Skin Deep
As Neal watched Moe French plead for his stock, he couldn't help but think of a time back when he was a child and the peasants in their village couldn't deliver on their deals with his father. The first person had been the Duke whose castle his father had nearly burnt to the ground when he had stolen the dagger; the Duke had barely lasted a day after that before his father had killed him. Moe had the same look of desperation in his eyes, his voice shaking as he pleaded while his father stood in front of him impassively, if not for the air of gloating and the slight smirk. Neal clenched his teeth as he watched. He had arrived at 'Game of Thorns' to collect some flowers for Emma; the two of them had been better together, the sessions with Archie making things easier for the two of them to talk, and they had begun to act more like they had before. They never really did anything for Valentine's Day - Emma had always had a cynical view on it - but Neal had always tried to get her something special. He loved treating her and, after everything they'd been through recently, thought that she especially needed it.
"Tomorrow's Valentines Day." The desperate man protested as Gold's bodyguard, who was double the size of Neal, walked past his boss and got into the drivers seat of the van. "It's the biggest day of... I've got a grand of roses in the back!" He stood in front of the van when his words were ignored, but the body guard just edged the van forwards regarless of the older man's presence, forcing Moe back. "Stop! You've got to let me sell them!"
"I'm going to leave you two to continue this conversation." Mr Gold said, his eyes meeting Neal's as he passed. Neal forced himself not to glare back, their current arrangement the first thing on his mind now that he looked at his father. Mr Gold, clearly thinking the same thing, smirked as he passed without being stopped by the Sheriff. Neal forced himself not to go after him; it would all be for the best in the end, he told himself, knowing that in any other situation he would've stopped his father and tried to do something. Anything, really. Neal sighed heavily, turning his attention back onto Moe, who was forced to dodge backwards to avoid the van as it drove off down the street, the back doors still open. He tried as hard as he could to ignore his father and Regina standing on the other side of the street, talking while he then tried to calm the angry florist down.
...
Emma had spent most of that morning angry at Neal. Usually the managed the childcare together; they would get the kids up in the morning, get them fed, Neal would take Teddy to day care and she would take Clara to the station. It was their routine. Even when they had been at each others throats they had stuck to it. This morning, however, she had woken up to her alarm and an empty bed on Neal's side, with no note to explain where he was, and she'd had to get the kids up and ready for the day on her own. Emma had had to try really had to remember the techniques that they'd learnt from their sessions with Archie. She did, however, feel guilty for her anger when she walked into the Sheriff's station a few hours later, after she had dropped Teddy off at day care, to find every surface covered in roses; red, white, pink, yellow... Thousands upon thousands. With Neal stood in the middle of the room with that smile on his face.
"Someone's hoping to get lucky." Leroy had said from one of the cells. Which had, of course, led to Emma throwing a stapler at him.
"How did that make you feel?" Archie asked, as she sat in front of him later in the day. He had suggested that, while they had sessions as a couple, they also had seperate ones where they could discuss their own issues. Emma wondered how many issues Archie thought they needed to work through. Considering he wanted to see them once a week as a couple, as well as two separate sessions each, at the surprisingly rubish pay that he was being given, Emma realised that the answer was probably very high.
Emma shrugged. "Surprised, I guess."
"Just surprised."
Emma sighed, trying to think of what else to say. "Happy... I felt so... Loved?"
"Does he give you surprises like these often?" Archie asked, letting her off the hook when she continued to struggle. Talking about feelings was the thing she hated most about these sessions.
"Not so much recently. Always on Valentines day."
"Is Valentines Day a special day for the two of you?"
Emma rolled her eyes. "It's kind of our wedding anniversary." She admitted. Archie blinked.
"Kind of?"
"We don't class it as our anniversary. Neal," Emma began slowly, "likes to make grand guestures during Valentines. One year he brought us a house, the year I was pregnant with Teddy he decorated the nursery, another year he jumped into a lake in Alaska wearing nothing but his boxers. The year we got back together after breaking up in Tallahassee, he got me into his car wearing a suit and took me to a hotel. He had planned an entire wedding, invited all of our the people we knew from Tallahasee, and had gotten me this beautiful dress, all without me knowing. In three weeks."
"That was very short notice."
"He may have told a lot of people that I was dying."
Archie had to stop himself from smiling at that. "So, the two of you married on Valentines day?" he asked.
"I kicked off, shouting at him, scared most of the guests into leaving early... but then, I calmed down and got into my dress, walking down the aisle, was about to say I do and then ran off. I got scared. And, when I get scared, I ruin things." Emma said mournfully, remembering the motel in Tallahassee when Neal proposed. "We got married eventually. Neal tracked me down and we talked for hours. By the time we decided that we were going to get married, the hotel was having another wedding and all of our guests were gone. We ended up getting married in Vegas with two random strangers as witnesses."
"Not exactly what either of you would've liked." Archie smiled sadly.
Emma snorted. "Not the fairytale no, but... one of the best days of my life."
"Do you have anything planned this year?"
"Neal celebrates Valentines day, I don't. Every year he does something special and I just act like it's any other day."
"Maybe this year it would be good to do something." Archie suggested. "Nothing major, just something. Maybe Neal needs to feel loved too." He added on at the end, when she didn't say anything.
...
Mary Margaret was fully aware that she was being watched and, to her embarassment, her heart was hammering in her chest, she was blushing like one of her children had when her class had spent the afternoon making Valentine's Day cards, and she couldn't stop the silly grin on her face. Everytime she looked up, her eyes met those of David's and her smile grew, as did his.
When she saw the book in David's hand, she decided to break the silence. "Oh, you got the book." She said. It was one of her favourites. One he'd been seeing her read, and had questioned her about it, for the past week.
David nodded with a smile. "Yeah," he said, glancing at the front cover. "I just started it. It's great. Can't wait to see how it ends."
"Um, I can push the tables together if you guys - " Ruby, who had arrived at Mary Margaret's table to refil her coffee, suggested. The two of them were siting an aisle apart - something Mary Margaret had forgotten and she blushed even more.
"Oh, no. We're not together." She said quickly, as David stuttered out, "No, no, that's - "
Ruby, smiling politely, nodded before walking off, leaving them both to pretend that they weren't completely interested in what they other was doing.
"Grandpa!" The little boy with brown hair and eyes, and an overjoyed expression on his face, ran over to David, plopping down in the seat next to him in the booth. David, who had long since gotten used to Teddy alternating between calling him David, Prince, and Grandpa, simply met the boy's smile with one of his own.
"Hey, little man." He said, as the rest of the family joined Mary Margaret. He met Neal's eyes, shrugging when the other man mouthed an apology over his son's head. David honestly didn't mind; the little boy was a joy to be around, he could call him whatever he wanted.
"Mary Margaret." Emma smile, sitting down opposite her friend. Both she and Neal stared at her as if she held all of the answers to the universe. She smiled knowingly to herself. "How's your day going?"
"Henry's fine." She assured them.
Neal gave her a fake look of puzzlement. "That's great, thanks for letting us know. But how are you?"
"Neal, she knows." Emma told him, rolling her eyes. Neal sighed.
"Well, if she hadn't before, she does now."
"Yeah, you should've pretended to not know anything about it." Teddy agreed, stretching to share a high five with his dad across the aisle, before blurting out, "That's what daddy does when he's done something wrong."
Neal's lip twitched as Mary Margaret and David laughed, and Emma looked at him with her eyebrows raised. "I'm not guilty, I never do anything wrong." He smiled at his wife, trying to look as innocent as possible. Emma stared at him for a moment before rolling her eyes again, turning back to their room mate. Neal continued to smile to himself as he accepted the cup of coffee from Ruby; it had been a long time since he and Emma had been able to joke around like they had in the beginning.
"You sure?" she asked her friend, feeling more relaxed than she had during the entire day. The days seemed to drag the more they went without seeing Henry, the more they had to wait for Mary Margaret to finish work at the end of the day and tell them how Henry was at school. Add to the fact that she was now trying to find something special for Neal, Emma's day had not been the best.
Mary Margaret nodded. "Really. He's his normal self again. Regina won't keep you separated forever. When people are supposed to be together, they find a way." Her eyes met David's once more at that. He gave her a small smile before looking back down at Teddy, who was trying to convince the man to teach him how to ride a horse - despite the fact that David didn't know the first thing about riding horses. The five year old was adament that his 'grandpa' was going to teach him how to be a Prince, and he didn't 'need to worry about getting him a horse because Daddy already had one in the Storybrooke stables'.
"So, he's fine, then?" Neal asked, just to be sure, his anxiety starting to ebb away when she smiled reassuringly at him. "He's happy?"
"Yes." Mary Margaret replied. Her words, despite being what they wanted to hear, made Emma and Neal's smiles fall at the realization that they were feeling their son's absence a lot more than he was feeling theirs. Mary Margaret's eyes widened when she saw their expressions, and understood how they were feeling. "No! He misses you all - a lot. Trust me, I'm with him, like, six hours a day!"
Her voice had drifted through the diner and caught the attention of Ashley, who had just arrived with baby Alexandra in her arms. "Six hours?" she questioned, her eyes wide. "You take newborns? 'Cause I'd love six hours off."
She went to hand the baby over to Granny, who completely adored the newest member of Storybrooke, but was stopped by Neal. "No! Sorry, but I don't think so ladies." He said, getting up from his seat, holding out his arms for the baby. "You both get a cuddle everyday, my turn." Granny and Ashley both smiled as the baby was placed into Neal's arms, 'aww'-ing when Alexandra snuggled into Neal's chest.
Emma turned to Mary Margaret. "What is it about women overreacting when they see a man holding a baby?" she asked, rolling her eyes that Mary Margaret also had a dazed look in her eyes, a faint blush on her cheeks. She didn't understand why the sight made some women act the way they did.
"Have you never noticed when Neal held Teddy or Clara?"
Emma shrugged. She had been rather tense and anxious after both times she had given birth to her children; with Teddy, she had struggled to bond and would happily let Neal pick him up when he cried. With Clara, on the other hand, when they were finally able to hold her, she had been too worried that she would hurt her - Neal had always been better, more gentle, when holding Teddy and she could't hold Clara for more than few minutes before she began to panic. "To be honest, I was just glad he was taking them for a bit." Or for a few hours, atleast.
"I almost didn't recognise you." Neal told Ashley, completely oblivious to the conversation between his wife and friend, as he led the young girl over to the table. "How you been?"
"It's, uh..." Ashley paused, looking at Alexandra before giving them an exasperated smile. "I mean, the baby's great, but we really haven't had time to do the whole getting married thing. So, that's been rough. And Sean's been working double shifts at the cannery."
"Well, he has to work." Mary Margaret pointed out.
"On Valentine's day?" Ashley grimaced. Emma and Neal smiled to each other - like every year, they didn't have anything special planned. Well, nothing that they had spoken to the other one about. They were spending it in the station with the kids, hopefully not having to leave but, if they did, alternating between who's turn it is. Possibly tossing a coin. The idea, surprisingly, made Emma feel a bit miserable. For the first time in their relationship, she wanted to do something. Ashley sighed, miserably. "He couldn't get out of it."
"I'm sorry. That sucks." Emma said, more out of instinct than anything else because she didn't know what to say. She had never been a fan of Valentines Day; it just seemed more commercial than romantic in her eyes. Emma would never admit it to him, but the flowers that he got her had made her day and were still scattered around the station; which would be interesting if they ever needed to take a prisoner to the cells, but they made both Emma and Neal more cheerful.
"It doesn't have to." Ruby said, handing out more coffees. "Come out with me. Let's have a girl's night. We can all go; Mary Margaret and Emma too. If you leave the badge at home."
Emma looked between the three women like a deer in headlights, and Neal had to focus on the baby in his arms to stop himself from smiling, seeing her interested in Clara, who was only a few feet away, in Emma's arms. She was staring at the older baby with a look of deep interest and uncertainty, reaching out an arm to touch her. Clara stared back just as fascinated, she had never seen something smaller than her. Neal watched the two of them in amusement.
"Erm, I'm can't tonight, I'm working." Emma told them quickly.
"I could take over." Neal couldn't help himself, even when she shot him a sharp look.
"I'm not really in the party mood, but you guys can all go and have fun. We could watch Alexandra for you." She told Ashley, who gave her a thankful smile before they gaze turned to Neal, who was pulling faces at Alexandra, making the baby giggle uncontrollably. She stared at them for a moment before shaking her head; another baby was definitely too big a guesture to give her husband for Valentines Day. "Don't go getting any ideas." Emma ordered sternly.
"Come on, you don't wanna have another baby?"
Emma rolled her eyes. "If he had his way, we'd have eight by now." She told Mary Margaret and Ashley.
"I wouldn't say no." He admitted, giving his wife a suggestful smirk. She pursed her lips but was saved by Neal's phone buzzing.
"What's that?" Mary Margaret asked when Emma reached into Neal's pocket and looked at his phone.
"It's the station, something's up." Emma sighed.
"I'll watch the kids for you." Ashley offered, taking Alexandra back as Neal and Emma got up.
"You sure?"
"Yeah, it's the least I could do for you watching her tonight."
"Okay, thanks. Teddy, mate, David is going to need his arms back." Neal called over to Teddy, who was practically hanging off David's left arm. Teddy just gave him a smile back before going back to his one-sided conversation.
...
His father's house was pretty much what he had imagined it to be like. It was large, grand and, weirdly enough, pink. When he had become the dark one, Rumplestiltskin had transformed an abandoned castle, a few miles away from the village Neal had spent his entire life. When he was a child though, he hadn't wanted to leave. He had been content with their life as peasants so, instead, his father had used magic on their hovel to make it larger. All he wanted was his son's happiness, he had said.
As they got closer to the house, Neal noticed that the door was wide open and, as he squinted to try and see in through the gap, he was sure someone was moving around inside.
"Stay here." He told Emma, as he got out his gun. He didn't wait for his wife's answer as he crept into the house. He barely managed to get into the front room when he was face with his father, holding a gun in his direction.
Mr Gold rolled his eyes when he saw him, lowering his gun in an instant. "Sheriff Cassidy."
"Your neighbour saw your front door was open." He told him, lowering his own gun. Gold nodded.
"It appears I've been robbed."
"Funny how that keeps happening to you." A voice said from behind Neal, making him jump.
"Emma!"
Mr Gold ignored his outburst and turned calmly to face Emma, who had ignored his request to stay outside and followed her husband into the house. "Yeah, well, I'm a difficult man to love." He said dryly. Emma gave Neal a pointed look, which clearly said that she believed him on that. "Sheriff, Deputy, you can go now. I know exactly what was taken and who did it. I've got it from here."
"That's not how this works." Neal told him but hesitated when his father turned his dead eyes onto him.
"Isn't it?" he asked, walking closer to him. Neal ignored the urge to move further away. "Can't we just pretend this never happened?"
"Neal isn't in your pocket." Emma snapped, glaring at the side of Gold's head.
Gold snorted. "I would say he is. He owes me quite a few favors."
"He owes you one!"
"Are you calling it in?" Neal asked challengingly, before his father could mention anything about helping him gain custody of Henry. Gold hesitated for a moment before backing up.
"This was a robbery," Emma said, still glaring angrily at the older man, "a public menace. And if you don't tell us what you know, we'll have to arrest you for obstruction of justice. I have a feeling you don't want to be behind bars."
Neal noticed Mr Gold grimace and remembered that he'd spend his last few months in the Enchanted Forest in a cell created by Prince Charming and Snow White. As if his family couldn't get even more disfunctional.
"Indeed not." Mr Gold conceded. "Alright, his name's Moe French. He sells flowers. He recently defaulted on a loan. A short time ago, we had a little disagreement over collateral." His eyes met Neal at that.
"Okay." Emma nodded. "We'll go get him - check him out."
"I'm sure you will - assuming I don't find him... Let's just say, bad things tend to happen to bad people."
"You might want to remember that." Neal said blankly, when Emma's eyes narrowed. Mr Gold smirked, but said nothing as Neal lead his wife out of the house as quickly as he could.
...
"Why would anything need so much rubbish?" Emma asked as she stared at the table full of seemingly meaningless objects on Neal's desk.
"We were poor when I was young." Neal told her, making Emma look at him with interest. "When things changed, he began to bring home more things. Things we didn't need, antiques which were probably worth more than our house. His things became important to him."
"Do you recognise anything?" Emma asked carefully. Neal looked at all of the objects but nothing stood out; there were two brass candle stick holders, an antique vase, multiple bits of china, and a single velvet box. Overall, out of everything that Moe could've stolen, he had gone for the cheapest in the entire house. Curious, Neal reached for the velvet box and opened it, freezing at what he saw. "What is it?" Emma asked, noticing his reaction. Neal simply handed over the open box for her, leaving her staring at the blue sapphire ring inside. "Your mothers engagement ring."
"He told me that it was gone." Neal mumbled, leaning against the desk. "I used to love that ring, when my mother left us it was the only thing I had of her. I always held on to it. When I was eight, I couldn't find it and I was terrified of telling my dad that I had lost it. I felt so guilty."
"And he had it all this time." Emma sighed, gazing at the ring. Her hand instantly went to the replica hanging on her chain with her swan keychain. "You got it made perfectly."
Neal smiled. "I needed it to be perfect for you."
They sat in silence for a long moment before Emma was suddenly hit with an idea of a romantic guesture that she could do for Neal. She put the velvet box down on the desk and her hands instantly went for the chain around her neck; for a long time before they had gotten married, she had simply had the swan keychain on a chain around her neck but had since held it with the sapphire engagement ring on a longer chain, which kept the keychain and ring out of sight under her shirts. Neal's eyes widened when he realised what she was doing.
"Don't!" He hissed, watching as she switched the rings.
"They're identical." Emma protested, placing the real ring on her chain and placing it back around her neck. "Besides, it belongs to you more than it does him. You told me he hated your mother."
"Later yes, but not when he hid the ring from me. And he will know the difference."
Neal startled when he heard footsteps heading down the corridor towards the Sheriff's station; one set of them very familiar, he could always recognise the sound of his father walking with his stick, even when he was a child. It was a sound he had lay listening to when he couldn't sleep at night, hearing his father walking around their small hovel was oddly comforting and, on nights where he lay awake scared - because he could hear the harsh winds hitting the already-weak roof of their home, or the sounds of the battlefield so far away but sounding as if it was right outside - the sound could send him back to sleep.
Emma leaned casually against the doorframe, while Neal panicked and quickly shut the velvet box, putting it back in the middle of the rest of the meaningless objects, trying to remain calm as his father walked into the station.
"Your welcome." Emma said pointedly, when he didn't say anything after a long moment trying to cover up her guilt. "You were right," she told the pawnbroker. "Your man Moe ripped you off. It was all still at his place."
"And the man himself." Mr Gold asked, looking directly at Neal.
Neal cleared his throat, looking down awkwardly. "We're closing in on him." He told him, making the older man scoff.
"So, job well 'half done' then."
Emma's eyes narrowed. "Hey, in less than a day, Neal has got everything back. Is something wrong?" she asked, when she saw Gold scanning through the objects. The couple tensed, sharing a nervous glance.
"You've recovered nothing. There's something missing." He snapped, turning to leave in a rush. Neal held his breath as he stared after him in concern, having caught the slight desperation in his father's eyes at his admission. That couldn't be about the ring, his father hated the ring that he gave his mother - Neal now knew that it was a reminder that she had left him, that she was gone and he hadn't been able to do anything about it. After he would've found out the truth, that Milah had abandoned them by choice, the ring would've had even less significance to him. He wouldn't have been surprised if his father had been angry if the ring was missing - it was, after all, one of his 'things' - but he would've been far from desperate of all things. Neal looked over the items, all of them grand and expensive, and wondered what could play on his father's emotions as this missing item clearly was.
"I'll get it when I find him." He promised, before his father could leave.
His father didn't even pause. "Not if I find him first."
...
"I can't believe you did that." Neal said later that evening, when they had put Teddy, Clara and Alexandra down for a nap in Neal's office. Emma didn't say anything behind him and Neal turned, surprised to find her on her knee with his mother's ring in her hand, looking up at him smiling. Unable to think of what to say he laughed.
Emma rolled her eyes. "Oh, that's encouraging."
"What are you doing?" he asked, in disbelief.
"What does it look like?"
"You are aware that we're already married, right?"
"But we didn't have a proper wedding, did we?" Emma pointed out calmly, forcing herself to stay on one knee rather than get up like she really wanted to. She took a deep breath. "Not like we should've had. But, because of me, it was ruined."
"Emma - "
"So," Emma interrupted, before Neal could say anything else. "Neal Cassidy, I know that we are going through a rough spot at the moment but, I would very much like to stay married, and to prove that will you please renew our vows with me."
Neal beamed. "Of course I will, you mad woman." He said, pulling Emma up by her waste and kissing her deeply. The two of them stayed like that for a long time, wanting nothing more than to stay like it forever; for now they could pretend that their family wasn't broken, that they didn't have the threat of Regina or Mr Gold hanging over their heads permanently, that they weren't the same people who had gotten married all of those years ago. They could pretend that everything was perfect because, in that moment, it was. That perfect moment was, of course, broken by the sound of a phone ringing.
"Ignore it." Emma whispered, her eyes still closed when her husband pulled out from their kiss.
"I can't." Neal whispered back.
"Of course you can." Emma countered.
"No, I really can't."
Emma sighed heavily, loosening her arms from around his neck. "Why did you have to become responsible in your old age?" she grumbled.
Neal smirked. "Because you love me that way."
...
When Neal arrived at the small cabin, just past the Toll Bridge, he took out his gun automatically. He half hoped that Regina had been trying to cause trouble by reporting his father, but he remembered how his father used to be when someone crossed him, he remembered the lengths that his father would go to if he was unhappy, and he knew that his hopes were more than likely going to be dashed. Moe French was almost certainly in danger, and, as much as he hated to admit it, Neal's gun was surely going to be needed. And, sure enough, as he got closer he could hear Moe French's cries of pain. Neal sighed heavily, closing his eyes briefly as the man's words washed over at him.
"Ow! Stop! It wasn't my fault!" He heard Moe shout out and ran over to the cabin, about to burst in and stop his father from making a bad situation worse... but, when his father spoke, he sounded so broken, so sad and desperate, that against his better judgement, Neal froze.
"'My fault'?!" He cried, his voice breaking as he spoke. "What are you talking about, 'my fault'? You shut her out. You had her love, and you shut her out! She's gone. She's gone forever; she's not coming back. And it's your fault! Not mine! You are her father! Yours! It's yours! It's your fault!" He shouted and Neal kicked the door in, his eyes widening when he saw Mr Gold hitting Moe repeatedly with his cane, crying out 'your fault! It's your fault!' with each hit.
Neal burst forward, grabbing the cane before he could hit the poor man again, and holding it tightly when Gold went to turn his anger on Neal instead, for getting in the way. The two of them glared at each other, but the tears in his father's eyes prevented Neal from being as angry as he felt he should be. "Enough." He said firmly. Enough, Papa. Mr Gold stared at him for a long moment; his rage slowly disappearing from his expression and turning into regret. "Go and wait outside." He ordered. The man, for once, went without question.
Neal stayed with Moe French until the ambulance got there, half his attention on the man trying to get some sense out of him but his words were jumbled and he was confused, so Neal struggled to make anything out that could help him understand why his father was acting the way he was towards the florist - he was also fully aware that the issue may not be with Moe French himself, but with the person he had been before. The man he had been in the Enchanted Forest had clearly wronged the Dark One, and Neal couldn't get his father's words out of his head. They were running around and around, echoeing in his ears. The other half of his attention, was on the man standing outside - he was sure that had Regina had been there, she would've criticised him for his decision to let Mr Gold leave. After all, he could've quite easily have stolen Neal's squad car and drove off, escaping justice while Neal tended to Moe; Neal had, without thinking, left the keys in the ignition. His father, however, never attempted to leave - he was slumped up against the side of the squad car, looking resigned, which was a far cry to how he had been looking at the beginning of the twenty minute wait. Neal had a bizarre urge to go out and ask if he was okay when his father had started sobbing uncontrollably, his head in his hands as he sank to the floor - Neal had watched bemusedly as his father managed to control himself, but never left Moe. No matter what Moe French had done in a previous life, he didn't deserve to get punished for it in this one.
The first time he allowed himself to walk over, was when Moe was being led out of the cabin in a stretcher, by paramedics. By this time, his was standing there impassively, as if his break down had never happened. For a moment, Neal wondered if he had imagined the whole thing.
"So," Neal began, leaning against the car next to him, his arms folded across his chest. "You haven't managed to break anything he needs, which is lucky."
"You've got a funny definition of lucky." Gold grumbled, glaring after the ambulance.
"Much like your definition of justice." Neal shot back. "What did he do to you?"
"He stole."
"No." Neal shook his head, his temper starting to rise. He pushed it down hurridly. "There is no way you - of all people - would react like that just because he stole a few meaningless objects. You said something about 'her', about his daughter... who was that?"
Mr Gold was silence for a moment, as if thinking about how he should answer, and Neal deluded himself into thinking that he could possibly manage to get his father to open up to him. "No." He said suddenly, making Neal sigh. "I'm sorry, Sheriff. I think you heard that wrong."
"Just tell me." He pleaded, clenching his fist. He wanted, needed, to know the truth; because if there was something behind all of this like he suspected, if it went deeper than a few stupid things being stolen by a desperate man, then maybe he could understand. A part of him knew that there had to be something going on, and another little voice - a tiny, annoying little voice - was seeping doubt into Neal's head. The longer he went without answers, the less he understood and the angrier he felt towards his father.
Gold glared at him. "Look, we're done here." He hissed, going to leave.
Neal stared after him incredulously. "You haven't changed one bit." He snapped, before he could stop himself. He cringed, as his father turned to look at him mockingly.
"Because I'm helping you get back the son, you think I'm a changed man?" he scoffed. "It's a nice notion, Mr Cassidy, but I didn't think you were a child."
Glaring back at him, Neal took out a pair of handcuffs, ignoring how the glare intensified at his actions. "Mr Gold, you're under arrest."
...
"Why are you in prison?"
Neal looked up from his paperwork, tensing when he saw Teddy standing in front of the cell, looking up at Gold innocently. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Emma pay closer attention as well. "Have you been bad?" he asked.
Mr Gold looked down at the boy and Neal held his breath. His father smiled kindly. "Yes, I have. I'm not a very good person." He admitted honestly. Teddy frowned.
"Just because you've done the wrong thing, doesn't mean that you're a bad person." Teddy insisted. Emma smiled from her desk, while Gold lifted an eyebrow.
"No?"
"Nope. My mommy went to jail and she's a good person. My daddy says that bad people can make themselves better anyway, so you don't need to worry about that." The little boy said happily. His words, however, made the landlord's smile more forced, and he said nothing in return.
The room fell back into silence; with the exception of Neal and Emma's pens scratching against paper, and Clara banging her building blocks together as if she can make them stick and her tower won't fall down, as it had done three times in the past ten minutes. Emma was the first to speak, two hours later, when Ruby finally arrived with their lunch.
"Teddy bear," she called over to the five year old. Neal looked over and his heart jumped in his chest when he saw his son was still next to the cell, his father crouched down next to him; it looked like they had been having a private conversation, his father had been speaking to Teddy so quietly that neither he or Emma had heard him, while Teddy had been listening intently. Teddy looked over at his mother, while Gold met Neal's gaze, staring back impassively as he sat back on the bed. "Let's go and get some lunch." Emma continued, though the frown on her face told Neal that she had seen the same as he had. "You can help me pick something out for Clara."
For a moment, Teddy didn't move. He looked back at the man within the cell. "Do you want anything, Mr Gold?" he asked.
Gold just shook his head with a, "No, thank you."
"Okay."
Neal hesitated, as his family crowded around the food Ruby had left for them, before he walked over to the cell, leaning against it with his hands in his pockets. "You know what I'm curious about?" he began.
Gold rolled his eyes. "No, but I'm sure you're about to tell me."
"Who 'she' is?" he continued as if he had never been interrupted. Mr Gold's jaw tensed. "Is she related to Mr French? Is she hurt? Is she in danger? I can't help unless you tell me something?"
"You can't help!" Mr Gold snapped, louder so that all could hear. "And if you want me to help you get custody of Henry, I would suggest you mind your own business."
"Wait, what?" Emma blurted out from her desk, over a mouthful of her sandwich, looking over at them wide eyed.
Neal cringed. "Great, just great." He muttered.
"So, you haven't told her then." Gold stated, a sly smirk. Neal sent him a glare.
"I was planning to."
"Well, you've had a month."
"We'll talk about this more later, I promise. I've only been looking into the idea because of how Regina treats Henry. It's an option." Neal said lowly, and Emma relaxed. She turned her attention to the smug pawnbroker.
"What?! Hold on a second, you have been helping him try and get custody of Henry?" Emma questioned, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.
"Yes. And, considering he owes me a favor, I would say that was very generous of me."
Emma glared at the reminder and, with a reluctant sigh, she leaned back in her seat. That argument was one that she didn't think would be wise to get into; Gold had just beat a man nearly to death, who knew what he had in store for Neal if the two of them got on his bad side. Despite knowing that the sinister man and her husband were father and son, she still couldn't believe it by looking at them. Mr Gold was by far, the worst and most twisted man she'd ever had the misfortune of meeting - he was great when going up against Regina but his deals and his methods were something which Emma deeply disagreed with - while Neal was the complete opposite. Neal had often had trouble doing the right thing in the past, his moral compass had never pointed in the 'right' direction, but he had never deliberately put someone else's life in danger in order to get what he wanted.
Emma looked down at her food, noticing that, while Gold had refused food, he had been eyeing it before he had eventually averted his eyes to the floor. He was being stubborn. "Pastrami," she said, gaining the older man's attention. She ignored her husband's warning glare as he tried, and failed, to feed their fourteen month old daughter. "You want half?" she asked, holding it up for him to see. Gold stared back at her blankly. "Nice, fatty, pastrami. Delicious way to clear the books." She nodded her head towards Neal, who sighed heavily.
"When the day comes that I make my request, it'll be for more than half a sandwhich." He said, with a dangerous glint in his eyes. Emma's smile faded and Neal tensed for a moment before shaking his head, he didn't want to think about what his father had planned, he already knew that it would more than likely be unpleasant and something Neal really didn't want to do. But, he made a deal with the Dark One, and nobody broke deals with him.
"Henry!" Teddy exclaimed happily, making Neal and Emma spin around to see Regina and Henry walk into the Sheriff's station. Teddy ran over to Henry and wrapped his arms around his middle; Henry, just as happily, picked the smaller boy up and held him tightly.
"I'm letting you have thirty minutes with Henry." Regina said, when both Neal and Emma jumped off their seats. She paid no attention to the touching scene between the two brothers, nor their parent's longing looks at their eldest son, instead she looked at Mr Gold, who didn't look one bit surprised to see her. "Take him out - buy him ice cream."
"And leave you with the prisoner." Neal said, seeing the intensity of her gaze. "Alone..."
"Twenty nine and a half minutes." Regina said, never taking her eyes off Mr Gold.
"Hi." Henry smiled at them, looking thrilled to see them after a month of seperation. Neal and Emma instantly smiled back.
"Hey." Emma whispered, while Neal looked at his father uncertain. Mr Gold just smiled.
"Bring me back a cone?" he suggested with a shrug.
Reluctantly, Neal allowed himself to pulled out of the station by his wife, following her and his kids to get ice cream. "Just this once." He muttered, when he passed the mayor. Neal wondered how many other times in the duration of their stay that he was going to prioritise the safety and happiness of his new family in exchange for his old one, and he wondered why it suddenly bothered him now. His father had abandoned him, and he had hated him for it for so long. But seeing the look of desperation in his eyes the previous night reminded him of a night so familiar, yet one which seemed like a lifetime ago. For the first time, Neal saw the man behind the Beast. His father had clearly loved someone - or claimed to - as much as he had loved Bae, and he had lost them to. Despite Neal's anger and resentment, he couldn't stop himself from feeling sympathetic towards the man, and a strange urge to protect him.
...
AN - So, one of my favourite chapters of the series and the one I struggled with the most :) I wanted to get in scenes with Rumple, along with relationship building scenes between Neal and Emma. What did you guys think of the proposal? Or the scene between Rumple and Neal? Okay, so, I'm really looking forward to next chapter because we have more flashbacks!
Reviews...
Mereseger - I'm sorry about the British words; that's the problem with being a Bristish fan :/ I try to catch as many as I can, so I'm sorry about that. Same about the 'mate' issue; I tend to use a variation between 'mate', 'buddy' and 'bud' simply because that's how my Neal would talk to his children compared to canons Neal which doesn't have any experience with having children.
Bookwyrm52 - Yeah, we never really see much interaction between Neal and... well... anyone, really. I agree, I like Hook but the Baelfire storyline was one that really gripped me, more so than even the curse or Emma and Mary Margaret trying to get back to Storybrooke. And, despite the less moral things he's done in the past, in canon he does seem to be one of the only characters which were truly 'good' compared to characters like the Charmings which we see in series four could be just as bad as the villains, but it was acceptable for them because they were 'heroes'.
Dancing4every1 - Thank you :D and I think it's definitely something I want to do. Charming is one of my favourite characters of the show and I hated that he had absolutely no proper interaction with Neal, despite him being his grandsons father :/
crazyhpcfan - I think they desperately need to, and it will only make them stronger in the long run :) And I know! One of my favourite episodes of series one and I struggled with how I should go with it the most! Typically me. Rumple just seems to make things worse and worse between him and Neal, something which he is going to regret later on, but atleast Neal seems to be changing his view on his father even if just a little... But who knows how much that will last. Glad you enjoyed the last chapter and hope this one was just as good :D
hateme101 - Thank you :D Neal really really doesn't want Rumple to know the truth about who he is, so that may not be the way he finds out... and I hope Neal's reaction to how Rumple was in this chapter was good enough for you :)
Rainbow2.0 - Thank you :D and I'm sorry about the sadness, I think sadness is needed if we want to have the happiness as well. And I sort of have an idea of where I want the series to go upto series three and I have an idea of what I'm doing when it comes to Rumple finding out about Neal, Charming getting his memories back, Emma and whoever she's with in the Enchanted Forest trying to get back to Storybrooke... ;)
Bookworm0913 - We saw a few hints but, since it's revolving mainly around Neal and Emma, and their family, it's unlikely that we'll be seeing anything from the Enchanted Forest in this series unless it involves Neal's flashbacks. I thought that would be the most realistic option to break someone's curse early, and I think that interactions between Neal and Charming would be good to see, especially before the curse is broken for everyone else. With Neal and Rumple, it wouldn't be realistic enough for them to patch things up instantly, Neal would've had centuries of resentment against his father that hasn't gone away despite being around him more. Yes, he's shown more of an interest in Rumple and his past, but he still see's him as the monster that used to terrorise people in their village, and Rumple has only made that worse in this episode. The beginning of series two for Neal and Emma would be very interesting, her finding out about his past is one of the main things that would be a turning point for their relationship - whether it is good or bad can depend on how it's handled at the beginning of series two... Hope this chapter was worth the wait.
Many Voices In My Head - Thank you :D It's great hearing things like that, knowing that I'm the same with other stories as well. I never once expected people would love this story so much. I thought I needed to show Regina's softer side and I have a scene between her and Teddy which will show the other side to Regina; I like the redemption storyline for Regina that they've done in canon and I would like to show her good side, but with Neal I don't think he will be as willing to believe that she can be good with his experience with Rumple :/ And yes, there are many way that the curse could be broken ;) I have many ideas which I'm toying with...
Pind50 - Thanks, and yes that will be very interesting. Can't wait to write the scene between the two of them, and the scenes after the revelation.
- Thank you, and thank you so much for you review.
Aaron Leach - Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)