Once Upon A Time: Goldilocks comes to Storybrooke

Chapter 17

Emma and Henry drove in the little yellow car as fast as they could until they got to Granny's Diner. They got out of the car and ran to the door, just as David and Mary Margaret exited the diner.

"Where's Goldilocks?" Emma asked them.

"She literately just left now," David told his daughter. "She ran off in such a hurry."

"Did you find anything out?" Henry asked. "Like where she was before she came here?"

Mary Margaret shook her head. "Only that she was a mermaid for about a month or two."

"She didn't mention anything else?" Emma asked hopefully.

"Well, she said she would have told us but- she said she was protecting someone."

"Protecting someone?" Emma repeated.

"But do you know what we found out?" Henry asked, taking his story book out of his backpack.

"No. What did you find out?" David replied with a question.

"Well," Henry began. "We read through the story, and there is no mention of Goldilocks what so ever."

"What?" Mary Margaret looked at Henry, then at Emma with a confused expression.

Henry flipped the book to a random page. "Nothing at all."

"So- this Goldilocks might not actually be Goldilocks?" David asked.

"For all we know she might not actually be a fairytale character," Henry said.

"But - how does Regina know her?" David asked.

"We better go ask," Mary Margaret replied, and all of them, except Emma ran down the path.

David, Mary Margaret and Henry all stopped running, and turned back to face Emma, who was staring at the front door of the diner.

"Emma?" David asked.

She turned to face them. "I just got here. Couldn't I -"

"Emma, now is not exactly the time for a grilled cheese," Mary Margaret rolled her eyes.

Emma groaned. "Fine." She followed them and they all climbed into the car, Emma and David at the front, and Mary Margaret and Henry sat next to each other as the back.

"Are we going to Regina's?" Emma asked, who was diving.

"Yeah, but- wait, stop!" Henry yelled.

Emma suddenly slammed on the breaks, causing everyone to fall forwards, then jerk backwards again.

"What the hell, kid!?" Emma looked behind her. "I almost killed us all!"

"It's Dr Hopper." Henry pointed, and everyone looked. Dr Hopper was walking down the street, Pongo with him.

Emma and her family got out of the car and made their way towards him. He noticed then and smiled.

"Hello!" He said. "How are you all?"

"Fine. Well..." Henry trailed of, and looked at Emma for help.

"We've been doing a bit of research on this Goldilocks character," Emma said.

"And it turns out she isn't actually in Henry's story book," David butted in.

Dr Hopper lost his smile. He stood there for a few moments, as Pongo looked up impatiently at his owner, wondering why their walk had stopped. "But -"

"We know it's a lot to take in, Emma said. "But have you seen...'Goldilocks' lately?" Emma made quotation marks with her hands when she said the name.

Dr Hopper shook his head. "Not since yesterday."

"Where has she gone!?" Mary Margaret sighed.

"Maybe she is in her room at Granny's Bed and Breakfast?" David suggested.

"Or she's at my mom's? Well, at Regina's?" Henry told them.

"Or maybe she's with Perdita walking somewhere?" Dr Hopper said.

"Let's split up and take a look?" David said. He and his wife went to Granny's, Emma drove to Regina's and Dr Hopper began to walk towards the beach.

"You coming kid?" Emma asked Henry.

"Erm, you go ahead. I kind of want to walk back home," he said.

Emma shrugged. "If you're not at Regina's in an hour I'm calling a search party," she told him. Henry laughed and nodded. Emma climbed into her car and drove to Regina's house.

Henry grinned, and ran off in the opposite direction. What Emma didn't know, was that he was planning a little search party of his own...