A/N: Time for a new story. This idea has been bouncing around in my head for a while now. I blame my intermittent love of 'Once Upon A Time' and my all-time love of Disney fairytale movies. Just a warning, it might suck, but I feel the need to run with it! lol

Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Amy Sherman-Palladino and other folks who aren't me.

Prologue

In her private bed chamber, the princess cried. It had become the usual state of Princess Lorelai, to feel pain and sadness, but today it was most especially true. Such days were usually called a happy event, but the young princess knew she had more reasons to cry than to smile.

"Lorelai?" said Queen Emily from the door.

Her daughter gave no answer, just continued to stare out of the window from her place in the bed. Tear tracks were visible on Lorelai's face as the queen approached, but Emily did not question it, and neither did King Richard. Their daughter had been through quite the ordeal, but to their minds at least, it was worth it.

"Oh, my dear!" said the king, looking down into the cradle by the bed. "Lorelai, she is quite beautiful."

"I expected nothing less," said Emily, smiling widely at the infant.

Lorelai still said nothing. Throughout her pregnancy she had lived in fear of herself, what she was capable of, and what might become of her baby. Now the labour was over, the child born, and the even harder task was to come.

"Lorelai?" her father prompted her to answer him.

Though she turned to look at her parents, still she said nothing, one silent tear streaking down her pale cheek. It took a couple of deep breaths before she found her voice.

"I have to go," she said at last, watching twin frowns appear on the king and queen's faces, and yet she pressed on. "You know I don't have a choice. For as long as I was carrying her, I needed to be here, but now... I have to go away."

"Don't be ridiculous, Lorelai!" Emily snapped. "I know the situation is not ideal. Certainly your father and I would have preferred you were wed before you thought of children, and that you were a good deal older than sixteen, but that is no reason for your exile..."

"You know that's not the reason!" cried Lorelai in frustration, more tears running unchecked from her eyes. "And you can look away and play ignorant all you want, but we all know it's not safe for me to be here. She's not safe as long as I'm here."

"She is your daughter, Lorelai," said Richard, eyes following her gaze to the cradle. "She will need her mother, especially in the absence of that rapscallion who is her father."

"It's not Christopher's fault that he couldn't handle the idea of marrying a monster," she said coldly, looking away.

It ought to hurt more that her parents didn't deny what she was, but Lorelai would only argue if they tried. She knew very well what she was, what she had become. It wasn't her fault, but the fact remained she was dangerous and could not raise a child herself. She dare not even remain in the castle anymore.

"And where exactly are you planning to go?" asked Emily, without looking at her daughter.

"I've thought about it a lot," Lorelai admitted. "The old castle, on the border of the kingdoms. Between the haunted rumours and its isolated location, nobody would even know I was there, and those that did would not venture too close out of fear," she explained. "I could go there, away from everyone, not able to hurt anyone. Especially not her," she said, looking fondly at her child who slept soundly yet.

Emily looked at Richard and he looked back at her. She had a point, but then Lorelai often did. Calling herself a monster, it was painful to hear, but her curse did make her dangerous, and now there was a baby to think about.

"I'm so sorry, Lorelai," said her father sadly. "This whole situation could have been avoided if..."

"If what, Dad?" she asked him, shaking her head. "If you married the woman chosen for you instead of the one you chose for yourself? No, I would never want you to have done that," she said definitely, reaching a hand to his arm but retracting it fast before ever making contact - sometimes she forgot that she must not touch, not anymore. "But I have to think about my baby now, and about the two of you. If I go, it'll be easier," she explained, even as her voice cracked and tears she didn't know she had left fell in waves. "Tell people I ran away or that... that I didn't survive the birth. It won't matter. In time, they'll forget, and she can grow up happy and loved, not having to fear me. I couldn't handle her looking at me with fear in her eyes," she sobbed. "Just please, do one thing for me? I'd like her to be named after me. I'd like to know she has something of mine. The least I can do is give her my name."

Emily was doing her best to remain regal even in such a moment, but it proved impossible. She could hardly speak as she looked at her heartbroken daughter then, wishing she could hold her, knowing she could not.

"Very well," she promised. "We will name the child Lorelai, after you, but surely you could stay..."

"No, Mom!" Lorelai insisted crossly. "I can't. You know that I can't."

"But Lorelai..."

"No!"

On the final yell, Lorelai's hand came up of its own volition, firing a rain of ice at the opposite wall. The mirror there smashed to pieces, shards falling to the floor as the wall all around turned white with frost and ice. The loud noise woke the baby in the cradle and she cried out of fear and shock.

Lorelai cried too, hating herself for what she had done, for all she was capable of. She turned over in the bed, hiding her head under the pillow and crying like her heart was breaking. In truth, it really was.

"Take her away!" she cried aloud. "Please, get her away from me. I don't want her near me. I don't want to hurt her!"

King Richard and Queen Emily got up to leave, knowing there was no other choice. Emily scooped the baby up into her arms and made for the door, her husband at her heels. At the last, he turned back to the form of his sobbing daughter in the bed.

"I'll make arrangements," he told her, "regarding the old castle."

The next moment he was gone and Lorelai could no longer hold in her rage and pain. Sitting up in the bed, her arms shot violently out in front of her and then to the sides, filling the room with icy shards and a swirling blizzard that engulfed everything. After long minutes of screaming and raging, her cursed hands fell limply to the bed in front of her. Lorelai looked at them with loathing and then around the destroyed bedroom, full of sharp dangerous icicles and drifts of snow. It was the right decision to go, to be away from those she loved most. Their lives would go on very well without her, and God willing, little Lorelai would grow up healthy, strong, and beautiful inside and out.

"Please," she said to the Heavens. "Please protect her from that witch. Don't let her return in another sixteen years and do to my baby what she did to me. Please!"

She began crying again when her prayer was done and fell to the bed sobbing loudly.

By the same time tomorrow, the elder Princess Lorelai would be gone from her home, exiled by her own wishes to another castle where she would be forgotten. The new Princess Lorelai would grow up without her, protected from the cruel outside world, but most of all, from her own mother.

To Be Continued...