A/N: I apologize in advance for the fact that there isn't much action in this chapter. In fact, there hasn't been a great deal of action in ANY of the chapters so far; I can't believe I've written three chapters and they only span a few hours time in the fic. However, I thought it was important to set up all the character emotions and thoughts. That's what this story is really about, anyway; the conflict is really more the Fairy Godmother's inner struggle than any sort of outside source. And I guess the confrontation in Chapter 2 was action enough.

Don't worry; Chapter 4 WILL go to the next day, and there will be appearances by other characters. Just hang in there! Hope you enjoy! Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews!

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It was several hours later before the Fairy Godmother came out of her room; by that time, her son had given up on trying to find out anything else from her and had gone to bed himself. She walked down the stairs and out of the cottage instead of flying; just because flying was magic didn't make it easy, and she was tired. With green eyes red-rimmed from crying, she walked out to the footbridge that spanned the little stream running in front of her cottage, standing in the center of it and gripping the wooden railing as she looked down into the shallow water. Her own reflection shone back at her, lit by the moon as it slowly sank towards the western horizon.

She loved him. It took him turning away from her to make her realize it, but she knew it, now. It was that love that had almost compelled her to go after him when he left...and it was her stubborn pride that stopped her. It was pride that had kept her shut up in her room instead of caving in to her emotions and following him. When it came right down to it, that pride had stuck with her, for better or for worse, when nothing else had. Buried beneath that, she was still hurt and confused.

Where had he been, all those years? Far Away was right next to Far Far Away; in fact, her own property had once been a part of Far Away's jurisdiction. Technically, she would have been the Fairy Godmother of Far Away if she hadn't helped Harold out with his own happily ever after all those years ago, so why had she never seen or heard of Frederick after that dreadful day when she thought she had lost him?

When she thought about it, it was entirely possible that he really HAD been in his own kingdom for the past two decades; she made it a point never to get involved with Far Away's dealings, for two reasons. For starters, in her younger days she had been afraid someone there might recognize who she was, and she had wanted more than anything to leave all traces of her old life behind her. Besides that...it was Frederick's kingdom, and there were far too many painful memories there for her. She had closed off her whole heart to anything connected to him.

Still, she DID hear a little bit about the kingdom through local gossip, and she was quite sure she had never heard Frederick named as the king. Unless she was greatly mistaken, the old king, Frederick's father, was still on the throne, though most kings would retire and pass the crown down to the eldest son after so many years. She had never even heard Frederick's name mentioned. Then again, she remembered with a smile, he always had been bored with royal life. He probably tried to stay out of the limelight just as much as she tried to stay in it.

She almost laughed at the memory of him, dressed as a stable boy and helping her steal potions, then her face threatened to crumble into tears again. It had been so long since she had let any of those memories overtake her that they were overwhelming, now. For years, she thought she had stopped loving him...she stopped loving anyone other than her son. Then suddenly, seeing him at her front door made her realize that she hadn't forgotten Frederick at all, no matter how hard she may have tried.

Of course, anything could have happened in his life since she last saw him. He was royalty; royalty were expected to marry and carry on the family line. Frederick probably had a wife and children by now. Her heart sank a little at the thought. He thought she was dead when he came to the cottage; he probably just wanted to speak to Charming. It only took one glance to see that Charming was Frederick's son; with the exception of his slightly darker blond hair and his facial expressions (which were picked up by habit, not genetics), the boy looked exactly like his father. Frederick probably hadn't even recognized her at the ball...but no, that couldn't be right, either. After all, he had seemed surprised that she wasn't dead, which meant he must have seen what had happened and known who she was.

When she thought back on it, she realized that a part of her had known he was there all along. The entire time she had been singing, she had somehow felt that the words were more truthful than they ever had been before. Of course, she always put feeling into her songs; singing was something she loved, and she also loved the attention it brought to her. The people of Far Far Away considered it a treat when they got to hear her sing. But tonight...some long-buried part of her heart had tried to awaken at the ball, and if the ogre hadn't burst in at the end of her song, she might have realized it.

A soft breeze blew, and she turned her face up to the fresh night sky, closing her eyes briefly. When she opened them again, she was almost startled to notice just how full of stars the sky was. She couldn't remember seeing a night with so many stars...in fact, when she really thought about it, she realized that she hadn'tactually LOOKED at the stars in twenty-two years. Stars were for wishing on. She didn't make wishes; she granted them. Now, all of a sudden, there were thousands of pinpricks of light shining against the velvety darkness.

It was a warm, starry night like this when Frederick had proposed. Now that she looked back, she realized it really HAD been almost exactly twenty-two years since that night. It had been that long since she had been truly, blissfully happy. She closed her eyes once more, hands still gripping the bridge railing, and drew in a deep breath, deciding to try the one thing she hadn't done yet that might bring her some comfort. She began to sing, a low, soft alto that was quite unlike the bright or belting tones she used for performing.

"Strange, dear,
But true, dear,
When I'm close to you, dear.
The stars fill the sky,
So in love with you am I.

Even without you,
My arms fold about you.
You know, darling, why.
So in love with you am I.

In love with the night mysterious,
The night when you first were there.
In love with my joy delirious when I knew that you could care.

So taunt me,
And hurt me,
Deceive me,
Desert me,
I'm yours til I die,
So in love,
So in love,
So in love with you, my love,
Am I."

The last notes died from her lips, haunting in the quiet night, and she realized with some surprise that there were tears on her cheeks. She hadn't even realized she had been crying.

She did realize, however, that she wasn't going to go after Frederick. In spite of how broken and vulnerable she was feeling, and although she was beginning to see just how heinously she had behaved towards some people over the years, she still had that pride. She had tried to swallow it once to go back to him, that first day she left. When she did, she ended up having her entire life shattered. She could not bring herself to go after him, not this time. He was right; he didn't really know her anymore. And, when she looked at herself with an ice cold eye, she didn't know herself, either.

Drawing in a deep breath of night air, she wiped the traces of tears from her face and took one last look out at the water before turning to go inside again. She knew there was still a great deal of work to be done and a great many things to be fixed before she could even think about dealing with a thing like love.

What she didn't know was that someone had been listening to her song.

The entire time she had been standing outside, Frederick had been only about fifteen feet from her, out of sight as he dozed with his back against the large tree that stood just in front of the cottage. He had awakened when she began singing, but chose not to reveal himself; he just listened, growing deeply touched as the song went on. And he knew that, buried somewhere beneath all the manipulative spitefulness, his Belinda was still there. It was how he had first recognized her at the ball. To have just glanced at her, he never in a hundred years would have guessed who the woman on stage truly was. He knew she was the Fairy Godmother; he had seen advertisements for her throughout Far Far Away, and a few always slipped into his own kingdom, as well. But those pictures weren't all that true-to-life. Even when he first saw her at the ball, he didn't look twice; he knew she looked oddly familiar, but gave that up to the fact that she was a public figure, very much in the limelight.

But when those first rich notes of song started pouring out of her, he knew. He didn't believe it at first, of course, and had stared inshock for several long moments. It couldn't possibly be her; the woman on stage had wings, for goodness sake, and her silvery, almost lavender hair held no trace of blonde as far as he could tell. She had put on a bit of weight, as well, although Belinda had never been what one might call slim. She was still beautiful, in her way, but didn't look like his Belinda. And yet, that voice...

Then, when he first got a good look at the young prince dancing with Princess Fiona, he nearly fell over. It was looking in a mirror...a mirror frozen twenty years in the past. It was an almost eerie feeling, watching this young double of himself and hearing his long-lost love's voice singing passionately in the background.

And then, before he even had a chance to decide what course of action to take, the whole scene turned to confusion. Before he knew what was happening, he saw Belinda suddenly turn into a vengeful, hateful thing; her words about ogres not living happily ever after especially hit home, and he wondered if her experience with him had caused her to have a vendetta against all ogres. And suddenly, she had disappeared, leaving only a shimmer of bubbles in her wake.

It grieved him. To have lost her so many years ago, find her again so suddenly, then have her jerked away again for what he thought was forever...it wasn't easy. Still, there was the boy, the young prince who had called her 'mummy'. Frederick knew it was his own son; they looked too much alike for there to be any mistake about that. So he had followed Charming back to the cottage, only to leave more confused than ever.

Never would he have imagined Belinda to become so hateful, so bitter. He knew she was fiery and stubborn; that's what he had always loved about her. It was that fire that he had never quite been able to forget, even after so many years...it was that fire that kept him from leaving the cottage entirely, instead choosing to spend the night uncomfortable against the tree trunk. Even though he had seen what she had become, and even though he had walked away from her, he was unable to give up hope that she could change. Still, he was a little afraid. He had been truthful when he said he didn't know her anymore. His feelings of love were for Belinda; he wasn't sure just how he felt about this Fairy Godmother character she had become.

So he would wait. He wouldn't beg and plead with her to accept him; he, too, had a stubborn streak, and he had also been hurt. After all, it was she who had left him all those years ago. But he would wait and watch to see if his return would bring about again kind of change of heart in her. Somehow, he hoped she would realize the harm she had done and mend her ways.

After all, they lived in a world where fairy tales really could come true.