It had been two weeks. 14 sunrises and 13 sunsets, and in about a half hour it would be even again. Two weeks of watching her after waiting about a month after first glimpsing her the night after Gold made it so he could leave.

"Why are you so nervous you cowardly headless moron?" Jefferson said to his drink. He was currently looking at his third beer for the night. It shouldn't be this hard, honestly it really shouldn't, she was cursed after all so it's not like anything you do will matter; he could be like the guy on groundhog's day, all fun and no drawbacks.

"That might be a little harsh." Oh no.

Jefferson looked up to see, what in his not so humble opinion, was beyond a doubt an absolute vision of beauty, wonder, and grace. "Excuse me?" 'Great first line you moron' Jefferson thought looking down at his drink again.

"A cowardly headless moron seems a bit much." She said siting down next to him.

"Yes well, I believe I deserve it."

"Oh, and could that be that for the last two weeks you've been watching me and figured out just now that I know you have."

"No actually." He said looking up at her. "The thing is I walked in here a month and a half ago and saw what I can only describe as a goddess of beauty. And now after taking a full month to convince myself that I should try and say hi, I spend two weeks just sitting in this blasted chair." He said hitting the chair. "Drinking what I can only assume might have been dishwater at one point." He looked at his glass in disgust. "Only for this angelic form to come and sit next to me and my first words are 'Excuse me?'." He said laughing. "So obviously I have no doubt impressed you with my limited wit, and you've no doubt already figured out that your far to pretty to waste your time with me, which means your probably going to leave, and I'm soon after going to find the hidden healing properties this dish soap is supposed to have." He said drowning his drink.

"Well, I could." She admits with a smile. "But you do have one thing going for you,"

"Oh, and what's that?"

"Your right, you're dumb."

"Thank you my dear, I will treasure that forever, but how does it help me?"

"It just so happens I can't stand to see a dumb animal suffer, even from a broken heart that's of their own doing."

Jefferson laughed and then grabbed a peanut and put it in his nose. "Call me Jefferson the moron."

"And I'm Madelyn the overly soft hearted."

The Enchanted Forest. The very long past.

The battle had been devastating; the term blood bath would not do it justice. It you planted a white tree here it would grow up to be crimson. The Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin himself surveyed the slaughter. "Ogres." He spat in disgust.

Why did fate insist upon laughing at him so much, he looked at the destroyed village, the last of the Mist Cats were now dead.

Killing a Mist Cat was not easy, they had nine lives, no magical barrier could contain them or keep them out, no wall was too high, no surface too smooth, the only way to really kill one was to seal it in an air tight vault or burry it alive and very deep, otherwise it could seep up through the ground it if was strong enough to maintain their incorporeal form for a long time.

But ogres could kill them, ogres were very hard to kill as well, and while the cats were great fighters, they could only kill when in physical form, and the problem is that it's much easier to kill them when they are like that. And while the Mist Cats could kill ten ogres for every one of their nine lives lost, there were 100 ogres for every one cat here.

So there it was, the last of a great race had had its village turned to ash my mindless monsters, the bodies covered the ground so that not one blade of grass was seen, and it looked as if even if you did remove all the bodies from the top layer, there was still two more in most places.

Help.

Rumple turned, he was certain he heard it, a voice on the wind.

Help.

No, it was the wind.

And in front of him landed a female Mist Cast, half her body was covered in blood, well, whatever was left of that half that is. "I tried to get away, but it grabbed me before I could."

Rumple walked up. "I can't save you; you're too close to death."

"I. I don't. I don't want to live, but." She then let him see the bundle in her arms. "She's premature, she won't live, please, can you save her."

Oh, he could save her, but to do that he'd have to lose what he came for. It was a legend that Mist Cats could travel realms, much more effectively than other portal jumpers, if he were to save her, he might lose that.

But, what did he have to lose, she was dead anyway if he did nothing.

So he took the child and left the mother to die with her kind.

All he had to do was find a pub. Inside he found a woman and a man sleeping, and it didn't take a genius to know that the only reason the woman was there was because she was working.

As long as magic has been around, people have tried to break the rules. Travel through time, raise the dead, just snap their fingers and kill someone. Now it never worked, but lesser versions do. All you need to kill someone wherever they are is to give them some cursed object, to see the future was easy, it was just the understanding it part that sucked, and you could exchange a life to save a life.

Now it was the last one that was hardest, considering you need something of equal value, a mage needs to sacrifice another mage, a cat a cat, and a tree a tree. And if you used a tree or plant to try and save a human, you got ents, a dog, and werewolves were made. But right now that was what he needed.

All it took was a very complicated spell to replace the baby that had been conceived and its life force with that of the Mist Cat, and in three months she'd be delivered. All Rumple had to do was whisking the girl off to a cottage he knew of and keep her in a state of unawareness, and then get rid of her when done.

Three months later and she was born just how Rumple had planned. A girl was born, and while she had whiskers and ears and a tail, she had many human characteristics, namely she could reproduce with humans, so hopefully the Mist Cats would live on.

But darn magic and the price. While she could travel worlds he had no one to teach her, and so for almost 250 years he raised her as his own, with her going to live with Merlin right before Rumple met Cora, he really didn't want his dau- ward, his ward meeting this woman, and by the time he thought of introducing them it was too late, Cora had proved she didn't love him.

Then came Jefferson, he seemed more than willing to teach her, but the problem was that while she could travel worlds, she was no better than Jefferson.

It wasn't until after Jefferson's unfortunate deal with the queen that Rumple suspected that his ward and Jeff loved each other, call it father figure intuition, and the fact that she had taken grace in the moment she found out Jeff had been captured and he was almost certain.

The Present. The Rabbit Hole. Storybroke.

Gold just smiled from afar as he watched them, so happy and laughing. Lord knows true love wasn't, isn't, and will never be easy, especially here. But he was happy to know that his friend and ward were happy, and that they had found each other.

Hopefully Madelyn wouldn't tell Jeff how he had been the one to tip her off to the man watching her from afar, after all, all those threats he was saving for the Father figure meets new boyfriend talk wouldn't seem as real if he was the one to set them up together no would it.

Where is everybody, I got only got two reviews on the last chap.

Don't tell me. *Gasp*. Has real life reared its ugly head and attacked my loyal fans, and here I thought only I had that problem.

Curse you real life.

Real, they need to put a warning label on that thing.

Thank you to Twyla Mercedes, and I've always pictured that Regina dose have all those subcommittees in town, it's just they are like any normal politician with an anatomy resembling that of a jellyfish.

And to lozzy035.

So, who do you think Madelyn is?

And I have a new story coming out, The House Of Gold.