Chapter 6: The shepherd
Rumpelstiltskin had just made a new deal with King George. A new prince to substitute his dead son, in exchange for the kingdom's fairy whereabouts. He was quite happy about the deal, he was one step closer to getting his hands on a fairy wand.
"You know." The voice startled the imp, and he turned around to see Rose Red perched on the table. Like she just didn't catch by surprise one of the most powerful beings in existence. "I don't like King George, and I'm sure not going to cry about Prince David's death. Not after what he did to Anton." She mumbled the last part to herself, but the Dark One still heard her and wondered when had the princess met a giant. But before he could ask, she continued to speak.
"I know you are not particularly fond of him either. So, why help him again? If you truly wanted the whereabouts of the fairy, I could have told you."
Rumple smiled, sat on a chair and put his feet on the table. He looked at the princess intently.
"I know you would have, darling." And he truly knew she would have told him. "But, sometimes I prefer to do things my way. And let's just say that I'm invested in this new prince's future." He grinned, let out a laugh and stood up to go see a shepherd.
Mary-Margaret was scrubbing a plate raw with a frown on her face, while Rose observed with mild amusement. Then Emma came into the apartment, back from David's welcome home party.
The three women discussed the conversation Mary-Margaret had with David, and how it was the correct thing to do. But the troubled woman couldn't take her mind off of it, so Emma suggested that they drink.
They spent the rest of the night talking about past failed relationships and connecting them to Mary-Margaret's situation. By the time they went to bed the bottle was empty, and Mary-Margaret felt better about her decision to end whatever was building between her and David.
David, the shepherd made prince for a day, was on his way to kill a dragon. When he was left behind with one knight, a woman approached them. He didn't know who she was. He should have remembered ever meeting a woman like her, with short dark red hair and eyes of different colors. She was running their way, and tackled him to the ground behind a rock just in time to avoid being burned by the dragon.
Once the dragon took flight, the two of them dragged an injured knight behind the rock, so he could rest and be protected from the dragon. David was going to fight the dragon himself, but before he could move, the woman stopped him.
"Don't go head first into a fight without a plan." She told him with a meaningful look.
"I've never fought a dragon. How am I supposed to make a plan?" He answered with wide, fearful eyes.
"You are a shepherd right?" At that David nodded. "Dragons are animals, bigger, scarier and breathe fire, but animals nonetheless. Just treat him like a goat." David just looked at her like she was crazy, but then, looking around, he saw what she meant.
He sprained into action, started running to a crevice in the mountain with the dragon hot on his heels. He grabbed the gold sword and dived into the small space. The dragon got stuck, and David took this opportunity to cut his head off.
Once out in the open with the dragon head, he turned to look at the mysterious woman that had helped him and thanked her. She shook her head with a smile, but it quickly turned into a frown.
"You defeated the dragon on your own. I just gave you a little perspective. But, I wouldn't trust King George if I were you." She said with her frown deepening. "I see you are a good man, and I want to warn you. King George will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Don't trust his word, it means nothing."
David looked at her in confusion, but nodded. The woman nodded back and turned to leave.
"Wait!" David called out to her, making her stop and look at him. "I don't even know your name."
The woman grinned.
"I'm Rose."
The next day, Rose was making her way out of the school when Mary-Margaret grabbed her arm and started to drag her somewhere.
"What's the rush? Where are you taking me?"
Mary-Margaret stopped, and turned to her friend with a big smile.
"I'll tell you when we get to the sheriff's office." And then kept on dragging Rose.
Once they arrived at the station, Graham saw that Mary-Margaret wanted to speak in private and went to his office.
"He left his wife." Mary-Margaret blurted once Graham closed his office door.
She told the two women how her conversation with David had gone that morning, and how he asked her to meet him that night. Emma was all for Mary-Margaret to go see David, but Rose had a frown on her face.
"M&M, you are my friend and I want you to be happy." Emma groaned hearing that, she knew that Rose was about to make one of her speeches that could make Mary-Margaret change her mind. "But, he just left her. He doesn't even remember anything about himself."
At that Mary-Margaret frowned. Regina had said the same. But, if Rose was saying it, it wasn't out of spite. She knew the young woman was truly concerned about her.
"I don't want to make this choice for you, but if it was me, I wouldn't go. He needs to remember who he was, or at least let some time pass. Moving on this fast in these circumstances will only end in tragedy."
Mary-Margaret thought hard about it. She wanted to go, meet with David and explore these new feelings she had. But, she could see what Rose was getting at. This was not a normal way to start a relationship and it could go very badly, for the three of them. Finally, she made up her mind.
"I'm going to go." Emma smiled and cheered and Rose sighed. "No, no, listen. I'm going to meet him and tell him that we can see were these feelings can take us, but only after he has recovered his memories, or after a couple of months have passed without him regretting anything."
Rose was at Granny's having a drink and talking with Ruby, when Mary-Margaret came in, crying. The two friends looked at each other and went to the crying woman's side. Ruby brought her a drink, but then had to leave to attend other customers. Rose smiled at her and whispered an ʽI got itʼ.
"So, want to talk about it?" Rose took a sip of her drink and took a sideways look towards Mary-Margaret.
The woman had tears running down her face, and she kept twirling her ring on her finger. She shook her head.
"No. At least not now." She said softly.
Rose nodded and both friends spend the next ten minutes, drinking in silence. Once Rose had finished her drink, she sighed and turned to Mary-Margaret.
"I won't pry today, but when you are ready to talk, I'm here for you." She smiled, kissed Mary-Margaret's temple and squeezed her shoulder. "I'm going to head home. Call if you need me."
The woman nodded and smiled softly. She was thankful to have a friend like Rose in her life, but at the moment she just wanted to drink, and try to forget how stupid she had been.
On her way home, Rose turned a corner and bumped into someone. When she looked at the person's face, she saw Mr. Gold.
"Well darling, it seems that our meetings are always out of the ordinary." He smiled at her, and she looked at him with a soft smile.
Rose still didn't know what to make of Mr. Gold. After the ordeal with Ashley and her baby, her opinion about the man had taken a drastic turn. Mr. Gold seeing the look of mistrust in the woman's face decided to clear the air.
"I know that your opinion of me must have taken a turn for the worst after Miss Boyd's incident. But if it is any consolation, if the young woman had come to me and said she regretted signing the contract, I'm sure we could have come to an agreement that would have let her keep her baby, without all the fuss that was made."
Rose raised an eyebrow and looked at him, trying to see if she could detect any hint of deception. After a while she gave up and accepted that what the man said could have been a real possibility.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that." She finally said with a small smile. Mr. Gold took that as a chance to talk more with the young woman.
"So, where are you going on this fine night, Miss Kingsley?"
"As a matter of fact, I'm going home." She said while pointing in the direction she was headed. He nodded and offered her his arm.
"I couldn't let a nice young woman like yourself go home by her lonesome." Rose raised an eyebrow, but took the offered arm, and they started walking towards her apartment. "I heard about the incident in the mine. I hope you are okay, darling."
"Yeah. Just a couple of bruises and a delay on the recovery of my ribs." She smiled, but he frowned.
"Are you felling alright?" He asked concerned.
"Yes, don't worry. I'm used to it. I've gotten hurt before, much worse than some fissured ribs." She dismissed his worry, because she was telling the truth, she had had way worse injuries.
"I didn't know the job of an archeologist was so dangerous." He said with surprise at the sincerity in the woman's voice.
"Physical injuries heal with time, but physiological ones… there are some things that even time can't heal." She frowned while thinking about her friend back at Granny's, and about some of her not so great memories.
"Ah, yes. The wounds of the mind and heart are hard to heal, and even harder to forget." He said, and looked at the redhead beside him with a smile. "But someone once told me that these wounds are the ones that make us who we are, and therefore shouldn't be forgotten."
Rose thought about those words and nodded. After all, she wouldn't be who she was if not for everything that had happened to her, good and bad.
"That's a nice way to look at it." She smiled at him softly. "Learn from your mistakes, appreciate what you have and the people around you, actions have consequences. I learned all those things the hard way, but I know I won't forget them anytime soon."
They arrived at Rose's apartment, and she let go of Mr. Gold's arm, went to the door and turned to him.
"Thank you for walking me home Mr. Gold."
"It was my pleasure, darling. I can assure you." He smiled. "I hope to see you again soon, Miss Kingsley. I enjoyed our talk. Maybe next time we can talk about a something less glum."
Rose smiled and nodded.
"Rose." She just said that nothing else. Mr. Gold looked at her with a raised eyebrow in curiosity. "Call me Rose. All my friends call me that."
She smiled and went inside the building. Mr. Gold looked at the spot were mere seconds ago the young woman was standing and smiled. He turned around and made his way home. Happy that he had made some progress with her fire bird.