Double Trouble
Chapter 8 'Tornado'
Emma rushed into the living room with the Regina's and Henry following behind. She tried to locate her younger self with more than just her eyes but Em definitely wasn't in the apartment anymore. Emma looked at her parents, apparently none-the-wiser in the kitchen doing dishes. She knew that if Em had managed to access her magic she could've just walked right out and nobody would've even realised.
"Where is she?" said Emma to her parents, holding her hands out as if demanding answers.
"Who - Em?" said Mary Margaret frowning at them.
"Yes," stressed Emma impatiently. "Where is Em!"
"What are you talking about. She's right there-" David looked around.
Emma pressed her lips together sarcastically. "You let her go. How about next time you guys listen to me?! You have no idea do you. I told you not to let her out of your sight and you didn't take me seriously, you never do!"
"Emma, we'll find her-" said Mary Margaret gently.
"No. You won't," said Emma confidently. "Not if she doesn't want to be found. Luckily I'm better at it than she is."
Emma glanced at Regina and then they both went to get their coats. "Let's go."
"Emma, we'll come with you," said David hastily.
"No," said Emma firmly. "Stay here with Henry and Ri, we'll go after her. Em's gone to the pawn shop."
"She's gone to Mr Gold's?" said Mary Margaret.
"There's only one in town isn't there," said Emma.
Mary Margaret tilted her head. "Yes, but - there's no reason to think Gold will do anything to her... is there?"
Regina responded first, full of cold sarcasm. "Yes, of course. We should just let her go to the man who steals children and is magically immortal. What could possibly go wrong."
"We still don't know what will happen if anyone else finds out about the girls," explained Emma.
"Gold could tell her anything," added Regina.
Ri spoke up for once. "Is Em in danger? Can I go with you? I'm scared but I will do it."
"Me too!" Henry piped up, making a grab for Emma's jacket sleeve.
"No," said Emma, letting her head fall back in exasperation. "All of you - stay - put."
Regina simply held out her palm for Emma to place her hand in and then they disappeared into a rapid swirl of smoke.
Regina and Emma appeared magically outside Gold's shop. The door was hanging off its hinge and the air still crackled as if magic was everywhere.
The two of them stepped inside the shop cautiously and were shocked at the state of the place. It was wrecked.
The shop looked like a little tornado had exploded in there. All the glass counters had been shattered and they gaped like open mouths showing their broken teeth of treasures and nicknacks. Anything that had previously hung from the ceiling was now on the floor underfoot or laying haphazardly across the metal frame of the counter near the cash register - as in the case of the canoe.
"Yeah, nothing suspicious here," said Emma flatly.
"Emma Swan," said Gold, rising from behind the canoe with the help of his silver-tipped cane. "How lovely to see you. Again."
"What the hell happened here?" asked Emma.
"Why don't you tell me," said Gold in a low voice, piercing her with his sharp eyes.
"Look, it's a long story... Was she here?"
Gold gestured his usual flourishes with his hands as he spoke. "If you mean the young lady who came into my shop demanding I give her money then yes. Oh and she looked just like you... What did you do, Regina? Was it a magical fiend in disguise, is this your doing?"
"How did the shop get destroyed?" asked Regina, ignoring his question.
"Oh, it's nothing I can't fix." Gold waved lazily and the broken shop began repairing it's own damage and putting itself back in its chaotic order.
"Did she do this?" Regina pressed him again.
"Well I guess the answer to that depends on your perspective," said Gold.
Emma made a noise of frustration, losing patience with his doubletalk. "Enough with the riddles! Where is she now?"
"I don't know," said Gold honestly. "She said she had something to sell and that she needed money. She was rather upset, as you can see, but I don't think she expected me to defend myself with magic. Then she ran off... Now, you tell me. Who is she?"
Emma thought for a second, wondering if she should even say anything and then decided that Gold might actually be useful since he knew plenty about magic. Or he could've been the perpetrator of the mischief in the first place, god only knows why, but he always did have schemes serving his own agendas in place.
"She's me," said Emma eventually. "From the past, we think."
"Are you sure?" said Gold pointedly.
"No, actually," admitted Emma. "Then it wasn't you? You had nothing to do with our teenage selves suddenly appearing in Storybrooke?"
Gold raised an eyebrow at Regina. "You're here too? Interesting."
"Yes, fascinating," Regina sneered. "You're not to go near her, understand?"
Gold shrugged mildly. "Afraid I'll corrupt you again, Regina? As I recall it was you who sought me out."
Luckily, Emma stopped her with a hand on her arm and held her back with a single whispered word.
"And what does young Henry think about all of this?" asked Gold, unfazed by Regina's threatening him. "Gaining some perspective about his mothers' pasts I assume? Unraveling your secrets thread by thread? Let's hope they don't strangle him."
"What do you mean," said Emma suspiciously.
Gold gave them an enigmatic smirk before turning to head for the back room of the shop.
"Let me know how things turn out," said Gold off-hand.
Em sat in the corner of the last booth in the diner, staring morosely at the empty table in front of her. A pair of expensive Prada pumps sat on the seat next to her. She tapped a finger on the table while she tried to think and figure out what to do. She had to get money somehow.
"Hey, Emma! What can I get you?"
Em looked up at the cheery voice to see the friendly face of the tall brunette waitress she'd noticed before. She had bright red lipstick, red streaks in her hair, and red accessories. The girl was pretty cute, Em decided, and she was wearing... not very much.
"Uh, you know me?"
"Yeah, of course," said the waitress in a duh voice. She was looking down at her and waiting to take her order.
"Um, can I get my usual? And put it on my tab?" Em tried casually.
"Sure." The hot waitress smiled and then disappeared.
It wasn't long before she came back with a mug of hot chocolate topped with whip and cinnamon and a basket of fries. She put the order on the table but instead of leaving she sat down in the booth across from Em and gave her a look.
"Ok spill," said Ruby, crossing her arms and raising her eyebrows. "What's going on, Emma?"
"Uh nothing, um-"
"Ruby. I'm Ruby... and you are not Emma."
Emma smiled humourlessly, realising she was caught out. "You're friends with Sheriff Crankypants? Great."
"That's an interesting name for her," said Ruby, trying not to laugh.
"I guess. I am her - kinda - just 17 years old." Em scrunched her face and propped her chin on her wrist.
Ruby had of course noticed the differences between this Emma and the one she knew. She was definitely much younger, obviously thinner, and she was wearing thick black plastic-rimmed glasses on her baby-face.
"Aw, you are so adorable, Baby Emma! I can't believe you grow up to be our Emma the badass Sheriff," teased Ruby.
"Yeah." Em blew out a breath between her lips. "Can't believe someone put me in charge of anything, let alone the law."
Ruby nodded sagely. "Emma's pretty cool. She's done a lot for this town. Everybody knows she can be trusted."
"So she's not running jobs on the side or taking bribes, nothing like that? She really is as straight as she seems?"
Ruby hid a snort.
"And what about Regina? She and Emma aren't together then?"
Ruby's eyebrows nearly hit her hairline. "Regina?... as in Regina Mills, the Mayor Regina?"
Em was surprised by that. "Regina grows up to be Mayor here? Wow. Guess she gets over her fear of people and you know, everything."
Em pondered it with a little hint of pride. Maybe Ri really would grow up to be the apparently self-assured Regina after all. Knowing Ri as well as she did already, she could see a lot of her in her older self sometimes. Something like vulnerability and depth of emotion but way better hidden. It was easy to overlook Ri because she was so quiet and placid but she was even more sensitive than she showed. She felt things very deeply or not at all.
"But they were never together...?" said Em, moving her head slowly side-to-side.
"Not that I know of," answered Ruby with a shrug.
Ruby pushed the fries towards the blonde teen. "Eat up, Baby Emma. Ya look like you need it."
"Not hungry," mumbled Em.
The door to the diner jangled suddenly and revealed Regina and Emma, who scanned the diner's occupants quickly before heading straight over to the back where Em and Ruby were sitting.
"Em, you can't just run off-" said Emma.
"Whatrya gonna do, Sheriff - arrest me again?" said Em in a dull tone, picking up a fry and eyeing it.
"Em, we were worried about you," said Regina. "This town isn't safe, it's-"
Em interrupted her worrywart-ing. "Seriously, Emma. All your friends are hot and you're not banging any of them? Life sux when you're a kid and it still sucks when you're an adult."
Emma rolled her eyes lightly. "Yes, you can't sleep with whoever you want … and there's bills."
Ruby nodded ruefully. "Not to mention-"
"RUBY?! Get in here!"
"-work".
Ruby sighed at Granny's summons from the kitchen, sorry she was going to miss out on whatever was going on. "Speaking of sucky adult life, I better get back to work. I'll leave you guys to it, let me know if you want anything else, Baby Emma."
Once Ruby reluctantly sauntered away to the kitchen, Regina sat next to Em in the booth and Emma took the seat across from them.
"Em, what happened at Gold's?" said Regina.
Em shrugged. "Dude's a jerk."
Emma gave her younger self a warning look. "Em, he's not what he seems. He's dangerous. Don't mess with him alright?"
"Yeah yeah. I wasn't going to, it just happened."
"Were you trying to sell these?" Regina raised her hand where the backs of a pair of high-heels dangled from her fingertips.
Em shrank in shame from her. "Sorry."
"It's ok," said Regina softly. "If you needed something you could've just asked?"
"I shouldn't have taken them from you."
Regina's lips twitched a smile. "It's alright, Em. I don't like this pair anyway."
"You're lying," said Em, with a weak smile.
"You so are," agreed Emma. "You wear those all the time, Regina."
Em raised her eyebrows at Emma and chuckled under her breath. "Ha. Gotcha, Sheriff."
Regina paused to give Emma a look of annoyance and then turned to Em again. "What did you want the money for?"
Em looked down pitifully, like she was about to cry. "My back hurts real bad. I think I need medicine."
"It's infected," said Emma. Obviously it wasn't really a guess.
Em was sitting forward on the edge of the seat so that her back wasn't anywhere near touching the rest behind her. Regina gently pulled Em's shirt up and looked at her lower back where some of the angry red graze could be seen. It was looking rather painful and yellowish in deeper parts of the wounds. She would need antibiotics or cream at the very least.
"You could've told me," said Regina gently.
Em shrugged. "Didn't think to."
"Alright. We're going to the hospital," said Emma with a sigh.
"Nooo," moaned Em.
"Family doctor then," suggested Regina. "I'll take you where I take Henry."
Emma reached over and grabbed a couple fries and dipped them in the hot chocolate before popping the soggy potato strips in her mouth. Em saw it as a challenge upon her territory so she immediately did the same thing and started stuffing chocolate-y fries into her mouth. Regina just shook her head at both of them in disgust.
"Come on," said Emma, getting up out of the booth. "Let's go. Bring your food with you, troublemaker."
"David, what are we supposed to do about this?" demanded Mary Margaret.
"I don't know, Mary Margaret," he groaned. "What do you want to do about it? We can't just lock the girls up and force Emma and Regina apart. They're adults-"
"Yes! But this doesn't only affect them. It affects all of us. Storybrooke. The whole town. If we let them be together and mess up the past..."
"We don't know what could happen, yeah, but that doesn't mean we can pick and choose which parts to change or not to change."
"So your solution is to do nothing?" Mary Margaret gave him an incredulous face.
Ri shrank nervously and stood a little away from them. She wanted to tell them not to argue about her and Em anymore. It upset her to hear that she and Em weren't supposed to be together. She really didn't want to make any trouble so she was going to back away quietly when they noticed her standing there.
"Ri, honey, do you want something?" said Mary Margaret, finally glancing at her.
"Oh, nothing. I'm sorry," Ri looked at the floor and went off to find Henry. "I just wanted something to read until Em gets back."
But she mumbled and left so quietly that the others overlooked what she'd said and picked up their argument right where they'd left off.
"David, we can't just do nothing," Mary Margaret went on. "You really think we should just let Regina take our daughter away from us?! Both of her!"
David sighed roughly and pointed to where Ri had been standing. "You're just upset because of what she said."
"Of course I'm upset," Mary Margaret dropped her voice to a harsh whisper bordering on hysterical. "Do you think I like hearing what my father did to her?! That it was my fault, and if it wasn't for me none of this would have even happened?"
"We're going round and round in circles arguing over this. It's driving me crazy. Who the hell knows what things would've been like if Daniel hadn't died. You and me might never have met and then Emma wouldn't have even been born. We just don't know." David shrugged helplessly.
"Emma was right," Mary Margaret said sorrowfully. "We don't even know her. She's my daughter and she doesn't trust me!"
Mary Margaret dropped her face into her hands and David went over to her to draw her into a hug...
In the bedroom, Ri peered over Henry's shoulder as he tapped away at the laptop in front of him. The screen showed a lot of funny numbers and symbols in lines and pictures of circles.
"Henry?"
"Mm."
"Do you want to play a game?"
"Maybe later."
"Ok. Can I borrow something to read then?" asked Ri hopefully.
Henry shrugged with his back to her without taking his eyes off the screen. "Sure."
Ri looked around the bedroom and picked up the only book she could find. It was rather heavy and bound in old-fashioned leather and gold leafing. She decided to go outside for a bit of peace while she waited for things to calm down in the apartment. Even though she didn't have concealment magic like Em, they didn't even notice her leaving. On her way down the stairs, she accidentally dropped the book and it fell open on the ground and what she saw made her heart jump into her throat.
It was a picture of her.