Fic: The Lesser of Two Evils - Chapter Four
Title: The Lesser of Two Evils
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Mr Gold/Emma Swan, Henry (and later on August and Regina)
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for everything surely XD
Summary: My new Golden Swan continuing drama. Emma and Gold's complicated relationship takes a turn for the worse when potions and magical artifacts become involved. Written from ideas presented by the lovely missbreese
X-Posted to FF.net here
Chapter One :: Chapter Two :: Chapter Three
Chapter Four
With Henry gone off to do research into our newfound Rumpelstiltskin, I find the only logical thing to do is finish my day at work. It's a coincidence, of course, that Gold was coming down with some flu bug at the time that we were there in the diner. Bugs go around. They strike without warning. Even if the guy looked perfectly healthy a minute before.
It had nothing to do with me.
The dagger sits in my bag, and it's presence is a sudden concern. I'm going to look weird if anybody catches me with that thing. But I can't dump it when it means so much to Henry. I guess I'll have to call it a prop for Henry's drama class at school. Mary Margaret will back me up without question, I'm sure, she's good for stuff like that.
It had nothing to do with me.
I'm not sure why I have to remind myself of that fact. But it feels important to do so right now, lest I too slip into the fantastic tales of Henry Mills. Perhaps a runaway imagination runs in the family.
When the door to the station goes I am too lost in my concerns to hear it. I find myself staring into my coffee mug when his voice startles me.
"Miss Swan," he says. "At last I've found you in a place where we can talk alone."
I only look as far as his shoes to start with. They are perfect, as they always are. Shiny and expensive.
"It seems you did," I reply, hoping for boredom to translate in my tone. My voice comes out a tad too nervy for my liking.
His chuckle annoys me the second it leaves his mouth.
"I was going to catch you earlier, but I was taken unwell."
He takes a seat opposite my desk, forcing more of himself into my eyeline. I have to look up now for fear that my gaze accidentally falls anywhere that he can make use of. I find his face is expectant and smug, as it always is.
"You don't look so ill now."
"A momentary fever. I expect it was my blood pressure, from the hot coffee."
Despite rueing his appearance in my office, his explanation gives me no small sense of relief. What a simple thing for me to have gotten so worried over. I just nod, thinking about how quickly that mad panic over the dagger has ebbed.
"Still," he says almost happily. "We're here now, aren't we?"
And we're back to panic. It's smaller than the other kind, but having no idea what game he's playing with me strikes a flicker of that same fear back into me. I'm sure he sees it in my face, because his smile widens.
A flash of something green hits my vision, and for second I'm certain that something has exploded in the room. But then all I see is Gold looking at me like I'm past my use-by date.
"Are you feeling alright?" He asks.
I can't answer the question. A strange compulsion to hold the dagger strikes me, and I cannot resist the temptation.
"Just a little headache," I reply, leaning forward on my desk. "But I'm sure it will have passed by, oh say, the time you leave my office?"
That chuckle again. It grates on my nerves. I reach into my bag under the desk, hoping he won't see me, but also hoping, just for a moment, that the dagger could really serve my purpose. I find the hilt of the small sword.
Gold suddenly gets to his feet.
"Another time then," he says. "Seeing as you're under the weather."
And with that he's going, and I hold onto the dagger for all it's worth. It granted my wish. It made him leave.
And then I tell myself that I'm being ridiculous, and that he left because he enjoys messing me around. But I keep hold of the dagger, and a thought crosses my mind.
Come back.
He stops dead outside my office, looking back in through the glass. I feel that I have never really understood the phrase dumbstruck until now. Gold begins to enter the doorway again.
"Unless you don't want me to go?" He says, a wicked grin playing on his lips.
I can't make out what's going on, and the only thing that's real is the hilt of the weapon now concealed in my lap under the desk. It frightens me to think that this could really be happening, but I cannot let the blade go.
"You want to talk about it, don't you?" He says, totally oblivious to my stupor.
"No," is all the reply I can give.
His smile turns quizzical.
"Then what?" He asks.
I decide that there is only one way to prove that this dagger is not really doing anything. I have to think of something crazy, something so inappropriate and out there that it just could not happen right at this moment now. And the first thing that comes to my head I immediately regret. But it's there and it sticks, and I can't shake it off.
Kiss me.
Gold rounds my desk in an instant, seats himself on the edge of it in front of me. He just watches me for a moment, eyes so intensely focused that they may well be looking through me into another place entirely. He leans in, takes my chin in his hand, and the impossibility of the thing that is about to happen terrifies me.
As our lips graze I drop the dagger. Gold instantly breaks away, looking confused.
When the dagger clangs to the ground, he and I both look down at it. He takes in a sharp gasp that tears my gaze away from it. I find his face a picture of shock and fear. He stares unblinkingly at the blade on the floor.
And then without warning his arms are on mine, and he pushes me down in my chair hard, forces me to stay where I am.
"Where did you get this?" He asks in a growl, his usually settled face a picture of rage.
So much has happened that I do not fully register the fear I ought to have right now. He shakes me in the chair, searching my face with dark and angry eyes.
"Where Emma?!" He demands. "Where?"
Chapter Five
Note: I am aware that with the events of The Return just happening, my story is now not in line with canon re: the dagger. But it's so much more fun this way :D