Archive of Our Own

          “Hey Ma, what’s a milf?” Emma spits out the coffee she had been drinking and begins coughing as the bit she did manage to inhale went down the wrong pipe.

“What did you say?” She manages to choke out.

“What does milf mean,” Her thirteen year old son states louder. The blonde continues to cough although it’s mostly done on purpose as a way to buy her some time.

“Why do you ask?” She’s really not looking forward to his answer because if it has anything to with (or she suspects that it has to do with) porn then that’s gonna lead to a whole other plane of awkwardness that she’s in no way ready for. Regina was the one that was prepared for ‘The Talk” having set up a whole speech with diagrams and images and explicit details on consent and bedroom etiquette. She was so focused on trying to remember what the whole thing entailed just in case this topic lead down that path, that she almost missed his answer.

“The group of teenagers that usually hang out in parking lots, you know the ones who you and mom told me to stay away from, were talking about mom. I couldn’t really hear exactly what they were saying but I heard them say milf and I don’t know what that means.” As her boy stares at her, blinking with an innocent expression her heart rate slowly decreases and she’s able to breath more easily. ‘Thank the stars’ she thinks and closes her eyes for a moment to gather herself before continuing.

“Man I love fries.”

“What?”

“It’s an acronym. Milf, M.I.L.F stands for, Man I Love Fries.” Henry’s face takes on a look of confusion, carefully taking a few moments before speaking up once more.

“Oh. That’s weird. It’s just,” He pauses, a look of mild concentration on his face “they were talking about her and doing weird gestures then they immediately start talking about fries?” Emma’s knuckles have most definitely turned white, she can tell even though she can’t see them as she’s gripping the seat of her chair.

“Guess so,” Her voice sounds strained so she takes a quick calming breath  “Teenagers are weird, Hen, Especially that bunch so remember to stay away from them, okay?”

“Okay, Ma.” He smiles and leaves the room.

“I’m gonna kill ‘em.”

          Emma waited and waited for the perfect moment to strike, going as far as to borrow Grumpy’s truck for the stakeouts at the normal hangouts of the group of teens Henry had mentioned. It took a little over a week until she had everything she needed. Collecting information on who was a part of the group, how old they were, where they lived, any past felons ect.. she gathered everything (that she could do legally anyway as this had to be done by the books or else everything would be for naught) now all she had to do was wait for them to gather once again.

Tonight was the night, she could feel the adrenaline rush as she pulled up in her Sheriff’s car, sirens blaring and tires squealing. She knew she wouldn’t be able to physically catch all of them but she didn’t need to, besides, there was really only one she wanted to bust in this fashion so she had her sights set on him as soon as she got close enough to pick him out. Predictably, they all scattered but she had no trouble keeping her eyes on her target, she pulled up and practically launched out of the car at full speed, all noise died down as she chased after her prey, for a moment she relished in the animalistic mindset running after perps always gave her but she was human (and a cop) and needed to act like one. “Freeze or I’ll have no option but to use force!” Secretly she hoped he didn’t listen and felt like Christmas came early when he didn’t. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” No longer needing to hold back, she effortlessly catches up and tackles him to the ground and if she ‘accidentally’ pushes against the back of his head and rubs his face in the mud they landed in, well she was just straightening herself out.

          At that moment Emma couldn’t be happier with the job she had. ‘Helping people is great and all but damn does this feel good.’ Maybe, as an adult, she should feel some sort of empathy for the crying teenager in the jail cell but after everything he’s done she just can’t bring herself to care all that much. Tommy Jensen had always been a thorn in the citizens of Storybrooke’s sides, from theft to drugs to property damage to generally just being a little shit with a horrific attitude had made the Sheriff wonder how he hadn’t been detained before, until she learned his parents were ex nobles, who may have lost their titles when the curse happened but never lost their ‘snobbiness’. Using who they were in the Enchanted Forest they were able to bail their kid out of trouble or scare other residence into not punishing their son but the Savior wasn’t from there and thus titles meant absolutely nothing to her. She knows it really wasn’t entirely Tommy’s fault for being the way he was, she was even starting to feel a sliver of sadness for the kid but then he opened his mouth.

“Hey! You know who my family is, right?”

“Yep.” she held back a chuckle at the sight of disbelief on his face. He obviously wasn’t use to people knowing who he was and not caring.

“My father can pay you! Whatever you want, all you gotta do is let me out.”

“No thanks.” Tommy started to scream and shake the bars with all his might.

“YOU STUPID BITCH LET ME OUT!” The Sheriff lost all traces of amusement and stood up to collect her things. “Wh-where are you going?” Emma, as an adult, knew she couldn’t lose her temper with him but she was never a really that good at being a proper adult.

“Your friends should be home by now so I’m going to go pay them a visit.” Her tone was cold and unlike anything the teen had heard coming from her before. “While I’m out I’ll have to figure out how long you’ll be locked up for. You’re practically legally an adult so I’ll have to take that into account.”

“I-I only just tur-turned seventeen!”

The blonde shrugs, “close enough.” And yeah Emma really wasn’t that great at being an adult but she didn’t yell so that was progress. Besides, a little fear was good for kids.

          The Sheriff went around to all the houses to inform the parents and dish out punishments. For those who thought their little angel(s) would never do such a thing, she’d pull out the pictures she had taken over the course of her stakeouts. The discipline varied from kid to kid depending on their age and past actions. The older ones had their driver’s permit/license revoked, the younger ones had to take classes in drugs/alcohol awareness, those who had a history with the law also had to pay fines, but all had to do at least twenty hours of community service.

Once the other teens were all sorted out, Emma returned to the station to deal with Tommy, the gang’s leader and the one who had set everything into motion with his disrespectful comments about Regina. As she walked in he immediately tried to get her attention but she simply ignored him and called his parents to let him know where he was. To say they weren’t happy would be an understatement but she really didn’t care, she was the law in this town and if she just happen to accidentally lock them in a cell without legal reason and misplaced the keys, well she was always losing her things and she’d get right to looking for them…..in the morning.

“What’s gonna happen to me?” the boy sniffled. It took a few moments for Emma to remember what she said to Tommy before she had left to bust his friends.

“That all depends on you.” Legally she couldn’t actually do much of anything other than what she had already done to the other teens but he didn’t need to know that. Technically the only thing she could hold him for was underage drinking. Although it was common knowledge that him and his group were behind a good portion of the minor crimes around town, along with them also doing drugs, there wasn’t any hardcore evidence to prove it.

“What do you mean?” Emma smirked.

          “Hey Henry!”

“Huh? Oh, Hey Grace!”

“What’re you doing out here?”

“Oh you know…just people watching.”

Following his line of sight, Grace gasped.“Is….is that Tommy Jensen!?”

“It sure is!” Normally the brunette boy’s smile would make her swoon a little but this smile was different. This smile reminded her of his mother back when she was still considered an enemy and gave her chills.

“What’s he doing?”

“He’s bringing apology cards to anyone and everyone he ever wronged.”

“What about that huge bouquet of flowers?”

“Those are for my mom.” Grace took a few minutes watching Henry watching Tommy when it clicked.

“Henry, did you have something to do with this?”

“Operation ‘Lion’ is complete.”