"Are you alright?" He asked squatting down to the child's level so that he could avoid frightening her, and also so that he could get a better look at the child.
She was tiny, very tiny, she probably wasn't much older then two or three years old, Her long locks of curls were all tangled and her face was covered in dirt and grim, so that you could barely tell what her face looked like underneath.
The child wore the worst rags that could possibly be worn if they had any more tears in them she would have been wearing nothing at all. And he could see that the child was scared and that she was close to tears. The little girl did not look any where near old enough to be wondering around the streets by her self. He immediately looked around for anyone who appeared to be missing a child, but he saw nobody who appeared to be looking for anyone.
Mr. Gold had been walking through New york on his way to find Ursula when when a child had bumped into him and fallen to the ground. Gold was of course very concerned that he may have hurt the little girl, He sighed knowing he was going to have to take the child into to the police so they can find out whose child this was, he did not want a law suit on his hands. And he was not absolutely not about to just leave a helpless child on the street by herself.
Mr. Gold gently laid a hand on the trembling child's shoulders and whispered so gently and softly that if anyone had been around to hear him he would not have been able to live it down.
"Hey shh, it's okay, I'm not going to hurt you, I'm trying to help you, are you okay sweetheart?"
The small child finally opens her mouth for the first time and said in the tiniest voice "Yes sir, me okay!" Mr. Gold gave a sigh of relief so far at least no law suit would be issued to him.
"Now you're way to young to be out here by yourself, where are you parents?" he asked her softly. The child looked at him quietly before responding.
"Mommy and Daddy have gone away." she responded. Mr. Gold tried to thing and figure out what she meant by gone away, then her clothes and her hair started to make since.
"Your an orphan?" he asked to clarify the situation. The child nods. "Well come on I better get you back to who ever your care taker is I'm sure they have the whole town looking for you!"
But then the child's eyes flew open wide and she pleaded with him. "Please sir, please don't send me back there, don't take me back please, they don't like me!" she cried softly.
Mr. Gold sighed. "I'm sorry kid, but I'm not leaving you out here by yourself, I have no choice but to take you back into who ever you belong to!"
He bends down and lifts her into his arms and starts walking, he watched the child's eyes grow with fear with each step he took, and found himself wondering why, wondering why a child so small and tiny would be so afraid of where ever she was going back too.
It stopped when he saw what time it was, and decided he could at the very least by them both lunch, he was starving and judging by the girl's horrendous looking weight the girl probably was too.
He took her to a pizza shop and bought a box of pizza and set her down on the bench beside him. He ordered a bottle of water and napkins and used both to clean her hands for her and even wash her face.
He smiled when he saw the dirt come off her face and spoke as he whipped her face down. "There we are now I can finally see you clearly, and now that your hands are clean we can both eat without worrying about dirt getting in our food!"
He took a slice and laid it in front of the girl and grabbed a piece for himself, and started eating but started talking to the kid in between bites.
"What do your people call you?" He asked her gently.
"Me Alyssa!" the child responded softly.
"Well Alyssa, you can call me Mr. Gold." He informs her.
When the two of them had finished eating. He took her by the hand and lifted her into his arms again and started walking again.
"So Alyssa why don't you start telling me a little about your self?" he suggested gently wanting to pass the time.
He smiled when the child spun into a nice chatter about everything. "I like ponies and unicorns, and fairies and I love princesses! And my favorite color is Pink!" the child babbled on and on about her favorite princesses until she finally said "Princess Belle is my favorite princess, and Princess Ariel comes after that."
Mr. Gold smiled thinking about how the child apparently only knew about the tv versions of the show and smiling to himself at the child's apparent love for the tv version of his wife.
Finally he decided to make a detour and go ahead and go talk to Ursula before taking the child back, he wanted to catch her before she left her work site.
"Hold on child I have something I need to see to before I take you home!" he explained to her. The child was apparently in no hurry to be taken back anyways so he walked briskly into the aquarium still holding the small child.
Inside he found a woman feeding the aquarium fish. And he grinned. "Well Ursula, seems like you've been making it fairly well. But I am looking to make a new offer, how about helping me find the author and making him write us a different happy ending." He explained as he absently watched the small child run around the aquarium staring at the fish, making sure not to take an eye off of her.
Ursula looked at the small child. "And who is this child?" She moved as if to approach the child but Gold slammed an arm between the child and the sea witch. "You harm that child and I will tear you apart." he growled threateningly.
In the back of his mind he found himself asking why he suddenly felt so protective of a child that wasn't even his own. But the moment he felt that the child had been threatened here he was willing to kill his one chance at getting back across the town line over her. But he knew if it came down to it he would risk everything he had in a fight to protect what was his.
"His since when was Alyssa his? She did not belong to him, she belonged to the system, and to them he would return her. "She is just an orphan child that I plan to take back to the foster home she had somehow gotten separated from. He finally explained more to himself then to Ursula. He didn't have time to babysit a little kid no matter how cute she might happen to be.