"Emma?"
She froze at the familiar voice behind her and Regina froze as well, the start of a comfortingly coy smile she displayed becoming a stricken straight line. Emma flinched but turned to face Mary Margret, her eyes shone with happy tears and too broad grin stretched her face. David stood close behind her, beaming like a proud father. Other townsfolk had emerged as well having apparently weathered out the dragon somewhere together. Granny and Ruby, Pharmacist Tom and five other men about his height, all congregated around them, except they weren't the people Emma knew them as. They were people who had whole other lifetimes that didn't include memories of her. They seemed different too, more vibrant and flush than before. They all also appeared to be waiting for her to make an announcement. Not knowing how to proceed she said lamely. "So I guess it's all true."
Mary Margret who had been staring at her rapturously, stepped forward, hands extended to cup her cheeks with motherly affection, her face wilted with the tear that now fell in fat droplets from her cheeks. She pulled Emma's stiff body into a crushing hug, whispering brokenly, "You found us."
Emma stayed motionless as she allowed the affection. David joined them and Emma fought to keep still, her brain still registering the man as merely an acquaintance. Fortunately Henry came to her rescue. "Emma! Emma!"
He called out as he flitted down the road like a songbird, Leroy lagging behind and wheezing like a bagpipe. The couple relinquished her from their embrace though Mary Margret still clasped at Emma's arms as Henry bolted pass his mother and came merrily up to them. He prattled on excitedly. "What happened? We heard like dinosaur noises. Was there a dragon? Did you fight a dragon?"
He then paused taking the scene in front of him, the grownups teary eyed and clutching each other. With guileless curiosity he looked at David. "Grandpa?"
The handsome man laughed boisterously, Mary Margret a ringing giggle, and Emma even managed a ruefully smile at his inquiry. David pulled the boy in for a half-hug. "Yeah I guess so kid."
"Your highness." Leroy finally made it to the group, bending at the waist either in a bow or trying to catch his breath, Emma wasn't sure.
"Grumpy!" Her roommate hugged the man like he was an old friend. Her mind stuttered because she wasn't just her roommate, she was supposed to be so much more than that.
"She did it." Henry said, his brown eyes with her flecks of green gazed up at her in awe. "She saved you."
Mary Margret gave a hiccupping little breath. "She saved all of us."
"I- Well, I-" Emma started to deny it but she couldn't even begin to describe the tumultuous path that lead up to the curse lifting and Regina at the epicenter of all of it. In actuality, she hadn't even broken the curse. Regina had been the one to kiss her. She didn't have the chance to point that out.
"So why are we still here?" Leroy asked.
"That my friend is an excellent question." David spoke with a new accent, not so much in how his words sounded rather with a strange cadence, broad and dramatic like her were acting in a play. It grated against her nerves.
"And what was that smoke from before?" Tom sneezed at the mere mention of the irritant. Suddenly there was a cacophony of questions that rose asking why and how and who, everyone scrambling for answers no one had. Everything was happening a lightening speed; Emma barely had time to process before a voice replaced another. A final question ended the barrage and came full circle. "And what about the smoke?"
"Magic. It's here." Mother Superior approached them with prim authority and a gracious little nod in recognition toward Mary Margret. "I can feel it."
"You're the Blue Fairy. Do something magically." Henry requested eagerly.
"I'm afraid it's not that simple Henry. No wands. No fairy dust. Matters are complicated here."
"Emma has-"
"Not now Henry." The sheriff spoke over him as if to redact his statement, a black box scratched over his words leaving them incomplete for the time being.
"Well, I say we get the person responsible for bringing it." Leroy said his voice graveled with conspiracy. "The Queen."
A few shouts of agreement smattered from the crowd, their eyes drifting over Emma's shoulders to set their sights on the woman standing off a little behind her. Regina bristled at their attention. She uncrossed her arms, palms out by her sides. The gesture would show supplication on anyone else but Emma recognized it as a position of attack. The people edged on the appearance of a mob, tension building from both sides. She shifted back, placing herself more in between them and the mayor. "Wait no. It wasn't Regina."
The standoff suspended, everyone stranded on the middle of a high wire with Emma trying to keep them from plunging into freefall. She started with a diplomatic tone. "Now let's-"
But before she could get a third word in, Dr. Hopper came flailing down the street, waving her umbrella, and yelping a foreboding message, "They're coming! They're coming!"
"Who?" David asked.
"Dr. Whale has everyone whipped up into a frenzy. They're coming for Regina. They are going to kill her." He ejected urgently.
Leroy croaked drolly, "Great. Let's watch."
"No!" Emma and Archie said at the same time but the therapist continued. "We can't stoop to her level. No matter who she is or what she has done, killing her is wrong."
"He's right." Henry's worried gaze darted between them and settled on his mother who had yet to weigh in on the matter. "She's still my mom."
Then the preamble that Dr. Hopper promised came into view. Dr. Whale headed a true mob; a dozen or so people clamoring down the street with ravenous anger. Emma felt the hard press of metal in her waistband but she knew the chambers were vacant, emptied into a mythical beast and more ammunition was too far away in a lock box at the station. Her only other means of defense lay beyond the group. The sword that she pitched stood proudly where the dragon had been, wedged into a crack in the asphalt. Emma ordered to Mary Margret as she marched away from them. "Watch out for Henry."
The conversation carried on without her. Dr. Whale broke ahead while his posse fell in with the others. He greeted her menacingly. "Hello Regina."
"Can I help you?" She asked sweet and hollow.
"That smirk isn't going to last forever Regina. You took everything from us and now-"
Regina cut him off, unflustered, "What? You're going to kill me?"
"Eventually." He threatened. "But first you're going to suffer."
"Listening to you has been enough suffering for all of us." Regina shoved him back with unexpected strength and he staggered back, his bravado weakening under the dark seething gaze of the Queen.
"Careful." David immersed himself into the confrontation. He body-checked the man, forcing him back further, glancing warily at the smug brunette. "She may have her powers back."
"You're not my prince." Whale lashed out at the new opponent, his ego wounded from his unsuccessful acquisition of Regina.
He narrowed in on the apparently unfamiliar face. "Who are you, Whale?"
"That's my business." He hissed.
David leaned in. "Well my business is making sure this town doesn't go to hell so whether I'm not your prince isn't the issue. We have a lot to figure out but this isn't the way to do it."
"Enough!" Emma swung her sword to the ground, the metal reverberating off the concrete like a summoning gong. She had been listening to them argue, her frustrating growing at their pissing contest. "We aren't murders here."
"We're not from this world." Whale turned to ignore her but Emma roughly grabbed his arm.
"Well now you're in it."
He asked sourly. "Why should we listen to you?"
"Because she saved us." David proclaimed. "All of us."
"No, because I'm the sheriff." She corrected him.
"Oh, is that standard issue?" The doctor mocked her medieval weapon of choice.
Emma just glared as Mary Margret now claimed the floor, addressing the crowd with her arms aloft like she was issuing a royal decree. "Nothing justifies this barbaric behavior. And Regina's death won't provide any answers. She needs to be lock up, for her own protection, and more importantly, for ours."
A murmur of agreement swept the crowd, nodding along with the wisdom of the white princess. The blonde bit back further annoyance and seized her opportunity gain control. "I'm taking Regina back to her house. If anyone so much as trespasses on her lawn, I'm throwing them in jail."
"Emma I don't think-" Mary Margret began to say in a light reprimanding tone.
Emma barked, the woman jumping a little at the snap in her voice. "No, I'm the sheriff. You're a schoolteacher. You're a doctor. You're a… coma patient."
She reminded each person of his or her respective role in Storybrooke. "And Regina is the mayor. As far as I'm concerned, I'm the law in this land so whatever I say goes. For now I'm putting her under house arrest or whatever."
Not leaving any room for argument, Emma stalked off, briskly addressing Regina as she made her way through the wreckage to her car. "Let's go."
She could hear the click of Regina's compliant gait behind her.