Mary Margaret's apartment was far too big to house so little, he decided. The space was ineffective at best and terribly annoying at worst. A loft with no walls...there was no such thing as privacy! The idea that Emma slept upstairs just above what constituted for her parent's bedroom with no walls or even a door made his skin crawl. He knew what it was like to have one's True Love beside them in bed. He knew the sheer willpower it took to keep himself quiet when he was with Belle, and they'd lived alone in his house. He didn't want to imagine what it was like for the Charming Family to share this space. Gods only knew where Henry slept and what he listened to.

As a visitor, it was uncomfortable. And that was saying something coming from the man who had been watching the Charming family for most of their lives. The picturesque window seat on the opposite side of the apartment was cute, but he'd die before he sat on anything that adorable. The kitchen table was a bit more his preference, but he wanted to be closer to Mary Margaret if Regina got creative and decided to make a surprise attack. The "living room," or what he imagined qualified as one, was right next to the bedroom, which was fine if not for the fact that Mary Margaret kept rotating her body on the bed like she was a rotisserie chicken.

In a perfect world, he would have stayed here with Mary Margaret. He would have sat at the table and brought something to tinker with while she worked around the house, and they'd both have silently agreed to deal with each other in companionable silence. Instead, the only thing he had to do was sit while he watched her ignore him and rotate over and over and over and over and…

"You may as well get up," he finally spat, taking the seat next to the bed. "You're obviously not resting, and if I have to stay here and be your guard dog, you may as well stop flopping about. It's not endearing, only irritating."

From somewhere underneath the blanket, he heard the bulbous form give an irritated sigh. She moved again, settling on her back to stare at the ceiling for a few seconds before she glanced over at him.

"What if you didn't have to stay here?" she asked in a quiet but determined voice.

Interesting. When they'd returned from the cemetery, Emma made it sound as if the woman had barely spoken, and yet here she was…speaking. Not to mention, it looked as though she had some trick or other up her sleeve. Very well, he could play whatever game was on her mind.

"If I didn't have to stay here, then it would mean Regina has been handled, and as far as I was concerned, you'd be free to resume acting like a fish out of water."

"I mean, what if you didn't stay. What if you just left?"

He stared at her for a moment, going over her suggestion. It was stated to sound hypothetical, but in actuality, she meant it as a suggestion. Which meant she wanted him to leave the apartment. Because…

"You want to be caught by Regina," he understood suddenly. "You want her to take your heart."

Mary Margaret didn't say a word to either confirm or deny it. Instead, she stared at him, giving him the opportunity to realize that at that moment, she resembled nothing of her former self. It wasn't just physical. It had nothing to do with the loss of her once long hair or the bow and quiver she used to keep strapped to her back. It was deeper than that. Her confidence, her strength, her determination, the spirit of a fighter that she'd always had…it was gone. All of it. He'd seen bits and pieces of it since the Curse broke but never all at once, and even then, he'd never seen her devoid of all of them at once! And yet here she was nothing like the former Queen Snow White and every bit shy, unassuming Mary Margaret Blanchard, elementary school teacher. It was so unsettling that he'd rather have the flopping around back.

Suddenly the woman sat up and pushed the blanket aside, revealing that it wasn't necessary with the way she was dressed. Sweater and pants and socks, she should have been plenty warm.

"The debt you owe isn't to my husband. It's to me," she pointed out. "I could release you from it, tell you that it's paid in full, and that would be enough. You could just go…"

And there it was, the magic words that he needed to go off and to protect Baelfire, to be able to leave. All the magic in this world needed to hear was "your debt is satisfied," and he would be free to go. And yet, if he did…

"If I did that, Regina-"

"I know what would happen," she inserted quickly. "I heard you talking with David and Emma."

"Awake that entire time, really?" he stated without surprise. "What a shock."

Suddenly Mary Margaret inched forward to where he sat and looked at him. "You don't have to stay here. You don't have to defend me. You can just let her come for me."

That was tempting. So very, very tempting. If he left, he could go sit with Bae and Henry, watch them while Emma went out in search of Regina, or sat in this so-called apartment with her mother. But…could he?

A little voice in the back of his head, one that belonged to neither Dark One nor Seer, a voice that had the eyes of Belle and Baelfire, reminded him that without Mary Margaret's intervention, he surely wouldn't be here now to have this argument with her. She'd done what he asked even when she didn't have to. Not only had it spared him his life, but it had potentially cost her her own life. So, could he really do that? Walk out of this apartment under her orders be completely guilt-free over what would happen to her if he did?

Why the hell would she want him to do that anyway?!

"What is this obsession you suddenly have with rolling over and allowing the Evil Queen to take your heart, your Majesty," he begged, sitting back in his chair. "You do realize if you'd exhibited this behavior in the Enchanted Forest, none of us would be here. She'd have killed you long ago."

"That was different. I was a child, I may have been responsible in the way Regina thought I was for Danial's death, but it wasn't my fault. I didn't know what I was doing and had only good intentions in mind when I told Cora about Danial. This…" she choked out, suddenly looking down at her hands folded over her ankle. "I certainly didn't have good intentions when I followed your instructions. My mind could only see the revenge in it."

"You stopped Cora. It was a means to an end."

"Maybe for you it would have been. All I cared about was making her suffer the way I had suffered, and that…that is the difference," she stated, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. "I tricked Regina into killing her own mother because of my own lust for vengeance. How can my desire for it be okay and hers be wrong? Why should I get my vengeance and she be denied? Just let her come to me," she breathed finally with a small smile of relief on her face as if the very idea of her death was relaxing to her. "All this will finally end; she'll have what she wants!"

Yes, that would certainly be the easy thing to do. However, for someone who had apparently been listening to it before going, she was ignoring one very large problem with that plan.

"And what about what your family wants? You said you were listening, dearie; it isn't just you she's after, she doesn't just want to crush your heart after all these years and claim victory. She wants to use that heart of yours to take Henry. She wants to convince your grandson, against his will, that he adores her. If I leave, that is surely what will happen. Is that what you want for Henry? To be separated from his parents as you were separate from Emma?"

He wasn't sure what he expected to see in Mary Margaret's eyes when he asked her about Henry, but the suspicion he saw in them now wasn't it.

"And here I was thinking you didn't care about him at all," she muttered quietly, looking him over judgmentally.

Him. Henry. She didn't think he cared about Henry. He felt something then, something inside of him come to life at that suggestion. It was angry and protective at the same time that it was annoyed and dismissive. He didn't know how he felt about the boy, but he knew he didn't like the implication of what she said. It was far too black and white for him. Either he cared about Henry, or he didn't, in her mind. But in his own, it wasn't as simple as all that. She was right at the same time that she was wrong.

"I don't," he sneered. "Not in the way you and your husband do, but…Baelfire loves him already. I helped bring him to Storybrooke for more than just to fall into step at the Queen's side. No one deserves the fate that you rolling over like a dog would grant to him."

Mary Margaret was quiet, still curled into a ball on the side of her bed, watching him carefully, considering his words in silence. He was grateful for that. He wanted her to consider his words, to think about the consequences of giving up as she so desired. If she wouldn't fight to save her own damn life, she should at least fight to save Henry's.

"Why don't you?" she asked in a small voice after a moment.

"Don't I what?"

"Care for him."

Again, he felt whatever had stirred inside of him the first time she'd mentioned him not caring about Henry come back to life. Something about that bothered him. Just as Henry asking to call him grandpa had bothered him. Grandpa was too much, and yet thinking he didn't care at all about a boy he'd known for all his life…it was too little.

"It's complicated," he answered.

"Is it? Because Henry has always been the one thing about all of this that has been easy!" she stated with a sudden flush of energy she'd been lacking in her tone. Henry…he gave her something to fight for. He could work with that.

"How do you mean?"

"We're making it work, but Emma is having a hard time seeing David and me as her parents. David and I are trying to reconcile who we were with who we are. Emma just found out that the father of her child is none other than your son, and your son just found out he was a father for the first time, but Henry…none of us have any problem accepting him as son and grandson. None of us except you."

"I'm not like you, your Majesty. For decades, for centuries before you were born, there was one goal and goal only, and that was to get myself back to my son. And I schemed and manipulated everyone, including you and your husband and Regina, in order to get what I wanted, to get back to my boy. Now we have been reunited, and I have come to find that getting back into his good graces is going to take more than a spell or two. I can't focus on the possibility of a grandchild at the moment."

"But he's not a 'possibility,' he's real! Henry exists, so...what, he'll just stay the son of your son?"

"And far away from me. That's all I'm capable of at the moment. If you can manage more, then consider yourself lucky."

"I don't buy it," she muttered, shaking her head at him before dropping it down against her knee almost sadly.

"I'm not selling."

"You didn't plan on Belle either. You didn't reject her like you are doing with Henry."

"I'm not rejecting Henry," he argued, trying suddenly to remind himself to breathe. He'd continued this conversation with the hopes of getting a rise out of her, sparking her back into a willingness to protect herself. All he was feeling now was that he was the one who was pushing through his temper. He didn't like it, just as he didn't like her husband telling him what to do or her presumptions about what he felt toward Henry or Belle. As it was, they had such a good life, and that included good examples of family, but that just wasn't the case for everyone, especially not for him.

"Just because your family is oh so willing to claim every blood relation you've ever had as part of the family doesn't mean I am. Family to you means something, it means something good and beautiful, and I can see that. But until my son came along, family never meant any of that for me. So, you'll forgive me if I'm not as eager to jump into another one so quickly. Belle comes with no strings attached, one of her many fine qualities. Henry, on the other hand, comes as part of a set, and I'm not entirely sure I'm ready to come over every Friday night for dinner."

Mary Margaret frowned and curled up tighter against herself. "Well, then that's too bad for you."

"What does it matter. If you had your way, I'd turn around and walk out of this apartment and let Regina come to kill you and take Henry away from everything he knows and wants. You say one thing and yet act the opposite way. You can't have it both ways, dearie. You need to-"

Suddenly there was a click at the door, the sound of a lock thrown open, except he tasted magic in the air. Familiar magic. Regina. There were footsteps around the corner, and he saw Mary Margaret's gaze flicker in the direction of the entrance to the pathetic apartment. There was silence, a confirmation it wasn't David or Emma or even Henry returning; they would have shouted a greeting. Regina, on the other hand, she wouldn't have. She'd have stared her down. Seeing her alone, she would have been thrilled at the thought that she no longer posed a threat and could be taken out. She didn't see him, at least not yet. Not yet because he stood there in her blind spot, watching Mary Margaret, willing her to do something! To show some kind of self-preservation instead of just sitting there like a log as she was now.

She didn't move.

She never uncrossed her legs or freed her hands to fight back. She barely lifted her head even after looking at the woman.

Fucking pure hearts!

There were footsteps on the floor again, Regina, deciding she was done waiting for the fight. The steps came closer and closer, and that was when he stepped out to reveal himself, meeting Regina only steps from the bed, staring her dead in the eye. He let a bit of his magic flare, enough so that anyone, including Regina, who was terrible at sensing magic, would feel it. It was a small reminder that she couldn't beat him. He was stronger than her. If she engaged, then she'd lose. Mary Margaret had asked him to leave, his debt was paid, and he was all for a good fight, but if he left this alone, it wouldn't be a fight. It would be a slaughter. One that would disappoint his son and devastate his family.

"Nice try, dearie," he growled as Regina stared. "Did you really think it was going to be that easy?"

His student glared at him, narrowing her eyes at him before sidestepping him to look at Mary Margaret. "He can't be your guard dog forever," she taunted at her stepdaughter.

He let out a small huff, a chuckle of a noise that he hoped conveyed disappointment in her. The Evil Queen didn't even try at the sight of him. Some student he had trained.

Going into this fiction, knowing where Henry and Rumple were going to start and where they were going to finish, I knew that I had to give him some good conversations to dive a little deeper into them. The question was always who he should have those conversations with. Belle would have been ideal, but she's a bit confused at the moment. Neal would have also been a good candidate, but canon says they don't spend time together, so that couldn't happen. I couldn't see Emma or David sitting down with him to talk about Henry in a friendly, inviting sort of way, but Mary Margaret, on the other hand...she was the winner, especially when I realized that she was going through something not identical but certainly similar with Emma. And lucky me, there just so happened to be unaccounted for time with Mary Margaret that I could sneak those conversations in.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Grace5231973 for your comments on the last chapter! We're halfway through and I hope that you'll enjoy this chapter as much as I do and think it's fitting for a mid-way point! I like these conversations that Mary Margaret gets to have with Rumple about Henry. I think it gives them both something to think about, and I think it allows them both to stay in character, each revealing too much or too little as they would while sitting, hitting the heart of the issue. And I also like that we get to dive a little bit more into Rumple's psyche with this. There's a line in this that I think is really indicative of where Rumple is right now, just a few paragraphs up, actually. "One that would disappoint his son and devastate his family." I think where Rumple is right now...it's not that he denies having a family. I just think that he sees himself as outside of it. And Bae, who is new as well, in his mind is being absorbed but isn't quite in it yet either, and so that presents a challenge that he's willing to take on. But Henry, who is deeply into it, I think he tells himself he doesn't want the particular challenge. But, it's a funny thing about people, sometimes the thing we want most is what we deny the hardest. Peace and Happy Reading!