Chapter 52

Victor and Emma followed closely by Ruby were the first to enter the cabin where Rumple was resting. He leaned back telling them, "The good doctor isn't going to be able to save me. There is no cure for this poison in all the realms."

"You have to let him try. We just can't let you die." Emma demanded.

Rumple looked like he was about to argue but he saw Aurora and Jefferson enter the room behind her. Trying to stand up he shouted. "They should not be here. They should be anywhere but here."

"Rumple sit down." Victor order and with help from a man Victor did not recognize they got him back down on the makeshift bed.

"You know Rumple family is more than just blood relations. Jefferson and Aurora may not be of your blood, but with how you raised Jefferson and took care of Aurora when she needed a home, there really is no reason you can't treat them as such." Emma reminded him.

"Wait, Jefferson? My half-brother Jefferson?" the man stood up moving away from Victor and Rumple pointing at Aurora. "Princess Aurora? My God you look like you haven't aged since I saw you last in Neverland."

"Peter?" Aurora asked surprised to see how much older the young boy who had saved them in Neverland now was and before she knew it he was hugging her.

"Half-brother?" Emma stopped and turn to face him confused. "Peter, I thought it was Baelfire?"

"I was kind of Peter Pan for a few decades." He pulled back letting Aurora go, giving Emma a playful smile.

"Oh, only kind of Peter Pan for a few decades…" She threw her hands up in the air not believing what was now her life. "…wait Hook is Jefferson's father."

"We share the same mother," Jefferson explained not believing that man standing there was really his half-brother all grow up. "Is it really you all grown up?"

"I never thought I would see you again." He gave his brother a hug. Pulling back, he turned back to his father. "Why didn't you tell me that Jefferson was here in Storybrooke?"

"With his past with Regina did you have any doubt?"

"I always figured you killed him once he got back to the Enchanted Forest."

"You really think I could kill someone I practically raised?"

"If you thought you would benefit from it, yes."

"He actually just tricked them into thinking the other was dead. He sent Jefferson off to fend for himself and kept Aurora until Maleficent's Sleeping Curse went into effect. That is the reason she doesn't appear much older." Victor explained.

"I only just woke up and made it to Storybrooke a few days ago," Aurora added taking Jefferson's hand in hers.

"Neither of you should be hereafter what happened to Belle, I told you I didn't want to see you again." Rumple raised his voice in frustration. "For your own safety, you both need to get far away from me."

"You shouldn't be mad at Jefferson," Neal told his father. "If it wasn't for him coming back to Neverland I never would have wanted to leave and grow up."

"What are you talking about?" Rumple asked confused.

"It was seeing him with Aurora that made me realize what I was missing out on hiding away from you in Neverland. I wanted everything he had. I didn't want to never grow up. I wanted to fall in love, get married, and have a family of my own. You were so hell-bent on the curse and getting to this land without magic to find me but you never thought how or why I would leave Neverland? Everything happens for a reason and Jefferson running away with Aurora put me leaving in motion. I wanted that with Wendy, but I knew I had waited too long she had grown up and had her own children. So I moved on."

"And you found Emma," Rumple muttered.

"Wait, what?" Jefferson asked confused.

"Well, Emma wasn't planned." Neil gave her a soft smile. "She found me."

"No love never is…" Jefferson stopped looking between Emma and Henry, and back to his brother, "You are Henry's father?"

"Yes."

"Wait, you are telling me that Regina raised Rumplestiltskin's grandson as her own for eleven years." He started laughing. "Oh my God, can I please be in the room when someone tells her that." He started laughing but it had a slight craziness to it.

"Jefferson." Aurora gave his hand a squeeze. "Don't." She whispered.

"Then that means Grace and I are cousins." Henry smiled.

"Grace?" Neal asked.

"My daughter," Jefferson answered letting go of Aurora's hand.

"But Aurora said you haven't been together since the night I last saw you."

"She isn't my daughter," Aurora whispered as Jefferson stepped away from her.

"I thought she was dead." He said all traces of laughter now gone.

"Grace's mother died before the curse." Henry quietly told his father.

"Jefferson I am sorry so." Neal placed a hand on his shoulder about to say more, but Rumple seized up and fell back.

"We don't have time for all this family reunion right now." Victor hissed. "Someone needs to explain to me what poisoned him."

"Dreamshade," Neal stated.

Aurora gasped drawing Victor's attention back to her and he noticed Jefferson lost all his color. Victor forced himself to ask. "Does anyone have any of this Dreamshade? It would speed things up if we want to have any chance of saving him, we needed to get him to the hospital like five minutes ago."

"I have what Hook dropped." Neal pointed to something on the table in a plastic bag.

"No hospital." Rumple coughed. "I need to get to my pawn shop. Where Miss Swan's mother and father are to meet us after they have successfully recovered my dagger. Cora and Regina must not get the dragger."

"That is the understatement of the century," Jefferson muttered.

"Wait, you trusted Snow and David with your dragger over us?" Aurora asked clearly hurt.

"Cora and Regina are the last people I want around either of you, which is why you need to leave now. Put as much space between them and yourselves as you can. Go hide away in that mansion on edge of town."

"Sounds good to me, I didn't even want to come on board. Let's go, Rory." Jefferson went to take her hand but she pulled away moving closer to Victor conjuring up a syringe for him.

"There is no way I am going anywhere. Cora and Regina can't ever get your dragger." She handed the syringe to Victor. "Take some of his blood and go work your Science and bring the cure to his Pawn Shop. There should be enough magic there to keep us safe until you come up with something."

"Aurora you heard him. We don't want to come between Cora and a dying Dark One." Jefferson reminded her.

"No, what we don't want is Cora as the new Dark One." She turned sharply. "I had a taste of her power before I fell through that portal and God only knows what she did to you in Neverland. Can you really run away and not try to stop her from gaining more dark magic? Because I know I can't."

Jefferson shifted uncomfortably watching Victor take some of Rumple's blood. Aurora had a point, she always had a point, and as much as his brain was screaming you can't stop Cora and you can't protect Aurora; he knew he couldn't leave her side. Out loud he told her. "Then we need to cloak this ship and get to the Pawn Shop now before she realizes Rumple is back in town."

Snow and David were standing outside of the Pawn Shop trying to break Rumple's protection spell when they arrived. But it wasn't until Rumple had waved his hand and they all had gone inside to the back room, that Snow told them they had failed, that Cora and Regina had gotten the dragger.

Jefferson could feel Aurora's anger at Snow rising beside him, as her magic pulsed. He quickly pulled her back towards the doorway as the rest of them moved further into the back room. "I can't believe how worthless she is," Aurora muttered starting to pull away, but he held her tight at his side.

"Now is not the time to fight. In fact, we should be running far from here. Like I said Rumple is right this is not a battle we want to be part of."

"We need to make sure Cora or Regina can't control him or worse kill him and become the new Dark One."

"It doesn't matter either way we are all as good as dead."

Aurora was about to reply when she heard David tell Rumple he needed to recast the protection spell on the shop. "He can't possibly do that." Aurora succeeded in pulling away from Jefferson. "Rumple is fighting to stay alive he doesn't have the energy to spare to do any spells."

"Aurora is right." Neal agreed.

"Maybe Emma could…" Her mother started.

"Emma could you find the big glass jar behind my desk," Rumple asked and Emma left with Neal following her.

"I can do the spell," Aurora informs Snow. "It won't be quite as powerful as the original, but it is better than anything Emma could do at this stage of her magic."

"You remember all the words?" Rumple asked her.

"I may have been asleep for thirty-eight years, but I am not an idiot. I remember what you taught me." Aurora commented shortly to Rumple as she started the spell, moving around the shop as she laid it all in place. Jefferson followed her closely.

"Emma, did you find it?" Rumple asked her and Neal came back in the room.

"It's empty." She shook the glass jar and heard something jingled.

"Invisible chalk. Take it to the front door and draw a line with it."

"Seriously?" Emma asked doubting everything to do with her using magic.

"Yes," Neal told her. "It will reinforce Aurora's spell." He noticed her uneasiness. "I will come with you."

After a few moments, David decided to follow his daughter and Neal leaving Snow with Rumple. Who asked her for a warmer blanket from the cupboard. When she opened it, she saw the Enchanted Candle, which she hadn't seen since she was a child. She turned, holding it out to Rumple.

"Is this what I think it is."

"Yes, and if you plan on using it you better leave by the back door now, before Aurora's spell is fully in place. She was always so good at protection spells. I know she has doubts but I have a feeling her spell will be just as good as my original one."

"I wouldn't use it to save my own mother. what makes you think I would use it to save you? "

"Because you are all grown up now and for once our interest are inline."

Aurora closed her eyes letting herself feel all the emotions that were raging inside of her letting it fuel her power as she sealed the spell. She opened her eyes smiling, she turned sharply and walked back to the back room telling Rumple who was all alone now. "I did it."

"Good Girl. Very good girl. I felt it. Nice spell work as always."

Neal who had followed them back into the room moved forward helping his father lay back on the bed.

"You will be a good teacher for Emma." Rumple continued once he was comfortable.

"I am not sure about that. I did the spell but what the hell am I to do next?" She moved next to Neal beside the bed. "What should we be doing to be ready when Cora and Regina breakthrough?"

"If they break through there is nothing to do but fight for your life and the life of those you love. You know this, so don't waste any more time worrying about it. Instead, I want to focus on what you two are not telling me." His eyes drifted over to Jefferson who was standing in the doorway. "There is the aftermath of magic floating all around you Aurora."

"I just did a very powerful spell." She started to pull back from him, but he grabbed her hand keeping her in place.

"This magic has been floating around you since The Jolly Roger."

"You were gone don't act as if you care now," Jefferson muttered.

Rumple let go of her hand. "Reveal." He waved his hand and Aurora couldn't help but take a step back gasping as she felt his spell reveal what Jefferson had helped her heal. The cuts and broken bones were not really there, but everyone in the room could see the damage. Her dress once again appeared bloodily and ripped.

"Aurora?" Neal questioned alarmed at what Rumple's spell had revealed.

"Your face, your arm, it is… it was broken. Who did this to you?" Rumple roared trying to stand up, but Neal pushed him back down.

"McNair, on George's orders but he didn't get what he really wanted from me." She explained looking down at just how bad her arm had been hurt. It doesn't hurt, it is fixed. She repeated over and over in her mind as her fingers played nervously at the ripped dress.

"It wasn't his to take." Jefferson hissed his anger boiling over as he stepped forward waving away Rumple's spell.

"Is it yours?" Rumple asked.

"It isn't anyone's to take. It is Aurora's to give." Taking her in his arm, he whispered to her. "It doesn't hurt, it is all healed."

"I know." She noticed how broken her voice was when she said it and she quickly swallowed and shook her head saying again. "I know, it's fine. I am fine." In a stronger clearer tone.

Rumple watched as Neal moved back towards the doorway giving the three of them space to discuss what had happened.

"I should have realized how much you loved her that day in the tower when she couldn't heal herself. I thought you hadn't slept with her because you were just scared of me and what I would have done to you. But you took what you wanted from anyone, including Regina. But not Aurora." He leaned back closing his eyes. "It is good to see she is still able to bring out the magic inside of you."

"Aurora got hurt trying to save me, but I was able to heal her," Jefferson exclaimed finally taking credit for what he had done. "We can and have always looked out for one another."

"Always?" Rumpled laughed opening his eyes.

"Yes, I saved her from the Maleficent's guards when I first found her. She returned the favor all before I brought her to your castle. So yes." He looked at Aurora, "Always."

"How was McNair able to hurt her in the first place? And where is George now?"

"You don't get to abandon us again and act as if you care," Jefferson screamed at him.

"Don't." Aurora moved to put a hand on his chest. "Please don't. Let me explain it all to him. You go talk to your brother." Jefferson looked like he was going to disagree, but with a shake of his head, he turned and went over to the doorway where Neal was standing.

-Victor was looking at something under the microscope when Ruby came back in with two bottles of water. "Any luck?"

"I have some ideas; the poison is similar to a few I have seen during my travels with Jefferson but so far nothing is working to stop it from spreading in the bloodstream."

Rumple listened to everything Aurora had to say about what George and Van Helsing had tried to do. "I am sorry I was not here to have stopped you from feeling any pain."

"I thought the pain was just another lesson to learn? Wasn't that the reason you left the scar on my shoulder that day in the tower?"

"I left that scar for all the wrong reasons." He reached out taking her hand in his. "I have thought about how I have treated my loved ones over the years and now that I am dying..."

"Victor…"

"Victor has done many amazing things in the name of his Science, but I fear he won't get it done in time. I need to try to right some of many sins. My most painful ones are all against the ones I love. I don't have must longer and I need to say so much to you, and my boys."

Aurora blinked back tears unsure of what to say she followed his glance to Jefferson who was leaning against the door frame and Neal who was shifting back and forward as he talked his half-brother.

"Come here, my sons," Rumple called over to them.

Jefferson stood up straighter at Rumple's sons' comment. He looked at Neal who quickly went to his father's bedside, and then to Aurora, who had stood up and moved back from the bed and was giving him a nod of her head to move closer to Rumple. Jefferson slowly moved over to kneel beside the bed by his brother.

"Bae, you are my only true son, Jefferson is your half-brother a role you took seriously in Neverland, even if you didn't tell him until after his time spends with me. But I would be lying to everyone if I didn't also claim him as a son of my own. Jefferson, you are not my flesh and blood but raising you, seeing what kind of man, you turned into I couldn't be prouder of either of you."

Jefferson straightened at the side of the bed not daring to look at his half-brother or Rumple tears playing at his eyes, as he heard words, he never thought Rumple believed let alone would ever say to him.

Rumple moved back a moment looking over across the room. "Aurora. Come sit with us. I don't have much time."

"No Papa." Neal started. "We are going to stop Cora and Jefferson's friend is already working on the cure for the poison."

"It won't happen in time. So, please Aurora, come here."

Aurora moved over, taking a spot beside Jefferson. "Aurora another child I will claim as my own and who I locked away to keep safe. But you are by far the strongest of my children. I know you will keep my boys safe because I know your parents taught you to protect the ones you love. A lesson that I never succeed at, because in all my years of trying to protect the ones I loved, I only pushed them away. I am so glad Jefferson found the courage to kiss you and bring back your magic. You will need it in the dark days ahead. "

"There has to be another way." She started. "You taught us all there is always another way. You just have to be smart enough to see it. Between all of us here, there has to be something we just haven't realized yet."

"It is a good philosophy to live by but one that is not always true. Sometimes there just isn't another way. My time may be up but you all must find a way to move forward. I taught you each enough to survive what is coming. I am sorry for trying to lock you all away from the world to try to keep you safe. I realize my errors, and how my actions have made you each believe I don't really care about you." He took her hand in his. "I also realize my error of keeping you two apart." He took Jefferson's hand in his bringing it over to Aurora's.

"What?" Aurora and Jefferson both asked at the same time. Jefferson looked up shaking his head not believing what he was hearing, looking from Rumple to Aurora to Rumple again. "Y..you are giving us your permission to be together?"

"Together you two are stronger. I should have realized that decades ago with your spike in magical achievements around her. I never should have let my fear of what could happen, keep you apart. I did the same thing with my fears of a future with Belle and now it will never be."

Aurora gave away to crying and Jefferson moved to hold her so she could cry on his shoulder.

"Keep each other safe and you will have a long and hopeful future that I never could allow myself to have. There is a reason your parents named you Aurora. Your reign will usher in a new dawn. I honestly don't know what will happen if you two marry, and that terrifies me, but I realize now you two need a chance. I won't stand in the way of your happiness. I never should have in the first place. I love all three of you."

He looked at Bae as he continued. "You may not believe it. You may have longed to hear it. A part of you may have known deep down inside of you. I know I never said it enough in any of my comments or actions, but I am saying it now before it is too late" He reached over with his free hand taking Bae's in his. "I want all of you to live and be happy. There is no reason that reality needs to be a prison. Reality can be so much more and you three deserve so much more. I lost you all. You all went away, Belle included, and I realized I missed you all more than anything else in my long life."

"You forgive us then?" Aurora asked.

"My dear Aurora, haven't you been listening? Bae, Jefferson and you have nothing to be forgiven for. It is I who will ever be questioning if you could ever truly forgive this foolish old monster."

Before any of them could answer, there was a rumble as the whole building shook, bringing all three of them to their feet, and David and Emma rushed into the backroom. "It's them. Regina and Cora are here."

"The spell is holding," Rumple told him.

"For now." Aurora and David answered him.

"You shouldn't doubt your magic."

"It is all your lesson's ever made me do." She hissed at him using the nearby dream catcher to show Cora and Regina standing outside the shop working together to try to break the spell.

"My lessons were to teach you to be prepared for the time when your magic didn't work, so you always would have a backup plan. If you didn't realize that, then my training has been a failure."

Aurora turned to David. "You Emma and Neil wait in the showroom. If she comes through slow them down and come back here and use the chalk again on this doorway. Jefferson grab that map of Storybrooke and we need to figure out a second front we can fight on. If they break-in, I can bring us there and we can start this process over again buying Victor more time."

"You are more powerful, but do you think you can successfully move all of us in one go? It is a risky spell if something goes wrong." Jefferson questioned looking a little nervous at the idea.

"I am going to have to try it. Do you have a better plan?"

"A confusion potion may work. Cora would most likely be expecting you or Emma to hit them with a spell but her guard may be down for potion, allowing us to have more time to make two trips to assure everyone makes it safely."

"That potion takes two hours. Do you think my spell will hold that long with both of them out there?"

Jefferson started gathering up items from Rumple's shelf. "I am going to have to try it." He answered flashing her a cocky grin knowing how she hated to have her words thrown back her.

"Maybe you two learned something from my lessons after all." Rumple smiled watching the two of them work out a plan of action.

"And if she uses that dragger to control the Dark One?" David asked the question the whole room had been avoiding.

"Then you all will be dead no matter where you run too." Rumple quietly told them.

Hours had past and nothing other than a few texts from Jefferson letting him know Regina and Cora were making their move and they were not sure how much longer the magic on the Pawn Shop would hold.

"Damn it" Victor hissed hitting the desktop as the computer chimed that his experiment failed again. "I am so close. It starts to work but somehow it keeps taking over my antidote. It is like it gets a second wind and comes back stronger." Victor stopped talking. "That is it!" He spun on the chair.

"What is it?" Ruby asked confused.

"I have been looking at this all wrong. I am treating it like something from my world or this world where we need to cure it. But we really need is to kill it and then cure the poison that kills it." He grabbed this laptop. "I have been uploading my notes from journals in here creating a database if you will of dangerous things since we realized someone was trying to kill magical creatures. If I search for poisons which can counterbalance Dreamshade's properties, then we may have a chance."

She watched as Victor started typing in something and running a search. "There are three possible poisons. None of which I have access to here in this world. But I am willing to bet Rumple had them all in his Tower Room workshop." He showed her the screen.

"I know of all these from the Enchanted Forest and their antidotes. But I still don't get how does this help us?"

"Because Regina cursed Jefferson's mansion to look like rooms of his past including the attic to look like Rumple's Tower Room and she didn't let out any details." He grabbed his keys. "We don't have a second to spare."

"No. I can run in my wolf form faster then we could drive there and back. I can grab all three of these and their antidotes and you can get started on setting up the tests to see if one of these will work the way you think it will. "

Rumple had called Belle at the hospital and Neal, Jefferson and Aurora, had listened as he tried to tell someone who didn't remember him, that he loved her and he would always love her, and he was sorry for everything he had done to her. When it hung up there was an awkward moment of silence and then Neal cleared his throat.

"I didn't know you have that in you."

"I am full of love. I spend a lifetime looking for you. For a chance to say I love you and I am sorry."

"I didn't think you would go back on our deal."

"I just made the wrong choice." He reached out for his son and Neal took it collapsing down beside him.

Rumple was trying to comfort him when Aurora felt her spell fall. "Oh, no!" She whispered looking over at Jefferson who also felt it fall and realized his potion ready yet.

It wasn't long before David and Emma rushed back in and Emma used the chalk once again on the doorway to slow Cora and Regina down.

"Where is my mother?" She asked and David looked suddenly confused to realize his wife was missing.

"She left to do the one thing which could save me and end Cora," Rumple commented as he looked at the clock. " But if she hasn't done it by now I am guessing she couldn't light the candle."

"What candle?" Emma asked.

"The Enchanted Candle?" Jefferson asked as he flicked his wrist casting a spell causing the candle flame under his cauldron to burn brighter.

"Always the good memory, Jefferson my dear boy, The one and only."

"That would have worked. Why would you have tasked Snow White of all people with lighting it?" Jefferson hissed pushing away from the table and his potion he was working on, as Neal stood there confused.

"You had the rumored Enchanted Candle?" Neal asked.

"It's more than rumored and Cora had stolen it from me ages ago, Regina's curse had just brought it back to me."

"Do you really want to die? Do you want Cora as the Dark One?" Jefferson panicked suddenly unable to see no other ending playing out in his head.

"Dying is the second to the last thing I want. Cora being the Dark One is the first."

"I thought you trusted me?" Aurora whispered drawing Rumple's attention back to her.

"Aurora dear, I trust you more than you will ever know."

"If that is true why didn't you tell me about the candle, I would have done it no questions asked."

"That is the reason I didn't tell you." Rumple's eyes left hers coming to rest on Jefferson who was rocking nervously on his heels. "Once again Aurora you need to remember I don't want to darken your heart any more than your life has already damaged it," he looked back at her as he finished. "for if you do, you will not like your own reflection, no one will."

She took a deep breath to try to control her feelings it helped that Jefferson took two quick steps to place a hand on her shoulder as to reassure that would never happen. "If you die, we are all as good as dead. Emma and I are no match for Cora and Regina." She pressed on feeling stronger with Jefferson at her back.

"You will do what has to be done when it comes down to it but until then remember there are other chess pieces on the board. You don't always have to be the one acting. You gave orders here tonight and I am glad you are starting to act like the Queen you now are."

"Actions or Orders it is too late now, Cora will kill us all," Aurora argued.

"No, you and the other Heroes will do what you have always done, and save the day."

Emma's cellphone went off. "Mary Margaret where are you?" She paused a moment. "Hang on." She turned back to Aurora, can you keep them out but let her in the back door, she has something."

"The candle?" Aurora and Jefferson both asked?

"I don't know…"

Aurora didn't wait for more she went to the back door and quickly made an opening letting her in.

"Where is the candle?" Aurora asked.

"I couldn't do it, but I did find this." Snow opened the box and inside lay a beating heart.