Emerald

Part 2

With two cups of tea in hands, Archie and Marco were having a pleasant small talk in the doctor's office. Well, it was pleasant at least until the topics were of ordinary administration; but when suddenly the redhed,, apparently lost in his thoughts, started to answer absent-mindedly, tranquility turned into worry. At some point an almost ironic smile appeared on his face out of nowhere – because an appointment with Whale couldn't be the reason of it – , as he put the cup down on the table.

"I think I've fallen in love with Cruella De Vil…" he eventually admitted, with an almost terrifying naturalness.

And in fact Geppetto was actually terrified, probably even more than astonished. He had actually noticed his dear friend's strange behavior and the way he looked contradictorically happier and more annoyed than usual; however, he would have never suspected that there was a romantic affair behind that and let alone that diabolic woman!

"Has something happened between you two?" he asked after a long silence, but the question sounded indifferent only in his mind.

Doctor Hopper instinctively lowered his eyes and remained silent for a while.

"I fear I am far beyond something…" he confessed then, feeling again the weight of his weakness.

A weakness that had the taste of aggressive kisses and gin, and that still echoed in his mind with the exciting pronunciation of a darling with the sensually aspirated r.

"Archie!" Marco immediately exclaimed, waking him up from the reverie.

He was authentically shocked and, this time, in that simple exclamation there was no attempt to mask his own disapproval.

Funny. Now it was Geppetto the one to implicitly suggest his own guide to follow his conscience.

It was funny, but none of them seemed willing to laugh about it at the moment.

"That woman will destroy you!" the carpenter finally commented, bitterly shaking his head and giving a disappointed look to the other man.

"That woman will destroy you!"

Two months were gone since that conversation, but Geppetto's thought about his best friend's relationship with Ms De Vil hand't changed at all. Two cups of tea were again in front of them, but this time it was Granny's the place of the meeting.

"She didn't ask me those gifts, I wanted to…" Archie precised, defending his woman, after the account of what had happened some days before. And in particular, the emerald earrings was the part that had provoked Geppetto's reaction.

"That woman is a devil, a witch and - what's worst - a social climber!"

"Social climber?" the doctor echoed him, with a sudden amused smile for the new epithet. "I'm not a prince, I'll have you know!"

"Right, but you are a doctor, my dear friend" Marco answered "and it is the best she can aim for, here!"

The bluntness of that thought hurt Archie, but, truth be told, didn't surprise him. He had those same doubts about his relationship as well and he had been asking himself the reason why she was with him. However the answer Cruella gave him that morning when he explicitly asked, was so sincere that he was now sure about it.

"You don't know her…" he whispered then, with a convinced tone.

"And do you really know her?"

Archie didn't answer to that last blunt accusation. Not saying a word, he looked away from his friend's look and turned his head in the direction of his woman who was sitting not too far. During those months he had seen her on the edge of crying and truly smiling, he had found out her story and learnt to understand her absurd way of thinking.

Maybe, despite everything, he still didn't know her, but he was sure of something: he did loved her.

DC-DC-DC

In an opposite position to the table Archie and Marco were sitting, Cruella was spending sometimes with her friends too; it wasn't tea what they were drinking, though. In fact a round of whiskey was over and Cruella had just ordered four shots of gin. It would have really been better for the young shewolf to hurry up this time, because, judging by the woman's irritation, she wouldn't have been nice otherwise.

"Relax, Cru, we are just kidding!" Maleficent exclaimed, even if in that apparent attempt to reassure her, there was an evident note of amusement.

And that note was only the last straw. In the last twenty minutes, she had in fact been under an implicit interrogatory, which only cancelled her good homur. They were kidding – that was what Maleficent said – and yet they had just implied that she was going soft and well, for her that wasn't a joke anymore!

"I will tell you again, ladies, so maybe it will come into your minds once for all!" she started to say, with a forced calm voice. "I'm just trying to integrate in this damned town!" continued then, summarizing her reasons to start that relationship with Hopper.

Or better, the reason she wanted the three witches to know.

"Those earrings seem to say something else…" Ursula pointed out, clearly doubtful, finishing with one last sip her drink. She had still some whiskey left, lucky her!

"Oh, darling, those earrings are instead the proof of it!" Cruella replied immediately, with a slightly nervous chuckle. "Hopper is one of the richest man here in Storybrooke and, as far as I know, my situation is far better than yours all at the moment…"

Despite the almost evil smile on her face, saying those words hurt her. Actually, she wasn't with Archie for money, not even at the beginning; she had decided to start something with him just because she wanted to, and ended up caring for him more than she could ever imagined. Maybe she was really going soft, after all. However there was no need for the queens of darkness to know about those details; her humor might have changed those days, but not her pride. And she had a bad reputation to keep.

"Are you better than us because you are wearing costume jewellry?" Regina chimed in, not missing to show her own irony as well.

The animal witch glared at her. "These are bloody emeralds, I'll have you know!"

Bu that precisation, that called back the memory of one similiar, only made all the three other women laugh.

"Emeralds, uh? Once you wouldn't be pleased with nothing but damonds…" Regina.

"And from what I saw, nothing less than a big mansion too" Ursula.

"And now you are with doctor Cricket!" And that was Maleficent. "But are you really sure that there is nothing more between you two than what you're saying?"

Cruella hesitated just some instants at that question, instants during which her mask was almost about to fall down. Almost.

"Nothing more" she finally confirmed, staring at Maleficent with a determined look.

Then, before any other question was aked, she turned quickly to the counter.

"Darling! How much longer for those drinks?"

DC-DC-DC

"Archie!" Cruella exclaimed, suddenly entering his office. "Why didn't you wait for me?"

They had agreed on meeting outside Granny's and then going together to the doctor's house; instead, after saying goodbye to her friends – and finally drinking her daily dose of gin – she had found herself alone in the car park. She had waited for more than a quarter and then she decided to look for him; luckily, the first attempt proved to be the right one.

But it didn't look like Archie had simply forgotten their previous plans. Not looking at her, he just pretended to check some files, showing such an indifference Cruella had never seen before.

"Why should I have waited for you? You and I are nothing, after all" he eventually answered, forcing to hint an ironic bitter smile.

"What? Darling, I don't understand…"

Ms De Vil looked truly confused, but her body froze immediately hearing those sharp words. Maybe because uncounsciously she recognized that single word and she already realized what was about to happen.

"I've heard what you said to your friends…" the man added in fact, finally raising his look on her. And in his eyes there was just disappointment.

"Oh, com'on!" she exclaimed, trying to sound more annoyed than nervous. "I've said that just for them, I didn't seriously mean it… You know that, don't you?"

Archie shook his head and looked down again to the files. "No, actually, I don't, Cruella…"

Those words and that total lack of eye contact between them, left Cruella almost breathless and her expression turned quickly into a scared one. But Archie never saw it and instead he simply kept on looking away. Only he himself could know how much it was costing to him acting like that; but he was suffering like never before and he knew that if he had just looked at her for a moment, he would have forgiven and forgotten everything.

Instead he didn't. He just remained silent until the woman, after somemore vain attempts to call his attention, left the building with the same rush she had came. A rush that was animated by anger toward herself.

Cruella slept at Granny's that night.

And the bottle of gin she had left at Archie's house was drank all by him.

Hello! So, I've decided to continue this story...And to ruin their relationship, yes LoL I hope you liked the little plot twist and you are interested in seeing what happens next:)