It was 2001. He'd owned the shop now for so long he couldn't remember how long he'd been doing this same routine. Each morning he woke up, stretched, and got into the shower. He dressed in a suit, adding layer after layer to make any who felt the need to deal with him feel underdressed. That was a trick he'd learned as a lawyer. In the morning he read the newspaper, cooked himself some breakfast, just coffee and an English muffin today. He drove to town and parked his car in the lot or on the street. He didn't live far from work, but he wasn't about to walk there. With his leg, he'd never manage and besides, walking might give the impression he cared about something. He walked down the street every morning. Sometimes people lifted their eyes to him in acknowledgment. He never returned the favor. He barely paid any attention to Marco on the ladder as he walked swiftly by him.
As he unlocked the door to his shop he glanced at the abandoned library on the corner across from him. It always made him feel uneasy, probably because it was becoming an eyesore. One of these days, he would file a complaint with Regina about that, but today there was too much to do.
Inside the shop he opened the blinds and took a deep breath of the musty smell that came with age. It still felt like home, probably more like home than his pink house, which he still needed to get painted. He turned the sign behind him to "open" in case someone felt like coming in to make a deal, but then escaped to the back room just like always. It was his favorite place in his shop. The spinning wheel he'd first seen when he bought the place was back here, along with a fold-away cot for nights he got carried away and just decided to sleep there. There were two tables crowded into the back that he could use to polish or repair or clean or whatever he needed to do.
On the table was a tray of fine silver that he'd removed from a glass case the night before. It had begun to look a bit tarnished so he'd set it aside for polishing first thing. Now that he was looking at it, he could name a few other pieces of silver in the shop that could do with a good polish before they started showing their age. Polishing the silver, that was his task for today.
It was just another day in Storybrooke.
Until the bell on his shop door chimed that afternoon.
Two days after he had sent Regina to Boston she charged back into his shop with a baby carrier in one hand. The carrier was making noises like there was a child in it but he was too distracted by the angry look on Regina's face to look down and confirm that it was a child and not a yowling cat. He'd expected Regina to come around for a visit with the boy and thank him, or maybe even pay him, but looking at her now he was doubtful that he'd be getting a hug from her, not that he wanted one.
"You knew!" she growled striding up to him at the counter.
"Knew what, exactly?" he asked as she practically dropped the carrier on the floor beside her.
"The child that you located for me in Phoenix...his mother was found in the woods outside of Storybrooke eighteen years ago!"
"What a starling coincidence," he responded with a shrug. It was more or less the same response he'd given to the caseworker he'd spoken to a few days earlier and what he'd chalked the information up to. Why Regina was so passionate about it was beyond him.
"Eighteen years ago?!" she screamed at him.
He didn't understand. He barely batted an eye at the information he'd learned! Eighteen years ago…nothing special about eighteen years ago came to mind. But, of course, that was so long ago it was all fuzzy. Why Regina was here and angry over it was a mystery to him. Had she even been Mayor eighteen years ago? She must have been, she'd been in office running unopposed for as long as he could remember.
"I fear I'm missing the significance," he responded. "You have to forgive me; my memory is not what it used to be."
He attempted to walk away but she only followed him, tears gathering in her eyes, furious ones if he had to guess based on her temperament at the moment. "Henry's mother was found as a baby on a very significant day. The day this town...this town..."
He shook his head. "This town what?" he pressed. He had better things to do than play twenty questions with Regina. He remembered nothing significant happening in this town eighteen years ago. Storybrooke then was exactly the same as Storybrooke now.
But suddenly the woman reared back and her eyes went wide. "She's important, isn't she?" she pressed. "This mother."
He shook his head again. She sounded like a lunatic, absolutely raving mad. It was a good thing he'd gotten Archie to sign off on her psychological exam long before this otherwise she might not have passed if he'd seen her on a day like today. Was the mother important…that was a ridiculous question.
"Is she important? I suppose that as much as she gave birth to your son," he suggested as he moved away from her. He'd seen a lot of adoptions, most of them were thankful for birth parents, they expressed gratitude for the special treasures they bestowed upon them. It did not surprise him Regina wasn't one of those people. Still, he expected her to be judgmental, constantly chastising the woman who had handed her child over. She was the kind of woman who would believe with complete certainty that no matter how she raised the boy or what decisions she made for him, she would always be better than the young mother. This was not what he expected. This was fear. This was downright paranoia. This intense focus on this poor girl who had been left by her parents in a wooded area so close to here...why did it intimidate her so much?
"You... you built this into this whole thing, didn't you? You made this happen because the mother...she's..." Regina drew a ragged breath and her body shook as if there were some kind of monster standing in front of her instead of a six week old baby and his mysterious past.
"She's what, Madam Mayor? This mother you seem to fear so much."
"Oh, you really know nothing of what I'm talking about?"
"Well, I know you're upset, that much is clear."
Again, he tried to move away from her, tried to pick up his pen so he could figure out his rent leger but she only stayed and kept screaming at him.
"You told me I'd come to you. That I'd have a hole in my heart. And...you want this to end. This town, what I built-you want to destroy it all by bringing the mother back! That's why you did all this!"
He'd never been more flabbergasted in his life. He prided himself on always having something to say whether it was in court or in politics or even in his shop, but he couldn't figure out how to respond to the Mayor. He wanted ever so desperately to tell her that she was the one that had asked for a baby and to remind her that if he wanted to destroy her precious town, the town that he owned, not the one that she'd built, he could do it all too easily. He didn't need a baby or the mother to do it, he just had to get rich selling the land to an oil company.
But he held his tongue, and chose instead, for the sake of their brittle relationship and the town, to assume it was something other than lunacy bothering her, something a bit more common among new mothers: sleepless nights.
"Do you know you have dark circles under your eyes? A weary tremble in your voice. Poor thing. Look what motherhood has done to you."
It was still a low blow, but it gave her the opportunity to realize she needed a babysitter so she could sleep. He wondered if her sheriff friend was good with babies. Maybe he could get Regina to sleep then watch Henry for her.
"Play dumb all you want, you little imp!" she shouted at him over the counter. "You should know who you're dealing with by now. I sacrificed everything to build this life! And nothing will tear me away from my revenge!"
Suddenly Regina turned and picked the carrier at her feet up and strode back to the door. "Henry goes back to Boston! Tomorrow!" she shouted as she left the building. All things considered, he saw no point in trying to talk her out of it. Regina as a mother?! A life in foster care was better for that child.
Again, nothing we haven't seen before. Though, it is sort of fun writing this from Rumple's point of view, watching it not as an OUAT fan who knows what is going on and instead as Rumple and realizing just how crazy Regina sounds in this instant.
Thank you, MerlockVonBaron, Grace5231973, and Alarda, for reviewing! I'm glad you liked it and have enjoyed how this little ficlet has gone! Only one more chapter left! Peace and Happy Reading!