Once upon a time
They found five survivors among the carnage of the attack. Only three survived the ride back into the village.
Most of the women had taken the wagons back to the village but a few men went with them. Namely Rumpelstiltskin only because the woman that that he'd found would not let go of his arm.
Since he had appointed himself the village leader, Dauis decided which survivor went to which house. He didn't hesitate to put her in Rumpelstiltskin's house. Most people would just write it off as her attachment to him but Rumpelstiltskin had the feeling that it was because he wouldn't protest.
Three days passed and she opened her eyes. In that time one of the other survivors died of infection from his injuries.
The others tried to talk to her and figure out what happened but she didn't answer them. The woman would not talk, would not eat, or drink anything. The only thing she did do was sleep constantly and when she woke she would only stare ahead blankly.
For the most part, whenever Rumpelstiltskin WAS allowed into his own house, he would…not necessarily ignore her but he wouldn't bother her. The others did enough of that all day.
The fifth day Rumpelstiltskin woke up from his blanket on the floor to see that his bed where she slept was empty.
She had somehow stumbled to the other side of the house near his spinning wheel.
"What are you doing?" he said and threw off his blanket.
She lost her footing just as he reached her; he helped her sit on the bench. She was pale and shivering violently.
He poured her a glass of water and she drank it.
"What were you doing?" He asked.
She focused on the ground, and didn't answer.
"I'm going to go find someone," he stood
"No," she said weakly, "I don't want them in here."
He looked away from her towards the curtain that served as a door and then back at her. He should go and talk to someone who actually wasn't shy around other people
But she asked him not to, and if he went ahead anyway then he would break the trust that she apparently had with him for some reason and then she wouldn't talk to anyone.
"Alright," he sat next to her and took a breath, "I suppose we'll just…sit here then."
Storybrooke
Dawn grabbed the bottle of medicine from the shelf and threw it into the cart. She was down to the last few pills and she needed to stock up. Her medicine always ran low just when the headaches were at their worst.
Dawn pushed the cart to the end of the aisle and nearly hit a blonde in a red jacket as she stormed past without looking. One of the boxes in Dawn's cart fell.
The blonde stopped long enough to see what happened and came back, "I'm sorry."
"Its fine," Dawn knelt down and grabbed it, "You're Emma Swan, aren't you?"
Emma shook her head, "Word gets around."
"Small town, you bet it does," Dawn could feel the anger radiating off Emma, "And judging by your face you've already gotten your overfill of Regina."
"Whatever gave you that idea?"
"What did she do?" Dawn asked.
"Oh, she set me up to take a fall for something that didn't happen."
"Yeah that sounds like her," Dawn muttered, "Question is…are you going to let her do something like that and get away with it?"
"Of course not," Emma said, "I'm going to buy a chainsaw and tear that so called beloved tree of hers down."
"I don't think that's a good idea," Dawn said.
""Why not? I've already found myself in the jail twice in the past 24 hours; third time can't possibly take anymore of my dignity."
A wicked smile crossed Dawn's face, "I'm not talking about what you're about to do, Ms. Swan. I'm talking about the reason you're here. I happen to despise Regina as well and as the enemy of my enemy is my friend I happen to have a chainsaw you can use.
"You should've seen the look on Regina's face when she came storming out of her house," Dawn told her husband as they sat on the couch, "I think I saw fire coming out of her nose."
"Can it be traced back to you?" he asked.
"No, I stayed far enough to away to observe it without being seen.
"So, you mean to tell me that in just this afternoon, you made acquaintances with Emma Swan and got her to trust you enough for you to give her what she needed to tear a branch off Regina's apple tree? Thereby getting her to do something we've both wanted to do for a long time now and not give yourself away?"
Dawn smirked, "I learned from the best."
"That's my girl."
Dawn propped her head up against the back of the couch and watched him stretch his bad leg out and wince in pain, "It's horrible how she treats that boy of hers."
"We're not nice people either dear." Her husband reminded her.
"But we've never made a child go to therapy for what we do…at least intentionally. Maybe Ms. Swan will be good for him. Maybe it'll undo some of the damage the Ice Queen's done," she saw him clenching the sofa, "Are you alright?"
"My leg is telling me that cooler temperatures are on their way."
"Do you want me to get you something?"
"It's just a bit of pain dear, I'll be fine. "
Dawn looked at the crackling fire, the idea of colder weather made her draw her feet up and tuck them under her body, "So I'm guessing I know why you wanted me to meet Emma."
"It was simple; Regina would eventually try and run Emma out of town, but I knew that Ms. Swan would probably fight back. And since we would all want to see our beloved mayor dethroned for good."
"I'm not a pawn in your little chess game with Regina," Dawn snapped.
"Of course you are, dear," he said, "Everyone is."
