AN: Here is the next one. I know I promised that this would be the chapter that Gold's in court, but alas it's not-long story short, I got chapters confused. Don't worry, you will see him in court a lot in this fic. But not quite yet.

Chapter 10: Rumple's Epic Fail

Well, he got the job.

Much to his son's disgust.

He should be glad that Ms. Greengrass liked him enough, or liked torturing his son enough to convince him to hire him on.

Plus, it helped that Regina had whipped up Mr. Gold a flawless resume as an attorney.

"His credentials are excellent, Potter." She said when Harry gave Rumple—well, Rumple's face. "He's already qualified to practice in the UK too."

His newly found son was not like Bae.

Not like Bae at all. Save for the guarded expression, but it was different than Bae's. Even when Bae was guarded, Rumple could read him—enough, to know he hated him.

With Harry, the only thing he was able to sense was that the man was visibly annoyed.

Surprise, surprise.

Rumple frowned.

There was something not right about his son, and he just couldn't put his thumb on it. And his girlfriend, or whatever Ms. Greengrass was to Harry, didn't help.

He was pretty sure they were involved, since he saw her in her kimono at Harry's, and she had drunk called him inviting him to take Potter to breakfast so he'd stop moping.

While normally he would've lectured his son for getting plastered, he was glad Daphne had gotten Harry inebriated otherwise he probably would've thrown his number away and Rumple would've just had to pay his secretary an obscene amount of quid again.

So, he was thankful for her for that.

He was finding Daphne was his best way to getting close to Harry, since she seemed amused at annoying Harry.

Odd relationship those two had, Rumple thought. But he could see it worked. There was something that made his son trust the cinnamon haired woman. Although, maybe it wasn't trust. Daphne Greengrass was a very attractive woman, Rumple had been very aware of that when he saw her in his kimono.

He inwardly grimaced. He shouldn't be thinking of any woman that way right now, especially his son's paramour. God knows, he already had a fling that resulted in a child with his other son's baby momma.

It was at times like these he wished he was hit by Regina's memory curse again.

He still couldn't believe it he had a son with Emma Swan.

He slept with Emma Swan.

He had known this for the few years she lived in the town and his memory wasn't gloppity gloop, BUT he didn't know he had a son with her. And knowing that just made their relationship impossible not to ignore.

Especially when Harry asked questions about his mother.

It was one of the only few things he actually wanted to talk about with him, and it's the one thing that Harry seemed to want to talk about with him.

What did he really have to say about Emma, though? She annoyed him for the most part, except when she became the Dark One and his Dark One self was oddly attractive to her.

Profoundly attracted to her.

Then again, as the Dark One he always wanted to screw someone. Especially if that someone was basically, well, the Dark One.

And he slept with Cora after all. That told you pretty much everything you wanted to know about the Dark One's sexual appetite.

Although, he slept with Milah when he wasn't the Dark One so—

Maybe he just didn't have the best judgment when it came to women in general.

Well, except for Belle, but she was too good for him. And look where it got them; a broken marriage that could not be put together. Because how could she love a beast?

Sighing he flipped through the case file that he was supposed to be reviewing. He could tell that Harry didn't think he was really serious about working for him, but Gold was. He had nothing better to do. And despite the fact that his legal career was in large part a Regina fabrication, he did enjoy the practice of law.

Finding loopholes, tweaking them to where they fit his needs was always a special talent of his even when he was a simple spinner.

Of course, he had then been a bit of a coward with a lack of finesse.

He hoped he hadn't lost that finesse when he lost the Dark One.

In a lot of ways, he missed the curse. True, he still had power and with some practice he would probably be more powerful than most sorcerers, but getting used to his new magic was going to take some used to. And there was Harry, with Bae, he knew what to expect.

With Harry—he'd thought he'd be getting somewhere and then he'd be back to square one. It was so aggravating.

"You're not having difficulty with Granger's case, are you?"

The lovely Ms. Greengrass decided to intrude on his solitude. Perfect.

"Please," Gold said rolling his eyes. "The case will easily be dismissed. You must think I have the skills of a first year law student."

"Well, you look pensive. Or you look how Potter looks whenever he doesn't want to be bothered. You know, you two look oddly alike. You wouldn't think so considering—well, but you do."

Gold raised an eyebrow.

"Don't give me You-Put-Your-Foot-In-Your-Mouth-Greengrass look." She sneered.

"I wasn't going to say that." Gold said.

"You didn't have too. I've gotten to know your son very, well, Mr. Gold.

"Oh God, please no." Gold said thinking of the extent of their relationship.

"But you want to get to know Harry, correct?"

"Correct, but there are some things, let's say your state of undress was enough regarding that topic."

She smirked. "Well, I am a good friend of Potter's as we have conceded."

"You're a good something to him," Gold said. "I wouldn't say friend. Harry doesn't seem the type to have them which isn't surprising since I never had any friends and his mother—well, she wasn't the type much either."

"The mysterious Emma." Daphne said. "Potter has been wondering about her for years."

"You'd think he'd wonder more about me since he had no clue about my identity."

"Well, to be fair. The good professor sort of built up Emma more, evil Dark One and all that jazz."

Gold wanted to say that he was just as good if not better Dark One than Emma, since he had semi-control over the beast, but he didn't. Instead, he said. "He sent you to sweet talk more information out of me, didn't he?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said. Her face looked basically impassive and she quickly changed the subject. "So, you think you can get the case dismissed?"

"I just had to check the case citing for the motion."

"It's amazing you picked up wizarding law so fast." Daphne said.

Not really, when you were cast under a spell by Regina you learned all sorts of law. And apparently, British wizarding law was much like British common law which in turn was very similar to American law—save for a few notable differences.

Gold shrugged. "I have mad skills."

"Have you even ventured into our world, yet?" Daphne asked. "Harry mentioned you're from another realm."

Gold shrugged. It had vaguely been on his agenda to pry that information out of Harry, though right now he had been concentrated on other things. Besides, making an appearance in any form of magical world might not be such a good thing on the off chance that the Charmings and their newly unofficial adopted daughter, Regina, tried to pull him into a ridiculous Save Emma! Quest.

Knowing them it could happen.

And he would have no part of it.

Truly ridiculous.

Emma couldn't be saved, just like he couldn't be saved. It didn't matter if she was "The Savior". Savior was such a stupid term. He actually felt for Emma on that, being defined by a misnomer it was awful. And the Savior becoming the Dark One, it was a delicious plot twist that not even that stupid author could come up with.

Too bad Henry snapped that stupid quill that was the Charmings' only saving grace. Emma was lost. Unless she used that magical hat though (doubtful) though unlike him she could cleave herself via a lot of people—not just one stupid pirate.

Gold had seen her at the beginning of her descent into madness; he could only imagine what she had become.

The way Harry talked about being brought to this realm…well, obviously Emma had become a danger to him. And he wasn't surprise she was the Dark One after all.

Which was why he had been so reluctant to talk to his son about his mother, besides the fact he had to deal with icky territory.

Why Bae, why?

There was no doubt that he had always been attracted to Emma Swan. In the beginning it had been her name, and there had been a time once upon a time in Storybrooke (when he thought Belle was dead and wanted to rehash a little fun) that he thought about cashing in Ms. Swan's favor in the most unsavory of ways. But of course, things got complicated, Belle was found to be alive, and then by then he found out Bae had been with the newly found mother of his child.

Rumple decided to act like their past dalliances had never existed and he had no reason why not to. As far as he knew, by the time Emma would become the Dark One he'd be dead and wouldn't have to deal with the fallout.

Again, his powers had failed him.

And now he had the horror of explaining to his son, his very weird relationship with Emma Swan.

A relationship he wasn't even sure of.

Had it just been great sex? To the Dark One that was it. Having sex with another Dark One was probably the only sex the Dark One really liked, despite the Dark One had been ridiculously lustful. Even when Rumple was with Belle, there was an eerie voice in the back of his head that he should've been getting something out of her. Screwing her more than in a figurative fashion than literal. With Emma though, the Dark One had gotten something—an heir.

The heir of the Dark One,

It was suppose to be impossible, Gold knew. But he knew what the Dark One could do with an heir. What sort of power an heir could embody, though Harry acted like his powers were just a tad above average as he liked to say.

Gold wanted to tell the man that he was not an idiot, and that he knew very well what sort of power he could exclude, but he didn't. Because there was a part of him that questioned whether or not his recollection was right.

If there was one thing he missed as the Dark One, it was the self-confidence he excluded. He wasn't back to being the coward he was before the curse, but he wasn't so sure of things as he used to be.

Or could rely on the essence of the Dark One to answer his questions about the heir.

Oh how he wanted to know, for his son. But there was no way in hell; he was planning on summoning Emma Swan anytime soon.

God, why did he sleep with someone so unhinged?

After knowing an Emma Swan who wasn't tainted by the curse, it made him wonder just how unhinged she was. She didn't have an anchor, he thought not like him. And unlike the others it was worse for her because she never had any contact with darkness, due to her idiotic parents and Isaac's manipulations.

It was eating her up, inside out. Finding her in that meadow that day had been a complete surprise. Her hair was just as wild as her dress, yet when she spotted him it was as if there was some spark of sanity there. Like she recognized something, now he knew what it exactly it was she recognized.

But then, well, he thought she just knew The Dark One. Until she showed her true colors, and he knew what she was.

"We're cut from the same cloth, dearie." Gold had told her when she had tried to control her magic.

"No, not like you. I can still be good." She said.

He laughed. No giggled. The Dark One always giggled, Rumple laughed. As a man his laugh was different, had a bit of what this realm called a Scottish brogue to it. His Dark One the giggle was almost eerie.

"Do you have to do that?" Emma murmured. "It's bad enough when I hear you do that in my head, Gold."

He frowned then. "So, you're my replacement."

"It would appear that way." She said, "I'm going to cure it though."

"Don't think that's possible, dearie. The madness will eat you up."

"I'm the savior." She said.

As if that was going to save her.

She hated being called the Savior though before she became the Dark One, it was a inside joke of Gold's to call her that just to see her get mad about it. Because when he was with her, it was a crutch.

How Emma reminded him constantly she was the Savior, and he reminded her of the opposite every single time they were together.

It wasn't just the sex that was fantastic. The torturing, the wheeling and dealing, the scheming.

Emma Swan was everything he wanted as the Dark One. As a student she was brilliant. While she wanted to hone in on her "light" magic, a few manipulations here and there had her doing amazing things.

This Rumple knew she hadn't been capable of doing in Storybrooke.

He had been surprised with her reluctance to use magic, when he first met her because the Emma he had worked with was fearless.

She had thought that maybe if she could control her powers, she could control herself. There was some fear there at first, but later, well, later she seemed to like his powers like he did.

It was all part of the Dark One, eventually you'd drink from the poison filled well and then, well, then you wouldn't have enough.

And Emma had began to drink that water, she tried not too, but as their time together progressed, she began using the Dark One's magic more and began accepting that warped sense of morality that only the Dark One could love.

"Mr. Gold," Daphne said bringing him back to the present.

"Oh, yes, Daphne. Sorry, I'm thinking about whether or not I should even attempt more settlement talks with Ms. Grungy."

Daphne laughed, "It's Granger, and I wouldn't bother. She doesn't seem to listen to reason, Harry hasn't really talked to you about her, has he?"

"Harry's not a talker," Gold said. "Just said this was a problem case because of her."

"This isn't about Granger is it, Gold?"

Amazingly perspective, then again you didn't have to be a genius to know what was going on in his head.

Though, there was no way Daphne knew he was thinking about his past liaison with Emma Swan.

"You're just like Harry," Daphne said after he was silent for a while.

Gold shook his head. "Don't tell me to give him time."

"Do I look like the type to dispense bull shit?" Daphne asked.

He shook his head. She might've looked just as lovely as Belle, but he was finding fast that Daphne was not a thing like his soon to be ex wife. For one thing, Belle would never be in whatever it was that Daphne had with Harry. In a lot ways, whatever they had reminded Gold of what he had with Cora. Except, there seemed to be a mutual friendship and respect that he had never really had with his former pupil turned paramour.

"Right." Daphne said looking at him, "I've known Potter for years, Gold. And I helped you a lot today by forcing you in his face. He's going to get annoyed with me for it, but I think it's good for him to get to know you even though you're more than likely a sadistic bastard."

"Please."

"Oh, Gold, don't be shy. I know you're son. And despite the fact that he's had years of experience to make him the asshole that he is, he needed some sadistic bastard genetics."

"Are you insulting Harry?"

"I insult Harry every day. You'll find it is the backbone of our relationship. Now about that case, there are some things you need to know about Judge Nott."

Chapter 11 Preview: Albus has a talk with his mentor.