Emma had skipped breakfast because Granny had mysteriously run out of onion rings. Her stomach growled like an alley cat facing a foe, but all her picky belly wanted was onion rings. The thought of eating anything else gave her the urge to vomit.
She was convinced Ruby had transformed last night and pigged out on onion rings, but Granny wasn't ratting anyone out.
At her desk, she read the notes of business she needed to take care of. Several phone calls. Two meetings. A search warrant.
Rubbing her chin, she saw the black marker reminder on her inner forearm. It was a dot.
In the past, she'd tried sticky notes on her refrigerator, but she'd learned the hard way she wanted nothing to do with her refrigerator before she had some coffee out of her home. Since the lesson had been ingrained, she'd begun to use marker inner forearm reminders instead.
This time, she'd been paranoid about Regina seeing and knowing what her jotted word, initials, or picture meant. Her mind had groped as she poised the marker. "Regina!", "book", "RSB", a drawing of a book, a drawing of a red heart. She'd been in a right frenzy, trying to decide, and in the end, paranoia had led her to jot a single dot.
Even with the dot, she felt like she was bathing in a neon light.
She got the three most important phone calls taken care of then prepared to clandestinely steal from Regina.
Emma had left her yellow Bug at the station. Her legs became her method of transportation.
She did not want people who saw her walking past to know she had a mission, so—to relax the tension she felt on her face—she told herself she was just going for a walk.
Archie was out, hands buried deep in his pockets, eagerly inhaling Maine's strong scent of the sea.
"Hey!" he said with a jaunty smile. "How are you feeling today, Emma?" He touched her shoulder briefly in a friendly manner. He was looking at her like he was glad to see a familiar face, like he wanted to look on the bright side of things and be a joy to everyone around him.
"Just dandy," she answered. If she weren't acting unmotivated, she'd never use the word "dandy". Archie didn't know her well enough to know what words she only used when she was playing a part, so he didn't raise his eyebrow suspiciously. "And you?"
"I woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Archie admitted, "but I managed to untangle my foot from my hiking boot before I smashed my head into the wall."
"You get those boots from the curse?"
Archie nodded sheepishly then laughed. "I did."
In no hurry, Emma asked, "So, where's Pongo?" She remembered meeting Archie for the first time. Remembered Pongo was on his leash. Remembered teasing Henry that he was Pinocchio after Archie and the dog were gone.
Holding his arm by his ear, Archie turned his wrist downward. With splayed fingers, he kept his hand in the air. "He's out. Doing dog deeds. Who knows what he does while I work?" He dropped his hand back to his side and stuffed the hand in his pocket.
Emma suggested, "Hang out with the fox and the hound? And old Chief, obviously," she added quickly to show she'd "studied up" on Disney story "history". She mimed a broken leg then craned her neck around. "Never mind. I don't see any train tracks on a bridge."
Archie smiled a bit stiffly. Squinting into the sunlight, he mused, "I'll never understand how a caterpillar bested two hungry birds, but he was hardly a nimrod. Did you see how Pongo's been looking at Red lately?"
"Um, no?"
"It's like he senses the wolf thing. Well, he is smarter than your average dog. That's saying a lot. I had a talk with the man who runs the animal shelter David used to volunteer at. He told me all kinds of fascinating things I didn't know about dogs…It was nice to see you, Emma, but it's time for me to head back to my office."
"You do that." Emma waited until he was out of sight before jogging the rest of the way to Regina's.
Regina's car, as Emma had predicted, wasn't sitting in her driveway. Mid-jog, Emma glanced around, twisting her body in a circle. She made sure no one was in the vicinity. When she'd confirmed all was clear—though knowing how the town felt about Regina, any bystander would be likely to look the other way or cheer her on if they caught her in action—she strode up to Regina's door and took a peek through a crack in the curtains.
Then she used Neal's lesson to pick Regina's lock.
She scampered into the house. Swiftly and soundlessly shut the door. Bustled on her way to—
Stopping dead in her tracks, her mouth drooped ajar. The case was broken.
Walking forward, she stared with surprise at the broken glass. She couldn't believe someone had destroyed Regina's—
It was that moment which her eyes traveled past the glass and fixated on the loudly absent spell book.
Someone had broken in Regina's house to steal it! Who would do such a thing?
Her gaze swept up and down until she fixated on the thick blob of blood at the bottom of the case.
Lifting her cell phone to her ear, she got Regina's answering service. "Regina, meet me at your house ASAP." She then broke a window and relocked the front door.
Crouching over the case, Regina listened to Emma's stomach growl.
"Is anything missing?"
Regina snarled, "Gold!"
"You had some," Emma scratched behind her ear, "gold in the case?"
"No, you imbecile." Regina took a deep, cleansing breath. "This is Rumpleshtiltskeen's work." She wrenched her gaze from the damage, straightened her legs, and fumed all over Emma. "What were you doing in my house, Miss Swan?"
Emma batted her lashes angelically. The rest of her body grew eerily still. "Gas leak."
Regina made a face. "Sure."
"I called a plumber and everything. I saved your house." It was clear from Emma's bright smile she expected applause. Or a gold medal. Maybe both.
Regina had some advice to deliver. "Keep the sunshine in Philadelphia."
"Anyway," Emma's smile drooped. "Can you think why Mr. Gold would do this?"
Regina thought for a minute. "Hmm." She pressed her lips together and rubbed her brow. "No. Never mind, you're right. I haven't pissed off that son of a bitch recently. No, it must be Grumpy. He's punishing me for ruining his precious Snow, stealing her baby's childhood, and tearing him from his hometown." She licked her lips. "Plus he has classless guts…"
"He can pick locks?"
Regina sweltered in fury, becoming ten-foot tall. She craned her neck to get an eyeful of Emma's cut hand. "You're the one who broke my window, Miss Swan?"
"Gas leak!" Emma tried again.
Clenched fists on her hips, Regina bellowed, "Then why is most of the glass outside?" Emma flinched then gave Regina a hopeful, people-pleasing smile. "You picked my lock too but hoped I'd be too preoccupied to notice."
Squeezing her eyes shut, Emma held her stomach like she was having nasty cramps. "Um, yeah…Okay, I can pick locks."
"From now on," Regina stated frostily, "I'd like you to stay out of my home unless you are invited."
"Oh, but…you wanted it to burn down? Are you planning insurance fraud?"
"We both know there was no gas leak."
Under her breath, Emma muttered, "Well, aren't you a smart evil queen."
"You'd think your mother would teach you what to do when meeting a queen," Regina raged dangerously. Raising the corners of her lips into a half smirk, she wriggled her wrist and commanded, "Bow to me."
In stark confusion, Emma wrinkled her brow. She didn't have long to wait. Regina had never intended to give Emma the option to bow of her own accord. Magic sprang from Regina's wrists and forced Emma into a rough bow.
Feeling like her back was being twisted into a pretzel shape, Emma yelped, "Ouch! Maybe be a bit gentler next time?"
Regina cooed mockingly, "Did I make you feel your comfort was important to me? Maybe I need to teach you a lesson." Face closed with indifference, Regina used magic to make Emma bow roughly and end with her nose, palms, and knees shoved into the hard floor. Smiling smugly, Regina simpered, "There. Did you learn your widdle lesson?"
Emma couldn't open her mouth to answer. She had what felt like lockjaw.
"Anyway, I know you're lying about the gas leak," Regina snarled churlishly. "My house isn't programmed to smell like rotten eggs but like a beach. Being one of the richest people in town, second only to Gold, I had no trouble affording that adjustment." Bored, she snapped her fingers and magicked Emma off the floor.
She continued in a brusque growl, "If I didn't know you lack the brains and nerve, I'd assume you're the one who broke into my case and all this fancy crap is a ruse. To divert attention from your 'saintly' soul.
"As it is," she continued smoothly, circling her foe, her son's birth mother who soothed no fevers, "I know you better than you think I do. You picked the lock, hoping to make off with my goods, but someone beat you to the punch." She tossed her neck, making her hair flounce attractively in her restrained fury. "It sent you in a panic, wanting to know who could outsmart you."
Quickly, Emma stepped away. She was shaking, feeling exposed. Not to mention—mortified by how easily Regina seemed to read her. She wasn't an open book, dammit. "I'll collect the blood samples and question Lero—Grumpy." Even her voice was shaking.
"As if he's going to confess," Regina muttered with an eyeroll. Emma's stomach growled again, sounding like an alley cat about to rip its foe to shreds. For a fraction of a second, Regina thought it was Emma herself and started to whip her with a nasty glare before realizing where the noise was coming from. With thick sarcasm, she deduced, "Nancy Drew off to save the day…By the way, Swan, next time you shower, you'll need to scrub your arm extra hard." She pointed to Emma's marker dot then escorted the blonde out of her home with haste.
She all but shoved Emma into her car, drove her to the sheriff's station, and tossed her out like yesterday's trash before speeding off to her own workplace.
Glancing at her sexy eyes in her sun visor mirror at a red light, she mumbled to herself, "As if I was going to leave you walking near my house after you broke in. You feel less like a swan and more like a goose right now, but we'll see what pretty things you put in your feathers tomorrow."