Jefferson smiled at the blonde woman who was clad in a light blue dress with silver sleeves. The sleeves were in a filigree pattern studded with diamonds, the fabric of the dress looked like it was made out of scales, the bottom of the dress looking like feathers. Unfitting for the biting personality of the woman wearing the dress. The blonde woman returned the smile as she was spun and held in Jefferson's arms,"Loathe the dress, Alice."
Alice quirked an eyebrow her brown eyes mischievous,"Suggestions?"
Jefferson chuckled,"I'm sure it would look better on your chamber's floor?"
Alice slid her hands up Jefferson's jacket, her hands tugged on the roses stamped on his leather lapels,"Along with the jacket, I assume?"
Jefferson touched her forehead with his,"Along with the jacket."
Alice pressed her lips to his, and Jefferson closed his eyes, sagging slightly into his wife's longed for embrace. His eyes snapped open when he tasted a salty metallic fluid against his lips. Alice's eyes were unfocused and glazed as she had blood bubbling up from her lips. Jefferson felt a wet spot start to form where their bodies were pressed together, Jefferson looked down at Alice's stomach seeing the light blue stain with red. He laid Alice on the ground and put his hands over the blood stain, his voice becoming more broken as he spoke,"Alice, Al? Stay with me please…. Please."
Alice coughed and gasped,"No-no. It's okay, it's okay….yo-you'll take care of our Grace."
Jefferson felt tears in his eyes as she in raised his hand to touch her cheek, Jefferson lifted her up into his lap,"No, I can't. I can't do it."
Jefferson jolted awake, gasping,"I can't, I can't."
He rolled over grabbing the silver trash bin by his bed and vomiting into it. He heaved what little his stomach contained into it before walking to the bathroom and rubbing his face on a towel, he looked at the husk of a man in the reflection of the mirror.
The dull blue eyes and pallid skin reminiscent of a man, Jefferson wanted dead 13 years ago. A man he hoped his daughter would never see. He needed to be out of the house, even being in public, would be better than being locked up in this lavish prison alone. Pretending to belong was something he was good at, he had to be good at that here.
'I'm sorry, I wasn't the man you thought I was. Hell, I wasn't even half of him. I was an idiot and a coward.' Jefferson drove to Granny's diner and walked in shivering slightly from the sudden change in temperature. He walked up to the both and ordered a cup of tea. Assiyah brought it to him, her name read Isabelle here. Jefferson knew better, he remembered a small girl with ink black hair and deep violet colored eyes. Part of a set, Jefferson recalled a boy, her twin, Rhaego, dark hair and bright purple eyes, but he wasn't here.
"Jefferson do you mind stepping outside with me?" Emma said touching his arm slightly.
Jefferson flinched back on reflex,"Don't really have a choice, do I?"
Emma let Jefferson pay for the untouched cup of tea and held the door open as he walked out and stood on the sidewalk pulling his long coat around him. Emma pulled him to the side,"Look I'm not saying I believe you because if I do that means-"
"Regina is the evil queen? Ms. Blanchard is your mother, the two-timer Mr. Nolan is your father?" Jefferson asked looking at Emma his head cocked slightly.
Emma stepped back,"No. It means you need help."
Jefferson sighed,"I had help. A long time ago."
Emma began walking, Jefferson falling in step behind her, indulging in the madman's "Fantasy","Who?"
Jefferson sighed, realizing they were heading to Dr. Hopper's office,"My wife. She helped with everything. I was alive, but not living before we met. She liked to say I was living on the world rather than in it. I was rather self-serving, if I'm to be honest and after the death of a close friend, those parts of my personality became more apparent, I was a man who I didn't like very much."
Emma pursed her lips as she walked down the road, the wind cutting through her leather jacket,"You said you lived alone."
Jefferson sucked in air sharply, ignoring the way the crisp air burned his lungs,"I do. Now."
Emma heard his voice go brittle on the term now,"What happened?"
Jefferson decided to go with his truth, or at least a version of the truth,"She died. A few years ago."
Jefferson stopped in front of Dr. Hopper's office as Emma stood in front of the door,"I'm sorry. You need help. I scheduled a meeting with Dr. Hopper. You're going."
Jefferson looked up at the door,"Do I have a choice?"
"No, unless you want people to find out about your "daughter"." Emma said watching Jefferson blanch and freeze.
Jefferson's voice was tense, as he began to step up to the door,"It was a rhetorical question."
Emma followed him inside watching as Doctor Hopper set his clipboard down and stand up with his hand out to shake Emma clasped it. After Dr. Hopper finished greeting Emma he turned to Jefferson and held out his hand for the taller man to shake.
Jefferson stared at the outstretched hand and looked up at Emma, Archie spoke to break the awkward silence,"It's nice to meet you Mr. ….. Emma didn't tell me your last name."
Jefferson tugged at his jacket nervously,"Just Jefferson. "
Emma walked toward the door,"I'll be back later to ask how the appointment went."
Jefferson glanced at the door worriedly until it clicked shut, he walked behind the couch and stared at Dr. Hopper who sat back down,"Would you like to take a seat? How are you feeling, Jefferson?"
Jefferson sat down and leaned back trying to further distance himself from the shrink,"Claustrophobic."
"Why?" Dr. Hopper ask writing something down.
Jefferson sighed, running a hand through his hair,"An amalgamation of my various problems."
Dr. Hopper cocked his head,"What problems?"
"You want them alphabetically?" Jefferson said raising an eyebrow and grinning self-deprecatingly.
"Wherever you want to start." Dr. Hopper said.
"How about we start with our dear mayor?" Jefferson asked sizing the cricket up.
"What about her?"
"Shall we begin with the fact that she cost me everything?" Jefferson asked painting himself as a jaded bitter man,"I have everything material that a man could want but what's the point if I have no one to share it with?"
"Did you love her?" Dr. Hopper said questioning the young man across from him.
"Regina? No, what we had was unhealthy at the best of times." Jefferson said touching his wedding ring, a solid band of silver engraved with a filigree pattern, to his lips.
Dr. Hopper wrote something down,"But you had someone? I can't help but notice you wear a wedding ring."
"I did." Jefferson said twisting his ring.
"What happened?" Dr. Hopper asked.
"She died." Jefferson said staring at his shoes, ignoring how his eyes burned,"An accident."
"How long ago was it?" Dr. Hopper asked realizing that Jefferson couldn't be much older than Emma.
"4 years." Jefferson said quietly.
"When did the two of you get married?" Dr. Hopper asked gently.
"When I was 18. We were married for 6 years." Jefferson looked nervous," Regina says I should be over it. Over her. Some days I believe she's right."
"Why?" Dr. Hopper asked.
"I look at the people I love and I realize how many of them got hurt. It's easier if I'm alone."
"Who got hurt?"
"Saphir, Alice, my dau-" Jefferson cut himself off with a pained noise.
"You have a daughter?" Dr. Hopper said looking at the stressed out man.
Jefferson's voice was tense,"Why does it matter?"
"Jefferson, I'm here to help you." Dr. Hopper started.
"I don't want to talk about it." Jefferson avoiding the shrink's gaze.
"Then what do you want to talk about?" Dr. Hopper asked gently trying to get Jefferson to open up.
Jefferson sat up nervously hearing someone knock at the door, the door creaked open as Henry came bounding in. Henry hesitated when he saw that someone was sitting on the couch, Jefferson flinched away from Henry and stood up,"I think it would be best for me to go."
"Our time isn't up yet." Archie said as Jefferson walked around the door passing Henry without a second glance.
Jefferson stood in the hallway outside and heard Henry talking to Dr. Hopper,"Who was that?"
"A former friend of your mom's." Dr. Hopper said quietly.
"Mom's never mentioned him." Henry said his voice curious.
"Maybe she didn't want you to know. You may not believe it, but your mother does things for a reason." Dr. Hopper said.
Jefferson rubbed his eyes and whimpered before heading anywhere but here, anywhere but the mansion that doubled as a prison. He started off for the general direction of the pawn shop or Granny's he would decide when he got there. When he stopped walking a few hours later, he took a detour if you asked him he couldn't, wouldn't tell you where he went. He stood with his hand on the door to Granny's dinner, looking at a blonde head that looked impossibly familiar.
Jefferson thought to himself,'It can't be her. She died. She's dead, Regina said- Regina.'
The blonde woman moved her long golden hair off her back revealing a circular red and black tattoo of a dragon with three heads, the sigil of her house. Jefferson knew that tattoo well, it was a close reflection of the sharp tongued and fiery hearted princess that Alice was. A side that her soft layered gowns and polite diction hid, a side that Jefferson loved dearly. Jefferson inhaled deeply and opened the door hoping that she was real, that she wasn't a figment of his broken mind. Jefferson gritted his teeth and stepped inside walking to the booth where the blonde woman, his Alice, sat.