Disclaimer: See Ch 1
Pairing: Rumbelle and Swan/Neal if you squint – it is time appropriate for late S2
Ch. 2 – Truths
"The truth is rarely pure and never simple." – Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Eanest
On The Jolly Roger sailing back to Storybrooke from Manhattan –
Emma was at the wheel. She clenched the well-worn wooden handles…uh…spokes, Neal had called them, in each hand, as she held to the compass setting that would get them home. He was below deck and had promised he wouldn't be gone long, but she'd believed him before and it had cost her everything. At least this time, they were in the Atlantic with no land in sight. She didn't think he would abandon his son, when he'd just discovered him and no matter how angry he was at his farther, she doubted he'd leave him behind, as the older man became weaker and weaker from poison coursing through his system. Once before she'd been wrong about who and what Neal Cassidy would turn his back on, so she put her faith in the water all around them…nope, this time he wasn't going to be leaving without her knowing about it.
She was nervous sailing the ship, but Neal had needed to check on his dad…Oh God; she didn't even want to think about that. Rumplestiltskin was her child's grandfather! Could the kid's family tree get any more complicated?
"I don't think you're supposed to squeeze the spokes so tightly." Henry noted in a cool voice. His mom's fingers were turning white from the stranglehold she had on the ancient wood.
"At least you're speaking to me again." She smiled hopefully and tried to loosen her grip.
The boy's brows rose, his mouth remained in a tight straight line, and his usually bright, brown eyes were flat and cold. Emma watched him with dismay. She had seen that exact expression on Mr. Gold's face when she had him locked in a jail cell and had offered him half-a pastrami sandwich in exchange for the favor she owed him. Damn she wished he'd taken her up on it.
"Okay, don't talk to me, but you need to listen."
"You lied to me!" He shouted, finally giving vent to his anger.
"Yes, I did and given the same circumstances, I'm not sure I wouldn't do it all over again. You gotta remember I was still new to Storybrooke and all this fairytale stuff…it was too much for me." She carefully checked the compass and lined up the front…the bow…of the ship. Henry's face was a storm cloud, but he hadn't walked away and left her, as he had in Neal's apartment, maybe she could still make this right.
"You would lie again?" The kid huffed, angrier than she'd seen him in the year she'd been in Storybrooke. She could practically see steam coming out of his ears.
"You didn't hear what I said." Emma was fighting for her child's trust and she knew that only the truth would get it back. "I said given-the-same-circumstances. You have to remember how new I was to Storybrooke."
"You didn't believe me?" Tears formed in Henry's eyes but he wouldn't let them fall. "Operation Cobra was all a game to you?"
"I believed in you, Henry, with all my heart. That is different than doubting your beliefs. Why do you think I didn't go back to Boston? I knew from the moment you told me about your book that you thought the stories were true, but I grew up in the outside world. It is asking a lot to change my way of thinking in a matter of hours, days or even weeks. I was trying to make sense of all that was happening, because of you."
"You are the Savior. You should have believed."
"How old were you when Regina told you that Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy weren't real?" It was senseless to argue about her being the Savoir. She hardly understood it now, and back then, it was a fairytale someone had gotten wrong.
"This is my father we're talking about, not some imaginary characters made up to entertain children." He threw his arms in the air and turned to walk away.
"Exactly, Henry. That-is-my-point, 'imaginary characters made up to entertain children'. I had twenty-eight years of believing that Snow White, The Evil Queen, Beauty and The Beast, and all the others were just that." Emma could tell she had his attention by the way his shoulders relaxed and he was fighting turning around to look at her. "So answer my question, how old were you?"
"She didn't tell me; I told her." He grumbled as he slid to the deck and met Emma's eyes. "I figured it out in first grade, but played along for another two years, because it made her happy." He looked a bit sheepish and added, "That was for Santa and the Easter Bunny. We never did the Tooth Fairy thing, now I understand why."
"I bet you do, kid." They both laughed softly, but things weren't back to normal, yet.
"Is that why you lied to me, to make me feel better?" It didn't seem right to the boy.
"It is much more complicated than that." Emma sighed and checked her course again, thanking all the gods for a calm sea and a gentle wind at her back.
"What's more complicated?" Neal slipped behind her and took the wheel, as he quickly checked the compass and the stars. "You did a great job Em. We're right on course for Storybrooke."
"Good to know, I'd hate to end up in Greenland or Iceland or somewhere like that. How's your dad doing?" She could see worry lines on her ex-old lover's face. She tried not to respond to the brush of his body against hers and scent of his aftershave that woke memories she thought she'd successfully erased.
"Sleeping for now. I'm worried he is hallucinating. He just lies there, but keeps muttering about a bell and love. He isn't making much sense."
"That's Belle French, his True Love, not a bell." Henry shook his head in wonder. For a fairytale character, his dad didn't know much. "Do you have your phone, Emma?"
"Sure kid." She handed over her iPhone and both parents watched as he scanned through her photo collection.
"Here, this is them, before she was shot and fell over the town line and lost her memory. Ruby took it and emailed it to everybody." He held the cell for his father to see a picture of a pretty blue-eyed brunette gazing lovingly into Rumpelstiltskin's eyes. The man in the picture had his arm around the woman's shoulders and they were leaning close to one another, against the counter in Mr. Gold's Pawnshop.
"No way!" Neal exclaimed.
"That was what the whole town was saying. Everyone thought Ruby was making it up when she told them Gold was dating a pretty young woman. There were a number of bets riding on proof of a romance. She won a bunch of money with that photo." Emma remembered how surprised she'd been when she and Mary Marg—Snow—her mother…whatever, had returned from The Enchanted Forest and discovered the sneaky pawnbroker had a girlfriend.
"It looks like she loves him, too." Maybe his papa had changed over the centuries they'd been apart.
"She does, or she did until she lost her memory, but they'll figure it out. That's part of the magic of True Love. It took a while, but Emma's parents got it right." Ever the optimist, Henry still believed with all his heart that what was written in his book was gospel. "She even loved him before the curse."
"Ick, do you know what my papa looked like back then and how mean he could be?" Neal wrinkled his nose in disgust and doubt.
"He wasn't mean to her and I've seen pictures from my book, but he is usually in the shadows." The boy wished he could show his own dad, but he'd left his book in Storybrooke for safekeeping. "Belle told me that the first time she kissed him he was Rumpelstiltskin and they were back in his Dark Castle. The kiss began to break his curse, so he pushed her away."
"Figures!" The man at the wheel grunted.
"He should have told her why he needed his powers, she would have understood." Henry insisted.
"In that case I don't think I want to meet her. Sounds like they're two of a kind." Cassidy didn't need to hear things like that. He was trying hard to forgive his papa before the poison reached the man's heart.
"Neal, you're missing the point. Your dad needed the Curse of the Dark One to find you. That is what he should have told Belle, but I guess he'd been hurt by other women in the past and he was afraid to trust her. He was too close to getting you back." For the first time Emma understood why Rumpel had rejected the idea of True Love thirty years ago. A lover could and often did change his mind about loving you, but your child was special. Even if the child stopped caring, a parent never did.
"Oh…" He replied sheepishly. Not wanting to talk about his relationship with his father, he quickly changed the subject. "So is the loss of Belle's memory the complicated thing you guys were discuses when I came on deck?"
"No, that is another complicated matter-"
"Emma was telling me why she lied about you being alive." Henry cut in, still angry with his mom.
"Yeah, I'd kind of like to know about that, too." Neal readjusted their course. He was tacking the ship out into the Atlantic and then in toward the coast when they were nearing their destination.
"What have you told him?" Emma asked gently, not wanting to paint a nasty picture of the father of her child, but unsure how she was going to tell Henry the truth if she didn't.
"All of it. I felt I owned it to you. It wasn't your fault you were alone and in prison when you gave birth. It should have been me behind bars."
"I'm going to check on Mr. Gold." Emma blinked quickly to keep tears that were filling her eyes from falling. Neal's apology went straight to her heart, reminding her why she'd cared so much about him in the past. In the present he wasn't hers and never could be. There was another woman he loved and who loved him. Henry was all that was between them now. It would have to be enough.
Moments later Emma returned from below deck to her son and ex-lover. "Gold is sleeping, though it feels like his fever is getting worse. There are dark circles under his eyes, but I'm not sure if that isn't because he is paler than I've ever seen him. Henry says True Love's Kiss can break any curse we need Belle with her memories intact as soon as we arrive."
"He isn't under a magic spell, he's been poisoned. I'm not sure that Belle with or without her memories of him will be any help."
"It would make him feel better to hold her hand." Henry sat on the deck beside his mother with his arms wrapped around his legs. He wanted his grandfather to live and he wanted him to get his happy ending.
"Any chance we can get her to help?" Neal watched the stricken look on Emma's face afraid to ask where her mind had drifted to as their son had spoken.
"No, she's terrified of him. She saw him use magic to heal her wound seconds after her mind had been wiped clean." The blonde's voice broke as she remembered labor pains and wanting nothing more than the feel of Neal's hand gripping hers. For months her anger had boiled over until she was sure she never wanted to see his face again. But as her body fought to bring their child into the world, she knew she still loved him and probably always would.
"Emma, you were gonna tell me why you didn't explain about dad when I asked." Her son interrupted her thoughts.
"Sure-"
"If you want privacy for that, you can go forward." Neal offered.
"No, this is something that involves all of us." Emma smiled her thanks. "Are you warm enough, Henry?"
"I'm fine. Just answer my question: why did you lie to me."
"I wanted you to have a parent you could be proud of. You thought Regina was Snow White's Evil Stepmother and as much as you cared for her, you wanted to break her curse and change her-"
"But I had you!" Henry cut in. "You are the Savior and was I super proud of you!"
"Kid, you are the only one who believed I was the Savior. I have used True Love's kiss to wake you from a sleeping curse, simultaneously breaking the curse on everyone in Storybrooke. I went to The Enchanted Forest with Snow White, fought ogres, climbed a beanstalk, and have enough magic in me to prevent a mean old witch from taking my heart. Despite all that, there are times when I wonder if I am only dreaming. Part of me is still that abandon kid who fought her way through the foster system. When I told you your dad died a hero, I wanted to give you more than I thought I could ever be. You were ten and needed something to believe in that didn't come out of a book. You also needed a parent who wasn't a manipulative mayor or a twenty-eight year-old nobody, who no one has ever loved."
Henry threw his arms around his mother and hugged her. "I loved you and I still do." He whispered in her ear.
It took all of Neal's control to stay at the wheel. He was engaged to a wonderful woman. The blonde on the deck was his past. He had to look to his future and his son.
"I love you too, kid." She kissed his cheek and whipped away tear tacks from below her eyes. "I promise I'll never lie to you again, except maybe to keep birthday and Christmas gifts a surprise."
"Sounds good to me." Henry beamed at her. "All I ask is that you keep working on believing."
"It's a deal." Emma grinned at both men, as Neal winced at his papa's favorite term. "Give me some time, Henry, and you will trust me again. All I wanted was what was best for you. I know that isn't an excuse, but it is the truth.
TBC
