Ch. 7
The next day, Mary showed up carrying Neal yet again. This time, the kid was wide awake, though he wasn't crying.
Rumple answered the door wearing the same clothes that he'd on the day prior. He gave Mary an angry look but let her in.
"Good morning, Mr. Gold," she said sweetly.
Rumple stared at her, mentally willing her to leave already.
"Something wrong?" Mary asked.
"I didn't get any sleep at all last night. You should've woken me up sooner yesterday! Now you've thrown off my whole schedule and nothing is going to get done on time and everything is… is messed up. All because of you!"
Rumple fully expected Mary to either apologize or leave. He didn't expect her to get quite so angry.
"Excuse me?" She put Neal down and took a step forward, looking down at the man.
"You may think you're hot shit because you've got magic, but let me tell you, you're the one in the wrong here! You're damn lucky that you've got Belle because no one else would ever put up with your crap! I've only been here two days and I want to strangle you!"
Rumple was looking at her, stunned.
Mary took a deep breath and backed off a few feet.
"Now, you listen to me. I am here to help you. Your wife, Belle, wants me to help you. You can either act like a jerk the entire time and embarrass yourself, or you can do your best to be decent. Either way, I'm going to tell Belle everything that goes on. Are we clear?"
"Crystal," Rumple replied, still shocked at Mary's outburst.
"Good. Let's start over. Good morning, Mr. Gold."
"Good morning," he murmured.
Mary closed the door behind her.
"How are you feeling today?"
"Sick," came Rumple's honest reply.
"Okay. Go sit down. We're going to do things a bit different today and we'll see how that works out."
00
Mary's first order of business had been to make Rumple take a shower.
The man reeked of BO. From what she could tell, he hadn't changed his clothes or bathed in at least three days.
Rumple grudgingly agreed to bathe. He knew that Mary Margaret was right, he did smell. He wondered why Belle hadn't mentioned it. He reckoned that she was probably trying to spare his feelings.
Mary went so far as to turn the water on for him and lay out a soft, fluffy towel. Then she left the bathroom.
"Call me if you need anything," she told him.
Rumple had nodded in agreement and gotten in.
00
The shower actually put him in a slightly better mood.
The water was perfectly warm and he could feel the days of sweat and grime fall off of his body as the water hit him.
Sighing, he worked on shampooing his hair and soaping himself up. He glanced down while he did this.
His body still looked the same as it had a month prior. His stomach was still flat. Not much appeared to have changed. He wondered how he would look in another month, then in a month after that. One of the benefits of the elixir had been that he'd physically gotten younger. Weight loss had accompanied that, and Rumple was reluctant to give that up. Not that he really had a choice, it was just nice to be able to fit into his old clothes again.
Frowning, he pushed past that thought and continue to shower. When he was finished, he decided that shave was in order, too. He was getting too scruffy for his liking.
He finally emerged from the bathroom in a soft robe. He made his way to the bedroom, where he put on yet another t-shirt and a pair of pajamas before making his way back out.
"You look much better," Mary Margaret said, setting down a tray on the coffee table.
"I feel much better," Rumple responded, under his breath. His mood had definitely improved.
"Good. Now, I've made you some breakfast. Something small - just some oatmeal and fruit and some more of the ginger tea."
"Thank you." Rumple carefully picked up the bowl of oatmeal. Just smelling it made his stomach growl, yet a second later, he felt sick.
Quickly, he put the bowl back down and made a run for the bathroom. This time he wasn't as lucky with making it on time. He ended up vomiting on the floor and all over his outfit. He used the last of his strength to grab on to a trash can so at least some of it was elsewhere.
In the other room, he could hear baby Neal crying and Mary Margaret trying to quiet him. It made the whole experience worse somehow. In some weird way he wished that Belle was there, instead of Mary, if only so that she would rub his back and hold back his hair.
00
Another shower and change of clothes later, and Rumple was lying on the couch, watching television. He'd given up on trying to eat anything and thankfully, Mary Margaret hadn't pushed him. Instead, she sat on the floor, playing with Neal. She'd brought some toys for him to play with - some large blocks and a few toy cars.
Occasionally, Rumple would look over and watch them. The scene both made him feel happy, as he would soon have the joy of playing with his child, and sad, because it reminded him of his time with Bae, before everything had gone wrong.
All in all, Neal was a good child. He didn't cry that much and when he did, his mother was quickly able to quiet him down. He also had a very bright, happy smile. Rumple wondered if his child would be similar, or if he or she would keep him up all night.
Bae had been good. Granted, Milah had been the one to do most of the work early on, before he returned from the war, but he couldn't recall a time where Bae didn't quiet down fairly quickly.
God, how he missed Bae. The recent events had pushed the thought of his son out of his mind but now the feeling of agony at the memory of losing him returned.
After a few minutes, Mary Margaret caught him looking at them.
"Rumple," she called out. "Would you like to play with Neal?"
Rumple sort of wished that the kid's name hadn't been Neal. While it was a nice gesture, it made seeing the baby slightly more painful.
Still, the kid was cute.
"Sure," he replied, forcing himself up. He sat down on the floor next to Mary and she handed him one of the cars.
"There you go."
Rumple looked down at the child and began to push the toy car towards him. Neal responded by laughing and pushing the car back at Rumple.
The baby smiled at him and Rumple smiled back.
"Look at you," he mumbled, giving the car back again.
"I think he likes you. Usually when someone else besides me or David plays with him, he cries."
Rumple glanced at Mary Margaret then turned his attention back to Neal.
"Perhaps he does."
It wasn't long before the baby began to fuss and Mary took over again, but the experience definitely made his morning better.
00
By noon, Rumple felt well enough to attempt eating again.
This time Mary put together some sandwiches. Nothing too extravagant. She doubted that his system could handle anything complex right then.
Neal was asleep, so Rumple decided to watch some more television. Those soap operas that were on every day seemed to be somewhat addicting.
Mary, meanwhile, sat on the other couch, watching along with him.
"Never figured you for a fan of The Young and the Restless," she commented.
"There's not much else on. All of the PBS shows are geared at children during this time of day."
"Ah. I understand."
Mary watched as Rumple slowly ate his food while staring at the television.
"You know, you could get a dvd player or Netflix or something."
"Netflix?"
"Yeah, you know, it streams movies and tv shows…"
Rumple still looked confused.
"It's just something that's popular now. If you have a laptop I can show you how it works."
"It's in the back study."
Mary smiled and stood up to get it. When she returned, she sat down next to him on the couch and opened it up.
"Log in. I'll close my eyes."
"The password is 'password'. You can log in."
Mary raised an eyebrow.
"Really?"
"I'm sorry?" Rumple asked, yet again confused.
"It's just… that's a really bad password. Anyone could guess it."
Rumple snorted.
"They would not find much if they did. I only got it because Ms. Swan said that it might help me locate Bae."
A look of sadness flitted across Rumple's face at the mention of his son, and Mary suddenly felt bad.
"I see. Well, it can be used for many things. For instance, watching shows." Mary pulled up the Netflix website. "I'll log into my account."
Mary logged in and handed the laptop over to Rumple.
"Type in whatever you want to watch. The site will tell you whether or not you can."
Rumple hesitated for a moment, thinking of what might interest him. Finally, he settled on Doctor Who.
"Really?" Mary asked, somewhat surprised. "I didn't take you for a fan of The Doctor either."
"Some of Belle's friends have mentioned it and she seemed intrigued. Perhaps, if it is decent, her and I can watch it together."
Mary Margaret smiled.
"That's sweet. Okay, it's available to stream. Click on it."
Rumple did as he was told and the first episode suddenly popped up. Mary put it into full screen mode and the two sat back to watch.
00
Belle came home that afternoon to see both Mary and Rumple asleep on the couch, laptop still on Rumple's lap. Neal was resting comfortably in his mother's lap, playing with a block.
Belle raised an eyebrow and gently pulled the laptop away. The battery was almost dead, but she could see that the two had been watching that Doctor Who show that Taryn and Brian had been mentioning.
Belle's action woke Rumple. The cracked his eyes open, then rubbed them.
"Good afternoon, sleepy head," she teased.
Rumple stretched, then poked Mary Margaret.
"Hey!", she hissed.
"Wake up. Belle's home."
Mary opened her eyes and glared at him.
"Could've been a little nicer…"
"Could've, would've, should've. Belle's home so you can leave now."
Ah. Gold was back to his old snippy ways, Mary thought to herself.
She then noticed that Belle was giving him a nasty look. It seemed to make Gold shrink back a little.
"I'm so sorry for my husband's attitude," Belle said, eyes still focused on Rumple, "He's been tired lately and that, plus the hormones and all, are making him more testy than usual."
"Yeah. I'm sure that's it," Mary replied, trying not to smirk. "Hormones and all. It's alright. I should get home anyway."
"Thank you again." Belle walked her to the door, "I really, really appreciate it."
Mary knew that Belle was being sincere.
"It's no problem, Belle. I'll be back tomorrow, bright and early."
