Author's Notes: I do not own Once Upon A Time which is a show on ABC where I think we'll be ignoring things. A lot of things. Thanks for the reads and reviews. Glad you enjoyed it. Please let me know what you think and happy reading!
Then
Beatrice awoke alone. The cabin only had one bedroom which her parents took, she and Lady slept in the sprawling living room when they came up here.
She threw on jeans, boots and a sweater and headed outside.
"Mom? Dad?"
She could hear their voices in the distance.
"Why can't we mark it?," her mother asked.
"Don't you think someone would spot it? Don't you think Regina can take a hint?"
"It would depend on what the hint was."
"This is not funny, Belle."
"I don't know why we have to bury it."
Beatrice came around the trees to see a sight that was almost comical. Her dad was wearing his suit with black Wellies, Belle had on one of her trademark short skirt and blouse outfits with red ones.
"Beatrice," said Belle. "We didn't think you were awake."
They heard some rustling in the brush and turned to see Graham.
"Mr. and Mrs. Gold. Beatrice. What are you doing up here?"
"Gardening," said Gold. "What are you doing out here?"
"I saw... a wolf."
Beatrice turned to Belle trying to silently ask if the sheriff was crazy.
Gold spoke. "To the best of my knowledge there are no wolves in Storybrooke. Why are you looking?"
"You'll think I'm crazy."
"Try me."
"I saw one in my dreams and then I saw one in real life. Did you see anything unusual?"
"I'm afraid not," said Gold. He looked over at Belle, then walked towards Graham. "You know they say dreams are memories. Memories of another life."
"And what do you think?," asked Graham.
"I never rule out anything."
"Graham," said Belle, "you really look like you ought to get to bed."
"I'm fine, Belle. Really. Sorry to bother you."
Graham hurried back off into the woods.
"What just happened?," Beatrice asked quietly.
"There's nothing to worry about," Belle said in a way that led Beatrice to believe that there was most definitely something to worry about.
She looked at her dad.
"It's nothing."
"What were you guys doing out here?"
"Nothing to worry about, sweetheart. Go get your telescope so we can go back into town."
Now
Beatrice was nervous.
Extremely nervous.
Leaving town on her own was one thing. She had done that plenty of times since she got her car. The problem was her parents and the real world.
She had made the unfortunate mistake of letting her mom see her mail. There were tons of college prospectuses heaped on her after the ice wall came down. It seemed Belle couldn't resist them with their glossy portraits and noble-sounding mission statements. Then of course, there were pictures of the libraries.
Then again, she hadn't expected Colby College to offer an information session for high school juniors and their parents.
Then she hadn't expected them to want to come.
Of course, she could never have counted on Ingrid undoing her curse undoing all the other curses on the town line, but at this point, who could possibly keep track? It turned out Dopey had wandered off past the line and forgotten to mention it to anyone until he heard Belle mentioning this information session to Mary Margaret.
Still, she figured it was better to let them screw up the Colby visit and aim for MIT.
It was a one hour drive from Storybrooke. Waterville was the nearest town over, but of course Belle and Gold acted like it was an arctic expedition. They left extremely early and Beatrice was chagrined to see that they were the first people to arrive at check-in. The student volunteers were still taping the banner up.
"Come on, let's walk."
Belle pointed. "But that's check-in-"
"We can't be the first to check in!," Beatrice hissed, trying to lure her parents further away by simply moving in the opposite direction.
"Why not?," asked Gold.
"Then we're the goody two-shoes who showed up first."
"I don't understand. Logically, someone has to be first."
"Look, I know you guys come from a world where you just show up at the witch's castle when you get there, but this world runs off of schedules. Trust me. Just walk away. Now."
Belle looked longingly at the check-in desk. "But it's right there-"
"Mom, back away."
"Hello, Regina."
Regina looked up at Joseph as he walked into the vault. She glared.
"What are you doing in my vault? Have you brought anyone else back from the dead, Mr. Gillette?"
"Sadly, no, I wanted to speak to you about this."
He placed the book Lila had given him in front of her.
"It looks like my son's book."
"Wrong. This one appeared before my mother."
Regina began flipping pages. "I don't understand."
She ended up on "The Death of Sherlock" and looked up at him.
"My then," said Regina, her lip curling. "Haven't things changed?"
"I want to know what you know about the Author."
"Very little."
"Now, here's what I find curious, Beatrice is in this book very little and I know for a fact she has her own book-"
"Her own book?," Regina interrupted. "How did she get that?"
"Merlin gave it to her."
Regina stood up. "Then guess where we're going."
Then
Beatrice was hiding out in the library when she heard someone behind her.
"Psst..."
She looked around.
"Psst..."
Beatrice turned around to see Henry. He came from around the stacks and to the table she was set up at.
He plopped down his book.
"What? You want my help now?"
"It's about your dad."
Henry flipped open the book.
"He's the Dark One."
Beatrice rolled her eyes. "Seriously, Henry? The Dark One? Who makes this stuff up?"
"He's controlled by a magical dagger."
Henry flipped open to a page with a dagger with "Rumplestiltskin" written on it.
Beatrice took the book and flipped the pages herself.
"Okay, see, what is this? This is a mess."
"What?," asked Henry.
"Um, the other kid my dad supposedly has? Seriously, if I have a half-brother, where is he?"
"He fell through the portal to this world," Henry explained. "Your dad let him go."
"Henry, I am fifteen and I have a nanny. Does that sound like the same guy who would let his kid go to another dimension? This book could at least be consistent in its characterization."
"So you haven't seen him bury anything?"
Beatrice remembered the morning in the woods the last day Graham had been alive. Her dad with a shovel and wellies.
Worried about Regina finding something.
"No," said Beatrice. "I haven't seen him hide anything."
Now
After finding a coffee shop just outside the campus and nursing their beverages over an appropriate time period, the Golds returned to the admissions building. Other parents and children had already arrived to check in.
"Okay," said the chipper volunteer, "Beatrice Gold. I've got you right here. Here is your packet and t-shirt. Let me get your name tags."
Beatrice took the articles stuffing her shirt away. Belle was right over her shoulder.
"Sorry, are you two friends?," asked the volunteer looking at Belle.
"Friends?," asked Belle.
"Sisters? I only have an Avrum Gold."
"I'm not her sister, I'm her mother," said Belle.
"Wow. Really?"
Beatrice bit her tongue. "Could we just got our nametags?"
"Right, one for you, Beatrice. And you are?"
"Belle."
"And it says here you have one more in your party?"
"Yeah, my dad."
"His first name."
"Seriously you can just put Mr. Gold."
"Oh, I don't mind you spelling it out."
"No, really, just put Mr. Gold."
"Okie dokie... Mr. Gold..."
They returned to where Gold waited on a bench just off to the side.
"All checked in?," he asked.
"Everyone keeps thinking I'm a student," said Belle. "It's ridiculous."
"I'm not even touching that..." muttered Beatrice. She handed Gold his nametag. "You have to put that on."
"Why?"
"Guys, really just work with me."
Gold scowled as he put his nametag on.
"What's first on the itinerary?"
Belle had the schedule out. "It says there's a welcome speech from the Dean of Admissions, then we break into tour groups."
They sat through the speech and then got paired with another chipper young woman called Autumn to be their tour guide. There were about a dozen other students and parents in the group. Belle was determined to be next to Autumn to Beatrice's dismay.
It got worse when Belle brought out a pad and pen.
"Mom, seriously," Beatrice hissed.
"I just want to be sure I'm getting all the information."
"They have a website."
"Okay," said Autumn, "we're going to start out by going into one of our dorms. We have thirty-one on campus and ninety-four percent of our students live on campus."
"Ninety-four percent..." Belle mumbled as she scribbled.
"We have different kinds of halls. Substance free, quiet and our green hall located right by our organic garden that provides three thousand pounds of produce to our dining hall. All of our dorms are coed-"
"What?," asked Gold.
"Oh, God," said Beatrice.
"I'm sorry," said Autumn. "Did we have a question?"
"We certainly did, dearie," said Gold. "Did you say all of the dormitories are coed?"
"Well, the aim is to create a close-knit campus, but there's no coed rooms where students of the opposite sex would share a room."
"But some pig could be living in the next room?"
"I guess..." Autumn said nervously. "We're going to be going in Hillside now."
"Dad, please stop," whispered Beatrice.
"Do you think I am going to let you go unprotected into a building that you share with young men and gods only know who they are?"
Belle stopped as the tour group filtered into the building behind Autumn.
"Rumple, Beatrice can handle herself. We're going to miss the tour."
"It's not Beatrice that I'm worried about."
"I don't believe this is happening..." mumbled Beatrice. "We have been here half an hour."
Belle attempted reason. "Rumple, I was the same age Beatrice will be when I went to live with you."
"Yes and look how that turned out!" Gold motioned at his daughter.
Autumn had doubled-back. "Hey, guys, I thought I lost you. We're just taking a look inside a room now!"
"Autumn, I have a question about the firearms policy on campus," said Gold.
"They're not allowed," Autumn said with a worried look.
"We can just leave now," said Gold.
"Come on," said Belle.
They went up and looked at the room.
Gold was not impressed with the size or collection of Avengers posters.
He leaned over to Belle.
"I had more room in the cell that the Charmings put me in," he whispered.
"I definitely had more room in your dungeon."
Beatrice looked up in horror to see that two of the other parents had been listening.
"They're kidding," said Beatrice.
Belle walked into the house.
"Beatrice? You disappeared from the library!"
Pamela emerged. "Beatrice is at the cabin."
"The cabin?"
"She said she had to work on her astronomy project. I thought you would be there."
Belle's eyes widened as Gold entered.
"I'm going out."
"You're not with Beatrice?"
"I'd say given the current state of affairs that's an unlikely scenario."
"Pamela says she went to the cabin."
"She's probably working on her project."
"I don't like the idea of her up there one her own. We should go get her."
"Well, I have something I must do. I told you about Mr. Booth."
Belle glared. They had been over this already.
"It's not him."
"Well, he's not your son, is he?"
"Fine," said Belle, her face growing red. "If that's what we're going to do, divide into yours and mine..."
"That's not what I meant."
Belle got in his face. "Do you think I came here because I wanted to?! Because I didn't and if you can't appreciate that. You make me so angry!"
Belle stalked off.
Gold opened the hall closet to get his coat.
He immediately spotted the steel case for the telescope.
Something was wrong.
Beatrice wondered if it was this whole Curse thing that made Pamela a little bit incompetent. Because she'd bought the whole school project at the cabin thing pretty easily and didn't bat an eye as Beatrice got on her bike.
It was a few miles up to the cabin and it was getting dark quick.
Beatrice went in the cabin and got out the shovel. She made her way with the flashlight to where her parents had been.
She looked around. Her mother wanted to make a mark. Had she?
She had. A mark at the base of a tree.
Beatrice dug.
And hit something.
She knelt down on the ground and brushed the dirt off something that was looking really dagger-like in the canvas.
She untied and sure enough, a gleaming wavy knife that bore the name Rumplestiltskin.
And she didn't know what to do with it.
Okay, magical dagger that controlled him? Maybe he wanted to get away from it? Couldn't he have just tossed it in the ocean or something?
Something was not right with this. Her parents were smart and if they buried something in the woods there had to be a reason for it.
Because they were hiding it from someone else.
"You can hand that over now."
Beatrice looked up to see August Booth.
Not good.
Slowly she took the handle of the dagger. This freaking thing was heavy. She stood and began backing away, trying to think of an escape plan, but that would have to involve her bike and that didn't seem great.
"Beatrice," said August. "Just hand it over."
"Sorry, this is my wavy knife."
"You're Rumplestiltskin?"
"I know you're not."
"And how would you know that?"
She was still pitching escape plans to herself and wondered if August was a fast runner.
"I have the big knife so..."
She chose running.
Her brief moment of escape was subsequently ruined by August tackling her.
Beatrice screamed. Somehow she managed to keep grip of the dagger and tried to elbow August.
They struggled for the knife and in the course of that it ended up in August's leg.
Like just sticking straight up out of his leg. No blood.
As she pondered that latest development, August pulled out the dagger and a cane landed up the side of his head. As August fell groaning to the ground, she looked up to see her dad.
"Are you alright?"
What the hell had just happened?
Gold knelt down on the ground in front of her. He pulled her to face him.
"Beatrice, are you alright? Did he hurt you in any way?"
"I'm..."
He helped her to her feet. He pulled the dagger out of August's leg.
"It's over, Booth," said Gold. "Or I ought call you Pinocchio?"
Beatrice looked over. "What?"
She then noticed the rip in August's jeans revealed wood. He coughed as he sat up.
"You know who I am so you must know your chances of living through this little encounter are very slim."
"Um, living?," asked Beatrice.
Gold ignored her. "Why should I let you live?"
"Because I'm dead already. I'm dying and I need magic."
"Is that so?"
"I tried to get the Savior to believe, but that woman? I don't know if I have that long."
Gold paused. "Fine. You can live. For now."
"What?," asked August.
"Well, if I kill you or you die later the result is the same. You get the Savior to believe and maybe we can talk." Gold grabbed August and put the dagger to his neck. "However, if you ever approach my daughter or my wife again, magic or not, wood or flesh, I will kill you. Understood?"
"Yes," August said through gritted teeth.
Gold stood. "You can lay there until we're gone. Beatrice."
Gold silently led Beatrice to the car and put her in the front seat. He didn't say a word as he put her bike in the trunk and handed her messenger bag to her.
Beatrice and her father rode in awkward silence, the dagger sitting between them on the seat. Gold finally pulled over.
"Why did you want the dagger?"
"I didn't."
"You came out here for it."
"I... Henry's book said you had a dagger that controls you. I didn't believe it because of a lot of other crackheaded things in the book, but he wanted to know if you had hidden anything."
Gold smiled grimly. "Under the direction of Mr. Booth no doubt."
"Does it control you?"
"Not exactly. Whoever controls the dagger, controls me, but not now in a Land Without Magic."
"Oh," said Beatrice. "Did you make a witch mad or something?"
"Why would you ask that?"
"Because that's how Beauty and the Beast starts."
"These stories in Henry's book about me. What did they say?"
"Um, well, the first one was that some guy called the Master told you to save me from a curse? He had a deerstalker on. You know, the Sherlock Holmes hat?"
"What else?"
"Stupid stuff."
"What stupid stuff?"
"That you had another kid."
Gold's heart dropped as he turned to Beatrice.
"Which I knew was crazy because it said you let him fall through a portal to another world and you would never ever do that."
"What makes you think I would never do that?"
"Because... you're my dad."
He could let this pass. He could continue to let her believe in him.
He couldn't.
"It's true."
Beatrice turned. "What's true?"
"I had a son. His name is Baelfire. He did come here to this world because I let go of him. I have spent centuries searching for a way to get here and I found my answer: the Dark Curse. I needed someone to cast it and that person was Regina."
He started the engine of the car.
"That's all," he said and with that, he resumed driving home.
Now
"And here we have the observatory," said Autumn. "If we have anyone interested in the physics or astronomy departments..."
Belle practically shoved Beatrice forward.
Autumn started showing them the building and gave a passing reference to the telescope.
Beatrice wandered up the winding staircase to where the massive telescope sat. She walked around it and came back to a table next to it. Atop it sat what seemed to be some kind of thesis paper, "Dynamics of an Asteroid." She picked it up.
"Oh, you can just ignore that."
A young man came around the side. Beatrice jumped.
"Sorry," he said. "Didn't mean to startle you."
"Oh, no, sorry, I sort of wandered off from the tour. I was stuck with a bunch of English majors." She frowned. "Have we met?"
She looked down at the paper. Andrew Newcomb.
"Did you go to MIT Physics camp last summer?"
"Yeah, I did," said Beatrice. "You?"
"I was a lab assistant for the summer. I know you. You're the girl who got sucked up in the freak tornado."
Beatrice shrugged. "Yeah, that is pretty much me."
"You're thinking of coming to Colby?"
"Well, it's close to home and my parents wanted to have a look."
"You really want MIT, though?"
"Yeah. Four hours away, harder sell."
"Your parents can't stand to have you four hours away?"
"They sort of have some issues... To be fair, I did get caught up in a tornado the one time I was there."
"Beatrice?," she heard Gold call.
She shrugged.
"This is what I mean."
"Well, here let me give you my number," he said, scribbling on a post it. "You can text me if you have any questions about Colby."
"Oh, thanks," said Beatrice.
"Or if you want to get a bite sometime."
Beatrice cringed. This had never actually happened, she had actually never considered the possibility of this happening.
"Oh, sorry. I have a boyfriend."
"Oh." Andrew laughed nervously. "Sorry."
"No, you're fine."
"Well, you can still text me if you have any questions."
"Thanks. Well, bye."
"Bye."
Beatrice descended the stairs. Gold was waiting at the bottom.
"So? Better than the one I got you?," he asked.
"It's pretty big, Dad."
"Hurry along. The next stop is the library, if we don't follow her in, we may never see your mother again."
Regina and Joseph waited at the diner. Merlin walked in briskly and sat down.
"Alright," said Merlin, "you two had better have a good reason for summoning me and it had better not be sampling the overpriced lasagna."
"Of course not. She froze last week's lasagna and calls it a special," said Joseph.
"Mine is better," said Regina.
Merlin waved his hands. "Focus. What did you two want?"
Regina looked at Joseph and back at Merlin. "I've been wondering about Henry's book. Whatever happens in it seems to be immutable. That's why I can't get my happy ending. I want to find the Author and get his or her help in changing the story."
Merlin paused. "That explains why you're here but not you."
Regina eyed the sorcerer. "What? You're not going to mock me?"
"Joseph."
"Slightly concerned about dying." He opened his book. "This story appeared to my mother."
"Well, look here, a plot twist," said Merlin.
"You're taking this awfully lightly," said Regina.
"Beatrice mentioned to me that she has a book of her own," said Joseph. "For her story."
"And what more did she tell you?"
"Level with us, Merlin," said Regina. "If Beatrice has her own book that she can write, does that mean we all do? How do we find them?"
"You don't."
"Well, what the hell does that mean?," Regina snapped.
"Is there actually an Author?," asked Joseph.
"Yes," said Merlin.
Regina leaned in. "Do you know him?"
"Yes."
"Who is he?"
"I don't think you're ready for that," said Merlin. "And you're not going to find him here."
"It's not you, is it?," Regina sneered.
"If it was me, do you think I would give Beatrice the ability to write her own story?"
"This Author wants to control us?," asked Joseph.
"Control might be an overreach. The Author is not a puppet master. He does not pull your strings, but if you are to walk through a door, he makes damn sure that you have no choice but to walk through it although it was your choice. I once pondered this injustice and discovered the path that would lead me to the Dark Princess. I secured a book that had been hidden in the depths of the dark sea. A book of fate the Author could not bend to his will."
"So you're saying there's no hope for the rest of us," said Regina.
"I wouldn't say that," said Merlin. "If the Author can be found and defeated, what has been written would remain, but the future would be a blank slate."
"But you just said the Author manipulates everything, how can there be any possible hope of defeating him?"
Joseph beat Merlin to an answer. "In the one book he can't write."
"Precisely."
"Alright, if Beatrice's book is the only place where the Author can be defeated, how do we bring it about?." asked Regina.
"How could I possibly know what's in a book whose pages are unwritten?"
Then
Belle impatiently ran to the garage. Gold had disappeared, then sent a cryptic text about going to the cabin. She was about to head up herself when she saw the lights of the Cadillac.
"Beatrice! What were you thinking?!"
Gold silently got out of the car.
"Rumple?"
"Don't forget your bike, sweetheart."
Gold left the garage. Belle turned back to her daughter.
"Sweetheart, what happened?"
"He..."
"Baby?"
"He told me about his other kid. Weird B name?"
Belle nodded. "Baelfire."
"I don't get it."
"We didn't want to tell you when you were little. We already asked so much of you. Regina's never known the real reason behind the Dark Curse. She can be dangerous if she thinks she's been crossed."
"That doesn't seem like him."
"It was centuries ago. He made a mistake. He's tried to correct it ever since."
Belle and Beatrice ended up sitting on the back steps.
"Is this why everything's been so weird? And the burning City Hall thing?"
"He's been trying to keep the Savior here so she can break the curse and we can finally find Baelfire."
"Why's he being so weird?"
Belle wrapped her arm around Beatrice.
"Somewhere inside him, your father thinks he can't be loved and once, he sent me away because of that."
"I'm guessing you came back."
"And I have spent almost every day since trying to persuade him I'm not going anywhere. Everyone's left him, even his parents."
"Not us, though."
"No," Belle said, threading her fingers through Beatrice's hair, "not us."
Now
The Golds had just barely made it through the tour, going for another round at the library. Once they got out, they found a Thai restaurant near campus and sat down to eat before returning to Storybrooke.
"I'm sorry, the dorm situation is unacceptable," said Gold.
"Rumple..."
Beatrice rolled her eyes. "I didn't make the dorms."
"The bathrooms weren't coed," Belle pointed out. "Besides, it's an hour from home. We need to be willing to make some accomodations in light of that."
"I'm to pay sixty-thousand dollars a year so my daughter can have the privilege of sharing a building with some young men I haven't been able to screen and live in a room smaller than most dungeons."
"Yes, but look at the opportunity she's getting! In our land, I never even would have dreamed of getting to go to university." Belle looked back at Beatrice. "In fact, the only woman I know of who went was Joseph's mother."
"Really?," asked Beatrice.
Belle nodded. "We really need to get together with them sometime. Every time I think I have a date set, something falls through. Never mind that, though. What did you think of the school?"
"It was cool, I guess," said Beatrice. "The Physics Department was good. I still want MIT, though."
"It's four hours away," said Gold.
"It's MIT."
"Well," said Belle, "I think we ought to make a visit. Maybe early in the summer? We could spend the night."
"I suppose," Gold said with a grimace.
Belle patted Gold's arm. "I'm sure we'll have lots of schools to visit."
"Yes and maybe we could cut down on the dungeon talk next time," Beatrice suggested.
Then
Beatrice knocked on the door of her parents' bedroom.
The moment that passed seemed to last forever.
"Come in?," Gold finally said.
Beatrice opened the door. Her dad was sitting on the side of the bed in his pajamas.
"Hey," said Beatrice.
"Hey."
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry about the whole dagger thing. I wasn't trying to control you, I just wondered if there was one."
"It's alright, sweetheart. I know."
"And about Baelfire." The name still sounded weird coming off her tongue. She was going to have to google it. "I'm okay."
"You really don't have to lie, sweetheart."
"I'm not lying."
"I appreciate you wanting to spare my feelings, but you really don't need to. I know exactly what I am."
Beatrice walked further in the room.
"No..." she said. "I'm not trying to spare your feelings, in fact, I'm pretty confused about your feelings at this point..."
"I am a terrible father and a man who chose power over my son."
"Yeah, you messed up, but you've been trying to fix it for like hundreds of years."
"I doubt that will be enough."
Her father looked so forlorn and Beatrice wished she could do something. She wasn't certain she could.
"Look, I don't know this guy and you have your own stuff to work out on Dr. Phil on something, but you didn't screw up with me and whatever Bale decides-"
"Baelfire."
"Yeah, that guy, whatever, anyway, maybe you're right and maybe he won't ever forgive you, but I'm here and I'm not trying to say it like I'm more important or I make up for it, but like you've got me. No matter what."
Gold stared at her in shock.
Beatrice suddenly felt very self-conscious.
"Okay, good night."
"Wait!"
Beatrice looked up to see her mother come out of the bathroom.
"Were you going to just let her walk out?" Belle looked at Beatrice. "And were you just going to walk out?"
"I said... stuff. We're good," said Beatrice.
"Hug."
"Mom..."
"Belle, she doesn't really need to be forced-"
"Hug now!"
Beatrice walked over to her father and he hugged her tightly.
"I have done nothing to deserve you."
