Beane Odette - Reawakened - A Once Upon A Time Tale

She took the second card, but did not open it.

Instead, she looked sadly at David.

— This isn’t working, — she said. — We both know it.

— We can make it work, — he said. — Just give me time. Please, Mary Margaret.

She sighed.

— You should go home to Kathryn, — she said.

— I’m going to, — he said. — But I thought it was important to wish you happy Valentine’s Day. I did.

— Well, thanks, — she said stiffly. — Happy Valentine’s Day to you, too.

Emma had had a strange day. After a few hours hunting down Gold’s missing property, she’d become very suspicious of his intentions. Something told her that Gold was up to something, and that Мое French was more than just a «client».

After her strange exchange with Gold in her office, she went to the diner with a stack of papers — information about Mr. Gold’s many properties in and around Storybrooke — and started digging through his holdings in search of connections to French. She was deep into an incredibly boring spreadsheet about his tax records when she looked up and saw Henry smiling at her.

— What’re you doing? — he asked.

— Work, — she said, sipping her coffee. — Why aren’t you at home?

— My mom’s busy again, — he said, sliding in across from her. — And we never get to see one another anymore.

Emma looked at him. He was right — Regina had been working hard to keep them apart. Which made it even more frustrating that, right now, she didn’t have any time to give him.

— Do you want to hear about Rumplestiltskin?

— I’m not really in the mood, kid, — she said. She looked up and frowned. — Where’s your book?

— I’m just remembering this one, — he said quickly.

— I don’t really have…

— But it’s crazy, — he said, his eyes going wide. — There was this kingdom that needed his help, and so Rumplestiltskin went, and they said that they needed him to end the Ogre War because it was so dangerous, and in return he asked for the hand of a beautiful young…

But Emma had spotted something on one of her papers, and she held up a hand.

Gold owned a house out in the country. A cabin.

She hadn’t known that.

She had a hunch. Мое French was missing; Gold was nowhere to be seen.

She decided to go check it out.

— Sorry, kid, — she said. — I have to go check on something.

— Really? — he said, slightly disappointed.

— Next time — promise, — she said.

She drove out to the edge of town, then turned down an old dirt road, following the dusty map that had come along with the police cruiser. There was just something… Something was wrong with this whole thing. It wasn’t that one person was lying. Everyone was lying. There was a whole story underneath it all, and the story was missing. She could feel its absence.

She came around a bend and saw the truck.

Мое French’s truck.

Her hunch had been right.

She entered the cabin with her gun drawn, and when she did, she came across a horrid scene: Gold, manic, beating French, who was bloody and unconscious.

She stopped Gold and restrained him; he seemed to give up the second he saw her face. She called an ambulance and booked him on assault charges. The EMTs rushed French to the hospital, unsure about his chances.

Emma and Gold did not discuss much on the ride back to the sheriff’s office.

— I know what you’re thinking, — Emma was saying. — I owe you a favor, and you’re in my jail right now. And you don’t want to be in my jail. Am I right? — Having finished the processing Emma sat at her desk, eating a sandwich. Gold was in the cell, sitting quietly, listening to her make light of the situation. She was not normally so glib. Perhaps she was trying to make the best of a bad situation.

— When I need the favor, I will take the favor, — he said finally.

Emma took another bite of the sandwich and watched him carefully. Before she could respond, however, the two heard the front door and both looked up. The mayor and Henry came in.

— I was wondering if you might like to spend an hour with Henry, — Regina said.

Emma finished the sandwich, looked at Regina, then back to Gold.

— Let me guess. So you can talk to him alone.

Regina shrugged.

— Maybe, — she said. — Do you want to go with Henry or not?

Emma nodded.

— I do, — she said. — Actually. — She looked back at Gold. — You okay with this?

— Of course.

— Just this once, then, — Emma said to Regina.

She and Henry left.

For a few minutes they didn’t speak, and Emma tried to imagine what was being said between the two very strange people in the jail. They were enemies, clearly, but Emma knew there was more to their relationship than simple animosity. It went back. There were secrets.

— What is it, — Emma said finally, — about those two?

— What do you mean?

She shook her head.

— I don’t know, Henry, — she said. — It was a strange day.

— What did Mr. Gold do to get in there? — Henry asked.

— He attacked someone, — Emma said. — I caught him hurting a man.

— What man?

Emma looked at him and squinted.

— Мое French, — she said. Henry nodded sagely but said nothing.

— What? — Emma said.

— You won’t believe me if I tell you, — Henry said, — so why should I tell you?

— Entertain me.

— Well, — Henry said. — Do you know how I told you that Rumplestiltskin turned kind of evil when he got his power?

— Yes.

— A little while later, after he was all alone and his son, Bae, was gone, he met a girl and tell in love with her, and he almost turned good again.

— Almost?

— Yeah, — Henry said. — He had the choice. Right after she kissed him. And he chose to stay powerful instead of being in love and being normal. Which is exactly what happened when he lost Bae, too.

— His son died?

— No, — Henry said. — He just disappeared.

They walked in silence for a few more minutes. They were at the school now, and the night was cool and still. The leaves were gone from the trees, and the wind rattled the brandies. There wasn’t this kind of quiet in Boston.

— Belle, — said Henry.

— What?

— That was the girl he fell in love with, — Henry said. — But after he rejected her, she went back home, and her father thought she was no longer fit to marry, and so he locked her up.

— What happened to her?

— She killed herself, — Henry said. — That’s what the Queen said, anyway.

Emma thought again of the sight of Gold beating Мое French. What had she heard Gold yelling? You sent her away!

— And let me guess, — Emma said. — Мое French was the girl’s father.

— Do you even have to ask?

Emma shook her head. This kid’s fantasy life was put together pretty well, she had to admit. And there was wisdom in it, and truth. He did know a lot about this town, even if he didn’t know he knew.

— Love’s tough, — Emma said, putting a hand on his shoulder. — So are fathers.

Henry looked up at her, then nodded.

— I guess so, — he said. — I guess that’s true.

It seemed like every time Emma Swan cleared up a problem, two more grew in its place. Her tense ongoing conflict with Regina? Detente for now, but who knew where that would lead? The case of Gold and Мое French? Sure, she’d found Gold’s property, and Mr. French had stabilized in the hospital, but Gold, with a team of lawyers, had somehow snaked his way out of prosecution and had gotten away with nothing more than a slap on the wrist as punishment for beating a man within an inch of his life. She was beginning to remember why bounty hunting was so much more appealing than law enforcement itself. It was simple to find a person. It was a lot more complicated when the whole story came into play.