Soft
The times when people would seek out the Dark One for aid were never fun times for Piper, she'd come to realize. Those sorts were already so desperate there was no need for her magic or her influence to be used, there was no need for her music to sway them into submission or to use it to terrify them into acceptance. Normally, when Rumpelstiltskin had clients of that sort, she would go about her business as caretaker of the castle, perhaps she would keep an ear out for what sort of deal it would be, more curious than interested. It amused her to see what drew some people to the Dark One, she would often have a good laugh at how some people were truly so eager for something utterly ridiculous. It seemed, when people wanted something or felt they needed something, they would be willing to part with or do anything to obtain it, even if it was ridiculous.
One man had traded his entire mouthful of teeth for a 'more pleasing exterior,' thinking the trade worth it to look handsome, not accounting for the fact that he could never open his mouth or smile or eat easily again. Another woman had wanted a way to keep men away from her, claiming she was far too beautiful for the sorts of men who tried to catch her eye. She wasn't all that pretty, but apparently working as a barmaid with an ample bosom earned her many coin and she had a purse of it to offer Rumpelstiltskin…who gave her the outward appearance of an old, decrepit woman in return.
She should have been more specific.
Truly it was laughable the things people thought would make them happy, what they saw as being important to them. And the things they were willing to give up for the sake of it was even more ludicrous.
So she would wander about, cleaning or polishing or sweeping, and listening to what others all but demanded of the Dark One and the ways they tried to 'haggle' with him, as though he ever would. HE set the price and if they were not willing to pay it, that was not his fault.
Today though, it was a very different type of day...for a very different type of client had come to Rumpelstiltskin for aid.
It was not her place to remark on whether he should assist them for, perhaps, a lesser amount than he would normally ask of any other. Had it been her, even her hardened little heart had tugged at their request.
There was a woman and a man, not yet middle aged, not even close, with a child. And the child, it was clear, was in a very dire form. He was clutched in his mother's arms, small limbs barely having enough strength to hold onto her, his head slumped onto her shoulder, with sweat on his brow, his cheeks flushed but all other skin a deathly pale, panting and struggling to breathe, shaking in her hold so much that they could hear his teeth chattering. The woman was in tears, the man near frantic as he begged of help from the Dark One.
"Please, sir," the man spoke, his voice cracking, "Please, you are our only hope. We'll do anything."
Rumpelstiltskin stood before them, his eyes trained on the little boy as though able to see just how little time the child had left, as though he could see death looming in wait for him to pass, "Anything, you say?"
"Yes sir," the man sniffled, moving onto his knees, "We beg of you, anything you want, it's yours, just…please, save our son, save my boy."
Rumpelstiltskin looked between them, "You come to me and not the fairies? Interesting."
The man stiffened, glancing at his wife, his eyes wide as the woman seemed to bite back a sob, "We tried," the woman admitted that he had not been their first stop, "We asked them."
"And they said no," Rumpelstiltskin hummed, nodding his head, as though it were expected for the beings of light magic to refuse to heal a sick child. It wouldn't surprise him if it had been Blue that denied them, for as good as she claimed to be she seemed to have a habit of tearing apart families.
"They said it was his time," the man trembled, "That he was too near death to save him."
"You disagree?" Rumpelstiltskin lifted an eyebrow. He would admit the boy was in a bad way, but he would also assume that it had taken this family some time to go from the fairies to him and the boy would have been better when they came upon him than now. Even now, though, the boy was not so far gone as to be so near death the fairies could not have healed him.
It was likely, if he knew fairies at all, that they could not be seen to give this treatment to every sick child in the realm, but they could also not ask for favors from the people in order to bestow the requested magic upon them. They would be no better than himself then.
"Until he gives his last breath I will," the man nodded, "I will not lose my boy. So long as he breathes he lives, and if he lives he can be saved."
"Please, sir," the woman begged now, struggling to move to her knees with the child still in her arms, "Please, sir, he is all we have."
Rumpelstiltskin looked down at the couple, at the child clutched in their arms, and Piper, even from across the room, could see something shift within his eyes, a flicker of something across his face as he said, "I will save your boy."
"Oh, thank you sir!" the man cheered.
"But for a price."
"Anything, sir," the woman looked to him.
He glanced between the two humans on their knees, their willingness. He could ask for their very lives, their souls, right then and they would give it. He remembered how that felt, he remembered the terror when he himself had experienced a similar situation, what had been demanded of him just to save the life of his child and the chaos that had come from it.
"Five gold coins," he stated.
There was a shadow that passed across the faces of the two before him, and he knew he had selected the right amount. It would be enough to strain them, but it would be something they could afford and still feel as though they had paid a steep price.
"Yes, yes, of course, sir," the man began frantically fumbling with the purse on the side of his hip, they had brought all the money to their name with them, were willing to part with all of it if it would save their boy. He pulled out five gold coins and handed them to the Dark One.
Rumpelstiltskin took them, waving his hand over them to test that they were real, before nodding, and snapping his fingers, causing them to disappear in a swirl of smoke, "Leave your boy with me," he instructed them, "Return in the morning and he shall be well."
The two looked hesitant to do it, for any parent would be loathe to leave their child's side when they were so sick, but if this would ultimately save their son, they would do it. The two curled together, pressing a kiss to the child's forehead before the man stood, helping his wife to her feet before taking the child from her. He clutched the boy to him, pressing one final kiss to his forehead before stepping over to Rumpelstiltskin and holding his son out to the man.
The Dark One looked down at the child, and waved his hand, transporting him away to the shock of his parents, "Return on the morrow," he repeated before they could shout or accuse him.
The two looked at each other, before nodding and heading for the door, clutching each other close, sniffling and openly sobbing as they stepped past the doors.
Piper was silent a moment, observing the Dark One as he let out a breath he seemed to have been holding in the entire time, "Do you require any assistance?" she offered.
He looked to her, "Don't think I can save him?" he asked, just the barest hint of a bite to his words.
"Not at all," she remarked, "You are the Dark One. I have yet to see you fail anything you have made a deal to do. I merely mean...it is an ill child. They can be fussy."
If they were anything like her cousin had been during their childhood...fussy would be an understatement.
"I know how children can be!" he nearly snapped at her, before sucking in a deep breath, pinching his nose as she merely tilted her head to the side, curious to what had triggered his ire, "No, Piper," he offered, more calmly, "I do not require any assistance to save the boy."
And, with that, he magically transported himself out of the room and likely to where he had deposited the child. Piper stood there a moment longer, humming to herself as she thought on the man's reaction. Granted she had not known the Dark One long, but she had seen that sudden reaction from others before, her thoughts drifting back to her cousin, to her stepmother, how the woman would sometimes snap about horses when they would go riding and she would worry for the woman, before turning away and trying to gently remind that she was an accomplished rider who learned from the best.
Something about this particular occasion had gotten under the Dark One's skin, made it more personal than many of his other dealings were. He had given that couple a discount, she knew it. She had seen him either ask for vindictive things that would technically ruin the intention of the deal another wanted to make, a sort of 'buyer beware' specification she had only ever heard about when dealing with genies. She had seen him charge steep prices from those who could afford it. But she had also seen him only ask of people that which they had or could obtain, never anything they had no hope of achieving. It might take effort and time, but it was within their means and ability.
This though...five gold coins to save the life of a child was a small price to pay and, if she was right, if her hearing was as sharp as it had always been, she was nearly certain, when Rumpelstiltskin magically disappeared the coins, he had only transported them back into the man's pouch.
There was something personal and close about this particular situation that was causing him to be sentimental and easier on this couple than others that came to him begging for help.
It did not take much to have a solid guess what that could be. A child was sick and near death. She would be willing to guess that the man Rumpelstiltskin had been before becoming the Dark One, had had a child once, and lost him, whether to illness or something else. Why else would he have a room where he kept the clothes of a boy in his castle, a room never used? She would not ask, it was not her business and she had enough secrets of her own to never wish to pry into his business in such a manner.
But she could content herself with suppositions and guesses.
The child would live, she was sure of that, the Dark One would not fail in this, and if he did not need her aid with helping the child during the healing process, then she would not offer again. Instead she merely turned and went back to her sweeping.
~8~
Dusk was just settling by the time Piper finished her chores for the day. Truly there was never so much to do in a given day where she would find herself rushing to finish. She swept every day, she dusted every day, and when one kept up on that, there was never as much dust or dirt the next day so it never took much to keep things clean. She didn't mind the tasks, they kept her busy between assisting the Dark One and her own deals in the making. She was heading to her room, finally having been moved out of the dungeon area and given a bed in a small chamber of her own, when she stilled.
She tilted her head to the side, hearing an odd noise and headed down another hall, following the sound which grew clearer the nearer she got to a room at the end of that hall. It was a whimpering, a quiet sob, and a pained little whine, drifting out to her through the door. As she and the Dark One were the only ones typically in the castle, she knew this was where he had sent the boy to save him. She reached out, feeling the smallest of tugs on her heart at the sniffling she could hear, and pushed the door open. She took it as a sign that she was not unwelcome or forbidden to enter that the door opened, if the Dark One had wanted her out he would have magically barred the door to keep her out.
There, curled up in a ball, in the middle of a bed with quite a few blankets over him, was the child. He was more active than she had seen him last, when he had been listless with fever, but he was not comfortable in the least. He was squirming and tossing and turning, the sounds he made told her quite clearly that he was upset and very frightened. She knew the sounds of fear very well, but this was not a terror induced sound, but more a confusion, not knowing where he was or what was happening or why he was hurting.
She moved over to the bed and looked down at the boy who stiffened when he heard her walking closer. She waited till he looked at her, his eyes wide and tearful, bags under them from lack of sleep, his cheeks less pink but his skin was still quite pale.
"May I?" she asked the child, gesturing to the edge of his bed.
The boy glanced at it and up at her, wary, eyeing her for a long while before he nodded and she moved to sit on the side of it.
"Your name?" she continued when he didn't speak.
"T-Thomas," he said.
"Piper," she offered, tilting her head at him, "Can you not sleep?" she asked him.
He sniffled, "I don't feel good. I can't sleep when I don't feel good."
She hummed, "I imagine," she murmured, "What does your mother do when you cannot sleep?"
"She sings to me."
Piper smirked, "I may be able to help with that then," she offered, "I know many lullabies if you would like me to try."
Thomas was silent for a long while, thinking about it, his mother was the only one who sang to him and this woman was a stranger to him. But…he was so tired and he just wanted to be able to sleep, just for a bit. He was sure he'd feel better if he could just get sleep. His father always laughed about how cranky he could be when he hadn't slept enough and he knew he'd been very cranky the last few days. He heard his mother crying when she thought he was finally asleep and the few, very short times, he could manage a few minutes rest, he would wake up with his father at his bedside, holding his hand, all of them so tired and pale and sad.
"Ok," he nodded.
"Are there any songs you want to hear?" she asked, wanting this to be as smooth a process as possible, the more familiar a song was, the easier it would be to calm the boy and render him asleep.
"No."
She nodded, considering to herself which would be best. She hadn't been lying, she DID know quite a few lullabies, but perhaps there would be a song that would make him even more comfortable than just sleepy. She had noticed, over the years, that there were some things children picked up on that adults did not.
She began to hum for a moment, testing out her thoughts as she watched Thomas, when the boy began to still from his fidgeting, when a soft smile grew on his face, she knew she was right. She allowed herself to sing the rest of the tune, faint sounds and vowels but no true words, it wasn't the words that the boy needed right now, it was the song itself.
Oh there were times where she had sung, where the words held more power than the melody. With a certain inflection to her voice, she could have someone truly thinking they were a teapot if she wished it. She could have people do or think things with only the words she spoke if she was careful enough about her magic. Other times it wasn't so much the words that could influence another but the tune, the melody, the way it resonated within a person's soul. It could make them fearful and sad or emboldened and brave, or any number of emotions.
Like now, with Thomas, it wasn't a tune meant to send him to sleep, it was the song she had heard of his parents. A child was often a harmonization between both parents' songs, a way they blended and how certain aspects came from the parents to create something new. But a child was not just the two songs smashed together, there were traces and qualities from the parents but the parents individual song in whole would not be the child's song.
Children though, were often intuitive by nature, they were aware of the world in a way adults couldn't hope to be, especially a child so young as Thomas. The tune she sang to him, his mother's song, followed by his father's, it would resonate with him, bring him a comfort, as though his parents were there with him, keeping him safe and loved. Being in a strange place with odd people and no parents in sight would be enough to make any child anxious, he needed more than sleep, he needed comfort and while she may be a woman, she was not a mother nor was she as soft and comforting as many others would or could be. She had spent too long fending for herself to have any true compassion to spare at this point in her life. She could manage this, but that was all.
She let the song fade as she leaned in to tug the blankets closer to Thomas's neck, the boy now in a deep, comfortable sleep he would not wake from for hours she was sure.
She sighed as she straightened, "Did you enjoy the performance?" she asked, not needing to worry about waking the boy, her magic had done its work, he would be lost to the world and any noise until well after the sun rose. She turned where she was sitting to look over her shoulder at the doorway where Rumpelstiltskin was standing, where he had been standing since she began to sing instead of hum.
"I didn't know you were capable of that, dearie," the man remarked, his hands behind his back.
"Of?" she asked, moving to stand and walk towards him, towards the door.
"Being so soft."
"If it would make you feel better, I could deafen one of your ears?" she offered easily, stepping past him and into the hall, waiting till he had followed to shut the door to the room.
Rumpelstiltskin giggled, "Careful, dearie, not many can get away with threatening the Dark One."
"How was it a threat?" she smirked at him, "I merely made you an offer you have every means to refuse."
He eyed her as though he were genuinely contemplating allowing her to do so, to see If she could manage it, before he shook his head, "I told you I required no assistance with the boy."
"You did," she agreed, "And I had no hand in helping to heal him. Only make him sleep."
"There are potions for that," he reminded her.
"Why have you waste more of your resources when I could sing him to bed?" she challenged.
He opened his mouth to argue, but she had a point. To make a sleeping draught for the child would use up some of his valued potion ingredients, more than he'd already used for the boy, and she had done it without expending anything, "Fair point," he conceded.
"Was it a spell or a potion?" she asked, moving down the hall, back the way she'd come, to head for her own rooms.
"Hmm?" he hummed as he followed her.
"To cure the child, I am merely curious if it was a spell or a potion."
"Both," he said, "A potion to allow the success of the spell."
"I wonder why the fairies refused," she remarked, "If it was so simple to do."
"Because they're cowards," Rumpelstiltskin spoke, a faint snap in his voice, "To attempt to heal the boy when they felt he was truly near death, they would fear one of the laws of magic could be broken. They fail to understand that, as the boy's father said, while he lives he is not dead. In this case, there was still time."
"Then it is good you are no coward," Piper remarked.
Rumpelstiltskin sighed, rubbing his forehead in an uncharacteristic show of weariness, "I wasn't always," he admitted, moving to cross his arms and lean against the doorframe of her rooms when she opened the door to enter, pausing to turn to him, near resting against the edge of the door as she faced him, "It took me becoming this," he gestured at himself, "To become brave."
"Not all bravery manifests the same way," she said wisely.
He scoffed, unsure if that was her attempt to make him feel better, to tell him she didn't think he was a coward even as a man, or if she believed it, "Cowardice does."
"No," she shook her head, "It does not."
"What makes you say that?"
She looked at him for a long moment, her eyes searching his as though trying to see whether he could be trusted before she leaned more on the door, looking down somewhat, not ashamed, but as weary as he seemed to be when thinking of torments from the past, "I was not always like this," she told him, her gaze flickering up to lock on his own, "My cowardice was to not accept who and what I was. I made no outward show of fear, I shied away from nothing, but that cowardice was there in my refusal to acknowledge part of myself. As I grew, it became harder to ignore. Once I was on my own, that other part of me was all that kept me alive, and so I embraced it. I would not be called a coward by many who saw me, but I was one nonetheless."
He was silent thinking on her words. It brought up more questions than it answered, about her past, her abilities, her history, who she was before the Pied Piper began to appear, one so very different than the last one he'd encountered. But her words made sense, in a way. The way her cowardice manifested was not blatant, not noticeable, but it was still felt.
"For that matter, there is bravery to be found in other things," she continued, "I can watch a man writhe and bleed to death and not bat an eye. I can face down the most disgusting and vile of men and not feel fear for I know I can end them with a word and they could do nothing to stop me. I am sure there are times in your own past, where you were brave in a way most would not credit."
He looked away at that, his mind racing to Bae. She was right in that regard as well.
So many people believed bravery to be facing down terrors and standing for what was right, even when you were afraid, to do it anyway. They failed to realize that fear came in many forms and it wasn't just the big beasts or the great evils of the world that made a person brave.
Bravery could be found in knowing you would be the only parent your child had, of having to raise them alone, with no one to help you, and doing so because you loved your child. Bravery could be turning to someone for aid when you knew you truly couldn't do something by yourself, even if that someone was the Dark One. Bravery could be leaving your house, stepping outside, not knowing what the day would bring or what dangers just walking down the road would have you face. Bravery could be found in just living each day when all you wanted was for it to end, to close your eyes and not wake up from the grief around you.
There were simple things people could do to be brave. Others would still think was not enough, but for that person was everything.
Piper had been brave in accepting that darker side of her, he had been brave in staying with his son and doing everything he could to protect him.
Milah had often called him a coward, but when he looked back on it, SHE was the coward. She was the one who abandoned them, who couldn't brave the world as his wife, who couldn't find the courage to be Bae's mother. She was the one who fled, she was the one who ran, not him, HE stayed, HE raised their son and provided for him, knowing he would have to do it alone with the shame of being a cuckolded husband. It was far worse, in his opinion, to have to raise a child when your wife abandoned you for another man, than to raise a child as the wife of a coward. HE was the one who endured and bore the scorn and derision each day of their life, Milah hadn't been there to do that.
"I was brave for my boy," he murmured, looking at Piper to see her not latching onto that slip and asking him endless questions about his son, but just observing him.
"He nearly died," Piper spoke, her voice sounding as though she were stating a fact, but with an intonation that he knew she was merely speaking what she had gathered of everything, "Like Thomas."
"A snake bite," he said, "My…wife and I, we went to a healer, Fendrake, for a potion to save him. He wanted 100 coins, which we didn't have. She wanted me to go there and kill him, to steal the potion instead," his voice took a dark tone as he recalled the words she had spat at him, "'I didn't spend our last gold coin on a knife to slice the roast at his wake. Bae only has a couple of hours left. Let's spend that time doing something to help him, something...something brave. For once.'"
"Was she incompetent?" Piper wondered.
"What?" he looked at her.
"You were reluctant to kill the man," she said, it was clear in how he spoke, he hadn't wanted to be a murderer as a man, "She was not. Was there some incompetence in her that she was not the one to take the blade and do the deed herself?"
Rumpelstiltskin floundered for quite a few moments, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to find a way to respond to that.
Never…in 300 years…had it occurred to him that, if Milah was so set on killing that healer and stealing the potion, why didn't SHE go do it? If she thought him so cowardly, if she didn't think he could be brave, if she complained about his leg so much, why hadn't she just done it instead? She would have been swifter, more sure...
"Or did she not love your son?" Piper continued.
And his world crashed down around him even more. Because…perhaps the answer was that she wanted him to go exactly because of that. Maybe she wanted him to go because he was slow and hesitant, because he was cowardly and wouldn't be able to do it. Perhaps she'd expected the healer to kill him first so she could be rid of her husband.
But…that would mean Bae would have died as well.
He had never considered Milah might hate their son or wish him gone, not in that sense, not something so final as death. For even if she loathed him, she loved Bae…but she had abandoned him. She hadn't loved him enough to stay, and if she could leave her child behind with a man she doubted could care for him at all…then did she even really care if the boy lived or died?
Had that been her way of freeing herself from their life?
To let them both die?
"I honestly can't say," he said, his voice sounding hollow to his ears.
Piper seemed to sense the ill-ease that had settled in him and instead allowed the conversation to drift elsewhere, "He survived?" she asked.
That, at least, seemed to perk him up from his dark thoughts, a small smile quirking at the corner of his lips, "He did. I made a deal with the healer instead. The potion, for my second born child."
Piper, unlike Milah, merely smirked, "A loophole," she remarked, "If you had no second child, he would never have it."
He let out a breath, almost surprised that was where her mind had gone, but also unsurprised. They both dealt in deal making and bargaining, she would be able to spot a loophole like that as easily as him, "Yes," he nodded, "No child, no price to pay."
"I take it your wife did not feel the same."
"No," he remarked, "I suspect she loathed me all the more for it."
"If she was so angered, she should have just killed the healer after," Piper shrugged, "You cannot hand over your second born to one not alive to claim it."
He chuckled at her thought process, for it was similar to Milah's, to just kill the healer and be done with it. But, unlike Milah, he knew, had it been her, SHE would have done it herself than try to have another do it for her…or, at least, she would not have forced HIM, her husband, to do it for her, she may have enchanted another to do it, to cast the blame off them, but she would have not put it on him to do something she wanted.
"My thoughts exactly," he smirked, "I took care of it after I became the Dark One. I met a woman I...considered having a child with many years after. It did not work out with her, but the deal has been voided nonetheless."
"Then all is well that ends well," Piper chuckled, a small smile on her face as she looked at him, "I am glad your boy lived on," she told him, "As I am glad Thomas shall too."
He took a breath and nodded, "As am I."
It was all too clear to the both of them that the only reason he had accepted this deal, that he was helping those people, was the boy, the reminder of what happened to his own son, and what he had been put through to save him.
"You have a soft spot for children, I see," he remarked.
She looked up at him, "As do you," she mimicked his words, before her gaze flickered back the way they'd come, "He shall rest easy until the morn," she told him, "You shall not have to worry for him this night."
He nodded, "Thank you," he offered.
She gave him another smile and stepped back to shut her door, listening as he remained on the other side of it for a minute longer before he began to walk down the hall. The smile on her face grew softer, for all the horrible stories of the Dark One, which she cared little about, it was…reassuring, at least, to know he too had a soft spot for children. Often when people discovered that quality in her, they would use it against her, to think she would not harm them if the children were present, that she would not dare punish them if it would mean harming children…and she would be forced to prove that, while it was a soft spot, it was not a chink in the chain of her armor, and she could just as easily affect a child as its parent.
At least this…this she knew the Dark One would not use against her, nor would she him.
They had an understanding in that regard.
A/N: After the last chapter, seeing Milah with the children, I felt like this was a flashback that fit or would come up. For all the the Dark One was dark, I think in moments like this, if something came up with a child who was that ill or dying, he would remember Bae, both losing him to the magic bean but also how, in the show, Bae did nearly die as a child and a person meant to heal charged too high a price to save him :( And in a case like this, he wouldn't be able to overcharge or prolong their suffering, because he has been in that spot and he's felt that fear and he wouldn't want them to lose their child just like he hadn't wanted to lose Bae :(
I might be wrong, but I don't think Rumpelstiltskin ever asked for payment greater than what a person had the means to pay or the ability to obtain? I thought that might be because of the situation with the healer, how he knew they couldn't pay and still charged that high price, not caring about the child's life. So, maybe, the Dark One, in part, picks things that a person can afford or those with the skills to obtain can obtain as a show of how much they want it.
For Piper...she's sort of always had that soft spot for children, because most of them don't look at her as being a villain or evil, or hear her playing her music and fear her, at least those who haven't been told about her. In the eyes of a child, she's just Piper, the half-Siren, and is just a person. It's the adults, or who the children grow up to be, that are biased against her. I think, in a way, the children sort of represent that easy acceptance she thought she had with Snow all those years ago. Even she doesn't realize that these strangers, these children, accept more of her than Snow did because they don't know how she should be or could be, just what she is :( So when instances come up where she sort of has to put that aside and 'prove' to the adults children are only a soft spot and not a weakness to her, it is something hard for her to do but not impossible :(
Milah...Rumple's thoughts on her actions and behavior when Bae was dying as a child, how Piper's questions and her own view on it make him question things, I'll admit they were a bit of my own thoughts and questions too when I started looking at it from Piper's POV. Piper, being half-Siren, is looking at Milah's actions through a siren's view, of being willing to do anything and everything, even murder, to keep her child safe...so why didn't Milah? Which leads Rumple to question Milah's motives back then.
Why didn't SHE go after Fendrake? She knew, or suspected, Rumple didn't have what it took to kill the man in cold blood or she wouldn't have felt the need to goad him or taunt him into doing it. Even if he hadn't wanted her to do it, she was already the one who wore the pants in that relationship so she could have easily done it anyway if she wanted. If she knew he couldn't...then she knew Bae would die...yet SHE didn't go kill the man instead? :/ She also knew Rumple wasn't a fighter and had a bum leg, a disadvantage that could easily have him subdued and killed instead...and this able-bodied woman who was the one shouting for the healer to be murdered didn't do it herself? :/ It made me question Milah, in that moment, that maybe...it was on purpose, her sending Rumple and not going herself. Maybe she hoped he'd die in the attack, but then it would mean Bae would die. But...if she didn't take it into her own hands, knowing failure on Rumple's part was likely, then...maybe she didn't actually care if Bae died. And it's a terrible thing to think, I know :( Maybe it was her way of saying it wasn't HER fault if Bae died, it would be Rumple's fault for failing, and she wouldn't feel as guilty (even though she would have sent Rumple knowing he'd fail and Bae would die as a result). Maybe it was her way of getting rid of her husband and child, without it being HER doing :(
It could be her motivation, or it might not be, but it's a possibility that could have been where her mind was at and I feel like it wasn't something Rumple had ever questioned, not that deeply. He knew Milah was unhappy, with him, that she didn't care as much if she could abandon Bae, but he would never think Milah wanted them dead...or at least not Bae, till this moment where he questions 'why DIDN'T she do it if it was Bae's life on the line and she was the one who wanted Fendrake dead?' He thought there might be another way to do it all, Milah was the one saying murder was the only option, why? :(
I like to think that Milah genuinely did love Bae and did regret leaving him the way she did, that she did feel a lot of guilt over it, but Piper will sort of look at it from that overprotective Siren side and assume the worst about any mother who would willingly leave her child :(
But Piper now knows about the second-child-deal he made, and also that, as far as he knows, it's been voided with Fendrake's death. We'll have to wait and see if it appears again }:)
Some notes on reviews...
In this story, Piper won't be able to share her music hearing abilities with others :( BUT, keep in mind, when Rose Red and Snow White became 'blood sisters' Snow obtained some very, very minor Siren-abilities from it, more so in Emma (with her ability to tell when others lie and the protections on her heart). I can say something similar might happen in the AU I have planned for this story, but instead of a 'blood-sister' pact, we might get something like a 'blood adoption' ;) So Emma, in that version of things, might, at times, have the ability to hear songs, but in a limited scope, but it would be something ;) ;)
I've seen a few episodes of Titans, but I haven't seen much of it, I couldn't really get into it :( So, at the moment, I have no plans to do a story for the show, but you never know, I might watch it again one day and enjoy it more and pick up a story for it ;) I felt that way about Teen Wolf and I've just recently thought to watch it again because an OC decided they might be peeking out for that show based on just a few clips I saw on youtube, so it's always possible my feelings about a show will change as the time goes on ;)
Piper will probably be quite tight-lipped about the pregnancy in this story, she's still wary of Snow and Charming and she probably won't want to reveal anything while in the Underworld as she likely does have a number of enemies down there that would love to hurt her :( She won't be able to keep it hidden very much longer past this season though ;)
Snow will get very close to learning her lesson before going back up-top ;) In a way it'll be something Piper and Emma and Henry have been saying for a while that just hasn't sunk in, that she finally seems to realize that will really push her to make thing right ;)
Lol, that is an awesome picture to imagine :) I could very much picture Piper singing something like that ;)
You made me cry, lol, thank you so much for your lovely words :') I'm so glad you've enjoyed the stories so far and I'm beyond touched and very honored that it's made your top 3 :') I really try to make the stories unique and a good blend of the show/source and the way the OC wants to fit in so I'm very happy that they've worked out and make sense. Really, thank you so much for reading, I'll do my best to keep it all going ;)
Bonjour! Je vais bien, j'espère que vous l'êtes aussi :) La saison 6 n'était pas ma préférée: / Je suis d'accord, ramener n'importe qui à la vie, après ce qu'ils ont tous traversé juste pour arriver à Hook semblait trop contre tout ce qu'ils ont établi. Je pensais qu'il y avait un peu trop d'accumulation pour la bataille finale, j'aurais en fait préféré si Gideon avait été manipulé pour être maléfique et contre la lumière que contrôlé, cela aurait donné une chance plus puissante de rédemption, je pense , le voir penser une chose et lutter avec «est-ce un mensonge? «Qu'est-ce qui est réel? comme il apprend la vérité. Avec Regina et son cœur, je n'aimais pas ça: / C'était comme une échappatoire pour la façon dont elle pouvait simplement blâmer ses actions passées sur quelqu'un d'autre au lieu d'accepter que c'était elle et de grandir à partir de ça, de passer à autre chose, de se racheter. ELLE était sombre, c'était tout elle, pas quelqu'un d'autre, c'était ses choix, ses décisions et ses actions et elle ne peut pas blâmer la méchante reine comme si elle était une personne séparée: / Comme MAINTENANT, c'est soudainement ok parce que `` ce n'était pas Regina, c'était la méchante reine? Ensuite, je suppose que ce n'était pas Zelena, c'était la méchante sorcière, ou ce n'était pas Ingrid, c'était la reine des neiges, ou ce n'était pas Fiona, c'était la fée noire? Cela n'avait aucun sens pour moi: / Piper étant Rose Red, elle ne nie jamais qu'elle était Rose Red ou la traite comme une personne distincte qui a pris des décisions distinctes d'elle, mais une personne dont elle était issue et ne peut pas être encore une fois, une personne qu'elle a essayé d'être mais ne pouvait plus, elle ne blâme pas les choses sur Rose Red, elle dit `` j'ai fait ça '' ou `` j'ai dit ça '' donc elle va avoir une opinion sur le moyen de sortir de Regina son passé maléfique. -câlins!- (I used google translate to try and say: Hello! I am well, I hope you are too :) Season 6 wasn't my favorite :/ I agree, bringing anyone back to life, after what they all went through just to get to Hook seemed too against everything they've established. I thought there was a little too much build up to the final battle, I actually would have preferred it if Gideon had been manipulated into being evil and against the light than controlled, it would have made for a more powerful chance at redemption, I think, to see him think one thing and struggle with 'is it a lie?' 'what's real?' as he learns the truth. With Regina and her heart, I didn't like it :/ It felt like a copout for how she could just blame her past actions on someone else instead of accepting it was her and growing from it, moving on, redeeming herself. SHE was dark, it was all her, not someone else, it was her choices and decisions and actions and she can't blame the Evil Queen like she's a separate person :/ Like NOW it's suddenly ok because 'it wasn't Regina, it was the Evil Queen?' Then I guess it wasn't Zelena it was the Wicked Witch, or it wasn't the Ingrid it was the Snow Queen, or it wasn't Fiona it was the Black Fairy? It made no sense to me :/ With Piper being Rose Red, she never denies she was Rose Red or treats her like a separate person who made separate decisions from her, but a person she was that she grew out of and can't be again, a person she tried to be but couldn't any longer, she doesn't blame things on Rose Red, she says 'I did this' or 'I said that' so she's going to have an opinion on Regina's way out of her evil past. -hugs!-)
No worries at all, I actually felt a little bad for Milah too :) It's actually why I really enjoy having more than one OC in a series like this, because we get such unique perspectives of things between different OCs. This story is so colored by Piper's perspective, and her relationship with Gold, and his feelings about Milah, that she sees this woman and all she's known is she abandoned her child and husband for a pirate, that she may have possibly wanted both her husband and child to die, and that she's manipulative and abusive towards her husband in many ways, and because she loves said husband and has seen all he's endured to get back to his son, (and being pregnant and a mother to August), she's going to be very, very short and hard on Milah. Meanwhile, in someone like Lyssa's story, she's been that child who was essentially abandoned or with a mother who didn't really want her around, but she loved her mother very much, so she would be more likely to be more understanding of Milah and her unhappiness. She'd probably be more of that childlike mentality of 'what did I do wrong that made her not love me?' :( And Graham's OC, being more of a hero, would probably view it as trying to give Milah the benefit of the doubt about it all :) But I fully understand, Piper was very harsh with Milah.
Oh Piper wished there was more torture too lol. We'll actually see a bit of her lamenting that fact soon ;) As for Emma and Hook's songs, I think part of it is that True Love is too built up in the show, like...I doubt every single person in the Forest has their True Love as their spouse. Originally it seemed to be much rarer a thing to find. So a lot of people are content just being in love, even if it's not their true love or soulmate, because maybe it doesn't exist for them. Emma's lost so much that I think she'd cling to love with both hands and it would take her a while to realize that maybe she deserves better :( We'll have to see if Piper's heard anyone with a better matched song for her ;) As for the parents...we'll find out soon ;)