Twice Upon A Time {reader x once upon a time}

The Stable Boy

Thursday, March 26

Emma was on her way to the Station when David called out for her. He wanted to apologize to Mary Margaret for their last conversation and tell her he did believed she was innocent, but Emma informed him of Mary Margaret's decision to not have any visitors.

At the Station, Mary Margaret woke up suddenly, and looking around she found Regina sitting in front of her cell and watching her. She wanted to give Mary Margaret a chance to avoid a trial by confessing to the murder, which Mary Margaret refused, claiming once more that she was innocent and demanding to know what had she ever done to Regina for her to hate her so much, a question Regina couldn't answer without sounding crazy herself due to the curse.

Regina had already left by the time Emma arrived. Instead, she found Mr. Gold, who suggested that Mary Margaret talked with the District Attorney, using her personality as a sweet, kind, elementary school teacher as their main defense since it didn't fit the prototype of a killer. Mr. Gold was also explaining how beneficial this voluntary interview could be with a jury when Sidney came by with some flowers for the office.

Emma pulled him apart and asked him if he had been able to find anything on Regina, but unfortunately, he hadn't. Before leaving he promised her he wouldn't stop looking until he found something.

When Emma rejoined Mary Margaret and Mr. Gold, the teacher informed her she had decided to do the interview. Just in that moment, the D.A., Albert Spencer came in alongside Regina.

During the interview, despite Mr. Gold's attempts to avoid it, the D.A. was able to trick Mary Margaret into admitting that she wanted Kathryn gone, realizing only a second to late of her mistake.

After the disaster with the D.A., Emma went to the pier to think. She even took Henry's book hoping it would give her some inspiration on what to do next. That's how August found her, sitting on a bench and reading the book

"What are you doing?" he asked

"Grasping at straws" Emma replied, putting the book away

"Still trying to find a way to prove your friend's been framed?" he wondered, showing her the afternoon edition of the local newspaper and sitting with her

"Every time I go down a path I think leads somewhere; it ends up being a dead end" she admitted "I used to think I had these great instincts... superpower. I don't know"

"It sounds like you got a case of writer's block. Only without the whole writing part" August told her

"Maybe" Emma replied

"You know, when I get struck by a block, I usually reread what I've done rather than plow ahead blindly" he suggested "Sometimes I find there'll be a little nugget of inspiration left behind"

"You mean start over?" Emma asked

"I mean, when I start writing I usually have one idea. And then, in the middle, I may get another idea, and things are different" he explained

"So your perspective changes" Emma caught on

"Exactly" August said "When you started this investigation, what was it about?" he asked

"A missing person" Emma answered "Then it became a murder, and then a cover-up"

"If you knew that then, maybe you would have approached things differently" August said

Emma had an idea then and got up

"Where are you going?" August asked her

"Scene of the crime" she replied