Chapter 4:
Dealings With The Dragon Lady
Being a resident of Storybrooke meant a constant probability of being exhausted; may it be fighting monsters, running for your life, rescuing your family members, or working your ass off as the mayor of the town taking care of people's problems. But everyone was used to it as they'd always lived through that in their respective enchanted realms. Therefore no one lost sleep just because the next villain or danger was right around the corner.
Maleficent had had decades long worth of slumber before the "savior" had put an end to that, literally. Then the savior's present lover had did her in yet again after being woken from the ashes. But the third time she was brought back by the infamous imp, it stayed that way and she was reunited with her daughter, Lily. They'd found a way to be close even though they never really were a mother and daughter in the conventional sense. Being back to life and to be able to perform magic after years had its appeal. Regina was busy with chasing after one or the other monster and helping her step daughter's family and whatnot. So there went being all friendly with her former lover and an important friend.
But when "Prince Charming" came knocking on her door, the night of Regina's lover's funeral, asking for assistance with his problem she didn't pass up the chance for some magical mischief. He'd made sure he was on duty when he'd visited her. Apparently he isn't all 'Lets join hands and sing kumbaya' towards his daughter's beau because all he'd brought to the Charming family was some or the other kind of misery and danger. He wasn't against Emma finding true love and fighting for it but Killian Jones was more trouble than everyone thought he was. David hadn't failed to notice that even though the pirate-turned-hero was a survivor his survival came with a lot of strings attached with trouble to those close to him.
"So you want him gone from your lives?" Maleficent had asked.
"No!" David had exclaimed.
"So what is it you need assistance with, Sheriff Nolan?"
"Can you provide me with some potion or spell to make him distracted from my daughter? I know my daughter. She's all lovey-dovey with him right now but she clearly doesn't see what's obvious to everyone. That she's in love with Regina."
Maleficent wasn't jealous woman when it came to Regina. Even though Regina had entrapped her in her dragon form below the town library, she knew that she'd done that to quench her thirst for revenge, which now had been changed to a healthy familial relationship with Snow White. "What makes you think I'd ever help you?"
"You and I both know I'd have been burned to crisp right now if you weren't interested in whatever business I was here to propose."
"Fine. I'll call you when I have something for you. I don't want you visiting every often here. I have a life of my own and a lifetime to make up with my daughter."
David knew keeping secrets from Snow never ended pleasantly but he knew she hardly would notice anything odd with Neal to look after most of the time. They had split their parental duties. Even with all their shared duties and all they still needed Granny Lucas' help with baby-sitting. And the nuns didn't mid looking after Neal. After all he was royalty. David was sorry for Emma when they'd buried Killian's body after days keeping it under a preservation spell Regina had helped with. He wasn't surprised when she accompanied them to the Underworld even though she could hardly stand the pirate. She did it for Emma. So he found it necessary to do something about Killian when he returned after Robin's death. It wasn't that he was worried with his mild attraction to the pirate. He could handle that. After all he'd thrown a few punches to that pretty mouth. He wasn't oblivious to how Killian often stared at him for no reason whenever they were near. So he'd told Mal about that and let her work her magic. Next morning Mal had called him that she had something for him. He'd quickly gone to collect whatever she was giving him.
"Mix this with whatever he drinks. It'll help "distract" him and then, you work for the results. The distracting part is your job."
"What do you want in return for this?" David had asked her the price for the potion.
"We don't need to talk business right now, sheriff. You and I will always have some sort of connection in life. I haven't forgotten you riding on my back when you hid that piece of precious magic in me. So whatever payment or favor I need, I'll encash it in the future."
David had nodded and left with the potion. He wasn't sure if this would come back to bite him in the ass some day but he had to try. He'd come back to the loft with the pretense that he's gone out to get some much needed groceries like coffee and eggs. When their hero squad along with Zelena were discussing how to locate Gold, who'd run off with the Olympian crystal, he'd managed to pour that potion into the coffee he'd offered to Killian, among everybody. Then everything went haywire with Henry running off with the damn crystal and Emma, Regina and Gold going after him, and them being sucked by the portal to the strange land with untold stories. But David noticed that the potion had started to work because Killian wasn't very self conscious as he threw a lot of glances towards him since that morning.
If only Killian knew why his inhibitions were slowly dropping when it came to David, but alas he was soundly asleep on the couch, having wet dreams about a certain sheriff who wasn't Emma. He was a resident of Storybrooke for quite some time now, and that meant not having to lose sleep because of some trying to wreak havoc in town.
