Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale (30 page)

She had more questions—Whatever became of Regina, then? What happened next?—but she was distracted by a commotion outside of the diner. A few people were running down the sidewalk, and a crowd seemed to be gathering across the street. Emma squinted and stood. “Hold on, Henry,” she said, and she jogged to the door and headed across the street.

There were about twenty people gathered around something, but Emma couldn’t see what. “What’s happening?” she said, coming up to them. “What—”

She stopped short and stared, amazed by what she saw.

It was completely impossible.

But somehow, it was happening.

Kathryn, ragged and skinny and staring up at all of them, her face and clothes covered in dirt, was sitting in the middle of the alley.

Alive.

• • •

The ambulance arrived a few moments later, and Emma sent Kathryn on to the hospital. Before going herself, she had a quick errand to run. She went right to the police station.

Mary Margaret was asleep on her cot when she came in, but she stirred when Emma closed the door. “What is it?” she asked, seeing Emma stride up.

“You’re free,” Emma said. “I’m dropping the charges. Kathryn is alive.”

“She’s—what?” Mary Margaret said, sitting up, still groggy. “Can you even do that?”

“I don’t know,” Emma said, “but I’m doing it.”

“How is she alive?”

“She’s alive because she was never in danger,” Emma said. “Not any real danger, anyway.” It was a hunch, but the hunch was developing in her mind.

She opened up the cell and Mary Margaret stepped out. “Get home, get some rest, clean up. I’ve got a whole lot of questions. But one thing’s for sure: You didn’t kill anyone.”

“But you knew that already,” Mary Margaret said.

“Yes,” she said. “I did.”

Across town, Emma arrived at the hospital as Dr. Whale finished checking over Kathryn. David was there, sitting outside her room. He did not look well.

“How is she?” Emma asked.

David looked up and nodded at her. “I think she’s okay, I don’t know,” he said. “This whole thing…” His voice trailed off.

“How are you?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Happy. Sad. Overwhelmed. I’m just so relieved she’s alive.”

“That seems honest,” Emma said.

“Do you—do you know how Mary Margaret is doing?”

“She’s okay. She’s relieved, too, obviously. But I think she’s been pretty traumatized by all of this. As you might imagine.”

“I want to talk to her,” David said.

“I know” was all Emma said in response.

“So what do I do?” David said, when he realized she wasn’t going to offer any more.

“Maybe right now, the best thing is just to do nothing,” Emma said. She left unsaid what the two knew to be true: Mary Margaret didn’t want to see David. Not after he’d so easily lost faith in her.

David nodded.

He got it, Emma knew. He probably didn’t want to think about it, but he got it.

She went into Kathryn’s room.

Dr. Whale was saying something to Kathryn, and after a moment of listening, Emma realized he was talking to her about his watch. “… still the only Swiss watch with no Japanese parts, and it costs more because—”

What is it with this guy? Emma thought.

He stopped when he realized Emma was standing in the room.

“Sheriff Swan,” he said. He gestured toward Kathryn. “She’s awake, as you can see.”

Emma ignored him, went to Kathryn’s bedside.

“Kathryn, I’m Emma Swan,” she said. “We met at David’s homecoming party.”

“I remember,” Kathryn said. “You’re the sheriff. And roommates with Mary Margaret.” Emma heard some tone there. Not great tone.

“That’s true,” she said, “but I’m not here to play favorites. I don’t want to take a lot of your time, but if you can remember what happened to you, or if you can help us in any way…”

Kathryn nodded.

“I don’t remember much,” she said. “I had a car accident. I remember the air bag going off. The next thing I knew, I was in the dark, in some basement. I didn’t see anyone, but there was food and water. After that, I don’t know. I guess I was drugged.”

Dr. Whale nodded. “We’re still trying to flush it out of her system,” he said. “But she was. Definitely.”

“I woke up in a field near the edge of town and just started walking,” Kathryn said. “That’s all I can tell you.”

“You never saw anyone?” Emma asked. “You didn’t hear a voice, smell any perfume? Cologne? No details at all?”

“Nothing. I wish I could help, especially since… while I was gone, everyone thought I was dead? Is that right?”

Emma looked at Dr. Whale. “Who’s been gossiping?” she said.

Whale shrugged.

I do not like this guy, Emma thought.

“I figured she needed to know,” he said. “She’ll read about her heart in the paper eventually, right?”

“Excuse me,” said Kathryn. “My heart?”

“You don’t have to worry about the details right now,” Emma said quickly, not quite knowing how to explain to the woman that her heart had been found in a box. “What’s important is that you’re safe.”

“Although we do now know that somebody had to have doctored those DNA results.”

“DNA results?” Kathryn said. “What are you talking about? I really don’t understand.”

“Don’t worry,” said Whale. “Yours is still right where it’s supposed to be. The police found a heart and it was believed to be yours.”

Great, Emma thought.

Kathryn, looking aghast at this detail, turned back to Emma. “Who would do this?”

“Somebody trying to frame Mary Margaret,” Emma said. “We don’t know who. Yet.”

Kathryn shook her head. “Why?” she said. “Why would anyone do such a thing?”

“We don’t know,” Emma said.

• • •

That night, the party celebrating Mary Margaret’s release was very well attended. Even August was invited.

As Emma sipped some punch and watched August mingling, she wondered about the odd man who’d come to town so recently. She could not figure him out.

She came over just as Henry and Mary Margaret came together. Henry told her that he had a card to deliver. It was
from the entire class of children at school, and it read, “We’re so glad you didn’t kill Mrs. Nolan.”

“Why thank you so much, Henry,” Mary Margaret said, taking the message in stride. “Please tell everyone I’ll be back soon.”

“I also got you a bell,” he said, handing her a little box. “For the class.”

Emma smiled. When she looked up, Gold was watching her, and he nodded to the corner of the room. She walked over.

Emma decided to lay it all out for him: “I don’t know what you’ve been doing with Regina, but I know this whole thing isn’t as clean as you’re pretending it is. You two somehow manufactured this. I don’t know how, or why, but I know something is going on.”

“What would possibly make you think I had any agreement with Regina?”

“I don’t know,” Emma said. “Call it a hunch.”

“Hunches are not evidence,” Gold said, “and you are a sheriff.”

“Were you the one who made Kathryn appear out of thin air?”

“You speak as though I have magical powers,” Gold said.

“Sometimes it seems like you do,” Emma said.

“I don’t understand,” Gold said. “Are you proposing that I was both working with Regina and against her?”

“I don’t know,” Emma said. “Maybe you were working diagonally.”

“Perhaps,” said Gold. “It’s always hard to tell with me, isn’t it?”

“Yes. It is.”

“Let me ask you a different question entirely,” he said.
“What do you think of this stranger? This August? Do you trust him?”

Emma looked over at him. So did Gold.

“I’m starting to.”

“His full name is August Wayne Booth,” said Gold. “It’s obviously a false name.”

Emma was silent for a moment, and then she said, “Writers use pseudonyms. I’m not worried about August.”

“So you do trust him, then.”

“I don’t know if I trust him,” Emma said, “but I trust him a whole lot more than I trust you.”

“Oh, you should trust me more, Ms. Swan,” Gold said. “I always follow through with my agreements.”

“You always say that, too,” Emma said.

“I do,” said Gold. “Because it’s true.”

• • •

The next morning, Emma was at the diner, trying to enjoy a quiet cup of coffee for the first time since Mary Margaret had been released. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t feel as relieved as she’d expected to. Sure, her friend was out of danger, and Kathryn was safe, but she’d seen too much, and sensed too many backhanded dealings, to really feel as though Storybrooke was “cleaned up.” If anything, she now knew how broken it was. And if she didn’t know any better, Sidney Glass, former editor of the
Storybrooke Daily Mirror
, was drunk again at eight in the morning. He was in the corner booth.

She shook her head, hoping he wouldn’t do anything that would require her to take him to jail. He claimed that Regina had fired him because of the election, but Emma suspected she still didn’t know the full story. What she did know was that
Sidney had it bad for Regina. She’d suspected before, but some of his ravings during those late-night arrests, were about “her” or “that woman.” Glass never quite revealed who he was talking about, but it was pretty obvious to Emma, especially after he’d so willingly been Regina’s lapdog. The two seemed to have had a falling out, but Emma didn’t trust him and she never would.

Unfortunately, Glass saw her soon after she saw him, and he stumbled over to her booth and sat himself down.

“Mr. Glass,” Emma said. “Probably not the best time to be drunk.”

“Every time is the best time to be drunk,” Glass said. He nodded once, as though confirming this idea to himself.

“What do you want?”

“I want to explain to you,” Glass said, “that this town has all sorts of secrets.”

“Not news to me,” said Emma. “But thanks.”

“I’m not so sure you know about all of them,” Glass said. “Don’t get cocky.”

“Let me guess,” said Emma. “You’re about to tell me about more of them.”

“One, maybe,” Glass said. “One or two. I know what you’re thinking: Regina did something to that girl. And I know what else you’re thinking: Gold has something to do with it, too. Am I right?”

Emma said nothing, just stared back at him.

“Looks like I am.”

“I’m just glad she’s safe, Sidney,” Emma said, getting to her feet. “I hope you stay safe, too.” She dropped a couple dollars on the table, and Glass looked at them blankly.

“Hope springs eternal,” said Glass, still staring at the bills. “It has to.”

“Hope is fine,” she said. “But I like evidence. And truth.”

He nodded at this. “One more thing, Ms. Swan,” he said.

“Okay.”

“Things are about to change,” he said, “again. You’ll get your truth. But there’s another piece of information you need to have.”

“Are we talking about Kathryn again?”

Sidney shook his head. “No,” he said. “We’re talking about skeleton keys.”

Emma raised her eyebrows.

“I’m listening,” she said.

“There is a set,” Sydney said. “Regina has them. They open every door in this town.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I know,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Sidney sighed, looked back at the table. “I don’t know, Ms. Swan. I’m conflicted.”

“About what?”

“About a lot of things,” he said. “I’ll see you soon.”

• • •

Mary Margaret had had almost no time to think since she’d been out of jail, and she spent the day after the party cleaning up, resting, and doing her best to process what the last few days had been like. David was on her mind. Of course. The way he’d so glibly betrayed her, the way he was always balking. She had shown him so much faith, so many times. She’d given him so much trust. And what had he given her in return? Hesitation. Doubt. Suspicion. She knew she would have to talk to him, but she didn’t know when it would be, or what she would say.

David forced the issue, however, by showing up on the sidewalk outside of her apartment that evening.

She came out at dusk, and he went to her before she could close the door.

She had almost no reaction when she saw him. She felt empty, looking at his face.

“Go away,” she said finally.

“I have to talk to you.”

“So talk,” she said impatiently. She began to dig in her bag.

“I need to apologize.”

“Yes, you do.”

“I get it,” David said. “I didn’t believe you and I should have believed you.”

Mary Margaret exhaled and stopped digging in her purse. The words came easily, actually. The message was so simple.

“I will never forget that moment,” she said. “When the world blows you backward, and the one person you thought would be there to catch you is gone.”

“I’m so sorry,” David said.

“You should have believed me,” Mary Margaret said. “I don’t care how the evidence looked.”

“I’m human,” he said. “It was a good setup. I made a bad mistake. I didn’t have faith.”

Mary Margaret shook her head and looked past David, up at the clock tower in the center of town. “Sometimes I think there are forces trying to keep us apart.”

“What kind of forces?” David asked.

“I don’t know,” she said, shrugging. There were people she could name, yes, but maybe that was too easy? A story she was imposing on a relationship that just didn’t work? “All I know is
that every time we get close, something seems to poison us. We have good moments. I don’t want them to be replaced with bad moments. That feeling.”

“But, Mary Margaret,” he said. “I—I love you.”

But the words were not powerful. They didn’t mean what they could have meant.

“I know,” Mary Margaret said. “And that’s what makes it so sad.”

• • •

Emma was exhausted. She’d spent the last few days just on the cusp of some kind of insight—incredibly close to seeing the truth, but frustratingly unable to get to it. Nothing about the heart in the box made sense anymore, save for one explanation. Regina. She didn’t understand motive and she didn’t understand means. But she understood the person.

It was about four o’clock when Regina herself walked into the station. Emma was surprised to see her, and was even more surprised to hear what she had to say: