As the Doctor left Mr. Gold's shop, he couldn't help but feel that somehow he'd just made an awful mistake that he would end up regretting later. He glanced up at the sky. He still had some time before he had to be back at the Sheriff Station, but already he was thinking of how exactly he was going to spend his extra hour.

Surely Henry Mills couldn't be the only person in town who thought something odd was going on. Though, he couldn't exactly be sure where to even begin to ask. He supposed he could go wandering. Wandering always led him to some place important, or just shouldn't be. Wandering would be a good start.

He turned on his heels, glancing in each of the pathways before him. To his right, he saw the foliage grow denser and denser, until a few orderly rows of houses peeked out in front of them. In front of him, there were a couple more shops lined up and down the street, though several of them looked bordered up. To the left him though, where he had came from. There was the bustle of life. People to meet. Questions to ask. And closer to his ultimate meeting with Emma. He glanced right again.

Except for the quiet breeze blowing stray leaves from one side of the street to the other, it was abandoned.

"I suppose that clears it." he muttered, heading off back the way he'd come.

Granny's Diner was a small resturaunt, a few blocks away from Mr. Gold's Pawnbroker shop.

The Doctor entered the busy locale, and instantly felt as if a dozens of prying eyes were on him.

"Hello," he said brightly, "I'm John Smith." Curiousity sated, most everyone looked away. Though the Doctor noticed a few faces still staring from over the tops of books. And beneath shields of hair. Among them, a short haired woman hiding in the back of the diner at a booth was peeking over a hardcover book and a tall young woman behind the bar with long red streaks in her hair, that seemed to be writing intently on a order pad. Though the Doctor could tell every few words that she was glancing up, staring at him.

He'd start with the bookhider.

He meandered down the short aisle, stopping next to the dark haired woman. As soon as she noticed him approaching, the woman gave a small squeak of surprise and immediately buried herself back in her book, trying to play off her staring.

"Hello," he said brightly when he approached the table. She glanced up at him from her book, daring to not speak a word. "Do you mind if I sit here?" She nodded silently, and tried to resume her book reading, but as the Doctor slid into the booth, she found her attempts useless. Though that didn't mean she would stop trying.

"Hello," he said again, tone just as light as before. She glanced over the top of her book again, and her eyes locked with his, for a sudden awkward moment before breaking away again.

"Hello." she said quietly, beginning the page again for what felt like the tenth time.

"The name's John Smith." he offered, sitting up straight in the booth and leaning forward. A hand disappeared into his coat and he pulled out a thin leather wallet, flahsing it quickly before snapping it shut again. Psychic Paper, how he loved that little invention so. "Private Investigator, I was hoping I could perhaps, I don't know, ask you a few questions about goings on around town?"

The woman sighed quietly and closed her book, "Look, obviously you're new in town so let me do you a favor." She took a breath, trying to figure out where to start. She brushed a short errant strand of dark hair out of her face. "If you're trying to make friends in this town, I'm not the type of person you should be seen with?"

As she spoke, the Doctor noticed her looking around, and slowly growing redder and redder, as if ashamed. Now his curiosity was piqued.

"And why's that?" he asked, calmly, voice as low and soothing as he could manage it. He took his eyes off her for a brief moment to look around, and noticed that as focused as people had been on him, there were just as many eyes on the woman in front of him. Short dirty looks, from behind newspapers and under hats.

The woman frowned. She stared at the table in frustration, as she opened her mouth to speak the Doctor just shook his head.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me." Her glanced up, and the anxiety on her face seemed to melt away as she smiled, but the Doctor still denoted a hint of sadness playing at the corners of her eyes. "I didn't catch your name though, I'm-"

"John Smith." the woman finished for him. The corner of her lip twitched up into a weak smile. "My name's Mary-Margaret Blanchard. I'm a teacher at Storybrooke Elementary."

"Mary-Margaret? That's a nice name." The Doctor perked, happy he'd gotten her to begin to speak. "Tell me Ms. Blanchard, have you noticed anything strange going on lately?"

Mary-Margaret's brow knitted together in concern. "What do you mean? Strange how?"

"Well..." the Doctor trailed off, how exactly did you approach this sort of question. He scratched his chin. "Strange happenstance and the like. Odd coincidences. That sort of thing?"

"Honestly?" Mary-Margaret shook her head. "Nothing like that's ever really happened to me.. Oddest thing that's happened the past few days is getting smacked by-" she stopped mid-sentence. "Yes. Actually. A few weeks ago. This Man..." she trailed off, trying to suppress a small laugh. "I'm sorry, this is going to sound crazy."

"Come now." The Doctor admonished. "I'm looking for strange. Bizarre. Things of the unknown." he waggled his fingers at her. "Nothing's too crazy. Trust me. Please, continue."

"Well, I used to volunteer for the hospital. And there was a gentleman there who'd been in a coma for... Well, for as long as I can remember. And then Henry... He asked me to read his storybook to him."

"And what happened? " The Doctor asked making another mental note of Henry's involvement. He leaned forward, intrigued.

"Well, that's the thing." Mary-Margaret's began to fiddle with the ring on her finger absentmindedly. "He woke up."

The Doctor's eyebrows raised, and if he'd been a weaker man, he would have felt his jaw drop. Now that, that was certainly something.

"And not only that," Mary-Margaret continued. ."He wandered off in the middle of the night, and me and Emma and Sheriff Humbert found him collapsed in the lake by the toll road. We were actually really lucky to have found him when we did."

"Sheriff Humbert?" The Doctor asked.

"The last sheriff," Mary-Margaret said frowning. "He passed away recently."

"And sheriff Swan took that position?" The Doctor finished.

"You mean Emma? " Mary -Margaret thought for a moment. "That's right. Though that scenario was another whole fiasco."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters the election. There was an explosion at City Hall that involved Emma having to drag Regina out herself. And then it turned out that Mr. Gold set the explosion, and Emma came clean, and there was a smear campaign ran by the paper. It was ridiculous!"

The Doctor nodded as he listened. There were even more off goings-ons in the town than Emma had let on.

"Um, excuse me?" The pair's conversation was cut off by the waitress coming to the booth. The Doctor noticed it as the tall young woman from earlier, with long dark hair and a white cut off top, reminiscent of what the Doctor presumed must have been the Diner's outfit at some point in time.

"Yes, Ruby?" Mary-Margaret asked, smiling sweetly at the young woman. And how could she not? Ruby seemed to be the only person in town who hadn't cast her as the awful harlot.

"I just wanted to let you know that it's a quarter til6 if you're going to go see..." she trailed off, and the Doctor realized that there was a reason Ruby didn't mention names. Most likely something to do with the dirty looks that were still being flashed in Mary-Margaret's direction.

"No, I... I spoke with him yesterday." she said quietly. "I don't think I'll be seeing him anytime soon." Ruby clucked her tongue in understanding.

"I saw your car... Mary, I'm so sorry."

Mary-Margaret shook her head. "No, no... It's okay." she smiled weakly.

"Well, is there anything I can get you?" Ruby pulled out her order pad, and flipped open to a new page.

"A hot chocolate and some of your fresh pie?" Mary-Margaret asked quietly.

The Doctor glanced from Ruby to Mary-Margaret. "Make it two." Ruby watched him, as if trying to deduce what exactly this man wanted from her ailing friend. Even Mary-Margaret glanced from Ruby back down to the Doctor.

"Don't worry, I'll pay."

Ruby gave a small hmph, but wrote the order down all the same. "I'll be right back. Mary, you let me know if you need anything." she glanced at the Doctor again. "You know where I'll be."

"She was fun." The Doctor said, grinning.

"She's just being protective. As I told you, I'm not-" she sighed in aggravation. "I don't exactly have a lot of friends right now. Ruby just wants to make sure things don't get worse." she shrugged. "I'm sure as you get to know her, you'll see she's really sweet."

"I'm sure."

–

Well this wasn't good. Emma stood at the edge of town, finishing a phone call for a tow truck. As far as she could tell, Kathryn had simply vanished, but her car sure hadn't.

Sidney was already on point, looking into phone records. And David had come by as well, surprised at his ex-wife's disappearance. Not that she could blame him, according to him, he hadn't spoken to her since they'd decided to end things.

Though in the back of her mind, Emma couldn't help but wonder. Who else knew that Kathyrn was headed out of town? She shook her head and slid into her car. She still needed to meet back up with the Doctor and pick Henry up from his appointment.

And now she had to investigate a disappearance.

And Emma was happy, with Sydney and the Doctor helping, there would be absolutely no way that this would go unsolved.

Emma sighed. The Doctor was such an impossible man, she couldn't help but wonder his true purpose in Storybrooke. She sighed and shook the thought from her head. She had an investigation to do.