A/N: Hiya! Lol, welcome to the first story, All That Glitters, of my Once Upon a Time Series Bedtime Stories :) This is my first attempt at a Once Upon a Time story so I'm very excited to incorporate my OC into it :) I've written some other stories for Doctor Who, Supernatural, Sherlock, Merlin, Star Trek, and Thor for anyone who might be interested ;) This story will follow the episodes more in terms of what's happening in Storybrooke, but will also have an Enchanted Forest flashback/backstory chapter afterwards :)
This story should be about 21 chapters long and updated daily. This will also be a Gold/OC story ;)
We don't see the OC actually appear in person in this chapter, but we will find out how she knows Gold in the next and see her in the one after ;)
~8~ is a scene break.
Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon a Time...or Henry wouldn't be related to nearly every single character lol :)
~8~
Skin Deep
The town of Storybrooke, Maine was an…interesting town, or at least that was what one August W. Booth thought of it. He stood to the side of the road, watching as a Mr. Gold had another man, Mr. French's, flower truck towed away. The man had apparently taken a loan from Gold and had defaulted. The man was begging and pleading with Gold, asking for more time, just a little more time, and Gold merely smirked and had the truck removed. August watched it go, watched as French's daughter, Isabelle he recalled, rushed out of the florist shop shouting that Gold couldn't do that and someone stop him.
He rolled his eyes at that, that was one of the big things about this town…no one knew who they were, who they truly were and anyone who believed the truth was labeled as mad, such was the case for young Henry Mills, the adopted son of the town's mayor, Regina. If only people knew that Mr. Gold was really Rumpelstiltskin, that the mayor was the Evil Queen, and that Henry was the grandson of Snow White and Prince Charming. If only people knew that HE was really Pinocchio.
But no one did, except him and Henry, though the boy was trying desperately to get his mother, Emma, the daughter of Snow White to believe he was telling the truth, that the town really WAS filled with fairytale characters. It was the boy's mission to get people to remember their pasts, to remember who they were…and it was HIS mission as well, though his main objective was to ensure that Gold remembered. The Queen, obviously, remembered, she was the reason all the others were like this.
There was a time when they all lived in another world, the Enchanted Forest, and they were happy…but the Evil Queen had cast a curse, doomed them to this world, without their memories, without their happy endings…HE had escaped though, he had been lucky.
Well, his mother had escaped as well…though she wasn't quite his mother biologically nor could he call her it now that she appeared the same age as him.
Oh this was a fine mess everyone was caught in.
He shook his head, moving for the diner, Granny's Diner, where the majority of the town seemed to congregate, watching Gold carefully. He couldn't be sure…but he felt like the man might just remember who he was, but he wasn't letting on to anyone. He sighed, stepping into the diner and looking around. He saw Emma Swan, Henry's biological mother speaking with her own mother, Snow White or, as she was known in this world, Mary Margaret, a school teacher. He knew exactly what the topic of conversation was, Henry. The mayor had snapped and forbidden Henry from seeing Emma, which he knew had to hurt the boy, if he'd been forbidden to see his mother he'd be crushed as well.
He moved over to the bar, ordering a coffee, glancing around and watching all the people going about their day. He could see Cinderella, or Ashley here, enter with her baby and felt a frown tug at him. His mother told him all about Rumpelstiltskin, about the deals he made, about one he'd made with Cinderella, the one that had led to his demise and capture. He'd thought, and perhaps hoped, that Gold would have managed to acquire the child in this world, but word around town was Emma had intervened, had asked for a favor from Gold to break his deal with Ashley. He was a little sad about that, it seemed like only HE knew the real reason that Gold had wanted Ashley's child in the first place and it was not anything like many people would assume.
He sat there for only a few more minutes, listening to the women go on and on about how it was Valentine's Day and how they wished they had men or time with their men and all before he felt exasperated listening to them droning on about it and got up to leave. He paused only a moment outside the diner when he spotted Mr. French speaking with the mayor, the woman with a smirk on her face that he KNEW couldn't mean anything good. He shook his head, right now he had bigger things to worry about.
His mother was coming to Storybrooke and he had to pick her up from the train station the next town over.
He smirked as he headed for his bike, this town wouldn't know what hit them.
~8~
Mr. Gold smiled as he headed for his home, thinking about the rather productive day he'd had. As much as he liked seeing his deals come through, he was quite the fan of when others defaulted, either way he got more than he originally bargained for from others. He slowed though, when he spotted, the door to his house open ajar. He reached out and slowly pushed it open all the way, stepping slowly in and pulling out a gun from a nearby drawer before he made his way further in.
He had only reached the sitting room when the floor creaked behind him. He spun around to see Emma with her gun drawn and pointed at him.
"Sheriff Swan," Gold greeted, lowering his gun.
Emma slowly put her gun away as well, "Your neighbor saw your front door open, they called it in."
"It appears I've been robbed," he remarked, eyeing the ransacked room, his living room was a mess, everything overturned and thrown about, almost as though someone were trying to find something specific.
"Funny how that keeps happening to you," Emma murmured, thinking of how Ashley had broken into the man's shop to steal the contract that would have forced her to give up her child to the man.
"Yeah, well, I'm a difficult man to love," he stated, though he sounded quite distracted. Emma watched as he turned, looking at a china cabinet. He walked over to it, opening a small panel in the middle before stiffening, "Sheriff Swan, you can go now. I know exactly what was taken and who did it. I've got it from here."
"No, you don't," Emma shook her head, "This was a robbery, a public menace. And if you don't tell me what you know, I'll have to arrest you for obstruction of justice. I have a feeling you don't want to be behind bars."
"Indeed not," Gold sighed, turning around, "Alright, his name's Moe French. He sells flowers. He recently defaulted on a loan. A short time ago, we had a little disagreement over collateral."
"Ok," she nodded, "I'll go get him, check him out…"
"I'm sure you will, assuming I don't find him…" he smirked, "Let's just say, bad things tend to happen to bad people."
"Is that a threat?" Emma's eyes narrowed.
Gold's smirk morphed into a deadly smile as he shook his head, "Observation. Good luck."
Emma eyed him a moment before she turned and headed out, Gold turning to rest his hand on the open, cushioned box he'd pulled out from the central panel. The indent in the cushion clearly showed two similar shaped objects had been resting there but were now missing.
~8~
Gold was standing before Emma's desk in the sheriff's station, a position he'd helped her win against the mayor's own candidate. She pulled back a sheet, grinning as she revealed quite a few glass items, plates and cups and trays all lined up and stacked on her desk. He eyed them, realizing that they were the items that were taken from his home…but none of them were the items that he WANTED back.
"You're welcome," Emma smirked, pleased with herself, "You were right, your man Moe ripped you off. It was all still at his place."
"And the man himself?" Gold asked.
"Closing in on him."
"So, job well 'half-done,' then," he muttered, his grip on his walking cane tightening as he looked at all the items except the one that actually mattered.
"In less than a day, I got everything back," Emma argued, "Is something wrong?"
"You've recovered nothing," he spat, getting angry, startling her with how suddenly his demeanor had changed, "There's something missing."
She looked back down at the times again as he moved to leave, "I'll get it when I find him," she called after him.
"Not if I find him first," he threatened, letting himself out.
~8~
It hadn't taken long at all for Gold to work out exactly what he was going to do to French and how he'd accomplish it. So, that night, he took a small stroll to the local convenience store in town and ended up, as luck would have it, standing before Prince Charming himself, or David Nolan as he was addressed in this world, on line, both men waiting to buy their items. He glanced back at the man, eyeing the two rather different Valentine's cards he'd selected, a serious one and a cartoonish one, "Two valentines, sounds like a complicated life."
He'd been there before. Not at the same time, but two women that he loved dearly. One an awful mistake, the other…an awful loss. It wasn't well known through town, but he had eyes and ears everywhere. David Nolan was a married man, to a blonde woman named Kathryn, yet he was well aware the man was also seeing Mary Margaret as well. It was quite clear which card was for which woman.
"Oh, no. I…I just couldn't decide," David stuttered.
"These are both for the same woman?"
"Well, they're both so…us."
"I see," Gold would have smirked at the useful blackmail he was gather, had his thoughts not been on something far more serious…like potential murder, "Well, you're fortunate you have someone that loves you."
"I really am," David smiled.
He paused, looking at David as he put his duct tape and rope on the counter, "Love…it's like a delicate flame. And once it's gone, it's gone forever. Best of luck to you."
David looked up, stunned, he'd never known Gold to sound so human, so genuine in wishing luck, or so...pained, "Thanks," he said softly.
Gold nodded and paid, heading out of the shop, he had to see a man about a rather important item and then he'd have to see the man's daughter about a funeral.
~8~
To say anyone in town was surprised when, only hours later, Gold was arrested by Emma Swan for assault against Moe French, that the man had nearly beat French to death with his cane…would be a lie. Gold was a dangerous man, everyone knew that, and everyone knew NOT to mess with him or double cross him or even attempt to one up him. They knew that if you defaulted on a loan or a deal, you dealt with it, you did NOT react or respond or attack him.
Moe French had done just the opposite and so it wasn't a surprise to anyone to learn Gold had gone after him. It WAS a bit of a shock, enough for whispers to resound around town, that he'd gone THAT far. Usually he'd just put on his lawyer cap and sue the person in question till they relented, till they lost everything except the shirt on their back. For him to physically attack someone? That was something new to them.
It was that fact, that that was so unlike Gold that had Emma watching him carefully as she sat at her desk in the sheriff's office, Gold sitting on the cot in one of the jail cells across from her. She'd run into a cabin, having tracked French there upon word from his daughter that her father often went there for peace, to see Gold beating the man with his cane, shouting for him to give it back, that it was hers and was all he had left. She knew it had to be whatever object Gold though French still had in his possession, but she'd searched the cabin and nothing was there. She'd looked everywhere but not even Gold had found whatever it was, not on Moe, not in his car, in his house, at his job, anywhere.
And that seemed to infuriate Gold all the more as he sat there, glaring across him at the bars.
She was unperturbed though as she simply went about eating her lunch, "Pastrami," she waved her sandwich at him, "You want half? You know, I still owe you that favor. Nice, fatty pastrami. Delicious way to clear the books."
Gold just glared at her, still in a foul mood, "Well, I don't need a reminder that you owe me a favor. And when the day comes that I make my request, it'll be for more than half a sandwich."
"Sheriff Swan?" the mayor called as she entered the room with Henry, "I'm letting you have thirty minutes with Henry. Take him out, buy him ice cream."
"You want me to leave you alone with a prisoner?" Emma scoffed.
Regina just looked at her watch, "Twenty nine and a half minutes."
"Hi, Emma," Henry smiled.
"Hey," she nodded at her son.
Gold had to smile at that though, mother and child, "Bring me back a cone?" he taunted, already knowing that Emma would break protocol to go somewhere with her son.
Emma sighed, giving in, "Just this once. Come on," she stood, "Let's go," she grabbed her coat and rushed out with Henry.
Gold just stared at Regina, glared at her more like it, working out the truth of what had happened by the smirk on the woman's face, "Well, you really wanted that little chat, didn't you?" Gold remarked, recalling how Regina had repeatedly asked to speak to him before French had gotten the brilliant idea to rob him. Wonder where THAT notion came from.
"Apparently, this is the only way I could do it," Regina smirked, not agreeing or denying the implication that she'd put French up to the theft.
"Please, sit," he gestured at a couch near the cell and Regina sat down, "Now, when two people both want something the other has, a deal can always be struck. Do you have what I want?"
"Yes."
"So, you did put him up to it, then," he glared, not liking how easily he'd been fooled into reacting, how easily he'd fallen into her trap. He hated the knowledge that she now knew how to get to him, how to make him act first and think later, that he had proven yet again, how important the item she'd stolen was to him, how important the woman who it belonged to was to him as well.
"I merely suggested that strong men take what they need," Regina shrugged.
"Oh, yeah," he nodded, his glare intensifying as his voice tightened in anger, "And you told him just exactly what to take, didn't you?"
"We used to know each other so well, Mr. Gold. Has it really come down to this?"
"It seems it has, yeah. But you know what I want, what is it you want?"
"I want you to answer one question," she told him, "And answer it simply…" she leaned in, eyeing him, "What's your name?"
"It's Mr. Gold."
"Your real name."
He leaned in as well, "Every moment I've spent on this earth, that's been my name."
"But what about moments spent elsewhere?"
He smirked, "What are you asking me?"
"I think you know," her eyes narrowed, "If you want me to return what's yours…tell me your name."
"Rumpelstiltskin," he glared at her, telling her instantly at the threat against his beloved object.
Her eyes widened, that should be impossible! No one but HER was supposed to remember anything, "How…"
"Her magic protected me," he said, not about to tell her if that was a lie or not, she didn't need to know the real method of his retained memories. He leaned towards the bars even more hissing threateningly, "Now. Give. It. Back."
Regina's jaw tensed but she stood, reaching into her purse and pulling out the object he was so determined to get back. He held out his hand and she dropped the two broken pieces into his palm. He pulled his hand back through the bars with a snap, looking at the small wooden bits, snapped in two, and sat down heavily on the cot, his fingers lightly running over the carvings and grooves.
"Thank you…your Majesty," he murmured, before glancing at her, "Though, now that we're being honest with each other, let's remember how things used to be, shall we? And don't let these bars fool you, dear. I'm the one with the power around here. I'm going to be out of here in no time, and nothing between us will change."
Regina opened her mouth to sneer at him…when Emma walked back in, "It's your lucky day Gold," she called, Henry walking after her with a cone in his hand, "Someone in town actually likes you," she held up a small white envelope, "You made bail."
Regina turned to her, her mouth hanging open at the turn of events, who in the world would make bail for GOLD?
~8~
Gold sighed as he walked up the steps to his house one more time, pausing when he caught sight of the door open just a crack, just as it had been the first time. His expression darkened, his eyes hardening as he strode forward quickly. He pushed the door open so quickly it slammed against the wall as he stormed in, pulling the gun from his pocket as his grip on his cane tightened. He walked in, glancing to his left into the sitting room, trying to find who had broken in this time…when a speck of white caught his eye. He turned, looking straight ahead and walked forward, his gaze locked on the parchment stuck to the frame of one of the doors with a small tack. He slowly lowered the gun, half dropping it on the dresser beside him as he walked towards it.
There were only five words on the note.
You are losing your touch.
PR
He grinned, seeing the R set slightly lower and with a line through its loop, her own distinct method signature, not the first initials of her name, but the first and last.
His hand moved to his pocket where he could feel the two bits of broken pipe just within and smiled.
Piper.
A/N: Bit of a short chapter, but I wanted to sort of set the scene for Gold and August, we'll find out more about Piper as the story goes, but I can say that I envision her to be the 'real' Pied Piper ;) There's definitely more to her than meets the eye and we'll get a BIG sense of who she is as a character in the next chapter as well as what happened to Belle ^-^
