Goldilocks was snapped out of her thoughts by a scaly finger swatting her ear.
"Come now Dearie, I won't waste my voice a third time on you," The Dark One tutted as he leaned back into his chair. The scroll he was trying to show Goldilocks was wrapped up tight again. The girl blinked twice before coming back down to earth.
"I'm sorry,"
"Did you even hear anything of what I said?"
Goldilocks looked down.
"… I'm sorry,"
"It's a good thing you have nimble hands to help your slow brain, else I'd cut those fingers for insolence," Rumplestiltskin stood from his chair and paced back to the glass cabinet that was against the wall, looking at most of the treasures that the girl had procured for him. She in the meantime, continued to stare at her feet.
"I'm sorry,"
"And stop apologizing," He snapped back.
"I'm so- I mean yes,"
"What is with this gloom you have lately?" The Dark One asked with only half interest, but that steadily grew to annoyance as Goldilocks remained silent and looking down.
"That wasn't a rhetorical question Dearie,"
"Rhetorical?"
"It means a question not meant to be answered, which I find myself making a lot lately since you've been so despondent. Well?"
"I…" The girl also wanted to ask what despondent meant as well, but decided to go with what she felt it meant and took a moment o think over what answer to give him. Either she took too long, or the Dark One wanted to continue anyway, since that was what he did.
"What is it then? The food and bed I've given you not good enough? I could always send you to the deep caves near Maleficent's castle until I have need of you," he motioned with his hand in a way that was eerily familiar to what he did before casting a spell. Panicked at the thought, Goldilocks finally blurted.
"N-no! Please I'm sor- I'm not ungrateful. I just…"
"Spit it out then, are you sick? Tired?" He asked, but didn't seem particularly bothered at the thought of either one.
"Lonely," She answered lamely.
"Lonely? I'm almost offended," Rumpelstiltskin laid a hand rather dramatically on his chest, mocking a hurt expression. Sensing the possibility that she may have almost offended him again for real, Goldilocks hurried to explain herself.
"It's not… it's just, you're not… like me," She attempted to explain, and was about to further elaborate before she was cut off again.
"Ah I see, missing the girly chatter are we? Lack of gossips got you glum? Such a trivial thing, but then again I don't know how that curly haired brain works," The Dark One said, continuing a mocking tone as one hand tugged at one of her many golden locks.
"Very well, you deserve a reward for those nimble fingers, and it just so happens that I am also missing something," Rumple said as he walked a bit away from the golden haired thief, his sudden silence quite the mood changer. He now had his back to her, and for the umpteenth time since her stay in the castle, she wondered what was on his mind.
"Missing something?" Goldilocks asked carefully as she took two careful steps towards Rumpelstiltskin.
The Dark One twisted back around to face her with a grin.
"A decent meal and well dusted shelves Dearie. A maid and a gossiper will do us both good," He said in finality. The girl worried after that sense that the Dark One had made up his mind, as it usually meant something terrible for the people that entered this place, looking for a deal.
"Wait what are you going to do?" She asked her question despite the dread she began to feel in her stomach. She already knew what was going to happen and was already regretting opening her mouth to even try and explain herself before.
"And there's your slow mind at work again, figure it out Dearie. In the meantime, here's the new item I want. The one I spent several minutes explaining twice," Rumple rolled the scroll across the table for Goldilocks to catch at the other end. She unfurled the paper, glancing once at the image of the item before looking back in confusion.
"A goblet?"
"Again, figure it out Dearie. Good luck,"
With a flick of his wrist the golden haired thief was surrounded in a swirl of purple clouds and transported to her new destination.
"Well then let's figure this out, can't be too hard," Lydia said as she wheeled around the dinner table to Henry's side and scanning the sheet of math homework. They had managed to crawl through the rest of the homework that Henry's school seemed to like packing onto the boy, and math was the last on the list.
Henry watched his babysitter scan the last question on the math sheet before slowly edging towards the calculator. The younger of the two moved faster and wrote the right numbers in the answer box. The teenager stared at the answer Henry had provided for a few moments before decidedly nodding and pushing the calculator away again.
"You're better at sports than math," Henry said with no doubt the intention of not making Lydia feel bad, so the teenager took it that way.
"I'm inclined to agree with you, but what makes you say that?" She asked, moving the conversation topic past her rather terrible math skills.
"You run everywhere you go, really fast,"
Lydia nodded and also decided to take that as a compliment, her ego having been a little bruised from the need for a calculator.
"True, but there's more to sports than just track running Henry," The teenager replied.
"Yeah, but you can also jump really high, and you're really strong," Lydia smiled at Henry's words and looked pointedly down at the leg casts and wheelchair she was stuck in. It wasn't until she thought about it a little more that the teenager realized whom he was actually referring to.
"Do you mean me, or Goldilocks?" She asked when looking back up.
"Well you are both but yeah," Henry said, apparently gaining his adoptive mother's way of answering a question without directly answering at the same time.
"I have to read this book sometime, I sound awesome in it." Lydia said as she cleared up the wayward pencils and paper on the table, putting them all away.
"You are, but your story is really kind of sad," Henry said as he stood up and put away the objects that Lydia couldn't reach from her place. The teenager side eyed the ten year old, thinking back to his comment of her being lonely that hit a bit too close to home.
"Is it? Why?" Henry paused in his assisting of the cleanup efforts at Lydia's question.
"You're the last of your kind by the end," The boy said it in a way that told of him regretting even bringing it up. Lydia looked at the kid, noticing also how sad he seemed to be at the same time.
"Woah spoilers kid," Lydia joked, trying to lighten the mood of the conversation. She tried not to think at the same time about how Henry would then link that to the possibility of her being lonely and instead put away the pencil case and books, tucking them into Henry's school bag.
"It already happened, so it's not really a spoiler," Henry said eventually, letting Lydia know that he wasn't still feeling down about bringing up what he must have thought was a touchy subject.
"Oh so this all happened before-"
"Before the curse,"
"Right, before the curse that brought everyone here and made us forget who we are," Lydia said, more for confirmation that she was getting the details right than anything else. Henry nodded enthusiastically and the teenager guessed she had gotten everything right. She waited a few seconds before changing conversation topics, her rumbling stomach being one of the reasons she did so.
"Alright well we finished the homework and cleaned everything up, how do you feel about a sandwich?"
"Chocolate spread?"
"Oh you are speaking my mind Henry. I'll need you to get the things out of the fridge though, can't reach," Lydia said as they moved from the dining room to the kitchen, Henry doing as he was asked and getting the butter and Chocolate spread from the higher shelves of the fridge. Lydia managed to drag down the bread bag until it landed in her lap and wheeled over to the bench, which was again too high for her to reach so Henry helped out in the preparation of the snacks.
"You're in a lot of happier stories too," Henry said, still apparently wanting to atone for his non-existent mistake. Lydia humored him all the same as she handed the kid the chocolate spread, having no doubt that he was going to add more to the sandwiches than the Mayor would be pleased with.
"Am I? Like whose?" She asked as Henry handed her a sandwich, the ten year old taking a rather large bite out of his own. It took some time for him to finish eating the large amounts of chocolate spread, but got to his reply all the same.
"Mr. Nolan. He was a Sheppard and you helped him become Prince Charming,"
"Cool. Was I like some mentor or something?" Lydia asked before taking a bite of her own.
"You were his squire, and had a crush on him," Henry said with a clear smirk.
"I did not!" Lydia said loudly, despite it being muffled through the bread and chocolate spread, and then added lamely, "I said that a little louder than I should have didn't I?"
"Don't worry, I won't tell Mary Margaret. She's Snow White, his wife," Henry added the last part for clarity before taking another bite. Lydia paused in her snacking and looked down at the spread that was bursting out between the pieces of bread. She looked back to Henry, and said what no doubt he had heard already.
"Henry, Mr. Nolan already has a wife," There was a point where she didn't want to entertain Henry's imagination, and that point was usually associated with insisting it on other people. The thought that Henry saw her as some bad ass shape shifting bear woman was great, but that didn't mean she was going to let him do that to everyone in town.
"Yeah, but that's not his real wife. It's a trick by the curse," Henry replied as nonchalantly as someone who was us to having their opinion denied.
"Henry…" The boy looked up at Lydia, and there was something about his expression that made her decide not to push any further. Instead she decided to change tactics and asked something else that she actually had wanted to know.
"Who is Mr. Gold in your book?" Lydia asked, and hoped that he wouldn't question why she even cared in the first place. But of course Henry didn't, he was instead perhaps more enthusiastic about the fact that she was continuing to ask about the book in the first place.
"Rumpelstiltskin. He makes deals and has a big castle," Henry replied and Lydia nodded in understanding, a little surprised at how well the character seemed to fall into place. Since she already knew where her supposed character and Rumplestiltskin were connected.
"That makes sense. Is that also why I fit as Goldilocks? Because I live with him?" Lydia asked.
"Well kind of, you were stuck with him after you signed a deal," Henry said and Lydia bit back the need to comment on how close that was to real life, her sarcasm usually didn't screen well with the ten year old. She must have gone eerily silent for a little too long as again Henry felt the need to make his babysitter feel better.
"It wasn't too bad though, at least it got better when Belle showed up," Henry said and Lydia didn't want to admit that her interest was weirdly piqued at hearing the otherwise unknown name.
"Belle? Like Beauty and the Beast, Belle?" Lydia clarified, as she could only think of one possible fairy tale character with that name that could be in Henry's book. She was a little taken aback however with what Henry divulged further about the female character.
"Yeah, Mr. Gold fell in love with his maid Belle. She made a deal with him too,"
"…Okay…" Lydia trailed off as her mind tried not to question the possibility of her adoptive father 'falling in love'. The thought of him smiling was a hard image to conjure up on its own, and she had seen that happen in real life.
That only led her to further question this version of Belle in Henry's book. She was a little curious to find out exactly what kind of character that Henry could totally see falling in love with her adoptive father/Rumpelstiltskin, and him loving her in return.
The pair finished their sandwiches and disposed of the evidence of their snacking before returning back to the dining room. Henry had gone upstairs and brought the mysterious book back down with him. She watched him delicately place it down on the table and flick through the large pages, no doubt absorbed even in the pages that he flicked past.
"Henry who is-" Lydia started to ask a question, but was cut off when they both recognized the sound of the front door opening. Henry quickly shut the book and took it off the table, tucking it behind him so it was hidden between the chair and his back. Lydia sat up a little straighter and wiped the nonexistent bread crumbs from her face.
"How is the homework going?" Mayor Mills asked as the front door shut behind her.
"Great, We finished it all, didn't we Henry?" Lydia said loud enough so his mother could hear, and looking pointedly at Henry.
"Yeah," Henry said equally in a louder voice. Regina was of course neither mad nor happy at the news that all of the homework was done, instead going for immediately dismissive. Lydia would have been offended if she wasn't use to it by this point.
"Well then I guess there's no reason for you stay much longer then Miss Gold. I'll call your father to come collect you," Regina said as she walked past the dining room and off into her office.
In the small time that she was off and calling for Lydia's ride, Henry stood from his seat and shoved the fairy tale book into Lydia's hands. The teenager blinked a few times at the fast action and gave the ten year old a silent, questioning look.
"Here, so you can read about Belle. But you have to be careful with it," Henry said quickly, and in catching up to his sneaky pace, Lydia immediately tucked it carefully away into the backpack that was slung on the back of her wheelchair.
"I'll take special care of it Henry, I promise. I'll bring it back next time." she said, aware of not only how important the book was to the boy but what it meant when going behind his mother's back. Also there was the added fact that she had wanted to ask to read the book herself sometime.
They both then left the dining room, Lydia going to the front room to wait for her father, since she was going to need his help when getting down the stairs outside Regina's door. Henry followed her just so he wouldn't have to sit by himself in the dining room, plus to also make sure that the book he had given her was tucked completely out of sight.
Henry and Lydia heard the approach of the Mayor before really looking at her, so Lydia was
"See you next week then Madam Mayor. Madam Mayor?" Lydia looked at the Mayor that was leaning somewhat heavily against the wall of the nearby hallway, a hand covering her face. She looked just about everything opposite from her usual cold and cut off self. Even Henry seemed to notice the difference that had come over his mother.
"Mom?" He asked, clearly worried. The woman said nothing for a moment, but still didn't get the chance to anyway as the tell tale sound of a car horn emitted from outside.
"Your father's here now Miss Gold. Time to leave," She said as her face pulled itself back into its normal mode, but Lydia could tell that there was something still bothering her. But it wasn't her place to push this issue, and there was also the added edge of kind of not giving a damn about how the woman felt.
"Henry," Regina said only his name but all the same it seemed to be enough for Henry to know that he needed to go to his room. The kid gave his babysitter a quick hug before scurrying up the stairs and out of sight, the teenager following his example as she opened the front door herself, Mr. Gold already waiting on the other side.
Lydia waited until they were out of Regina's property and driving home before she bothered to bring up the woman's unnatural state to her adoptive father.
"The Mayor looked all upset and kinda human for like five seconds, it was weird. Did something happen?" She asked and watched as something in Mr. Gold's facial expression clicked. That was enough to worry her since that meant something actually had happened. It was only seconds later when he confirmed her belief.
"Unfortunately something has happened. Sheriff Graham died last night,"
It was a strange feeling that settled in Lydia's stomach for the rest of that week. She didn't know how to feel, since the Sheriff had been only a step above a stranger to her. They only conversed in those moments when she was temporarily behind bars. Even then, despite the amount of paperwork she no doubt caused him every time, he was nothing but courteous to her.
Exasperated, but nice all the same.
Mr. Gold asked if she wanted to go to the funeral, but they both found out that there wasn't one anyway before she could think of an answer. Lydia thought that in the end she probably wouldn't have gone. She felt more drained at the news than perhaps as heartbroken that others would be and perhaps still were, she would stick out like an offensive sore thumb amongst them.
She consoled some level of guilt that had settled in her stomach by putting flowers on his grave a few days after he was buried. She and Mr. Gold were just leaving when Lydia saw Emma walking the opposite way. No one said a word as they passed each other, but that didn't stop Lydia from seeing a torn expression resting on the other blonde's features.
To give him credit, Mr. Gold didn't openly muse about this situation until both he and his adoptive daughter were in the car and driving off. But that still didn't take away from the fact that Lydia was bothered about how fast he was to start talking about what was on his mind. But then again complaining wouldn't do any good to stop him, and she couldn't exactly leave the car, so Lydia decidedly indulged him with the conversation.
"With Mr. Graham's unfortunate passing I guess it will not be long before Emma becomes our new Sheriff," Mr. Gold said it in the same tone that Lydia had come to recognize as his bragging voice. Evidently this piece of information had been nibbling away at his mind, so he needed her to know about it. As stated before, because of her lack of options, Lydia entertained his bragging with questions.
"You sound very eager at this possibility. What does Emma being Sheriff do for you? I don't think she likes you very much to do you any favors," Lydia didn't miss the chance to throw a barb in there, even though she knew the thought of someone not liking him wasn't exactly going to hurt his feelings. Either way it seemed like she asked the right questions as he divulged a little more.
"Oh she may not like doing it but you forget, she owes me a favor thanks to that whole incident with Miss Boyd," Mr. Gold had tailor made his reply for her to perhaps retort with an argument about the whole Ashley situation, but Lydia bit down that feeling and instead decided to go for the more interesting question.
"What and being Sheriff would help with that favor? What do you want her to do anyway?"
"Nothing that would concern you or your plans to leave town Dearie," His point of her minding her own business is made clear and Lydia wisely lets the conversation go. At least she had managed to get enough info to know that either Emma was going to become Sheriff by herself, or Mr. Gold was going to make it happen.
But there was something rather important that even Lydia could tell was going to stop that little movement in the chain of command.
"Regina won't let her be Sheriff, you know that right?" She asked in the tone that also subtly questioned whether he thought through the idea of going up against Regina. He wasn't afraid to answer both questions.
"Don't worry about Regina for now Dearie, she'll be out of Mayorly action for a while," His voice wasn't smug, and it was because of that (along with exactly how the news was broken to her), that Lydia could guess exactly why that was.
"Because of Graham?"
"I'll say nothing more on the subject." He replied, now actually sounding smug. The implications of that was something that Lydia decided was best not to be touched on, and so was grateful when Mr. Gold changed the topic of conversation.
"Are you babysitting Henry this afternoon?"
"No, Regina calls me when she wants me to babysit that day. If what you say is true then it might be a few weeks before she calls again," The teenager said as she quickly checked her phone, just to be sure. And sure enough there was no surly text to the teenager from the Mayor.
"Well then I guess you have the free time to help out at the store today,"
"I literally cannot walk. Like no hyperbole here, my legs don't work," Lydia retorted, annoyed at the thought of having to clean the shop, which was a hard enough task when she could use her legs, whilst in a wheelchair. Mr. Gold smiled, but his reply swiped any humor that Lydia could have found in the situation.
"We're not cleaning today,"
"…Not the Sheep oil," The teenager was already cringing at the thought, but inside was also already accepting her horrid stench of a fate.
"We need to maintain our merchandise Dearie, it's not like we have a maid to do it for us," He replied before going weirdly quiet. Not that Lydia herself noticed, since his words brought her back to thinking about Henry's book that he had lent to her last week.
She was a little more into the story of Rumpelstiltskin, and had just gotten to a particularly interesting point.
When Goldilocks returned with the infernal goblet, the Dark One had greeted her with a wider smile than usual. Already alarm sprung into the girl's mind as she thought over everything she could have possibly done wrong before she left, her thinking being that is smile was one of sarcasm and he was actually annoyed with her. An apology was already attempting to wrangle its way off of her tongue, despite her biting it back.
However it seemed that once again the Dark One had something more important to say and so beat her to the punch.
"Thank you very much Dearie, but before you head off to bed there was something I wanted to show you,"
"Wh-"
But the Dark One had already jumped out of his seat and with a flick of his wrist transported them both in a puff of purple smoke. In the few milliseconds that Goldilocks had to think about it, her mind immediately jumped to the threat that Rumpelstiltskin had made before and was feeling her chest tightening in panic.
A panic that was short lived when the smoke cleared and the girl saw that not only were they still in the Dark Castle, but were now standing in front of what was basically the door to her room.
"I don't understand," Goldilocks said when she finally figured it was safe to talk and not annoy him. The Dark One grinned even wider, if that was possible, and replied.
"Oh I just want to see your face is all when I show you what I got today," His words again had the girl worried, but she wasn't given enough time to properly think on them.
"Here we go, I got some company for you," Rumpelstiltskin announced loudly as he swung open the cell door, shoved Goldilocks into her room with one push, and slammed the door immediately behind her again. He was gone probably only seconds after his laugh stopped bouncing off the stone work.
But that was the last thing on Goldilocks' mind, since she had managed to fall thanks to that unexpected shrug, and she hand's landed on solid stone floor like she had expected. In fact she hadn't fallen down completely at all, since someone had caught her during her decent to the ground.
"Are you alright? He didn't hurt you?"
Goldilocks looked at what was apparently her new cellmate after hearing them speak, and found herself staring at a woman in a yellow ball gown, tears still drying on her face.
Please review, constructive criticism always welcome.
