Finding You Always

Healing Scars

Finding You Always

Chapter 18: Healing Scars

They arrived at the Rabbit Hole and Snow was still stunned by what he had told her. It was bad enough that Regina had ripped her and Charming apart. But she was beginning to see just how much misery the curse had inflicted on the entire Kingdom. Marriages ripped apart by petty issues. Many were married to people they didn't love, while their true mates were alone. The orphanage was full of children, whose parents were in town, but had no idea, other than a mysterious emptiness that was constant in their lives.

It seemed somehow Jason Locksley had been overlooked by Regina in that respect and managed to keep his child. Probably an oversight on the Queen's part. It seemed she had also overlooked Abigail and Frederick. She paused at that thought.

Or could it have been David's absence that was responsible for that? It hit her then. Would that have been part of her misery inflicted by Regina? Would she have seen to it that David and Abigail...or Kathryn rather were married if he had ended up in Storybrooke with fake memories like the rest of them? Regina would have relished making her watch the man she loved be with another. She shuddered.

"Snow..." she heard him say. He looked concerned and she squeezed his hand, silently assuring him that she was fine. He didn't look too convinced, but they would save it for later.

As they got out and walked around the corner, she saw the man in a purple stocking cap in the alleyway. Her seven dear friends had not escaped Regina's fury. Doc was treated as nothing more than an underling to Whale. Bashful was even more withdrawn now, stuck all alone in a lab all day as the town's forensic analyst. Sneezy seemed miserable, having no one to share the fruits of his business with. Not to mention the cruel twist at being surrounded by medications that would never help his condition. The Queen loved irony.

She and David had yet to even find Sleepy and Happy. Leroy was the town drunk, stuck as a janitor at the hospital by day when he was not too drunk. But Dopey...poor, sweet Dopey was lost without his brothers to care for him. It possibly broke her heart the most. Homeless...alone, with no one bothering to try and help.

"I'll go get Leroy," David whispered, before squeezing her hand. She kissed his cheek and slowly approached the alleyway.

In their land, they had used hand signals and gestures to communicate with Dopey. It was not exactly like the sign language in this realm, but similar. She and the dwarves were proficient with it. And she had taught Charming the basics. But that was it. With no one having any memories in Storybrooke, no one would know how to communicate with him. She wasn't even sure Dopey would know, being he had no memories. The mute dwarf was slow, but by no means stupid, as many thought. She'd always had a soft spot for him.

He spotted her and immediately shied away. But she held up her hands and used the hand gestures from their realm, knowing it was probably a long shot.

"I'm not going to hurt you," she signed. He stopped and she saw recognition in his eyes and her own eyes widened in surprise when he signed back to her. This wasn't the sign language of this realm...it was from their realm.

"How do you know those hand signs?" his face suspicious, like perhaps waiting for this to be a trick. She smiled.

"I learned from you...and your brothers, a long time ago. Do you know who I am?" she signed to him. He glared at her.

"No one knows who they are in this place," he gestured, his face bitter. Tears brimmed her eyes and realized the cruelty of his curse. Like Jefferson, Dopey's curse was to remember, because he was powerless to do anything about it. He remembered everything and everyone. But one else did so no one knew how to communicate with him or care for him.