A/N: So, I really like Once Upon a Time. I just got into it, but I do not own any of it. Sadly I am a store manager, and I might not be able to update regularly, but I really like my original character, and I hope you will too. Ava, my OC, is mine, and like I stated before i only own her and her story line. I do not own the story line of OUAT or it's characters. I might be altering some things, though. Hope you read and enjoy.
Closing up at the end of the night is one of my favorite parts of my job. Yes, I own the Drury Lane Bakery, but I love going home and sleeping so I can get to the second best part of my job. I love opening in the morning, and baking sweets and treats for the citizens of Storybrooke to enjoy. It had always been my dream, and thanks to the very generous loan from Mr. Gold I was able to open it. My bakery has been open for many years and I am happy to say that I have paid back the Loan that Mr. Gold. The only thing that I have to pay is rent so I am able to stay in this spot on the main street.
As I am locking up, basket of leftovers on my arm, I see a new car come down the street. The yellow VW Bug stops suddenly and a tall blonde woman gets out of the driver's side and slams the door shut. Then a familiar little boy gets out of the passenger side and walks over to the strange woman. I can't hear what they are talking about, but I start to walk over. As I get closer I notice Dr. Archie Hopper walking his adorable Dalmatian, and heading towards Henry and the woman.
"Henry, What are you doin' here?" The kind doctor asked.
"Is everything alright?" I added. We both stood in front of them and wondered who this strange woman was, and why Henry was with her.
"I'm fine Archie, Ava." Henry went to go pet Pongo, and that reminded me of something that I had been saving. I pulled out a treat for Pongo that I had made this morning. I handed it to Henry so he could give it to the beautiful Dalmatian. He smiled at me as Archie started to talk to the stranger.
"Who's this?"
"Just someone trying to give him a ride home." She did not seem pleased to be here so late at night. I don't know where she came from, but I do not blame her one bit.
"She's my mom Archie." What? What did he say? I shared a concerned glance with Dr. Hopper.
"Oh. I see." We said at the same time. The woman seemed super uncomfortable. It was cold outside, but not enough for her to be trying to maintain body heat, by crossing her arms over her body, when she had a nice leather coat on.
"Either of you know where he lives?"
"Yeah, sure." We said
"Just right up on Mufflin Street." Archie explained.
"The Mayor's house is the biggest one on the block." I expended. Her expression seemed to morph into one of surprise, mouth slightly agape.
"You're the Mayor's kid?" Henry looked at the wet asphalt under his feet.
"Uh..maybe." Henry avoided eye contact with everyone in front of him.
"Hey, where were you today? You missed your session." I heard from Archie earlier that the young boy had missed his appointment, and he had gotten quite worried. I calmed him down with a free cupcake, and some comforting words.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I went on a field trip." It is a partial truth. His eyes still not meeting anyone else's. Archie kneeled in front of him.
"Henry, what did I tell you about lying?" Henry didn't answer him, so Archie continued. "Giving into one's dark side never accomplishes anything." I looked at the blonde woman, and her brow furrowed in confusion.
"Oookay. Well, I really should be getting him home."
"Yeah, sure, well listen. Have a good night, and ah you be good Henry." The woman gave Archie a fake smile as he walked away. Then she turned to me.
"Like I said, I have to get him home." She said. Wow, so much attitude.
"It's okay Emma, she's a friend." Henry smiled at me.
"Since you didn't make it to your appointment with Dr. Hopper, you didn't get to come to the bakery after for a treat." His smile grew with anticipation. "No, you may not have your treat now. It is too late in the night, and your mother would not like me so much." His face fell. "I'll tell you what. After your next session I'll give you double what you usually get." As his face brightened up I turned my attention to this 'Emma' person. "Thank you for bringing him back. He is quite the troublemaker sometimes."
"No problem." I turned away to walk towards home. I heard a little of the conversation between Emma and Henry. "So that's your shrink? And you're friend the baker?"
"I'm not crazy, and Ava gives me free cupcakes. They are so good." I smile at that, and I finally get too far away to hear them. Once I get home to my apartment I lock up, change into my nightclothes, and head off to dreamland after setting my alarm for five in the morning. I have to get to the shop to make the pastries for breakfast time. Plus, I have to get some over to Granny's for her to sell.
Waking up from a dreamless sleep to the harsh sounds of my alarm is normal to me. Sometimes I even wake up a little before my alarm goes off. I turn it off quickly as to not wake Mary Margaret, my neighbor. I get out of bed, take a shower, get dressed, brush my hair and teeth, and lock my door on the way out. Running down the stairs, skipping stairs on the way. Speed walking down the street as I put my, blue-green dyed, hair up in a high ponytail. I am the only one on the street because it was so early in the morning.
Finally getting to the bakery I unlock the door and head inside, not flipping the closed sign to open yet. I put my apron on and start mixing ingredients to make the dough that a good amount of my product is made from. First I make bagels, donuts, muffins, and English muffins. Once those are done it is about 6:30. Quick, I know, right? I am not called the best baker in town for no reason. I package up the product to bring them to Granny for her to sell.
As I balance the boxes of morning bakery items I try to close and lock the door as I usually do. The door was not closing all the way. As I struggle with the door I start to lose the balance of the boxes. One final harsh tug on the door finally closes it, but the boxes start to tip and fall out of my grip.
"No, no, no, no." I can't stop them, so all I can do is watch as my hard work falls to the ground, but they do not actually hit the ground. Something does happen to hit the ground, and when I look to the ground I see a cane. The very cane of he one and only pawn shop owner. "Mr. Gold!" I look up, and he has caught the boxes that were about to fall.
"Door giving you trouble, dearie?" I just look at him, mouth hung open, eyes wide. I quickly snap out of it, shaking my head.
"Well, it doesn't usually give me much trouble, but today I guess it didn't want to close." I just stared at him. I then realize that he is still holding my boxes. "Oh, let me take those from you." He hands me the boxes and once again I balance them in my arms. "Sorry to trouble you, Mr. Gold, and thank you so much for saving my baked goods."
"It's really no trouble. I was just passing by, and saw that you were having trouble. I can get someone to come look at the door if you'd like." I paused to think about it.
"I don't want to trouble you. I can deal with it for now. Thank you, though." He shook his head as he picked up his cane.
"I insist. We don't want you having another incident like this one, now do we?" The corners of my mouth turned up, and a smile broke out across my face. With all the bad rap that Mr. Gold gets, he sure is nice to me. "I'll have someone over later today. Have a nice day, Ava."
"Yeah, You too." Mr. Gold walks past me to his shop, and I hurry to Granny's to give her the product. "Hey Granny, sorry I'm late. I almost dropped everything on the ground." She looked at me concerned.
"What happened?"
"Oh, just the door giving me trouble again." I said as I put the boxes down on the counter.
"That is no good. You should have someone take a look at that for you." She looks at the pastries and starts counting out some money.
"Well, Mr. Gold actually saw my struggle and said he would send someone over to look at it today." Granny gave me the money for the product, and she looked at me with concern.
"Be careful with him, Ava. You know how he is. Always looking for a deal in his favor."
"I know, I know. I'll be careful." I smiled at her and walked out of the diner. On my way back to the bakery I see Dr. Hopper and Mary Margaret. I say good morning, and smile at them as I pass by. I make it to my shop, open the door, flip the closed sign to open, and I get back to baking.
Later that day, around two o'clock, I closed up shop. Sure, it is really early, but I am the owner of the shop and I am the only worker in my bakery. I deserve a break now and then. As I start walking towards granny's to get a bite to eat I see the Emma woman speed walking down the street. She looked in a hurry, and she looked as if she were trying to find something. When she spotted me, she ran right up to me.
"Hey, you're Henry's friend, right?" I just looked at her with concern.
"Yeah, I guess he would say that. What' wrong?" She was breathing a bit heavily.
"He disappeared again. He didn't make it to school, and Mary Margaret said to check his castle." Realization hit me and I smiled. "Do you know where his castle is?"
"Yes I do. I am actually on break. I can bring you to him. Just let me grab something real quick." I go back into the bakery and grab one of the cupcakes from the display case. I bag it up and show Emma to the castle after locking up the shop. I bring her down to the edge of the water where the old wooden castle playground. Emma walked up onto the castle with the Once Upon A Time storybook as I followed. She sat down next to him.
"You left this in my car." She said as she handed the book back to Henry. He took the book, not saying anything to her. I found that that was a good time for me to step in.
"I brought you a cupcake to make up for the one you missed yesterday." He looked up at me as he took the bag with the cupcake inside.
"I thought you were going to give me double the next time I had a session?" Smart kid.
"I thought that you could use it today, and having two at once is a little much." He took the cupcake out and started to eat it as Emma continued to talk to him.
"Clock still hasn't moved, huh?" Ah, the clock that has not moved for as long as I can remember.
"I was hoping that when I brought you back, things would change here. That the final battle would begin." What battle? This isn't medieval times.
"I'm not fighting any battles, Kid."
"Yes, you are. You're here because it's your destiny. You're going to bring back the happy endings." Oh Henry, still believing that everyone is a story book character.
"Can you cut it with the book crap?"
"Watch it with the language. He's only ten years old." What a great mother she would be.
"Sorry. Geeze."
"You don't have to be hostile. I know you like me. I can tell. You're just pushing me away because I make you feel guilty." Wow, the truth is spoken. "It's okay, I know why you gave me away. You wanted to give me my best chance." Emma looked like a weight had been sort of lifted. She let out a deep breath, but her eyes looked sad.
"How do you know that?"
"It's the same reason why Snow White gave you away."
"Listen to me kid. I am not in any book. I'm a real person, and I'm no savior. You were right about one thing, though. I wanted you to have your best chance, but it's not with me." This is super akward for me, so I try to break the tension.
"Come on, let's go. Your mom is worried about you." I say. Emma gets off the castle and starts walking towards town. Henry and I go to get down another way.
"Please don't take me back there. Just stay with me for one week. That's all I ask. One week and you will see I'm not crazy."
"I have to get you back to your mom, and Ava has to get back to work." She looked at me pleading for help. I shook my head. I wasn't going to help her. Henry was almost in tears at this point.
"You don't know what it's like with her. My life sucks." I wouldn't say his life is that bad, but I don't live with them. I don't really know anything that goes on in the Mayor's house.
"Oh, you want to know what sucking is? Being left, abandoned, on the side of the freeway. My parents didn't even bother to drop me off at a hospital. I ended up in the foster system, and I had a family until I was three, but then they had their own kid, so they sent me back." This is really not something I should be listening to, but I can't really get out of the situation right now. Thinking about Emma's story, and thinking about how I would feel if I was in her place made my eyes start to tear up. Then I thought about my own family. I used to have the largest family, but now it is just me. By the time I turned twenty-eight I was the only one left. There was always a hidden illness that Dr. Whale hadn't seen, or a deadly car accident. Then I was left alone to take care of myself. "Look, your mom is trying her best. I know it's hard, and I know sometimes you think she doesn't love you, but at least she wants you."
"Your parents didn't leave you on the side of the freeway, that's just where you came through."
"What?"
"The wardrobe. When you went through the wardrobe you appeared in the street. Your parents were trying to save you from the curse." His answer must have been somewhat comforting to Emma because a smile appeared through her tears.
"Sure they were. Come on, Henry" With that, the three of us walked back into town. I couldn't go all the way to the Mayor's house with them, but I took the bag and cupcake wrapper from the fully eaten treat so Henry's mother wouldn't catch him with it. I made my way back to the shop and found Mr. Gold and Marco standing by my door. I had totally forgotten that Mr. Gold was going to get the door looked at.
"Hello, Mr. Gold, Marco. Sorry, I was just on break."
"No worries, Miss Ava." Marco replied. "Mr. Gold here told me of your door trouble this morning, and I am happy to help out." He is such a sweet old man. I unlocked the door and went inside, leaving it open for Marco to look at it. I turn on the lights, tie my hair up, and put my apron on before continuing my baking. I hadn't known that Mr. Gold had come in and sat down at one of the few tables that I had set up in the front of the shop until I started putting finished products in the display case.
"Ah, are you waiting for fresh pastries, Mr. Gold?" He smiles as he gets up from his seat.
"Well, yes and no. I would love to get one of your famous cupcakes to go, please. Also, it is rental payment day." Was it that day already? Well, I always put the money aside the moment I have enough for the rent.
"Is it that day already? Let me go fetch it real quick." I go back to my safe in the back and pull out the envelope with the rent money. I go back up front, and hand him the envelope. I get the usual flavor of cupcake Mr. Gold gets and bag it up for him. "There you go. Rent for the shop and rent for my apartment."
"Thank you, dearie. Marco said that it just had something to do with moisture, from the rain yesterday, expanding the wood. It shouldn't happen tomorrow, but be careful next time it rains."
"Thank you so much Mr. Gold." I said as I escorted him to the front door with a smile.
"There is no need for you to thank me, Ava." My expression turned into one of shock.
"But there is, you had Marco look at my door, and you are one of the best patrons. Plus, I can never thank you enough for helping me start my bakery." A smile appeared on my face once again as we made it out onto the street.
"Well, it was my pleasure. I'll see you around." He started walking towards his next tenant to collect rent. I took a deep breath and went back to work." The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, and I went home after closing up shop. After getting ready for bed I went to the window, where my alarm clock rested. I was looking outside towards the clock tower for a moment, and the minute hand of the clock moved. How did that happen? My thoughts are brought back to what Henry was saying, about how he thought that bringing Emma into town would break some curse. Part of that curse was that the clock tower was frozen, or was it that time in the town was frozen? Whichever it was, I knew Henry would be very happy that the clock tower was working once again. I finally set my alarm clock and drift into another dreamless sleep, at least that is what I thought would happen.
A/N: I hope you like it. In the next chapter you will understand why Mr. Gold is so nice to Ava. Please leave a review. I can't wait to hear what you think of my story.