Swan Song ❂ Killian Jones [1]

27

"Well done, girls. You were all so great, I can't wait to see you all again tomorrow." Odette said with a smile, clapping her hands as the music to one of her favourite ballet's came to a stop, the group of little girls in her class sharing happy looks at the praise.

However, amongst the happy and excited faces, Odette noticed one in particular. The young girl instead, shrunk away to the back of the room, already shuffling through her things, and packing them away. With a concerned look on her face, Odette moved through the group of girls in the front, giving small compliments as she passed by.

"Paige?" Odette called the girl's name, making the young blonde turn towards her quickly.

"Grace." She said in a quiet tone. For a moment, Odette's brows furrowed in confusion before she remembered. All her time in Storybrooke, she's known the little girl in her class as Paige, but just like the rest of them, that was not actually her name. And it would seem that the young girl, just like Odette, preferred to use her real name now that she could remember it.

"Grace, is everything alright?" Odette asked in a worried tone. While she knew the breaking of the curse had changed a lot of things, for everyone, she'd always known Grace as a happy and cheerful girl.

"I'm fine, really. It's just..." Grace hesitated for a bit.

"You can tell me, I'll do what I can to help, okay?" Odette urged her on.

"I'm looking for my Papa. He disappeared before the curse, and I never knew what happened. I thought he might be here, but I can't find him. I'm scared that he's... That he's..." Grace couldn't bring herself to say what she was thinking, but Odette still understood.

And while she'd already promised to help, hearing the actual truth, it tugged on something within Odette's heart as she sat down on the floor where Grace had been kneeling by her bag. "Listen to me, if your Papa is here, I promise, I'll do whatever I can to help you find him, okay? Now that the curse is broken, our happy endings are still possible. And you'll get yours Grace."

"Could you help me put up some more fliers? I have to pick them up at school, but I'll be putting them up after that." Grace said, a small sign of hope sparking within her. Of course, the people who'd been her parents during the curse had already been helping her, but more help couldn't hurt at all. "I have a picture I drew here. I wish I had an actual picture, but the Enchanted Forest didn't have any."

Odette waited until she dug the drawing out of the bag before taking it into her hands. Immediately, she tried to compare it to all the pictures she'd seen when rifling through the files at the Sheriff's station, to perhaps bring this issue to its end right away. But sadly, she did not recognize it.

"If he's in Storybrooke, we'll find your Papa."