Along time ago, in a far away land.
"Are you sure about this?" a woman asked for the millionth time that day.
Her name was Artemis, and she was a beautiful young lady with hair golden like the sun, and bright beautiful hazel eyes.
"Totally," the man answered for the millionth time.
His name was Jefferson. He was handsome man with dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, broad shoulders, and a hell of a jawline. He was the most handsome man ever, at least in Artemis' eyes.
"I already told you, Themis, it'll be alright."
"But isn't it a bit...irresponsible to leave Paige with the neighbours so we can have a date?" Artemis bit her lips.
She felt bad for telling Jefferson she wanted to have a little time for themselves. She included Grace in that notion, but Jefferson insisted it would be okay to leave Grace at the neighbours.
Jefferson rolled his eyes. "She's right next door, if something happens she can came right back to us. Don't worry."
"I'm sorry," Artemis said, "I don't know what's going on with me lately..." But she did. She was worried about her past. She was worried that her past would come crashing down on her, and that it'll separate her from Jefferson and Grace. She wasn't a saint. She had tons of enemies, and she would never forgiver herself if something bad happened to Grace or Jefferson because of that.
"I know," Jefferson said, making Artemis glance up at him. "It'll be alright, darling, you know I'll be with you every second. It doesn't matter what happened. The past is in the past. We must enjoy the present."
Artemis smiled up at Jefferson. He hugged her, pressing herself on him, and she smiled, caressing her cheek softly. "I love you."
Jefferson chuckled, and kissed her lips softly. "I love you too, darling."
Our world, present day.
Another long boring day on StoryBrook.
After 28 years, one would think I'd be already used to the calmness and sameness of everyday. But no, time here was agonisingly slow. 28 years have passed, and no one, no one ever notices it.
I'm getting tired of it.
Everyday the same.
Everyday.
You know how agonising is it to talk to someone, and the only thing they say is the same they said yesterday. And the day before, and the day before that...
No?
Well, it's horrible.
"Melanie!" Paige chided.
I sighed. I was sitting on Paige's room, a small table between us two. We were having one of our tea parties. Tea and chocolate cookies smelling deliciously sweet. But even the thought of eating those made my stomach want to hide itself.
Don't get me wrong, Mrs. Grace, our "mother", cooked the best cookies ever, but after 28 years of the same cookies, the same food, the same games...Imagine how exhaustingly horrible it was.
Got it?
I'm that exhausted.
"C'mon, Melanie!" Paige said giggling. "You know you want to."
I tried not to smile. Truth was, if I ate another cookie I'll probably throw up. "I don't want to. You're the one that has been nagging for ages—" ,
"Liar," Paige sang. Her puppy dog eyes increasing. I tried not to melt down, but her big smile and her big puppy eyes were too much for my heart. Her crown made out of paper mâché was shinning with too many pink glitter.
I rolled my eyes at Paige's puppy dog eyes, and took one cookie. I put it in my mouth and tried to eat it as fast as I could. My fake crown fell into the floor as I did so.
Paige smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. She clicked her tongue at me. "Ms. Grace, would you be a good princess and keep the crown in your head?"
"Why, of course," I said, making a pompous movement with my hand, swallowing the rest of the cookie with a grim expression. "What is a princess without her crown?"
"What is a princess without her prince?" smiled Paige as she put a male crown on the closest teddy bear. She was quoting from an old book I hated that she loved. It was about Princess and Princes and love, and all that overly-lovely stuff I so passionately hated.
My smile disappeared slowly. What was a princess without her prince? Many things: independent, smarter...but sad, heartbroken, lonely...
"Unhappy," I whispered out loud.
Paige frowned, looking back at me. "What?"
I shook my head. "Nothing. Let's go back to our tea. Shall we?"
But the tea parties only made me sadder. The way Paige laughed and smiled also made me sad. She had his father's smile.
"Melanie, are you sure you are okay?" asked Paige worriedly. "You look so sad. Are you tired of playing with me?"
"No, no, sweetie," I said, momentarily forgetting I was supposed to be the kind of big sister who never calls their little sister sweet things, and hated to play with them. Even though I secretly loved playing with Paige. "I just, uh, I'm just lost in thoughts. Shall we continue?"
Paige looked at me in the way her father used to do when he knew I wasn't being honest, and that made my heart ache even more. I hadn't noticed before the curse, but she was just like her father. Sadly, when I didn't want anything to remind me of my former life, every time I looked at Paige, I saw Jefferson.
And that hurts so much.
"Actually," I said weakly. "May I be excused? I'm not feeling quite well."
Paige nodded worriedly, and I rose from the floor. I put my blue paper mâché crown on the table, and left Paige's room as fast as I could without running.
On the way to my room, Mrs. Grace and I nearly ran into each other. She was a middle aged woman with the sweetest smile someone could have, and a beautiful aged face. She used to be our neighbor back in our other life. Her husband, Mr. Grace, was a tall middle aged man who always knew what to say and was handsome in a way usually old men weren't. I really liked them.
"Are you okay, Melanie?" she asked.
"Oh, hey Mrs. Grace—" I started to say, but the sad look on her face stopped me. "Mom. I'm sorry—"
"No, it's okay...I guess you kids have to get used to having a mom," she said sadly.
Paige and I were orphans here on this world. The fake memories the Evil Queen put on our brains were the next: Paige was an orphan, I was her big sister, we were on a foster home until Mrs. and Mr. Grace adopted us, and we'd lived happily ever after, after that here on this beautiful house. Our names here were Melanie and Paige Grace. Ironic, actually, since our last name was Paige's real name. The Evil Queen was just that bitch.
"You're doing a great job," I said, and then, tentatively I said, "Mom."
She smiled at me in a way I would have liked my mom to smile at me, if I had one. Something I do now, I forced myself to remember. Mrs. Grace was my mother now. Mr. Grace my father. Paige, my sister. I wasn't an orphan thief anymore. I have a family now.
Not the family I had before, with Jefferson and Paige, but this one was nearly as good as that.
"Are you okay, sweetheart?" Mrs. Grace asked me, snapping me out of my thoughts.
"What? Oh! Yeah, I'm oaky." I said, mentally wondering why I was remembering Jefferson so much today. I usually could ignore my memories and focus on this world.
Not today, it seems.
"Mr. Gold called—" Mrs. Grace told me.
"Shit!" I said, ignoring Mrs. Grace telling me to watch my language. "I forgot I had to work on his shop today. I'll see you later mom, I gotta go."
"Goodbye, dear, don't come home too late!"
...
On my way to the store, I heard Ruby and Granny arguing, like every other day. Regina Mills, the Evil Queen, passed me by, and by the look I gave her I made sure to remind her of how much I hated her. Though, she probably doesn't understand my look. For her I was probably just another amnesiac girl here. Mary Margaret, Snow White, passed me and smiled at me. I smiled back. I passed Marco's shop; he was, like always, trying to make his shop sing stay still.
When I finally arrived to the shop, I left my things behind the counter and took my place behind it. I've worked with him since...always? Ever since we landed on this Earth I was, yet again, working for The Dark One.
After a couple of minutes, he appeared, he was talking with a costumer, so he only nodded in my direction. "Good morning, Ms. Grace,"
The costumed said his thanks, wished us a nice day, and left. When the door closed, Rumple turned to me.
"Good Morning, Rumple," I said.
A small smirk started to appear on his face. He knew I remembered. He remembered too. And that was good, having someone else that remembers. We can talk without having to lie and be our fake personas the Evil Queen made us.
"Artemis," he said nodding, "You're late."
"Sorry," I said, "I was with Grace."
"As always," he said.
"Well, is there anything else to do here?" I crossed my arms. What else could I be doing?
"Actually..."
That got my attention. My head snapped up and I looked at him. He nodded at me. A wicked smirk forming on his lips. "We have work to do, Artemis. Are you ready?"
"Oh, yeah." A smirk formed on my lips.
I may be good with Grace.
I may be soft and sweet sometimes.
I may have changed when I was with Jefferson...
...But he wasn't here anymore.
I wasn't Grace's mother figure anymore.
I was more than ready to be a villain again.
"You know, when I said I wanted to have a date, I didn't meant this type of date." Artemis said. "Not that being dragged by horrible creatures isn't romantic."
Jefferson grunted when he was pushed more roughly to the front. "Yeah, this wasn't exactly on my plans, Artemis!"
"No need to be so harsh," Artemis huffed. "It was only an observation—Hey!" the thingy carrying her pushed her roughly. "Watch it, imp."
Jefferson's and Artemis' eyes met, and they both shared a long look. They looked ahead, where more ugly creatures were waiting. None of them knew where they were going, but it couldn't be good.
"Hey, Jefferson," Artemis called in her best indifferent voice. "You remember our day in the Land without Colour?"
Jefferson blinked for a second, ready to sass her, but then he understood.
"Oh," he said, a small smirk forming on his lips. "Yeah."
Artemis smirked too.
They walked some more steps. Jefferson nodded slowly. Artemis turned around so fast, the sword missing her neck by inches. She kicked the best on its face, and it crashed down. Jefferson did the same, with the same result. More of the creatures started to run towards them. Artemis and Jefferson took the knocked down monsters' swords.
The other monsters arrived.
Artemis and Jefferson both turned around and pointed their swords at the horrible figures in front of them. Three ugly creatures of some type were snarling at them, surprised at their tactic.
"What are them?" asked Jefferson looking up and down at them. "They're ugly."
"The King's guards," Artemis explained. "And they can understand us."
"Yes they can," one of them snarled.
Artemis glared daggers at him. "What do you want?"
"You know what we want," the other one answered.
"Our king will be pleased to see you again."
Jefferson turned to Artemis. "Again?"
"Long story," she waved it off. "Well, you can tell your king it was nice visiting, but we have more places to go."
The creatures snarled. "You're not getting away from us again,—"
"Oh, just stop!" rolled his eyes Jefferson. He kicked one monster and decapitated the rest.
Artemis was trying to hide an amused smirk.
"I seriously hate villain's speeches," he said.
Artemis rolled her eyes, trying not to look down at the dead monsters.
"Now, can we have our date?" Jefferson asked. "Though, preferably in other realm, where monsters don't try to capture you."
"Sounds lovely," Artemis said. "Let's go fetch Grace."
They joined arms.
"Where will be going?"
Jefferson made a thinking face, then he kissed Artemis hand. "Where do you want to go?"
"Mmmm..." she said, letting her head rest on his shoulder as they walked."I don't know. Everywhere is nice if you're with me." Jefferson grinned. "Where do you want to go?"
"I say let's go to The Enchanted Forest." said Jefferson.
Artemis shrugged. "Let's go to The Enchanted Forest, then."