For as long as anyone could really remember, Eirys and Mr. Gold never got into such a disagreement that they would simply refuse to speak to one another. However, it seems like there is a first for everything. And the funny part was that it all started with a small conversation over tea and freshly baked tarts.
"Cherry Green iced tea," Eirys says filling a small red tea cup with the tea. "I put some candied cherries in to add some sweetness. And, don't touch yet." She slaps his nosy little hand away from the steaming tarts. "You're always so impatient. Its why always get burned."
Mr. Gold shrugs, watching Eirys's tiny pale hands use a spatula to scoop a nice hot cherry tart off the cooking tray. "I always get what I want, eventually." Once Eirys places the tart on the plate in front of him, he immediately attacks it with his fork.
"Was that Mr. Hermann coming out of your shop yesterday?" Eirys asks, the fact that someone like Mr. Hermann would even take the time to visit such a shop was beyond her realm of thinking. He is the type of man who thought of himself as being above most people of Storybrooke and would more likely be shopping in a classier district than theirs. "What did he want?"
Mr. Gold swallows a giant forkful of tart before answering. "He had a small problem, and I proposed an answer to his problem. Do you know where I can find an Ashley Boyd?"
"She does a bunch of odd jobs, mostly cleaning I think." Eirys says trying to recall the last place she saw the young blonde girl. "She was going out with Sean Hermann."
"Well they were more than just going out." Mr. Gold says sipping his tea carefully, clearing having just burnt his tongue on the cherry tart.
Eirys's blue eyes go really wide, "you mean that he got her pregnant?" there had been rumors that Sean and Ashley were moving around the bases, but the idea that Ashley as carrying a little human being in her tummy was slightly overwhelming. "And you're saying that Ashley's baby is the 'problem'?"
Mr. Hermann would think that Ashley's baby was a problem that needed fixing, but the thought that Mr. Gold, her friend, would simply just go along with it was sickening. Mr. Gold, however, doesn't seem to be too bothered by it. "Is there a problem with that?"
"You can't just call someone's baby a little 'problem'" Eirys practically shouts. "And doesn't Ashley have any say in this matter, it's also her baby, I mean, it's literally a part of her for a full nine months."
Mr. Gold just stares at her, letting her go through her rants before speaking. "She'll be paid quite nicely for all of her problems. And you don't have to worry about the baby; it'll be in a nice home in Boston."
"Mr. Gold, how are we friends?" Eirys asks taking her tea cup and pouring its contents down the drain. "I think we need to just stop seeing each other for a while, I don't think I can be friends with someone like you right now." She walks back to her house, locking the door behind her.
"I still can't believe it," Ivy says, her hand shaking slightly as she tries to pour the steaming tea into the cup. "The entire Fairy Grounds are in complete shock right now."
Bae takes the tea pot and the tea cup, serving himself and his partner some tea. "And what, exactly, happened that has the whole world shocked?" He picks up a small biscuit and taking a hearty bite out of it.
"It was one of the Fairy Godmothers; they're the major human and fairy ambassadors." Ivy explains sipping the Jasmine tea, "they only grant wishes to the purest of hearts and they have the strongest magical abilities. Every fairy dreams of becoming a Fairy Godmother."
Bae can't help but snort. "You wanted to be a Fairy Godmother, waving magical wands around granting wishes all day?" somehow the image was too funny to keep to himself, he really couldn't see Ivy doing something like that. "I think you're fine just the way you are." He says poking her nose after each word.
Ivy rubs her nose. "But you haven't heard the most interesting part yet." She scoots around so that she was sitting right in front of him to make sure she had his undivided attention. "I heard that she burst from having too much magic inside of her."
Bae lifts an eyebrow. "And how would one go about bursting from magic?"
"I imagine that it would be like flooding a fairy's magical channels with an opposite flowing magic which blocks up all her magic, burning her from the inside out."
Bae nods slowly, "I see, how interesting. And I suppose you'll be burying her wand since her body went 'burst'." He does a little hand motion to symbolize the bursting.
"Actually, the fairies who found her never recovered her wand." Ivy says tapping her chin. "Perhaps some human picked it and decided to keep it." She shrugs, clearly not worried about that specific situation causing any troubles. "Only magical creatures can use something as powerful as a Fairy Godmother's wand."
"Very interesting. Very interesting indeed."
"Maybe we should have code names." Henry says walking with his mother to his bus stop at the end of the street.
"I thought Cobra was our code name." Emma replies, giving a small wave towards the flower girl. "Hey, what're you doing here by yourself; don't you usually hang out with Mr. Gold on your days off?"
"That's the mission, I mean us," Henry specifies, hurrying a bit to walk with Eirys. "Is it true that you and Mr. Gold aren't talking to each other anymore?"
Eirys nods gloomily, dragging her feet along the sidewalk. "We had an argument, and I kind of told him that I didn't want to be friends anymore." The entire subject seemed to be making her gloomier than before, if it was even possible. "So, what's this business with code names?"
"For Operation Cobra," Henry explains as the bus rolls to a stop next to a line of kids. "What do you think we should call Emma?"
"Well, you could just call me 'Emma' for now." Emma replies, clearly not taking the chance to be creative.
Henry looks the slightest bit disappointed at the name. "Oh, well, bye then, Emma." He waves towards Eirys before getting onto the bus. The doors snapping shut behind him and the engine spurs to life as it heads towards the school.
Unfortunately the peaceful quiet was destroyed by a beep of the police siren. "What's with the siren?" Emma asks as sheriff Graham steps out of the police car, walking around it to talk to Emma.
"It's so hard to get your attention."
"Well you got it," Emma says crossing her arms protectively. "Are you going to arrest me again?"
"I want to thank both you for your help finding the coma patient." The sheriff says nodding towards Eirys. "We all owe you're a debt of gratitude."
Eirys perks up a bit clapping her hands. "Emma, do you think we could get the key to the city? I think I saw it once in Regina's office, right next to her plaque titling her 'Mayor of Storybrooke'."
"How about a job?" Sheriff Graham asks, casting an apologetic look to Eirys. "I could use a deputy."
"Thank you but I have a job," Emma says glancing at Eirys. "Actually, I think we both do."
Eirys shakes Emma slightly. "Come on Emma, it'll be good for you to do some work, get your mind off of the mayor who's out to destroy your life. And I heard there's good dental insurance."
Graham chuckles pulling out a sheriffs card from his wallet. "Give me a call if you happen to have a change of heart. Oh, and your customers are bothering Mr. Gold again, need a lift back home?" He asks Eirys.
Eirys rolls her bright blue eyes. "He probably called the police just for the heck of it." But she gets in the police car anyways, turning around in the seat to wave at Emma until they turn out of sight.
"Oh, Eirys dearest, Mr. Gold is absolutely furious." One of her loyal customers says hobbling about the store as Eirys carefully wraps the little lady's order. "He's been this way ever since that little argument you two had a while ago. I swear he's getting worse by the day." She picks up a small pink and purple iris from the freebies box.
"He's such a child sometimes." Eirys says tightly tying a ribbon around the stems of the flowers, fluffing the tissue a little, and then handing them to her customer. "It'll blow over soon and then he'll just be his usual annoying self."
The little lady pays for her flowers. "I sure hope so; I can't imagine what he might do next."
It was pretty late at night when Eirys angrily stomped down the stairs to her front door at the sound of annoying taps and knocks. "Mr. Gold, what are you—oh dear lord, are you bleeding? Is that blood? Oh, that is blood, come in, come in." All hostile thoughts and comments were lost at the sight of red bodily fluid that came trickling out of Mr. Gold's head.
"Thanks," Mr. Gold winces slightly as she presses an icepack to his wound. He takes a small sip of Eirys's precious chocolate chai tea, which she only took out for special occasions. "But you really didn't have to do this." He indicates towards the almost full fledge meal that she had whipped out of her fridge.
"This is all, my fault," Eirys says dabbing an alcohol swab on his wound. "If only I had stopped you sooner none of this would've happened."
Mr. Gold bites his lip to keep himself from saying something that might lead him to having more than one head injury. "Right, well then, as of a few minutes ago, Ashley Boyd ran off with something important."
"Well, I could take you to Mary Margaret's so we can talk to Emma. She's really good at finding things." Eirys says packing away her first aid kit. "In the mean time, I suppose I can pull some bed covers out on the couch. I am not sending someone home with a head injury, you are going to sleep on the couch and that's final." She adds before Mr. Gold could decline her offer.
"I will tie you to the bed if I have to but you are going to sleep here." Ivy says blocking the door with her small frame. When he stood up straight, he was a good half a head taller than her and could easily force his way out of the door. Ignoring the fact that she could call up an entire forest to kill him with the snap of her fingers. "You are staying in this room."
Bae hold up his hands in surrender going back to his makeshift bed made with old blankets and many plush pillows. "I suppose there are worse things in life." He sighs dramatically settling down against the cold floor of Ivy's little cottage.
Thunder clouds clap around outside and lighting flashes around, casting creepy weird shadows along the walls. The only lights in the small cottage were sets of candles that Ivy had placed around the living area after the sun went down and the storm clouds rolled around. "It was a good thing I went to check up on you or else you would be a roasted turkey." It was much more like the rain had started to come down, harder than a usual rainstorm would be and Ivy literally lifted Bae's tree out of the ground and took it back to her cottage.
"I would have been fine." Bae can't help but counter. A smelly old patched up blanket pulled up to his chin. "I've slept in storms before you know." To be exact, once a storm gets bad enough he'd head off towards his castle and wait out the storm there. Of course, she caught him before he could get to his nice warm castle with fluffy beds and glowing fires warming the room.
He could practically hear Ivy's eyes rolling. "Yeah, and how many times have to gotten sick because of the storms? My medicine cabinet is running low and I have to wait a few days before I can go out and get more." She always insisted on tending to his illness whenever something came up, even when it was a simple sore throat or a stuffy nose she'd be on him like a bee on a flower.
Ivy goes around the room, blowing out most of the candles, leaving a few lit by the windows and on the table for light. "You might want to hold back on the herbs, just a little." He makes sure to keep his eyes on the ceiling, ignoring the heated glare that was burning the side of his head.
"Just sleep." She drops another pillow on his head before heading back to her own room which was just behind a small olive green curtain. The thunder rolls above them, shaking the house slightly. The Fairy Grounds were known for their peaceful balance with nature, they usually weren't as affected by storms and other disasters from nature as much as the humans were. So this storm, was the tadest bit frightening, especially for Ivy, who was never a big fan of storms.
Inside her head, which was usually filled with the calming thoughts of the forest trees and the bubbling laughter of nearby streams, were now filled with thoughts of fear. Mainly the forest's fear of lightening, besides its flashes of spooky light, if it were to hit a tree, fire could ensure. And when the forest was in pain, it caused mental anguish for any and all earth specialized fairies, especially those with a deep rooted connection to the earth.
Half way through the night Ivy wraps a thick blanket around her body and crawls out of her bed. She pulls the curtain separating her room and Bae's borrowed room which also happened to be her kitchen and lounging space. "Bae, are you awake?" she meekly whispers. Ivy expected no real reply from his rolled up form so when he actually responded she almost jumped backwards.
"I am now," his voice mumbles through the dark. The candles which she had lit had gone out leaving the room totally dark except for when the lightening sent a bright flash of momentary brightness. "What's wrong?"
"I'm scared." Ivy whispers back whimpering as the lightening flashes. "Can I sleep with you?"
Bae's movements were hidden by the darkness. It was only when he flickered her in the head did she realize that he had gathered up most of his bedding material and walked to her little room in the dark. "You have a nice bed." He says bouncing on the fluffy mattress. He spreads the pillows and blankets around the bed, creating a small next like structure. "Come on, some of us need some sleep."
Ivy didn't need to be told twice, she practically threw herself onto the bed, burying her head in the mound of pillows and blankets, accidentally kicking Bae. "Sorry," She whispers, calming her movements enough for both of them to find a proper position to sleep.
"It's fine," Bae says yawning and quickly drifting off to sleep. "Just go to sleep." He absently pats her on the head, immediately calming the horrid thoughts that were racing through her mind. "Go to sleep."
He didn't wake up to the smell of coffee; rather, it was the pungent smell of pomegranates that stirred him out of his sleep. "It's about time you woke up. I almost thought you were going to sleep the whole day away." Mr. Gold checks the clock hanging in the kitchen. It was barely seven in the morning.
"Right," he cracks his neck having slept on it weird all night. "Pomegranate tea today?"
Eirys nods setting the table for two. "I have toast, fruit, juice, celery, and tea. Oh, and I have a fine collect of jams if you want any." She opens up a cupboard which was almost overflowing with different types of jams, preserves, and other dried fruity things.
Mr. Gold shakes his head, settling to poke at some freshly cut fruits. He accepts the small blue and white tea cup filled with sweet dried pomegranate seeds and green tea leaves. He watches her as she watches him. "Is there something the matter?"
"Do you think I should make sandwiches?" Eirys asks nibbling on the corner of a piece of crispy toast. "It hardly seems courteous to ask for their help and not give them something." She pushes out her chair and stands up. "I think I have some left over cucumbers in here somewhere." She digs through her half empty fridge looking for the cool green vegetable.
"I highly doubt they would care about receiving cucumber and cheese sandwiches." Mr. Gold replies having noticed that Mary Margaret wasn't a big fan of such sandwiches. "Perhaps you should make cookies."
Eirys just glances at him. "You only want me to make cookies so you can eat them all." She rolls her eyes placing cucumbers, bread, cheese, carrots, lemons, and avocados on her kitchen counter. She quickly mixes the carrots and avocados together, spraying some lemon juice on it and adding black pepper too. "Now we'll have enough sandwiches to feed everyone." She gives a glance at Mr. Gold as he tries to sneak a sample.
Mr. Gold gently places the sandwiches on brightly colored plastic plates, covering the top with saran wrap. "I suppose they'll be up to have breakfast by now." Eirys lifts the picnic basket with all of their sandwiches in it. "We can take my car."
"Oh come on," Eirys says dragging him away from the pawn shop parking lot. "It's not that far, we can walk. Walking is healthy for you."
Mary Margaret's apartment wasn't far from Eirys's flower shop allowing them to reach her place just as more people were waking up and stores were opening. "Mary Margaret, it's so nice to see you again." Eirys says when the school teacher opens her door.
"Is Miss. Swan here?" Emma walks over to the door at the sound of her name. "Hi, my name is Mr. Gold we met briefly upon your arrival."
Emma shakes his out stretched hand. "I remember." She says putting her guard up.
"I have a proposition for you, Miss. Swan." Mr. Gold says. "I need your help looking for someone."
Eirys notices the awkward glances Emma was casting towards Mary Margaret. "Why don't you help me with these sandwiches?" She loops a thin arm around Mary Margaret's arm and walking her to the most secluded corner of the kitchen. Mr. Gold hands a picture to Emma, walking into the room to discuss the details.
"What do you think is going on?" Mary Margaret asks trying not to look like she was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. She glances at the plates of sandwiches Eirys had brought. "This is quite a bit of cucumber and Swiss cheese sandwiches." She says unwrapping some of the plates.
"Oh don't worry," Eirys says handing Mary Margaret a different plate. "I made avocado and carrot sandwiches too, which one do you think Emma would like better?"
Emma and Mr. Gold's conversation seemed to reach a high point until someone came walking through the door. "Hey, Emma I was thinking we could—" Henry stops talking at the sight of Mr. Gold standing in the middle of the apartment.
"Hi Henry," Mr. Gold says trying add a bit of excitement in his voice. "How are you?"
"Ok." He replies timidly. Not many children knew how to talk to Mr. Gold, if any of them were willing to talk to him in the first place.
Mr. Gold nods rushing to the door. "Good, give my regards to your mother. Good luck, Miss. Swan." He glances back at Eirys. "I suppose I'll leave her in your hands, Miss. Blanchard." He walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.
"Do you have any idea who that is?" Henry asks
"Yeah, of course I do," Emma replies reaching for jacket, tucking the picture in her pocket.
"Really?" Henry says, "Cause I'm still trying to figure it out." He was now obviously talking about his story book and who they were in Storybrooke.
Eirys wanders over to Emma, glancing at the boxes of her stuff. "Is this all you brought?" it was amazing that a person's life could be shrunken down to only a couple of boxes.
Emma nods. "Henry, what're you doing here?"
"My mom's gone, nine to five." Henry explains, shrugging his shoulders. "So I thought we could hang out."
"Sorry kid, I've got stuff to do." Emma says starting to head out.
"Oh, an adventure." Eirys says taking some of the sandwiches and putting them in her basket. "I'm coming too!" She waves to Mary Margaret and bounds out the door after Emma and Henry.
"She's desperate." Emma says crossing the street to her little pale yellow bug.
"How do you know?" Henry asks going to the passenger side of the car. "Oh, hey Eirys, what's with the basket?"
"Cause I know," Emma says glancing questioningly at the basket as well. "Please don't tell me you brought a picnic."
Eirys smiles. "Just sandwiches, so when are we leaving?"
"Oh no, no, no, no, there is no 'we'." Emma says walking to their side of her car. "You cannot come with me, and you." She points at Henry. "You definitely cannot come with me."
"Then we'll look for her ourselves." Henry says sticking up his nose.
"Then I'll find you and bring you back." Emma counters.
"But then we wouldn't be helping Ashley and her little baby." Eirys points out. "Come on, you two need to spend sometime together, mother and son."
Henry gets into the car; and Emma walks back to her side. "Oh that is really not fair."
"Here are cucumber and Swiss cheese sandwiches along with avocado and carrot sandwiches, whichever one you prefer." Eirys says placing the picnic basket on Henry's lap. "Have fun you two!"
"Well don't you look beautiful today?" Bae says looking at the extravagant emerald green dress with lots of shimmer and sparkles. "What's the special occasion?"
Ivy practically jumps out of her skin at the sound of his voice. She had skipped their usual meeting and Bae was determined to find out why. "Bae don't scare me like that." She presses a hand to her heart. The dress wasn't as voluptuous as most ball gowns were, but it had nice princess-like v-shaped collar with lace and shimmery material creating sleeves. "Some of the other fairies are going to a party at a near by kingdom, it's a wedding."
"A wedding you say." Bae says obviously making certain plans inside his head. He hops onto her kitchen table, selecting an apple to munch on. "Perhaps I shall go as well?"
Ivy looks at his shabby clothing that he wore to keep up appearances. "Perhaps I will see you there." She transforms into her tiny self. "Well, I'm off to meet with Saphira, don't eat all my apples." She orders before flying through her window towards her friend's own little cottage.
Saphira was still choosing a party dress to wear, her many dresses strewn everywhere. "Oh Ivy I don't know which dress to choose." She holds up two very similar dresses in front of her body, comparing them in her mirror. "Which one looks better on me?"
To be completely honest, Ivy couldn't really tell the difference between the two dresses. Ivy randomly points to the one on the right. "I like that one."
Saphira looks at it in the mirror seeming satisfied with Ivy's decision. "I always knew you had good ideas." She quickly undresses and slips the long dress on, fixing it around her chest area. "Come sit, I'll do your hair." She points to the small cushioned stool in front of her beauty mirror.
Ivy tugs on a loose strand of hair. She retransforms back into her original height, looking at her hair in the mirror. "What's wrong with my hair?" she had stuck it up in a loose bun like she usually did for parties and such.
"Don't worry I'm just going to fix it a bit." Saphira says pushing Ivy onto the seat, already pulling out the clips holding her hair in place. She tugs and pulls the poor fairy's hair until Ivy was sure that her head was going to be pulled off her neck. "There, perfect!"
Ivy looks in the mirror, her hair was nice curled and pulled onto of her head. "Um, thanks?" she wasn't really sure the torture was worth the pretty updo. Saphira moves towards bowled make up. "What are you doing?"
"Just close your eyes and everything is going to be ok." Saphira assures already mixing some powders with a brush. She taps some against Ivy's face, changing brushes to put more powder on Ivy's eyelids. "I'm going to add some color on your cheeks, you're always so pale."
Saphira finally let her open her eyes. "Was this really necessary?" Ivy tries to brush some excess powder off her eyelid. "I feel really gross like this."
"It's fine, don't worry about it." Ivy gets up to let Saphira do her own make up and hair. Ivy watches her friend quickly pull her hair up in the same style as Ivy's with practiced hands.
"Is your hair somehow darker?" Ivy asks noting that Saphira's usual blonde hair now had tints of brown in it that weren't usually there. At first she had thought it was the trick of the light but, even under the light, Saphira's hair looked dark.
Saphira waves her hand dismissing the comment. "It's just your imagination." She says putting some gloss on her lips and adding some red tints to her tanned cheeks. "Besides, we have a party to get to." She steps into some blue shoes and they both transform. "Let's go!"
"I don't know what you've heard but it's wrong." Ruby says talking to Emma and Henry outside of the diner. "Everyone thinks she can't do it, she's trying. Taking night classes, trying to better herself, I know Eirys is offering her a job at the flower shop so she can support the baby."
"Henry, Emma, hi!" Eirys says her usual delivery to the diner. "What's up, I thought you were looking for Ashley."
Ruby takes the box of flowers from Eirys to bring to her boss. "You could try her ex, he lives with his dad."
"Oh, Sean, I could take you there." Eirys says crossing the diner off her list of deliveries, "I mean, I'm free for now, and I'm trying to find the best way to get back at Mr. Gold, so leaving him with some flustered customers is always a plus for me."
After some misguided directions and yelling, Eirys finally managed to get Emma to the Hermann residence. "Hi, my name is Emma Swan, I'm looking for Ashley Boyd, she's in trouble."
"My son has nothing to do with that girl." Mr. Hermann says walking up the drive way.
Eirys looks at Mr. Hermann, just as stingy as she remembered him to be. "You're the reason the two of them broke up." The sad realization dawns on her. And of course she still blamed Mr. Gold but not to the same extreme extent as before.
"Of course," Mr. Hermann replies unashamed of what he was doing. "I'm not going to let my son throw away his life over some mistake."
"So you told him to just leave her?" Eirys demands staring the taller man down, the fact that parents were doing these things made her sick to her stomach.
"What were they suppose to do?" Mr. Hermann asks. "Raise the child from the backseat of their car?"
"Some people only have the backseat of their car." Emma adds clearly thinking of her own situation when she was pregnant with Henry ten years ago.
"Then they are to be pitied." Mr. Hermann says brushing past his son to get into his house. "That's not going to be my son."
Sean glances at his dad. "Dad, maybe we should help them look."
"It's a waste of time Sean." His dad replies, clearly not seeing how Eirys was very close to blowing a fuse and just marching into the house to smack some sense into the old man.
Emma steps closer to Sean trying to convince him one last time. "Sean, if you want to come, come, stop letting other people make decisions for you. If Ashley runs away with this baby, she's going to be in some serious trouble."
"Sean, inside, now." Sean stomps away angrily. Mr. Hermann blocking the entire door with his larger frame, "if I knew where she was I would tell you, believe me, it took a lot of trouble to get her that deal."
"Deal?" Emma asks. "What are you talking about?"
"The deal you made with Mr. Gold?" Eirys asks, "The one where she's forced to sell her baby because you don't think she can take care of it by herself?"
"I mean look at her." Mr. Hermann says. "She's a teenager, she's never shown any evidence of being responsible, and how could she possibly know how to be a mother?"
With that Eirys and Emma return to the car. "When I get my hands on him I'm going to make him regret ever making that stupid deal." Eirys mutters in the backseat as Emma drives through town.
"You can't make her double cross Mr. Gold." Henry says, "no one's ever broken a deal with him before."
"Happy to be the first." Emma replies speeding down the street. "If Ashley wants to have this baby she should have it. She should be allowed to be a mother."