As soon as the monotonous beeps started blaring from Emma's phone, she quickly disabled the alarm and set it back down on the desk in front of her. She was fully aware that it was 6am; she could clearly see it on the giant clock tower opposite her room at Granny's. She didn't need a miniature robot reminding her about it every five minutes.
The sun had barely risen and was casting soft shadows across a sleepy Storybrooke, the sky coloured with overlapping shades of grey and pink. Emma bitterly noted that the only thing missing from this supposedly perfect morning was the sound of birds tweeting outside her window. She assumed they were busy pestering Mary Margaret, who was practically the embodiment of Mother Nature.
Emma usually considered herself a decent morning person, though the opinion changes when she has a night of next to no sleep.
Despite spending a restless few hours recalling every moment she had spent in the Enchanted Forest, Emma felt as though she was no closer to unveiling a valid reason behind her being transported back here. She supposed the woman that they saved might have had something to do with it, but she didn't strike Emma as being a ruthless killer; she just seemed like an ordinary woman. Killian's past self could have remembered their encounter, but she believed her Killian when he said he was dosed up on rum. Rumplestiltskin could have chosen not to drink the potion, but he would know better than to jeopardize the future, right? As far as she knew, he wasn't here, so Emma couldn't be sure. From her eyes, her only solid leads were to either find the woman they had rescued, find Mr Gold, or break the Curse and then ask around. She knew the latter could potentially disturb the town's peace and create havoc, so she was saving that for a DEFCON 1 emergency.
For a few moments, Emma stared at the notes she had created over the last couple of hours. They were haphazardly arranged across the desk, but somewhat resembled a semi-complete timeline. So far, she had only managed to compare the changes and further frustrate herself. When she finally accepted defeat, she gathered them into a pile and shoved them into the top draw. It was only seconds before her paranoia kicked in and she put them in her bag, conscious of the consequences if someone found them, before heading off to take a refreshing cold shower to wake her up.
"What's my favourite colour?"
"Red."
"Who's my favourite superhero?"
"Undecided. You haven't read all of the comic books yet."
"Do you know who it will be?"
"Spoilers, kid."
"Okay, then what's my favourite coffee?"
"Trick question. The only hot beverage you drink now is hot chocolate, and it turns into your kryptonite if it contains cinnamon."
"This is so cool," Henry grinned up at Emma as they continued walking. "It's like you can hear what I'm thinking."
"Anyone else would find that creepy," Emma laughed.
She enjoyed spending some time with him, even if it was only for the short walk to his school. Emma had taken her pondering to the streets after her shower, and had only realised how much time had passed when Henry suddenly appeared by her side a couple hours later. She knew that when this eventually got reported back to Regina that she wouldn't approve, but that was the least of her concerns right now. Maybe she'd find the confrontation with the Mayor productive when she's scoped out the town a little more.
"Not creepy, exactly. Just- cool," Henry drew out his words slowly as he hitched his bag further up on his shoulders. "Anyway, do you think you've figured out what changed everything yet?"
"Not a clue, kid." Emma sighed and ruffled his hair. "When I do, I promise that you'll be the first to know."
Henry smirked. "Of course I will be; who else would you tell? This is Operation Mamba, after all."
Emma laughed in response, though the realisation that she could only openly talk to Henry slammed into her like a brick wall. She appreciated that she at least had him, but there would be no more late night talks over a really bad chick flick and hot beverage with Mary Margaret, or even any more hard-hitting truths from Regina, whom Emma had only realised she had became quite fond of.
She felt oddly irritated that most of the town didn't know her name, but she knew theirs. Emma could already imagine the amount of one-sided introductions that she was going to face during her time here.
Pulling herself out of the maze of thoughts, Emma sighed. "Operation Mamba looks like it's going to be a tough one."
"At least we have the book though, right?" Henry suggested with eyes alight. "Maybe that could fill in some of the gaps your missing, tell you what changed when you were in the Enchanted Forest."
The book. Emma had spent a full night trying to figure out what might have changed and why, whilst the answers could have been in the book this whole time. If it wasn't for the lack of sleep, Emma would almost believe that she was losing her touch.
Emma came to an abrupt halt, forcing Henry to turn around and face her.
"The book, do you have it on you?" Emma asked. "I could go through it while you're school and fill you in on the details later."
"Sure. It's still in my backpack."
As soon as he finished speaking, Emma spun the boy around by his shoulders and began unzipping the bag. It contained everything you could expect from a ten year old going to school: paper, stationary, school books, a packed lunch and an old gaming console. It had everything but an oversized book with stories about real life fairytales.
Emma sighed and closed the bag. When she took a step back, Henry turned around and gave her a puzzled look. She was pretty sure that the defeated look on her face gave away the news before she had a chance to say it.
"It has to be there." Henry's voice raised a few octaves as he took off his backpack and started rummaging through it on the pavement. "I put it in there when I left Storybrooke and I haven't touched it since. It can't be anywhere else."
"Henry," Emma voice softened as she crouched beside him. She laid a hand gently on his shoulder, making him momentarily pause his search as he looked up to her. The disappointment was plain and simple on his face. "Don't worry; it's not the first time this has happened. We could work from memory. Can you remember any of the stories you read from it?"
"I only read Snow White's story before I went to Boston, but everything seems the same from what you told me."
"No matter," Emma sighed, helping Henry organise his things again. "We'll just have to figure things out the old fashioned way."
Henry sighed, slipping his bag back onto his shoulders as he stood up. "I'm sorry I lost it."
"Hey, don't worry about it." Emma gave a reassuring smile. She had only relied on the idea of the book for a few moments, so its loss didn't impact her as much. It just gave her another lead to follow in her quest. "We'll talk about it some more later, okay? Making you late for school isn't exactly going to get me into Regina's good books."
"Fine," Henry said reluctantly. As he began running towards the school entrance, he shouted over his shoulder, "Just make sure you give me a full update later!"
Emma chuckled to herself as she watched him join the line of the other kids and start talking to one of them. He looked happy, and that's all she wanted for him. Just as she was about to turn away, she caught sight of Mary Margaret at the front of Henry's line.
From the outside, she looked the same as she's always done: short dark hair, pale complexion, and endless amounts of patience in the presence of a dozen excitable young children. Everything but her eyes was the same as the last time Emma her in her timeline. Mary Margaret smiled as she greeted her class, but it was clear she was touched by sadness. Loneliness, perhaps. Emma had almost forgotten what the Curse had done to her.
Just as she started walking away, Mary Margaret looked directly at her. She smiled, but the love and compassion Emma usually saw was gone. Her mother was a few feet away, but she had never felt so distant from her, just like she had felt in the Enchanted Forest. It made her even more determined to find a way back.
Emma returned the smile and walked briskly away, pulling out Henry's flyer from her jeans pocket and examining it once more. She was assuming that Lacey would be as 'sociable' as she was last time, so spending time with her could lead her to getting to know more about this Storybrooke and its inhabitants. If the book turned up in the library or jumble sale, even better.
Last time she was a sheriff, this time she would a librarian volunteer. There were no bets on guessing which one she preferred.
"Why on earth would you want to spend your time here?" Lacey laughed in mock horror and waved her arm to the side, gesturing to the bookshelves beside her front desk. "It's old, dusty, and the only people who come in here are kids or old people looking for gardening tips."
Emma shrugged. She had a point. It had never been the most modern or updated library, but this place looked as though someone was ready to swing a sledgehammer at it. The paint around the walls was cracked and chipped, and in some parts, small chunks of plasterboard had been knocked out from the wall. The carpets were visibly clean from dirt and crumbs, though there were patches of questionable stains underneath the windows. The books themselves looked old and battered, with the writing on the spines barely comprehensible on some; it hadn't restocked in a long time. They barely had enough books to fill some of the shelves.
Even for someone who was supposed to love books, it must be hard working in a place as run down as this.
"That's true," Emma said eventually. "But my son loves reading, and I plan on staying here a while, so I figured it wouldn't be a bad idea to start integrating myself into the community somehow. Get to know some of the people here."
"Who's your son?" Lacey asked curiously, taking a book from a pile in front of her and stamping it.
"Henry." Emma noticed a spark of interest in her eyes as she said his name. "The Mayor's adopted son."
"How fascinating." Lacey smirked as she put down the book and pulled a sheet of paper from the top drawer to hand to Emma. You could practically hear the mischief in her tone. "Fill this in and hand it back to me whenever you can. I'm Lacey."
"Emma." She took the piece of paper and quickly glanced over the volunteer form. After a moment, she relaxed her shoulders and tried to look casual as she folded the piece of paper and put it in her bag. "If you hate the place so much, why are you here?"
Lacey straightened her back slightly. "It's not so bad. It was either here or picking up litter on the main roads. I'm warm and sheltered here, at least."
"Community service?" Emma knew she was prying, but she couldn't help it. "What did they pin you for?"
"I, uh," Lacey avoided eye contact and began shuffling bits of paper around the desk, "would rather not say."
Emma smiled sympathetically. "Pheonix, 11 months. We've all made mistakes."
As she turned to leave and end the awkward confrontation, Emma was confronted by a rosy cheeked Henry entering the library. The wind had tussled his hair, and judging from his breathlessness, he had just run over here. After a quick glance at her watch confirming that she had only dropped him off roughly an hour ago, it was safe to say she was surprised to see him there.
"Henry, what are you doing here?" Emma reprimanded, taking a few steps towards him and crouching down to his height. "It's only 10 o'clock, you should still be in school."
"I think I know who might have taken the book," Henry gushed, "and if I'm right, we have to get it back as soon as possible."
"Kid, slow do-"
Just as Emma was speaking, she saw the door to the library close and an awfully familiar flash of dark hair as someone left the building. If the person leaving was a certain person she time travelled with, then there stood a chance that she wasn't the only one who retained her memories. It would make figuring out what they did wrong a hell of a lot easier.
"Henry, wait here."
Emma dashed out of the door after the figure. Since the library was on the corner of a junction, it was easy for her to scan the surrounding streets. Apart from an elderly couple walking across the road and a few passing cars, the street was empty.
He can't have just disappeared.
Emma jogged down one of the streets, checking the nearest alleyway as she passed. Nothing. Her heart began pounding as she continued on down the street, glancing in shop windows as she passed, but to no avail. He wasn't there, and it was too late to start checking the other streets. Whoever she saw left quickly and was long gone.
Defeated, she began walking back to the library. She was slightly surprised to see Lacey standing behind Henry outside the building, her hands placed protectively on his shoulders. As she neared, Emma noticed the confused faces of her son and the woman next to him.
"Emma, are you alright?" Lacey said cautiously. "You just took off with no reason."
"Yeah," Emma sighed, trying to catch her breath. "Yeah, I just thought I saw someone I knew. It must be the lack of sleep."
The woman's face softened. "Do you want me to take Henry back to school?"
"No!" Henry interrupted, pulling himself out of Lacey's grasp and moving to stand beside Emma. "No, Emma can take me. I need to talk to her, anyway."
"Yeah, I'll take him." Emma put her hand against Henry's back as she began walking, pushing him gently along. "It gives me a chance to tell him off for trying to skip his class."
"Take care," Lacey said as she began retreating to the library. "And Henry, no more truancy, okay?"
"You got it." Henry called out. When she was safely out of sight, he turned to Emma and lowered his tone. "Emma, we need to go and get the book right now."
"Kid, what we need is to get you back to school." Emma scolded. She forgot that he could act impulsively sometimes, just like she would. It was a handful at the best of times. "Remember what I told you last time I fought with Regina? One time, she put me in jail. Another time, she stopped me from seeing you completely. If you start acting up around me, she's going to think I'm a bad influence and do it all over again."
"But what about the book?" Henry pleaded. "It could help us figure out what happened and change things back to the way things are supposed to be."
After a few moments of thought, Emma reached a middle ground. "How about you tell me your idea while we walk back to school, and I'll check it out as soon as I can, okay?"
"Okay."
"I saw her."
Regina looked up just as the door closed, leaving the two of them in the privacy of her Mayor's office. Usually she didn't mind him interrupting, but this day had been particularly stressful for her.
She hadn't expected Emma Swan to appear quite so suddenly, and by her son's doing, no less. She had almost forgotten that Henry was her adopted son, and that he could leave Storybrooke whenever he liked. The fact that his real mother was also the woman destined to destroy her Curse was like twisting a knife in a healing wound.
"Saw whom, darling?" Regina forced a smile as she laid her pen down on her desk.
"The girl I've been searching for." Killian removed his jacket and threw it on the nearest chair. "I saw her in the library."
"You did, did you?" Regina asked curiously, bitterness coiling in her stomach as she stood to greet him. She could already hazard a guess at who the girl was, and her hatred was burning brighter by the second. Sidney Glass was sent to track her as soon as she left the Mill's household. "And who is this 'blonde haired maiden', this 'woman who captured the essence of my soul within her eyes'? Did you catch her name?"
Regina stalked forward and rested her hands on Killian's shoulders. She would have been pleased when his hands instinctively rested on his waist, but he knew his thoughts were preoccupied. She could easily see the relief and conflict captioned in his eyes. He knew this day would come, but despite having 28 years to come to terms with it, he was still unprepared.
"Emma. Her name is Emma."