Fuck.

He'd gone to the tomb to meet with Regina, manage her as he knew no one else in town could. He expected that he'd speak with her, convince her to stand down, that it wasn't in her best interest to seek revenge but rather to take that final approval her mother had given her and hold it in her heart forever…or at least give her some kind of bull shit line like that.

He hadn't expected to find an Evil Queen so devastated and hell-bent on revenge that not even he could reach her. So yes, it was bad. Far worse than he'd ever anticipated. Regina was determined, even more so it seemed than she had been in the Enchanted Forest, to destroy Mary Margaret.

No…not destroy…kill.

She hadn't given him a specific plan while he'd been with her, but she'd certainly laid out her end goals for him. She wanted to kill Mary Margaret and claim Henry for herself. One month ago, he probably wouldn't have cared. Regina had always wanted Mary Margaret dead, even in the Enchanted Forest; it was him who had convinced her that suffering during the Curse could be a sweeter fate for her. In some way, he'd always anticipated her desire for Mary Margaret to die to return when the Curse broke, and he'd always thought that he wouldn't care because he'd be in the world that he belonged with his son. And as for Henry, well, a month ago, he wouldn't have cared if she took him. She wasn't the mothering type, no. But Henry was always well fed and cared for, so no…a month ago, if she'd laid out these goals, he wouldn't have blinked an eye at them.

Now things had changed. Now he knew that Henry was the son of his own son and Emma Swan. And if the Charmings were oh so willing to proclaim him family after the announcement, he was damn sure that they'd feel the same about Baelfire. Henry and Mary Margaret were two people that his son was bound to become involved with in a situation like this, which meant that he cared. He cared about what Regina planned to do, and he cared about how she planned to do it.

The trouble was that he didn't know what her plan was. He didn't even have an inkling of what she was thinking she could do. Regina had been crazed and frenzied in the Enchanted Forest but never a truly loose cannon because he'd always had some sort of power over her. Even when she did wrong, and he left her to make mistakes or chastised her for it, he'd had control over those situations or been able to take control to ultimately get what he wanted. Regina crazed and frenzied without him to guide her punches…that was a threat to everyone in Storybrooke. And right now, that included the woman he loved as well as his son and the people his son loved, whether or not he wanted to admit it.

This was a disaster. He'd gone to manage the situation, and from where he stood now, he wasn't entirely sure he hadn't just made the entire thing worse!

No. That wasn't true. Not precisely.

He hadn't gone to manage the situation. He'd gone to manage Regina. He'd gone to stop her before there was a "situation" to be managed.

That way of thinking changed things, although not in a way that he was particularly pleased with. He'd failed to manage Regina. The situation, on the other hand, could still be salvaged, and he knew just who he had to alert to in order to do the salvaging.

The newly formed Charming Clan.

He hated the idea because he knew who "The Charmings" were at the moment. It wasn't just warning David and Mary Margaret but also Emma. Undoubtedly, dealing with Emma would somehow bring Henry into the mix, and no matter what his current relationship with Emma was, he was positive that involving Henry would bring Baelfire running, the exact opposite of what he wanted him to do.

But…maybe there was a way around it. Perhaps he could figure out how to have the upper hand while he was still in control of things. Bae needed time. He hadn't told him that directly, but he hadn't sought him out after Cora's death because after the look he'd given once he realized he'd played a hand in Cora's death, he was trying to respect his privacy and boundaries. He knew that if Bae wanted to see him, then he would come to the building right on Main Street with his name attached to it in big, bold letters. But this wasn't a time to indulge childish fantasies of healing on one's own. This was a time to take care of the situation at hand, and then he could take as much time as he bloody well wanted. If he stayed away and Bae got himself killed defending Henry or Regina saw him as a threat and killed him…then he'd never have that time.

He could step in. He could warn the Charmings about Regina, and then, before there was time to involve him, he could call his son, come up with some way to keep him busy or keep him protected and away from Henry and Emma until the danger passed. And better yet, if he played his hand right, if he went to the Charmings and told them what was going on and managed to keep Bae busy appropriately so that he didn't see that he was trying to keep him from it, then it might even earn him so trust from his son. The news that he'd warned them and helped in some way to protect Henry might go a long way with his son. That was what he needed at the moment. That had been his thinking behind helping Ruby when Belle had left, and that seemed to have worked just fine. There was no reason in his mind why this should be any different.

Was it a smart idea? Not at all. Was it well planned? No. But he'd worked with less of a plan in a fraction of the time he had now. He could do this.

At least that was what he told himself to get his hand to finally rap on the door to Mary Margaret's apartment only moments after he'd finished dealing with the Evil Queen.

"Get out!" David roared when that door swung open to reveal the family still inside eating breakfast. Well, most of the family. Mary Margaret was in what apparently qualified as a bedroom, laid out on her bed, barely paying attention to him, unlike the others. If that was any indication, then it appeared that her mood from yesterday hadn't improved.

"I think you're gonna want to hear what I have to say, for her sake," he explained, pointing at Mary Margaret.

"Maybe I deserve…" she'd said at his shop. What she thought she deserved he never heard because she'd been whisked away but glancing at her now, he could tell that whatever she thought she deserved then, she probably still felt she deserved now. He'd wager that what she thought she deserved wouldn't put up much of a defense if Regina barged in. That was a problem.

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked over David's shoulder. Henry was closing in too, but Emma grabbed him before he could come any closer. He hadn't realized just how much he'd been hoping Henry would be with Baelfire until he saw him there.

"She's planning to strike back…against your mother."

"What is she gonna do to her?" Henry demanded, once again moving forward only to be held back again by his mother.

"Oh, she didn't say."

"No," David snarled. "You don't get to come in here and just drop a bomb like that. You're gonna figure this out. And you're gonna help us."

He felt his skin prickle with magic at his tone. He didn't like being told what to do. The Dark Ones didn't care for such presumption from the former Prince Charming. Who was he to tell him what he was going to do and not simply accept what he offered with gratitude?

"And why should I?"

"Because aside from us being family now, Mary Margaret saved your life. Now you owe her a debt, and you always pay your debts, don't you?"

Fuck. He looked through the apartment, back to where Mary Margaret was rolling around on the bed, looking incredibly uncomfortable simply to be there and breathing. Was he right? Was the prickling of magic he felt on his skin more than his own magic? And the sense of responsibility and ownership that he felt, in this case, was it more than just guilt? Could it be magic that bound them, that recognized the deal they'd made and was ensuring he followed through with it?

He'd barely had a moment to contemplate it before he recognized the feelings stirring inside of him. Yes, that was exactly it. He knew magic. He knew how it worked and how it felt. He knew how debts and deals worked. David was right. They'd never made a deal for that candle, he and Mary Margaret. But in taking it and doing what he wanted, he'd essentially owed her a favor for saving his own life instead of someone dying in the Storybrooke Hospital. He owed her a debt. The magic recognized it as a debt. And much to his disgust and the disgust of every Dark One in his head right now, yes, he always made sure his debts were paid.

"You're gonna help us stop Regina," David insisted again.

This was going to be a problem. How was he going to protect Baelfire when he was working with them?

By speeding things along. By paying his debt as quickly as he could and keeping the two people most likely to call upon his son far away from the trouble.

"Fine," he spat out. "But this time…this time it's you asking me for help. And this time…we do things my way," he whispered with a grin aimed at David. The last time they'd gone out looking for someone, Belle, he'd played by David's rules. Now they were going to play by the Dark One's rules. And for that to work, he needed one person and no one else. "You're coming with me," he growled at David before glancing over to Emma and Henry. "Not them."

"But-"

"She wants you too, Henry," he pointed out at the boy's whine. "Just as she wants to see your grandmother killed, she wants you back on her side. We have no idea how she plans on doing that and until we know how it's safer to keep you far away from where she might be."

"And where will that be?" David asked.

"The cemetery. She's burying her mother today in her family plot. If we hurry, we might still catch her."

"Great," David commented, grabbing for a gun. "Let's interrupt."

"I can come!" Henry shouted. "I can be helpful. I know I can!"

"No dice, kid," David argued for him as he fetched a black coat and shrugged it on. "Stay here with your mother," he said before looking over at Emma. "Both of you. I'll call you when we have her, and it's safe."

I'm sort of just "meh" on this chapter. It's filler, meant to take us from point A to B. Accept it for what it is, knowing that some really good chapters from this episode are coming after this!

Thank you, Grace5231973, for your review of the last chapter. "Meh" as this one will be, I do hope that you will at least appreciate Rumple's thought process in this chapter and some of the little subtle things. The guilt he felt in the last chapter was very uncharacteristic for a situation like this where Rumple is positive he's done the right thing. I wrote it carefully so that in this chapter he could discover that it wasn't guilt, only magic. Peace and Happy Reading!