"If you keep pacing like that you're going to wear a hole in the floor," Granny reprimanded from across the tower.
She was knitting. She had no idea where she'd found the yarn and needles or for that matter how she had the concentration to knit booties for little Neal in the midst of all this! For that matter she had no idea how Neal could sleep through it or how Roland was content to just play with his toys in the corner. At any moment their lives were going to change and she couldn't help the feeling that it would be for the worse. She had no idea how they could be so calm in all of this, she felt like if she didn't keep busy her nerves would fry.
"If we have to leave I need to make sure we have everything we need," she excused going back to the books again. "I don't want to miss anything. Leroy? Anything?" she called glancing at the Dwarf who had taken up watch at the tower window.
"Nothing since they rode out, sister!" he said, confirming what she already knew. Of course. As far as she knew everything had gone according to plan. Regina and Robin Hood had disappeared first, then Mary Margaret and she assumed David had followed close behind in the shadows as no one had seen him go. Arthur followed, a mouse taking the cheese. The only question for hours had been whether or not the mouse would die in the trap or survive. Things were quiet all morning. Granny, the dwarves, and the children of course had arrived at Robin's order. She'd begun to find leather bags to pack her books up in and another fit their clothes from the Realm Without Magic, stupid things they all didn't want to leave without. She'd taken her bell jar and fit it into the crook of her elbow and hadn't let it go, even through the packing. The bags she left hidden around the tower just in case someone arrived but her jar she wouldn't relinquish. If push came to shove and she didn't even have time to cross the room she refused to be without it. She simply wouldn't forgive herself.
But unfortunately it was right around the time she'd finished packing that things had changed for the worse.
"Something's happening…" Leroy had growled from the window.
"Mary Margaret? David?" she'd questioned quickly moving to the window. "Are they back?"
"No one's coming back…they're going out!" he'd blanched. Out! Going out?!
Sure enough when she'd arrived at the window she'd seen Queen Guinevere and no less than two dozen guards pour out of the castle, ride across the bridge at a full gallop, and disappear into the forest.
They'd all panicked then, in an odd fearful and quiet way. They didn't want to panic little Roland or wake Neal, but she could tell from the way that they all looked around the tower as if expecting Regina to appear out of the smoke at any second and whisk them away that they all knew the same thing. Four weeks in this tower and they'd never seen anything like that. The fact that they'd seen it today of all days…it was terrifying.
But nothing had changed for them since that moment. Not really. The tower was quiet. No one sought them either, neither Regina nor any Camelot's guard. Roland continued to play, Neal continued to sleep, Granny knit row after row, the dwarves kept their watch, and she circled. With each pass she moved the hidden books to a new hiding place, closer together and toward the center of the room so that she could grab them at the drop of a hat. Though, she supposed that perhaps she had been doing it a bit too obsessively. But she couldn't help it. If she didn't work on something, she was going to go crazy.
"That's your third time around the tower without moving anything. Everything you'll need you've packed. There's nothing you can do now but wait," Granny insisted never missing a beat of the needles.
Wait. Wait for what? Waiting she could handle so long as she knew what the outcome was, waiting for something uncertain-
"They're here!" Leroy shouted.
Doc turned around and swatted his head with a stack of papers and gave him a "shh" but it was too late, Neal had already begun to wail.
"Ow! Was that really necessary?!"
"Who's back?" she questioned moving back around the table and staring out the window. He was right. They were back and her heart felt like it resided in her chest as she searched the dozens of bodies she'd found for the ones that mattered. Guin and Arthur. They were on horseback together, her arms wrapped around his middle as they led the march up to the castle. Behind them…she didn't know just how much she'd been expecting to evacuate until she saw the sight before her and could hardly believe it.
David and Mary Margaret weren't on horseback, but they walked side by side. David's back was straight, his head held high in victory and next to him Mary Margaret was nearly the same. Her hand was in his. It was hard to tell from this distance, but they looked happy. She stared with her mouth open and tears in her eyes feeling defeated. Really? Was this really happening? It was hard to believe. She saw it, but it still just didn't feel right.
"That must be him then!" Leroy baulked.
"Lancelot!" she whispered in amazement. Her eyes swept over the knights that followed after David and Mary Margaret and landed on a lone man walking amid the mounted knights. He was dressed like a knight, but his hands remained at his waist as if he were bound. Arrested. Had he really tried to hurt Mary Margaret? She'd trusted him so much...
"I guess the fun's over," Granny concluded matter-of-factly. "Who's ready for dinner?"
"I am! I am!" Roland stated getting to his feet.
Finally, after a day of waiting the world shifted and moved around her. Granny put away the knitting and told Roland to clean up. The dwarves packed Neal and the toys away. One by one they left her loft with barely an acknowledgement, at least not one that she'd noticed. They went to dinner she supposed, but she remained behind.
She felt shocked. It certainly was a surprise! She'd been surprised before but this…this felt like shock.
David had been right. Lancelot and Mary Margaret were wrong and Arthur was…trustworthy?! He did want to help them? He wanted to help Emma?
No! No, it just didn't seem right and it wasn't just her gut feeling it! He knew that they had an issue with the Dark One! Supposedly they'd told him when he first showed them the tree! If he was so truthful why not confess that he could help then. Sure, he hadn't known that Emma was the Dark One, but a good person would volunteer information like that no matter what! They wouldn't keep it to themselves! Would they?!
And Lancelot? It just didn't make sense! He hadn't known that Emma was the Dark One, he had no reason to suspect that they had the dagger when David was Knighted and yet he'd risked his life to come back and warn Mary Margaret when there was nothing in it for him! If he was lying there was little sense in that!
But she knew what she'd seen! Lancelot in chains and Mary Margaret and David, walking together, happily, with King Arthur.
It was a trick. It had to be. They were trying to protect Emma. King Arthur was still the enemy they'd just…changed the plan for some reason. To…to…to protect Emma and Neal and…all of them? That certainly sounded like Mary Margaret and David. She didn't know how or why they'd done it but it had to be the answer. It was really the only thing that logically made any sense to her!
Rose still tucked against her arm, she pushed herself up out of her seat and strode toward the door, determined to find them. She was going to get to the bottom of this if it was the last thing she-
"Regina!" she screeched, coming to an abrupt halt as Regina and Robin Hood came quickly into the tower and closed the door.
"Something's wrong!" Regina insisted grabbing her arm and pushing her away from the door. Her heart began to race and she quickly located the bags she had stashed around the room.
"Just let me get the books and I'm ready to go to-"
"What? No, we're not leaving! We can't!" Regina insisted. "It's not a problem like that. At least not yet."
She stopped where she was and turned to look at her. It was a problem but not one that required them to leave as planned. "What's happening?" she questioned.
Regina shook her head. "I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out myself. But I know that Lancelot is sitting in the dungeon right now and Mary Margaret is suddenly singing Arthur's praising like a canary. David is one thing, but even if Arthur was trustworthy Mary Margaret doing it is another thing. And now their great idea is to give Emma's dagger to King Arthur so he can help her."
"You think he's lying?"
"I know he's lying," she snapped. "Think about it! Rumpelstiltskin couldn't free himself from that dagger, you think King Arthur can do it? You think we stand a chance of this working without Merlin? No…something else is going on here, something bigger than we expected, something we couldn't have expected."
Something they couldn't have expected? She closed her eyes because suddenly she understood what Regina was talking about. She hadn't talked to Mary Margaret or David since they'd arrived, she hadn't made it that far, but from the way she talked she understood that Regina had. Based on what she was saying, there was only one thing she could have meant.
"We can't trust David and Mary Margaret anymore…"
Regina stopped pacing and glanced over at her as if this was the first time someone had said it out loud. "Not until I get to the bottom of this," she muttered looking shocked at her own words.
"They're still our friends," Robin insisted by the door. She'd nearly forgotten that he was there. "We still love and care about them!"
"But Emma gave me her dagger for a reason. She trusted I'd take care of it and that's what I'm going to do, from Arthur or them. Until I'm convinced giving that dagger over to King Arthur is the right thing for Emma I'm not going to do it."
"And when will that be? We can only keep the dagger from them for so long until-"
"We'll stall them," Regina interrupted Robin. "We'll have to. For as long as we can and in the meantime…you've got work to do. You've got to get Merlin out of that tree. Now!"
Answers to questions: yes I'm going to add a little bit of time between 5x04 and 5x05 but only a couple of days. Why? Well, that why is what is responsible for this entire smaller story arc that we didn't see in the show. In the show we see Mary Margaret and David return, sing Arthurs praises, and Regina looking at them with suspicion and disbelief. The next thing we see in 5x05 she's willingly handing over the dagger. When has she ever done that? When has she ever ignored her own instincts and gone with what Mary Margaret and David said to do, especially when Emma is at risk? It just doesn't make sense and it felt to me like we skipped a chapter between 5x04 and 5x05 so I'm going to get it back for us. The nice thing is that when I brought out this particular story line I found it fit perfectly into the story as if it should be there and that is always proof enough for me so I hope you'll like where the rest of these chapters lead us. Oh, and another visit from Neal might very well be on the way again.
Thank you Grace5231973, Fox24, TwistedMidnight, Carlyle23, Rumbellefan, and Ladybugsmomma for your reviews and support on the last chapter, and for just letting me know you are out there. It means so very much to me! Peace and Happy Reading!