Disclaimer: rights to ABC and Odette Beane.
Ruby's friend was indeed back there, trying (and failing) to wash a set of white sheets, crying as she did it. I gave her some advice base on my very limited knowledge of laundry: Try some bleach. But at the hint of a connection, the girl--Ashley was her name-- glommed on us like a lost puppy dog and soon was telling us her whole sad story. Ruby had sure been right: she was going through something. Nineteen years old, very pregnant, all alone in the world. No plan, no way to make money. "I don't know, I don't know," Ashley said. "I just- I just feel like giving up sometimes." "You're nineteen now," Emma said, "I was eighteen." Ashley looked up, realizing what Emma was saying. "It gets easier," Emma said, but I could tell she was lying. "But listen. This is the important thing. You are the one who decides. You get to choose, And if you choose that you can do it, you're gonna make it" Ashley wiped her face and let this sink in. Emma added: "Life is there to be taken. You have to take it. It doesn't seem like it could be that simple, but it is." This seemed to strike a chord with Ashley. Some of the clouds that had been darkening her face lifted. It would be a few hours before Emma and I would find out just how literally Ashley had taken the advice.
It was Saturday, Henry had met me for ice cream and we were sitting on a bench, enjoying the sun and ice cream. After the ice cream, Henry insisted we go to Mary Margaret's and get Emma. Henry had a while until Regina would expect him. We headed to the apartment, walking up the stairs, and almost running right into Mr. Gold, the pawn shop owner, who I knew as Rumplestiltskin. "Hello young man," Rumplestiltskin said, "Ms. Swan and I were just discussing a business matter. I was just leaving." Henry looked terrified. And I knew why; Henry thought Mr. Gold was Rumplestiltskin, and he was correct. "Hello, sir," Henry said quietly, then entered the apartment, head down, and I followed, not bothering to be respectful to the man that I did not like. Once Gold was gone, Emma sat down with Henry and I and told him that he could not keep showing up in secret, even though she did want to see him. She explained that Regina would find a way to use it against them. Henry assured her it was okay--that he had until five o'clock and that his mother would never know. Emma obviously did not like it one bit. Henry started asking questions about why Mr. Gold had been there. "He asked me to find someone," she said, "a girl. Its just a job." "What girl?" Henry asked. Emma glanced at me quickly, and replied, "I doubt you'd know her, kid." Henry sat down on the couch, removing his backpack. He dug around and took out his book, flipping through the pages. "Is she pregnant?" Henry asked. Emma turned, eyes wide, "How did you know that?"
None of us knew much about Ashley, but Emma and I knew that she had one friend in Storybrooke: Ruby. Emma, Henry, and I went straight to the diner. When we saw that Ruby had a moment free, Emma pulled her over to the entrance and asked her if she had any guesses where Ashley might have gone. "I don't. No," Ruby said, shaking her head, "excuse me." Ruby pushed on the back door and propped it open. "I'm waiting for them to drop off my car, sorry." "You don't think the boyfriend could be involved?" I asked. "He would have to be involved to be involved," Ruby replied, "he hasn't talked to her in at least six months. He's such an ass." "She mentioned he had not... don't the right thing,"Emma said, "when he found out she was pregnant." "He dumped her," Ruby said disdainfully, chewing her gum loudly. She looked like she was about to say something else, but just then a tow-truck trundled into the back parking lot, pulling a cherry-red Camaro. The truck stopped, and the driver got out, waved to Ruby (who waved back quite flirtatiously, I noticed, and added a hip-twisting curtsy for good measure), and started lowering the vehicle. Nice car for a waitress, I thought. "And where's Ashley's family?" I asked. "She doesn't really have one," Ruby said, "horrible stepmother somewhere. I think stepsisters. I don't know. She doesn't talk to them." Henry tugged conspiratorially on Emma's jacket, and nodded up at her when she looked down. She shook her head and gave him a "not now, kid" look. "You know, maybe you should go ask Sean," Ruby said, "maybe he knows something. He lives with his dad. I'll write down the address."
A burly man in his fifties opened the door when Emma rang the bell of the two-story mid-century on Randolph. The father, I assumed. Emma asked for Sean, and the man introduced himself as Mitchell Herman, asked her what she wanted. The way he said his own name, the way he shook my hand, the way he crossed his arms afterward-- I could feel it when she was not going to like somebody. Pushy fat rich men were not exactly my type. I was glad we had told Henry to stay in the car as Emma explained Ashley was missing and that she had been hired to find her. She told him few other details, but Mitchell took what she gave him and ran: "Of course she disappeared, of course she bailed on the agreement. Can't trust her to be a good mother, can't trust her to do the right thing. She let herself get pregnant in the first place, didn't she?" Oh, I thought, I really don't like you. "Who's at the door, dad?" I heard, and behind Mitchell, I saw Sean emerge from a back room and come down the hall. He was so young-- not even twenty. Just like Ashley. "Is everything all right?" Sean asked. "No, Sean, everything is not alright," Emma said, her voice suddenly stern. "Ashley is missing. If you know anything, you need to tell me where she is or go to the police. Right now. And I mean anything." Seam became extremely agitated when he heard this information, and he tried to push past his father, who held him back and blocked the doorway. "What do you mean, disappeared?" Sean asked, "where is she? What about the baby?" "No," Mitchell said, turning to his son, "get inside. We'll talk in a minute." "I get it," Emma said, "you're the reason, right? The reason he broke it off in the first place?" Mitchell looked at her like she was an idiot. "I had everything set up for that girl. She was set. She agreed. It was all very civil. All she had to do was follow through." "What do you mean you 'had everything set up' for Ashley?" I questioned. "I mean exactly that," Mitchell replied, "I made an arrangement." "For the baby. You sold the baby?! And who's the buyer?" Emma asked heatily. Michelle Herman looked honestly confused now, and I backtracked through the conversation, wondering what I had missed. And then I realized. "Gold." Emma eyed widened in sudden realization that I was correct. "Yes, of course, Gold," Mitchell said, "isn't that who hired you? To bring him the baby? I thought you worked for him." Emma closed her eyes, clearly agitated. Ruby must have known the whole time. Known everything... and had sent Emma and I here to buy Ashley time. The possession of Gold that Ashley had taken was herself. Emma and I ran back to the VW. Inside, Emma cranked the engine. "We gotta find this girl, Henry." Emma said, reversing out of the driveway. "She panicked and she needs our help. She's running." "There's only one road that leads out of town," Henry said, "but---" "Don't talk to me about a curse right now, kid," Emma said, "this is real. She's running and she's too far along to run." Ten minutes later, almost to the town line, I could not help but think I felt like I was playing the lead in a a bad nightmare. We rounded a bend on the road outside of town and saw the bright red Camaro's backside sticking up out of the ditch. She crashed, I thought, as Emma hit the brakes and we both got out to run to Ruby's car. Ashley was not behind the wheel, which was a relief, actually. Emma and I looked up at each other and scanned the woods. We both heard the moaning almost right away. Henry, Emma, and I found Ashley ten feet past the tree line, sitting on the ground, holding her belly. When she saw then, she cried. "The baby is coming right now!"