3.) I could've handled it you know


About ten minutes later Castle walked in with a kid by his side followed by an older gentleman with a cane.

"He says he belongs to you," Castle said.

Emma and Beckett turned to see the three of them standing near the doorway and walked in.

"Henry, what are you doing here?"

"You're not the only one good at finding people Miss Swan, though you certainly are better at it. You're keeping my son from me and I want to know why."

Emma looked to the door to see the detectives lead Neal away. Gold turned to see what she was looking at.

"Bae," he said recognizing his son's eyes. "Where are you taking him? Where are you taking my boy?"

"He's going to lock up," said Emma.

"Lock up," he said not understanding.

"Mom, what's going on?"

"Mom," said Neal. "Emma is this him?"

Emma closed her eyes. The audience that was around them suddenly no longer mattered. She had dreaded this moment since finding out who Neal was and since she had lied to her son a while back.

'Emma' gold mouthed. "You two know each other how?"

Emma opened up her eyes. "You sent me chasing after him."

"No, you've been with him all day since then. There's more than that. How does my son know you?"

"Emma," said Neal, "Is this my son?"

Henry turned to Neal. "No, my dad died before I was born." He then turned to his mom. "That's what you said."

Emma looked at her son knowing she had just broken his heart.

"Oh," Gold whispered.

"I'm so sorry Henry, I was trying to protect you."

Henry shook his head and ran out of the room. Emma wanted to follow after him, calling his name but decided against it. There would be time to talk later when the situation had cooled.

"Okay Neal," said Ryan, "Let's go."

Gold looked at Emma but followed his son instead.


Detective Beckett still had an investigation to run but for some reason she could not help but shake the notion that whatever family drama was going on with Sheriff Swan, somehow connected the two of them much like the earlier feelings she had that she felt oddly connected her with Neal despite that she had never met any of them before.

Feeling a genuine concern that had no basis, she found the eleven year old boy sitting on the steps a few feet from her desk.

Castle came over to Beckett and handed her a cup of coffee and then placed a smaller cup on the desk.

"It's for the kid," he said to her. "Hot chocolate since I don't know if he's allowed to drink coffee yet." Beckett looked at him and Castle smiled. "What, I've seen the way you've been watching him for the past five minutes, figured you'd go talk to him eventually.

Beckett smiled at her boyfriend for a quick second. "So how's Emma?"

"She's a mess. Her life has been shattered by finding out her ex is the son of the man she was supposed to find. That's gotta mess with your head somehow."

"Can you imagine finding out a family secret like that and then being lied to about it and not knowing for most of your life?"

"I lived it remember but of course not knowing who my father was never really bothered me because I got to enjoy my own stories of who he was."

"Ever the writer," she said with a smile.

"Hey I got to be right at some point. I mean having your dad as a real spy, how much luckier could a kid get."


Beckett said no more to Castle. She picked up the cup from the desk and walked toward the boy.

"Hey Henry, thought you might be thirsty." Henry looked up and then took the cup. "I'm Detective Kate Beckett, mind if I sit?"

Henry just shrugged so Beckett sat next to him on his right side. "I'm sorry about what happened back there."

"Why it's not your fault that my mom's a liar. Why would she lie to me like that? Why would she say that my dad was a fireman and that he died? Why couldn't she tell me the truth?"

"I don't know kid. Maybe your mom had her reasons. She did say she was trying to protect you."

"Protect me from what? And whatever it was I could have handled it."

Beckett smiled. "Something tells me that you probably could but maybe she couldn't. Sometimes what happens in our lives, even the bad, especially the bad, can be too much to handle so we try to convince ourselves it's not there even if it means lying about it, lying to ourselves and lying to the people we love."

Henry looked at Beckett. "That sounds really stupid you know."

"I know. Maybe when you grow up you'll understand."

"Doubt it," Henry said taking a sip of his chocolate. He didn't like the way it tasted. It was too bland, there was no cinnamon it. He couldn't fault the detective for not knowing that since people outside of Storybrooke most likely didn't know he liked cinnamon on his chocolate.

"So you arrested my dad."

"Yeah I did."

"How come?"

Beckett wasn't sure how much she should tell the boy so she kept it simple.

"He's being held for questioning in a case I'm investigating."

"What kind of case?" he said his optimism peaking.

Beckett looked at the boy curiously. "You're mom's a sheriff right, do you always get excited over cases she works on?"

Henry smiled, "You have no idea. So what did my dad do?"

Beckett took a deep breath. "It's a homicide Henry," hoping he didn't understand the word.

"He killed someone!"

Beckett cursed herself for that one. Damn the kid was smart.

"Hey, we don't know that for sure yet," she said placing a comforting hand on his back.

"But you're still holding him in jail."

"Only until we can figure this out."

"There's no way he did it," he said again with his optimism.

That was the second time today that Beckett had heard similar words. Despite Emma's fury she had the same tone of optimism when she said Neal wasn't the murderer.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because we don't give up on family. I'm not giving up on my dad even if my mom has."