Chapter 1: The Fiancé


Tamara Jennings brought her hands to her face and rubbed down.

"You have a son," she said to Neal who sat beside her on the couch.

"Yeah," said Neal.

Neal had arrived at Tamara's apartment early that morning. She didn't have to go to work till later and even if she had considering the circumstances she could've called in six which is exactly what she did a minute later realizing it would probably take a lot longer than just an hour to deal with this mess.

"When did you find out?"

"Yesterday," Neal replied.

Tamara stood up and walked away from Neal. She started to pace. "Yesterday and you're just telling me about this now?"

"What was I supposed to do," Neal said raising his voice. "Call you the second I found out."

"I don't know, yes!"

"No! It's hard enough I never knew. I wasn't going to abandon my kid just so I could go make a phone call or leave to tell you."

"Where is he?"

"Back at my apartment."

"You're letting them stay with you!"

"Emma wanted to take Henry back to the hotel but I thought it would be better if they stayed at my place, just for a little while."

"So let me see if I got this straight: Your ex-girlfriend, who you've never spoken of before, just shows up with your kid in tow and so what she expects you all to be this big happy family now?"

Now Neal stood up. "No it's not like that. Emma hates me right now. She hates what I did to her and with good reason."

Tamara had no idea what he was talking about but she would get back to that part later.

"Then why is she here? Why now? I mean god Neal, you can't just spring this on a girl you know, on me."

"I know it's a lot and I am sorry. And the timing does suck but she's here now with my son. Life can't go back to the way it was don't you get it?"

"No I don't Neal. You are playing with words, dancing around them and I have no idea why and you still haven't answered my question: Why is your ex-girlfriend here?"

Neal placed his hands in his pockets, "She owed someone a favor that's all."

"What kind of favor?"

Neal stayed silent.

"Neal what kind of favor," she asked. "You've been cryptic since you got here. What the hell is going on?"

"My father's here all right!" he said yelling at her. "Emma made a deal with him to find me and she did."

"Your father," Tamara said not understanding, "You told me he was dead."

"Yeah well turns out he's still alive after all this time. There's more."

"How much more?"

Neal took a deep breath. He knew this next part was going to be the hardest but he had to get it out. As difficult as the past twenty four hours had been he had to confront this next situation head on. He had kept this part a secret for years but now with Emma back in his life, with his father, or Gold as he was called now, there could be no hiding it. He had to own up to it.

"This world isn't the only one out there."

"What are you talking about?"

"Do you believe in magic?"

"Chris Angel, Harry Houdini, that kind of magic?"

"No I'm talking about real magic, none of that illusion crap."

"I don't know, as a kid I did why?"

"Because I've never stopped believing in it," said Neal. "I've run from magic my entire life because of my father. Back where I come from they knew him as Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One."

Tamara let out a laugh, "Rumpelstiltskin, the old dwarf who spun straw into gold."

"Yeah," said Neal, "Only without the dwarf part. And as much as I hate to admit it, I don't even want to; I'm his son, Baelfire. And Emma, my ex, she's the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming."

Tamar burst out laughing. "I'm sorry that's not funny. No actually it is, it is funny."

"You think I'm joking?"

"I don't know. You show up here telling me about how all of these people from your life have come back into it. People that I never knew existed. And now you're telling me of another land where fairytales are real and you and your ex-girlfriend are somehow connected to that. So yeah maybe I do think you're joking because this is all insane.

We've been together for what four years and engaged for a year and now it's like I don't even know who you are. Why even bother trying to make this up? Fairytales don't exist!"

"I am not making this up. I'm telling you the truth."

"Yeah right," she said. "I have tried for years to get you to open up about yourself but everything you've ever told me has all been a lie. How do I know you're not lying right now?"

"I'm being honest here."

"Why now?"

"Emma lied to Henry about me. I don't want you going into this without knowing the truth. I never thought I'd see her again. I never thought I'd see my father. I thought once Emma broke the curse then she would go home and that would be the end of it."

"What curse?"

Neal bit his lip. "Right, you don't know about that part yet. My father enacted a curse to send everyone from my world here. They lost their memories and were oblivious. Emma was the only one who could break it." Neal shook his head, "Now I don't know maybe something went wrong or maybe she jumped through a portal to find me, I don't know but she's here and that complicates things with us," not explaining which 'us' he was referring to. "The point is you deserve to know the truth."

"You could have told me."

"No I couldn't. It's not exactly something you bring up unless you plan to get locked up in a nut house." Neal reached out to her but Tamara backed away. "Tam, you can't tell anyone about this. If people found out where I was from, if people found out about magic- you've seen movies I don't need to tell you what can happen."

Tamara crossed her arms. "Get out."

"Tam-,"

"I mean it Neal get out right now. "

Neal sighed but he complied with what she wanted. Tam closed the door behind him and Neal moved off to the side and leaned his head back against the wall. Neal wanted to hate Emma in this moment but he couldn't. She had been a catalyst to bringing his son and so for that he couldn't fault her but he could place blame in his father. Neal took a deep breath and let his anger toward Gold remain.