Rapscallion | ONCE UPON A TIME [ON HOLD UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE]

eight | desperate souls

With a sigh, Gareth closed his eyes once he heard the sound of the doorbells to the store jingling from the front of the store.

Mr. Gold, however, only smiled to himself when he heard Emma ask from the front of the store, "Gold? In here?"

With the smile no longer on his face, Mr. Gold quietly said to himself, "Well, it is my shop."

Then they both heard Emma say, "Knight?" When Gareth didn't respond, she asked them, "Where are you guys?"

With a sigh, Gareth only pinched the bridge of his nose and started to shake his head to himself, while Mr. Gold simply smirked to himself upon seeing just how annoyed his apprentice was with Emma Swan.

It wasn't long after that that Emma walked into the back of the store where the two men were standing and each doing their own thing, only for her to come to an abrupt halt and say, "Whoa! What is that?"

Mr. Gold told her, "Oh, this is lanolin. Used for waterproofing."

Emma replied, "It smells like livestock."

In turn, Mr. Gold said to her, "Well, it is the reason why sheep's wool repels water."

With her nose still scrunched up, Emma told him, "It stinks." Then she turned to Gareth and asked him, "How are you not bothered by the smell?"

In response to her question, Gareth simply blinked at her before he glanced over at Mr. Gold, who had a bit of a smirk on his face.

It was then that Emma asked Mr. Gold, "Um, if there was a reason you called the Sheriff's Department, if you want to talk about that quickly, or outside?"

As he made his way over towards Emma, Mr. Gold told her, "I– Well, we just wanted to express our condolences, really. The Sheriff was a good man." Then he turned to Gareth and said to him, "Gareth?"

With a wave of his hand, Gareth said, "Yes, yes. His passing has really broken my spirit. I don't quite know how I'll go on, knowing that Sheriff Graham Humbert is no longer alive and the only thing that remains is that dead body of his."

While Emma took a quick glance over at Gareth with narrowed eyes, Mr. Gold said to Emma, "You're still wearing the Deputy's badge." While Emma took a quick glance down at her badge, he told her, "Well, he's been gone two weeks, now. And I believe that after two weeks of acting as Sheriff, the job becomes yours. You'll have to wear the real badge."

Emma replied, "Yeah. I guess. I'm just not in a hurry. So, um, thank you and, uh, Knight over there for the kind words."

Then she walked out of the back room and over towards the front door with Mr. Gold close behind her, which only got Gareth to roll his eyes to himself before he went back to eyeing the lanolin that Mr. Gold was using prior to Emma Swan's arrival to their store.

* * *

While Gareth took a quick glance up from the book that he was reading from behind one of the counters, Mr. Gold looked up with a smile on his face from the fire that he had lit and said, "Regina." While Regina switched around the open sign, Mr. Gold asked her, "Shall I move some things? Make a bit of space for your rage?"