The time had finally arrived. He'd been watching the little shepherd family for over a month now. He'd been watching as things had slowly gone from the happiest day of Robert and Ruth's lives with the birth of their sons, to the worst. The boys were sick. But because they hadn't started out as bad as they were now, they'd spent precious money on doctor visit after doctor visit. Ruth had spent the first two weeks of their lives trying to convince the doctors that something was wrong. Now that they'd finally found it, just as planned, the medicine to fix the infection that dwelled within the boys' lungs was too expensive for them to afford; especially since they'd needed to spend money only a week ago to fix the sheep peen after a tree had magically fallen on it. Or two weeks ago when the grain shed had caught fire taking most of the food they needed as well as the wagon poor Robert needed to take his wool to market to sell. It also didn't help that the two most prominent spinners in town had suddenly and uncharacteristically come across a vast fortune and decided to take a little time off and were no longer buying wool from the shepherd. All these things one right on top of one another…one might say it was almost magical.
The time had come. He'd pushed and pulled and bribed and poked and prodded all to make sure everything that could go wrong in the last month had and now, as he watched Robert beg and plead with the apothecary for the medicine behind the counter that would save his boys' lives he knew the time was right. If he didn't believe in this plan, if he didn't have the assurance that one of the babies was going to live the best life possible and that he was going to get to see Baelfire again, he might have regretted the stubbornness potion he'd slipped into the apothecary's drink. But he didn't. Robert's pleas were enough to make even the hardest of hearts go soft. He couldn't have an apothecary with a conscious screw this all up for him now. He had to act tonight. He was quite certain that Robert would tray again tomorrow and the day after that and the day after. And he could keep giving the apothecary the drug and remain hidden among the shadows throughout all that time, but unfortunately, a potion of stubbornness could have wicked consequences that someone was bound to notice if taken too often. The time was finally right to make the deal.
But not now. Timing was everything, even when time was limited. His date with the King loomed tomorrow morning, and he'd love to swoop in now and take one of the boy's, but this had to be done delicately. While Robert was depressed, being driven to absolute poverty with no hope of recovery or even a penny to go to the tavern for a drink to drown his sorrow, he wasn't the only parent in the equation. Ruth needed to reach a point of understanding too. In order for this to work correctly, all parties had to agree and be present.
So he followed Robert home. Thunder crashed and lightning flashed overhead, and he kept his cloak up to keep him dry as he followed him back home to the farm and then magically transported himself inside their home. He hid in the shadows, a place he would be undetected in the small place. He'd been here so often in the last month he knew all the best places to hide. Of course, an illusion charm didn't hurt either. Not that it mattered, the parents were so focused on the boys he could have stood there in a bright yellow cloak, dazzling as the sun, and they woudn't have noticed.
"Well?" Ruth inquired once the door was shut. "What happened?"
"I couldn't get any money for the medicine," he heard Robert admit. "I'm sorry, Ruth. I've failed my sons. I failed David and James."
The couple were grief-stricken, but Rumpelstiltskin smiled in his shadowy place. Those were the magic words. Failure. Rock Bottom. Complete despair. In answer to King George's previous question, that was exactly the mindset of a man who would give away his own flesh and blood. Especially if he promised him a much better life than this for the boy. That was just what a father did.
"David and James!" he pronounced, breaking the charm and emerging from his corner to make his presence known. Ruth, their dear mother, was quick to shelter behind the body of her husband, hoping perhaps he'd protect the three of them, but he'd been watching the family long enough to know that wasn't going to happen. If he wasn't drunk and could stand on two feet, it was a miracle, pitiful man. Besides, there was nothing to be protected from. He made that clear by having the pouch of medicine in plain view right away.
"Such strong names," he smiled. "But yet...such weak lungs. And good medicine is so expensive nowadays. Perhaps... I can help."
He tossed the bag of medicine onto the table by the boys. It landed with a splat as the strings slapped against the wood. Robert and Ruth stared at it like hungry wolves. They knew what he was offering. They knew what was in that bag even without opening it. It was simple enough. Use the medicine, and suddenly all their problems went away. Their sons would live, their money could go back into the farm, it was all so simple. With the exception of the fact that he was widely known in this area and now Robert was looking at him with suspicion. He knew. Nothing came without a cost.
"We have nothing to give you for that," he commented.
One of the boys coughed, David, he suspected, but he wasn't about to look now. He had to keep his eyes on the weakest link. He had to appear to them now as a savior and present his options perfectly—father to father.
"Do your boys like bedtime stories?" he asked, moving closer. Neither responded, but he hadn't really expected them to. "All right, here's one. Once upon a time, there was a king named George. He had great riches, but no son. And then there was a farmer named Robert, poor as dirt...yet he had two sons. Can you guess how this story ends?"
Suddenly quiet, meek Ruth transformed in front of his eyes into the mother bears he'd sometimes seen in his life. She grabbed a knife from the small kitchen behind them and brandished it out in front of her as if it was a threat. Of course, he didn't flinch at such a thing. It was the wrong knife entirely if she wanted to threaten him.
"Get out!" she cried! "Our sons are not for sale."
Everything was for sale. Everyone could be bought for the right price.
"Then they won't survive the Winter, dearie," he pointed out, purposefully looking down at them now to draw her attention back to them. Whether he knew it or not he and Robert were bound together by the bonds of paternal parentage, Ruth, on the other hand, needed to look at her boys. She needed to see things the way he did. He wasn't doing this to hurt the boys. He was trying to save them and give them both good lives. Two failing sheep farmers raise two boys? It was laughable! They hadn't the funds. They had enough to deprive both boys of everything or give one boy just enough. And as for the other, growing up in a palace was hardly a punishment. Together they would each continue to be a parasite for one another. Separate, they'd both have good lives. This was, what they called it in the deal-making business, a "win-win".
"Look, you can either have one healthy son…or two dead ones," with his last words, he'd glanced at Robert. He was thinking. His eyes were no longer glaring at him as though he was a threat, in fact, he wasn't even sure he was seeing anything in the room, he was deep in thought, processing this the way that he wanted him to. Robert was going to come around. He moved away. Giving the illusion of privacy to the couple to make the obvious choice.
"There's no other way," he heard him mutter to his wife. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Robert force the hand that was curled around the kitchen knife back down to Ruth's side. He saw things just the way that he wanted him to. It was perfect. "We have to do this, Ruth."
"Wise choice," he exclaimed, rejoining the conversation before he had too much time to think about it. He was on the clock, after all. It was nearly midnight, and he wanted to have the child, healthy and cured, to his new father by first light. But still, the question remained: which child? The Seer was oddly quiet on that front. It must have been his own choice.
"All we have to do now is decide which son goes to the king!" he pronounced as Ruth put her hand to her mouth and began squirming as though she was going to be sick. She may very well be after something like this. It was easy to believe after how many times he'd been worried sick over Baelfire. But at the moment, he didn't need to be here to see Ruth's response. And he didn't need to risk fate by having them make a wrong choice. It would be a gift, removing the decision from their hands and placing it into the hands of the future. "An impossible decision, I know, so let's make it simple."
From up his sleeve, he produced a florin, more money than they saw in six months of solid profit, and presented it to Robert. Yes, the pair saw eye to eye.
"Heads, I take David. Tails, I'll take James."
He offered the coin to Robert, and with a gaze that was equal parts disgust and desperation, he took it. He didn't do a traditional flip so much as simply tossed it onto the table, where it landed with a what he imagined must have been a heart-wrenching clatter. But he couldn't show it. He wouldn't show a sign of weakness now; he only kept the image of seeing his own son again in his head as he leaned over to check.
"Tails! Prince James it is!" he proclaimed before quickly reaching into the crib and grabbing the nearest infant, James…or Prince James as he was soon to become. But before he could pull him away completely, his parents reached out for him, not to grab just to touch.
"Your father loves you so much!"
"Oh, my son."
He pulled him out of their grasps easily and stepped away. A long drawn out good-bye was not going to make things better for the couple. Not by a long shot. And it was obvious to him with their actions that moving forward he had to make one thing very clear. Afterall, for this to work James had to be the King's son. He didn't know what he planned on telling his wife, but he certainly couldn't have the boy's parents pounding on the door, demanding to see their son or rumors spreading throughout the Kingdom that James was an imposter. From this moment on, the boy was a prince. Their son had to be dead.
"Careful with your words. This deal must stay a secret, which means this boy...is no longer your son."
It was a kindness, he knew, to leave at that moment, to not draw it out any longer or force them to contemplate what they'd just done. He took the boy from them at that moment, left them with more than enough money to get the farm back on track, to undo everything he'd done, and care for David. He'd left them with the magical cure that would see all that money go right to profit. He'd been more than generous.
Back at the castle, James squawked and squealed, surprised by the magical mobility they'd used, but his lungs, like his brother's, were just as unhealthy. In no time at all, his cries became shadowed by tears of pain. He coughed and sputtered and tried to breath, but unlike David, who would be cured of his illness in a week or two with the medicine, James needn't wait long. Within him he stirred up his magic and placed his hand on the infant's chest. He found the contagion that he'd left there and used his magic to pull it out before pushing more into him that would strengthen his lungs. Another spell put the boy to sleep for another couple of hours until he could take him to George. From the recesses of the castle, a room he was certain he'd never been in, he summoned a crib. Then he set the boy inside of it to sleep for the night before staring down at him.
It was overwhelming. Everything was coming to fruition, every last bit of that prophecy that he'd seen had come true! The Swan and Regina, it all hinged on the pair of them. Now Regina was around, her mother doing her best to form her into the perfect woman so that she might climb the ranks through marriage. As for the Swan girl, both of her parents had now been born. He had, what…another twenty or so years to wait? That was certainly less than the hundreds he'd once seen before him.
"Prince James…" he smiled as he watched the child sleep. "What a life awaits you, what a future. King James and Queen Snow and…"
He paused as something rippled through his body. Something wasn't right. Something about the words he'd said wasn't right, not like they usually felt when he put the future together. Having James, taking him to the King, that felt right! It was what he was supposed to do. But his name next to the future Queen's name…
He felt the ripple again and cocked his head to the side as he stared new information came to him.
"Prince Charming…you're not the one…"
And yet he was the one! This was correct! He felt this in every bone in his body. James was the one he was meant to take, the one appropriate for this deal, to become the False Prince and yet…he wasn't Prince Charming.
It was David. He was Prince Charming.
But how? How could he be, and how would it come to pass when the Seer's voice whispered in his head that they were still both one and the same?
It was another puzzle, another riddle of the future to figure out, one that only time would solve. And in the meantime…
"Well now…that's very…interesting…"
Okay, lots going on in this chapter but after the responses I got to the last chapter, I think I have some explaining to do. Yep, I made Rumple make the kids sick. That wasn't an easy decision, but ultimately it was one that I felt confident in making. At a certain point in this fiction, Rumple will trust the Seer a lot more. He'll really trust that whether or not he intervenes things will happen the way they are meant to happen. That time isn't now. Though he trusts the Seer's Prophecy, there is still a lot that he's not comfortable leaving to luck. David is a major player in the future and I just couldn't see him leaving the situation to chance, trusting that the boys would be born sick, trusting they'd be sick enough, that the family would be in dire straights, that everything would go just so...it's a control issue. You can see it in this chapter too. Rumple is the one that uses magic to smash the sheep pen, he makes sure the spinners aren't buying wool, he makes sure the apothecary won't be moved by desperate pleas. He has complete and total control over the situation for one of the most important people in his plan to get back to his son! That is why I ultimately had him make the boys sick. Control. At the time it seemed like a very Rumple thing to do. It's also why I had him have the cure on hand because it seemed also very in character for him to not let the kids die no matter what. I like to think even if they had refused his offer, he still would have made sure that the boys were cured. I like to think that's why he kept such a close eye on the family, he knew what he did and he wasn't going to let the boys get into trouble. He was just maintaining control.
Thank you Grace5231973 for your review on the last chapter, I hope this helps in answering some of the questions. If it doesn't help, I'm hoping you'll at least be able to forgive me and look forward to the future. "The False Prince"...I was careful on the wording of that. Technically, even now, the False Prince could be either David or James. Do you see how? Peace and Happy Reading!
