A/N: This is my first serious FanFic. It is baisically a re-telling of Rumplestiltskin from two points of view. The first is a girl from France in the early 1700's. I do not claim that this is historically accurate as far as places or people go, but if someone knows something about houses, clothing or culture in general I would appreciate it. The second POV is a modern college student who goes to a small school in Texas. The rest you will just have to figure out as we go along. Reviews, especially constructive criticism, are appreciated. I hope you enjoy the story.

Chapter 1: Happy Accidents

France, early 1700's…

Gabrielle sat at her spinning wheel. She sat and spun. She spun the most beautiful thread that anyone had ever seen. Now, this was not the result of any spell or enchantment. No, this was the result of pure raw talent and hard work. It made her so angry when people cheapened her work by saying that she had magic or that she had a fairy godmother that did her work for her. When her mother was alive she told Gabrielle to just ignore them that they were jealous of what she could do, of what she had. Gabrielle always remembered this whenever she became angry over what people said about her. She always remembered.

She got up and moved around. It hurt her butt to sit for too long on the hard stool attached to her wheel and so she decided to go take a walk. She lived with her father on a small piece of land not too far outside a village, but far enough that she could walk in the pasture next door without running into anyone else. In fact, now that her mother died she and her father were the only ones that lived within a mile of their piece. It was lonely sometimes and she wished that there was someone around, someone that she felt some since of connection too. Since her mother's death her father had withdrawn into himself more and more, throwing himself into his work at the mill and then spending the rest of his time in his workshop behind the house, but she had no idea what he did out there. At least he worked hard enough that they were not poor. She had heard of men that drank or gambled themselves to ruin after their wives died.

The fact that their land was so isolated was probably the reason that it surprised her so much when the horse and its rider came up behind her. She was so startled she nearly jumped out of her skin. The rider was a man about 20 years old with curly brown hair and these deep blue eyes that seemed to change when you looked at him. He wore clothing that looked well made and was made out of nice fabric, but at the same time he wasn't dressed ostentatiously. "Hello" the man said. "I'm sorry if I startled you. I was just wondering if you could tell me where Fontan is."

"It's about 2 miles farther down the road." She replied. "Who are you looking for there?"

"I'm going to stay with a family friend, a Monsieur D'Auvignon" he replied.

"Oh, well if you're looking for Monsieur D'Auvignon then you just need to go a little further. He live outside town, about a half-mile from here, in fact he is just past my house. I can take you there if you like." Gabrielle offered, not knowing quite why she had been so bold.

"That would be lovely" he replied. He offered a hand so to help her onto his horse, she got on and they set off in the general direction of Gabrielle's and M. D'Auvignon's houses. They passed the time chatting. Gabrielle found it refreshing to talk to someone her own age, for there weren't many people her age around, and the ones in the village thought her strange, she knew that some even thought her a witch, because of her spinning skills, though they would never dare voice such a dangerous accusation aloud. So they rode, it wasn't that far to her place. She pointed it out to him, though she wasn't sure if he would remember. They reached M. D'Auvignon's house far too quickly, she felt that she could have stayed with him for hours and hours. Madam D'Auvignon came out and greeted the man with a motherly hug and kiss on the forehead, even though he was a good foot taller than she. He was roughly 6 feet, whereas she couldn't be much taller than 5 feet.

"It is so good to see you again Philippe" Madam D'Auvignon said. So his name is Philippe, Gabrielle mused, it seemed to fit him. "Oh and thank you dear for bringing him, the roads are so disorganized out here." Madam D'Auvignon said to Gabrielle.

"It was no problem" replied Gabrielle, "I was happy to do it. I suppose that I will see you soon, perhaps at mass on Sunday."

"Of course dear" Madam D'Auvignon replied, "see you then." She then bustled Philippe into the house, calling for a servant boy to come take care of the horse. Gabrielle looked over her shoulder as she walked away. If she had looked just a moment later she would have seen Philippe looking over his shoulder at her.

300 years later…

The alarm rang at 7:30 the first morning of the semester, jarring Alex awake. She hit the snooze button and cursed herself, as she knew she would every morning for the rest of the semester, for deciding that it would be a good idea to take an 8:30 class, much less Calculus, which one actually has to be awake for. She had thought about dropping the class multiple times over Christmas break, but she knew that if she did she would regret it, besides that her father was an engineer that insisted that she learn useful skills while at college, especially if she persisted in double majoring in History and Literature. Hence, the 8:30 Calculus. She knew that her dad thought that she should study something like Geology since she had this reputation in her hometown for having uncanny ability to find precious metals, especially gold, where other people would swear that none existed. She really didn't, she just got lucky one time in California and found some in a riverbed. Not a lot, but enough to start the rumor that she could turn regular rocks into gold like those sixteenth century alchemists or something. It was absurd for this day and age, but the rumor persisted nonetheless.

She made sure that she turned the alarm off all the way, so as not to wake her roommate who was smart and didn't have a class until 10:30. She dragged herself out of bed and into the bathroom. She had showered the night before so she simply did her morning routine of washing her face, brushing her teeth brushing her hair light brown hair, straightening it, and putting on basic make-up. She was fairly pleased with her appearance, even if she didn't really consider herself beautiful. She went out, got dressed, poured herself a bowl of Cornflakes, and sat down at her laptop to check her e-mail, something she did compulsively. After realizing that if she didn't leave soon she would be late for calc she grabbed her back pack and left. She walked at a fairly steady pace and was listening to her MP3, because she wasn't really in the mood to talk this early and was not paying attention at all, so she ran smack dab into a guy with black hair and green eyes walking the opposite direction. Papers flew everywhere, mostly his, since she had all her stuff in her bag.

"Sorry" he said.

"No, it was my fault, I wasn't paying attention." She said, helping him collect his papers. It was then she realized that he looked a little lost. "Are you looking for something?" she asked.

"Yeah, actually, I'm new here, and I have Calculus with" he looked like he was trying to figure out how to say the name. "Hasfura-Buenaga, whoever the hell that is."

She laughed. "That's where I'm headed as well. I'll take you over there."

"Thanks" he replied, "you are the first person I've met besides my roommate, so it'll be nice to know someone."

"Oh everyone warms up eventually, it's just REALLY early, they'll come around."

"By the way, my name is Charles Donnelly" he said, "but only my dad calls me Charles, my friends call me Charlie."

"Well it is nice to meet you Charlie, my name is Alexandrie Maguire, but everyone calls me Alex." She replied.

"Is your name French?" he asked.

"Yes, my mother's family is French. I was named after my Grandmother who came here years ago." She replied.

"That's cool" he replied, "Think my family is Irish, after all, my last name is Connelly."

"Cool" she said. "You said you were new, where did you transfer from?"

"The University of Illinois" He said. "I am totally digging this weather here in Texas. There's like a blizzard in Illinois, but it's like 70 degrees and sunny here."

"Well that's Texas for you" she replied. "I'm sure you'll like Trinity, even if it is quite a bit smaller than one of your big state universities."

"I'm sure I will" he said with a glance that, signaled that he was checking her out, not in a sleazy way, but in a respectful way. It nearly made her blush, but she didn't, just in case she was misreading the signals.

They got to class and sat through the teacher doing the inevitable first day routine of explaining the syllabus and class procedures. Just as everyone was finally about to fall asleep, the professor dismissed the class.

"That was boring" said Charlie

"Get used to it" Alex said, "It will be like that in every class today, but it will hopefully get better" she said crossing her fingers.

He laughed "I hope so, though I don't hold out much hope for Calculus, I'm a History major myself, I'm just taking it because I need a Math credit."

"Me too!" She replied, "We can fail together"

"Sounds like a plan" he said. "Well I have to run, I have American History next, oh, do you think that you could point out the building to me?" Alex told him how to find the classroom, having had that same class the semester before. They went their separate ways and each wishing they had more time together.