Crimson Knight | ouat

6. WELCOME TO STORYBROOKE

Amy was focusing so damn hard on that fucking white house, her vision was starting to blur.

She averted her eyes, took a deep breath and turned towards Archie's office when the sound of an incoming message caught her attention.

It was from Emma. 'Found him. He's okay'.

She let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She knew that kid for, what, 12 hours, and the little shit was already well on his way to becoming someone she actually cared for.

Runs in the family, she thought as she crossed the street, making her way towards the diner.

It took everything in her to ignore the gaze that she knew was following her every move. If she met him without someone, preferably Regina, acting as a buffer, one of them would end up in the morgue. And it wouldn't be Amy.

She replied to Emma's message, telling her she'd be at the diner and to call her if anything happened.

She got in the diner, Granny's, full of chatter, delicious smells and lots of bickering, and ordered her usual drink; a hot chocolate with tons of whipped cream and sprinkles. The older woman behind the counter smiled at her politely while she wrote down the order and Amy tried not to think too much about what happened the last time they saw each other.

Her hot chocolate was brought to her by the younger component of the staff and Amy tried to remember in which phase of the lunar cycle they were currently in. She wondered if the woman in front of her hated full moons, or if she felt weirdly connected to it without knowing the reason why.

"Hi," she said as she set the cup on the counter, an infectious smile on her lips. "I'm Ruby. I haven't seen you around town before. Are you new here?"

Amy let out a small laugh, "I'm Amy. Is it that obvious?".

"Well, it's just that we don't really get many visitors...I mean, who would want to come here, right," the girl laughed, but it wasn't a joyous laugh. More like a self-deprecating one.

Amy shrugged. "So far it seems nice."

Ruby was about to respond when her grandmother's comment about her not doing anything reached her ears, starting a full blown out argument. Amy looked around and saw that the other customers were simply minding their own business, meaning that this was a regular occurrence.

Except it wasn't.

Not before, never before. She didn't know them that well in the Enchanted Forest but she knew them enough that the scene in front of her was concerning.

"I didn't choose to be here with you!"

"Well, neither did I!"

Something in the look on their faces, the way they said those words so easily...It made Amy feel sick.

Ruby and her grandmother weren't the first people she met who didn't remember their past life. She'd already met a man longing for a child, not knowing his son was so close yet so far out of reach. She'd watched the way the sheriff skirted around Regina last night and this morning, almost as if something was telling him to stay away from her. She was well aware of the fact that Emma had just met her mother, but that neither one of them had any idea who the other was, or even who they truly were. And for those brief seconds, despite the distance between them, Amy had seen the haunted look on his eyes, like he was searching for something but he didn't know what.

Or who.

But it was the words she'd just heard, the last straw that broke the camel's back, that made her realize exactly how fucked up this whole thing was. Here she was, watching them fighting each other, having no idea of everything they'd been through and how much they truly cared for each other.