Sorry for the late update. But here it is!
Emma opened the door to her apartment and let Killian enter first. She locked the door and turned on the lights. Killian walked slowly taking in every detail of her apartment.
"You live here?" He asked.
"No. I stole the keys to this apartment." Emma said with a voice full of sarcasm.
Killian's eyes continued to move across the the living room. The walls were made up of high windows with the plain white blinds up. The light of the city came in and shined beautifully on the few furniture pieces. A coffee table, a small leather chair, a desk and another small table by the kitchen with two chairs. There was a rug underneath the furniture but that was it. In addition to a lamp or two that is all Emma had in her apartment. Nothing original or unique stood out unless you counted the stacks of papers on her desk and the many boxes on the ground filled with files, probably from other cases.
"It's just seems so big for one person." He paused in the middle of the living room. "And it looks like your typical cookie cutter apartment. Nothing special. I expected more from you, Swan."
"Gee thanks. I was in need of some criticism of my apartment." She said opening the fridge.
"I'm just saying your apartment seems to be missing something."
"Yeah well I'm not much of a decorator." Emma said while taking out bread, butter and cheese.
"You want a grilled cheese?"
Killian nodded. "You don't even have to ask."
While eating, all was silent and Emma started reading the paperwork that went along with the case. After eating Killian picked up the plates and washed them.
"So what information do we have on this man so far?" He said spreading out the sheets of paper across the table after drying his hands.
"Not much." She said studying the information. "These are all the known places he could be." She pointed to one paper then another. "This is his current home, but he's probably not there."
"He lives alone. And this isn't the first time he's tried running away with money. He went to jail once already, but apparently they can't find him again."
"Sounds quite sneaky." Killian answered. He took a glance at all the papers.
"What if he's staying with friends?"
"His friends are the ones he stole from apparently. If he has other friends they probably would have ratted him out by now." Emma said biting her thumb while thinking.
"Wait!" Killian exclaimed. He had a great idea that was sure to work.
"What?" Emma asked wondering what he had discovered.
"His phone! We can track his phone!" Killian was disappointed when Emma handed him a paper. He began to read it and sighed.
"Yup. They checked his phone. He turned the off the location services and somehow found a way to block any sort of tracking so that method is out. Sorry." Emma said. Emma appreciated that Killian was trying to help even his ideas weren't always helpful. Then Emma realized what he said could be helpful.
"Hold on a second. We may not be able to track his phone, but he has social media. We can check what he posted."
Emma quickly grabbed her laptop. She started typing in the name: Greg Mendel
Many profiles appeared, but only one had the picture of the man they were looking for. She clicked on it.
Killian was surprised of how quick Emma was able to get the profile page. "He doesn't even have it on private settings?"
Emma scrolled through the pictures. "Well they're all of food and abstract photography. He obviously wants people to see his work." She laughed. She would never understand people obsessed with social media.
"This restaurant he posted about is nearby but it was posted a week ago." Emma refreshed the page. "Wait. A new picture has been posted."
"Well click it!" Killian said behind her.
Suddenly, the lights turned off.
"What the hell?" Emma yelled. Did her power just go out?
"Noo!" Emma said when she realized her wifi had turned off on her laptop and the page had gone white due to no connection.
"Does your power go out usually?"
"No!" She reached for her phone. "I'm calling my landlord."
The lights from the city helped the room not seem so dark.
Emma threw her phone to the leather chair after she had finished the call.
"I'm quite perceptive so I'm gonna say the power isn't coming back anytime soon."
Emma huffed and crossed her arms. "He said it's an outage in the whole building. He's not sure what's wrong so he's doesn't know if it'll be fixed by today."
Killian shrugged. "Well since we aren't going to be working anymore I suppose I should leave." He headed for the door. "See you on Monday."
"Killian wait." Emma called out.
Killian quickly turned around. "Yes?" He tried not to sound to excited.
"Are you crazy? We are not holding this off until Monday. He could be in a different country by then. We are still working on this whether there's light or not."
Killian groaned. That's not exactly what he wanted to hear. "We don't work on Saturdays. Don't you ever take a break. That's ridiculous."
"We got a case and now we have to solve it. There isn't time for breaks. Come on help me find candles or flashlights."
"Oo. Candles? How romantic." Killian raised an eyebrow at her.
"Shut up and starting looking in those drawers." She pointed at the ones in the kitchen. "I'm going to check in my room to see if I have one of those battery powered lamps."
Killian searched through every drawer looking for something that would be useful. There wasn't that much in the drawers so it was easier to search. After finding nothing he walked towards the hallway where Emma had disappeared to. He almost called out her name but he noticed a small door. It looked like a closet. Perhaps she had stored some candles or flashlights in there. He removed the coat that almost made him not notice the door and set it aside. Inside were many boxes. A few were taped up shut and some were semi opened. Killian took a peek in the ones that were slightly opened and saw a few posters, clocks, painting frames and a couple of old cameras.
"No candles in there." Killian muttered to himself. He wondered why Emma had all of this stuffed in her closet. He knew she hadn't recently moved so then why have all these things you could decorate your apartment stuck in a closet rather thank having a plain old boring apartment. He decided to ask her later. He almost closed the closet until he saw the shelf above had another opened box. He reached up and pulled down the small cardboard box.
He didn't find any candles or flashlights, but what he saw made him smile.
The box was filled with photographs. He picked up one that showed a little girl on a slide grinning widely. He turned it around and scribbled on the back was: Emma. Age 3. Killian chuckled. He couldn't wait to tease Emma about this. He didn't want to keep snooping through her things so he starting placing the box back in it's place, but he lost his grip on it and the box slipped from his hands. A few photographs fell out and he scrambled to pick them up.
His plan was to quickly place them all back in the box, but he couldn't help but pause and admire one of the photographs he came across. The background showed posters that read: Emma for president! It was a picture of a little girl, Emma and kneeling down on her right was a woman, short dark hair, eyes and chin just like Emma. The woman was wearing a badge that also said Emma for president and her arms were wrapped around Emma. To young Emma's left was a man kneeling on one knee and embracing her. Blue eyes, short blonde hair, stubble beard. He wore a shirt with Emma's face and the words President Emma. All three of them were smiling at the camera. They looked so happy. Emma looked so happy. Killian smiled at the beautiful moment and placed it back in the box.
The next picture was that of a man, brown hair and brown eyes. The man was standing alone in front of Emma's yellow car and had both his thumbs raised. Who was this man was all Killian could wonder as he placed it back. He noticed one more photo underneath one of the boxes. He slid it towards himself and accidentally turned it over. Kilian leaned closer to it to read the scribbled words. Neal and Emma - 2002. He turned it around and stared at the photo. The same man from the other photo was in this one, apparently Neal. He was next to Emma who looked only slightly younger than she did now. Both laughing as if someone had told them the funniest joke, arms linked. It was weird. Killian didn't think he had seen Emma laugh like this. Sure, he had seen her laugh, but this laugh, though frozen in time, was different. The laughter and smile in the photograph seemed sincere and genuine.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Emma stood behind him as Killian jumped up and quickly tried hiding the box of photographs.
"Uh I thought you might have a flashlight or some candles in here..." Killian stuttered.
Emma had already noticed the box he was hiding.
"Put that down and get out the hell out of there!" She yelled. Clearly she was angry, so Killian hurried to put it back.
"Emma, I'm sorry. The box fell and I-"
"Whatever. Come on. I found the flashlight. Let's get to work." Emma said shutting the closet door and led him back to the living room.
*Play dramatic music* Will Killian begin to learn about Emma's past? What about Emma will she learn about Killian's past? Who is this mysterious Neal man? Will they seriously continue to work during a blackout? All questions to be answered during the next upcoming chapters which hopefully you still want to read. It's worth it. I promise.