Once Upon a Supernatural

Chapter XIV: You're All Screwed

August and Emma had been riding for about twenty minutes; fifteen of those were outside of the town line. Emma felt a strange tang whenever she saw the "Leaving Storybrooke" sign, remembering her promise to Henry. She hadn't realized that they were going so out of the way. Her suspicion of August was growing.

They finally pulled over next to some kind of restaurant. A place she recognized all too well.

"What the hell is this?" she asked forcefully as she pulled off her helmet and jumped off the bike, gesturing toward the establishment. What the hell did this guy think he was doing bringing her here?

He barely reacted to her attitude. "Last I checked, it was a diner."

She was tired of his games. She was tired of his enigma. She was tired of everything this damn writer was doing. "No more screwing around. I'm not a character in one of your books. What the hell are we doing here?" She wanted answers.

He reached into his jacket, pulling out a newspaper clipping, "I think you know." Her gaze sharpened on the clip and she tensed. Her entire body froze and she felt like she couldn't breathe. Her lungs had jumped into her throat and she couldn't pinch out a syllable. She couldn't move her eyes away from the printed words on the sheet: 7 Year Old Boy Finds Baby On Side of Road. "You've been here before. This is the diner you were brought to when you were found as a baby."

Be cool, Emma thought. Poker face. Do what you do best. He doesn't need to know that means anything to you. This guy didn't know her, not really. She could play it off, if only her voice would allow. "So you found an article about me. So what?" Change the subject. "I thought this trip was supposed to be about you."

He began to fold the article back, "It is. This is my story. And it's your story."

"And how is that?" she asked a little too quickly and defensively.

His expression became serious, "That seven year old boy who found you... that was me."

She hadn't realized it, but her feet had moved her a couple of steps back. Her heart dropped and her stomach turned. This couldn't be true. She'd been doing research on her own case her entire life; she'd been hunting down every piece of the puzzle she could find. And nothing had ever led anywhere when she'd try to find any information on that little boy.

He was lying. He had to be. "Yeah... right."

"I can prove it," he turned and headed off the road and into the woods behind the diner. She grew cautious. You weren't supposed to follow muscular men into a secluded area- especially when they were talking crazy. Suddenly she thought back to Dean and what he told her earlier. He'd warned her about him; he hadn't trusted him. Maybe she'd been to quick to disregard his notion. Even if she'd had her talkie, she was way out of range here. She suddenly wished she hadn't been so distant and had just gotten his phone number. Who knew if it could come in handy.

Especially since she found that her feet had begun walking off the road and following the nut job. Apparently her subconscious curiosity had won over good sense.

Finally, she decided to speak up, "Why are we in the woods?"

"All the answers you have been searching for are right where I found you," he said, walking quite hastily and looking around. She couldn't figure out what it was he was looking for.

"See!" the raise in her voice gave away her distress, "you're not that seven year old boy! I wasn't found in the woods, I was found on the side of a highway."

"And why do you think that? Because you read it in the newspaper? Did it ever occur to you that maybe that seven year old boy lied where he found you?"