It was way after seven p.m. by the time Emmett and Rosalie got back to the house. They found Charlie standing in the kitchen, and he held up a finger while he finished his phone call. Neither noticed the suitcases by the stairs, but they did notice how quiet it was sans Charlie's voice. Emmett checked his watch, knowing that Bella should've been home by then, and he glanced at Rosalie.
"Hey, try calling her again," he whispered.
"I did in the car, remember? Nothing's going to change. If anything, she should be calling me."
"Rose –
"Emmett, I've left her ten calls and fifteen text messages."
"Then call her again," he huffed.
"I will shove this phone down your throat. Plus, look at Charlie. He's too calm, so she's fine."
Emmett conceded with reluctance, and they stood in the foyer. Charlie tapped his fingers on the kitchen counter and laughed.
"Yeah, trust me, I know. But I wouldn't do this to you if it weren't important. I can't tell you how long I'll be gone, but Johnny has been trained and prepared for this since he was hired. I'll be reachable by phone, though it might be a bit of a time difference. Still, Johnny's going to be taking over for the time being until I can further understand what's happening."
Emmett didn't like the way that sounded, and Rosalie grimaced when he shot her a glare. Charlie pushed off the counter and headed toward the duo.
"Thanks, Elaine. I'll keep you updated, okay? Have a good night."
Charlie hung up the phone and glanced at them, asking, "Hey, you two. How was your trip?"
"Good," Emmett said slowly. "Where is my sister? We have been calling her, but no dice."
"Maine. And she isn't answering because her phone is in one of those bags over there," he said, pointing to the stairs. "I think she thought she had it in her pockets when she left, but after everything kind of calmed down, I found it under the kitchen table."
"Okay, can you back up? Please?" Emmett asked. "Why is my sister in Maine?"
"And where in Maine?" Rosalie added.
"Storybrooke is what I was told." Charlie tapped a few buttons on his screen and scratched his jaw. "Emma and I have been talking ever since Bella left, and she gave me some pretty straightforward instructions so we can get there. She told us we had to fly to Augusta, get a car, and then ride South for two hours. When we get to mile marker 98, I'm supposed to call Emma, and she'll come and get us," he said.
"You are not making any sense!"
"Oh, shit. I – duh, Charlie. Bella doesn't have her phone, so she hasn't been able to tell them," he muttered to himself. In a louder voice, he said, "All right, long story short, a portal opened in the living room. Out pops Emma Swan, who lives in Storybrooke, Maine, a place your mother created after she cast some kind of curse back in the Forest. Storybrooke is in this realm, which is called 'The Land Without Magic,' so that was a doozy for Bella to find out. All this time, you guys have been in the same place, just on the opposite end of the country. Anyway," he paused and winced, "Emma had to come through the portal because your mother has something called Cordis Stasis. The portal was unstable, so Bella had to go back with Emma before it closed. I think I covered everything, but the rest can be explained once we get to Maine."
Emmett blinked in confusion, and Rosalie cleared her throat.
"Who is Emma?" she asked.
"That is something you will have to ask her," he said. "I promised not to say anything until she could explain in person."
"Did you just say my mother's in Maine?" Emmett asked, remembering how uncomfortable he felt in Maine all those years ago.
"Yep."
"She must've been near the water," Rosalie sighed, glancing at him.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Charlie asked.
"We lived there for a bit. Emmett hated going too far North near the water."
"It made me feel off," he muttered. "Now I know why. The magic must've gone that far."
Charlie whistled and put his phone in his pocket. "Listen, I think right now our biggest focus is getting you to Maine, so you can see your mother. There's a flight leaving at nine, which would get us there sometime tomorrow morning. The time difference is still throwing me off a little, but we need to leave as soon as possible."
"We don't need a commercial flight," Rosalie said. "I have a plane, and the staff can do a quick turnaround so we don't waste time. I also have a storage facility in Portland from the first time we were there, so we don't need to worry about a car. Are those the only bags we need?"
"Yeah, pretty much. One is mine, and the other is Bella's. I grabbed her some clothes, essentials, and maybe a few books. It's the heavier of the two," he said, looking at Emmett. "Also, is he going to be okay?"
"He needs a second to recalibrate. I can grab the bags, and it's a forty-five-minute drive to my plane, so double-check that you have everything, and then we'll leave."
"Got it."
Charlie hurried upstairs, and Rosalie touched Emmett's arm.
"Hey, are you with me?"
Emmett nodded once, and Rosalie took that for what it was.
Bella had just finished stealing what was left of the Oreos when she heard the front door open. She poked her head warily into the foyer and watched as Ruby stumbled over the threshold with an arm full of photo albums. Bella munched on the last cookie, smiling as Ruby managed to close the door behind her without dropping anything. Her cousin stretched to lock it, and Bella shuffled out into the foyer. Ruby turned and saw her, and she dropped the albums in her arms.
"Hey, Rubes," she said. "Missed me?"
"Iz!"
Ruby raced across the floor, and Bella swept Ruby into her arms and swung her around. Ruby laughed as she was placed back on the floor, and she held Bella at arm's length, looking her over.
"Oh, man. You're so tall now," she said, her eyes welling with tears.
"Hey, no, don't cry," Bella said, hugging Ruby again. "Don't cry."
"I thought you were gone forever," Ruby whimpered. "I thought I lost you."
"Never. You're stuck with me, cousin."
"Forever?"
"And ever." Bella pressed a kiss to Ruby's temple and moved away. "Okay, one, you should probably pick those up before Granny comes down to check out the noise. Two, who is Emma, and why did she tell me I needed to ask you for the story about what happened after we were lost?" she said.
"Because you wouldn't have trusted her if she told you."
"Why?"
"Do you promise to remember Granny and I trust Emma with our lives and that she means a lot to your mother?"
"If I have to," Bella said.
Ruby grimaced and rocked back on her heels. "Emma is Snow White and Prince Charming's daughter. Snow got pregnant about a year or so after you guys were gone, and Snow started a war with Regina. Long, long story short, Regina cast a curse out of revenge. The whole thing was if she couldn't have her happy ending, then no one could. So she sent everyone here to the Land Without Magic. A couple of people maintained her memories, but for the most part, no one remembered the Enchanted Forest. Anyway, twenty-eight years went by with Regina searching for you guys, but she kept hitting dead ends. Then Emma shows up, breaks the curse, and yeah. That's the bare bones of it all. Everything else, you need to have Emma tell you from her perspective."
Bella put her hands on her hips and stared at the ceiling. She weighed her options and shook her head.
"I'll worry about all of that later," she said. "Right now, I want to see what's in those albums and catch up with my cousin, okay?"
On the other side of town, Killian placed his hands flat on the counter.
"Give me that other bean."
Rumple rubbed his temples and said, "Hook, that is a suicide mission at best. That bean is too unstable, more than the first one, and it will not stay open long enough for you to come back. You could get stuck in another realm, and that would defeat the purpose."
Killian clenched his jaw and said, "Regina is my best friend. Tonight proved we can at least contact them, and I have some of those polar pictures from my ship that I can use to prove who I am, and you said you sent Kieran clues."
"I have no idea if she even got them!"
"But what if she did? We have to try, and Emma has enough to deal with now that Snow and David are going to be watching her more and more. I have to do this."
"Hook, if anything happens to you, Regina will kill me."
"Regina might be dead before that happens," Killian snapped. "So give me the damn bean."
Halfway through the paperwork, Emma's phone vibrated on the counter, Gold's number flashing on the screen, but she was distracted when the door to the station opened. She thought it was Neal or David, probably Snow, but it was neither of them. Isabella lowered her hood and stopped behind Emma's desk. She stared down at her, eyes unreadable, and Emma leaned back in her seat.
"Look, if you're here to kill me, can I finish this first?"
"Is it in your genes to assume the worst in people?"
"No, but if you grew up as I did, you would be paranoid too."
"Yeah, right. And how did the great Princess of the White Kingdom grow up?" Bella scoffed.
Emma ground her teeth and said, "You know nothing about me. I didn't grow up in a fancy ass castle with servants and horses and riches beyond my wildest dreams. I would need extra hands to count how often I went hungry or had to sleep on bus benches. I have scars from men who couldn't take no for an answer and foster fathers who felt as if they deserved something extra for taking me in. I can't have another child because the prison healthcare system in this country is shit. So if you're going to come in here with assumptions, shove them up your ass and get bent. I didn't rescue you to be friends. I did it for your mother. Now get the fuck out of my station."
Emma turned her back on Isabella and tried to get back to her paperwork, but she flinched when a cold hand grabbed the back of her neck. She waited, and waited, but Isabella let go. Emma glanced to the side as Isabella sat in the seat across from her, one that most people didn't want to sit in, and she stretched out.
"Tell me your story," she said. "And I will tell you mine."
"Why should I?"
"Because you mean something to my mother, and she means something to you."
Emma exhaled through her nose and tossed her pen to the side. Her phone vibrated again on the desk before she shut it off and said, "They found me on the side of the road outside of town…"
Rumple gave up trying to call Emma and went down the stairs. He found Killian standing in the same room with a sack around his shoulders and his hair tied up and out of his face. He held the broken bean in the air, kissed it, and then placed it on top of the dragon's eye.
"Are you sure about this?" Rumple asked.
"You and I have never seen eye to eye, and I doubt we ever will. But we both want Regina to wake up. We both want her to be happy again. And we both want to right a wrong that should have never happened. I told her that I would lay down my life for her. And I am a man of my word. So yes, I'm sure."
Rumple folded his arms and said, "Very well. Then I ask that you be safe. She needs you, and I would hate to find someone else to kill."
Killian smirked and took the last of the water, hesitating before he poured it on the bean. That time, the portal was a deep blue, and it was fading in and out. Killian timed his jump, and then he leaped forward. Rumple shielded his face as the portal closed in on itself. He stood in the darkness for a moment before picking up the dragon's eye and seeing the burn marks along the edge.
Emma and Bella rode through the town in silence. Bella wasn't in a rush to get home, and Emma couldn't blame her. There hadn't been a change in Regina, and there wouldn't be until they found the others. Emma had been in contact with Charlie, and his last message was letting Emma know he and Emmett, plus Bella's girlfriend, were on their way. When Emma asked about her girlfriend, Bella just smiled and said it was new. Their conversation kind of slowed after that, and eventually, the ride fell into silence.
Bella stared out of the window, taking in everything, and Emma thought back to how it all started. Reliving her life was never something she enjoyed, but Bella listened. She didn't ask any questions, didn't make any assumptions, and she made Emma feel safe to express herself. Two hours passed before Emma reached what was happening in the present, and Bella kept her end of the deal. Her story was short in a lot of ways, but it gave insight into a lot of what Ruby said. One thing that stuck out the most was how protective Bella was of her family. She held them in high regard, all of them, and it radiated from every sentence. The longer they spent time together, the more Emma hated what happened to her. To all of them. There was no longer that sliver of doubt in her mind that maybe Snow and David had their reasons. There was nothing they could say that would excuse what they did. But there was still one subject that Bella hadn't quite made peace with.
Henry.
Emma knew that Gold and Regina would be the best ones to explain why and how Regina ended up adopting Henry, and that nothing Emma said would explain how they had a younger brother (technically), but Bella wasn't angry about it. She was indifferent, and Emma felt that was as good as it was going to get for the time being. They rolled to a stop outside of the park, Emma shining her headlights to double-check the teens weren't out past curfew, and Bella twisted around in her seat.
"So. What's Henry like? In a general sense. I forgot to ask earlier," she said, tugging at her sleeves.
"Um. Curious," Emma answered, turning back to the main road. "A little too curious, but he's young, so the idea of good and bad is black and white to him. There is no middle ground. And I have been trying to teach him that good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things. Life has a type of," she paused, "duality, I guess, to it. He's not as bad as he used to be, but…"
"He's a kid," Bella murmured. "Kieran was the same until our mother passed."
"It's hard, especially with how often I have to leave him with Neal or Snow and David. And they teach him things that don't coincide with this world. They still think they can find a way to the old world and regain the throne."
Bella laughed and rested her head against the window. Emma rode through the back of the warehouses, making sure the chains were on all the fences.
"I mean, they can go back if they want," Emma added. "But I'm not going back. Indoor plumbing for the main reason."
"Oh yeah, and lesbianism isn't a crime," Bella drawled. "Well, not in this state, at least."
"Yeah, I recently learned that Snow isn't a fan of non-traditional women."
"Snow wasn't a fan of many things," Bella said. "Men in the kitchen, in tailoring, or as servants. Women in the guard, women who handled weapons, or women who worked in the taverns. Men that liked to lie with other men instead of women, or women who preferred the company of women. Dresses and skirts were everyday wear, and a woman caught in pants should be encouraged to change. I remember my sister wore a pair of trousers out to the gardens to help our brother practice for his endurance assessment. They were going to run around the castle a few times, and Snow lost her mind when she saw Kieran racing Emmett across the entrance. And do you want to know the only reason she didn't say anything?"
Bella lazily turned to face Emma and wore a look of faux condemnation.
"Servant girls were too common to understand how a woman should behave," she said solemnly.
"Ah, she thought your sister was –
"She was never given a reason to think otherwise until that day in the gardens."
Emma shook her head and made a U-turn, heading back to Regina's house. Bella chewed on her bottom lip, and they fell into silence again. When Emma pulled into the driveway, Bella unbuckled her belt and opened the door. But then she paused and looked back.
"Do you know that she likes you?" Emma was startled by the question, and Bella chuckled. "Come on, there's no way she would let the daughter of Snow White be in her life if she didn't," she said.
"I don't – we're just friends," Emma stammered.
"Do you want to be more?"
"I'm not sure we should be having this conversation."
"Why? She likes women."
Emma flushed under the streetlight, and she said without thinking, "Then she won't be attracted to me."
Bella stared at her for a long moment before getting out of the car and closing the door. She took a few steps toward the house, then turned around and knocked on the window. Emma sighed, debating on whether to let it down, and Bella rolled her eyes. She yanked open the door, and Emma groaned as the girl leaned in with a smirk.
"Ask Ruby about Beaux."
Bella closed the door again and saluted, then walked up the stairs. It wasn't until the front door closed did Emma drive off, and the entire ride to the bed and breakfast, she couldn't but wonder why she said what she said. That was a secret she'd been carrying since she was seventeen, and she told Bella without hesitation. Emma slammed her fist against the wheel and hoped that Bella wouldn't tell anyone else.
Not yet.