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Enchanted Forest:

Elizabeth bit down, hard, on the hand over her mouth. The person the hand belonged to yelled, but didn't loosen their grip. Suddenly, she was thrown to the ground, and when she rolled to look up, there stood the man she'd seen, standing above her, holding a bow and arrow pointed at her face.

Looking around, Elizabeth tried to process what was happening. "Who are you?" The man demanded. Elizabeth noted the blood seeping through his shirt, and the shake in his arms as he tried to hold the arrow.

Taking a breath, and steadying her voice, Elizabeth said, "I'm someone who saw that you were hurt and came to help you."

Holding her hands so that he could see them, Elizabeth slowly sat up. "I saw you from a distance and came to see if you need anything?"

The man eyed her skeptically, but the bow lowered slightly. "Saw me from where?" Elizabeth couldn't stop her eyes from cutting to the castle.

"The Evil Queen's castle?" The man said in disbelief. "You snuck out of her castle just to come help me? You must have a death wish." He said, slightly amused, but also with a hint of skepticism.

Elizabeth simply held his gaze without further explanation. Eventually her shrugged, and dropped down next to her, the bow resting at his side. He grimaced, but didn't move further.

Elizabeth took him in, sitting next to her. He couldn't be much old than her, she realized. Her eyes moved to his side, where she took in the oozing, steady flow of blood.

"What happened?" Elizabeth asked, moving so that she could get a better view.

"Nothing, it's fine." The stranger said, moving and angling his body away from her.

"Well your nothing and fine looks to be bleeding, steadily." When he still just stared at her, she said, "here, we need to bandage it." And turned to locate the small bag of supplies she had with her.

Finding her bag, she pulled out the small water pouch and clean cloths she'd brought. Turning back to the man, she looked at him expectantly, when he made no attempts to lift his shirt, she said, "are you going to lift your shirt, or should I rip it off?"

"Whoa now, I don't even know your name. Don't you think we're taking this a little fast?" The boy gave her a devilish grin.

Elizabeth tried her best to keep her face masked in a hard look, but she could feel the burning in her cheeks. Not letting the embarrassment stop her, she made to reach for his shirt. The stranger grabbed her hand, stopping her, and proceeded to lift the shirt off himself, grimacing, again, when he lifted his arms over his head. Once his torso was bare, Elizabeth set to work.

"I'm Andrew, by the way." The boy said, trying to catch her eye.

"It's infected pretty badly." Elizabeth said, by way of responding. She then pulled out a small bottle of whiskey and a bar of soap.

"Are you always this prepared for emergencies?" Andrew asked, taking in the supplies and he sounding amused.

"I was a bit of a daredevil as a child." Elizabeth said, as she poured a bit of water on the cut and her hands. "I quickly learned what supplies to always have on hand." She continued, as she lathered up the soap, and started to scrub the cut. Andrew hissed slightly, and clinched his teeth together.

Once she finished scrubbing the cut, Elizabeth rinsed in toughly with all the water she brought. When she made to grab the whiskey, Andrew again grabbed her hand stopping her.

"I'm all for a drink, but what are you doing with that?"

"We need to disinfect it." Elizabeth said simply, pulling her hand from his, and uncapping the bottle.

After pouring the whiskey on the cut. Andrew sucked in another sharp breath and said, "were a daredevil, huh? What does that make you now?" Elizabeth ignored the question, and pick up the wraps to start bandaging the wound, as Andrew watched her work. Elizabeth had covered the cut with clean cloths, and had wrapped strips around his middle to hold it all in place, then handed him the rest of her supplies, and stood to leave.

"Not bad, mysterious savior." He said smiling at the bandages, and then took in Elizabeth getting ready to leave. "Wait, please." Andrew said, trying to get to his feet without disturbing his new bandages.

"Use the whiskey on it if it starts to look red a puffy. Keep the wound clean and use those bandages to keep it covered. It's not deep, just needs to stay clean to heal."

"No, I want to thank you. Why did you come all the way out here to help me?"

"As I said, I saw that you were hurt." Elizabeth's voice was curt.

Andrew smiled slightly, "But the Evil Queen?"

"I'm not too worried about her. She's away on business, anyways, and she's not evil." Elizabeth explained, finally looking up to meet his eyes. They were startlingly green.

Andrew gave her a puzzled look and eyed her as he said, "well, again. Thank you for all your help…?"

He trailed off, waiting for her to respond. "I'm Beth." Elizabeth said, somewhat reluctantly.

"Ah, Beth. My deepest thanks to you for abandoning your servantly duties to attend to a straggler like myself."

"Are you mocking me?" Elizabeth snapped, but there was no bite in her voice, and a smile played at the corner of her lips, but it quickly dropped.

"Oh come on, you helped a handsome soul. Saved me even. Smile a little or at least let me show you my thanks in some way?"

"I should be getting back." Elizabeth said, turning towards the castle, again.

"Wait, please. Sorry, I'll stop being full of myself." Andrew lightly grabbed her arm, stopping her. "May I take you on a picnic?"

Elizabeth's head snap towards him, surprised. "I… You want… What?"

"You snuck out of the palace and came to help me. Honestly, I had no way to fix this, so who knows what would have happened had you not come." Andrew indicated down to where the cut was. "As a thank you, may I take you on a picnic?" His eyes were soft and sincere.

The pull in Elizabeth to say yes was strong, but she let out a small, sad, sigh, "You don't want to do that."

"Sure I do. We can work around your duties. I mean, the queen has to allow you out of the castle occasionally, right?"

Elizabeth studied Andrew. There was a hopeful gleam in his eyes as he awaited her answer, "You don't want to do that because I'm not a servant. I'm... I'm the queen's daughter."

Storybrooke:

"Why is everyone staring at me?" I asked Ray, as I walked into the local coffee shop. The kids at school had whispered nonstop, and even the patrons in here were eying me. "Here," was all Ray said, as she handed me a newspaper.

"She had him in prison?" I whispered, to myself, as I read the story about Henry's birth mother. My heart broke for her and looking up to Ray, I could tell she felt simlar. "If Henry's seen this..." I said, my heart dropping. Ray grabbed her backpack and walked to the espresso bar, calling to the Barista, "two to go, please!"

Ray and I had made it to the main street, when the one, and only, fire truck in Stroybrooke, zoomed past us. Something dropped in my stomach as I watched it turn toward town hall and started to register all the noise coming from that direction.

I took off running, Ray's confused yell, calling from behind me. My panic only increased as I reached the perimeter of town hall and took in all the commotion, emergency personnel, and people everywhere. My eyes started darting around frantically, until they spotted my mom, on a stretcher.

"Mom! I called, dropping my backpack on the sidewalk and sprinting over to her. "Mom?" I rasped out again, my voice laced with panic and worry.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." She said, holding up her hands to stop me from crashing into the stretcher. "I'm fine, Madelyn." She snapped, stopping me dead. The EMT tried to hand her the oxygen mask again, but she batted it away. "Get your brother and take him home. I need to go to the hospital, and then I'll be there."

She sounded more annoyed by this fact than anything. I looked her over once more, and then to the building. The smell of smoldered fire was strong, and made me gag slightly. Looking around, I spotted Henry talking to Emma, and when I looked back to the stretcher, mom's eyes were on me, in a silent demand to obey.

I nodded once, acknowledging what I'd been told, and started toward my brother. Walking away, I could hear my mother still barking orders at the EMT. "Poor guy," I thought as I asked Henry if he was ready.

Ray had caught up by now, and still somehow had both coffee's in hand, my backpack strewn over one shoulder, and hers on the other. Giving her a tight grateful smile, I grabbed my bag and drink, then turned us to head home. At the edge of the parking lot, I took one last look at the burned building and the ambulance now driving towards the hospital.

Enchanted Forest:

"You said she was away on another trip, right?" Andrew asked, trying to get Elizabeth to look away from the palace.

After a few seconds, the girl finally tore her eyes away and reluctantly met his, with an embarrassed smile. "Sorry, she… She comes back at random times." She explained, her eyes automatically returning to scan the palace.

"We've met up three times now, with no problems. Let's stay positive, shall we?"

Elizabeth's glanced back to Andrew, with an annoyed look.

"Fine." She huffed, as she held her had out for some bread. Andrew handed her a roll, as he took a giant bite out of his own.

"How many siblings do you have again?" Elizabeth asked, her attention solely on Andrew, now.

"Free," Andrew replied, holding up three fingers and talking around the chunk of food in his mouth.

"All girls?" Elizabeth asked, handing him the jug of water. He chugged down a few drinks. "Yep." He said with a laugh.

"And your parents, they just let you roam the countryside?"

A bashful look appeared on Andrews face, as he dropped his eye and lamely picked through the basket. "I'm supposed to be looking for work, and I have been, but, well, everyone is looking for it, or are too scared to open up, to strangers because of the Evil Queen."

His eyes widened as he processed what he'd just said.

Elizabeth pursed her lips slightly, but moved on. "And you send what money you do make back to them?"

Andrew simply nodded. "I'd rather be in school, but there's not time for that. However, my travels have lead me to some amazing books." He smiled at Elizabeth.

Elizabeth forced a tight smile back. "She's not evil, ya know." She said it so quietly, that she wasn't even sure if she'd simply said it in her head, out loud, but when she looked up Andrews eyes were piercing into hers.

"And what exactly do you define inflicting fear and pain where ever you go and killing innocent people simply to track down a princess, as?"

Elizabeth's eyes furrowed together in confusion.

"I know she's your mother, and let me just say that apple fell very, very far from the tree, but you can't be that daft."

Elizabeth's head was swimming, but she shook it and stood up. "I should be getting back."

"Beth. Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you." Andrew apologized, standing as well.

"Huh? I'm not upset. It's just getting late in the afternoon and I should be getting home. Grandfather will have noticed I'm gone by now." Elizabeth said, indicating towards the palace.

Andrew leaned in suddenly, and when his lips met Elizabeth's, she backed up in surprise. She looked at him wide eyed, then step towards him again, her lips crashing against his, causing them both to topple over and down the small embankment next to them.

There was the crushing of leaves, mild screams, and laughs until they both reached the bottom. Andrew was breathless, but in good spirit. "I guess you could say that kiss swept us off our feet." He chuckled, but when Elizabeth didn't respond, he sat up slightly. "You okay?" Andrew asked, a smile on his face and leaves in his hair, but the amusement quickly left his face. "Elizabeth?" He questioned as he took in her sober face, and her holding something in her hands. He sat himself up further, and scooted his way next to her through the dirt and leaves.

Tentatively, he placed a hand on her elbow. Her eyes snapped to him. They were filled with anger, pain, and confusion. They both looked back down to her hands. There sat the locket. The clasp broken and the chain mangled from the fall. "I remember." Elizabeth whispered, her eyes looking back up to him.

Good news: I have the next few documents already saved on here. I'll just have to login in a post them over the next few days!

Bad news: No promises on consistency after that. Still applying to grad programs and working two jobs, but this helps the stress, so I'll try to write more consistently.

As you probably noticed, this ep is more flashback centered. It's to set up the next few episodes.

Anyone watching Season 6? Hot damn! :o) I wont say more to prevent spoilers, but if you wanna chat PM me! Stay rad, friends!