David Nolan is very charming. (knightinflannel) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2014-01-11 23:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, david nolan (prince charming), neal cassidy (baelfire) |
Who: Neal and David.
What: Talking over drinks.
When: Early January.
Where: A bar.
Rating: Low.
Status: Complete.
Neal owed David a drink or two anyway, right? Now was the perfect opportunity. Especially since the dreams - yes, the dreams - were getting on his nerves, and he wanted to swim around in a bottle of tequila for awhile. To ensure that he didn’t do that was actually why he decided to check and see if David wanted to cash in on those adult beverages, because really, Neal wanted to make a good impression on the man that was Emma’s dream-father. She brought him by for Christmas things at Mary Margaret’s, and he had met both otherworld mom and dad then, Snow White and Prince Charming - of course. They seemed to not want to throw him down a flight of stairs, it had been a good time, but he wouldn’t mind some one-on-one time to speak with David and get to know him more. And somewhere, in a universe beyond this one, David probably wanted to do the dad thing and make sure the guy his little girl was dating wasn’t a complete tool.
They were at a local sports bar, nothing fancy, but nothing that was too close to ‘dive’ territory - the kind of place that was awash in smoke and sticky surfaces, and where the cheap drinks were so strong you could set a whole forest on fire when you breathed out. No, it was pretty standard all things considered.
“So I know you probably don’t want to talk about the dreams,” Neal started, after he had received his 7&7 (but without the lemon wedge, because fuck that), mixing it up from the typical Manhattan. “But I really only had one question. Then you can grill me all you want.”
David was, honestly, glad for the chance to get to see Neal outside of a group gathering. From the little bit he saw him at Christmas, David liked him, he seemed like a good guy. Still, David was Emma’s friend, and he wanted to make sure that she wasn’t getting into something she shouldn’t. … Okay, all right, that fatherly instinct was rearing its head, too, and he couldn’t be blamed for that. Could he?
So, yes, he’d taken up Neal’s offer and was relieved it was a sports bar, because it was a good place to just relax and be comfortable. He’d ordered a pint of beer and laughed a bit at Neal’s question.
“It’s fine,” David said, honestly. “I don’t mind talking about them as much as I used to. But, sure, go ahead,” he told Neal, taking a sip of his beer.
“Okay, well...” The ice clinked in his glass when he lifted it to take a hit of the ol’ liquid courage. Hell, all this crap was so messed up, and even hearing the words when he said them sometimes still wasn’t enough to make it seem real. “In the dreams, my father’s Rumpelstiltskin. Did you know...or do you know him?” With the fairytale thing, it didn’t seem like much of a stretch. But Neal was asking because if David knew Rumpelstiltskin, then presumably he should have known his son too, right? But obviously, they hadn’t met yet.
Something must have happened. What, Neal didn’t know. It didn’t seem good, whatever it was. If anything. Let’s face it though, with his luck? It was never nothing.
David had clearly not been expecting that. He swallowed his beer a bit roughly and set the glass down, furrowing his brow a bit. Neal’s dream father Rumplestiltskin? Of all the people in the world … Still, that didn’t mean it was the same world. David had an itching feeling that it was, though.
He cleared his throat and nodded. “Yes, I know him. He … I think he has a lot to do with a lot of things, in my dream world. He’s the man people go to when they need a favour. Make a deal, you know?”
Make a deal. Yeah, Neal knew that pretty well - too well, in fact. In his dreams, he had been wanting to get his father to give up his power for awhile but to no avail. The same power that turned a former cowering wool-spinner into a creature that could snap a man’s neck with just a twist of gnarled fingers. And Neal had seen him do it too, as a boy - those were the images that played on repeat when, burned into the back of his eyelids as soon as he closed them to lay his head down to sleep.
“That’s weird how I don’t know you,” he said, confusion flickering in dark eyes. “Right now, I’m dreaming of the Ogre Wars. I’m fourteen, so I should be enlisting, right? I don’t see what makes me any different than the other kids who have fought on behalf of their villages and their lands. I had friends who have died already - when I was allowed to even make friends, I mean. He kept me away a lot. I was isolated. Anyway, I’m trying to get him to give up the power because his magic’s nearly destroyed what’s left of our family.”
Interesting. David sort of couldn’t help but fascinated by it. Rumplestiltskin was just such a mystery, and here Neal of all people had a peculiar insight to that. But David shook his head, trying to sift through his already bad memory to pull out details.
“From what I … Sort of recall, the Ogre Wars were mostly done by the time I started dreaming. There were a couple of them throughout time, but I think my time in the Enchanted Forest, they’re pretty kept at bay. It’s before my time.”
David took another drink of his beer and looked sympathetic. “I’m sorry. I think he was trying to protect you, maybe, in his way. I’m not sure a man like that has much grasp on how things should be handled.”
“They were done?” Alright, now Neal was just really fucking discombobulated. If they were done by the time David started dreaming, that would mean...actually, he wasn’t sure what that meant. That maybe Neal was somehow dead? That he only had fourteen years worth of dreams and then he just kicked the bucket after all, despite his father’s efforts to protect him in the worst way possible?
Time to drink up. A hearty swig was taken from his glass; the alcohol went down easily, so maybe the epic confusion would too.
“Anyway, sorry, I don’t mean to get all depressing on you,” Neal continued, because his dreams were definitely not a happy topic. “Nothing makes sense, I just need to wait until it all comes together.” If it ever did. “I guess...I mean, if you want to ask me...?”
Hell, he didn’t know. “I assure you, sir, I have the best intentions regarding your dream daughter.” Okay, David was the same age as him (and his daughter, for that matter), this was slightly awkward. Was he even supposed to say that?
“It’s all right,” David told him, reassuringly. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more help. I didn’t even know he had a son. He’s not really one for talking about himself.” He offered Neal a sad sort of smile. He understood that the dreams were weird, but at least David was finding that he had lots of people who shared his with him. Neal appeared to be on his own.
But then he had to laugh a bit. “Am I that transparent? It’s strange. I hardly know Emma, and even in our dreams I don’t really know her, but I can’t help it.”
“I don’t blame you,” Neal smiled too, that lopsided infectious grin that was all white teeth and eye-crinkles at the edges. “She’d probably be so embarrassed, but I’m glad that she has someone else looking out for her, you know? That someone cares. She’s been through a lot.” Family was really important to Neal in this life and in the last, it seemed, and he knew that Emma didn’t really have much of a parental influence here or there (she’d told him that she believed her dream parents left her on the side of the road, which clearly wasn’t true at all), so maybe it was better late than never?
Besides, he kind of wanted her to have what he never did. He believed that with such an intensity. His last relationship had ended when his girlfriend cheated on him, so you’d think he’d be reluctant to get back in the saddle, but with Emma it was different - she fit with him so perfectly.
David couldn’t help but look a bit embarrassed himself, or at least flattered, because he did want nothing more than to be there for Emma. He felt as if he had to right whatever had happened in their dreams.
“You’ve known her a while, then?” He looked at Neal over another drink of his beer. It was funny how everyone just seemed to gather in this one county. “Or was it just a whole love at first sight thing? Which, in my recent experience, is actually completely possible.”
“A couple months, but it’s weird...” Yeah, the whole ‘love at first sight’ thing didn’t sound so fantastical to him anymore. Before Neal hadn’t believed in it, and while it may be too soon for love when it came to Emma (especially when she was wary of things turning too serious, too fast), there was definitely something there that was deeper than he could even begin to fathom. How could he explain that he too felt like he had to make up for what happened in the dreams even though he hadn’t seen her yet? Maybe they just hadn’t come across each other, but it was looking more and more likely that they were from the same world. How could he explain that he felt like there was darkness coming. Like standing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the other shoe to drop. And he wanted to keep her from it. He wanted to fix it all but he couldn’t, because whatever it was, it was bigger than the both of them.
“It just feels like so much longer,” was what he settled on. “It feels like there’s so much between us and we’ve only just scratched the surface. Does that sound crazy?” Probably so. Maybe in a bar not terribly, however, so that was some small consolation.
He listened attentively, nodding as Neal talked. No, David understood exactly what Neal was saying. He also understood what Neal was feeling, though he didn’t know it was a mutual uneasiness. So instead, David laughed a bit, and shook his head.
“It doesn’t. I mean, when I met Mary Margaret for the first time, it was just … I just knew there was something. I felt so drawn to her and we really only talked about work and drank coffee. And then I had those dreams and it made this weirdly perfect sense.” David shrugged. “It’s a lot of coincidence that’s hard to ignore.”
At least he didn’t sound like he was a few Cheerios short of a full breakfast. That wouldn’t have made the best impression on Emma’s dream father. “That’s exactly what it is,” Neal let out a sigh of relief that seemed to deflate the tenseness from his shoulders. “It’s like, as soon as I met her, I knew. That it was something big. I hope it all comes together somehow because mostly my dreams are just confusing.”
They were confusing, and saddening, though he had to admit that it wasn’t surprising that he seemed to be cursed in his own special sort of way when it came to abandonment issues. “Hopefully it’ll make more sense for you too. And maybe we’ll actually meet up some day.” You know, if he wasn’t dead or something.
“Well, Neal, I hate to break it to you, but we dream we come from a fairytale land and I’m married to Snow White. Confusing sort of comes with the territory, I think.” David looked amused before he shrugged. “I wouldn’t count anything out at this point. It’s pretty likely that, some way or another, you’ll come into play in mine. Especially if you’re Rumplestiltskin’s son.”
“Yeah, if someone had said that six months ago? I’d have called for a straight jacket. But now?” Neal picked up his drink, chuckling, as he toasted to the completely and utter weirdness his life had become. “Seems pretty standard.”
That was funny, wasn’t it? That fairytale worlds and magic and princes and princesses gold-spinners were all woven intricately into the tapestry of his existence, and there really wasn’t much he could do to change it. He could only keep living it. “Guess all we can do is hold on for the ride,” he said, but at least it made it easier if you weren’t alone.
“Pretty much.” And even then, David figured he probably still had the better end of the stick when it came to the dreams. Yeah, his cursed dream self was a moron, and he was obviously going to mess things up eventually, but there were worse things than dreaming about being Prince Charming. All in all, he didn’t have much room to complain.
“So. Tell me about yourself. We didn’t really have a lot of chances to get to know each other at Christmas.”
Right, yes, talking about himself! That was a good thing. It would give Neal a chance to impress, with all of his amazing stories as...a kid who was his stepdad’s criminal lackey because he didn’t have any other options, because he’d been abandoned by his biological mother and father and essentially raised himself from the time he was in kindergarten anyway. Maybe not those.
But he had gotten his shit together, and that counted for something, right? Neal was a survivor, he was talented at that. “Well...I’m originally from Detroit,” he started. “My parents were factory workers though my father always had...bigger ambitions, I guess. But when I was a little older, I traveled a lot. With my stepdad, since after my mom died - she left the family when I was pretty young - she wanted him to come back and help take care of me.” Gee, thanks mom he barely knew. It always filled him with this ugly, gut-wrenching feeling when he thought of his mother, and it wasn’t comforting to know that in his dreams, it was the same situation. Of course his mother loved him, Neal didn’t doubt that. But she loved herself more.
If he ever had kids, he’d put them first. No questions asked. He’d had enough bad experiences with people who were supposed to be his parents acting like selfish assholes.
“My dad was out of the picture by then too. Anyway, we traveled a lot, but it wasn’t the best life for a kid. Eventually I was on my own completely but I made it work. Got my GED, worked a few odd jobs. I’ve sort of become a jack of all trades, I guess, I just did what I needed to do to keep afloat. Right now I fish in the mornings and then I do PI stuff later in the day, whatever Marian needs.” He really lucked out there too.
He smiled sheepishly, because he was pretty aware that he wasn’t good enough for Emma. She was born a princess in another life, and he...wasn’t royal. In any life. “What about you? Prince Charming, yeah, but as for the guy these days...?”
David listened, nodding at some points. His face didn’t give away much, but he found himself liking Neal more and more. The man obviously seemed to sell himself a bit short, but David found the story actually showed off a lot of good qualities. Strong will, good work ethic, determined to do his best when he could. David liked that, and he respected it, really. Though he did feel a bit bad about the parent situation. He never really knew his own father, either, but David had been close to his mother. They’d gone through everything together, and he couldn’t imagine what it must be like for someone to not have that in their life.
He got another beer and let out a bit of a laugh at Neal’s question.
“Well, I’m not really any sort of Prince Charming here.” No, David found, regrettably, that he was less like Prince Charming and more like Regular David Nolan when it came to whatever the dreams had to say. He shrugged. “Grew up in Wisconsin, moved to New York when I was … About sixteen, with my mother. We lived in this ridiculously small apartment that cost more than I think our house in Wisconsin ever did.” David shook his head a bit, somewhat distantly amused at the memory. “Somehow, my mom got me into this private school upstate New York, and after that I joined the NYPD cadet program. It’s sort of my ideal job, being a police officer.” Probably unsurprising.
David paused as he took a long drink from his beer. “After college I got accepted into the academy and then my mother got pretty sick, and … Well.” He couldn’t quite bring himself to say she had died, but he knew Neal would pick up on that. “Then the memory problem started happening - making memories is sort of hard for me - and I had to leave. So somehow I ended up here, because there’s a doctor who specializes in it and hopefully we can figure out what’s wrong.”
Neal had ordered another drink too, sipping on it when it arrived. He listened to David’s retelling of his mini-biography, and the mention of his mother - or the distinct omittance of her death, but it was certainly picked up on - caused a flicker of sympathy in dark eyes that were always warm somehow, even despite everything he’d gone through and would continue to face. If he could make life a little easier or better for someone, he would - sacrifice was a big theme of Neal’s own life, as his dreams would soon show him. Sacrificing his own happiness so others could find theirs.
“You’ll figure it out,” he said confidently. “If this specialist can’t tell you, then you get a second opinion. And hey, if you need anything just let me know, okay? If I can help.” He wanted to, not just because he felt obligated due to David’s connection with Emma, or because he was trying to get Emma to fall in love with him faster, but because he genuinely liked David and wished him well. Nothing more, nothing less.
“You know, it’s funny.” Though David knew that somehow Neal would understand what he was about to say, so maybe it wasn’t that funny after all. “I’m still so-so with things, I still write a lot of notes everywhere and sometimes can’t even remember my way to work. But when it comes to Mary Margaret, or Emma, or even the one time you and I met at Christmas, I have no problems remembering things. Even the dreams are getting easier to remember, and those are about as complicated as they get.” David would know. He kept a notebook of his dreams, for easy comparison and reference.
Neal lifted an eyebrow at that. “Really? Well, maybe the answer will come in your dreams. Or maybe once you’re done dreaming whatever you’re dreaming - “ Because they could only go on for so long, right? He’d heard that they stopped after awhile, and then you just got repeats of the same ones. Like a TV show being cancelled and airing in reruns, how great. “Then your real-life memory problem will have gotten better?”
It sounded crazy, but maybe in the scheme of things it wasn’t very. Especially considering no one was supposed to be going through the mystical and magical crap they were going through whenever someone new moved to the OC and hit up that one network that sucked people in like a vortex.
“That’s the kicker, I guess.” David couldn’t help but crack a smile. “In the dreams, my cursed self has amnesia. He went to Storybrooke in a coma. I think … I mean, what must have happened is that the fake memories didn’t get a chance to grow and develop, so he’s confused. He has almost memories of the fairytale things, but no memories of this fake life.”
Maybe David was getting too hopeful and reading too much into the strangeness of Orange County, but he was sort of wishing that maybe once, in his dreams, everything gets revealed, somehow magically his own memory might just be better, too. He wouldn’t tell that to Neal, though.
“That’s definitely a kicker,” Neal agreed. “Your dream self is still cursed?” He had heard about this from Emma, or rather, the curse that she was supposed to break. There was an ominous sort of feeling about it on his end for some reason, but curses in general tended to be dark and dangerous no matter what they entailed. “Well, it doesn’t seem like that curse will last forever so maybe things will get better when it breaks in your dreams.” If people could wake up with scars and even items that had poofed out of thin air, maybe the dreams could have a healing effect too. He could help David keep the hope - sometimes that was all you had to hang onto.
“Yeah.” David shook his head. It was confusing at the best of times to him, and talking about it to people who weren’t quite there in their own dreams just made it sound even more complex. “The Storybrooke stuff I dream, the cursed bits, are all chronological it looks like. And then I get dreams about the Enchanted Forest out of order, but they always seem to be sort of related?”
For Neal, he didn’t have two sets of memories to accommodate two different lives. He was just a kid, his existence playing out in front of him. So he could hardly begin to imagine what it was like to have things popping up in sort-of related order, but to be of two different people entirely. Or the same person, just in a different location? “It’s a mind fuck,” he stated rather eloquently, with a good-natured chuckle. “But hey, like I said, if you need anything? Even just to piece some of this stuff out? I’m around.”
Maybe that just made it a little easier, to have people who understood that this all wasn’t just something in the air or in the water in the OC. It was real, and it was affecting their lives in the waking world too. So he would do the best he could. That was what he always tried to do, anyway.
“Thanks Neal, really. You’re a good guy, you know,” David said, nodding. “For what it’s worth, what with me being Emma’s dream dad and all, you have my complete permission to continue to date her.” He laughed a bit. “And don’t hesitate to ask the same. Really. Anything you need, I’ll be glad to help if I can.”
David held up his glass in a bit of a toast, then drank it back.