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A Fair Trade

Part 2

He was falling. There was nothing below him but the churning water, and there was no way to stop his fall. There had been one, but he had lost it, and now there was nothing to do but fall…

Trevor Ward jerked awake, breathing hard. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. Outside he could see the first hint of light coming over the horizon.

Just the dream again. He had the dream about once a month, by his estimates, and it was always the same. He was falling, with no way to stop.

It would probably be less frustrating, he decided as he got up and got dressed, if he could figure out where the dream was coming from. It wasn't like he was a rock climber in his spare time, and there was an urgency about the dream he didn't understand.

He finished getting dressed and made the bed before going down to the kitchen. There, he remembered that he had not remembered to go shopping the night before and there was nothing to eat. With a sigh, Trevor strapped on black leather chaps and reached for his leather jacket. From his pocket he retrieved leather gloves and from the dish on the table he took his keys. Then he made sure the doors were still locked, and he locked the garage door behind him as he went out to open the large overhead door and get his motorcycle out.

A ten minute drive took him to the center of Storybrooke and to Granny's Diner. Trevor parked and entered the building, tucking himself in the booth at the very back of the diner and making sure he was seated so he faced the door.

One of the waitresses came by a few minutes later, and returned almost immediately after that with a cup of coffee for him. Then he sat and waited for his food, listening to the conversations around him and watching the people as they ate.

Just up the road, in the apartment over his store, Clem Melville awoke, and smiled as he stretched, putting his hands behind his head and smiling at the white ceiling over his head. He had the Dream again, the one where he stood making a speech to hundreds of thousands of people, all dressed in black, who had cheered his remarks. He loved the Dream. It gave him a feeling of power and accomplishment.

Maybe, he mused as he got dressed and waited for his coffee to finish brewing, he would run for mayor against Mills in next year's election. Then he dismissed the idea. Mills always won, and until he could figure out where her support came from and how to divide it, running for office was a goal best left for later.

He took his coffee and toast and went downstairs to boot up his computer. While it started up, he dropped his breakfast off and went back upstairs to do some housekeeping. Clem had gotten it down to a routine: make the bed while the basic computer startup happened, back downstairs to put in the computer password, then upstairs once more to straighten up the kitchen and make sure everything was where it belonged.

Clem did not like it when things not in their proper places, and as a result his house was always spotless. Dr. Hopper had met him once and diagnosed him as OCD almost immediately when it became evident that the paperweights out of alignment on Hopper's desk were driving Clem to distraction. As soon as they were in alignment, Clem had felt much better. He had declined the referral to a psychiatrist, a fact that clearly concerned Hopper, but there was nothing the psychologist could do about it.

After straightening up his apartment, Clem came back downstairs to find the computer ready and waiting for him, along with his breakfast. He took a seat and opened the file he'd been working in the night before, and then took a sip of his black coffee.

It was shaping up to be another good morning in Storybrooke.

Back at the diner, Trevor was halfway through his breakfast sandwich when Ruby came by with the coffee pot. "Need a refill?" She asked, and when he nodded, she poured him another cup. "How are you today, Trevor?"

"Alright." He said quietly, setting his sandwich down and pulling two packets of sugar out of the dish nearby to add to his coffee.

Ruby nodded. "Let me know if you need anything."

Trevor nodded. "Thank you." Ruby moved back out to the other tables, flirting and refilling coffee. She had only flirted with him once when he first came to town, and never since them, a fact he appreciated.

Around his neck he wore a gold chain from which hung two rings. One was an engagement ring, the other a wedding band. They were both the only memories he had left of a woman – a wife? There was a wedding ring… - that he had loved and lost.

He didn't like to remember that. Dr. Hopper had told him once that avoidance was a coping method that wasn't very good in the long run, but he had no desire to face what had happened to her, even if he could remember.

Which he couldn't. He supposed it must have been some sort of accident, in which she had died and he had lost his memories of the event. After the accident, he had come here, to Storybrooke, looking to get away from the remaining memories, which were growing more blurry every year. It made him sad and at the same time relieved. The memories of life before Storybrooke were painful, and he didn't think he wanted to remember them anyway.

In his shop, waiting for the first customers to wander in, Clem didn't bother himself with the past. He was confident in his own future and didn't bother to remember the family that had betrayed him so long ago. He was better off without them anyway.

And the sun rose and shone over the town, starting a brand new day.

The first day ever for Storybrooke…

- The End -

(The Beginning)

[A/N:] Don't know why I wrote this part. Probably have to go edit even more of People Like us now. Bah! Anyway, here are Tron and Clu immediately after the spell is cast, adjusting to their new lives in Storybrooke, except that neither of them have no idea that they don't belong in Stroybrooke.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little side trail. Please review and let me know what you thought!