A/N: The song for this chapter is "Ghost Town," by First Aid Kit. You can listen to it on YouTube. Just add /watch?v=2BKUjnyf8uY after the YouTube URL.
"Here, Mom! Let's stop here!"
Emma looks out her window to see a rundown looking diner approaching on the side of the road. "Granny's Diner!" the sign proclaims in bright red lettering, and something in Emma's stomach does an odd little flip. Not unpleasant. Just… curious.
"Here? Are you sure?" The place looks old and worn, and she tries her best not to wrinkle her nose at the idea of eating there. But Henry is giving her an exasperated, pleading look, and she never was able to resist him. So she tells herself that the most well-worn places are also the most well-loved and pulls into a parking space.
The bell over the door jingles when they walk in, but there is no one else there to turn to look at them. For a moment, Emma expects…. She expects…. She doesn't know what she expects.
The waitress wiping down the counter glances at them before returning to her work, and they make their way over to a booth.
"Look, Mom, a jukebox!" Henry bounces on the vinyl seat. "Can I?" He is practically vibrating with excitement.
Emma rolls her eyes and fishes in her pocket for two quarters before handing them off to him. As he runs off to pick a song, the waitress makes her way over. "What can I get for you two today?" she says, snapping her bubblegum with a pop. Emma catches herself about to say, "The usual," but that doesn't make any sense because there is no usual. They've never been here before. Or have they? Emma doesn't remember. She can't….
"Ma'am?" the waitress asks, sounding incredibly bored with her job, and Emma jolts back from her thoughts.
"Oh, um. Two cheeseburgers with fries and two cups of hot cocoa."
The waitress scribbles something down on her order pad before turning on her heel. "Thank you for dining at Granny's. Your order will be out in a minute."
Henry comes hopping back from the jukebox and takes his seat across from her.
"What did you pick?" Emma asks him, and Henry shrugs.
"I didn't know any of the artists in there, so I just picked a random song."
The waitress comes back from the kitchen carrying a tray with two cheeseburgers, two fries, and two hot cocoas. She places it on the table, and by the time she is back to the counter, Henry is already halfway through his burger.
"Slow down, Henry!" Emma laughs, taking a sip of her hot cocoa, and her eyes glaze over. No cinnamon, she thinks absentmindedly, but she shakes her head. She doesn't drink her hot cocoa with cinnamon.
For a little while, she can't hear anything over the sound of Henry inhaling his food, but then the faint, atmospheric sounds of music make their way over to her.
The song makes her overwhelmingly, indescribably sad.
"Mom?" Henry's query interrupts her thoughts, and she snaps back to attention.
"What? Oh, sorry. It's just..." Something niggles at the back of her mind, insistent on its importance.
"... Just what?"
And just like that, the moment is over, and the feeling is gone. "Nothing, kid. It's nothing."
She puts some bills on the table, ushers Henry out of the booth and back into the car. Only when they are buckled does she let herself ruminate on the song once more. But only for a moment, for there are bills to pay and places to be and jobs to do, and there is no space for songs that mean something but shouldn't.
They drive away, diner diminishing and shrinking in the background until nothing is left but a pinprick on the horizon, and soon, even that disappears.
A/N: Although I've been writing fanfiction for several years now, this is my very first OUaT fic, so feel free to let me know if the characterizations I've got going on are wrong or if there was something you didn't like. I'll never improve without your help.
Also, obligatory comment about how the version of this story on AO3 is more complete because it contains the song lyrics I drew on. It's under the same username.
Thanks for reading!