Part 9 : Lies.

After the mayor definitely accepted to let Henry with Neal, they both decided to go to his home, where his family was. Despite himself, Henry smiled by seeing that there still was something good in this terrible story.

Neal had a family. And him too, apparently, even if neither Belle or Gideon knew it. And the thing is that none of them was really happy to let the young man come at their home. They both stayed away from him during the evening, in which Neal tried to confront his father to the reality.

"Dad ? I think we need to talk."

The wizard nodded his head, knowing what his son wanted to talk about. When he called him to ask him if Henry could come with them, he immediately said yes. And understood that soon, Fiona would have doubts again.

The Dark One was a little afraid by this conversation, ignoring what his son knew or didn't know, or in what he believed.

The answer was rapidly brought to him, as they were alone.

"Dad, I will ask you a question, and I want you to answer to it, in a clear and precise way.

- I'm listening to you.

- Is there a curse ?"

He looked at his son, carefully; this one had doubts, serious doubts, and he needed answers. Gold sighed.

"Yes.

It would have great consequences, they both knew it.

- So… Henry is really my son…

- Exactly. I have the results you wanted to have."

Neal took the paper rapidly, and smiled by understanding that everything was true.

He just had to remember all of this now.

"Henry has a plan. He called it operation Lynx.

Rumple raised an eyebrow.

- What does it have to do with the curse ?

- Nothing. That's why it can work, according to him. That it has no links with what we must do.

- What do we have to do ?

- Make the Black Fairy believe we don't know for the curse.

- But Henry, does know, him, and I think my mother has doubts about you.

- Then, that's when you play your role ! Neal exclaimed.

- In which way ?

- You can still do magic, right ?

- Not completely. This, he said, by showing the bracelet, stops me from practising magic, but I can still do potions.

- Perfect. This is exactly what we need.

- What do you want me to do ?

- What I want, is that your mother believes that you did something. She has to believe that Henry and I we lost a part of our memories, the things about the curse. I want her to think that we can't be an obstacle for her."

He looked at his son, and thought again about Henry's despair and what he almost did. About Emma Swan and what she did. About her dead body, what he saw this day, that he never forgot despite the years. About the pain of the ghosts, and even the one of some inhabitants of the town.

And he knew again what he must do.

"Alright. I will help you."

Unlike what happened before, he had the occasion to prove that he could do it, do something good.

He would not let this chance escape to him.

§§§§

Fiona looked at her son with suspicion. It was hard for her to believe that finally, it would be that simple. She didn't even ask him to do it, and he came to see her, to talk to her. She didn't understand why he was here.

This is just when he talked to her that she realized why he was there. She listened to him, as he was talking, as he explained her that he used a potion on his son and grand-son so they remembered what they just needed to know.

"So… if I summarize, you decided by yourself to make disappear the danger that they could represent by… using magic. Whereas you're not supposed to be able to do it.

- I still can do potions, but don't worry, these one were the last that I had, I will do nothing to you, if you're worried about it."

It was a lie, without being one, he didn't do magic, and he didn't poison his son and Henry.

A new time, the fairy looked at this immortal, searching on his face the trace of a potential lie. But Gold was good at lying, and she hadn't the skill of Emma Swan to see the lies.

She saw nothing, and, confidant, she smiled. He wasn't forced to do it, but he did. It just showed one thing : the wizard was entirely devoted to her cause.

He would do anything not to loose his family, even though it meant to betray them.

It was enough to her.

When Gold went to his shop, relieved, Henry and Neal were waiting for him, worried. All they wanted, it was that the fairy let them alone, and thinks that they forgot everything.

As they saw the calm face of the immortal, they understood that everything was okay, and they both sighed with relief.

They were tranquil, at least for the time.

Operation Lynx was a success.

In the afternoon, Belle decided to go to talk to her husband, leaving Neal in the library for a time. Luckily, there was few people in the shop, and she hadn't have to wait a long time before talking to him.

She was now looking at the man she loved, smiling. The young woman thought about the past, at what Gold was before, and that he wasn't any more, and how he changed for her and became someone good.

And she thought about this family they were, that they both succeeded to build together. A family she didn't want to see be broken.

And she was sincerely afraid that it could happen.

Despite her fears, she couldn't help but smile as she saw her husband now alone, and she went in her direction.

"Can I know why you're here ?

- I wanted to see you", she whispered, before embracing her husband, and then kissing him.

They smiled to each other, and then, Belle's face became serious.

"Can I talk to you ?

- I am listening..."

By seeing her disturbed air, Gold knew that something was wrong.

"This is about Henry… (He could have said it). I must confess that… I am not really happy that he comes with us, at our home. This is not against him, but, you know, with Gideon, I… I don't want him to have a bad influence on our son."

In this new version of the story, after Emma' death, Gideon was just ten years old, and not twenty-eight, which worked with Belle's age.

"I see what you mean. But Belle, you know… Henry is not really good now, after all the things that happened, and what he just learned."

Belle started.

"That is to say ? I don't understand."

Gold looked at his wife in the eyes.

It wasn't Belle.

Not the one he knew, or loved, the one who always believed he could be better than what he was.

She wasn't as this afraid ghost in which Fiona turned her before Emma' death, but she was different from the woman she really was.

And he missed it.

He missed her.

Without believing to it, he tried to make her appear again. And for that, he had to tell her the truth. He took a deep breath.

"What I will tell you is against everything you ever believed, or knew Belle, but… it's the truth.

- Tell-me…

- Neal is Henry's father."

Surprise and shock appeared on Belle's face, who wasn't able to say a word. Gold smiled.

"This is very rare that you can be speechless, my love, I am happy that I succeeded to do it after all this tie, he said with humour.

- I… I didn't know, she finally said after some minutes of silence. How do you know it? And are you sure that..."

Before waiting her to finish her sentence, the Dark One put from his pocket the paper in which the results of the test were.

"Alright, said Belle by seeing this proof she couldn't deny, alright. Why did we never know that ?

- Neal didn't know that himself. It happened a long time ago, when he was still out of the town, the mother told him nothing.

- Emma Swan ? The one who came back here, who was locked, and who died ?

- Yes. I think she didn't know that Neal was there."

It wasn't a lie. Not really.

"How did you learn that ?

- I had doubts and I asked for the tests. I talked to Neal and he told me that he used to know Emma. He didn't know her name at that time, the wizard lied."

Belle nodded, and Gold thought that it was easy to lie in this town. No one would ever question him.

"He tried to kill himself, objected Belle. As…

- As his mother you mean ?

His wife nodded, a little ashamed, not understanding why.

- He will be okay if he comes with us, he will get better, Rumple said."

At least, I hope.

"What does his mother think about it ?"

The look that Gold send her was so cold that, for a moment, Belle had the feeling to see again the man he used to be.

Terrible, cold, hated.

Bad.

But it lasted just for a time. The wizard was taken by a great anger.

"She lost the right to be his (my) mother the day she locked him in this hospital. He had a mother before, you know. Her name was Emma Swan. She was his true mother, but she died (and he had another mother, who died too.)"

By seeing the surprise and the incomprehension in Belle's look, who didn't understand her husband's anger, this last one regretted for the first time that he didn't kill his mother when he could do it.

"And… what about the things Henry say ? The curse, the magic, and all these things. Ruby told me he still believed.

- Don't worry Belle, all of that, it's over, Rumple lied. Henry will soon not believe to these… things."

Belle's reassuring smile may be present, the Dark One couldn't retain a shiver of disgust toward his own actions, and his lie.

Oh, how he hated himself…