Author's Note: Thanks so much for all the favorites and alerts and reviews. They mean a lot. I'm glad you're all enjoying. Hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

Emma glanced around the small room that the brunette - Mary Margaret - had led her to.

"I know that it isn't much but -"

Emma felt like they'd probably had this conversation before, if she'd been living there as Mary Margaret and Dr. Whale and seemingly everyone else in town had told her.

When they'd arrived at the apartment, Ruby and Granny had been waiting with a casserole. A few minutes later, Archie and Marco had stopped by, Marco carrying a crock pot full of soup that his wife had made. Michael, the mechanic who had looked nervous and guilty every time she looked at him, and his twin children had brought gingerbread cookies, shaped into rough forms by the twin hands not long after. David and Kathryn had also come, bringing all sorts of sandwich fixings with them. Emma began to wonder if Mary Margaret was as incapable of cooking as she was, or if people just always brought around food in circumstances such as these.

Whatever these circumstances were. Emma still couldn't grasp exactly what was going on. How had she gone from living in Boston on her own, without family or friends to speak of - by her own doing - to apparently having forged relationships with all of the people in this town? The more that she spoke with them, the more confused she became. She had not only decided to stick around the town, but had made friends and become the sheriff? Emma felt certain that she'd missed a key point in this story, because never in a million years would she have pictured something like this happening to her.

Also missing from the bevy of people who had been by to visit were the two people who Emma believed probably held the key to the whole thing - Henry and the brunette who had been so snappy in her hospital room. She'd gotten a name - Regina - and a title - mayor - but that was all. It had been obvious that the woman wasn't exactly on the best terms with Emma - and Emma couldn't really blame her for that if she had shown up out of the blue in the boy's life. But she had assumed, with the way that the kid reacted in the hospital, that they would be here. It seemed that she was once again mistaken.

"It's fine. Really." Emma smiled disarmingly at the brunette. It was a small room, but there was something about it that Emma liked. Besides, she wasn't planning on using it for long anyway. As far as she was aware, there was an apartment and a life - such as it was - back in Boston, and Emma intended to go back to both.

"And I'm sorry about everyone showing up. I'm sure it was overwhelming for you." The brunette looked concerned, almost motherly. Emma had been thinking of her that way ever since she first woke up in the hospital.

"It was -" Emma frowned and then nodded. "It was weird. I'm not used to - in Boston, there are maybe two people who know my name, and I'm fine with that. I like that. But here - everyone seems to know me and I don't know them. I don't even think I know the Emma they're talking about because she just doesn't seem anything like me."

Mary Margaret reached out and squeezed Emma's arm. "I know this is hard. And I know it's a big adjustment. It was when you first got here too. But I know that everything will work out. Everything will come back to you, just like it did with David. Things will be fine."

Emma swallowed and went for the easy joke. "Yeah, and what's with that anyway? Two amnesiacs in town in the course of a couple months? What are you guys putting in the water?"

Mary Margaret allowed her a smile, although it looked forced, even to Emma.

"Why don't you lie down for a while? I have a feeling that come 4 o'clock, there's going to be a very concerned ten year old knocking on my door. Unless you want me to tell him you're not up for seeing him yet?"

Emma nearly took the out that Mary Margaret was offering her. It would be so easy. Just say she still wasn't feeling well and needed to sleep. Avoid the kid for another day or two and then take off and never have to really face up to him and the fact that she'd given him up and all the emotions that came with that - emotions that she'd buried years ago. But apparently she'd already faced up to it once, and she could see the worry in Mary Margaret's eyes, not for Emma but for Henry if she had to turn him away.

"No, don't do that. I'll crash for a bit and then I'll talk to the kid." And for some reason that made Mary Margaret smile. "Will you make sure I'm awake by 4?"

"Of course." Mary Margaret squeezed her arm again and then left the small room, pulling the door behind her and leaving Emma to her very muddled and confused thoughts.

Mary Margaret had been right. At exactly 4:00, a knock sounded on the door. Emma moved to open it and was bombarded by a hug.

"Emma!" Henry exclaimed, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and burying his head in her stomach.

Emma was glad she'd had her feet firmly planted, or she was sure she would've been knocked over by the force of the hug.

"Hey, kid." She said awkwardly, her eyes searching the hallway for any signs of Regina or possibly a father figure with the kid. "Where's your mom?"

Henry looked up at her, confused. "You're right here."

Emma bristled a bit and rolled her eyes. "Kid, I mean your mom, not me."

"But you are my mom." Henry argued.

"Henry." Mary Margaret's voice came from the kitchen area and Henry frowned just a bit.

"She's at work, I guess." He shrugged.

"Does she know that you're here?" Emma asked, untangling herself from him.

"I guess so."

Emma spotted the lie easily. "Henry, your mother doesn't know where you are. She's going to be worried."

"No, she won't." Henry denied. "Besides, she told me that I could come see you today. She told me that she'd even bring me herself."

"Then why didn't you wait for her to do that?"

"Because she was probably lying. And because I didn't want to have to wait to see you. She would've just tried to keep me away."

Emma sighed and moved over to the couch. "Do you talk like this to her?" Emma asked him, looking him up and down.

"Like what?" Henry climbed up next to her, still not understanding where Emma was going with this particular line of questioning. She was his mom, even if she didn't remember the last year, she did remember having him. So he didn't understand why she was so concerned about how he talked to Regina.

"Calling me your mom? Saying she wouldn't worry about you?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"Henry," Emma looked shocked. "I'm not your mom. Not the same way that she is. I gave birth to you but she - she raised you. That's got to hurt her, to hear you saying those things."

Henry just shook his head. "Nothing can hurt her. She doesn't have a heart."

"What?"

"Henry -" Mary Margaret cautioned from the kitchen.

"She's the Evil Queen, Emma."

Emma felt pressure behind her eyes begin to build at Henry's words and she brought her fingers up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "What are you talking about, kid?"

"Henry, I don't think now is the best time to -" Mary Margaret started, moving towards them, but Henry continued on.

"I know you don't remember, but she's The Evil Queen. All the fairy tales are real and she cursed everyone from that land and made them all come here, only they don't remember who they really are. This town has been cursed ever since then. But I know the truth and I came to find you, because you're the only one who can break the spell. You're the savior."

With each word, Emma's headache increased.

"Henry, Emma is still recovering. I know you believe these things, but right now I think it's best if we let them go for a while." Mary Margaret said gently, yet firmly.

Emma looked up at her. "You know about all this?"

"Miss Blanchard is the one who gave me the book."

"What book?"

"The book that proves that this is all true!"

"Okay." Emma sighed. "So where is this book?"

Henry shook his head sadly. "I don't know. I think she stole it when she tore down my castle. She knew we were getting close to figuring out the truth."

"So what you're saying…" Emma's head was pounding more and more with every word and her vision was beginning to blur slightly, "is that somewhere out there, there's a book that proves that everyone in this town is actually from some fairy tale world, but your mother stole it because she's the Evil Queen who trapped everyone here. And I'm some kind of savior that can end the curse and… what? Bring back happily ever after?"

A huge smile split Henry's face. "See! I knew you'd remember. I knew her plan wouldn't work."

"What plan?"

"Her plan to kill you by cutting the brakes in your car."

"Henry!" Mary Margaret's voice was shrill and louder than Emma had ever heard it - and although that hadn't been much, she assumed that the woman typically did not speak like that. Her eyes flew to the woman's face and she could see the truth there, at least about her brakes being cut.

She'd only been told that there had been a car accident - that her car had skidded on the wet road and wrecked into a tree. No one had mentioned that her brakes had been cut.

"Someone cut my brakes?"

"Yes, she did!"

Mary Margaret sighed. "Michael looked at your car after the volunteer firefighters got the fire out. He thinks someone cut them - but Emma, the car exploded and it's very hard to tell if -"

The headache got worse and blackness started creeping along the edges of her vision. Emma flung up her hand to stop any further talking.

"Okay. Here's what's going to happen now. I'm going upstairs to take some pain meds and lay down. You," she pointed at Henry, "are going to sit here and do your homework without complaint. And you," she motioned toward Mary Margaret, "are going to supervise him. Once my head stops feeling like it's going to split open, I am taking the kid back home. Are we clear?"

Henry and Mary Margaret both nodded.

"Emma, do you need me to call Dr. Whale to see -"

"What I need," Emma interrupted, "is to take some pain pills and lay down for a bit. And for no one to talk about curses or fairy tales or people cutting my brakes for a while. Okay?"

"Okay."

Emma climbed the stairs, leaving behind two concerned people who were watching her every move.

Once she had swallowed the pain pills that Dr. Whale gave her, Emma collapsed on her bed, closing her eyes to block out everything. But she couldn't get the kid's words out of her head. Her brakes had been cut.

Emma remembered the way that Michael hadn't been able to look at her and had seemed nervous when he'd been at the house earlier. He'd known then, and hadn't wanted to tell her. Someone in this town had wanted her dead. That, in and of itself wasn't that uncommon. She'd been in some pretty nasty scrapes in her life, pissed off a lot of people and gotten more death threats than she could count. But here, in this little town where everyone seemed to know and like her, it felt a little strange. Someone here apparently hated her enough to cut her brakes and Henry seemed to believe it was his mother - The Evil Queen.

Emma tried her best not to think about the implications of that, but she couldn't seem to stop. The kid not only believed in fairy tales, which was fine for a kid his age, although was usually more for girls than boys, but he believed that everyone in the town was a fairy tale character, trapped by a curse. That went beyond imagination into a realm that Emma wasn't sure she wanted to think about.

Was that why she had stayed in the town? Because the kid seemed delusional? Had she thought she could help in some way? Henry acted like she'd believed everything and had been well on her way to breaking the curse, but Emma knew herself better than that. She wouldn't have believed him then, just like she didn't believe him now. So why then, had she stayed?

And was the kid right? Did his mother not care about him? Did she want Emma dead? She'd seemed pretty pissed at Emma in the hospital, but it was only because Emma was upsetting Henry. And Mary Margaret had admitted that Regina was the one who had pulled her out of the burning car. So if the plan was to kill Emma, why would she have played the hero?

Nothing at all about this place made sense, and the more distorted things got, the more determined Emma was to go back to Boston and forget about this place entirely. It wouldn't be that difficult after all - a year of memories had already been wiped. She could easily erase the townspeople she'd met only once or twice, just like she erased every other insignificant person she came across in her line of work. Forgetting about people was easy for Emma, far easier than trying to remember them and forming bonds. The only person who would really give her pause was the kid, but she was so used to burying thoughts of him, that it shouldn't take long before he faded too.

With that resolution in place and the pain meds finally kicking in and easing her headache, Emma allowed herself to succumb to sleep.

An hour later, Emma's alarm went off. She groaned and thought about hitting the snooze, but remembered that she'd left Henry downstairs with Mary Margaret and begrudgingly got out of bed. At least the searing pain in her head had disappeared with sleep, leaving only the dull ache that she'd been feeling since she woke up in the hospital behind.

She stumbled into the bathroom, taking in her reflection in the mirror. The stitches across the jagged mark on her forehead stood out angrily. The white bandage that was still on the right side of her head above her temple drew even more attention to the fact that they'd had to shave some of her hair away to perform the surgery to stop the bleed. She frowned as she tried to adjust her hair to cover the now bald spot, but couldn't seem to make it work. With a sigh, she turned away. This was as good as it was going to get. And why did she care what she looked like when she took the kid home anyway? She'd had brain surgery. If anyone said anything about her appearance, they could go to hell.

She descended the steps to find Henry and Mary Margaret both sitting on the couch, watching television. They both looked over to her as she came down, but neither spoke. Emma had to smile a little. It seemed that they had learned their lesson.

"Is your homework finished?" Emma grasped onto the one motherly thing she could think to say.

Henry nodded quickly. "Miss Blanchard even checked it for me when I finished."

"Good." Emma offered him a smile. "Then that means that it's time for me to take you home."

Henry let out a groan. "Oh, Emma, please, can't I stay with you just a little longer?"

Emma felt a pang at his pleading, a shot of guilt for sleeping when the kid was here to see her, but if she hadn't, she was sure she would've passed out. Besides, this was just another reason why she wasn't meant to be anyone's mother. She thought of herself before she thought of anyone else, just like she'd always had to.

"Sorry kid, but your mom is probably already having a fit. Let's go."

"Can I come over tomorrow?" Henry asked, already picking up his backpack.

Emma chewed her lip. "We'll see."

Henry beamed. He took her answer as a validation, even though it certainly hadn't been one.

"Will you be okay getting to Regina's?" Mary Margaret asked.

Emma hadn't been cleared to drive yet, so they would have to walk. She nodded. "I'm sure Henry knows the way. We'll be fine."

"I could drive you, if you wanted."

Emma shook her head. "I think the fresh air will do me some good. But thanks."

"Be careful." Mary Margaret called after them as they headed out the door, and Emma couldn't help but think that she was cautioning about more than just the walk to the mayor's house.

Regina wasn't waiting on the front porch when they arrived, but she did answer the door before Emma could even finish knocking. Although she schooled herself quickly, Emma saw the relief flash across her eyes when she took in Henry, as well as some other emotion that looked like a mix between rage and fear. But just as quickly as they'd appeared in her eyes, they were gone and she was presented with a poker face that gave nothing away.

Emma had no idea what to say in this situation, and Henry certainly wasn't helping, too intent on staring at his shoes and not looking at his mother to offer any words of apology or explanation.

Emma looked at Regina and offered her what she hoped with an apologetic smile. "Madam Mayor, I'm sorry I kept Henry so long, but I needed to lay down for a little while. His homework is all finished and Mary Margaret checked it for him, so it should be good to go. I really hope I didn't hold you up from your dinner. I figured you'd want him to eat with you, so I didn't make anything."

Regina looked Emma up and down. Although she looked the same as she always had, there was a definite difference too. All the bravado was gone and replaced with a woman who looked as though she felt awkward standing there, unsure of herself and what she was doing. Regina was taken back to that first night when Emma had brought Henry home and how awkward she'd been then too, before her determination to be a part of Henry's life and her belief that Regina was as evil as Henry claimed had kicked in.

"It's alright, Sheriff Swan," Regina conceded and watched as Emma's face scrunched at her title. "Thank you for bringing him home and seeing that his homework was done. Henry, go wash up for dinner, please."

Henry eyed Regina and Emma for a long moment, his feet firmly planted. Emma scowled slightly. "Henry, your mother asked you do something."

Henry sighed and moved into the house, but not before hugging Emma tightly. Emma patted his back and then pushed him toward the house and his mother. Once his heavy footsteps were heard on the stairs, Regina turned back to look at Emma who still stood on the porch, looking lost.

"Can I ask you something?" Emma began.

"Of course, Miss Swan. Would you like to come in?" Regina stepped aside as though to allow Emma space to enter. "I'd offer you some of my apple cider, but I have a feeling Dr. Whale wouldn't appreciate it if I did."

Emma smiled. "No, he's not letting me have any fun right now. And thank you for the offer, but it's just a quick question and then I'll let you get back to Henry."

"Alright."

Emma licked her lips and looked at the mayor, deciding just to be blunt and ask the question. "Henry seems to think - well, a lot of things, really - but what concerns me most is that he thinks that you're the one who cut the brakes in my car."

Regina looked surprised at Emma's words, but didn't say anything. Emma wondered if she was surprised that Henry thought her capable of something like that or if she was surprised that he'd told Emma his suspicions.

"So forgive me, Madam Mayor, but I just need to ask, did you cut the brakes in my car?"

Regina could've let her anger get the best of her, but she managed to tamp it down and look Emma in the eye as she answered with one word. "No."

Emma nodded. Regina was telling the truth. "Can I ask a follow up question?"

Regina smirked. "Are we in a courtroom, Miss Swan? Have you suddenly become a lawyer?"

Regina expected Emma to become defensive and strike out at her verbally, but instead the blonde laughed. "Stranger things have been happening lately." She shrugged. "If you didn't cut my brakes, did you ask or hire someone else to do it for you?"

Regina shook her head. "I assure you, Miss Swan, that I was just as surprised as I'm sure you were to find that your brakes had been tampered with. I would normally have our sheriff start an investigation into the matter, however at the moment I am unable to do so."

"Because I'm the sheriff." Emma ran a hand over her face. "Or was."

Regina just inclined her head. Emma shoved her hands into her pockets and offered another small smile at the mayor. "Well, um, thanks. For answering the questions and not getting offended by them. I just - wanted to be sure. Um, I do have one more thing to ask you, and then I promise that I'll leave you to your dinner."

Regina quirked an eyebrow.

"I'd like to see Henry tomorrow, if you don't mind. I need to talk to him about a few things. I think it'd be best if we did it here. I could come over once he gets home from school, if you're okay with that."

Regina took in the blonde and found herself again wondering how things might have gone if she hadn't lashed out so quickly and held on to Henry so tightly when Emma first appeared. Her gut reaction was always to keep what was hers and protect it at any cost, and she had been unwilling to allow this interloper to try and take her son. Now though, she could see Emma Swan through slightly new eyes, and it was an interesting observation if nothing else.

"That would be acceptable."

Emma smiled again. "Thanks. And look - I don't know what our… relationship was like before my accident. I don't even know why I stuck around this town, frankly. But I just want you to know that whatever happened before, I can promise you that I'm not here to try to take your son or - I don't even know what else might be going through your head, but I'm not here for any of that. I just need to talk to him tomorrow and then I'll be out of your hair."

Emma turned and left before Regina could reply. She watched the blonde walk away and wondered if what she had said was true this time. Would Emma really leave?