Chapter Eleven: Fruit of the Poisonous Tree
.
Henry is on his bike, heading towards the castle playground. Emma is already waiting there in her squad car. When she sees Henry get closer, she gets out to greet him.
"Hey, kid," Emma greets Henry. But Henry rides past her. "Nice to see you, too," she says as she catches up with him. The playground is noticeably damaged.
"The storm!" Henry cries.
Emma stands behind him. "It's okay – we can fix it. I'll talk to Marco."
"Do you think it's still here?" Henry asks as he starts to dig in the sand near the base of the playground.
Emma raises an eyebrow. "What are you looking for?" She asks.
"My book."
"Why'd you bury it here?"
"So my mom doesn't find it," Henry answers.
"Hiding it under your mattress wasn't good enough?" She asks as he uncovers red metal box under the sand and starts to unlock it.
"That's the first place the Evil Queen would look."
Emma stares at her son. "How about leaving it with me?"
"That's the second place," Henry says, opening the box, revealing the book inside. "It's still here. Good."
"So, your mom doesn't know about the castle?"
Henry grins. "No. This is our secret." He closes and relocks the box, then starts to rebury it. Behind them, Regina arrives and calls out to Henry.
"Henry!" She calls. "Henry! I've been looking everywhere for you. You know you have a session with Archie this morning. I should've known he was with you. Henry – car. Now."
Henry runs off, leaving Regina and Emma alone.
"You let him play here?" Regina asks incredulously.
Emma shrugs. "The storm hit it hard, but we can fix it."
"Well, can you fix a cracked cranium?" Regina demands. "Because that's what you'll have on your hands if one of these boards collapses under his weight. You're not thinking about Henry or his safety. Just ways around me. Miss Swan, don't let your feelings cloud your judgment. People can get hurt."
Emma stands her ground. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"You're the Sheriff now," Regina answers, "it's time to be responsible.
.
Regina flipped through the new book as she sat waiting for coffee.
"I remember that," Emma said, sitting across from her. "As I recall, you took the Castle down afterwards and rebuilt a new playground with stolen city funds." Emma looked at her. "Planning on doing the same?"
Regina shook her head. "No. I'll just have Marco get some new wood pieces made and get someone to reconstruct it." Emma nodded and stood up to leave before Regina stopped her. "Hey, Emma?"
"Yeah?"
"What are you going to do about...Neal?"
Emma froze. She hadn't thought about Neal. "I don't really know," she said finally. "I guess I had hoped to leave him alone, but I can't exactly leave him to deal with Tamara, can I?"
"I suppose not," Regina sighed. "Gold'll want him to come back." She left deep in thought.
Emma toyed with her napkin as she thought about what Regina had asked her.
Sidney slid into her booth. "I can grant your wish."
Emma raised her eyebrows. "Wow. Sidney. You want a side of bacon with that whiskey?" She nodded to the empty wine glass in his hand.
Sidney ignored it. "You want to show this town who the Mayor really is? I can help."
"That's kind of you to offer, but no thanks," Emma said.
Sidney pressed on. "She got me fired from the paper. So I started working on an exposé on the Mayor's office, and I found something she didn't want found."
Emma sighed. "Look, Sidney. I've been around Regina long enough to notice if she's got any ulterior motives. She doesn't. Now. Go to your house. You're drunk. I really don't want to jail you for it."
"Fifty thousand dollars," Sidney said suddenly.
Emma tilted her head. "I'm sorry?"
"Fifty grand out of the budget is missing and Regina is responsible. The money is just the tip of the iceberg. We figure out what she's doing and it all falls apart – it all crumbles. And we'll finally learn her secrets. You see what she is. I see it. All we need is a crack in the mirror to show everyone. I'm telling you – this is it."
"Sidney," Emma said, "go home. You are drunk."
Sidney pulled a business card out of his pocket. "Call me. Storybrooke deserves to know the truth about her."
Emma took his business card and threw it away as soon as he left. Her phone rang. "Hello?"
"Emma," Killian said in a rush. "We're meeting at our house. Very urgent."
Emma jumped up, tipped Ruby, and dashed to her car. "What is is?"
"No clue."
.
"Fifty thousand?" Emma asked once they gathered in her and Killian's new home. "Are you sure?"
"Of course I am!" Regina snapped. "Unfortunately, I have no record of these transfers or transfer."
"Three weeks ago sound right?" Henry asked staring at the new book.
"Why?" Killian questioned.
Henry pointed to the page he was on. "Because originally mom checked out those files and they burned in the fire. But this time, if Sidney checked them out since he was able to as part of the newspaper, they burned in the fire you two set at his office."
"Sidney had to have stolen those papers," Emma muttered. "Just now he told me fifty grand was missing. How else would he know except if he had stolen them?"
"What does he want with the money?" Mary Margaret asked.
"Who knows," David said.
"I'll go bug his office," Emma decided. "Phone, computer, the whole works."
"How?" Regina demanded.
"You guys keep him busy," Emma instructed. "I'll break into his office."
"You think you can crack his code?" Gold asked. "Because if you can't-"
"Who does the alarm system alert?" Emma asked. "The police. I'm the police. Two to three minutes for him to get a call from the alarm company, one minute to get his coat and keys, three minutes to drive there. I got maybe six minutes. Besides, it gives me a reason to be there."
Belle grinned. "You can say some kids broke in. Perfect!"
.
Emma smashed the window of Sidney's front door with a rock, which sets the alarm off. She reached her hand in and unlocked the door. "Okay," Emma muttered. "I have six minutes." She enter the office and goes to the computer to hack into it. "I just uncovered every file that references the stolen money," she said into the walkie talkie.
"Nice," Henry whispers back from the other end.
She printed off the records, and then started to go through the drawers of Sidney's desk.
"Starting on the phone," Emma reported. She hooked up a bug for the phone and placed a bug under multiple surfaces. "I'm done," she whispered.
"Good," Henry told her. "Sidney will be there in two minutes minimum."
Emma rushed out to wait in the front. When Sidney arrived, she greeted him. "Some kids broke in. I heard the alarm, so I checked it out. Doesn't look like anything was stolen, but you're welcome to have your look."
"Thanks, Emma."
Emma nodded curtly. "Well, you know where to find me if you find someone did steal something."
.
"Nothing," Emma said in frustration. "Nothing from the bugs after two days!"
"Are you sure the bugs work properly?" Killian asked gently.
Emma played a recording. "Him humming to himself while working on his article for the day, silence, silence, silence. Oh! A few television programs he watched. That's it."
"Well," Regina said. "I'll prepare a slide with what I'm 'doing' with the funds incase he calls me out."
"And you'll get the money to pay for that from where?" David asked.
Gold spoke up. "I can spin some gold now that I have slightly functioning magic. The gold can be melted into coins and we can turn some paper into bills certainly."
"Perfect," Belle exclaimed.
.
Regina sat in front of the council. The regular citizens of Storybrooke sat in the audience behind them. Regina banged a gavel to start the meeting. "This session of the Storybrooke city council will come to order. We will begin by reading the minutes from our last meeting."
Sidney stood up, as expected, from the audience. "Uh, excuse me, um, Madam Mayor. I have something I'd like to bring to the council's attention."
Regina glanced at him. "What is it?"
"Why have you stolen thousands of dollars from the city to build yourself a second home?"
Gasps came from the audience. Regina banged the gavel to silence them.
Regina sighed. "You are right, Sidney. I am building a house – a playhouse." She pulled up the image of a playground on the screen behind her.
Regina faced the council. "The accusations are true – I did take city funds. I wanted to rebuild the castle playground so my son, Henry, and all the children of Storybrooke, could have a special place to play. Safely. Rebuilding should be inexpensive. Most of the wood we have saved, but I would like to create new add ons. Slides and swings. See saws and a jungle gym."
The citizens talked loudly of how wonderful that would be.
.
After the council meeting was over, Sidney approached Emma.
"See how she lied like that on the spot?" He asked her.
Emma sighed. "Sidney, I really don't have any interest in belittling Regina." She walked away.
.
A/N: Yeah, that one was difficult. Next one is too. And probably all the rest.
Coming up-
Chapter Twelve: Skin Deep; Rumple and Belle go on another date and hope it isn't as disastrous as the first, something unexpected happens with Belle, and certain memories are brought to light.
I think I'll start doing this for every chapter from now on. Now I have a sort of outline to follow.
Squee! The third episode of season 5b reveals something major! So excited for the movie reaction.
Okay, so I think right now is when they stop worrying about keeping things the same and start going with the flow and changing things.