On the Dock

Bae and Rumpelstiltskin caught up with Tinker Bell just as she was leaving the bed and breakfast. "I was about to go looking for you," she said. "Jas is doing something really stupid."

"We know," Bae said. "Where's August?"

"Someone lookin' for me?" August asked as he walked out of the front door of the inn.

"We are. Our captain is going to do something very dangerous."

"Well, where do we start?"

Bae turned on his heel and walked briskly to his father's pawn shop. It was an effort for the other three to keep up with him. "His mind works so quickly," he heard his father say behind him.

"Where do you think I got it from?" When they reached the shop, Bae turned to his father and asked, "Do you have anything, anything at all, that has an anchor design on it?"

Blanched, Rumpelstiltskin walked past Bae and into the shop. August, Tink, and Bae watched him rummage around for a half hour before re-emerging. "It's gone," he said.

"I knew it," Bae replied. "Where's the harbor?"

"How'd you know there is one?"

"Because this is Maine. If you're going to have a viable town in Maine, it kind of needs to be connected at least in theory to the outside world." Rumpelstiltskin pointed behind him. "How close are we?"

"Fifteen minutes' walk."

"And he has the same amount of time on us."

"Okay, everybody join hands," Tink said.

"What is this, a focus group?" Rumpelstiltskin asked.

"You can think of it that way, yes."

Bae took her hand. "I have a good feeling about this." Rumpelstiltskin took both his and August's hand, and August completed the circle. A yellow glow encased them.

"Hang on," Tink said, and the glow intensified. In a flash, to any passersby, they disappeared.

A second flash came at the pier, coincidentally in front of Captain Hook as he marched his pirates to his ship. Tink waited until the three others were steady before releasing August's and Bae's hands. She turned to Hook and flashed a winning smile. Gradually, all three turned to face him. "Oh, hello," Hook said, struggling to keep his voice even. Dangling off his hook was the amulet carved with the symbol of the anchor, and Bae noticed the Dark One's knife hanging off the captain's belt. He stepped directly between the captain and his father. "Oh, defensive, are we? Well, then." He tossed the amulet aside, and the nearest pirates were more than willing to let it scuttle across the pier. Then he drew the knife.

"Papa, stay back," Bae yelled. Hook rushed him with the knife. Bae grabbed his wrist with the tip inches from his father's nose. Rumpelstiltskin barely flinched. Hook swung his hook, to be caught by Bae, who proceeded to pull his upper body into a waiting knee. While he was delirious, Bae pushed him back. Hook rushed Bae again, but Rumpelstiltskin stepped up to Bae's side and flicked his wrist. Hook flew back into his retinue of pirates, who collapsed into themselves to keep him somewhat upright.

He had released his grip on the knife in the course of his flight, and it flew across the pier to land across the medallion, with Rumpelstiltskin's name facing up. The medallion and knife began to glow. All present began to scramble back. Bae pushed his father back as far as the pier would allow. Tink looked at Hook, whose eyes were fixed on the glow on the dock.

The bright glow gave way to a black cloud that spiralled upward and outward, taking the surrounding air with it. As the storm intensified, it started to shred the pier. Bae bowed his head against the pieces. Rumpelstiltskin held him firmly and whispered reassurances.

"The knife," Bae said. He had to scream to be heard over the wind. "The knife is the key."

"What are you talking about, Bae?" Rumpelstiltskin replied.

"The knife's what started this, so the knife is what ends it." He looked over his father's shoulder and noticed that Hook must have come to a similar conclusion, and he pushed his father in the direction of the eye of the storm. "Go," he said, and then he prepraed to stand off against the pirate for the fourth time in his life.

But Hook wasn't interested in Bae. Instead, he dove straight for Rumpelstiltskin. "You're not going to leave me, Papa?" Bae whispered to himself. "Well, I'm not going to leave you, either."

Then a strange thing happened.

Baelfire, possessed of an energy he didn't even know he could feel, threw it all toward the captain. With a violent crack that he could've sworn would've been heard by his employer in New York, the energy rocked the air in front of him and sent the captain flying.

Rumpelstiltskin had managed to jerk the knife off the medallion at the same time, so that Bae lay face first on the pier, one arm extended and the other curled under him, Rumpelstiltskin breathing heavily and working his way onto his back. The pirates beheld the scene, complete with much calmer winds and drifting debris, in shock and fear.

"What the hell just happened?" August asked.

"Good question," Bae replied.

Rumpelstiltskin threw the knife away and rushed to his son's side. "Bae, Bae, are you alright?" he asked.

"What the hell just happened to me?"

"You have magic, Bae." There was such a mix of conflicting emotion in Rumpelstiltsin's eyes that Bae, at a loss for what to think, finally gave up on the task altogether. He rolled onto his back and closed his eyes, finally too exhausted for anything but sleep.

Tink walked over to them and said, "Come on, let's go home," and she lay her hands on Rumpelstiltskin's and August's shoulders. They flashed themselves into Rumpelstiltskin's living room.