The wide front window of Granny's Diner spilled yellow light into the indigo dusk like a movie projector, the figures in the frames of glass playing a silent film of people lively celebrating, clinking pints in toasts and patting each other on the back. Emma loitered off camera, shuffling uncomfortably in the cold. The scene was too jovial for her mood. And the people in there would look at her with eager smiles and hands out expectantly for her to take up their happiness like it were her own. She knew that she would not be happy in there though.
Stiffening her spine, she walked into the roaring establishment. At first know no one noticed her arrival. Emma paused by the threshold, thwarted by the sight of Mary Margret and David cuddled up in the central booth. She watched them smile graciously at a man who humbly bowed before them, the gesture antiquated and formal and wrong to be happening in the middle of the classic diner.
She tried to think of the couple as her parents. But accepting it was difficult when they were so young and vital. Early today she had thought that the schoolteacher was only a few months older than her. It would be so much easier if Mary Margret's jet-black hair was a shock of white and her round cherubic cheek began to sag with passing years. If David's forehead had wrinkles furrowed across and liver spots splayed over calloused hand, she could see him as her father.
"Emma!" Henry who had been seated on the other side of the table finally saw her and announced her arrival. The townsfolk all peered at her with admiring smiles like she was the bell of the ball. As she acknowledged familiar faces, she realized upon further inspection, people sat with others she normally would have not associated with them. Kathryn sat with Frederick the gym teacher, his arm draped intimately over her shoulders. Dr. Hopper congregated with Mother Superior and a few other nuns. August tilted his glass toward her from his chair next to Marco.
Henry gave her his frantic little wave, beckoning her over. Her lips pulled back in a tight smile and went to the table, all three occupants now smiling blissfully at her as well. Electing to remain standing, she leaned against Henry's half of the booth, her arms naturally crossing over her chest.
"Did Regina give you any trouble?" Mary Margret fussed.
"Everything was fine." Emma waved off her worry. "We talked a little about the smoke and-"
Mary Margret interjected. "First, I mean, are there any questions you want to ask us? I'm sure you have questions."
"The only questions I have are for Mr. Gold. That's who Regina thinks is responsible for the smoke. I want to know what he did to the town and why." And what he had done to her. She recalled the unnerving light from her hands and the bizarre sensation of her cells vibrating that brought her to her knees.
"Uh." She glanced at David for support. "Shouldn't we talk about it first?"
"What?" Emma asked a little startled. Had Henry clued them in to her magic potential while she was away?
"Us? Your life? Everything?" The brunette clarified and Emma could see she was brimming with explanations that she wasn't prepared to hear. Especially in the crowded dinner with half of the town listening to them.
"Can everything wait until later? With a glass of wine." Then she amended. "And several bottles."
Slightly deflated, she looked to David again who jumped in diplomatically. "I know it's a lot to take in for all of us."
"And we don't want to push, it's just we have been waiting for this moment for so long." Mary Margret effused.
"Yeah, so have I." Emma blurted. The pair blinked in confusion at her sudden harshness. She sighed and continued with a more even tenor. "I've thought about this moment for my entire life. I've imagined who you might be. But of all the scenarios that I concocted, my parents being…"
She couldn't complete the sentence, her mind still wrapped protectively in a blanket of denial. Instead she finished with the vague platitude; "I just need a- a little time. That's all."
Emma realized that the restaurant had fallen silent, as they had been talking, everyone tuning into the family drama. She shifted in discomfort, looking down to her boots to avoid the wounded and stunned expressions. Their disappointment hurt. Still, she could not reconcile with them, not yet, when all she remembered from her childhood was the cavernous feeling of being unwanted.
"Snow…" David sounded like he saw a ghost. When Emma looked at them, their wide-eyed focus was behind her shoulder. Following the line of sight, she turned around to find what everyone was gaping at now. Her own heart thumped against her chest as if trying to escape as she took in Graham Humbert standing at the entrance, living and breathing. His beard had grown unkempt, his skin sallow from prolonged confinement, and he wore wrinkled hospital scrubs. He started across the black-and-white checked tiles, and then halted shortly. Clicking his bare feet together, he bowed, his voice respectfully rumbled, "Your highnesses."
Emma disregarded the gesture entirely. Rushing forward, she threw her arms around his neck and he caught her, returning the embrace easily. Her memory jumped back to the time when her feeling toward Regina only ran hot with anger and distain. Her last moment with Graham flashed into view.
He treated the scratch above her eye delicately, like tending to a fallen bird. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have even bothered, electing to just go to bed with a whiskey sour on her nightstand to sulk away the superficial injury. But he had insisted and was being very sweet.
"All better?"
"Yeah." She affirmed and he discarded the used cotton swab. Emma assessed him from her perch on her desk. His kind eyes and broad shoulders appealed to her. And she was tired of being alone. For the first time in a long time, she wanted to feel close to someone. She wanted to feel close to him.
He caught her staring. "What?"
She didn't answer. The then deputy let her actions speak as she approached him, Graham meeting her half way, the look in his eyes a reflection of her own. And she kissed him, her lips tingling and his beard tickling her chin. And he kissed her back, like tending to a fallen bird. The standard-issue butterflies fluttered in her stomach and her cheeks flushed. Suddenly he stumbled away disoriented. She looked after him concerned. "Graham? You okay?"
"I remember." He intoned.
"Graham." He wasn't making sense.
"I remember." He cupped her cheek. "Thank you."
He smiled at her and she returned it, still confused, but he was leaning in to kiss her again. But then he was convulsing on the floor. She shouted his name to no avail. Trembling fingers dialed for an ambulance that came screaming to the station. Last she saw Graham, he was loaded on a gurney into the van with spiraling red lights, his face ashen and with no pulse.
The events that followed happened quickly. By the time she reached the hospital his time and cause of death had been announced: 10:37 pm and undiagnosed congestive heart failure. She glimpsed a body covered in a white sheet before doctors forbade her from viewing him, claiming they needed to further study his cause of death. The next morning she returned to see him and the body had been whisked off into the night to be buried with distant relatives in Vermont.
She could only describe that time as abrupt and painful. Now seeing Graham, holding him, it all came rushing back and yet all washed away at the same time. Emma pulled away enough to see his face, some of her curls still ensnared in his beard. "How? How are you here?"
"Just one of Regina's tricks. When I started to remember who I was, she had to silence me." He explained.
"Where have you been all this time?"
"In the asylum at the hospital." Graham squeezed her waist. "But you, Emma. You did it. You broke the curse. How?"
She pulled away entirely from his arms, evading his inquisitive stare. She mumbled, "Well, I'm not quite sure. It's a long story…"
Leroy suddenly slurred from the corner, apparently having a few two many already, and oblivious of the moment passing between them. "I think we should talk about the 'E word' in the room and I don't mean elephant sister."
Mary Margret stood up to address her subjects, "I agree with Grumpy. We have to have a plan on what needs to be done with her. She needs to be imprisoned for her crimes."
"What crimes?" Emma asked. "There isn't a law against cursing people to have indoor plumbing in this world."
"Where we are from-"
"Well, we're not in Fantasy Land." Emma reminded.
The brunette corrected, "The Enchanted Forest."
Emma ignored her to continue. "And where are we locking her up? We can't send her upstate to penitentiary without convicting her of a crime. And the Sheriff's office isn't made for long term holding."
"She needs to be punished." Snow White said vehemently.
"And who is to decide that?" Emma argued. "There needs to be a trial for her to be found guilty to receive any kind of punishment."
"She is guilty."
Matching sets of stubborn green eyes met in opposition. Emma flexed her jaw and the schoolteacher crossed her arms in a no-nonsense manner. Emma inhaled, the arguments gathering in her chest, but before she could spout something back, Dr. Hopper intervened. "If I may your highnesses, I suggest we hold a tribunal like we would back in the forest. Now, I know we aren't there, but it's the closest thing to a trial seeing as we could never convict Regina in a court of law here. The council and a citizen representative will vote on her guilt or innocence. After that we can decide what steps to take."
"An excellent idea Jiminy." Mary Margret nodded approvingly. "In 5 days time the high council will convene and the people will produce a representative to decide the fate of the Evil Queen."
The room hummed with agreement. Emma nodded along slowly as well. The chances, still slim at best, were better than the losing the key to Regina's freedom all together. Snow continued with a humble smile. "Grumpy, would you do the honor of being our voice of the people."
"No." Emma immediately countered. "Not him. Not any of the… dwarves. They're too close to everything to be unbiased."
Now the other woman couldn't contain her aggravation any longer. She turned on Emma, her brow with an angry, incredulous slant, "Why? Why are you so adamant about defending Regina? She has done nothing but cause our family pain."
"I- it's more complicated than that." Emma said vaguely.
The dark haired woman demanded. "Well explain it to me then."
"Snow…" Her husband's voice sounded warily.
"No David." Her voice pitched up. "I want to know what could be so complicated."
The clock ticking down to when the truth was revealed jumped to a matter of seconds. Emma's eyes flit around the room, searching for a helpful face. Henry peered over the back of the booth with abject curiosity. Ruby worried her lip between her teeth. Leroy scowled suspiciously.
She ended up landing on Graham. He inspected her carefully, the cogs spinning in his mind and clicking into place. He figured it out or at least made a close approximation to it, Emma could tell. She met his appraising eyes, her own gaze unabashed but with an underlying of pleading for his understanding. She looked for her friend in his dark stare, not the Huntsman or whoever Henry thought he was. She needed the man who brought her bear claws, teased how bad she was at making the coffee, and had started to make her feel a little less alone.
Finally, his head tilted forward and quietly, just for her. "You have my allegiance."
It didn't sound quite like Graham she knew but the sentiment was the same, giving her the fortitude to take the next deep breath and then another one. "The truth is I didn't break the curse. I mean, kind of, but not really."
Snow faltered in her anger. "What- what do you mean?"
"Regina broke the curse." A restless din came from the crowd, with disbelief frothing at the top and disapproval swelling with a low rumble, like a wave that was about to come crashing around her.
"That's not possible…" Snow and David exchanged an anxious look. "Emma, we don't understand."
"Regina and I broke the curse. When… she kissed me."