know," Emma shrugged helplessly, "But what I do know, is that it's hard enough finding foster families to take one kid that isn't theirs, let alone two. It's their best best shot, or-"
Ava's voice suddenly cut through the apartment, "We're going to be separated?"
Both kids were wide-eyed with fear and Ada shot Emma a look before turning to them both.
"Hey, remember what my job is? I won't let you be separated, I swear."
The twins grasped hands and looked at Ada, as if afraid to trust her, but gave small nods.
The three adults looked at each other desperately.
There was no way of knowing if Ada had just lied.
"You go to the hall of records," Ada told Emma, starting her plan. Hopefully that interrupted chess lesson with Gold would pay off somehow, "Look up their birth certificate. I'm going to make a few calls."
"You're going to talk with Gold again?" Emma asked, her gaze knowing as she locked eyes with her sister.
Ada shrugged, "I'm not afraid of owing him another favor if that's what it takes to keep these kids together," she swallowed heavily before continuing, "Another thing we may want to consider is asking Henry."
Emma's voice was short and sharp when she replied, "What?"
"Listen, I don't know how much of this curse stuff is real or not. Frankly, I think I'm kind of in a daze about it and just going along with things for now. I have no doubt at some point I'll have a severe mental breakdown from it all but for now- rolling with the punches. Henry's been right about everything so far. He said the clock would start to move when you arrived, and it did as soon as you agreed to stay. He said you'd bring back the happy endings, and so far you've helped a lot of people with that- Ella comes to mind."
"But I didn't give Graham his happy ending," Emma quickly cut in, her eyes darting away at the mention of the Sheriff's name. Emma still found herself sitting in her old desk more often than not. It just seemed...wrong- to have anyone else, even her, sitting in Graham's spot.
Ada was quiet for a long moment before reaching forward to grab Emma's hand. They weren't normally very touchy-feely people, and they both understood that about each other so it worked. In many ways, the few times they did hug or touch were made all the more meaningful because of the rarity of them. Ada had probably held Emma more often since Graham died than she had in all their years together. "I think, in some ways, you did."
Emma looked up at the redhead, her eyes faintly glassy.
Ada pushed on, "He said he couldn't feel anything? Well, Emma, you not only got him to feel, but you made him feel something wonderful. I don't know...if Graham really died of a heart attack or-" they both looked away, tension taking up residence in the space around them as they both remembered Henry's theory on Graham's death. "But, either way, I know his last moments- those moments with you, Emma. He treasured them. You made him happy. He got a happy ending, it just wasn't...happily ever after."
Both women were silent for a long moment after that, Ada still clutching tightly to Emma's hand, the blonde's eyes focused on something only she could see.
"We should probably have a talk with Henry anyways now that we've seen-," Emma cut herself off and then sighed. "Okay, I'm on my way to the Hall of Records."
Ada nodded and let go of her sister's hand. "And I'll do what I do best- pester." Ada was rewarded with a small smile from Emma.
"Come for another lesson already, dearie?" Gold asked as Ada entered his shop. The chessboard was where they had left it, the pieces already set in their starting positions.
"Sorry I had to cut our first lesson short," Ada cautiously said, sitting herself down, but keeping her eyes trained on Gold's face. She didn't want to miss a thing, "But I was called in to help with some kids. Twins, orphaned. Emma's looking for their father in hopes that he'll want to take them in rather than let them be separated by the system."
"A noble pursuit, no doubt," he answered evenly, picking up another chess piece. "A Bishop. Despite the religious name, a very dangerous piece. Or maybe because of their religious name," he grinned, "Nothing's more dangerous than someone who sincerely believes they're right," he let that hang in the air for a heartbeat before continuing, "They move on the diagonal across the board, and the two together cover both the light and dark squares- very powerful. They're a long-distance threat, dearie. But, like all the pieces, they are only as good as the person wielding them."
Ada picked up one of her Bishops, turning it over in her hand, "A long-distance threat, you say?"
Gold hummed. "No matter how far away places seem, we're still all part of the same board. It's unwise to only focus on a few squares instead of the whole picture."
Ada moved a Pawn in her first turn of the game, "I can see why you like chess so much, Mr. Gold."
The man gave a grin, moving a Pawn of his own. "I can see you'll be an apt student, Miss Ward."
Emma, had she been calmer, might've been worried about causing actual damage to her phone the way she so violently dialed Ada.
Of course, had she been calmer, she wouldn't have been dialing so very violently in the first place.
"I may be brain dead after two chess lessons with Gold, but let's try this anyways," Ada answered the phone instead of a greeting.
Emma growled, "She's splitting them up. Somehow, she got the birth certificate before me- how, I don't know because I don't think she even knew the kids' names- and she said there was no father listed and she's shipping them off to Boston and they'll be separated."
Ada said nothing, merely took several breathes through her nose before she began, "A long-distance threat," Ada muttered before she spoke louder, "No, they won't," her voice was almost entirely without inflection, and, had it been a tangible thing, Emma was sure each word would've been frozen solid. The kind of ice that burned the second you touched it. "Emma, I'll talk to you later. I need to make a phone call."
Emma listened to the silence of a disconnected call for a long time before she pocketed her own cell.
She was grinning.
Ada carefully examined the board set up before her. She'd managed to buy some time for her and Emma buy calling in her own contacts- telling them that there were potential leads for the children's father, and all evidence pointed towards him being unaware of them and their mother's death. She'd also mentioned that the kids were being used as pawns in some small-town political games and she knew that that in particular had motivated her contacts into giving her more time. No one liked it when kids were used as toys, and those who were in Ada's line of business had a particular dislike towards that sort of thing. Many of them had backgrounds similar to Ada that had spurred them on to their chosen career path. Ada was also well-known and well-liked by her coworkers, and she was known for doing her job well.
That counted for a lot.
A long-distance threat indeed. Eyes were turning towards Storybrooke now that Ada had whispered into a few ears
Witnesses outside the Mayor's control were very useful.
"A Rook, sometimes called a Castle by those less well-informed," Gold twisted the piece between two fingers, holding it up to the light. "They move along the straights, unlike the Bishops, and together two of them together can be more powerful than the Queen herself," Gold cast a knowing glance at Ada, "Their weakness is that they can't move...crooked, let's say- so they're at risk from the Queen. Interesting thing, the term "Rook" comes from the Sanskrit word for "Chariot." The more you know," Gold trailed off with a grin.
"Chariot," Ada murmured to herself, paging through the Storybrooke phone book. "Chariot..."
So- what did you guys think? Emma and Ada know that the town's not aging! Or wasn't, before they showed up. They're still not entirely sure if they buy the whole "curse" thing, but they know something is horribly wrong. Of course, they are also repressing heavily now that they do. Emma's known to throw herself into things when she'd rather not think about something, and Ada's doing the same thing.
But it's all going to come to a breaking point pretty soon, and then Emma won't know what to do.
Drop a review for me?
