A/N Sorry for not updating sooner. Because of the lack of updates, I decided to update twice and give you two chapters/episodes today. I hope you guys like this chapter/episode. Please review and tell me what you think.
Tessa stood leaning over a filing cabinet, organizing the files inside. Graham poked his head into the room.
"We've got a call. You get to ride along tonight." He announced. She grinned and slammed the drawer shut with an audible bang.
"It's my lucky day."
Inside the hospital, Tessa stood perched on the top of the desk, watching as Graham spoke with Regina and Dr. Whale. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mary Margaret, Henry and Emma come in. She hopped off the desk and hurried over to them, catching Henry as he started to go towards John Doe's room.
"Oh no you don't. Back it up." She pushed him back a couple steps.
"What's going on? Is it John Doe? Is he okay?" Mary Margaret asked.
"He's missing. Take from that what you want." Tessa told her. Regina walked over to them.
"What are you doing here? And you-." Regina looked at Henry. "-I thought you were at the arcade. Now you're lying to me?" She asked.
"What happened to John Doe? Did someone take him?" Mary Margaret asked her.
"We don't know yet. His IV's were ripped out but there's no sure sign of a struggle." Graham explained, coming over to them as well.
"What did you do?" Henry asked Regina accusingly.
"You think I had something to do with this?"
"It is curious that the mayor's here." Emma told her.
"I'm here because I'm his emergency contact." Regina snapped.
"You know him?" Tessa asked.
"I found him. On the side of the road years ago with no ID. I brought him here." Regina explained to her.
"Mayor Mills saved his life." Dr. Whale explained.
"Will he be okay?" Mary Margaret asked.
"Okay? The man's been on feeding tubes for years on constant supervision. He needs to get back here right away or, quite honestly, 'okay' will might be a pipe dream." Dr. Whale told her.
"Well then, let's quit yapping and start searching." Emma told everyone.
"That's what we're doing. Just stay out of this. And since I clearly can't keep you away from my son, I guess I'm just going to have to keep my son away from you. Tessa, will you please take Henry home and stay there for the rest of the night?" Regina asked, turning to her daughter. Tessa nodded once.
"Oookay… Home it is." She took Henry by the shoulders and steered him out of the hospital.
Tessa sat on the floor in a corner of the living room, repeatedly tossing the ball across the room for Sebastian to fetch. She heard Henry come downstairs. She stopped tossing the ball. As he reached for the doorknob, she cleared her throat loudly to make her presence known. He jumped and looked at her.
"Where ya going?" She asked, tossing the ball for Sebastian again.
"I have to go help find John Doe!" He told her.
"Mom said to stay here." She reminded him.
"I have to help!" He insisted.
"No, you don't." She told him.
"Yes, I do!"
"No, you don't!"
"Yes, I do!" She just stared at him for a minute. Then she stood up and grabbed her jacket from behind the couch.
"Fine. But I'm going with you." She told him. He grinned. She opened the door and they hurried out.
They half walked and half jogged through the woods to try and catch up with Mary Margaret, Emma and Graham.
"This is not how normal nineteen year old girls spend their nights." Tessa complained, slowly down and scrambling over a fallen tree.
"Yeah, well, normal nineteen year old girls have boyfriends." Henry told her, weaving between trees.
"No one in town is good enough. I like my men fashionable and slightly insane." Henry got to the top of a hill and Tessa paused beside him. Emma, Graham and Mary Margaret were below, talking. Henry hurried down, snapping twigs underneath his feet as he went. The three of them whirled around.
"Henry!" Mary Margaret gasped in surprise. Tessa waved from the top of the hill.
"And me." She reminded them, stumbling down the hill as well.
"Did you find him yet?" Henry asked.
"No, not yet. You shouldn't be here." Emma reminded him.
"I can help. I know where he's going." Henry told them.
"And where's that?" Mary Margaret asked. He turned to her.
"He's looking for you." Everyone started walking again with Graham and Tessa in the lead.
"You're the one who woke him up. You're the last one he saw. He's looking for you." Henry insisted to Mary Margaret.
"Henry, it's not about me. I think he's just lost and confused. He's been in a coma for a long time."
"But he loves you! You need to stop chasing him and let him find you!" Henry told her, stopping so that she had to stop and look at him.
"Kid. You need to go home. I don't know why Tessa let you come-." Emma started to tell him.
"Because I'm irresponsible, a bad sister, have a naturally rebellious attitude and I'm oddly adventurous for the people of Storybrooke." Tessa called from beside Graham.
"Yeah, that covers it." Graham agreed, nodding. Tessa shined her flashlight around and then slapped at Graham's arm, hard.
"Guys!" She walked forward and plucked something off a bush. Everyone hurried over to her to see what she'd found. It was John Doe's hospital bracelet, covered in a red substance.
"Is that…?" Mary Margaret asked. Graham nodded.
"Blood."
They came out of the woods beside the old Toll Bridge. They spotted John Doe lying in the water. Mary Margaret started repeating 'oh my gosh' under her breath. Graham spoke into his radio.
"I need an ambulance at the old Toll Bridge as soon as possible!" Emma and Tessa ran into the water and started dragging him out. Mary Margaret and Graham joined them and together the four of them picked him up and got him to the shore. Tessa grabbed his wrist to try and find a pulse.
"I… I can't find his pulse…" She sputtered.
"It's going be okay." Emma tried to say.
"Help's coming." Graham assured them.
"Is he okay?" Henry asked from behind them.
"Henry…" Emma whispered.
"Is he going to be okay?" Henry asked again. Tessa scrambled to her feet and grabbed him by the shoulders, pulling him backwards.
"Henry, don't look, okay? Don't look." She whispered urgently.
"Come back to us. Come back to me…" Mary Margaret pleaded as she started CPR. As she put her mouth to his, he jerked awake, coughing up water.
"You saved me…" He whispered.
"She did it! She did it! She woke him up!" Henry cried excitedly. Emma went over to hug him.
"Yeah, kid…. She did." She told him.
"Thank you." John Doe coughed.
"Who are you?" Mary Margaret asked.
"I don't know."
"It's okay… You're gonna be okay…"
Graham walked Tessa up to the house. Henry, Mary Margaret, Emma and John Doe had all gone back to the hospital.
"I'd change clothes if I were you." He told her. She glanced down at her pants and the bottom of her shirt and jacket, all of which where wet from the river.
"Thanks. I will." She said, nodding distractedly.
"Are you okay?" He asked her. She nodded again.
"Yeah… And I here I thought that filing was exciting." She returned with a weak laugh. He hugged her and she hugged him back.
"I'm going to get inside." She told him as she pulled away. He nodded.
"I'll see you tomorrow."
"Yep." She agreed, nodding again. She waited until he was back to his car before she went inside the house. She went upstairs to her bedroom. She stripped off her clothes and pulled a pair of sweatpants on. She searched a certain drawer of her dresser in her closet before grabbing her wet clothes and going to the laundry room in only her sports bra. She threw her old clothes in the hamper and grabbed the black tank top she had been looking for from her stack of washed, dried and folded clothes. She heard her mom and Henry come into the house as she went back into her bedroom.
"Tessa, are you here?" Regina called.
"Yeah, mom, I'm home!" Tessa called back before shutting her bedroom door behind her. She went to pull on her tank top with a searing pain struck her back. She cried out in pain and dropped to the floor.
"Tessa?" Henry called from the hallway. She didn't answer as she clenched her teeth. The pain faded. She rolled over onto her back, but then flinched and sat up. She felt her back and frowned. She got to her feet and went over to her mirror and looked over her shoulder to see her back. She gasped in shock and then screamed.
"MOM!"