5
Lights, Camera, Action
Belle watched, her heart in her throat, as her husband moved to challenge the reanimated dinosaur. It was like watching something out of a horror flick. Except this was real, and her beloved was in grave danger . . . and so were the many other visitors to the museum. She looked at Charming. "We need to get the rest of these people out of here."
"And we need to get Regina, before something falls on her!" Snow yelped, coming up the ramp to stand next to David.
"Okay. Here's what we're gonna do," Charming yelled in his I'm-a-prince-now-listen-up voice. "I'm going to get Regina, and Snow, you and Belle try and get as many people as you can out of here."
Just then the T-Rex leaped at Rumple, using its huge hind legs to propel itself at the sorcerer from across the room.
"Rumple!" shrieked Belle.
"Grandpa!" Henry howled.
"Papa!" Alina screamed.
"Unca Rumple!" wailed Regina.
Rumple lifted his hands, conjuring as quickly as he could . . . and the Tyrannosaurus slammed into his purple shield.
The giant fossil nearly crushed Rumple into the floor, the shield buckling under the bag of bones' great weight.
As his horrified family looked on, Rumple quickly blinked himself away, reappearing on the other side of the room.
"Go! Go! Quickly!" Charming yelled as soon as he saw that Rumple wasn't T-Rex toe jam yet.
Snow and Belle ran over to where some people were frozen between the circulation desk and the exit and called to them, "Hey! You need to leave now! You're in the way!" Snow cried.
"Right, because the movie they're filming is a live action adventure flick!" Belle called, making up the first thing that came into her head. "Aren't those CGI animations amazing, Mary Margaret?"
Catching on, Snow nodded. "Incredible! The things they can do with computers these days!"
"You mean . . . it's not real?" babbled one old lady.
"It's a movie?"
"That's right, folks! Now just clear out here so the professionals can work," Snow urged, chivying the reluctant people out the door.
"Who's starring in it?"
Belle pointed over to Rumple, who was lifting his hands in preparation for another spell. "That's my husband. Isn't he wonderful? You can catch it all on the big screen in about a year. Now move outside, you're blocking the computers."
"Where are the cameras, lady?"
"Behind a wall, screened," Belle answered, helping an elderly man out the entrance.
"What's it called?" asked a kid.
"Umm . . . it's called . . ." for a moment Belle went blank.
"The Trouble with T-Rexes!" Snow shouted. "It's a fantasy film about this kid who conjures up a T-Rex by mistake with a magic wand and her pawnbroker uncle has to stop it with some magic he inherited from a Japanese martial master."
"Sounds really cool!" the kid said.
Belle stared at Snow. "How are you coming up with this stuff?" she whispered.
Snow shrugged. "The best kind of lies are ones based on the truth."
Meanwhile, back in the museum, Rumple cut loose with a quick one-two strike of purple lightning and a glittering energy ball. He didn't want to use fire because he didn't want to risk burning anyone by mistake, and the energy ball was more concentrated and packed a bigger wallop.
The glowing ball and lightning smacked the dinosaur hard in the chest and the head, sending the T-Rex tumbling backwards, sliding into the circulation desk with a loud crunch.
Chunks of plaster flew everywhere, some of them striking the wall where Henry and Alina were crouched, and a huge piece struck Teddy Roosevelt, shoving the wax figure hard and almost causing it to topple over.
Regina, crouching beneath the figure, began to scream, scared now of all the tumult going on around her, but too frightened to move. "Help! Help! Daddy! Help!"
"I'm coming, Regina! Don't move!" Charming yelled, then he bolted from where he was in the corner and ran like a man possessed across the room towards his small daughter beneath the statue.
The T-Rex was getting to its feet again, screaming in rage, just as Emma and Bae came around the corner, having taken a set of stairs the long way around from the Hall of Dinosaurs.
"Holy crap!" Emma gasped.
"Tell me we didn't just stumble into a remake of Jurassic Park!" Bae groaned when he saw the T-Rex rearing up beside the circulation desk.
"Well, that explains the screaming and running," Emma said.
Then Bae spotted Rumple, slowly backing up, his hands shooting ribbons of magical energy. "Aww, hells! Papa, what are you doing?"
"Looks like he's trying to hurt it," Emma remarked helpfully.
The T-Rex shot its head down, trying to grab Rumple in its jaws.
Rumple dodged, or tried to. But his bad leg gave way, and he crumpled to the ground.
Page~*~*~*~*~*~Break
Charming reached Regina just as the statue of Teddy Roosevelt started falling.
He launched himself at the little girl, grabbing her in his arms and rolling quickly across the floor just as Roosevelt and Little Texas toppled to the ground with a loud thump.
Charming held Regina in a death grip, crying, "You okay, baby? Don't cry. Daddy's got you. You're safe with me."
Regina's small arms wound around his neck and she clutched him for dear life, nearly dropping the wand, but at the last moment she retained her grip on it. "Daddy! I scared!"
"It's gonna be okay," David soothed, getting to his feet and running out the door, figuring if he could get Regina away from the T-Rex, maybe the thing would go back to sleep or whatever now that the wand wasn't in the same room. "Uncle Rumple's gonna go all bad-ass on that dinosaur and kick it straight to hell." At least that's what he hoped would happen.
As he emerged into the bright sunlight, he saw Snow and Belle speaking to some people milling about, telling them about the wonderful new CGI graphics and the movie being shot right there in the museum and admired their quick thinking. Then he grabbed the wand away from Regina and stuck it in his pocket before something else happened.
Page~*~*~*~*~Break
"No! Papa!" the cry was torn from Bae's throat, a harsh wail of denial as he saw his father go down, and the giant fossilized zombie or whatever it was go to rip him apart.
He grabbed the first thing that was near to hand, a section of the railing that used to surround the circulation desk, and threw it hard at the monstrous T-Rex.
It smashed into the side of its neck, and the thing screamed and turned its head about to face whatever had struck it.
While it was distracted, Henry conjured a purple shield over Rumple, while Alina cried, "Cover me, Henry!"
"Where are you going?" he yelled.
"To help my papa!" she yelled, then she sprinted as quickly as she could across the floor, sliding the last few feet to Rumple as if she was trying to get to home plate and thanking her years as a softball player for that move.
She scrambled to her knees and put her hands on Rumple's leg. "Papa!"
"Alina!" he cried, his face twisted in pain. "Get the hell out of here!"
"Not till you do!" she argued, then she closed her eyes and called upon her power. It flowed in a rush out of her hands, a soothing brilliant violet wave that healed and restored what had been broken and torn so long ago.
Gold gasped as he felt his daughter's magic enter him, fill him, and make him whole again.
Suddenly the agonizing pain in his leg was gone and he sprang to his feet, dragging Alina with him. "My God, are you insane? You risked your life to heal me?"
Her arms went round his waist and she murmured, "Okay, ground me later. Now let's move!"
He clicked his cufflinks together again, giving himself another magical boost and blinked away with his daughter, moving back towards the entrance of the museum.
As soon as Henry saw the two magicians were safely away from the T-Rex, he dropped his shield and conjured two things.
One was a staff, the other a glowing sword.
"Mom! Dad! Catch!" he yelled, and the staff and sword blinked from his hands and into Bae's and Emma's, as he sent them to his parents.
Emma found herself holding a glowing scimitar and Bae a glowing six foot staff just as the T-Rex charged them.
The savior and her warrior husband dodged the great thunder lizard, and the mighty T-Rex's tail lashed out as it ran past, forcing Bae to leap into the air to avoid being crushed.
"Hell, Emma! Watch the damn tail!" he yelped, landing on his feet and smacking the T-Rex hard with his staff in the ribs. "Hai! Take that, Barney!"
"Bae! Let's tag team the beast, like we did with Mal!" Emma shouted, rolling beneath the behemoth's foot and slamming her sword into its toe, lopping off some of the bony protrusion.
"Okay! Right and left, wild swan!" He called, moving around the beast to the right, while Emma circled to the left.
Meanwhile, Rumple was telling Henry and Alina to get out of the museum and leave the fighting to the adults. "Go! Right now!"
"Grandpa, you might need our help!" Henry argued.
"Papa, you only have so much magic stored in your cufflinks. Let us help!" Alina snapped.
"You listen to me, Alina Rose!" Gold shouted, shaking her. "I have plenty of magic left to defeat this thing. Now you just do as I say—both of you—and get the hell out of here! No arguments! Just go!"
He practically picked up both younger sorcerers with his magic and threw them out of the museum, terrified they would try and help and end up dying doing so. And that he could never live with.
Now that his leg was healed, he was able to move normally, and he did, vaulting up onto what remained of the circulation desk and throwing another magical bolt at the screeching T-Rex.
"HEY! Godzilla! Over here, you ugly-ass zombie reject!" Rumple bellowed.
The T-Rex swung its massive head about, its eye sockets glowing with hellish red light.
"Yeah, I'm talking to you! Come and get me!"
The dinosaur lunged, mouth agape.
But Rumple was no longer there, having augmented his now healed legs to propel him into the air . . . as he flew like Peter Pan straight up towards the ceiling, glowing with eldritch fire.
With the T-Rex distracted, Emma and Baelfire attacked it relentlessly, using their skill with sword and staff to crush and slash the skeleton, crunching the old bones with lightning quick strokes.
Emma lopped off an arm while Bae smashed in its ribcage, both hits doing some pretty serious damage.
As the T-Rex shuddered and screamed in rage, its tail lashing out wildly, Rumple put his hands together and concentrated hard. Without the wand spitting fairy dust and refreshing the animation spell, it was weakening. The master magician could see the magic binding it slowly starting to fade.
But not fast enough for Rumple, who was determined to send the monster back to sleep before it caused any more destruction and hurt Emma or Bae.
Using his Sorcerer's Sight, he targeted the glittering "heart" of the skeleton, which pulsed in invisible beats in its upper chest. Then he struck, sending a sharp pulse of magic straight through it while chanting, "By my Power and my Name, I unbind thee! Be thou dust!"
The violet pulse hit the "heart" dead center . . . and it exploded . . . and so did the skeleton . . . sending small shards of bone flying everywhere as it collapsed.
One such shard hit Emma in the head, cutting her forehead and knocking her down.
A piece of rib struck Bae's left arm, and he yelled as it snapped in two. Clutching it, he went to one knee, gritting his teeth.
When the dust settled, there were bones scattered all over the floor amid the wreckage of the museum and Rumple drifted slowly to the floor. "You two okay?" he called as soon as he touched the ground.
"Umm . . . I just got a cut on my head," Emma said, and concentrated, healing it.
"I broke my damn arm again, Papa," Bae said through clenched teeth.
"The same one you did before?" Rumple queried, coming over to his son.
"Yup. A piece of bone smacked into it right where I broke it when I was eight," his son said.
"Let me see, Bae," Rumple said gently.
"Papa, it's broken, trust me," Bae said.
"And I can heal it, unlike last time," Rumple reassured him. He set a hand on his son's wrist. "I'll need to pull it straight though. But first let me numb it." He sent a pulse of power through Bae's arm, numbing all the nerve endings. "Emma, I need you to hold his shoulders while I pull."
Emma came over and grasped Bae's shoulders. "You sure you know what you're doing, Gold?"
Rumple nodded. "I've learned a few things in three hundred years, dearie. Ready?" He took hold of Bae's arm, putting a hand on his upper arm and then his lower one. "On three. One. . . two . . . three."
Rumple tugged hard, aligning the two pieces of bone.
Emma winced when she heard the bone snap into place. "Oh God. Does it hurt?"
"No," her husband said. "I can't feel anything. Unlike the last time."
Rumple passed his hand over Bae's arm, healing it instantly. "There we go, Bae. How's that feel?"
"I don't know," Bae said honestly.
Rumple removed the numbing spell. "Okay. How about now?"
Bae flexed his arm experimentally. "It's good. Thanks, Papa."
"You're welcome. Thank you for helping me."
"How did this . . . thing happen?" asked Emma curiously.
"Regina stole a wand from one of the nuns and reanimated the T-Rex skeleton," Rumple said.
"How? I thought she didn't have access to her magic any longer?" Emma wanted to know.
"When I regressed her, I put her talent to sleep, but that doesn't mean she doesn't bear the seeds of it within her," Rumple explained. "And even a latent magically talented person can use a magic item. The magic's in the wand, not her, but she can channel it . . . and she did."
"Oh, great," Emma sighed. "What about the museum? How are we going to explain what happened here? It's a wreck."
"Maybe we won't have to, dearie," Rumple said.
"What do you mean?" asked Bae.
"I mean we need to fix it."
"How?" asked Emma.
"Magic, dearie. What magic broke, magic can fix. It's time I taught you a new spell. Do you remember watching the Sorcerer's Apprentice?"
"That Disney flick where Mickey Mouse puts on that hat and summons all those mops and brooms and stuff?" Emma frowned.
"That's it. Well, this spell is sort of the same, only it's going to do twice what that hat did . . .okay, Emma, I need you to concentrate hard and remember the way the circulation desk and the lobby was before the T-Rex trashed it," Gold instructed. "Get it set in your mind . . . then will it to return to that state. I'll do the same with the T-Rex and the Roosevelt statue and the ceiling."
Emma did as he'd said, praying she could cast the spell.
Rumple concentrated and suddenly the T-Rex reassembled itself and so did the statue of Roosevelt, which had cracked in two from falling over. The cracks in the ceiling mended itself as well.
Bae watched in awe as green light flowed across the circulation desk and the lobby, fixing whatever had been smashed and broken, restoring it to its proper state.
In about five minutes the museum lobby was returned to its former pristine appearance, with Teddy Roosevelt on his horse and the T-Rex on its pedestal.
"God, it looks like nothing ever happened in here," Bae whistled. "Great job, Emma! You too, Papa."
Emma opened her eyes. "I did it!"
"Of course you did," Rumple said. "You can do almost anything if you focus and believe hard enough, dearie." He gave her a nod of approval.
Emma felt like she had won the lottery. Rumple was not an easy man to impress and praise from him was hard won sometimes. She glanced around and said, "But how do we explain what just went on here to everyone who saw it?"
"Hmm . . . we'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Rumple sighed.
"Meaning you don't know," Bae translated.
Rumple knelt and retrieved his cane from the floor.
"Hey, I just noticed . . . you're not limping," Emma said.
"That's right. Alina came and healed me during the battle," Rumple said.
"She fixed your leg?" Bae repeated, stunned.
"Yes. So I don't really need this, but I don't want to leave it lying here," Rumple said as they walked towards the doors.
"I didn't know she was that strong," Emma said softly.
"She's his daughter, Emma," Bae pointed out.
"Not only that, but she had the right motivation," Rumple said. "Like I said before, with will and belief you can do almost anything."
Suddenly Emma staggered.
"Emma, what happened?" Bae cried in alarm.
"I'm . . . so tired all of a sudden," his wife answered.
"Magic's price, dearie," Rumple said softly.
"How come you aren't?" she asked.
"I am, but it won't hit me until later," he answered. "I'm older, so it doesn't knock me for a loop as fast as it does you. But all magic comes with a price, and I'll pay it too."
Bae put an arm about Emma as they walked out the doors.
Right into a crowd of people who cheered and applauded as they came out into the sunlight.
"What on earth?" Rumple muttered as people clapped and held pencils and pads in front of him and asked for his autograph.
People snapped pictures on their phones and cried, "That was such a cool live action movie! When's it coming out? I can't wait to see it!"
"What? A movie?" Bae repeated.
Then Belle, Snow, Charming with Regina, Henry, and Alina pushed their way through the crowd and came up to them.
Belle hugged Rumple, and Snow hugged Emma and Henry and Alina hugged Bae.
"We told everyone you were making a movie in there, with spectacular CGI graphics," Belle whispered in Rumple's ear. "So they all think you're some big shot actors from Hollywood filming on location in New York."
"Belle, that's . . . brilliant!" Rumple said, kissing her. "So who do they think I am, anyway?"
Belle shrugged. "Some girl said you looked like somebody named Robert Carlyle. So just sign a few autographs, dearie, and then we can go back to the Plaza."
"Who do they think Emma and Bae are?"
"An actress called Jennifer Morrison and Bae's some guy called Michael Raymond-James. Snow and Henry are briefing them now," Belle said.
Rumple chuckled. From magician to actor . . . how very droll, he thought, and then he took a pen a child held out to him and signed the boy's notebook with a scribbled flourish.
Page~*~*~*~*~Break
They finally managed to make their way out of the crush of well-meaning people and back on the subway and home without any more incidents. On the subway, David surreptitiously handed Rumple the fairy wand and Rumple put it in his sleeve.
All of the kids, including Regina, were asleep as soon as they sat down, exhausted by the use of magic. Emma too dozed in her seat until they reached their stop, then Bae shook her awake. He picked up a sleeping Henry and carried him while Rumple took Alina and Charming had Regina.
They put the kids to bed once they got back to the suite, and Emma said she was going to take a nap as well, leaving the rest of the adults to hang out in the suite.
Bae said he was starving, and was going to order some pizza. Belle sat next to Rumple on the couch and Snow and David sat beside them and looked at the old sorcerer and said, "So how did Regina manage to bring that dinosaur to life?"
Rumple spread his hands, "First off, dearies, it wasn't brought to life, it was reanimated, there's a difference. You can't bring back the dead. Magic can do much, but not that. Dead is dead."
"Okay, whatever," Charming said. "How did she do that? I thought you bound her magic."
"Her magic's dormant, yes. That hasn't changed. But dormant or not, David, that doesn't mean she can't use magical objects, like a wand," Rumple pointed out. "Magic responds to magic, even dormant. Especially fairy dust. It's particularly sensitive to magical emanations."
"What we need to ask ourselves now is not how she cast the spell, but how she got the wand," Snow said.
"Did you go anywhere near one of the nuns, or to the convent recently?" David asked. "I know I didn't."
"No . . . but . . . there was that one day, just before we left, I was teaching and I was late, so I asked if Grumpy and Nova wouldn't mind watching her," Snow recalled. "They might have brought her to the convent for a bit. She could have grabbed a wand there . . . sometimes the fairies leave them lying around . . . they're not used to having small children around."
"Irresponsible," Gold snorted. "You don't leave a magical item like that lying about where anyone can get at it. Any apprentice of mine knows better and so should they."
"We're going to have to have a talk with her, David, about touching things that don't belong to her," Snow said.
"More than that, Snow. I know she's just a little kid, but what she did was wrong," David said. "There have to be consequences for her actions. Only I'm not sure what." He looked over at Rumple. "What would you do?"
"Are you asking me for disciplinary advice?" Rumple queried.
"Uh . . . kind of," Charming admitted.
"Well, dearie, that would depend on a few things. Motivation, for one. Did she take the wand knowing it was wrong to do so? Or was she just playing, like any curious little girl? Deliberate misbehavior carries a different punishment in my book than one that was done out of curiosity and unintentional mischief," Rumple answered. "If my child deliberately disobeyed me, I'd be a lot harder on her than I would for the second offense. Unintentional mischief I would let off with a warning, a scolding, and probably a short time out or some restriction, like no cartoons for a night or dessert. I would also stress the fact that such actions are wrong and why, so she knows better next time. Anything deliberate would depend upon the offense and the age of my child. I normally use lectures and restrictions to punish, and only rarely did I take one of mine over my knee."
"Yeah, he only tanned my behind once," Bae stated. "And that was for starting a fire and almost barbecuing our whole village."
Snow gasped. "You . . . did that, Baelfire?"
Bae flushed. "Yeah, I was so dumb. I bet this other kid I could summon a genie from this old lamp we found in the woods, and on the bottom of the thing it said light me or something. So I snuck some coals from the fireplace and tried to light a fire under it . . . and I lit one all right . . . only instead of summoning a genie it almost burned down the entire forest along with half the village. And I was old enough to know better."
"How did you find out he did it?" Charming wanted to know.
"Because his so-called friend came out of the woods screaming about Bae burning down the forest," Rumple replied. "And after the fire was out, I questioned him and he admitted it."
"I knew I was dead meat," Bae said ruefully. "And I also knew better than to lie and get in worse trouble."
"So, you see, it depends," Rumple said. "But one thing I do know, is that you always have to be consistent. Never say you'll do something and not follow through on it. Kids need boundaries, even though they hate them sometimes. Spell it out, no pun intended, and then do what you say. Every time."
"You mean, you didn't make deals with your kids?" Charming asked.
"Only sometimes. Some things were non-negotiable, and they both knew it."
"Yeah, when he started counting to three, that was pretty much it," Bae said. "I knew I'd better knock it off or else."
"It's a rather delicate balancing act," Rumple said. "And a lot of it's trial and error."
"I guess we can figure something out once she wakes up," Charming said to his wife.
"One thing I know we'll have to do and that's keep a better watch on her from now on as far as touching magical things go," Snow said firmly. "I'll make sure that anyone who babysits her knows that, and that we stress to her to never touch anything like that wand again."
"Prevention's worth an ounce of cure," Belle said.
"Got that right," Bae agreed. The phone in the suite began to ring. He grabbed it off the base and answered it. Then he hung it up and rose to his feet. "That would be the pizza. I hope you're all hungry."
"I know I am," Rumple said. "Battling Tyrannosaurus Rexes always gives me an appetite."
"You can say that again," Bae grinned, then grabbed his key card and went downstairs to get the pizza.
A/N: Hope you all liked!