A/N: Is it Friday already? XD I hadn't had much time to work on this story this week. No regrets, though.^^ I am up ahead a few chapters so don't worry this story won't go down with me. Likely it's more the other way around. ;)

"Is this it? Sitting around in a car for hours?" Robin moaned while knocking the back of her head against the headrest of the yellow bug Henry's NYC mom, Emma Swan, drove.

Admittedly, it was a very cool car but the rush of excitement had long left Robin; presumably puffed out an hour ago when she had been forced to stare over the dashboard at the bulky, gray cube of the Hotel Hilton. Which was exactly what she had done for the last hour. She might dream of the blue logo tonight.

By Tdorante10 [CC BY-SA 4.0]

"It's one of the things you might need to do as well, kid," Emma commented from the driver seat after taking a bite of her burger. A glob of sauce dripped down onto the wrapping paper spread over her lap. It hardly evaded Emma's, arm clad in a red leather jacket.

Robin could not believe that this was the most thrilling thing that had happened for the amount of a freaking hour.

"Wow, I imagined being a bail bondsperson to be cooler than this." She snorted. "I hope being a PI is cooler than this."

"Pshh," Emma hushed and let the burger drop into the wrapping paper to be reunited with the glob of sauce. "There he comes. See the man leaving the building?"

Leaning forwards Robin spotted a male person, average height, dark hair and clothed in a suit exiting the hotel through the glass doors.

"Uhuu." She nodded unfazed.

"Describe what you see," Emma told her, keeping her hazel eyes fixed on the target. They looked young and inquisitive in a face marked by wrinkles of age.

"What? Why?" Robin grimaced and frowned at Emma. She was so not convinced that this had anything to do with the field of work of a private investigator.

"Come on, Robin. Just do it," Henry whimpered from the back of the car. He'd been much more and way longer excited about this than Robin, even called this whole thing by a name, Operation Big Apple. It made Robin wonder if he secretly wanted to pursue a career in criminal justice or if it was just an author thing to get excited about stuff like this.

"Fine," she sighed and squinted her eyes at the man standing at the sidewalk, likely waiting for a cab. "He wears a black suit, perfect fit, possibly tailored. The watch on his arm looks hella expensive, too," she knitted her eyebrows together because something in the picture did not match up. "But there is something off about him."

"Why is that?" Emma asked.

"I don't know," Robin mumbled and shook her head to sort out her thoughts. "His hair is disheveled. It looks like he tried to fix it but couldn't because of all the gel stuck to it and one leg of his pants is way more wrinkly than the other as if he held his leg into a wind tunnel or well," Robin scrunched up her nose in revulsion, "maybe something rubbed hard on it."

"Good."

Good? Robin frowned at Henry's mum.

What was good about this? It was suggestive. That was what it was.

"What now?" she asked, refocusing on the mission – or rather operation if one choose to play mystery games with Henry Mills.

"Give me the camera," Emma spread out her arm and wiggled her fingers while still staring out of the windshield.

Retrieving the camera from the bag Emma had given her, Robin asked with some rekindled curiosity, "What are you making photos of?"

The much older blonde – a darker shade than Alice's hair, Robin had noticed during the long hour of waiting – took the device and pointed the lens into the direction of the guy. "You'll see in three, two, one," she counted backwards and clicked the button a few times just as the man pulled something from inside his jacket and put it on his fingers.

It was a ring.

Robin blinked in surprise and whipped her head around to look at a slightly smirking Emma. "Did you know that?"

"After I was hired I went to his wife to gather intel on him, she accused him of having cheated on her before disappearing. Based on his former credit card billing and the frequency he spent in this hotel it was an easy guess," Emma explained and raised the camera like a trophy. "Thanks to this I have more proof and a nice leverage."

"What's next?"

"Now that I am almost sure on what he is doing with his fake ID, I wanna know who he is doing it with. Maybe point back their activities to him or get them to talk so I know where to find him. I am very sure we'll soon see a woman walking through that door with a poorly fixed make-up."

All three of them stared to the entrance of the hotel.

Robin could almost taste the suspense floating in the air.

Maybe it was reinforced by the lack of any excitement moments ago but right now she was caught up in this operation.

It did not take long for a figure to emerge, walking through the large doors of the hotel.

It was no woman, though.

It was a blonde man, easily just as disheveled as the other, throwing a guilty look into the direction the other had disappeared to before turning to the opposite one.

"Woooh," Robin exclaimed in surprise.

She loved a good twist.

"I did not expect that," Emma muttered dryly while making more photos.

"It's probably safe to say, that this marriage won't get a second chance," Henry commented from the backseat and Robin sent him a playful glare through the rear view mirror.

Fifteen minutes later, the Beetle stood across a dark alley, into which Emma had pulled the blonde guy in, not by force but with a smile.

While Emma squeezed the guy for information about the current hideout of her target, Robin and Henry stayed behind. Watching the blonde woman, who was around 50 years old but still extremely good-looking, making a move on a guy who she could very much assume was gay and at least ten years younger, was inspiring.

Much quicker than the stakeout Emma was finished with him in minutes and returned to the car with a dry comment as she slid into the front seat, "Still got it. Didn't even need to mention the pictures."

Robin nodded appreciatively.

Emma was not bad. Not bad at all.

As the older woman drove them through the streets of Manhatten, Robin thought that maybe, this job wasn't as boring as it seemed at first.

Despite both their complains Emma insisted on Robin and Henry to stay in the car – again – when they tracked down the culprit inside a bar and disappeared into the expensive looking, high-class establishment.

Bored Robin watched the door fall close after Emma disappeared into it and puckered her lips.

She wouldn't call herself impatient. But sitting still on a seat doing nothing was not the easiest things to do. To kill time she asked Henry how to make a website, because she would need one if she was going through with this PI thing. While listening to his explanation, only half of which, she got, she kept her eyes on the bar.

A few moments later the door flew open.

The subject stumbled out of it and ran down the street.

Robin jumped in her seat and grabbed the car door handle, ready to block his way.

Just in that moment she saw Emma rushing after him.

She knocked him easily off his feet

Robin gasped and buried her fingers into the seat cover.

The guy squirmed and struggled beneath Emma's weight and her grip.

Seemingly too much.

Emma threw a punch into his face which made him wail like a banshee. He raised his hand in surrender and tapped his fingers against his reddened nose.

Wide eyed, Robin watched the whole scene.

A huge grin spread on her face, when Emma pulled the guy with a bleeding nose from the ground and jammed handcuffs around his wrists.

"Now that was cool!" Robin cheered. Turning around she saw Henry rolling his eyes at her.

A/N: This was very short but it was the only break which made sense for this chapter. Next week it is going to be almost twice as long. 

Also: No Alice. Feels like a filler, huh? ':D This is what you get when I write love at first sight as slow burn. You're welcome. ;P

As always, if you liked the chapter, consider to leave a vote behind. Thank you!^^