Miles To Go

Chapter Forty

Emma sat back in the chair, feet up on the desk and the door to her office wide open. It had barely been a week since she had been sworn in as Storybrooke's Sheriff and the biggest surprise had come after the Ball was over. August Booth had snuck up behind her as she and Regina walked to the Bug and she nearly knocked him over as she hugged him tightly.

Regina explained after their little reunion that he had caught word of Graham's death and that of Emma's promotion. August had called Regina himself just a few days prior to the ceremony, asking if he could be considered for the Deputy position. Of course Regina, after going through some formalities, hired him and had kept it quite the secret just so that Emma's old partner could surprise her the way that he had.

Emma was beyond thrilled when she learned she and Booth would be working together again, but she wasn't happy to hear that he had left the force in the city a month ago because of an accusation made against him for tampering with some evidence in an old cold case file on a missing girl. Emma had gone over the report herself just a day ago and his end of the story held up and it had been Jones who had done the tampering, but he had somehow managed to stay on the force while Booth was discharged. He said he wasn't going to fight it and that he'd already been looking to get out anyway shortly after Emma had moved to Storybrooke.

Henry, of course, was beyond thrilled because he had looked up to August like he was his uncle and while August looked for a place to call his own, he had taken up residence in one of the guest bedrooms at the house for the time being. The nights were filled with August and Henry playing video games while Emma and Regina spent some time alone together in the study, usually reading on the couch together while the fireplace was lit and soft jazz filled the room.

"Gonna make a lunch run around to Granny's," August said as he stood in the open doorway. "You want anything, Swan?"

"I'm fine," she said with a shake of her head. "Did you forget that Regina made us both lunch this morning before we came in?"

"I didn't forget, but salad's aren't my thing," August chuckled. "And I know they aren't yours either so, what do you want me to get you?"

Emma rolled her eyes. "I'm trying to keep the weight off, Booth. We've gone over this already. I'm getting married next month and I want to look good, okay?"

"You always look good," he grinned and she picked up an unsharpened pencil and threw it at him. "Right, I'll be back soon, then," he said with a nod and called out Ruby's name as he backed away from Emma's office.

Things had been slow since Graham had died, and the teenage tagger that had been the bane of their problems had been shipped off to juvie in the next county for eight months, which meant there were a lot less calls in general. Still, there were those regular calls from Mrs. Mays, which August had taken to respond to every single time and would return to the station with freshly baked cookies that Mrs. Mays made especially for him. It was no surprise how well he'd fit in there in Storybrooke and the people that he interacted with treated him as if he'd lived in that town his whole life, much as they did with Emma right from the start.

Her mind went back to what she had been thinking about before, the wedding and the plans that she and Regina were making together. They had settled on a location weeks ago and the ceremony and the reception would be held at Storybrooke Country Club, the ceremony out in the garden and the reception inside the ballroom. Emma had left the colour scheme completely up to Regina and after weeks of going over hundreds of wedding magazines that were all over the house, Regina, along with Kathryn had picked out a theme of white and black, with pops of red in the centerpieces and little red bows on the back of the white chairs as well.