Mr. Gold inches away from the table slowly. "Are you sure you're up to this you look absolutely terrible."
Eirys sighs holding her head in her hands. "My head is pounding and my nose is stuffy, and I think I have a fever." She replies with a thermometer in her mouth. Her chair is covered in plush blankets and pillows.
"Ok, let's check your temperature." Mr. Gold takes the thermometer out of her mouth. "Well, I suppose I should call Miss. Boyd and tell her that the shop is closed for today. And you will crawl back upstairs and stay in bed the rest of the day."
Eirys nods, shuffling towards her bedroom, taking the mound of blankets and pillows with her. "I think Mary Margaret's at Granny's right now; tell her that I won't be coming over for lunch today. Oh, and if you get that delivery, just leave it on the table."
"Get better soon or else I'll be eating at Granny's every morning from now on." Mr. Gold says finishing off the rest of his lukewarm tea, setting the dishes in the sink to be cleaned later. "Oh, and try to get better for Valentines Day, it's only the biggest flower season for the year."
"Don't remind me." Eirys's stuffy voice rings through the house. "Oh, and tell Ashley that I can't look after Alexandra tonight, or tomorrow, maybe."
No sooner did he leave and Eirys was just starting to doze off did her phone ring. "Eirys, I was wondering if Ashley's working tomorrow night?"
"No, Ruby, she's not. It appears that I've got a little cold. So, unfortunately I'll probably be closed tomorrow." Eirys explains, though her stuffy nose was sounding a bit better after the hot tea.
Ruby groans. "Not you too, I heard that Mr. French is late on his payment, so his little flower truck is going to get taken away and he's probably going to be closed too. Valentines Day this year is canceled."
"That's a bit dramatic Ruby." Eirys comments feeling only slightly bad that Valentines Day would be canceled this year, therefore, no crazy people coming to her door at the very last minute. Because of said crazy people, she had missed two consecutive years of girl's night out, and due to this sickness, she was probably going to miss a third one. "At least now you're free to have that girl's night out that you've been planning."
"And you have to come." Ruby adds in as if she had been waiting to say that the entire call. "Listen, I'm going to ask Ashley, Mary Margaret and Emma today, so you better show up tomorrow."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll try my best." Eirys says trying to hint to Ruby that she needed to get off the phone. "So, I'll call and let you know." She practically drops the phone on the table and buries herself underneath her blankets.
Bae glances around the small little house that his friend used to live in. With her lack of presence the wood didn't shine as brightly, nor did the air smell as fresh. He picks up the package that he had left her many days earlier when he thought that she had simply left on an assignment without telling him. But now, he knew that the Queen was the one who took her away from the Grounds.
"I suppose she won't be needing this anymore." He places the package into his bag and tucked a small slice of cake in there as well. "Time to get moving then." He silently looks the house behind him, placing the key underneath the flower pot by the door, just in case she were to come back.
On a whim he decided that his humble abode was too cheery for his sullen mood and whisked all his items and himself to a more dreary scenery in the mountains. Of course, people just wouldn't leave him alone, calling for him to answer all their problems. "Bae will stay tucked in here, until she returns." Rumplestiltskin says placing the tea set he had plan on giving Ivy behind his unused cupboard.
He could just imagine the moment in his mind as he made his way towards the caller, taking an excruciatingly long time on purpose. In his mind he could see the pale green grass of the meadow and the old tree next to the creek. And she would come with a little basket around her thin wrist and inside would be a cake that she had painstakingly decorated with little blue and green flowers.
And he would pretend to not understand the reason for the celebration even though he had been counting down the days to her birthday. But she would forgive him, she always forgave him in the end. And then he would surprise her with a wrapped package with a new tea set. Simple white cups and saucers and on only one side, a simple blue flowery design was drawn, in the same shade of blue that her eyes turned when she had that moment of seriousness.
"Everyday you will serve me my meals, and you will clean the dark castle." Rumplestiltskin says to his new castle-keeper, a little young lady by the name of Bell.
"Yes, sir." She replies shakily. She had brought his tea in the particular tea set that had immersed his thoughts moments before she entered the room.
"You will dust my collection, launder my clothing," He says sitting on the opposite side of the table. Bell nods her understanding, pouring the tea with amateurish expertise.
He could clearly see the way Ivy would caress the cup before pouring the tea, her delicate fingers gracefully holding each piece of the tea set. "You will bring me fresh straw when I'm spinning at the wheel.
"Got it," She finishes pouring the tea.
"Oh, and you will skin the children I hunt for their pelts." He adds just to see her shocked face. And she does something extra, by dropping his precious tea cup. "That one was a fib, not serious."
But on the inside he was almost furious. From his sitting point he could see the little piece of the cup that had come off when Bell dropped the cup. He knew that he would always end up comparing the two women against one another and he knew that he would always think that Ivy was more superior at everything.
And the girl was not quiet, at all. Even when she was cleaning she would make noise that would echo around the room. "Why do you spin so much? I mean, you spin straw into gold, more than you could ever hope to spend."
"I like to watch the wheel." He replies, one hand turning the spinning wheel. "It helps me forget."
"Forget what?"
And suddenly he's back there again, back to the images that haunt his dreams, faces of his son and Ivy, calling his name in the meadow. But no matter how fast he ran, they would always disappear before he could get to them. "I guess it worked." He replies laughing to cover up his falter.
She laughs a little. Bell continues to do something to his curtains. "What are you doing?" His curiosity needing to be satisfied.
"Opening these, it's almost Spring, you should let some light in." Spring, the season that is associated with green grass, pretty little flowers, and warm lemon pies. Spring was the constant season of the far away Fairy Grounds. "What did you do nail them down?" and with one great yank, the entire curtain comes tumbling down, and Hell along with it.
The sudden brightness of the room blinds Rumplestiltskin for a moment. When his vision began to return he came face to face with the Bell, which accounted for the sudden weight in his arms. "Thank you." He then practically drops her to the floor, unsure of what to do next. He had never been in such a situation before.
"No matter," He replies walking back to his spinning wheel. She made some comment about putting the curtains back up but he felt as if that would cause more harm than help. "There's no need, I'll get used to it."
"How do you even know that it's missing?" Eirys asks, people just weren't leaving her along on this dreaded day. "How can it go missing?" Mr. Gold had suddenly called her up, sounding as close to frantic as he could get, which was more like angry.
"I don't know, but he got it and it's still missing." He replies angrily. "I should be finding him right now, punishing him."
Eirys coughs a little. "Don't worry about it; I'll make you a new set later. You should just let Emma handle this whole situation; she's the sheriff after all. Have a little faith, will you?" Mr. Gold makes a non-committing sound and clicks the phone off. Eirys sucks on another cough drop, letting her eyes droop. After all, is she were to have any hope of being well enough to work on Valentine's Day evening then she would need all the sleep she could get.
And sleep she did, which accounted for the twenty missed calls on her phone, almost all of them were asking is she were to be open that evening because for some reason, it was already Valentines Day.
"You slept through the entire day?" Mr. Gold raises an eyebrow, watching the bustling woman run around, setting up flowers in the displays and putting up last minute Valentine stuff. "You don't want to relapse or anything like that you know!"
"Right, and where are you off to?" Eirys asks noting that he hadn't even gotten settled in before he was making his way back out of the door. "I thought you were closed for the holiday?"
Mr. Gold shakes his head. "I have some stuff to take care of. You have a good Valentines Day." And with that, the mystery of the holiday continued as holiday celebrators come in to buy fresh flowers and give the occasional piece of chocolate.
"You have to come with us." Mary Margaret says, stepping out of the way of another late boyfriend. "I'm going to feel so old if I'm going to be there by myself, Emma ran off somewhere doing sheriff duties."
"And that means nothing to me." Eirys replies quickly ringing up the receipt. "Have a good day. Mary Margaret, please tell me that you couldn't find anything better to do besides going out to drink?"
Her face always gives it away, whether it's telling a lie or feeling overly guilty about something. "Well, it's kind of complicated right now, well what about you?"
"I don't have a significant other to share this disgusting holiday with nor do I have a secrete significant other to do so." Eirys says hinting at the secret relationship between David Nolan and Mary Blanchard.
"Well, what about Mr. Gold, you two have been friends forever." Mary Margaret says trying to divert the attention from herself towards Eirys. "I'm sure that he's not doing anything with a special person tonight."
Eirys never really thought of her friend in such a manner. Well, she always enjoyed his presence and his company was always welcomed in her mind. Not to mention the fact that she almost always agreed with his position in debates. "Well, I suppose that is also a complicated situation."
"Well, if you ever change your mind, we'll be at the bar." Mary Margaret says selecting a pen to scribble the address down. "I'm sure we'll be there drinking our sorrows of having a dateless Valentines."
"I'll keep that in mind." Eirys says, waving Mary Margaret out the door.
"Please let me go, I don't want to be here anymore." Ivy says banging her arms against the glass bottle that held her captive in a futile attempt at getting out. "Please let me out."
"Now why would I do that?" the Queen asks holding the bottle up to level with her. "You see, you are a very important part of my plan right now and if I let you go now, all of my work will be for nothing." The thing that Ivy wants to know was what part of the Queen's plan involved keeping Ivy in a glass bottle inside of her night stand.
Ivy topples over when the Queen puts the bottle roughly on the table. "Listen, your friend is also a magical being as I'm sure you know, and because of that, he's a liability to my power."
"So you want to get rid of him?" Ivy asks, her voice reaching high shrill-like levels.
The Queen laughs, adding another layer of red lipstick to her black attire. "No, I'm simply going to remove his magic. You see, I'm doing you a favor, and in return you just need to help me destroy those enchanted trees."
"But you can't destroy the enchanted trees, they are the livelihood of the forests." Ivy exclaims forgetting for a moment that her friend's life is at risk as well. "You'll be destroying this realm as we know it."
"Then you can just tell where to find them and I'll destroy them myself if you can't do it." The Queen says grabbing her black parasol. "Well, I'm off for a little ride, you better have your decision made by the time I come back, or else you might not have a friend to go back to."
Ivy paces around the bottle until her head starts to spin. Loose the world and keep her friend or loose her friend but save the world, why do all these dilemmas come down to loosing something. "Genie, what do you think I should do?" She had seen the Queen yell at the man in the mirror many times, but she always went to him for advice.
"Well, I would say you should save the forests, but then again, that is merely my own choice." The Genie says appearing as a blue glowing face in the mirror. "Either way, the Queen has done this to ensure that you will always loose and she has everything to gain. That's what makes her so wonderful sometimes." It isn't hard to see that the Genie is very much in love with the Queen, yet the Queen feels nothing towards the Genie.
"Wouldn't you feel lonely if the Queen weren't here anymore?"
"Of course I would, as long as she is here. I can forever gaze upon her face, and be by her side." The Genie says. "Why do you ask?"
"I would feel lonely and sad if Bae disappears from the Grounds." Ivy says, though traveling outside of the Grounds was no problem, but they had so many wonderful memories together in that meadow. "Bit I can't let this world disappear."
The only way to possibly save both was to somehow trick the Queen, but tricking such a volatile woman is very dangerous. "Have you had enough time to decide on what you want to do next?"
"I will tell you the locations of the enchanted trees, if you promise to leave my friend alone." Ivy says with what she hoped was confidence and not fear. The Queen could smell fear a mile away.
The Queen smiles. "Very good, now, shall we begin?" She pulls out a map of the kingdoms, it's crudely drawn as most maps are and didn't have exact measurements or details as to the different areas. "And once I've confirmed your information, I'll never touch your friend again."
"Here, and there's another one in this forest, and one further up this mountain, and this one is by a lake." And the list went on and one. All those voices would disappear, and that would be it, that would be the price she had to pay to keep her friend safe. "And that's the last one."
"Good, now I suppose I should get to work then." The Queen says getting up to leave. "I have trees to cut down."
The one thing that the Queen couldn't see is the slight green glow that Ivy usually had surrounding her was starting to fizzle around the edges. The magical balance within her mind was starting to break down. "It was for Bae, for Bae, I did this all for him. Now he's going to be ok." But even if he were to be ok, it didn't make her feel any better about the whole situation, even if she had kept a few trees hidden from the Queen, all the other ones were doomed to die.
"You are so lucky that you are the soon-to-be husband of my employee or else I wouldn't be doing this." Eirys says carefully wrapping the last of the red roses in white paper. "And you got her a ring too?"
"Yep, all that's left are the roses." Sean says patting his pocket. "I don't have much to spare for them so keep it simple."
Eirys shakes her head. "I'll give you a discount, you don't have to worry about something as simple as this, besides, they were going to be thrown away tomorrow morning anyways." She hands him the flowers. "Now you better have a classy way to tell her all of this."
"Sean I thought you were working tonight." Ashley says, the sight of Sean at the bar during a sad girl's night out had left her in a little bit of a shock.
"I am this is my break." Sean explains, which would explain the speed at which he drove at to get to the bar, and the uniform that he was still wearing. "I had to see you." He gives her the roses, all perfectly wrapped and everything. "And ask you something."
"Can you believe it?" Eirys asks Mary Margaret jumping on the balls of her feet. "This is so exciting?"
Sean gets down on one knee, in the middle of the bar, holding a little rose red box up to Ashley. "Will you marry me?" and Ashley just stares at him, probably with her mouth wide open. "I only have a twenty minute break."
Ashley laughs and cries at the same time, nodding her head to his proposal. "Yes!" She sticks her left hand out for the ring. And to tie everything together is a tearful hug.
"My trucks outside if you want to take a ride, it's not much of a date." But what could you really expect from a teenager trying his best to support a baby and a new wife?
And Ashley seemed to agree. "It's the best date."
"Are you leaving too?" Mary Margaret looks as Eriys puts her coat back on. "You just got here, why don't you have a drink or something?"
Eirys shakes her head. "I have some stuff to do, but you have a good Valentines Day, ok?" and the said stuff that she had to do involved a certain misbehaving, short-tempered man. "So, you got through in jail?"
"Clearly," even behind bars he had his usual attitude. "I don't suppose you'll let me go without me having to explain myself to you." Eirys shakes her head, Mr. Gold never got in trouble with the law. "Very well then, I might as well get comfortable in here."
"I know it's about that thing you called me about." Eirys whispers, not wanting Emma to stick her nose in their business. "And I thought that I told you I could make you a new one, so next time; don't go around smacking florists, ok? I guess I'll go and try to post bail sometime tomorrow, I need a drink right now."
"You are, ok now?" Rumplestiltskin asks, he had a nervous twitch about him, a worriedness that didn't seem satisfied with the explanation that the Queen had simply let her go. "There is nothing wrong?"
Ivy shakes her head. "No of course not, now, regarding the reason I called you out here?" She rubs the side of her teacup, one of the many signs of her actually being nervous about something. "I hear you're good at making deals."
"And that I am." He replies forgetting for a moment that in the heat of a tense situation, the earth fairy had repressed all of her memories regarding a certain kidnapping. "What can I do for you today?"
Ivy walks to her cupboard and pulls a small teacup from the depths of the shelves. "I had a friend once, and now he's gone missing." She explains bringing the teacup to the table. "I need you to find him, he'll have a matching teacup to this one."
Rumplestiltskin recognizes the teacup as the one that was sitting on a pedestal in his grand room. "Do not worry, I will find your missing friend." He picks up the cup that was the pair to his own. "And restore your memories." He whispers to himself.
"So you remember when you told me to stay away from David and I agreed?" Mary Margaret asks in a very hushed whisper after Eirys finally makes it to Granny's Diner. "I didn't do it."
"I think we already know this." Eirys whispers back, Emma nods in agreement.
Mary Margaret frowns. "Really, how?"
"I am the sheriff, she's your best friend, and you are a lovestruck school teacher, covering your tracks isn't a priority for you." Emma says simply. It is probably true, but really isn't hard to tell that Mary Margaret wasn't going to stay away from David.
"I was being discreet." She says emphasizes the words as much as possible in her whispering inside voice. "How did you guys find out?"
"Please, two cups in the sink, new perfume, the late nights out, and the lunging v-necks." Emma lists off without missing a single beat. "It wasn't very hard to put everything together."
Mary Margaret stares down at her white v-neck t-shirt. "You usually button up your shirts." Eirys supplies the answer to Mary Margaret's unspoken question. "Up until recently and we all know the reason for that."
"Why didn't either of you tell me?" Mary Margaret demands, her question pointed more towards her roommate Emma.
Emma laughs. "I'm not your mother, I just thought that you'd tell me when you're ready, which I'm guessing is now?"
Mary Margaret takes a deep breathe. "David says that he might be leaving Kathryn."
Eirys just stares at the school teacher. "You did not just say what I think you just said because if you did just say that then I think I'm going to just walk out of here before you totally spill the beans because I might end up blabbing this to everyone."
And the last thing they needed right now was for Kathryn or Regina to find out about something like this. "Thank you for listening to me, and not telling me about the whole v-neck thing." Mary Margaret says as Eirys gathers up her coat to leave.
"Everything is just really bad right now." Eirys says sipping her tea. Surely if she were to tell someone, it would be her most trusted friend, Mr. Gold. "What do you think I should do about it?"
He sips, blowing on the hot tea. "I say that you just let things work itself out. Love is a very dangerous thing to be playing with. Any occasion for these Macaroons?" He doesn't seem to really mind that she had them out; he just stuffs them into his face.
"I thought you needed a little special stuff after your little time in jail." Eirys says. Which would explain why she also had out her special chocolate spiced Chai tea, "I think you're the first person I know who's been to jail."
"Isn't that a wonderful thing?" Mr. Gold replies taking the time to indulge in the delicious treats Eirys was letting him enjoy. "I can only imagine what Mrs. Nolan must be going through."
"I imagine that she has no clue about this adultery that David's been committing behind her back." Eirys says. "I just hope that when Kathryn finds out she doesn't try to kill Mary Margaret, I don't want to read that my friend had been killed by some crazy ex-wife."
"As amusing that may be, I highly doubt that it'll happen." Mr. Gold says, and Eirys is pretty sure that he wouldn't mind reading about it. After all, it would take all the bad attention about him and divert it elsewhere. "Just kill the lying; cheating husband and all of this will be over."
Eirys shakes her head, yes, sometimes they did butt heads. "You can't stop a woman on a mission, and of all the bad romance books and reality TV shows I have watched, one thing is clear to me. The cheating husband never gets beaten by the wife or the mistress. The women just beat and hate each other."
"I wonder what that says about society."
"Hold it right there, traveling humans." Ivy says sticking her hand up towards the small group of travelers as they get too close to a certain lake that is guarded by a certain creature who drowns its victims, or at least the stories have claimed. "What business do you have here?"
"We are looking for this lake."
"I know of this lake that you speak of, oh human, but I cannot let you pass." Ivy says gesturing towards the altar further up the path they were traveling on. "You see, this is the altar of tokens that the past men have given to the guardian in prayer that they could survive its wraith." There were a wide range of items, coins, gold, weapons, and everything in between. "And none have survived."
Ivy recognizes two of the four as Prince James and Princess Abigail. "You must let me try." Prince James says stepping forward. "If I do not return, I will be put out of my misery, but if succeed, then Abigail can have her happiness back."
"Very well, I suppose." Ivy says still having doubts that the prince could survive. Rumors of the magical realm are far more accurate than those of the human, but even her sources could not pinpoint the magical qualities this guardian possessed. "But you have been warned."
Prince James nods, brushing past the altar without dropping a single token as an offering. Ivy flies a little ways behind him, watching from the tree tops as the prince tries to fill his oilskin water bag with water from the clear lake. However, just as the water bag touches the surface of the water, something ripples through the air, some force that even the prince could feel.
And just like that the beast guardian of the lake appears, bubbling out of the lake. First the head of a beautiful blond woman, and then her long glittering dress made of gems. "What's your name?" The strangest part, besides the woman coming out of the lake, is that she can actually walk on top of the lake. "Do you want to know mine, because I can be anyone you want me to be?"
"Stop, I know what you are." Prince James says pointing his sword at the woman's neck, ready to skewer her if she takes the wrong step forward. "You're a siren; you use your songs to try to lure me to my death."
She pushes the sword easily aside. "I would never hurt a brave, powerful man like you. Not after all the things we could do." She brushes her hand against his chest, another reason why Abigail should have come.
"I told you, I won't fall pray to your deceptions."
Ivy could just walk out there and smack him for his stupidity, he underestimated the abilities of the woman. She could become whomever she wanted to be, which also meant that she could take on the image of the one that Prince James wished to see most in the world, Snow White.
And the next thing Ivy knew is Prince Charming is being tackled by the siren of the lake who had taken Snow White's face. This could only mean that he saw through her spell and now she was going to kill him by force, "that idiotic prince, I'm going to kill him." Ivy springs from her tree flying towards the lake.
The water of the lake was the siren's magic, she controls everything inside the lake leaving Ivy totally useless to help as the siren tries to drown the Prince using the lake greens and a air stealing kiss. However, somehow, he had managed to plunge a dagger into the siren's belly, leaving her to bleed out in her own lake.
"I can't believe she would do something like that, she always seemed like a respectable young teacher." Granny says buying some new flowers for her diner, it isn't very often that she would come to buy flowers, but everyone needs to gossip sometimes. "She should be ashamed of herself."
Eirys just smiles and nods, punching the order into the machine. "I'm sure not everything is as it seems, but I agree, he is a married man with a wife." Somehow, the whole Mary Margaret with David thing had gotten out and everyone was angry at Mary Margaret. "I hope nothing dangerous happens to Mary Margaret, I don't think it would reflect well on the town if something did."
"What do you mean?" Granny asks.
"Oh, it's jut that, in cases like these, the people of the town end up attacking the person and that person gets beaten and stuff. I just don't want to find out that Mary Margaret decided to end her life just because the town is being mean to her." Eirys says trying, in her own way, to help ease the pain the teacher must be feeling.
Granny shakes her head. "That would be just awful. I would never want her to die you know, just, she shouldn't have done that." At least one person might start thinking rationally again.
"It's going to take more than that to get rid of this stigma." Mr. Gold says walking out of the back room. "After all, there are a lot of angry people out there who see Mary Margaret as a home wrecking wrench."
Eirys slaps his arm. "Don't call her that, she's not a bad person, just slightly confused right now. We can't blame her for all the bad things that are happening right now."