Once Upon a Time: Ever After High (Book 14)

Ch.18 Innocent save

Hey guys, I'm not gonna be able to update for a while due to traveling. Though it probably shouldn't take that long, perhaps a couple days or so.

Nobody had taken their eyes off the ballerinas on stage who were still doing their dancing. And by the time they were finished, everyone applauded, especially Aaron who never took his eyes off his daughter who stood there smiling proudly. And as soon as the ballerinas left the stage, Paula walked up to the front showing a forceful smile.

"What a delightful performance," she announced.

"Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen" Mr. Goldson suddenly called out while walking up to Paula's side "If I can have your attention, please. My name is Carey Goldson, Paula's assistant who's working with the police at the moment. At some point during this event, Ms. Calvert's bracelet has come up missing. I'd like to ask all paying guests to please remain seated. Even employees, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to consent to a quick, non-invasive search."

"Wait," Aaron spoke up, his face growing concerned as he stormed up to Paula's assistant "You're just looking at us?"

"Step back," Mr. Goldson ordered giving him a slight shove, "You've been warned."

"Hey!" Brooke walked up to him from behind and grabbed his shoulder "Leave him alone!"

But the moment she touched his shoulder, Mr. Goldson yanked his elbow up and behind as it hit against Brooke's eye with a hard force which caused her to stand back while clutching her eye in pain.

"Hey!" Aaron yelled while shoving Mr. Goldson away from her as he went to Brooke's side.

Brooke couldn't believe what just happened as she felt her eyes water and a black eye forming as she turned to Mr. Goldson with a terrified look.

"Well, someone's clearly not a gentleman" Aaron grunted with his hand on her shoulder.

"Nobody touches me," Mr. Goldson declared sternly while keeping his eyes on Brooke "In fact, turn out your pockets Ms. Page."

"What?" she scoffed.

"Are you listening to me?" he snarled, "Turn out your pockets."

"Okay!" she held up her hands while putting her hands into her apron pocket.

And at that moment, she felt something she knew wasn't in there before as she felt her heart drop.

"What?" she gasped with everyone's eyes on her "Um uh- I have no idea how-"

But when she pulled out her hand, what everyone expected to be the bracelet turned out to Brooke's keys instead.

"Wait, these are my keys" she announced baffled.

As the audience began to mutter to each other, Paula stood there provoked that her assistant's plan had backfired. And as for Mr. Goldson, he turned his attention to the officers who stood near the exit, especially at Terrence who gave him a small sneer. Even though Skyler's new plan had made him angry, the siblings didn't care, knowing that she just saved an innocent girl from being framed.

At the docks still searching for Good-Enough, everyone soon made it back to where they started, none of them with the little Charming by their side.

"I'm guessing no luck huh?" Daring sighed.

"I didn't even find a clue if he was here or not" Darling stated.

"He was," Dexter spoke up with a sad look.

"What?" everyone gasped.

"What do you mean?" Daring asked surprised, "Did you see him?"

"No, but someone else did. He told me that he's spoken with Goody who told him that he didn't want to be found."

"What?" Darling gasped, "Why?"

"He said that Goody didn't say why, except that he sounded very serious about it."

Everyone couldn't believe it when Apple spoke up- "I don't understand, why would a 13-year-old run away from his home?"

"Maybe it has to do something with his hormones changing?" Daring guessed with a shrug "I mean being 13 is a hard age to be at. Perhaps he grew tired of staying at his home that he wanted to explore the world or something."

"That's a possibility" Darling agreed.

"Or maybe he had a fight with his family" Raven put in.

"That's another possibility."

"I don't care what the reason is," Dexter spoke, "He's out there on his own, he can't survive that way, and that's why we gotta find him."

"How?" Daring questioned with doubt.

"I don't know, but it's getting late, we should get back."

As they began down the dock, neither of them noticed Good-Enough watching from behind a building. As he watched them disappear into the crowd, he gave a small sigh while turning around and walked down the street, not feeling a bit sorry that his cousins were worried about him.

After leaving the ballet, the officers met up with Mr. Goldson in the alley next to the ballet where Terrence tossed him back the bracelet.

"So," Mr. Goldson said to Terrence, "You couldn't have done the one thing I ordered you to do."

"She's an innocent girl," Terrence replied sternly, "One who most likely lost a daughter, I couldn't do it to her."

"I must say, Mr. Kenneth, I expected more from you."

"Well, you don't get anything you want now, do you?" he smirked.

After that, they all headed back to Calvert towers where they joined up with Paula in her office who sat at her desk with her permanent frown.

"Impressive," she told the officers, "Not only did you three fail the special task I gave you, but you also couldn't even pull off basic police work."

"Ms. Calvert," Skyler replied assuredly, "You do not employ us, you do not own us, and you most certainly don't control us. Like what my brother told your assistant, you don't get everything you want, that's what life is. And by the way, your assistant has been given a warning on his assault to Ms. Page, if we ever catch him assaulting her and anyone else again, we'll have to arrest him."

"And keep the money," Aidan added with a glare "We'd rather not be paid by you."

And with that, the siblings left the office, knowing that they left Paula angrier than before, but like always, they didn't care.

________

Sitting at the counter at Gabi's bar, Brooke held an ice pack to her eye when Aaron walked up to her with a beer in his hand.

"Hey," he greeted while handing her the beer as she sat there a bit surprised since he was finally talking to her on his own "Look, Shannon's thing about me being the Sorcerer's Apprentice? It kills me that she sees me that way. The thing is, I really thought I could do this on my own, and I didn't really like the idea of getting my butt saved by a woman."

Brooke gave a snicker when he added- "But if you hadn't gotten me the job, I wouldn't have seen Shannon. And then you took an elbow to the eye which was shocking. So um, you add it all up and..."

"You'll accept my apology?" she smiled.

"You earned a second chance," he smiled back.

"Thank you."

They bother shared smiles when she pointed to a nearby stool.

"You wanna pull up a stool?" she offered.

"Actually, I picked up a late shift, I'm sorry. Enjoy the beer."

He gave her one last smile before walking off. And at that point, Brooke turned around and watched him leave the bar, not knowing that a smile was forming on her face, this time with a feeling she couldn't explain, but at the same time, it felt nice.