Given how angry Emma is likely to be with him for even talking to Henry as simply aquaintences he's no want to push his luck futher by letting the boy know that she's his 'true love' and, given how quick the kid seems to be with making connections, thus indavertently revealing that a) he's the kid's father and b) that his mother has told him a direct lie.

Still the thought of lying compleetly doesn't even enter his head, a novelty that can only be attributed to the sudden parental impulses bubbling to the surface, parental impulses that make a few of the Dark One's actions seem just that little less extreem and, shaking that thought from his head before it can muster, he'd responded

"Truthfully I was just a little older than you were when I last saw her..."

A beat and for a moment it'd seemed as though he'll take the hint and let everything go, then,

"Oh, how about we go to the Libary? It's not long been re-opened but I've heard it's still got all the old books in it and with Miss French's help I'm sure we can at least jog your memory!"

With which they'd all but chugged back the rest of their coco under Henry's every watchful, excited, eyes, de-camped to Storybrooke's somewhat cavernous libary and he'd started on the painful process of blagging his way through the situation without ever actually lying.

Eventually, what proves but a half hour later, Henry begins to visibly droop and, hands itching to brush the hair a little from his face, he'd remarked, "I think you should call it a day kid."

"...'M ok..." it's a half felt lie, one he'd told time and time again when he'd been about Henrys age, desperate to prove himself enough of an adult that his papa didn't have to worry so and yet ruled still the fragility of his child's body.

Something in his face key's August into his line of thought as, smiling that same proud little smile, the ex-puppet gently hefts the boy into his arms and, informs him, "Neil will call if he finds anything," as he begins navigating his way out of the libary.

Sleepy eyes that so mirror his mother's turn in his direction a moment later as Henry enquires, "Promise?"

"I promise," which sounds just about as emotional as he feels right now and thank god that the kid's not awake enough to question that fact, to even really register the words past a soft little noise because right about now he's feeling brittle enough to shatter at simply a feather touch.

Which makes the gentle hand against his shoulder, the warm cup of tea sliding into view and the enquiry of, "You're his father aren't you?" all the more shocking.

Still there must be some form of magic there in the impossible blue of the librarian's eyes for, rather than denying or avoiding the accusation he finds himself simply nodding as he takes a drink of the severly sweetened tea.

"I thought so, there's a look in your eyes that I've seen before, a broken sort of yearning...ah, sorry, I'm still getting used to dealing with people again."

"It's ok from what August tells me you've all had a hard time of it recently." A smile because it feels the right thing to do even if it looks as shallow as it feels, then, "You were locked away?"

"As a contingency plan, or at least that's the impression I've been left with." A smile that is all warmth and sunshine then, "You're from out there as well then, like Pinochio and the Saviour?"

"I am."

"What's it like?"

"Were you ever told not to go somewhere so often that all you wanted to do was to go to that place, that you spent every waking hour, often every sleeping one as well, planning just how you were going to get to the place without being caught?"

"Yes."

"The world outside this border is just like that forbidden place, special until the very moment you step into it and realise why you were being kept away...realise that the place is as dangerous or strange as you had been told and that, really, you should have listend all along."

A long moment then, "Thank you for the honesty Mr Cassidy," before she gains again her feet and enquires, "Is there anything I can actually help you with now that you're free to be yourself again, a person or a place that you'd like to look up?"

It's a little too much like teptation given his current state and taking another long sip of tea, he responds with the enquiry of, "I don't supose you have a section on old folk myths, do you?"

At one am precisly he is woken by the sound of someone attempting to lockpick his doorway, someone hopelessly drunk if the ammount of noise and, yep, off key singing is anything to go by and, momenterally wishing he could flip between human and wooden at will, he rolls himself out of bed.

Opening the door presents, to no surprise, Bae's scraggly form collapsing into his room, face an open expression of rather comically over the top surprise.

"You're drunk."

"Maybe a little...but there were reasons...good reasons that I seem to have forgotten right now...but they were good."

"Right, reasons that would explain trying to break into my room, yes?"

"That's right!"

It's the first he's seen his freind truly drunk, indeed the first he's seen him doing anything that would cause him to loose the control he knows so very important to him, the control he's convinced Bae thinks will keep him from turning into the Dark One also.

It's a foolish belief, of course, most especially given that Bae has seen, first hand, how the curse of the Dark One passes from victim to victim, still it's the only thing that makes sense given how obessive compulsive Bae can get about things being just so and that, in a weaker moment, his friend had confessed that he still occationally had nightmares in which the Dark One was featured previlently.

He'd been certain he'd let the pretext of the libary go once he and Henry were far enough away, perhaps charm grannie into letting him have a room on short notice or, as he'd thought more likely, break his way into the little yellow bug that he and Emma had named home before everything had gone sour. But, given his current state, it was clear he'd done anything but, had started peering a little closer to the stories connected his own life and happened upon something that had had him so desperate to forget he'd taken desperate measures.

There's no need for him to know, the hang over Bae will have in the morning should be enough to discourage him from taking this extreem again and, from Charming's mood when he'd at last returned from the mine, he'd hazard a guess that it wouldn't be long before Emma returned to give Bae something else to be thinking of.

Still that it's driven the boy so very far, lead him here of all places, has him curious enough that he's hefting him up onto the bed, making him a strong cup of coffee, all in the effort to sober him up enough so that when he enquires, "Why are you here Bae?" he's confident he'll get some form of response.

It still takes a while but, evetually, brow furrowing deep, the other informs him, "I started finding little references to him, casual references to deals he'd brokered or people he'd transformed for what seemed such silly reasons.

"I wasn't stupid enough to think he'd let go just because we'd been seperated, but I suppose I'd thought he'd ease off a little. Instead...instead he got worse and it was because of me, because he regretted not comming with me and was willing to do anything to get me back again.

"All those people, August...so many people hurt or cursed or seperated for my sake...god if not for me Emma would never have had to be alone...but then you've known that for a while now, haven't you?"

A lie would be so easy right about now, Bae is still drunk enough to miss his oh so subtle tells, after all, and yet...

"After you told me who you were I got curious, started looking into everything a little deeper and, eventually, I found this." With which he's lifting open the box for his typewriter by the other catch and exposing a very small, aging, book upon which are emblazened the words 'rumpelstiltskin'.

Bae lets out a little sound, part vocal affermation, part pain and then, "You took five in total just incase the libary got opened again while the curse was still in place, it wouldn't do for Regina to realise that someone else knew the truth, after all and if this was the only book to have gone walking she'd done just that.

"Of course when Miss French told me about the missing books I knew it had to be you, no one else other than the Blue Fairy knows who I am and she was still cursed when the books went missing."

"It didn't take a genious to figure out that Regina was the child in the story, that the Dark One had wanted her at his side as a contingency plan, a pawn to manipulate into casting his curse if all else failed..."

"And here we are."

"I won't apologise, Bae,"

"No, I didn't expect you to, you made the wrong choice for the right reasons, after all...oh so selfish reasons, but right reasons none the less." Which is as about as close to forgiveness as he's likely to get and oh so much more than he knows he deserves given everything.

"So, what now?"

"Now you help me steal the realm jumper's hat."