She puts her bucket of water down and she stops to rest by the side of the road. Her mind is busy thinking about the dream she had last night so she doesn't really hear the horsemen galloping her way. When she looks up a horse is just a few feet from her so she jumps out of the road as fast as she can and she rolls a couple of times until she lands on her back. She groans softly. She waits until the horsemen have all gone away before she makes an attempt to get up. She doesn't want to talk to anyone.
"Are you alright?" he asks. "Give me your hand."
She looks up at him wondering where he came from. He is tall, blond with blue eyes and if she wasn't both angry and tired of everything and everyone she might have noticed that he had broad shoulders and that he was really handsome. But she doesn't.
"I'm fine," she replies and gets up. She dusts off her clothes and her green cape.
"Are you hurt?" he asks again.
She doesn't reply.
"Let me see your arm," he says and she frowns.
"I don't know what kind of prince you are but I don't need saving" she says matter-of-factly.
"I'm not a prince."
"What? A knight then?"
He shakes his head. "I just work at the king's stables."
"King George's stables? You are not a stable boy. I recognize a royal when I see one."
He shrugs. "I am not a royal."
"Maybe someone scrambled your brain. Tell you what, if I were to grab this branch and hit you what would you do?"
"Why would you hit me?"
"Do I need a reason? Maybe I don't like confused stable boys who get in my way. Answer the question. I am trying to make a point. If I were to hit you with this branch what would you do?"
"Bruise?"
"Fine. I didn't want it to come to this because you sure do seem to be a nice guy..." She grabs the branch and swings for his head really hard.
He ducks. With one swift move he grabs another branch then he turns and masterfully blocks her attempt to hit his knee. Then he turns fast and puts the branch against her neck.
She drops her branch to the ground and raises her hands up breathing heavily.
"I told you."
"What? What was that for?"
"Not only have you had had training but you are really good. I know many stable boys, none of them can do that. If you weren't holding back you would have laid me down flat. You are holding back because I'm a woman. Not everyone can do that in the heat of battle. It takes discipline. Who are you?"
He looks confused. "I, I don't know."
"You best find out then. Or not, it's up to you. Now let me go, I've got things to do."
"Wait. Who are you?"
"It doesn't matter, I'm no one."
"You are definitely not no one."
"Give me a break prince whatever your name is, just leave me alone. I don't have a name."
"Everybody has a name."
"I don't know. I don't remember."
"What do you remember?"
"If I tell you, will you leave me alone?"
"Yes"
"Fine I don't have a name because I did something wrong and I'm being punished for it. And if keep my head down and I complete my sentence I will get my memories back. That's the plan."
"What is your punishment?"
"I carry a bucket of water from the enchanted lake everyday for Queen Regina's bath. It takes me all day to do. It's not a particularly harsh punishment It's just boring, repetitive, designed to teach me some kind of lesson."
"A lesson? What kind of lesson?"
"I don't know, I haven't learned it yet." she replies.
He looks at her. She looks so serious. Did she just make a joke? It's hard to tell.
"And you don't remember what you did?"
She shakes her head.
"How do you know if you even did anything bad at all?"
"Exactly the sort of thinking that will cancel today's work and add another week to my sentencing. Please get out of my way."
"Alright. Look I wasted at least half an hour of your time, let me make it up to you."
"How?"
"I'll carry your bucket for a mile or two."
"You can't, the Queen will know."
"How will she know?"
"The water is a reflective surface. She uses her magic mirror to glance through all reflective surfaces. If you go anywhere near the water bucket she will see you. She will know I didn't carry the bucket all the way."
"Let me see your scarf."
"My scarf? Why?"
"Just give it to me."
She reluctantly takes her scarf of and hands it to him.
"Alright," he smiles then he walks towards the bucket and covers it with the scarf. Then he lifts it up by the handle. "Shall we?" he asks.
She looks at him and something inside her is cracking. She doesn't know what. It's like she built this damn to keep all her emotions and feelings and hopes in check away from her heart and somehow his being there just put a tiny crack on that damn. If she is not careful he might break the whole thing and all her emotions will come flooding out... She can't let that happen.

"Why are you even helping me?" she asks.
He shrugs. "You look like you could use a break," he says.
She shakes her head. "Breaks are dangerous. They give you hope, they give you time to dream, they make you want to change things that can't change," she says.
"What do you want to change?"
She looks at him and she wants to tell him. She hasn't had anyone to talk to for so long...
"How do I know I can trust you? You could be one of her spies for all I know."
"Whose spy? The Queen's? I'm not a spy."
"Yes, that's exactly what a spy would say."
He laughs. "I am a spy," he says.
She looks at him trying not to smile."You are funny," she says. "Alright, I am going to take a chance, And if it adds ten years to my sentencing, so be it,"
He turns and looks at her really concerned. "You don't have to tell me."
"What's the matter? Are you scared? Things getting too real for you?" she asks. He offered to listen. He can't take that back, he just can't.
"Tell me" he says and something in his tone tells her he means it.
"I have this recurring dream..."
"Of what?"
"A baby girl. I am holding a new born baby in my arms and then I give it to someone and I am all alone on a large bed crying..." she says and in her mind she is relieving the moment totally forgotten he is there. She looks as if she's about to cry.
He stops and looks at her. "Someone took your baby away? Who?"
"No, he didn't take it away. I gave it to him. It was my idea."
"Who?"
"I don't know. I'm guessing the baby's father? Or a friend?"
"And you don't remember who he is?".
"I don't. The whole dream is like I'm in a fog. I can't see his face."
He stays silent for a minute. Then he asks "Have you tried looking for her?"
"No," she replies. "I figured that she was part of my crime."
"Your crime?" he frowns. "How can a baby be a crime?"
She sighs. Does she have to spell it out for him? "Maybe I had a child with someone I wasn't supposed to. Maybe that's why I'm being punished."
He nods slightly and looks down.
"So you see, I'm damaged goods Charming, I'm not a maiden in distress you get to save."
"We are all damaged," he shrugs. "Wait. What did you call me?"
"Charming? Like prince Charming? The fairy tale prince that doesn't seem to have a name either..."
"Oh!" he replies. "I'm pretty sure he had a name."
"Did he now?" she says. "What was it?"
"Not a clue."
"Well then."
"I have a name though. I'm David."
"Nice to meet you David."
"I have a weird dream too," he replies.
"Really? What?"
"I made someone a promise that I can't keep," he says and he is speaking very quietly now.
She stops and looks at him. "What did you promise?"
"In the dream I say 'I promise I will always find you'."
"And you can't find them?"
"I don't even remember her. How can I find her?"
"Oh, it's a her? Who is she? Is she pretty?"
"I don't know. Maybe a lover, or my wife, I don't remember."
"So I was right. Your brain has been scrambled too."
"You were right. How did you know?"
"Something about the way you walk or talk. You've definitely been a royal before. Maybe not by birth but at some point you were royalty."
"How do you know so much about royals?"
She shakes her head. "I just do. There are things I just know. Dots that don't connect. Once I finish my sentence I 'll get my memories back and then I'll know."
"How much time do you have left?"
"Twenty eight years."
"No!" he says.
"Yes."
"You can't go along with that!"
"I'm going to skip the part where I ask you how exactly do you figure you get to tell me what I can and cannot do and ask you why. Why do you think that?"
He looks at her as if the answer is very obvious."Because of your baby."
"What! What about my baby?" she asks abruptly and she really wishes she hadn't told this stranger her dream. How dare he use her baby as an argument against her!
"Your baby will be all grown up in twenty eight years," he replies softly as if he's afraid of what the realization is going to do to her.
She freezes. She looks at him then she looks down. He's right. How did she not think of that before? She feels dizzy and the trees seem to spinning around her just a little bit. He just took a giant bolder and catapulted it against her perfectly constructed damn. It is a matter of minutes before the whole damn breaks. She takes a deep breath and shakes her head.
"It's probably better this way." she replies her voice cracked. "What kind of mother would I make? Thank you for your help, I can take it from here." She grabs the handle of her water bucket from his hand and walks away as fast as he can.
"Wait!" he says but she doesn't listen. She walks faster and faster almost running now, tears streaming down her cheeks. She puts her hand in her mouth to keeps her sobs from coming out. She covers at least a mile this way and then when she is certain she's lost him she hides behind the trunk of a giant tree and drops to her knees. She is sobbing, sobbing hysterically, tears and cries and sobs coming out all at once, all the pain she has been holding inside spilling out in big ugly currents of pain and repressed emotion. The baby will be grown up before she gets done with her sentence. How did she not think of that before? It is such an obvious truth. Why did it take a complete stranger to point this out? Why couldn't he have left well enough alone...She is finally done crying. She wipes her eyes, picks up her bucket and walks back to the road. That's when she sees him. He is sitting by the side of the road, waiting for her.
"Why?" she asks. She wants to yell, scream, throw things at him, but she can't because he is just standing there looking at her and it's so nice that he is still there. What's the point of yelling at him anyway? None of this is his fault.
He does't know why. He reaches and picks up her bucket.
She shakes her head and lets him walk beside her and carry the water. They walk in silence for a while, and then he says " Ι think I am supposed to help you out."
"What?' she asks. "How?"
He hesitates. "I am supposed to help you find her."
She turns and glares at him. He needs to stop doing that. Ηe needs to stop bringing up the baby. She doesn't reply.
"Hear me out. I woke up this morning and I knew something was about to change. The king asked me to ride with him to the city which never happens and then he got angry and ordered me off the horse and asked me to get back to the castle on foot. None of this made any sense until I met you. I was supposed to meet you. I was supposed to help you."
"How? How can you possibly help me?"
"You said that I must be a knight. If I hadn't met you I wouldn't have even thought of that. We'll go on a quest. We'll find your child and then maybe I can get some understanding on who I am and who I promised to find and I can keep my promise."
She looks at him and shakes her head.
"Let's pretend for a second that I am in fact part of your redemption quest, which I'm not, or that the queen won't kill me when she finds out that I'm gone, which she will. Or that the king will not throw you in a dungeon when he discovers that you didn't get back to work, which he will. How do you propose we go about finding a lost nameless baby?"
He looks at her and gives her a half smile. "That's easy. All babies have fairy godmothers. We find the fairy that remembers you and your baby. We find out who you are and then we can track the whereabouts of your child."
Not a bad plan. It's simple and brilliant. She sighs. Too bad she can't go through with it.
"Look, that's a pretty good plan and I wish we could do what you are asking, but we can't," and for the first time she chose her words carefully and looks as if she is concerned about disappointing him.
"Why not?" he asks.
"Look at my hand," she says and she pulls up her sleeve. There a small silver chain wrapped around her wrist, so thin it's hard to see. "I am chained, tethered to the queen. I can't go anywhere other than where I'm supposed to."
He stares at her hand. She thinks that he's looking at her chain but he's not. He is looking at her hand, her fingers, her wrist. There's something extremely familiar about her hand. He slowly reaches for it. There's something familiar about her hand in his.
She looks at him and frowns. What is he doing now?
He looks at her face. She looks concerned. He realizes he's acting strangely so he looks down and is about to let go of her hand when he gets an idea. He places her hand inside the bucket of water.
She is about to ask him what on earth was that for but she feels a strange tingling sensation on her hand. She pulls her hand out of the water and looks at it. The silver chain seems to have dissolved.
She gasps and turns to look at him eyes open in wonder. "How?' she asks. "How did you know to do that?"
He is smiling. "I don't know," he says, excitement in his voice. "It's what you said. There are dots inside my head that do not connect. You said the water came from an enchanted lake. It was worth a try." That's the best explanation he can give her. It's not much but she'll take it.
"Alright," she says. "I'll go with you. It's probably a terrible idea but the alternative is terrible too."
"You are coming?" he asks and he looks so happy.
"Why do you want me with you anyway?"
"I don't know how, but I know we are going to make a great team."
She shrugs. "We'll see. Where do we go first?"
He looks up at the position if the sun and then he points to the right. "This way."
"Because?"
"The fairies are towards the east."
"Let's go then," she says and they walk off together.


Thank you for reading- Reviews, complaints, ideas are appreciated!

On my B-day I took a break from my regular story "Storybrooke Elementary" and I wrote this for fun. I wanted to do a sassy angry Snow story. I had a lot of fun so I might continue this later. : )