Chapter 10

baratta-jennifer: Thank you for your review!

CHEESEPUFF: Yes I do have a plan for Abigail and Bae to talk. In this chapter actually.

Emma was sitting in the dinner thinking over yesterday's events.

She was thrilled her... father was awake. God that was hard to think about. She still wasn't sure if she wrapped her mind around the fact her parents actually loved her, actually wanted her. She shut her eyes trying not to let tears slip out.

She could've grew up with loving parents.

She wasn't paying attention and accidentally spilled her hot cocoa on herself.

After a quick talk with the waitress she went down to the laundry and ran into a young girl who looked eighteen or nineteen and was very heavily pregnant.

They started talking.

"It's just when the baby comes" Ashly sniffled back tears "no one thinks I can do this. No one thinks I can do anything" Emma heard ruffling of sheets and more sniffling. "Maybe their right"

Emma had enough. She turned around put her arms across her chest leaning on the washing machine. "Screw them."

"What?" Her voice was so broken and venerable.

"Screw. Them. People are going to tell you who you are your whole life. You just got to punch back and say no. This is who I am."

"There are no fairy god mothers in this world. You want to change your life. Then do it." Emma became still after she uttered words. Blonde, pregnant maid, no it couldn't be. Ashley might actually be Cinderella. She knew from the book that her parents were friends with Cinderella, and that the pregnancy was a very much wanted one, not a mistake like everyone in this land thought.

She didn't say anything but there looked like a spark in her eye where it was previously void. "Thank you Emma."

With that Emma left the laundry room. She was the saviour and supposed to bring back the happy endings and she felt like she accomplished that, at least partially.

Ella was pregnant when the curse hit. She remembered that much from the storybook. And if her mother gave birth minutes before the curse hit that means her and Ella's child should have been a couple of weeks apart at the most. They could have grown up together as princesses.

Just one more reason to brake this damn curse and give the Queen what she deserves.

The next day her and her family were discussing ways to brake the curse, but it kept going around in circles with no real concrete solutions.

A knock on the door had startled them but Bae went to get it while Emma, Henry, and Hope were hiding everything from Operation Cobra.

Emma heard Bae open the door and he had a confused look on his face.

Emma walked over and saw the same blonde who was her fathers 'wife' in this land. She glared at her just as she did in the hospital.

"Hello, I heard you guys were new, I brought you this basket to welcome you to our town. May I come in?" She asked. Her tone seemed to be light and happy but it definitely was not. She also had this regal air about her. Like a princess.

Emma was not happy but Bae gave a short nod and opened the door further to let her in. As soon as the door closed she changed. Where her bright and bubbly look changed into one of tired and anger.

"We all know people don't come to this town. You were both giving me looks at the hospital yet I have met neither of you before, all though you do look vaguely familiar" she told Emma "so shall we dispense of pleasantries and get right down to it?"

No one seemed to want to make the first move and it descended into an awkward silence.

"Ok fine my name is Kathryn Nolan. But yesterday I found out that is a lie. I'm from a realm known as the Enchanted Forest, and I am Princess Abigail" she knew she was taking a risk, they might lock her up from being insane, but there was no way they got into the town by coincidence.

"So are we" was said by the one she knew to be Neal gesturing to Emma and himself.

"How'd you end up escaping the curse? You came from the outside?"

"It would take far too long for me to explain how I escaped" the man said "but Emma here is a little easier." Abigail's head snapped to Emma when she heard her name. She thought Emma looked familiar but with the name she know knew exactly who she stood before.

"You are James's daughter" it was not a question. "Ok so the glare you were giving me yesterday is now understandable."

"You know my father?"

She knew exactly how Emma escaped the curse, but Snow was caught up in the curse and Emma wasn't so everything did not go to plan. Seeing how Emma must have grown up alone broke her heart, she did not love James in a romantic sense, but she and Fredrick had become quite close to Snow and James.

"Yes I knew both your parents. Your father and I were betrothed at one point, and then he helped me save my beloved, making me grateful. I'm no happier about playing James's wife then you are but we cannot arouse the Queen's suspicions."

"Are you really a princess?" asked the young girl who looked to be five or six. "Daddy says I'm a princess too but we cannot tell the mean lady because then she will be angry."

Abigail was vaguely amused. The young girl's outlook on life was very simple, reality was far more complicated. "Yes I am the daughter of a King which makes me a princess and you are one too." The young girl looked up in wide eyed admonishment.

Emma glanced over and Bae had his eyebrow kind of scrunched up, a tell that she knew meant he was confused and that something didn't add up.

He suddenly sat up straighter, seeming to have come to a conclusion.

"Yesterday you found out that was a lie. How did you wake up? We have been trying to come up with some way to break this spell and nothing we think of will work"

Abigail relayed the story of yesterday and the new ally she had found (for now) in the Dark One.

"I suspect he has his own reasons and so I did as he asked and played the doting wife but I will not blindly trust him. Unfortunately we are out of our depth and we need his expertise for now" she admitted all though she looked as though she had swallowed a sour grape.

"Yeah, he has that effect on people" Bae's voice was cold and bitter.

Abigail was surprised, one did not have this kind of hatred for someone unless it was personal. "I am assuming the two of you have a history?"

"That's one way of putting it. I believe he will help protect my family from the queen, but it doesn't mean I have to forgive that bastard" his face immediately closed off, as if he said too much.

She was intrigued. He had said forgive, as if The Dark One actually wanted this man's forgiveness. The rumors surrounding him had him pegged as a cold bastard who cared for no one. Did he actually have a heart? And was this man in front of her the key to it?

The next few days passed in a blur. She played the loving wife perfectly and kept off suspicion from the queen. Emma got a job at the sheriff's station and they had met up a few times for dinner along with Neal and were plotting to break the curse.

The three of them were walking out of the diner when a man whom she did not recognise pulled up on a motorcycle.

"Hey guys, know a place a man could stay around here?" his voice was cocky. She looked over at her companions and Neal looked like he had swallowed a lemon.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Neal demanded.

"Who is he?" Emma asked Neal.

"Nice seeing you as well. The name is August."

"Wait, that August?" Emma asked wide eyed.

Neal just gave a nod still glaring daggers at the man. Abigail felt out of her depth, these three seemed to have a history.

Then without warning Emma stepped up to him and punched him right in the face.