[First of all, I'd like to apologize for letting you guys wait so long for this chapter. I had a lot going on: my finals, then vacation and a lot of birthdays; including mine. :P I hope you enjoy reading this 4th chapter! Thank you for still following this story! I'm currently working on chapter numero 5!]
[Emma's thoughs: -...-
Regina's thoughts: *...*]
Chapter 4: Don't Underestimate Me Mr. Swan
It was 7:55 A.M. and Regina was in her bedroom, flipping through Henry's book. She paused on a page where the Evil Queen was to be seen and indeed that woman in the drawing looked a lot like her. It also looked as if she was interfering Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding. The prince's sword was in mid-flight towards her. And when she turned that page, the brunette could see that the last several pages have been ripped out from the book. Immediately, she entered Henry's room, where she found him in front of his mirror, trying to fix his tie as he got ready for school.
"The missing pages, where are they?" Regina said as she held the book for him to look.
"It's an old book, stuff's missing. What do you care?" The boy shrugged and turned around to look at her.
"I care because you think I'm some evil queen. And that hurts me, Henry. I'm /your mother/." She cupped his chin gently, with her right hand and smiled softly at him.
But Henry stepped back and furrowed his eyebrows at her. "No, you're not."
Regina pulled her hand back and furrowed her eyebrows in slight anger. "Well, then, who is? The sister of that guy you brought here? I don't like what he or this book is doing to you. Thankfully both are no longer an issue."
Henry just sighed softly while he packed his school stuff into his schoolbag.
"What?" His mother asked with a confused tone in her voice, as in that moment, the clock tower chimed. She turned her head toward the sound, with a surprised expression on her face and Henry took advantage of the opportunity to walk away and make his way to school.
While Regina was on her way to her office, she stood on the sidewalk near the clock tower and looked up at it. Wondering why it suddenly started to work.
Archie was casually walking Pongo and so he walked up to the mayor. "Hey, how about that? Guess those rustly old innards finally straightened themselves out, huh?"
Regina looked across the street and spotted Emmanuel's car parked on the side of the street, in front of Storybrooke's bakery.
*So, he's still in town, huh?..*
"Yes, how 'bout that, indeed." She smirked and continued her way to the town hall, where she would pick some red apples and place them into a basket, before she would make her way to Granny's Bed & Breakfast. The place where she thought Emmanuel could be.
Meanwhile at Granny's Bed & Breakfast. Emma woke up, by the sun rays that beamed through the window and onto her face.
"Ugh.." She grumbled and rubbed her sleepy eyes, before she opened them slowly and looked around with a confused furrow of her eyebrows. "Still in this mysterious town.."
The blonde got up and went into the bathroom, to brush her teeth and fix her wig. Once she finished, she walked back into the bedroom and suddenly she heard a knock on the door.
-Who can that be? It's not even 9 a.m.?-
Emma walked to the door, but before she opened she noticed that she was only wearing a black t-shirt and her underwear.
-Shit! The socks!-
Again, the person outside the room knocked three times.
"One second!" She widened her eyes and grabbed the ball of socks, that were on the floor and immediately stuffed them into her boxer shorts, before she opened the door.
-Oh shit..- Emmanuel gulped.
It was Regina, standing in the hallway, holding a basket of apples.
*Oh my goodness.. he-he's in underwear.. Okay.. don't look down there.. look into his eyes.*
The brunette widened her eyes and blushed deeply at the sight. She gently cleared her throat and tried to focus on what she was about to say.
"Did you know the honeycrisp tree is the most vigorous and hardy of all apple trees? It can survive temperatures as low as forty below and keep growing. It can weather any storm. I have one that I've tended to, since I was a little girl. And to this day, I have yet to taste anything more delicious than the fruit it offers."
With a wide grin on her face, Regina extended her arm, to hand Emmanuel one of her apples.
Emmanuel raised his eyebrow slightly in confusion as he accepted the apple. "Thanks."
"I'm sure you'll enjoy them on your drive home." Regina held the whole basket out for him. She still believed that Emmanuel had the intention of taking Henry away from her.
"Actually, I'm gonna stay for a while." The blonde pursed his lips while he shrugged slightly.
*/What?!/*
The bright grin on Regina's face turned into a soft one. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea. Henry has enough issues, he doesn't need you confusing him."
"All due respect, madam mayor, the fact that you have now threatened me twice in the last twelve hours makes me wanna stay more." Emmanuel smirked.
"Since when were apples a threat?" Regina shook her head lightly in confusion.
"I can read between the lines." He winked at the brunette. "Sorry, I just wanna make sure Henry's okay."
"He's fine, dear. Any problems he has, are being taken care of." Regina forced a reassuring smile.
"What does that mean?" He asked with a confused tone in his voice.
"It means I have him in therapy. It's all under control. Take my advice, Mr. Swan, only one of us knows what's best for Henry." The mayor winked at the blonde while she smirked.
"Yeah, I'm starting to think you're right about that." Emmanuel nodded his head slowly.
"It's time for you to go." Regina's soft smile vanished.
"Or /what/?" The guy raised his eyebrow at her.
Regina took a step closer to Emma. "Don't underestimate me, Mr. Swan. You have no idea what I'm capable of." She said with a serious tone in her voice and with that, the mayor walked back to her office in the town hall.
-Damn, I can only imagine,..- She smirked. -/Em/. Stop looking at her butt.-
Emma closed the door and chuckled at what just happened. "This woman is already driving me crazy." She rolled her eyes and put on her jeans and the red leather jacket.
Then, she exited the building and walked over to Granny's Diner, where she took a seat at the counter and read the newspaper.
Ruby set a mug of hot chocolate with cinnamon, in front of her, right when she was about to bite into the apple Regina gave her. "Here you go."
Emmanuel furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Thank you-but I did not order that."
Ruby just flashed him a big grin in confusion. "Yeah, I know. Someone in this room did."
The blonde turned around and the first person she saw, was sheriff Graham, who was seated in a booth. He put down the newspaper, grabbed the mug of hot chocolate with cinnamon and walked over to him.
-You..-
"Ah, so you decided to stay." The sheriff offered him a gentle smile.
"Observant. Important for a cop." Emmanuel nodded his head softly.
"That's good news for our tourist business, bad for our local signage." Graham hissed in thought and pursed his lips as he shook his head.
Emmanuel tilted his head slightly to the side as he gave him a look.
"It's-it's a joke... because you ran over our sign..." The sheriff tried to explain with a nervous tone in his voice.
"Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture and I am impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon in my chocolate, 'cause most people don't, but I am not here to make best buds or-something like that? So, thank you, but no thank you." He set the mug on the table.
"Uhm.. I didn't send it." Graham widened his eyes lightly and shook his head, amused by the misunderstanding.
"I did. I like cinnamon, too." A young male voice said. It was Henry, who was seated in another booth. He decided to walk to Granny's diner, before school. The boy grabbed his schoolbag, as he got up and walked towards him.
Emmanuel raised his eyebrows in surprise, totally not expecting the boy to be in the diner. "Don't you have school?"
"Duh, I'm ten. Walk me." He smiled softly at the blonde and waited for him to drink his cocoa.
Once both left the diner, they walked down the sidewalk, on their way to Storybrooke Elementary School.
"So, what's the deal with you and your mom?" Emmanuel asked curiously while he played with the apple Regina gave him earlier.
"It's not about us, it's about her curse. We have to break it. Luckily, I have a plan. Step one: identification. I call it, 'Operation Cobra'." The boy smirked softly.
"Cobra? That has nothing to do with fairytales." Emmanuel said with a confused tone in his voice.
"Exactly, it's a codename. It'll throw the Queen off the trail." Henry explained.
"So, everyone here is a fairytale character, they just don't know it." Emmanuel said with a confused expression on his face.
"That's the cure. Time's been frozen.. Until you got here." The little boy nodded his head.
Emmanuel moved the apple to his mouth, to take a bite of it.
Henry watched the young man, who was about to bite into the apple and immediately stopped him from doing it. "Hey! Where did you get that?"
"Your mom..?" The guy looked confused at the little boy.
"Don't eat that!" He took it from him and threw it away.
Emmanuel widened his eyes slightly in startle at the unexpected action of the boy. "Okay... Uhm.." He tried to focus back onto the topic. "uh, alright. What about their pasts?"
"They don't know. It's a haze to them. Ask anyone anything and you'll see." Henry let a small sigh escape through his lips.
The blonde resumed all that Henry's been trying to explain him. "So... for decades, people have been walking around, in a haze, not aging, with screwed up memories, stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious."
Henry smiled brightly at him. "I knew you'd get it! That's why we need you, now you're the only one who can stop her curse."
Emmanuel scoffed softly while he arched an eyebrow at the boy. "Because I'm also the child of Snow White and Prince Charming?"
"Yes! And right now, we have the advantage. My mom doesn't know that." Henry unzipped his schoolbag. "I took out the end,-" He paused to take out the missing pages from the 'Once Upon A Time' book and handed them to Emmanuel. "-the part with her in it." The boy gestured to the baby girl in the picture.
Emmanuel looked at a page showing an illustration of Prince Charming placing baby Emma in the wardrobe. The name 'Emma' was clearly visible on the baby's blanket.
"See? That's your sister. This means, your mom /is/ Snow White!"
Emma just offered the boy a soft smile. It was kind of hard for her to believe all this. "Kid.."
"I know the hero never believes at first, if they did, it wouldn't be a very good story. If you need proof, take them, read them. But whatever you do, don't let her see these pages. They're dangerous. If she finds out who you are... then it would be bad." Henry warned the guy with a nod of his head while he looked right into hazel eyes.
Soon both reached the front of Storybrook's Elementary School. Emmanuel stopped walking, but Henry moved on.
"I gotta go, but I'll find you later and we can get started." Henry smiled big at the blonde as he walked backwards. "I knew you'd believe me!"
"I never said I did!" Emmanuel raised his voice so the boy could hear him.
"Why else would you be here?" The boy turned around and ran off towards the school as he shouted back.
-Silly boy..- The blonde chuckled as he watched the boy run away.
In that moment, Mary Margaret approached the savior.
"It's good to see his smile back." The raven-black haired woman stated with a warm smile on her face.
"I didn't do anything." Emmanuel shrugged in confusion.
"You stayed. So.. does the Mayor know you're still here?" Mary Margaret asked curiously.
"Oh, she knows. What is her deal? She's not a great people person, how did she get elected?" The guy crossed his arms and looked right into the eyes of the woman in front of him.
"She's been Mayor as long as I can remember. Noone's ever been brave enough to run against her. She inspires quite a bit of.. well, fear. I'm afraid I only made that worse by giving Henry that book and now he thinks she's the Evil Queen." Mary Margaret lowered her gaze and let a soft sigh escape through her lips.
-She looks way too hot, to be an Evil Queen..-
"Who does he think you are?" Em furrowed his eyebrows as he listened attentive to the teacher.
Mary Margaret just scoffed. "It's silly.."
Emmanuel laughed and placed his hands back into his posterior pants pocket. "I just got five minutes of silly. Lay it on me."
"Snow White." The raven-black haired woman blurted the name out.
-/Snow White/. Holy mother.. That means.. Oh my god.. She'd be my.. What the actual fuck, Em? No, that's impossible and ridiculous!- Emmanuel looked slightly astonished at her response. The school bell ringed in the background.
"Who does he think you are?" Miss Blanchard asked with a grin on her face and a curious tone in her voice.
-No, stop. Don't ask me! Shit..- Swan hesitated, before replying to her. "I'm not in the book.. Can I ask you for a favor? Regina mentioned the kid's in therapy; do you know where I can find the doctor?"
Snow gladly told her the address of Henry's therapist and before she walked back into the school, she wished the blonde good luck.
-Well.. that was a huge awkward moment.- Emma watched the teacher walk into the building and then she searched for the therapist's office.
After a few minutes of walking, Emma approached the psychiatrist's office.
Archie was seated on his armchair, reading some notes he had made, of one of his patients and in that moment, he heard someone knocking on his door. He set the papers down and got up of his chair. With a gentle smile, he opened the door, just to find the blonde guy standing there.
"Emmanuel Swan. Hello, please come in. How may I help you?" The redhead stepped back, to give the other man space to walk in, as he chuckled gently; surprised that Mr. Swan had come to see him.
The blonde chuckled sheepishly and took a seat on the couch. "Hey. Well, I'm here about Henry.."
Archie followed his steps and took a seat on his armchair. But before, he took the papers with the notes he had left a few seconds ago on his chair and put them into their file. His eyebrows arched at the mention of the little believer. "I'm sorry, I-I.. I really shouldn't..." He offered her a soft sad smile.
"I know. I'm sorry. I just-... just tell me something." Emmanuel frowned softly. "This fairytale obsession, what is causing it? I mean, he thinks everyone is a character in his book. That's-/crazy/." He stated with a slight roll of his eyes.
Archie pursed his lips as he inhaled deeply, while he softly shook his head. "I-I hope you don't talk that way in front of him. The word 'crazy' is um.. quite damaging. These stories-" He paused himself to think his explanation through, quickly. "-they're his language. He has no idea how to express complex emotions so he's translating as best he can; this is how he communicates. He's using this book to help deal with his problems."
Emmanuel furrowed his eyebrows in disbelief as he looked right into the 'shrink's' eyes. "But he got the book a month ago. Has he been seeing you longer than that?"
Archie gulped nervously. "Um-Yes, he has."
-I /knew/ it. Regina, that little bitch..- Em thought and without a second thought, the blonde asked right away. "So it's Regina, isn't it?"
Archie gulped once again, averting his eyes for a few seconds as he frowned. "Uh.. his mother is a-very complicated woman, and uh.. over the years, her attempts to try and bring Henry closer, have only backfired." He got up of his chair and walked towards his file cabinet, to pick a certain file. "Why don't you take a look at the file. Um... see what I mean." The doctor said as he walked towards the savior and handed him the file.
Swan raised his left eyebrow in confusion, but accepted the file anyway as he got up. "Why are you doing this?"
"Well, he talks about you a lot. You're-very important to him." Archie shrugged softly as he offered the blonde a small smile.
Emmanuel looked down at the file and then back at the redhead. "Thank you." He said with a soft but gentle smile.
"Just uh... see that I get it back, okay?" Dr. Hopper opened the door as the savior walked towards the exit. "Mr. Swan." The redhead stopped him for a second. "Just for the sake of the boy, be careful how you handle his-belief system." He said with a slight concerned expression on his face. "To destroy his imagination would be-would be devastating." The 'shrink' added.
With a nod of his head, the mysterious guy in red leather jacket, walked over to Granny's Bed & Breakfast; to calmly read the file in the room he had booked a night before.
Archie closed the door and sat down at his desk. He picked up the phone to make a call. Once someone finally picked up, he nervously started to speak. "You were right. He-was just here."
On the other end of the line, a female voice spoke. "Did he take the file?"
Dr. Hopper nodded his head a few times and then furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "Yes. H-how did you know he was gonna come here?"
"Because I'm the one who gave him the idea." The mayor chuckled darkly in victory and hung up the call. *Got him!*
Soon, Emmanuel was laying down on his bed, reading through Henry's file; when there was a knock on the door. He set the papers on the bed and got up, to open the door, just to reveal Sheriff Graham in the hallway.
-Ugh.. What the hell? This dude again? I think he's really into me..-
"Hey there. If you're concerned about the 'Do Not Disturb' signs, don't worry; I've left them alone." The blonde said, before the sheriff could say any word.
"Actually, I'm here about Dr. Archibald Hopper." Graham pursed his lips for a few seconds, before he continued. "He mentioned you got into a bit of a row with him earlier?"
-/What/?- Emmanuel had a very confused expression on his face. "No..?"
The sheriff gave a nonchalant shrug. "I'm shocked too, given your shy, delicate sensibilities. He says you demanded to see Henry's files and when he refused you came back and stole them."
-Are you kidding me?- Swan furrowed his eyebrows and shook his head. "He /gave/ them to me."
"Alas, he's telling a different tale." The former huntsman chuckled and moved slightly to the side, to get a better look into the room. "May I check your room? Or must I get a search warrant?"
-Well fuck.- Emmanuel turned around, rolling his eyes mortified, as he opened the door fully. He walked over to his bed and gestured to the files spread on it. "This what ya lookin' for?"
Graham followed the guy in front of him, picking up a file and glancing down at it. "Well, you're very accommodating. But, I'm afraid, Mr. Swan, you're under arrest. /Again/." With a disappointed expression on his face, he pulled his cuffs out and began to cuff the blonde.
-You got to be fucking kidding me..-
"You know I'm being set up, don't you?" Emmanuel huffed in anger.
Graham smirked at Swan's suspicion. "And whom, may I ask, is setting you up?"
-It's pretty obvious, duh!-
"Ugh.." The blonde just grumbled quietly to himself while the sheriff led the way to the patrol car.
In the meantime, Mary Margaret was giving a lesson outside, as Regina Mills approached her and the kids.
Regina cleared her throat loud enough for the teacher to notice. She tilted her head slightly to the side and stood up, to approach the mayor.
"May I speak with my son?" The older brunette asked with a serious tone in her voice.
Mary Margaret furrowed her eyebrows lightly as she spoke. "We're in the middle of a lesson. Is it important?"
*Bitch, do I look like I'm not serious?!* Regina couldn't ressist the roll of her eyes in annoyance. "Do you think I'd be here if it wasn't!?"
The teacher called Henry out and left mother and son alone.
"Henry, sweetie, I have some bad news." The former evil queen said with a sad tone in her voice as she caressed her son's cheek. "The man who you brought here... he's been arrested." She pursed her lips. "He broke into Dr. Hopper's office and stole his files. He's a con man. He's trying to learn about us in order to take advantage of us. That's why he's sticking around. I'm sorry." The mayor shook her head softly.
But Henry furrowed his eyebrows in disbelief, sensing that this had something to do with her. "No, you're not."
*You had to be a smartass..*
Regina gasped slightly at her son's response. "I know you think otherwise, but all I'm doing is trying to protect you. This is going to be good for us, you'll see. Things will be better." She explained to him and after she spoke, the school bell ringed in the background.
"I gotta get back to class." The boy pushed his mother's hand away and ran back to his classmates.
As soon as the sheriff arrived to Storybrooke's sheriff department; together with the blonde. He started taking mugshots of him.
"You know the shrink is lying, right?" Emmanuel said very confident.
"To the right, please." He gestured to him, to turn around. "Why would he lie?" His eyebrows furrowing at his own question.
-C'mon! It's pretty obvious!- Swan turned around, with a 'really?' expression on her face. "The Mayor put him up to this.. she's gotta have something on him. He's terrified of her, like everyone else in this-town."
"To the left." The sheriff said, as he took another mugshot. "Regina may be a touch intimidating, but I don't think she'd go as far as a frame-job."
Emmanuel turned towards the other guy and furrowed his eyebrows. "How far would she go? What does she have her hands in?"
-Oops.. maybe my last question is a little ambiguous.-
Graham shrugged softly. "Well, she's the Mayor. She has her hands in everything."
-Everything, huh?- Swan arched an eyebrow as he asked very interested. "Including the police force?"
Graham gave her a look and as he was about to give Emmanuel, a reply, he gets interrupted by the young believer.
-Damnit, kid. I was about to get an important answer..-
Henry ran in, followed by Mary Margaret. "HEY!" He shouted with a grin on his face.
"Henry! Henry, what are you doing here?" The sheriff asked concerned as he looked down at him.
"His mother told him what happened." Mary Margaret replied for him.
Emmanuel scoffed and shook his head. "/Of course/ she did!" Then he turned around towards the boy. "Henry, I don't know what she said-"
But Henry interrupted her. "You're a genius!" A bright and wide grin was to be seen on his face.
-Geez, kid. Will you ever let someone speak? Wait, what?-
"What?" Emmanuel asked with furrowed eyebrows in confusion.
"I know what you were up to." Henry winked at her as he gave her a knowing look.
-What is this kid talking about..- Swan still had the confused expression on his face.
"You were gathering intel." Henry said almost whispering. "For 'Operation Cobra'." He added, making sure that nobody but Emmanuel could hear him.
But the sheriff did hear the boy. He blinked a few times as he tried to understand what Henry was talking about. "I'm sorry, I'm a bit lost.."
The smart boy just offered him a gentle smile. "It's need to know, Sheriff and all you need to know is that Miss Blanchard's gonna bail her out."
The savior glanced at the teacher, with raised eyebrows. "You are? Why?"
Mary Margaret just nodded her head a few times and smiled fondly at her. "I-uh.. trust you."
-Ookay. Let's not think that you also have a crush on me, because no, just no.-
"Well. If you could uncuff me.." The blonde gladly turned towards the sheriff, extending his cuffed wrists to him. "..I have something to do."