A/N: Once Upon a Time and all the characters you recognized are property of ABC.

I've been rewatching the series on Netflix and came up with this idea. The original story of Rumpelstiltskin had him taking children as payment for his deals. I know we saw a bit of that with the Cinderella story, but I thought that probably wasn't his first or last deal like that and what if he still had one of those children when the curse was done. What kind of parent would he be in our world without his Dark One powers? Hope you all enjoy it. Please read and review. Rating may go up in future chapters.

Lottie Gold smiled at the young man selling flowers as she walked by the stand on the way to her father's shop. She knew Garrick Bayard was too old for her. He was already twenty-two and she was just sixteen and still in high school. But he was really cute and sweet to her as she passed the Mr. French's flower cart on her way to and from school every day. He always smiled so brightly and called out a greeting as she passed. The past few weeks, he's been stopping her to talk for a few minutes at a time. She knew her dad would have fit if he found out, since Garrick was so much older, but she really looked forward to their talks. Besides, what harm was flirting?

The guys at school barely even noticed her. She was too short, wore glasses, and had a mouth full of metal. Her brown hair was curly and frizzy in the dreary Maine weather. Besides, most of their parents owed her dad money and they tended to avoid her, along with most of the girls like they thought she was going to force them to pay it up or something.

Garrick grinned as he saw Lottie headed towards him. He looked around. Moe was over at Granny's getting them some coffee, so he hopped down from his seat and grabbed a daisy out of a bin. Moe had been giving him grief about flirting with her, given her age and who she was too. Hell, it wasn't his fault Moe owed the old man money. Who didn't at one time or another?

"Good afternoon, Miss Lottie," he smiled and held out the daisy. "A pretty flower for a pretty lady."

Lottie blushed as she reached for the flower. "Thank you, Garrick."

"It'll cost you," he grinned, pulling the flower back.

Lottie looked at him a little surprised.

"Just your phone number," he finished, smoothly.

"Oh," she smiled, shyly. "Um..," She was sure her dad wouldn't like that. Talking to him on the way home from school was one thing, but talking on the phone? That was something too real, wasn't it?

"Come on, a beautiful flower for just a phone number," he pressed. "That's a very good deal. Besides, these are magic daisies."

"They are?" She replied, skeptically.

"Sure are," he answered. "If you put it in water with just a drop of food coloring, it'll turn that color. Say if you put blue dye in the water, tomorrow morning, it'll be as blue as your eyes."

"Okay," she gave in. She pulled a pen out of her bag and quickly wrote her number on a card and handed it to him.

"And here is your magic daisy," Garrick smiled.

"Thank you. I really have to run now," she said. "Dad will be looking for me."

"Goodbye, Lottie."

"Goodbye, Garrick." Lottie hurried along to the pawn shop. She walked into the shop and set her books on the counter.

"Hello, Papa," she said. "Do we have a vase?"

"Hello, Lottie Dear, why do you require a vase?" Mr. Gold said, looking up from a ledger he was studying.

"I bought a daisy," she said.

"Don't buy flowers from that scoundrel," he grumbled, looking at the daisy with disgust. "I'm sure you can find one around here somewhere."

Lottie rolled her eyes and found a vase. She didn't know why her father had so much hatred for Mr. French, but then, she tried to make it a point to stay out of his business. She trimmed the flower and set it on the counter, reminding herself to add some food coloring when they got home. She grabbed her books and started on her homework. Normally, she worked at Granny's diner in the afternoons but she had this afternoon off to catch up on her schoolwork. Her dad wanted her to learn financial responsibility it seemed, just not at his shop where the clientele could be 'dodgy' as he put it. Most kids her age would be allowed to go home after school, but not her. She was to either be here at the shop or at Granny's. Her dad kept up with her whereabouts at all times. She didn't really understand why he was so overprotective. This was Storybrooke after all, nothing ever happened here.

Gold eyed his daughter over the book he was holding. Something was different about her lately. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what, but there was definitely something going on. She had always been a good student but hated going to school, putting it off for as long as possible in the mornings. Now, she rushed out in the mornings as if something were on fire and she was getting home later and later in the afternoons. He wished for the millionth time that her mother were there with them or that her mother was even alive at all, but there were just somethings even magic couldn't do. And they were now stuck in a world where magic didn't exist.

Of course, she didn't know her mother dead. She like everyone else in this retched town didn't really know anything of her past. She believed the story he had told her years ago. A story of how her mother had left when she was an infant to pursue dreams of being an actress in Hollywood and had never returned. That was what most of the town believed as well, though, if pressed, none of them could really remember her mother. Not what she looked like or even her name. Of course they couldn't. You couldn't remember someone that never existed. At least not in this world.

Chapter 2 will tell how he came to get her in Fairytale Land.