"Mrs. Gold?" A woman in blue scrubs approached the Queen who was sitting at the waiting room of the hospital.
"Yes." Regina answered quietly, continuing to mechanically sway her daughter in her arms.
"I'm Dr. Adams.", the woman introduced herself. "I'm sorry to make you wait. Today we have an emergency; our administrators don't have time to keep up with everything."
"How is he?", the Queen asked tensely, finally raising her eyes up to her conversationalist.
"Your husband is in intensive care. He's lost a lot of blood but now he is stable, he is already breathing, he is conscious and I can tell you there is no danger to his life. You can see him. I will accompany you."
"He is alive." Regina breathed, clutching her daughter tighter to her and resting her forehead on the baby's shoulder.
"You see, everything will be fine." Stern, sitting next to the Queen, hugged her. "Are you his attending physician?" He turned to Dr. Adams.
"Not me. Dr. Ranger.", the woman replied. "He was the leading surgeon in the operation."
"I would like to speak with him." the man nodded. "Where can I find him?"
"And you? .." His conversationalist hesitated.
"Dr. Stern. I am a family friend."
"He's somewhere in the emergency room.", she pointed toward the ward. "You can ask one of the nurses, they will help you find him. Mrs. Gold?" She turned again to the Queen. "Shall we go?"
"Yes!" She jumped to her feet.
"Let me take Charlotte for now." Stern suggested.
"Thank you." Regina gave the girl to him and rushed after Adams.
"Well, let's go look for Ranger." He gently shook the little girl who was fussing around in his arms. "He used to be my classmate. He hated me at medical school though, which slightly complicates our task."
Entering the room, she almost burst into tears again, seeing Gold lying with his eyes closed, sensors hanging on him, droppers jammed in both arms. She quietly went to the bed, sat to the chair next to it and carefully took his hand.
"You are here." Gold smiled without opening his eyes.
"And you are here." She kissed his hand and pressed her cheek against it. "I was afraid I wouldn't see you alive anymore. When they called me, they simply told me that they couldn't promise anything. And after that, it was already impossible to get through to the hospital or my calls went to a nurse who knew nothing. And all five hours on the way here, I knew only that they couldn't promise anything. They were the scariest five hours of my life."
"Well no darling, you won't get rid of me so quickly." He opened his eyes and looked at his wife. "We made a deal, it's forever."
"Forever." Regina smiled, kissing his hand again. "How do you feel?"
"Fine." He closed his eyes again. "And when this room stops spinning at such a speed, I will be just perfect. Listen, where is Charlotte? You didn't leave her at home, did you?"
"No", the Queen replied, "she is with David."
"Yes? Is Stern here?" Her husband was delighted.
"Of course.", she nodded. "He came with me. Now he is negotiating a transfer to New York, to his clinic. We will take you home."
"That's good.", Gold said thoughtfully. "Stern is what I need. Although the return to New York will have to wait."
"What?" Regina was confused.
"We still need to get to Storybrooke first.", he answered.
"Are you out of your mind?" She recoiled from her husband. "Or did you hit your head too? Forget about Storybrooke! You can't go anywhere now. You can't even open your eyes."
"Well, actually I can." Gold objected. "It just makes me nauseous when I do it."
"Storybrooke will wait!" The Queen soared, jumping up from the chair. "You are unwell, you need peace. People have remained under sleeping curses for centuries and nothing has happened to them. Snow White will be like new any moment the curse is lifted. They will all wait! In a couple of months, when Charlotte can do without me for a while, I will do everything myself. They all must have the patience to wait!"
"Regina, don't yell at me.", he said calmly.
"I don't yell at you!", Regina exclaimed. "I'm just yelling.", she added more calmly.
"It's not about Snow White.", Gold continued. "And not about your curse. It's about her son, Neal. He won't survive here, in a world without magic. He is in a deep coma from which he can no longer come back. His injuries are incompatible with life."
"How do you know this?" She sat down again at the chair next to him.
"From Nolan.", he answered.
"Really?!" Regina asked irritated. "Has he already managed to come to you and demand that you immediately run to his aid? Despite your condition?"
"Regina, he doesn't demand anything.", Gold sighed. "He came because I'm the only one he knows here, because he does not know what to do, because he has already lost his second child and, believe it or not, because he wanted to know how I'm feeling. Out of all of us, he was the only one who got off with slight injuries. He feels guilty for everything. He came to me because he has nowhere else to go."
"But why should it be you?", the Queen asked calmer. "Stern can arrange for the boy to be sent to Storybrooke, and there let the Blue Fairy deal with it, she also has magic."
"Fairy magic can't do anything, he needs black magic. His brain is already dead and everything else dies every hour he remains on life support. A magic wand will not help here. It takes the strength of all the Dark Ones to bring him back to life, even in the world of magic."
"There must be another option." She leaned toward him. "I won't let you go to Storybrooke now."
"It's less than an hour's drive there." He looked at her again. "Stern will take us all there somehow. In Storybrooke, I will be in perfect condition, as you know. And then, when I'm done with Neal and your curse, we will return to New York as you and David planned. Everything will be fine, Regina."
"And if not?" Regina touched her husband's shoulder with her forehead. "If this one hour is important? Think of our children."
"That's exactly what I'm thinking of." He stroked her hair. "I feel sorry for Charming and Snow, but they come second. When the Prince realizes he won't have anyone left but Emma, it will not end well. I must help him first of all for the sake of our family. In order for our children to live in peace."
"And how are you going to explain to Stern everything he'll see in Storybrooke?" She raised her head, looking at her husband.
"Regina, it's really bad for you to get nervous." Gold smiled. "We're going to Storybrooke, a city filled with magic. He won't remember anything after we leave it. He will only wake up on his way to New York, confident that we have just left Portland Mercy."
"Fine. And how are you going to explain to him the need to travel to Storybrooke now?" Regina did not let up.
"I won't." Gold shrugged.
"How are you doing?" Sometime later, Stern looked into the room.
"You are here, you tell me." Gold smiled. "It can't be for nothing that you spent so much time in the staff room or wherever you were there all this time."
"Well, everything is much better than I expected, I don't even have to redo anything." He went into the room and gave Regina her daughter. "I can't say that Dr. Ranger is a nice person but he is a really good doctor. He had golden hands since the first year of our internship. I looked through all your X-rays and ultrasound images and, you know, even I couldn't have fixed the crushed bone so gracefully. Not to mention the fragmented wiper."
"Do I detect jealousy in your voice?" Gold asked insinuatingly.
"Exactly that." Stern confirmed. "I saw the pictures before the operation, and I wouldn't have taken it out. Ranger and I competed since the first year of medical school, and now, twenty-odd years later, he made short work of it."
"Don't worry, everyone was certain they wouldn't take it out." Gold reassured him. "But in the end everything worked out. So I think you would have succeeded as well. Plus, you are the head physician and he is not."
"That's a good point." Stern smiled. "We agreed on everything with him and with the head physician. I'm taking you to New York. And they even gave us a helicopter, as you dreamed of.", he nodded to the Queen.
"That's good but before that; we need to check in a small town not far from here, Storybrooke." Gold told him. "So the helicopter to New York will have to be postponed."
"What?" Stern didn't understand. "Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to get it?"
"I can imagine. Still, we need to get to Storybrooke. And we also need to take Neal Nolan and his father with us. The father is fine, but a mobile intensive care unit is needed for Neal: he is on life support."
"Well, okay, I don't understand anything." Stern sighed. "For starters, who are all these people?"
"They are an acquaintance of mine and his son, they were with me when the accident occurred. The boy needs to be transported to Storybrooke and I need to go with him."
"Why?", Stern said.
"I will explain to you when we arrive in town." Gold answered evasively. "Believe me, it will be interesting."
"Again, why?"
"Because if I try to explain anything to you now, you will decide that I'm not in my right mind."
"Is that so?" Stern looked at Regina.
"He's in his right mind." she nodded. "And it's impossible to out argue him. Please David, do as he asks."
"Well, you both seem pretty weird, but that's not the problem." He walked around the room. "The problem is, how to find a way to rearrange everything with the leadership of the hospital."
"Use the magic of your checkbook." Gold advised. "I would suggest mine, but I have no idea where it is. In any case, I will compensate you when we return home, so do not skimp. Get Regina on a plane to New York, and let's go."
"I can see the Storybrooke sign." Dr. Stern sat next to Gold in one of two ambulances headed to the town. "Would you like to tell me everything already?", he asked.
"As soon as we cross the town line." Gold assured him.
"That principled?" Stern grinned.
"Yes.", he confirmed. "And you will soon understand why."
They spent the next few minutes in silence. And then finally crossed the town line. As soon as that happened, Gold dissolved in a whiff of purple smoke and after a few seconds reappeared, already in a suit.
"That feels so good." He squared his shoulders, sitting on a gurney across from Stern.
"What ..." The doctor winced.
"See? I told you: you will decide I'm not in my right mind." His conversationalist smiled at him.
"Seems like it's me who's not in my right mind.", Stern muttered. "At the least that's the only reasonable explanation for what I see now. I am hallucinating."
"Don't worry, you're fine." Gold winked at him, disappearing again in whiffs of smoke.
Both ambulances stopped, frozen on the go. Materializing on the spot, Gold gathered a golden wave of magic at his fingertips and slowly passed his hands over the lying child. The boy coughed, trying to spit out an oxygen tube. Gold waved his hand, and the pipe disappeared. The child inhaled sharply and opened his eyes.
"Neal!" The Prince who sitting next to him, rushed to his son.
The boy looked around bewildered.
"Is he going to be all right?" Charming turned to Gold.
"Yes." he nodded. "But I'm afraid he is now forever bound to the magical world. In a world without magic, all this doesn't work and he still won't be able to survive there."
"It doesn't matter." The Prince hugged his son. "He's going to be alive in our world - that's enough. Thank you!"
"Come to the shop tomorrow night," Gold recalled. "The potion for Snow White will be ready so you can wake her."
"Thank you!" the Prince repeated as he was getting out of the ambulance with his son in his arms.
As soon as they got out, the ambulance drove outside the Storybrooke's town line towards Portland. The second ambulance stood still.
"Well, ready for an explanation?" Gold looked into the vehicle.
"Who the hell are you?" Stern recoiled from him.
"First of all, I am your friend; there's no need to be afraid of me." he smiled.
"And what happened to him?" The doctor nodded at the ambulance driver, who was standing still.
"We don't need him now, let him rest." Gold answered. "We'll wake him on our way back to Portland."
"And why didn't you do the same to me?" Stern asked perplexed.
"I planned to." he nodded. "Or erase your memories. But you know, I think you should have a choice. Maybe, you'll want to know who Regina and I really are."
"What kind of place is this?" Stern got out of the car. "Something like Narnia?", he asked with irony.
"Of course not." Gold grimaced. "This is Storybrooke, a magical city Regina created."
"Oh so that's it, you just wanted to show off your wife's abilities to someone?" The doctor laughed nervously.
"Maybe. Maybe I'm sad and lonely here and I need a friend."
"It's just unbelievable!" Stern wandered around Gold's shop, looking at magical artifacts. "Like I'm in a fantasy novel. Harry Potter or something like that."
It had been dark out for a long time.
"Harry Potter is complete nonsense." Gold mixed another ingredient into the potion. "Real magic of all time has been compiled here."
"Is this ...?" He turned around the old goblet in his hands.
"That's the Holy Grail." the shopkeeper nodded. "And believe me, this isn't the rarest thing here. Are you still thinking about Harry Potter?" He smiled at Stern.
"Perhaps not." He put the goblet back in its place. "I'm thinking about what made you leave here for our boring ordinary world."
"Your world is not at all boring." Gold objected. "In contrast to this dull town, which we both have long been tired of."
"Stop it." Stern grimaced. "In our world you would have to go through a month of rehabilitation after the operation and here you simply snapped your fingers and you are already in perfect condition. I would give anything to have such abilities."
"Well, a month of rehabilitation is still waiting for me." he smiled. "Magical healings don't work outside of Storybrooke." His phone rang. "Yes darling?" His voice changed subtly as he answered his wife's call. "Of course, everything is fine ... Are you home already? .. Stop worrying ... Go to bed, all three of you. And turn on the speakerphone, I'll read to you. " He went to the back room, clicking his fingers along the way, after which a book appeared in his hand.
"I still don't understand it." Stern poured himself some more wine.
He and Gold were dining at the only restaurant in Storybrooke, "Granny's".
"Don't you miss this world, your abilities? You really don't want to come back even here and now?"
"Here and now, I want my lasagna cooked by Regina and not this freshly thawed rubbish." Gold put down his plate and waved to the waitress to bring the bill. "Then some cognac and an hour to sleep. And for Regina to wake me with a kiss. All this would be very useful here and now."
"I'm serious." Stern smiled. "And Dark Ones don't need to sleep, do they?"
"Not needed." Gold confirmed. "So here, as you can see, I am deprived even of such a simple joy. But that's the real magic: to feel the kiss of your wife through the warm sleepy haze. Those who haven't had insomnia for three hundred years, of course, cannot understand it."
"What are you talking about?" the man laughed. "Are you giving up all this for the opportunity to merely sleep?"
"I'm giving all this up for the sake of having the life that I always wanted.", his conversationalist answered calmly. "There, Regina was able to give birth to my daughter which would have been impossible in this world. And I even want one more. What magic can compare with your child's smile? With the miracle of a new life?"
"But you can all come back here, together.", Stern said uncertainly. "Can't you?"
"I don't want this." He twisted the wedding ring on his finger.
"Why?" Stern was confused. "You are a powerful dark magician here. Your possibilities are almost limitless. You are immortal. And you refuse it?"
"I am immortal." Gold agreed. "Unlike my wife."
"I don't believe that the greatest Dark One cannot influence this with the help of magic."
"And yet, I can't.", the magician assured him.
"Well, you know, a new wife can come with time." Stern shrugged.
"No." He looked warily at his conversationalist. "A wife is destiny. Whoever "comes with time" is not a wife. I lived three hundred unhappy years with various "come with time" women, until fate bestowed the one upon me. I don't want to bury Regina. And I will not."
"Really? So you've lived three hundred years to come to the conclusion that the meaning of life is a woman?"
"You know, Miss Mills and you are a great couple." Gold grinned. "However, you will someday come to this conclusion yourself. Love is the most powerful magic of all. There is a hundred times more magic in the morning kiss of a woman who loves you than in this whole town. I don't need immortality. I need Regina, until the end of my life. Let's go." he paid the bill for both of them. "The potion should be ready by now. And it's time for us to go back home."
"What have you decided?" Gold laid again on a gurney in the ambulance.
"This whole story is too crazy to remember." Stern fixed the catheter he was holding and put the dropper filled with plasma and pain medication in him once more.
"As you wish." He snapped his fingers, taking a bottle of potion midair. "Drink it when we find ourselves in the helicopter."
"Will it work?" He put the vial in his pocket. "You said magic doesn't work outside of Storybrooke."
"Not magic in general, but some magical artifacts, yes. It will work." Gold assured him.
The magician waved his hand and the ambulance drove itself to the town limit. When they crossed it, the driver woke up.
"David." Gold closed his eyes in pain.
"I know." The doctor took his hand. "Hold on for a while, the morphine will work any minute now."
"You'll take me back to her for sure, won't you?" He grabbed his hand.
"Without a doubt." Stern replied. "You are going to live many more years with Regina. I'll make sure of it."