Fairytales
Daylight crept through the barely there gap in the curtains and spilled across the floor and into the eyes of the sleeping form in the bed. Groaning, the form turned her head away from the prying light and tried to return to sleep. However, the dull thud of a cane on the hardwood in the hallway told her that more sleep would not be coming today.
A soft knock sounded against the door, and a gentle Scottish voice reached her ears. "Are you awake, sweetheart?"
"Unfortunately," the girl groaned.
The man chuckled. "Come on now, if you hurry, we'll have time for breakfast before we head to the shop."
Nicole Isabelle Gold pushed herself into a sitting position and stretched her arms above her head, forcing the last traces of sleep from her body. Swinging her legs out of bed, she padded over to the window and pulled back the curtain enough to see the town below her. Everything and everyone were just as they were every other day.
Mayor Mills (known to Nicole as Auntie Regina) made her way down the street with her hands shoved deep in her pockets as she surveyed the inhabitants of her town. Doctor Hopper and his dog crossed to their office, Mary Margaret hurried towards the school, and Granny and Ruby stood arguing in the street outside their café.
Out of habit, Nicole glanced at the clock and sighed as it still read 8:15. The clock had not moved in as long as should could remember, and no one seemed to be interested in fixing it…or perhaps no one could.
Hearing a pan being set on the stove downstairs brought her back to the present, and Nicole hurried to get ready for her day at her father's shop. Nicole spent the majority of her day helping her father manage the shop and take care of the artifacts within. She had worked there for what felt like forever, but she enjoyed the time she got to spend with her father.
Sometimes, if she was lucky, Auntie Regina would come and visit while her father was out collecting rent. Otherwise, she didn't get to see her aunt very often because of the issues between Regina and her father.
Many people had issues with her father, and Nicole kept mostly to herself because of this. Most of the town looked at her as someone who was probably just as bad as her father, but they never wanted to get close enough to find out. Nicole didn't mind. She had her father, and she had her aunt Regina; she never had any interest in anyone else.
"Sweetheart, breakfast is ready!"
"Coming Daddy!" Nicole called. She glanced at her reflection one last time to fix her long, black curls, grabbed her purse, and headed downstairs to the kitchen. "Smells delicious!" she added, crossing the kitchen and kissing her father on the cheek.
"It's your favorite," he smiled as he began plating the pancakes.
"Uh oh," Nicole smirked.
"What?"
"When I get pancakes you're usually bribing me."
"Am I not allowed to spoil my darling daughter on occasion?" he asked, feigning offense.
"Of course you are, Daddy, but I know you're not," Nicole laughed. "Now what is it?"
Gold sighed and smiled at his daughter. "Regina has asked if you could watch Henry for a little while tonight. She says she has a meeting and doesn't want to leave him alone."
"I'd love to watch him for a while. I love Henry. You didn't have to bribe me to do that, Daddy."
"I know, but I do love to spoil you," Gold replied softly, pulling her into a tight one-armed hug.
"I love you too, Daddy," Nicole smiled, and after a moment's pause… "So, can I borrow the Cadillac to go to his house?"
Gold chuckled. "Eat your breakfast, Nicole."
"That's not a 'no'," Nicole teased.
"It's not a 'yes' either," he reminded her.
After swearing up and down that she would be extra careful, Gold had finally relented and allowed Nicole to take the car over to Henry's house on the condition that she came back to the shop to pick him up when Regina came home. It wasn't as though Nicole couldn't make the walk, but she did love driving her father's car around town and showing off a little.
She pulled up in front of the mayor's mansion and walked up the lawn to see Regina already standing in the doorway with a rare but genuine smile.
"Nikki, dear, how nice to see you!" Regina was the only person allowed to call her "Nikki" except for her father, but he never seemed to want to.
"It's nice to see you too, Auntie," Nicole replied, hugging her aunt tightly.
"I really appreciate you watching Henry for me," Regina sighed as she led Nicole into the house. "I tried everything to move this meeting, but…"
"I understand, and it's no trouble," Nicole assured her. "I love getting a chance to see Henry."
"But I know how you and your father are with your time together…" Regina argued.
"Daddy had some work to finish at the shop, and he's been putting it off for days, so everything works out quite nicely," Nicole laughed.
"He never could tell you no, could he?" Regina smirked with a pointed glance at the car parked at the end of the drive.
"Well, you know me," Nicole winked.
"Hi Nicole!" Henry's voice sounded from the stairs.
"Hey Henry!" Nicole replied, smiling at the boy.
"He's already eaten, but he still has some homework to finish," Regina explained while she was pulling on her coat. "Help yourself to any books or whatever…"
"We'll be fine, Aunt Regina," Nicole soothed her. "Just concentrate on your meeting. I've got things here."
"I know you do," Regina smiled. "I'll be home as soon as I can. Behave Henry."
"I will, Mom," Henry promised and waved as Regina left the house. "I'll be down soon, there's something I want to show you!" Henry said excitedly.
"Make sure you do your work right!" Nicole called as he hurried back up to his room.
Nicole wandered into the living room where there was a stack of books on the shelf and a comfortable couch by the fire. She walked along the shelf, running her fingers over the spines of the books, all of which looked older than even some of the things in her father's shop. Her eyes caught the title of one particular volume: Pirates' Lore and Legend.
Carefully, Nicole pulled the book from the shelf and sat herself comfortably on the couch before cracking the spine and glancing through the table of contents. Running her fingers down the list of stories, something suddenly pulled her towards one in particular. Flipping to the appropriate page, Nicole began to read and quickly became engrossed in the tales of adventure.
"Nicole!" Henry's voice interrupted her concentration, and she jumped.
"In here, Henry!" she replied.
Henry hurried into the room, clutching a large, leather bound book in his arms. "Are you ok?" he asked taking note of her startled expression.
"I-I'm fine. You just surprised me, that's all. I was really into this book."
"What's it about?" Henry asked, sitting down beside her.
"Pirates," Nicole answered. "I guess you could say I've always had a thing for them."
"Well, that makes this easier," Henry said, his eyes gleaming with excitement.
"What is it you wanted to show me so badly?"
"This," Henry whispered dramatically, handing her the large book.
Nicole looked at the cover. "Once Upon a Time?" she raised an eyebrow. "Henry, these are just fairytales. Everyone knows these stories."
"Not these ones," Henry insisted. "These ones actually happened, and the people in them are real. They're the people who live in this town."
Nicole gaped at the boy. "What?!" she cried. "Henry, you've got to be kidding me!"
"I'm serious, look!" Henry opened the book and pointed to an illustration of Snow White and Prince Charming. "You see them?"
"Yeah it's just the story of Snow White."
"No, that's Mary Margaret," Henry explained. "The Evil Queen cast a curse that brought everyone from the fairytales here to this town, and now they're trapped."
"Henry…don't you think they would know and have said something by now?"
"They don't remember!" Henry replied emphatically. "Think about it, do you remember anything about being a little girl? Do you remember going to school or your parents before Mr. Gold adopted you?"
Nicole paused at this. She had to admit, Henry had a point. No one in town seemed to be able to give an answer beyond "…as long as I can remember". She knew that Gold was her adopted father, but she also had no memory whatsoever of him coming into her life. She had always assumed that was because he had taken her when she was a baby, and therefore he was the only father she had ever known, but now she wondered if Henry was onto something.
"Ok, let's assume this is all true," she said slowly. "You said everyone in town was in the book, right?" Henry nodded. "Am I?"
Henry nodded again and opened the book to another colored illustration. "That's you when you were younger," he explained. "That was right after you came to live with your dad."
Nicole ran her hand over the image curiously. Turning the page, she saw a drawing of a man with greenish gold scales sitting beside the child at a spinning wheel. "Is that…" she trailed off.
"Yep," Henry said simply. "It's weird, this is the only part you see a picture of him. That must be because he's with you, so he's not a villain here."
"Daddy…" Nicole whispered, tracing the picture as though pleading with the ink to jog some memory she wasn't even sure she had.
"There's more," Henry encouraged. "You like pirates for a reason." He turned several more pages to when the girl had grown to a young woman. She now stood alone in what looked like a tower room, staring out of a window rimmed in red smoke.
"What is that?" Nicole asked.
"Your magic window," Henry explained. "Your father didn't trust mirrors because of the Evil Queen, so he gave you a window that would show you whatever you wanted to see."
"And I watched the sea?" Nicole asked skeptically.
"Well, you still do it here," Henry observed. "Haven't you ever wondered why?"
"I like the smell of the air," Nicole defended. "It helps me relax."
"No, it's because you're waiting for someone!" Henry corrected. "You fell in love with a sailor on a pirate ship, and you're waiting for him to come back to you like he promised."
"Henry that's impossible!" Nicole sighed. "I've never been in love."
"Not here, but you were there."
Nicole opened her mouth to respond, but the front door opened at that moment, and Henry hurriedly snapped the book shut and hid it under the cushion. "I'm home!" Regina announced. "I managed to cut the meeting short so I could put Henry to bed," she explained as she came around the corner.
"Well I should leave you to it, then," Nicole smiled, standing.
"What were you reading?" Regina asked, nodding to the book in Nicole's hands.
"Oh, it was just a pirate book from your shelf. Sorry, I guess I forgot to put it away when Henry came downstairs."
"It's alright, I haven't touched those books in years, so I probably wouldn't even have noticed," Regina laughed.
Nicole paused and looked at the book in her hands. "In that case, would you mind if I borrowed it for a while? Just to finish it."
"You can keep it if you want," Regina shrugged. "Like I said, I don't touch those books."
"Thank you Auntie Regina," Nicole hugged her aunt and pulled on her coat. "I should get going though."
"Your father will be waiting for you," Regina agreed. "Thank you again for staying with him."
"It's no trouble at all," Nicole smiled. "Call me anytime you need me, and I'll be happy to watch him."
Regina smiled as Nicole walked down the lawn and climbed back into the car. As soon as she was sure Regina had closed the front door, she checked her phone. Her father hadn't texted saying he was finished yet, and the sea was calling her yet again. She started the car and headed for the pier.
What Henry had said about everyone being fairytales, while on the surface an absurd idea, was refusing to be kicked out of her mind as she drove. She began, for the first time, to truly question her attraction to the sea. While it did calm and relax her, she always left with a sense of disappointment as though she had been waiting for something that never came. Henry's explanation was the only one that had ever been offered for this, and Nicole couldn't seem to shake the possibility that he was right.
Still, to believe in magic seemed crazy, but there was a part of her that desperately wanted to accept everything the young boy had said. She parked the car just off the pier and slowly began walking along the sea, breathing in the night air and staring reflexively out at the horizon line.
She laughed at herself after a few moments. What was she expecting to see: a pirate ship bringing back her long lost love that she knew nothing about? Besides, even if Henry was right, she couldn't imagine her father letting her out of his sight let alone be courted by a pirate. As if on cue, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket.
"Hello Daddy," she said with a smile.
"Hey sweetheart," his voice replied. "Has Regina come back from her meeting yet?"
"Yeah, a little while ago, actually," she admitted. "I've just been walking at the pier."
Her father chuckled. "You and that pier. I wish I could understand what it is you find so enjoyable about that place."
"So do I, Daddy…so do I," Nicole whispered, thinking back to what Henry had said.
"Are you alright, darling?" he asked, suddenly concerned at her change in tone.
"Yes I'm fine. I was just thinking about something Henry and I talked about tonight, but it's nothing important," she said quickly.
"Alright if you're sure…" he sounded as though he wanted to press the subject, but Nicole didn't want to try to explain this over the phone if she was to explain it at all.
"Are you finished then?" she asked to change the subject.
"Yes I am, and if you don't mind cutting your walk short, I'd like to go home, or we could always go back to the pier if you wanted…"
"No, I'd like to go home too," Nicole laughed. "I'll be there soon."
"Just be careful on the roads, sweetheart," her father warned.
"I always am, Daddy. See you when I get there."
She heard the click that meant her father had hung up, and she put the phone back in her pocket. She glanced again at the horizon and sighed. "If Henry is right and you are out there somewhere, and I just don't remember, I'm sorry I forgot you. I'm sure I still love you…" She trailed off for a moment and felt a tear leak out of her eye, but couldn't explain the reason for it. Her lips seemed to move on their own as she whispered, "Please find me," before turning and heading for the car to pick her father up from the shop, wiping the unexplained tear from her cheek on the way.
At that moment, worlds away from the shore where Nicole stood, a pirate felt a gentle warmth spreading from a pendant he wore around his neck. Starting, he looked down and heard a female voice, a voice he recognized and had thought never to hear again, whisper, "Please find me."
He gently squeezed the pendant in his hand and turned his now determined eyes back to the sea and the shore of his deserted and destroyed land. "I promised I would come back for you, and I will keep that promise no matter how long it takes me to find a way. I swear, love, I will find you again."
Well, this is my first attempt at Once Upon a Time, but I have been so obsessed with it that I had to try. This story was eating me from the inside out, so I figured I should let it out to share, and I hope you like it so far. Let me know what you think especially about keeping people in character since these characters are so amazing! Please fav/follow/review – it always makes me so happy! Thanks everyone, and I'll have another chapter out soon!