"Don't forget to bring the flowers around." Mary Margaret reminds the flower girl. Mary Margaret nervously twists the hem of her flowery dress, checking the clock behind the cash register the fourth time in two minutes. "Is it bad that I'm this nervous about a date?"
Eirys shakes her head. "Of course not, you're a busy person. Though I'm not a person you should be going to for dating advise, you know how many successful relationships I've been in." And that number would be very small.
Mary Margaret nods pacing around the small flower shop. "What should I talk about? I mean, granted that he actually wants to hear my opinion." She rambles on a little longer about all her insecurities, all the while pacing around nervously.
"Shouldn't you be going soon?" Eirys asks checking her watch, it was nearing dinner time, and the growling of her stomach was telling Mary Margaret to leave. She gives the teacher a small shove towards the door. "You'll be fine, just tell me how it goes tomorrow, and I won't forget about the flowers for your little trip."
Getting slightly paranoid, Eirys walks into the backroom and checks the little white flowers she had to bring for the patients at the hospital. The plain terra cotta pots were a little boring and dull to look at, which led to her painstakingly replanting the flowers into thin bright pink vases to lighten the hospital scene.
She floats towards the wonderful aroma of her dinner finishing its cooking on her stove. And, as if the world was conspiring against her, just as she was about to take a sip of her long awaited soup the phone goes off. "Hello, this is Eirys of the Green Fairy, how may I help you?"
"Well, don't you just sound all perky and happy?" The sullen and almost depressing voice on the other side of the line asks. The voice could only belong to one person in all of Storybrooke.
"Mr. Gold, I live next door to your pawn shop and I know for a fact that you haven't left yet so why are you calling me?" Eirys asks dropping her perky professional façade for her more annoyed one. She plops back into her chair and returns to her meal. "Is there any real reason for this call?"
He sniffs on the other side of the line. "I think I'm coming down with something, could you make something for me." He pauses for a moment "please."
Eirys sighs staring at the extra soup in her pot. "Very well, come on over when you have the chance, I have some soup you can have." She clicks the phone off and spoons some soup into another bowl for Mr. Gold.
"And you promise to find him and bring him back?" The former cheerful fairy asks, unable to see the mysterious deal making, wish granting person through the bandages over her eyes.
"Of course, dearie." He replies, his voice sounding so familiar yet so far. She could feel the edges of her forgotten memories itching for her to remember this man's identity but his name never came to her conscious. "For a price of course."
She nods, the prickling green grass sending waves of information to her telling her that he was going to stand up. "What do you want from me?" And indeed, he did stand up, creating something out of magic.
"Well, in the future, you will do whatever I say and I will do whatever you say, as long as each of us says the word 'please'." He says singing the last word. He guides her hands towards the scroll he made out of magic. "And all you have to do is sign right here." He hands her a quill and places her hand some place on the scroll.
The fairy girl automatically signs her name. "I won't ever forgive you if you fail to find him." She conjures up a mental picture of the person she kept seeing in her dreams, however, only the fuzzy image of a man came to mind.
"Don't worry about it." Rumplestiltskin replies quietly tucking the scroll into the inner pocket of his jacket. "I'll find him for you, Ivy."
Eirys giggles at the facial expression Mr. Gold had on when she dragged him out of her store in the middle of their tea time in order to get to the hospital on time. "What are we doing here?" He demands through gritted teeth. She could practically feel the irritation seeping out of his pores.
"You didn't have to come if you hate it so much." She replies placing the box at the volunteer station for Mary Margaret to pick up when she brought her students later in the day. "Why do you hate the hospital so much? God knows how many times you've been here."
Mr. Gold glares at every passing nurse and staff member until they step out of the obsessively clean building. "I've never been to the hospital once in my life." He states stiffly, the morning chill was just starting to wear off. "Besides being born."
"Really?" Eirys taps her chin thinking of an instance of ever being in the hospital for medical attention. "How strange, I can't seem to remember anything about it." Her blank face contorts into one of confusion. "I'm going to go take a walk." She steps off the sidewalk to cross the street.
"I trust that you won't be going back to the store for the rest of the day then?" Mr. Gold was used to her disappearances. Eirys, in the spur of the moment, would decide to give herself a small holiday and just wander off somewhere, only to return late at night.
Eirys laughs, "I'll be at the Tree Castle if you need me." To be exact it wasn't really a castle nor was it in or anywhere near a tree. It was a small abandoned wooden play set with small towers.
"Oh, hey there Eirys." Henry waves at her from his perch on the castle-like structure, his big book about fairy tale characters in his lap. Next to him sat his birth mother, a cynical look on her face. "You're just in time."
"Time for what?" Eirys stops next to them, leaning against the wooden platform. It was clear that the two of them were plotting something, or it was more like Henry was clearly plotting something and was determined to drag both Eirys and Emma into his mess. "What are you up to and does your mom know what you're doing?"
Henry shrugs. "Only if you tell her, and you have to promise not to tell her." He whispers. "It's called Operation Cobra."
"What is?" Many people often say that Eirys is the cliché super nice and caring person; however, they also never forget to mention how dense she is. "I'm sorry, but what is this Operation Cobra thing?"
Henry traded looks with Emma and they seemed to have an unspoken agreement to trust the flower shop owner. "Operation Cobra is how we're going to bring back the happy endings." Henry explains as if it were his master plan.
"Right, because everyone here are fairy tale characters." Eirys says connecting the two points together. "So what character am I?" She asks pointing to herself.
Henry frowns. "I don't know, but I found Prince Charming, Emma's father." He opens his book to a picture of the supposed Prince Charming. "He's in the hospital, in a coma."
"Wait, so she's the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming?" Eirys asks. "So, then, that makes this guy Henry's grandfather."
"And, apparently, Mary Blanchard is grandmother." Emma adds.
Now things were getting mind blowing. "So, this evil queen's curse is keeping them apart with the coma situation, right?" Eirys says trying to make sense of the situation and the weird family tree that was appearing. "And now we're just going to tell her that her Prince Charming is the John Doe at the hospital?"
"Woah, telling someone that their soul mate's in a coma probably isn't helpful." Emma says "not having a happy ending is painful enough, but giving false hope is far worse."
"But what if I'm right?" Henry asks making his ultimate point. "We know who they are, now they have to know."
"And how are you going to do that?" Eirys asks scratching her head, she never liked mysteries and problem solving. "We can't just insert a needle in his head and pump information into his brain."
Henry laughs at her outrageous suggestion. "We have to remind them of who they really are. We have to get Ms. Blanchard to read their story to John Doe, and maybe he'll remember who he really is."
Emma leans forward, "ok."
"Ok?" Henry repeats as he expected her to disagree with his plan, which was probably what Emma was really doing inside her head.
"Yeah, but we'll do it my way. I'll ask her."
And in that intense moment, Beethoven's Ode to Joy burst from Eiry's coat pocket. "Sorry, hello?"
"You're customers are coming into my shop looking for you." The irritated voice says over the phone. "There is one lady who keeps coming here every ten minutes, she's is getting on my nerves."
Eirys sighs dramatically. "Mr. Gold, you can run a town, but you can't control a simple little old lady. You're starting to loose your touch, don't worry, I'll be there." She hangs up her phone. "Meet at the café to talk about it tomorrow?"
Emma and Henry nod giving Eirys the chance to rush back to her shop and save Mr. Gold from his untimely demise. Eirys took her sweet time actually getting to the pawn shop, which resulted in a very, very, very, flustered Mr. Gold. "I see you took your time getting here." He had a small ice pack to his forehead. "What did she want anyways?"
"Some seeds for her garden, she wants petunias this year." Eirys replies as if it were a big deal. "It's really important to have petunias, it's the newest trend, and everyone's doing it this year."
Mr. Gold just holds his head in an aching fashion. "She almost cracked my head open for some petunias." He shakes his head in disbelief. Eirys had walked into the store the moment the 'crazy lady' as Mr. Gold had called her threw her arms up into the air in frustration which caused a whole shelf of objects to come crashing down over Mr. Gold's head. "And why wasn't she angry at you?"
"Because I used to babysit her children." Eirys replies simply passing him tuna, cheese, and cucumber sandwich. "Besides, you probably did something to her first; she's actually just a nice little old lady who likes to plant flowers in her little garden."
"With a crazy temper," Mr. Gold adds biting into his sandwich. "What were you doing at the Tree Castle; I can't imagine there's much to do there."
Eirys shrugs, "I had a little chat with Emma. She seems nice. I don't see why Regina hates her so much. It must be because she's jealous that Henry likes Emma so much. I'm going to meet up with them tomorrow at the diner."
"Right, I'll be fine, no need to worry about me." Mr. Gold replies moodily. He tears into a second sandwich.
Eirys rolls her blue eyes. "I'll bring some iced tea over for you if that'll make you feel any better." He nods once and returns to his sandwich.
"So you're the famous Snow White." Ivy says taking the images of the pretty brunette with blood red lips and skin as pale as snow. "You're shorter than I expected you to be."
Snow White smiles at the miniature sized fairy floating on a cloud of fairy dust in front of her face. "So, who exactly are you? Are you supposed to grant my wishes or something?"
Ivy puffs up her cheeks. "Not all fairies grant wishes, young lady." She bops Snow on the nose. "I am the Flower Fairy, I do earth type magic." She explains slowly.
"Then I don't think you can help me." Snow moves to walk around the fairy. "If you find a wish granting fairy, tell her that I have a wish that needs granting. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have things to steal and people to avoid."
"Hold it." Ivy says flying in front of Snow once again, stopping the girl in her tracks. "I came here to warn you! The Queen asked me to send out a message throughout the forest, if I don't she's going to turn me into fairy dust."
"That's really not my problem right now." Snow White replies ducking under the fairy to continue her way through the forest. "And if she's so keen on turning you into fairy dust, how come you're here?"
Ivy flies behind the former princess. "Because I came to warn you, you're in terrible danger." Earth fairies were known to have the greatest amount of patience, but even they can become frustrated every once in a blue moon. "Listen to me." She sticks her hand out, smacking Snow in the forehead. "There is a pair of scouts coming this way from over yonder and you as you can clearly tell, there are no climbable trees which means you will be caught if I don't help you."
Sure enough the sounds of whining horses and clanking armor bounce off the trees, echoing around them. Snow glares at the direction the scouts were coming from. "I don't suppose you have a way out then, do you?"
"Just leave it to me." Ivy replies, her tiny body glowing a sultry lime green color. She flies around Snow, the fairy dust coming off her wings causing the foliage around Snow White's legs to sprout up from the earth. "Hang on tight, and try not to look down, you'll probably get sick."
Snow White grabs onto a sturdy root that was pulled up with the grass and plants. "How exactly is a giant hill supposed to save me from them?" She glances over at the scouts who were not very silent about their arrival.
"Don't worry about it," Ivy reassures, her tiny arms shifting and molding the shape of the giant hill of plants, dirt, and grass into something that resembled a large leafy tree. "And now to make it look the part," branches and the trunks solidified into wood and the green leaves changed color to match the surrounding trees.
Ivy flies up to settling herself on Snow's shoulder just as the scouts arrive at their tree. "I don't recall this tree ever being here." One of the scouts says tapping a hand against the trunk. "Do you?"
"Who knows?" His partner shrugs looking at the trees around them. "They all look the same to me, let's get going."
The first scout nods. "Must be my imagination then," they turn their horses away from the tree and ride on through the forest.
Snow glances at Ivy who had a triumphant smile on her tiny face. "Not bad," Snow praises, softly climbing down the tree. "So, where do you suggest I go, then?"
"Go between kingdoms," Ivy explains, "My magic is limited to the surrounding forests of the Queen's domain, go to the forest between the Kingdoms of Midas and George, you'll be save there, for a while."
Snow White seems to contemplate the suggestion. "Not bad," She heads in the opposite direction of the scouts. "I don't suppose you have anywhere to go at the moment."
"I'm in not too much of a hurry," Ivy replies shrugging her thing shoulders. "You can drop me off for my fee."
Snow raises an eyebrow at the fairy. "You're making me pay for your services? I thought fairies were supposed to be nice and giving from their hearts."
Ivy snorts, resting on Snow's shoulder. "That's only in fairy tales, how else am I supposed to make a living if I don't have some sort of income? Is it possible to walk a bit faster, I want to get out of the forest by nightfall?"
"Don't push your luck," Snow replies, picking up her pace slightly as the sun starts to set in the West.
"Hey Henry, where does your mother think you are?" Eirys asks settling in the seat next to Emma. "And is that Regina's shirt?" The black pearly silk shirt seemed awfully familiar.
"Don't worry; she won't even know that it's gone." Henry assures taking a sip of his hot chocolate. "Besides, she thinks I'm out playing Whack-a-mole."
Emma and Eirys trade looks. "And she bought that?" Emma asks, not believing the stupidity of the mayor.
Henry shrugs. "She believes it if she wants to." At that moment the bell above the door chimes to alert the trio of Mary Margaret's entrance. "Look, she's here."
"Listen, don't get her hopes up, we're just getting started here." Emma warns Henry as Mary Margaret briskly walks over in excitement, sitting next to Henry.
Eirys glances at Mary Margaret with great anticipation. "He woke up." She says plainly as if it weren't such a big deal.
"What?" Emma and Eirys ask in unison.
"I knew it." Henry says quietly, obviously holding back enough excitement for all four of them.
"I mean, he didn't wake up wake up, but he grabbed my hand." Mary explains
Eirys taps a finger against her mug of steamy diner tea. "You think he's remembering then?"
"What did the doctor say?" Emma, being the rational and reasonable one, asks.
"That I imagined it, but I'm not crazy." Mary Margaret says shaking her head slightly. "I know it happened."
The four of them stay silent, letting the information sink in. "We have to go back." Henry announces, "You have to read to him again."
Mary Margaret takes a breath as if to decline that offer, but "let's go." The two of them slide out of the booth heading towards the door.
"Wait, wait," Emma says scooting out of her booth along with Eirys. "You don't think that he's actually."
"Prince Charming, of course not, but somehow, some way, I touched him." Mary Margaret explains, heading out the door after Henry.
Eirys sighs, tugging on Emma's borrowed shirt. "Let's go, there's no harm in just visiting a coma patient at the hospital." Emma sighs and follows her out the door. It was a short walk from the diner to the hospital.
Henry and Mary Margaret were already jogging through the hospital hallways by the time Emma and Eirys got through the hospital doors. Emma rolls her eyes and jogs to catch up with them. "Isn't it against the rules to run in the hospital?" Eirys mumbles to herself and takes her leisurely time walking towards John Doe's hospital room. "What's going on?"
Seeing Sheriff Graham there wasn't something she was expecting to see. Seeing the sheriff, Emma, Mary Margaret, and Henry talking seriously outside of an empty coma patient's room was slightly worrisome, it didn't take a brain surgeon to put one and one together. "John Doe's missing."
Eirys nods as if missing coma patients was a totally normal thing to hear about. A buzzing noise starts from her coat pocket. "Right, excuse me." She steps away from the group, checking the caller ID on her phone. "Mr. Gold, hi."
"I hope that your holidays aren't going to become a permanent habit." He says simply in his usual cool and collected voice. "Your customers are starting to get on my nerves. It seems like the days that they come by just so happen to be the days that you aren't there."
Eirys laughs, "Are you saying that I'm doing this on purpose?"
"I've been suspecting it." He replies a rustling sound comes from his end; he was probably pacing around his counter, too frustrated to get any work done. "Just tell me when you're going to be gone the entire day next time, alright?"
"Of course, you're the best." Eirys replies watching the mayor walk away with Henry's hand clutched tightly in hers. "Anyways, I gotta go, might not be back for a while."
"Then that's where we have to start." The doctor, the sheriff, Emma, and Mary Margaret head off towards some unknown destination.
Eirys follows behind them. "What's going on?" She whispers to Emma, trying to keep up with the taller blonde's long strides. "Did you find something about John Doe?"
"We're going to go an ask security about last night." Emma explains glances down at the shorter girl. "Don't you have a flower shop to run? I don't think your customers are going to be too happy if you're gone all day."
Eirys waves her hand, banishing the worry. "I've placed my top assistant on the job. I'm sure Mr. Gold will act with great dignity and professionalism towards my customers."
"You set me up." Bae jabs an accusing finger at the cheerful blue-eyed fairy flying next to him. He pulls another twig out of his hair.
"I did no such thing." Ivy replies acting totally appalled by his accusation. "I told them that I was putting my best man on the job."
Bae gives her a look that clearly said that he wasn't too amused by her words. "I could've been killed by those trolls. And why did we have to go and fix their bridge?"
"I was in the neighborhood when a little flower told me about some struggling trolls." Ivy replies avoiding Bae's looks of 'are you serious?' "They said they needed someone bigger to help them, so I suggested my most trusted assistant."
Bae snorts, "And look what happened, dearie, they tried to eat me."
"I wouldn't go that far," Ivy says trying to make her friend feel better, though, in their current situation it was really hard to keep a straight face on. "I mean, we managed to find you some clothes, eventually."
"Yes, and now I'm wearing a pink dress that's too tight around my stomach and too loose around my chest, not to mention the fact that I was almost married off to some troll king."
"And your wedding dress was simply lovely." Ivy says unable to keep her mouth shut. "But pink is definitely your color."
Bae reaches out and flicks Ivy's tiny fairy body making her fly a bit ways away from him. "Now, I have to find some better clothes." He picks up the layers of skirts of his pink dress and hikes through the muddied forest; the slight drizzle wasn't helping his situation. "I just want to go back to the Fairy Grounds, have some pie, and sleep."
"Oh, you can't do that." Ivy replies catching up to him, a concerned look on her miniature seized face. "We still have a lot of work to do, and I already told them that you'd be coming to help them."
Bae raises a brown. "What are you going on about?"
"I told some people that I would help them survive this drought and that I'd be sending my most trusted assistant to help them, as of right now." The pair comes across a nice looking small farm sitting on the edge of the forest. "And look, just in time too."
The old farmer looks up and waves at them, turning to call for someone. "I'm just going to go back in there." Bae tries to pivot around sharply, underestimating the slipperiness of the mud and tripping over his long dress causing to do a wonderful face plant in the mud. "This is not my day."
"Here, let me give you a hand, young miss." The farmer says helping Bae up, "Don't worry, young lady, my wife will draw you a nice bath. Thank you for coming all this way, miss Fairy." He nods towards Ivy. "There hasn't been too much rain these days, too many mouths to feed and too few plants to eat."
"Mouths?" Bae asks limping towards the house. "How many people live with you?"
"Don't worry, young lady." The farmer says smiling at Bae, clearly, his eyes were going. "I have three sons to help with the harvest, but there's nothing to harvest." He laughs at his own little joke as they reach the house. "Mary, I found them."
"Welcome," a plump woman says wiping her hands on a towel. "Come in, come in, oh you poor baby, come here you." She reaches out and grabs Ivy's tiny body, rubbing a slightly damp towel around her little body. "I was expecting someone bigger, but I suppose help comes in all shapes."
Ivy struggles to get out of the Mary's grasp, freeing herself just enough to return to her normal full-body shape. "Actually, I was just wondering when we could start, you see my assistant has been waiting to do some work, just can't seem to get enough of it." The farmer and his wife were smiling at Ivy, and didn't notice the death glare Bae shot her.
"Oh, of course, dearie." Mary says, taking Bae's mud covered hand. "Let's get you properly cleaned, can't have a young lady doing work in that type of dress." The two make their way towards what seems like the bathroom. "Listen young men, I want you to turn your heads towards the wall and don't turn around till I say so."
Ivy can't help but start laughing, imaging the whole bathroom scene. "I'm sorry, sir, that was unprofessional." She giggles a bit at the thought of Bae. "So, what exactly do you need done?"
"Let me handle this, this is my world." Sheriff Graham says heading off to pick up the lost trail.
"What does he mean this is his world, don't you find people too?" Eirys asks gracefully stepping over the uneven ground, turning to help Mary Margaret stabilize herself.
"Yeah, well, usually the people I find head off to Vegas." Emma explains glancing around the darkened forest. "Not many of them hit the woods."
"It's an interesting job, finding people." Mary Margaret says trying to make some sort of conversation. "How did you fall into it?"
"Finding people is just what I've done, for as long as I can remember."
"What made you start? Was it your parents?" Emma gives Mary Margaret a shocked look. "Henry told me that you were of a similar situation as his own. Did you ever find them?"
"Depends who you ask."
Twigs crack behind them as Henry comes running down a nearby hill. "Did you guys find him yet?"
"No, Henry, and you shouldn't be here." Emma says staring at Henry who seemed to have escaped his mother's custody, stolen a flashlight, and ran into the woods to find them.
"I can help you," He says, as always, trying to convince them of his outlandish ideas. "I know where he's going."
"And where's that exactly?" Eirys asks.
Henry looks over at Mary Margaret. "He's looking for you."
"I suppose it makes no sense, what-so-ever." Eirys says Graham signaling them to follow down a well maintained trail. "Why would he look for her?"
"Because she was the first person he saw, he wants to find you." Henry says. Emma and Mary Margaret turn around to talk to Henry.
"This isn't about me, I think he's lost and confused." Mary Margaret explains. "He's been in a coma for a long time."
"But he loves you." Henry blurts out. "You need to stop chasing him and let him find you."
Emma seems to run out of patience. "Kid, you need to go home, where's your mom? She's going to kill me."
"She dropped at the house and then I went out." Henry says, his voice quieting to a normal talking level, almost like a loud mumble.
"We need to get you back immediately."
"No!"
Eirys wanders down the trail, following it bend. "Hey guys, I think I found something." Sheriff Graham runs back up the trail, while the trio runs down it. They all point their flashlights towards the spot Eirys's was pointing to. On a small leaf was a hospital bracelet with the name 'John Doe' printed on it. "Is that?"
"Blood." Emma confirms the identification of the sticky red substance that accompanied the bracelet.
"Ok, I need to leave now." Eirys says, blood and her never went well with each other. The last time she went to doctor's office to draw blood, she almost passed out at the sight of the little droplet of blood swelling from her finger.
They walk down the rest of the trail, coming to the Toll Bridge over a small trickling river. "The trail ends at the water line." Sheriff Graham says. The five of them shine their flashlights around the water.
"Oh my God," Mary Margaret tosses her flashlight to the side rushing somewhere into the water. "Oh my God, oh my God."
Eirys follows after Mary Margaret, catching the poor clumsy girl on more than one occasion while the sheriff phoned for an ambulance. With the combined forces of the four adults and a watching ten year old boy, they managed to get John Doe out of the river and onto dry, rocky land. "No, no, no, I found you; everything's going to be ok."
"Come on Henry, no need to see all of this." Eirys says taking Henry to his mother, watching Mary Margaret perform CPR on John Doe.
"Oh, look, he's back, he's back." Eirys says watching the river water spurt out of John's mouth. "He's alive."
John Doe looks up at Mary Margaret. "Thank you."
Mary Margaret smiles in relief that he wasn't brain damaged or seriously injured. "Who are you?"
"I don't know." Or maybe he was seriously injured in some way.
The ambulance got to their location in record time, rushing John Doe back to his former hospital room. The nurses close the doors to keep everyone but the hospital staff members.
"David!" And that's the moment the pretty blonde came rushing into the room, causing some type of commotion in the 'David's room.
Mary Margaret looks around their little group, matching the confused faces of everyone. "Who is she?"
"That's Kathryn Nolan, his wife." The mayor says coming up behind them.