He watches her.

He watches her emerge from the ruined hospital, wrapped in charred white cloth and haloed in tangled auburn hair. She is alive, and beautiful in her ruin, and for a moment he thinks he knows what true happiness feels like, because she is alive. Then she falls and is attended to by the paramedics, and he watches.

He watches her start life anew, dressing in clean clothes and getting a haircut. Her father tries to reconnect with her, apologize, but she knows that despite their blood bonds the man is not to be trusted, even now when she has forgotten everything. She moves into her own apartment, away from her father, and he watches.

He watches her make a place for herself in Storybrooke. She is given a job at the local library, and some nights she stays late, getting caught up in new books. She spends most of her free time reading as well, craving the feel of full pages after years of empty cells, and he watches.

He watches her meet the man they knew as Gaston. They run into each other on the street, perfect strangers, and she is of course too beautiful to be passed by. She agrees to go on a date, and he watches.

He watches her fall in love with Richard, meeting at night for intimate dinner dates and during the day for sweet kisses. He comforts himself with the thought that in another life, she wanted nothing to do with a man called Gaston, but it is a hollow thought that does nothing to keep him warm. She is married within six months, with the whole town in attendance, and he watches.

He watches her become deeply unhappy with her husband. Richard is not the man she thought, and the misogyny and false gallantry are finally coming to light. Their love, finally realized as the superficial thing it was, gives way to a divorce, and he watches.

He watches her grow apart, come to see that she is different. That she wants to leave, needs to break free of this town and its suffocating notion of community. She rattles at the bars of her cage, and he watches.

He watches her come to see him, at last. Her face is open and honest, and she stands before him and thanks him for saving her from the hospital fire, so long ago, and tells him that she's come to see him because he is the only person she can talk to without being judged. She talks to him for hours, emotion plain and pretty on her face, and he watches.

He watches her climb the hill to meet him again every Saturday, and they sit and shoot the breeze until she has to go to her late shift. She tells him of her plans to escape, to evade the curse that Henry has brought her attention to, and she tells him she's sorry she hasn't realized who he was sooner. And every Saturday, she stands and brushes herself off, and leaves the cemetery as empty as she found it.

And he watches.