Once Upon A Time
Dagian was no stranger to hard work. She worked all her life; jobs meant both for men and women on farms and villages and fields since she was a child.
But working on a ship was different than what she was used to. Everything was different now. She was given bulkier clothes to hide her feminine figure. Gloves to hide her small calloused hands…
It made it harder to hold the ropes and move around without worrying about losing her clothes.
Killian gave her work to do during the day. She was somewhere between a deckhand and someone who knew the ropes. Wherever they needed her, she was required to be there since she was posing as a crewmember.
They saw ships often. Dagian always felt tense when she saw sails on the horizon. She tried not to show her fears, she put her focus on her work but it was always there at the back of her mind. If they lost, then she would be killed or discovered and the latter could be much worse for her. She had nightmares constantly, but thankfully she never cried out loud enough to wake the captain. The last thing she wanted was for him in her room in the dead of night.
On the fourth day in the occupied waters, they were boarded. The sail was supposed to be an ally of Killian and he happily welcomed them aboard and ordered a feast to be prepared. James, the pirate that cut her hair (and apparently the one that Killian trusted most with her handling she found out later), advised her to stay below in the crew's quarters. Normally Dagian would've felt uncomfortable down there…maybe even scared if she hadn't spent nearly two months in tight spaces with them.
There was no reason to be uncomfortable; they were so drunk when they got down below that they could barely make it to their hammocks.
Dagian was awake and out of there that morning before the vicious hangovers started.
Killian was standing at the helm. He glanced at her as she came to stand next to him, "You missed a great celebration."
"I saw enough of the aftermath," she said, "When did they leave?"
"An hour ago," he said and turned the wheel, "I let my men sleep, Blackbeard wakes them early and tosses them overboard when they don't live up to his expectations or are too hung over to work fast enough. And you think I'm horrible."
She ignored the barb. He may have moments were he was nice to her but that didn't make her stay here any more enjoyable, "How far do you expect to get with hung over men?"
He shrugged, "I expect all of them to do their jobs. Of course you may have to pull some more than your own weight if most of them are doubled over the starboard side.
Dagian looked at him, "And you didn't take advantage of Blackbeard's apparently generosity."
"Oh, more than enough. I just happen to be the sort of man that is good enough at covering up how drunk he is. There are very few on this ship that are as good as I am."
She raised her eyebrows, "I imagine it's a nice mindset to wake up to."
"What? You mean to tell me that your husband never got so drunk that his morning breath was the first thing that you woke up to?"
Dagian scoffed, "Only once, it's tradition that the husband buys the rounds after the wife gets pregnant. It was only one time though. He hated it and he certainly couldn't hold his liquor like I'm certain you've had so much practice doing."
He smirked like he'd won and she realized that she'd made a mistake, "You're not drunk, are you?"
"Sorry love, what kind of captain would I be if I compromised myself while carrying such…precious cargo like that? Pirates sail these waters."
She sighed, he'd lured her into a false sense of security and she'd been stupid enough to fall for it.
"I don't know why you refuse to tell me these little stories, they're not going to tell me anything about where your husband and son are at."
"They tell you about me," she said grimly, "That's more than enough."
"Why? Are you afraid that I could successfully seduce you if I knew you?"
She scoffed, "You haven't charmed me yet, then you never will."
"Oh dove, you know how much I love a challenge." He said and brushed a finger against her cheek. She winced and pulled away, "Am I really that hideous?"
"No," she admitted, "But you just don't interest me."
He opened his mouth to retort but stopped when he saw something behind her. She turned and saw another pirate ship coming towards them.
"Friends of yours?"
"No," he said tersely and she paled.
"Captain," James said as he jogged up to him.
Killian never looked worried, that's something she noticed a lot. He just looked exasperated, "All hands on deck, tell them to ready the canons."
"Yes sir," James said.
Killian grabbed her arm, "Go to your room and bolt the door."
He shoved a knife in her hands. Dagan wondered if she and he were in a different situation and she had this knife, what would happen.
Men started stumbling out onto the deck and Dagian walked quickly to her room. Normally she might be less scared because she'd seen how well these men worked together but with more than half of them hung over and confused, she wasn't as…well confidant wasn't the right word. She'd be worried anyway.
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Dagian hadn't been on the pirate ship long enough to experience her first battle. She wasn't sure she was experiencing anything, locked away in this room, but she wasn't sure what the proper term would be. She was so…jittery that she couldn't exactly think things through. She couldn't hear fighting…but she could hear the canon fire, and it was loud.
She drew a breath and ran a hand through her hair. She was still getting used to it. It was easy to maintain and easy when she was working but she missed it. She closed her eyes and tried to remember when Rumpelstiltskin used to tug her hair, and when he used to brush her hair behind her ear. Soon it just became about trying to remember his face and that of her son's and she realized with dread that she couldn't. She could only remember parts of her husband's face and a little bit about Bae's.
How could she forget? When did it happen?
The tears came, she closed her eyes and tried to remind herself that she was in a bad situation now but if she risked dying today then she at least wanted to be with memories of her family.
She didn't hear the explosion. She didn't know why but all of a sudden the wall beside her exploded and she was flung like a rag doll into the opposing wall.
The last thing she remembered was her head slamming into the wall.
Present Day
Lily was awake and smiling and laughing when Dagian and Jefferson walked into the diner together. She seemed to sense her mother's almost carefree relaxed attitude today.
"Please tell me that you're toying with me," she told him as Jefferson held the door open for her.
"I'm not!" he told her playfully and followed her in, "It's true."
"While you were in the supermarket-," She repeated the story that he'd just told her.
"Your husband passed by me and said, 'my wife hates roses.' And kept going."
"And he said that? He said 'my wife?" she sighed and sat in a booth, "We're not married anymore, I don't know why I should keep reminding him of that."
"You're divorced according to these laws," he said with a shrug, "But in the enchanted forest…until one of you marries again then you're just separated; you know that."
"It doesn't mean I have to like it," she said and lifted her daughter out of the
stroller, "And it doesn't mean that he can't respect this world's laws since he went through all the trouble of getting the divorce set up. I know he probably just did it to make me happy. Sometimes it doesn't seem like I'll be free of him, will I?"
"Well, we could always forget about the extensive talk we had on the phone last night and elope," he teased.
Dagian scoffed and shook her head in amusement. They talked about whether or not they should go through with dating the night previous. There were a lot of things said and unsaid between them. They said they should move extremely slowly; what they didn't say was that both had been hurt by too many members of the opposite sex to move at anything near what could be thought of as a normal to rapid pace. They told each other they wanted to focus on their children and put a relationship second; what they didn't say was that both of them were enjoying the freedom they did have now and didn't want to jeopardize it.
Dagian spent most of the night thinking about the decision after she got off the phone with him. A hundred things could go wrong; a thousand things could go right. They'd gotten off to a horrifically rough start, but she wasn't going to completely hold what he did over his head. She had been willing to do a lot worse and allow her ex-husband to do a lot worse to get their son back. She knew Jefferson regretted it; he would have to work to win her heart but she wasn't going to let their initial meeting ruin everything. And she wasn't going to hurt him every time it benefitted her.
She liked how she felt when he was around. He looked at her and he didn't see the wife of Rumpelstiltskin. he didn't see someone that could fill an agenda, he saw HER. And he respected her wishes and treated her like an actual human being which was something that she felt that she hadn't had in a long time.
And so that morning she called him again. If they were going to be…a couple then they needed to figure out where they stood on what. And that's what this lunch was about.
"Well, if you don't like roses, then what do you like?" he asked.
She shrugged, "Never been a flower person really. I only liked purple lilies because of what they signified to my husband and me when he was human. But I imagine we can experiment until we've gotten a special…floral arrangement picked out that's significant for us."
Oh gods, she was bad at this. It was easier when she was with Rumpelstiltskin because he was shy and she was so much younger and the things that were romantic to them at that time period was considered cheesy and stupid here.
And back then there was a lot less to lose. She'd been bold because she knew he'd never ask her to marry him if she didn't. They'd never properly courted, because …well there wasn't really a reason. She'd just come to love him and his quiet strength that he had. This is why she never preferred the pirate over him. There was a difference between a man that had a quiet strength and some that practically walked around declaring themselves an alpha male who was strong mentally and emotionally and physically.
Jefferson was different. Jefferson was just as bold as she had been once and he liked to tease her. He didn't blush and stutter, he enjoyed giving her bold flirting smiles and he teased her in a way that she felt comfortable with. Not the intrusive way the pirate flirted and watched her.
Jefferson didn't seem to be bothered by how stupid her attempt to flirt had been, "I know that we agreed to take it slow. You and I have a lot of problems that we need to get through and I'm honestly fine with…what? Handholding and kissing and hugging and us being each other's sounding board is fine."
"Fine,"
"Fine," he said and drew a breath, "You should know that when we are ready to take the next step…whenever that will be, I don't want to do it until or unless Grace is fine with us being together."
"That's alright," she said, "I'm not willing to take the next step until I'm certain you'd be a good influence on Lily."
"For Lily and not your son?"
"I'm not sure when I'll see him again," she told him honestly and tried to ignore the pain in her chest at the thought of him, "It could be tomorrow, it could be ten years...meanwhile we're trapped in this snow globe and until Rumpelstiltskin finds a way to get us through then I have to entertain myself by finding things that make me happy."
He seemed proud of this, "I make you happy."
She picked up the menu and scanned it so that he couldn't see her blush, "A bit."
The door rang and she looked up when she heard the telltale sound of her husband's cane. She frowned a bit when she saw that he was with Belle; her Dawn personality was fuming and jealous and she shoved the personality as far back to her mind as she could. Belle saw her and gave an enthusiastic wave which Dagian returned. Behind her, Rumpelstiltskin shot Jefferson a look of every threat imaginable. In Dagian's lap, Lily began to drift off and Dagian gently rocked her. Dagian took her eyes off her ex and his girlfriend and instead chose to focus on Jefferson, "Oh, you should come to dinner tonight, I'd like to meet Grace."
"I don't- I don't think that's a good idea."
"Well, why not?" she asked and tilted her head, "I have to admit, it'll feel less awkward dating you if your daughter's okay with it."
"Just…," he sighed, "You know…It's Grace and I."
She understood immediately, "And that's still special to you."
He nodded, "She's my only daughter and Regina ruined everything and …I just want to make sure I trust you before I let you near my daughter."
She feigned hurt, "You don't trust me."
"Not like that," he told her and he gave her a small smile, "Not yet."
It didn't hurt her, if there was anyone who understood about trust issues, especially around children, it was her, "It's fine. Anyway, it's more common than you think; my mother said that I never had a trustworthy face."
He gave her a charmed smile and she liked the way he looked at her.
There were eyes on her, she realized. Most people were watching the unusual pairing of Rumpelstiltskin and Belle but there were a few that were watching her carefully for her reaction.
She ignored them for the most part. Despite her Dawn personality's jealousy, it was wrong to get annoyed that Rumpelstiltskin brought Belle when she brought Jefferson.
"Oh," Dagian said and looked at Jefferson, "Did you hear that they gave Sidney a decent room in the hospital and not in the basement?"
"I did," he said and smiled at her, "The story created a bit of an uprising, I hear."
"Well nothing too bad, he may have not been a nice person but he deserves far better than what he got."
"Most here do," Jefferson said. There were a few exceptions of course; Dagian had written a story yesterday about King George's arrest due to the mechanic's brutal murder. They were saying that he'd be on house arrest and then executed when they got back home. There were only two cells in Storybrooke and Charming didn't want him anywhere near anyone else.
Normally Dagian would scoff at the idea of being a prisoner in a giant home but that was before she'd met Jefferson and seen how miserable he'd been separated by everyone else.
He saw something near the door and his smile dropped, "Dagian."
She saw it too. Regina was coming into the diner and she was determined.
Jefferson looked very uncomfortable and Dagian knew that Rumpelstiltskin would be angry that she got near Belle. But more for Jefferson's and most definitely sake, she grabbed her purse and the baby, "Let's go."
He practically leapt up and Dagian handled Lily. He put his hand on the small of her back and ushered her towards the back gently. Granny looked at them in confusion when they walked through the laundry room.
"Regina," Dagian whispered and they slipped out the back.
Granny would watch the stroller. Well she could have it if she wanted to, Dagian was sick of that fourth wheel going wobbly.
They didn't stop at the car, they kept walking. Dagian didn't hear anyone's horrified screams so she assumed that they acted civilly but she didn't want to turn back and see.
"I wonder what she wanted," Dagian said harshly.
"What does it matter?" he asked, "You're not married to Rumpelstiltskin, you're not in the same house with him, you don't have to get pulled into his messes anymore."
"He still thinks I am," Dagian said, "And that's the problem."
Jefferson gently turned her around, "I have no right to ask this but promise me that unless it involves finding your son, you won't get pulled into this mess that they've created."
She wanted to agree immediately, Zoso pulled her into his plans and it took almost 430 years to get out of them, but usually it was far more complicated than that. Belle may have been his true love but Dagian was still his confidant in a lot of things. She knew what to say to keep him grounded and focused. She understood him. Would it be right to rob him of that?
Why should she shackle herself to him out of obligation? She wanted to break free of him and his influence. Even Archie was advising that she start doing so and she knew that he was right if she ever wanted to start over. There was nothing wrong with being there for him but her continuing fate of getting pulled into his schemes would not help her healing.
"I promise," she whispered. For some reason it felt like one of the hardest things she'd done.
But there was a part of her that felt relieved.