A Rose by Any Other Name

The first week that Rosalie lived with Red was mostly about finding a new normal. At least to Rosalie that was what it was about. During the day, Rosalie would sleep most of it and then wait until around nine or ten to leave the apartment and head into the forest and go for a run. It was the only freedom she had. That was because she was being a coward and not taking the chance of running into Graham or even Emma. Was she being childish with how she was handling the situation? Yes. Did she care? Not at the moment. At the moment she just wanted to figure out what she really wanted.

Was staying in this little town going to cause problems with her and Emma? Was there anything really going on between her and Graham or was she just getting her hopes up for no reason? There were so many questions that she had going through her head and she was no closer to an answer than she was when she first moved in with Red.

As soon as the alarm went off signaling that it was now after nine, Rosalie grabbed her running shoes from her bedroom and walked into the living room. Hearing a key in the lock, she looked up as she slipped on the first shoe in time to see Red walk through the door with groceries.

“I only have a small break, but I brought groceries and dinner for you tonight.”

“I thought you had a late shift at the diner.” Rosalie said as she tied her shoe.

“I do and one of the waitresses didn’t even bother to show up. So I will be closing tonight. Going running again?”

Rosalie let out a small laugh. “Yeah, the first week here I didn’t go out as much and not as far as I would have liked because I was looking over my shoulder waiting for Graham or Emma to call out to me.”

“Since you brought up the name,” Red said as she finished putting things away in the kitchen. “There is something you should know.”

“Why do I get the feeling that I don’t want to know?”

“Because you probably don’t,” Red told her. “But I am gonna tell you anyways.”

“Alright, get on with it.”

“Every day since you left the Inn Graham has come into the diner-”

“He always comes into the diner to eat. That isn’t something I didn’t already know.” Rosalie said as she interrupted Red.

“Well, yeah, but it has been different lately. He always asks me if I have seen you or heard from you since you disappeared. I think he believes I know where you are.”

“You do.” Rosalie laughed as she tied her hair back.

“Well, yeah,” Red laughed. “But he doesn’t know that.”

“Does anyone know where I am besides you?” Rosalie asked.

“Grams, but don’t worry no one will be able to bully it out of her.”

“Thanks. And I don’t just mean for keeping my secret and giving me a place to crash until I can figure out what I need to do. But for being a friend to me when I thought I had lost the only one I really had in my life.”

“Emma had a hard time too,” Red told her. “When she first got here. But I think it really is different for you. Your father is either here somewhere or back in what is left of the Enchanted Forest. But Emma, both of her parents are here and you won’t be able to ever meet your mother. And that is why I think it is different between the two of you and how you came to be.”

“All my life I just thought that my father and mother just never wanted me. That I was just an accident and they couldn’t wait for me to come so they could get rid of me.”

“From what Snow and Charming tell me, your parents wanted you very much. Your father told Charming that when he held you for the first time after Aurora died, he didn’t want to let you go. You were the last thing he had that connected him with his one true love, but you were also a part of him and it tore at him deeply to send you to this world.”

“Why hasn’t he tried to find me since I’ve been here?”

“The same reason you haven’t been actively looking for him since you started to believe,” Red told her with a small smile on her face. “Fear.”

“Fear?”

“Fear that he won’t be what you are expecting, fear that he might not want you now that he has missed you growing up,” she told her friend. “And for him it is the fear that you could possibly hate him because he sent you here and didn’t keep you.”

Nodding her head in understanding, Rosalie looked down at her shoes so that Red couldn’t see how her words had truly affected her. “Everyone has told me that he sent me here to-”

“Give you your best chance. That is the same reason Snow and Charming let Emma go.”

“If he hadn’t let me go,” Rosalie said. “Then I would have at least had him in my life. This life truly sucked because I for so long I had no one and no one but Emma ever seemed to care.”

“It seems to me that you and Emma really did think alike when you were growing up.”

“It was hard,” Rosalie said honestly. “The not knowing. You don’t just give away your child without a reason. But it seems to me that in this world it is more common than it should be.”

“Do you want to find him?” Red asked as she looked at her friend in the eyes.

“Yes,” Rosalie said honestly. “I have wanted that my whole life.”

“Then I will help with that. I’ll keep an ear out and everything.”

“Thank you.”

“I need to get going,” Red said with a roll of her eyes. “Before Granny decides to fire me.”

With a small laugh, Rosalie watched her go before walking to the kitchen before getting a glass of water. Taking a deep breath she drank the water before setting the glass on the counter. Grabbing her phone and headphones off the counter she walked to the door. Before opening the door, she grabbed the spare key off the wall so she could lock the door while no one was there. Maybe today would be the day that she would be able to finally make a decision on what she needed to do.

*~*~*~*~*~*

One foot in front of the other. Even though she had lost the trail at least a mile ago, Rosalie couldn’t stop running. She believed someone was following her and with nothing to protect herself with, she did the only thing she knew she could, she ran off course. She had hoped that going off the path that she would lose the person who was following her, but it didn’t look to be happening.

When she took a glance back, she missed seeing the tree root that was sticking above the dirt in the forest. Feeling the pain in her knee and in her ankle, Rosalie held in the groan as she got back to her feet. As she put pressure on her left foot, she could feel the pain even worse. Knowing that this was a bad sprain, Rosalie hobbled over to a tree and sat behind it hoping that whoever was following her would keep going and not stop. Shaking her head at herself, Rosalie knew that she shouldn’t have glanced back and because she did, she was in a bad position if some weirdo wanted to attack her.

As soon as she heard the gravel under a pair of shoes near her location, Rosalie held her breath, hoping the person would just go away. Closing her eyes for just a moment as she calmed her breathing.

“Rosalie.”

Snapping her eyes open, Rosalie looked at the person who had been following her. Carefully, she moved to her feet, making sure not to put a lot of weight on her foot. Looking at him, she was happy to know that some stranger that had been following her, but she wasn’t sure how to feel about seeing him face to face.

The purpose of her running in the forest was to figure out what she was going to do about Emma and Graham and now the man that seemed never to be far from her thoughts was standing in front of her.

“Why were you following me?”

“I just want to talk.”

“To talk?” Rosalie asked with disbelief in her voice. “If you want to talk to someone then you call them. You don’t follow them in a dark forest!”

“I have! I have called and called but you never pick up.”

“There might be a reason for that! Maybe it means that I don’t want to talk to you!”

“But you’ll talk to Red?” Graham asked her. “And live with her?”

“She hasn’t judged me or betrayed me!”

“If you let me explain-”

“Please don’t,” Rosalie said as she lifted her hand to stop him from coming any closer to her. “I am doing what I can to decide what I want to do about you and Emma and this town of people I don’t know.”

“I understand that things are confusing right now, but if you would just listen to me-”

“What more do you and Emma have to say?”

“If you would have answered the phone you would have know what I wanted to talk to you about!”

Looking at Graham in the eyes, she knew it was something important.

“Is it why you kept asking Red where I am?”

“I knew you were staying with her,” he told her. “I saw you a last week. Coming back from a run.”

“You followed me?” Rosalie couldn’t keep the surprise out of her voice even if she tried. “What were you thinking? That you would-”

“I love you!”

The shock registered on her face, but something in her said that he was just saying it to her so that he might get back into her good graces.

“No, you don’t,” Rosalie said as she shook her head. “You and Emma belong together and once you figure it out then you both will be happy with each other.”

Ignoring her wishes for him to stay away from her, Graham made his way so that he stood right in front of her. “I don’t love Emma. I won’t love Emma in a day, a month or even a year from now. Not when my heart is finally free to choose the one I truly want. That is you Rosalie. Now and forever.”

“You can’t-”

“I do know,” he said as he took her hand in his and placed it over his beating heart. “That is for you. My heart is yours.”

“Graham, I-”

“Please, don’t say anything. I just need you to know how I feel.”

“Emma-”

“Is a friend, nothing more.”

Nodding her head in understanding, Rosalie could feel as if she was finally understanding where she stood in Graham’s eyes. Taking her hand from his chest, Rosalie looked into his eyes and smiled. A true smile, not the fake one that she had been sporting since she left Granny’s Inn. Leaning closer to him, she looked into his eyes before softly placing her lips on his and holding onto his jacket. If he was surprised that she was kissing him, Graham didn’t show it in the way he was kissing her back.

Rosalie could feel herself getting lost in the way Graham was making her feel as he kissed her. It was nothing like she remembered, it was better. After moving back to catch her breath, she smiled at him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“No,” Graham said as he smiled at her. “I should have done it a lot sooner than tonight. I have missed you Rose.”

“I’ve missed you too,” Rosalie said aware that her ankle was now throbbing with pain. “But I think there is something I need to do.”

Graham looked at her, unsure if he wanted to know what she was about to tell him.

“When you were chasing me,” Rosalie laughed before looking down at her ankle. “I tripped and I think I have a bad sprain.”

Kissing her lips softly, Graham smiled at her before lifting her up bridal style and headed for the road where he had left his car parked and hidden out of sight.

What neither of them noticed was the pair of eyes watching them as they left the dark forest.