The Coward's Daughter [An OUAT Fanfic]

Searching For John Doe

It was getting dark outside as Emma, Mary Margaret, Sheriff Graham and Y/N walked through the emerald colored woods, owls hooted and insects chirped as Sheriff Graham led the charge, following John Doe's footprints. Soon Sherif Graham knelt in the ground feeling the earth beneath his hands.

"What is it?" Mary Margaret asked.

"Trail runs out here." Graham explained, frustration layered underneath his calm voice.

"You sure?" Emma asked, "I thought tracking was one of your skills."

"Just give me a second, this is my world, I've got it."

"Right, sorry." Emma said awkwardly.

Sheriff Graham marched forward, pushing back branches and stepping over roots. Y/N, using her phone as a flashlight, followed closely behind.

"You're welcome to go home if you need Miss Gold. You aren't exactly dressed for a hike."

"If someone's in trouble I want to help." She answered, "Even if it is just a... strange coma patient I've never met."

"You've matured a lot since you finished school." Sheriff Graham smiled as he leapt down a small ledge. "I can still remember booking you for all those DUI's in high school. I might even have some of those old mugshots, in the station's files."

"Trying to black mail me Sheriff?" Y/N teased, shining the light into his face.

"Just reminiscing, Miss Gold. I'm sort of proud I guess."

"Of my DUI's and mugshots?"

"No, that you're not that person anymore. You've got a stable job, don't make any trouble and the kids at the elementary school seem to adore you."

Y/N felt her face flush a little, she wasn't used to being complemented so earnestly.

"Thanks." She stumbled, thinking of what to say next. "Since I've been such a great citizen how about you forgive some of my parking tickets?"

"Ehh, you haven't matured that much." Then, from abruptly behind them, a rustling stirred in the leaves.

"Hello?" Y/N asked shining her flashlight as a small figure came towards them. "Who's there?"

"It's me!" As the figure approached the light Y/N saw it was Henry.

"Henry what are you doing here?" Sheriff Graham asked.

"I'd like to know the same thing!" Y/N asked.

"I know where John Doe is! He's looking for Mary Margaret but we have to hurry!"

Emma and Mary Margaret sprinted behind him.

"I think he might be right," Emma explained, "But we don't have anytime to lose."

***

"Where is he?" Mary Margaret asked, the underbelly of the toll bridge illuminated by the flashlights of the search party. "Can you see him?"

"The trail dies at the waterline." Sheriff Graham explained.

They each searched the creek bed, the beams from the flashlights bouncing off the slippery stones. Y/N check underneath the bridge when she heard a scream from behind her.

"Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!" Mary Margaret shouted.

Y/N whipped around, and her flashlight fell on a collapsed man with blond hair, his head half submerged in the river bed.

"I need an ambulance at the old toll bridge as soon as possible!" Graham said into a walkie talkie.

The adults of the search party frantically pulled him from the water, chatter overlapping as John Doe slumped in their arms.

Mary Margaret commanded the team to set him down, John Doe looked to be on the brink of death.

"No, no, no, no I found you! It's gonna be okay." Mary Margaret told him.

"Helps coming!" Graham shouted to the group.

"Is he gonna be okay?" Henry asked panicked, Emma ran to him, turning him away from the scene.

"Come back to us!" Mary Margaret told John Doe, before kneeling beside him, pressing her hands against his chest to perform CPR. She performed several compressions before placing her lips onto his to get air flowing through mouth-to-mouth CPR.

After several sharp breaths, she pulled away. Watching him nervously, before he sputtered, coughing out water. Mary-Margaret took his head in her hands.

"You...saved me." John Doe whispered weakly.

"She did it. She did it." Henry celebrated softly.

"Who are you?" Asked Mary Margaret.

John Doe looked at her, gratitude and confusion in his eyes, before he softly answered,

"I don't know."