"I promise," Rumplestiltskin replied quietly. "And we both know that so long as the man you married is allowed to do so, he keeps his vows – unless of course he is asked to be rid of them." With an especially covert twitch of his wrist, a piece of paper and a pen appeared on the counter between them. "Sign this, dearie, and you shall be an unwed woman, free to do whatever you want with the pirate."
Milah signed the divorce document first, and then Rumplestiltskin, who told Milah to give Regina the paper to file.
"You trust her to do that?" Baelfire asked, leaning over towards his parents.
"Considering these new promises that Mrs. Nolan has managed to extract, I thought I'd give her one chance to prove herself," Rumple replied, not really surprised that his son had obviously been listening in on his parents' conversation.
Bae nodded skeptically, but didn't say another word as Milah set a mug down in front of him.
"I thought I'd get you warmed up to the taste of cinnamon," Milah offered. "Seeing as Kathryn and I have already whipped up a few cocoas with cinnamon for your wife and in-laws."
"Oh, they're not-"
Bae went to correct her, but Rumple broke in, saying, "No, they're not yet. But I highly suspect that they will be. I'm even prepared to conjure a few rings by day's end."
"A few?"
"Well," Rumplestiltskin took a leisurely sip of his tea before he admitted to something of a kindness. "I can't help but assume that you, Daniel, and the captain all have the same thing in mind tonight."
"I'm supposed to believe that you'd give Hook an engagement ring for Mama?" Bae asked, his eyebrows arching with disbelief.
"Give it to him? No, of course not. I'm just willing to make one for him to buy – at a heightened price, of course."
"Of course," Bae repeated, trying not to grin.
"But what else could you expect when it's an entirely customized piece of jewelry?" Rumple asked innocently.
"Uh-huh," Bae was unconvinced as he asked, "So, ah, if I were to ask after a similarly customized ring…?"
"Family discount; you could get it for practically nothing." Bae chuckled, muttering something about there being perks to being the Dark One's son. "Although," Rumple added, "I suspect you're not considering a hoop that you'd do best to jump through in the interest of preserving the peace."
"And what's that?"
"David Nolan."
Glancing nervously over his shoulder at the man, Bae asked, "What about him?"
"He feels rather… threatened by my fairly recent presence in Emma's life, and I believe it would do him some good to have that… reconfirmation of his place as her father if you were to ask him for her hand."
"Isn't that a little old-fashioned?" Bae snorted.
"I'm asking you to do it for my sake – and maybe even Emma's," Rumple tried to explain. He glanced pointedly at Henry as he said, "I've seen what a disagreement between two parental figures over the child can do to that child, and I don't want to have to deal with that personally."
"Emma's not a child," Bae pointed out.
"But Charming is still upset. We both know I'm not good at being a peacekeeper, but I believe that if you asked for his blessing, that might just do the trick."
Bae drummed his fingers against the countertop as he inquired, "And what if he says no?"
"Then elope; it's not that hard."
"That is horrible," Bae declared.
"Are you surprised?"
Bae looked at him sideways before asking quietly, carefully, "You will do better with Arabella?"
"Yes, Bae," Rumplestiltskin sighed, an apologetic sound that was weighed down by just how many mistakes he'd made where his family and their trust in him was concerned. "I will do all that I know to do to be a better man – like I said before, the man that my family deserves."
"Thank you, Papa," Bae grinned, and when his son smiled, Rumplestiltskin couldn't help but do the same.
Bae turned to his other side to check on Henry, only to find his son zoned out on a napkin in front of him. Tiny lettering had been scrawled across it with a pen that Henry had gotten from his backpack, and the teen was staring at the words like they presented some sort of a puzzle.
"What are you working on there, buddy?"
"Names."
"Names?"
"I'm tired of having to specify who I'm talking about when I discuss someone in my family, so I thought why not come up with different titles for all of them? Like you and Emma be Papa and Mama, and Regina and Daniel be Mom and Dad."
Bae shrugged, declaring, "That works for me. What about grandparents?"
"That's the problem," Henry said, worrying at his lip as he considered the napkin. "I would count more of those then I would have to."
"Like 'Granma Kathryn'?"
Henry nodded, asking, "How do you think she'd feel about being called Nonnie?"
Again Bae shrugged, answering, "You'd have to ask her. What about the others?"
"Well, I already call David and Snow White Gramps and Gran. Mr. Gold is Grandpa. Nobody else has anything that I've kind of made a habit of, but I was thinking of maybe calling Milah 'Grandma,' and Belle 'Grand-miere' since she's supposed to be French according to her Storybrooke version. Maybe I could even call Frederick 'Grandad.'"
"Are you going to have anything for Hook?" Bae asked almost warily.
Henry grinned, replying, "Grumble, I think." He copped an innocent look, declaring, "There's so many that I just couldn't think of anything else."
Bae couldn't help it; he burst out laughing. Henry started chuckling too as father swung an arm around his son's shoulders, declaring, "Buddy, I love you; you're a pretty neat kid."
"I try," Henry said with a shrug of teasing modesty. Then he burrowed into Bae's shoulder, wrapping his arms tightly around him as he murmured, "I love you too, Papa."