Okay all you Oncer's, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for giving this fan-fiction a chance. And for those of you who guessed at the origins of our young heroes, here's the run-down (at least how it appears in the Storybrooke universe in my head):
McKenzie (14) and Addison (10) belong to Regina and Emma because, despite all this Hook and Neal stuff, I can't imagine them not being together. The chemistry is just too good and the idea of passing on that kind of magic to a new generation leaves endless possibilities. Plus I feel like the Evil Queen and the Saviour balance each other out perfectly. Don't get me wrong, Neal would spend a lifetime making everything up to Emma and Henry. They would be the perfect little family. And Hook is just roguishly dashing. But I can't imagine Emma ever having a real relationship with either of them.
Talon (16) belongs to Snow and Charming. He's Emma's little brother, though in this story he isn't quite so little anymore. I feel like he and Emma would have a good relationship. Talon is a mini-Charming in looks and personality and he is very protective of McKenzie and Addie.
Melody (16) belongs to Eric and Ariel. If anyone is familiar with Disney's version of the Little Mermaid, they know there is a baby in the second movie Disney made. Her name is Melody and I borrowed that for this story but her look is slightly different from the movie since I wanted to pass on the iconic red hair.
Skye (15) belongs to Ruby and…well frankly I don't know who. Though Red seemed all innocent and cutesy in the Enchanted Forest flashbacks, Ruby was less reserved in her Storybrooke endeavours. Because of that I feel like Skye's father is a mystery because Ruby just doesn't know who it is (a bit of a Mamma Mia predicament). I honestly can't picture Ruby settling with anyone, even in the future, and I think her and Granny would do a good job raising Skye without a father in the picture. (Is anyone else super bummed that Megan Ory has left the show?)
Kai (14) is Mulan's son with Robin Hood. I love Mulan and Aurora but I feel like that pairing would never come to be because I truly believe Aurora is in love with Philip and will move on and have a bunch of sleeping beauty babies with him. Being the noble and respectful person she is, Mulan goes ahead and joins Robin's group of 'Merry Men' and eventually I think the two would fall in love, maybe not true love, but since Robin doesn't know of Regina's existence in this fic, I think they would be a happy couple. At least until Robin Hood is killed…sorry…he has to die because I can't risk him coming back and upsetting SwanQueen. So yeah, Kai is from the Enchanted Forest, born and raised. Storybrooke of the future has been established with a permanent link back to the Enchanted Forest so most of the characters can come and go as they please. Kai spends a lot of time in Storybrooke and has a tight friendship with McKenzie.
Rowe (15) is the result of a little too much rum. Inspired by the latest episode in which Tinkerbelle tells Regina she needs a drink and Hook's fondness for alcohol, and because the writers so easily insinuated that something could happen between them (Emma: "Were you two just?"…Because that was the first thing that came to mind when I heard mother superior screaming for her life? -_- ). Tinkerbelle and Hook are definitely not a couple in this fic but they have a kid. I'm not sure what kind of parents they're going to end up being but I wanted them both in the story. (Anyone else love the fact that they keep Tink's hair in her signature bun on the show?)
And finally, Rosie (7) is Rumbelle! Enough said.
Other fairy-tale children may pop up as the story progresses (you can make suggestions for which couples you'd like to see have kids and I'll try to work them in)…we'll just have to wait and see.
Anyway, enough of the long winded author's note. Here's the next part, which takes place in Future Storybrooke and actually backtracks to twenty-four hours before the prologue. Enjoy! Oh, and review if you want to see more:D
Storybrooke of the Future: 24 Hours Before
Rosie stared at her hands folded beneath the table. She knew if she avoided her vegetables long enough, Papa would excuse her and then she would be free to read until bedtime. Mama was always a bit stricter but when Rosie smiled and dropped her eyelashes just right they couldn't resist.
"Dearie, I don't think you're quite done yet," Rumplestiltskin said to his daughter.
"But Papa, I don't like green vegetables," she whispered, chancing a quick glance at her mother from beneath her glasses.
Belle cleared her throat and tried to hide the smile that was quirking at her lips. The pleading look on her daughter's face over something as trivial as vegetables was almost comical. But if Belle was to admit anything to herself, it would be that her daughter had inherited her knack for getting exactly what she wanted with a pout and a flutter of her lashes. In Belle's experience, that look was most effective when bargaining with the Dark One. Rosie had picked up on that and, after only seven years, she had her father wrapped around her finger.
But so did Belle. She turned her crystal blue stare on her husband and gently arched her eyebrow. It was an invitation. It was Rumple's turn to enforce the rules. Belle wasn't going to let him slip away again, leaving her to be the one who placed boundaries on their daughter's whims and wishes. Parenting wasn't easy. Nothing about raising a perpetually curious seven year old with a knack for getting into trouble was easy, but there had to be some rules, and eating vegetables was one Belle figured they could manage to enforce without too much effort. She pursed her pink lips and dropped her lashes, shadowing her eyes.
Rumplestiltskin gave a defeated sigh and begrudgingly agreed, although silently, and Belle smiled. He knew that fixed stare too well to imagine he was getting out of it. To be honest it made his heart pound when Belle looked at him like that, and even after all this time he knew he would walk off the edge of the earth if that's what she asked of him.
Rosie didn't miss the exchange. She knew something secret and silent had transpired between her parents. They had this way of talking sometimes, where no words, only thoughts passed between them with a series of looks and nods and eye rolls. For whatever reason, her mother usually ended up winning those silent exchanges. At least, her father never looked entirely pleased afterwards.
And yet, each time, he abided by his silent promises.
"Rosie, sweetheart, it is not a matter of liking what's on your plate. It is a simple matter of finishing it," he said with very little enthusiasm.
"Vegetables are good for you," Belle added.
Rosie slouched in her chair. "I wish Bae was here. We never have to eat things like this when he comes for dinner," she said. Bae always swindled pizza out of her parents, or better yet, an evening trip to Granny's. Rosie pushed the broccoli to the other side of her plate. Maybe if she pushed it around enough it would just disappear. Like a magic trick.
"Can I have a dog?" she asked suddenly.
Rumplestiltskin stopped eating and looked at Belle who wiped her face on her napkin and turned to their daughter. "Whatever do you want a dog for?"
Rosie shrugged and dropped her fork beside her plate. "I think they like vegetables."
Rumplestiltskin chuckled and Belle smiled gently. "They might, but not your vegetables," she said, brushing a stray strand of dark brown hair from her daughter's face.
Rumplestiltskin stilled at the gesture. It was something Belle did often, but each time the striking resemblance between mother and daughter still caught him off guard: piercing blue eyes; dark waves of hair; fair, porcelain skin. Rumplestiltskin secretly feared the day his daughter decided her love lied in anything other than books. He filled her room with them. Shelves upon shelves upon shelves of stories, giving her a library of her very own as he had once done with Belle.
But with Belle it had been a peace offering, a chance to win her affection. With Rosie it was an attempt to keep her trapped in the land of fantasy for as long as possible. To keep her little and full of wonder. He couldn't bear to see her grow up. Seven already and growing every day. She had her mother's endless curiosity and his affinity for trouble. What would she be like—dare he say it—as a teenager? No, he couldn't think about it, he wouldn't. Rosie would always be his little girl. She would always come to him for help and he would always quell her nightmares and inspire her dreams.
"I'll tell you what," he began. "You finish your dinner and afterwards we'll practice magic."
Rosie's eyes lit up at the suggestion. "Oh, really Papa?"
"Only if you finish all of your dinner, okay?"
Rosie giggled and picked up her fork. "Then the deal is struck," she said. With new vigour, she attacked the rest of her plate and choked down the parts she would happily feed to a dog if she had one. When she was finished, she pushed her plate away and jumped from the table. "May I be excused," she asked in a rush. Her feet were on the stairs before either of her parents could answer.
Belle nodded as her daughter disappeared out of sight, no doubt eager to finish whatever homework Snow had given the second grade class so her father could make good on his deal. A deal! He had struck a deal to get her to eat her vegetables. Belle stifled the laugh as she pushed her plate away as well and looked at Rumplestiltskin. "You're making deals with our daughter now, I see." She folded her hands under her chin.
"My deals are not always struck for my gain," he defended. "Sometimes they are for the benefit of others." He smiled and spun his wine glass in his hand.
Belle pursed her lips and regarded him. Rumplestiltskin's heart fluttered.
"And if I recall correctly it was you striking the deals last night," he said. There was a lusty darkness in his voice.
"So it was," Belle agreed. Her cheeks flamed, a look Rumplestiltskin still enjoyed eliciting from his wife whenever he could. It brightened her eyes and caused her to smile endlessly. Belle cleared her throat. The fire in her cheeks may have betrayed her emotion but her eyes still conveyed her intention.
"Don't look at me like that, dear," Rumplestiltskin said.
"Like what?" Belle asked innocently.
He smirked. "Like I've cheated my way through this parenting trap."
Belle leaned back in her chair. "I never said that."
"Ah, but you were thinking it." Rumplestiltskin wagged his finger at her. "I know you were. You never implied I had to get her to eat her vegetables in any particular way, only that she should eat them. In my experience bribery always works."
Belle gave a vague nod of her head. "You have no idea what I was thinking," she said.
"Oh really. Would you like to tell me where my observations might have gone astray then?"
"Mmm hmm." Belle stood from her chair and walked towards her husband. He pushed his chair away from the table and she settled herself on his lap. "Would you like to make a deal with me?" she whispered in his ear.
"Always," he said. His arms snaked around her waist and hooked at the small of her back. "What are your terms?"
Belle's eyes fell to his lips. "I'm not sure yet," she freely admitted, "but I was thinking that we now have a moment to ourselves. I don't think I got a proper 'hello' when you came home from work."
Her lips parted and Rumplestiltskin closed the distance. Hands roamed freely. Noses touched. And for several minutes the gasping breaths became few and far between, each one expertly calculated between a heated kiss.
"Hello," Rumplestiltskin murmured, threading his fingers through Belle's long hair. After all this time she still wore it down, loose around her shoulders, just for him.
"Hi," Belle whispered back.
As their lips pulled apart for the last time, Rumplestiltskin was struck by an errant thought. Perhaps he had indeed struck the deal with his daughter for his own personal gain. And what a deal it was turning out to be.
Rosie slammed her notebook closed, dropped the pencil, and switched off her lamp. Multiplication was done. She had learned the difference between a noun and a verb and the supplies for the bird house she was supposed to be making at school tomorrow were already packed in her bag. She took the stairs two at a time, humming under her breath as she went, and raced into the dining room, her socked feet sliding against the hardwood floors.
"Papa, I've finished all my homework," she declared, righting her glasses. Her eyes focused on her father's body. It was collapsed against the table. His chest was resting on his plate, his arms hanging loose by his sides. "Papa," she whispered, stepping closer. Surely he wasn't asleep at the table. She had only been gone a few minutes.
He couldn't have possibly been that tired, not enough so that he would forget about their deal.
"Papa?"
Rosie reached out for his shoulder but in that same instance she stumbled. Looking down she found her mother passed out on the floor at the base of the table. She dropped to her knees and held her mother's face between her hands. She was ice cold. "Mama," Rosie cried. She shook her mother's body. Nothing happened. Rosie rested her forehead against her mother's. She could feel warm breath on her face.
Her mother wasn't dead. And neither was her father. They had both fallen into a strange sleep.
A deep, enchanted sleep.
Storybrooke of the Future: 23 Hours Before
Skye Lucas was running late for her shift at Granny's, really, really late, and it may or may not have been because she was hooking up with a guy on the outskirts of town. In all reality there hadn't been much hooking up or anything else going on. She wasn't exactly sure of what to expect, but she knew enough to know that the guy didn't usually pass out cold before anything happened.
Skye had waited around for a while to see if he would wake up, but the jerk-off had fallen asleep on her. He didn't even have the decency to drive her back to town, which now explained why she was running through the streets of Storybrooke attempting to fix her impossibly straight hair into a ponytail while jamming her feet into non-slip work shoes.
The bell above the diner door jangled obnoxiously as she forced her way inside. It was completely empty: display cases were dimmed, the blinds had been shut. They usually closed early on Tuesday's, but not this early. What time was it anyway? Skye reached for her back pocket. She felt her IPod but no phone. "Dammit," she said. The phone must still be in the deadbeat's truck.
She glanced at the clock on the far wall and cringed. 7:36. Okay, so, maybe she was extremely late for her shift. Three-and-a-half hours late to be exact. Stupid boys. Stupid hormones. Stupid delinquent teenager brain. Stupid her for always doing stupid things.
Skye dropped her bag on the nearest table and collapsed into a chair. She covered her eyes with her hands and groaned. She could feel a headache coming on.
She deserved it.
"Nice of you to show up," her mother said, clicking her manicured nails on the vinyl counter top. Skye cringed. She hadn't even noticed her there.
Ruby cocked her head and waited for the excuses to come pouring out. Skye had been late before. It wasn't unusual for her daughter to forget what days she worked, but there was always an elaborate excuse tied to her absence when she finally did make an appearance.
"Let me guess," Granny said, coming out of the kitchen. She threw a towel over her shoulder. "Homework, right? You must have had a big extra credit project again."
Skye split her fingers so she could see beyond her hands.
"Or maybe volunteering at the animal shelter," her mother said. She stood beside Granny. Skye couldn't tell which disapproving scowl she hated more. Maybe she should just explain, let them at least understand why she had missed her entire shift. Maybe they would laugh it off. Maybe they would ground her.
Most likely they would ground her.
Granny dropped her hand on the counter, making Skye jump and recoil in her skin. "Visiting patients at the hospital again?"
"Or my favourite," Ruby said. "I was helping an old lady cross the street, right?"
Skye glared at her mother. "That one wasn't a lie," she said. "It actually happened."
"Sure thing, kiddo. Well it was nice of you to come to work at all. No of course I don't mind picking up your shift again."
"It's nice to see you too, mom," Skye said.
"Hey," Ruby said with a frown. "You're the one who skipped out on us all night. The least you could do is show up for clean-up, or call-in like a regular employee. I had no idea where you were. Is it too much trouble to ask for a text?"
"Didn't think you really cared where I was," Skye muttered. It was low and muddled but her mom caught it, with the wolf hearing and all. Sometimes she forgot about that.
"Of course I want to know where you are," Ruby snapped. Her arms straightened as she clenched her fingers around the edge of the counter. She took a deep breath. "I always want to know where you are."
"It was an accident," Skye said. She couldn't meet their eyes. It was almost physically painful. "Everything just got majorly screwed up today, okay."
"You seem to have a lot of accidents," Granny said. "Conveniently when your shifts are about to start."
"You have to start taking a little responsibility for your actions, Skye." Ruby's frown deepened. She knew going easy on Skye would only make her daughter more rambunctious. Every now and then she needed to be reined in. Ruby mentally cringed. Skye hadn't even made her first transformation into the wolf yet and she was already having trouble keeping track of her. Her daughter was too much like her Storybrooke self.
"I try, but every time I make headway with anything you two tighten the collar until I can't help but mess up."
"Because you're constantly doing things against our wishes," Granny said.
Skye waved them off. "Whatever."
"No, not whatever," Ruby said. "You're going to listen. I want you here tomorrow morning at seven to help open up."
"Tomorrow?" Skye cried. "But that's my day off. You know I have plans with Kai and McKenzie. We're going to Boston with Emma. It's been planned for months!"
Ruby swallowed and tightened her resolve. "You'll have to cancel."
"Seriously?" Skye slammed herself back in her chair. "I can't believe you!" Her voice was rising and she was fighting hard to keep it down.
"When you're responsible enough to show up for work then you can go to Boston, until then you'll park it in the diner every day after school whether you work or not. Consider yourself grounded."
"I miss tomorrow and I'm grounded?" Skye blurted. "That's so not fair!"
"Get used to it," Granny said. "You're mom went easy on you. I would have docked your pay too."
Ruby looked at Granny. "You think?" she said.
Granny nodded and shrugged simultaneously.
Skye groaned. "You know what, you two can just drop dead," she said. And at that moment her mom and her Granny did exactly that.
Skye jumped from her chair and stumbled backwards. "I-I didn't mean it, okay." Her knees wobbled. "Hey, hey, I was kidding, geez." The air in the diner seemed to be eaten up because Skye was finding it hard to breathe. "Mom?" she said. "Granny? C'mon guys, this isn't funny."
Both of them had disappeared behind the counter.
Skye closed her eyes, counted to three and opened them again. Nothing changed.
She took several hesitant steps towards the counter and peered over it. Her mom and Granny lay in a tangled heap on the floor. She could hear them breathing. Her mom's hair fluttered every time she exhaled.
Asleep? Just like that?
Something was very wrong.
Skye walked around the counter and nudged her mom's foot with her own. "Mom? Wake up."
She hugged her elbows. "Hey, I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean it." Skye was shaking as she fumbled for the take-out phone on the wall and dialed the first number that popped into her mind.
After three rings someone answered.
"McKenzie, its Skye. Hang on a sec. This isn't about Brian. I need help. I think I just killed my mom and Granny." Skye waited and listened and nodded even though there was no one around to see her. "I know right, sick joke. I guess that's what I get for being late all the time." See took a shaky breath to steel the nerves eating up her insides. "But seriously Kenz, something is really wrong. Do you think you could bring your mom by the diner?"
There was a squabble of voices and then Skye said, "I don't care which one." She paused. "Okay, fine, bring both. Yeah, yeah, yeah, pie on the house, whatever they want, just get over here. Please!" She nodded again. "M'kay bye."
Skye hung up the phone and slammed her head down on the counter. "Well mom, you always said I'd be the death of you. Looks like you were right." She exhaled sharply. "As usual."
"We're taking my car," Regina said, pulling the blonde into the garage.
Emma furrowed her brow and clicked the lock button on her keychain again. "Why not the cruiser?"
"Because, dear, I don't want our children riding in the back of a police car, okay."
Emma smirked, grabbing Regina's hand. "Afraid I'll corrupt them or something," she said, spinning her wife around and pushing her against the driver's side door.
"McKenzie is already too much like you," Regina said. She swallowed hard, not unaware of how tightly Emma had forced their bodies together or how close her lips were.
"Ugh, come on with the P.D.A, please," McKenzie said, stumbling into the garage with her eyes half-covered. "We have company." She gestured wildly to where Kai was coming out the door with Addie.
"He doesn't care," Emma said, but she stepped away from Regina to spare her children's sanity. "Besides, it can't be P.D.A unless we're in public and last time I checked this was still my garage."
"Whatever you say, ma. Can we get a move on, Skye sounded like she was going to have a heart attack.
"So Ruby and Granny fell asleep at the diner," Emma said. "Big whoop."
"I think it's a bit more involved than that," McKenzie said, piling into the backseat after Kai and her sister.
"As long as there's pie at the end of it all I don't care," Emma said.
Regina rolled her eyes. "You make it sound like I never feed you."
Emma squeezed her hand. "Oh, you feed me just fine."
There was a mock-retching sound from the back seat and a chorus of giggles erupted.
