Once Upon A Rose: The Guardian Of The Savior

✨Chapter 04: The Thing You Love Most✨

Ruby and I smiled at each other after we finished setting up the Dinner the next day. Granny walked over with a bag of groceries in her arms and smiled at us proudly just as she always has done.

I can feel the energy and glow of this town start to brighten up. It's been like this ever since the big hand on the clock over at the clocktower that is visible for all to see had finally started moving again.

Henry and I managed to bring Emma here, my niece and his birth mother, and she stayed here at Granny's Bed & Breakfast last night.

I'm going to do everything I can to convince her to stay. To get her to believe in what myself and Henry have told her about her parents, about me, and about everybody in Storybrooke.

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"Here you go." Ruby said to Emma after placing a cup of flavoured hot cocoa with cream and cinnamon on top in front of her. Emma held a red apple in one hand, and a news paper in the other and was reading it while I was wiping a table down.

"Thank you, but I did not order that." Said Emma.

"Yeah, I know." Ruby smirked knowingly at her. "You have an admirer."

I glanced at the Sheriff Graham, who is known as The Huntsman back in my world. That lad is a bit of an odd one. One moment, he's kind, then the next, he's obeying Regina's orders. He almost killed Snow White, had he not had a change of heart, thanks to Snow.

"Ah, so you've decided to stay."

Emma hopped off the stall she was sitting on and stood beside Sheriff Graham's table. "Observant. Important for a cop."

"It's good news for our tourist business. It's bad for our local signage." He tried to tell a joke, but failed miserably, judging by the unamused look on Emma's face. "It's a joke...because you ran over our-"

"Sheriff, she gets it." I stopped him. He looked between Emma and I as if trying to piece a mystery together. If and when he asks whether we know each other, I'll just tell him that she's Henry's mother and a close friend of mine. He doesn't need to know everything.

Not right now, at least.

Besides, if he knew, then it would go straight back to Regina, and all hell would break loose if it hadn't already.

"Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture, and I am impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon on my chocolate because most people don't, but I am not here to flirt." Emma emphasised. "So, thank you." She carefully placed the cup of cocoa on the table and backed away. "But, no thank you."

Sheriff Graham shook his head. "I didn't send it."

"I did." Henry confessed. He turned around in his seat and looked at Emma. "I like cinnamon, too. So does Penny."

"You bet I do." I said with a grin on my face as Henry stood beside me.

Emma raised an eyebrow at Henry in confusion. "Don't you have school?"

I helped Henry put his backpack on when he gave Emma a look that said 'well, obviously'. "Duh, I'm 10. Walk me." Henry placed a hand on my arm and gave me a pleading look. "Will you walk with us Penny?"

"I wish I could Henry, but-"

"You can go with them if you want to. Just make sure to come back later before the lunchtime rush." Ruby spoke from where she stood behind the counter.