Then again…
"So you don't know why i'm in the intersect." Emma stated as she paced Mal's Living room.
"Well, you didn't appear on the NSA radar until after Daniel sent you the intersect." Mall stated looking at the laptop on her dining room table. Regina sat, her eyes scanning the documents on the screen of her own laptop.
"Same with the CIA" She mumbled.
"why don't i find that reassuring?" Emma said not slowing her pacing.
Regina looked up at the blonde questioning. "So the files that you saw were of you in college, right?"
"Yes." Emma said then stopped looking at the agents. "Wait a minute, wait a minute. What about professor Fleming? I was in his class. He was CIA. Could that be it?"
"Well," Regina said with a shrug. " if we can find Fleming, maybe he can give us some answers."
Emma nodded. "Okay. Let's do that."
"It won't be easy." Regina said with a shake of her head.
"New intel suggests the professor is being hunted." Agent Blaize stated. "The NSA interviewed one witness in Fleming's class who ID'd a Magnus Einersson." Emma cane closer to the laptop. "He's an Icelandic spy."
Emma's eyebrows shot up. "I'm sorry. Iceland does espionage?"
"Magnus buys and sells intel to the highest bidder." The older blonde stated. "Iceland isn't officially aware of his activities."
Regina interrupted, "It says here the crossbow is his weapon of choice."
The younger blonde quirked a brow. "What, slingshots are too ineffective?"
The next day at work everything just seemed to get worse. Emma really was starting to hate working at the Apple store. The most mundane existence was beginning to get exhausting. Especially now that Clark was in charge. His micromanaging was putting everyone on edge. Emma even heard Dorothy and Ruby conspiring his death.
Emma just kept her head down and did her word. Suddenly, Mal came up to her. She cleared her throat and Emma looked at her. She was a bit spaced out an as she looked at Mal. "You didn't offer to kill Alan for Dorothy, did you?"
"No." Mal responded with Furrowed brows. "Why? You want me to kill him?"
The younger blonde's eyes widened. " , just curious."
Mal nodded and pulled a piece of paper out of her bag. She placed it in front of her. "We just got hit off a traffic camera in Hollywood."
"That's Fleming!" Emma stated.
"Thanks." Mal said sarcastically. "You just saved me a lot of investigative work there, intersect. DMV told me that."
Emma raises her eyebrows. "Wow, sarcasm. What a surprise."
"We located the car Fleming was driving" Mal continued "A local address.
We're bringing him in asap."
Emma shrugged. "So what do you need me for?"
"Yours is a friendly face." Mal said "Your professor sees you there, he'll be more inclined to cooperate. Copy?"
"Yeah, except that I wasn't exactly the professor's star pupil." Emma stated.
Mal rolled her eyes. "We leave in three." The older blonde walked away. She was off that day and didn't want to see more of the Apple store when she was not working there.
Emma watched her go, her mind's eye turning toward her own memory with the man, She sat in the office with Fleming. He had something to discuss with her. Emma wasn't nervous; he was her favorite teacher. She was facing this class. "as you're aware, you scored perfectly on your midterm exam."
Emma nodded "proudly. "Yeah, well, I was up all night studying. It was a monster.
No offense."
"You even aced the last section- encoded images."
"That, yeah, those were just kind of a shot in the dark".
"You may be aware, i keep an answer key to every exam locked inside this office."
" No, no, I wasn't aware of that," Emma said, her smile faltering.
"Really?" Fleming said in disbelief. "Then how do you explain the midterm answer key being found in your Sorority room?"
"I'm-i'm sorry." Emma stammered. "Wha...You searched my room?"
"We received a tip from a student this morning,"
"What, you…" Emma furrowed her brows in confusion "You. got a tip about my room?
"I need to know how you broke into this office and stole the answers, Emma."
"I… I didn't steal anything." The blonde protested. "I don't have to. I'm acing your class."
"Exactly." He said
"The student also claimed that you're selling copies."
"What?"
"I know you're a scholarship student, and that Stanford is a very expensive school…"
"Look, look, who-whoever gave you your tip. Was lying." Emma protested.
"Our source was Daniel Colt, your old Suite Mate." Fleming stated
Emma blinked and focused again. Mal was waiting for her… It was time to face her demons with that guy.
The three Operatives sat in a vehicle in front of a home. This was where Fleming had last been seen. "We'll extract the professor as quickly as possible." Mal said preparing out of the back seat.
"You'll keep watch?" Regina said to her.
Emma rolled her eyes. "If If lash on any bad guys, I'll call." she said
Regina cast her gaze around the neighborhood then turned back to Emma. "everything looks quiet, but…"
"I know. I know." the asset groaned. "Stay in the car."
"Okay, good." Mal said and slid out of the car. Regina followed and Emma stayed in the car. She watched them check the house's perimeter, then her attention got caught by a man in a hat and sunglasses walked toward the house with some groceries.
Emma furrowed her brows and leaned to look at the mirror better. "Professor Fleming?" she said and Jumped out of the car "Hey!" Emma said and the professor dropped his bags and took off running. "No, no, no, no, wait, professor! It's me, Emma!" She said running after him. "Professor, stop. We're here to extract you! Glass castle! Glass castle!"
The professor stopped running and looked back at the panting blonde. Then he took off his sun glasses and cap and put on his regular spectacles. "I'm sorry, i didn't…" Emma said between pants. "I didn't mean to scare you. But it's… It's me Emma. I wa... I was in your… Your psychology and symbolism class at Stanford don't know if you remember me, but…"
The professor smiled in recognition "Emma Swan! Of course I remember you."
"Yeah," Emma nodded. "I guess it's not every day you kick a girl out of school, huh? At least i hope not."
"So you're, uh, with the agency now." the Professor questioned as though he had expected it all along. "Why didn't you say so?"
Emma looked at him confused. "I don't think i'm supposed to, really."
"Well, we have code phrases." the man asserted. "Didn't they train you?"
"I-i mostly just stay in the car." Emma stated.
"Next time, if it's a dangerous situation, say: are you coming to the toga party?"
" a real… A real code phrase. I like it." Emma said with a smile. "That's awesome."
"So, uh, so what are we doing now?" The professor asked eager to get going. "Who's-who's bringing me in?"
"Oh, right." Emma said shaking her head. "Yeah, so, uh, Regina and Mal will...
Will do that, but, um…" She paused trying to ask the question that had been burning in her mind. "I was wondering if i could ask you something first? Why did the CIA have a file on me at Stanford?"
The man faltered and said "I'm sorry." then he leaned forward.
"Oh, hey, hey…" Emma said wrapping her arms around the man. Thinking that he was apologizing for something he had done. "Hey, buddy, let's not beat ourselves up, you past is the past." The man completely slumped forward, causing the blonde to lose her balance. "Okay, look, uh, we didn't really know each other that well at college, and this is a little Awkward, what…" Emma could feel a protrusion on Fleming's side. "Oh, boy!" she fell under his weight, the dying man on top of her. "Oh, boy! Hey, hey, hang in there. Hang...Ha in there!"
The man struggled to speak but was able to give Emma a piece of paper with a code on it. "Give this to Daniel Colt." then he passed out.
"Daniel?" Emma stated trying to understand what the code was for. "Daniel Colt? What does Daniel have to do with this?"
Then an arrow pierced the code Emma had already memorized and she screamed. A bold man, the Icelandic spy appeared above them. "I'm nobody, I swear."
The man grabbed the paper and walked away. Heard her handlers coming and screamed out. "Man down! Man down! Help me! help!" She Then tried to move the dying man on top of her. "Hey, hey, come on! Come on!"
She was sent home, while the two agents tended to the fallen professor.
There was a knock on her window, She opened her blinds. Mal and Regina stood outside. "I'm sorry, Emma, but we have to talk."Regina said, stepping into the room.
"Okay." Emma said "So how was the hospital? Is the professor going to be okay?"
"They are getting him into surgery now." Regina stated taking a seat next to Emma on the bed.
"The problem is, we can't talk to him to sort this mess out." Mal stated sitting at Emma's desk chair. "You sure it was Magnus you saw?"
"Gee, I don't know, Blaize. How many psycho archers do you know?" Emma answered with sarcasm dripping from every word. "I asked Fleming about Stanford. About why I was in the intersect. I should've brought him right to you, i'm sorry."
"Hey, it's not your fault, Emma" Regina soothed the blonde.
"Yeah, well, I keep thinking about what he said." Emma said with a shake of her head. "Why would he want me to bring those numbers to Daniel?"
"Daniel must have been one of his CIA contacts, and Fleming was probably never told of his Death." Regina stated
"List off the numbers you remember." Mal continued
"I don't know, there were, like ten of them. A couple of nines, uh...A five...
Definitely started with two." Emma stated.
"That's it?" Mal asked "You have a computer for a brain…"
"Look, it was a very stressful situation, okay, Blaize?" the younger blonde said "I watched a guy get skewered by a crossbow. Look, Fleming knew something. Right before he fell, he said, "i'm sorry." why would he say that?"
"I don't know, Em." Regina said softly.
"Yeah, well, I think he might know why I'm in the intersect." Emma said and walked out of the room.
She walked toward Kathryn's room. She was packing for the weekend. She had forgotten everyone was going up to Stanford. She sighed and sat on Kath's bed. "You okay?" The older sister asked, pausing in her task. "It's not too late for you to change your mind about revisiting the old Alma mater. Spending some time with me and Fred…"
"Oh, please!" Emma said, shaking her head. "You just don't want to be stuck in a car alone with awesome frat buddies."
Kathryn chuckled. "Maybe, or maybe i'm your sister and i care about you and i think that going back to Stanford Would help you to move on."
Emma sighed and stood up. "I love you, sis, an-and I take a lot of bullets for you, but five hours in a car with awesome And his "bros " That is asking too much. Besides, if I came, you wouldn't have room for your fun, old foam finger!" Emma stated teasing Kathryn with the foam finger with a big UCLA written across it.
Kathryn laughed and took the foam finger back "Stop it."
Emma looked around at some things Kathryn had in a box. "What is this?"
"I don't know." Her sister said but reached in and pulled out a thick book. "But look at what I found. It was in my old college stuff."
"The decline and fall of the roman empire." Emma scrunched up her nose.
"You want me to return it to the Stanford library for you?" Kathryn asked.
"No." Emma stated and clutched the book at her chest. "Well, I'd kind of like to finish it. See how it ends."
"Ems, that book is, like, four years overdue."
Emma smirked. "What do you think Stanford's going to do, huh? Expel me?" she walked out of the bedroom and back toward her own. She looked at the book, finding the designation number for filing and paused a memory coming to her. Of her and Daniel playing gun tag in the library.
Hiding behind shelves plastic dart guns in hand. Then she remembered that Daniel used to stash ammunition inside the books. She looked at the Dewey decimal system again and realized what the code Dr. Fleming had given her had been.
She ran out of her apartment and headed straight to Blaize's. "I know what the numbers mean." Emma said, pacing Mal's living room. "They're for a book in the Stanford library. Daniel had a place where he would stash stuff, right? I bet he told Fleming about it. The professor must have the intel there for Daniel to find."
The older blonde nodded folding her arms across her chest knowing exactly where this is going to go. "Now it's only a matter of time before Magnus figures it out and beats us to the book. Unless we can beat him to it."
"Well, Daniel kept his stuff on the third floor." Emma said trying to describe the place. She faltered, her memory was failing her. "I'd have to be there to remember."
Mal smirked at the full circle.
"I can't believe i'm about to say this," Emma murmured to herself. "but i have to go back to Stanford."
Mal shrugged. "Cool."