As soon as the citizens of Storybrooke realized their mayor was in a coma, an emergency election was held for the position for temporary mayor. Emma was unanimously chosen to act as mayor and was immediately swamped with all sorts of responsibilities. It was a lot of work running a small town; she had city council meetings to lead, paperwork to file, and the small everyday concerns of the people to handle.
The first week went fine, but then the earthquake happened. No one was hurt, but the power was knocked out for a few hours and the hospital generator was damaged. Suddenly, the mayor's phone was abuzz with calls from the hospital: it turned out Regina was the emergency contact for quite a lot of patients besides David.
Apparently, one patient wasn't ever supposed to be found. The nurse had called the ICE number, unaware that Emma would get the call, and after a very confused confrontation culminating with her threatening to arrest some hospital staff, she'd brought the patient—Rose French, Moe's daughter—over to Archie's office to have her checked out.
She made hot chocolate in the little kitchenette and offered a cup to Moe, who was waiting nervously in the hallway.
"Thanks," he said, taking the cup slowly with his good arm. He wasn't wearing his neck brace anymore, but his ribs were still healing, so he winced with every movement. Emma sat down next to him and slowly sipped at her own cocoa.
"They've been in there a while," Moe said suddenly. "Almost an hour."
"It's going to take a bit longer than usual," Emma explained. "He's revised it to ask only yes-or-no questions."
Moe stared at his feet. Rose hadn't said a word since she'd come out of the hospital.
"I didn't know Rosie was in there," he said. "I can't even remember how long ago it was when she got sick, but I was told…" Tears started streaming down his cheeks. "They told me she went crazy. That she got a knife and…" He couldn't continue. "If I'd known…if I'd only known…"
As Emma awkwardly patted him on the shoulder, careful not to push down too hard, the door opened, and Rose walked out.
"Rosie!" Moe said, running up to her and grabbing her hand. She looked up at him and smiled a little, causing Moe's face to break into a huge grin.
"How is she?" Emma asked Archie.
"Just fine," Archie said, looking over his notes. "She's obviously been through quite a lot of trauma, but she's quite sane." He leaned a little closer to Emma. "Almost too sane considering how horrible her conditions were; who knows how long she was locked up in there?"
"That poor girl…so will she ever speak again?"
"I think so; it's not that she can't communicate. She wrote a few sentences out for me when nodding wasn't enough. At one point, though, she laughed without sound. I think her voice might just be out of practice."
Emma shuddered. "But she'll be OK?"
Archie shrugged. "Time will tell."
Moe made arrangements for Rose to continue seeing Archie for follow-up consultations and then took her home with him that night. Emma worried about her for a few nights, but then her mayor and sheriff duties reclaimed her attention. There was so much to be done.
In her third week as acting mayor, she delighted the citizens by agreeing to fund the reopening of the Storybrooke Library, an initiative that had been on the back burner for as long as everyone could remember. While she was going through the first few applications for library staff, she was surprised to see "Rosie French" typed out at the top of the second résumé.
She picked up the application and read it quickly, then started laughing out loud. Regardless of whatever Archie said, anyone who wrote "my voice still doesn't work so there'd be no worries about accidentally being too loud" as a qualification for a librarian position was either crazy or hilarious. Emma, inclined to believe it was the latter, made sure to put Rose's application at the top of the stack.