A/N: Thanks for all the reviews, you are too kind :)


It was Emma's last day at the Sheriff's office. As of 5 o'clock she would be officially on maternity leave. She was filling out some paperwork regarding hiring a new deputy, something that needed to be done sooner rather than later. The day didn't seem long enough for all the things she needed to get done before she left. She looked at her watch.

"Dad, we need to get that package over to the wharf. I told Regina it would get done today. Is it loaded in your truck?"

"Yea," she heard him respond from behind her.

"Let's go, it's already late as it is."

At the wharf she banged on a weathered wooden door of a warehouse. After a moment the door slid open on creaky tracks and she found herself standing before Jim the ogre.

"Jim, there's a package for you in the truck bed. I apologize, it's past Christmas but things sort of got in the the way." She held out an envelope to him. "Merry Christmas."

He looked at her in absolute confusion. She had essentially babbled a bunch of words at him that made little sense to him. He took the envelope and carefully removed the card inside. He removed the magnifying glass from his belt and used it to read the card.

Jimvaristhine,

Accept my apologies for the tardiness of this gift. Your tarp with a hole in it wardrobe needs to be rectified. I believe you will find I have found an excellent solution.

Thank you for your contributions to the town and for keeping Emma safe during the fairy magic incident. I am forever in your debt.

Mayor Mills

He looked up from the note at Emma.

"The Queen, she is thoughtful."

Emma nodded. "Now come to the truck and get your box, I'm sure not carrying it over."

Jim saw it was a big box in the bed of David's truck. He picked it up easily and set it on the ground. He opened the top and saw a large cable knit blue sweater.

"We found some clothes and you know…magicked them big. There are others in there, too."

He held the sweater to his chest and a lone tear dropped down his cheek.

"Oh no, don't you start. If you start then I will start and we'll both be a mess. Nope, nope nope. I'm not crying today," she insisted, backing away from him.

"Thank you," he rumbled. "This is…an excellent gift. Please thank the Queen as well."

"I will. I have to run, it's my last day at work before I leave to finally have this baby. I've been pregnant for about a century now."

He hefted the box out of the truck. "Good fortune to you. I will continue to look for the fairy."

"And so am I," David said from the driver's side of the truck, sticking his head out the window "Let me know if you find anything."

He nodded and watched as they drove away.

"I've got an interview set up for Monday for a deputy. I can join by phone if you want, in fact, maybe I should…" Emma said to herself as she looked out the truck's window.

"I've got it honey, don't worry."

She wanted to make a crack about interviewing skills not being taught in the other world but let it go. It was something she was doing far too often lately, probably out of general irritation. She was really ready for this baby to be out. It was beginning to feel like living in cramped quarters with a roommate who didn't care if her tossing, turning or hiccuping woke anyone up.

"Emily?" David offered after a quiet moment.

"That's…not bad. I'll put that in the maybe column. How did you guys pick my name?"

"I can't remember, but I think it was something we agreed upon pretty quickly."

The asphalt and salt crunched under the truck's tires as he turned the vehicle onto main street. Emma found her eyes drifting over to the convent and trying once again to get an idea of what Blue was up to. Mal's contact had been "locked out" of the inside group, and their insight into what was going on behind those walls remained murky at best. All the other fairies claimed ignorance of Blue's location or plans. She suddenly felt the truck bounce under her and she grabbed the door handle.

"Jeez Dad, what did you run over?"

The brakes squealed and she saw his sandy blonde head turned away from her. She shifted to peer around him and saw something like a large dirt colored dust devil spiraling up from the convent. Various bits of debris were pulled into its whirlwind and spun around with it.

David pulled the truck to the side of the road and got out, peering up at it. Emma followed suit.

"It just looks like a big dust devil, or tiny tornado."

"Didn't you feel that bang it made?" David asked.

"Yea, I thought you ran over something."

As they watched something shot up in the middle of the funnel. It rose and rose, then seemed to shatter apart, spreading a dusty light over the entirety of the sky before fading out, the funnel dying with it.

"That's…probably not good." Emma said. She felt the ring on her hand suddenly become chilled by the cold air, something that she never recalled happening before. She touched it with her thumb and felt…nothing.

"Oh shit," she mumbled.

"What?"

"My ring, it's…dead." She tried to summon magic to her fingertips, any magic, but nothing happened. "And so is my magic."

"This is bad," he said, their eyes locking. For a moment they shared a panicked look. It was then that they both smelled the smoke.

The convent and church burned for most of the afternoon before the fire department got it under control. The inside was gutted entirely. There was no one found inside with the exception of one body which appeared to have been dead before the fire. It was impossible to identify and was sent to the medical examiner. The sisters all had an alibi for being elsewhere and there was little Emma or David could do to prove otherwise.

"I should have seen this coming," Regina growled, looking out her office window and watching the thin trail of charcoal smoke that rose from the still smoldering ruins of the convent. The sun was setting and Emma lied on the couch, her feet propped up on the arm. She and her father had ran all over town chasing down fairies and leads, all to no avail. Now her feet and back hurt and all she wanted was to lie down.

"How could you?" Emma asked. She shifted her white sweater around to cover her belly better and lied her head back.

"It's the one thing she couldn't overcome on her last attempt. She was no match for us together, so she took that away."

"It looks like from what we've seen, no one has any magic. It's been stripped from the whole town. If we don't have any then neither does she."

"I don't think its been…stripped." She turned away from the window and looked at a heavily pregnant Emma lied out on her couch with her shoes off and her feet up on the arm rest. She looked relaxed despite everything, whereas Regina should feel her insides roiling with anger. She swallowed it down and continued. "I think it's been muffled. We need to work with, dare I say, Gold. He's affected too."

"Do you think it could affect the baby? In a bad way? She was made by magic." She lied a hand on her swollen middle reflexively.

Regina shook her head. "No, we may have used magic but its still a regular pregnancy."

"Good, because if I didn't know any better I would think I've been having labor pains for the last hour."

The room spun around the brunette and she felt her heart leap into her throat.

"Emma!"