Chapter Eleven: Apologies

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, Dearies. :-) Enjoy the story!

"I'm telling you! There aren't any in this land!"

Jennifer heard the scream again. It wouldn't have been the first time she'd heard the words. She had been told many times that there were no magical beans left to use, but the last time she had been told that, a man by name of Mr. Smee had managed to find one. It had been taken by a pirate, and Jennifer very much doubted the pirate was still around. Odds are, he had used the bean to find whatever his heart most desired. But it led Jennifer to the idea that more beans—surely—still were in existence.

On her hunt, she had found a man who swore he could give her what she most desperately desired. It was a means to no end—Jennifer knew—for what he promised was probably a night of drunken intercourse and a rose the next day. However, seeing how desperate he was for companionship, Jennifer had taken to him, however drunk he had proven to be. 'Falling' for his terrible pick-up lines, sexual puns, and his talk about how was the bravest man in all of Nottingham (wherever the fuck that was), she was happy to continue this charade with him in her home; hearing she lived in a castle, the man had stupidly followed her, thinking her a princess with an epic dowry or a king who was willing her daughter to marry immediately...or some crock like that.

Jennifer exposed her true colors to him when they arrived at the Dark Castle. Now, here he was, shackled up in a dungeon while Jennifer watched him plea as she leaned with her back against the dungeon wall. His clothes had been slowly stripped from his body after she had knocked him out with a frying pan, which had proven quite effective, for the sake of her stomach, she kept his pants on.

She wore her usual torture attire—that black shoulder-less dress and her open-toed high heels, knowing that the only thing worse for someone to be tortured was being tortured and getting some kind of sick arousal from it. Watching the man breathe heavily as he glared at her, Jennifer crossed her arms, looking incredibly bored.

"The last time I was told there were no beans in this land, another one came into existence," Jennifer said. "You said you'd give me what I wanted."

"And you said," the man growled, "You would give me what I wanted."

"You couldn't handle me in bed," Jennifer promised. "Trust me—you're better off where you are."

The man must have had a death wish or liked her rough exterior for he simply smirked at her. He called himself the 'Sheriff of Nottingham' but some sheriff he was proving to be. He could barely make a sentence without slurring. She saw his challenging expression, so she stepped towards him; his eyes looked her up and down.

"You must be either really drunk or really stupid to want me, still," Jennifer told him lightly. "I've done everything to you except make you my slave." She gestured to the deep wounds along his shoulder from a knife she'd used on him when he had called her a 'bitch', and then a few she had done herself with her dagger-like fingernails.

"Strong-willed women are attractive to me." the Sheriff stated, shrugging.

"Or maybe," Jennifer mused, "You just want me to take off your restraints and let you make a run for it?"

He looked at a loss.

Jennifer smirked: "Nailed it, didn't I?"

"You can't keep me here for no reason—i didn't do anything to you."

"Well, you're not doing anything for me either," she responded, twirling her hand.

"If you let me go," he whispered, "I can do something for you."

"You're not becoming my sex slave," Jennifer uttered disgustedly as though she had read his mind.

"Then what do you want from me?"

"I want to know what you know."

The Sheriff said exhaustively, "And what is that."

Jennifer rolled her eyes, sighing tiredly, "What have we been talking about this entire time!"

"I don't know where there are any beans—do I look like I would know?"

"You're the Sheriff," Jennifer reasoned. "You would know something about people trotting to and fro with a bean that will let you go where you want to go, wouldn't you?"

"What if I did know something about magical beans?" asked the Sheriff irritably. "You would not let me go even after I told you. So what does it matter what you to do me? My life is in shambles anyway. The love of my life was stolen from me and the man that took her from me has made me a laughingstock of Nottingham."

Jennifer returned, "Well, that sounds very sad and your life does sound miserable. But also incredibly boring. If I didn't think any better about this, I should really let you go since your life sounds more painful than what I have ever done to you." She shrugged and stepped towards him.

He stared at her incredulously when she wrapped her hand around his restraints and cracked the lock in two with her fingers and stepped back when he fell down, face planting the concrete dungeon floor. Jennifer watched him carefully as he panted, getting to his feet. He looked at her for the longest time.

"Why are you letting me go?" he asked quietly.

"I don't really know," Jennifer said.

"You like me, don't you," chuckled the Sheriff.

"I'm starting to regret my decision," Jennifer warned.

"You're the Dark One's girlfriend..." Sheriff of Nottingham pointed out. "You're not exactly known for this kind of thing. How do I know you won't turn me into a slug or something when I start running."

"I'm a vampire, Sheriff. Not a witch. I don't use magic," Jennifer stated factually.

"I think you're kinda sweet when you wanna be," the Sheriff pointed out, wincing as he managed to put on his clothes.

Jennifer glared at him.

"Get out of the castle." Jennifer told him.

"Are you sure you don't want a sex slave? I can uh..." he strolled towards her. "I can show you my own bit of dark magic if you wanna try it out. I'd like to try you on and see..."

Jennifer glared daggers at him. He held his hands up in the air, and backed off.

"Okay, so, that's a 'no'."

"Damn right that's a 'no'. Get lost, Sheriff." Jennifer told him.

He nodded, bowing quickly to her and then he ran up the stairs. Just to see what he would do, Jennifer followed him. A good thing she did because he was standing at one of the book cases, holding something in his hand that clearly didn't belong to him. Jennifer saw what he held, and she frowned. The Sheriff was looking at a straw-spun doll with black feathers for the hair and two blue pebbles for the eyes. He seemed a bit off-set by it, and when he heard Jennifer's heels click the wooden planks of the castle floor, he suddenly turned.

"I tell you to run," Jennifer said quietly. "And you stop and touch things that do not belong to you."

"I'm going now...I'm going...Just uh..." The Sheriff rambled.

He walked up to her though.

This man certainly must have had a death wish for he seemed completely entranced by her. Jennifer suspected it was this 'power of seduction' stuff that she wielded uncontrollably, and she was sickened by the fact that this Sheriff's mind was conjuring up all these different things he would love to do to her. Jennifer was thinking of something she wouldn't mind doing to him—but her intentions were a great deal darker and without it, he would hardly be called a 'man'.

"What are you doing?" Jennifer asked when he stepped towards her.

"You're so beautiful. I can't help it." The Sheriff mumbled, getting closer.

"That's a love story I have yet to hear," Jennifer stated sarcastically. "Woman tortures man. Man falls for woman. Hardly befitting for a child's story."

"What I have in mind is hardly befitting for any child to hear...or see." The Sheriff purred, smiling at her. "I know we got off on the wrong foot..."

"Both feet, more like," Jennifer remarked callously.

"But I know we can still do something to soften the wedge between us...or maybe harden it a little more," the Sheriff drawled, wiggling his eyebrows at her.

"I can't believe you're single," Jennifer stated cynically.

"Ooh, that biting sarcasm," the Sheriff whispered.

He had continued to move towards her, pinning Jennifer against a wall.

"You're playing hard to get," the Sheriff muttered; he placed his hand on her neck, stroking the small gray marks of a long ago vampire bite. His eyes were transfixed on her body, roaming, trying to savor every part of her imaginable.

"There's nothing to get—trust me," Jennifer returned, pushing him away. "I'm about to put you back in the dungeons and make you my bitch if you don't get out of here right quick."

"Sassy..." the Sheriff drawled.

Jennifer kicked him down below and he fell over with a grunt, holding his balls. She looked down at him, smirking all the while.

"I was waiting for that to happen."

Jennifer startled with surprise, turning around to see Rumplestiltskin appearing in his red smoke. He was dressed in his skin-tight leather tunic and pants, and while he had sounded generally pleased, he did look a little unhappy. After having not seen him for a couple months, having thought him to be completely gone from her life, Jennifer had trouble getting over her surprise, staring at him as though he were a hologram; at first, she simply looked right through him.

The Sheriff groaned, getting to his feet.

Kicking him down on the floor, Jennifer hissed, "Stay down, you drunk."

"But—" The sheriff began; Jennifer kicked him hard in the face and he was out like a light.

"What are you doing here?" Jennifer asked crassly.

Rumplestiltskin walked over to her, observing the man on the floor. Then he turned to Jennifer, saying, "I was wrong."

Jennifer was shocked a second time.

"Wrong?" she repeated. "You were wrong...about what?"

"You know what," Rumplestiltskin replied. His eyes shifted from her awkwardly.

"I want to hear you say it," Jennifer told him.

"Say what."

"You know what," said Jennifer, crossing her arms. When the Sheriff stirred, she kicked him out cold again, turning to Rumplestiltskin as though she hadn't been interrupted. "You left for two months, Rumple. I told you if you found your true happiness to never come back again. So why are you here?"

Rumplestiltskin sighed deeply. God, he hated apologizing but the way Jennifer was staring at him, he knew that the only way to rectify what had happened was to say what she wanted him to say. The truth. The uncomfortable truth.

"Apparently," Rumplestiltskin said slowly, "Cora didn't love me back...as I originally thought."

"Cora." Jennifer uttered. "That's not a very nice name. Sounds like something breaking."

"Funnily enough, that's what I observed as well," Rumplestiltskin pointed out.

Jennifer uncrossed her arms and walked towards him until she was just a pace away.

"So you did fall in love with her," Jennifer stated quietly.

"I did." Rumplestiltskin responded.

"But now?"

Rumplestiltskin closed what little distance was left betwixt them, taking her hands in his, although she seemed to pull back just slightly.

"You are my true happiness, Jennifer." He told her softly. "Cora and I had a common affiliation but that's all that remains. It turns out that she only wanted my power...nothing more. she lied to me. She never truly loved me—."

Jennifer could see that he was being completely honest with her. She saw his heart break, and her expression softened, knowing he probably faced the trepidation of being rejected by the only person that yet to manipulate his heart in any way—Milah and Cora had hurt him. Now she had to pick up the pieces. Relieved to simply have him in her arms again, she wrapped them around him, and he tied the embrace with his.

"I'm sorry she broke your heart," Jennifer said sympathetically.

"Just as well...I hadn't the heart to break," Rumplestiltskin responded.

"Did you take it out?" asked Jennifer, shocked.

"No—not physically," Rumplestiltskin said, chuckling at her literal thinking. "It turns out that I never had it in order to give."

"You're trying to tell me something, aren't you?" Jennifer asked, searching his eyes.

Rumplestiltskin knew she was waiting for him to say it directly, so he took a nice long breath in and said softly, "You are my heart, Jennifer. You always have been...always will be."

Jennifer beamed.

"That's all I needed to hear." She said sweetly.

He kissed her first, and she returned it. The Sheriff seemed to stir again, groaning and mumbling about the damn sharp heels of her shoes. Jennifer simply kicked her heel back and he fell back to his unconscious state. Rumplestiltskin chortled with amusement but they didn't break the kiss. Jennifer wrapped her arms around his neck, and his went around her waist.

When Rumplestiltskin looked at Jennifer, he could see truly the love in her eyes that he still had not seen with anyone else. Suddenly, slapped the crap out of him and he stared at her, taken aback.

"Don't you ever fucking leave me again," Jennifer ordered furiously. "When I tell you to choose your happiness, I want you to choose me."

Rumplestiltskin smirked at her, rubbing his jaw, saying, "Ah, so you were jealous."

He kissed her cheek, then turned to see the Sheriff coming back to. Jennifer gave him a look.

"Speaking of which," Rumplestiltskin said coolly. "Who's this?"

"My boyfriend," Jennifer lied.

Rumplestiltskin opened his mouth to retort like a jealous, angry ex-husband, but Jennifer put a hand over his mouth.

"I'm kidding," Jennifer told him as she laughed darkly. "But look who's jealous now."

"I'm not a jealous type," Rumplestiltskin returned quickly.

"Possessive, more like." Jennifer concluded.

"I'd call it 'territorial'. I don't like other people touching what belongs to me."

"And I don't like women touching what belongs to me," Jennifer responded emphatically.

Rumplestiltskin smirked at her, satisfied with her answer. He looked at the man and Jennifer explained his whole existence in this castle.

"He's the Sheriff of Nottingham," Jennifer told Rumplestiltskin.

"'Nottingham'...So why is here?"

"I found him in the forest," Jennifer answered. "He said he could 'give me whatever I desired' so I brought him here."

"What exactly did you bring him for?" Rumplestiltskin asked suspiciously.

"Nothing like that. No one could handle me like you can. Besides," Jennifer remarked disdainfully (while Rumplestiltskin smiled sheepishly) "Being the Sheriff, I thought maybe he knew the whereabouts of some certain magical beans that could enable us to transport between the realms. He'd come by bandits all the time—thieves who acquire a lot of things they don't understand."

Rumplestiltskin sighed, "Well then, dearie, your lead is as good as dead. There are no more magical beans—at least, not in this land." He stepped over the Sheriff. "Even if there were, I doubt he would know anything."

He looked around the room, realizing they weren't in the dungeons.

"Why is he in this room? Is this your torture room now? If so, I have to rearrange a few things," Rumplestiltskin told her, gesticulating appropriately.

"I let him go." Jennifer remarked.

"You did what?"

"I let him go," she repeated.

"Why?"

"His entire life is so sad, I thought it would be better for him to live than die," Jennifer uttered. She rolled her eyes saying cynically, "He doesn't listen very well though. I let him go and he stood around looking at things, touching what isn't his."

"If what I have seen him do with you is any indication of that, I can believe it," Rumplestiltskin told her.

Jennifer's eyes twinkled when Rumplestiltskin waved his hand, turning the Sheriff into a snail. With little hesitation, he stomped on it. Jennifer smiled at him, saying, "It's nice to have you back, Rumples."