The Tie That Binds

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Why are you staring at me like that, sister?" Leroy coldly interrogates from David's old Deputy desk.

Emma blinks away her thoughts, not aware that she was blatantly scrutinizing that permanent scowl. "It's hard for me to forget about all your drunken stupors when I first arrived in Storybrooke," she boldly remarks, leaning back against her chair to relieve some of the tension knotting in her shoulders from sitting all damn day.

"That was my cursed persona," he bitterly defends. "I'm Grumpy, the head dwarf of my brothers, the one who fought and defended your mother without question...not so much your father. I didn't trust that he was simply bedding the princess for love." Emma grimaces, her head flinching back to avoid that image swimming in her direction. "But I've come around and I have always been their most loyal and trusted companion."

"You know," she muses, dragging out the phrase just to keep him on his toes, "...Doc was the most loyal in the stories, Grumpy just pouted in the corner like a toddler," and it takes every bit of strength she possesses to keep a straight face.

"Bullshit," he angrily spits. "Doc has always been just a face in the background, blindly following the crowd. I was the brains behind most schemes. I was-"

"Okay, okay," she chuckles, holding her hands up in surrender, "it's not my concern anymore anyways. I'll be gone in a few short months. You appointed as Deputy is David's problem now."

"I know what I'm doing," he petulantly argues.

"That's good," she evenly says, standing up to stretch out her tightening back.

She places her hands into the dip behind her lower back and slowly massages those aching muscles. It's not even noon and she's exhausted but she wants her father to have as much time off with her little brother before she leaves and he has to come back to being a full time sheriff.

"You alright?" Leroy skeptically investigates and if his other name wasn't Grumpy she would assume he was pissed about something. However, she knows he genuinely cares for her and that's just his personality bleeding through.

"This baby is getting heavy," she complains, leaning back just the slightest while her hands slip down toward her bottom.

"You're looking like Casper." Her eyebrows slingshot up from his knowledge on modern day movies. "I think you forget we have lived here for thirty years," he mumbles under his breath.

"I'm fine," she claims, even though her tone came out rather whiny.

"You sure? Because I gotta get to patrolling-"

"I'm good. I'm just sitting at this desk anyways, not much can happen to me," she sardonically quips, laced with an undertone of disdain but Grumpy rolls his eyes in response and takes his leave without another comment.

She actually misses patrolling, she misses being out there, investigating...really, she just misses being active. She misses her job in New York as a personal trainer. That's really why she was a bail-bonds person most of her adult life, she couldn't stand working in an office. She needs to be on her feet, keeping busy.

A whirlwind of purple smoke invades her desk, causing her to jump back in surprise. She forgot people poof here.

"Emma?"

"Regina? What are you doing here?"

"Are you alright?" Regina frantically inquires, rushing forward with an anxious energy pulsating from her body and jabbing against Emma's skin.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"Leroy, he called me-"

"He called you?"