Chapter 24:
The next morning, Bella made her way to the Charming house where she had been invited to have breakfast with them like it had become the tradition to do so once a week, and, there, she told them about what had happened during the night.
She started from the moment she received Emma's phone call telling her about the engagement (Snow tried to to frown when she found out that she wasn't the first to be told about it, but she kind of understood) before she continued with her conversation with Hook on the docks and about finding Pinocchio on her way home. She told them everything Marco had told her about Pinocchio's unhappiness and dreams. She knew that the Charming's were Emma's family but they made her feel like she was one of them and, sometimes, she liked it. She liked feeling like Snow and David cared about her as well. Of course they weren't like parents to her, more like an aunt and uncle that watched distantly over her while her own parents were away.
"So August will be back then?" Snow asked her happily, knowing that this was what Bella was wishing for all this time.
"Apparently, yes. Marco told me that he's been trying to deny the truth, deny that his son wasn't happy. Pinocchio can apparently tell that something's missing from his life even though he doesn't know what it is and now that I think of it, the place where I found him… It would have been on his way from his father's house to mine, at least the long way we took when we walked back home." Bella replied.
"That's great!" Henry exclaimed.
"I think so." Bella nodded.
"You think so? What's wrong?" Emma asked her.
"I just feel a bit guilty for Marco… It'll pass I guess, but I feel like it's wrong of me to feel happy when I know Marco will be losing something he wants." Bella shrugged her shoulders.
"Marco took the decision, he'll be fine with it eventually. His son will still be there, he'll learn to be a parent to an adult like we did." Charming comforted Bella.
"So, what about Hook?" Graham asked her.
"He's a friend, why?" Bella replied with a shrug of her shoulders.
"He wants to be more." Emma and her father said at the same time, making everyone chuckle.
"He'll just have to get used to being my friend. It'll be okay, I'm sure he'll find someone else eventually. I can feel it and you know I'm never wrong about these feelings." Bella replied.
"If you say so." Emma frowned.
"Speaking about Hook. Henry, care to tell me just how many people you interrogated about my parents' potential identities? He told me that you asked him and his men about it." Bella asked the boy who looked smug.
"Oh… Just a few people." Henry shrugged.
"What's a few?" Emma asked her son.
"Well, Hook and his men, Robin Hood and the Merry men, all the oldest people in town because I figured that if they're old, they must have seen a lot of things, the people working at the docks because they tend to see lots of people or to travel a lot, the people…" Henry started counting.
"Forget it." Bella interrupted him with a smile, unable to stay mad at the boy.
About an hour after breakfast, Henry was at school and Bella was in Gold's shop where Marco and Pinocchio were waiting for him to get all the ingredients he'd need. Belle was present as well, supporting her friend Bella.
"Are you sure about this, Marco? There might be another solution, a way to make him forget his adult memories better…" Bella reminded the old man.
"It's for the best Bella." Marco nodded with a smile.
"I've found the last ingredient. Now, turning him back into a child later would be taking the risk to kill him so, Bella, here is a spell I want you to study. It's a protection spell you'll need to cast over August once he's back. This way, Blue, or anyone else really, won't be able to turn him back again." Gold told his friend.
"Why don't you do it?" Bella asked him.
"Because it's a light magic spell. Yours is pure and the whitest I've ever seen. I could cast it but it would be weak and corrupted. It'll be stronger if you're the one to cast it." He replied.
Bella smiled and started studying the spell he wanted her to cast while he finished the potion Pinocchio would have to drink.
The little boy was pretty calm. He knew what was going to happen to him and he trusted his father when he told him that it would make him happier, that it was for the best.
"Here we go Pinocchio. Now I need you to drink this glass. You have to finish it, to drink it all. Once you're done, I advise you to lie down. It will make the transformation easier on you." Gold told the little boy with a kindness rare people had seen.
The little boy nodded and did as he was told.
"I added a small sleep potion in it. He'll only sleep about half an hour, the time for the transformation to take place. This way he won't feel it taking place." Gold explained to Marco and Bella.
"Thank you." Marco replied sincerely.
"You're welcome. I'm trying to change, apparently, helping others is the best way to go. I'm just trying to become someone my boy will be proud to call his father." Gold replied with a smile.
"You're doing great." Bella encouraged him, determined to do her best to convince Baelfire to give Gold a chance to be his father.
"Emma and Maleficent should be here in about 45 minutes to use your mirror magic to locate her daughter." Bella informed Gold after watching the message she had just received on her phone.
"Very well. I'll prepare everything then. Call me if you need anything before he wakes up." He replied before he and Belle went back to the front of the shop while Bella and Marco watched over a changing boy.
.
Bella couldn't bring herself to watch the boy change so she grabbed the spell book Gold had given her with the protection spell and, after studying the one he showed her, she read the others, wanting to know as much as possible. She was so concentrated on the book that she didn't notice as time passed and soon, Marco was calling her, telling her that his son was waking up.
"Papa… I… It worked… I'm back. Thank you, you took the right decision papa, I'm sure of it." August stated with a bright smile, obviously happy to be back.
For a second, father and son looked at each other with a smile and they seemed to be communicating. They were telling each other that they were okay, that they were still father and son, that it was the right decision and that everything would be alright.
"August." Bella whispered, love and happiness rushing back in her heart where they belonged, finally soothing the pain she had learned to live with since he had been changed.
"Bella! I missed you so much." August exclaimed, getting up and, ignoring the pain, he rushed to hug her.
"So did I." Bella replied, tears of joy on her face, as she hugged him back.
"I'll warn Gold so he can check if everything is really alright." Marco declared before he rushed out and went to the front of the shop, coming back a few minutes later with Gold.
"Thank you, really." August told the Dark One who simply smiled before he replied:
"Just doing my best to try and become a better man, a man my son would want to come home to. Well, apparently you're alright. You'll be sore for a while but it's normal. Now, Bella have you studied the spell I showed you?" He asked her.
"Yes, I did. I was waiting for you to be here before I cast it though, just in case." She replied.
"Go ahead then. I'll watch." He encouraged her.
Bella nodded and, full of confidence and love, she cast the protection spell on the man she loved. She wanted to make sure the Blue Fairy wouldn't be able to touch him again and so she tried to make it as strong as possible.
"Wow." Gold exclaimed, stunned, as he watched her.
"What is it? Did I do something wrong?" Bella asked him.
"On the contrary dearie, this was perfect, better than I expected. It's the strongest protection spell I've ever seen." Gold complimented her, thinking that he better never get on her bad side.
"Oh… I… Good." She blushed, making everyone chuckle.
"I have to go back to work. I'll see the two of you later for dinner?" Marco declared, asking his son and Bella to join him later.
"Of course you will." August told his father while Bella nodded with a smile.
Marco left just in time to let Emma and Maleficent in. August, who was still holding Bella's hand, started to tense.
"It's okay, she's not mad about the secret, she understand that it's for the best. It got her where she is now, that's what's important to her." Bella told him.
"I get that but… I… After we're done here, stay here with me, we'll have to talk to Gold." August told her quickly before Emma arrived and hugged her returned friend.
Maleficent hadn't spent as much time with August but she welcomed him back and he was happy to see that she had remained good and a friend to Bella. He had heard about her daughter but didn't know her personally, so he wasn't able to help her but he knew that she was doing her best to get her happy ending. August could see with one look that she deserved it. He also remembered crossing her a few days ago, when he was still a child. She had helped him pick up the books he had dropped and had been kind, sweet and smiling. A woman nobody would think to have ever been a villain.
Gold took out the broken baby toy Maleficent had on her necklace and used it to link it to a mirror, explaining each move to Bella so she'd be able to do it too some day, look for someone, locate them. Suddenly, Maleficent smiled when her baby girl appeared on the mirror while Bella and Emma gasped.
"Emma… Look at the mark on her wrist…" Bella whispered.
"It can't be…" Emma shook her head before they heard that it was, indeed, their old friend.
"Lilly... They named her Lilly… Such a pretty name." Maleficent commented.
"So not only my parents screwed her over because they put my potential for darkness in her and they separated her from her mother but I abandoned her when she just wanted someone to be there for her." Emma stated, surprising Maleficent.
"It wasn't your fault, Emma. You were a teenage girl, Lilly lied to you and got you in trouble, twice. The second time around she cost you a potential great family. It's very understandable." Bella tried to justify.
"But you told me to give her a chance, I didn't listen to you. I have to make this right. I'll work on locating her right now." Emma argued while Maleficent tried to understand what was going on.
"What's going on? You know her?" The mother asked.
"We crossed her a few times. She had more of a connection to Emma though. She ran away from her family, they were a good family but she didn't feel right with them, like she didn't belong. That's when she met Emma for the first time. They robbed a store together for food and broke into Lilly's family summer house. Lilly lied and told Emma that she was an orphan too. It didn't end well, Lilly's father busted them and blamed it all on Emma, who in turn blamed Lilly and refused to stay in touch with her. I saw her at this moment because the social worker who went to pick up Emma had just picked me up too and was going to put us together in the same group home. Lilly and I had the time to speak for a few minutes and I promised her to try and talk Emma into giving her a chance. I was unsuccessful. A few months later, Emma was in a great foster family, they were very nice, loving and welcoming to her. Lilly arrived, lied and stole money from them because she wanted Emma to run away with her too. Emma got in trouble for it. Lilly wanted freedom and figured Emma wanted the same while Emma just wanted a family where she'd be welcome and loved. She almost had that and she lost it because of Lilly, so she rejected her once more. I crossed Lilly a couple of times later, when we were adults. She knew who I was and I knew who she was. We talked and even went to see get some coffee together but nothing more. We never really tried to connect and we lost touch." Bella replied.
"How was she?" Maleficent asked her.
"I can try to use a dream catcher to show you if you want." Bella offered.
Maleficent nodded and so Bella put all of her memories of Lilly in the dream catcher.
"Thank you I'll take it home with me. Call me when you know where she is? I know that I can't leave town but I'd like to see you off." Maleficent asked Bella.
"Yes, of course." Bella nodded and the happy mother left, planning on assuring Emma, before they left town that she was forgiven, that she shouldn't carry the blame for what happened to Lilly.
"Before Bella and I leave, I'd like to speak with you Mister Gold. There's something you need to know about the secret I'm still keeping from Emma. I promised that I wouldn't tell her, and I will keep this promise, but you need to know it and, after what you did for me, without asking for anything in exchange, I will use this hole in my word to tell you and Bella about this secret." August announced just as Gold was about to go back to the front room of his shop.
"What is it?" The Dark one asked him.
"Maybe we should sit down. It's kind of big." August suggested and so Rumple led the way to his living room and served some tea, feeling a big story coming.
"As you know, I abandoned Emma soon after we landed in this world and ever since then, I jumped from one temptation of this world to the next, trusting that Emma would be safe in the system. When she turned 18, I looked for her and found her about to sell stolen watches for her boyfriend so they could get a new start in Tallahassee." August started his tale.
"Henry's father, right?" Gold asked just when Bella asked:
"You know Neal?"
"I quickly found out who he was, and so I approached him. I knew that if they stayed together, Emma would never go to Storybrooke to break the cruse. I told him that I knew who he was, I told him who Emma was, where she was from and what her destiny was. I told him that he couldn't stay with her if he wasn't ready to guide her home to her family. He replied that he couldn't go there, that there was no way he was going…" August stated.
"Neal wasn't his real name, was it?" Bella asked, feeling like the answer would change everything.
"No." August shook his head, looking at Gold.
"It's Baelfire? My son?" Gold asked him.
"Yes." August nodded looking guilty.
"Does he know about Henry?" Bella asked her boyfriend.
"No, he doesn't and I'm afraid it's my fault. I gave him the choice of guiding her home, to break the curse, meaning finding his father again, or letting her go to jail, get back on the right track. He chose to let her go to jail. After that, he gave me the Yellow bug they met in and asked me to give it to her. I sent her the keys without signing or writing anything else. I went back to my life, promising Neal to keep in touch with him. When Emma arrived here, my leg started turning again so I went to New York, found Neal, told him that I was coming here and that I would warn him as soon as the curse broke. I did. I sent him a postcard via bird. I'm sure he received it. Before I left though, he reminded me of my promise never to tell Emma about this, adding that he didn't want to see his father again. But since he didn't think of adding not telling you to my promise, I feel like I can tell you, especially since you deserve the truth." August explained.
"He left her… It's my fault… I mean, you gave him a choice, didn't you?" Gold asked the man who nodded.
"Bella could use a dream catcher to pull the memories out of my head if you want, you'd be able to see it all. See him a bit before we look for him." August suggested and the Dark one nodded, letting Bella use the magical item.
After that they all watched as August found Neal, showed him his typewriter with "I know you're Baelfire" written on it. They saw the conversation and Neal choosing to leave Emma and never seek her out again instead of facing his father one day. They saw Neal giving the car to August and later August returning and Neal reminding him that he didn't want to see his father again.
"He could have contacted her now, explained everything… he didn't. Because of me…" Gold whispered.
"I'm telling you this now because I think that he's wrong. He was sure that you couldn't change but I'm seeing it now, you're changing and you're becoming someone he'd be proud to call his father. I mean, you helped me without asking for anything in exchange, this means a lot. I'm going to go with you to find him and I'm going to make sure he knows how much you've changed and why. I'll do everything in my power to reunite the two of you, and make up for what I did to Emma." August declared, squeezing Bella's hand a little tighter in his.
"August, once Emma finds out she'll understand, she won't be angry at you." Bella promised him.
"She should be angry at me." The Dark One stated.
"She won't be angry at you either. She'll be angry at Neal at first, and then she'll decide that it was all for the best, that she found her family and met her Love because of his decision. And Henry will be very happy to have found another grandfather." Bella told them both with a smile.
"Are you sure he'll be happy to see me?" Gold asked August.
"He'll be angry at first, but I'm sure I can convince him to give you a second chance. Henry will be a big help too." August nodded.
"I… Thank you for telling me. I need to go tell Belle." Gold replied.
"Since we know where to find Neal, we'll be able to leave as soon as Emma finds Lilly's location. I'll call you." Bella told him on their way out.
"I'll buy everyone's ticket as soon as we know." Gold replied.
. The sorcerer's thoughts.
I can see things moving well now.
I really didn't see this twist coming, August coming back, but at least it shows that my vision wasn't about her and the pirate. I still wonder what she was doing pregnant on a pirate ship but who knows? I guess time will tell.
Seeing the happiness on my daughter's face though, there's nothing that could make me happier.
I'm also proud of August's way of dealing with his promise. He did the right thing, found a way to go around to his promise, gave Rumpelstiltskin a chance. He really deserves his present happiness with my daughter.
I hope you liked it. Those of you who missed August should be happy, right?
Also, sorry it took me so long but inspiration comes and goes, I hope you understand.
Tell me in a review!
Lorelei Candice Black