A/N: Italics read as a dream sequence in this chapter. Please read and review!
Chapter 8
Welcome to Storybrooke
It was dusky evening time by the time the trio set out on the road. They tied up loose ends, and soon were gone from Boston. August led the girls on his motorcycle, and under his helmet on the journey, he had plenty of time to ponder over this journey he was undertaking. He had spent so much time winding up to it, the abruptness of their departure had him doubting his convictions.
The road winded endlessly before them, and Emma and Lily followed behind him in the comfort of the yellow bug. August's mind wandered to the blonde driving the car, and he was drove to distraction over the dream he'd had the night before, after she'd left him at his front door.
August was lying naked under his crumpled black silk sheets and he wasn't alone. His hand lay resting on the swell of a naked, womanly hip half covered by the sheets. His eyes followed the curve of her milky, white skin and soon he was gazing into the sparkling, green eyes of none other than Emma, his Princess and savior. Her blonde hair was in a curly mess of disarray, and she looked thoroughly pleased with her case of bed head. Most of all, the look she wore took his breath away because she looked happy because of him, pleased to be with him.
August wasn't sure he could shake the memory of his dream so easily. It had felt so right, and he woke up bitterly wishing his dream would never end. At least when he was asleep things made sense. Now in his waking moments he was undertaking a journey to deliver the savior and her estranged lover to Storybrooke and he saw no place for himself.
He was a realist and knew that soon they would discover his lie, that he had never missed a mother in his life. He was truly missing his father, and the reality that he would soon see him made August bristle with mixed emotion. Although he longed to see his father more than anything, he was filled with self loathing when he actually contemplated the reunion. He could tell his father, "Papa, I have brought the savior home..." but then what?
He had not yet convinced her she was the savior of them all. What good would come of bringing Emma to the town when she did not believe there was such a thing as a curse to break? The writer knew all too well she was only coming to the town for the sake of her two friends. She had decided to come along with some reservations, and August hated to be another person to let her down.
He feared that once his friends discovered the truth, they would never trust him again. He supposed with dark dissatisfaction, They never should have trusted me in the first place. As much as he valued their friendship and pointing their lives in the right direction, he couldn't help but feel that doing so was turning out to be at his own expense on some levels.
He hoped to restore the state of his left leg, but was ashamed to have to show it to anybody at all, let alone his father. He dreaded admitting he hadn't been living right for a very long time. He didn't want to show his father the evidence that he had taken so long for him to come around and actually do right by Emma. He was supposed to have stayed with the princess from the start, and instead he abandoned her in this world full of so many temptations. The first of so many temptations August had failed to resist, as it would seem.
After a couple of hours, the trio reached their destination. August surprised his travelling companions when he pulled over suddenly outside the town when a quaint sign came into view. "Welcome to Storybrooke," it said, announcing their arrival. The bug came to idle behind him, and Lily leaned out the window. "What gives?"
August shut off his bike and dismounted. Emma stopped the bug and the two women climbed out. "This is where we have to part," August told them solemnly. Emma looked at him, eyes wide with surprise. "What do you mean?!" Lily asked, her voice rising in panic. "Don't worry," he told them, realizing their distressed faces. He hurried to make a quick excuse and smooth their frazzled nerves. After all, it wouldn't do for them to realize he'd taken them all this way and uprooted their lives only to abandon them at the last moment. "My source who told me about the man we're looking for lives near here. Probably two or so days ride from here. You two go into Storybrooke, see what you can find, and I'll meet up with you in a couple of a days."
They reluctantly admitted it might be a good resource for him to renew, and agreed to go into town without him. Lily had a bad feeling, wishing that August was accompanying them into town. She had unknowingly come to depend on him and his certainty in their adventure, and his sudden disappearance made her feel uneasy.
It was already late when the girls pulled into town, and Emma and Lily agreed this sleepy little town didn't seem like the type to have any Motel 6's or clerks that would be up this hour. They made camp in the yellow bug, accustomed to such practices due to their extensive time on the road. They both stretched out in the front seat laid back as far it would go. They were both too keyed up to sleep, surveying the quiet store fronts of the sleepy little town, but eventually Emma's eyes began to droop after such a long drive.
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ONCE * UPON * A * TIME * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
The next morning, Lily was awakened by a quiet tapping at their window. She looked up, startled to discover a woman with rounded cheeks and a short, dark hair pixie cut smiling down at the pair in the bug. Lily shook Emma awake, and Emma turned the key in the ignition so that Lily could roll her window down.
Peering out the windows, the two discovered that the sleepy little town had morphed overnight and bright sunshine illuminated the sidewalks and revealed a bustling town square. Cars drove past at a leisurely pace, and men and women walked back and forth under the morning sun, busy on their morning commutes.
"Hey, you two," the woman said in welcome. "You must be new in town." Lily and Emma smiled unsurely at her, unaccustomed to people being so darn friendly. "We are," Lily offered kindly. "You guys look like you could use a bed, maybe stretch your legs! Maybe I can show you two around," the short haired brunette offered. "It couldn't hurt," Emma said, shrugging her shoulders, as she heard her belly rumble. The two women climbed out of the bug, and the woman started leading them towards a diner not far down the road. "I'm Mary Margaret, by the way," Mary Margaret introduced herself. The pair introduced themselves to her and she led them inside the retro diner.
"Hey, strangers in town," the hot waitress called when they opened the door, instantly hitting up the new arrivals. She offered them all coffee as they sat down. "I take it you don't get many?" Lily asked curiously, eyebrow raised. "Oh no, we haven't had anyone new in town in ages," the dark haired girl replied.
Before long, the waitress was introduced by Mary Margaret as Ruby and she was joining the group in her tiny red shorts chatting them up. Lily had to give it to the girl for looking so lean and well put together so early in the morning. She herself was still adjusting from her bar tending hours and was used to sleeping late in the afternoon. It was almost discombobulating to be up so early, but she paid attention to their new acquaintance as best she could as she sipped her coffee to stay awake.
"Where are you two from?" Ruby asked the question they were all dying to know. "Boston," Emma and Lily answered together, seeing no reason to lie. Emma let Lily take the reigns, as she was the one who delighted in telling their story to others, fancying their tale as some great romance. Emma hadn't always felt so pessimistic about their relationship, once she had felt the same as Lily. After all, they were two orphaned lovers who found each other on the perpetual look out for their birth parents.
Emma internally cringed, and let Lily tell it her way. "Me and Emma are best friends," she said, darting a conspiratorial look her way. "We met in the same group home," she explained, and Emma did not miss the briefly sympathetic look that flashed across Mary Margaret's gentle, round face.
"We grew up together. We went from place to place once we got out, looking for our parents," she paraphrased. Lily always lied about how they met and had a knack for twisting the truth in general. She liked to romanticize their tale and leave out the facts, such as in reality, the pair had had spent much of their youth searching for one other.
Over the years, Lily and Emma had been separated more than once and yet they always found their way back to each other somehow. Their relationship history was truthfully a tale of manipulation and of an on-again, off-again nature. At times, there was a thin line between love and hate between them. Their relationship was more complicated than Lily let on, and Emma found herself resenting the dishonesty this time rather than appreciating the way she dressed things up. She didn't say anything though.
"So are you guys staying, or just visiting?" Mary Margaret inquired. "Well," Lily said, looking towards Emma for confirmation. "We'll be staying for a little while, I should think," she cautiously answered. "So long as we can find a place to sleep," Emma said forlornly and Mary Margaret laughed.
"I think I can help with that," Ruby kindly offered. "I can ask Granny about a room for you two," she said. Lily looked at the lean waitress with appreciation and admired the red streaks in her beautiful, long hair. The toothy grin she hid was behind red lips so starkly in contrast to her white skin, and Lily found she liked the subtle curve of her lips. "We would appreciate it so much," she said meaningfully.
After a small breakfast of eggs and toast and a grilled cheese for Emma, they were following Ruby to the bed and breakfast ran by the infamous Granny. Eugene Lucas stepped out from behind a door, and was standing behind the inn keeper's desk just as they walked up. "Granny, these two want to see about a room," Ruby said enthusiastically.
"Really?" Granny's eyes brightened with interest, and she looked the two women up and down and found nothing untoward or unpresentable about them. "Do you want a room with a forest view, or square?" She asked excitedly, fumbling through her drawers in search of her log book and keys. It had been so long since strangers had come to town, everyone would be talking about the two's arrival in hours. Granny would be sure of it.
"Normally there's an up-charge fee for the square," she said, dropping the log book on the counter. She motioned for Lily to come forwards, and she started filling out the dusty volume. "But since rent is due, I'll go ahead and waive it," she offered and Emma smiled. "Square's fine," she said, and Granny's hand fluttered excitedly to her chest where her heart was beating rapidly. "I've forgotten my manners, of course," she said. "My name's Eugene, and I guess you know my granddaughter already. Who are you two young ladies?" she asked.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Lily said with a grin. "I'm Lily, and this is Emma," she answered, and just at that moment the bell over the front door to the inn rang. A short man in a black suit, limping with a finely crafted, wooden cane came through the door. "Emma?" he asked, intruding upon the circle of people at the inn keeper's desk. "What a lovely name," he commented and Emma noticed the friendly vibe in the room was sucked from the air at his arrival.
"Thanks," Emma said unsurely, and exchanged a perplexed look with Lily as they watched the man turn towards Granny and the kind old woman's easy grin vanished from her face as she yanked a wad of bills out of her purple sweater. "It's all here," she said, her voice stern and laced with tension, offering him the wad of money impatiently.
"Yes, yes, of course it is, dear," he said and accepted the wad, casually tucking it into his trousers pocket. The word that leaped to the forefront of Emma's mind was dastardly, what with the way he easily handled that kind of money and she suspected way more was just a little less than innocent to her.
"You enjoy your stay here, ladies," he said, and left the group at the inn keeper's desk. The bell rang again after his departure. "Who was that?" Lily asked curiously, watching the door with some concern. "That's Mr. Gold," Ruby answered, going to the window to peak out after him. "He owns this place," she explained. "What, the inn?" Emma inquired. "No, the town," Granny answered the new comers with a tone of finality. She shook her head, and smiled brightly at the two young women again. "But never mind him, just how long will you two be staying?" she asked.
"A week, at least," Emma answered. Ruby smiled secretly at Lily from behind the blonde. "We're still deciding," Lily offered, and accepted the ornate key that Granny extended her way. "Great!" Granny said, "Welcome to Storybrooke. I hope you two will like it here, and if you need anything, please don't hesitate to ask."
*~*~*~*~* ONCE * UPON * A * TIME *~*~*~*~*
It was two days later that Emma met the little town's mayor.
Emma found herself back at the diner they'd started in. She enjoyed coming by an easy grilled cheese in the morning, what could she say. She and Lily went straight to the room from Granny and unpacked, and the rest of their day and the following one they spent exploring the little town. They saw many people, but none that particularly caught their eye. Everyone in this town seemed perfectly normal, content. Everyone was friendly. The only lead they had was Mr. Gold, a figure both of the women found suspicious. So far, though, neither of them had witnessed him do anything... magical. In all honesty, the girls had no idea what they were really looking for until August returned. It left them both feeling ill at ease.
Emma was sitting at a booth by herself, reading the daily newspaper for clues. Lily was still asleep back at the inn. Emma heard someone place a drink on the table before her, and she put the newspaper down long enough to see it was a hot cocoa with cinnamon, and glanced up at Ruby. "Hey, I didn't order this," she said as Ruby turned to leave, and the brunette smirked and nodded her head towards the bar.
A shaggy, blonde headed man sat at the bar in a leather jacket with a considerable growth of five o'clock shadow on his jaw. "I know, he did. You have an admirer, and so soon," she said with a knowing grin. Emma rolled her green eyes. "The last thing on my mind is romance," she remarked with disdain, partly to herself, and Ruby shrugged. "Such a waste," the brunette sighed and Emma shook her head. She put down her newspaper, picked up the mug of hot cocoa, and approached the stranger at the bar.
"Look, I don't know who you are or what your game is, but I am not here to flirt," she forcefully declared to him. "So thank you for the hot chocolate, but no thanks," she said, setting the mug down beside him. The stranger blinked at her innocently, then grinned an uncomfortably charming, straight white teethed smile.
"Graham is my name, and the name of the game is I'm the sherrif of this here town," he said with a drawl, mimicking the old time western movies. Emma found a smile unwillingly making its way to her face. "I wouldn't be doing right by my duty as sherrif if I didn't try and find out all about the new arrivals to town," he pointed out. "In fact, I was just trying to be neighborly by ordering you the hot cocoa, Ms. Swan," he said slyly. "You're the one who jumped to conclusions about my good intentions," he remarked suggestively. Emma wasn't normally one to blush, but her embarrassment at making a fool of herself was getting the best of her.
It was at that moment that someone approached the two from behind. "Yes, if not to flirt, what exactly did bring you to our little town, Ms. Swan?" A silky voice inquired, and Emma turned to find the owner of the voice to be a beautiful, if very angry looking, domineering woman in a dark, sensible pants suit. "How do you guys already know who I am?" she asked, bewildered and more than a little caught off guard. She had never met either of them yet, but if she wasn't mistaken, she thought she caught Graham flash guilty eyes the brunette's way.
"Storybrooke doesn't get a lot of visitors, I'm afraid," the beautiful business woman said. "You'll find that news travels fast in this town," she explained. "Especially with you girls over at Granny's now," Graham added mischievously. Obviously, there was still a lot to be learned about this little town and its in and outs. For instance, Emma started to say, "I hate to be rude, but I don't believe we've met yet actually..."
"Where are my manners?" Graham chided himself, interrupting the blonde, and tsked. "This is the lovely Regina Mills, Madame Mayor of Storybrooke." Regina bowed her head in greeting, but her smile did not reach her eyes and quite frankly, it stretched so big and fake across her face that Emma thought it must hurt.
"It's a pleasure, I'm sure," Regina said, and took a seat on the other side of the sheriff. "But I believe we interrupted you, Ms. Swan," she said, "You were just explaining what you were doing in town?" She had said 'in town,' but the tone of her voice implied, 'What are you doing in my town?'
"Please, call me Emma," the blonde said, searching for something to say. She decided to drink the now lukewarm cocoa and slid onto the bar stool next to Graham. She decided to tell a white lie of her own in an impulsive fit of rebellion against Lily's romanticized version of their story. It was partly because she loathed talking about being abandoned and could never make growing up an orphan sound as charming a tale as Lily could.
"Can you guys keep a secret?" Emma asked, voice lowered as she glanced around the diner. There were only a few other patrons, and they were seated in the booths a few rows down from their spot at the bar. Graham looked curiously at Emma, then Regina, and they both nodded their assent to the blonde. "My business partner and I are looking for someone," Emma confessed.
"Oh, do tell," Graham immediately replied, his eyes sparking in excitement. As the local law officer, he would surely be enlisted in her search and was very interested in spending some time with the blonde. He undoubtedly found her quite fetching, much to the chagrin of the brunette sitting beside him. Regina could tell when the sheriff was flirting from a mile off, because she was usually the one with whom he chose to flirt. "The less you know, the better," Emma replied mysteriously, and Regina found herself suppressing her ire at the comment.
"Just what exactly is it that you do, Ms. Swan?" Regina asked, ignoring her request from earlier, and her tone sounded more than a little annoyed at the secrecy the blonde was attempting. Emma's eyes narrowed imperceptibly, wondering why this so-called Madame Mayor felt so entitled as to be so damn prying into her private life. "I find people," she said shortly. "I'm a bail bonds person," Emma elaborated, "I track down people to collect a fee. Lily and I have reason to believe one of our perps is laying low around here."
"Well, I'm sure you won't find anyone of that caliber here in Storybrooke, Ms. Swan," Regina said dismissively with a little smugness. "How absurd!" she commented rather harshly, and gave a little condescending laugh as she stood. "You'll find the people of Storybrooke are good, kind people, and they would never run from the law like some common, low-life fugitive," the brunette said haughtily. "Sheriff, if you don't mind, please do come by my office later, we have something to discuss," she said, turning to leave the diner. She bid her goodbyes, and Emma watched her leave with eyes narrowed dangerously at the gall of that woman.
Emma couldn't help but feel personally insulted a little at the mayor's parting line. She knew all too well that she'd been forced to leave a few different towns in such a fashion because of Lily, slinking away in the middle of the night to escape the consequences of her girlfriend's actions. Add that to the growing list of reasons she no longer trusted or lusted after Lily.
"What's her deal?" the blonde asked after the mayor departed. She was more than a little annoyed at the insult to her tracking abilities, fake case or not. Graham evaluated the miffed expression on the blonde's face and concluded she looked even more attractive when she was flustered.
He decided to tease her a little more. "Regina can be a little prickly from time to time, don't mind her," he dismissed the brunette and grinned at Emma. "So, a bail bondsman, hm?" he asked. "Bail bonds person," she muttered under her breath. "That must be exciting," he said. "Oh, you haven't heard the half of it," Emma chuckled. "But of course you being an officer of the law, and Regina the mayor, I trust you guys will be discreet about me and Lily's real reason for being here," she asked, quirking an eyebrow at Graham. "Your secret's safe with me," he said.
A/N: Oh no! August has left them. The question is, when will he return? Also, if you are holding your breath for some Gremma action, you can just keep right on holding it there, buddy. I never cared for EmmaxGraham, and there is frankly no room for it in this story! Sorry to disappoint, haha. Not to worry though, I have good news. Henry is going to make an appearance soon. . .
