"Where is Baelfire?"
One look at Gold was enough to bring Tom's wariness out, front and center.
As an ally, if he didn't have any reason to stab you in the back and if your interests coincided, Gold was all right. Tom knew that. He also wasn't too bad if you'd worded your contract very, very carefully – Tom didn't know how well he would do, but he'd bet good money on Siri being able to hold her own.
Maybe.
If Gold wasn't feeling too vicious.
Which was what he was dealing with right now.
"We got attacked. I held off that thing while Siri got Baelfire out."
"Your sister," Gold said evenly. "Can open exactly one portal. To one world."
"Uh . . . yeah. That place. It, uh, looked better than here. Right then."
"A portal?" Nolan/Charming said, major interest in his eyes. "Where to?"
"The Gloaming," Gold answered before Tom could say anything. "A place of no interest to you. A shadow land inhabited by monsters that prey on anything human that comes their way." He turned his attention back to Tom. "That's where your sister took that boy."
"He's got Siri with him," Tom protested.
"Oh, there's a comfort. One of her against all of them."
"There are safe places, there. Once she reaches one –"
"If she reaches one –"
Nolan/Charming interrupted. "Gold, who are these people? And why do you care?"
"Mr. Rosa, here, is part Goblin – not the kind we had back in our world, a different breed. He has nothing to do with Storybrooke or the curse. However, he wandered through here a few months ago and managed to get on the bad side of Regina. At the time, I thought it was worth the effort to help him leave town. Alive."
Tom noticed all the things being skimmed over or left out. Well, nobody was asking him to fill in the blanks.
If Nolan/Charming noticed the gaps, he didn't comment. "And this Siri and Baelfire? Who are they? And what happened to him?"
"Siri Rosa is Mr. Rosa's sister and something of a witch. She has a very narrow range of skills but, I believe, is quite vicious in utilizing them. One is her ability to open a portal to the world her less human relations called home."
"And Baelfire? He mentioned a boy."
"Ah, yes," Gold said. "He's –"
"I'd like to hear Rosa's version. Not yours. Well?" He turned to Tom. "You were bringing a child to Rumplestiltskin. Why?"
Rumple -?
Oh.
Oh, crap.
"I met up with a kid," Tom said. "He was lost, and I could tell there was something magic about him. But he wasn't from any world I knew. I wound up calling Gold. Thought he might know something. He said to bring the kid over. He didn't mention the welcoming committee."
"To him?"
"Excuse me, you think I've got a huge list of people I can check with when magic happens? You guys are from another world. I thought I'd give it a try."
Nolan/Charming turned his attention back to Gold – Rumplestiltskin, aka, the Dark One. Great. Just great. "And you were just going to help him out of the goodness of your heart?"
Gold shrugged. "Hardly. The young man in question is . . . no one in particular. But, his father is something of a wizard. And one I've heard of. Portal jumping may be outside my purview, but I do know something about other worlds. And some of the creatures in them. I believe I might be able to contact this Baelfire's father and that he . . . might be grateful enough to do a few, small favors for me." He turned to Tom, his face completely calm if you didn't notice the cold fury burning in his eyes. "Of course, I wasn't expecting your sister to take him to try to get him killed when I decided that."
"She had to get him out –"
"Your sister can't form a portal in Storybrooke. She had to recross the border to do that. The wraith couldn't follow her."
"Oh," Tom had known about the portal, of course. Storybrooke, in this regard, was another world – and Siri had already found out it wasn't a world she could enter through the Gloaming. "I don't think she knew that."