A/N: Thanks for the reviews so far, guys! Particularly people who have been leaving suggestions, they've been really helpful in planning out how I want the story to go :)
K so... this one starts off as kind of a flashback and then goes back to where we left Phillip and Aurora in the garden.

sidenote: does anybody know when aurora and mulan are coming back? because I remember hearing about an eleven episode arc and I am like aching for it. gimmeeeeeeeeeeeee

Chapter 6: Meeting the Girl Called Briar

Phillip

It happened on the morning after Emma Swan had decided to stay in town; after the clock had started moving and the curse had started coming apart at the seams.
The call had come in shortly after nine, when I was the only one in the office.

"Fire department?"

"Yes, hello," I had answered, "this is Charlie, who am I speaking with?"

"My kitchen is on fire."

Her tone of voice was strange; almost calm. I paused for a second to make sure than I had heard her correctly.

"Are you still in the house?"

"Yes; it's only a little on fire," the girl sounded so indifferent that I considered the theory that it may have been some kind of prank.

"It's important that you get out of the house and stay out," I said, maintaining a serious tone, as I had been taught in the academy.

"No; it's not that bad. Can you send someone, please?"

I was used to calming people down in these events; getting people who were manic and raving down to a state where they could take instructions. This girl was as calm as she was defiant.
I raised the alarm and got the address from her, assuring her that help was on its way.
The area was suddenly full of people pulling themselves into fireproof suits and Jean, who had returned from her break, was back in the office. I handed her the phone roughly.

"Stay on the line with her until she gets help," I instructed, bolting out of the door to my own suit.

I barely made it and had to sprint after the truck, throwing myself into the vehicle. The other firefighters would later laugh about this; about my inability to let other people do their job without me. They would make jokes about my apparent addiction to saving people.
The others had trouble spotting the right home; it wasn't immediately obvious that the house was on fire.
There was so little smoke that there could have just been a small chimney fire.
Before even the smoke, what I noticed was the girl on the front lawn, turned away from us, with the phone to her ear.
We rushed in and took down the fire in minutes. Apart from the kitchen, there was very little damage to the property.
I found the girl on the lawn still, thanking others in the fire department, when she turned and I saw her for the first time.

She was, in the literal sense of the word, breathtaking.
The very look of her dizzied and winded me.
She made me feel nervous, as if under attack. I bowed my head and walked quickly, avoiding her eye.

When she walked into Granny's later, while I was having a drink, I thought I might have a panic attack.

"You've really lost your head about this girl, haven't you?" Sean asked later with a smirk.

"There's something about her," I said, "Something almost..."

I cut myself off, not wanting to say the word 'magical' in front of his friends. I tried to keep my eyes off of her but they felt magnetised.

"Why don't you just go over and see her?" Keith asked, frowning, "Ask her if she wants a drink."

I sighed and shrugged. I'd never really been interested in a girl before; not like this. I wasn't sure if I could just go over and speak to her.
Sean, being the youngest and most immature of us, turned to Keith with a smirk.

"What was her name again?"

"Briar something," Keith replied.

"Briar!" Sean yelled, waving.

The girl looked up from her table and frowned, trying to recognise the boy.

"She doesn't know who you are," I hissed, "You weren't even at her house today."

"I was," Keith said, turning to join in, waving.

Briar Rose must have recognised him because she broke out into a smile.

"Oh, hello!" she waved back.

Keith nudged me hard, whispering into my ear, "Go and talk to her before I invite her over."

I sighed and stood, shuffling over to her table before I lost the nerve that had just been forced on me.

"Hi," I said, uncomfortable.

"Hi," she smiled.

I must have looked awkward, because she invited me to sit down while she waited for someone.

"No," I said, "I don't want to interrupt."

"Don't worry," she said, "I'm early; keep me company."

I sat and she frowned at me, cocking her head to the side.

"It was you I spoke to on the phone, wasn't it?"

I nodded slowly.

"I thought so; I recognise your accent," she said, "I was so worried and you really calmed me down; thank you."

She placed a hand over mine. Her touch was cool, but I could feel my skin burn under it.
There was something almost instinctual in my need to reach over and kiss her.
I didn't want to scare her away so I pursed my lips and took my arm away.

"How is your kitchen?" I asked.

"Okay," she sighed, "It needs a little work so I have to stay upstairs at Ruby's for a little while (You know 'Granny'? Who runs this diner? Ruby is her granddaughter)," she explained in an undertone, "while they mend the small hole in the wall I created while I was trying to fry some bacon."

"Oh," I inhaled sharply, mockingly, "Bacon is a very dangerous food to cook."

"Exactly," she laughed, "No one ever warned me about the dangers of spitting bacon fat."

"You should have asked me about it before you cooked part of your house."

Her laugh was musical, and familiar in the same way that I might remember a song that my mother played when I was a baby.
I glanced down at her hand and saw a ring.
I could feel my heart sinking in my chest.

"Are you married?" I asked before I could stop myself.

"Almost," she bit her lip, "It should be legal in Maine by December next year so..."

"It's a lovely ring," I said, trying to decode what she had just told me.

"Thanks," she broke out into a grin and twisted the ring around her finger, "My fiance chose it. It's an Alexandrite; it changes colour depending on the light."

It looked purply under the diner lights.

"Speak of the devil," she said and I watched in pain as her face lit up.

I turned to see her fiance and was faced with a girl with long, dark hair.

Oh, I thought, 'Almost' married... of course.

I stood quickly, moving out of the way for the girl. Briar stood and gave the girl a quick peck before sitting down again.

"Jia, this is Charlie, the fireman; he was there today when I set the kitchen on fire," she explained, "Charlie, this is Jia; my fiance."

I nodded and smiled in greeting, feeling my chest tighten.
I found it odd that I could feel so much loss for this girl that I had only ever seen once before.
Of course, it all made sense when the curse broke and my memory came back.
I didn't realise it at the time, but I was watching my true love with another. It was a pain that I had never felt before and that I had found terribly difficult to explain.
I made an excuse and left quickly, leaving behind Sean and Keith.
I thought about her often afterward, no matter how much I tried to distract myself; it wasn't healthy to be weirdly obsessed with a girl who you knew very little about besides the fact that she was engaged.
But once the curse broke, I convinced myself that the connection I had felt was mutual; Aurora really had felt that electricity.
I told myself that it was fate that I was the only one on duty the day that she had called the firestation, that it was even fate that had caused the bacon to spit and catch fire.
I read into the way that she had casually draped her arm across the table to touch my hand.
I read into the way that she had laughed at my lame joke.
Once the curse broke, I dug into my memory and read into every second of that seven minute encounter and finally decided that Aurora must have known it was me. She must have remembered me, too.

I hadn't expected that she would have no idea who I was.

"Charlie?" she asked, her face falling, "I don't..."

"Do you remember the fire?" I asked, pointing back at the kitchen.

"Charlie," she sighed, recognition dawning in her face. She raised her eyes up to mine and I saw that they were full of tears, "The fireman. We talked at Granny's."

She was nodding, her head falling back down until she was looking down at her shoes.

"How did I not remember you?" she was crying.

I took a step back.

"I thought you would have been expecting me," I said, feeling disappointed. This reunion had not gone at all how I'd hoped.

"I was," she said, "I was expecting that you'd find me. Eventually."

"Eventually?" I asked, confused, "Why not... immediately?"

"I don't..." she sighed and wrapped her own arms around her. I wanted so badly to hug her. She looked so small and defenseless, though I knew that would never be the case for Aurora. But to be honest, I was mad. I was angry that she hadn't recognised me as I had noticed her.
I suddenly had a suspicion that perhaps she didn't remember me because she had actually been happy. And what a crazy concept that was; that my true love could have found happiness outside of me, when I had lived a life that was so lonely and so miserable.

"You love her," I said finally.

Her arms closed tighter around herself and she took a few breaths before she finally nodded.
I took a slow breath, looking away.
I couldn't blame her for any of this. Clearly, none of it was her fault.
But, strangely, I couldn't forgive her.
But above all of this, I couldn't fight the need I felt to wrap myself around her and tell her that everything was okay.
I took a step forward and she shook her head, stumbling backward.

"I'm sorry," she sobbed, hugging herself even more firmly. It was starting to look as if she was trying, literally, to hold herself together.

There was a time when I could have taken her into my arms. I could have kissed her hair and told her that everything would be okay and she would believe me. I looked at her, wrapped in herself, and felt my heart shatter.
This girl wasn't my Aurora. Just as I wasn't Phillip anymore; not truly. We'd lived seperate lives for too long to be the same people.
And I couldn't fix her, not like I used to, because I just didn't know her anymore.
All I knew was that I loved her more than my own life, and that there was nothing that I could do to stop her from hurting.

"I'm sorry," I echoed her.

She was beyond me; my voice didn't even seem to reach her.
I leaned over and placed a firm kiss on her forehead.
I took one final look at my strong, sweet, defiant princess before I turned and left.