A/N: Back on track! I seriously love writing this story soooo much! I love all your questions, too! I will answer all the ones I can, some pertain to the plot. Keep asking them, too!

I will write this until everyone says to stop. Enjoy!

Even at the age of eight, David Nolan knew he didn't want to be a farmer. His father had been giving him more responsibility and David resented it. He resented everything about the farm that kept him busy from the moment he got home until it was time for bed, leaving him no time to see his friends. David kicked over a metal bucket sullenly as he thought about all his friends having fun without him. What was the point of having friends if he was never allowed to see them? Ignoring the list of chores waiting for him in the barn, David stalked off towards the edge of the property where Jack Austen lived. He had seen Jack and several other boys playing an impromptu game of baseball and he wanted in. His dad and the chores could wait an hour, David decided.

"Need one more?" David asked hopefully once he reached them. Jack looked disdainfully at David.

"Shouldn't you be cleaning up horse poop?" Jack asked, eliciting laughs from the other boys. David scuffed his shoes angrily at Jacks words.

"No," he retorted. This only gave Jack cause to laugh more at David's expense.

"You're such a loser, Nolan. Go home to your goats."

David's hands balled into fists at his side. "We don't have goats!"

Jack smirked and then shrugged his shoulders. "Chickens, whatever. They're the only friends you have anyway." David pounced on Jack, his fists flying through the air, striking the other boy in the face.

"Get off!" Jack shouted, high pitched and afraid but David didn't care. He felt good as he continued to pummel the other boy who wasn't even attempting to put up a fight. One of the other boys had run off to get Jack's Dad, who was now pulling David off of Jack.

"What is going on?!" He demanded, looking on angrily at the boys. Jack was crying and wiping blood off of his face while David stood there defiantly, not saying anything. His anger was starting to ebb as guilt crept in, but he wasn't ready to admit that yet. In the end Jack's Dad called David's dad and explained the situation. The older men had laughed it off as boys being boys, but David could tell his Dad was disappointed. David had prepared himself for his father's anger, not his disappointment which felt infinitely worse.

"David," his father said as they walked back home. "Why did you do this?"

"I don't know," David lied. His father looked down at him sadly for a moment.

"Son. If you let your anger control you, you will never be a leader, only a follower and worse, a slave to your emotions."

David nodded, not understanding. "I'm sorry." "

I know you are. Go clean up before your mother finds out about this."

David ran ahead of his father, not stopping until he reached the house and the bathroom. He replayed his father's words about being a leader. He didn't want to be a leader, he just wanted off this farm.

"David!" Mary Margaret's scream jarred Belle out of sleep. "David, Sean is drowning!"

Belle scrambled up, her heart pounding painfully in her chest. She ran to the beach with others. David had already flung himself in the ocean, swimming furiously after Sean.

"Oh my God, someone else is out there!" Emma cried. Belle's eyes searched the water frantically for the second person, unaware of a person coming to stand next to her. She saw someone far out, bob to the top of the water only to disappear under again. She watched David grab a struggling Sean and head back to the beach. David was too far away to reach the other drowning person and going after them would have meant death for David as well. Still, it was hard to watch, and Belle turned away blindly, tears stinging her eyes and collided into the warm chest of Nicholas Gold.

"Oh," was all she said before crying into his shirt.

"Belle," Nick said softly, patting her back softly. "It's not the worst thing that's happened."

"Don't," Belle said angrily, pulling away. "Not today."

"You need to get used to death," Nick said with edge to his words.

"I will never get used to death," Belle said fiercely, stomping away.

"I hate to say it, but he's right." Jefferson materialized next to Belle.

"Go away," Belle said though she didn't really mean it.

"It's not even our biggest problem right now," Jefferson ignored her request for him to leave her.

"Then what is?" Belle asked, disliking how defensive she sounded.

"We're running out of water," another voice said, dropping a small case of water bottles in front of them. Belle saw it was Killian speaking, a grimace on his face. Belle had not spoken much with Killian since the plane crash. He had made camp next to the Asian girl Magnolia and brunette Anastasia. She didn't have anything against him personally, but he had a bit of an antagonistic personality and she got enough of that from Gold. Still, most of the women on the island had noticed Killian, Belle included. He would be impossible not to, he was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome. His hair was short and black and had a carefree sort of quality to it, his eyes a deep blue. He seemed to realize the effect he had on women, and lately Belle had noticed him teasing Emma Swan. Emma might have been the only woman on the planet uninterested in Killian.

Belle opened her mouth to speak but chaos erupted on the beach. Killian, Jefferson, and Belle all turned to see Emma and Mary Margaret dragging Sean out of the water as David plunged back in. Mary Margaret was shouting at David not to go to no avail.

"He'll drown out there," Killian commented, his accent coloring his words and somehow making them seem less serious.

David came back empty handed. Sean was sitting on the beach, waiting for him but David ignored his glares. Belle wondered if Sean was feeling resentful that David had been unable to save the drowning woman or if he was angry with himself that he could not. Killian and Jefferson waited for David to dry off a bit before presenting him with the case of eighteen water bottles.

"What do you want us to do?" Jefferson asked after explaining that eighteen water bottles would not be enough for the remaining passengers, even if they divided then in half

"I think we should tell everyone, and ration the water," Killian said confidently.

"Where are we going to find water?" Jefferson asked, his jaw taut with irritation.

"Let's send Pongo out. Dogs sniff out drugs and bombs all the time, surely he could find water."

"That's a ridiculous idea," Jefferson scoffed.

"David what do you want to do?"

"I don't know," David snapped, looking tired. Belle didn't blame him after listening to the bickering between Jefferson and Killian. Jefferson and Killian both paused as David stalked off, leaving Jefferson and Killian standing there dumbfounded. Killian came back first. Belle watched as he grabbed three bottles, salute Jefferson, and then head back to his piece of the beach with Anastasia and Magnolia.

"Want one?" Jefferson asked but Belle shook her head no. She still had water at camp. She grabbed it and headed after David.

"Going into the beach alone?" Nick asked, catching up to her.

"Why do you care?" Belle asked a little sullenly, still upset from earlier.

"Can't have my only friend getting eaten by a polar bear," he said softly. His tone was slightly flippant but the under lying meaning was there. Somewhere in the last couple of days he had grown fond of her.

"I'm looking for David," she told him, her previous anger gone.

"He went tearing after something in the jungle after the scientist and pirate got done with their lovers quarrel."

Belle digested this for a moment. "I just want to make sure he is okay."

Gold nodded and the two trekked on.

David's father, Christian, was dying, the result of years of working back breaking hours and not taking good enough care of himself. The doctors were gone now, having made him comfortable and allowing him to spend his last moments on the farm he loved. David and his mother Ruth had been spending shifts at his side, but David knew this was it. Christian was lucid, barely, only just hanging on. David, now a student of veterinary medicine, could feel death's very presence in the room. It made him ill and he wanted nothing more than to turn and leave and never come back.

"Ruth," Christian said urgently, his eyes half lidded, "Ruth you must never tell him."

Ruth patted Christian's hand, tears streaming silently down her face. "I won't," she promised hoarsely.

"David. Son," Christian was speaking quickly now, as if he could also feel death itself. "You, my son, were born to be great. A leader. Respected. My son...don't..." Christian's words choked and died with the man himself. David turned his head away as his a moan escaped his mother. He couldn't bare witness to this any longer, it had become too much.

"Mother, I'm sorry," he said, walking out. His father was wrong, David thought angrily. He wasn't a leader, and he wasn't born to greatness. He was born to a farmer who worked himself to death, and David would be damned if that was his life too. "

"Did you hear that?" Belle asked, pausing as they tracked. Gold stopped as well but his face was blank.

"I didn't hear anything, no."

Belle narrowed her eyes in the direction the sound had come from, as if that would help her to see better. "This way," she said, deciding to follow the noise. She wasn't entirely sure why Gold had chosen to come along with her. Sure, he had said she was his only friend, but for the most part they had walked in a kind of awkward silence. Something was on his mind; she was just waiting for him to ask it. It was her impression that he was not good at saying what was on his mind and she got the feeling that if she asked he would deflect. Belle was moderately patient, so she waited, staying silent, and hoped he would just come out with it. She was still considering what he had on his mind when she heard David yell. He was far off but his voice was clear.

"David?!"

Belle whirled around as Mary Margaret's voice reached her ears. Without considering Gold, she took off running towards their voices. Gold kept up easily with her once he got over the initial shock of her just taking off with no warning. Belle halted outside some trees, thrusting her arm out to stop Gold from bursting in on a scene she was certain they were not supposed to be witnessing. David sat at the edge off a cliff looking dirty and wildly desperate; drinking from a water bottle Belle assumed the calm, pristine Mary Margaret had given him. She was kneeling next to him with concern written all over her face and Belle couldn't help but be struck by the picture they made. She started to turn away as they began to talk but Gold caught her wrist and made her stay.

"We shouldn't be listening," she whispered. He nodded his head towards them as Mary Margaret told David,

"This group of people need a leader. They need you. You are our leader."

David looked so broken at her words, and Belle's heart broke for the man as he told Mary Margaret, an almost stranger, about the hallucinations he had been having about his dead twin brother.

"How can I help these people when I can't even help myself?" David asked her.

"Come on," Mary Margaret helped him to his feet, "You need to finish what you started. We'll do it together."

David looked her with trust. "I will find him," he vowed, looking more confident.

"Someone else will find water," Mary Margaret added, and Belle would have thought it random if Mary Margaret hadn't shot a glance in their direction. She knew they were there.

"You knew," Belle said once Mary Margaret and David disappeared into the jungle. Gold nodded.

"No point in leaving when she knew we were there." He had a gleam in his eye that Belle did not like. "We should go back and tell everyone David is hallucinating-"

"No!" Belle cut him off, her voice thick with indignation. "Mary Margaret is right, we need a leader. We need David. Don't shake their confidence in him."

"They deserve to know."

"Like the transmission? Sometimes we keep things for the good of others. Surely you can understand that?" She was pleading with him now. He watched her, a calculating look in his eye before nodding.

"Aye. So...water?"

Belle exhaled. "Water."

David had been informed of his brother's death merely twenty four hours before, and somehow it seemed a lifetime ago. A lifetime of believing himself to be an only child, of being concerned with his failing marriage, his ailing mother's health, his Veterinary practice; now he was in Australia at a party filled with people he didn't recognize in a suit he was pretty certain cost more than his house.

"Smile, my son," George told him, clapping a hand on his shoulder, "You're on the path to happiness."

David smiled his most charming smile as Milo Dias meandered by them, his fingers wrapped possessively around an opulent gold goblet.

"Was James happy with this?" David asked George, the man who bought his brother.

"James was a natural born leader," George told him, fierce with fatherly pride. "He was a great man, someone worthy of everything in life."

"And yet no one can grieve him. I wonder if that gives him peace now," David said unthinkingly.

"He would have understood! Some things are necessary, to put others above yourself. It is a lesson he knew well. Something you could stand to learn."

David dropped the smile. "My mother said you bought him from a man named Gold. Gold who? Where can I find him?"

"Continue to play your part and I will tell you everything. I will give you everything."

David broke away, smiling as he went. It was all so fake. None of these people were real, all a show. David couldn't stand the phoniness of it all. He knew; if his father could see him now he would be rolling on his grave. This was not what he wanted for David. He wanted greatness for David, but not bought and paid for. It cheapened it, made David nothing more than a possession, something easily replaced. As his brother had been. David decided he could learn more about Gold at home. He would press his mother until she told him everything. He needed to get out of here with what little integrity he still had left. First, however, he needed to see his brother.

Belle and Gold were heading back to the beach, having been unsuccessful in their search for water. It was getting dark and neither wanted to find out what lay in the jungle once it got dark.

"We can try again tomorrow," he told her, watching her worry her bottom lip with her teeth.

"Yeah," she agreed distractedly.

"Belle, can I ask you something?" He asked her. They were close; both could hear the waves of the ocean breaking on the shore. "Of course," she agreed.

"Your fiancée...do...did...you miss him?"

She was quiet for a long time, so long that they reached his shelter before she gave an answer. "I miss who he was," she said finally. "I used to love him. I know that. But...it's been so long, I had almost forgotten I ever did. We grew up together."

"Were you looking forward to the wedding?" Gold asked, despite himself.

Belle looked down at her feet and then back up at him. "No. I had been looking for a way to break it off. I wasn't very brave. I didn't want to hurt him."

Gold nodded, dropping the matter. She still wore the ring on her finger and Gold couldn't help himself. She was twisting it around on her finger, looking at it thoughtfully.

"I guess I don't need this anymore." She took it off.

"Keep it. Just in case we get off this god forsaken place."

Belle hadn't planned on destroying it or discarding it, but she didn't tell him that, instead she slipped it into her pocket. She could decide what to do with it later.

"I was thinking...maybe I could help build you a little shelter...nearby. So you could have some privacy." She smiled at him.

"I think I would like that."

Outside both Belle and Gold heard David call for everyone's attention. He was standing by the fire, everyone gathered around him. Belle and Gold joined them, Belle staying firmly next to him as David explained to everyone that no one was coming for them.

"I found shelter, and water," he continued, "In caves a little way in the jungle. I think we will be safe there if we all go together. We have to learn to live together, or we will die alone." There was murmuring among the group. Belle looked up at Gold, fearfully. Gold looked down at her, his face dark with apprehension. Live together, die alone. She watched David take up the leadership position with easy grace. She trusted him, but she didn't trust everyone else. She didn't want to be in the jungle, living with polar bears and the terrifying monster that had killed the pilot.

"Do you trust me?" Gold whispered down to her. She nodded. "Stay on the beach, with me." His apprehension had turned to defiance. He wasn't the only one; Killian had already headed back down to his place on the beach, looking coolly disinterested as others began to pack.

"Okay," she agreed, feeling a pang of sadness as she saw Jefferson packing his things.

Live together. Die alone.