A/N: I know that a lot of this seems to be centered around Jasmine so far, but I promise that that'll all change soon! Also, this will eventually make its way back to an EvilCharming fic. Just please be patient with me. I understand not a lot of people have stuck around with this story because of certain things they don't agree with, but please just trust in me like you do the actual show writers! Love you all! Enjoy! Mwah!
Aladdin jumped when he woke the next morning at a noise coming from the bathroom door. He slowly walked over to it and readied himself for anything. He watched the doorknob turn and it opened abruptly, causing him to scream, which resulted in a scream from a wet Jasmine drying her hair with a towel and a new outfit on.
Their screams woke David up who grabbed his sword and stood immediately.
"Easy." Aladdin said to David, who put the sword back down when he realized what had happened.
"Jeez! What do you think you're doing?!" Jasmine shouted at him.
"I thought that someone was hiding in the bathroom to come out and attack you in your sleep."
"Really?" She said, giving him a look telling him that he was an idiot. "Look at the bed." He turned and looked at it, understanding where she was coming from. "When you saw that my bed was empty you didn't think that just maybe it could've been me who was in here?"
"Well, I-I didn't look at the bed."
"Idiotic mistake number two."
"What was number one?"
"Staying here last night."
David began to talk. "We were making sure noth-" She quickly put her hand up to him, gesturing for him to stop talking as she kept her eyes on Aladdin.
"I don't need your pity." She said as she put her hand down to her side again. David had finally seen the 'Regina' in her.
"Who's brilliant idea was it for you two to stay anyway?"
"Mine." David said.
"And how did I even get in here?"
Aladdin looked at David and Jasmine followed his eyes. For the first time that whole morning, she looked at David. She automatically felt guilty for the way she treated him 'til this moment.
"Well, thank you." She said nicely. "I think?" She turned to go back into the bathroom and put the towel back on its rack while David and Aladdin exchanged awkward looks.
"For some reason, I knew she'd react that way."
"What way?" David asked.
"All mad for someone trying to help her. Ever since I've known her she does that. She's one of the most stubborn, independent females I've ever met."
David let out a soft chuckle. "Huh. Well...I guess you've never met her mother."
They both laughed a little. True, Aladdin had never met Regina before, but he had heard stories about her and he knew just how "stubborn" the Evil Queen could be.
"What's so funny?" Jasmine asked when she reentered.
Aladdin cleared his throat and David rubbed the back of his neck, trying to get rid of the smile on his face.
"Nothing. Just...nonsense." David said and Aladdin chuckled one more time, causing Jasmine to squint at him and then back to David, who was now smiling again.
She decided to ignore it and began to make her bed as she talked. "Well, thanks again for...whatever you two did last night, but I think you can leave now."
"Leave? Why?" Aladdin asked and she stopped working on the bed to look at him. Before she had time to answer, David's phone rang and Jasmine returned to making the bed. Aladdin went to the bathroom and David was off the phone within seconds after saying just a few words. "Hello.", "Okay, sounds good.", and "Goodbye."
When he hung up he began to help Jasmine with the last of the covers. After they finished, she sat on the edge of the bed and he sat in the chair he slept in the night before. The silence between them grew tense and it seemed as though both of them would burst with the questions that ran in their heads.
"Who was that?" Jasmine finally broke the silence, referring to the phone call.
"Snow. She wants to meet in the diner for breakfast. You're welcome to come if you'd like."
"I don't know if that'd be such a good idea."
"Why not?"
She didn't want to answer with the truth. The truth was that she wasn't sure if she liked him or not. She grew close to Victor in the times they spent with Regina and other than the Sultan back home, whom she missed dearly, Victor was the closest thing to a father. She saw David as a threat to the small family they formed while he was gone and she regretted breaking the memory spell on him.
"Hey. Food sounds good to me." Aladdin said, coming out of the bathroom.
Jasmine rolled her eyes. "He didn't invite you, Ali Ababwa!" She mocked him.
He held back a smile, trying to make an angry face and pointed at her. "Don't call me that." He never really liked the ridiculous name given to him by his genie when they first met. She could tell that he didn't actually care when she said it, though, so she continued to call him that anyways.
"I was actually thinking of going to the sheriff's station to see if Emma wanted to join as well. You're welcome to come, too." David said to Aladdin, causing Jasmine to close her eyes and let out a loud sigh. "You don't have to come if you don't want to." He reassured her that it wasn't mandatory.
"I'd rather not." She said with sass.
"Oh, come on. Don't be like that." Aladdin said boldly. "I think it's time for you to meet more people. Come have breakfast. Hell, go out and party." He tried imitating a strange dance move at the side of the bed and she looked at him through the corner of her eye with her arms crossed.
"Uh. No." She said ridiculously.
"Fine. We'll go without you." He shrugged his shoulders and David stood up, meeting him at the door.
"Good!" She exclaimed. "Bye." She waved at him annoyingly and turned her head the other way to look out the window as he gave her the same annoyed look just before mocking her from behind her back and leaving.
David held onto the door and looked at her. "You're still welcome to come if you change your mind."
She turned to look at him and weakly smiled. He smiled back and she returned to looking at the clouds out the window. It took him a while to realize that he was still looking at her empathetically before closing the door behind him, feeling unsure of leaving her there.
Time passed and when they arrived back to Granny's, for some reason, David couldn't get Jasmine off his mind. He assumed it was a guilty conscience, but after a few minutes of waiting for Snow to arrive with Henry, he thought that he'd call Regina to ask her to go check on the young girl. Suddenly, he realized something...he left his phone in Jasmine's room. He told Emma and Aladdin that he'd be right back and they continued their chat about traveling through different worlds.
"Hello? Jasmine?" He knocked on the door. There was no answer. "Are you still in there?" He waited, then knocked again. "I think I left my phone here. Jasmine?"
He decided that she had probably left, probably to go see her mother, so he turned to go ask Ruby or Granny for a room key to get in.
When he returned with one of the keys to Room 7, he was expecting to either walk in and see an empty room, walk in and see Jasmine taking a nap (he thought that maybe she was still tired from all of the stuff that's been happening), or he expected to see her sitting on the bed awake and maybe she was just ignoring him when he knocked on the door.
When he first entered the room, he turned to see his phone on the arm of the chair he was sitting in before he left and he walked over to it and grabbed it. The first thing he did was check to see if he had any messages or missed calls. There was one missed call from Mary Margaret and two text messages from Leroy, asking him if he knew how to get a girl back who was unfortunately an off-limited fairy.
He chuckled at the dwarf's message and pressed the end button, knowing he'd see Grumpy in the diner. He'd be having coffee like he did every morning anyway and he could just talk to him there, face-to-face.
Just as he put the phone in his pocket, he heard something coming from the open bathroom door. He leisurely walked toward the bathroom entrance and slowly poked his head in. He thankfully saw nothing suspicious, just the very gentle running of the water from the sink that was not turned off all the way. He let out a quiet sigh of relief and turned it off before turning to leave.
Before walking toward the door, he noticed that there was a small picture without a frame and a pair of scissors on the nightstand on the opposite side of the bed. Curious about it, he walked around the bed and picked it up. Regina, about a few months pregnant, looked very happy with a smiling Victor in the photo that looked like it was taken on the shore at the small beach of Storybrooke, Maine.
David could tell that about a third of the picture was missing by the rough edge of the picture, showing that it had been cut out. He looked back at the nightstand but didn't see the other part of the picture there. He opened the first drawer, hoping that it might be in there and he checked the others when it wasn't.
He gave up the search and placed the picture back on the nightstand, closing the third drawer. When he shut it, the handle on the second drawer fell to the ground, resulting in an annoyed sigh from David.
"Of course." He bent down to grab the missing piece and attempted to fit it back onto its puzzle. Unfortunately, the drawer handle would not stay on the drawer, so he was slowly beginning to give up.
"You can just leave it."
He jumped at the quiet, startling voice that came from behind him. Turning around to see Jasmine sitting under the window with her knees to her chest staring at him, David put his hand on his stomach, when he realized who it was.
He sighed. "Oh. It's just you."
"Yep...just me." She emphasized the word 'just', looking back down at the small morsel in her hands.
"Are you okay?" He asked her while setting the broken handle on top of the nightstand next to the photo and the lamp. He saw that she must've been crying before he arrived.
"Me? You're asking ME if I'm okay? Hah! I'm just fine." She put the same emphasis on the word 'just' as she did the first time.
He stood there staring at her, trying to find the right thing to say. It was silent for what seemed like forever. He looked at her as she looked down at whatever was in her hands and he saw the fear and hurt in her face. He slowly moved closer to her and he gently put a hand on one of her knees, causing her body to tense up and look at his hand there, in horror. He immediately moved it as he saw through her eyes, the memories haunting her.
"I'm not gonna hurt you." He tried to comfort her. "Is it okay if I sit?" He waited for an answer. "Right here?" He pointed to the spot on the floor next to her and she thought about it before slowly nodding.
He moved to the spot and they sat in silence for a few seconds, while glancing at the side of the bed. He had his hands folded in his lap in front of him and his legs straight out while she kept her knees up to her chest.
David finally found the courage to say what he'd been thinking ever since she left the hospital. He turned his head toward her. "Wh-Who did this to you?" When she didn't answer he changed the question. "Do you know this man?" She slowly nodded. "Is this the first time he's done this to you?" She slowly nodded again, still looking ahead.
Then he looked back at the bed. "I remember when your mother first told me about the king. When she told me, it wasn't the first time he did it to her and she was still just as scared as you are now. I've seen her sometimes go back to that place, mostly when she was sleeping, and it breaks my heart. But I know that the second I knew, if I had just been able to stop it from happening again or if it was stopped after the first time he'd done it, things would be different now."
He stopped what he was saying and looked back at her for a moment. Finally, she turned to look up at him as well. They looked into each other's eyes for a bit before he finally finished what he was going to say. "I'm not going to let him do this to you again...Ever again!" He gently reached for one of her hands and tears began to find their way into her soft, small orbs.
"And neither is your mother."
Right at hearing those last five words, she broke and began to cry again, leaning into David's side as he put his arms around her and just let her sob as he held her. This was the first time Jasmine felt the connection between the two of them. She finally trusted David because she saw the truth in his eyes and she knew that he'd protect her. She couldn't comprehend it, but she felt safe...so safe in his arms at this moment.
She had finally found her guardian.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed this update. I really wanted to show how Jasmine and Aladdin's relationship has been like the whole time they've known each other so I put in the arguing and eye rolling. With the ending of this chapter, I just really wanted something that would lead Jasmine into trusting David, because I didn't want her to dislike him for too long. This chapter is called "Paladin" because it's another word for hero or guardian and I liked the idea of David being Jasmine's 'paladin'! Go ahead and leave lots of reviews, I'd love to hear your opinions on this chapter.