Chapter Eleven.

"I can't believe you actually tried to have that conversation with him!" Regina grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose between her fingers like it would do anything to stop the migraine that was quickly making her skull its new abode. "No, wait, I can, because it's you."

Snow huffed, offended. "Well it's more than you're doing for him. He-"

"Does not need you to be his mother. Neal is a grown man. It's his choice to patch up relationships as he chooses."

"But he-"

"No. Stop. Do yourself a favour and stop. Better yet, do all of us a favour and stop. Did you really drag Charming in there with you? I can't believe I feel sorry for that man. Even he'd know better."

"Neal's confused. His mother just shows back up in his life after he hasn't seen her since he was little… I can't imagine that Gold's ever had anything nice to say about her. How could he have fond memories if he's-" She stopped, blinking almost owlishly at Regina. "I am acting like his mother."

"Yeah… You are."

Snow turned, one hand pressed against her lips even as she spoke again. "Have I been doing this for long?"

"Pretty much since we all came back."

"Why didn't you say something?"

This question caught the former Evil Queen off guard, mostly because she knew it was asked in earnest. Snow had that doe-eyed expression that she wore whenever she was truly distraught over something she could just shoot an arrow at. Regina sighed. "Because I'm not your mother. I never have been."

"I'm sorry. You must miss Henry as much as I miss Emma and here I am…" She stopped, a sigh escaping her.

"We'll get them back."

Hazel eyes met brown. "Are you sure?"

"You are, and if there's something I've learned over our many years of going at each other, it's that if you're really sure on something, it's going to happen."

Snow felt a smile tip her lips up, but the sound of door of the room next to them being thrown open and Belle's muffled cry caught their attention. They were in the next room in a heartbeat. Milah stood back, face ashen and Belle was just a few feet away with horror in her eyes. Bae was bent over the bed and as they drew closer they could see Rumplestiltskin there, all colour drained from his face and blood soaking his front.

"What the hell happened?" Regina demanded.

"Before we left Papa cast a spell on me. I don't know what it was. I'm holding his dagger, so he said it'd keep me safe from anyone trying to take it. He didn't say that any injury'd be reversed on him."

The dark haired woman moved forward, taking a look at her former teacher. His breathing was shallow and his eyes were closed tightly against the pain. She couldn't tell if he were awake or not, but unconsciousness seemed kinder. "Normally he would have directed it somewhere else," she agreed as she pulled back the material of the injured man's shirt, grimacing as she did.

"Can you heal it, Regina?" Belle asked, voice steadier than it should have been.

The former queen shook her head. "My skills are very limited when it comes to healing. This… isn't good."

"What about his own powers?" Snow offered. "Will they kick in to heal him?"

"We better hope so or we've just lost the man with the deepest understanding of realm jumping that may exist. Again."

The only way they'd made it up the stairs with him without the innkeepers noticing was the late hour. Baelfire was pacing the room now, Belle sitting at his father's side with a rag and some warm water that they'd scrounged up without alerting anyone to the fact that they'd been attacked. That would be the quickest way to get thrown out in a little, frightened village such as this.

He could still feel the pain from the arrow, though it was only a ghost of a memory. It was enough for him to know that Rumplestiltskin, should he decide to come around back to a conscious state, would be in quite a bit of pain. His ribs still ached where the magic had knitted the bones back together, the arrow having worked its way between them.

"His breathing's so unsteady that I'm worried it nicked his lung," Belle said quietly, gaining his attention.

"His magic will kick back in. It always does."

She offered him a smile and finished wrapping the wound carefully, putting just enough pressure to it to help slow the blood. Her touch was soft as she smoothed back damp hair and kissed his forehead, whispering promises of love before she stood and turned to wash the blood from her hands. Rumple's blood. "How are you doing?" she asked after a stretch of silence.

"Me? I'm fine. His spell healed me completely."

"I know. That's not what I meant. Milah knows, doesn't she?"

"Didn't really think to hide it when he went down," Bae said quietly, taking a seat on his papa's other side. "Didn't we just do this, Belle? When's it going to get better?" This was supposed to be a world with Happy Endings, but every time something good happened, it was like fate had a particularly nasty habit of ripping it away from them. As if it were taunting them.

She could feel his heart breaking from the other side of the bed and she could only imagine what was going through his mind. His love and his son, trapped without any memories of the time they'd spent together, perhaps without any memories of him at all, his father injured after quite literally taking the blow to himself that was meant for his son. "I don't know, Bae," she murmured at last. "Soon, I hope. It will get better soon."

"Sit with him a bit? I need to go find out what our next move is. With the group we have here, someone's bound to have an idea."

"I'll call if anything changes," she promised. He was gone then, leaving her in the quiet room with only Rumplestiltskin's hitched breathing for company. She felt like her soul was shattering, and without Bae in there to be strong for, she worried that the rest of her might follow shortly. "You have to hold on," she pled quietly, tears building and she took hold of his hand. "Please hold on for me. After everything… it's just not fair if you go like this."

It wasn't a curse he was under, she knew, but she could help to blip of hope that her heart held onto as she leaned over, her lips pressing down against his. She wanted to say that his breathing eased a bit, at least, and he gave a small moan and squeezed her hand that clung to his. "I love you, Rumplestiltskin. Don't you dare leave me."

They were gathered in the small landing at the top of the stairs, not that was conspicuous at all. Baelfire decided not to point it out, but trudged his way up to them, all eyes immediately on him and he raised his hands. "No change," he said.

"He's been wasting magic all day on that damn spell for his ankle," Regina grumbled.

"We can't change the decisions that were made to deal with the issues at the time, only what we do from here on out," David said. "Snow? You want to tell him your idea?"

"He's never going to go for it. He hates her."

Snow shot her stepmother a glare. "Neal, I know that your father and Blue don't… see eye-to-eye on most things-"

"Anything," Regina cut in.

"- but she might be able to help. If anyone could - anyone that can be reached - it's her."

"Her magic doesn't mix well with his," Bae found himself saying, and the words sounded frighteningly familiar. The last time he'd sought the Blue Fairy's help with his father, he'd lost him for three centuries.

"He's not necessarily the Dark One anymore," Hook, almost forgotten in the corner with his flask of rum, murmured quietly. When he realized he'd been heard the corner of his mouth twitched up and he covered the thought with a quip. "Less scaley."

"I can't believe I'm going to say this, but he has a point," Snow murmured. "We can call her and she'll know if she can help or not."

Bae shifted his weight from one foot to the other, looking between everyone. At this late hour, they'd all stirred and he wondered when Rumplestiltskin had become someone that they would go out of their way to keep alive. He wondered when he and Belle had only become two people that cared for him, not the only two. "Let's give it a shot," he said at last. "But I want to talk to her before she tries anything."

"She won't hurt him, Neal," Snow promised with an encouraging smile.

He wanted to agree, but he'd also been around Blue long enough since his father's "death" to hear a few of her own thoughts about the Dark One.

Belle didn't like the idea any more than Bae did. She stood protectively by Rumple's side as the Blue Fairy - in full human form - stepped around the bed. Blue's dark brows knit closely together as she took in the injury and the uncomfortable sleep that the Dark One still had not roused from. Her lips tugged downward and her fingers danced over the bandages, never quite touching them. "This is a powerful spell he cast. I hardly believe that he let it rebound on him instead of some poor, unsuspecting soul."

"He's not a monster, you know," Belle snapped.

"There are many who would beg to differ with you, my dear."

"Can you help him or not?" Bae's quiet voice came from behind her and she seemed to tense at it.

Blue turned, taking in the boy she'd once supposedly helped. "I can try. It's possible I can work the healing slowly enough that it won't damage him further. It's strange… His presence is not as dark as it once was. Perhaps this might work."

All eyes were on her as the Blue Fairy put a light hand down against Rumplestiltskin's injured side. He grimaced in his sleep, but seemed to make no further motion as her hand began to glow and her magic work. Hope wove through the small crowd and Snow grinned broadly. Told you, her eyes seemed to say.

"You're hurting him," Belle whispered, and she was the first to notice. His grimace had deepened and even as she gave her warning a moan left his throat and he tried to squirm away from the offensive touch. "Stop it, Blue. You're hurting him!"

The fairy pulled away, holding her own hand as if it'd been burned. "This won't work," she whispered. "His magic is still too dark."

"There has to be a way," Bae murmured. "We can't just let him die."

"We'll keep thinking," Snow promised and it was David that ushered everyone out and into the hall, leaving Baelfire and Belle alone with the still-wincing fairy and the unconscious Dark One.

"If he'd just let it play out, you could have healed me," Bae said softly, taking his father's hand.

"You wouldn't have made it this long," Blue answered. "The damage the arrow did was… extensive. His magic is keeping him alive, but it's all it can do to keep up from what I can see. If he'd let it play out, as you say, you would have died before they ever got you back to this inn."

Baelfire's mind spun at the realization and it focused on it. "But not here. You're here, right now. You could heal me. He could reverse the spell and you could heal me instead."

Belle sighed, her tone one that she might have used to coax a child into understanding. It held all the exhaustion that she felt. "Bae, he took it for a reason. He's not going to just give it back."

"Yes he will." He hadn't let his father's dagger off his person since he'd been entrusted with it. He pulled it from the folds of his clothing and Belle's eyes immediately doubled in size.

"Bae! You can't!"

"I'm not losing my father again." He turned to turned to the Blue Fairy. "Fair warning, if he's alive and fine and I bleed out because you couldn't save me… He's going to be pissed."

"Noted," Blue answered uncomfortably.

"Right." He gripped the blade in one hand, but the other smoothed back grey streaked hair and his voice was gentle as he spoke. "Papa? Wake up, would you?"

There was no need for the dramatic summoning, Bae knew that. It was flourish. His father loved a bit of drama, a bit of theatre in his experiences, but Baelfire had no time for it. He had no want for it.

Dark eyes slid open and came to focus on him. "Bae," Rumplestiltskin rasped and he reached a shaky hand up for his son's. A smile pulled his lips, genuine, and Baelfire did his best to return it.

"I love you, Papa. Don't be mad at me, okay?"

Rumple grimaced as he dragged a wheezing breath down his throat. "Love you too, son. Could never be mad at you."

"Want to bet? When I was a kid I used to think of what would happen if I just took your dagger. If I had control of it, would you do terrible things? I remember I dreamt about it one night and it terrified me. I know why now. I'm more selfish than I'd like to think. I gave you so much hell for using the dark powers, but I'm just as eager to use them if it'll save you."

"Bae…?" A sort of understanding seemed to cross Rumple's face and his eyes widened. "No, son, please-"

"I hold it now, and I'm commanding you. Reverse the spell, Pop."

TBC