Chapter Text
Chapter 1 -- Missing
Mary Margaret Nolan slowly awoke one morning and turned over to see the other side of the bed empty. She felt the covers and realized they were cold, meaning that her husband had abandoned their bed long before she woke up. She slowly climbed out of bed and made her way downstairs as she heard David’s voice coming from the study. She walked towards the sound as she passed her son and youngest daughter, silently watching TV in the living room.
“Hey, kiddos,” she smiled at them.
“Hi, Mom,” Twelve-year-old Leopold looked up at her.
“Morning, mommy,” Eight-year-old Delia added.
“Is she back yet?” Leo asked her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, giving him a small smile. “I know you guys miss her. We all do.”
Mary Margaret left them watching their program as she walked towards David’s office. She walked in and saw him tapping his laptop repeatedly as he talked on the phone.
“Yes, I see it,” David spoke into his phone. “No, I want it sent to every police station and sheriff’s office all over the country. It’s been two months… who knows where she is now…Thank you.”
“Who was that?” Mary Margaret asked him as he hung up.
“Frederick,” he sighed as he ran his hand over his face. “He and Phillip are going to fax this to every station all across the states.”
Mary Margaret took the paper as she saw her seventeen-year-old daughter’s latest school picture with the word MISSING in giant letters across the top. Underneath was her physical description and their home phone number.
“Hopefully they’ll help us find her,” David sighed. “Then my son will stop hating me.”
“He doesn’t hate you,” Mary Margaret assured him. “He just misses his big sister.”
“So do I,” David sighed. “Where did it all go wrong? How could she change so drastically from one day to the next?”
“She’s a teenager,” she reminded him. “You can’t expect everything to be as easy as it was when she was younger. God knows I got into a lot of trouble when I was her age. And I know you did too. So maybe it’s just in her genes.”
“Maybe,”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Several months ago, their oldest daughter, Emma, seemed to change overnight. One day, she was their bright, outgoing, sporty, social butterfly, straight-A student who was constantly over at her friends’ houses more than at her own. The next day, she withdrew into herself and constantly holed up in her room, barely coming out except for school and mealtimes.
She started rebelling against everyone and everything: skipping school, staying out way past curfew, hanging out with a new group of friends who weren't good influences on her, and getting mixed up with guys she shouldn’t have been.
“When are you supposed to be at the station?” Mary Margaret looked at him.
“Frederick wants me to take the day,” he sighed. “But I feel like I should be doing something to find her. I can only do that at the station.”
“I think you should take the day,” Mary Margaret told him. “Go to your mom’s. Help her with the rummage sale. It’s next week, and she still has lots to do.”
“Fine,” he sighed.
“Thank you,” Mary Margaret smiled at him. “Now come on. We need to get breakfast for the kids before they go to their Day Camp.”
“Right behind you,” he followed her out of his office and into the kitchen, where Leo and Delia had just come in.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mary Margaret was just finishing cleaning up after they all finished breakfast. David had only left a few minutes ago with Leo and Delia. He was going to drop them off at their Summer Day Camp before heading over to his mom’s to help her get everything ready for next week. The house phone started ringing, and she stopped loading the dishwasher to answer it.
“Hello? Regina?”
Snow’s stepmother had done a complete one-eighty these last few years. Everyone was a little surprised, but they all thought that Emma was the cause of the turnaround. When Emma began junior high, she began stopping by the mayor’s office after school. She never told anyone what they talked about, but since then, Regina had become a permanent fixture at their family gatherings and even had dinner with them at least once a week.
“Regina?” Snow spoke into the phone. “What’s going on?”
“I found her….I found Emma….”
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
David brought another box down from the attic at his mom’s house and put it with the others. He knew that Mary Margaret had volunteered him for this today to try to distract him from everything for a few hours, but all he could think about was Emma. That’s the only thing he’s been able to think about since they discovered that she was missing. They wondered all day, every day, whether or not she was eating and sleeping like she should, whether she was cold or afraid. They tried not to think about not being able to bring her home.
“Another one full of clothes,” Ruth came down.
“I made a pile right here,” David said, making room for it.
“You need to stop,” Ruth demanded of her son.
“What?” he looked up at her in confusion.
“I know you’re worried about Emma-everyone in town is-but you can’t blame yourself. She’s a teenager; she made the choices she did. And she will have to live with whatever consequences you guys come up with when you bring her back here kicking and screaming.”
“Kicking and screaming?”
“Trust me, that will be her reaction.” Ruth smiled at his horrified expression. “At first, anyway. She’ll calm down after a while.”
“Let’s hope so.” David’s phone started to ring, and he took it out, seeing that Mary Margaret was calling him.
“David, meet me at Regina’s office.” Mary Margaret’s voice greeted him once he answered.
“What’s going on?”
“Just meet me there. It’s about Emma.”
“I’m on my way,” he hung up and looked at his mom. “There’s news on Emma, I think. I’m supposed to go to Regina’s office.”
“I’ll come with you.” Ruth gathered her purse and pushed her son out of her house.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Mary Margaret looked up as the door to Regina’s office opened and her husband and mother-in-law rushed in.
“All right, what’s going on?” David embraced his wife. “What’s the news on Emma?”
“I know you’ve been working non-stop trying to find your daughter,” Regina started. “I’ve been doing a little digging myself. And one of my contacts just got hold of me.”
“So you know where she is?” Ruth asked.
“Portland,” Regina looked at all of them.
“Portland?” David was astonished.
“How did she get there?” Ruth asked.
“There’s more,” Mary Margaret told her husband. “She’s been arrested.”
“Please tell me that it’s just because of her being a runaway,” David stated
“Oh, how I wish I could tell you that.”
“What did she do?” Ruth asked
“I talked to the arresting officer on the phone,” Regina told them. “Apparently, she got mixed up with a guy. He set her up to take the fall for a crime that he committed several months ago.”
“Please tell me that he’s the same age as her,” David sighed
“That’s what he told her,”
“So what’s going to happen?”
“Her arraignment is two days from now.”
“What exactly did she do?”
“She tried to fence some stolen watches-”
“For the guy,” Mary Margaret told them.
“But they can’t do anything unless we’re there,” David stated. “She’s still a minor.”
“As of right now, she’s not talking,” Regina told him. “But when they got your fax this morning with Emma’s picture, my contact immediately called me.”
“So we need to get down there before her hearing,” David turned to his mom. “Do you mind keeping Leo and Delia for us?”
“Not at all,” Ruth assured him. “Just bring your daughter back.”
“Kicking and screaming,” David sighed as they all walked out of the office.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“So you’re bringing Emma home?” Delia asked as they pulled up to their Grandma Ruth’s house.
“Yes,” David gathered Leo and Delia’s luggage and walked to the porch where his mom was waiting for them.
“The next time we see you, Emma will be with you?” Leo looked at his mom.
“Yes,” Mary Margaret assured him. “She probably won’t be happy with us, but at least she’ll be back home with us.”
“They are not happy that they’re not coming along,” David told his mom as they all walked inside. “But we packed movies and their tablets to keep them occupied. But they don’t have to be on them all the time.”
“We’ll be fine,” Ruth smiled at her son. “Just bring back my granddaughter.”
“Will do,”
“You two be good for your Grandma,” Mary Margaret looked at her kids. “We will call you when we get there.”
“Can we talk to Emma when you call?” Delia asked.
“She may not be able to talk tonight,” David told them.
They both had agreed that the kids shouldn’t know too many details about how they located Emma.
“She may not want to,” Mary Margaret corrected him. “But you will definitely talk to us tonight.”
“We love you,” David said, hugging both of his children before letting his wife do the same thing.
Mary Margaret got back into the car with David, and they waved to Ruth, Leo, and Delia as they stood on the porch watching them pull away.
“Regina’s going to meet us at the airport,” Mary Margaret checked her phone.
“Did she find any available flights?”
“She hasn’t texted me back yet,” she sighed. “I can’t believe this is happening. Our daughter has embarked on a life of crime.”
“As you said, she probably just got caught up with the guy and got in way over her head. Maybe she didn’t see a way out.”
“She could have called us for help. We will always be there for our kids.”
“Maybe she was embarrassed-or ashamed-or both.”
“Once we have her with us again, I will not be letting her out of my sight.”
“That may not be a bad idea,” David stated as they pulled up to the airport.
They found Regina at the ticket counter talking to the ticket agent. She turned around and spotted them as they approached her.
“I was able to get us the last three tickets,” Regina told them. “It leaves in an hour.”
“So by tonight, we will be seeing our daughter.” Mary Margaret sighed.
“And forcing her against her will to come back home with us,” David added.
“Let’s go check our bags,” Regina told them. “By the time we’re done, they should be starting to board the flight.”
David followed behind them as they made their way to baggage, as he thought about all they would have to do to be able to bring Emma home. It was going to be a long couple of days.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
They landed in Portland a few hours later. They walked off the plane, collected their belongings, and walked out of the airport to try to catch a cab. Regina took out her phone to call her contact and let them know they were in town.
“All right, thank you.” Regina hung up and looked over at David and Mary Margaret. “Change of plans. Emma’s hearing got moved up to tomorrow morning at eight.”
“So what do we do?” David asked.
“Can we see our daughter?” Mary Margaret asked
“Not tonight, probably not before the hearing.”
“So what now?”
“The judge will be in his chambers tomorrow by six. If we can get to him before the hearing and plead Emma’s case, we may have a shot at her getting a more lenient punishment.”
“We’ll be there bright and early,” Mary Margaret stated firmly as David was finally able to flag down a cab to take them to their hotel.