Hi, so here is another chapter. I am trying to publish the last of these chapters for this story before school starts again so I hope you all enjoy. This chapter again deals with the earlier episodes and the next chapter will deal with the end of Hyde before I tackle the remaining chapters on the later parts of Season 6.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine,
I hope you all enjoy this chapter and a big thank you to all of you who have read and reviewed and followed and favourited so far. It means more than words can say as I slowly but surely come to the end of Giselle's story.
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Paradise Lost
Chapter 53-Staring At The End
Killian makes Belle an offer. Rumple comes home. Emma's magic is playing up and the Evil Queen returns to Storybrooke ruining Giselle's new and peaceful life and ensuring her fear for her family is justified.
"Remember that all throughout history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they seem invincible. But in the end, they always fall. Always." (Mahatma Ghandi)
Storybrooke. Giselle's Perspective
She dressed for school on Monday and stared in the big mirror in her bedroom as if she was looking around and seeing a different person. She could see herself with her newly styled hair. She had gone and cut the straggly bits that had developed since her adventures in the Underworld and so that it rested just below her shoulders and then she had gone and had side bangs cut in so that she looked a little bit different than how she had done the last time that she had started school.
She dressed in her school uniform and it felt strange. She felt the tights slide over her legs and the skirt that she had, had to buy new along with her blazer and shirt. She still hoisted it up further up her legs rather like she had done before and she pulled her hair back, so it fell on her shoulders and loosened her tie.
She was just walking to school when she heard someone shout her name. she turned her boots clacking again (because nothing would ever take that away from her) and she saw her Dad jogging out of Granny's beaming at her.
"I was hoping to catch you before you left for school, I wanted to…" he trailed off as if he didn't know what to say and then he held out the coffee in his hand. Giselle could smell pumpkin spice from there and she had to blink rather rapidly because she really wanted to take that coffee and it reminded her of a time when she had been so naïve as to think the worst thing that could happen was that she got maths the same morning as chemistry.
God she had been a stupid kid once hadn't she?
Instead she took it and smile. "Thanks" she said finally. She noted that the diner was busy and then remembered that her Dad and Emma too had probably been up half the night ensuring that the people who had come of that balloon thing had managed to get some sleep and some food down them.
"How's it going in there?" she asked finally.
"Good I think, err—I was about to ask you the same question, have you…err…have you seen your father at all since New York?"
"Dad he's been missing two days. He's good but not even he can yank Belle out of that box without True Love's Kiss in two days."
"He did" her Dad said finally. "Belle just arrived in the diner"
Giselle bit down on her immediate response which was not kind. She had not yet mentally got her head around the fact that she was going to be a big sister and that Belle was pregnant with her father's child during their one night reconciliation. Personally she had not gotten over the Will situation even if that had fallen by the post.
"Well I've not seen him" she said finally. "Besides he's not done anything this time around. If Belle's having marriage issues then I suggest she take it up with Archie. She did know what she was getting into when she married him"
She took a swig off her coffee. "Please tell me she's not living in my house again? I cannot deal with the smell of puke first thing in the morning."
"No, there…not together any more I don't think and she wants to raise the baby far from him and the drama that comes with him and so—I…err…I offered her a bed on my ship"
Giselle nearly spat a mouthful of coffee on the floor. Wiping her chin on the back of her hands and hoping she had not messed up her foundation she looked at her Dad with wide eyes and when she spoke she noticed her voice had gone up several volumes.
"You've done what?"
"I—look Giselle I know you and Belle have issues" he ignored Giselle's snort. "But I owe her, I did try to kill her twice"
"Pity you never went for the third strike" Giselle muttered. Her Dad delicately ignored her and carried on.
"Look she's going to be on the boat, it's only until she get's a place for herself and the baby."
"I wouldn't count on it" Giselle muttered, again her Dad ignored her but Giselle was too busy thinking of the two homes that she had, had growing up and how Belle had, had no problem making herself perfectly comfortable in either one of them. She sighed feeling the tell-tale signs of a headache coming on. She knew she had to stick to her guns if she wanted to get to school.
"I'm going to go to school" she said grumpily. "I'll see you when I get back"
Axel was loitering outside of the gates when she came out two days after that conversation. As far as she knew her father was at the shop because she had not seen him. It would have made her angry once but Giselle was not that teenager who believed the Dark One could do no wrong. That teenager was dead somewhere along the lines of hell and Neverland. He would seek her out she knew that—he always did, but she was not running to him either. For the first time in her life she was not running to do her father's bidding, not running to his praise, she had learnt finally the long hard lesson of what it is to live alone.
She was not the only one to return to school.
Snow White had returned as well as enthusiastic as ever especially since she had shot an arrow into a tree for a physics class. They were strapped for teachers here and many children of both the lower school and upper school had shared teachers in the past. Being a Senior, Giselle had the luxury of not sharing a teacher and privately she thanked her lucky stars that Snow White was not teaching her anything as she knew for her and for her character it would have been a complete waste of time.
"Damn" Axel said leaning against the chain link fence and flashing his fangs to any child that looked at him funny (Giselle supposed that was his way of amusing himself as he had waited like some common criminal leaning against the chain link)
"You in that uniform makes me wanna do real bad things"
Giselle laughed without meaning too. Her school skirt was hiked up around her waist and she was tired after her afternoon with maths and she felt an arm go around her waist. Axel smelled like the shower gel that she had bought him and some sort of soap that she thought they might use at the animal shelter to wash the animals.
"Why are you here? I thought you were working this afternoon." Axel rolled his eyes once and then grinned though it was a little bitter. "I got a visit from Emma Swan. She told me to collect you and then meet at the Station thingy—she had an announcement"
Giselle stopped dead. An Announcement? Oh Christ.
If her other father had knocked up someone then it really would be too much.
Axel must have caught the look on her face because he grinned at her as if he had found something incredibly funny. "I know" he said reading her like an open book. "I thought that too—but I don't think so, she looked more tired than anything and not the kind of pregnancy tired my mother was when she was pregnant with my little brother" Giselle noted the mention of Axel's mother who like the rest of his family was hardly mentioned unless he wanted them to be mentioned. She felt however him tug her hand and she followed him up the steps and into the street out of school still smiling.
When she got to the station however she hardly smiled once.
Storybrooke. The Police Station. Axel's Perspective.
It seemed the Evil Queen was back. That might be over simplifying it but that was all Axel really got from that perspective. Emma Swan (and wow she had a lot of hair—how did she run with all that hair?) told them and Axel had a second with all the vision of a predatory magical creature to take in everyone's expressions and it was clear that with the exception of Giselle and her stepmother everyone else knew.
His eyes wandered at some point during what he was sure was a very interesting discussion about what to do next (and really what were they to do next? Well Axel knew but he wasn't going to say.) to Giselle's father. He was leaning against the wall hook resting on the window ledge and Axel measured him wondering what it was about him that had sent most of the people in this room down to the Underworld with him.
He looked away slightly and rocked a little on his heels. He knew without looking that Giselle had gone white again and her mouth which this morning had been curled into one of the more gorgeous smiles that she had possessed and was now in a straight line as she stared at Emma with a blank gaze every now and then her eyes flittered every few seconds to her father whose gaze was still fixated on the woman he loved.
It took Axel a second to register what it was and then when it hit him—the reason for her behaviour and the reason for the way she was acting. She was scared. She was scared of losing the pirate now more than she had ever been. That week where he had been the one taking care of her must have damaged her more than he had thought. She must have lost her wits and more if she thought that the mayor's double could take away her Dad like that. But then again…he thought what he would do if he had his Dad back after so long thinking he was dead and then there was another threat on the horizon and he had to look away before his eyes welled up. That for him would not happen.
Regina was speaking now the dark-haired woman who had legs that (the voice in Axel's head that was his older brother) were to die for. Axel wondered how she was coping and then saw by the steely glint in her eyes that perhaps Regina knew that there might be only one way to destroy her other half. For Axel only knew one way and it sure as shit wasn't a good one. Not for someone who still had a relatively young child.
The meeting (if that was what you could call it—personally Axel thought it was a lot of speeches about hope, and he could see what Giselle meant when she said too much of that could put your teeth on edge) was concluded and Axel stretched a little his back screaming in protest after so long on his feet. He thought about asking Giselle if she wanted to grab something to eat but she had a look on her face that said a thousand words and none of them were nice.
She was out the door before Axel could so much as raise an eyebrow.
"I wouldn't go after her if I were you mate" said a voice next to him and he turned to see Hook watching him with knowing eyes. "Take it from experience going after my daughter in that mood doesn't do any good"
Axel ran a hand over his face and then the words were out of him before he could stop them.
"You get she's terrified she's going to lose you again right? This whole thing-this Evil Queen coming after you and your—girlfriend or whatever she is—she's terrified she's going to lose you. You didn't see what she was like during that week you were dead. Trust me she wont live through that again. And you and I both know your girlfriends got a problem with magic, anyone with a hint of magic in their veins can pick up on the haywire energy around her. And you and I both know Elle's not stupid. She picks up on things, you might wanna tell her you're not going to die. Even if she doesn't believe you it might make her sleep better at night"
And with that he was gone walking out into the sunlight after all those years in captivity he still considered a luxury and down the street in search of something coated in chocolate.
He could just imagine both his older and younger brother's approval. Gods he missed them.
Gold Manner. Storybrooke. Rumple's Perspective.
His hair still felt strange, but tomorrow he was going to see Belle. Once Rumple had sorted out some adequate protection for his estranged wife and unborn child (more than the pirate had suggested anyway) he would look at the chessboard and see where the Evil Queen was planning to make her move. He would have put money on Zelena but still…he might have taught her most things but both Regina and her ego were still capable of making decisions by themselves.
He sat down still trying to ignore the strange feeling that came with barely having any hair when the door slammed open with such a force he knew it was only one of two people and considering Emma Swan was not going to come to him for help with those shaky hands, (at least not without her army that she called family at her beck and call) and that meant it had to be his daughter.
He didn't know why but he was surprised she was still living here. It was like he had woken up one morning and realised that Giselle's loyalty was not as constant as it always was. There was still love between the two of them but not the same dependency that there had been. The girl he had raised in the castle safe from the monsters that would take her away from him was growing up.
She double checked when she saw him sat in his armchair and he knew the hair had thrown her off for a second before she recalibrated herself.
Giselle was a lot like Milah when she was mad Rumple mused to himself before the storm started. Nothing would stop her when she got the chance.
"What the hell" Giselle said finally. "Are you doing with the Evil Queen? And don't lie, because I can tell."
Rumple nodded. Giselle was a big girl now he supposed. "Sit down" he said finally. "You want a seat at the table then you get it. Sit down and I will tell you what I think she's going to do and I will tell you what I am going to do"
Giselle paused for a second watching him and then she dumped her bag and sat down at the table in her school uniform and Rumple had a moment where he remembered her as Scarlett Gold and life was so decidedly easier.
"I'm listening" she said finally.
Rumple smiled.
And there it is, I hope you enjoy and hopefully the next chapter will be up soon.
Next Chapter-(Entirely Rumple and Giselle)-Rumple and Giselle have a confrontation and heart to heart about his past and future actions her place in his life and the answers and questions that they have both been seeking and thinking since before the first curse in a hope to put the past behind them. Killian meanwhile needs his daughter
