Prolougue
"Just because a life is broken, it doesn't mean you should throw it away..."-Tom Smith, the Trainer of Seabiscuit
The first time he saw her she was half-buried in the snow…barely alive. Close to blacking out, she could only see a bit of him through her half blindness and fading vision. He looked upon the young girl with such sympathy that he hadn't had in years. She gazed into his eyes…for she had no trust in humans but she was somehow unafraid of him. He brought her inside, lifting her up into his golden skinned, leather clad arms out of the drift. If it was anyone else that was dying in a snowstorm, the imp wouldn't give them a second thought….but she was just a child whose parents(or so he thought) had abandoned her. The concept of abandonment disgusted him and tore at his dark soul and made his stomach turn. Anger boiled in his blood for whoever had done such a cruel deed, leaving a poor, helpless creature such as this one to fend for themselves. He would give anything to have another child after what had happened with his son, and even made deals in such a way that he would receive a child as his end of the deal. She was crying out of pure instinct as he was holding her, even though she had no idea what was going on. "Shhhh….." he whispered to the poor thing. He soon entered his laboratory to a table where he kept instruments of torture for anyone who dared cross him. In an instant, he knocked every horrible device that was on that table off it and replaced it instantly with blankets and a pillow. If this girl was going to survive tonight, he would have to work fast indeed. As he took a potion out of his cabinet that was made to heal wounds, he could start to hear her crying once again…cries that were more heartbreaking and gut wrenching then Belle's when she had first come here….cries of pain and suffering that should never be heard coming from a child. He started going into a sheer panic himself…..for the potion had no effect once it was tried. One by one, he grabbed everything he had. Again, nothing…it only resulted in her crying out again. "God Dammit!" he growled…for the concept of his magic not working on this girl was both frustrating and ironic. As far as he knew, the dark one had no limits to healing wounds….and the one time he chose to heal or save a person, it didn't work. The girl's very existence seemed to be fading away on him. He instinctively grabbed a hold of her hand, as if to keep her tethered to the world and to him. He paced around her nervously, not knowing what to do. This was the first time in years that he had felt truly helpless. Now he knew that he would be forced to save her in a slow and painful way….but he had to start instantly. The imp practically flew to a "first aid" sort of box that he had when Baelfire was still with him…to his luck he found some bandages and some thread and a needle. He first exposed all of her wounds to the night air, and nearly gagged at some of them. "Look at all this blood…." He drawled with wide eyes full of sympathy. "Please hang in there…..please…." he begged the child…he might not be able to heal her, but at least he could give her, her best chance. The last thing he wanted to do was cause her anymore pain, but he had to close up and dress those wounds before they were infected…if they weren't already. He was no doctor…but at least he could try. He put on a leather apron that was previously stained by the blood of someone who dared steal from him, and he set to work on the girl. The "operation" took five hours, the cleaning out of two very large puncture wounds, one in the leg and one in the ribcage and several others, the stitching of the said wounds by his nimble fingers, the bandaging of them, and several groans from him at the sight of such cruelty. During which, she was technically dead for several minutes but revived by magic…and at the end of the revival and a growl from him as well from the magic electrocuting him back, a loud cry, sounding very similar to the sound of a newborn rang throughout the castle for the first time. In legends from the enchanted forest…even though it had occurred in a cell in Regina's dungeon, this night in particular, December 27, would be hailed as the night that Rumplestiltskin's daughter was born.
