Just one lengthy A/N to kick this off and then I will shut up and let you read.
First of all, because this site doesn't let me have a REAL description - here is the COMPLETE description of this fic, not the one I had to edit to fit the box: This story takes place in the "Catch a Falling Star" verse. Nick and Belle Gold are nearing their 13th anniversary. Their idyllic, blissfully happy life is about to take a sharp turn into difficult times, between dealing with a pre-teen daughter's sudden shift in attitude, a film role that brings out Nick's insecurities, the fallout from the strained marriage of Bae and Emma, and a dangerous threat in the form of one of Nick's new students that neither of them sees coming.
Now . . . . . continuing on . . . .
This story takes place five years after the ending of the epilogue of "Catch a Falling Star." It can be read as a stand-alone fic, but much of the characterizations will be better understood if you read CaFS first. This is a Rumbelle fic AND a Swanfire fic, but the Swanfire part won't enter until several chapters in.
This fic was written as my 2014 NaNoWriMo challenge. After the initial first chapter, subsequent chapters will be posted EVERY WEDENESDAY, so please look for updates on that day until the fic is completed.
This fic is intended to be an in-depth character study of Rumbelle, Swanfire, and those who are involved in their lives. This story is NOT going to be as fluffy as CaFS. There will be angst and there will be some moments that may be difficult, and I will post warnings before the chapters that contain such things. While the characters I am writing are loosely based on their OUAT counterparts, I am writing them as real, flawed people and it is my hope that you will grow to respect and understand these characters as I do.
And with that said . . . . . here we go . . . . .
And I do not own "Once Upon a Time."
Chapter 1
Belle entered the shop dressed in a witch's outfit, her face painted completely green. She was carrying a clothing bag, which she set down on the counter. Olivia followed behind dressed in blue gingham, donning a long, brunette wig, and holding a stuffed toy dog under her arm. The young girl was engrossed in activity on her phone and never once looked up when she entered the shop. Nick was standing in the middle of the store adjusting some of the displays when they entered. Belle walked up behind him and put her arms around him.
"Boo!" she whispered in his ear. Nick turned around.
"Hey, sweetheart." Nick said casually, and gave her a small peck on the cheek.
"Well?" she asked.
"Well what?" Nick replied.
"What do you think about my costume?" Belle asked.
"You're wearing a costume?" Nick replied jokingly, then started to laugh as Belle hugged him tightly. She then planted a long kiss on his lips.
"You're not funny." Belle said after she kissed him.
"You actually traipsed about New York in that?" Nick asked.
"Just a few blocks, from that theatre Ruby is working at this month. She did the makeup. And actually, no one really noticed. I mean, it's early October, the stores have had Halloween stuff up for weeks now. By the way – the posters for the gala should be ready by Monday, you've got plenty of window space for them, right?" Belle asked.
"Always do." Nick replied. "Most of the shops on the block said they'll put one up too; I told them I'd have them here, they'll pick them up." Nick said.
"That's good. They're going to display them in the lobby at Ruby's show next week, too. I also have to set up some local press interviews, you'll come for those, right?" Belle asked.
"Do I have to? You know I hate that sort of bullshit." Nick said. "Take Ruby, she lives for that nonsense. Who is she going as?"
"Glinda. She showed me the blonde wig today, it actually looks good on her. Speaking of costumes – yours is on the counter." Belle said. Nick walked over to the counter, opened the bag, and then looked up at Belle.
"What the hell is this?" Nick asked.
"Your costume." Belle said.
"I think you grabbed the wrong one, love." Nick said. Belle peeked inside the bag.
"No, that's the right one. You need to try it on and see if Ruby needs to make any alterations." Belle said.
"I assumed I was going to be the Wizard." Nick said.
"Graham is the Wizard. Bae is going to be the Tin Man and Emma is the Lion." Belle said. "Oh, and Henry is going to be a Winkie and Neal and Anita are going as Flying Monkeys, they're absolutely adorable."
"So I'm the Scarecrow then. Wonderful." Nick said, not pleased.
"Oh, come on. You'll be an adorable Scarecrow. Besides, you've seen the musical – the Wicked Witch and the Scarecrow do end up together, after all." Belle said.
"Plus, the Wizard is Elphaba's father – that'd just be gross, Daddy." Olivia chimed in, looking up from her phone.
"My gosh, she actually speaks, I almost forgot what her voice sounds like." Nick commented. "Olivia, you do realize that there's a cap on how many texts you can send per month, that was part of the deal in getting you that phone for your birthday."
"I know." Olivia said in a snippy tone.
"Olivia, put the phone away, you've been playing with that thing non-stop for the last hour." Belle told her. "Help your father finish that display." Olivia sighed in frustration.
"Fine, whatever." Olivia said, and she put the phone down on the counter, just as Belle's phone rang. Belle looked down at the number.
"It's Mulan, I need to take this, be right back." Belle said, and she darted into the back room.
"Sweetheart, can you put the garland up, you know how I do it, everything's in the box." Nick told Olivia.
"Your face is green." Olivia commented.
"What?" Nick asked.
"You've got some of mom's makeup on your face from when she kissed you." Olivia said. She rolled her eyes and started to work on the display as Nick asked. Nick walked behind the counter, grabbed a tissue, and began to wipe his face.
"Your costume is very nice, by the way. You make an adorable Dorothy." Nick said.
"I liked last year's better. I got to hide my face so I wouldn't have to watch you and mom being all lovey-dovey." Olivia commented.
This was the fifth year in a row that Belle was hosting a Halloween costume bash as a fund raiser for the "Rose Francis Cancer Foundation," a charity that she began several years before she met Nick to honor the memory of her mother. Several celebrities, many of them A-listers, attended the event each year, although the event was open to the public at five hundred dollars a ticket. Every year there were a significant amount of fans who attended.
Each year, Belle would select a costume theme for the entire family. The year prior they had dressed as the Addams Family, with Belle and Nick dressing as Morticia and Gomez. That year, Olivia opted to dress as Cousin Itt, which she enjoyed immensely. This year Belle decided that the family would be going with a 'Wizard of Oz' theme.
Olivia Rose Gold has just turned twelve years old one week prior. She was now in junior high, and had just started attending a new school and making new friends. In the past two months, Nick and Belle noticed a serious attitude shift in their outgoing daughter. She didn't spend as much time as she used to talking to them, and a significant bulk of her time was spent holed up in her room on the computer, and now playing with her new phone, which her parents gave her, with some reluctance, as a birthday gift.
For all of the years prior, Olivia came straight to her father's shop after school on the days that he was working, but ever since junior high started, she began to lose interest in doing so.
"Hey, I thought we'd go to the movies this weekend, just you and me. Your mum has some kind of plans this Sunday with Ashley so I thought that would be a good time to do that. We'll go see whatever you like. Maybe even go out for a dessert after." Nick suggested.
"I've got a big project for school to work on this weekend, Daddy, I can't. I was gonna ask if I could go over to my friend Heather's house Sunday to work on it." Olivia said.
"Oh. Well of course – your school work comes first. You know, your friends can come over to our house too." Nick said.
"We already have all the stuff at her place." Olivia said as she finished decorating the display.
"Well, alright then. If it's alright with your mother, it's alright with me." Nick said. "It looks perfect, sweetheart. You definitely have inherited my eye for décor."
"Nick! Mulan is going to be overnighting me a script that she said is absolutely incredible. It's a first time director but she said she just couldn't put it down! Just from what she described, it sounds amazing!" Belle said excitedly as she bolted out of the back room.
"What's it about?" Nick asked.
"I'll um – I'll tell you later tonight." Belle said, glancing over at Olivia, which was a definite sign that the film's subject matter wasn't exactly family friendly. Belle moved in to give him a kiss, but he pushed her away.
"I already wiped off the green once, and thank you for telling me that you had smudged my face with that stuff. Go home and take that off and I'll be there in a couple of hours. You'll get your kiss then." Nick told her.
"Alright. Olivia, come on, let's go." Belle said. Olivia had picked up her phone and was focused on that once again. She followed Belle out the door. "Aren't you going to say goodbye to your father?"
"Yeah, bye." Olivia said, not looking up as they left. Nick sighed as he watched them leave. He and Olivia were very close up until recently. He understood that she was getting older and all of that, but it did make him sad. Olivia would be a teenager next year. He knew this day was coming – the day that she would start to pull away from him and explore her own interests as she formed a path toward her future. He just didn't expect it to happen so fast. He had missed the majority of Bae and Ruby's respective childhoods, and he made it a point to be a very hands-on father when it came to his youngest daughter. Unfortunately for him, because of his lack of parental involvement, he had no real preparation in regard to dealing with a pre-teen. He was hoping that there would be some hint of how to prepare while watching his grandson Henry enter his teenage years, but Henry was nothing like Olivia in that respect, and it quickly became clear to him that pre-teen boys and pre-teen girls had little in common aside from their ages. Belle was not much help either, through no fault of her own. When she was Olivia's age her mother was ill and needed her to help care for the household, forcing Belle to grow up quite fast, so she had no real frame of reference on how to deal with the pre-pubescent phase that Olivia had entered. The bottom line was, Nick missed his little girl terribly, and he had no idea what to do about that.
Nick moved to the display rack that Olivia had decorated with great skill and proceeded to work on its completion. He stood for the next half an hour putting the final touches on it, and stepped back and admired the work that he and Olivia had done. "Perfect." he said to himself proudly just as the door to the shop opened.
"Hello. How can I help you?" Nick asked the woman who entered the shop. She was tall, had red hair, and wore a black shawl around her.
"Oh my gosh, it really is you." the woman said. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to gush, but – I'm a bit of a fan." Nick chuckled a bit.
"You know, I apologize, you just missed my wife." Nick said.
"Oh. No, I mean – I'm a fan of yours." the woman said.
"I beg your pardon?" Nick asked, stunned.
"I mean – of your videos. The ones you have on your website. I've um – I took up spinning as a hobby last year and – well, I did some research and found that you were one of the best in the field. So I've been watching your teaching videos on your web page. I've learned quite a bit, but – well, I thought maybe it was time for me to think about taking a class. You do still offer them, right?" the woman asked.
"Yes, I do. Actually – I have one more opening in my beginner class that starts this week. It'll be Wednesdays at six, it's an eight week class. I'm not sure where you are level-wise, if you've been doing this for a while it might be a bit too basic for you, but if that's the case I can always put you on the waiting list for an intermediate level class, I should be starting another one after the holidays." Nick suggested.
"Actually, beginner is probably the best for now. I still have quite a bit to learn." the woman said. "And Wednesdays at six are perfect."
"Well, alright then. Let's get you signed up." Nick said, and he walked over to the counter and went behind it. "The class is three hundred dollars, plus the cost of your supplies. I have a wheel and a loom for each student in the classroom, but it's assumed that you'll have your own at home to work with."
"That sounds fine." the woman said, and she opened up her purse. "I um – I only have one hundred seventy five on me at the moment – will you take the rest later?"
"My policy is to be paid in full before you start the first class, so that's fine. I also have a list of supplies – you can buy them anywhere but if you buy them here I do give you a thirty percent discount as a class participant." Nick said as he handed her a piece of paper. The woman handed Nick her money.
"Thank you – I think I'll probably do that, can I come early Wednesday to get everything?" she asked.
"No need – if you're going to buy everything here then I'll just set it aside for you. Why don't you take the list home, look it over, and see if there's anything you already have." Nick said.
"That's sounds like a plan." she said. "I'm so excited – I know I'll learn so much from you."
"Well, I hope so. Just so you know – many of my students have gone on to enter contests and have been very successful. Several of them have even had their works displayed at national art fairs, and I've a few that have sold their patterns to craft magazines. If I find that someone has exceptional talent, I'm always willing to put their work up for sale here at the shop. I take thirty percent commission and the rest goes to the artist." Nick said.
"Well, that sounds wonderful, but – I don't know if I'll ever be that good." the woman said.
"Well – you never know. You may be surprised at how well you take to it. Especially since you've already had a bit of practice on your own." Nick said.
"Well, I guess we'll see. Thank you so much." the woman said.
"You're very welcome." Nick replied. "By the way – I need your name and number for the registration."
"Oh right – of course." she said. Nick handed her a piece of paper and she wrote on it, then handed it back to Nick. He looked down at the paper.
"Well, it's very nice to meet you, Miss Campbell." Nick said.
"Actually, it's Mrs. And you can call me Zelena. I'll see you Wednesday then." Zelena said, and she smiled as she walked out of the shop.