Despite the knowledge of Mr. Gold revealing the return of his true memories, the Mill's siblings found themselves in high spirits as they sat in the the eldest siblings office as their son and nephew between them.
The youngest of the pair of the siblings sat himself comfortably in the corner of the sofa with an arm comfortably draped across the back of the piece of furniture with a knee placed over the other as he watched his nephew fidget with the tin box with a blue bow that was placed in his lap as soon as he entered the office with his uncle Elijah.
"Oh, go on. Open it" Regina encourages her son from his right to open his gift. It wasn't Elijah's idea to ply the boy with a distraction to replace the storybook that was lost alongside his precious castle playground. He tried to discourage his older sister but his words went ignored. Henry was far smarter that she ever gave him credit for.
"What's the occasion?" Henry asks his mother in suspicion. The words leaving his nephews lips made Elijah disguise an audible scoff coming from his throat that made his point to his bog sister making Regina look over her son's head to give him a look telling him to keep his mouth firmly shut.
"The occasion is, we love you" Regina went on "Go on" she prompts him again.
From his place Elijah watched his nephew open the tin box, handing the lid to his Uncle's waiting hand before picking up the piece of blue tissue paper that covered the gift and pull out the handheld video-game they had gifted him.
"Now, we know you miss your book, but with this, you can do the heroics" she tells him "You can save the princesses, you can be the hero".
Henry, you have to believe me. When I tore down the playground, I did it for your safety. Please, don't be upset with me. I really didn't mean to destroy your book" she tells her son as Henry carefully places the game back into it's box, placing the tissue paper back on-top.
"It's not just the book" Henry tells his mother.
"Okay" Elijah spoke up, sitting forward to speak to the boy "Then what is it?" he asks his nephew already knowing the answer to his problem. He missed Emma.
"It's Emma – I want to see her" he asked his guardians.
"Henry-" Elijah went to speak only to be interrupted as a knock was heard from the office door and was opened with Kathryn Nolan walking into the room.
"Regina, have you got a min-" she stops mid-sentence seeing Henry and Elijah in her office "I'm sorry".
"Oh, don't worry about it" Regina tells her friend before turning back to her son "Henry, why don't you go home with Elijah and start your homework? I'll be there in a bit and we can have dinner" she tells him quickly dismissing her son and brother so she could speak with Mrs. Nolan.
Standing with his nephew he takes the tin gift box from the ten-year old as he takes hold of the boys backpack from the floor as his nephew heads straight for the door without much as a second glance towards his adopted mother. Seeing the hurt on her face the younger sibling feels for his sister struggling to bond with her son. He hated no being able to do something more.
"I'll see Henry home before going to school to pick up some paperwork. I'll get dinner started" he offered his older sister.
A grateful hint of a smile flashed on her face, knowing her brother was doing his best to support her.
"Thank you" she whispers up to him from the sofa before he turns around to follow his nephew out of the office passing by a teary-eyed Kathryn Nolan.
Seeing Henry home, the youngest Mill's sibling returned to his office to pick up some paper work he needed to finish up that evening. Passing by his Gym teacher carrying a net sack of soccer balls over his shoulder the Principle maneuverer through the crowd of parents picking up their children after school when he saw a familiar pixie haired teacher smiling to herself in the middle of the hallway.
Her smile always made his day better, it lit up a room and made the world around him right. Pausing in his mission to get to his paperwork he allowed himself to enjoy the woman smiling to herself as a small one grew on his face, only for that smile that lit up the hallway to drop at something behind him, making him look back to see an angry storming towards the pixie haired teacher.
"Kathryn? I'm sorry" was all that came from his friend before a hand struck the side of her face hard making a loud smack echo in the hallway. Everyone including parents and students saw the scene gasping at the small clash of a scorned woman meeting her husbands mistress.
"Screw you, you're sorry" Kathryn harshly told the pixie haired woman.
"I understand you're upset. You have every right to be" she tells the blonde.
"Thank you for that insight" she sarcastically replied to the teacher.
"Can we… Can we please talk somewhere private? Maybe Elijah's office?" she offered the woman knowing the man was out of the building and she held a spare key.
"Private?" the blonde questioned the teacher "Why do you get any consideration at all? You have shown none for me – either of you. All you did was lie" she loudly ranted.
"We should have talked to you sooner, but we've been completely honest. We didn't lie" Mary- Margaret tells the woman.
"You didn't lie?" Katheryn retorted as parents and teachers alike continued to listen to the married woman's words "You snuck around. You had him break up my marriage with a pack of lies. With some crap about not being able to connect? He didn't have any trouble connecting with you".
"David didn't tell you about us?" Mary-Margaret asked the woman as she realized the David had lied to her not ten seconds ago on the phone.
"No, of course not. That would have been the honourable thing to do" Kathryn tells her.
"But, he said he would tell you".
"Well, then he lied to you, too. Good luck making it work. You two deserve each other".
"Mary-Margaret" he gently called out to his friend making her look over to him, there was no anger in his face at the scene she had made in the middle of his school, but one of gentle empathy as he held out a hand towards his teacher "Come with me".
Doing as he said the teacher took his hand as he took her through the stares and small chatter that hummed past them as he took her to his office, away from prying eye's.
Inside his office, Mary Margaret hadn't spoken a work to the Principle as he moved around his office fetching supplied he would need to treat the growing red mark on his teacher's cheek from Kathryn Nolan's hand.
After some sage advise from his secretary Miss Honey, the Principle entered his office with a wet paper towel in his hand to find Miss Blanchard still sat in the chair he had put her in before he left to find something that would help her cheek.
Rounding the chair the Principle sat on the edge of the chair next to hers as she allowed him to tend to her smarting cheek.
"Miss Honey assures me this cures everything" he tells his friend gently placing the cool towelette on her cheek he could see the hurt on her face that could've only come from loving someone.
"I believe" he starts making the younger woman look up at him "That when you love someone and that person loves you in return, you're uniquely vulnerable. They have a power to hurt you that's like nothing else".
"He was-" she began before clearing her throat "He was supposed to have told her everything".
"And he didn't" Elijah summarized.
"He lied to me Elijah" she tells him as tears glistened in her eye's.
"I know" he tells her "I'm not going to tell you what you need to do next. You can make that decision all by yourself. But whatever it is, be rest assured you haven't lost a friend in me today.
"Thank you".
"No problem Mary-Margaret".
The next morning he knew the news of Mary-Margaret's and David Nolan's affair would be the talk of the town as he enjoyed his morning coffee at Granny's. After declining his offer to walked her to work that morning to act as a shield between her and those who would judge before thinking.
He could only watch as David Nolan tried his best to wash off the word 'TRAMP' that had been spray painted on the school teacher's car, trying and failing to paint over the cracks he had made for not telling his wife the truth about his affair with the pixie haired teacher.
But his cowardice had already made too much damage. He saw it in the look in her eye's as he tended to her cheek in his office as he tried his best to get to her talk to him about what had happened. But as he watched his friend confront her lover in the middle of the street he couldn't stop the dark thoughts that entered his mind as he watched the woman speak to the man that had hurt her.
"David, this isn't love" Mary-Margaret tells the man "What we have is something else entirely. What we have is destructive, and it has to stop".
"What are you saying?".
"That we shouldn't be together".
Letting himself into the home he shared with Kathryn, alone. The heartbroken man started to turn the lights on around him, seeing a flash of a dark figure in his home, only to feel a heavy fist meet the side of his face and jaw making him tumble onto the floor hard.
"I am not a violent man Mr. Nolan" Elijah Mills calm, firm, voice made it through the ringing in his ears as he sat himself up to see the man in the suit stood tall in the middle of his living room in the partial light, flexing his hand in pain as he pulled out a white handkerchief from his pocket to dab at his split knuckles from how hard he had hit the man in the jaw.
"I prefer the written word over...well..this" he goes on stepping towards the fallen man to crouch down in front of him "But I made a promise, to a very dear friend of mine, a very long time ago, that I would always protect them no matter what or who hurt them. Your actions today, or your lack of them, have made things irrefutably awkward, for me".
He didn't have to say her name to tell him who he was talking about. He should've known the man would come after him as soon as the affair got out. He was terrified of him when he cornered him in the school hallway and he terrified him now.
"Do your worst" David tell him "I deserve it" the man on the ground gulped out hoping the physical pain he felt would ease the pain he felt for hurting Mary-Margaret.
"Oh no,no" he dismissed the man's request with a wave of his hand "I'm not going do a thing. Consider this your only warning, come to harm Mary-Margaret any way again, and I will make you wish you never woke up from your coma. You have my word on that" he said with a flash of a smile before he stood to full height to step over him and out of the front door like nothing had happened.
He didn't mind getting his hands dirty when it called for him to teach the man a lesson he would never forget, cursed or not.
Stood outside on the steps of his school as his students departed after a long day of learning, the whispers of Mary-Margaret's affair with a married man were quickly quashed within his staff as he directed them towards to what they were supposed to be doing in the building and not gossiping about things they had no involvement in.
Finding Henry sat on a bench as he waited for his mother to pick him up, the Principle saw his nephew enjoying to his gift, he saw Emma Swan quickly take a seat next to her son with a satchel in her lap. The man didn't do anything to send the woman away as she saw the blonde Sheriff give his nephew something he himself had been searching high and low for ever since it disappeared a few weeks ago.
Handing her son his lost storybook he saw the pure joy on his nephew's face to have it back in his hand for the blonde left her son at the bench for his adopted mother to pick him up.
Taking out his phone the Principle quickly dialled the number stored on it for the first time in weeks, bringing it to his ear as he watched the woman take out her ringing phone, hesitating to answer it seeing who it was calling her, only to quickly change her mind and answer it.
"Principle Mill's" the Sheriff greeted the man she had hardly spoken to since he gave her a file of blank pages to her "What can I do for you?".
"I wanted to thank you for finding his book" the words made her pause to look back and see the man stood on the school steps with a hint of a smile on his lips "He's been missing it".
"No problem" she tells him with a hint of a smile on her lips. Even if the smile was small as it was, still made his heart beat a little harder than before. He liked to see her happy.
"Miss Swan, although we may not see eye to eye at the moment with Henry, would you be so kind as to inform me of Miss Blanchard's well-being this evening? She's had a rough day".
It was the concern in his voice that made the blonde want to say yes to him, he genuinely worried for her roommate at the moment, the side of him he only allowed few to see.
"I will" she tells him.
"Thank you" he replies with a relieved sigh "Have a good evening Miss Swan" at that the Principle hung-up his phone before retreating back into the school to disappeared from sight.
Elijah Mill's was never one to get too involved with the Miner's Day festivities. For one it bored him to death and second he knew he could easily get out of it by telling his sister he was simply too busy to volunteer yet more of his time to the event.
But this year the event had been shrouded over by the news of Mary-Margaret Blanchard and David Nolan's affair as the towns people avoided the pixie haired teacher like the plague as she tried to find volunteers to help her sell the candles made by the Nun's made his blood boil.
He was stuck standing by his sister and her efforts to make the cursed woman suffer for her past crimes. But the growing bruise on David Nolan's cheek made him feel much more better for the pain he felt for his friend.
And now from what he heard from his sister. Kathryn Nolan had gone missing on her way to leave town to go to law school with her husband being taken away in the back of the Sheriff's car during the evening's festivities. He had no idea what his sister was planning, but usually wasn't anything good.
"You can't be serious. A whole year without a roof over your head?" he overheard Ruby say to the stranger that had rolled into town only a couple of weeks ago from where he sat at the bar nursing an amber drink in his hand as the waitresses grandmother sat at the end with her head in the diner's books.
"Well, you get used to it" he tells the waitress "Plus, I had the motorcycle. So, if I didn't like a place after a while…"he trails off imitating rising off with his hand to the young woman. So this was the man his sister and nephew saw outside their home the other week.
"Ruby?" the senior Lucas woman calls after her granddaughter from her place at the end of the bar.
"I've never even been out of Storybrooke" Ruby continues ignoring her grandmother's call "What was your favourite place?".
"Nepal" he answers her question "Best people. They have these prayer temples carved into mountains that are overrun with lemurs".
"What's a lemur?" the waitress asks the man.
"Ruby!" the elderly woman calls after the younger woman again louder this time.
"Just give me a sec!" Ruby calls back in annoyance
"They're little animals. And they have these eyes that reflect light. So, at night, it looks like they glow.
"Ruby! Stop flirting and get over here" her grandmother demanded out of her granddaughter , knocking on the surface to make her point. Huffing in annoyance the waitress reluctantly left the man at the table to walk over to her grandmother, but not without making the point of stroking the top of Elijah's arm as she walked behind him which went noticed by the stranger watching the waitress leave.
Making his move to discover who this stranger was, the youngest Mill's sibling sat up straight in his seat pulling his tie back into place tight against the collar of his dress shirt, fastening the top two buttons, the principle stood from his seat, picking up his drink to make the short journey to the middle of the diner to the table where the man was sat as he ate.
Clearing his throat loud enough for the man to pause mid-chew of his food and look to see a familiar figure stood before him in a clean designer two-piece suit. He couldn't help but feel his heart beating a little faster than before as he remembered the glimpses he got of the man in front of him from a previous life.
"Hello" Elijah greets the stranger making him look up at the man in the suit "I don't believe we've met. I'm Elijah" he introduces himself to the stranger reaching out a welcoming hand to the man in his seat with his free right hand. Clean-shaven, his dark brown hair was a little longer than it used to be as it hung in short bangs.
The stranger seemed to hesitate before placing his fork down to reach up to take his waiting hand only to be surprised when he felt warmth coming from the man who was known to run a little colder than everyone else back home.
"August Booth" he introduces himself to the man in the suit.
"May I join you, Mr Booth?".
"Of course" he answered sitting up a little straighter in his seat to see the man that was rarely seen without his sister close-by as Elijah took the empty seat opposite him.
"I must apologize for not introducing myself sooner" Elijah starts as he makes himself comfortable in the seat as he rest his knee over the other "I've been a little pre-occupied of late, my job and home life doesn't allow me much time to greet passer-by's that come through town. I usually make it my business to know such things".
"Good thing I'm not passing by then" August informs the man opposite him flashing a smile toward him "I'm planning to stay for a little while longer, I find this little town is full of inspiration for my writing".
"You're a writer" the man in suit replied in slight surprise in his voice.
"You seemed surprised" August observed.
"Not at all" Elijah tells August with a flash of a smile on his lips "It's just rare to see people a young as yourself pursuing such a career in these modern times".
"Well this town's something else. I even had the honour of spending some time with your wonderful Sheriff" he almost gloats to the man in front of him.
"Our Sheriff?" he questions him in slight confusion. Emma knew this man?.
"Yeah, she something else" he said with a tight smile "Capable of making huge changes in this place".
Elijah wasn't sure what to say in reply to the man in front of him, instead he simply watched him as the writer mistook his silence for something else "I'm sorry. Am I stepping on any toes here?".
"None at all" Elijah quickly tells the man "Our sheriff has a certain, charm, about her I agree. But I do not appreciate speaking of her in that way. Sheriff Swan is a person and the mother of my dear nephew".
"Then the two of you aren't-" he trailed off.
"No" he blinked at the writer as the latter lean over the table for the Principle to mirror him.
"Not even the waitress?" he whispers to the man over the table.
"Nothing I would encourage any further".
"Really? Because I put you down as a real lady killer" August tell the man making Elijah pause for thought as he looked at the scruffy man n front of him a second time.
"Is this a punishment for talking to that guy? To Elijah!" Ruby's exclaim made the men sit back straight in their seats as they overheard the young woman argue with her grandmother.
"If I wanted to punish you, I'd have better reasons. For one thing, you were late. For another thing, Liza, you dress like a drag queen during Fleet Week" the senior Lucas woman retorted.
"And you dress like Norman Bates when he dresses like Norman Bates' mother" Ruby harshly replied making both men at the table hide the smile on their lips as the Principle took a long sip of his drink.
"Ruby, you're a grown woman. You can't keep acting like some kid".
"You just want me to act like you until I turn into you. Well, I am not a fossil yet, Granny. I should be out there having adventures with lemurs!".
"Well, as long as you work here, you are going to listen to me" the elder woman tells Ruby slamming the book shut to walk behind the counter as her granddaughter followed her on the other side.
"I didn't ask to work here" Ruby argued.
"Well, then what's keeping ya?".
"Nothing! I quit!" Ruby tells her grandmother storming out of the diner.
"Have a good evening Mr. Booth. I hope we bump into each-other again" at that the Principle finished off the rest of his glass, dumping it on the counter before heading for the door to pick up his coat from the rack to make his way back home.
Enchanted Forest
Many Years Ago
He was too sober for this. This wasn't exactly what he had in mind as he was ordered to find his fiancée and return her to the palace after the Huntsman failed to kill her. But this was the first sign of life he had found since leaving the comfort of the palace to find the Princess and take her back to his older sister, at it just so happened to be in a place plagued with savage man-eating wolves. He hated his luck sometimes.
Apparently fearsome were an all too common occurrence as he stood in the back of a tavern where the citizens of the village had gathered to discuss the issue at hand as a man stood at the front of those who had gathered to organised a hunting party.
It seems he wasn't the only one out for a hunt today.
"The one thing I know, is that last night, was the very last massacre" the man announced to village as he was replied from everyone with he exception of the Queen's brother by a loud cheer before continuing "You know, if I had stayed with that party for another ten minutes, I, too, would be among the dead" the claim made the Queen's brother sigh in difference and roll his eye's.
The doors of the tavern opened as three women entered one older than the others who looked around his age, one with long back hair and a red hood over her shoulders and the other he knew too well not to recognize under the mask she hid half her face under. Snow.
Her appearance made the young man stand a little straighter than before as he tried to hide the smile on his face from how easy it was to find her. But she was his prize, he couldn't risk anyone else wanting to claim his sister rewards for her capture for themselves.
"And, when I think if I'd only doubled back, maybe…I could've caught it in the act. Maybe, I would've been able to slay the creature".
"You would not" the elderly woman that came into the tavern with Snow told the leader of the hunting party.
"Widow Lucas" the man greeted her.
"This creature is more powerful than you can imagine" she tells the entire tavern "You wouldn't have a chance. Stay inside, hide your children, forget your livestock".
"You said all this before" the man retorted.
"But, I haven't said how I know" the Widow retorted "Nearly threescore years ago, I was a child with six older brothers. Big as oak trees, all of them veterans of the Second Ogres war. And my father, the biggest of them all. Come one Wolfstime, he decided to go out and take on the wolf. A different wolf back then, of course, but just as fearsome. They went out there to protect me. I was supposed to be asleep, but I crawled out on the roof to watch and lay down in the thatch. They had the beast surrounded, the seven of them, with spears all pointed in at it".
"-And then it started. It was lunging – not at the men, at the spears. Grabbing with its teeth, breaking the shafts. They stabbed it with the splintered end, but it didn't matter. It tore their throats so fast, that not a one of them got a chance to scream… Or pray… Or say goodbye. When my father died, I tumbled from the roof, and I landed in the blood in front of the wolf. I felt its breath on my face. Then, it clamped its hot jaw on my arm, and I rolled away". she says pulling her glove off and rolling up the sleeve of her arm to revel deep scars on her forearm.
He didn't see them, but they were bad from how the colour seemed to drain from the hunter's face when he saw them as gasps of horror came from the those that had gathered. But from the way the black haired woman with the red hood had reacted she was related to the widow, her grandmother perhaps.
Granny: Then, it looked at me with eyes so black, they weren't even there. Then, it walked away. You ever see a wild animal just turn its back and walk away like you don't matter? If this wolf is like that one, there is no defeating it. It's already won just by existing in our world. You don't k*ll it – you just hide".
Like he claimed earlier. He was far too sober for this.
Returning to their cottage after the meeting Red sat with her new friend 'Mary' in her room as her grandmother sat the other room knitting as they sat on the bed talking.
"So, your Granny's kind of intense" 'Mary' pointed out to her new friend.
"Yeah, a bit" Red nervously chuckled out "I feel like a rat in a trap" she confessed.
"Is this trap keeping you from…being with someone?" 'Mary' subtly broached the subject having seen the boy Red had been looking at during the meeting.
"How did you know?" Red asks surprised she was that easy to read.
"Well, I saw some looks exchanged back there, and, I hate to break it to you, but it wasn't subtle" Mary told her causing Red to giggle.
"Yes. Peter. We've been friends forever, but… Now things are… Well, changing" she admitted not helping but to smile at the thought of things changing between them.
"That must be nice" Mary replied with a warm smile.
"Do you have someone?" Red asks her.
"I do. A fiance" Mary tells her new friend "Elijah" she pauses as she tried to think of the best way to describe their relationship. I wasn't like the one Red had with Peter. Far from it. But she had hoped once they were married, something would change. But she supposed that would never happen now his sister was after her head.
"-I don't think he loves me" she admits to her friend, the first time she had ever admitted that to anyone "Not really. We've been engaged since forever, but as the years went by, he's changed from the boy I first met".
"Does he, hurt you?" Red asks her in concern.
"Oh, no,no" she quickly tells her friend "He would never. He's the sweetest man I've ever met but he's different. Closed off. Distant whenever we're together. Like he's not truly happy".
"Oh. I'm sorry" Red sympathies with her.
"I'm not sure that's in my future" Mary tells her "You're lucky, Red".
"I know. And we're talking about going away together. But I don't even get any time with him. Granny's too afraid of the wolf to let me out alone. You saw what the wolf did. Sometimes, I wonder if she's right".
"Oh, she's right about the wolf" Mary tells her" But, she's wrong to use it to keep you from love".
"You think that's what she's doing?" Red asked slightly hurt to think that was what her grandmother was doing. Snow wasn't sure how to respond as she nervously looked away only for her new friend to suddenly come up with an idea "Let's kill the wolf" she declares to her friend.
"Uh...Hang on" Snow tried to tell her taken aback from her sudden and dangerous declaration.
"We'd be heroes" Red tries to convince her.
"Red, teams of trained hunters have been killed" Mary voices her concern to her friend.
"But they go at night when it's got the advantage" Red goes on "If we went now, we could find it slumbering in its den and k*ll it in its sleep. Come on" she tried to get her friend to agree as she grabs her red hood.
"Red, I don't know" Mary tried to dissuade her again, gently shaking her head in protest.
"I'm going – with or without you" Red states "But, you're right – I can't let her keep me trapped forever".
With the plan set to tell Peter that he was the wolf after tracking his footprints to the Red's window, while Red stayed out to warn her friend about his 'condition' Snow was left posing as her friend in her signature red hood lying on the bed with her back to the door as to not raise suspension with the elderly woman.
The idea was working as the Lucas Grandmother sat on her rocking chair knitting only for a pounding on the door made her jump as she listened closely to who it was. Maybe someone had caught Red out and was bringing her back.
"Hello. I'm Elijah" those three words coming from that voice made her heart pound in her chest in fear that the Queen had finally caught up to her, sending her younger brother to find her. This was it. But maybe Red's grandmother would send him away it being so close to dark.
"My apologies for disturbing you in your lovely cottage but I seem to have found myself without shelter during wolf-time. I can compensate you for your troubles".
"Get in here boy" she tell the man as Snow hears her fiancé step into the cottage "Why're you out here during wolf-time in the first place,".
"I'm looking for a girl. Dark hair, pale skin. I saw her come into the tavern today with you and your granddaughter".
"You mean Mary?" she heard the grandmother ask him.
"Yes. That's right Mary" Elijah tell the elderly woman, she could picture the smile on his face as realized that she had used a fake name "I've been tasked to bring her back home safe to her step-mother, we think she may have taken the wrong road on her way back home to us".
"And what are you are to her exactly, her brother?".
"Oh, no, no, no" he chuckled out "I am her intended. We are set to be married in the next few weeks".
"Really? She never mentioned a fiancé" the elderly grandmother questioned him.
"I'm afraid it was a match made by her father and my mother before they passed away. Neither the less, we planned to go ahead with the marriage in their honour, seeing how much they wished for it happen, they put a great deal of effort in allowing me to marry the woman I truly love".
"Okay. Let me get her".
Hearing the door open Snow pulled the red hood over her face further in hopes that she would only think that Red was there and would send Elijah away to fend for himself.
"Where's Mary?" Widow Lucas asks her granddaughter "Come on, girl – wake up. We best bar the door, we've got an extra person to shelter tonight. If Mary's not back by now, she'll have to take her chances. He'll just have to look for whatever remains of her at first light" she tells her as she pushes the figure onto their back to see it was Mary.
"She's in no danger" Snow quickly tell her from the bed.
"What have you done?" Granny asks her in horror.
"No, it's okay. It's alright. It's fine" she tried to reassure the grandmother only for her voice to attract their 'guest to the doorway to find Snow sat up on the bed in the room.
"Where is she?" Widow Lucas demanded to know from the girl.
"She's… Well, she's with Peter. And I know that you don't like him, but that's really beside the point".
"You stupid, careless, ridiculous girl" Elijah heard the grandmother barked at the young woman as he made his way into the room seeing the Princess he had been tasked to search for.
"No. You don't understand. Peter isn't… This is going to be difficult to accept. You just have to trust me. He's the wolf" the woman tells her.
"You think Peter is the wolf?".
"Yes. This terrible creature is also human. It's okay, though. He won't hurt her. She's got him tied up" Snow tells the grandmother much to her horror.
"He's tied up? Oh, that poor boy".
"Wha-" the Princess tried to question the woman further only.
"Snow, I recommend you stay quiet until we find Elijah jumped in.
"Snow?" Granny asked looking between Elijah and 'Mary' recognising the name from the wanted posters that littered the Enchanted Forest "Snow White!".
She had opened her home open to the girl that the Evil Queen was after.
"Yes she is Snow White and I 'am her fiancé" Elijah tells the grandmother "But right now might I suggest we leave the introduction for another time, we need to find that boy before the wolf kills him".
Agreeing with Elijah the Grandmother headed out of the bedroom to find her crossbow before her and Snow followed her out of the safety of the cottage to find the boy Red had tied up.
"Snow!" Elijah called to the Princess as they trekked the woods in search for Red and Peter, but she was ignoring his attempts to speak to her as he trudged through the snow behind the grandmother and the Princess "Snow wait, let me explain" he tried again only for his pleas to fall on deaf ears "I'm not here to capture you!".
"Why should I trust you?!" she cried out as tears formed in her eyes turning on her fiancé "You did nothing the stop your sister from killing my father. From killing me! Why should I believe that you aren't going to take me back to her!".
"Because I don't wish to marry you!" he angrily retorted to her making her step away from the man and his sudden boat of anger.
"You come back with me and marry me, I might be able save your life but it would be one worth living. I would ruin you. That would be a fate worse than death to see you unhappy, for the light to leave your eyes. I never wish to subject you to life where I couldn't truly love you like you deserve to be".
"I admit, I did nothing to prevent your father's murder and for that I will never forgive myself for it. But I do not wish to see you see you suffer more than you already have by my sister's blinding hatred and needless desire for vengeance. I came here to get you as far away as I could from her".
"Elijah-" she breathed out as they heard a wolf howl in the distance.
"Come" Elijah quickly prompted the Princess taking hold of her arm to catch up with the Grandmother who had carried on with the search without them as he found the pommel of his sword strapped to his waist, poised ready to use it if needed "The widow Lucas still needs to find her granddaughter before she tears the poor boy apart".
"Wait She's the wolf?" she questions her fiancé before looking at the grandmother "You knew?".
"Of course I knew" the older woman tell the Princess "Her mother was one, too, before a hunting party killed her. I thought maybe Red didn't get it, but when she was thirteen, it started. I paid a wizard for that cloak – keeps her from turning. But, she doesn't wear it, and she's found some way out of the house".
"Why didn't you tell her?" she questioned the older woman.
"I didn't want her to have that burden. It's a terrible burden" the Lucas Widow tell her.
"That story you told…" Elijah trailed off recalling the story the woman told the scare off the hunters in the tavern.
"That was her grandfather. He marked me that night. Then came back, found me, turned me".
"Turned you… You're…" the Princess paused with Elijah as she realized what the grandmother had just revealed about herself as the wolf continued to howl in the distance "Granny? How are you tracking her?" Snow asks the older woman.
"By smell" the grandmother answers as they started to walk again "I still have that, even though the rest of it has faded away. Gods, I was a fool to think I could keep this from her. I am a fool and I have cost so many lives".
"But you didn't mean to. That's the main thing".
"Is it?" the elder woman retorts as they are startled by another howl, louder this time. They were getting closer.
"Here" Granny says giving Snow her lantern before taking hold of the crossbow aiming it towards where they heard the howl "– a silver-tipped arrow will drop her" the older woman informs the pair as Elijah takes out his sword.
"Oh-" Snow squeaked.
"Shh! Follow me" the grandmother whispers "We're approaching from downwind, so we have a chance".
Approaching the scene of Red in her wolf form feeding on the poor boy Peter, the three of them slowly edged their way down the incline as the snow squelched underneath their boots as the grandmother aimed her bow at the wolf. The trio freeze when Granny accidently stepped on a stick making it snap, gaining the wolfs attention.
Turning on the trio the wolf barred its sharp fangs at them before it lunged towards them only to be stopped by a crossbow bolt, sending it to the ground in front of them
"Cloak!" Granny yells at Snow who was wearing the red cloak. Throwing over the whimpering, hurt werewolf Elijah watching in wonderment as magic surged through the cloak changing the beast back into the young woman as Snow see's Peter's dead body in by the tree he was chained to.
He had only seen her sister and mother wield magic in his whole life, this was something else. He hadn't been lucky enough to be gifted with magic. Rumpelstiltskin had tried numerous occasions to get the youngest child of Cora Mill's to wield the magic that was coursing through his veins, only to be left disappointed in the young mans disinterest.
"It's too late" the grandmother reports to pair behind her as Red, now back in her human form rises from the ground disorientated as she looks to her new friend and her grandmother for answers.
"He's gone" Snow mourned for her friend.
"Who's gone?" the younger woman asks the pair seeing the new addition stood in-between them.
"Get up, girl. Get ready to run" Granny encouraged the girl as Elijah jumped forward to wrap a helping arm around her waist to aide her on her feet.
Red: What's going on? Who are you?" Red questions the three and the man that held her up.
"I'm Elijah" he quickly introduces himself.
"Come on, Red" Snow tries to encourage her as the heard the hunting party shouting in the distance.
"Don't you hear them?" Granny asks her as Elijah tried to get the young woman moving
"We have to go" Elijah tries to encourage her only for her to fight him.
"Go? I don't understand" Red asks those around her.
"No, I'll explain it later. We must hurry" Snow insisted.
"What? I'm confused. What's happened? Where's Peter?" Red continued to fight against the man's hold as she twists in his arms to look behind her
"No, no, no don't look" Elijah tried to stop her only push herself out of the mans hold to see what was behind her.
"He wasn't the wolf" her friend tells her as Red looks back at the three that had found her. The look of confusion and shock covered her face as she looked between the three present for an explanation.
"Granny?" the young woman questions her grandmother.
"I was wrong to keep it from you" the older woman tells her "But, now, you have to go" she tells her granddaughter as the shouting gets louder, and the torches of the hunting party shone through the trees "Red. Go" .
"It's me? Oh, gods, it's… It's me" she cried out as Elijah saw the look of pure heartbreak on her face, he had only seen it once before in his life and he never wanted to see it again.
"Red, go!" her grandmother tried to encourage her again.
"I don't want to go like this" Red fought her.
"You have to".
"No, no, no, no…" Red continued to cry as her knees gave out only for the man to keep her on her feet.
"Red, look at me" Elijah tells the young woman in his arms as she continued to cry "Look at me!" he yelled at her making her focus her attention solely on him as tears rolled down her face.
"Now listen to me, I am truly sorry this has happened but there are two people here that care about your existence in this world very much, now you can either stay here and let this ruin you or you can fight. Fight to live another day, another hour, another minute, but right now you are choosing the opposite if you allow that hunting party to find us. I know that you don't know me, but I give you my word it will get better. But right no you need to go home".
Hearing his words the she-wolf nodded as she was handed over to her friend as the princess gently took her friend from her fiancé.
"It's okay. It's going to be okay" Snow tries to reassure her.
"Mary, there's no time" Granny prompted the woman.
"I know. I'll get her out of here" as she takes her into the tree line back to the cottage leaving Elijah to re-take his sword in his hand ready to face the hunters together.
The first light of morning came quickly for the Queen's younger brother as a welcome relief as he stood outside the cottage where he had found Snow before the events of the previous night. With barely any assistance from him, the hunters were sent on their way leaving the young she-wolf to leave unharmed to flee far away from the place now left a crack in her heart.
As he waited for Snow to join him to start their journey back to the palace with a horse he had procured from a man on the hunting party the Princess approached him knowing there was no use trying to run from him again, he was the best tracker she knew. It wouldn't take long for the man to find her again.
"So..." the Princess started, he hadn't even given her a second look.
"So?" he questions her in confusion as he continued to saddle his horse.
"You're here to take me back to your sister?"
"Oh yes that. I had almost forgotten that was the reason I was out here in the first place".
"Elijah, you know if you take me back, she'll kill me if I married you or not".
"Then you won't marry me then.
"So you'll just hand me over, have I really meant nothing to you after all these years".
"On the contrary. You mean more" he tells her looking straight into her green eye's as she looked into his brown ones, the ones that used to give such warmth and comfort only a few weeks ago when her father died had been replaced by a pair that she didn't recognise, now looked straight back at her cold and empty like a part of himself had been taken away since the last time she had seen him.
"What I said last night was true Snow, even if there was a chance the Queen would let you live to marry me, I wouldn't be able love you as much as you deserved to be loved. So I will give you one last bit of advise before I leave you here with your new friend" he says as he pulls himself up on top of his horse making himself comfortable before looking back down at Princess he had grown to love as his friend.
"Run. And keep running for as long as it takes. And I will too. Yah!" he didn't give her a chance nudging his horse forward into a hard sprint back to the palace leaving the young woman behind as she watched one of the last friends she had leave her.
Hoping to run into August Booth again in the diner, Elijah Mills made himself comfortable in one of the maroon booths on the evening he learnt that his friend Mary-Margaret had been arrested for the murder of Kathryn Nolan after a human heart was found near the toll bridge. For the first time in the twenty-eight years of living in Storybrooke, he had no clue what was going on. Things were changing, and he didn't know how long his sister would leave things as they were.
One such change was seen from the young dark brunette that had only quit the restaurant a day or so ago back behind he counter with her Grandmother with more conservative look on her. Gone were the short skirts and shorts that left little to the imagination. Instead she opted for leather pants and a long sleeved flannel. She looked happy.
His deep thoughts were interrupted when the young woman herself approached his table with a friendly smile on her lips making him look away from the front door to look at the new woman stood before him.
"Hey Elijah" she nervously greeted the man.
"Miss Lucas" he greeted the young woman with a warm smile "I heard you were back" he observes outload.
"Sure am" she confirms with a nervous smile on her face "I was uh..hoping I could talk to you about something in uh private?".
"Certainly" he agrees with her leaving his drink as this table to follow her out back past the jukebox into the hallway between the diner and Inn.
"So, what's on your mind, Miss Lucas?".
"Since figuring out what I wanted to do with my life. It, turns, out its not dressing like a tramp and flirting with every guy I see".
"Although that I'm a devote feminist. I must admit, this is a better look for you".
"You do?" she questions him.
"It didn't quite match your personality" he goes on.
"And that is?" she presses him with a curios brow that made him smile to himself.
"You're a caring, kind person that wishes to see everyone around her happy, even if you aren't. Which is why, you wish to put an end to our arrangement" he says for her.
"Elijah" she trailed off as the man saw right through her "I'm-" she started to say only for the man in the suit to interrupt her.
"Never be sorry for something you want Miss Lucas. Although it was good while it lasted, it wasn't going anywhere and truth be told it was always going to come to this".
"I'd really like to be your friend Elijah".
"Then we are friends" he states to her, stepping towards her so that he stood "And as your friend I only want to see you happy, and to wish you all the luck in the world with your endeavour".
"Thank you".
"Your Welcome Miss Lucas" he says placing a soft kiss to her cheek, before turning to head for the back entrance to head back home.
"You know you can call me Ruby. Friends call each other by their first names" the young woman tell him as he touches the handle of the door.
"I'm aware Miss Lucas" he tells her with a smile and a wink of his eye before leaving the building. He would have to find August Booth another night.
AN: Hope you enjoyed another instalment of POEM. The Stable Boy is coming up! I'm so excited for this episode/chapter.
Anyway, I wanted to warn you once again as we approached the holiday season that I won't be able to update as often as I would hope to in the next few weeks. While trying to update my other OUAT story.
Thank you for all understanding, my job is very seasonal and you can only imagine what it's like around this time of year.
In the meantime remember to:
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