This is my first fan fic so please be kind. Will update if first part generates enough interest/reviews.
I don't own Once Upon a Time.
I tried to pattern Lee's character after Nikita played by Maggie Q in her TV Series "Nikita". In Ward's character, I see a little bit of Saurman from "Lord of the Rings". (Just in case - I don't own any characters from these movies either.)
What if for 28 years Gold was happily married to a woman he loved? Who would he chose after the curse is broken and Belle comes back into his life? Or has their fate already been decided by another powerful force?
He watched as the black smoke rolled into the mine. It engulfed the entrance, the guards, and finally seeped through the bars of his prison. His maniacal, high pitched laughter filled the cavern until all sound was gone from the old world.
The new world welcomed him with a warm bed and bright sunlight seeping through the blinds of a comfortable bedroom. For a moment he wondered if he was still dreaming, so fuzzy and unfocused was his mind that morning. One of the first things he noticed was a small gold band of a wedding ring on his left hand. He turned to find a woman with long, jet black hair, asleep beside him. Cautiously, he leaned over to find that a wedding band encircled the ring finger on her left hand as well. As the web of curse-weaved memories wrapped his mind in its cocoon, his thoughts cleared and he reached out to possessively trace his fingers up the long, shapely leg of the woman next to him. He moved the blankets off her enough to see that she was dressed in a short, white, silk nightgown that barely reached the middle of her thighs. He watched her slowly turn onto her back and with her eyes still closed raise her head and back off the pillow just enough to pull off the garment. Tossing it on the dresser by the side of the bed, she lay back and raised her arms above her head. His breath caught in his throat as he raked his eyes over her perfectly toned body. When her dark eyes opened and looked into his own, he found himself drowning in desire. A content smile played around her lips as her hand came up to gently tangle in his hair. His own and her breathless cries of pleasure welcomed them into the new world.
Ever since anyone could remember Kyle Gold had been married to the beautiful owner of the only martial arts studio in Storybrooke. Every so often, the question of why a woman like Lee Knight would marry a crippled man who was almost twenty five years her senior and whose injured leg required him to walk with a use of a cane, came up on the town's gossip grapevine. However, since no one was able to come up with an answer more exciting than money and since regardless of her choice of spouse she was quite well liked, the grapevine quickly found other more exciting topics of conversation. What everyone in town knew was that Lee Gold gave kids karate lessons, taught self defense classes for women, and had one room converted to a laser tag play area which she rented out for birthdays parties for the kids in town. The children adored her kind and fun personality and were in awe of her fighting skills, especially when she demonstrated what could be accomplished with enough martial arts training by breaking inch thick boards with one kick or a strike of her hand. The men basked in her exotic beauty of black hair, brown eyes, and perfectly toned body. When women saw her ability to draw out the shyest child, saw her interact with their husbands without an ounce of flirtation, and cashed in on her willingness to make substantial monetary donations to whatever project happened to be going on in the town, they developed a tolerance for the woman. Since they could feel fairly secure that their men would not dare to make advances on Gold's wife and could believe that her looks had brought her enough trouble to make her marry someone like Gold, they felt comfortable enough to include her in their activities. Lee herself, however, always had a minute and a smile for whoever came to her with a request, volunteered at the animal shelter two days a week, and seemed quite content with her life.
Not at any time in twenty eight years did Gold question his marriage. Lee was a beautiful woman who warmed his bed quite skillfully and who seemed to enjoy what he had to offer her in return. Although, he liked the way other men looked at him when he walked into a room with her on his arm, she never once gave him the slightest cause to be jealous. There was however one disturbing factor to her personality that manifested itself infrequently enough to allow him to ignore it most of the time. As owner of the building that housed the martial arts studio, Gold knew that a few years ago one of the basement rooms had been converted to a professional shooting range and another to a state of the art 3-D game room. In this room, computer generated scenarios allowed players with laser weapons to go through obstacle courses that required split second reflexes to decide whether someone was friend or foe and whether a gun or hand to hand combat provided the most efficient way to defeat an opponent. A very select group of residents, all of them male, knew about these rooms. The few vehicles carrying strangers from outside of town to practice and compete there were more cause for concern. No trophies sparkled behind glass windows for winners of these games. The prize was always money and Lee Gold was quickly becoming the opponent these men came to compete against. Neither did the contests always keep to the shooting or virtual reality rooms of the building. The outsiders gliding into town under cover of darkness were professional fighters in their own right and many of them wanted to try their skill in hand to hand combat. It was on nights like these that she would come home after midnight, the bruises on her arms and legs mute witnesses to the fights in which she had engaged. Only once did he quietly enter the building on a night like this and watch as she beat two male opponents both larger and heavier than her with a series of movements so quick and lethal, they seemed to be executed by a predator. He never talked to her about nights like this, instinctively knowing that this was a part of her he could not reach, afraid that if he questioned her too much she would find another bed to sate her wants instead of coming home to him.
There was another activity that Lee was involved in that bothered Gold. However, he grudgingly continued to put up with it since he simply could not find or manufacture a logical reason to ask her to stop volunteering at the animal shelter. Neither was it the animal shelter itself that was the problem. What bothered Gold was that the building housing the shelter was attached to the only veterinary practice in town and the only veterinary practice was owned by Bradley Ward, the beloved Storybrooke veterinarian. Ward was known to have come from old money and was one of the town's wealthiest residents. He and his beautiful wife, Marina, were the biggest supporters of most of the town's charities. His wealth of knowledge and experience were beyond compare. When people brought their pets to him for care, they knew they received the best of skills and dedication. When he advised someone that it was time to let their pet go, the look in his warm, fathomless dark eyes was enough to convince the grieving owner that their pet was simply taking another step in life's journey. He stood close to six feet tall, with a short beard and white mane of hair pulled back into a ponytail trailing a little past his shoulders, a style that would look silly on any other man in his fifties but somehow looked right on him.
Ward was rumored to be wealthier than Gold himself. His sprawling mansion stood on immaculately groomed acres of land in the same neighborhood that housed Gold's Victorian home. He owned the building housing his veterinary practice and the land on which it was built. He leased the animal shelter building and the land on which it stood to the city for a nominal price and he did not pay one dime of rent to Gold. Furthermore, it was rumored that some people went to him to borrow money to pay off debts they owed Gold because they felt more comfortable being in debt to the kind veterinarian than to the town monster. However, what absolutely infuriated Gold, was the fact that Ward always greeted him with the same genuine smile he reserved for everyone in town, which meant that unlike everyone else, Ward did not fear Gold.
"I watched Brad operate on one of his patients today, a puppy who swallowed a tennis ball." Lee told him one night as she sat at the kitchen table filling out paper work required for her business. "He was brilliant. It was like watching an artist at work."
"Lee, you know I don't like you being around that man. Now he is asking you to help with him with surgery?" Gold sat up on the couch and put down the newspaper he was reading. He couldn't believe the nerve of the man.
"It was an emergency and his assistant was already gone for the day. Anyway, the only reason you don't like him is because he doesn't pay you rent like everyone else in this town." She came over to where Gold was sitting and brushed her hands over his shirt as she moved onto the couch and straddled him. His hands automatically went to her waist where the soft material of her shirt bunched up to show a little skin. He could not believe how someone wearing grey sweat pants and a white t-shirt could manage to look as sexy as Lee always did. It did not take long for her lips to find his, for their clothes to melt off their bodies, and for Bradley Ward to become the last thing either one thought about. In the morning, as he cradled her in his arms and ran his hand over her long black hair, Gold realized that for some reason he did not yet understand, this woman made him feel complete.
"I love you, Lee Gold", he whispered brushing his cheek against the top of her head.
"I love you, Kyle Gold", she whispered back, her mouth curving in a smile of sweet contentment.
But later that week, a yellow Volkswagen bug careened into the "Welcome to Storybrooke" sign, forcing the driver to rent a room at Granny's Inn at the same time that Gold happened to be collecting rent. The driver introduced herself as Emma Swan and Gold's real memories came rushing back.