A/N: I am seriously on a roll. Here is a chapter focusing on a past event in the Enchanted Forest/Dark Castle. I hope you enjoy.
The light from the window shines through my eyelids. What is the use of opening my eyes when a piece of me has been taken away. I will never get it back. It is easier for me to continue lying in bed. Is it fair for my true love? No, I know that much. It is not like our relationship can get any worse. I cannot kiss him with all of my passion for him. I cannot sleep in the same room or bed for fear that it will be too tempting. I shall just lie here until I waste away. I am not hungry. I am not thirsty. I just do not want to do anything.
"Oh Ava, my sweet." My true love says in a whispering sing-song voice. "It's time to wake up. It's a beautiful day." I do not move, open my eyes, or answer him. "Come now, my love. You can't keep yourself in this bed all day. Come spend the day with me." I roll my eyes under my lids.
"It will change nothing." I whisper.
"Don't talk like that, dearie." He says. I feel him place a hand on my cheek, gently caressing it with his thumb. "How about I make you something to eat."
"I am not hungry." I state. His hand leaves my face, and I crave the contact even more.
"I don't care." I can tell he is getting irritated with my behavior. He does not understand, not completely. "You have not eaten an two days. I am making you something to eat, and I am going to watch you eat it. I will not stand by and watch you waste away." I hear a 'poof' sound and realize that he has just transported to the kitchen to prepare me something to eat.
Somehow, I fall back to sleep. I dream of my beautiful daughter calling out for me. I can hear her, but I cannot find her. I search through scenery of nothing but blackness. I call out to her, but my voice seems to have escaped me. Soon, I am pulled out of this nightmare, as I am shaken awake.
"My little song bird." Why does he use that soft sing-song voice? "I've brought you something to eat." I feel him sit on the edge of the bed.
"I am n-"
"As I said before, I don't care." He interrupts me. Slowly I open my eyes to the brightly lit room. I turn my head to the bedside table. A tray sits there with plates of food and a cup of water. There is also a small vial filled with a smoky white colored liquid.
"What is that?" I ask him. He pauses for a moment before understanding what I was talking about. He grabs the small vial, and I follow it as he brings it in front of him.
"Oh, this?" I just glare at him. "It's a potion to help with your dilemma, my dear." I quirk my head to the side as I begin to sit up.
"What do you mean?"
"Once you drink this you will feel much better." He is leaving out something.
"How will this little bit of liquid help me feel better, and you better not lie to me." I say. He sighs.
"Once I place a hair from your head into the vial, and you drink it, you will forget about your broken heart." He says.
"The only way to do that is for me to forget…" I start to realize what this potion will actually do. "No! I will not be rid of my memories of my own daughter!" I yell at him.
"Well, what would you have me do?" His eyes show concern as he starts to pace around the room in frustration. "I'm doing everything I can think of to help you, but you are not letting me."
"It takes time to grieve, my love. And everyone grieves in different ways." He stops pacing and just looks at me.
"It's been weeks. How long do you expect me to wait?"
"Can you not be self absorbed for one second?" I ask him in a soft voice. "What is it you are waiting on me for? Are you waiting on me to find my son so we can finally move on with our lives?" He tenses up at my words. "No. Because I am waiting for you to find Bae, not the other way around." He heaves a big sigh before coming back over to me.
"Okay, I will allow you to grieve for as long as you need, but I need you to eat." He whispers pleading with me. I look over to the tray of food on the bedside table once more. I grab, what looks to be, a roll. I bring it to my mouth and take a bite. I look back to Rumple, and he now has a smile on his face. He leans forward and kisses my forehead. "Thank you." He says before leaving the room. I end up eating everything on the tray and drinking all of the water.
After the day Rumple was able to get me to start eating again, he told me about how Snow White came to him for a cure for her broken heart. He offered the girl the potion that he had offered me, and she took it. When he informed me that all he took from her as payment was a lock of hair, I was confused. What is he planning? It is a very cheap price to pay for what she received.
About a week later, I am feeling better. I am still grieving my daughter, but I am moving on with my life. I am cleaning up around the castle, once again. As I start cleaning the potion room, Rumple comes in with two people. The shorter man is clearly a dwarf, and the woman is… Is that Snow White? I pause in my cleaning to stare at the woman. No. She took the potion. My heart sinks a little as I go back to cleaning the tables and shelves. Rumple goes to his spinning wheel in silence. For about a minute all that could be heard was the soft squeaking of the spinning wheel, and the shuffling of feet on the floor. The dwarf breaks the silence.
"The potion you gave Snow," Irritation seeped into the words. "It changed her. She's not the same."
"Well of course it changed her." Rumple bites back. "It took away her love. Left a big hole in her heart. There is no cure for what she's got." Rumple must have been truly desperate to even offer that potion to me, if that is truly what would have happened to me. I would not want to change as much as Snow White has. I keep my head down as I move around the room. My hair falls in a curtain to block my face. I do not want to be seen as anything more than a housekeeper to Rumple in front of visitors. "The person she was," Rumple says as he steps away from the spinning wheel and towards the dwarf. They are both looking over to Snow as she looks at the bottles and vials on one of the tables. "There's no way to bring her back." The men walk over to the cabinet of bottled magics, and Rumple opens the doors. "No potion can bring back true love. Love, is the most powerful magic of all, the only magic I haven't been able to bottle. If you can bottle love, you can do anything." I pause once again as I listen to Rumple talk. I am trying to figure out what the end game is. "But, you don't care about that, do ya?" He says looking to the drastically different Snow White. "Now, what is it you really want?"
"I want your help," The woman says. "To kill the queen." Rumple's eyes light up at her words.
"Now we're talkin', dearie." He says as he takes a golden rope and bringing it over to the unbraced bow and golden arrow, displayed in the center of the room.
"Snow, don't." The dwarf objects. Snow watches Rumple string the bow with the golden rope.
"Now what is this?" The girl asks. I move to behind the two visitors and start cleaning a window.
"This," He says as he finishes stringing the bow. "Is how you kill the queen."
"How will that get me into the castle?" Snow says, confused.
"No, no, no, that is impossible." Rumple corrects the girl. "You have to kill her when she's on the move. When she's on her way to the summer palace." He makes a map appear in his hand, and he shows it to her. I go over to the bottled magic cabinet and dust it a bit before closing the doors that Rumple had forgotten to close. "Fire the arrow from this spot here, and you'll be hidden from sight." I look at the empty spot in the cabinet, labeled with a picture of a heart. He is trying to bottle love. Why? "An arrow fired from this bow will get you exactly what you need. It always finds its target." I hear the dwarf and Snow whisper to each other before the woman takes the weapon. I hear Rumple giggle, and the sound makes me smile.
"So, what do I have to do in return?" Snow asks.
"Do? You don't have to do anything, dearie." He replies.
"Everything comes with a price with you." That is a very true statement. "Last time you took a strand of my hair. What's in it for you this time?"
"Let's just say, I'm invested in your future." With that answer from Rumple, Snow and the dwarf leave. After they exit the room I turn to my true love.
"Why are you so invested in the future of Snow White?" I ask as I turn to him.
"Why would I spoil the surprise, my dear?" He giggled once again. It makes me smile as I move past him to the door. "Where are you going?"
"I am going to the front entrance room." He seems to be a bit confused. "The stairs need to be swept and the items in there must be dusted."
"I shall accompany you, then." He insists with a smile. He follows me to the front entrance room. There are not many objects, but the flowers in the display need to be exchanged for fresh ones, anything metal needs to be shined, the floors need to be cleaned. There are a lot of chores in this room. About half an hour into my duties the front door bursts open. As I face away from the door, the rush of cold air startles me.
"Rumplestiltskin!" The man yells as he walks past me. "Show yourself." I feel my cloak being draped over my shoulders. Quickly I turn into my parrot form. I fly to rest on Rumple's shoulder.
"Still dressing like a prince, I see." The man turns around to look at us. "Even though you ran away from the life I gave you." Rumple starts to walk around the table in the center of the room. "How's that for gratitude?"
"You gave me a prison sentence." The man says, as he looks around, confused. I guess today is just a day of confusion. "Where did that maid go?" He asks.
"Don't worry about the maid." I nuzzle into the high collar of his vest a bit, and I feel him smile more. "You've now skirted that prison sentence you speak of. Careful, dearie, King George is a vengeful man." He says pointing to the farm boy turned prince.
"I'm here about Snow." The man says. "Rumor has it, she's after the queen, and she came to you for help."
"Yes indeed." Rumple says as he leans on the table, now between the prince and my true love. I watch as the prince pulls out his sword and points it at Rumple. I start squawking and flapping my wings as I stay on his shoulder. Rumple giggles as he tries to calm me down. He stroked my head gently, and I become content again. "Now look, you've upset my dear parrot."
"What did you do to her?" The prince sounds angry.
"What did I do to her?" My love replies as he walks around the table the opposite way from before. "You mean what did you do to her." Rumple points to the man. "You caused her pain. Without that pain, she would never have drank my potion to forget about you." He gestured to himself and then back to the would-be prince. "That's what changed her." Rumple leans on the end of the sword, daring the man.
"Undo the potion." The man orders Rumple. Ha, like you can order the Dark One to do anything. "All magic can be broken."
"Oh yes, with twue wove." Rumple answers. Is he making fun of the power of true love? I pull at a piece of his hair with my beak, but he continues to focus on the man in front of us.
"So that's it, then. True love's kiss will awaken her."
"Most certainly." Rumple says. "But, it's gonna be hard to kiss her when you don't know where she is." With that last word Rumple shoves the blade away from his chest with his right hand. He laughs at Prince Charming and continues to walk around the man and towards the entrance to the main hall. I hear the prince sheath his sword.
"Name your price." The desperate prince says. Rumple perks up at the words.
"How about," He turns back around to face the man. "You're cloak." Rumple finishes, pointing to the prince.
"My cloak?" I share the man's confusion. He has been taking cheap prices for his services lately. "Why would you want my cloak?" Rumple scrunches up his face.
"It's drafty in here." Rumple says before he giggles. There is a pause before the man takes his cloak off and sets it on the table.
"Where is she?"
"On her way to the queen's highway." Rumple says with a smile. As he takes a step towards Charming he makes a duplicate map appear. "This is the route she's taking, but you better be quick." He says as the man grabs the map. "Because if she kills the queen," He steps even closer to the prince as the man reads the map. "She becomes as evil as the woman whose life she takes."
"She could never become that evil." The man clearly loves Snow. I hope he is able to save the poor woman from that horrible fate. He leaves the castle in search of his true love.
"Evil isn't born, dearie." Rumple calls to the man. "It's made. If Snow starts down that road you'll never get her back." As the prince runs out of sight I turn back into my human form. I run to the doors and close them.
"I would ask if he was born in a barn, but I already know the answer to that." I say. I turn back to see Rumple pick up the cloak from the table. I just stand by the door with my hands on my hips. He looks up at me and smiles.
"What are you doing just standing there, dearie? Follow me." He gestures for me to do just that as he turns to walk away from me. I end up following him back to the potion room. Rumple sets the cloak on a table and pulls out a magnifying glass. He uses a pair of tweezers to carefully remove a single hair from the fabric of the cloak. He places the hair in a vial that already contains a hair.
"Rumple, what is-"
"Just watch, my love." He interrupts. I watch, as the hairs seem to illuminate yellow and pink. The two strands wind around each other as they levitate together in the vial. My mouth drops open in shock. Rumple giggles before lifting the vial from the table. His actions snap me out of my trance. I follow his movements with my eyes as he walks over to the bottled magics cabinet. He places the vial in the only open space. He has truly done it. I do not know how he did, but he truly did it. He has just bottled love. A smile makes its way across my face. Rumple giggles once again as he steps away, admiring his work.
"What will you use it for?" I say, not realizing that I had walked up behind Rumple. The beautiful display of the glowing hairs was mesmerizing.
"You'll see, my little birdie." He replies, turning to me. "But now, it's time for bed." He gently grabs my hand, poofing us outside the door to my bedchambers. "Until the morrow's light, my dear." He bends down and kisses the back of my hand, which he was still holding. I smile at him as he stands up straight once again. He walks down the hallway, towards his own bedchambers. I head in to sleep the night away. The excitement of bottling love can only mean good things for us. At least I think so.
A/N: I hope you guys liked this chapter. No promises on how long until the next chapter. It could be tomorrow, and it could be a week from now. Only time will tell.