Once Upon A Time ~ Book 1

Chapter 54 - The Man With The Wooden Box

Emma sat in the sherif's car, looking through a file. Inside was newspaper cuttings, files and pictures of her as a child. One of the headings on a newspaper cutting was Seven Year Old Boy Finds Baby On Side Of Road and another was Still No Leads On Deadbeat Parents.
She closed the file when she saw Henry at the passenger seat window looking in with a little white cardboard box.
"What's that?" he asked.
"Just an old file. What's up?" she said.
"Pumpkin pie. I thought you'd like some." Emma held up the box.
Emma smiled guilty.
"It was pumpkin, right?"
"Right." she put down the file and got our of the car.
They met by the side of it.
"Henry, about your father......"
"Yeah?" he smiled.
"I'm glad I told you." she smiled and changed her mind.
"Me too." he smiled again and leaned forward and wrapped his arms around her. She hugged him back and took a deep breath.
"Give me that." she said, taking the box and smiling. She leaned against the car and opened the box.
"What you did, with Ava and Nicholas. You really are changing things."
Suddenly they heard a motorcycle in the distance. They looked down the street to see someone drive through the street and slow down opposite them. He turned off the engine and took off his helmet. On the motorcycle was a mysterious wooden box. He walked towards them his helmet under his arm. He had brown hair, blue eyes, an unshaven face. He wore a black leather jacket and a side smile.
"Hey." he said to mostly Emma.
"Hey." she said.
"Is this Storybrooke?"
"Yeah."
Henry examined him with his eyes, curious.
"Yeah."
"Any place to get a room around here?"
"Ahhh.... You're staying?" asked Henry.
Emma looked at him, surprised.
"That's the plan." he said looking at Henry. "Just looking for a bed."
"Granny's Bed And Breakfast is just up the road. Another two blocks." she pointed up the road.
He nodded. "Thank you."
Emma and Henry looked at each other and he turned and walked back to his motorcycle.
"Hey, I didn't catch your name." said Emma.
He turned to look at her. "That's cause I didn't give it." he got onto the motorcycle, put on his helmet and turned on the engine. He then drove away, down the street.
"I thought you said strangers don't come to Storybrooke." said Emma looking at Henry.
"They don't." he replyed.

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Thunder sounded in the sky above and it turned from blue to a light grey.
The mysterious man stood by the street, fixing his motorcycle.
Henry walked towards him. "What are you doing here?" Henry asked.
"Fixing my bike." he replyed, smiling.
"No. I mean in Storybrooke."
"Just visiting."
"What's that?" he looked at the wooden box on the back on the motorcycle.
"A box."
"What's inside it?"
"Just something I need to do what I came here for." he stood up and put his helmet on his head. Then he sat back down on his motorcycle."
Regina stepped out of her house and closed the door looking ahead of her footpath at Henry talking to the mysterious man.
"I thought you were just visiting." said Henry.
"Doesn't mean I don't have something to do." he started the engine.
"Henry?" called Regina from the door.
"You better get to school." he said still smiling.
Regina walked down the path from her house.
"Looks like a storm's coming." he said looking up into the sky and he drove off down the street.
"Henry. Who was that?" asked Regina, standing next to him now.
Henry shrugged his shoulders.

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Emma stood in the kitchen eating ceareal, and watching the TV.
"Top of the morning. This is chief meteorologist Bill Goslyn with your up to the minute Storybrooke weather. Well..... Break out those glaloshes, folks. It's gonna get soggy. We've got a major storm system moving up the coast, and the latest Doppler Radar shows the worst band of precipitation coming into Storybrook right about the time you're putting the kids....."
Mary Margaret ran from the bathroom, her toothbrush in her mouth and pulling on her coat. She grabbed her shoes on the floor and pulled them on quickly. She rushed to the counter, took her toothbrush out of her mouth and spat the toothpaste into the sink. She quickly glanced at her watch.
Emma watched her rushing, confused.
"I cannot believe I overslept." she said rushing though the room.
"It's only 7:10, you've got plenty of time to get to school." said Emma, now sitting at the counter.
"No, I have to be there at 7:15."
Emma turned in her seat to look at her pulling on her hat quickly.
"Science fair. I'm helping the kids with their project before school."
"I'm sure if you're five minutes late, they'll live." she said, smiling.
Mary Margaret wrapped her scarf around her neck and grabbed her bag. "We're making a volcano." she protested and then opened the door and left.
Emma raised her eyebrows. "Okay."

Mary Margaret walked quickly down the street, then turning the corner and running in Granny's Diner. She opened the door and stepped inside, almost tripping and falling over the step.
She quickly took a seat a table and pulled out a book from her bag. She took her hat from her head and picked up a silver spoon and fixed her hair in its reflection. She then put the spoon down and waited.
She looked up at the clock on the wall with the time 7:15.
Then suddenly the door opened and David stepped inside. Mary Margaret jumped, then picked up the book and opened it, pretending to read.
David walked into the Diner and saw Mary Margaret. He walked past her and went to the counter.
"One cream and sugar. One black." said Ruby handing him two take-away coffee cups.
Mary Margaret stared at him from above the book as he payed Ruby.
"Thank you." he said.
Ruby smiled and took the money.
She looked back at her book then as David glanced in her direction.
"Good morning." said David.
Mary Margaret closed the book and looked up at him, pretending to be surprised. "Morning."
He nodded, looking into her eyes. "Ahh..... I should go, I'm gonna be late for work."
"Oh, the animal shelter, right? How's that going?"
"Well, the apes haven't taken over."
"Yet." she corrected.
They chuckled together.
"Not on my watch."
They smiled at one another and stared into one another's eyes again.
David nodded at her, smiled then left the diner.
Mary Margaret watched as David walked to his car, where Kathryn sat in the front. She watched as he handed her the coffees. She smiled at him then he leaned forward, through the opened window and kissed her.
"This is making a volcano?" asked Emma as she sat down accross from a day dreaming Mary Margaret. She turned to Emma and opened her mouth. "I was......" she stuttered.
"I get it."
"He comes here every morning at 7:15a.m. to get coffee."
"For his and his wife."
"I know. I know. I know. I just like to.....come here to see him."
"So, you're a stalker."
"No, not really."
Emma raised her eyebrows.
"Maybe a little bit. I mean, it's not like I'm following him. I just know that he spends his mornings with Kathryn. Gets coffee. Then drives to the animal shelter to start work at 7:30. And then he's home around 5:00."
"Oh, is that all?"
"Thursdays they pick up Chinese for dinner." she added.
Emma smiled a little in pity.
"I can't get him out of my head.
"I know. Maybe the first step is not showing up here tomorrow."
"Love is the worst.......... I wish there was a magic cure."
Emma nodded.