+ + + + + The Search
"Where is that son of bitch?" Emma demanded going first into Granny's little bistro. It was still quite the little place to be.
The people in the place became suddenly quiet and looked around at each other. It was Ruby, enjoying an afternoon coffee with Snow, who finally spoke up.
"Gold is actually looking for you, Emma," Ruby responded, honing right in on which SOB Emma was talking about. "He was in here not so long ago. I suspect he went over to the court," Ruby told her.
"If he's upset now, it's nothing to what he's gonna be," Emma promised and ran off to the court.
Bae and Henry came in soon after. "Where'd she go?" Bae asked breathlessly.
"The court," Snow replied, this time guessing who 'she' was. "What's up?"
"My mom is going to kick Dr. Gold's ass," Henry explained excitedly. His father made a shrugging gesture at Henry's language. Well, it was true.
Ruby and Snow both stood up quickly. "Well, I'm in on this," said Ruby.
"Let's go," added Snow.
As the four hurried on to the court, Ruby took out her pocket communicator and began to let other people know, including Nolen, as well as her husband, Archie.
They had gathered quite the crowd as they approached the court. Emma had run at a dead heat, attracting enough attention with just the pace of her activity, and she was well ahead of them. She began to tear the court apart, demanding to see Gold.
It wasn't long before he came out from one of the upstairs work rooms, where he had been ranting, looking for Emma. She ran up the stairs and the two stood face to face, shouting at each other. Observers could see sparks coming off of both of them as they stood on a balcony in full view of the court.
They spoke simultaneously.
"Dr. Gold, just the one I wanted to see."
"Miss Swan, just the one I wanted to see."
"I ought to punch you in the face."
"I ought to take you over my knee."
"Whatever were you thinking?"
"Whatever were you thinking?"
"What are you talking about?"
"What are you talking about?
"Knowing that Snow and Nolen were my parents all this time."
"Taking Regina out of stasis."
"So what?" Emma answered him. "I thought that nobody should be left in the care of the Fae and, anyway, she needed to stand trial, if for nothing else, the murder of Graham," Emma answered. "Did you forget?"
"Well, she escaped," Gold explained as if talking with a dull-witted four-year-old. "And she's a magical being, in case you forgot, and, as soon as she felt well enough, she just walked out of the hospital room, injuring several people who got in her way. And now she's out there, who knows where, free to do whatever damage and pull whatever crap she can. You should have at least let me know you had pulled this stunt so I could have helped contain her."
"Maybe so, but you should have told me about my parents. Why didn't you?"
"So," he said, backing off from the irate Emma. "You finally put it all together."
"Henry did. Why didn't you tell me?"
"To what end? You would never have believed me unless you had seen that damned facility first."
Emma glared at him a moment, "Oh what the hell?" and suddenly, she raised her hand and hit him with a fireball. Immediately after this happened, Emma looked askanced, looking at her hand as if it didn't belong to her.
Gold had raised his hand and had effortlessly absorbed the energy.
"Well Emma, I was wondering when you would find out you could do that." He muttered to himself, "Why is the first shot always fire?" He then addressed Emma," Not your smartest move, dearie, to hit a fire entity, that's me, with fire. Think cold. You're more likely to be able to hurt me with cold. And think your own affiliation, Miss Swan. Think water. Think sleet, freezing rain, hail, oh shit!" and he had to step aside from a giant ball of snow and ice that Emma had managed to conjure and send his way.
"Now that was better," he was continuing to tutor her. "If that had connected, it might have actually have. . ." he had to raise his hand to ward off another sudden volley of several giant snowballs. "Emma," he advised her again. "You're thinking too soft. You shouldn't be playing with me. You're trying to hurt me. Think hard," he directed her.
And for the next several minutes Emma kept up a non-stop barrage of ice chips, icicles and sundry other pieces of frozen precipitation. Gold disintegrated them, side stepped from them or, occasionally, boomeranged them back onto her. Emma began to realize he was being strictly defensive. He hadn't fired a single shot of his own in her direction. She also realized she was exhausting herself. So she took a quick run at him and, speeding in onto him, she landed a lightening quick jab on the magician, hitting him squarely on the nose with her fist.
Bae gasped. He knew Emma was fast, but he also knew that no one, no one, had ever, ever gotten a hit in on his father. . . unless his father was letting them, unless they were possibly faster than he was? Gold promptly reflexively raised his hand as if to strike her back, but perhaps because of the audience, he dropped it, not willing to hit a female in front of others, perhaps not willing to hit a female, even one more than capable of taking care of herself.
Emma took advantage of his hesitation and followed up with a quick fist into his stomach, doubling Gold over. "One for each of my parents. I should give you one for me, too. Any other little bombshell secrets?" she demanded. She had backed away from him and quickly from the new vantage point, managed to kick him on the hip, making him wince.
"OK Emma, let me have some peace and quiet!" This time when he raised his hand, everything went still for Emma. She realized that she wasn't able to move.
"You bastard, what have you done to me?" she demanded, her feet glued to the floor, her hands plastered to her sides. She was able to turn her head, but little else.
"Damn, Emma." He rubbed his nose and massaged his belly. "I wasn't the one to do it to you or your parents. I just happened to know about it. I probably have a couple of thousand secrets. I don't tell everybody everything I know. I don't tell anybody everything I know." He regained some measure of composure. "Nobody needs that burden."
Emma felt momentarily chastised. But, she was still able to talk. "It was unfair of you. You kept calling me Princess and tried to make me feel it was just some little whimsy on your part, but all the time it was the truth. I had a family out there – my age, but still my family and you never told me and I thought you cared about me." Emma couldn't move away from him but was able to turn her head away from him.
"So I should have told you right out, first thing. . . " Emma was nodding back at him. "Like you and Bae told Henry?"
"That's a cheap shot. Henry is still a child. I'm an adult."
"Not to me, you're not," he told her. "You are still very much a child to me. A child of children. You've been here for less than thirty years. I've been here more than ten times that. What difference to me if you had found this out an hour ago or a week ago or even a year ago? It's all the same. And why should I be the one to have to tell you? The information was all there for the taking."
"I don't know," Emma was beginning to feel a modicum of remorse at having pummeled the man. "I'm just mad that you knew and teased me with the information. You could have told me any time."
"Emma," he came and stood next to her. She was still immobilized. "Emma, look at me."
She did as he had told her, initially gazing steadily into his eyes. Her anger sustaining her. But then fading away. But then, she seemed to waver and her eyes flickered. She looked away, a faint color rising to her cheeks. No, no no, she would absolutely not be attracted to this man anymore. She would not let that trigger control her. No, no, no. She managed to close her eyes.
He was smiling, she knew he was smiling. He leaned in very closely and whispered. "I could have told you, but I chose not to. I don't operate under the same rules as others. I. don't. have. to," he emphasized to her. He stepped back and looked the immobilized young woman over. "This is actually pretty nice."
Emma's anger was rapidly building again. The son of a bitch, casting a spell, preventing her from moving. She opened her eyes and started to talk and he waved his hand, silencing her.
"Oh, this is very nice. I can talk and you have to listen." He walked around her. "You understand that this is a small part of what the Reul Ghorm could have done to all of us in her office, if she had so chosen. Do you see why I wanted to get us out of there? Do you see why attacking her would have been a bad idea?"
Emma couldn't bear to look at him. She nodded, miserably.
"She could have immobilized us and taken her sweet time with us. Killing us, torturing us, altering us. Have a little more faith in my judgment, dearie?"
Emma nodded again, still not looking at him.
Bae had come up to his father. "Papa, I don't think keeping Emma like this is a good idea. Sooner or later you're going to have to let her go," he looked over the immobilized young woman. "And she's gonna be pissed."
"Yeah, but isn't it delightful for the moment? You know, these are not difficult spells, Bae, and could come in handy if you continue to want to bed this. . . " he hesitated as to what to call Emma, "lady," he finally finished. "I can show them to you. Emma is quite the spitfire. She's going to take some firm handling," he advised his son.
Emma was now glaring at both men. Bae met her eyes and he smiled, slowly. "Perhaps, Papa,but no, thanks. I don't think I need spells to . . . subdue her."
Emma closed her eyes. Again. She knew she was blushing, she had to be blushing.
Gold sighed. "I do need to unfreeze her, though," he admitted and turned to her. "Emma," he addressed her directly. "I will need your help to take down Regina. She's powerful and sneaky. I want someone protecting my back. I'm recruiting you. And, no, this is not the favor you owe me."
Emma was just able to manage a slight nod.
Gold considered the young woman a moment as if still debating what to do. It wouldn't hurt her to remain under his control a few moments longer; she need to respect him better. He turned to Bae, "Why did you let me find out on my own that Belle is an empath?"
"Why should I be the one to have to tell you? I figured you already knew," Bae was smiling at his father. "And wasn't it more fun to find out about it yourself?"
"Not hardly," Gold answered. "I kept wondering why the woman knew when I was lying. She was beginning to frighten me."
"It's good for you to remember what it feels like to be frightened," observed Bae.
"No it's not," his father contradicted him. He turned to Emma and went over to stand in front of her, "Forgiven?" he asked her and gave her a slight wave so that she could speak.
She flashed her eyes up to look into his. "Not ever, you son of a bitch."
He shook his head. "Oh Emma. If you were mine, I would so enjoy punishing you for that." But then he shrugged. He was standing very close to her. "I am going to release you. And I do need, and I will have, your help in finding Regina."
"All right. I guess I owe you that," Emma agreed. She couldn't avoid him when he gently kissed her on the forehead. . . and then she felt herself mobile again.
Gold had turned and looked down at the crowd, which by this time included Snow and Nolen, Ruby and Henry. "Shows over, folks. Go home."
"Wait a minute." It was Nolen. He had come up on the balcony. "Did I understand what I've heard? That Snow and I are Emma's parents? That the Fae took our genetic material and created her?"
"Yeah," Emma answered, "They did. I'm your daughter."
Nolen swung on Gold. "And he knew about this?"
Emma spoke up, "Henry told me. He found out that he was my and Bae's child and then was able to get far enough into the data base to find out that you and Snow are my parents."
Nolen stood quietly, then held out his arms to Emma. "Emma, so I have a daughter and," he suddenly realized, "I also have a grandson. This is wonderful. Strange, but wonderful."
"I agree, dad," Emma responded mischievously. "It's odd, but I always felt kinda close to you. Always looked to you for advice. . . and I wanted to be like you."
"Oh Emma, I was always so proud of you. Everyone told me I was losing it getting a petite blonde for my security chief, but I had faith in you. I just knew you could do the job. And you were so good at it."
"Oh come on," Gold impatiently interrupting the reunion. "This is disgusting. Can we not go now? I'm concerned about what Regina might be up to. Emma, we have to find and contain her, right away."
Emma stepped away from Nolen. "Later, dad," she said. "I've got to go with the crazy man."
"Not a man," he reminded her and waved his green-gold fingers with their blackened nails at her.
+ + + + + A Magic Primer
"Where do you think Regina went?" she asked, trailing after Gold as he moved rapidly through the streets, following the trail of destruction that Regina had left behind her. He ignored her, intent on following the trail.
Emma tried again to talk with him, this time changing the subject. "So I'm capable of magic, too. How long have you known this particular piece?" she asked him, running alongside him.
"I didn't know. I just suspected," he answered. He gave her a quick answer, still gazing around, seeing things she did not.
"How powerful am I?" she asked him, adding, "I mean, I didn't think I was making a dent in your armor."
"It's not always about power, Emma. It's how effectively, how smartly, you use your talents."
"And I'm better off with watery stuff?"
He glanced at her. "Probably. You were certainly packing more power in your ice moves than in your weak-ass fireball."
"But you're fire." She said it as a statement.
"Pretty obvious, that," he responded.
"And the Reul Ghorm?"
"Everything. She can do everything. I've not known her to ever come up short. To overcome her, you have to catch her completely unawares, when she's not expecting you. Very hard to do that. Like sneaking up on a spider."
She hesitated. "When I was a kid, I used to see things in mirrors, things I didn't understand. Was that part of my magic?"
"Mirrors and water magic? Sure, there's often a connection. You were probably spontaneously scrying or, maybe, tapping into your foresight."
"But how about. . . " she began.
He waved her off, indicating that the magic lesson was over for the day. As they continued to follow The Path of Destruction, Emma noticed the carnage was becoming less and less. As they moved further and further out from the hospital, Emma had difficulty seeing what he was attending to, what he was trailing. Occasionally he would stop and sniff the air.
"Can you smell her?" she asked him, a trifle repulsed.
"I can smell her magic," he told Emma. "Each of us has a distinctive scent." Emma looked at him puzzled. He continued, "In case you're wondering, you smell like cinnamon. Delicious. Belle smells like roses." He stopped. "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" he looked panicked.
"What's wrong?" she asked him.
He looked back at Emma. "She is heading towards Belle." He took off at a dead run with Emma following him.
+ + + + + A Delivery
Belle was working in the nursery. It was a large upstairs room with a big bay window. Lots of light. There was a small table draped with a lace cloth and two dainty chairs in the alcove of the bay window. To the side was a crib, a chest of drawers, a changing table and a bookcase, already stuffed with children's story books. A rocking chair was set to one side of the crib. There was a small daybed along one wall and another small cabinet set off to one far corner.
Belle had decorated the nursery in greens with some browns, and, of course, a few touches of gold, somehow drawn to the colors of nature. She was almost finished with a mural she was painting on one wall, a mural of a large, ancient forest, with a sturdy picturesque cottage in the corner and a path leading to and then by the cottage. Somehow the picture had come into her mind after one of her intimate encounters with Gold. In her fancy, she thought of it as one of his memories. She knew it wasn't one of hers.
She was resting. She rested alot nowadays. She put her hand on her stomach, feeling the baby shift around. She knew that Gold almost certainly knew the gender of the child and, of course, it would have been easy to ask Archie to find out for her, but she had decided against it.
She was satisfied with how things were coming along. Everything that had to be ready was ready. She knew it would be soon. She knew Gold had wanted to have the wedding first. She was hoping she would make it. She was pretty sure she would.
She heard someone at the door. This wasn't new. Gold was always having flowers sent over or fruit or jewelry or books or something. She didn't think twice as she went down the stairs and opened her beautiful front door.
"Yes," she said, greeting the person who stood there. It was a figure draped in a cloak.
"Can I help you?" she asked after the figure said nothing.
"Yes dear. I was sent to bring you some apples," the figure responded. It was a woman, an old woman judging by her voice.
"Of course dear, won't you come in? Can I get you some refreshment?"
"Water would be lovely," the woman answered. "Or apple juice if you have any."
Belle turned away. And felt herself sinking.
+ + + + + Not What They Expected
By the time Emma and Gold had run back to his house, they found the front door opened. There was no sign of Belle.
"Damn," Gold swore. "She got here before us. If anything has happened to Belle, I don't know what I'll do."
"She's going to be ok. Belle's a smart woman," Emma tried to reassure him.
"Do you think she's ok?" Gold asked her, disbelievingly.
Emma swallowed and shook her head. "No, not really, no. Sorry." She then asked him, "What does she want with Belle? Just to hurt you?"
"She can control me through Belle," he admitted. "She knows. . . she knows I love, I love Belle," he looked Emma in the eye. "She can hurt me by hurting Belle. She can hurt me by hurting our child."
"And why does she want to hurt you?" Emma asked.
"Because I didn't love her back. I used her. I dallied with other women when I was supposed to be with her." He had started to whisper, not wanting to alert Regina that they had come inside the house.
"Oh, so this is your chickens coming home to roost. Payback for your indiscretions. Pretty harsh," Emma noted, also whispering. "But not undeserved."
"Yeah. But Belle could die for my indiscretions."
"Well, shit. Where are they, then?"
Gold closed his eyes. After a moment, he said, "Upstairs. In the nursery." They quietly climbed up the stairs. The door was open.
Regina was sitting in one of the two chairs set next to the small table. Belle was standing by her, pouring her some tea. Both women looked up at him and smiled.
"My dear Regina," Gold began. Emma was on his heels.
"Darling, Regina and I have been having the most wonderful conversation," Belle told him. "You two come in and join us. Have some tea?"
Gold was not sure what was happening. He shook his head, "I'll get something alittle stronger." He glanced at Emma. "You?"
"Something stronger for me, too," Emma agreed.
Gold carefully moved across the room, keeping Regina and Belle in his sights, moving behind them. He knelt down at the small cabinet, the top covered with baby cleansing items. He briefly took his eyes off the pair, kneeling down to reach inside the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of McCutcheon's whiskey. He grabbed two small glasses as he stood and turned. With Belle's and Regina's backs to him, he motioned to Emma, holding his hand sideways and pointing out with two fingers. Two fingers?
Emma looked over at Belle and Regina. Three, she gestured back using the same sideways hand nodded and poured hers first and then the same for himself. He maneuvered back around to hand Emma her glass of hard liquor.
Emma whispered to him, "You keep liquor in a baby's room?"
"I've parented a child before, Emma. It's the best place to keep it."
The two moved over to the daybed and sat.
Belle had waited until the two had settled in before she began. "Regina and I have been chatting about your time together. You were a very naughty boy, Rum," Belle admonished him.
"I was," he admitted. "I'm sure I owe her an apology." What the hell was going on? Regina was just sitting quietly while Belle served her tea. She was sipping it, already!
He glanced at Emma. She was just as confused as he was. She had quickly bolted down half her drink already. They had expected to come in, find the place a shambles and certainly find that Regina had a gun or a Taser or, at least, a magical finger on Belle. But they had found the room well-ordered and Belle and Regina relaxing over tea. There weren't even any raised voices.
"Regina," Belle said softly. "You know what you have to do."
"Yes, yes, I do," Regina answered, calmly. "I'm to go with Lieutenant Commander Swan to be taken to Captain Nolen."
"Yes, dear. That would seem right, don't you think?. And you are going to behave yourself too, aren't you?"
"Oh yes. I will be good."
"Of course. Lovely, dear. Now run along."
Emma was stunned, but she polished off her drink and had the wherewithal to stand and escort Regina out. She glanced back at Belle and mouthed, "What the hell?"
Belle just smiled, "Later, Emma, later. Regina is expecting you to take her somewhere she can rest and be safe."
Gold stood and watched Emma lead a docile Regina out. "I want to know now," he insisted. He was wary in approaching Belle.
"Of course you do. Are you sure you don't want some tea, darling?"
"I want to know what happened. That woman came here to kill you and when I get here, she's about as fierce as a sleepy kitten. What happened?"
"Oh, we just chatted," Belle had sat herself down and poured herself a second cup of tea.
"Belle?" Gold was pressing.
"Well, Bae had told me that I had not developed my talents and had never really used them. So, well, when she got here, I, of course, didn't recognize her and let her in. She said she had an apple delivery for me. Then she, I guess she knocked me out with a spell or something. I lost consciousness. When I woke up, we were up here in the nursery and she was letting me know who she was and was threatening me and telling me how she was going to kill me, kill the baby, maybe kill you and so on."
"Oh god, Belle, I'm so sorry. This is my fault. If I hadn't behaved like a selfish bastard in the past. . ."
"Actually, you're right about that, but too late now. Anyway, I let her rant and it was as if I could see why she was so upset. She felt that she was in love with you and that you had never loved her back."
"Well, I can't vouch for her feelings, but I was certainly never in love with her," he admitted.
"She was in a lot of pain, so much pain. She had also wanted to give you a child and seeing me, as I am, was just too, too painful. She was never able to conceive with you, with anyone. I suspect she was one of the earlier Fae-hybrids, attracted to you but not fertile. And she really did want a child. It's really very sad. She's not quite sane."
"So then what happened?"
"I concentrated on making her feel sorry for herself and not so mad at me. . . or you. I convinced her that she needed, she deserved, to be taken care of, to go somewhere where people would look out for her. She needed to rest. She had to get some rest. And that Emma would take her to a safe place."
"I'm impressed," Gold admitted. He started over to sit down next to her.
"Oh yes," Belle added as an afterthought. "I also kinda made her forget she could do magic stuff."
He stopped. "Now, I'm terrified," Gold told her. He didn't exactly back away from Belle but did stand still, regarding her cautiously.
Belle watched him out of the corner of her eye. He did seem a little nervous around her, as if she had suddenly transformed into something totally different, something frightening.
"I'm not comfortable with what I did. I mean, I went into her mind and moved some things around. I didn't know I could do that. It feels wrong, unethical."
He didn't say anything for a moment. Belle looked up at him. He was staring behind her, at her mostly finished mural.
"Who did this?" he asked hoarsely.
"I did," she answered.
"Where'd the picture come from?"
"My imagination," she answered. "Are you all right?"
He slumped down, barely making it back into one of the little chairs by the table. He was struggling to catch his breath. "I. . . I. . . I recognize it. It was from the 'before' time. I didn't think I had any memories from the 'before' time."
Belle elaborated. "You had just made love to me and we were talking about happy memories. This just came into my head."
"I remember it as happy. I think, I think that this was once my home. But now there's another memory. I had a family. But it was all burned. There were invaders. I lost my family, my home . . . I lost everything. I had nothing left, nothing left to lose. I remember that. It was before I went to the Fae."
"I didn't mean to upset you. I just thought it was beautiful. When the thought came into my head, it was like a memory, but I knew it wasn't mine."
He turned to her, his eyes glistening. "What else can you do? What else are you capable of?" He stood and backed away from her. He was shaking his head. "I am increasingly convinced that I need to be even more respectful than I have been about your particular skills. I mean, I can put thoughts into people's minds, but you can implant entire blocks of feelings." He looked at her closely. "You didn't put a spell on me, did you?"
Belle grinned at him. "You need to relax," she told him.
Gold shook his head, keeping his back to the door and stepping back yet another step. "I think I know you, know all about you, but then something like this happens and I'm blown away. I came here to rescue you, but you didn't need rescuing."
"No, I guess I didn't. But we do need to talk about the liquor in the baby's room," she told him.
A.N. Obviously, not the final chapter yet; it was running just too long and I realized I wouldn't have it finished in time for a weekly posting.
Thanks, of course to my wonderful reviewers: Notsureyet18, thedoctorsgirl42, MyraValhallah, Dracomom, BrittanyLS, Jaybird6 (thx for the thumbs up on the Empathy route – I think the empathy is a rare and underrated talent and wanted to give Belle the talent in its most powerful manifestation), Grace5231973 and Seramarias (I took Regina in a different direction than you had proposed – couldn't handle a three-way).
NEXT: The Wedding, The Baby, Bae has to spill about Belle's third talent and Belle's terrible, awful secret (her words, mind you), and a petite denouement with some final words about The Alchemist. I think I will get all this covered. Thx as always txm