Once Upon a Time 1. Prologue: Mad

**Sorry, am still working on my other story (and know where that one is heading), but this is all that my inspiration is up for making and writing about at the moment. Please don't hate me. Hope you like this.**

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**Prologue – Mad**

"…_you can't take LESS," said the Hatter: "it's very easy to take MORE than nothing."_

– _Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_

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The life of the child. The life of the child. The life of the child… 'he will not go wild again.' She held the bundle of squirming blankets to her breast 'not with her…' she closed her hazel eyes, tears seeped through her shut eyelids down her nose and on to the soft newly born face 'not with a piece of me here…' she took a deep breath in through her nose nuzzling at the scent of the honey coloured down on the newborn's head '…piece of us…' with a light sigh she pressed a whisper against the warm skin, committing all she could to memory "you'll keep each other…" she could hear the rustle of bushes and the sound of a voice that felt like home approaching the patch of brush that she had hidden in, she shuddered, barely resisting the urge to call out in relief, she finished her goodbye with an almost inaudible sob "… my sweet Grace…"

"Delilah!"

"… and my mad, mad love..."

He remembered it all. Feeling the light in him die, finding the new reason for his existence wrapped up in the bushes, pretending his life was fine and then having it all totally ripped away. His pain renewed each day.

For the past 28 years his life had been hell, even more agonizing than the years before… for the past 28 years nothing had changed, there had been no hope, life was stuck, time was a terrible trap… that was until the clock finally ticked.

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**Please let me know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 1: Run

**On we go… not my intention to make anyone upset :)**

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******Chapter One** – Run

"… _No wonder you're late. Why, this watch is exactly two days slow…" _

_– the Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland (1951)_

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_**Enchanted Forest - The Past**_

"Gods! Help me!" she cried, running through the woods. Casting a glance over shoulder she saw the dark points poking through the green behind her. The clopping and grunting was gaining on her. "Hel… Ah!" She looked back to the path before her in time to see a fallen log but not in enough time to jump over it. Her eyes closed as she waited for the impact of her fall, only it did not come.

Her hazel gaze opened, she blinked in confusion "Ha- How?" her body was somehow suspended a few inches above a grey stone floor. "Ah!" All too suddenly she fell with a hard thump against the ground. "Oh gods…" she groaned.

"Not exactly dearie." A small gleeful voice commented from above her. Something about its sound made her want to keep her eyes focused on the stone under her. "Now, what sort of manners are those?" the impish voice tsked at her. She felt her honey brown hair being lifted, forcing her to stand to avoid the pain of tugging, once she was on her feet she shut her eyes as her head was pulled up "Now open…"

Compelled to look, she found the disturbing sight of a discoloured 'man?' in front of her inside a darkened hall, somehow she had been transported out of the forest. The man bowed deeply, waving his arms about him theatrically. It would have been funny if the man had not been so extraordinarily threatening.

"Wha- Who are you?"

"I, dearie," he straightened up and gestured to himself "am help…"

She looked over the strange little man "Help?"

"Do you not recall?" he asked, dancing around her, impulsively she shrunk away from him. "'Gods! Help me!'" he imitated her frightened voice.

"Bu- but why…"

He let out a squeak of a giggle "I was under the impression you wanted to get away from your satyr friend, but if not…" he raised his hands as though he was about to clap to transport her again.

"NO! No, no!" She shook her hands for him to stop, his rotted smile though unnerving was not as horrible as the thought of returning to him and his amber glare, to "Samson…" she huffed, dropping her arms in expiration. Having heard myths and consulting all manner of soothsayer her father had tried binding the lustful beast known as Samson with fresh bowstrings, when that failed with new ropes, then when that failed as well her father had tried weaving the satyr's locks together but that too had failed. The powerful braying goat creature had ruined her family members' lives, so she had run away, knowing that he would follow, only she had not expected him to be so persistently at her heels "he… I…" she stuttered "I've got nothing to giv… I'm just a shepherdess…"

"Yes, yes dearie" he snorted again, a small mirror appeared in a puff of purple smoke in his left hand. "I know your story, better than even you might… who was that boy? The chimney sweep…"

That took her by surprise, a warmth ached out from her heart, her lips moved before she could stop herself "Mattie…"

"Yes your Mattie … though we both know he has another very unique name and more importantly a very specific talent, ta-ha" he stepped towards her breathless form.

She cleared her throat, trying to stand her ground "Brewing tea?"

"No" he giggled holding the mirror up to her face, "your beloved Mad Hattie…" at first there was purple smoke where her reflection should have been, but it disappeared and instead she saw him. Wild and frantic searching… she pulled the mirror out of conjuror's hands.

"How?" she asked, her heart filled with joy followed by the deepest pain.

"You cannot seriously believe one as crazed as he would simply let you go… he-he…"

"What happened to him? He was never this… this… mad" she frowned at what she saw before her 'he had always been rather twisted, funny and sweet but this…'

"You've been gone two weeks, dearie. The first short days he went mad trying to make hats, thinking you may have jumped to another plain to escape and he did, until he heard a rumour… he made hundreds in those few days alone, for what it was worth… "

"He stopped though… he quit. He swept chim…"

"… chimneys. That he did, for a time, but he was looking for you, he still is but in a more… old fashion way now," the imp giggled "it seems that while his insanity grew in your absence, his magic vanished…"

'The hats…' "None of them worked…" she muttered, raising a contemplative finger to touch the flat likeness of her Mattie.

"No, none of them worked" the image in the mirror vanished.

Her grip tightened on the mirror, she shook it "Bring him back!" her eyes were beginning to well up "Please, just let me see him once more…" she begged, bowing her head her honey brown hair falling in a curtain around her.

"I can do one better than that… well, several really…" he moved in close to whisper into her ear, she felt his breath as he spoke "I can bring you two together, get rid of your entire Samson the Satyr issue… have you live happily ever after."

Her head snapped to face his green expression, "Why?"

He chuckled at her uncertain gaze "The loss of ta-rue love, appears to have stripped him of his power completely, and thusly of all of his use."

"You want me to agree so that you can use him?" she blinked away the water in her eyes, steeling her jaw and straightening her back "No."

He clicked his tongue at her, with a snap of his fingers the mirror evaporated into thin air, as he leaped back from her side "You make it sound so simple. What use is he to anyone running around utterly mad, what use is he to himself? He will surely die without you…"

That hit her hard enough to weaken her resolve.

"Besides the deal I make will be with you dearie, not with him" he laughed. "It is a good one, trust me."

"A good one?"

"That is if you want him to…" his foul teeth showed in a delighted smile "… keep his head… about him." his odd squeak of giggle escaped his greyish lips.

He watched her, looking nearly frozen as she swallowed slowly "What do you want?"

The small man clapped his hands together happily, she held her breath "Nothing much, just seven strands of the satyr's hair."

She let an out a gasp of air, having been expecting something else, something worse in the very least. 'Though getting the hairs will likely not be pleasant…' Her brow still furrowed in puzzlement.

"Worry not about the details of my plans… do this thing for me dearie and I will do what I promised." He held out his grimy green hand, "Deal?" his split fingernails made her stop from consenting there and then.

"That is all? I get those seven hairs from his head and you will make it so he no longer torments me? Mattie and I, we will live in peace?" she questioned him again.

"The satyr will leave you be" the green man swore, offering his hand again for an accord.

"All- all right." She shook his cold hand. "Mr…"

"Rumpelstiltskin" he moved back, sticking out his leg and bowing deeply to his toe.

"I am De…"

"Delilah..." he giggled "...dearie. I am well aware…"

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_**Storybrooke**_

"Paige!"

"Yeah!"

"Baby, hurry up, we're gonna be late!" She shouted upstairs from the kitchen taking. a quick sip of her tea "Ouch!" she hissed burning her tongue, placing her mug on the counter top as she finished packing Paige's lunch.

"Want some coffee instead?" Two big arms wrapped around her body from behind her, a nose nuzzled against her honey-brown hair.

"That's still a hot drink." She pulled a little out of his grip.

"I made it before your tea…" he pressed against her more "... it's cooled." Leaning in for a kiss.

She shrugged, tugging her head away from him under the pretext of taking another sip of her tea, not wanting to hurt him "You know that it just doesn't taste very good to me."

"I know…" he sighed, rubbing the flat of her back before finally letting go of her.

"PAIGE!" she called again, rinsing out her mug and putting it down in the sink.

"I'm coming! I'm coming! Just one sec…" the nine year old hollered from her room upstairs. No matter how hard she tried, every morning she couldn't bring herself to force the little girl out of bed and every morning without fail would result in these appeals up the stairs and down.

Grabbing the toast she had made and buttered for Paige's breakfast, she huffed "you're gonna have to eat on the go… again." Making sure that she had everything she turned at the sound clomping down the stairs, turned to meet amber eyes and waiting lips. As she returned the kiss from the lips all that she was able to take in was the taste of bitter coffee.

"Mum!" Paige's voice came from the door that led to the garage. "I'm ready!"

She moved away from him, giving him a smile and shuffling out from between the counter and his body. She picked her briefcase up from the ground at the kitchen's doorway.

"Lilia…"

"Yes Dom?" she turned around to face him.

He grinned at her, ruffling his hand through his black hair he leaned back against the counter "I love you" the sincerity in his gaze broke her heart.

Gulping, she resisted the urge to look away from him. "Me too."

"What about me?" Paige's voice burst into the kitchen from hallway behind Lilia.

Lilia smiled, facing her daughter's expectant brown eyes, she leaned down handing Paige her breakfast and playfully pinching the tip of her nose, "You most of all, my sleepy little Dormouse."

"Bet on it, darlin'" Lilia heard the smile in Dom's voice. He had moved closer gently, tugging on Paige's honey-brown ponytail.

"All right let's go," Lilia cleared her throat, standing up properly "Don't want Ms. Blanchard's sub giving me another earful. Scoot…"

With a quick peck on the cheek from Dom, both of the girls were off. In the car Paige had been scarfing down the toast and between bites she was explaining in great detail how she and her friends were making a volcano for the school's science fair. When Lilia suddenly spotted something that almost made her skid the car to a stop at the side of the road. It looked nearly familiar, hidden in the mossy tall trees… more importantly it felt familiar.

"Whaff wa tha?" Paige asked through a mouthful of toast, as Lilia swerved back to drive on the road.

'Running late… running late…'

"Nothing…" Lilia shook her head, reaching into the backseat and ruffling around in her bag "Here…" she handed Paige a bottle of chewable vitamins.

"You too Momma…" Paige held an orange pill out to Lilia mouth.

"Aw!" Lilia whined "I want a grape one…"

"No way! There aren't a lot left…"

"Please?" Lilia droned humorously, as they approached the school.

Paige sighed, beginning to open the bottle again "Fine…"

"Oh love…" Lilia lightly pinched her daughter nose. "I didn't mean it…" she pulled into the empty school driveway 'late… again…' she held out her hand, "orange is fine…" leaning in for her vitamin again after parking.

"I know Mum" Paige smiled, unbuckling her seatbelt, handing Lilia a pill and giving her a kiss on the on the cheek.

"I have to work late today so Dom'll pick up you up today… ok?" Lilia hugged her daughter.

"Ok…" Paige muttered against Lilia's dark honey hair.

"I love you."

"Love you too, Mum." She opened the door, hopping out of the car and dropping the bottle of vitamins into her empty seat. "Bye!"

Lilia hazel eyes fixed on the shrinking from of her running daughter, she popped tablet into her mouth, starting up her car with a smile as she chewed 'Grape…' she drove out of the school driveway resisting the urge to peek at her rear view mirror to try to catch a glimpse of the spot back to the road where she had veered.

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All day long she couldn't shake that familiar feeling from her bones.

"Heading out for the night…" Emma Swann the new sheriff in town poked her blonde head into Lilia's office.

It had been about a month since Graham had mysteriously passed away, but for some reason Lilia still expected it to be him wishing her good night and checking in and playing that horrible bubble gum pop that used to echo through the halls… Graham had pinned it's playing on Lilia and she had let him, taking pity when he admitted to her that he preferred that particular poppy genre of music for concentrating.

"Right, just finishing up… see you tomorrow." Lilia bid Emma a goodnight.

When Emma had rolled into town Lilia had liked her. The blonde woman was only two years older than her and they got along, but Lilia mostly liked her on the basis that Graham had taken a fancy to Emma. And that had meant that Graham might finally have had a shot at a life outside of bachelorhood. But things hadn't worked out that way… and now Lilia liked Emma for a whole new set of reasons.

A few weeks ago Sheriff Swann had helped Lilia with two children, who had no one taking care of them. Being the town's only social worker it had fallen to Lilia to figure something out for the Zimmer twins, Ava and Nicholas, who did not want to be separated. She had been pushed to so many dead ends in search of their biological father that she was considering taking them in herself, but something was pushing their case, forcing the state to rule that the children had to be taken to Boston. Thanks to Emma that had not happened. Emma had found Michael Tillman, the twins father, and convinced him in the very last possible moment to take back his kids.

Emma Swann was a life saver… but Lilia still sighed as she looked over the pages she was preparing for the state she felt half dead. While Michael Tillman was the father of the children, given his past involvement and since their case had been pushed so fast then suddenly stopped, inquiries had been made to see how fit Tillman would be as a parent.

Lilia had worked tirelessly, she had gotten the family members to talk together and separately to the Archie, the local therapist, after which everyone was certain of the children's desire to stay with their father and Tillman's desire to have them. Following that Lilia had driven herself nuts going around collecting as many accounts of the man as she could, his finances weren't the best, but she had helped him develop a business and investment plan, convincing him to enroll in parenting and nutrition workshops at the school…

'A family that wants to be together… should be' that familiar feeling from the road ached in her again.

With tired a roll of her shoulders she decided to call it a day, she went to the sheriff's part of the floor to wish Mary Margret Blanchard a goodnight, but found the defamed teacher curled up in her cell asleep. In her heart Lilia couldn't accept that anyone remotely like Mary Margret, jilted or not, could do anything as gruesome as the murder that she had been accused of.

It was still on her mind as she drove back up the darkening road to her home near the edge of town. She tried to ignore the itch, but as Lilia came up to that stretch of road she slowed down. 'There it is!' Lilia pulled over and parked, running out to examine in the beam of her headlights what look to be some brownish cloth embroidered with colourful flowers. The cloth was clinging to the bark of a tree, and though she was sure that she had never seen it before it felt so powerfully familiar, enough to make her hand tremble as she reached for the item.

It was soft and relatively clean, she frowned as caught a whiff of something 'that smell…' as she raised the cloth to her nose and closed her eyes. 'How?… Pai…'

"Excuse me" her eyes flew open, and her spine tingled "But I do believe that belongs to me…"

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**Hope all is going well… liking the season so far. Let me know what you think.**


	3. Chapter 2: Belong

**Hey! Just fair warning was in an odd mood with this chapter, so apologies about editing and some of the clunky stuff… On and on!**

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**Chapter Two – Belong**

"… _but you would have to be half-mad to dream me up."_

– _Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland (2010)_

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_**Enchanted Forest - Further in the Past**_

"I do believe that belongs to me…"

Her back stiffened at the unfamiliar voice, sun set was nearing and her father had warned her of the night's dangers. She had just brought the sheep back from pasture, it was not a large flock which meant that grazing cycles did not require Delilah to venture too far from the house and farm. Even though they had more than enough feed at the farm, the winter months were coming and she liked to see the sheep have fresh food and air, before being penned up during the cold season… she didn't mind getting out so much herself to read and think… generally be without her father's constant watch.

Beyond her father, she had only once, upon her venturing outside met the one other person that she would think of as the nearest thing to a true friend that she'd ever had in her life. In almost sixteen years of being alive she had never been anywhere but the farm and the local village, though she always tried to be as pleasant as possible, the villagers tended to keep their interactions with her clipped. Her father said it was because she was like him 'as nonsensical as a bag of common sense…' as he referred to it.

In any case, it was for that very reason that the unknown voice had startled her. It was the reason that she turned so slowly, once she had finally gathered her courage, to meet the jovial dark green eyes of a young man. He could not have been more than a few years older than her, but standing a head taller than her, arms crossed and self-assured he just seemed so much… much… 'muchier? … It's almost night, he must be getting cold without a coat…' in spite of the missing garment she had never seen a man so wholly dressed in such a way before…

Of course she had seen waistcoats and scarves before… but never in such a unique fashion or in such contrasting patterns. Red against black and she could see the glint of silver on his some of his fingers … in her village the colours were browns, whites and browns that had once been white. The wool business was a good one and her father had kept her relatively clean clothed and her late mother's books had taught her how to bring colour to a wardrobe… but she had never seen anything as plush looking as what this man was wearing even his commonly brown and endearingly disheveled hair could not distract from it.

The object that she had picked off of one of the herded sheep and that she was now holding was also something she had seen before, but there was a facet of it that was odd… making it unlike any other hat she had ever seen, let alone held. She looked from the man to the brim that her fingers were toying with, then back up to the man again… "This is yours?" she tried to do the arithmetic. "Isn't it a bit too big?"

"Are you implying my head is too small?" He gaped, feigning at being offended.

Delilah heard the humour in his tone, and planted her feet firmly, "Contrariwise no… perhaps it is just your ears…" his offended expression lightened, with the smile at his lips and in his eyes, Delilah could not resist smiling herself.

"Wind whipped it right off my head" He whistled, uncrossing his arms to make a tumbling motion from his head away from his body "It's a very particular hat."

"For sheep?" she quipped, dropping her hazel gaze to the black hat in her grasp again. What he said next after a spell of silence caused her head to snap up.

"Marry me," he grinned, his smile was soft and sincere, his dark jade eyes flitted over her.

"Wh- what?" she wanted him say he was joking.

But he repeated with the same confident sort of nonchalance "Marry me."

"We just met."

"But I know I know you," he played with one of the more plain rings on his fingers "and by that reckoning you must know me too" the conviction in his voice should have frightened her, and on some level she supposed it did, but overall she found that she was intrigued by what he was saying and doing.

"Are you mad?"

"Can't say I haven't been accused of that… have been accused of worse though…" he tapped his chin, refocusing his gaze on her "Marry me" he pressed again.

"Delilah!" She could hear her father calling, causing her to glance in the direction of her home, just past the trees behind her. She had not realized how dark it had gotten, Delilah was glad to have had herded all of the sheep into their nightly holding area, before she had gotten distracted.

As she backed away from the man's piercing and confident stare, as though he knew all that she did not, she shook her head at him. "You are mad…" she professed, unable to keep an amused smile from playing on her mouth as she chucked the hat to him, picked her shepherd's crook up from where she had dropped it and followed her father's voice.

"Maybe… but for only for you" he called calmly, unmoving, as though he was positive that they would meet again.

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_**Storybrooke**_

Lilia's heart pounded, though she felt something warm trickling through her, the usually unused rational side of her was acting up. She had not seen any other cars on this lonely section of road and not many people lived on the edge of the small town, so Lilia had been acquainted with all those who lived by her… the gist of which meant that if she needed it, she knew that help was very far away.

Nevertheless, she pulled the embroidered fabric away from her nose and turned to face the origin of the strangely heartening male voice.

Dark green was staring her down. Lilia had to shake her head, she thought that she had seen something flash in front of her eyes but the image had blinked away before she could get hold of it.

"I'm sorry, didn't mean to startle you…" he spoke, his tone was apologetic.

When she re-centred her hazel sights, in the beam of her car's headlights, she saw a man that she had never seen before. He was taller than her, wearing a black coat and '… is that an ascot?' as she took in his appearance, she could help but find his smile unnerving, there was something tense almost angry about it… 'trench coat, ascot, quick to weirdly smile… serial killer Lilia, use your brain, serial killer…' the commonsensical part of her mind was working in overdrive, trying to make up reasons as to why she should find this stranger and his mad grin unnerving. She had to make them up because for some purpose or another she wanted this man, wandering around in the woods, to like her… really and truly like her.

"It… you didn't…" Lilia shakily began, he raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced "All right, so maybe you did, it's just the forest" she gestured around their general setting "middle of the night… stranger …" Lilia nodded at him.

"If it helps…" His expression became somber "You're technically a stranger too," holding the serious expression for a beat before smiling again, "I just moved in up the road…" he stepped towards her reaching out his right hand "Jefferson… "

'That name sounds about as made up as Storybrooke…' her hazel gaze skitted across his face, he was carefully concealing something under that disarming smile, she could have sworn that whatever it was bordering on resent 'serial killer Lilia, serial killer…'

But still she found herself putting her hand out in greeting "Lil… oh" Lilia had accidently held out the hand she had the embroidered cloth clutched in, giving that material over to him instead of the handshake "Isn't that a bit too small for you?" she joked, rather than thought to herself as she had meant to do.

He gave a soft chuckle, lovingly rubbing the fabric between his fingers, "A suitcase fell off the roof of my car and I've been walking up and down this road for this… It belonged to my daughter…"

'That must be why it smelt so much like a baby… my bab…'

"Why are you smiling like that?" he asked, breaking her away from her thoughts. Lilia opened her mouth to answer, but discovered that the way he was staring at her now, made her tongue go numb. Nothing about his expression was large or overt, it was soft and warm and the first genuinely undisguised look that she had seen from him.

"Just thinking. It's funny, I'd do the same… scour the roadside all night for Paige's baby blanket…" she went on, lost in memories again, "the things from when they're that age… just, I don't know…" Lilia smiled at him "You know?"

"I do" Some of the hardness had returned to his tenor.

She frowned 'belonged… he said belonged… Jesus Lilia! You're so freaking stupid…' She coughed, unsure of what to do with herself now that she had realized her clumsy misstep. Lilia scuffed her shoes against the damp earth under her feet, caught somewhere between apologizing, offering him a ride or saying good-bye.

As though he had known what she was thinking he spoke "Is Paige your daughter?" she looked back up at him, his mouth rising and falling as he tried to keep his smile in place. She replied with a silent nod. "Mine is Grace…"

"Grace…" Lilia muttered, "That's a beautiful name… my mother's name actually…" she offered, hoping that personal piece of information, in the cold shadowy glow of her car headlights, would provide some kind of comfort.

'He said 'is' this time…' a small weight had been lifted 'not gone for good then, maybe separated… or maybe she's still with him and just doesn't need a baby blanket anymore… '

She coughed again "Paige's in fourth grade, if Grace is in elementary they could…"

"Oh…" he interrupted her "…that's sweet and Grace is that age too, but she… ah, she lives with her mum… so…"

"Oh… right…"

'What the hell kind of social worker are you Lilia? Wake up!'

He broke the silence once more "Forgive my saying so, but you seem a bit young for a daughter that age…" he sounded a common refrain Lilia was used to getting, but he did not seem that much older and had a child Paige's age.

"Hey! That's the pot calling the kettle black or gray or whatever you want it, Ma…" Lilia stuttered a little, unsure where she was going with how she'd been about to address him "…ma- man…" she finished lamely.

His brow furrowed for a moment, to match her own, before his light smile returned. With a comical sigh he asserted "Young love… am I right?"

"I wouldn't know…" she murmured under her breath, staring down at her shoes as she scuffed them against the dirt once more, 'Okay Lilia, don't go back into heavy conversation territory… not when he's nearly gotten you out of it…' fairly certain that he hadn't heard her quiet musing, she sounded out an "Uh-huh." This exchange had been an odd one, "Listen, it's getting late… I'd better get going…" she raised her head to look at him again, "Do you need a ride anywhere or…"

"No- no…" he flashed that same charming smile again, "I have my car parked a bit further back. Thank you though."

"No problem…" Lilia began moving towards her parked car. "It was nice meeting you…"

"Jefferson" he held out his hand for her to shake again "Lil was it?"

"Lilia" she grasped his hand. Falling a step or two closer to him when she did, something electric surged from the tips of her fingers down to her toes. Her eyelids fluttered shut 'he smells like… feels like…'

"…home," his voice cut through the buzz in her head, seeming near enough she was sure the sound had rumbled through her.

"Pardon?" jolting herself back to reality, Lilia opened her eyes, fully appreciating how the power balance of creepy had shifted. 'He must think I'm more than a few cards short of a full deck…' she noticed that she had stumbled forward enough to leave only about a half a foot of space between them. 'Hell, I'll say I'm missing the goddamn deck all together…'

"I said 'are you gonna be all right to get home?'" she tipped back to look up at him as he spoke "You got a little woozy there…" Another genuine flicker of feeling crossed his face, this time Lilia recognized it as concern.

'Guess that answers whether or not that current was just me…'

"Yeah…" with some reluctance and a great deal of embarrassment she tugged her hand out of his easy grip, catching slightly on the silver bands around his fingers. "It was... I mean…" she moved back, biting the inside of her cheek "I'm sure we'll see each other around…" his grin widened, Lilia cleared her throat, "I mean it's small town…"

He seemed to be resisting the urge to laugh, opting instead to give his head a small bow "I look forward to it…"

* * *

By the time Lilia had gotten home she wasn't hungry for dinner, she told Dom and Paige to eat without her, all she wanted to do was relax and take a hot shower. Under the running water she had checked over the hand she had given Jefferson. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

'What the heck was that?' Prior to Emma's arrival new people in Storybrooke were rare, unlike others Lilia felt no need to view newcomers with suspicion… but something about 'him' unsettled her and she couldn't decide how or in what way.

Even as she slipped into bed, felt Dom's arms wrap around her and snake under her shirt, she could not get the man from the woods out of her mind.

"Ssss…" Dom hissed, yanking his hand out from beneath the over-sized t-shirt that she liked wearing to bed. Lilia had to smile into her pillow, unable to deny her relief.

"Why do you wear that cold thing all the time?"

"It isn't cold…" she muttered, fingering the plain silver band that she wore on a chain around neck, under her clothes, at all times no matter what she was doing or where she was going. In truth she would rather have worn it on her hand, but it only fit on her left ring finger… and she didn't want to cause confusion or hurt Dom… but she could not bear to be separated from it either. It had been with her for as long as she could remember… and while Dom always complained of the chill that it gave him, all she ever felt from it was warmth… like with Paige… and now like with 'him'…

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**So completely loving the new season, finding it to work better now that it's freer. Again… sorry about the weird mood and awkwardness influencing the chapter.**


	4. Chapter 3: Well

**Hey! Thanks for the support everyone. First, it's a little jumpy with timeline. Second, the eye colour 'change'. Totally thought the actor's eyes were a hazelly- brown, but the descriptions I looked up all said that they are green (which works for me). If they were meant to be brown or blue would be cool with that too… Yay! :)**

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**Chapter Three – Well**

"_You can draw water out of a water-well," said the Hatter; "so I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well…"_

– _Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_

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_**Enchanted Forest - Still 'Further in the Past'**_

"Poppa!" she shouted from the kitchen. "I do not want to boast but I think I have finally done it!"

She had made her father's favourite dessert, treacle tart. Every year once a year, on her birthday, she would make him the same dish. For her it was a gift to give him that at least… and every year he would fib and say that it was as delicious as the ones that her mother used to make for him, and every year after an entire mid-morning and a part of an afternoon, of pressing he would admit something which might make the dessert taste more like her mother's.

Delilah had known something was wrong that very minute she sat the plate down on the kitchen table… their house was not large but it was big for two people who rarely had guests. It had gotten to be a menace to keep the whole place heated let alone clean. So it was that when she was still a child Delilah's father had, with no means to hire a full-time maid, taken to using the rooms with fireplaces to keep warm while shutting up many of the rest. Often she would wonder about how many generations of her father's family had occupied this house and how many people her parents had planned on filling all of those rooms with before her mother had passed. In the small area they had learned to live simply and happily, they had grown to be close and Delilah would not have given that up for all of the rooms in the world.

And so it was that she had known something was wrong. Her father, normally a jolly tubby sort, had a jittery sense about him… spooking as he walked through the kitchen door, nervously ticking about and missing whatever Delilah would say to him. "Poppa?" she made to grasp her father anxious and tapping fingers.

"Delilah, dear" he took a quick bite of the treat before him "I think raspberries… I think I saw some still ripe for the picking around about the trails…"

She squinted her hazel eyes, staring straight into his similar coloured ones… she could tell that he was pushing, trying to get her out of the house… but she could not make out for what reason. Her worry for him was unreasonably outweighed by the fact that she did not want him to feel bad in his horrible skill at deception, she trusted that whatever it was must have been important if he was lying to her, certain that in his own time he would tell her "All right Poppa…" she moved by the wash basin to pick up the empty wicker basket that she usually used for berry picking. "If you just promise to be fine while I'm gone…" she stopped on her way out of the kitchen to kiss the top of his balding head.

"Of course darling…" he squeezed her hand, "you be safe too… and bundle up…" his voice followed her on her way to the front entrance, where she was already putting on the brown, brightly embroidered cloak that had been passed down generation to generation by the eldest women on her mother's side of the family.

"And back before dark!" he added as though she would somehow suddenly forget his anxious teachings.

"Yes Poppa…" she replied with a sigh, "I love you a thousand suns…" Delilah waited by the door for his response.

"And I you, a thousand blue lilies…"

Her lips tugged up in a smile as she shut the door basket in hand, off to go berry gathering in the wrong season.

"Rum- tum- de -dum- tum…" she plucked the raspberry that she had just found, twirling back to the to the quarter full basket on the ground "Plum…" she dropped the fruit in the basket, as daintily as she could, standing on one foot and tipping forward with a giggle. Thinking of how horrible it would be to be one the restricted society women that she read of in her books, or a restricted boy who was not meant to act in such a frilly manner 'I should think that they would derive the same sort of enjoyment from an exercise in silliness as I do…'

"… the raspberry, was rather low…" she sang along to her own made up melody, thinking up lyrics as she skipped about '…like a loon…'

"It's season was very slow… Mr. Fox said 'You there berry… go along and…' um…" she picked another berry, as she pondered her next phrasing.

"And just be merry…"

Delilah snapped stock straight at the sound of that same voice for the second time in that week. After their first odd meeting she had ridden off the entire exchange as a fluke, a strange man trying by strange means to get back his property. She had convinced herself that they would never meet again… and yet here he was, as self-assured as ever with his hat and smile in place, bowing his head in a small gesture of greeting.

Rather than scream or become angry, to her own bewilderment Delilah merely offered a slight curtsey and a different line to her song in return "And meet a fairy…"

"But always be weary…"

"… Of all that is dreary…" Delilah chuckled as she added the last raspberry to her stock, picking up her basket and moving on, she had gone through most of the day searching and now the night was nearing "And men with hats too big for their heads…"

"To be honest this hat is not mine alone…" his voice followed her as she moved in the direction of her home "rather more a loaner hat… sold to the bidder that is most profitable … you see I am a hatter" he jumped into her path, bowing deeply to his toe now, his hat in hand "…of sorts…"

"And I fear I am late…" she stepped around his frozen form.

"May I ask why you are collecting berries so late in the season?" he trodded forward, to match her pace, holding out his hat as he motioned to the trees on the verge of browning.

"May I ask why you are hanging about these parts? I gave you your hat back…"

"Marry me and I'll tell you..." she could hear the smile in his tone, as she spotted a bush with a few berries that she had missed on her way into the forest.

"What if I were engaged?"

"I'd think you would tell him you met someone who's changed your life… and we both know you're not engaged… to be engaged you would have had to have met me, and as you pointed out when we did meet, we have only just met …"

Delilah shook her head, with a laugh, crouching closer to the bush of berries "Are you a hatter or are you mad?"

"Can I not be both? Mad and a hatter. A bit batty and a bit… hattie… "

"Sorry did you say Ratty?" She pretended not to hear.

She saw him smiling and shaking his head from the corner her eye.

"Catty, then?"

"Nope."

"Mattie?"

"Close enough."

"How is that close enough?" Delilah scoffed.

"So you did hear?"

"Trick ear…" she tugged on her left earlobe. He snickered, as she went back to picking raspberries. She wondered if the silence should have worried her when…

"Marry me?" he had moved to be closer to her right ear, close enough to cause her to jerk away.

Her hand was clutched to her chest and she had jumped at least three paces back from her basket and the bush she had been picking from. Delilah had not expected him to be that close.

He made a half serious face, as though he knew had put his foot in it a bit. Picking up her basket he held it out to her in a way that reminded her of a peace offering.

Slowly she loosened her posture, guardedly reaching out for the basket from the hatted man. Despite his silly expression she could not find anything intentionally cruel about him. 'Perhaps that is why I indulge his bewildering company so…'

"… Mad and a hattie… Mattie… I have it…" Delilah smiled, "I understand…"

A wide grin spread across his face, "See…" somehow his blind confidence made him seem all the more vulnerable as he straightforwardly proclaimed "I knew you would."

Warmth, familiar and brand-new, sparked in her skin when her fingers brushed against his as she took the handle of the basket from his silver adorned grasp. It prompted her to blurt out "I have treacle at home…" with a cringe, as Delilah had meant to say that she had spent more than an enough time away from home. But something about what had slipped out made her think that she did not wholly want to go back…

'Which is utterly…' even in her mind she could make herself finish.

"Is it unwell?" He tapped a contemplative finger on his chin, as they began walking down the path towards Delilah's home again.

"Very sickly, Mattie…" she played along teasingly using his trick name, making fun was better than what reason would call for in this case.

"And needy too I imagine." He went on, his infectious grin spreading over his lips.

Delilah nodded, "As treacle tends to be." She paused, her gaze flew over the odd green-eyed man before her, as she tried to remember how she had gotten to this talking place with him. "Would you…" her voice broke, and she coughed giving her enough time to realize what she was about ask this stranger.

He seemed have guessed what she was going to say and pressed on for her "I think I would have a fondness for ailing treacle but I have an engagement …"

'Engagement?' Delilah could not stop herself from thinking, she heard the shrill quality in the thought and hoped that she had just imagined it 'What was that?' a heat filled her cheeks and her eyes suddenly became focused on the leaves carpeting the forest floor.

"But when you marry me we'll have tea and treacle 'til our toes turn blue."

"I marry you?" Delilah scoffed, skipping over the log that marked the final barrier to getting out of the woods.

"That would be half of the idea." He stated. Delilah halted when she realized he was no longer beside her, turning to see him still on the other side of the log, his hat plucked off of his head and his dark green gaze dropped as he played with the item between his slivered fingers. "The other half would be my marrying you."

"And then our toes go blue?"

His green eyes lifted "That's the other half…"

"Another one?" Delilah raised the basket up to her chest it was not lost on her how dark it was getting but she had to ask "How many halves are there?"

"Marry me and I'll tell you." He stated simply.

'Back to this again' With a sigh Delilah dropped her arms, the basket now knocking against her knees, "That joke's running a bit tired now isn't it? Besides, don't you already have an engagement?"

"Joke?" His expression grew serious, Delilah felt her smile wilt further. "You won't laugh when we say our vows…" as quick as a flash a silly grin took over his face, all of his severity vanished. "Then again you might laugh… the people I love tend to have strange impulses… but then again I only have you for that sort of example…"

'For love?' Delilah felt a moment to or two behind with her reactions but in any case she wound up frowning in the end. "You can't mean… What about your par…" she shook her honey-haired head, thinking finally of what a reasonable response was meant be "You can't mean you love me."

"Can't I?" looked at her with mock surprise.

"You…"

"Delilah!"

Her head snapped around to look at her surroundings, it was properly dark now. "Oh no!" She made sure to have the basket firmly in her grasp as she the gathered her skirts in a panic preparing to run when...

"Delilah…" his voice was soft from under the shade of the trees but she heard it as clear a bell, her head became unmuddled.

'Or is this more muddled?' In the orange moonlight could the mossy colour of his gaze and glinting silver on his fingers.

Ruffling his already dishevel brown hair he went on "I do not want to mislead. Know that I am not wholly good. So no, not my parents, not anyone… I am new to this but I have a feeling that I will be greedy… suited to your brand of madness…"

"My madness?" she had a lapse in concentration, dropping her skirts and nearly dropping the raspberries, she gawked at his sincere expression "My mad…"

"DELILAH!"

"Oh bother!" With one last fleeting look at the stubborn hat bearing man in the woods she stamped her foot and ran towards her father's voice. For some reason felt as though she were a child again racing to tell him or show him something, she felt excited as soon as she saw him, now she could be steady again, happily she called for him "Poppa! I'm here! I'm here! Pop… Ow!"

"Delilah!" he shook her roughly by the shoulders though he was a half a head shorter that her whole body wobbled. "Delilah! Delilah!" Once the shock of his anger wore off, it was his worry that reached her, she felt as though she were being scolded for something. He seemed to be scared "What do mean by staying out this late?" He hugged her close, pushing her away seeming to assess her then pulling her back "What do you mean, huh?" His voice was soft and tired now.

"I'm here. Poppa, what's happened? What's wrong?" Feeling worried now herself, Delilah tried to get a proper look at her father by pulling away. He held her, taking a few breaths to calm himself.

"Wrong?" His tone masked his early frenzied state.

"Poppa you shook me…"

"Oh!" he cut her off, putting some space between them. "Look." He bent his head but Delilah caught him glancing at the darkened line of trees just a few dozen feet away "I all but crushed your raspberries…" he rambled, determined to change the subject.

"Poppa." Delilah straightened her posture, she had let him go earlier on in the day, but now she needed more under her firm hazel stare the stout man heaved a sigh, brushing what was left of his wispy hair back looking up at her directly, his hands clasping hers gently.

"I was just being a silly old man, thinking about your…" he shook his head, raising a hand to touch Delilah's cheek, "your mother…" the way he was looking at her made Delilah want to cry "I worked myself into a panic…" he grinned a sad grin at her "Isn't that the stu- stu- stupidest thing you've ever…"

"No Poppa" she cut him off. Delilah placed her free hand over the older man's against her cheek. "Not in the slightest bit…" she took his hand in hers and smiled "Now come along and we'll see how many of berries have made it."

With a slow sniff he nodded "We will" he smiled looping his arm through Delilah's guiding her away from the woods.

* * *

_**Storybrooke**_

"Paige!" Lilia called "Come down here! Look at this!"

"What? Mum! What is it?" Paige's voice came through the sliding door, leading from the kitchen to the backyard.

"Nothing baby doll, you got your slippers on?" Paige nodded and Lilia gestured for her to come to the centre of the yard "Just the moon…"

"The moon? But I've seen that before…" Paige commented though she still came out.

"Honey, look… it's so big and bright and orange. I feel like I could reach out and touch it…" Lilia put her arms around her nine year old's shoulders.

"Whoa" Paige brown eyes had set on the moon now too "Yeah…" she put her hand out to the bright orb, as transfixed as her mother. After a spell the little girl spoke "A million red lilies."

A knowing tenderness filled Lilia's heart "A million green ducks, baby of mine…" They stood staring and without realizing it Lilia was swaying Paige with her as she started humming.

"La- la- la, la- la… but to love you, Just the way you look tonight…" she laughed singing as loud as she could, spinning Paige around the backyard "…your tenderness grows, Tearing my fear apart…" she pinched her daughter's nose "And that laugh, that wrinkles your nose…" and the little girl giggled.

"It touches my foolish heart" Dom's voice cut in. He picked up Paige and took Lilia into his arms, moving them around the yard to the song that he was finishing for them.

A shiver ran through her, it made Lilia's neck twitch and turned her head towards the moon, now partially hidden by the perpetually vacant house next door.

Paige's giggling drew her back to Dom's amber gaze 'This is so wrong…' he kissed her lips 'why can't I just love you?' he playfully bit at Paige's cheeks 'it would be so perfect if I just…' Lilia smiled at him 'this is so wrong…'

* * *

**Next chapter soon, hopefully. Sorry about clunkiness and editing.**


	5. Chapter 4: Direction

**Hey. Happy New Year! Gotta apologize totally left the timeline indicators off of the sections of the story. Gone back and put them on now. Thanks for sticking with me. Sorry about editing.**

* * *

**Chapter Four – Direction**

"_In THAT direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round, "lives a Hatter: and in THAT direction," waving the other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad."_

– _Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_

* * *

_**Storybrooke**_

The music blasted in her ears, her feet pound in rhythm against the pavement, her hazel eyes were glued to the ground grey and blurring beneath her it was nearly enough…

'I need to stop…' Lilia felt her heart pound as her feet slapped against the grey ground. She kept her eyes glued to the pavement, in part because the 5 AM fog hadn't cleared, but mostly because it held her attention without much need for extra mental presence. The combination of her running and the feel of her the ring hung around her neck brushing against her skin, being alone usually helped… helped her forget the pain in her chest, the pain in her hips, the taste of him on her tongue… the pain of knowing that he had tried to make her, make it all work 'Can't stop…' she hit the ground harder with each footfall, trying to push the thoughts and 'shoulds' out of her mind, focusing on the pavement and the comforting brush of the silver under her shirt. 'I need to stop. I need…'

"Oof!" her feet skidded ahead on the asphalt, as whatever she had hit against pressed bitingly into the skin of her upper arms, holding her up right 'whoever…' Lilia was weary enough to correct herself. "I'm so…" she had begun to apologize before she could lift her head, let alone take a proper breath, but once Lilia inhaled her gaze snapped up. She became conscious of the sparks that had lit on her skin under his fingers.

'It's him.'

Even at arm's length, despite the fact Jefferson was determinedly holding her away, that familiar warmth spread through her whole body. His dark brow furrowed as he looked down at her helplessly gaping face, she noticed that his mouth was moving but his voice was muffled by something.

As Lilia felt herself sink further into his green eyes was sure that a wave had crashed over her at some point. Everything was slow and peaceful "It's you…" Lilia could only dumbly respond to his mouthing. While it may have not been the most eloquent of statements she could help but congratulate herself for resisting the overwhelming urge to sink all way against… 'against that…' his grip was loosening, a surprising longing filled her as cold morning air took the place of his warmth '…that smell like…like…' Lilia's eyes darted over his form as he stepped back crossing his arms over his chest, suddenly realizing that it was music that was filing her ears and blocking his voice, she sheepishly pulled her ear buds out '…like…'

"… home?"

Lilia was stunned for a moment as it sounded as though he had suggested a word for her struggling internal monologue, before the real world of manners hit her "I'm sorry?" she asked. Unable to keep a pang of protective concern at bay as she noted that he was not wearing a jacket 'He must be cold…'

His forest coloured eyes not leaving her, he cleared his throat and jutting his chin past his ascot.

'Ascot…' Lilia had to quip to herself, though with a less teasing tone. In the blue morning light through the fog that was between them she could see the uncommon garment was a rather a lovely, delicately embroidered silk and though she could not explain it Lilia recognized the colour as… 'a dark kind of treacle… sick treacle…' before Lilia could ponder over her own puzzlement at her strange choice of phrasing, Jefferson spoke.

"I asked if you were all right to get home." He nodded his head in the general direction of her house just past his shoulder.

"Home… Right…" under his hardened green study her senses had to catch up again, "Wait! What are you doing out here this early…" Lilia asked suddenly realizing that once again she was alone with an odd stranger, she crossed her own arms and grounded herself "How do you know where I live?"

"That's my house there…" he gestured to the empty house next to where she lived.

'Guess it's not empty anymore…' her light hazel gaze flitted to the long abandoned mansion.

"I heard you last night."

"Heard?" Lilia skin flushed, she felt she lost her footing as she heard the creak of bed springs, grunting in a fuzzy silence, the echo of her head knocking against the headboard just as Dom lost himself. Her hips throbbed painfully, so did the space behind her legs but nothing hurt as horribly as the sudden guilt, the shame of betrayal that filled her. 'Did he hear us?'

"You were singing in your yard…"

"Oh." Lilia took a breath of relief, glancing down at her feet, trying to calm the unnecessary frenzy that had filled her mind "I'm sorry we wouldn't have been so loud… I didn't know anyone had taken the place. Didn't really know people could still live there…" she trailed off, taken in his penetrating stare.

He didn't his say anything, just looked at her as though she were made of thin paper, having the sense of being under pressure, and searching for something to break the tension, Lilia remembered that she had smashed into him "I'm sorry for hitting you. I didn't expect anyone out here this early, ah, normally it's just me… thank you for catching me too." She rubbed her arms, where he had grabbed her.

He made a slight move towards her, a flicker of worry slipped past the cool distance in his expression and for a second Lilia thought he might reach out to touch her but he stopped himself so fast that she wasn't sure if he had moved at all.

With a grunt he asked "I didn't hurt you?"

"No" Lilia smiled "Just cold…" she dropped her hands, as they were not creating the specific kind of warmth she was craving. Taking a minute to look down and gather up her hanging ear buds, Lilia continued "I…"

'What happened?' She had raised her eyes to see him wearing an expression as though he had been slapped, staring intently at… she gauged his eye-line '… at my chest.' Lilia almost scoffed 'Lovely…' quickly she lifted her arms again, hoping he could feel the scorch she was sending his way.

"I better get back home. So, you can get back to doing whatever it is you were doing out here."

After that Lilia had no clue what she was doing. She just stood there, waiting. Waiting, to her own surprise, patiently for his green eyes to lifted and let her go. As though she could not leave without his dismissal.

Slowly he met her face. "That'd be fine." He offered no explanations. His reply was curt, from a behind stone-face façade. But in that way, that secret, private, learned way she somehow knew that hate was in every action and thing he was expressing.

'This is a turn…' Lilia could not understand him more troublesome than that she could not understand why, at the same time, she could read him so well. All of it was so confusing.

Suddenly a smile broke across his face "Don't want the evening show ruined by a sore throat…" he joked.

'He's pretending.' Lilia thought to herself, though she went along with a light chuckle, wanting to make the best of the torrent in her 'maybe it wasn't hate…' clicking her tonguing Lilia decided she had enough of maybes.

"Right…" she started leaving, stating "Thanks again" as she brushed by him, resisting the pull to push a little closer into him as she went by his body.

Her heart thudded for some reason she couldn't hear anything he might have said in return. No one seemed to be awake when she got back, she hadn't meant to but Lilia wandered around the second floor of the house in a daze. It was enough of one that she hadn't realized that Dom was sitting very much awake by an open window in their bedroom when she had finally entered it.

"Lilia." His voice was cold and hard, the sound alone made her shiver and startle in a very different way to the man next door.

"Dom!" Lilia caught her breath after being surprised, "Just went for a run" she explained with a small laugh as she tried to defrost the clearly un-amused expression on Dom's face. "How… How long have you been up?"

"About half an hour…" he remarked, though judging by the fact he was still only in his boxer shorts Lilia wouldn't have thought so.

"And you decided to sit in the cold? It's freezing in here…" Lilia smiled again, moving to shut the open window behind him, but before she could get there Dom had grabbed her by the shoulders and was peering down at her.

"Anything you wanna tell me?" his amber glare dug into her.

"No. Dom, why…" she was cut off as Dom practically winded, crushing her into a hug against his bare chest.

'He needs a shower…' Lilia could not help but think.

"God damn it!" as quick as blink, Dom shoved her body away. At the back of her neck Lilia felt some resistance, Dom had the chain with her silver ring on it his grip.

'Must have fallen out when I hit him' she thought of her earlier collision with her neighbour.

"This fucking thing…" he glared at the ring hanging on the long chain.

"Careful" she winced as Dom tugged at the chain making her step forward as he pulled it to dig into the skin at the back of her neck. "Dom" she hissed, fearing that he might break it as he tugged harder "Ow!"

He chucked the ring against her chest with a huff "I gotta get ready" he walked to the ensuite bathroom closing the door with a heavy thump.

Lilia stood stock still, shocked by what had happened. 'He didn't mean to,' She touched the tingling spot on her neck, she could feel the line where the metal had pressed in 'He just didn't realize…' she gently rubbed spot where the ring had hit her chest.

Clasping a hand around the ring Lilia let the familiar warm spread make her feel better. Her eyes traveled around the room and eventually to the open window, her fingers would not move from the ring so with one hand she shut the window and it was while standing there at the clear glass that a thought occurred to her. Shifting her weight on to her tip toes she made herself Dom's height, so she could see what he would have seen when he was standing. "Oh…"

* * *

_**Enchanted Forest – Still the 'Further Past'**_

When Delilah neared the front garden path leading to her house that day she was met with something that had made her smile. It had been an odd few days since that strange angry exchange on the night of her sixteenth birthday, since then her father had kept Delilah at close quarters. She had barely been allowed out of the house without a good enough reason. A horrible double standard as he had taken to visiting the village nearly every day.

But as it stood, he would not be moved. Today she had managed to get a trip to their small vegetable patch out back for potatoes, and even though that had been a victory, Delilah was filled with disappointment. She had felt an urge to dawdle, pass the woods, some of the days that she had been out she found herself singing loudly in the vague hope that the _right _person would hear. In any other case she would have run off in secret for a while, but on that night he had mentioned her mother. She smiled to herself thinking of her one childhood friend, Delilah knew that she could not give her father the pain of running away for good. Along with that fact Delilah also wanted to know, there was something bothering her father, making him unbearably tense.

But that day she had walked towards the front of the house she was met with a sight the exact opposite of tense… her favourite flowers. Lilies to be precise, the biggest bunch she had ever seen, freshly planted along the path to the front door and in the wrong season.

"Poppa!" Delilah called grinning as she examined the delicate flowers. 'Leave it to him to plant them out of season…' finally deciding that she just had to pick a single slightly red one.

"Poppa" she entered the house, taking off her mother's cloak and shutting the door. With the basket of dirty potatoes in hand she walked towards the kitchen.

"Delilah, child! You simply must try some of this!" Her father exclaimed from his seat at the kitchen table. In his pudgy hands was a steaming cup of what looked to be tea. "There's more in the kettle by the fireplace…"

"You made tea?" Delilah lifted a doubtful eyebrow as she put the potatoes, to be peeled for dinner, on the table.

The older man shook his head "No, it was the chimney sweep."

It took a moment for Delilah to register that her father was not joking "The chimney sweep? Since when have we needed the chimneys swept?"

"Since that young man explained in great detail how unsafe clogged up chimneys can be and since you are the one so near the fireplaces it seemed a good a time as any. Besides the people in the village recommended him… it seems has made quite an impression on our neighbours." He went on taking another sip of his tea "If he made this tea for them as well I can see why."

"Oh Poppa…" she sighed, she brushed some mud off of her skirts "I have to wash up a little before I start on dinner… is he?"

"In one of guest rooms, just stay clear and you have no reason to see him. I'll introduce you properly later."

"Do as you will, Poppa." Delilah could help but smile at her silly father "I'm glad to see you've relaxed, even if it is to let a stranger into our home…" she chuckled, kissing the top of her father's head as he grumbled.

As she reached the top of the stairs she realized that she had forgotten to ask about the flower that she was still holding. 'Later then…' with a shrug she walked down the hall towards her room, taking note of the fact that one of the guest bedroom doors that normally kept shut was open. 'Hail! The tea maker.'

For some reason as she approached her bedroom, Delilah had an urge to pass her door and go further down the hall to guest bedroom. And before she knew it her feet had carried her to the far doorway.

Delilah did not know whether she should have been shocked or whether she should have expected what she saw, nonetheless she had to gasp. "Mattie!" There he was, his back to her, absolutely covered in soot, holding a brush in his silver adorned hands, standing on a dirty white sheet at the mouth of the room's fireplace.

Turning, he smiled at her with his face adorably smudged, brown hair disheveled as ever "Ah! There you are. I see you got my gift."

"Wh- what are you doing here?" she gaped at him from where she stood at the door, she hazel eyes wide.

"Why…" he gestured to the room as though it were obvious "working. You?"

"I live here! If Poppa… oh gods! Poppa!" she bustled towards him "You have to go!"

"Why?" he smirked infuriatingly down at her, apparently not willing to budge from that spot.

"You said yourself. You're not a good man…"

His grin widened and a playful spark filled his green eyes "I also said that I was greedy…"

"Please, will you not just leave?"

"Depends" he pretended to ponder, the mischievousness in his face growing "What will you give me if I go?"

"What do you want?"

"You already know" Though his smile remained she could tell what he meant and the depth of his seriousness as he spoke.

"Why do insist on tormenting me so?" Delilah all but groaned.

"My ears are too big…" he replied with the utmost sincerity.

"Beg your pardon?" she had to ask.

"Our first meeting… I knew it."

"Ug!" She had smacked her hand against her dirty skirts. Now Delilah was frustrated for new reason "Please do not say this obsession of yours is a soppy true love at first sight, die for the other person, romantic novel, clich…" she did not get to finish. Without warning his head had dipped and his lips had somehow come close to catching hers, they would have if she had not stepped back.

"What was that!" she shoved her palm into his face, mostly out of anger but also to satisfy her need to push him away. She did not quite know how to react, she was torn half upset at him for the behaviour and strangely at herself for stepping away.

For some reason he was still smiling, almost on the verge of laughing it seemed "You see? It's that!" he nodded at her fuming form. "You do what most would not. You talked to me that day. You talk to me in a fashion which makes sense…" he took a step towards her, his eyes penetrating and hunting as he looked down at her "and while it make not be a 'novel' connection. I do not deny that with I feel a calm, perhaps it is because you make sense to me... and perhaps if I were another man I could ignore that, but I am not another man."

He moved closer, his warm body barely a hair's breadth away from her. This time Delilah was sure she was glued to the ground, she could not find it in herself to step away again not when her hazel eyes were melding with his piercing green ones. He spoke softly, not whispering, just gently "That hat you say is too big. Maybe it is, because inside are many worlds. Magical worlds that I can jump to and trade in."

Delilah's brow furrowed "You're a hatter."

He nodded his gaze un-moving "Of sorts."

Delilah's fingers tightened around the stem of the lily she was holding, something about his manner at moment, something about him told her that he was not lying.

'Why is he telling me this?'

"You'd have to learn eventually" As though he read her thoughts the brown-haired man went on with a nonchalant shrug, his eyes not leaving hers "so, I might as well inform you now. Since I was a boy I have been to so many worlds so many times that I have lost track. You can imagine the toll jumping from world to world to world has on one's mind," a small snigger escaped his smiling lips "Quite enough to drive one quite mad. Any calm is a utopia and any calm has been impossible to find… until you, my honey. Now, I find that I am myself again."

She had no real time process all of what he was saying because within a second he had taken four paces back creating a substantial space between them, letting a flood of new thoughts overwhelming her. Finding that it was still practically impossible to breathe, let alone get a hold of her mind, Delilah could stop herself from thinking that one clear, bewildering thought. 'Come back'

For a minute or two she blinked at him, unsure of how to respond. The longer she stood there staring at him, as he waited patiently, the more she realized that she could not thinking of anything at all to say to him. So slowly feeling as though she were outside her body, Delilah turned on her heel and began walking towards the open door. She could feel his green eyes following her and though she could not explain it, it was as though she could sense the sadness of his gaze grow with every step she took away.

Unwilling to leave him there, feeling as though she might be responsible for his hurting. Delilah stopped at the door, she turned her head slightly to look over her shoulder though she could not see past her honey coloured hair. She thought of the gift that he had mentioned and could not conjure up anything to ask other than "Why lilies?"

The sadness seemed to be immediately lightened, she could hear the jovial grin in his voice "I liken them most to you, my dear."

Ignoring the small flicker in her legs "Oh…" she muttered, before rushing away, berating herself as she did 'Oh?'

* * *

**Hope all is well. Hands up if you can guess which fairy-tale I'm using. Let me know if the section labels are helpful. **

**Yay! Spring premiere tonight!**


	6. Chapter 5: Guess

**Haven't watched this week yet. Hopefully will get around to it today. Even more hopeful that the next update won't take so long. Sorry if the chapter is a bit weird, had trouble working it out, may have to edit…**

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**Chapter Five – Guess**

_"… 'I'm glad they've begun asking riddles-I believe I can guess that,' she added aloud…"_

_– Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll_

* * *

**_Storybrooke_**

Emma had been odd at the station that day. "So Paige…"

"Beg your pardon?" Lilia raised her head from the file on the Zimmerman's, before having to send the documents to Boston, she had to give the facts a final check over.

"She's your daughter…" Emma meandered in to Lilia's office, awkwardly making her way to Lilia's desk and picking up the framed baby picture of Paige on her desk.

"Hope so. Otherwise I have some very suspicious stretch marks…" Lilia scoffed eying the blonde woman before her with confused interest.

"And Dom?…" Emma asked, her discomfort apparent in the uneasy tone of the question.

Lilia's amused expression fell, "Um, it's a little… complicated…" she had told Graham all about it but that was only because she had him known very well. Though Emma was fast becoming a friend, Lilia had a feeling it would take time to get to that particular personal tale "Is everything all right?"

"Ah, yeah… I …" Emma smiled at the picture of Paige. "Nothing… just a long night…" she finished with a sigh, putting the picture back on Lilia's desk.

As Lilia's eyes followed the frame she had to give the photo a soft smile, "Love that picture… Nine months old and I was so terrified, you know? She was so small at first, I just kept feeding her and finally she got nice and chubby. That young…" Lilia shook her head "I just remember being scared the whole time."

"Right…" Emma's uncomfortable voice broke Lilia's musings, causing the hazel eyed girl to become acutely aware of how different Emma's teenage experience with having Henry had been from her own. Before Lilia could backtrack Emma spoke "That Spencer prosecutor guy just finished questioning Mary Margret… and by the looks of it I definitely need to find the missing pieces of this case…"

"…So you'll be out for the day?" Lilia gave the sheriff a sympathetic smile, as the blonde haired woman nodded. She had felt bad for Emma. The poor woman was working night and day, convinced that Mayor Mills had something to do with the Katheryn Nolan's death. Lilia had given up on trying to change Emma's views of Regina. She was sure that Emma's perceptions of the Mayor had been severely skewed by the fact that Henry was involved and stuck between the two forceful women. Lilia felt for both of the mothers, if it had been Paige she did not know what she would have done to whoever was keep her from her child, but she was sure that it would not be pleasant.

"Poor Mary Margret…" Lilia sighed, adding "you need a hand?"

"No," Emma shook her head, "I work better alone, plus you've gotta have that casework ready for Boston tomorrow…" she indicated at the Zimmerman mess on Lilia's desk, leaving the room with a "Thanks though" and a smile.

It took a moment for Lilia to get out of the daze that followed Emma's visit. She had been playing with the silver ring hanging around her neck, the warmth on her skin still there from that morning's run. Still, as she drifted through her memories, not all of them had put her in the best mood 'Maybe it's time for some of Graham's pop-music healing…' Lilia quietly chuckled to herself, thinking of the slow days that used to be typical of Storybrooke. When Graham would find it too dull to bear and blast music before skidding into her office to annoy her. With a sense of fun that Lilia missed dearly every day, Graham had called the whole process …"Therapy…" Lilia mumbled out loud with a grin, before opening the music window on the laptop on her desk.

"Bonjou?" a noise broke the silence.

The call was so odd Lilia decided to shout from her desk to make sure that someone had come into the station at all "Hello?" she inquired out of her open office door.

"Where y' at, cher?"

'Cher?' she resisted scoffing, recognizing the diction from TV shows and old X-men comics 'Is he kidding with that accent? No one's really actually truly Cajun…'

The voice sounded down the hall, nearing the office door "Bag dere?" Before she could answer a reddish- brown haired head poked just inside her door 'Holy crap! It's Gambit…' she noted his very dark brown eyes, as close to any shade of black as any human eyes could be without venturing into entirely threatening territory. Wearing a loose-fitting brown trench coat, a slightly undone dark tie, a creased charcoal suit and a dark brown canvas duffel bag, he looked as though he had travelled a long way 'That makes three…' Lilia counted the number of strangers who had recently come into town, including the motorcycle riding writer and her beguiling new neighbour.

Raising a honey coloured eyebrow, Lilia put forward "I'm guessing you're from the south?"

"Laf-fie-yette, Loo-zee-A-nuh dawlin'… raised 'n awl bough' up…" the man stepped in and sort of swaggered towards her desk, a tinkling sound came from him as he moved. Despite the accent she could make out that he had said 'Lafayette, Louisiana' and she was sure that if he had, had a hat on his head he would have tipped it in greeting.

'Kay… so he's not kidding…'

"Aël Doiron." He held out his hand, partially covered by fingerless woolen gloves, from this close she could also see that his suit was in fact a dark olive green colour.

Forgetting her manners Lilia simply stared up at him from her seat, from jingling sounds to a green suit to fingerless gloves this typical business looking man was starting to look more unusual and now she was compelled to ask "Aël?"

"Mais, Gaël fo' true… dough do reckon dat Aël gotta betta' ring tah mah people…"

"Right…" Lilia suddenly seemed to realize how rude she was being, she stood up and took his hand "Aël. Uh Hi. Lilia Rile, local social services…" she introduced herself, "If you're looking for the sheriff, she's just…"

"Nah, cher. Yah who I was lookin' fo'… 'cept yah don' know none 'bout me." He went on, dropping her hand when she nodded her head, he gestured to himself. "Been sen' chere from dat dere state depo…"

"State?" Lilia asked with some disbelief "…the state of New York?"

He nodded, the tinkling noise happened again as he reached into the inner pocket of his suit to show her his identification and government registration "Put in fo' a transfer…wan' tah see how y'all do up chere… reckon I'd getta shot wit your outfit."

"Uh huh…" Lilia tried keeping up, but was still unsure of what the stranger wanted "So… if you're looking for a job I…"

"… 'ready go' one beb, yah lookin' a' da assessor fo' de Zimmerman case."

"What?" Lilia eyes widened, her heart raced, she looked from the man to the open folders and papers all over desk. "Bu- but I thought I had to send it in tomorrow…"

"Mah office wa' asked 'special, someone wants good n' proper checkin' righ' fas'…"

"Still, why?" a sliver of anger now entered her voice. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Aw, cher. Don' go gettin' awl sore. I ten' tah lose track o' choses mahself…" seeing Lilia open her mouth to snap back at his consoling, he continued quickly "If yah wan' we can wai' 'til tahmorrow dawlin'. Han' tah mah heart dough, nuttin' is mo' important den tah 'elp. Mah 'ole life's 'bout families 'n lost chile'dren…" he smiled widely, everything about him was so genuine Lilia had a difficult time finding a reason to stay mad.

"All right." She relented with a huff.

"Awl righ'...?" he trailed off, gesturing and waiting for her to finish.

"All right Aël." Lilia smiled, shuffling some of the paper on her desk.

"…'kay, den Miss. Lilia" he clapped his hands and took off his trench coat, hanging it over the back of the spare chair across from Lilia. "Lemme 'elp, den yah can sho' mah wha's wha' 'round dese parts. Startin' wit a good drinkin' place…"

Lilia eyes followed his actions as he flopped down in the spare chair and dropped his duffel bag on the floor. He leaned back, kicked his dirt caked feet up on to her wooden desk top causing her to scoff "Look I don't need your help to do my job. If you're serious about helping you can come back tomorrow."

He frowned looking down over his appearance as he brushed his gloved hands down his dark olive suit, "Wha's wron' wit mah 'elp?" he turned his dark stare back up to her. "Plenty o' good a' wha' I do."

Lilia had meant to answer but her gaze caught on the source of the tinkling sound, a winged slivery-gold brooch on the lapel of his suit 'What is that?'

"Ah…" Aël fingered the trinket, apparently realizing where Lilia's focus was "Reckon yah can take a crack, cher. Folks been guessin' 'bout wha' dis is since dey done foun' me…"

"Found you?"

Nodding he went on "Tink it'd be why lost tings have been mah callin'…" his dark eyes were full of sincere well-meaning weight. "So wha' dah yah say tah mah offer. Ain' no disrespec'… hones'… "

"I…" Lilia's hazel eyes travelled over this odd man's easy form, finally as she decided on him she let a stream of air out past her lips "Bet that's a butterfly…" she jerked her chin at the brooch, settling into her own seat and smiling as invitation for Aël to stay.

A slow grin spread across his face, as he looked from her to the pin "Reckon it jus' may be dat… podna."

"Could be a moth though too…" Lilia shrugged, with a small chuckle when he raised his eyes "for all I know…"

* * *

_**Enchanted Forest – Still the 'Further Past'**_

Delilah's skin had never felt so odd, she traced her fingers over the palm that she had shoved in chimney sweep's face. She had caught her breath in her room, falling back to lay on her bed 'why would he lie?' she asked herself trying to sort through everything he had told her about his line of work. Then when his words about her filled Delilah's head, she had to sigh "why would he tell the truth?"

Leaving the lily on her bed, Delilah went about changing, by the time she had forced herself out of her room the stranger had left and she was running behind on preparing dinner. Her father had noted her out of sorts behavior, pushing Delilah to make herself seem as though all was well.

But in truth, for some reason, she was angry at herself. Frustrated beyond her own understanding, that night she took it out on the potatoes. Hacking and shredding them in an effort to get a handle on her impossibly annoying urge to see him again.

The frustration was not helped by the fact that the next morning Delilah could keep the spring of warmth that came when she saw her stranger had come back to work on more of the chimneys.

"I know you're there, Lily of mine… come in." He called from inside the study. Delilah her struggled as long as she could over the course of three days, but somehow she had consistently ended up standing at the door of whichever room he had been working in and each time he had known she was there. Whenever he had called her in, Delilah had simply cleared her throat and bustled her skirts, saying that her father wanted to know when he would be done.

Yet the conversation would go on, he would press a question or she would dawdle. Small morsels of his past would be brought up as her curiosity would more often than not get the best of her.

She knew that his grandfather had taught him about hat-making when he was fourteen. She knew he was no more than just twenty. She knew he had been orphaned, that he was avoiding certain people.

Each one of these instances had been short, Delilah would usually remember herself and end the visit, leaving quickly before the distance she kept between them could be affected. But each time, everyday she could sense him stepping closer, coming more and more into her world.

But this day, she could not do it. He intrigued her, her curiosity had peaked and she wanted to know more. She went in, initially, fiddling with the items on her father`s desk. Feeling her stranger's entertained gaze following her movements she bashfully asked "Mattie?"

"Yes, my darling?"

Delilah coughed at his endearment, her eyes glued to the books on the desk before her "Was it scary?"

"Was what scary?"

"Going to other worlds?"

She heard some shuffling behind her, the sound of him putting something down "Yes… at first…" she could not explain it but she could feel him moving closer "then, after a time there was very little that I was scared of doing… of becoming…"

A flare of sympathy filled her at the pain in his voice "If…" Delilah began, she would have turned on her heel, but she knew that he was almost directly behind her and could not stand facing him, he wasn't being silly or mad this was entirely different.

"Yes?" he asked softly, she could sense his cool green eyes skimming over her.

"Just… if this about you being bad or rotten again…"

"Are you going to tell me that…" she heard something like a grunt of aggravation, when she turned Delilah him running his silver adorned hands through his shaggy brown hair "if you knew…"

"Knew what?" She asked in confusion as he dragged his hands over his face.

"Argh!" as though he was realizing something that he did not want to, he held his palms over his eyes speaking in a small voice, meek and broken "The reason I have no one. No friends, no true companions… " with a sigh his fingers dropped from his face, though his eyes remained shut and his expression creased in pain as he explained "the things I did for fortune…" he shook his head "surviving alone is such an awful thing Delilah, so awful."

Ignoring the shiver that went up her spine at the sound of her name coming from his mouth, Delilah reasoned "But you had to survive."

Her Mattie raked a hand through his hair again "After grandfather passed… it didn't matter what or for who, if the money was right. I stole, lied, cheated…" he opened his rich green eyes, his direct stare intense on her "ruined hope… kept true love apart…" taking a step towards her his voice lowered, though Delilah was sure that she had never heard anything so clearly.

"…now I couldn't even fathom wishing that on anyone." His voice was almost a whisper, Delilah's gaze could not move from his lips as the came closer "How could I be so heartless? So cruel? Is it any wonder I have no one?" She waited, not understanding exactly why but all at once, in this moment, she no longer wanted to push him away. Delilah was sure that his mouth would reach hers but instead felt his hands grip her arms and his forehead press against her own. He huffed out a warm breath that fanned over her skin.

Unsure of what to say Delilah could only think to offer her own experience "You know? I too have an idea what it is to have no one… I mean of course there is father. But he is, well he is my father… besides him I've only ever had one friend and that wasn't even for a whole night, sometimes I don't even know if it was real…" Delilah bit her lip, vaguely aware that what she was saying was not coming out all too cohesively, but very aware that though his head had not moved his body had inched closer and his hands found their way loosely around her waist.

"What I mean is… even though it was barely for a night he…" Delilah carried on, as she felt him tug her a little tighter "I mean the little boy that I met in the woods he made me come back home. When I… when I…" she was having a hard time concentrating, she felt her legs weaken and knock against his "I ran away from home. I was six or seven maybe. And there he was in the night, covered in mud and leaves with a light that followed him everywhere… he said being lost was the worst thing in the world, that he was looking for a girl he had let go, but that he had forgotten the way to her world…" his nose was nuzzling against hers now "that he would give anything to have her back…" he pulled her closer, Delilah wasn't sure if she was breathing anymore.

"And?" he muttered.

"I just… it's just Peter…"

"Peter?"

"That's what he said he thought his name was…" she felt his nod against her "but that's it one person, changed my life. Even though I never saw him again. I just needed one friend to do that… and…" she ducked her head away from his, waiting as his green eyes blinked open to gaze down at her, with a deep breath she spoke "And Mattie… I- I'll be your friend…" she gave him a shy smile "if you'll have me…"

A teasing smile flitted across his face, she felt her heart glow with unexpected joy at that "When we marry I will, my lovely Lily." He bowed his head this time obviously aiming for her lips.

Delilah had to dart her head away quickly, she hugged him her face pressed against his shoulder, she felt his soft kiss missing and landing on the crown of her head. "I said friend, Mattie." She should have left his arms right away, but it felt warm and comforting in a way she had not known before.

Almost as though he could tell that Delilah did not want to leave his hold, his nose patiently nestled into her honey coloured hair as he asserted with amused confidence "We'll see."

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**Let me know how you're all doing. Anyone else feeling the mid-semester push? Stay positive with me if you are too!**


	7. Chapter 6: Time

**Hey! Sorry didn't mean for it to be so long. If it makes you feel any better, been so busy with school stuff haven't had a chance to watch the show for the past month (no joke). This chapter was on laptop that was sent off for repairs three weeks ago. I'm if it's jumbled and poorly edited, but I had this written and meant to get it this out to you much sooner. And frankly I just want to give you something. Will look back and cringe no doubt oh well.**

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**Chapter Six – Time**

'_If you knew Time as well as I do,' said the Hatter, 'you wouldn't talk about wasting IT…'_

– _Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll_

* * *

_**Storybrooke**_

"That's a fairy…" Lilia had been squinting at the tinkling brooch pinned to the stranger's dark green suit. Aël simply chuckled and took another drink from the short glass in front of him.

All day long she had been guessing as they had made their way from place to place. Lilia would have been sending the documents for the Zimmerman case on this day but according to Aël someone was insisting on the utmost thoroughness on what should have been a routine case. On the day after he arrived, Aël had been met by some admittedly misplaced hostility from Lilia. If it wasn't enough that his being called in was a something of an insult, he had woken up late enough to force Lilia to meet him at Granny's instead of at the sheriff station like they had planned. In all fairness Lilia had been running late herself after dropping Paige off to school that morning '… but still' Lilia had huffed to herself.

However, with this new man's sense of humour and general deposition Lilia found it very difficult to remain upset by her current situation. By the end of the day they were sat across from one another, he gulping down a glass of bourbon and she sipping a hot chocolate. It had suddenly become very cold and though Lilia would have enjoyed a drink of something stronger, she still had to pick up Paige from school and drive home.

Lilia just looked at Ruby who was scantily clad as usual and felt herself catch pneumonia, 'maybe it's not as cold as I thought.' However, Ruby did seem to exert her own sort of heat wherever she went.

In any case, either ignoring or missing the flirtatious glances Ruby had been casting his way from across the dining room at a largely quiet Granny's, Aël asked. "Wan' som' 'ompany alon'dere cher?"

Lilia shrugged appraising his reddish eyes "Guess it'll save you a trip…"

As though the idea of doing work hadn't occurred to him until she had mentioned it Aël sputtered and nodded long to the suggestion of looking over the school. Following their drinks they made their way to the elementary school, the weather had become colder in the time it took to drive there. The warmth of the ring against her chest was a comfort though.

Lilia had been explaining that Mary Margret being framed and Kathryn Nolan's abduction and sudden reappearance and the arrival of strangers in Storybrooke at all was very usual when Paige's surprised voice neared where she was standing with Aël "Mum!"

"Paige?" Lilia asked addressing her daughter's question. "What's the matter my baby bobble?"

"Muuum!" Paige turned a shade of red, her hazel eyes pointed at the ground though it did not escape Lilia's notice that her daughter eyes had stuck on the stranger for a moment before she became so preoccupied with the ground.

She could help but melt into gushing pile of babying affection, Paige as always simply looked far too cute to be real, especially when she was all bundled up for the cold. Lilia leaned forward when Paige was near enough, so that only she could hear "Sorry Dormouse, didn't mean to embarrass you. Bad form…" she smiled at her beautiful little nine year old, who returned the gesture her gaze shyly flitting back up to Aël. "Ahem…" Lilia cleared her throated, speaking more clearly as she straightened up "Aël may I introduce you to my lovely daughter, Paige Trilby. Paige this Mr. Dorian from Louisana, he's helping me at work."

"Nice to meet you Mr. Dorian…" Paige held out her hand, her voice quieter and more bashful than Lilia had heard it in a while.

"Aël's 'nuff an' da pleasure's al mine, cher." He shook Paige's hand and bowed his head in greeting.

"Huh?" Paige asked when he called her cher.

"Means sweethar', dawlin'…" he explained "An' I can sho' tell, like your mama, dat's jus' wh'cha yah are."

"Oh…" Paige blushed, at his saccharine smile and tone.

"Paige!" a young girl Lilia recognized as Paige's best friend called from the distance.

"Wait a minute Winnie!" Paige turned her head to call back to her friend, before looking up at a confused Lilia. It took a second for Lilia to remember, Paige had a sleepover party to attend.

"Oh right! I'm sorry honey. I completely forgot Winnie's party was today."

Paige nodded "Dom's meant to pick me up, isn't he?"

"After work baby doll" Lilia kissed Paige's cheek, "You keep warm ok? Looks like it might snow, right Aël?... Aël?" she asked again when he didn't respond, when she turned her eyes to him, she saw that he had been distracted by something by the school entryway, in the general direction of Paige's waiting friends.

"Ah… yea' cher." He seemed to remember that both she and Paige were still in front of him.

"That's a fairy…" Paige commented, before Lilia had a chance to ask what he had been looking at.

"Sho' it is, beb?" Aël asked apparently figuring out what Paige was commenting on, he flicked the pin on his deep green lapel.

"Uh huh…" Paige nodded.

"Paige!" Winnie called again.

"You better get going honey. Call if you need anything. Love you."

"'Kay mum. Nice meeting you." She added for Aël as she ran to join her friends.

As she waved and watched at her daughter run off with her school friends, Lilia spoke out the corner of her mouth at Aël "Told yah", she looked triumphantly at glittery pendant. "Fairy."

Aël scoffed, ruffling her hair "Aw, da cleverness o' you, cher." He dodged the playful smack Lilia had for him.

* * *

She had shown Aël to the principal's office, before heading off to a thankfully empty home. Lilia missed Paige's company, but as horrible as she felt about it she could not help her relief at the fact that Dom was still at the power plant.

By the time she had driven into the garage Lilia was certain that winter was in town. The house was freezing cold, adjusting the boiler temperature and going about her chores. She tried not to think of the man next door, avoiding the tempting glimpses in the direction his house just outside the window. The trinket around her neck seemed to buzz with warmth when she walked under the folded up stairway in the upstairs hallway, leading up to the attic. By the time she had picked up Paige's dirty laundry her foggy memory and curiosity as to what was up there had overwhelmed her.

'How did I forget about all this stuff?' Lilia scoffed to herself when she finally made it up to the attic, fumbled around in the moonlight streaming through the rectangular window and lit the first lamps she ran into. It was like a whole other cozy den, a rug patterned in the vanilla swirls like clouds, bordered by 'my old couch, my cabinets…!' she observed, 'maybe getting a little too excited at lamps and standing full length mirror there Lilia…' she thought to herself. But as she explored the cupboards, discovering things that were familiar yet so completely from another lifetime she realized that everything in the house that she was living in belonged to Dom…

'Everything but my daughter and I…' she tugged a white pile of light tulle out of the bottom of the cabinet. "What is this?" she mumbled under her breath. As she shook out the dress she saw a plain metre long bit of tulle separate and fall to the ground. She finger the lilac brocade of lilies that stuck out and flowed diagonally across the bodice of the dress into the tulle, holding the sweetheart neckline up to her chest Lilia saw in her old mirror that the bottom of the dress just reached her ankles 'Could this be mum's wedding dress?' she picked up the tulle that had fallen to the floor, frowning at it before looking at her reflection again.

"It wouldn't be wrong…" she began taking off her clothes "Every little girl wonder's about it…"

'What their mother's wedding dress would look like on…' she reasoned, taking off her bra and pulling the dress up her body from her tube sock covered feet. "Wow…" she mumbled, hooking the small hooks at the side of bodice, surprised that it fit like a glove.

'Wow…' her hazel eyes turned up to the mirror. Lilia did not remember much of her mother, but she could not help but think she would have wanted to see this moment. As Lilia walked towards her reflection her fingers brushed the cold image of the comforting ring that had been pushed up out of the bodice. Her gaze caught on something outside the window. "No way!" she whipped around, a huge smile on her face as she threw open the window and stuck out her hand. It was snowing, quite heavily and apparently it had been going on for a while because there seemed to be about two feet of snow covered the ground. 'Again with the over excitement…' but still Lilia could not keep the smile off her face, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen snow.

A suddenly lash of wind came through the window, it would not have been bad if the veil-like tulle Lilia had left on the ground didn't get caught in the wind and blow out of the house into the white flurry.

"Crap…" without really thinking beyond getting her mother's veil back, she ran down to where her shoes were lined up by the garage door, pulled on her uggs, opened the electronic garage door and ran outside with the garage door opener in hand. "Where are you?" she called, realizing how stupid it was to call for an inanimate object. "Shhh…" she tried to focused in the dense white, walking in the direction that the wind was blowing. "YES!" she accidently stepped on a fluttering bit of the tulle, grasping it frantically she didn't even notice the garage door opener had slipped out of her left hand until she heard the crunch of plastic under her foot and heard the rumble of the electronic door closing in the distance behind her "NO!" Lilia turned, running to the door as fast she could, as the door hit the ground she arrived slamming her fist full of tulle against the metal door. "ARGH! Of COURSE Lilia!" she mutter her forehead against the cold door, "You are such a dork." She sighed.

As her adrenaline began to wear off the cold began to seep in 'Now what?' she didn't have a phone, no spare key hidden pot plants, she hadn't left anything but the attic window open. Scoping out her surroundings she looked towards the steam from the neighbour's chimney "Come on Lilia you can wait it out!" she shifted her weight from foot to foot, peering down when she felt a squelch in her clearly soggy boots 'Fantastic…'

"Fantastic…" Lilia grumbled when, ten minutes later, she wound up facing her strange neighbour's intimidatingly huge front door. She was goosepimply and shivering, her skin was wet with the snow that melted when it touched her, her toes were frozen in the soaked fabric. Knocking on the wooden door, Lilia clung the damp runaway tulle around her shoulders as though it might warm her, she held the ring to her chest certain that without its heat she would have been in much worse shape.

She heard echoing footsteps stop on the other side of the door and all at once with a fast creak the door swung wide open.

"H-hi…" Lilia smiled weakly, unsure if her teeth were chattering only because of the cold or the confused looking green-eyed stranger. Before she could say more to explain he had pulled her into the house and shut the door. He rushed her into a room with a fireplace and sat her on the floor beside it. Out of nowhere he had dropped a blanket around her shaking shoulders, falling to his knees he pulled her legs out to him, tugging off her soaking boots and socks, gently clasping her cold right foot thawing it between his warm hands.

It was all so fast, all so familiar, the heat of the ring held against her chest and the warmth of the house, of him, of the sparks the flew through her body at his touch… it was all so familiar and similar and nice… despite herself Lilia did not want to ruin whatever this was, and so she settle on explaining.

"l got locked out…" her meek voice broke over the sound of the logs crackling over the fire.

"While attending a renaissance fair?" he sniggered, pushing at her skirt before carefully setting down her foot before picking up the other.

Lilia tried ignoring the tingles his touch set off in her, "Have you looked in a mirror?" she commented on his puffy sleeves and ascot. 'Ascot…' she chuckled along when she heard his amused snort. 'Ascot. Serial killer…' the voice in her head became annoying 'Remember brain?'

"I… ah was wondering if I could borrow your phone t-to call…" she cleared her throat, the whole time watching the green eyed man caressing her feet.

"No problem." He commented in a clipped tone, dropping her foot and briskly moving to another room. When he came back he was holding a phone, and the hard look Lilia had seen in their past meetings had returned into his glare. "Here." He jerked the phone out at her. "I was going make some tea, would you like some or…"

"Tea would be great." Lilia smiled up at him from the carpeted ground, trying desperately to restore the pleasantness that had existed before her request.

"I'll be right back." He stated coolly, before walking out of the room.

As Lilia dialed she took in her stylish shelter, the design of what appeared to be the very large living room was extremely modern, with bold patterns black and white. Though she supposed it didn't matter she had to note that the man was clearly rich and in possession of a lot of space. Lilia could not imagine living here alone. 'I'd go crazy…'

Dom laughed at her when she explained that she had gotten locked out. But his tone changed when she mentioned that she had gone next door, he stated he would pick up Paige and be home soon. Jefferson walked in with a tea tray as the call ended, Dom had given her his love and she had hung up.

"Thank you" she huffed and adjusted the blanket as she stood to meet him at the coffee table, it seemed that she had warmed up enough to work properly. Sitting on the couch by the table with the tea, Lilia handed him back the phone. His green gaze looked caught on her mostly dry outfit, which was more visible with the blanket's being more open. "Cool huh? I think it was my mother's or …" her eyes followed her fingers as she traced the lilac lilies on the dress.

Without addressing her thanks, he interrupted "You're getting married?" she noticed an edge of bitterness in his voice and his jaw clenching as though he had bitten.

"Ma- I mean… just trying it on…" she mumbled, oddly not angry at his question rather she was suddenly feeling ashamed under his scorching stare, she looked down at her toes.

"If you're trying on a dress it seems you're…"

"…just waiting…" Lilia offered lamely.

"Pfft… waiting…" she could practically see his disapproval as he tsked at her and moved towards the fireplace.

At that she found her nerve, she steadied her mind and met his judgement… "What's so wrong with being sure?"

"Nothing." His tone was brutally sincere as he turned his focus from the flames to her, "Nothing… and believe me when I say nothing is as horrendous as waiting."

'Oh goodness… can't breathe…' she felt her chest become heavy under the weight of pain in his expression.

"Where's your little girl?" the question was so out of the blue it took moment for Lilia to realize that he had said anything.

"Umm… she at a friend's party… it's meant to be a slumber party, but Paige uh, she's hates staying over with other people. Since she was a baby, never seen her scared other than…" she rambled on in an attempt to diffuse the tension she had within herself. "Probably my fault, you know? Too clingy, never wanna let her of go…" Lilia joked.

"I know what you mean." Jefferson stated icily, again in a way that made Lilia feel as though he truly did know what she meant. It made her feel so utterly naked, she tugged the blanket around her body a little more.

'This is ridiculous Lilia, he was just rubbing your feet.'

"The must be them…" she heard him chime in drawing her attention to the unmistakable reverberating sound of Dom's huge truck pulling up the road.

"Right…" she stood up, holding out the blanket to him "Thank you for the tea and phone… and the feet" she winced at that last one.

"You didn't have any tea," he gestured for her to keep the blanket, walking to the coffee table to pick up a pair of dark comfy looking socks that Lilia hadn't noticed before, from beside the tray. "Here. For you…" He held them out to her. "Don't worry about returning them." Lilia did not know why but her eyes moved from the socks to his lips.

"Oh…" Shaking her head she pulled on the socks, picked up her uggs, and followed his lead to the door. "Just thank you…" she resisted the urge to sniff him after putting her on her shoes and brushing by him to the door.

He gave her a curt nod and shut the door.

Drawing the blanket tighter around her, she tromped in her still damp uggs through their yards to Dom's house, she saw that his truck was still parked outside, and familiar dark haired woman was standing next to it.

"Don't worry Paige is inside, I was at the plant. It seems that the frost has caused complications so Dom sent me in his truck instead. Snow tires and all…" she responded to Lilia's questioning expression.

"Your brother's well-prepared for winter I'll give him that…" Lilia nodded nearing the car. "But you came all the way out here just to go back?"

The woman shrugged at Lilia "I have urgent business with your friendly neighbour anyway…"

Noting the emphasis on the _friendly_ Lilia simply asked "Really?" she raised a honey coloured eyebrow, watching as the woman got back into the car.

"Don't worry. You're not living next to an ex-con or anything." She laughed sticking her dark-haired head out the window of the big black truck as she backed back up the driveway.

"I'll take you word for Regina!" Lilia called out against the wind.

* * *

_**Enchanted Forest – Still the 'Further Past'**_

What she had said that quiet evening on the chimney sweep's penultimate day working at the house, had made Delilah's seated father drop his chalice.

"I think I'm in love Poppa." Delilah fingers ghosted over her smiling lips. She could still feel his soft lips pressed against hers, she had just told him about the boy who thought he was Peter and she was hugging him when Mattie stated "None of that… you'll drive me bonkers" he pinched chin jerking her head back to make her look into his deep green eyes "I don't want to be your Peter, Delilah." She didn't know why but her name on his lips made her shiver "I want to be your batty Mattie" his face lit up in silly grin, before suddenly he pressed his mouth against hers. Her knees had gone weak, her had eyes fluttered closed, she thought she might faint, "For you…" He had held them close, by the time they had come apart for air she was sure that they had melted together. He peppered kisses against her mouth as he spoke "Don't worry about returning them…" she felt his sweet smile pull at her skin at he brought his lips just below her ear to her neck "I know you will in time, my lovely lily."

Thinking about it made her skin flush, her heart race and her toes curl in giddy happiness. She wanted to see him.

"You think?" Delilah turned to face her portly and spluttering father when he spoke.

She had never felt so serene, it seemed so rational that she was in love. Calmly she bent at her father's feet to help him clean his mess, as she explained with utterly cool composure "It came on so slowly, Poppa. In bits and pieces and before I could even think I just…" she shrugged blotting at the spilt drink with her apron. "I want to sing, and dance and shout to the world… and oh Poppa!" she exclaimed.

She felt her father's hand cup her cheek, when she lifted her hazel eyes to look at him instead of finding the happiness in his expression that she expected she only saw anguish. "My dear, dear girl…"

Delilah frowned, her father looked to be on the brink of tears, she placed her hand on his knee "What is it Poppa?"

"My darling, you do not know how badly your mother and I wanted love for you. But…"

"But what?"

"You have been dealt a horrible fate, I have tried and tried my love, but you see…" he lay his beefy hand over hers on his knee "a curse before you and I even took breath was laid on my ancestors…"

"Poppa?" Delilah asked in a shaky breath her, her hazel eyes only half conveying her fear for what her father might say next.

"As the first female born to our line since the curse, you have been tied to a beast, the son of monstrous witch…"

* * *

**Hey! Have like three hours of Once Upon A Time to catch up on. DVR's getting a workout tomorrow. Hope you liked it. Again sorry about editing. Next chapter soon hopefully.**

**Link to Lilia's dress in profile.**


	8. Chapter 7: Low

**Hope everyone's doing well and not dying like I am with all these hiatuses… sorry about the writer's block and editing :S Be warned a bit racy...**

* * *

**Chapter Seven – Low**

_'I can't go no lower,' said the Hatter: 'I'm on the floor, as it is.'_

– _Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_

* * *

_**Enchanted Forest – Still the 'Further Past'**_

Delilah had never been in love before. It had crept up on her and hit her so hard that she could not fathom being apart from him. All of his talking, that kiss had sent her tumbling into something she could not get out of. And now her father was telling her she would have to live without it.

"Poppa, please…" she was practically begging, kneeling before his seated form, her small hand clasped between his calmly, shaking ones.

"I'm so sorry, my love." Her father looked down at her with glassy eyes "This beast, he was once a young man who fell in love with my mother when she was pregnant with me… one day he was transformed into a monster by an ageless curse, he terrorized the countryside, looking for my mother, she gave her word after birth she would go to him… when my mother died in childbirth…" he stuttered, appearing as though he could no longer talk.

"Poppa…" Delilah squeezed his hand in encouragement.

With a deep breath he went on, with a weary shake of his head "It got so much worse. The beast's mother, the way my father described that witch to me…" the older man shivered "…ice cold stone, her viciously smile unmoving as she lay the curse on our family and blamed us for her son's pain…" he swallowed thickly "I didn't mean to fall in love with your mother either… it just happened like…"

"Magic…" Delilah's broken voice finished for her father, understanding fully what he was trying to explain. She thought of her batty Mattie 'I don't even know his real name' but as soon as the thought occurred to her, she realized that did not matter to her.

He nodded his balding head, "When you were born it was a joyous event, but your mother and I wept with fear… sixteen years after the birth of the next female born of my line, on the anniversary of the curse, which is a month after your birthday will be given up to the beast to take the place of my mother…"

Delilah's head fell against her father's hands, she knew had known what he was going say but had still hoped… "No. No. No…" she pressed her closed eyes against his hands.

"I tried everything I could thinking of short of sending you away, I paid men to track him to try all the rumoured ways of stopping him… binding him with new bowstrings, then with new ropes, then weaving his hair together…" he listed "… but nothing worked. Now, my sweet girl, you have to run away…"

"Surely…" she raised her watery eyes to look back up at him, but her heart broke to see his head shaking mournfully. He lifted a gentle hand to stroke her long honey coloured hair, freeing her to finally let out her hopeless sobs.

"Your mother was tireless, my darling" he went on "she even found an audience with the witch, only to have her… have her heart torn out..."

"Stop! Stop!" Delilah could not handle anymore.

"You have to run…" he repeated, somberly.

"Wha-what will happen if I do?"

Her father pulled at her chin forcing her hazel eyes to meet his "Don't thing of that. You have to run away. Do you understand? Samson will search for you once the curse takes effect."

Slowly Delilah nodded 'Samson…' she didn't need her father to answer her question, his words still rang in her head 'he terrorized the countryside…'

* * *

Delilah had snuck out the same way she had when she had met Peter for the first and only time. In the warm, moonlit darkness she did not need to see him to know he was there. He was always there at the right times… almost as he knew her actions before she did.

"Mattie" she called.

"Yes, my lovely Lil."

Without much thought she ran towards the sound of his voice, in the shadow of the woods. Plowing into him, her mouth crashed against his, her tongue delved deeply into his mouth. Her legs wound themselves around his hips, as he moaned and pressed a strange hardness against her belly. She never done anything like this before but her body seemed to know what it was doing.

One of his hands moved over the skin of her thigh exposed when her dress bunched up at the movement of her legs. Her back slammed up against what she guessed to be a tree, he ground hard against her growling as he did. She felt as though she had turned liquid and she craved more of it... of him.

He pulled away panting, as Delilah tried to follow his addictive mouth. Pulling desperately at his scarf and neck to draw him close, but she was thwarted by his forehead pushing against hers. Guessing his apprehension, before he could say anything, Delilah asked in a breathy whisper "Marry me?"

His fingers stopped roaming her skin as he moved his head further back, keeping her caged with arms and body. In the silvery moonlight his green eyes burrowed into her hazel ones. As he seemed to realise that she was being serious a slow infectiously silly smile spread across his lips.

Before she could grasp anything his mouth was kissing her senseless, she was glad he was holding her up, she could feel her spine turn to jelly and her head spin into blindness. "Yes…" she felt his smile against her mouth.

Giving her a peck on the lips, he pulled away, this time Delilah could not make herself move to follow him though she wanted to. Still propping her up, she was vaguely aware of him doing something "Here…" he spoke his voice rough with raw emotion.

Delilah blinked the stars out of her eyes, seeing before her a plain silver band being held directly in front her face. It took a moment for Delilah to recognize it as one of the smaller silver rings Mattie wore on his one of his last fingers.

She looked at him with a questioning expression "It's was my mother's… a token for the woman I would marry…" he explain his happiness so clear it made Delilah's heart ache all the more.

"I can't…" she began, lifting her left hand to push the ring back towards him.

"You can" he interrupted her "It belongs with you I can feel it…" he took the wrist of the hand she had lifted and put the ring on the fourth digit where it fit like a glove.

Delilah's protest hung in her mouth as soon as he slipped it on, she looked down at the silver band on her finger, she could practically feel it glowing with his love, with her own too…

He bowed his head to kiss her knuckles. When he raised his head back up Delilah caught his mouth in a tender kiss, soft and slow she felt herself melting into him. "I love you." She whispered in his ear as he dragged his open mouth down the line of her neck.

"My name…"

"I don't care…" she interrupted, her eyes fluttering closed as his mouth pulled at the pulse at the base of her throat.

"I prefer Mattie anyway" she felt him grin against her skin.

"I prefer Lil." Delilah tugged at his messy brown hair, kissing him soundly on the mouth as her legs loosened from around his waist and he backed away from the tree. His strong arms held her body to his as she slid down his tall frame, she felt her insides squirm at the hardness he still had pushed against her soft form. She could tell he was about to step further away from her, clinging her hands around his neck Delilah clambered to rest her head against his shoulder "Please love me…" she almost pleaded. Modesty no longer mattered to her, she could not do what she need to without him loving her properly and wholly at least once.

"Are…" she heard his torn voice begin to ask.

"I'm marrying you, Mattie. I want you…" she lifted herself against him to kiss his neck.

She felt the rumble in his chest as he groaned, "Delilah…" he mumbled, making her shiver as he lay her down on the soft ground, neither of them able to wait any longer.

'Just once…' she thought to herself, as her pain of being one with him coiled with the indescribable pleasure of being whole. 'Just once…' she repeated to herself when they did it again and her toes curled for the second and then the third time that night.

She tried not to crumble when he rambled on about his plans for their future. She tried not to cry when she nuzzled her nose against his comforting scent after he had succumb to fatigue. She tried her hardest not to crawl back when she slipped out his grasp to dress, but heard a strangled sound from his sleeping form at her leaving she had to press a loving kiss to his forehead easing away the lines of tension there. She tried not to fall apart as she took the note she had written him out of her mother's cloak pocket and placed it in his folded clothing to be sure he would find it. She thought about leaving the ring behind as well, but she couldn't bring herself to take it off... it belonged with her.

Delilah wrapped her familiar, flowery cloak around her shoulders and pulled the hood over her honey coloured head. As she walked away the pain between her legs was nothing compared to what she felt in her heart on this day, a month after her sixteen birthday when she would sell herself away.

She distractedly turned the silver ring on her finger over and over again. Its soothing warmth, the only thing giving her the strength to keep moving.

* * *

_**Storybrooke**_

"Lilia!"

"Wha?" She asked her fingers had been toying with silver ring hanging from her neck. Lilia had been thoroughly distracted all day, her mind preoccupied with thoughts about the attic full of items had strangely forgotten and other things that she should probably have felt guilty for thinking about 'but you're not…' she scolded herself. But there was different she reason had barely touched her food, she had been watching the falling snow lightly outside, saddened that it was no longer sticking.

"Yah listenin' cher?" Aël asked, sitting in his customary charcoal green suit and gloves in Granny's diner as they ate lunch.

"Mmm…" she bit her lip, shaking her head at a less than pleased Aël. "Sorry… you have my full attention now I promise." Put her hands down and stared at him determinedly.

"Sah, I wa' turstin' fo' som' bur…"

"Bourbon" Delilah scoffed completing the word for him shaking her head "Do you try and live by stereotypes or…"

"Nah righ' tah be teasin' dere cher, 'specially wit' dat news dere, o' dhem gettin' a'proved n' all…" he defended, referring to the Zimmerman case having gone through without a glitch. "I wa' celerbratin' yah know… havin' a lil ol' fais dodo, n' den as I wa leavin' dis bon rien…good for nothing fella" he translated before Lilia could ask " … jus' dun shov'd meh tah da groun', gotta bruis' n' er'vthing on meh bee-hind tah prove it…" he took a bite of his burger.

Lilia frowned "Do you have any idea who it was?"

" If I'm 'onest dawlin' ay migh' hav' bin a sligh' bit chockay…"

"Of course…" in the near week she had been around him Lilia had learnt the meaning of the word 'chockay' very well… to be tipsy or just plain ass backwards drunk. Most of Aël's tales involved this word.

"Mais, 'e tald meh tah keep away from yah 'n yah petite bébé …" he put his burger down, licking his fingers, his dark brown eyes patiently watching her from across table clearly waiting for answers.

But she had nothing, other than utter bafflement for him 'Dom?' she wondered to herself. She hadn't really mentioned Aël around him, though he had steadily been growing more paranoid. Especially since his sister had filled him in on Lilia's visit to their neighbour's home, before she could explain it to Dom herself 'that wasn't fun…' Lilia winced, at how coldly he had spoken to her when he gotten home that night. She began playing with the ring anything drawing it's warmth up to her lips as she tried to figure out the odd string of events Aël had described.

With a sigh, she shrugged "Normally everyone's so… not violent around here. I don't know what to tell you Aël, but I'm sorry and I have no ide…" she looked at him, only to find that now he had also become distracted by something just outside the diner window. Lilia turned her head to see what he was looking at, unlike hers had been his eyes were not fixed on the snow but instead on a man in worn looking brown coat and a red hat scurrying across the street.

"Aël?" Lilia asked, shifting her gaze back to her companion, unsure of what he was so perplexed by.

"Huh?" his dark eyes snapped back her puzzled face, though his expression was far away.

"Are you all right?"

"Huh?" he repeated, his brow furrowed as though he couldn't understand her. His skin had suddenly become shiny with a thin layer of sweat, he looked to be on the verge of hyperventilating.

Lilia could feel her matronly side emerging, as she filled with worry "Aël you look…"

"Ah, yea'…" he heaved out laboured breath, standing up quickly and awkwardly shuffling out of the booth that they were sitting "don' feel sah bon, cher" he spoke, his voice matching his scattered actions as he dropped a fistful of change and bills from his coat pocket on to the table top and tugged on his trench coat, even though his room was just up stairs.

"I can stay. You don't…"

"Nah! Yah jus' go ohm n' rah-lax… I'll beh righ'…" he gave her an unconvincing smile, before anxiously looking out the window again and beginning to walk away.

"Call me if you…" she practically shouted after him.

"Righ'… righ' see tahmorro' beb." He rushed towards the stairs leading to the inn's rooms.

'That was weir…' she didn't get to finish her thought, as there was loud bang followed by a screech of moving furniture behind her. Jumping out of her seat, she turned toward the front entrance of Granny's to see the other stranger, the one Emma had been working with, laying on the floor. He had clearly just tumbled into the door, knocking into some chairs and tables when he had fallen to the ground. He was clutching his left leg in pain.

Lilia quickly rushed over, along with Ruby to help him up. 'What's his name again?' Lilia asked herself 'something that sounds made up…'

"Are you all right?" she settled on asking.

"Perfect." He gritted out acerbically, as he straightened himself and tried to put weight on his leg, with very little success.

"Do you wanna sit down?" Ruby offered "Or I could take you to the hospital."

Closing his blue eyes, the man took a deep breath through his nose before shaking his head "I'm okay Ruby. I just want to go to my room, but thanks." He opened his eyes giving Ruby a painful smile, before looking at Lilia "And you too…" she swore a spark of recognition had flitted through his expression when he turned to her, but he trailed off obviously waiting for her to offer name.

"Ah, Lilia…"

"August." He introduced himself with grimace as he tried to shifted weight onto his sore leg again.

"You sure you don't need a hand getting up there…" Lilia asked watching with some trepidation as he began trying to walk.

"I should be fine…" he hissed slightly as he started limping away from Lilia and Ruby. "Thanks again."

'Both him and Aël' Lilia shook her head as she watched August make slow progress across the diner. Mostly she was concerned by their behaviours and ailments, though that didn't keep her from wanting to smack each of them over the head for being so stubborn.

Ruby was not impressed by his attitude either, turning to roll her green eyes at Lilia.

'I'll check on Aël after work' Lilia relented to herself, adding 'and maybe August too, just in case...'

"Want some help?" she asked the scantily clad girl, gesturing at the tables and chairs August had stumbled into.

"Thanks…" Ruby nodded.

* * *

Lilia's was middle of laughing at Ruby's impression of prideful 'I-can-do-it-alone' guys while she finishing setting back the last few chairs, when her phone rang.

"Excuse me…" Lilia said to Ruby, going to back to her booth to grab her phone from her bag.

"Don't worry about me I got it. I got it…" Ruby half spoke, half sniggered in a gruff voice, hilariously channeling poor August.

Seeing that it was Dom Lilia answered, though she was still mid-laugh "Hello…" she cleared her throat with a chuckle.

"Where are you?"

"Huh?"

"Where are you?" he asked, each word spoken clearly and precisely.

Lilia's heart started racing as her mind immediately jumped to Paige "Is everything all right? Is it Paige?"

"No. I called the office and you weren't there."

"Oh…" Lilia commented, her face creased in confusion at his sounding so upset. 'Is he checking up on me?'

"Where are you?" he asked again, a little more impatiently.

Though his tone made her bristle with annoyance, she answered him "I'm at Granny's…"

"With who?"

"Why does that matter?" There was a long thick silence, before Lilia gave in "just with a work buddy and Ruby…"

"I'll meet you there."

"No there's no point. I'm done lunch now anyway." Lilia stated as she pulled Aël's semi-finished burger towards herself, sniffed it and she took a bite, returning to the plate when she was satisfied that there was nothing wrong with it.

"You? Alone? I thought you said you were with someone?"

"I was but he got sick and…" she finished chewing as she spoke.

"Just wait there." He hung up.

"Fine" she huffed at her phone, sitting back down and tucking her ring under her shirt knowing it would annoy Dom to see it. 'Jerk…' she angrily stabbed her fries into some undisturbed ketchup on her plate. Lilia's hazel eyes wandered back out to the snow as she waited, her feet tingling as her mind drifted to bright, warm things to hold onto in this dim place of hers.

* * *

**Please let me know what you think! I love to hear :) Missed a few episodes with the schedule shifting, so yay for catching up this weekend!**


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