Hey everyone, so this is my first attempt at a OUAT story. So there will be no Hook in this story, so if you like his character sorry, he didn't fit into the story. Also no Cora, so sorry again. Also many of you will call me on this but yes I did take dialog from the show, and I will confess to there being a few more dialog snatches in later chapters. Not original I know but they just fit so well with my story.

Also, read this chapter carefully because they is a glimpse of what Neal will be dealing with in this story so read carefully!

Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time or any of its characters and any of the quotes used directly from the show. But if I did Neal would have a moment to kick Hook's ass.

Title of Chapter is a poem by Victoria Perez titled "Come Back"

After being tackled to the ground by Emma and brutally assaulted by her words Neal was initially reluctant to follow her. The anger she held towards him was well deserved and she would likely catch on to fact that she was being followed, but still, he continued to trail behind her. She had that kind of intuition due to growing up on the streets, being in foster care and taking part in criminal acts. Neal had a similar sense but somewhat different reason for developing them.

Though well aware that Rumplestiltskin or Mr. Gold as he went by now would likely be camped out in or in front of his apartment he couldn't let her go back to that..."man" alone, though there was no magic in New York he still knew how to cause pain for not keeping deals; whether it be mental or physical he made sure that that person suffered. He wouldn't run away and leave her to face the deal spinning fiend.

Keeping to the shadows he followed her back the way she had chased him, having to duck into a store or crowd a few times when she looked behind her, sensing that she was being followed.

He watched from a few buildings down as Emma entered his apartment building. When a few minutes had gone by he was still standing in the same spot, looking up at the window where his apartment was. He tried to get his feet to move but it was like his bones had turned to lead.

Fear was an emotion that Neal had grown accustomed to for many years. You could never feel entirely safe when you lived on the streets and stole for survival because if you didn't and you were reckless that could mean getting caught and put in the foster system to the very real possibility of jail time in his adult years.

But the underlying fear that "The Dark One" might find him also spurred him on to always be wary and look behind his shoulder to this day. Now it would appear that the day he had been fearing for the last few hundred years had come and he realistically only had two options: Runaway and be a coward like his father or face his fears and cross the street to confront the man who had abandoned him as a child. He wanted to do the noble thing, he really did but he was a thief, there was no escaping his past and even now when he had an actual boring job as a mailroom clerk some tendencies were hard to break, for instance: running at the first sign of trouble.

so who should he be? a hero or just a self-serving thief?

Either way someone was going to get hurt and that in itself made his decision. Though he was risking his new life here Emma stood to lose so much more, potentially her life and the thought of her getting hurt at the hands of that monster made his blood boil. That being decided Neal looked both ways and allowed a few cars and a delivery truck to pass before jogging across the street and entering his apartment building.

He took the stairs two at a time, silently cursing the fact that he had chosen an apartment on the fifth floor and the fact that there wasn't an elevator. Finally reaching his floor he continued at the same pace as on the stairs and only slowed down and stopped when he reached the door.

On the other side he could hear yelling, particularly that of a male that made his skin crawl. What motivated him to burst through the door was Emma's voice yelling right back. Grasping the knob he twisted the handle and barreled inside, interrupting the screaming match that had been going on.

Both turned to look at him in shock, the most stunned and elated one being Mr. Gold, as he was going by now.

"Bae, you came back for me" Gold breathed, a small hopeful smile on his face.

"No, I came to make sure you didn't hurt her. I've seen what you do to people who break deals" he made sure to keep a good distance between them, backing up some when Gold took a step forward.

"Bae please..." Neal shook his head.

"No, you can go" he rejected, never making complete eye contact with him, just by looking in his eyes would likely illicit the memory of his betrayal.

"I'm not going anywhere" Gold shook his head, hope still dominating his features.

"Get out of my apartment!" he erupted, getting more anxious the closer Gold got to him.

The room seemed to be closing in on him and he was having difficulties breathing.

"Mom! What's going on?" and suddenly the vice-like grip on his lungs loosened and the walls moved back to their original positions.

A young boy, not yet in his teens, entered the room and his mind replayed what the boy had just said.

"W-who's this?" he asked, though a weight was developing in his gut.

"My son" Emma answered, her confession like a punch to the heart.

"What?" he looked down at the kid again, the implications of this kid's very existence nearly blowing his mind.

"Is this Baelfire?" the boy asked, looking up at Neal curiously.

"I'm going to need you to wait in the other room until I come get you" she started to lead the young boy back to the other room but Neal needed to find out how old the boy was. The last time he had seen Emma was 11 years ago so unless Emma had had a kid a little before...no that didn't make sense, there could only be one possibility.

"H-how old are you?" he asked, staring after them.

"Don't answer him" Emma ordered.

"How old are you?!" Neal shouted, his emotions at a boiling point.

The boy spun out of Emma's hold and turned to face Neal, a curious yet slightly hysterical look in his eyes.

"11! Now, why is everyone yelling?" the boy demanded, looking at the three adults in the room for answers.

For a short moment Neal was silent before he looked over at Emma. "He's 11" he breathed, the accusation soft but there.

"Mom?" the boy looked at Emma, or rather his mother.

Emma sent him a pleading look, silently begging him not to probe deeper.

"Is this my son?" he asked, his voice a low whisper.

"No, my dad was a fireman. H-he died. That's what you told me" he insisted, looking to his mom for confirmation but he didn't find any.

The longer Emma remained silent the more Neal knew it to be true.

"Is this...my son?" he asked, even though he knew it to be true he had to hear the words from her.

With watery eyes Emma approached the boy and bent down, placing her palms on his cheeks.

"Yes" her voice was soft and she tried to soften the blow by massaging the area below his eyes and a shaky smile. But it was futile.

Neal and the boy gasped at the same time. Shaking his head the boy turned away and escaped through the window onto the fire escape.

"Henry" Emma hurried after him. Neal made to follow but was stopped by Gold.

"Baelfire" he tried but Neal shook him off, not even the shock of discovering he had a son enough to make him be civil to the man, if anything it made him even more aggressive.

Having only been a father for about two minutes he already wanted to shield his son from all the evil in the world. Especially that of Rumplestiltskin.

"Get out" Neal ordered, taking a small step back.

"No, I'm not going anywhere" he shook his head.

"Get out of my apartment" Neal stated for the second time, but his words were broken and hollow. He really didn't want to talk or have anything to do with this man but he knew that simply telling him to leave wouldn't be enough.

"Please Bae. You came back to protect Emma, to show that she had honored her deal. But the deal was for her to get you talk to me, so if you want her deal to be completed you have to talk to me" he was using Neal's feelings for Emma against him and it infuriated him that it was working.

"You got three minutes but after that I want you gone" walking past the man Neal entered the other room and waited for Gold to limp in after him before speaking.

"Start talking" like in the other room Neal made sure to keep a safe distance between them.

"I know I've hurt you and I know that any words I say won't be nearly enough to mend the pain I've caused you but give me a chance. Regret is the worst pain to live with" Gold spoke, hope and sadness both present in his voice and features.

"Try abandonment" he countered, the anger he felt towards him still too strong to fully consider that Gold's words were truly from the heart.

"I can't take away the pain but I can take away the memories. Come back with us to Storybrooke. There's magic there! I can turn the clock back, make you 14 again" he tried.

Neal physically winced at the mention of magic.

"Magic is what tore us apart and here you are trying to fix things using magic. You claim that you want to change, that you want to make up for everything that you've done but I don't believe you, I can't. Two minutes" Neal declared, trying to maintain a cool mask of indifference but his mask was cracking.

Mr. Gold was having trouble forming words. He knew that their reunion wouldn't include a warm hug or tears of joy but he had hoped to at least be given a chance to redeem himself.

"Please Bae, give me a chance, a chance to fix all that I have broken. *Pause* You once loved me" he tried at the end, making an attempt to reach the young boy he abandoned all those years ago.

"You were once a good man" Neal softly replied, a small part of Gold's speech having reached the wounded child inside him.

"I can be again, if you just give me a chance" he repeated, managing to take a step forward without being stopped.

"I wish I could believe you, but all the trust I ever placed in you died that night you broke our deal. You think that your life was so horrible after you abandoned me? That portal brought me to a world without magic all right but it was also a world that was cold and harsh. I was alone in a world that I didn't understand, without a papa, without you to keep me safe. But that wasn't all that I had to endure. For more years than you could imagine, every night before sleep I would see you, your hand over mine above that portal then you letting me go. That night continues to haunt my nightmares to this day. You really think you can make up for all that? Thirty seconds" a part of Neal wanted to believe that Gold could fix all that was wrong between them. The realistic side knew that that possibility was unlikely.

"I'm willing to try" Gold could feel that his window was closing.

"I'm not. I hid from you for a reason and that reason still stands. Times up" Neal began to walk away, looking away from the man whom he had once called "papa."

"Baelfire..." the desperation in his voice was almost enough to make Neal give him a few more seconds but his anger won out.

"No, I'm done. You had your chance to be a father and you blew it, now you have to live with the consequences" turning his back on him Neal walked back into the other room as Emma was climbing back inside.

"He wants to meet you" she informed him, her eyes a little bloodshot from tears.

"You weren't going to tell me about him" he accused, a trace of bitterness present in his voice.

Logically Neal knew that it wasn't entirely Emma's fault that he hadn't been informed that he was a father earlier, one being that she never thought she was going to see him again and even earlier in the alley and the bar because she was in shock and she could finally vent all the anger she had been keeping inside for the last decade.

"No I wasn't" she agreed, confidence strengthening her words.

"Well you don't get to decide that on your own anymore. He's my kid too" he stated, the conviction in his voice could not be argued with.

"Great, go talk to him" taking a calming breath Neal tried to walk past her but she blocked his path.

"Don't break his heart" she warned him, mamma bear coming out to protect her cub.

"Trust me, I'm not going to do to him what he did to me" he assured her, the longer he spent talking to her the more the anxiety built up in him.

"Or what you did to me?" she countered, a small glare dominating her features.

He couldn't help the scoff that escaped him. "I get it, we're both messed up. Let's try to avoid that with him, alright?" he heard her quiet return of "alright" as he slipped out the window to stand beside his son. Just those two words, "his son" caused his heart to flutter.

"So, your my dad. I'm Henry" the boy stated, his head resting on top of his crossed arms as he looked out at the bustling city of Manhattan.

Neal smiled, relieved and warm-hearted at his son's smile and absence of malice from his voice.

"It's nice to meet you Henry. Sorry it took so long" already there were regrets running rampant in his mind. He had missed hearing his first word, first steps, learning to ride a bike...so much, but he made a vow then and there that he was going to be in Henry's life, as long as he would have him.

"It's okay, you didn't know" Henry was a saint, not many kids and adults for that matter would be taking this nearly as well.

But in relation with what he said Neal couldn't help but think that he should have known, somehow, whether it be mystical or sheer biology, some part of him should have known that he had taken part in creating a life.

His smile took up most of his face as he reached over and rubbed Henry on the back then mirrored Henry's stance.

~Break~

Emma watched from inside as Henry and Neal talked. Soft smiles gracing their features as father and son got to know each other.

She could faintly hear their laughter over something Neal said and she couldn't help but envy Neal at that moment. He was essentially handed a clean slate, the chance to be someone his son could look up to without the boy personally witnessing his flaws from the past. Emma had been given that chance once: the night Henry had showed up at her apartment.

Henry's words had been like an ice pick to her heart. "Your just like her. Regina. She always lied to me too." She didn't want to be anything like the "Evil Queen" but yet her actions painted a different picture. At the time she had lied to Henry about his father because she was trying to shield him from the knowledge that his father was a thief, a bad guy. Not the kind of person she wanted around her son, but she was fooling herself.

She had loved Neal, trusted him and told him things about her time in foster care and the various other problems that had tormented her over the years, especially that of her parents abandoning her on the side of the road. That was something she rarely, if ever shared with another human being. It was all too clear that Neal was going to be in Henry's life and she would have to learn to put her feelings aside, no matter how hard that was going to be, if she wanted to earn her son's trust back. She had to concentrate on what Henry wanted and needed and Henry needed his father.

Watching the two interact she started to see the similarities between them. The simple qualities was the dark hair and eyes, which she suddenly connected to Mr. Gold as well and the thought brought a shiver down her spine. The more unique characteristics was Henry's taste for adventure. When she had been with Neal all those years ago everyday had been an adventure to him, a new day to discover something new about themselves. There was also their similar way of surprising her, whether it be with words or actions, she was always left stunned. Emma was starting to believe that Henry was close to if not entirely a mirror image of Neal when he was Henry's age.

Coming up beside her, his cane knocking against the hard floor. Mr. Gold glanced out the window, there was an unmistakable longing in his eyes.

"They seem to be getting along quite well." Gold noted, turning his head to look at her.

"Of course they are. Henry always wanted to know his father and from what I remember Neal always wanted to start a family" she silently added "with me" in her head then built up a wall when memories tried sprouting.

Gold silently analyzed her, making a list of everything that Emma was revealing with her body language alone then moving on to her words. At the end a conceivable conclusion came into being.

A knowing smile took over his features, "you still have feelings for my son, don't you Ms. Swan?" his smile widened when he saw that his words had had an effect on her.

"I don't know what you're talking about Gold. Any feelings I may have had for Neal are long gone, all I care about now is doing what's best for Henry" she stated, continuing to watch father and son bond.

"If you want to do what's best for Henry let him get to know his father, spend time with him" Gold started, a plan forming in his mind.

"I'm already doing that" she reiterated, her arms crossed around her midsection.

"But what about when we go back to Storybrooke? Henry is a very resourceful boy. What's to stop him from getting on another plane and coming back here? Nothing, and no one. You need to convince Ba-Neal to come with us to Storybrooke, not for me, not for you but for Henry. Think about it Ms. Swan" he persuaded, watching her expression to gauge her reaction.

Emma was quiet as she considered his logic. She was bright enough to see that he wasn't entirely doing this for Henry but really to help himself. Furthermore she conceded that Neal coming to Storybrooke could be beneficial to Henry and though she loathed to admit it, it may be good for her as well.

"I'll see what I can do, but know that this isn't a deal and I'm not doing it for you" she wanted to make sure that he knew that. The deal between them had been completed. She now owed him nothing and she was hoping to keep it that way.

"I didn't expect you to, as you stated before this is for Henry" he assured her but the mischievous smile on his face made her wary. So in retrospect nothing had changed between them besides the earth shattering revelation that Mr. Gold was Neal's father and consequently Henry's grandfather.

~Break~

"What was it like growing up in the Enchanted Forest?" Henry asked, the book was only able to show him so much. Hearing it from someone who had actually lived there was almost like being there himself.

Neal didn't know how much he should tell his son, just the good, kid friendly bits or risk everything and risk giving the kid nightmares? Honestly there was only so much he felt comfortable discussing.

At one time, when he was younger, before his papa had become "The Dark One" he could remember being happy and ignorant of the evils that prowled the land. Not to mention the terrifying yet exhilarating experience that started when he was thirteen. He remembered playing in the fields with his best friend Moraine, watching his papa spin wool and patiently teach him the craft.

He had been only ten when his mother had abandoned them, Milah her name was. But his papa did his best to fulfill the role of both father and mother and Neal could only remember looking up to his father as a role model, looking past the fact that everyone saw his papa as the crippled-coward of the small village. It was when his papa had received the dark powers of "The Dark One" that he began to see the slow disintegration of his beloved papa and started to see the all consuming darkness of a manipulative, sadistic monster.

Coming out of his mournful musings he thought about what he was going to say. He decided that the best action to take was to be as honest as he possibly could.

"There's quite a lot of bad memories that I can recall, things that I feel aren't appropriate to talk about just yet. As for the good memories, I remember there was this endless field of wildflowers that I used to play in with my best friend Moraine. She was the only one who saw past me being the son of a coward. There was also the woods that had this small creek running through it and we used to go on all these "adventures", slaying dragons, fighting ogres *chuckles*, rescuing princesses. *He shakes his head* it's ironic that only a few years later that the Ogre Wars started and she was taken away to fight. When she came back she was different, more cold and distant" he was quiet for a moment, wondering if she had had a good life after his departure.

Henry, noticing the painful faraway look in his eyes decided to change the subject.

"How long have you lived here?" Neal was grateful for the change of subject and proceeded to tell him all about his arrival in Manhattan which then led into the best tourist spots in the city.

After about an hour, when the wind began to nip at their skin, the pair crawled back inside the warm apartment and Neal closed the window, keeping out the chill from outside.

Having told Henry that he would take him into the city to see some of the sights, if his mother consented of course, the boy was getting his camera leaving Neal to deal with Emma and Gold in the background.

"So I kind of told Henry that I would take him to see some of the sights, would that be okay?" he asked, trying to be as cooperative with Emma as possible seeing as they would likely be seeing more of each other.

"No that's-that's fine, it will give you guys some more time to get to know each other and I can call the airport to confirm our trip back to Maine" he hadn't missed the look she had shared with Gold, making him wary that another deal was in the works.

"You're going back?" he questioned, though he hadn't been expecting them to stay forever he certainly hadn't expected them to jump on the first plane back.

"Yeah, to Storybrooke, our home...you can come with us if you want? I'm sure Henry would love to have you nearby so that you can see each other more often" he could see that she was having difficulties getting the words out making him even more suspicious of a deal.

Henry chose that moment to come back into the front room with his camera.

"I'm ready to go" he announced, walking over to Neal and looking up at him excitedly.

Neal met Emma's eyes, "do you want to come with us? Maybe get something to eat?" he invited but he knew from the look in her eyes that she was going to decline.

"Thanks but this is your time to bond. How about we meet back up here in three hours? That should give you guys enough time to see some of the sights and get something to eat" she was trying to give them some space but she also knew that Henry would have more fun without her, as much as that hurt.

"Okay, if you're sure. C'mon Henry, I know this great pizza place that's just down the street. You do like pizza right?" he didn't want to make any assumptions.

"I love pizza!" Henry happily stated, leading him to the door.

Neal chuckled at his excitement, "just a sec. bud, we'll leave in a minute" walking back over to Emma he took his phone out.

"How about we exchange numbers so that we can call each other in case something comes up?" he had his answer when she took her phone out and read off her numbers then giving her his. When numbers had been exchanged Neal led Henry out of the apartment, though was extremely cautious about leaving Emma with Gold.

As soon as the door was closed Neal tried to put his fears behind him and have some quality time with his newly discovered son.

A/N: I hope you liked this first chapter. Don't worry it gets a lot more exciting, I promise, as a lot of stories go there are going to be the droll chapters but it was essential that this be the first chapter to set up what is going on.

Please review because reviews make me update faster!