Chapter Ten

Emma felt like her world was crashing down, and she wasn't entirely sure that she wasn't dreaming. Henry was coming back around by the time that they got he and his paternal grandfather down to the hospital and it was a chore to get him to let Whale look him over. Both Emma and Regina had remained at his side while they waited to keep him on his best behavior until the doctor could let them know everything was okay.

"I did a quick scan while we were waiting on him," Regina said as she handed the blonde a cup of coffee. "Whatever they were trying to do to him, Rumple managed to stop it."

Emma sighed, the back of her head thumping softly against the wall she was leaning against. Whale was in there now that he'd finished with Gold - who, apparently, was still out cold - and she and Regina had been ushered out. Neal, thankfully, was with his father who seemed to be in much worse shape. She wasn't sure she could take that talk. Again.

"So what was it you and Gold saw, anyway?"

"Threads. Very thin, very fine, but very strong. They were going to pull Henry away."

"Why?"

Regina shrugged, sipping on her own coffee. "My best guess? They were using some sort blood magic to make Rumple the recipient of the aggressions. With Henry they could continue it."

"Belle said something about clerics?"

Regina looked thoughtful at that. "Rumple tended to stay away from the sort. They're usually not powerful enough to cause people like us any trouble, but..."

"But that was in a land with magic," Emma pointed out. "Could they do more damage to him here than they did there?"

The former Evil Queen gave her a funny look that made the savior start to backpedal. She'd said something stupid again and was about to find herself at the sharp end of Regina's wit. It was that same blank look she gave before ripping whatever idea the younger woman had to shreds, but this time her eyebrows rose. "You may be onto something."

Emma blinked. "What?"

"Don't make me repeat it, Swan."

"Emma?"

She turned, resisting the urge to sigh as Killian Jones moved down the hallway with more haste than the nurses seemed to like. She'd been hoping Neal would hold off coming down that way until she was sure that she wouldn't lose her composure, but she'd forgotten about Hook. Completely and utterly forgotten about him. This was most certainly not her day.

"I heard the lad was in the hospital. Is he hurt?"

The door opened and Whale stuck his head out. "I'll let you handle this one," Regina said as she turned and entered the room.

"He's… okay, I think," Emma managed. "Regina said she checked him over before we got him here and he was already awake before Whale got back there. He's just tired now."

"Were they after him then? Who are they?" He reached forward with his good hand and she tried not to let her chest tighten too much when he took hers. "I want to help in any way that I can."

"It's a… family thing, Killian. I think we've got this covered." He wasn't a bad guy. He said stupid things sometimes and drove her nearly to fighting, but in another life, if things had happened differently, he was exactly the kind of guy that she would have gone for. He was… safe. The kind she wouldn't get tied down to. Or at least she'd thought he was. He certainly seemed willing to be tied down. Eager, even. She couldn't miss the hurt in his eyes and she felt a little guilty.

"Of course. Right. I'm sure you need space."

"Henry Mills will be right around that corner there," a nurse's voice floated in and Emma turned. Well, this was going to get messy pretty fast.

"Bae?" Killian managed. Apparently no one had told him about Neal's return from the dead.

Neal froze mid-step. "Killian," he answered tightly, eyes traveling between them. He pulled in a deep breath, nodded, and forced a smile that only made Emma feel more guilty than she had before. He turned to her slowly and he'd always been terrible at covering up his emotions with her. Betrayal wasn't quite the right word for it, but it was something awful close. Those brown eyes that she'd melted into more than once locked onto her and jerked a thumb in the door's direction. "Henry's room?"

"Yeah. Regina's in with him right now."

"Have you been in to see him?"

"Yeah, pretty much until Whale walked in, but Killian and I were… talking."

He quirked a disbelieving eyebrow. "Yeah. Good to see you both. I'm going to-"

Killian reached out, latching onto his arm and holding him there. "Is it really you?" he whispered. He'd been affected by Neal's death, Emma had known, but if he was as torn up as he sounded now about it, he'd never given that impression to her. He'd said his goodbyes and then he'd moved on. He'd expected her to do the same, from what he'd told her that morning. Was it really that morning? She glanced down at her watch to see that they were quickly approaching nighttime.

"Yeah," Neal answered shortly.

"How?"

"I really don't know?" he answered, though it sounded like more of a question than an answer. "Listen, my kid almost got taken by some crazy clerics that have been holding me and my dad's hurt because of them. I really don't have time right now, so… You two have a good talk. Or whatever."

Emma felt her face heat up as he ducked into the room Henry was in, dodging Whale on the way out, and Killian turned back towards her. "He was dead."

"Yeah. That seems to happen a lot in his family," she answered. "The whole dying and coming back thing."

"This wasn't just a misunderstanding, Swan," Killian pressed. "He was dead. We put dirt over his casket. You said he died in your arms."

"Well there he was. He's not a ghost, Killian. What? Are you upset he's here?"

"No! I just… What sort of dark sorcery can pull a man from his grave?"

"I'm sure we'll find out eventually. Neal was right. We need to check on Henry. I'll let you know when I know more about what's going on." She ducked around him and into the room. It was time to focus on her son and nothing else.

Henry had sat through ever poke and every prod and he was tired of it. Emma and Regina had both told him that his grandfather was going to be just fine, but he hadn't seen him at all. Nor had he seen his dad, but he was almost afraid to ask in case it had all been a dream. It'd been harder to tell them apart lately, even for him.

The door cracked open and Dr Whale motioned for Regina to enter. She made a beeline for Henry who was sitting on the bed with his knees pulled up nearly to his chin. His mother wrapped an arm around him and pulled him close. "Well?" she asked as if she didn't already know. He'd felt her magic as it had washed over him, even before he'd fully made it back to consciousness.

"Everything seems to be fine with the exception of needing some sleep, though that seems to be going around lately. He should be good to go home."

"He won't tell me anything about Grandpa Gold," Henry pressed, hoping to get more information out of Regina at least.

"That's because he's focused on you," his mother said with a strained smile.

"Have you been to see him?"

"Not yet. I'm sure he's-"

"Just fine. I know. You said that last time. You don't know of you haven't seen him. He was hurt. I saw it. It wasn't a dream. It was real this time!" He could hear himself spiraling, but couldn't quite find a way to stop it.

Regina pulled him close. "I know, sweetie."

"I told you they could hurt him."

"I know. I should have listened to you, Henry. You were right."

Part of him felt a little silly as the tears rolled down his cheeks, but he was too tired to care. He heard the door open and close again and he assumed that Dr Whale was leaving them alone. "Mom?"

She hugged him closer. "Hmm?"

Henry paused, not sure he wanted to risk the question. Finally he let out a small sigh. "Is my dad really back?"

Regina kissed the top of his head. "Why don't you ask him yourself?"

The teen sat up quickly and saw Neal standing by the door, looking more than a little awkward. "Hey, buddy," he greeted.

"Hey."

"How're you feeling?"

"I'm okay I think," Henry said as Emma slipped in behind Neal and worked her way to the other side of the room without actually making eye contact with him. "Is Grandpa Gold okay?"

His dad's lips twitched downward. "He will be," he said slowly. "Whale said earlier that his magic seems to be catching up with the injuries. There's no way to know when he'll wake up though."

Neal was worried, but at least someone was being honest. "Can I see him?"

Emma started to argue, but it was Regina that cut in. "Whale did clear him."

"You feeling okay, kid?" his other mother asked pointedly and he heard the unspoken promise. Don't lie. I'll know.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Well why don't you put your shoes on and we'll walk down there?" Neal offered. He glanced at both of Henry's mothers. "I'll keep an eye on him."

Henry didn't waste any time as he piled off the bed, grabbing for his shoes in the corner. He was out the door before either of his moms could change their minds and slowed only enough to let Neal take the lead to his grandpa's room.

She'd barely left his side since they'd brought him in. He hadn't stirred once between the forest and the hospital, and even now he laid still against the white sheets. The glamour spell had washed away, his magic focused on healing him now, and she had done what she could to keep the others out. He wouldn't want them to see him like this. She knew her husband. He would see it as a weakness.

Belle leaned forward, brushing a strand of grey-streaked hair from his face with her free hand. Her other hand was wrapped around his and she lifted it to her lips, pressing a kiss to the back of it. "I love you," she whispered. "And I'm not losing you again. I won't let you go." He didn't stir and she felt her heart sink just a little. She'd lost him too many times, and though she'd sworn to fight for him she wondered if she could have fought a little harder each time. Now, though, she refused to lose him again. No matter what these people tried to do, no matter how they tried to steal him away, they'd have to come through her first. He'd protected her, sometimes when she didn't even want him to, and now it was her turn. She'd do whatever it took to make sure that they were together in the end. They'd struggled too hard to lose now.

A soft knock at the door pulled her attention and Bae offered a small smile as he pushed it open. "Hey. Any change?"

"No, not yet. I think we're still just waiting."

He stepped in, followed closely by Henry and Belle felt a smile tug at her lips. "Hello there."

"Hi," Henry answered, though he barely looked at her. Instead his dark eyes were fixated on Rumple.

Belle squeezed her husband's hand in her own and stood. "Why don't you sit with him for a moment?" she offered and Henry nodded.

Bae's gaze remained on his father and his son a moment and Belle touched his arm as she moved passed him. He seemed to understand and reluctantly followed her outside, the door closing behind him. They hadn't had much time to talk between the nurses and doctor and the chaos of what had happened. The last Belle had seen him at any length was when they'd traveled through the snow to find a way to bring back a man they both loved. He'd collapsed in the shop shortly before those actions finally caught up with him, and she had thought she would never see him again. They had buried him and cried over his grave together. Rumple had mourned so deeply, so completely for him, that it almost frightened her to see him now. She knew what it would do to her love if Bae was torn from him again.

Belle reached for his hand without giving him any warning, flipping it palm upward. He tensed at the sudden action, but didn't pull away as she took in his scarred palm, the markings of the curse that had dragged his soul down the the vault in place of his father's etched there. It wasn't welted and red as it had been when it finally took him, though, and she felt a glimmer of hope as she looked up at him. "How?" she managed, her voice trembling and Belle felt her own exhaustion weighing heavily against her.

Dark eyes so like his papa's stared at her and then finally fell to the scar. "I don't really know," he admitted softly. "I was there and then Magnus and his clerics dragged me up. I'm guessing they had to send someone down in my place, but I don't know." He paused, lips thinning out in a grimace. "Blue might, though. I think she has something to do with all of this. She was at the house where they were keeping us. The same place they pulled the vault up from."

"Henry and I visited her earlier today and thought she was acting a bit suspiciously. That's who we were following when we found you and Rumple. Is it... permanent?" Belle asked, and she hated the question.

"I sure as hell hope so," Baelfire grumbled, pulling his hand back to rub at the scar. "I'm not going back there, and I'll be damned if Papa goes either." He tried for a smile and motioned to the ring on her left hand. "Looks like a lot happened while I was away."

"A lot has, yes," she answered, her voice soft and a little unsure. After everything they'd wasted no time in it and she wondered now if Bae was okay with that.

"Welcome to the family," Baelfire said before she had a chance to ask, and while his smile still held all the worries of things to come, she thought it was true.

A small laugh escaped her as she wrapped her arms around his neck. "Welcome home," she said in return and her husband's son returned the hug.

"Good to be home," he chuckled when they released each other.

The door opened and Henry stuck his head out. "Grandpa's awake," he said. "He's asking for both of you."

"We'll be in in just a second, buddy," Bae promised his son.

"Well hurry up. He's missed you almost as much as I have."

Belle tried to stifle a laugh. "Both of them have missed you," she offered and Bae grinned.

"And I missed them. More than I thought I could. Listen, about Blue… I know Papa needs to know, but I think maybe we should wait until he's on his feet."

They had promised no more secrets, but Bae had a point. They both knew that he'd pounce on the situation as soon as it was mentioned and likely wouldn't even wait until they had the whole story. The hatred he held for the lead fairy ran deep. Rumple blamed her for much, and what he couldn't blame her directly for, he often thought she was planning something else that he hadn't yet discovered. Perhaps, though, he wasn't that far off from the truth if what Bae had said was exactly as it appeared.

Belle pulled in a deep breath and her eyes focused the elder man. "We promised no more secrets between us. Rumple's kept his end of it. I need to too, if I want him to trust me."

Bae nodded slowly. "Fair enough, but it's not going to make it easy."

"It never is," she answered with a shrug. "But that's why he has us."

He woke up surrounded by white walls and beeping machines, and his first conscious thought was that he was going to make whoever put him there suffer. Terribly.

Rumplestiltskin hated hospitals. Part of it he knew stemmed from his cursed memories that belonged to Mr Gold and his experience with hospitals and the painful event that had been created to explain the limp. The other was the confining nature of them and the constant surveillance. If he was injured or ill enough that he'd passed out for someone to take him, the last thing he wanted were a bunch of strangers hovering.

"Grandpa?"

Rumplestiltskin's gaze moved sluggishly to his right where he found Henry sitting there. He was leaned forward, like he had been trying to decide if the elder man were waking or not. "Hey there," he greeted, finding his throat raw and voice scratchy. He started to reach his hand out to the boy only to find it already filled.

"They wouldn't let me come see you till now," the teen said quietly.

"Well," his grandfather answered, "I haven't been awake until now." That brought a small smile to his lips and Rumplestiltskin felt a small twinge of victory.

"I'm glad you're okay. You really freaked us out when you disappeared like that."

Rumplestiltskin relaxed a bit back into the pillows, watching his grandson carefully. Belle had told him how his death had appeared to them at Storybrooke's end, when he'd dug the Kris Dagger into Pan's back and straight through so that they fell together. He'd simply disappeared, his wife had told him. They'd known he was dead, but he'd been swept away in a swirl of magic. To a teen that had been through so much already, this might have looked much the same. He offered him a tired smile. "I'm not going anywhere, Henry," he promised.

"I know. We have to see Operation Sandman to the end."

"Yes, I believe we do, and perhaps beyond that."

Henry grinned. It was a tired smile, but wide. "You're pretty much stuck with us, Grandpa. This family doesn't let each other go very easily."

Dark eyes flickered to the closed door. "No, I suppose we don't."

"You want me to get Dad and Belle?"

He'd wondered if Bae had been a dream, a desperate attempt for his mind to cling to something that would encourage him to keep on living. Henry seemed to indicate that he was just out the door though. He and Belle. Suddenly he had an overwhelming need to see them both and prove that something good might find its way out of all of this. "If you would?"

He nodded and popped his head out the door. Rumplestiltskin eased himself up as best he could. His whole body still ached, but it wasn't the drowning kind of pain he'd been in. His magic was neatly knitting him back together. It might take a day or two to push back the exhaustion that almost dying brought with it, but he would live. He would also get to the bottom if all of this and make Magnus and his little clerics pay dearly.

Bae and Belle walked through the door a few moments after Henry and Rumplestiltskin tried to keep his emotions under control. Bae offered him a crooked smile and Belle moved to the bed to take his hand. "Hey," he greeted softly.

"Hey yourself. How are you feeling?"

"Bit like I've been run through," he murmured, but the quip only earned him a glare. She looked exhausted and in that moment his heart clenched painfully for her. "Sweetheart, I-"

She didn't let him finish before she leaned down and her lips covered his. He could feel all of her desperate worry and fear mixed with the rush if True Love in the kiss and he reached up, fingers in her hair even as they finally broke. Tears were in her eyes and he swallowed hard. "I'm sorry."

"I love you," she said in return. "And you are not allowed to leave me alone."

A soft chuckle worked its way out if him. "Never," he agreed. He glanced past her to where his son was ushering Henry towards the door. "Bae?"

Baelfire stopped and turned. "You two looked like you might need a minute and we were... Papa?"

He didn't know if they had him on some sort of painkillers or if it was simply that he couldn't quite wrap his mind around his son being alive, but Rumplestiltskin couldn't let him walk out that door and out of sight. He struggled to sit up better, ignoring Belle's arguments as he started to detach himself from monitors and an IV. Bae crossed the space between them and rounded the bed to take hold of the hand that Belle hadn't grabbed yet. "Stop. I'll stay. All you had to do was ask."

He was trembling now, and he looked between his wife and son. "This is real?"

Belle's soft laugh met his ears. "Yes. It's real."

All at once his energy left him, washing away and leaving him drained. "You'll stay?" he murmured, his voice softer than he would have liked.

"One or both of us will be here with you," Belle promised. He felt her press a kiss against his forehead as sleep reached up for him.

He blinked against it and now he was certain that Whale had given him something. Rumplestiltskin would have much preferred to have gone home, and had he not been losing his battle against sleep he would have done just that. It was a losing battle, though, and all he could hope was that when he woke, Bae would still be alive.

Henry had refused to leave the hospital the night before and Baelfire hadn't had the heart to make him. Dr Whale had cleared him from a medical standpoint and Regina had been certain that the boy's grandfather had untangled him from the web the clerics had tried to weave. He was safe - as safe as he would be until this was over - and she'd been surprisingly supportive of him staying. More so than Emma, who had ducked out of the hospital without ever dropping by the room. It was early the next morning now and Henry had stepped into the hall to take a call from his blonde mother.

Belle had given up at some point in the night and had curled up next to Rumplestiltskin. She was sleeping there now, her head resting against his chest as if she didn't trust herself to wake without immediate proof of his survival. Bae couldn't blame her. He'd finally drifted off in the chair he's pulled right up to the side of the bed at least for a little bit until he'd been startled out of a nightmare by the sound of his son's phone buzzing.

His papa was still sleeping and Belle didn't stir. Henry's quick "hey, Emma," had been the only clue he had as to who the call was from, but as he walked out of the room he didn't look happy.

Bae stretched, feeling the aches that came from sleeping slumped in a hospital chair, and eased himself up and as quietly as he could toward the door. Henry had left it cracked and he was leaned against the far wall of the hallway with an aggravated expression on his face. "Grandpa's not even awake. Gramps won't be able to talk to him." He paused, his brows drawing together on frustration. "I get that, but I think you should bring it by. Dad's- Okay. Fine." He glared at the phone as if it were its fail he was offended as he hung up.

"Let me guess. Your mom doesn't want to see me?" Bae asked quietly.

"She's being stubborn. She'll come around."

A strained smile tugged at his lips. He knew how stubborn Henry's mother was, but he also knew that the walls she hid behind only grew taller and thicker each time she was hurt. He could remember slipping in her arms. He'd asked her to use his magic to do something that would kill him. It hadn't been her fault, but he also wasn't sure that he could come back from it either. In the end, it had saved Henry and the others, and that was worth a hell of a lot to him.

"It's okay, buddy. We'll have time to sort everything out. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

Henry pushed himself off the wall and flung his arms around Bae's middle in a tight hug. Everything had happened so fast with the clerics trying to steal Henry away and his papa collapsing that he had barely had time to wrap his mind around the fact that he was home. When Storybrooke had become home, he wasn't quite sure, but he knew he never wanted to leave again.

"I missed you," Henry said after a moment. "I mean... Once I remembered, I guess, but I really missed you."

"I missed you too, buddy. More than I could ever say." He released him so that he could look him in the eye. "I meant what I said. I'm not going anywhere."

"I know."

"And we'll have to help Belle keep your grandpa out of trouble."

Henry laughed. "Yeah. That's a tough job," he chuckled, but the smile faded. "We were trying to find out who was behind the nightmares, but it looks like I wasn't a lot of help. He still got hurt."

"Hey, that wasn't your fault. Magnus is bad news."

"Is that the guy that took you both? How did he bring you back? He has to be really powerful, right? Even Grandpa couldn't bring you back. I know that he would have if he could."

Bae shrugged. "Yeah, I guess he is powerful."

"More powerful than Grandpa?"

He hadn't considered that, if he were honest with himself. Magnus and his clerics had somehow pulled the Dark One's Vault over to the Land Without Magic and had pried it open. Sure, Bae was pretty certain that they'd lost a man or two to it to bring him out - it would almost be impossible not to have - but they'd still pulled it over. He didn't count himself an expert, but he had to imagine that it took a great deal of power, and that wasn't even mentioning the power spent on the spell they'd funneled through him. He still wasn't entirely sure if he'd have any lasting effects from that, but that seemed like something that would need to wait until his papa woke. He felt fine, but that didn't always mean as much as he'd have liked it to.

The hospital had been quiet most of the night and into the morning. Whale had popped his head in once just to make sure that Rumplestiltskin was still alive and just sleeping. The nurses had been surprisingly absent, and Bae wondered if that had to do more with who the patient was than their normal habits. Footsteps sounded down the hall, though, and he turned, expecting to see a nurse finally approaching. Instead, the Blue Fairy froze mid-step where she was, eyes large and fixated on Bae as if she hadn't been expecting him there.

"Go wait in the room," Bae murmured.

"But-"

"Now, Henry," he dad answered tightly, never breaking eye contact with the woman whose voice he'd heard in the house he'd been kept prisoner in. He waited until he heard the door close behind the teen before stepping forward to where Blue was still frozen in place.

Slowly, as if she were willing a mask into place, the fairy smiled. "Baelfire. It's so good to see you."

A frown tugged at his lips. "Is it?"

She blinked at him, unsure of what he meant. "Of course. It was a terrible thing that the Wicked Witch tricked you into, but good does have a way of coming out, even in the end."

Bae snorted, dark eyes narrowing. "I'm really not interested in your lies right now, Blue. I'm not a kid that'll believe anything just because it's coming from a fairy."

"I'm... sorry? Baelfire - Neal? - I'm afraid I don't understand. Perhaps your father has been-"

"I'm curious. Your plan with the bean, were you just trying to get him out of our world or did you know where it would send us? Were you hoping we'd die on the streets there?"

"I really don't understand what you're referring to. Of course I meant to help you and your father. He chose to let you go. For that I am terribly sorry, but perhaps that is something better discussed with him instead of me."

"Funny, because you were discussing what a missed opportunity it was to rid the Enchanted Forest of his curse with one of my captors." He watched her go pale and he stepped forward. "I get that you two don't like each other, but those people were trying to use us to kill my papa. I don't know what you think goodness means, but killing him isn't it."

Blue tried to take a step back. "The situation is complicated, Baelfire. You only have part of the story. Please, if I'd known you had heard that I would have come straight to you to clear the air. I... Magnus has taken this too far."

"You expect me to believe you?"

"No. I'm not so naive as to think so. Though I am certain that you already know how dangerous this is going to be for everyone. Magnus doesn't care who he hurts to reach his goal, and that is not good for anyone. I came here to speak to David. Snow said he was on his way.I wish to help stop Magnus from hurting anyone else. I know a great deal about he and his clerics. Things that even you and the Dark One do not."

Bae watched her carefully. He didn't trust her. She'd been manipulating and twisting things as long as he'd known her and his father had been right about her. Even so, they needed answers, and for as much time as he'd spent with those clerics, he knew precious little about them.

"Will you let me help you, Neal?" she asked softly and he really was beginning to understand his papa's dislike for this fairy.

His eyes narrowed dangerously. "You better be honest with us about this," he said lowly, his voice quiet and threatening. "If you double cross us and any of my family is hurt because of it, Papa will be the least of your worries."

"There's really no need for threats," she answered in a small voice.

"There really is. I haven't told him what I heard yet, but Belle knows you were in the house. He'll know, and you better have made yourself useful by then."

She tried to reach forward, her fingers stopping just short of touching his arm. "Baelfire, you told me once that you wanted your father to be rid of his curse."

"I'm not willing to let him die to do it. You've got to decide how far you're willing to go, and that'll be the side you choose."

He left her standing in the hall and he could feel her gaze following him. It was time that the Blue Fairy stopped playing both sides to her own gain. If she thought ridding the worlds of the Dark One's Curse was worth Rumplestiltskin's life she'd find a few people to go through to get to him. Bae had lost his family too many times now, and he was done with it. He'd fight it with everything he had, no matter who it set him against.

TBC

Notes: Okay, so twice a week update, but a little late. I had to make sure I was far enough along in the chapter I'm working on. :)

Next time - The origin of the Dark One's Curse is revealed.