. . . . . ╰──╮✰ ✰ ✰ ╭──╯ . . . . .

‎‧₊˚✧ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ꜰɪꜰᴛᴇᴇɴ✧˚₊‧

‎‧₊˚✧ʀᴇᴅ-ʜᴀɴᴅᴇᴅ✧˚₊‧

______

"Sometimes My Mind Feels Like

A Junk Drawer

Of Forgotten Memories

And Useless Information."

______

Angie was making a pot of coffee at the sheriff's station when Emma brought David in. She had dropped Henry off at Regina's before coming back. It was time to solve a mystery. Someone was lying, and they were going to find out who.

Angie poured equal amounts of coffee into three mugs and handed David one as he and Emma sat down.

"Thank you," David gratefully said to Angie. "I hope Kathryn's somewhere warm, not out in the cold."

Angie pursed her lips as Emma spoke. "David. I think you need to start worrying about yourself a little bit more here. Your wife is missing. You are in love with another woman."

"There's also this phone call," Angie told David as she opened the file and placed it on the table in front of him. She tapped the highlighted portion. "This call was made the night Katheryn was last heard from. About eight minutes in length."

David sighed. "I know, I know. I just... I can't explain why it says that. I didn't do anything to my wife."

Angie looked to Emma, who was extremely good at spotting liars. Emma took a deep breath. "I'm pretty good at spotting a liar. And, honestly, liars have better material. Now, go home."

"I can go?'

"We don't know if there even was a crime yet," Angie told him as she gathered up the mugs. "Go home and get some rest."

"Thank you," David said as he stood up.

Emma stopped him. "And, David? Maybe...get a lawyer."

–

They left the station soon after and were met by Mary Margaret. She had seen Emma take David in her squad car and, understandably, had a lot of questions. "Is he okay? David?"

Emma responded quickly. "Oh, yeah. He's a little shaken up, but he's headed home. He's fine."

"Any word from Kathryn?"

Angie sighed. "Nothing." She and Emma had tried for an hour before David had been brought in to attempt to contact Kathryn. They had both come up empty.

"Did you check with Boston again?"

Emma was starting to lose patience. "She's not there, Mary Margaret."

Mary Margaret slowed down just a little bit on her questioning, not wanting to stress the women out more. "So, we have no idea what happened to her?"

"All we know is that she found out about you two, gave you a well-deserved slap, and then disappeared," Emma told her.

"Well-deserved?" Mary Margaret was astonished. "Do you really believe that?"

Angie gave Emma a look before turning to Mary Margaret. "Of course we don't, but everyone else probably does. You two are going to look bad until we figure out what happened."

"You mean David? Th-That people are going to think in order to...be free with me..." Mary Margaret couldn't finish her sentence.

"Some are," Emma admitted. "And, he's not doing himself any favors. So, if there's anything you could think of to pin down his whereabouts that night-"

"He wasn't with me," Mary Margaret insisted. "We really are through."

The three walked up to the bus stop, where Ruby was arguing with Dr. Whale. She was carrying a suitcase, which Dr. Whale kept offering to take from her. Ruby kept pulling the suitcase away. Once Dr. Whale saw the three women, he left. Ruby started to kick a rock on the road as her friends approached her.

"Was he bothering you?" Mary Margaret asked.

"The day I can't handle a leech is the day I leave town," Ruby said softly. "Which this is, I guess."

"You're leaving?" Angie questioned, surprised.

"I had a fight with Granny. Quit my job."

"You quit?" Mary Margaret was shocked. "Where are you going?"

Ruby shrugged. " I don't know. Away."

"Yeah, well, buses out of town don't really happen," Emma reminded her. "And, you might want a destination first."

"Hey, if you need a place to figure things out, you could always come home with us," Mary Margaret offered.

Emma was about to argue, but Angie jabbed her in the stomach. Emma winced before answering. "Yeah, uh. Yeah. Just for a little while."

Angie looped her arm through Ruby's. "Come on."

–

Ruby came to work with Emma and Angie that day. They enlisted the best person they could think of to find a job for Ruby: Henry. Henry was currently searching the internet for options as the phone rang over and over.

"Want to be a bike messenger?" Henry asked Ruby.

Ruby furrowed her brows. "Bike messenger?"

"That's taking things to people in a little basket."

Ruby grimaced and shook her head. "Nope. Yeah, see, I'm not so great at bike riding."

Henry looked up at her. "How about taking things on foot, to people, in a little basket?"

"I'm not so sure that's a real job," Ruby said with a chuckle.

The phone rang again before stopping, confusing Ruby. "Why do the phones keep doing that?"

"Oh, the non-emergency calls go to a machine when Emma and Angie are busy," Henry explained.

Ruby answered the phone the next time it rang. "Sheriff's station. How can I help you? Mmhmm. I'll get her to return. Thank you, too." She answered the next one as well. "Sheriff's station. Hey, Miss Ginger. Uh, no, that's not a prowler. That's Archie's dog – Pongo. Throw him a vanilla wafer. He'll quiet down. Did you still want to talk to Emma? Great. Glad I could help."

Angie overheard this from her office and headed inside as Ruby hung up the phone the second time. "How's it going?"

"Great," Ruby told her. "Except I can't do anything."

Angie giggled. "You can do things Ruby. I just saw you on the phone."

Ruby shrugged sheepishly. "That? That's nothing."

"No, it's not nothing. We have some money in the budget if you want to help out," Angie told her.

Ruby was delighted. "Yes! Thank you! Yes. Um, I could answer phones and help out. Is there anything else that you need done? Organize files, cleaning up? Please – I want to be useful."

Angie thought about it. "If you maybe want to grab us lunch, I would never say no to a grilled cheese."

"Done." She turned to Henry. "Do you want anything?"

Henry answered instantly. "Um, two chocolate chip cookies, an apple pie, and a hot dog."

"He ate at school," Emma said as she walked in. Angie ruffled Henry's hair as Mary Margaret entered after her.

Ruby smiled. "Hey! Lunch, Mary Margaret? I'm getting for everyone."

Mary Margaret shook her head. "Uh, no. I'm not hungry."

After Ruby left, Mary Margaret turned to Emma and Angie. "David's in the woods. There's something wrong with him. He looked right through me. It's like... It's like he was a different person."

–

Angie, Ruby, and Emma met at the forest to search for David, who hadn't shown up yet. Mary Margaret had told them the general area where she had seen him, but there was no David in that area. Angie scoured the forest for anything that could tell them where David was: torn clothes, footprints, misplaced possessions. Ruby started to complain a little at the slow speed of the operation. "This place is massive. How are we supposed to find one guy?"

Emma shushed her. "We might be able to hear him."

"It's massive," Ruby muttered.

"Hey guys," Angie pointed at the path. "Boot prints." She started to follow the path, with Emma and Ruby behind her.

"I shouldn't even be here," Ruby said with a sigh. "I'm just going to screw everything up. Oh, wait."

Ruby stopped short, causing Emma to run into her. "I hear him."

"Really?" Emma asked. Angie slowed down and watched as Ruby listened.

"Yeah, really. I hear him or...something. I... I know where he is. Don't you?" Ruby suddenly took off into the woods, causing Angie and Emma to run after her. "He's over here!" Ruby called as the women struggled to follow her.

It was another twenty seconds before the two caught up. They found Ruby standing over a bleeding and unconscious David. Emma got there first, quickly bending down next to David. She began to shake him as Angie bent down next to her.

"David? Oh, god. Come on! David, come on! Wake up! David, wake up!"

Angie was getting flashbacks to Graham's death. Emma's shaking wasn't doing anything, so Angie stepped in. "David, I apologize in advance," Angie said right before removing a water bottle from her bag and dumping it on David.

David woke up instantly, coughing. Angie closed the water bottle and returned it to her bag. David blinked water out of his eyes as he looked around. "Angie? Emma? What? Ruby?"

"Do you remember where you are?" Emma asked.

"No, I...What the hell? I was...I was in your office. Did you bring me here?"

Angie shared a concerned look with Emma. "You don't remember anything since you were in the office? Last night?"

"No, I don't."

–

Angie pulled out her phone. Emma was inside the hospital with David and had insisted for Angie to keep investigating. However, Angie didn't feel comfortable leaving the hospital, especially after Regina showed up to see what was going on. So, she called Ruby from her cell.

"It's me," Angie told Ruby when she picked up. "The last time David went for a walk and didn't know where he was going, he went to the Toll Bridge. You know the one? It's a crazy hunch, but I want you to take Emma's car and go look over there."

Ruby denied immediately. "No, I could get somebody else to."

"It's going to be dark out soon. David's going to be let out. If there is something there, we've got to get there first. We don't have time to argue. Can you do this?"

Ruby finally agreed and Angie waited for a few minutes as Ruby got her things together and arrived at the toll bridge. "I mean, what am I even looking for?" she questioned as Angie heard her getting out of the car.

"Anything out of the ordinary," Angie told her.

"And...if I find something?"

"Just follow your instincts," was the only advice Angie could think to tell her.

There was a scratching noise of a stick against metal as Ruby spoke again. "You can't give me a clue what I'm looking for?"

Angie shrugged. "Anything of Kathryn's." There was silence for a few seconds. Angie started to get concerned as Emma exited the hospital. "Ruby? Did you find something?"

She put the phone on speaker so Emma could hear just as Ruby let out a bloodcurdling scream.

–

Emma, Angie, and Ruby stared at the open jewelry box that Ruby had recovered, more specifically at what was inside.

"Is... Is that what I think it is?" Ruby asked.

Angie, who had the greatest gore tolerance out of the three, gently prodded the object. "Yeah, it seems like it."

"I can't look," Ruby said, turning around. Emma shut the box lid before turning to Ruby.

"You okay?"

"I don't know what I am," Ruby admitted.

"Ruby, you did good," Angie told her.

"This, is doing good?"

"Yeah. It's amazing," Emma told her. "First, you found David, and now, this. I know you say you don't know what you are, but, whatever it is, I got to say, I'm impressed."

"Don't be. I'm... I'm scared out of my mind."

Angie placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I'll be honest with you. We all are."

–

Mary Margaret and David were talking in hushed whispers as Emma and Angie arrived at the animal shelter to talk to them. Mary Margaret paused as David looked up quickly. "Did you find her?"

"We found a box," Emma told him. "We think it... We think that she..."

"What?" David asked, Emma's stuttering worrying him more. Emma bit her lip and looked at Angie.

Angie could tell that Emma couldn't say it, so Angie did. "There was a human heart inside it."

Mary Margaret brought her hands to her mouth as David started to cry. "Oh, my god."

Emma wiped a few tears of her own. "We're going to send it out for some tests, but there aren't any other missing people."

"There's more," Angie managed to say. "We were able to pull a pair of prints off of the inside lid of the box. We ran them through the town records, and there was a match."

"Arrest me," David said instantly.

"No!" Mary Margaret pleaded with him. David didn't listen.

"Angie, Emma. Arrest me. Do it!"

Angie sucked in a breath and stopped him. "David, the fingerprints weren't yours."

"What?" David asked, confused.

Emma turned to the woman beside him. "They were Mary Margaret's."