Waking up before dawn had never been an easy task for Jefferson. He had always preferred to stay awake long into the night, and before he'd been with Elizabeth, long into the early hours of the morning. For the past few months he had been sleeping well, content with the knowledge that Elizabeth lay beside him.
But he had slept fitfully that night: persuading Elizabeth to actually go to sleep had been hard enough. Every time that he had almost drifted to sleep, Jefferson was reminded of Victor's words. There were two heartbeats, and two children. Despite Elizabeth's calmness at the prospect, Jefferson couldn't fathom how they were going to look after one child, let alone two.
Not that Elizabeth had any idea. She was still too exultant from the drugs to fully understand. Her muffled breath against the pillow was the only noise in the semi darkness of their bedroom, the curled up frame cocooned in blankets that Jefferson had draped over her to keep out the wintry chill.
Staring across at the curtains, where a gradually brightening glow of light crept beneath the fabric, Jefferson decided that he might as well do something productive with dawn rapidly approaching. Taking care not to disturb Elizabeth, who was slumbering peacefully, Jefferson hauled himself from the warmth of the covers.
His bones ached with lethargy as Jefferson crossed the room to the curtains. With every creak of the floorboards beneath his feet, Jefferson warily glanced over at Elizabeth. The last thing he needed was to awake her and release the wrath of a woman who was undoubtedly exhausted, coming off a drug high and pregnant with twins. But Elizabeth had barely stirred, save shifting slightly and shrugging off the topmost blanket.
Jefferson reached the curtains and eased back the dense fabric by a fraction, the steel rungs scraping on the pole. Through the gap he had created Jefferson could see out into their back garden through a veil of condensation on the window.
The first frost tipped the blades of glass like shards of glass and the weak sunlight was not strong enough to melt it away. Skeletal branches hung over the fences, and Jefferson could just see the flecks of burnt orange leaves in the soil. A pale yellow hue from the sun had begun to emerge across the skyline, breaking through the mass of still grey clouds. Listening to the faint warble of a lone bird, Jefferson traced a finger down the condensation, the icy droplets sending a chill down his spine. He watched the rays of sun disperse amongst the clouds, casting narrow beams of light onto the white flecked fields.
A low groan sounded and Jefferson whirled around to find Elizabeth stretching, her figure twisting amongst the sheets. He knew that she'd be awaking soon, and just how awful she would feel as Wonderland's drugs took their toll. Looking back at the sun, Jefferson estimated dawn would be in little over half an hour, and Rumplestiltskin would be expecting him.
As silently as he could muster, Jefferson got his clothes from the wardrobe and made for the door. He grabbed onto the end of the bed as his foot caught on a discarded blanket in his haste. Jefferson caught his breath, his heart having leapt into his throat. He slipped from the room and went downstairs, doing up a button of his shirt with each step of the staircase.
Although the kettle had given a piercing whistle whilst boiling on the lit stove, there had been no sound of movement from upstairs to suggest Elizabeth had been woken. Taking the freshly buttered toast in one hand, Jefferson took the tray with a teapot and two mugs of steaming tea n his other hand. He navigated the winding staircase with care, all too wary of spilling boiling water onto his skin. Shifting the plate onto the tray, Jefferson leant against the doorframe before lightly knocking the knuckles of his free hand against the door. There was a mumble, which Jefferson took to mean Elizabeth was awake, so he entered the bedroom.
He set the tea tray down on the nearest bedside cabinet and went back to the curtains, pulling them apart. A meagre amount of sunlight lit up the room, but Elizabeth still moaned and buried herself back into the mass of covers, burying her head beneath her pillow. The downed mattress sank as Jefferson dropped onto it, prising the covers from Elizabeth's fingers and pulling them back.
"Get off!" Elizabeth cried; her voice muffled into the pillow.
She rolled over and gave him a disgruntled glare from beneath her untamed hair that framed her face in jagged knots.
"It's five in the morning, sleepyhead," Jefferson teased, with an exuberant grin, but Elizabeth remained unimpressed, "but I did make you breakfast. Don't worry, it's not chocolate."
"I don't ever want to see another chocolate in my life," Elizabeth said, shielding her eyes from the sun's glare as she sat up and looked over his shoulder to the tray of breakfast things.
She caught sight of the cups of tea and buttered toast, giving another groan, resting a hand on her stomach.
"I'm not hungry: I want to be sick."
"You've already thrown up the chocolates, so there's nothing in your stomach. You'll feel better once you've eaten," Jefferson reached over to the tea tray and put the plate of toast down between them.
Elizabeth looked down at the golden brown toast, a pained look crossing her face. Sighing, she shook her head and curled up her knees.
"Not even one slice?" Jefferson said, parting her curtain of matted hair so that he could see her face, "even if you want anything, the babies must be hungry. It isn't fair on them."
"Babies?" Elizabeth mumbled, though there was a sudden edge of alertness to her voice.
She turned to face him, her dark eyes searching his features for any hint of humour. But there was none, and Elizabeth stared at him.
"Toffee and treacle, remember?"
Elizabeth nodded slowly as the recollection hit her.
I can't believe that my virtuous brother has seen me intoxicated...and wanting to call my children toffee and treacle!"
With a laugh, Jefferson lifted his tea cup from the tray and held the warm cup in the palm of his hands before taking a sip. Smiling despite herself, Elizabeth gave the small pile of toast another longing look. Her stomach gave an approving grumble and Elizabeth reached for the topmost slice.
Finishing his tea, Jefferson set the cup down on the tray and briefly kissed Elizabeth's cheek.
"I've got to go, it won't do to keep Rumplestiltskin waiting," fastening his loose cravat, Jefferson made to rise from the bed.
There was the crunch of Elizabeth biting into the crust of the toast, and hand caught his arm, pulling him back down towards her.
Elizabeth hurriedly swallowed, pinning him to the spot with an unimpressed glare, "you're going without me?
"You need to rest," Jefferson countered, freeing his arm and placing his hand on her bare shoulder. His fingers brushed the lace strap of her nightdress as he continued, "doctor's orders. Victor only allowed me to bring you here if you stayed at home for the day and rested. Those drugs will leave you feeling rather hazy for a few hours; you may as well sleep rather than be dashing from one land to another."
"Can't you take the day off too?"
"Rumplestiltskin won't accept my excuses- as long as I can steal, he'll make me work. But I'm sure he can let you off. I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise. Just try and get some sleep, and have plenty to drink."
"Yes, doctor," Elizabeth smirked, shifting upright and pressing her crumb encrusted lips to his.
She withdrew with a sad smile, still almost at eye level. Her hand reached out and her fingers rested upon his cheek, fondly tracing along his jawline.
"Be careful, okay?" her words were hardly at demand, but a plea, yet there was a jovial gleam to her eyes as Elizabeth added, "You don't have me to watch your back."
"You don't have to worry about me: I can look after myself," Jefferson tried to smile back but there was heaviness inside of him and he suddenly felt rather despondent at the thought of having to portal jump without her.
He returned her kiss, retreating before the ache in his chest could grow too strong at the sight of her: tangled waves of dark hair spiralling down her shoulders, red silk covering her bare skin, breadcrumbs stuck to the edge of her lips. Jefferson longed to say goodbye but the words caught in his throat, however Elizabeth gave an understanding nod before rather pointedly yawning and sitting back down. Taking his cue to leave, Jefferson went downstairs and gathered his hat and winter coat before stepping out into the November morning.
Just as he'd promised Elizabeth, Jefferson finished his day's work as swiftly as he could. However, Rumplestiltskin's request seemed to be more arduous than ever and somehow portal jumping alone felt all too lonely on his own. Jefferson returned to Rumplestiltskin's castle just as the hint of a midday sun had faded away and presented him with the items and information that he'd managed to gleam. Just as Jefferson had been stuffing the last of his hard earned straw into his satchel, his employer had sprung one last task upon him: to steal a bag of fairy dust. It was a fairly easy task, as the fairies always had far more than they could possibly need, but having to travel through the enchanted forest when he could have been with Elizabeth irked Jefferson.
Having explored much of the enchanted forest, Jefferson knew of most of the shortcuts through the various forests and between the borders of each kingdom. Arriving at the mines, Jefferson lingered in the shadows of the trees, watching as the dwarves loaded bags of fairy dust onto carts for the fairies to collect. Even the dwarves knew just how precious the fairy dust was, or perhaps the head fairy had terrified them into submission. Jefferson certainly knew just what the Blue fairy could be like if you crossed her path.
Keeping this in mind, as well as the fact that after his previous stealing of several bags, the dwarf security had been tightened, Jefferson decided to do something he'd never done in his career as a thief.
Ask for something.
Striding out from the woods as though he had only just ventured off the path, Jefferson approached the dwarf with the aptly named 'boss' axe.
"Excuse me sir?"
The dwarf turned to him, contemptuously gazing up at the tall figure whose face was masked by a top hat.
"You're the one who stole fairy dust off us last time, aren't you?"
Realising he needed to change his tact; Jefferson took off his hat and looked the dwarf straight in the eye.
"Yes. And I could do with another bag-"
"You really think that's going to work?" the dwarf asked, smirking contemptuously.
The other dwarfs had stopped their work and gathered around, though the boss didn't reprimand them.
"It's not for me: it's for the woman I love," reaching into his coat pocket, Jefferson retrieved the rose gold band, embedded with onyx stones that he had purchased from one of the far off markets that he had been to in earlier that day, "I'm going to propose to her, and I wish to encase fairy dust within the stones of the ring."
The congregated dwarves all looked at one another, awaiting their boss' reaction. A smirk crossed the dwarf's face.
"Dwarves don't have emotions: least of all love. We mine. It doesn't matter in the slightest to us if you want this fairy dust for your dearly beloved or not. And at any rate, you're a thief- and we don't deal with thieves."
"But I need it," Jefferson said, desperation gnawing inside of him at the thought of Rumplestiltskin's reaction if he returned empty handed. With an exasperated sigh, Jefferson uttered the word he hadn't used in years, "please?"
"No. Now leave, I've been lenient enough. You don't want the blue fairy to see you skulking around here, do you?" The dwarf asked, his fellow kin silently watching the conversation unfold.
"Fine," Jefferson scowled, flipping his top hat onto his heat with a flourish and turning to leave.
He stormed past the cart of fairy dust, his gaze briefly drifting across to the sacks.
'I'm so close to them,' he seethed, 'if only I could just-'
"Wait! Wait, please!" A soft, tinkling voice called.
Jefferson glanced over his shoulder to see one of the fairies fluttering towards him, her miniature pink wings beating as fast as a hummingbird. She was tiny in flight but the fairy slowed as she landed, growing in size, though she was still considerably smaller than him.
"What?" Jefferson snapped, feeling a twinge of regret as the young fairy flinched slightly.
"I-I, I just want to help you. Hopefully one day I might become a fairy godmother, and what better way to begin by helping people?"
Jefferson frowned at her, his eyes narrowing with suspicion, "why would you help me? Don't you know who I am?"
"Oh yes!" The fairy nodded her head vigorously, "the blue fairy warned us about a thief with a top hat. But everyone deserves a second chance, and I think putting fairy dust in your beloved's engagement ring is very sweet. Plus, there's plenty of fairy dust to go around, it should be used for good by others."
As she spoke, the fairy reached into the folds of her dress and produced a small bag of fairy dust. Her fingers fumbled with the material of her dress and a few flecks of dust scattered onto the ground. The fairy gave an apologetic smile before thrusting the bag into his hands.
"I know it doesn't look like much, but there's more there than you think...if I took too much the others would notice..."
Jefferson examined the bag and slipped into his satchel.
"Thank you," he said genuinely, and the fairy beamed with a blush.
"It's okay," she said, already shrinking back into her fairy size, "I just hope she says yes."
Her wings beating furiously, the fairy begin to fly back to the entrance of the mines.
"Hey, wait: I didn't catch your name," Jefferson called after her.
The fairy paused and hovered by him, "I'm Nova."
"Jefferson. Although I'd prefer it if you didn't mention that to your superior."
"I won't," Nova said, "good luck with your proposal, Jefferson."
Jefferson tipped his hat to her and watched as the flurry of pink vanished off to the mines before slipping back into the secrecy of the woods.
Once he'd walked far enough away from the dwarf mines, Jefferson found a secluded trail from the main path and wandered down it until he reached a small clearing. Sitting on a wooden log, Jefferson took out the ring and fairy dust. He'd never done an enchantment that directly involved fairy dust, but had a vague idea of how to encase the magic within the colourful slates of stone.
Muttering an incantation under his breath, Jefferson kept his eyes locked onto the onyx stones as they melted. Dipping two fingertips into the bag of fairy dust, Jefferson purposefully sprinkled a few flecks of fairy dust into each stone and did the reverse spell before the stone could set hard. The stones reformed, the rainbow colours glinting in the sunlight, defined even more by the fairy dust. Satisfied with the ring, Jefferson put it back into his pocket before continuing on his way back to the castle.
In the harsh haze from the bleak November sky, the woodlands looked more barren than ever. Remains of the morning's frost crunched beneath Jefferson's shoes as he traipsed up to Rumplestiltskin's castle, his satchel swinging against his side with each step. A cool breeze rippled through the skeletal branches, biting at Jefferson's skin. He tugged his hat further down his head and tucked his hands into his coat pockets.
The roaring fire in the dark one's majestic fireplace was a rather welcome sight as Jefferson entered the castle for the second time that day. A blast of warmth hit Jefferson as he stepped into the hallway and he unbuttoned his coat.
Intending to leave as soon as he could, Jefferson retrieved the bag of fairy dust from his satchel and placing it down on the closest end of the dining table. At the other end of the table were two chairs positioned by the fire. From behind these chairs came the sound of Regina's voice:
"Back so soon?"
"It's only fairy dust, it's not exactly that difficult," Jefferson retorted, drumming his fingers on the edge of table as he scanned the room for any sign of his business partner, "where's Rumplestiltskin?"
"Why do you want to know?" Regina said, remaining in her seat by the fire, her outstretched feet just visible.
"So that I can give him this fairy dust and go."
"Oh that's right," Regina drawled, and Jefferson could envisage the smirk on her face as she spoke, "you'll want to get back to Elizabeth. I see she's not with you today."
There was the sound of a large book closing, and the tap of heels as Regina's legs swung onto the floor. Regina rose from her seat and strutted over to him.
"I'll tell where Rumplestiltskin is if you tell me why Elizabeth isn't here too."
"She's ill," Jefferson said sharply.
"Ill?" Regina repeated, her eyes gleaming malevolently as she savoured the syllable, "she's still got another three months to go yet."
"She's pregnant with twins: double the morning sickness. She didn't look that well this morning so I told her to stay at home and rest," Jefferson explained, "now where is Rumplestiltskin?"
"Right here dearie."
Turning, he saw that Rumplestiltskin was indeed stood behind him, the bag of fairy dust in one scaled hand.
"It's a little on the small side, but it'll do," the imp announced, "I'll see you the same time tomorrow then Jefferson, hopefully with your assistant?"
"Indeed you shall," Jefferson lifted his hat, inclining his head to Rumplestiltskin and very briefly to Regina before venturing back out into the cold.
Darkening clouds had begun to engulf the grey sky as he hurried through the forest. The first few rain droplets splattered onto Jefferson's coat, and he quickened his pace as the rain steadily grew heavier. Reaching the place that he'd been thinking of all day, Jefferson climbed the slope to the place he could now truly call a home.
Jefferson closed the front door behind him, pushing back the icy swirl of wind that tried to sweep in. The warmth of the house compared to the outside made it all the more welcoming, along with the aroma of tea that lingered in the air, but there were no suggestions of movement. Not wishing to disturb Elizabeth, Jefferson hung up his wet clothes before opening the door to the kitchen.
Elizabeth was sat at the rounded dining table with various papers and a notebook spread across the surface, her cup of tea acting as a paper weight and spilling a ring onto the sheets. Her ink pen was held between her fingers, poised to write. But Elizabeth was frowning, her concentration focused upon her writing.
"I'm back."
Elizabeth's head jerked up as she realised that there was someone in the doorway. Her initially startled look grew relaxed as she smiled at the sight of him. Getting up from the chair, Elizabeth went to him, an animated look upon her face as she clasped his hands. Before Jefferson had a chance to even say hello, Elizabeth announced:
"I've got something I want to show you!"
Keeping hold of her hands, Jefferson followed Elizabeth back out into the hallway and upstairs. As Elizabeth led him deeper into the mansion, Jefferson began to wonder just what she wanted to show him. They were now on the third floor, a floor Jefferson had never bothered with. Until Elizabeth had moved in, he'd hardly spent any time in the house, and had never ventured any further than the second floor.
The floorboards on the topmost floor were lined with a film of dust, and the wallpaper lining was peeling in several places. Leading Jefferson down the abandoned hallway, Elizabeth grasped the one door handle that wasn't grey with dust and the door slowly creaked open.
Despite having been abandoned along with the rest of the third floor for several years, the room still appeared to be in fairy good condition. The sunlight from the large window had kept out mould from forming, and although the walls had discoloured slightly and the floorboards were covered by a carpet of cobwebs, the room wasn't quite as neglected as the hallway. But Jefferson still glanced sceptically around the room, unsure as to what Elizabeth had to show him.
Elizabeth beamed as she gestured to the room, "I know it needs a little work...and we'd have to move our bedroom into one of the other rooms to be nearby, but don't you think that this room would be perfect as a nursery?"
Seeing his incredulous look, Elizabeth continued earnestly, "think about it: the room's spacious enough for two children, you've got the big bay window overlooking the garden, you could have the two cots in the middle of the room, with mobiles hanging down from those holes in a ceiling, there's plenty of space for a small wardrobe and wooden boxes to store toys..."
Elizabeth gave a wistful sigh as she gazed around the room. The image that she painted in both of their minds was a picturesque one, but compared to what was before them, Jefferson couldn't quite see it as ever being more than a dream.
"I don't know if it'd work-"
"If we dusted this place and repainted the walls, it'd look much better!" Elizabeth interrupted, her relentless optimism at the idea making it difficult for him to remain unconvinced.
"You really have given this a lot of thought," Jefferson said at last, jokily adding, "what colour do you want the walls?"
"Orange," Elizabeth said without a moment's hesitation, "seeing as though our children are foretold to be different genders, it doesn't seem fair to paint the walls pink or blue. I like orange: it's nice and bright, and reminds me of sunset."
They were close enough to the roof now that the rattling of raindrops could be heard and the window opposite them was stained with streaks of rain.
"I suppose the weather's too bad for the market to be open."
"We don't need go out to get paint," Jefferson said, and Elizabeth shook her head at his implications.
"How many times do I have to tell you: you can't just use magic whenever you feel like it!"
"It's not like last time when I used it to put the kettle on the stove, which I admit may have been a little bit pointless. Don't you want to paint the room?" Jefferson asked.
"I didn't mean straight away."
"We might as well, it's too bad to go out," pressed Jefferson, flicking his wrist as Elizabeth gave a nod of agreement and two pots of orange paint landing with a thud on the floorboards, "I'll go and grab some cleaning things and paint brushes."
Dragging the mop across another row of floorboards, Jefferson let out a loud sigh. He lifted his eyes from staring at the half clean, half dusty floor to where Elizabeth sat, cleaning the windowsill across the room. She had her back to him, though Jefferson wasn't sure if she hadn't heard him, or was ignoring his complaints about doing housework.
"You know what we need?" Jefferson said, discarding the mop into the bucket, "one of those machines that I saw them in another land. They make this loud whirring noise and you move them over a surface and all the dust vanishes. Only thing is that they need something called 'electricity', which this realm hasn't discovered yet."
Elizabeth shifted from her position to face him, "as marvellous as that sounds, you've almost finished anyway."
She motioned to the sparse, but now clean, floorboards that covered most of the room, "you've only got that bit where you're stood left. Then all we can paint the walls."
Begrudgingly, Jefferson took the mop back out of the water and got back to work. He soon finished cleaning the last of the floorboards, Elizabeth wiping off the last of the cobwebs from the corners of the window panes. A satisfied look crossed her face as she glanced around the room that now looked inhabitable. The gleaming floor and windows only highlighted how yellowed the walls were, but Elizabeth grinned at him as she pulled back the lid of one of the paint pots.
"Now for the fun part."
Leaving his mop and bucket in the hallway, Jefferson picked up his paint brush and dipped it onto the orange paint.
"Are we painting all the walls?"
"Not unless you want to give our children psychedelic nightmares," Elizabeth laughed, dipping the tip of her paint brush into the tin, "I was thinking of just painting the two longer walls, and having the walls with the window and door white."
"Sounds good to me," Jefferson swept his brush into the paint and coated the bristles in the tangerine substance. He glanced across at Elizabeth, her eyes also flickering to his.
"Do you want do the honours?"
"Together," Elizabeth said and they both ran their brushes along the wall, masking the off white tinge with a thick layer of orange.
They quickly settled in a pattern, with Elizabeth painting the middle width of the wall that could be easily reached, whilst Jefferson used a wooden stepladder he'd found to paint the topmost area. As they painted, the sweep of brushes against the wall growing rhythmic, Jefferson filled Elizabeth in his day, assuring her that he only visited lands they'd already travelled and omitting Regina's questioning and his trip to the mines.
With one last stroke along the topmost edge of the wall, Jefferson clambered down the step ladder, his paintbrush held loosely in his hand. Looking down to check the gap from the final step to the floor, Jefferson could hide his grin at the sight of Elizabeth.
"What?" She asked, pausing her painting at the sound of his muffled laughter.
"You got something on your nose."
Elizabeth put a hand to her face and placed a finger on the tip of her nose. When she removed it, the spot of paint transferred onto her finger.
"I wonder how that got there?" She mused dryly, and Jefferson realised which way he'd been holding his paintbrush.
Before he could apologise, Elizabeth had teasingly flicked her own paintbrush at him, flecks of paint flying through the air.
"This was my best cravat!" Jefferson protested, staring down at the orange flecks that had landed on him.
"I didn't mean to! You should have taken it off before we started though."
"I'll find a way of getting it out," Jefferson said, though he did unwind the material from around his neck and stuff it into his back pocket.
Gathering a fresh stroke of paint onto his brush, Jefferson aimed his brush towards Elizabeth. The paint missed the tip of her head by a fraction but she whipped around, and pointed a finger at him.
"Stop flicking paint at me! We've been painting for at least an hour now and we still have the other wall to do, plus the remaining two that need to be painted white."
Her shoulders slackened as Elizabeth gave a slight yawn, exhaustion lining her face.
"You can take a break if you want, and I'll finish this wall. We can always leave the others for another day?" Jefferson offered, but Elizabeth shook her head.
"No, it's fine; I can help you finish this wall."
Elizabeth had painted the majority of the wall, leaving a small patch that ran above the skirting board.
"I'll finish this patch on the right, and you could do along the bottom?"
Jefferson knelt down onto the floorboards and swept his brush along the unpainted length of the wall, Elizabeth softly humming as she painted the right end of the wall. He quickly finished in the left corner and Jefferson looked over his shoulder to see that Elizabeth was also coming to her final stroke of paint. The outline of the small box in his pocket had been nestled into him all whilst he painted, and Jefferson decided that it was now or never.
Slowly setting his paintbrush down on the lid of the almost empty paint pot, Jefferson turned his body so that he was kneeling towards Elizabeth. Clearing his throat, Jefferson slid the box out from his pocket and clutching it in his trembling fingers.
"Yes?" Elizabeth said, glancing briefly over at him, suddenly turning around as she caught sight of what was in his hands.
Elizabeth gaped at him, her grip on the paintbrush loosening slightly.
"I...Elizabeth-" Jefferson began hoarsely, the words he'd been mulling over vanishing. He stared up at her face that was an unreadable mix of emotions, before taking a deep breath and beginning again.
"Elizabeth, I don't really know quite what to say, or at least, I don't know what I can say that can prove just how I feel. But what I do know is that being with you isn't like being with anybody else and no matter what, I'll always choose you. Even over portal jumping. I don't want to have to imagine a day without you. So I suppose what I'm trying to say is..."
Jefferson trailed away as his shaking voice came close to breaking. Her eyes glistening with tears, Elizabeth approached him.
"Will you marry me?" She finished, her own voice laced with emotion. Her face was lit up with joy, and Jefferson knew his expression mirrored hers, a smile spreading at the movement of Elizabeth's lips.
"Yes."
Jefferson rose from his position on the floor and carefully removed the shining band from its velvet casing. The ring slipped onto Elizabeth's outstretched finger with ease, shards of colour glittering from the onyx stones. Keeping the hand that now wore the engagement ring placed on his, Elizabeth reached to her neck and lifted out her necklace.
The pendant flickered with colour, caught by the rays of sunlight that streamed through the clear windows. Outside, the rain had almost fully faded, mixing with the sunshine to form a faint rainbow that wore away into the horizon.
A/N: Just wanted to say a quick thank you as this week I discovered that this story has reached over 10,000 reads (before this chapter was uploaded the count was at 10,173)
Wow. I realise this may not be a huge amount on this website, but for me that is simply incredible and I am honestly astounded by just how many people have read this over what isn't quite seven months. So thank you for all of the reviews, favourites and follows that accompany these reads that have been flooding my inbox- knowing there are people out there reading this really makes my day.
Also, a little side note here: Nova does feature in this chapter, and although her story in OUAT is about nine or ten years after this, I personally think that the fairies have a longer life span than humans. Did any get the 'superior' pun? I'm quite proud of that one.