Once Upon A Time
Dagian was on the pirate ship for three weeks before she started planning her escape.
She gathered what she needed to at night. It was harder to see then and no one questioned her staying above deck to navigate.
One morning one of the iron stakes had disappeared and no one could find it. But it was ignored by most of the crew, someone had probably misplaced it and it wasn't exactly needed at the moment. On a hunch, Killian had Dagian's room searched but it turned up nothing.
A month into her stay, a hammer disappeared. The ship was searched and once again it couldn't be found. Dagian watched as her room was searched twice with no results. Killian kept a closer eye on her after that. He had a bodyguard follow her around but she did well to hide any actions or intentions that she might've had.
Half a week passed after that and they needed supplies. Dagian found a small well-fortified city they could dock in. It was all part of her strategy. They wouldn't rob and pillage it…it had good defenses and if they caused trouble then they'd barely escape. Killian was amused by her proposal that they dock there and he humored her and gave the order. The Dark One had just paid them for watching her; they could afford to actually buy what they wanted for once. It wasn't as fun in their eyes though, and everyone was moody but she ignored them. Any other town and she would probably get in trouble.
Before they reached the land, Dagian felt the captain come up beside her and place his hand on her back.
"I take it I'm not getting the grand tour of the city," she said.
"I have the funniest feeling that you might try to mount an escape if I considered that."
"Am I that transparent?" she feigned disappointment and walked with him as he guided her to her room.
Dagian's room had no windows so she had to go by what she felt with the ship moving and her own sense of time. She dozed off and on and when she was convinced that they'd docked and most of the crew were gone save the ones Killian trusted to watch over her.
This was the perfect opportunity to escape. A fortified city, barely any guard due to the men out drinking and…well anything else that pirates did.
She waited until she was positive that most of the crew was gone before she took her chance. She walked up to the door and slid the rod from the hinges out. She was able to slide the door open and slipped out into the captain's room.
Getting the hinges off her door was never the problem for this escape. She'd used the hammer and nails to get them loose ages ago. They couldn't hear her when she'd gotten them off earlier in the week; they'd all been above deck and she'd been quiet.
Dagian pulled the captains mattress back and pulled the hammer and stake out from the hole that she'd dug into the box spring.
The hinges also came open without much prying and she threw open the remains of the door and ran for the edge of the boat. She heard someone calling out an alarm but she ignored it and ran for the plank that led to the docks. She was going to be free, she was going to make it safely out. She could find a map and get home before they could find her. IT would be easy to get lost in this city, it was pretty sizable.
"I knew it."
She felt her blood run cold when she saw Killian standing at the end of the dock. She expected him to look angry but instead he looked amused.
"Did someone forget to lock the door or something, love?"
When Dagian froze in place, it gave the quartermaster the time he needed to get his arms around her waist. Dagian felt her heart begin to hammer in her chest when she saw her window of opportunity closing. She screamed for help and began to struggle. Killian's smirk turned into a frown when he realized that she was drawing attention to them and walked up the plank, "Get everything loaded as quickly as possible and get ready to set sail."
Dagian broke free and raced for the other end of the ship. Killian tackled her before she reached the port side. She felt the wind leave her body when he landed on her. Dagian scratched his face and tried to crawl away from him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, and began to haul her back to her room.
"No!" she begged and grabbed the edge of the rail, "Please, let me go."
"Little help!" he screamed and she felt her grip loosen until finally her hands slipped. The boat began to move from the dock just as the city guard came into view. Dagian screamed again but it was hopeless, the wind was in the ship's favor and it was one of the fastest in the sea.
The quarter master grabbed her feet and lifted her up. Killian cursed when she bit him but didn't release his grip.
Killian stopped when he saw his door lying on the floor and he scoffed in amusement, "You little vixen."
She tried to grab the door frame but it was still useless. They were both stronger than she was. She figured she could've fought harder to hold onto the frame but…the window of opportunity was closed, she wasn't getting home.
The quarter master released her ankles and left the room. Killian shoved Dagian against the wall and checked the bite mark that she left on his wrist, "Quite a spirited one, aren't you sweetheart? It seems I underestimated your desire to leave."
She'd failed. She'd failed and now she wasn't getting another opportunity. She glared at him with as much fury as she could muster.
"Now I hate to do this to you love, but you leave me no choice. I told you what would happen if you tried to escape."
She didn't bother to try and look surprised when she saw the quartermaster walk in with some shackles.
"It makes me bristle at the thought of doing such a horrible thing to your pretty wrists," He said and fastened the chains to a loop on the floor, "But I can't break my word…how will you learn?"
She winced when she felt the shackles digging into her wrist and she looked away when the chains were fastened. She had enough movement to get around her room but far too little to go anywhere else.
Killian rugged his eyes and walked out, "Get this door up."
She'd failed.
Dagian brought her knees up to her chest and watched as they put her door back in place. She heard Killian give the orders to put a better lock on it as soon as they got the supplies unloaded.
And when she was certain that she was alone, she buried her face in her knees and started crying.
She was never going to see her husband or son again.
0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000
Present Day
It was a habit that Dagian knew she would regret when the baby was older. However, Dagian hated getting out of her warm bed in the middle of the night to feed her daughter so Lily slept next to her. It was for a number of reasons really. It wasn't just that Dagian didn't want to get out of bed as much as possible but it was also that she felt safer knowing that her baby was right next to her.
And the nightmares weren't as bad if the baby was by her side. Other than having to get up three times a night, she slept soundly
The first couple of nights passed with barely a word from Rumpelstiltskin. He called to check on his daughter but other than that, they didn't really talk. He hadn't been kidding when he said that people were looking to deal with him again. Apparently they hadn't learned their lesson the first hundred times they did it.
And Dagian was busy as well. They'd celebrated yesterday with the first published edition of the newspaper since all this broken curse mess started. IT was both relieving to be working again and stressful at the same time because now it felt like they were going to be on a constant deadline.
Jefferson had a bouquet of flowers sent to her office but she hadn't seen him either. Grace was sick and he was spending all his time making sure she was alright. .
Dagian needed to get out more. Archie was starting to make sense when he said that it wasn't healthy that her only friends were the ex that had held her captive, the man that had held her captive and delivered her premature baby, and her therapist.
Maybe she should befriend Granny; she was the only one closest to Dagian's age.
That was still an odd concept to think about.
Maybe she should take some time at the diner, find someone that hadn't used her as a pawn at one point or another. Everyone seemed a bit friendlier to her now that they realized she was a victim in this curse stuff just as much as anyone.
"Want to go for a walk?" she asked her daughter and lifted her up, "I think we should go for a walk."
She opened the door and mentally groaned when she saw her ex-husband pulling up. Just when she wanted to start being normal…
Oh wait, she was in Storybrooke, nothing was normal.
"You going out?" she heard her ex ask as soon as he was out of the car.
"Yeah," Dagan smiled at her daughter as she rubbed her face against Dagian's shirt, "Had some things to do."
"You're going to want to hear what I have to say," He smiled, she saw excitement in his eyes
"How come?" she asked curiously and watched as he climbed her stairs.
"Because," he grabbed her face with both of his hands, "I think I Have a way to communicate with Snow and Emma."
Dagian processed what he said immediately and looked up. If he could communicate with them then he could get them home and if he could get them home then Emma could find Bae since she was the only one that could leave, "Well I suppose I can ignore a grilled cheese for that."
0000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000 0000
When Rumpelstiltskin told her about Henry, Dagian immediately felt uncomfortable with the idea of using a child for their agenda of finding their son. He was only ten years old and the idea of him being already trapped and scared in a room with no doors and fire around him already sickened her. She didn't want to be guilty of using him. She already blamed herself for him eating that apple turnover; she had been the one to suggest it to Regina to give to Emma in hopes that Henry would kiss her and wake her up and break the curse.
It hadn't exactly gone off without a hitch.
"I know it's…unorthodox that we use a child," Rumpelstiltskin told her when she voiced her doubts. He held an alert Lily in his lap, "But he's going in there anyway, so why not use him?"
Dagian looked up, "Why don't I dream about the room like the boy does?"
Rumpelstiltskin's eyes darkened as he realized that she was suggesting taking Henry's place, "You had 28 years of being under a dark curse that ended all curses."
"And in those 28 years, Dawn never dreamed," Dagan said, "She suffered migraines that put her out of commission for days but she never dreamed until the curse started breaking.
He shrugged, "If by some chance you did wake up before the dark curse took effect, you'd probably still have the nightmares. But thanks to the dark curse, it kept you from dreaming. You just lucked out this time, my dear."
"Not with everything, I would trade nightmares for the headaches I get."
Rumpelstiltskin looked at her, his face was grim, "No you wouldn't. And I know what you're planning to suggest and don't dear. I know you have a soft spot for that boy and so do I but….he's going to be dreaming about that room anyway and I really don't want to pull you into this unless it's the very very last resort. I do care about you and wouldn't wish for you to live through that horror when you were lucky enough to bypass it in the first place. It's bad enough that you have to get up to feed Lily, I don't want you losing any more sleep."
Dagian smiled grimly and rubbed her temples. All this talk of sleep….
"You alright?" Rumpelstiltskin asked.
"Yeah, just…incredibly busy," she whispered.
"I could take the baby for the night."
Dagian smiled, "Tempting but no. I don't think you could handle her two hour feedings."
He shrugged, "I'll warm up a bottle, set the bassinet in the living room and sleep on the couch so I can get to the kitchen easier. Turn off your phone and have a good night's rest. I'll even take her for the evening so that you can go out and do something."
"And do what?" Dagian asked.
He looked as confused as she felt; the night life was extremely limited after all, "Well I don't know, whatever it is that people do around here. Go on a nature hike if you want. When was the last time you even had a moment where you weren't stressed by something and just had a bit of relaxing fun?"
Dagian looked thoughtful, "Over 428 years ago."
He sighed, "Not including Dawn's memories are you?"
"There's a lot of thinking that I use that I don't include Dawn in," Dagian muttered.
"She wasn't all that bad," Rumpelstiltskin teased her.
"Well for you at least," Dagian muttered, "I honestly can't stand her unconcerned personality and the way that it clashes with mine over the little things like feelings for you and the people in this town."
"Darling, it could've been worse, I could've given you the personality of David," he said and kissed her on the cheek, "I'll pick Lily up at five?"
Dagian nodded, "Five will be fine."
"Perfect," he said, "Enjoy your night off darling."
It wasn't until a few seconds later that Dagian realized that she had no idea what she was going to do.