Beane Odette - Reawakened - A Once Upon A Time Tale

— The fact that you’ve now threatened me two times in the last twelve hours, — Emma said finally, — makes me want to stay more.

— What? — Regina said. — You take apples as a threat? I wouldn’t…

— I can read between the lines, — Emma said. — I think I’ll stay until I get a sense for Henry’s situation here. I want to make sure he’s okay.

— I see, — said Regina. — You’re worried that I am in fact evil, are you? You’ve been reading his book as well. I can promise you that he’s just fine. And that his problems are being taken care of. He doesn’t need you.

— What does that mean?

— It means he’s in therapy, — Regina said. — It means that he will soon learn that reality makes more sense than fantasy. As I keep telling him. It means that only one of us knows what’s best for Henry.

— I’m starting to think you’re right about that.

The audacity of this woman was unbelievable — Emma could not imagine making the choice to enter so boldly into a stranger’s private space and speak so disdainfully, especially to someone who might be around for some time. Regina smiled a crisp smile and took a step toward Emma.

— This has been nice, — Regina said. — But it’s time for you to leave this town.

— Or what? — Emma said, arms still crossed.

Regina took another step toward her. Their faces a mere foot apart, Regina said coolly, — Do not underestimate me, Ms. Swan. You have no idea what I’m capable of.

Emma paused and considered that.

— Well, then, — she said finally. — You’re just gonna have to show me, aren’t you?

Regina’s eyes closed to the thinnest of slits.

— So be it.

Ten minutes later, in great need of coffee, Emma made her way to the diner. She also needed to think; she needed to figure out why Regina was so bent on getting her out of town. This place — there was something just off about this whole place. What was it?

She felt the strangeness all the more when she saw her own face staring back at her on the cover of the town daily, the Storybrooke Daily Mirror .

It was an old mug shot. She picked up a copy of the paper and sat down in a booth.

Seriously? she thought. One day to put this together?

Whoever had written the article — Sidney Glass was his name — had managed to dig up a lot about her life in a very short period of time. He knew that Henry had been born in Phoenix; he knew where she’d lived since then. He knew about her trouble with the law. Not quite everything, but plenty. Emma shuddered. This was exactly why she didn’t like small towns.

— Here you go.

Emma looked up. The same girl from the inn, the one who’d been arguing with her grandmother, stood beside her table, smiling. She had a cup of hot cocoa and set it on the table.

Emma looked at her name lag: Ruby.

— Thanks, Ruby, but I didn’t order this, — Emma said.

— I know, — said Ruby. She smiled, cocked her head. Emma was impressed by the brightness of her lipstick’s red; it was almost incandescent. — You have an admirer.

Emma turned to look across the room and saw Sheriff Graham seated at a booth. He was sipping coffee and reading the paper as well.

She got up and stormed over to him, carrying the cocoa.

— Ah. You decided to stay, did you? — he said pleasantly.

Emma just stared.

— Would you like to join me? — Graham said. He motioned for her to sit.

— Look, dude. The cocoa is a nice gesture. And it’s impressive that you were able to guess that I like cinnamon on my chocolate — not many people do — but I’m not here to flirt. So thanks but no thanks, Sheriff. — She slammed the cocoa down on his table.

— I didn’t send that, — he said. He shrugged, looking at her innocently.

— I did, — came a voice.

It was Henry. He was in the next booth, down so low that she hadn’t been able to see him.

— I like cinnamon, too, — he added. — Hi. I’m glad you stayed.

— Henry, what are you doing here? — Emma asked. — Don’t you have school?

— Yeah, I’m going right now, — Henry said. — Will you walk me there?

Emma sighed and gave an apologetic look to Graham. He smiled kindly in return and went back to the paper. There was something about the sheriff that she liked. Sure, he was under Regina’s thumb, but he seemed to be his own person. He was also somewhat handsome. Somewhat.

She nodded her good-bye.

Henry led Emma out of the diner.

— I seriously can’t believe you stayed! — Henry said, once they were outside. — This is gonna work. — He was excited. Emma smiled.

— Your mom would have preferred it if I’d left, I think, — she said. — It’s very unlike me to have stayed.

— That’s because she’s the Evil Queen.

Emma frowned. He did seem to have a rich inner life, but she couldn’t help but think of what Regina had said back in her room. He was seeing a shrink, for God’s sake. What if there was something really wrong with him? Was it the right thing to just go along with it? She didn’t know. She would have to talk to Archie.

— Explain it to me, — Emma said, deciding that she would rather talk to him about something he was enthusiastic about than scold him for making things up.

— What? The curse?

— Yeah, — she said. — What’s it all about?

— Okay, yeah, — Henry said, getting excited as he talked more about it. — So you and me have to break it. That’s our job. And step one of the operation is ‘identification.’ — He looked up at her knowingly. — The whole operation is called Operation Cobra.

Emma listened dutifully as Henry explained the curse. All the people of Storybrooke — «Everyone!» — came from another land. Fairy Tale Land. They had been happy there, and they lived with different identities. And then, in order to punish Snow White and Prince Charming for wronging her, the Evil Queen decided to put a curse on the whole land. A curse that meant nobody could be happy. This curse transported everyone who lived in Fairy Tale Land to this place, their world, on Earth, which was a land without magic. No one could leave, time did not move, and no one was aware of what had happened. They all had amnesia, and they’d all been stuck here for twenty-eight years, living the same days over and over again. Except for Henry, who got it, and that was only because of the book, and because he hadn’t been born in Fairy Tale Land.

— The Evil Queen had to get the curse from her old frenemy, Maleficent, — Henry explained. — She went to her castle and they had this huge magic battle, and the Queen stole the curse from Maleficent’s scepter. It was a crazy battle! — Emma nodded. — But to make the curse work right, — Henry said, — the Queen had to use the heart of whoever she held most dear in the world.

— Whoa, — Emma said. — Intense.

— I know! — said Henry. — And guess whose heart she ended up taking to make the whole spell work? You’re never gonna guess.

— I can’t imagine who an Evil Queen would hold dear.

— Her father’s heart. She killed her father to make the curse!

— Now that, — Emma said, — is some serious Oedipal anger.

— The best part, — Henry said, — is who you are.

— I’m from Fairy Tale Land? — Emma said. — Who knew?

Henry ignored this and explained to her that she was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming.

Emma found this to be hilarious.

Not only that, Henry said, but she was the only person who could break the curse. It was all in the stories. She was the little baby born right before the curse came down.

He spun his backpack around and removed a set of pages — Emma saw that he must have ripped them out of his book. He showed her an illustration of the baby wrapped in a blanket, with the word «Emma» embroidered on the front.