The Rhythm of the City

[katleept]

She didn't mind waking up to Henry singing her good morning. The thought that her son loved her so much had warmed her heart yet again and helped her to start her day with a smile that hadn't even been wavered by her parents crooning a love duet over a meager breakfast of toast and cereal. She hadn't minded when the townspeople had continued Henry's number, each singing, "Good morning", to her as she passed by them and thanking her for staying with them and the help she'd given each of them.

Ruby had howled as well as sung while arguing with her grandmother about having to open the cafe yet again. She hadn't caught much of Archie's far quieter song except to learn that he was sometimes bothered by the responsibility of trying to be everybody's guiding counselor as even he did not always know which decision was the right one to make or in which direction to turn. Regina's song had sent a chill down Emma's valiant spine as the Evil Queen had sang about trying to give up crushing the hearts of idiots to win her son's affections back.

None of it had really bothered Emma, however. There was just some things one grew accustomed to while living in a town full of fairy tale characters, and a spell that caused everybody to sing seemed both somewhat ordinary and completely harmless. She hadn't even minded belting out her own ballad, alone in her Sheriff's office, once she'd gotten used to singing through the feelings she normally never allowed to show. It had instead felt like a gracious release, and she had come to figure that it did her much better to sing about her problems than to lay on a therapist's, even Archie's, couch.

It wasn't until lunch time that Emma began to feel uneasy. She'd been humming the same tune for hours, and it finally struck her when she saw a monkey -- of all animals -- scurry down Main Street, chattering and clutching a banana what the song was. She ceased the humming immediately, but before she had time to ponder why Bare Necessities was plaguing her mind, and rather or not a great, big, and gray bear was about to come lumbering about behind or ahead of her, howling broke out.

She looked first to the diner, but it wasn't Ruby. These howls were produced by a masculine throat and were coming from the opposite end of the street. Suddenly, more howls erupted. Emma's blonde hair flew about her as she turned swiftly in every direction and noted that all of the town's dogs were starting to howl and head in the direction from whence the first howl had sounded. Even Pongo broke free from Archie's leash and raced down the road.

Car horns blared. People yelled. Tires screeched. The dogs not only continued to howl but began jumping on top of the vehicles as they sang about having no need to worry. Emma's shocked eyes widened even more when she spotted the originator of the song. It wasn't a dog at all but a man who sang on top of Regina's car with a long string of sausages streaming around his neck.

Regina was just about to curse the man when both she and Emma heard Henry's exclamation of, "Hey, cool!" Emma reached out, grabbed her son, and pulled him to her. This dance number might be cool to him, but it was already making the hairs on the back of her pale neck rise.

"It's okay, Mom," Henry told her as Regina fumed. She was spitting words of fire -- thankfully, not literal fire, Emma noted -- at the lead singer but was not yet carrying through with her threat to curse him. Emma knew Henry's presence was the only reason why she had not yet taken the man's heart and kept her boy out on the street for that reason alone.

She pressed him closer to her as the dogs began bopping up and down on the cars nearest to them. They turned together toward the diner as its door swung open and Ruby raced out, also howling and singing. Her eyes locked with the lead singer's, and Emma's call to her went completely unnoticed as the brunette jumped onto a car and began to make her way toward the man. The guy was handsome enough, Emma guessed, with his long, flowing, red locks and suave, if stupid, moves, but there was no way she was getting on any car for any man!

"RUBY!" Granny Lucas bellowed and grabbed her granddaughter's ankle just before she could jump to another car.

Ruby's eyes glowed as she looked down at her grandmother with a growl. "DON'T YOU DARE TAKE THAT TONE WITH ME, YOUNG LADY! I'LL GO BACK IN THERE, GET MY SHOTGUN, AND GIVE THESE DOGS AND THAT IDIOT SOMETHING TO REALLY HOWL ABOUT!"

"She can't do that!" Henry cried. "You won't let her, will you?" He looked pleadingly up to Emma, but before Emma could answer her son, she noticed another woman trying to rush out onto the street.

Rumpelstiltskin barely caught Lacey's hand. Emma could plainly hear the former librarian as she was pulled back against her beau. "But they're so cute!"

Had the situation not quickly been becoming dire, Emma might have laughed at the dark fury that passed through Gold's eyes. Clearly, like Granny and herself, he did not find the situation amusing or the dancers "cute" in the least. As she watched, the Dark One whispered words that she could not hear -- but understood clearly a moment later as all the howling and singing ceased instantly, the dogs jumped down from the cars, and Ruby and the man seemed to regain their senses.

"What on Earth just happened?" Ruby asked bewilderedly, stealing another look at the man before he ran off.

"Dark magic," Granny snapped angrily, shooting a fierce glower at Rumpelstiltskin. "We don't need that around here!" she told him, but Rumpel just smiled coldly and led his Belle away.

"Next time, dearie," Emma heard him say as he led her away, "pick a different spell."

Even Henry shook his head in puzzlement. As Granny herded Ruby back into the diner, he turned his big, brown, and imploring eyes back up to his birth mother. "We've got to help him get Belle back."

"Henry, are you okay?" Regina demanded, rushing up to them and scooping down before her son.

Emma was still dazed at the strangeness of the whole situation. "I guess so," she whispered. Although she hated helping Rumpelstiltskin, if that sort of thing with the dancing dogs stopping traffic was what they had to look forward to out of Lacey, they definitely needed to do something, preferably fast.

"You guess what, Sheriff Swan?" Regina snapped coldly. "You guess my son is okay, or you guess the town survived that . . . that . . . whatever it was? I trust, as Sheriff, you are well aware of whatever caused that despicable scene."

"Mom, lighten up," Henry asked gently. "It's not Emma's fault. It's Lacey's. She wanted Rumpelstiltskin to cause that. You need to turn her back to Belle before she causes more trouble."

Regina made a face. "I need to do no such thing," she stated icily, "and you do need to get to school."

Emma pulled Henry away from Regina and back against her. She faced the Mayor with a cold, thin-lipped smile. "That's exactly where we're going right now," she said and wheeled her son away from the Evil Queen before she could reach him again. She still didn't like the thought of helping Rumpelstiltskin, but changing Lacey back into Belle was suddenly a great deal more appealing. She eagerly anticipated seeing Regina's face again when she realized that she had undone something she had caused. As they turned the corner, putting more distance between them and Regina, Emma smiled again and began to hum Bare Necessities once more.

Henry looked up with a smile, understanding the song and joining her. They did have the bare necessities. They had each other, and Emma's parents, his grandparents. They had their family. They had the magic of true love and good on their side, and one day, everything would be right with their world again.

The End