A/N: Er…hi? Yeah, so I guess it´s pretty obvious that it´s been more than two months, huh? Real Life can be very evil sometimes, you know? On another note, this is the longest chapter yet, a bit more than 9.000 words so there´s that. Anyway, further ramblings on the end of the chapter. And a huge shout out to my beta, who is such a wonderful lovely person, ArianaKristine! The song this time is No Light, No Light by Florence and the Machines. Also, before I forget, there´s a kind of little Easter egg in this chapter. Basically, whatever you see that it´s different from the way I write the story, may be a clue to the next chapter. I´m wondering how many of you´ll guess it. It´s not that hard, but not so easy to guess either.

Chapter Five: You want to get it right.

And I'd do anything to make you stay
No light, no light
No light

Tell me what you want me to say

But would you leave me
If I told you what I've done
'Cause it's so easy
To sing it to a crowd
But it's so hard, my love
To say it to you, all alone

She´s sleeping better these days. Little by little, a routine was formed. Most of her time is spent with Graham, her son and her parents. Sometimes, it´s just her and one of the four most important people in her life, like Thursday nights watching old movies and TV shows with Mary Margaret or Wednesday take out nights with Graham. Other times, it´s combinations of her most important people, like when she has breakfast at Granny´s with Graham and Henry on weekdays or her Friday lunches with her parents. And there´s even a time that belongs only to all five of them, when Emma, Mary Margaret, Graham and Henry go have lunch with David on Sundays at the hospital. Overall, life is good to Emma Swan. Until she sees the calendar on Mary Margaret´s room when she goes to return a sweater.

The coldness of the days might have been a clue, but it´s only when she sees the words December in big red letters that Emma´s heart sinks. The smiling snowman seems to mock her and her stomach full of hot cocoa and ginger cookies rebels against the sight. It´s Thursday night and they were having a Friends marathon, and she hears Matt Le Blanc´s voice and her mother´s footsteps; she is probably taking the ice cream from the freezer, but they sound so distant, almost like the soft tune of an old radio. The only sound that registers in her brain are her own screams mixed with the ambulance's sirens.

(Graham! Please, Graham, Wake up!)

For a moment, her vision is blurry, her breath quickens and her heart seems to do somersaults. But then, her mother is calling her and she pushes her memories and her realization out of her mind. She spent the rest of the night watching the TV show, laughing with Mary Margaret, and resisting the urge to call her boss.

Of course, when she sees Graham waiting for her at Granny´s with a cup of hot cocoa and that adorable dorky smile, Emma almost runs into his arms crying tears of joy. Because he´s here, he´s alive, he´s looking at her like she matters to him and it´s December, she has always hated winter, she has only been living in town for almost two months now, but she loves him and in one week Regina is supposed to crush his heart.

(It seems like everything is about to fall apart)

That Friday, her so strange and so loved routine changed. Emma didn´t have lunch with her parents, because it was the day that David finally got released from the hospital. Instead she eats kung pao chicken, talks about how Henry´s play is coming and tries to integrate that calm lunch moment into her mind. Graham´s laughing eyes when she tells him Henry´s witty comeback to Oliver Gilmore, the gestures that his hands do when telling her how Sydney broke his leg and how the journalist insists it was because of a wolf, the gentle teasing and banter that always accompanies all of their conversations.

It´s not a very optimistic thing to do, but Emma has been having a bad feeling since she realized what month they were in. It´s like a storm is brewing and the cursed town´s deputy is doing her best to prepare herself for it. But first, Emma prepared herself and Mary Margaret for David´s welcome back party.

Her mother didn´t want to go. She was invited, of course, as was Emma and Graham; they were the ones that saved David after all (officially Henry wasn´t part of the group that found the amnesiac man close to the bridge). Emma insisted on her presence though. The blonde shamelessly begged her until the school teacher said that she finally conceded. Sure, it would certainly hurt her to see her True Love playing house with someone else, even if she doesn´t remember him or their history together. But Emma´s very vaguely formed plan consists of putting these two together as much as possible. That way things will be immensely smoother and less awkward when the curse breaks.

So, that was how on that Friday night Emma Swan ended up holding a plastic cup of coke, standing close to the staircases as far away from the party as possible, with her boss on her right munching on a sandwich and her mother on her left nervously twisting her ring, listening to her son trying to convince the other adults on why he was so certain David Nolan was Prince Charming.

"He said he knew that he likes open spaces and that´s why he hated staying confined to that hospital bed, that time we all eat the spaghetti that Miss Blanchard made, remember?"

Right now, Henry is listing reason number six why David´s fairytale counterpart was Charming. The other five reasons were the scar on his chin, the fact that David´s injuries when he was taken to the hospital were the same as Charming´s according to the book, his love for hot cocoa with cinnamon, the fact that they found him close to the bridge and how Mary Margaret´s kiss was what saved him.

Emma briefly wondered if her kid actually wrote that list down in one of his school notebooks. She wouldn´t be surprised if he did.

"Well, I´m sure castles have lots of open spaces, but Henry I don´t think…" Mary Margaret briefly stopped her typical nervous gesture, twisting that beautiful ring)that she had for so long now. Her student´s chatting was at least making her forget about where she was, besides, a small part of her can´t help but glow with the fact that Henry thinks that David is her True Love. Because that must mean that there´s something between them, if even a ten years old could pick up something, right?

"I´m not talking about castles. Charming grew up in a farm, that´s why he likes open spaces."

Wait, what?

Her father grew up in a farm even if he´s a prince?

Something tells Emma that´s she´s missing something here.

"Charming grew up in a farm?" It´s Graham´s slightly curious voice that breaks her inner musings.

"Well yeah. King George and his wife couldn´t have children, so they made a deal with Rumpelstiltskin and he gave them a son that they called James. But James died when the kingdom was having difficulties and King George promised King Midas that his son would kill a dragon in exchange for gold, so he asks Rumpelstiltskin´s help again and he tells him that his son had a twin brother. And that twin is a shepherd and he´s the one who Snow White nicknames Charming."

Huh.

"Is it just me or does that story resembles a Mexican soap opera?" Emma´s brows are knitted and her voice is a mix of surprise and incredulity. So her father hadn´t been born a royal? And why she is not surprised that Gold had something to do with that? What is his deal with babies anyway? She´s sure he doesn´t eat them … or, at least, she hopes.

Henry just shrugs, but he´s looking at her a little confused. It appears that when she told him that she has read the book, her son had imagined that she read the whole book.

"Are you implying that that´s what you watch in your spare time, Emma?" The sheriff´s smiling at her with an amused twinkle in his eyes that the blonde knows too well.

"Please, I have better things to do." She crosses her arms while her roommate starts chuckling. Graham just looks at her smirking, clearly not convinced. "I did watch a little once while I was channel surfing, but that was because I was bored."

And that decision has nothing to do with the fact that one of the actors had dark hair, a beard, clear eyes and acted a little dorkishly. Nothing at all.

"What did you say you watched?"

Emma smiles a little when she sees her father standing in front of her. Her entire family is together now and that thought gives her a warm feeling. Also, she happens to notice that even if David´s voice is mostly curious, there´s a certain amount of relief in it as well.

"Nothing at all." The blonde´s smile, that appeared the same moment that her father did, thins a little when she notices the smirks on Graham and Mary Margaret´s faces. "So, you´re hiding with us?"

"Well, yeah. If you guys don´t mind." Here Charming´s eyes lingers a little too long on Mary Margaret, whose right hand is still faintly grazing her ring. "The four of you are the only ones that I know…and the closest thing I have to friends right now as well."

"You´re more than welcome to hide with us for as long as you want," the sheriff is first to answer. "Emma and I can even protect you from well-meaning but overbearing friends that you don´t remember."

"I would appreciate that, Sheriff."

At that moment, a waitress passes with a plate of aperitifs and David grabs one. He turns it a little between his two fingers.

"Say, Mr. Nolan, have you ever wielded a sword before?"

\-/

The days are getting darker. That´s a normal thing to happen when winter is coming, but Emma can´t just shake the feeling that something, and something definitely not good, is about to happen. The nightmares that had stopped briefly in the last days returned with a vengeance and she´s been drinking coffee like it´s water.

Mary Margaret has noticed that something is going on, of course, but her mother has her own troubled feelings regarding David and she´s also busy preparing for the play that Henry´s class is going to present. Emma knows, though, that she has to be careful or else she will make her roommate worry about her.

With Graham, things are different. The work at the station is not enough to keep him busy (she has almost forgotten how work at the station was almost nonexistent before the curse was broken) and the glances he keeps throwing her show that he knows something is going on with her. It´s like he´s asking with his eyes to please, oh please, trust him and tell him what is going on. But how can she say that all her worry is because they are less than a week from his death?

So, she opens her precious little wooden box two times a day now. The beating of Graham´s heart is one of the first things she listens to when she wakes in the morning, and is also one of the last things she hears before going to sleep. She has also kept herself busy, and since the work as Storybrooke´s deputy isn´t enough, the blonde has thrown herself into working on freeing Belle. And that´s why she´s sitting on a fallen tree on the forest, in a cold dark morning after her run, waiting for Jefferson to show up.

"I thought I was actually early for once, but it appears that I´m late again."

And speaking about the devil…

"Morning, Jefferson." The deputy stands up a little rigidly while greeting the man. Sitting for a while wasn´t such a great way to relieve the aching muscles from all that running. A long hot shower will do the trick, though, she´s certain.

"Tell me, Emma, have you even slept at all?" His tone is sarcastic and he looks for the entire world like an actor playing an eccentric and charming character. His eyes, thought, betray him. There is barely concealed concern in there.

"Certainly more than you did." She intended for her tone to be light, but it came across as irritably defensive.

Jefferson´s eyebrows rose in response to the tone of her answer.

"Ah, but you see , I´m the one who went insane after 28 years under the curse, plus all that time in that godforsaken land." The Hatter shrugs a little while walking in her direction. "The crazy don´t sleep." The grin that appears on his face is almost manic. For awhile, Emma thinks she´s looking at the Cheshire Cat and not the Mad Hatter.

"Somehow, I don´t think that excuse will go well if I try to use it." Emma rolls her eyes but there´s a small grin on her face when Jefferson finally stops in front of her.

There´s only a foot of distance between them now, but that doesn´t bother her. Emma already knows that the man in front of her simply doesn´t understand the concept of personal space. She wonders privately if living alone for 28 years, without anyone as company, made him desperate for human contact. She wouldn´t be surprised if that was true.

She asked about his lack of respect for her personal space only once. Jefferson didn´t answer her; he only stared at her with a strange look on his face. It was like a mix of sadness, longing, surprise and pain. It made her want to hug him for some reason. And there was also something eerily familiar in that look.

Emma never asked him about that again.

"Course not. Even if we´re all mad around here." A brief pause. The Hatter´s smile falters a bit. "Not everyone is aware of their craziness though."

And just like that the almost easy camaraderie died.

She doesn´t appreciate these hints about how she didn´t break the curse yet. Sure, she knows that it´s not his intention, at least it´s not something he does consciously, but it´s there and she doesn´t like that kind of reminder.

"Pleasantries exchanged, back to business." Emma´s tone is brisk, but not too much. It is Jefferson ,after all, and despite what she may have initially thought, they have become friends.

Emma Swan never had friends, real friends, before she came into Storybrooke. With Mary Margaret, as much as the school teacher easily became her best friend, there was always this feeling of family around her. Of course, back then she thought of Mare more as a little sister than as her mother. With Graham there have always been the incredible attraction she felt, even if she used to deny its existence altogether.

And then there was August. In many ways the writer was Emma´s first friend. Until she found out that the only reason he became her friend was because she was the supposed savior. Sure, when she found out the truth, Emma felt terrible guilt about the way she treated him. But that did not erase the feeling of betrayal, because as far as she is concerned, Pinocchio only got close to her in order for her to trust him and be able to break the curse. Which is why she had not answered any of his calls or messages, even after the curse was broken. August did imply that he had something important to tell her, but the resentment and the guilt she felt made her avoid him more than she did her own parents. And that is saying something.

So, in a twisted weird way, you could say that Jefferson was her first and only friend. One of the things that she missed after the time travelling was the easy friendship she had with August (even if it was just an act). Jefferson is the only adult, besides Gold, that knows about the curse. He knows about her time travel thanks to an evening of drinking wine and whining about life sitting on the floor of his living room. He gets her sarcastic jokes and is just crazy enough to ignore all of her own craziness.

In just a few day, while planning to break a princess out of a prison and making a magical hat, Jefferson end up becoming Emma Swan´s best friend. Life is just full of surprises, huh?

"Someone is touched today. What happened?"

Of course, knowing about her unusual circumstances and being her best friend, give the Mad Hatter the ability to know when something is wrong with the Savior.

"Everything is ready?"

Not that something like that will make it more likely for Emma spill to her guts.

(Unless there´s alcohol involved)

"Yes." A pause. Jefferson appears to be considering asking her something, but at the last minute he seems to drop the issue. Smart man. "Regina´s little spies won´t notice us breaking the princess out."

"What will you do exactly?"

"Don't worry about it." The Hatter´s grin is supposed to exude confidence, but the blonde only crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. He sighs softly before answering her mute question. "It´s just tea."

That, somehow, is not as reassuring as he clearly intended to be.

"Jefferson…"

"I wonder about this locked princess. What kind of girl will be Rumple's True Love?"

Evasion. Typical Jefferson. The only time he didn´t blatantly evade a question of hers, without answering or being simply silent, was that night when they consumed copious amounts of wine.

Emma wonders if he even remembers it, especially about something he told her. Or more precisely, about someone.

(I lost her.)

"Sometimes I forget you two are friends." The deputy´s arms aren´t crossed anymore, but there´s obvious frustration in her voice.

"Well yeah, I wish the Queen…"

Whatever he wished about Regina, Emma will never know, though she could guess. A gruesome death? Eternal imprisonment? To fall under her own sleeping curse? Because at the moment, they heard a noise. A noise that meant that someone was coming in their direction.

"Emma?"

The accent leaves to no mistakes about who is there in the forest with them.

"Graham?" Emma´s voice is full of surprise, but there´s also a softness in it that wasn´t present before.

Jefferson´s eyebrows slowly rise while staring at his friend. A look of understanding passes on his face.

"So, that it is. You were worried about him." He spoke quietly, but it still could be clearly heard by the others.

That doesn´t mean that they heard him, though. The sheriff and his deputy seem to only have eyes for each other.

"You were running again?" The tone of the question leaves no doubt in the Hatter´s mind that the man in front of him knows in exactly why running helps Emma out.

"Yeah. You too?"

"Not exactly. I like to take a walk around the forest sometimes. It helps me relax."

"No wonder about that." The sarcasm in Jefferson´s voice is almost palpable. Because of course, the forest would relax the man who was known in the Fairy Tale Land simply as The Huntsman.

It seems that this time the two police officers do notice him (Finally). The once Huntsman turns to look at the other man and, judging by the frown that appears on his face, immediately take notice of his closeness to the deputy.

"And you are?" The voice is gruff, not at all like the tender one that he used when talking with Emma, and it makes Jefferson smirk.

It appears to startle the blonde as well, since she frowns a little in her boss ´direction before letting her hand go from the Hatter´s arms (where they have been since listening to the sound of someone approaching) and taking a few steps back in a very obvious manner.

Fighting the urge to laugh, the man being stared down holds out his hand to the sheriff. "Jefferson´s the name. And you must be our honorable sheriff." A quick glance in his friend´s direction to throw her an impish boyish grin that spells trouble. "Emma told me a lot about you."

For a moment, while the men shake hands, Emma starts praying to the universe for please, pretty please, not let her pain in the ass masked as her friend embarrass her in front of Graham.

"Funny, she hasn´t told me about you." There´s a calculating look in Graham´s eyes when he turns to look at her that makes her want to groan aloud.

"Really?" The smirk on Jefferson´s face when he turned to Emma can only be describing as diabolical amusing. "Ashamed to be associated with me, my dear? I´m heartbroken."

Again showing his amazing acting skills, the Mad Hatter places his hand on his heart while looking like someone just killed his dog.

Bastard.

"Jefferson…"

The word is clearly a warning. A warning that the man in question obviously chose to ignore.

Well, he always liked living on the edge after all.

"Or is it about something else?"

And there it goes Emma´s hope that the realm jumper didn´t remembered certain details about that night.

"Goodbye, Jefferson." She´s clearly grinding her teeth while speaking and if looks could kill he would already be a dead man.

"Ok then, I know when I´m not wanted somewhere." Emma´s glare intensifies while she starts daydreaming about her revenge. "I should go tend my garden of roses anyway." The Hatter´s smirk disappears and his voice turns softly. "See you later?"

The blonde manages a small smile. She knows that he´s just being his usual irritating mischief self, and as annoyed as she is with him she´s not really angry. Well, not that much. Besides, that´s what friends do, right? Annoy and embarrass each other in front of the person they, well, love? And they still have a job to do.

"Definitely."

We´re ok, her eyes seem to say, but I will still inflict my revenge on you when you least expect.

"Very well then." He turns smiling to Graham. "Goodbye, sheriff."

Graham nods in acknowledgement in his direction and turns to Emma again. Because of that, he didn´t hear what the realm jumper said next in a quiet whisper.

"Have a feeling I´ll be seeing you soon."

\-/

It is a shame that Emma Swan never learned how to play chess. Of course, growing up in foster care doesn´t exactly give one many opportunities to learn the game, and anyway her lack of knowledge of chess is being remedied. First, because no matter what she tries to convince herself, the fact is that Emma´s life is at the moment a big chess game. She has to anticipate the Queen´s move and she´s trying to not lose a single piece while doing so (specially the piece that just happens to be the town´s sheriff). Second, she´s being educated on the game by the one and only Rumpelstiltskin.

"Another first move you can make, Your Highness, is the one called the English Opening after Howard Staunton." Gold carefully picks the white pawn and makes the 1.c4 move.

The lesson today is about all the White first moves Emma can make while playing chess, since the blonde always play with the white pieces.

Did she mention that there´s twenty of them?

"Now your opponent may react in a different number of ways, but some are more common than others." He briefly rests his chin on his folded hands. "There are the Reverse (d) Sicilian and the Symmetrical Defense, for example. Jefferson would probably use the Reverse (d) Sicilian also called the King´s English…"

Now he tells her that? Why he couldn´t tell her that, say, two days before, when she had not lost so spectacularly to the Hatter? So what if Jefferson is well versed in chess thanks to one of the worlds he visited and she´s just a rookie?

(In case you haven´t noticed, Emma Swan has a mean competitive side.)

"… but if I were you, I would be worried about the Symmetrical Defense and all of its originated type of positions, especially the Hedgehog system."

Something tells Emma that she just found out Regina´s favorite pawn formation.

"All right then, Gold. Teacher moment is over. Let´s see if I can last more than 10 minutes this time, ok?" Emma sighs and looks at the chess board in front of her that apparently belonged to her grandfather, King Leopold. For a fleeting moment she wonders what else in the pawn shop belonged, once upon a time, to her family.

"Well, let´s not be pessimists, Your Highness. The game has hardly begun and you haven´t lost yet."

About to make her first move, the blonde looks up suddenly at the man in front of her. There´s an impish grin on his face that makes her wonder if he knows why she´s being so pessimist lately. Has Jefferson told him about their encounter this morning? Graham was unusually quiet and pensive though the rest of the day. She didn´t even needed to fabricate an excuse to get out sooner like she planned; it was almost as if he knew what she was going to do…

By the way, that impish grin is still on Rumpelstiltskin's face and Emma found herself wondering, for what is probably the fifth time, if the former spinner could read minds.

"Hello?"

Two heads turned in unison to the direction of the voice. The pawnbroker was as unperturbed as always, but the town´s deputy seems to have even forgotten why she was in Gold´s shop this night, of all nights, in the first place.

"Emma?"

She was waiting for her father to appear.

"Hey David."

"Er… what are you are doing here?" David´s voice was surprised, but there was a bit of concern in there was well. And the former shepherd-turned-prince seems to unconsciously drift close to the blonde, effectively shielding her from Gold´s view.

So there is still a bit of Charming in the amnesiac David Nolan after all.

For her part, it was the second time in a day that Emma has heard the same question. Even if this time, the question was expected. But it was not she who answered it.

"I´m teaching Miss Swan how to play chess. She needs to defeat the Queen, you see." The impish grin grew. "But why are you here, Mr. Nolan? Interested in buying something?"

It seems that David Nolan also doesn´t know how to play chess. Otherwise, he would surely found it weird that Emma had to defeat the Queen and not the King, as it usually is the case in chess.

"Oh, no. I´m, I´m looking for the Toll bridge." A furtive glance at Emma´s direction. "The Mayor said there was a fork in the road of your shop but…"

The blonde snorts. "Trust Regina to give you wrong directions."

So this was what happened the first time? Her father had only told her that when he was supposed to meet Mary Margaret, he got lost, turned up on Gold´s pawnshop and got his fake memories from a damn windmill.

Rumpelstiltskin clears his throat, drawing David´s attention again.

"Out of the door, turn right, two blocks you´ll find a trail. Can´t miss it."

"Right." A pause while the still-not-completely-awake-Charming looks at his daughter and the former imp. He opens his mouth to say something, but appears to change his mind. "Thank you."

He´s walking in the direction of the shop´s door when he abruptly stops. For a brief moment, Emma´s heart stops as well, when she thinks that her father is seeing that damn windmill again (even if she had personally moved the thing to the back of the pawnshop the minute she walked by this door today), but then her father turns around and she sees behind him a glint of a unicorn.

Oh

"I´m sorry that I missed Friday lunch yesterday by the way."

"It´s all right." She tries to hide her disappointment, because for a moment she thought…well, it was a foolish thought anyway. "Maybe we can reschedule it later? Pick a better day?"

Her smile is a tentative one, an almost mirror of her father´s when he nods his head in acceptance of her suggestion.

"Good game, Emma. Hope you win."David´s smile is uneasy and his eyes are confused, but there´s warmth in his voice.

"Thanks. Good luck tonight."

When he finally walks out (hopefully to meet Mary Margaret), the blonde lets a deep sigh and close her eyes for a while. For a tiny bit moment, when he turned around, Emma had the impression of seeing Prince Charming, husband of Snow White, a loved king and her father.

(Wishful thinking)

When she opens her eyes she sees what could be a sympathetic expression on Gold´s face.

"You should close the shop now and then go home and wait for that call."

"Good to see your confidence is back, Miss Swan." The pawn owner is grinning, but his eyes are calculating. It looks like Rumpelstiltskin is daring to hope, even against his better judgment.

"It´s not confidence. It´s certainty."

It´s about time to start reuniting all those people Regina separated. Emma is making another move against The Evil Queen.

\-/

It seems like it was a long time ago when Emma, along with the reluctant town´s sheriff, broke into Storybrooke´s hospital in order to acquire a certain tape. Back then, she had no idea that in a few weeks time she would find herself in the woods close to the hospital, waiting to break in to the building again. Except that this time security is not only infinitely tighter (because it´s not just a tape, but a princess locked in a prison inside a hospital), but her partner in crime is the Mad Hatter. And speaking of him…

"You know, I think it´s already time for us to acknowledge our uninvited guest." Jefferson´s breath is hot close to her ear, but to Emma it looks like someone just dosed her with a bucket full of ice water.

"Uninvited guest?" She´s frozen to the spot and her mind is starting to think of all the possibilities. At least, a small corner of her mind remembers that it can´t be Regina because Henry is keeping tabs on her (He wanted to participate in this new mission of Operation Cobra after all).

"Your huntsman."

The blonde finally turns her back to the hospital she was staring; when she does she can see the clear amusement on her friend´s eyes and the smirk on his face. The words though, don´t seem to register at first.

"He´s not my…" Her eyes widen perceptively. "Wait, What? Graham´s here?"

"Oh yeah." The glint of mischief on Jefferson´s eyes is troublesome, but at the moment Emma´s too stupefied to notice it. She does notice that he´s suddenly speaking louder than before though. "He´s at short distance from us actually. I can´t know how long exactly, but I presume closer enough to hear us, since he appears to be waiting for me to go and to speak with you alone."

Before he could even finish the last sentence, Emma started hearing the sound of leafs being crushed and in a few seconds there was the sheriff, right in front of her. Graham was dressed as usual, but what really got her attention was the expression on his face. It was a mix of sheepish and angry, a cross between a boy that got caught stealing cookies from the jar and an angry and irritated man.

"You have really good hiding skills, sheriff." Jefferson´s voice seems to cut through the inevitable tension. "I wouldn't have noticed you were even here, if it wasn´t for the noise you made every time I got close to Emma."

And just like that, instead of cutting trough the tension, Jefferson intensified it.

"And why are you two even here anyway?" Graham´s voice sounds clipped and he is glaring at the man in front of him quite intensely.

"Ah, that´s actually a pretty interesting story, but you see…" And here Jefferson makes a big show of taking a gold watch out of his pocket and looking at it. "I have to go right now, the tea is ready. I´m sure that our darling Emma here can explain everything to you."

Wait, What?

But just like that, the Hatter had already given his back to the former Huntsman and was in front of the princess again.

"Don´t strain yourself too hard, sweetheart." Jefferson´s smile was warm now. Emma wonders briefly how he manages to change moods so fast. "The path to true love never runs smoothly, after all." And here is when his eyes seem to cloud over, even if just for an instant. "But it´s always worth at the end."

He pats her head twice, in what´s clearly to be a reassuring gesture. Maybe one that he did a thousand times before with Grace.

And before she can even blink, the Hatter is already walking with purpose in the direction of the hospital´s back door. Which means, that he´s leaving the deputy alone with her clearly irritated boss.

Fantastic.

The blonde leaves a soft sigh and then straights herself. She looks for all the word like she´s gonna be interrogated by a firing squad.

"How much do you know?"

Graham´s lips lifts up a bit, almost imperceptibly so, when Emma raises her chin a little in defiance.

"I know that you are planning something." The sheriff´s voice is soft now and his accent not so noticeable anymore, but his eyes are indecipherable. The ever present warmness that Emma used to see it´s gone. That scares her more than she will ever admit. "Have been planning for a while even. But I didn´t knew you were gonna break into the hospital…again."

Right.

So somehow her boss realized that she was planning on breaking the law. No worries there, huh?

"What gave me away?"

It´s his turn to sigh now and Emma can´t help but feel like she´s missing something here.

"I can´t pin point exactly. I know you, Emma" His eyes are cloudy now. Fleeting, the blonde muses that they look like the ocean when a storm it´s approaching. There´s some trace of emotion in there that she just can´t seem to determinate it. "I know when you´re up to something."

She crosses her arms and looks down, avoiding his gaze.

"Ok then." She bits her lip. "So…you´re arresting me now?"

"For what?" His voice sounds so confused, that it prompts the blonde to look up again.

"Breaking into public building." She pronounces each word carefully and that seems to somehow amuse him.

"Well, first you haven´t broken into the hospital. Yet." There´s a small grin on his face and his eyes seem a little warmer than before. "Besides, I already told you, I know you." Seeing that she still appears confused, the former Huntsman tries to explain again. "If you´re doing this, then there´s must be a reason."

Oh.

So that´s how it feels to have someone trust you.

(She can´t remember the last time someone trusted her that much.)

It´s a nice feeling.

Her arms aren´t crossed anymore, but she´s biting her lip more forcefully now.

"Remember the deal Ashley made?"

"Gold didn´t forget about it from the goodness of his heart, huh?"

That comment actually earned him a scoff and a tiny smile.

But honestly? Emma is just glad to hear her boss joking again. Things are not irredeemably broken between them.

(Later she would see the irony in such thought)

"No, I owe him a favor." She opens her arms in a "voilá" gesture. "And this is me paying it."

"Ok, what does the hospital have to do with this?"

So now it´s time for the truth.

Or at least part of it anyway.

"Because there´s where Regina is keeping Belle locked."

"And Belle is…"

A warrior princess. The one who brought Prince Philipp back to his human form. A bookworm. Very probably the town´s new librarian. Rumpelstiltskin's True Love.

"Gold´s girlfriend."

Best to keep things simple after all. Thought the look on Graham´s face on hearing this bit of information is definitely priceless.

"I´m sorry?"

"Do you know Moe French?" Emma is still smirking when she asks him that question. She suddenly realized that she needs to buy a better camera as soon as possible. If that was Graham´s reaction learning that Gold has a girlfriend, she can be sure that the town´s reaction will be very amusing indeed. Besides, she refuses to not film Granny´s reaction when the woman learns about Belle.

"Yeah, he´s a florist."

"Belle is his daughter." Well, actually Rose French is the one who´s registered as the missing florist´s daughter according to what Emma managed to find. "She´s technically in Storybrooke´s pysch ward."

"Technically?"

"Well, the only thing she appears to have is amnesia." A sarcastic smile. "And that is not a mental illness."

"And Regina has her locked up?" Graham´s voice is just a tad bit incredulous, just enough to get a rise of Emma.

"What? You don´t think she´s capable of it?" Now it´s her voice that sounds clipped.

She´s the one who stole your heart!, the blonde thinks to herself, and I´m not talking in the metaphorical sense either.

The sheriff´s eyebrows are up in a clearly response to the bitter on the blonde´s voice.

"I don´t think Gold would have let her, actually." His voice is calm and the gaze he levels her may be just a tiny calculating.

Maybe Emma´s bitter tone had just enough of jealousy in it for him to catch it.

(She hopes not, and even then it´s not like she would ever admitted it)

"She told him Belle died." All that previous bitterness was lost in this sentence.

Is it any wonder that the former bail bonds person can empathize with Gold in this?

(Her last nightmare involved police sirens, soft lips, a heart that stopped beating suddenly and an indescribable emptiness in her chest)

"So, this is a rescue mission?"

Graham´s voice brings her back to the present. Or the past.

Whatever.

She should focus only in getting Belle out right now anyway.

"Yeah, I guess it is."

"And you asked for Jefferson´s help because…"

She blinks once in surprise. That couldn´t be jealousy on Graham´s voice that she detected it? Surely not. Maybe he´s just hurt that she hadn´t come to him to ask for help because he´s her friend.

Yeah, that must be it. He´s jealous, but it´s the kind of jealous that friends feel for each other.

(Emma Swan: New Queen of de Nile)

"He knows the psych ward pretty well." Understandment of the century. "And if things go wrong…" You will be safe. "Well, one of us should keep the job, eh? Otherwise the town might end up with someone like Sidney in its law enforcement." The smile at the end of her tirade is too forced, and it appears that Graham notices it as well.

"Emma…"

Whatever the sheriff was about to say Emma may never know, since he was interrupted by an awfully constant and familiar ring.

The deputy takes her cell phone out of her jeans ´pocket. "It´s the alarm. It has been 15 minutes already." A brief pause where her green eyes seems to stare intently at blue greenish ones. "I need to go."

"Then let´s go."

And just like that Graham starts walking in the direction of the hospital, passing a still somewhat surprised Emma, and pauses before reaching the back door.

"Aren´t you coming?" There´s a smirk on his face and some unreadable emotion in his eyes, but it´s still Graham and that´s enough to make Emma´s heart constricts painfully in her chest.

She wants to take a picture of this moment. Graham, with the weak hospital light at his back and the darkness of the sky above, smirking and oh so very alive…

"Yeah. Yeah, I´m coming." The blonde swallows the lump on her throat and walks into the hospital.

For a while, they don´t speak, they just pass the white eerily silent corridor, until Emma enters the code that Jefferson made her memorize on the exit door, and they see the Hatter at the end of the corridor and a nurse face planted on her desk.

"Jefferson…"

"What? Nurse Ratchet is just sleeping, don´t worry." She knows the exact moment he sees the sheriff because his grin widens. "And sheriff, what a pleasant surprise, you came to help our rescue mission?"

The blonde scoffs.

A surprise, yeah right. She wouldn´t put past him to actually plan the whole Graham helping them thing.

"Yes." Graham says curtly while walking past the man and checking the nurse´s pulse. "What did you gave her?"

"A very special tea."

To his credit, Graham doesn´t even bat an eyelash, just raises one of his eyebrows expectantly.

"She will sleep peacefully for the rest of the night and in the morning she´ll have all the symptoms of a hangover." The grin on the Hatter´s face turns to a smirk. "It doesn´t do you good to drink on the job…"

Emma rolls her eyes. "C´mon, the sooner we get Belle out of here, the better."

Time is precious after all. Emma knows that all too well.

There´s a man with long hair brushing the floor when they turn the corner. Jefferson puts a finger on his mouth, silently asking for him to not talk, and they continue walking. Emma has never seen the man in her life before and she briefly wonder if, besides the fact that he appear to be the janitor of this place, the man is as much a prisoner as the ones behind the closed doors.

"Aha, here it is." The Hatter pauses in front of one of the closed doors, the only one thus far without a name on a plate outside, and starts to look for the right key between the ones he has.

Meanwhile, Emma has opened the little window on the door. There´s a girl sitting in a corner of the cell, her arms holding her legs together, her long hair hiding her face. When she turns to look at Emma with a confused blue eyed gaze, the blonde has no doubts.

There´s Belle.

\-/

It´s already the fourth time that Emma has caught Belle glancing at Graham. Sure, the girl might be interested in what Jefferson has to say, but somehow she always steals glances in the sheriff´s direction.

"Any question then, darling?" Jefferson´s voice sounds loud in the otherwise quiet car.

They are driving in Emma´s yellow bug to Gold´s house, who has already been promptly informed about the most recent facts. Emma is driving with Graham at her side while Jefferson and Belle are at the backseat, the former was telling the later a more believable story about Gold, Regina, Belle and their roles in that story.

It still sounded like the script of an after school special.

"Yes, actually." The girl´s voice is soft, her tone low and the uncertain in it is clear. She turns on her seat a little in order to look at Graham better. "Do I know you? You seem so familiar…"

With a jolt, Emma realizes why Belle has been staring at the sheriff so much. Of course he would look familiar. Belle has never meet Jefferson or Emma before in her entire life, Graham on the other hand…

"I have been the sheriff of this town for quite some time." Graham´s voice is slow, deliberate and it sounds like he´s trying to convince himself as well. "That must be it."

Or maybe it is because you two were prisoners of the Queen once, during a time that neither of you remembers.

"Are you sure?" Her face is full of confusion, her hands tightly grasping the purple sweater she wears.

"Yeah, sheriff, are you sure?" Jefferson´s voice, on the other hand, is clearly amused with just a touch of mockery in it.

Both the sheriff and his deputy turn and glare at the Hatter.

"Yeah, I´m sure." A brief pause. "What other explanation could be it?"

"What other explanation indeed?"

Oh God.

Not again.

"Jefferson…" The former bail bond´s voice is exasperate and annoyed.

"Yes?"

The smile on the former realm jumper would be enough to convince someone of his innocence. Someone who had never met him.

"Stop."

Jefferson´s eyebrows rise in silent surprise. "As you wish, sweetheart."

The blonde sighs softly and turn her eyes back to the road. The pink house is already visible and with any luck they will get there before anything else happens.

Have I ever mentioned how luck and Emma Swan doesn´t seem to get along?

Yeah.

It was Belle who broke the silence with a seemingly innocent question.

"Are you and Emma together?" The brunette asks the Hatter.

Immediately, the blonde turns with a horrified expression in the direction of the former princess. She´s not the only one though.

"WHAT?" Emma´s shrill voice can be heard even with all the laughter coming from Jefferson.

"Oh, that was rich." The man in question is brushing the laughing tears in his eyes when he turns to the girl sitting beside him. "Thanks for that, darling. I don´t think I have laugh that much in years."

"We´re just friends." The deputy is carefully not to look at her right, keeping her gaze straight on the pair at the backside of her car.

"Best friends actually." Jefferson completes and Emma can´t help but smile in his direction when she hears him.

"Oh, it´s just that…" A pause and a brief glance at her companion at the back seat. "I thought you were new in town."

Emma´s brows furrows. She´s certain the bookworm would say something else, but changed her mind at the last minute.

"She is. We just clicked almost instantly, you can say."

Instantly, huh?

Well, only if you don´t count the first time around, with the drugging and pistol aimed at her head thing. Not to mention her hitting him with a telescope.

"Emma, look at the road." Graham´s voice interrupts her musing and she quickly turns her head back to properly watch the road, barely avoiding climbing the sidewalk.

"Belle, the pink house over there is Gold´s." The sheriff´s voice is soft, breaking the uncomfortable tension that Emma can feel and calming her down (like always). "And I think he´s the one at the front door."

"Really?" The former princess is biting her lip and looking anxiously through the car´s window.

"He´s very anxious to see you again" Jefferson´s voice is low and careful. He clearly sensed the anxiety and doubt that practically rolls over the brunette at his side.

"He missed you very much," Emma says while parking the car, the figure of Gold tightly grasping his cane much more visible now with the closeness. But it is to the sheriff at her right, smiling reassuringly to the brunette, which she looks when she speaks again. "You can´t even imagine how much he missed you."

\-/

According to the city´s clock it´s already past midnight when Emma Swan stops running. The nightly running has become a habit as well as the morning run, which very probably lead to Ruby´s assumption that the town´s Deputy is training to a marathon. After all, who else would run two times every day?

The deputy in question is already walking back home, some strands of blonde hair falling from the ponytail, with tired feet and hurtful expression. To some, the hour on the city´s clock just means that it´s already Sunday. To Emma, it means that in five days Graham is supposed to die.

If she closes her eyes, the blonde can almost hear the sirens, feel the soft fabric of the sheriff´s shirt tightly grasped in her hand, smell the tears falling from her face so freely and taste the mouth she kissed only a moment before.

So she doesn´t.

She imagines ambushing Mary Margaret in the morning to ask how the encounter with David went, she plans how to ambush David and ask him his side of the encounter, she strategize how to win over Jefferson in the chess game they´re going to play in the afternoon, she sees Henry´s smiling face when she´ll tell him about the latest success of Operation Cobra over breakfast and she remembers Graham´s look from just a few hours ago.

Gold was crying while hugging Belle, mumbling nonsense while brushing her hair, and basically acting the way Emma herself wished she had when she saw Graham again that time in Granny´s. Thinking that you lost the love of your life, and then finding said love alive can affect someone immensely.

Watching a reunion like the one of Rumpelstiltskin and Belle can also affect someone, especially someone like Emma. It was really no wonder that her instinctive reaction was to hold on her boss´s arm and all but glue herself to his side.

And then, Gold stopped hugging Belle (but his hands were still attached to her shoulders) and started awkwardly trying to apologize for his behavior. The brunette though, smiling uncertainly, said that it wasn´t necessary and that she could understand.

It was at that moment that Emma realized that more than reuniting these two, she was expectantly waiting to see what Belle´s reaction would be. Because Rumpelstiltskin knows the truth, he knows about the curse and he remembers; the once princess doesn´t. Can you see the parallels?

This was why the savior sighed happily when she saw the amnesiac girl tentatively hugging the pawnbroker back, and in an almost instinct move went and grabbed the sheriff´s hand. Of course, only seconds after that, the blonde realized what she did (and that she was literally holding hands with Graham in front of a pink house) and looked uncertainly at her boss.

The look on Graham´s face…The wonder, surprise and affection she saw in it took her breath away. If she had any artistic ability, she would want to paint that look in his eyes and ingrained it in her mind forever. Emma hasn´t felt that way about someone looking at her since, well, since that time at the sheriff´s station.

And just like that, the phantom pain in her chest was back and the blonde opened her eyes. The cold night breeze was in her face, blowing her hair gently, and stinging her eyes a little. Because of course, it was the oh so cold night air that was making her wanting to cry, what else would be it?

Shaking her head to dispel her thoughts, Emma starts walking faster. The runs were supposed to leave her so exhausted that she would sleep fast and, better yet, dreamless. Unfortunately, judging by her train of thought this will not happen tonight. Because no matter what she´ll do, she always come back to her memory of Graham dying and the sound of a clock ticking away at the distance.

She had just taken a turn, when she saw it. The Mayor´s house. But what stopped her so effectively wasn´t the sight of Regina´s house, but the shadow sneaking away from it.

Oh, no. Oh, please God no. No no no no no no.

"Emma."

The voice leads to no mistakes though, she would recognize it anywhere even without the accent. Slowly, painfully so, the deputy opened the eyes that she hasn´t even realized she closed, and looked at the man in front of her.

Tossed brown hair, disheveled clothes and hurtful ocean eyes.

"Damn you." Her voice sounded trembled and she could feel a tear falling from left eye.

She thought, she was so certain, that with his heart safely inside a magical box in her room that wouldn´t happen. She was so sure about it. So sure.

What went wrong?

"Emma, please, please let me…" His voice was trembling also, and he started walking in his deputy´s direction but stopped when he saw her take a step back.

"Let you what? Explain?" A hollow laugh. "I already know, Graham. I already know."

I know more than you think and certainly more than I wanted.

"It´s not what you think."

Oh, I´m certain it´s not what you think either.

That thing is not a relationship, but it´s not an affair either. One of the parts would have never consented to it if he just knew who he was.

And more importantly, if he just knew who she was.

"It is exactly what I´m thinking."

You´re still sleeping with her.

But why?

"Please, Emma, don´t…"

Don´t what? Don´t tell anyone? Don´t stop being my friend?

But she hears his voice in head, sounding like a mile away, sounding like a memory.

I didn´t want you to look at me that way.

Please, Emma, don´t look at me that way.

"I won´t be at the station Monday." Her voice sounds hollow, much like her bitter laugh earlier, and Graham´s face visibly falls after hearing her. The sight of his hurt face tugs enough on her heartstrings that she feels the need to clarify things a bit. "I need time."

Time to understand what went wrong, to understand why Graham is still sleeping with Regina when that woman doesn´t even have his heart anymore.

What the hell went wrong and why did it go wrong?

"Ok, ok." He nods his head. "But you´ll be back Tuesday, right?" His eyes are pleading.

"Wednesday at latest."

His blue green eyes are still pleading, his face still a mask of hurt and one of his arms still extend in her direction.

Emma wants to hug him, but she also wants to slap him. She wants to kiss him, but she wants to punch him. She wants to cry in his arms and she wants to burn every vestige of Regina of his skin.

She wants too much, she feels too much.

"I´m not running away."

She feels it´s necessary to say that, to explain that. And when he nods his understanding, she turns and starts running.

Crying herself to sleep has also always worked in making her sleep fast and without dreams.

\-/

A/N: First, a big thank you to everyone who favorites, follows or reviews the story. So thanks to Guest, MyraValhallah, tjmack, Angels-heart1, Ni Castle, BrittanyLS, Milarqui, harrylee94, UltimateLoveStorys, Line, helenluvsboo, ArianaKristine(of course!), another Guest and MusicalLover17. You guys are awesome!

Also, if anyone wants to ask me questions or see that I´m still alive and writing, I do have tumblr! It´s realityisavariable, and I do check it religiously, even during study breaks since I like to check the "lawblr", "law school" and "law student" tags in order to motivate myself. See that law students suffer a lot, no matter where in the world they live, is very reassuring, believe me.

Second, I´ll try to update the next chapter earlier, but I´m not so sure I´ll make it. Thanks to some events last year, my uni´s schedule, as well as other unis around Brazil, is completely screwed up. That means that I won´t have vacation this year, with the exception of that 2 weeks break in March/April and the Christmas/New Year one. Btw, yeah law school was a huge part of why I didn´t update sooner. Other factors include June being the busiest month on the year for me, the death of one of my bf´s father and, to you all in the jily fandom, the Commentarius update.

Oh! And the next chapter is supposed to be shorter, but knowing me it´ll end up anything but. On another note, I´m taking medicines so my health problem shouldn´t be a problem anymore, at least, I hope.

Again thanks for reading the story and reviews are an author´s best friend. Seriously, I love the feedback. Anyway, by now you guys should already be used to my long author´s note, but still sorry about that.

Hope you all have a wonderful week!