+ + + + + Baby

Emma sat with her baby in the hospital. The room was filled with flowers, some from Gold, many from friends, and the rest from various townspeople who likely felt that it would be a shrewd gesture on their part to curry Gold's favor by acknowledging the happy event. Emma thought cynically that it smelled like a funeral parlor.

She was nursing the baby, happy that this, at least, had gone quite well. Mother and baby had both seemed to catch on to what they needed to do.

Emma knew that Gold had been by often to see the baby; she knew because the staff raved about him. Apparently, the man regularly dropped flowers, candy and substantial gift certificates on staff. But, he hadn't been to see her; she guessed he was choosing to give her the time and space she had requested. So she was surprised to look up and see him watching her, standing at the door leaning on his cane.

"Good grief, you startled me." You'd think she'd be used to him sneaking up on her by now.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to. It was such a beautiful sight, my wife and my daughter." He actually seemed a little nervous, but after a moment, he did come into the room and sat down in one of the hard-covered hospital chair that had been put in the room for visitors.

"We need to talk," he said.

"We do," agreed Emma.

"I don't know that there is anything I can say or do that will make you believe me or trust me again."

"I don't know either," agreed Emma.

"I need you Emma, When I'm with you, the voices I'm cursed with get quieter," he confessed. "And," he added, "I want you."

"Do you love me?" she asked.

Gold closed his eyes and rubbed them. "I don't know that I have the capacity to love any more, my dear Emma. There have been too many. . . too many. . . times. . . things. . . .What I feel for you is a close as I can come to love. It is the most that I can give you, but it's more than I can give anyone else. I certainly like you and enjoy your company."

Emma made a face. "Ah, an overwhelming. . . undying declaration of 'like."

Gold smiled, obviously remembering Emma's previous confession. "I guess we both have trouble with commitments and feelings."

"Yes, I guess we do." Emma sat quietly a moment. She knew what he wanted to know. Finally, she said, "I've done nothing but think about whether I can come back to you."

Gold held his breath, "And. . . "

Emma slowly replied, "I think we are somehow bound together. Maybe not by love, but something. Maybe something stronger than love. Maybe, it's family? Our paths keep continuing to cross. If what Henry says is true, our families are bound together. That creature in the cage, the one that. . .is. . .you, you know, I'm drawn to him, maybe like a moth to a flame, because I keep going back to him. It's not love, but it is close to love."

Gold didn't respond at first. "So you will come back?" There was the slightest glimmer of hope in his voice, barely there.

Emma delayed in responding but finally said, "Yes."

Gold exhaled audibly. "I will try to be less controlling, less devious, less manipulative," he said softly.

"Then it wouldn't still be you, would it?" she asked.

He gave her a slight smile. "No, I guess not."

"The man I care for, that I like, that I'm close to loving is controlling, devious and manipulative. I don't know that I want you to change."

Gold looked at her for a long time. "You don't want me to change?" He said this almost to himself. "Every other woman I've been involved with has wanted me to change. To be more. To be less. But you want me the way I am. That sounds more like true love than anything I've ever heard, Emma."

Emma patted her baby's head and gave a soft laugh, "True love? Maybe so."

The two sat quietly for a while. It was Emma that finally broke the silence. "You know I would never have gone to Regina's," she confessed. "I was just saying that to, well, irritate you."

"I was ready to come up with some way I could violate my promise and lock you up. I thought you had developed some sort of late pregnancy craziness." He told her.

"No, I had developed some sort of I'm-not-sure-I-can-trust-my-husband-anymore craziness," Emma shot back.

"I'm sorry, Emma. As I said before, I don't know that there is anything I can say or do that will make you believe me or trust me again."

"But you need me and want me," Emma repeated back to him.

"And I like and I'm close to loving you," Gold finished.

The couple sat silently awhile. The baby was still nursing. Emma kept patting the child's dark hair.

"She's absolutely beautiful, Emma. You did a wonderful job. You're going to be a wonderful mother.

Emma looked over at her husband, "You know, we haven't talked about it, but we really need a name for our beautiful baby girl."

"I would suggest Angharad Brielle. It means 'much loved one' and," he paused and looked into Emma's eyes, "'heroine'."

"Angharad Brielle Gold?" Emma considered it. "Not bad."

Gold cleared his throat. "We also need to have a name to call her. There is power in knowing someone's true name. Some may try to get to us through her," he put his hand on the baby's head.

Emma watched as her new born daughter stopped nursing, turned her head and tried to focus her dark infant eyes on the person touching her. Gold continued, "And if we ever go back to Fairyland, she will be a powerful sorceress and she will need her name kept to herself. We can call her Ysbael. It is a family name." He pronounced it "Is-bay-el," drawing it out to three syllables.

"Ysbael Gold." Emma repeated it. "I like that name. Ysbael, Ysbael," she cooed to her daughter. Gold had not removed his hand from the infant who decided to return her attention to nursing. "Gold," Emma began, quietly. "I've had a message from the D. A. He tells me that there is not enough evidence to arrest Regina. It's all circumstantial."

"That's a crock," Gold said. "Doubtless Regina has something going on with him. Is he requesting an investigation?"

"Not exactly, he's suggested we do a further audit to see if the money just doesn't show up somewhere," Emma explained. "I've got Blate working on it."

"Well, somehow I'm sure it will. Regina has been known to shift town money from one account to another on more than one occasion." Gold was philosophical. He hesitated, but leaned over and kissed his wife. "I'm glad you're coming back. We have a wedding to plan."

"Oh shhhhiii. . . " Emma stopped, censoring herself as she looked down at her new daughter.

+ + + + + Henry shares

Henry was holding his new baby sister. "Ysbael? What kind of name is that?"

"Gold tells me it's a family name," Emma explained.

"Like Baelfire, the name of his first son?"

Emma looked up. "What do you know about your father's first son?"

Henry shook his head, "Just that he didn't like how Father changed after he got his powers and he ran away."

Emma didn't know this, "Did he now? How do you know this?"

"Father told me. When he started to teach me magic, he said that his oldest son didn't want him to do magic. That they got in a big argument and his son went away to a land without magic."

"I thought he had died," Emma said, more to herself than to Henry.

"Oh no, he ran away. Father said that he thinks about Baelfire every day and wishes that they had never argued, wishes that he had agreed to give up his powers." Henry paused. "He said he was hoping that when you came to Storybrooke that he might see Baelfire again, but it hasn't happened yet."

Emma digested this, "It hasn't happened yet?"

Henry was finished holding his sister and handed her back to his mother. He hesitated but then got one of the notepads the hospital had provided in Emma's Welcome Bag. "You know Paige thinks that Father might be this person," he handed her a sheet of paper upon which he had written 'Rumplestiltskin'." Henry cautioned his mother," Paige told me not the say the name out loud because she thinks that he hears it when someone says it."

Emma looked at the notepad. "Why this name?"

Henry responded, "Because of the spinning wheel he has and his name 'Gold'. This" Henry gestured to the sheet of paper, "This. . . " he wasn't sure what to call him, "Well, he could spin straw into gold."

+ + + + + Wedding Plans

The ceremony was scheduled for twelve weeks after the baby's birth. Released from the hospital, among the other things she found herself working on, Emma had reluctantly revisited the wedding planner, Zurie Banon. Now, it wasn't that she didn't like Zurie. On the contrary, Zurie was always cool, calm and collected, absolutely great to be around if you were a frazzled bride to be, or in Emma's case, a frazzled vow repeater who had missed the first wedding because she had accidently gotten impregnated. Zurie was happy to be able to complete the wedding arrangements, had in fact already gotten everything planned out. She was just waiting for the green light. She immediately arranged for a wedding dress fitting and put Emma on a rush delivery. Gold again had Mary Margaret and Regina go with her to Boston, baby in tow. Zurie had been able to bow out on this trip, claiming she had much to do with wedding details.

Emma was quite concerned that she wouldn't fit into the couture dress she had picked out, especially so soon after the baby's birth, but with the help of a corset and some last minute alterations, the very beautiful, very expensive dress she had bought so long ago was made to fit.

There was first to be a quiet ceremony at the house. There was a small group of special guests invited to witness the vow renewal. Emma had fretted but had finally asked David to give her away. Gold and Henry agreed with her choice. David had been flattered and readily agreed. Emma had asked Mary Margaret to be her maid of honor and Ruby and Ashley to be her bridesmaids. She didn't want any more on her side of the wedding party.

Gold, in turn, had fretted over who to have as his best man. He confessed to Emma that he really didn't have friends (Emma had graciously refrained from commenting). He finally decided to ask Henry (obviously being willing to forgo the bachelor party that the best man was usually required to throw). He asked Archie and, of all people, Leroy to help usher guests to their seats. They had both agreed.

It was after the ceremony itself that things would become enormous. Gold had essentially commandeered the town square for the reception and invited everyone in town. There was to be a huge open air buffet after the ceremony and Zurie had begun to line up caterers for the biggest affair that Storybrooke had ever seen. There were to be canopies and tables and chairs set up all around. Zurie had contracted with several bands to play music so there would be dancing and food (and alcohol) into the wee hours of the morning.

One evening at home, after supper, when Emma had brought up some concerns about the expense and the size of the affair, Gold had just smiled. "I'm very happy to be married to you. I want to celebrate our marriage and share my happiness with everyone. Happiness does not happen often and needs to be celebrated when it does happen." He didn't bother to tell her that he had not felt the compulsions in several weeks, that the Dark One had grown quieter with her continued presence.

"Carpe Diem," Emma had said, capitulating and raising a glass of red wine to him.

.

NEXT Mary Margaret asks advice from Mr. Gold

A secret is revealed

The much delayed wedding