20
Beautiful Boy
While Bae and Rumple were talking outside, Alina went inside by her mother and Alice. Still uneasy about her brother and father together, she bit her lip and looked worriedly towards the backyard after coming indoors.
Belle looked up and noticed her daughter's expression and said, "Alina, honey, come and sit down and have a cup of tea with me and Alice."
"And some chocolate peanut butter cookies," Alice said, carrying a plate of them over to the table and setting them down. "I know they're your favorite, and Belle's too." She filled the white and blue porcelain teapot with hot water and tea bags and handed out the matching blue and white teacups. She set them down on the table and pushed over the container with the Splenda and sugar packets and the small milk pitcher shaped like a rooster as well.
As Belle poured out the tea and handed round the sugar and milk pitcher, she said to Alina, "You look kind of nervous, Alina. Anything wrong?"
Alina shook her head at first. There was nothing wrong with her. She was just concerned about her brother and what he was speaking about with her papa. Then she slowly nodded. "Mama, I was . . . worried about what Bae and Papa are talking about. They looked . . . I felt like they weren't happy with each other when Bae came and said he wanted to talk with Papa. I got a funny feeling here," she tapped her chest. "So I . . . I told Bae he'd better not hurt Papa or else I'd rearrange him."
Alice started snickering behind her napkin. "Kiddo, you're something else!"
Belle giggled softly as well, then said, "You'd rearrange him, Alina? Just what's that supposed to mean?"
"Uh, you know, Mama. Like when you threaten to rearrange somebody's face," her daughter explained.
"Oh, dear. And I . . . uh . . . wasn't very welcoming to him either, I'm afraid," Belle admitted. "I . . . told him that if he hurt your papa I'd kick his behind out of my house."
"Getting a bit overprotective there, aren't you, Belle?" Alice teased, sipping her tea.
Belle shrugged. "I suppose it's natural. Rum's my husband, and I just want to make sure nobody hurts him like they did before."
Alina nodded. "That's how I feel too, Mama. It's not like I don't like my brother, but there's something . . . I don't know . . . that made me nervous, and I know that they didn't . . . that he didn't leave Papa on good terms last time . . . and I was just afraid he'd . . . quarrel with him and . . . I know how much Papa wants his son back, so . . ."
Belle reached out and laid her hand on Alina's shoulder. "I know exactly how you feel, honey. Both of us love your papa so much, and we don't want to see him get hurt, even though he can probably protect himself just fine."
"From Regina, yeah," Alina agreed. "But from his family, Mama . . . I don't know."
"Well, Bae and I had a small discussion before he went out to talk to your papa, so hopefully it helped, and he's more understanding now and less willing to . . . open up old wounds," Belle said. "I truly hope he and your papa have a nice talk and agree to resolve whatever issues they have, so we can be a complete family again. I know how much Rum wants us all to be together, and I'd be willing to welcome Baelfire so long as he doesn't bring turmoil into our lives."
"Guess you'll just have to wait and see," Alice said philosophically, eating a cookie. "But just so you know, if that boy starts with Mr. G, he'll have to talk fast before I whack him upside the head with my skillet."
Belle and Alina started laughing, imagining diminutive Alice chasing the tall Baelfire around the kitchen table and trying to hit him with her skillet.
"Oh, boy!" Belle snickered. "Between all of us, Rum is pretty well defended, I'd say." She looked over at Alina. "Does it bother you, baby, that your brother is here?"
"Only if he happens to fight with Papa," Alina said, eating a cookie also. "I don't mind having a big brother otherwise, Mama. I mean, I'm not some jealous brat just 'cause I have to share Papa with him. I'm not five, y'know."
Belle smiled at her. "I know. And I think if you give him a chance, you'll really like having a brother around, Alina. I know when I was growing up, I always wanted a brother or sister, but my papa never remarried after my mama died. So I ended up rather lonely, though when I was eleven Alice came to work in the castle and we became best friends, almost like sisters."
"Ain't that the truth!" Alice grinned.
"Like Henry and me?" Alina asked.
Belle nodded. "Just like that." She carefully stirred milk into her tea and sipped it. Then she dunked a cookie in it and ate it.
"What did you two do growing up?" Alina asked curiously.
"Oh, lots of things. But since Alice was an apprentice chef in the kitchens, I spent a lot of time down there, learning how to cook," Belle said. "After I had lessons with my tutors, that is."
"She taught me how to read better," Alice said. "I only had a few years at my village school, see, before my mom and I moved to Avonlea city, and I couldn't read all that well. And I was an awful speller. Until Belle taught me better, and lent me her books to help me learn how to spell and the meanings of words."
"Later on, I lent her my novels and histories," Belle said. "And we used to discuss them when we were making bread or pie crust."
"Or chopping up vegetables for soup," Alice recalled.
While the two women and Alina discussed their long-ago childhoods, Bae and Rumple listened to the Bose and Bae asked Rumple about being called Mr. Gold in this world.
"Where did you get that name, Papa?" he asked while the radio played softly, cycling through Gold's playlist on his phone.
"That was the name the curse gave me," Rumple explained. "I couldn't recall anything about my past until this year, after Emma came here. I suppose calling me that makes sense, considering what I could do with my magic. And also because I happen to have a lot of money here in Storybrooke. Maybe it's Regina's idea of a joke."
Bae scowled. "If it is, it's not very funny. Emma told me she's Henry's adopted mother."
"Yes. And I'm afraid that's my fault," Rumple sighed heavily. "You see, I was the one who acquired him for her. Though of course I had no idea whose son he was until Emma arrived. The records of his birth mother were sealed and even then, I might not have made the connection."
"Am I . . . listed as his father on the birth certificate?"
"I believe so, though I can't be sure unless I pay to have the documents unsealed," Gold pointed out. "Emma would know, however."
"I'll ask her," Bae said. "It doesn't seem like Henry likes his stepmom very much."
"She's the Evil Queen, Bae. What heart she had, she destroyed long ago with hate and revenge. She can't love the boy, only pretend to. And Henry knows it."
"I don't like him being there," Bae said. "Is there any way we could . . . get him away from her?"
"It's a difficult thing, dearie," Rumple sighed. "In order to do so, we'd have to file a custody suit, and prove Regina an unfit mother. And that won't be easy, since she's covered her tracks well, and she's careful not to be openly abusive of Henry."
"But you can make a case against her?"
"Eventually, yes. If I can get enough evidence," Rumple allowed. "However, it would be easier to do so if you and Emma could . . . show you are a couple again. Most juries don't like separate birth parents suing for custody. They want to see a two parent household, to provide unity and responsibility and all of that."
"But they allowed Regina, a single parent, to adopt Henry," Bae objected.
"She pulled strings, Bae. Maybe even used her magic to influence people," Rumple said. "I know you want to protect your son. I do also. But we have to take it one step at a time."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," sighed his son. "I really need to spend time with the kid. He doesn't know me and I don't know him. But I want to change that. Emma and I both have decent jobs, and I can support a family. If she's willing to get back together with me—marry me—I can just move my dojo over here and start out with new students."
"Once the curse is broken," Rumple agreed.
"What do you think will happen when it is?" asked Bae curiously. "I mean, obviously, you'll all gain your memories back, but . . . will you also all return to . . . to the world we came from?"
"That's a good question," Rumple mused. "I . . . created that curse so I could find you, Bae, but even I don't know quite what will happen when it breaks. Magic like that is . . . unpredictable. Especially in this world."
"You created it?" Bae stammered.
"Yes, but I never intended it to the use Regina put it," Rumple sighed. "I was eventually going to use it on myself, to bring me to you."
"Then how did Regina get her hands on it?"
"That's a long story . . . and maybe it's best discussed another time."
Bae eyed him shrewdly. "You made another deal with the devil, didn't you?"
"In a manner of speaking, yes. There's much in my past that I'm not . . . proud of at all, Bae."
"Mmm . . . me too. I guess that's enough for us to go on with for now. I'm sort of hungry, now that I think about it."
"Then why don't we go inside and see what Alice has for a snack?" his father suggested. "I'm rather hungry too."
Rumple shut off the radio and then rose, using his cane, and Bae followed him as they walked back across the lawn to the patio and into the house.
As they entered the kitchen through the sliding glass doors, Rumple said, "What's this? You're having a tea party and didn't invite us? Or is this one of those girls' only things?"
"No, you can join us," Belle laughed. "But we were hungry and didn't feel like waiting for hours while you two got caught up."
"We've done that," said her husband. "Let me get some more cups," he said, and limped back out into the den where the curio cabinet was. It was not the original one, as that had been smashed to pieces by Moe, but Gold had managed to buy a replacement that was almost as nice as the original.
Bae came and sat down next to Alina and across from Belle at the table. He looked at his small sister and said, "Still want to rearrange me?"
The little girl shook her head slightly. "No. I only said that if you started fighting with Papa. You haven't been, right?"
"No. I didn't come here to fight with him, Alina," Bae told her calmly. "I came here to talk, that's all. And we did and now things are okay between us again."
"Then will you be moving here?" she asked.
"Uh . . . I don't know about that yet," Bae said. "I've gotten used to being on my own . . . but . . . we'll see."
"No, not living here in this house," she clarified. "I mean, moving here, to Storybrooke."
"Ah. Well, I've thought about it. But I need to take a look around . . . find a place to open up my dojo again and stuff. It might take me a few months to get everything settled. But I definitely don't want to be apart from my family again, if I can help it."
"That's good," Alina said. "Because I wouldn't like being apart from my brother. And Henry would probably die if you left, he's been wanting a dad for ages, ever since I've known him, and we've been friends since we were five."
"That's not going to happen," Bae reassured her. "If I have to go back to Phoenix, it'll only be long enough to settle my affairs there and then I'll come right back."
"That's good to know," said Rumple as he entered the kitchen again, holding his chipped cup and a second one from the teaset in his hand.
He gave the whole one to Bae and sat down at the table next to Belle, setting the chipped one down in front of him.
Belle's eyes widened and she gasped upon seeing it. "You still have it! My chipped cup!"
Her husband looked at her, his eyes gone soft with love. "Of course I do. Out of everything I possess, this cup is the one thing I cherish most."
Bae looked back and forth between them. "Why?"
"It's like a talisman," Alina explained before either of her parents could reply. "Back in the fairy tale world, Mama lived with Papa in the Dark Castle, as his chatelaine, and one day she dropped that cup on the floor when Papa made a joke and it chipped."
"And I was terrified he was going to do something terrible to me . . . because that's what most nobles would have done to servants who broke things . . . at least most of the ones I'd known growing up in my father's palace," Belle explained.
"And as the Dark One, I had a horrible reputation as a nasty beast," Rumple said.
"But Papa was falling in love with her," Alina continued. "And he's never been one to really value things over people, so . . . all he said to her was, "It's just a cup," and let it go."
"But that was the beginning of our relationship as something besides master and servant," Belle said. "It was then that I began to see the man beneath the beast, the lonely heart that wished for someone to love . . . and someone to love him in return."
"And the cup became a symbol of our love for each other, and a way to remember Belle when I thought she had died," Rumple told Bae.
"Because of the curse?" Bae asked.
"No, because of Regina," Alina replied. "She lied to Papa, and told her Mama was dead."
"And so did I, actually," Alice interjected.
"Huh? You just lost me," Bae said.
"It'll help if you read Henry's book," his sister told him. "The Once Upon a Time Chronicles. It'll explain everything so much better."
"But just to sum up a few things," Rumple began, pouring some tea into his chipped cup, "I made a deal with Belle's father, King Maurice, to rid his kingdom of ogres if Belle were to come and live with me as my chatelaine." He told Bae the story of himself and Belle, and what had happened to them so long ago in the Dark Castle, ending with Regina's unexpected visit to the castle while Alice was gone, supposedly fetching Belle, and Alina was there as a baby, but hidden from her by Rum's magic. "I wasn't convinced Regina was telling the truth, you see, but Alice confirmed her story, so then I believed it," Rumple explained.
"She manipulated me too," Alice said. "Then again, that wasn't hard to do, considering the state I was in when I arrived back at the palace. By then I'd been in labor for almost half a day, and I was trying like hell to find out where Belle was before I had my baby. They'd moved her, you see, and no one seemed to know where she'd gone. I was frantic. I knew she was out of favor with Maurice, who'd ordered Gaston and his guardsmen to hunt down his own grandchild and kill her. When I couldn't find Belle, I almost fainted. I tried asking some of the kitchen staff, who all knew me and that I was her best friend, but they didn't seem to know anything. One girl told me she'd heard Belle had taken sick with childbed fever and was moved upstairs to a tower room. Someone else claimed her father had locked her in there until she recanted of her "unnatural love" for a dark beast and her abominable child. The king wanted her to tell where the child was, since they couldn't find it, and Belle refused, so he locked her up "for her own good"."
"That part was true," Belle said softly. "He did lock me up because I refused to tell him where Alina was. And I was slightly sick from the birth, but I wasn't dying or anything. I was stuck in the tower, almost going crazy, because I couldn't be with Rumple and Alina. My father refused to listen to me, he claimed I was possessed and out of my mind, that Rum had enchanted me. He refused to believe that I knew the Dark One true's nature, knew the man and the sorcerer better than anyone ever had, and that the child born of our love was not a creature of darkness. Nothing I said could convince him. He flew into a rage, claimed I was disloyal and had betrayed him by falling for a dark sorcerer and I would remain shut up in the tower until I came to my senses. But I managed to bribe one of my jailers to search for Alice. She was the only one I could trust."
"Only when the man found me, I was having my baby, and they kicked him out of the room before he delivered his message," Alice said. "It must have been around that time that Regina showed up."
"It was. I don't know what she told him, or what kind of deal he struck with her," Belle said. "But the next thing I knew was she had me bound and gagged and thrown in the back of her coach like a basket of apples. The journey back to her kingdom was so rough that I passed out. When I woke up, I was her prisoner. First in her dungeon and later in Storybrooke, I was a patient at the insane asylum, under the false name Lacey Beauregard. She told me that if she could not have her happy ending, then no one should, and she would make sure of it."
"And during that time, I was delivering my baby, and I was so weak from walking all the way back from the Dark Castle that I fainted just as my baby was born," Alice said. "When I came to, Mistress Amelia was crying and she told me the baby was stillborn and Belle had died, according to Maurice, and the kingdom was in mourning. But that last was just a story put about by Maurice to cover up what he'd done—selling his own daughter to that filthy witch."
Rumple's eyes flashed almost molten at that, and he growled, "Just one more thing he has to answer for."
"He's here?" Bae asked.
"Yes. He's a florist called Moe French in Storybrooke," Rumple said shortly.
"He sounds like he's sick in the head," Bae remarked. "Just like Regina. Both of them sound like they're totally psycho."
"Regina definitely is," Belle asserted. "My father . . . well . . . he's totally screwed up."
Rumple drank some tea from his cup and ate two cookies, then said, "That's something I knew a long time ago, dearie. But let's discuss something else. Talking about him gives me indigestion."
"Can't say I blame you, Rum." Alice said. Then she began to talk about Miner's Day, and some of the things she wanted to bake for it.
Bae turned to Alina, after eating a few cookies, and said, "Would you mind telling me a little bit about Henry? Belle told me you're his best friend."
"Okay," she said. "What do you want to know?"
"Just a few things. Like . . . his favorite food and uh . . . " Bae floundered.
"He loves hot cocoa with cinnamon. Actually, he loves cinnamon on almost anything, except for apples. He can't stand them, because of Regina. Because she's poisoned people with apples, you know . . ."
Page~*~*~*~*~Break
Mills residence:
Henry had woken up that morning ready and eager to start the day. He had it all planned out. He would eat breakfast with Regina, go down to visit Emma at Grannys, then they go to the Golds and he could spend the rest of this lazy Sunday with his dad. He'd show Baelfire the Book and explain to him about how he'd figured out the curse and everyone's identities. He'd tell his dad about his magic, and how Rumple—his grandpa—was teaching him how to use it, and how they were hiding it from Regina. Maybe Baelfire could help them gather some more evidence against Regina so Emma could use it to break the curse.
He'd come downstairs in a good mood. But by the time he'd eaten his Cap'n Crunch and drank some hot cocoa, he felt like throwing his empty cereal bowl against the wall in a rare tantrum. And it was all Regina's fault.
When he'd asked her what she was going to do this morning, she had answered she had meetings with Sidney and the town council for the upcoming Miner's day, which was not unusual. Then Henry had told her he was going to go over Alina's house, and Regina had told him point blank that he was spending way too much time with her and she didn't approve of Mr. Gold—a criminal—and he was going to stay home today for once.
"But . . . Mom . . . I told Alina I was going to come over . . ." he protested, horrified. She couldn't do this. Not today.
"Then you'll call her and say something's come up," Regina said smoothly. "Like you've got a toothache or you need to go shopping with me."
"You want me to lie to my best friend?"
"Henry, tell her whatever you like, but you're staying here today. I'm not having you traipsing over there and letting that pawnbroker's shady ways rub off on you," Regina said sharply.
That pawnbroker's my grandfather, he thought rebelliously. And he's a lot better of a person than you are! Now what am I going to do? "Fine!" he growled. "But I'm going to be bored to death."
"You can buy a new game on your iPhone," Regina conceded. "That ought to keep you busy."
"May I be excused?" Henry mumbled. "I have to go call Alina."
"Go. And don't be an ungrateful brat," Regina added spitefully. "There are kids all over America who would kill to live here and have what you do. If it weren't for me, you could be living in a shoebox on the street and eating leftovers out of somebody's garbage, young man."
Henry stomped upstairs, thinking that at least if he lived on the street he'd be free of Regina. And that was probably worth it. He tossed his backpack on the floor and flung himself on his bed. He knew he should call Alina and tell her what went on, but he couldn't bring himself to do that. Not yet.
After twenty minutes, the house got quiet and he thought Regina had left for her meeting. He crept downstairs and saw her car was gone. Abruptly he decided to hell with her dictates and he went to open the front door and go out. He didn't care what happened if she came home and he was gone. He was going to spend the day with his father.
The door was locked.
Frantic, he tugged on it, thinking it was stuck. But no . . . it was locked.
Then he ran over to the back door off the kitchen and found that it too was locked. When he tried the button on the wall to open the garage, he found that it was also locked down.
"I can't believe she locked me up in my own house!" he yelled angrily.
This was going too far. Maybe Regina had gone crazy. Or maybe she was getting jealous and trying to keep Henry all to herself. Well, fat chance of that!
Henry raced upstairs. Luckily he had watched over a dozen James Bond movies and so he knew how to get out of a locked house. He dragged some sheets from the linen closet and an old jump rope and began to tie it all together.
Ten minutes later he had a serviceable rope which he knotted around his bedpost, after first moving the bed against the wall. Then he tossed the rope out the window.
It was a little short, like by three feet, but that was all right. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and climbed out the window. He felt almost like a captive in one of his adventure stories, or a convict escaping from Alcatraz. He just hoped nobody saw him doing this, or they might mistake him for a robber and call Regina or Emma over to investigate.
Luckily, his room didn't face the street. He climbed carefully down the side of the house, glad that he had learned how to climb up a rope and down one in gym class. Finally he reached the end of the sheet rope, and he let go and jumped to the ground.
Only for some reason he landed wrong on his left foot and he felt something twist beneath him. He fell to the ground, yelping at the sudden hot flash of pain in his left ankle. "Oww!"
He rubbed it before getting to his feet. His hurt ankle throbbed and he couldn't put a lot of his weight on it, but he could still walk. He walked down his driveway and out into the street casually, trying his best not to limp on his sore ankle. Then he headed towards Gold's Victorian.
Page~*~*~*~*~Break
Bae was talking a short walk down to the end of the block, he needed some exercise after eating four peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Those cookies were more addicting than Oreos, he decided. He could understand why Belle, Alina, and his father loved them. He hadn't had homemade cookies in ages, and Alice was probably a better baker than Betty Crocker.
I need to start doing my workouts again if I'm going to be eating like this on a daily basis, he reminded himself. He increased his pace to a brisk walk and noted that most of the houses on this block were affluent ones, though none were as big as Gold's, or looked as tasteful.
This was a nice town, even if it was cursed, he thought. He could get used to it here, though he did miss the heat of Phoenix. He shivered and clutched his jacket closer. Maybe he should have asked his father to borrow a sweatshirt. If he even owned one. Then he supposed Gold must, since nobody could wear suits and golf shirts all the time. A slight wind blew across the street and rattled the tree branches of the flowering dogwoods and beeches in people's yards.
Bae walked faster, his hands in his pockets.
His thoughts now turned to Emma and Henry.
As if his thoughts had conjured him, Henry appeared at the end of the street.
Bae halted, wondering if this were just a figment of his imagination. But then he saw the boy come towards him, and realized it was no daydream. He waved at Bae. "Hello!"
"Hey, Henry," Bae called to him. Then he frowned. There was something off about the kid's gait. Almost like he was limping. No, he was limping, Bae corrected himself. He jogged over to the boy, concerned. "Did you hurt your leg?"
"Umm . . . yeah, a little," Henry said. "I had to climb out the window because Regina locked me in the house and I landed wrong on it and I think I sprained it a little."
"You just climbed out a window?" Bae repeated, shocked. "My God, kid, you could have been killed!"
"It wasn't that high and . . . there was no other way out of there. She locked all the doors," Henry protested, then winced as he put too much weight on his sore ankle.
Bae noticed and knelt, gently feeling the ankle. "That's starting to swell. You shouldn't be walking on it like that. Come on, I'll take you back to your . . . uh . . . grandfather's house and I can put some ice on it and wrap it up."
Before Henry could say anything, he found himself picked up gently and the next thing he knew he was being carried in Baelfire's arms down the street.
At first he felt kind of awkward being carried like that, but soon he just relaxed and enjoyed the feel of his father's arms about him, holding him securely against his well-muscled chest. Henry snuggled a little into Bae's shirt and jacket, inhaling the masculine smells of leather and some kind of spicy aftershave and a good clean solid manly smell, which had been something Henry had never had before, but with which he suddenly connected. It was rare for him to be held, Regina was not the hugging sort, and even as a small child, Henry didn't recall many times when she had held him. As soon as he could walk, she had let him, and she never seemed to have much time to sit with him and snuggle with him or other things he had seen Rumple do with Alina.
Maybe he was a bit old to be carried like this, but Henry found he didn't mind it at all. Instead he reveled in the closeness he felt to his father. He had always envied Alina a little for having what he'd always wished for, a father to love and protect and advise her. But now, with Baelfire, he had what he'd been longing for since he realized that he didn't have a father like most of the other kids in Storybrooke. He leaned his head on Bae's chest and listened to the rhythm of his father's heartbeat, releasing a soft sigh of contentment.
"You okay?" Bae asked, looking down at his son in concern. "Your ankle probably hurts like hell, sprains always do, but it'll feel better once I get some ice on it and an Ace bandage."
His brown eyes met those of his boy, and Bae found an overwhelming tide of love and protectiveness rising in him, stronger than anything he'd ever felt before for anyone save perhaps for Emma. When he had first seen Henry last night, he'd been too overwhelmed by the fact that he existed to feel much except shock. But now, holding his child in his arms, he was filled with a sudden urge to make sure his son never suffered any more pain or hurt ever. He understood now what had driven Rumple to use the dagger, for he would have cheerfully taken a bullet or worse for this boy in his arms, this beautiful boy, the product of his and Emma's love for each other, this remarkable gift he'd never expected to be given.
"It doesn't hurt so bad now," Henry told him, and it was true. Once he was off the injured foot, the throbbing wasn't half as bad as it had been. And being held by his father eclipsed any twinges of pain he'd been feeling until then.
Bae smiled at the answer, which was something he'd said to his own father whenever he'd gotten scraped or beaten up by some of the bigger village boys for being the son of the local coward. He had seen the pain and anger in Rumple's eyes and he'd strove instinctively to make it less, for his father didn't deserve the sneers and criticism he'd received from his neighbors. For that, Bae blamed Milah, for not standing beside her husband and sticking up for him. Abandoning him and her son just proved, in the eyes of the villagers, that Rumplestiltskin was no good, a coward that not even his own wife could stand. Only Bae had known the truth, and he had fought for his father's self-respect, even when fighting only got him hurt, because to do any less had been unthinkable.
It took about five minutes for Bae and Henry to reach Rumple and Belle's house, Bae's long legs, encased in jeans and his sneakers, eating up the pavement in swift easy strides, despite carrying Henry in his arms.
He set Henry down briefly to open the front door, then picked him up again and went inside. "Let me put you down here in the den," Bae said to Henry, walking down the hall to it. "You just sit here and I'm going to get some ice and bandages, okay?"
He emerged into the hall to find Belle, Rumple, and Alina all staring at him.
"What's going on?" Belle asked.
At the same time Alina said, "What's happened to Henry, Bae?"
"Yes, why were you carrying him?" Rumple wanted to know. "Is he hurt?"
"I found him coming down the street while I was walking," Bae answered. "He's sprained his ankle climbing out his bedroom window, I think."
"He was climbing out the window?" Rumple frowned. "What for?"
"Was it cause of Regina?" demanded Alina suspiciously.
"I don't know the whole story yet," Bae told them. "Why don't you go and ask him while I go and get some stuff I need? Papa, do you have a bucket? I need to fill it with ice. And an Ace bandage or something like it?"
"In the bathroom down here I have some first aid supplies, you can ask Alice for an extra bucket and she can get you the ice too," Rumple said. He found he was feeling the same sort of worry and tightness in his chest that he had whenever Bae had been hurt as a child. Or when Alina had been hurt by that bully Tom.
As Bae hurried into the kitchen to talk with Alice, Alina bounded into the den to see her best friend, who was now her nephew as well. "Henry! What were you doing climbing out the window?"
"Hey, Alina. I had to, because Regina locked me up. She wouldn't let me come over, she . . . she was being a total jerk and she said . . . she said . . ." he looked up as Rumple and Belle entered the den. " . . . she said she didn't want me associating with people like you, Rum, and she wanted me to stay home and that was that."
"People like me?" Rumple raised an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?" Belle said, a scowl coming over her expressive face. "What's she implying? That my husband's no good, that scheming evil . . . witch? How dare she say that?"
"Yeah! Who does she think she is?" Alina snapped.
"The Evil Queen," Henry sighed. "Anyway, that's how I got hurt. I tied a bunch of sheets and a jump rope together to my bedpost and climbed out the window, but it wasn't long enough to reach the ground, and when I jumped down, I landed wrong on my ankle."
"Perhaps we'd better take you to the hospital," Belle suggested.
"No!" Henry objected. "Then she'll find out I tried to escape."
"But you could need X-rays," Belle said worriedly.
"He doesn't," Bae interjected, coming into the den with a bucket filled with ice, a towel, and a roll of Ace bandages. "I checked it out before I brought him home, Belle. I took a course in sports medicine and treatments, since given what I am and what I do for a living, I need to know that kind of thing, just in case a student of mine gets hurt during a class or a tournament. I know the difference between a sprain and a broken ankle, trust me. He's got a mildly strained tendon, but nothing more serious."
"You're sure?" Rumple asked.
"Oh, yeah. I've seen some pretty bad ones, Papa," Bae reassured him. Then he put the bucket down beside Henry and knelt in front of him. "Okay, tiger. I'm going to take off your sneaker now. I'll be as gentle as I can, but it might hurt." Suiting actions to words, Bae gently untied Henry's Converse and removed it.
The boy winced and hissed as the martial arts instructor removed his sock, revealing his ankle, which was swollen and turning a shade of bluish purple almost like a blueberry.
Bae carefully felt the ankle, saying, "Yeah, I know it hurts, kid, but it's not as bad as it looks. You've probably pulled the tendon along here and here," he indicated where by tapping the injured foot. "But it'll heal in about a week or two. Right now I'm going to do two things. First, I'm going to have you put your foot in this bucket of ice for about fifteen minutes. That's going to bring the swelling down and help with the pain. After that, I'm going to put a warm towel on it for about twenty minutes, and we'll alternate hot and cold compresses for about an hour before I wrap it, okay? Papa, do you have some children's Tylenol or Advil?"
"Yes. I'll get some," Rumple answered, and limped off towards the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.
"You can take some of that too," Bae said, and carefully lifted his son's foot and put it into the ice bucket.
Henry shuddered. "Ahh! That's cold!"
"Relax, kid," Bae soothed. "It's only cold till you get used to it. But doesn't it make you feel a little better? Soon it'll numb all that pain away." He rubbed along his son's leg.
Henry had to admit that after about five minutes, the ice did feel really good, and he took the two Tylenol Rumple gave him without protest as well.
Bae sat back on his heels and shook his head reprovingly. "I can't believe you climbed out your window without bothering to call one of us."
Before Henry could defend his reasoning, Rumple broke in with a snort. "Like father like son, I'd say. Or don't you remember the time you climbed that maple tree when you were eight and the branch broke and so did your arm?"
"Uh . . . that was different. That snot Grady Marcus dared me to," Bae defended.
His father rolled his eyes. "And that excuse sounds as lame now as it did twenty-one years ago, Baelfire."
"Papa, I was eight, and they were teasing me," his son protested. "They said that I'd never do it because I was the son of the village coward so . . . I . . . well, I had to. How was I supposed to know the branch would break?"
"By using the brains you were born with," his father sighed.
Belle chuckled. "At eight, no boy does that, Rum."
"I might have thought about it, but I'd still have done it," Alina spoke up. "And then I'd have dropped a branch right down on that stupid kid's head too! Nobody calls my papa a coward!"
"Hopeless, the two of you!" groaned their father. "The both of you would risk your necks over some stupid names an idiot like that called me."
"It's because they love you, Rum," Belle said, putting an arm about him.
"And when you love somebody, you protect them," Henry put in. "Like I tried to do to Alina when Tom was pounding her head into the blacktop."
Bae stared at his son and his sister. "Wait a damn minute! You're telling me some kid beat you up, Alina?"
Alina nodded. "Uh huh. His name's Tom Mason, and he's nothing but a big bully and one day at recess he ate my friend Paige's brownie . . ." She told her brother all about the fight that had resulted in and how Tom had smashed her head into the ground and put her in the hospital with a concussion and seven stitches on her head.
Bae gaped at her. "You're telling me some bullying little snot put you in the hospital and he's not dead yet? Where is he? You want me to go and kick his ass?"
Before Alina could respond, Belle said sharply, "Rum, you never told me that! What were you waiting for, next Christmas?"
"I was going to, dearie, but we were sort of busy . . ." he began.
"Now I want to kick that kid's ass!" growled Belle, her blue eyes flashing.
"That won't be necessary," Rumple informed them. "I took care of it."
"What did you do to him?" Bae wanted to know.
Rumple told him. "Emma convinced me not to beat the boy into the ground, like I wanted to at first. And once I'd thought about it, I saw she was right. Having Tom come work for me in my shop was a far better solution. Not quite as satisfying, but better."
Bae grunted. "Humph! How's the ankle feel now, tiger?"
"Better. It doesn't hurt at all now," Henry said.
"That's because it's numbed," Bae said. "All right, let's see, it's been fifteen minutes. Time to get some heat on it." He looked over at Alina. "Would you put this towel in the microwave for about forty seconds or so, Alina?"
"Sure, Bae," she said, and hopped off the couch where she'd been sitting next to Henry and took the towel into the kitchen.
When she returned, Bae had removed Henry's ankle from the ice bucket and was examining it. "Some of the swelling's down," he said approvingly. He took the towel Alina brought him and shook it slightly. "Good, it's warm, but not too much." Then he wrapped Henry's whole foot in the towel and propped it up on a pillow on top of a small footstool. "Oh, and that's another thing. You should keep this elevated as much as possible for the next week and walk on it as little as possible."
"Do I need crutches or something?" Henry asked.
"Hmm . . . no, it's not that bad. Just don't overdo it." Bae patted Henry's leg.
"What are you going to tell Regina?" asked Alina.
"I'll tell her I tripped and fell down the stairs," Henry answered. "Accidents happen."
"Serves her right for locking you up," Alina said.
"How's the patient?" asked Alice, coming into the den with a tray with several mugs of cocoa on a tray and some chocolate fudge bars. "Feel up to some of these? They always made me feel better when I was sick as a girl."
Henry smiled and took a fudge bar and the cup of cocoa with cinnamon sprinkled atop the dollop of whipped cream. "Thanks, Alice!" He sipped his cocoa and sighed in bliss. This was almost like heaven. The only thing missing was Emma. Curious, he looked at Bae and said, "So what else did you do as a kid? Did you get into fights too?"
"Uh . . . well . . . sometimes . . ."
"Sometimes, Baelfire?" Rumple queried. "I'd say it was almost everyday you came home with a black eye or a cut lip when you were younger than Henry was now."
"That's because everyday those idiot kids started with me. They never could leave me alone, or shut their fat mouths about you, Papa. So I punched them out," Bae said. "Well, some of them. The ones that weren't bigger than me."
"And how many times did I tell you to just ignore them and walk away?" Rumple asked.
"Almost always," Bae admitted. "But somehow, I never could. So half the time I ended up with black eyes, a bloody nose, and a fat lip. The other half the time, they did, and I ended up getting scolded and standing in a corner for not listening to you, Papa, or carding wool for half the next day. God, that was the worst!"
"Why?" asked Henry.
"Because it takes so long to do it," Bae explained. "When you card raw wool, you make it so it's even and soft and free of any dirt or particles, you comb it with these big brushes until it's clean and straight, so you can spin it or weave it. And it is the most boring thing on earth! I used to fall asleep holding the brushes."
"Nothing's as bad as doing chemistry problems," Alina disagreed. "Math is so boring!"
Bae slanted her an amused glance. "That's how he punishes you? Math problems?"
"That and going to bed early without dessert," she replied. "And no reading bedtime stories once."
"When she was little it was a swat and time out," Rumple recalled. "The same as it was with you, Bae."
"Regina usually grounds me," Henry said. "Or she screams loud enough to make the house shake. When I was younger she used to lock me in a dark closet. Once she forgot about me and left me in there for hours. I fell asleep in there, I think."
"That's horrible!" Belle said. "Did she apologize when she let you out?"
"Sort of. I was five and she bought me a new Nintendo DS. That was after she told me it was my own fault for being bad enough to make her shut me in there."
"I'd have passed out," Alina said. "You know I hate the dark."
"Don't tell me Papa locked you up," Bae said.
"I would never!" protested Rumple.
"No. I don't know why I'm scared of the dark," Alina admitted.
"I was too," Belle said. "Because I let my imagination run away with me. But eventually I grew out of it."
"How, Mama?" Alina queried.
"I learned to think of nice things," her mother answered. "I can help you with that, sweetheart."
"Would you?" Alina asked, smiling at her mother. "I hate being afraid like that."
"We'll work on it tonight, okay?" Belle promised.
Alina nodded. She was glad that her mom had found the solution to her phobia.
Then Bae said it was time to ice Henry's foot again, and he unwrapped it and had Henry stick it back in the ice again. While it was getting numbed again, Alina went and got Battleship from the closet and Henry and Bae began to play each other.
"This used to be one of my favorite games," Bae told his son. "They'd just started making video games when I was fifteen, and living with the Cassidys."
They played Battleship while Rumple, Alice, Alina, and Belle played blackjack for chocolate bars.
Once Bae had reapplied the warm towel for twenty minutes again, he then wrapped Henry's ankle in an Ace bandage, making it snug and supportive, but not too tight. He put Henry's sock back on and had the boy prop his foot on pillows, then said, "Now how's it feel?"
"A lot better. Thanks!" Henry grinned at him. He almost called the older man "dad", but then shied away from it because it seemed too soon. He didn't call Emma "mom" yet, even though a part of him wanted to. But doing that might tick off Regina, and she could forbid Emma to see him.
Things were different with Bae, however, and Henry decided that it would be okay to start calling him dad soon, like in another week or two.
"Good," Bae said in relief. "How long can you stay here, Henry?"
"Probably all day until after lunch," he answered. "Regina's meetings with the town council always take till supper at least."
So he had another couple of hours with his son, Bae mused, then began to play Battleship in earnest.
Page~*~*~*~*~Break
Henry ate lunch with the Golds, and enjoyed spending time with all of them, especially his father. He learned that Bae's favorite snack was Oreos with peanut butter on them, along with a big glass of coconut milk, and one of his favorite foods was fried chicken with a side of corn on the cob, dripping with butter and salt. He also liked sushi and steamed dumplings of all kinds. Bae enjoyed reading suspense and historical fiction and the occasional good horror story as well.
He also was addicted to playing Candy Crush, and in fact he was playing it on his cell when Emma came in the door. She smiled brightly when she saw Bae and said, "Hi, Bae! I was wondering . . . what on earth happened to you, Henry?" she gasped when she caught sight of his foot propped on pillows.
Henry told her, and Emma looked furious. "Somebody needs to lock Regina up!" she growled. "Can you believe the nerve, Bae?"
But Bae was too busy beating a level to pay attention.
"Bae! Hey, Baelfire! What the hell are you doing?" Emma demanded, shaking his shoulder.
He put the game on pause, then said, "Half a minute, Emma! Let me beat this level, okay?"
"You think playing a game is more important than Henry's welfare?"
"No, of course not! But we can discuss it after I beat this level."
"What in hell are you playing?"
"You've never played Candy Crush?" he asked incredulously. "Where've you been living—a cave?"
"I'm not much for games," Emma began.
"I can download it for you," Henry said, and took Emma's cell and downloaded it from the Google playstore.
Soon Emma found herself playing along with Bae on her phone and then Rumple gave Henry his cell so he could join them.
The three of them spent another hour happily playing and Henry felt it was one of the best afternoons he'd ever spent, even though he was injured and would have to return home to Regina eventually. He felt like he was finally part of a real family, and not the fake one he'd grown up in. Like he belonged here, with his mother, father, grandparents, and aunt.
When Emma said that it was time for him to go back home before Regina found out he was missing, he felt despair and suddenly wished his name weren't Henry Mills, but Henry Swan, or Henry Gold. Then he could stay here forever, where he was always welcome and loved.
Bae came with Henry and Emma in her Bug as they drove back to the Mills mansion. When they reached it, Bae got out and carried Henry to the front door and set him down.
"Now what?" his son said. "The door's locked."
"I know that, kid. But it's only locked because you don't know how to open it."
"And you do? How? With magic?"
"Nope. With a lockpick," Bae replied, and tugged a small metal instrument from his pocket. "Your old man used to be in a gang when he was fifteen," Bae admitted. "It's not something I'm proud of, but I know how to pick locks because of it. And a good thing too, since it'll save me a trip carrying you on my back up to your window." He carefully inserted the lockpick into the doorknob and wriggled it around.
In about five minutes the lock sprang open.
"You did it!" Henry exclaimed.
"Yeah. But I was slow as molasses. I used to be able to pick a lock in less than a minute," Bae said. "But I'm out of practice." He picked up Henry and said, "But don't get any ideas, tiger. That's one skill I'm never going to teach you."
He brought Henry upstairs and put him in bed, after moving the bed back to its original position. He also hid the sheet rope in the bottom of Henry's closet. Then he tucked Henry into bed and said, "Okay, I have to go now. It wouldn't be good if your wicked stepmother caught me here. Or Emma. You take care of yourself, Henry. And if you need me, here's my cell number. You can call me anytime, or your mom too." He scribbled his number on a sheet of notepaper and gave it to Henry. "Take a nap, why don't you? You're probably tired."
Then he hugged his son, wishing he could stay longer. It was only when Emma, who was lookout, honked the horn, that he made himself let go.
Then he made his way down the stairs, thinking that someday he'd get his beautiful boy away from that wicked witch, or his name wasn't Baelfire Gold.