21
Never A Dull Moment
The next full day of their vacation, Rumple, Bae, and Henry returned to the lake to fish and brought along a small soft cooler of iced tea and soda and some snacks. Belle and Emma had decided to stay home and make a puzzle and Belle was going to show Emma how to make some special grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and a dessert one as well from her new cookbook, Grilled Cheese Please! Emma had expessed an interest in learning how to cook simple things now that she had someone to cook for, and not rely upon frozen dinners and things out of a can or put in the microwave. Not that she wanted to become Martha Stewart or anything, but she did want to at least be able to cook some dishes for Bae and Henry not involving Kraft and Hamburger Helper. Belle admitted freely that she had learned how to cook from Rumple, both in Fairy Tale Land and here. But she would be happy to show Emma what she knew, since Gold was a very good teacher.
While Belle and Emma were having cooking lessons, the guys had set up their poles along the lake shore and were waiting for bites while drinking iced tea and Coke. Henry was hoping to get several large fish to take back to the women and have for dinner, since he had really enjoyed the bass and trout they'd caught last time they'd been up here.
He was listening to his iPod, which Emma had bought him before coming on this vacation, while Rumple and Bae discussed Bae's wanting to move into a larger apartment or even a small house. Since Rumple owned nearly all of Storybrooke, he knew where all the vacancies were.
Henry glanced over at the two men, marveling at how similar they looked now that Rumple was no longer wearing his Armani, but in ordinary stonewashed jeans, a plaid white and blue shirt and a jean jacket with hiking boots on. He was talking about a house on Walnut Street, and gesturing animatedly with his hand.
His grandson smirked and went to check his line. One thing he'd noticed about Rumple the more time he spent with the man was that Rumple tended to talk with his hands, using gestures and flourishes to emphasize his words, like some Italians did. And like Henry and Bae did also. It must be an inherited thing, Henry mused.
Henry felt a tug and reeled in his line, finding a small trout flopping on it. "I got one!"
Bae came over. "Nice going!" he praised. Then he took the fish off the line. "He looks like a keeper, Henry. Let's put him in the bucket." He took the trout and they put him in the pail with the lake water to keep him alive until they'd caught enough, and then Rumple or Bae would kill and fillet them beside the lake and bring them home wrapped in some brown butcher paper in the cooler.
Henry went and rebaited his line and waited to catch another.
But just then Bae had a bite on his line, and Rumple also.
Their fish—another large rainbow and a bass—were bigger than Henry's, and the boy found himself growing a tad jealous. He had wanted to show off his fish to his mother and bring home the biggest one.
They continued fishing, but to Henry's dismay, he only caught small ones he had to throw back, while Bae caught another big bass, and Rumple two more good-sized rainbow trout.
Henry scowled. "Aww, man!" He kicked at the ground. "When am I gonna catch a big one?"
"You just have to be patient," Rumple told him. "You want me to cast for you? Sometimes the big ones are further out, in the deep water."
"No! I can cast myself," Henry grumbled. He wasn't a baby.
"Hey, watch the attitude," Bae reprimanded softly.
"I can do it, Dad!" the boy snapped. "I know how to fish!"
"Nobody said you didn't, but you sure don't know how to lose gracefully," his dad pointed out.
Rumple chuckled. "Like another little boy I once knew."
Bae slanted a glanced at him. "That was a long time ago, Papa."
"I still remember it," the other said.
"Yeah, cause you never forget anything. You're like an elephant."
"So sue me," Rumple said lightly.
"Tell!" Henry begged, forgetting his bad mood with the prospect of a story.
"No!" Bae protested. "You don't need to hear this story."
"On the contrary, I think this is exactly what he needs to hear," countered Rumple. "Let's sit down and have a snack and I'll tell you about when your papa was seven and thought winning was everything."
Bae hit himself in the forehead. "Hell! I wish it wasn't a sin to drug your parent into oblivion!" He went to recast his line while his father and son sat down with some more drinks and Slim Jims and mozzarella sticks and Rumple began his tale.
"Wait, before you start, let me have your iPod, Henry," Bae asked, coming over to them. At least the music would drown out whatever embarrassing thing his father was telling his son.
Henry reached into his pocket and went to hand his iPod to Bae, only to find that it wasn't there. "Umm . . . wait a minute, Dad . . ." he said, trying to stall for time while he felt about frantically. But it was no use, his iPod was gone.
Bae tapped a foot against the ground. "Uh . . . kid, sometime today would be nice."
Henry looked up at him, a sheepish grin on his face. "Ummm . . . Dad . . . I think I lost it . . ."
"You what?"
"It . . . it must have fallen out while I was over there, looking at some tracks," Henry pointed to the woods, where a small game trail was. "I know I had it while I was there, and then I put it in my pocket and . . . err . . . it fell."
Bae shook his head disappointedly. "Kid, you have to be more responsible. C'mon, let's go look for it."
Henry rose to his feet, looking rather upset. "Aww, Dad! I was gonna listen to a story."
"You can do that later, first you help me find your iPod," Bae said sharply.
"Go on, lad," Rumple waved him off. "I'll be here, watching the lines. Maybe even take a little nap." He waved a hand and set a ward to prevent anything from disturbing the campsite and another little spell to warn him if there was a bite on the line so he could take the fish out. Then he relaxed in the warm summer sun, drinking some iced tea.
Further down the trail, he could hear Bae lecturing, "You need to be more careful, Henry. We're not all like your adopted mother, Mayor Mills, here. Money doesn't grow on trees and that's a two hundred dollar iPod you just lost!"
"I know, but Dad . . . you can replace it . . ."
Rumple rolled his eyes. Boy, that's the wrong thing to say . . .for all she loves you, Regina's spoiled you, giving you everything you want without having to work for it . . . He hoped that Bae would correct that little flaw, because it could harm the boy later on, and that was not a good thing. A little hard work never hurt anyone, and it built character.
Bae eyebrows went into his hair at his son's offhand comment. "Replace it? Didn't you hear what I just said?" he growled. "I don't have two hundred dollars to just give you, Henry . .. and neither does your mom."
"Grandpa does," the boy replied sulkily. "And it wasn't my fault it fell out!"
Bae walked a little further down the trail, searching the ground. "Well, your grandfather isn't just going to give you money for no reason . . .and it was your fault you lost it, because if you'd been more careful you'd have put it in your zippered pocket in your jacket, not just shoved it into your jeans."
"Dad, you're acting like I wanted to lose it," grumbled Henry.
"Wanted to or not, it's lost," his father pointed out. "And you don't even seem concerned over it!"
"Whaddaya want me to do, conjure it up?" his son said sarcastically.
Bae halted and gave his son a Look. "What I want, mister, is for you to stop mouthing off to me and start being a bit more responsible for your stuff! Your mom spent a lot of money on this and you act like it's no big deal to lose it . . .and I don't care if it was an accident, Henry. Maybe if you have to work to earn the money to replace it, you'll appreciate it more!"
"Dad, you're being ridiculous!" Henry snapped, then he abruptly stalked off into the trees. "I think I was up here."
Bae ground his back teeth together at his son's attitude. Papa, if I was this bad at his age, I'm surprised you didn't strangle me! I feel like I'm talking to a damn wall! "Henry! Come back here! We need to stick together!"
"You wanted me to look for it . . .well, I'm looking!" his son yelled back. "Besides, you walk too slow," he muttered and ran further on down the track.
That comment made Bae long to take his son by the scruff of the neck and deliver a rather pointed smack to his privileged backside . . . or ground him for a week and not replace his iPod. He continued quartering the trail in front of him, trying to see if there were any marks of something that had fallen.
Up ahead, Henry was kicking the ground and thinking about how unfair and unreasonable his dad was being . . .blaming him for losing the stupid iPod and in his temper he went a bit further than he'd intended into the woods.
Meanwhile, Rumple had lain back on the grass and was snoozing, unaware of the little drama taking place in the woods a few yards away.
Bae saw something glinting in the trees up ahead and he went to see what it was, thinking the sunlight was reflecting off some of the metal on the music player. But when he reached the spot, he saw an empty steel-jawed trap and the earth churned up around it, as if an animal had recently managed to get free from it.
"What in hell . . .?" he muttered, and then something huge poked its head out of the brush and bared its teeth and snarled in the familiar singsong wail of a cornered cougar.
Bae stumbled backwards, his hands held out, as the big cat emerged from the brush, tail lashing, ears laid back, and yellow green eyes blazing. One front paw was held off the ground . . . and it was dripping blood.
Once again, it let loose with that eerie screech.
"Whoa! Easy!" the counselor gasped, unsure what to do next. He knew you should never run from a predator, that it made them chase you, but he could feel adrenaline rushing through him, and his heart was hammering in his chest from fear.
The cougar crouched, ready to spring, plainly seeing the lone human as a threat.
Henry, upon hearing the eerie screams, ran back down the trail just in time to see the big cat menacing his father, who was frozen a few feet away. "Dad!"
"Henry!" Bae called. "Get out of here, kid! Go get your grandpa!"
"No!" his son cried, scared to death now, all his former resentment of his dad fled in the face of his parent's peril. "I'm not leaving you!"
The appearance of another human made the cat's nerves snap . . . and it snarled loudly and sprang at the helpless Baelfire.
"Dad!" Henry shrieked, and threw out a hand . . . desperate to stop the cat from hurting his father . . .and something totally unexpected happened.
Sometimes desperation draws forth courage and abilities one never knew they had.
It was so then . . . as Henry's desperation tapped into an unknown dormant talent . . .and purple light flared and erupted in a swath from Henry's hand and covered the springing cougar. . .
. . . and when it vanished a second later, the cougar was sitting on the ground . . . a mini replica of itself, as a housecat.
"Dad! Are you okay?" Henry half-sobbed, running over to Bae and hugging him tightly.
Bae's arms came around Henry and held him close. "Henry. . . do you know what you just did?"
"Uh . . . I think I used magic . . ." Henry panted, his face half-buried in Bae's shirt. "I just . . . wanted to make sure the cat didn't hurt you . . . and that was the only thing I could think of to do . . .make it into something harmless . . ."
"You did good, tiger," his father praised. "And I can't wait to tell your grandpa he's got another magician in the family." His hand stroked his son's hair.
"Bae! What happened?" Rumple demanded, appearing in a flicker of purple smoke. "I heard Henry yelling . . . woke me up from a sound sleep . . ."
"It's okay, Papa," Bae reassured him. "We had a little problem with a cougar, but Henry . . .fixed it . . ." He gestured to the small cat now crouched on the forest floor, still holding its injured paw.
Rumple stared at the feline. "A cougar? You mean—" he eyed his grandson and said, "So your magic's finally awakened."
Henry gaped at him. "You . . . you knew . . . that I had magic?"
"Well, I suspected," Rumple corrected. "Since you were the child of True Love, it only made sense for you to have magic too . .. most True Love babies do . . . and you have the Heart of the Truest Believer, so . . . I'm not really surprised, lad . . ."
"Grandpa, the cougar was attacking Dad . . . I had to do something . .. so I changed him into a cat," Henry said to Rumple. Then he looked at the small cat again, who looked bewildered, and cried, "Look! He's hurt! That's . . . that's why he probably attacked Dad . . ."
He pointed to the cat's injured left front paw.
"I found a trap over there, he probably got caught in it," Bae indicated the steel trap some few feet away.
The cat meowed softly.
"Aww! It's hurting really bad. We gotta help it," Henry said, moving over to pick up the feline.
"Hold it, son. Here, use this to wrap him in," Rumple said, taking off his jean jacket. "Otherwise you'll get scratched all over. He might be hurt, but he's still got claws, even if they're not as huge now. Plus, he's not used to people."
Henry cautiously approached the cat and whispered, "Hey, boy. Nobody's gonna hurt you. We just want to help you." Then he threw the jacket over the cat, except for the head, and wrapped his arms around the injured feline. The cat yowled, afraid, and struggled.
Henry wrapped Rumple's jacket tighter and said, "Grandpa, we have to heal it!"
Rumple looked grave. "Henry, I don't know . . .that paw looks pretty badly torn up."
"You can heal it, Grandpa!" the boy pleaded, giving Rumple an irresistible look from his huge brown eyes, so like his father's.
"Uh . . . why don't we heal him together?" Rumple suggested, thinking that would be a good thing to do with his grandson, and a way to gauge just how strong the boy's magical talent was. "Let's bring him over to the lake and we'll set up a sort of surgery there."
Henry cradled the former cougar gently in his arms and followed Rumple and Bae back to the lake shore.
While Bae went and pulled in the lines and removed the fish they'd caught, Rumple summoned a table and draped it with a sterile sheet like they would an operating room and also summoned a few other things, like gauze and sterile needles, thread, and a potion similar to an antibiotic with a small plastic oral syringe, like ones used to administer medicine to infants.
"Set the cat down here, Henry," Gold instructed, and some plastic gloves appeared on his hands, a cap on his head, and a mask on his face, as they would if he were a vet.
Henry did so, and the petrified animal tried to run away, until Rumple gestured and whispered, "Lullaby, kitty."
The cat toppled over in a deep sleep.
"Okay, let's see what we've got here," Rumple said, undoing the jacket. He frowned at the deep lacerations in the animal's paw . . .one of which had nearly severed a toe. "Hmm . . .I don't like the look of that . . ."
Henry peered at the cat, and also found himself wearing gloves, cap, and a mask. "Grandpa, why can't you just heal him?"
"Look, Henry, at the paw and tell me what you see," Gold pointed at the mangled paw.
"Uh . . .it's bleeding and . . . err . . .its toe looks almost about to fall off and . . . and it's infected . . ." Part of the toe looked inflammed and purplish streaks were going up it.
"Yes. And that's going to present a big problem, son. If the paw's already infected, it's probably entered the bloodstream and healing that's going to cost us a great deal. All magic comes with a price, dearie." He lifted the paw gently in his hand. "Look . . .this toe is almost severed . . .it's hanging on by a flap of skin . . .and badly infected . . ."
"So what do we do?"
"Well . . .you can try and heal it . . . but it might be kinder to just amputate it, Henry . . ." Gold suggested gently. "Even if I can reattach it with magic . . . it'll always be crooked and hamper him with balance and so forth. And doing so might well knock me flat on my back for a week, I haven't totally recovered myself from what Zelena did to me."
Henry considered. He wanted to heal the cat the right way . . . and he didn't want to endanger Rumple. "But what happens if you amputate it?"
"The cat will limp a little, but I think eventually will learn to compensate for its missing toe," Rumple surmised.
"Okay . . ." sighed the boy unhappily.
Rumple nodded in approval, knowing that decision had not been an easy one. "All right. Look away if you need to," he instructed, then he used his magic to completely sever the toe, then cauterize it with a bit of fire.
Henry bit his lip hard, then he laid his hand on the cat's head. "How do I heal it, Grandpa?"
"Like this. You must . . . imagine him healed . . .believe it like nothing else . . . and concentrate fully . . ." Gold was using an almost hypnotic tone now, drawing his apprentice into a half-aware state, forcing the boy to concentrate harder than he ever had before.
White tendrils of magic erupted from Henry's hands.
"That's it! Very good!" Rumple praised, then he laid his own hand upon the cat's flank.
Together grandson and grandfather slowly healed both the outer lacerations and Rumple went further internally to heal the infection the cat had developed. At least partially . . . then he picked up the potion with the syringe and held the sleeping animal's mouth open, inserted the syringe, and had the cat swallow the potion, stroking its throat.
Henry could feel a sudden lassitude sweep over him, and he halted, yawning. "Why am I so tired?"
"Because healing's hard work," answered his mentor. "Most magicians find it too hard to do . . .unless they're born with the ability to do so."
"Oh . . . but there's still some cuts on his paw," Henry pointed out two long ones on the cat's leg.
"I know, dearie. But I'm rather tired too . . .so let's do something more mundane . . . and sew these closed."
"I don't know how," his grandson said in dismay.
"Watch and learn," Rumple ordered. He took the needle and thread and expertly threaded the needle, then he bent and started sewing, neatly and precisely.
At first Henry felt slightly sick, and he gulped sharply.
Rumple didn't look up from his sewing, and Henry wanted to make his grandfather proud of him, so he didn't say anything and concentrated on taking deep breaths.
Pretty soon his nausea lessened and he was able to observe Rumple without feeling like he was going to throw up.
Rumple put in four stitches and then wrapped the paw with a light gauze bandage and banished the items. "There! That's all we can do, Henry."
Henry wrapped the jacket around the comatose animal. "Dad . . . can I keep him?"
Bae groaned. He'd known that was coming. "Henry, this is . . .it's a wild animal . . ."
"Not any more, Dad. It's just a cat now. Please?"
"Aww . .. c'mon . . .!" He couldn't believed he was allowing the boy to do this to him.
"Pleease?"
"We'll ask your mother," Bae sighed, then said, "We caught five trout and some bass too. Plenty for supper tonight."
"Put them in the cooler, Bae, and we'll pack up and go home," Rumple advised. "I think I've had enough of bonding with nature today."
"Me too," said Bae.
Henry said nothing, he was too busy trying to think up an argument to convince his mother to keep the cat.
Bae was filleting their catch and still trying to wrap his head around the fact that his son had magic. But he wondered what Emma would say just the same.