Repeat (A Once Upon A Time Fanfiction / Captain Swan's Daughter)

5

Luckily, I wasn't drowning in the middle of the Oceon. The tide had come in and soaked both me and my things. I stopped screaming once I realised I was only about knee-deep in salt water.

"Hey, are you okay?" A blonde woman with a square shaped face similar to me own was jogging across the beachfront towards me. She looked to be in her mid-thirties and had long blonde hair that was bouncing as she ran. Her red leather jacket was slipping off her shoulders, but she quickly shrugged them to keep the jacket from falling.

"I'm okay, I suppose." I sighed, grabbing my sodden bag and jacket from the waves. Sand particles dotted my black faux leather jacket, as my belongings had been sitting right where the waves had been crashing. It took me a moment before I could stand up. The waves were not big, but they were strong.

Without thinking about herself, the lady stepped into the water to help me to my feet. It didn't seem to bother her that the sea would soak right through the holes and gaps in her lace up boots.

"You most be absolutely freezing." She said. "Let's swap jackets."

I let out a small laugh between the shivers and handed her my soaking wet jacket. It felt twice as heavy as it did earlier in the day. In return, the lady wrapped her red jacket around my shoulders. She left her arm around my back and guides me to her car. She stopped before opening the car door.

"I promise I'm not a paedophile. I used to be the sheriff, until my brother-in-law took over." She explained. I didn't really know how to react, so I just smiled and climbed through the open car door and into the yellow bug.

The engine started. We were only in the car for a couple of minutes become parking outside the diner I had been in earlier.

"There's a laundry room in here." The blonde woman told me before hopping out from behind the driver's wheel. Before I could open the door, she had opened it for me.

"Thank you." I hesitated, not knowing what to call her.

"My name is Emma." Emma said with a welcoming smile.

"My name is Zoe." I lied. It was obvious she wasn't buying it, though. I had a way of guessing if people were lying or not, so I knew the look of someone who didn't believe what someone was saying very well. It was a look I had on a regular basis.

Instead of questioning me, Emma shrugged and lead the way through the doors of the diner. She walked straight through the middle of the seating area and I followed. Emma guided me to a small room with a couple of washers and dryers.

"I don't have anything to wear while I dry my clothes." I began to explain.

"How about you get changed and I'll quickly find you something to wear, okay?" Emma handed me a towel robe. Once I turned to go into the small changing room, she quickly walked out of the door. A few minutes later I had changed out of my soggy clothes. I was about to put my last item into the dryer when Emma returned with a pile of clothes.

"This is all I could find." Emma smiled and handed me a small like of clothes. I smiled before going back into the changing room to try them on. She had given me a pair of ripped jeans, a black vest top, and a huge black and white plaid shirt. She probably could have pulled this off, but I was expecting to look in the mirror and see a 2-year-old playing dress up in the glass.

"My clothes are probably too big for you. Granny does really good hot chocolates," Emma said, mocking herself. I stepped out of the changing room once more, only this time dressed in dry clothes. I was still shivering, though. "And it looks like you need one of Granny's hot chocolates to stop you from shaking."

We walked towards the bar, which will have been the second time that day for me. It was mid-afternoon, so there were less people here than there was earlier. That meant there were less people to give me questioning looks.

"Could I get 2 hot chocolates please?" Emma asked as she sat on a read bar stool. It was the same stool Mary-Margaret had sat on earlier today. I sounded like such a townie calling people by their first names instead of just describing their appearance.

"I know how you take yours, but how does Emma JR take her hot cocoa?" The elderly lady asked me. I didn't understand why I was Emma JR, but I went with it. Like almost everyone else in this town, she had a welcoming smile.

"Please could I have white chocolate and cinnamon?" I half regretted not asking for a more popular flavour, as if sometimes annoyed the baristas when I asked for quirky flavours in the past.

The lady giggled a little before turning to make the beverages.

"That's exactly how I have my hot cocoa." Emma looked quite shocked at the fact we liked the same drink. "The only other people people I know who like cinnamon with white chocolate are my son and my sister."

Our drinks arrived, and I warmed up quickly after my first few sips. Emma was right, Granny really did make amazing hot cocoa. We say and talk while I drank my drink. We talked about normal things, and it was at least a half an hour before she brought up the topic of me running away. It felt so nice to talk to someone who listened, that I didn't really mind her questions.

"Yes,  I'm a runaway." I admitted.

"I've been there, I know what it's like." I was beginning to think everyone in this town was very similar. Welcoming, kind, and an ex-runaway. "I grew up jumping from foster home to foster home."

"Did you ever find your real family?" We both knew from the same upbringing that 'real family' didn't exactly mean biological family. It's the family that you belong in.

"Yes, I did. When I moved to Storybrooke I found my real family." Emma smiled, obviously thinking about the family she spoke so highly of.

"I wish that would happen to me." A laugh escaped under my breath. It was as if my brain was telling me that I would never find a proper home.

"So you're staying?" Emma asked.

"I think that's my plan. I'm not 100% sure yet."

"Do you have anywhere to stay?"

"Nope."

"Do you have any money?"

"I had my savings, but I'm pretty sure my dip in the sea will have turned my cash to mush."

Emma gave me an apologetic smile, even though nothing was her failt. All she had done since our meeting was help me in every way possible. She didn't know it, but just sitting and talking to me was helping me more than you could imagine.

"I know this might again sounds really creepy, but I might be able to find a spare couch somewhere for you to sleep on. Would you want that?" Emma offered.

"I would love that." I answered.