This was a tough chapter to write, and I am hoping that I have conveyed my meaning through the words. Just a warning, some may consider the end a little violent. As always, thank you to my loyal readers and reviewers. You guys are awesome! Anyway, let me know what you think. I tried to answer some of the questions that were asked in the reviews of the previous chapter. I hope you enjoy. Please Review.
Chapter 23 – King George
Several days had passed since JC's mind blowing, blood sugar dropping revelation. The one that said the he and I were the key to resetting some event in time. The problem being, we didn't know what event we were supposed to reset or how we were supposed to reset it. So, essentially, he and I being in the same room together was a potential ticking time bomb; a literal time bomb. So, we decided that it was best if JC and I stayed far apart from each other. And when I say far apart, I mean that he stayed in Augusta and I stayed in Storybrooke. When we did communicate with each other, it was only through my parents.
"Let's go over what we know again," Mary Margaret suggested. Over the past couple of days we recruited Belle and Regina to help figure out this mystery and we had been sitting in the library all day going through books of spells, curses, and even stories looking for any clue or piece of information that could point us in any direction. It didn't have to be the right direction; just any direction.
"Here, let's write it all down on this," Belle said as she pulled an easel from the nearby supply room behind the circulation desk at the library. The easel had a large blank paper note pad clipped to it and she held a handful of colorful markers. I rubbed my face and ran my fingers through my hair.
"I've already written it down," I raised my voice in disgust. I picked up my notebook and tossed it toward the group of people who were just as flustered as me. "I would read it to you, but I don't have to, I have it memorized. Gold created the dark curse and made me the savior because he wanted me to break the curse and help him find Neal, Pan wanted to stop me from breaking the curse because he knew that if I broke the curse he would ultimately be killed by Gold. JC is here because James gave his mother a magic bean so that they could flee from King George and the curse, Pan was using Lily and Mr. Cooper to keep tabs on me and kill me respectively to stop me from breaking the curse. JC and I are cousins, the eldest children of the twin boys who were never meant to know each and it is up us to bring that bond back together, but when we do, it will reset one event in time that will change the course of everything that we know. Did I miss anything?" I looked around the table and saw that nobody moved; actually most of them were looking away from me or at the floor. Either their brains were just as fried as mine or they were afraid of my reaction to, well, anything. "The only thing that I don't know is why the hell we haven't hauled King George's ass in here and interrogate him for a while? He has to know something."
Questioning King George had rapidly become a point of contention between my father and me. For some reason, that I hadn't figured out yet, every time that I suggested bringing him in, my father advised against it. I had broached the subject several times with David, only to be told to drop it or just ignored altogether. I was starting to think that my father was afraid of what he might have to say.
"You know what? I can't do this anymore, I need to get out and get some fresh air." I pushed my chair back from the table and pulled my red leather jacket over my arms. "I'll be home later," I said to my mother. As I tried to walk past she grabbed my wrist and slipped a granola bar into my hand. "I'm not hungry, we just had dinner," I rolled my eyes and I pushed the granola bar back in her direction.
"Please just take it with you?" she pleaded. He eyes were filled with over protective worry.
"Mom, how many times have you called Dr. Whale? And how many times does he need to tell you that I'm fine? It was combination of the stress, JC's story, and not eating all day." I knew that I was frustrated and acting like a whiny teenager. But for god's sake she was shoving food at me every two hours. I'll admit that my little black out episode was a bit worrying, but it was a condition that could affect any living human being when the conditions were right. I was overly stressed, JC had just dropped the bomb of the century on me, and I ate three bites of cheerios all day. So as Dr. Whale had explained to my mother, I don't know how many times, the conditions were right.
"Emma, take the damn granola bar." Ok, apparently I wasn't the only frustrated one. I pulled the bar from my mother's hand as soon as I heard my father's 'do as your told' voice boom with the order. I slipped it into my coat pocket and zipped the zipper to keep it from falling out. I smiled at them and left without saying another word.
I began to walk toward the harbor. I don't know what it was about the water but it always seemed to be my place for solace or deep thinking. I don't know if it was the sound of the seagulls, the water lapping up against the docks, or a combination but whatever it was, it always calmed me down. I walked around the pier for a short time before my legs betrayed my brain and turned me toward the more affluent neighborhood. Before I knew it, I was knocking on his door.
"Can I help you?" His voice was stern and gruff, like always, when he opened the door. It was obvious that he wasn't expecting me. He stood there in his satin pajamas, smoking jacket, and reeked of alcohol.
"Have a minute to chat with your granddaughter?" I asked him. I had never given in to his antics about our adoptive family relationship in the past, but I needed to get answers, and if you wanted to get technical he was my father's adoptive father making him my adoptive grandfather. And the only way to get answers from King George was to play the game his way. He opened the door wider and stepped aside to allow my entry into his home.
I followed him into the den. He moved behind a large oak desk and pointed to one of the velvet upholstered chairs positioned in front of the desk. The walls were cascaded with large oak shelves that were filled with books. Most likely, a majority of the books were law books. He was a lawyer, after all. Before he sat down on his black leather desk chair, he turned to the bar behind the desk and poured himself a drink. "Bourbon?" he offered to me.
"No, thank you. I'm on duty." I answered. "Nice place you have here," a little small talk to open up the channel of communication never hurt, right?
But he went straight to the thought that was on his mind, "Can I assume that your father doesn't know that you're here? I know how he feels about my presence near you." I watched him as he peered out the window that was to the left of his desk. I was about to lie to him and tell him that my father was aware of my location, but he beat me to the punch. "And, David doesn't seem to be pacing sidewalk waiting for the moment that he can break down my door to drag you out of here."
"My dad is aware that I am on patrol, with a set time to meet him. But, no, you don't need to worry about him busting down your door, at the moment. I'm here to talk to you. I have some questions that I think you can answer." Ok, so I reworded my lie.
He spun around in his chair to finally face me. His eyes looked so tired a little sad even. Maybe it was the alcohol, but I had never seen him so melancholy. In every encounter that I have ever had with this man, his arrogance always walked through the door before he did. So to see him in this state was a bit disconcerting, but just maybe it meant that I had a chance of him being cooperative. He didn't say anything, just stared forward. Not even at me, more like through me.
"Tell me about my uncle." I was a get to the point kind of person and I wasn't there to waste his time or mine.
He pulled his gaze to my face before he finally spoke. "Of all the questions I would have expected from you that one was not at the top of the list."
"Why is that?" I asked. It was clear that I piqued his interest. Now I just had to see what I could get out of him before I started to push my luck.
"I loved my son." He snapped back at me. Wow, his mood was jumping around like a rabbit on steroids. By the way our conversation had started, I wasn't expecting him to get defensive, but I'm sure that he was looking for the motive in my visit and drunk. I had seen drunk rage before, unfortunately.
"I didn't say that you didn't love him. But I want to know about him and sadly my father knows very little." I studied his face closely. I needed to determine just how much he was willing to divulge. His look remained stone cold for a minute, but then began to soften.
"He was a brave man, a little cocky, but I was proud of him. He was a ruthless ruler and arrogant. He was everything that I wanted in a Prince. He was the man that I wanted him to be. But he was also a little unruly at times. Every once in a while, I would see your grandmother come out in him; he would have a moment of caring for the commoners and I couldn't tolerate that."
Ok, I had to admit, King George really took me back a step when I heard the adjectives that he used to describe his son. They were the same adjectives that I had heard my father use to describe his brother, but not exactly ones that you expect to come from the mouth of a proud parent. But he was being honest with me. And I wasn't sure why. Then it hit me.
"You know why I'm here, don't you?" he slowly nodded to my question.
"I've seen you with him. I knew it was just a matter of time before you came knocking on my door; though I am surprised that you are alone." He spun around and poured himself another drink. I watched him wondering how many that he had already had this evening. "James was right to get that boy away from me. It was too bad that the mother wasn't smart enough to leave when James told her to."
"But she did leave, before the curse hit," I interjected.
"I don't know why she held on to that bean so long. I guess she was waiting for James to come save her, but as soon as she was out of site, he forgot about her and the boy. He didn't want to be a father and he didn't want me to know that he was a father. His motivations were purely selfish."
"I wonder where he got that from," I thought that I mumbled it low enough that he didn't hear me, but I was wrong.
"You're a blunt person, just like your father."
I gave him a smile at what I considered to be a compliment. "So you know about JC being in this realm. When did you finally make contact with him?"
"You're right, I knew about JC being in this realm. I hired people to find him just after you broke the curse and returned from the Enchanted Forest with your mother. But I also know about the prophecy, which is the real reason why you're here, is it not?"
I raised my eyebrow to him, "Perceptive." I nodded, "Yeah, I'm interested in what you know about the prophecy."
"Well, I'm afraid that I don't know much more than you do."
"Yeah, somehow I don't believe that." I needed to call his bluff. He needed to know that I wasn't going to back down and just accept his denial at face value.
"Now who's the perceptive one?" He took a long sip from his drink. "Rumplestiltskin told me of the prophecy before the dark curse hit. He told me that was the only way to get my James back. I had to let the mother and boy escape so that they boy could join the savior to reset time back to one event. After you and your mother returnee, he informed me that it was up to me to make sure that you two met . What I didn't know was that you two were going to meet long before you showed up to break the curse or that Cooper was going to try to kill you under Pan's orders. But when I found out that Cooper was your foster father, I arranged for his release from jail in return for getting you and JC to meet again."
"And that's when you gave him the medal to get into Storybrooke. Where did you get it?" I asked. I thought about the medal that has been on my nightstand since the day that David took Mr. Cooper to the town line.
"Gold gave it to me. Told me to hold onto to and when the time was right, I would know what to do with it."
"So what made you give it to Mr. Cooper?" To say that my head was spinning would have been the understatement of the year. With each passing day, no with each passing minute, this mystery became more complicated. Every answer led to more questions.
"Call it a hunch or a feeling. When I was finally able to meet with Cooper, I just felt like I needed to give him the medal." This part of the story was getting to be a little hard to swallow.
"So you're saying that you had no idea that this medal would be instrumental in getting Cooper into Storybrooke?" I gave him a skeptical glare. He just took another swig of his drink.
"Would you rather me make up some lie to feed to you? Gold told me that I would know what to do when the time was right; I guess that was the time. Magic is powerful, you know."
He had a point. I had no idea what kind of spell or curse Gold may have used to on the medal or King George. It was after the curse was broken and we all know that Gold was the one to bring magic to Storybrooke. At this point, I had to take him at his word; although I wasn't exactly buying it but I didn't have any proof to the contrary.
"Do you know anything else about this medal?" I asked. I could tell that I was quickly running out of time. But I pushed anyway.
He nodded, "It has a counterpart to it. Another piece, that when you put them together it has the ability to show you something that time has forgotten."
I had heard those words before, but I couldn't remember where. "What does the counterpart look like? Is it another medal?" I remembered that JC told me that he had purchased a medallion in Gold's shop. So my first thought was that maybe it was the medallion together with the medal that was going to be the trigger. And now, I had one object and he had the other.
"That I don't know, Gold never told me. He was always good at just telling you what you needed to know for that moment." I knew exactly what he meant. Gold never did anything for anyone that didn't benefit him in some way. So, how was Gold going to benefit from JC and me resetting an event in time? One thing that I did learn was that the event was mostly going to be something before I was born. How else would King George get back his son James? Unless, getting James back wasn't meant to be literal.
"So why are you telling me all of this? It's not like you to be so forthcoming…"
"I only ever wanted my family here in this world. That was David, JC, and you. It's been thirty years and I'm tired of waiting." He paused for a moment.
"Whoa, wait a minute? A family? You hated my father for what he and my mother did, and you expect me to believe that all you wanted was a family?" Talk about doing a complete 180.
"I let power, grief, and greed consume me. When you and your mother were stuck in the Enchanted Forest I thought that I had my chance for revenge. And David came out on top again. Then you were back, he had his family together and I was reminded, yet again, of what I was missing. But I had already ruined things between us. There was no way to get it back. That's when I went to Gold and he reminded me of the prophecy and how to get back James." He paused for a moment then emptied the drink into his mouth. "I think it's time for you to leave now."
I nodded and he escorted me to the door. "Thank you," I said to him. I was being sincere. I owed him that much. This conversation was unlike any other that I had with King George. And to be honest, I was still waiting for the other shoe to drop. This was the very definition of being out of character for him; almost to the point that if it wasn't for my superpower, I would have said that he was lying to me. But he wasn't.
"For what's it worth, Emma," I stopped and turned when he said my name. "I loved your father. David was just as much my son as James was, I was just too wrapped up in myself" I gave him a gentle smile with a nod before I turned and made my way down the sidewalk.
I was almost to the street when I heard the loud sound. So loud and out of place that I fell the ground to protect myself. But it was only a couple of seconds before I realized that the gun shot came from inside King George's house. I pulled out my phone and called for an ambulance as I ran back to the house. I knew exactly where to go once I was inside, I found him lying on the floor behind his oak desk, and the pistol was still in his hand. I gently wept for the man who had just confided in me that he had only wanted a family. He wanted his son, his grandson, and apparently his granddaughter in this world; his mistake was that he went about it all the wrong way. I sat down next to him and held his hand as I waited for the paramedics to arrive.