*~*~*Collaboration between YoshiSkittlez and GuardianAngelHaruki*~*~*

Faye tossed and turned in her bed as she faced the nightmare again. She had no idea what was going on, and she could feel the flames licking at her arms once again, causing the pain in her arms to light up and cause her to yell in pain. 

She cringed as she woke up, but the pain lingered on her arms as she noticed the light flooding into her room. She walked to the freezer and got an ice pack to place on her burnt areas. She swore under her breath. She couldn't help but remember Gold's words about Henry last night. She shook her head trying to forget them, but it was difficult to do so. 

She sighed through her nose. She didn't know what else she could do to help Henry and the others. Was there really no way? Was there really nothing else she could do? Had her efforts meant nothing? 

She had initally planned on making breakfast here, but...the emptiness of her own home bothered her, so she decided to go to Granny's instead.

She dressed in black pants, a red turtle neck, long sleeved shirt, and her white doctor's coat over it, with her usual tennis shoes for long hours in the hospital. With her purse slung over her shoulder, she left her house and locked the door behind her.

She soon reached Granny's and sat at the bar, ordering coffee and eggs. As she sat in the diner, she noticed that everyone was talking about Henry's, Snow's, and Knox's disappearance. Of course...people were bound to notice at some point...

She thanked the waitress who brought her her coffee, and she sipped at it as she listened to the people around her.

"Is it possible that those three...crossed the town line?"

"No way! There's no way Snow would just leave us! Especially without David,"

"Besides! Henry's car is still in Storybrooke. If they were to leave, they would've used his ride, right?"

A familiar grumpy voice, Leroy, piped up, "From what I heard...Dr. Stevenson was the last to see them..."

Faye could feel some pairs of eyes focused on her, if only for a brief moment, or for a couple minutes as she kept sipping at her coffee. She could hear whispers and murmurs as the people talked about her. They were wondering as to who she was back in The Enchanted Forest. Considering that she only met Rumpelstiltskin...and Red, while her other half met David, many were starting to believe that she could be one of the Evil Queen's minions.

At this point, Faye felt like coming to Granny's Diner may have been a poor decision on her part.

When her coffee cup was empty, she read a small book she kept on her person (considering that she didn't like reading the local tabloid of a newspaper), while she waited for her breakfast that seemed to be taking a long time. 

A waitress, Ashley, came up to her and commented with a saccharine smile on her face "Here's your refill. On the house," Faye didn't move her free hand in time to avoid an 'accidental' splash from the hot coffee. She dropped her book, as she hissed through her teeth, and recoiled her burnt hand back, "OWOWOWOWOW!!!"

As she tried to use the iced water nearby to treat her new burn, Ashley smiled sweetly and she said "Oops! Sorry about that," Faye could tell from Ashley's tone that she wasn't really sorry. That splash was intentional. 

Everyone in the diner looked ready to gang up on the Doctor, if she were to speak up against Ashley, or even stand up.

A shadow of a man moved past Faye to sit onto the bar stool next to her, a warm, comforting hand going to rest on her shoulder to get her attention.

Faye looked up to see David sitting next to her and she greeted as she rubbed her burnt hand with her other hand, "Good morning, Mr. Nolan,"

The other patrons of the diner seemed to be confused when David moved to sit next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Faye could feel their gazes leave her as they moved to mind their own business before they got on David's bad side.

David seemed completely unpreterbed by the looks he was getting within the diner, either he didn't notice (unlikely, even for David) or he didn't care.

"Yeah, uh, David... is just fine..." He replied with a warm, gentle smile after removing his hand from her shoulder. He then nodded his head in the direction of the door. "Walk with me?" He asked, a clear indication that he wanted to talk with her about some things under more private circumstances.

Faye blinked at his correction, and when he asked her to walk with him, she nodded silently as an affirmative response, and she walked out of the diner with him (after picking up her book, Crime and Punishments). Leaving the diner abuzz, wondering what was going on.

Faye walked with David, trying to just even think and word her statements. She knew she was going to have to tell him about her progress when it came to the three's disappearance. However, her mind kept on wandering back to that question that made her sick, the question that Hyde and Gold brought up so cruelly:

[i]Did Henry really love her? Or did he not care and he just up and abandoned her?[/i]

"I'm sorry for that little stint Ashley pulled." David said once free from the watchful eyes and ears of Granny's Diner, stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets for something to do. "Ever since she sold her baby to Gold, she hasn't been quite herself..." He shook his head, seeming a bit more upset with Ashley's behavior than someone who had only known her as Ashley from Storybrooke. "Hows your hand?"

Faye snapped out of her daze when David spoke up and apologized for Ashley's actions. After he explained the reason for her behavior, she let out an understanding "Ah..." before she said "It's fine. You don't have to apologize. And my hand's alright...thanks,"

David nodded, pleased to hear that she hadn't been injured too badly, but what he knew of Faye Stevenson, it would take a lot more than just a hot splash of coffee to do any real damage to her.

"Well, you were right about Miss Hyde, she was there at the Sheriff's station for Regina. The cell was banged up pretty bad, but I got Hyde to leave Regina well enough alone, unfortunately with both cell blocks now damaged, I had no choice but to let Regina go. So far though, she hasn't been giving any trouble, though I guess it's only a matter of time."

She nodded when he told her about the incident in the jail. She knew she should tell him about the deal that Hyde struck up with Regina, but she knew that she needed to be careful and do so without giving him the idea that she and Hyde could be one and the same. 

She answered "I heard," She shook and she could hear Hyde whisper ideas in her head to help her out.

She told her story to David, "Hyde figured out that I warned you and came to me again...She gloated about the incident, about how she practically destroyed the jail cell, and frightened Regina enough to the point that she made a deal with Hyde; She allowed Regina to keep her life, and in return she had to do whatever either of us told her to," 

She then added, showing confusion and wariness about Hyde "Why she picked us, I have no idea..." She then bitterly added "As though Hyde robbing me for everything I had back home wasn't enough,"

"You and me?" David asked in surprise, wanting the clarification. Clearly, he was just as clueless as Faye was when it came to Hyde's choice. "Not sure how that's going to help us though, Regina's not like Gold when it comes to deals. Although Gold has his own little rules on how he upholds his end of the bargain, he [i]does[/i] actually come through with his end. Regina... I'm not so sure she's ever remained true to her word... about anything..." He pointed out, years of experience backing up his tone. "But speaking of Gold, have you gotten anywhere with him and the uh... portal problem?"

Faye sighed sadly as she was reminded of what happened the night before, and of the quandary in her head, as she answered "No...And I thought I actually had something that would help as well..."

She then pulled out the neon green glowing Magic Bean extract in a vial from her doctor's coat, and she held it out for him to see. She said to him, "Purines, Phytohaemagglutinin...every compound commonly found in beans. The glow's caused by magic," 

David stopped walking to look at the vial more closely. He particularly didn't have any experience with portals, and the words coming out of Faye's words might as well have been in a different language as he didn't understand any of it, but there was one thing he [i]did[/i] understand.

"This came from the bean that made the portal they went through?" He asked in confirmation.

She nodded, somewhat slightly impressed that he was able to make that inference, "Yes. I managed to extract this from the soil samples that I gathered from the area where the portal disappeared," She then continued gravely "However...according to Gold, there's not enough power in the world, by science or magic, that could allow this to work as a portal," She wanted to be skeptical of the man and not believe his words, but from what she could tell, he was telling the truth...or at least believed that he had been telling her the truth.

David scoffed as the 'helpfulness' of Mr. Gold was revealed and gently took the vial from Faye after a nonverbal confirmation that it was alright. 

"Gold's nothing but a greedy, rat-bastard. I thought that he might help us but without anything he wants, I'm afraid he's as useful to us as a wet paper bag." He carefully looked over the contents in the glass vial now that he was holding on to it. "But I'm not done yet, Gold's not the only one in Storybrooke that has magic. I'm going to take this to Mother Superior; she and the other nuns were fairies back in our land, very powerful but they only use their magic for good, unlike Gold and Regina. Maybe she can make sense of something."

Faye allowed David to carefully hold the glass cylinder and she let out a "Ha," at the mention that Gold was a greedy, rat-bastard. No words rang truer than that sentence. She blinked at the mention of Mother Superior and the fact that she and the nuns were fairies back in The Enchanted Forest. Why weren't they mentioned before? She didn't ask out loud, and instead said to him, with a little hope in her voice, "Alright. You'll let me know if they have anything?"

David nodded, putting his free hand back on her shoulder in a comforting gesture, meeting her blue eyes.

"Of course. We're going to do this, we're going to find Snow. Henry and Knox too. There's nothing in this world, and all the other worlds that will keep me from finding them." He flashed her a charming smile as he removed his hand from her shoulder, his short speech over with before it had really began. "You might want to head home for now though, not everyone in Storybrooke is as accepting that you aren't from our world as I am... if Cinderella's actions at the Diner weren't enough to back that up..."

Faye nodded and answered with a sigh at the reminder, "Right..." She noticed that he had said Henry and Knox's names as an afterthought to Snow, but she didn't comment. She then turned around and said as she started to head back to her house, "I'll see you later, David,"

"Stay out of trouble!" David called after her, a playful wink in his eye before he headed to the convent where he would once again have to ask a favor of the nuns. It was just as well though, he hadn't heard of the progress they were making with Ruby's memory potion lately.

Faye smiled sardonically at David's call and she mumbled quietly to herself, and out of David's hearing range, "Too late..."