1 Month Later
Things were calm and Rumple started to get restless.
Nothing stayed quiet for long. Not in his life. The other shoe always dropped. His wives were getting along as well as they do. Belle and the baby were safe. Lily was slowly melding in with the family….
Even Snow and Charming were visiting more.
Something was going to happen. Nothing ever went this well for someone like him. He didn't get perfectly happy endings. He never thought himself blessed until he got his family.
But he always lost his family in one way or another. Either he did something to lose them or they just left. He worked hard, he did the right thing because he wanted to keep his family but he knew one day something was going to happen and he was going to lose them.
And now he was wondering if that day was here.
It'd been a month of convincing both him and Regina to let Henry go with Baelfire and Lily to go get their things. Rumple had agreed that it would be fine on the night at dinner when Baelfire had suggested it but the more time passed, the more he thought about it.
Other than the child Belle carried, all his children were going to pile in a car and go to a place where he couldn't reach or protect them .
What if something happened? What if he lost all of them?
He'd still yet to face as many consequences as he deserved for the things he'd done. What if his children had to pay them to punish him?
He took so much, wasn't it karma to lose a lot in return.
"You're antsy," Maleficent told him as they prepared a small lunch for the three to take with them.
He felt his jaw clench, "I am not"
"You're lying to the woman that's known you the longest, really?" Maleficent asked with a raised eyebrow, "Of course you're antsy. I can tell. I can always tell. You're not focusing, you're moody….you're not sleeping either. You have dark circles under your eyes. THat's a sure sign, I knew that back in the Enchanted Forest too."
"I didn't need to sleep back then."
"Yes but you sure LOVED being in bed with me."
"And who can blame me. Even the wives want you."
Maleficent smirked, "Now you're using flattery to get out of the subject, don't think I don't know that one either."
"It used to work," He kissed her cheek.
"No it didn't," Maleficent said and turned to him, "You know it bothers me they're leaving too."
He put a thermos of coffee in the bag and was silent for a few moments, "We lost Lily and Bae. We missed everything with them and we weren't even HERE when Henry was growing up...not in the way we wanted to be."
"I know," she stroked his back.
"We've worked so hard to be better. All of us. We ignore those that hate us, we encourage each other to work on heroism but what happens if it's not enough. Heroes die every day. We know that better than anyone, we were responsible for a lot of it."
"They could just get their things and come back."
"Then why can't I shake the feeling that something's going to happen?"
"Because that's just who you are, love," Maleficent told him, "You're always waiting for something bad to happen because for you, it always does happen. But we can't wait around for bad things all the time. Something bad will ALWAYS happen. That's just life. And we know THAT better than anyone too. They're just getting their things. ANd then they're going to be home. Nothing bad is going to happen."
Rumple saw the fear in her eyes. He knew her better than anyone too, he knew when she was really afraid, "You're telling yourself that as much as you're telling me."
Maleficent's comforting demeanor crumbled, "You're not the only one afraid to let them go to a place you can't continue to protect them."
He felt some relief in knowing he and Regina weren't the only ones worried, "You want me to trade with Regina tonight? We can be together."
"No," Maleficent said after a moment of hesitation, "Emma said she'd be with me."
"You two are getting closer."
Maleficent shrugged, "People married to each other generally do."
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To say that there was tension in the house as the day they all left grew closer was an understatement. Baelfire and Lily went to visit four times a week for dinner and both noticed that their support for leaving town for a couple days was slowly dwindling.
He tried to understand, in their mind the things that he and LIly wanted to get were just things. But for him and Lily those little things they held on for years to meant everything.
So they were going. Henry was coming too. THAT had been an uphill battle to let Regina agree to it. Even more so as the weeks passed and his father was clearly uncomfortable about being separated again.
Lily told him her mother was the same way but she wasn't trying to show it.
Emma was just irritated.
"It's only a couple of days," he protested when they drove up and found Maleficent and Rumple prepared practically a couple of feasts.
"Anything can happen," Maleficent told them as Henry rushed out of the house to hug his father, "And Henry eats like a horse."
Henry scowled, "I do not!"
Baelfire started to protest but clammed up. He immediately thought of his own foster family...the Darlings and how the matriarch of the family used to overfeed him.
It was odd after all this time...having a mother again.
Well, five of them on a technicality but only Maleficent really mother henned him. Belle tried but due to the fact they were practically the same age biologically it was just a little too weird for his tastes.
"Be safe," Maleficent said and hugged him, "KEep them safe."
"I know," He said and hugged her tightly, "Keep them in line."
"That's impossible," she pulled back and went to hug her daughter, "I love you."
It was still always a surprise when Lily hugged her back, "I love you too"
Maleficent fought years, they'd come so far in that month. She wasn't even sure when it happened but Lily came home more, she learned how to be a dragon, she wasn't….so tired and angry. They had a long way to go of course but they were bonding.
"I'll come home," Lily told her when she didn't let go of the embrace automatically, "I promise."
"You better," Maleficent pulled back brushed the hair from her face, "Don't' make me come looking for you."
Lily scowled, "Aw mom"
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Emma knew Regina was going to take it just as hard as Rumple was that their son wasn't going to be with them
But the way Regina hugged him, Emma wandered if she was going to need a crowbar to pry him away from her.
"Do what they say, listen to instruction," Regina said and finally pulled away, "Unless it's stupid, then just call me-."
"Regina," Emma warned.
Regina scowled, "Just be safe. You're smart, you know to run. Don't be a hero, come home safely."
"I know that."
"You knowing and you doing it are two different things when you run towards danger like it's a candy truck," Regina muttered and went to embrace him.
Emma was next. She wasn't as scared of this as the others were. She'd been out in the real world and she knew that Neal knew how to survive it just as well as anyone. Lily was there and had plenty of real world experience too.
"Just stick close to your father," Emma told him and hugged him, "Call me when you reach your destination."
"I will."
"Okay then," she hugged him again, "I love you."
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Rumple didn't know how to talk to his son about the idea of him taking his own son away for a small vacation. He shouldn't worry, Baelfire getting his things meant that he was settling down and coming to live in the town which is everything Rumple wanted and that filled him with excitement.
But it was Lily, Baelfire, and Henry all going and that was all his children. If something happened and they were all killed or separated….
And maybe he was a little bit jealous. He'd been a loving if not distant father when Henry grew up. No one questioned that he'd loved his adopted son and now his own son was here, the father of his adopted son to spirit him away and show him things that Rumple couldn't.
How pathetic was that? And Rumple knew he couldn't voice those fears because he knew he really had no right to say what Baelfire could do with their son and what he couldn't. And why should he? He didn't have any leg to stand on when it came to what was best for a child, he let his own son fall down a portal. And his own son was back now after centuries of separation.
Where did he get off being jealous that his son wanted to spend time with the son he didn't get to raise? He didn't, so he knew to keep his mouth shut.
Instead he stood there trying to figure out WHAT exactly to say.
"You don't like this, do you?" Baelfire asked.
"No," he admitted. At least there was that, "For a number of reasons."
"We ARE going to come back, you know that right?"
"I know," he wouldn't do that to Emma, "You keep them safe."
"Doubt LIly needs help," Baelfire shrugged, "And my own son is self sufficient"
"Maybe," Rumple nodded, "But I know plenty of those who need help that are strong."
"From you back in the day?" Baelfire asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Amongst others," Rumple agreed, "You'd be surprised how easy it is to get under the skin of a strong person."
Baelfire frowned and Rumple knew to stop, "I really wouldn't."
"Just...bring them back safely, I love all of you."
He expected Bae to not know how to react, it was hard to hear that the father that abandoned you loved you. He knew how hard it would've been to hear from his own father after getting carried away by the shadow.
But Bae nodded and hugged his father, "Yeah me too"
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Baelfire crawled in the driver's seat and shut the door, he glanced over at his sister as she stared into the very large basket her mother and Belle packed, "IS that a couple meals or an entire thanksgiving feast?"
"It's still up for debate," Lily said as she sifted through everything.
He looked up to meet his eyes with his son. He knew what his father was thinking, he knew what the wives feared. That either he might talk them into staying out of Storybrooke or something might happen to them.
And maybe before he'd settled down, when they all first met, he'd have at least considered it.
But he had a family now. He'd found his place.
"Ready?"
He turned the ignition and put the car into drive.
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The day was quiet. Everyone was off in their own rooms. Rumple drifted back and forth to all his wives affected by this to make sure that they were okay. The dinner was a silent affair. Rumple checked his own phone and watched the wives continuing to check their own for updates. They were small ones. Everyone arrived at Lily's place and were packing up. THey planned to spend the night before heading out again. They'd get BAe's stuff and then they'd go back to Lily's to sleep before coming home.
At least that was the plan.
He said goodnight to his wives. He kissed all of them goodnight and then went to Belle's room to make sure she and the baby she was swelling with were comfortable. He ended the night in Regina's room. She was curled up facing the wall as he shut the door behind him and changed for bed.
"It's quiet without him here," Regina said, "I went to kiss him goodnight before I realized he wasn't here."
"He'll be back in a couple of days."
"The first time he left town it was because he was scared of me," she muttered, "Then he went and found his father because he was scared of me. I can't help equating that to his fear every time he leaves."
"He'll come back."
"It's still a fear."
He slipped into the bed beside his wife and went to hold her, "We'll be okay."
"We will be," Regina said, "I just don't like the idea of our son and your other kids being where we can't save them."
"Yeah, I know the feeling," he muttered and stroked her arm.
They would be okay, they'd have to be.
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Emma still wasn't sure what she identified as in terms of her sexuality but she didn't really think about it much. She liked men, she liked Maleficent. She wondered if she'd sleep with the other wives if they offered and she felt attraction but she wasn't sure.
Maybe Belle. Possibly Regina...more maybe she was just attracted to Maleficent.
They'd grown close in their own way in that month. It wasn't just sex when they didn't have anyone that night. It wasn't just Maleficent showing her how grateful she was that Emma found Lily. They were a couple in their own way. Emma didn't know when it happens but sometimes they'd go out for a date….like a movie or dinner. And then they were holding hands and just...talking about being together in ways that were more than just sex.
Well, they WERE wives but Emma never considered it in anymore but name until they started getting together.
They even invited each other into the room during one of their nights with Rumple a couple of times.
They were more or less together, which made eahc other idea to spend the night together since Rumple with with Regina.
"What if she doesn't come back?"
"She'll come back," Emma told her with her arms around Maleficent's waist as they lay there in the bed.
"She used to threaten to leave."
"That was weeks ago when she was reacting blindly, she's family now. She likes it here. It's better than the life she had."
"She could still turn back to it. She kept threatening to when she first arrived."
"She was blindly fighting," Emma whispered, "I know, I did that. But she has stability here. She has Neal, she has a family. She has YOU. She'll come back."
"I've lost her before," Maleficent whispered, 'I won't lose her again."
Emma felt the stirring ins her stomach. She remembered what it was like to get Henry back. And those times that he went and did something that put himself in danger and she had to face the very real fear that she might lose him again . She remembered that fear. She remembered feeling that suffocating fear like she was underwater at the idea that her child could be hurt and separated from her.
"Lily's strong," she whispered to her and went to hold her closer, "She'll come back and she'll be safe."
"Rumple's right," Maleficent whispered, "It feels so still. It feels like something's going to happen. I don't know how to put my finger on it but it feels like the calm before the storm."
Emma sighed and went to roll on top of Maleficent, "Let's not think about it."
"I can't stop"
"Let me change your mind?"
Maleficent shook her head, "I'm not in the mood."
Emma bit her lip, unsure of how to proceed, "Okay"
Maleficent reached up to wrap her arms around her. Emma returned the embrace and kissed Mal, "They'll be okay. They'll come back."
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Captain Killian Jones was a pirate captain with no crew and he worked himself to exhaustion every day trying to hold his ship together. He wanted to go back, he wanted to see Emma again and show them the truth. That Rumple...or someone else had made this future be the way it was. But he couldn't.
Regina had seen to that when she ripped out his heart.
How changed was she? Why did that genocidal maniac get a second chance when he was sent away for trying to show them the truth?
Until someone found his heart, he was an outcast. He didn't belong in this world and he was exiled from his own.
And for what? Far less than his enemies had done.
He was getting ready for bed a month into his exile, he'd eaten a meager meal. A fish and some fruit that he'd stolen from a town on the coast because Regina didn't see fit to exile him with money.
"You've had more glory filled days"
Killian turned around at the sound of the voice. He found a man standing before him with blue eyes and reddish blonde hair and dressed in a suit more fitting of Rumple's new personality than anything.
Killain pulled out his sword and pointed it at the older man, "How did you get on this ship?"
The man stared at his sword pressed against his chest and gave a chuckle, "That won't hurt me, I'm immortal."
"Everything dies."
"Not the Lord of the Underworld."
Killian lowered his sword as the man's hair burst into blue flames.
"Yes, Hades, Lord of the Underworld, and I need your help."
"For what?"
"Getting revenge on those that took everything from my wife."
