A Valentine gift for the lovely thetaleofcaptainswan on tumblr.

Emma sat down at her desk in the sheriff's station, trying hard to wake herself up after the party the night before.

Oh, the party the night before. It had started out so happy and hopeful. She and Killian had returned from their adventure in the past with no major repercussions. That was good. She kissed Killian. That was also good. Very very good.

And then she introduced Regina to Marian.

Everything went downhill from there. Regina left in a cloud of furious anger. Emma finished off Killian's rum to assuage her guilt. And now, 12 hours later, she was at work because, first of all, who else was going to take care of this town? And second, Regina was missing. Normally, she would just let it go. Regina would show up at some point somewhere and no one would have even been worried. But this time, Regina was really angry and Emma was at fault. It didn't help that the woman missing was also the Evil Queen with years of experience with magic at her disposal.

Emma broke out of her thoughts when she heard the door to the station open and looked up to see Killian saunter in with his black leather and his typical swagger.

"Hi," she said quietly as she turned back to the map at her desk to distract herself.

"Hello, love," he said before sitting down across from her desk. "You seem vexed."

"I am," she said without looking up at him.

She couldn't look up at him. So much had transpired between them in the past 24 hours - or at least the past 24 hours in this world. They were gone, they were back, the book was the same, the Jolly Roger was still missing, Regina had disappeared, and, oh by the way, they had kissed.

Dammit, that was a good kiss.

Focus, Swan, Emma reminded herself before realizing she had called herself by a moniker usually reserved for a certain pirate.

"So," Killian said somewhat loudly to grab her attention. "What's the plan?"

After what happened last night, all he could ask about was a plan? Although to be fair, Emma was thankful for that question from him instead of something about shared moments or missing queens.

"So I think-"

The door to the sheriff's station opened, and Emma and Killian looked up together to see two strangers walk in. She was thankful that he was quick enough to hide his hook under his coat. If these people weren't from Storybrooke - and that was obviously the case - then it would be hard to explain the whole pirate thing.

Hell, she could barely explain how these random people even made it to her sheriff's station. The man was tall and lanky with a brown pinstriped suit and big hair. The woman next to him had her long red hair pulled back in a ponytail. And they were both headed for Emma's office, because today wasn't bad enough already without adding two strangers in Storybrooke.

"Hello!" the tall man said in a British accent. "I was wondering if you could help us. We're from the Coast Guard and we have a few questions."

He pulled out a black badge holder and quickly flashed two blank pieces of paper at Emma and Killian before stuffing the holder back in his pocket.

"Coast Guard?" Emma said skeptically.

"What's the Coast Guard?" Killian asked her.

"They're like the police out on the water."

"Brilliant! Have you found my ship?"

The man and woman exchanged glances at each other. "Uh, maybe?" the woman said.

"Killian, don't get your hopes up. They're not really from the Coast Guard."

The pair of strangers both quickly turned to look at Emma.

"What do you mean?" the man asked.

"You're lying."

The man gave her an incredulous look and reached back into his suit jacket. "No, I'm not!" he said, flashing his useless badge holder. "Look, it says I'm a captain for the Coast Guard."

Emma crossed her arms over her chest. "It says nothing."

The man's face fell in shock. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"This." She snatched the black holder from his hands. "The paper is blank. So what the hell are you trying to pull?"

"No, it says it right there," Killian said. "Coast Guard."

Emma stared at the pages in front of her. "No, it's blank."

The strangers exchanged a knowing glance before the man turned back to her again. "Do you have any known aversion to psychic paper?"

"To what?"

He reached out and delicately grabbed the blank holder back. "You aren't a Saturnyns, are you?"

"Saturn what?" Emma asked.

"They're predatory fish. It's gross." He shook his head in disgust as he slid the holder back in his suit pocket. "Didn't work on Shakespeare either, but he's a genius."

"So now you're calling her an imbecile?"

The strangers' eyes grew wide and Emma turned to find Killian was no longer hiding his hook, instead standing only inches away from their guests with his hook out to intimidate them. So much for trying to keep a low profile with people they didn't know wandering around Storybrooke.

"You're Captain Hook," the man said quietly.

"Captain- Like the pirate? From the book?" the woman asked skeptically with her British accent.

"Like the pirate, lass," Killian said in a threatening tone. "And I can assure you that this isn't a book."

The man stared skeptically at the metal before his eyes began to quickly survey the room, trying to take it all in, before they landed on the town's seal on the wall behind Emma's desk.

"Storybrooke," he murmured.

"Storybrooke?" the woman said. "I thought you said we were still on Earth."

"We are."

"Then why are we in a place with a dumb fairy tale name and Captain Hook? I mean, I'm not complaining about the pirate." She turned and glared at Killian. "He's much more attractive than the guy with the waxed moustache and the perm."

"Donna, shut up and pay attention!" the man chided before turning back to Emma and giving her a big smile. "We're on Earth, but these two are from the Enchanted Forest."

"What?" Emma asked.

The man stepped closer to Emma. "You know magic."

Emma's heart began to race. "What?" She tried to sound as surprised as she possibly could, but she was sure she was failing.

The man came closer and stared at her, his smile only growing wider. "You're the Evil Queen," he said giddily.

"What?"

Emma couldn't hide her anger. Sure, she and Regina had come to some kind of truce, and she was worried about where Regina had gone off to. But she was not Regina. There was no way anyone should be mistaking her for Regina.

"You're not the Queen?"

"Definitely not," she said defiantly.

"Huh," the man said, leaning back a little on his feet while still looking straight at her. "This is Storybrooke and there are only a few people who have magic here. So if you're not the Evil Queen, and you're obviously not Rumplestiltskin, you must be…" His voice trailed off. "The Savior."

Emma could feel everyone in the room looking at her. The man was still giving her that stupid giddy smile. Killian couldn't hide the shock and worry on his face as he realized that this stranger knew who Emma was. But the redhead in the back seemed to be quite confused about all of it.

"Doctor, who is the Savior?"

"She is."

Emma put her hands on her hips. "And who are you again?"

"The Doctor!"

"Doctor Who?"

The man looked absolutely giddy. "Exactly!" he said cheerily. "And this is Donna."

"Cheers!" said the redhead as she gave Emma an awkward wave.

Emma turned to see if Killian could help her with any of this, but he looked just as clueless. He was Captain Hook, the pirate in charge of the Jolly Roger in the Enchanted Forest. How did he not know who these weirdos were if they apparently knew all about the Savior?

"I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're a doctor of exactly. And why are you even here?"

"Oh, right!" the Doctor exclaimed as he took his place next to Donna. "I'm here to investigate a rift in spacetime."

Emma stared at him. A rift in what? No, he couldn't have been… He wasn't here because of…

"There's been some messing about with time travel around here, which I know because, well, I'm a Time Lord."

"Bloody hell," Killian murmured.

Emma turned to see the color draining from the pirate's shocked face. Dammit. Emma didn't know what a Time Lord was, but this didn't seem good.

"So you're Lord Time?" she asked.

"Nope, Time Lord," he explained. "I don't have a palace or anything."

Donna rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, Doctor. I hardly think the Tardis could ever be mistaken for a palace."

"Oh, hush, Donna. Anyway, since you're all fairy tale characters or what have you, you can handle the weird stuff, right?" He looked at Emma and Killian before continuing without waiting for an answer. "Well, a time portal has been opened in the vicinity of your town."

"We know," Emma muttered.

Donna stepped forward and stared at the sheriff. "What do you mean, you know?" she demanded incredulously. "We came all this way and messed with the paper-

"I messed with the paper-"

"And you knew this whole time?"

Killian put his swagger back on and sauntered over to Donna. "Alright, love. That's enough," he said gently as he calmly hooked Donna's arm. "Swan, should we give the people what they came for?"

Emma simply nodded her head and grabbed the keys for the sheriff's cruiser. Because what she really wanted to do right now was drive some random lord of something to Zelena's defunct portal. If it weren't for Killian pressing the issue, she wouldn't even be bothering. But he encouraged her to do so, and he gave up his ship for her and, well, she would just have to use her rational thinking another time.

xxx xxx xxx

The portal was still silent when the four of them arrived at the barn, but that didn't mean Emma wasn't on edge. She still hadn't totally been able to figure out this Doctor guy or the woman with him. It didn't help much when he pulled a stick out of his pocket and pressed a button to light the thing up.

"What the bloody hell is that?" Hook asked as the Doctor knelt down on the ground around the circle Zelena had made Gold dig into the dirt.

The Doctor looked up at him and smiled. "A sonic screwdriver."

"A what?" Emma said.

He stuffed the thing in his coat pocket and stood up. "A sonic screwdriver," he said matter-of-factly without any other explanation before moving on. "Did the two of you come back alone, or did you bring others with you?"

Emma swayed nervously on her feet and gave Killian a look that he didn't return. "We brought a woman back with us."

The Doctor walked closer to Emma. "Just one woman? Or more than one?"

"Just one," she said.

The Doctor looked a bit uneasy with her answer so she figured she should probably explain a bit more - or at least explain it to the best of her ability. The whole things was bizarre.

"I saved this woman from being executed by the Evil Queen. But since I saved her in the past, we were worried I messed up the timeline so we brought her back here instead. Her family would still think she died like she did in the old timeline, and she would still be alive."

"Right," the man said slowly. "But something went wrong."

Emma nodded. "She was married to Robin Hood, who is dating Regina. The Evil Queen, that is," she added.

"What?" Donna said incredulously as she stared at Emma. "Sorry, but you're trying to tell me that the Evil Queen is dating Robin Hood?"

"And even better, Donna," the Doctor said. "Her parents are Snow White and Prince Charming!"

Donna shook her head and walked back to the circle muttering, "This place is messed up."

The Doctor cleared his throat to cover for Donna's rudeness. "So where is Regina now?"

"We were just about to plan a search party, weren't we, love?" Killian said.

"Right, a search party. You know, searching for an angry woman who can use magic. It doesn't seem like we'll have any issues doing that, right?"

The Doctor nodded in approval, completely missing Emma's sarcasm. "I think that may be a good idea. Any idea on where to start?"

Emma turned back to Killian, who immediately realized she needed help. "Regina's mausoleum would be a good place to start."

Donna stared up at them again. "Mausoleum? Isn't that for dead people?"

"Yea, but…" Emma took a deep breath. "The Evil Queen put all of her magic stuff there and figured no one else would look for in the cemetery."

"She figured right," Donna replied. "What a nutter."

"Right!" the Doctor exclaimed before turning back to the circle on the floor of the barn. "Now back to this. You're sure only one other person came through here with you?"

"Yea," Emma replied.

"So there were three of you?"

Emma crossed her arms in defiance. "Three."

"Hm. Well, OK then. Donna, I think we're done here," the Doctor said quickly as he started heading for the barn door.

Donna's head snapped up. "We're leaving?"

"Yea. I think the crisis has been averted here," the Doctor said quickly as he walked towards the door.

"But I wanted to talk to the guyliner pirate guy some more," she whined.

The Doctor turned and gave Killian an apologetic look.

"I'm leaving," the guyliner pirate guy said. "Unless, of course, you need me for something else, Swan," he added with a bit of a hopeful tone.

Emma simply dismissed him with a wave of her hand and told him to enjoy his walk - much to the pirate's chagrin. Trying to figure out what the hell transpired between her and Killian was one thing. Trying to figure it out with random other people around was just going to be a disaster..

"C'mon, Doctor," Emma said, turning to her companions. "Let's get the two of you back to town."

Hook said his goodbyes to the group - and no, Emma did not notice the way Donna was leering at the pirate as he walked away with his leather coat swaying seductively behind him. Once he left out the side door, the Doctor and Donna quickly followed the sheriff back to the car.

The ride back to Storybrooke was quiet and uneventful with the Doctor seemingly nervous about getting back to town as soon as possible. Donna, meanwhile, started asking questions about the people who lived in the town and who they were before the curse.

"The town is so strange," she said from the back seat. "And you're sure we're still on Earth?"

"We're still on Earth, Donna."

Emma pulled up to the station and parked the car. "Can you get to your ride from here?" she asked.

"Oh yea, we just parked the Tardis out back."

"The Tardis?"

The Doctor smiled. "Time And Relative Dimension In Space. You would like it! It looks like a police box."

"Sure," Emma said skeptically as she pushed the car door open. "Well, I wish I could check it out, but I have to get back to work. I guess this is where we say goodbye, Doctor," she said.

"Well then, I guess it is," the Doctor said. "And if you have anymore problems with that portal, just give me a call."

He handed her a card with a British phone number on it. "So you're a Lord from Britain, but not that kind of lord?" she asked skeptically.

"I'm actually from… You know what? Nevermind." He gave her a big smile and held out his hand. "It really was an honor to meet you, Savior."

"You, too," she replied, shaking his hand. "Um, just out of curiosity. Why were you asking me about how many people came back through the portal? You seemed kind of worried about that."

He shrugged - "No reason." - and started to quickly head towards the alley behind the sheriff's station with Donna walking next to him.

"Well. stop by if you ever need anything else!" she yelled after them.

"We will, Savior!" he said back.

She gave him a quick wave and headed back into the station, feeling a bit weirded out by the whole situation. She still wasn't fully sure what had just happened or who exactly the Doctor and Donna were. And how the hell did they even find Storybrooke?

She dropped herself down at her desk in the station and stared at the card in front of her with the phone number on it. There were so many questions and so many things she didn't understand, but the Doctor seemed to imply that his number should only be used in an emergency. What kind of emergency would require her to call him back to Storybrooke?

"Oi, why are you walking so fast?" she heard a muffled voice say.

Emma recognized that voice. It was Donna, and it came from the windows that looked out on the alley behind the station. She slowly stood up and crept closer to the open window.

"Something isn't right - or rather, someone," she heard the Doctor say.

"What do you mean, 'someone'?"

"Four people came through that portal."

Emma immediately felt cold all over. Four?

"So they lied to us?" she heard Donna ask.

"I don't think so," the Doctor said. "But there's only one way to find out. Fancy a trip to the Enchanted Forest?"

She heard their footsteps crunch along the ground and a door open and shut, which was especially strange considering there was no door in the alley. What the hell was going on? Who exactly were these people? And how could they have brought someone else back with them and not know about it?

A whirring sound broke her out of her thoughts and she scrambled to find a way to look out the windows over the alley. The ledge was a little high and it took a bit of effort to get a decent view of the alley but when she did, the noise was gone and the alley was empty.