Beane Odette - Reawakened - A Once Upon A Time Tale

— Like what? — said Sneezy.

— I don’t know, — he said. — Something. We have to talk to her.

And they did. The dwarfs agreed with Grumpy that it would be most helpful to Snow if they all sat down together and discussed the matter. As a group. Friendship, it was agreed, and a safe place for discussion, were crucial elements to a successful intervention. They made the plan, invited a special guest, and when they were ready, Grumpy went to Snow’s room and asked her if she might come out to the kitchen.

— Why? — she said defensively. — I’m happy here.

— There are some people here, — Grumpy said, — who’d like to talk to you.

Snow looked confused, but she finally relented.

In the kitchen, however, she took one look at the serious faces of the gathered dwarfs and turned on Grumpy.

— What is this? — she said.

Grumpy held up both hands and said, — Sister, sister. We’re your friends. We just want to talk.

— Talk about what?

— About how you’ve been acting, — he said, — since you drank that potion.

— The potion is not the problem, — sneered Snow. — The real problem is that I’m living with a bunch of dwarfs when the woman who killed my father is prancing around in my castle, living my life. And this happens to be the same woman who tried to have me murdered, too. Am I mad? Yes. I’m furious.

— It’s not fair to take this out on your friends, — said Jiminy Cricket, who had joined them for the conversation.

— You’re right, — said Snow, lost in thought. — You’re absolutely right.

— Progress, — muttered Jiminy to Grumpy.

— I should be taking it out on her, — Snow White said. — By killing her.

It was awkward, to say the least, when Emma booked Mary Margaret. She took her picture and did the appropriate paperwork, even though Mary Margaret proclaimed her innocence throughout. Emma told her she was only doing her job and that the fingerprint was hard evidence. Maybe she was innocent but Emma knew that playing favorites now would have dire consequences down the line. She wasn’t going to endanger Mary Margaret by acting hastily. It would come down to figuring out what had really happened to Kathryn. And for that, she would need time.

To make things more difficult Ruby had quit made up with Granny, and gone back to work at the diner, which meant that Emma was alone again at the office and had few people she could talk to about the case. Few people she liked, at least.

Regina, who’d called and said that she wanted to be a part of the interrogation, showed up a few minutes after the booking was complete. Mary Margaret consented and said that she didn’t need a lawyer.

— Why would I? — she asked. — I’m innocent.

As Emma asked questions, Mary Margaret kept her composure and revealed a key new piece of information: The box was her jewelry box. She didn’t know how it had ended up buried beside the river, and she definitely didn’t know how a heart got into it, but the jewelry box was hers. She said she wasn’t going to pretend it wasn’t.

Outside, while Mary Margaret remained in the interrogation room, Emma and Regina discussed her answers.

— No one is accusing Ms. Blanchard of being a bad person, — Regina said. — But she’s a woman who’s had her heart broken. And that? It can make you do unspeakable things.

Grumpy had never thought of Snow White as the violent type, but watching her disarm and assault one of the Queen’s Black Knights was nothing if not impressive. They were five miles from the hovel, and he had followed her, knowing that to march into the Queen’s castle would be suicide for Snow White, but not quite knowing how to stop her. The Black Knight had appeared on the road and tried to intimidate her, but she would have none of it. Quickly, effortlessly, she swept the knight's feet out from under him with the mining pick she’d taken from the hovel, interrogated the knight as to the queen’s location, mocked him, and sent him on his way.

She was trying to put on the knight’s abandoned armor when Grumpy emerged from the forest and said, — Are you crazy? You think that that «disguise» is going to fool anyone?

— What are you doing here? — she said. — Did you follow me?

— Yes, I did, — he said. — Because I don’t want to see you get killed.

— I won’t, — she said sternly. — And besides, the Queen deserves to die.

— That might be true, but justice doesn’t always care what’s deserved, — he said. — You’re this angry because you’ve forgotten.

This stopped Snow for a moment.

— What do you mean? — she said eventually.

— I mean I have a better idea, — said Grumpy. — We go to Rumplestiltskin and get your memory back.

Emma locked Mary Margaret back up in the cell, told her she’d be out of the office for a few hours, and headed back to their apartment to search the place.

Mary Margaret’s claim was that someone had broken in and stolen her jewelry box, but when Emma examined the locks on both doors, she found no sign of forced entry. There were only two keys — hers and Mary Margaret’s. Something wasn’t right.

She searched Mary Margaret’s room but came up empty. She was moving on to her own room when she heard a knock at the door.

Noon on a Monday, she thought. She checked her gun, left the safety off.

— Who is it? — she called through the door.

— It’s me!

Henry.

— What are you doing here? — she said to Henry, after she’d pulled open the door. He came in, beaming.

— It’s kinda like the first time we met, isn’t it? — he said.

— Why aren’t you at school? — Emma asked.

— I'm sick.

— You are not sick.

He sighed and tossed his backpack on the couch.

— I wrote notes, — he admitted. — But I have to help you. Mary Margaret isn’t guilty. This is really important for Operation Cobra.

— This isn’t Cobra, I keep telling you, — Emma said. — This is real life.

— It’s the same thing.

Emma shook her head.

— Fine, — she said. — You’re sick. You can help me search this place, then.

— What are we looking for?

— I don’t know yet, — she said. — Anything strange.

She went back to her room and started rooting around near the window, checking for signs of a forced entry there. About five minutes passed. There’s nothing here, she thought. And that’s because no one…

— I think I found something!

Emma went out to the living room and found Henry on the floor, pulling at the vent beneath the coffee table. She frowned, moved the table aside.

— There’s something down there, — said Henry.

— I see it. — She brushed him out of the way, studied the grate. She went to the kitchen then and got a screwdriver. It took her a minute to unscrew and lift the grate. When she did, the ceiling light illuminated the rectangular hole, and she could see the outline of the object.

— My god, — she said.

Henry said nothing.

Emma pulled a Kleenex from the box on the table, reached down, and pinched the blade of the hunting knife, making sure not to let the handle touch anything.

— Go to Granny’s Diner, — she said. — Stay there until I come get you. — Emma squinted. Was that blood on the blade?

— But I…

— Go, Henry, — Emma said.

Then, a little softer, as both of them looked at the knife, she added: — Go right now.

Across town, back at the sheriff’s office, Emma looked sadly at her friend through the bars.

— We have the weapon now, — she said. It was bagged and in the evidence locker. Things were looking bleak for Mary Margaret.