Chapter 4
potterstar202: Thank you for your positive feedback!
ragsweas: Thanks for your review. I went back to the first chapter and changed it. I used the wrong type of break.
Helsa-Gurl: I feel you. I loved their relationship and I personally blame August for ruining it. I adore Neal as a father as I feel he would do exactly the opposite of his father. Tell your daughter she has good taste in ships.
She was an intimidating woman. If I was most people I would have been freaked out. But growing up with the Dark One as a father and being on the run from Peter Pan (Complete psychopath by the way) for centuries meant I was a hard man to intimidate.
No I was more pissed off then scared. Emma was meant to grow up a princess with her every need and whim catered too. Never supposed to be hungry or scared of her foster parents. Never supposed to of eaten out of dumpsters or steal to survive. She was supposed to know she was loved and wanted throughout her childhood.
He held three people personally responsible. Geppetto because he let Pinocchio go through the wardrobe instead of one of her parents. As much as I want to hold August responsible he was only a boy at the time. I hold August responsible for a lot, but not this.
I holds my father responsible because his father invented the blasted thing that cursed his home realm. And I just wanted to blame his father. Anger was easier to deal with then admitting that I still loved him as any child would love their papa.
And of course I hold Regina responsible as she actually enacted the curse. I was just barley controlling his rage wanting to kill her. He thought he might actually if given the chance.
That meeting shook me to my very core. Because she had made threats. Not obvious ones, but I had spent lifetimes figuring out what people said, vs what they meant. Some references to Apples in that conversation had put me on edge. Everyone knows the story about poisoning Snow with the Apple. That meeting had me on edge for one specific reason.
I needed help.
I would never normally have the courage to do this, but it wasn't just my life on the line here. I had a hell of a lot to lose. I needed someone who knew the Queen's identity, knew her weakness's and about the curse
I needed Rumpelstiltskin.
I walked down to his pawn shop still not quite sure what I was going to say. I could tell him who I was but that was a last case scenario. I could tell him I knew who he was but my father doesn't like not knowing how I would know.
There was one other way to convince the Dark One to do your bidding. That was to make a deal of course. His specialty.
I reached his shop and took multiple breaths to settle my panic before going inside. You always needed a clear head when talking to him.
"Mr Gold?" my voice rang out in the shop.
He came limping out with his cane from the back room.
"You called dearie?" his voice was so calm. That word. Dearie. That's what papa called people.
"um yeah I um" fuck. You can't stumble when talking with him. You can't show weakness.
"I need help" No. admitting you need help is like an open invite for chaos. It's like seeing my father made all of my smooth talking skills obsolete. Damn it.
"It's about my wife. Emma. I think the mayor threatened us. Like she might be evil or something" I told him watching him very closely. My use of the word evil was me trying to see if my father remembered.
"Evil you say? Interesting."
"Yes she was talking about apples. We had been discussing the Snow White story as she walked up and I couldn't help but draw parallels." His eyes widened. Oh shit. He knew. He knew.
"I see. Now tell me who the hell you really are?"
"What do you mean?" my voice sounding innocent. Too innocent.
"Don't play games with me, dearie" it came out low and angry.
"It doesn't matter. Just tell me how she's meant to break the curse?" My plan is royally screwed now.
"Will this is an interesting development. You need something from me, and I need your name. Perhaps a deal is in our future." I almost ran. I looked back at the door thinking about how I far I could make it.
"How will I know you will uphold your end?" my voice came out weak, vulnerable. The last deal I made with him was a literal disaster. Curse me for being so weak.
"I always uphold my deals"
"That's not true is it? You've broken one before." He actually stumbled back as though he were hit.
Deathly silence hung in the air.
I didn't mean to say that but verbal sparring with him had always been a slippery slope. He knew how to get under your skin make you say things you would never normally admit too.
"How, but how, what" I couldn't believe it. The dark one was actually at a loss for words. He always talked. Always had something to say. I had actually knocked him off his game.
His face contorted to rage. "How do you know? What do you know?" He was angry. I've only seen him get this pissed off a handful of times. His voice was soft, but there was a steel edge to it. This is when he was the most dangerous.
He was mad at me? That set me off. I really didn't mean what I meant to say next but you can only control so much when you're confronting the person who has wronged you. "I'm the only one allowed to be angry here." I finally snapped "Do you know what braking that deal meant? I ended up in 19th century London. With a little family called the Darlings. And I ended up in Neverland. Do you know how twisted Peter Pan actually is? My life was hell. Literal hell. All because you had gone and broke our deal. You broke our deal" I had ended up yelling at him. I was visibly shaking with rage, too angry to realise the impact my words had left.
Having said that, I stormed out.