Ch.4: The Price Of Gold
It was a beautiful day, as Katherine and Henry walked through town together.
“Are you sure we can be out in the open?” Henry asked her, knowing how much Regina didn’t like Katherine.
“I’m not sneaking around. Your mom has a probably with me walking you to a school bus? I’ll be more than happy to have that chat.”
“You’re brave,” Henry stated. “You’ll need that for Operation Cobra. Speaking of, have you thought of any code names?”
“Isn’t Cobra our code name?” she questioned him.
“That’s the mission,” he clarified. “I need something to call you.”
“Just call me Katherine,” she replied.
They stopped walking, once they were at the school bus.
“Okay, well, I’ll see you later, Katherine.”
She watched, as he boarded the school bus.
After the bus left, the sheriff came up in his car. He then got out.
“What’s up with the siren?” she asked him.
“Well, it’s so hard to get your attention,” he answered her.
“Well, you’ve got my attention now. What do you want?”
“To thank you for helping to find David.”
“And what do I get for that? Key to the city?” she questioned, half-joking.
“How about a job? I could use a deputy,” he offered her.
“Let me think about it,” she replied.
He gave her his card. “Think about it. Stay a while.”
She watched, as he left.
When she was at the diner and accidentally spilled some hot cocoa on her clothes and Ruby told her where the laundry room was, she did her laundry there and put on some new clothes that were hanging from the line. Then she got to talking to a girl that was pregnant.
“The doctor said the baby could come any day now. The thing is, when it comes, no one thinks I can do it. No one thinks I can do anything. Maybe they’re right.”
Katherine leaned against the washer.
“Don’t listen to them.”
The girl looked at her.
“What?”
“Don’t listen to whatever they tell you or think you can or can’t do,” Katherine told her. “How old are you?”
“19.”
“I was 17,” she informed her.
“When you had a kid?”
“Yeah. I know what it’s like when everyone likes to tell you what you can and can’t do, but whatever you plan on doing, whether you raise your child or not, the choice is yours. You have to learn to stand up for yourself. Show people what you are capable of if you want to change their minds. You want to change things? You gotta go out there and change them yourself, because in my world, there are no fairy god-mothers. People say what they say to hurt you no matter what. Be strong and show them who you really are and people will start to see you differently,” she replied, giving her some personal advice that she had to learn on her own.
Later that day, Gold came for a visit. Since Mary Margaret answered the door, he asked her, “Is Miss Pierce here?”
Katherine approached the door.
“Hi, my name is Mr. Gold,” he introduced himself and they shook hands, though she’d seen him before. “We met briefly when you first arrived.”
“I remember.”
“Good. I have a proposition for you, Miss Pierce. I need your help. I’m looking for someone.”
“Really?”
Mary Margaret left the room saying she was going to go jump in the bath.
Gold handed her pictures, in which Katherine took and looked at.
“Her name is Ashley Boyd. She’s taken something quite valuable of mine.”
Gold walked inside and Katherine closed the door behind him.
“So, why don’t you go to the police?”
“Because she’s a confused young woman. She’s pregnant, alone, and scared. I don’t want to ruin this young girl’s life. I just want my property returned.”
“What is it?” she questioned him.
“Well, one of the advantages of you not being the police is discretion. Let’s just say it’s a precious object,” he replied.
“When did you see her last?”
“Last night. That’s how I got this,” he replied, and showed her a cut he’d received on the side of his head. “She kept rambling on and on about changing her life. I have no idea what got into her. Miss Pierce, please help me find her. My only other choice is the police,” he replied.
“I will help her,” she said, not saying anything about helping him.
After he left, Henry arrived, not heeding Regina’s rules of no TV and staying inside. Instead, when Henry found out that she was going out to go help the maid, he insisted on coming with her, so she had no choice but to let him come with her.
After talking to Ruby about who the maid is, Henry got the notion of who she was when Ruby said that she has two step-sisters and a step-mother.
“Look, I don’t know what you’ve heard, but it’s wrong. Everyone thinks she’s not ready to have this kid, but she’s trying. Taking night classes; trying to better herself. Trying to get her life together. Can you understand that?” Ruby said.
“More than you know,” Katherine answered.
“Maybe you should stay out of it then. She’s been through enough already,” Ruby suggested.
“I’ve been through it too, Ruby, and I can help her,” Katherine replied.
Ruby told them where Ashley’s ex-boyfriend lived and they headed over there to talk to him.
After having a confrontation with the ex-boyfriend’s father, she found out why Gold exactly wanted it to be her to find the maid; so, she could give him the baby that the maid sold to him. Then, after talking to Ruby again, she found out where Ashley was going.
At the town line, Katherine and Henry found her and she told him that the baby was coming. After getting her in the car, she tried to get them to take her to Boston, but she eventually convinced her that she wouldn’t let anything happen to the child and she gave her a pep talk saying, “You sure you’re ready?”
“Yes.”
“You sure? Because I wasn’t.”
“You weren’t?”
“No. You have to grow up and you can’t ever leave. Understand?”
“Yes. I want my baby.”
While Ashley was in labor, Henry and Katherine were in the waiting room at the hospital, Katherine pacing around, Henry sitting in one of the chairs.
“You know, you can do it. You’re the only one that can,” he said.
“Break the curse? Yes. You keep telling me that.”
“No. Leave,” he informed her. “Leave Storybrooke. If anyone else tried to leave, bad things would happen.”
“Anyone,” she stated. “Except for me.”
“You’re the Savior. You can do anything you want. You can go.”
They were interrupted, when the nurse came in and told them that she was a “healthy six-pound girl and the mother’s doing fine.”
Suddenly, Rumple appeared in the waiting room.
“What lovely news.”
Katherine looked at him.
“Excellent work, Miss Pierce. Thank you for bringing me my merchandise.”
She approached him after he got a cup of coffee.
“A baby? That’s your merchandise? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, because at the time, you didn’t need to know,” he answered her.
“Really? Or you thought I wouldn’t take the job?” she countered.
“On the contrary, I thought it would be more effective if you found out yourself. After seeing Ashley’s hard life, I thought it would make sense. To you.”
“You’re not getting that kid,” Katherine boldly told him.
“Actually, we had an agreement, and my agreements are always honored. If not, I’m going to have to involve the police, and that baby is going to end up in the system. And that would be a pity.”
“That’s not going to happen,” she replied.
“I like your confidence,” he complimented her. “Charming. But all I have to do is press charges. She did, after all, break into my shop.”
“You know, no one would put a girl in jail for breaking and entering with the only reason of doing so was to keep her child,” she replied. “I’m willing to bet that that contract doesn’t stand up. Not to mention what might come out about you in the process. Somehow, I suspect there’s more to you than a simple pawn broker. You really want to start that fight?”
“I like you, Miss Pierce. You’re not afraid of me and I’d rather have you on my side.”
“So she can keep the baby,” she said.
“Not just yet,” he answered. “There’s still a matter in mind. Agreement with Miss Boyd.”
“Tear it up,” she suggested.
“That not what I do. You see, contracts; deals, they’re all part of civility existence. If you want Ashley to have that baby, are you willing to make a deal with me?”
“What do you want?” she asked him.
“Oh, I don’t know just yet,” he admitted. “You’ll owe me a favor.”
“Deal,” she said, and they shook on it, before she walked away from him.
She and Henry entered the hospital room where Ashley was.
“Hey,” Katherine greeted. “What’s her name?” she questioned, looking down at the baby girl.
“Alexandra,” she answered her.
“That’s pretty.”
“Thank you for getting me here.”
“Mr. Gold is outside. I took care of it. She’s yours,” she informed her.
“She is?” she said with relief. “What did you do?”
“I made a deal with him.”
“Thank you,” she replied.
After dropping Henry off at home, she made up her mind to stay and called Sheriff Graham.
“Hello?” he greeted.
“Graham? It’s Katherine. I was thinking maybe some roots wouldn’t be so bad. That deputy job still open?”
“Absolutely,” he answered her.
“Then I’m in,” she informed him. “Regina gonna be okay with this?”
“I don’t care. It’s my department. Hope to see you Monday morning.”
“See ya,” she answered him. Then she hung up.
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