"Gold."

Emma's voice called to him as he stared at the floor, at the place the body should have been, the place that Regina had been before she'd disappeared.

He hadn't planned on this moment. It was so very unlike him that it caught him off guard. That was the problem with dying; it shifted perspective, made people think without thinking it through, speak without consideration, and act with careless disregard for the future. He hadn't planned on this moment. He'd hoped for it! He'd hoped for it every moment since he'd been stabbed and realized there was poison coursing through him. But he hadn't realized just how unlikely he thought the plan he'd crafted was until this moment. He hadn't realized how poorly planned it was in the long term until right now.

Cora dead.

Regina vanished.

That wasn't good.

"Gold!" This time Emma's voice came not in a question but in a demand, one that forced him to look up at her and Baelfire standing on the other side of his shop. David was looking at Mary Margaret. And Mary Margaret…she stared at the same spot on the floor that he'd been staring, though he imagined it was probably for a vastly different reason.

"What happened?" Emma asked him, eyes still wide as she watched him stand. That was a fair shock to the girl, seeing as how the last time he'd seen her, he was at death's door.

"Cora's dead," David stated, looking over at him.

"I killed her…" Mary Margaret muttered quietly under her breath. But it didn't matter; the shop was so quiet that they would have heard a tick sneeze. David was at her side immediately, hands on her shoulders, turning her away from the place that Cora and Regina had been.

"No," he insisted. "You didn't. He did. He killed her."

"Gold!" Emma balked at the same time Baelfire demanded, "Is that true?"

"No…" Mary Margaret whispered. "It was me. I killed her."

"There was no other way," he insisted from where he stood. It wasn't an admission of guilt, but it wasn't a claim of innocence either. It was simply something that acknowledged the complexity of the situation. Yes, Cora was dead. But did David feel guilty over the dragon he'd once killed to become a Prince? Did he and Mary Margaret feel guilty for the price they'd forced Maleficent's child to pay so that Emma could be as Light as she was? Arguably, this was a far better trade-off than that had been. Cora wouldn't have stopped. This was a means to an end. It was sloppy and terribly thought through, but the sooner they all acknowledged it, the sooner they could get to cleaning it up.

"She did the right thing," he commented in Mary Margaret's direction.

"No!" David rebelled, leaving her side. "No, stop it! Don't act like this isn't your fault!"

"My fault?" he scoffed. "I asked to be stabbed and poisoned in New York City by Hook? Who got away under your nose, I believe! My fault I provided the answer to stopping Cora? Or is what's really bothering you the fact that I survived such a transaction?"

"There was another way. There's always another way."

"Just because you want there to be one doesn't mean there is! If I'd had the strength, I'd have done the deed myself, but as it was-"

"So you send Mary Margaret to do it for you?!" he screamed. "To pay the price for you."

"Hey!"

The scream ripped through the shop so loudly it echoed. His son's voice…it saved David. He was getting frustrated, and he needed to think. He needed to think about what to do about Regina. He had to call and check on Belle. He had to hide the dagger. There were so many other things he had to do besides fight with the Prince over who was at fault!

"Someone want to tell us what the fuck is going on?!" Bae demanded.

Emma held up a hand in his direction as if to calm him, but her eyes stayed on Mary Margaret, who hadn't moved and had her eyes cast down to the ground. "What happened to Cora?"

"He did," David spat, reaching into his pocket. "He killed her, with this!"

Out of his pocket, he withdrew the double-sided candle and held it out for Emma to see. She picked it up with the same care and reference that her mother had when he'd led her to it a few moments ago, though, for her, he couldn't help but ponder if it was for a different reason. Mary Margaret had handled it with care because of the past attached to it. Emma had no such past with it, and now he wondered if the Savior felt the Dark Magic coming off of it. That would be an interesting addition to the day. It would mean her magic was growing.

"Gold?" Emma prompted, glancing over at him, not her father, for a proper explanation. Clever girl.

"It's an Enchanted Candle," he explained. "It has the capability of trading one life, a life that is dying, for another."

"And seeing as you're still standing, let me guess…Cora just traded her life for yours."

He nodded. "Without the dagger to heal, it was the only way. By lighting both ends and holding the candle over the intended victim or their heart and whispering their name, the life of one is forfeit while the other…" He held out his hand as if to say "ta-da," but nothing about this situation warranted that kind of response. He'd said it nicely, but there was no mistaking what happened. It was murder, plain and simple. The only redeemable aspect about this was the woman who had been murdered and what she was capable of.

"You had something to do with this?" Baelfire questioned, squinting at him across the room. He swallowed hard. What was he supposed to say? Yes, of course, he'd had something to do with it, but he didn't regret it! He didn't see it as bad! The ends justified the means! He'd far rather the world have to deal with him than with Cora! He knew Baelfire hated Dark Magic, but…couldn't he see that? Couldn't he see that the alternative was no alternative at all?

"It was the only way, Bae."

"He gave Mary Margaret the candle," David insisted. "He told her what to do!"

"And I listened," Mary Margaret chimed in again. "This was me. He might have told me what to do, but…I made the choice. I did this."

"You did what you had to do, dearie," he commented again before looking at Emma. "And now it is your turn. Regina's going to need to be managed."

"Managed?"

"Cora's love and affection have been crucial to Regina ever since she was a girl. When her heart was returned to her body, even if it was just for a few brief seconds, she had it, and that will make this loss even more painful." He returned his gaze once again the Mary Margaret. "She tried to kill you for years because she believed you killed Danial, even if it wasn't by your hand."

"Now I've killed her mother, too…tricked her into doing it…maybe…maybe I deserve-"

"Mary Margaret, no!" David was on top of her again before she could finish that sentence. "You did what you had to do, what you were told to do. This isn't your fault."

"I'm gonna get the car. I'll go see if I can find Regina," Emma interrupted as if finally understanding the warning that he was issuing too late.

"She'll be hiding," he added before she could leave. Thus, the rub in this plan, probably because it was the one thing he hadn't planned for when plotting to get to this place. "You won't find her as long as she doesn't want to be found."

"Okay…you know her better than anyone. What's her plan?" the Savior asked.

"It'll be just that, Miss Swan…she'll plan…"

And plot. And though planning and plotting wasn't Regina's strongest suit, he was damn sure that this time around, she wasn't going to use an apple to exact her revenge.

This chapter is actually significant. I know it seems like filler, and in a way, it is because it's here to set up several future chapters, but because of what is in those chapters, this one had a big job to do. We never really saw the aftermath of this event. It was just a quick shot of everyone running inside and the others looking dire. In extending this scene, I had to not only set up Regina as the new villain and Mary Margaret as the guilt-ridden target she becomes, but I also had to craft a scene that would explain the lack of Rumple/Bae scenes from here on out. I know that won't please so many who want those scenes, but...here's the thing, it's canon. Its canon all because of one line said from Baelfire to Rumple in 2x21. "You're unreal, you know that? You spend years looking for me, I come to town, you disappear. You haven't even met Tamara yet." Like it or not, that is not the kind of thing you say to someone that you've had interactions with. It's canon, and if you've been with me this far, you know that I always stick to the canon. So I crafted a chapter, a reveal at the end of this episode that would explain why Rumple stays away from Baelfire. It may not be obvious now, but as we move forward, it will be.

Thank you so much for your reviews on the previous chapter, rsbeall12 and Grace! This one, as well as its implications, I know they're not so enjoyable. But remember, I warned you there would not be much Baelfire/Rumple in this fiction, but the fictions ahead...I'm writing those extra scenes in as we speak. I'm hopeful that they'll be everything you wanted them to be, but you're going to have to wait a little bit longer. You've trusted me thus far; trust me just a little bit more. And hey, on the plus side, I did give you one happy little thought. Neal's uncensored curse word of choice is also his dad's. Like father, like son! Peace and Happy Reading!