Chapter 4
"Magic always has a price. And this... this is it."
- Mr. Gold (2.22 … And Straight On Till Morning)
The meat pie throne really wasn't all that comfortable. There was something wrong with Zelena's head if she thought this pile of stale pastries was a good idea. A waste of food.
Oh. Wait. She's dead. And I no closer to finding Belle.
I searched the castle, starting with the dungeon the Charmings had locked me in before the curse. She wasn't there. She wasn't anywhere.
I tried to focus, summoning all the emotions I felt about Belle. Love, betrayal, fear, concern, guilt. The power built inside me until I felt a distant tug, and I let go, teleporting to where I hoped she was.
I was on the beach again. The same bloody empty beach. She had to be here somewhere. I reached out with my magic, trying to sense her, hear her, anything, but there was nothing.
I wandered alongside the water until I reached a narrow cove with steep cliffs rising on three sides. Perhaps a meter of sand ran along the base of the cliff, and it took about two hundred paces to reach the back wall. The sound of the waves was amplified and distorted in this place, but when I looked back out the mouth of the cove, the setting sun was in direct alignment.
Just as the sun touched the horizon, the wind began to blow, making strange music in the rock crevices. I shivered, unable to look away from the fading light or silence the whispering rocks.
Where once was light, now darkness falls.
Where once was love, love is no more.
Something washed ashore with the waves. I looked down.
"Belle!"
I dropped to my knees and pulled her out of the water. She wasn't moving. She wasn't breathing. A part of me knew... but I wouldn't listen. I tried to heal her with my magic, but it didn't work.
"Belle, please wake up. Don't leave me like this."
I held her in my lap and brushed the wet strands of hair out of her face. So beautiful. So peaceful. I kissed her.
Nothing. No sign of life. I shut my eyes, resting my forehead against hers, my tears falling on her face.
These tears you cry have come too late.
Take back the lies, the hurt, the blame.
I looked up and saw two more bodies on the shore. Bae, as he'd been when he'd given his life for mine, and...
"Oh gods, no," I choked on my tears. Not the boy, not Henry. Not the only thing I had left of my son.
He lay on his back, his arms spread casually. The handsome little suit he wore to work in my shop was soaked and wrinkled beyond repair, clinging and billowing by turns as the waves continued to wash over him.
And you will weep when you face the end alone.
You are lost. You can never go home.
My family. Everything and everyone I'd ever fought for. Given my life for. Gone. Gone forever. And there was nothing I could do about it.
The sun was gone, the light was fading, and the damn rocks wouldn't stop singing.
You are lost. You can never go home.
You are lost. You can never go home.
It was midnight when they finally let Henry in to see his grandfather. He had refused to go to bed until they did. Even then, they wouldn't let him down there alone.
The hospital basement was cold. Henry couldn't imagine keeping anyone down here for a night, let alone the 28 years Belle had been locked away during the curse, but his moms assured him it was only temporary. Belle had tamed him with the dagger, but until he came out of whatever trance he was in, no one was taking any chances.
Mr. Gold sat on the cot in his cell, still dressed in his rumpled suit. Belle must have washed his face and combed his hair because he stared straight through the opposite wall and didn't blink when Henry and Dr. Hopper entered. A tray of food sat untouched on a table.
"Mr. Gold?"
No response. Henry looked up at Archie. The psychiatrist nodded and motioned him forward, taking a place by the door. Henry inched towards the cot and knelt beside his grandpa. Tears were running down Rumplestiltskin's face, the only evidence of what could possibly be going on inside his mind.
"I don't know if you can hear me," Henry said, "but I'm sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen. I was mad at you. You can understand that, right? I should have stayed away from magic, but I didn't know what I was doing, that anything I wrote could become real. I'm not sorry that I broke the spell on the town line. It let you come back and it will let my mom find Robin Hood again without having to leave me. But I'm sorry you got caught like this."
Still no movement except for an occasional slow blink. Henry pulled the storybook out of his bag and opened to the first page.
"If what I wrote in here is keeping you from coming back to us, then I want to end it."
He grasped the top of the page and ripped it out of the binding. He tore out every page he'd written except the last one, the one that let Rumplestiltskin back into Storybrooke. Then he shredded the pages. He didn't look back up at his grandfather until nothing remained of his cursed ramblings except handfuls of confetti.
When he did, his heart sank. Silent tears continued to stream down Mr. Gold's face, his eyes still unfocused on anything in this world. Nothing had changed.
Henry looked back at Archie. "Why didn't it work?"
Dr. Hopper shook his head. "I don't know, Henry. Maybe... Coma and trauma patients tend to be able to hear what is going on around them. Maybe it just takes time."
Trauma? Henry looked desperately at Mr. Gold's face. What had he done? There was no denying it now. He had wanted to punish him, as if being forced out of town by his true love into a land without magic wasn't punishment enough. And Henry had been the one to help Belle find the gauntlet in the first place. If he hadn't knocked all that stuff off the cabinet, then Belle might not have found the gauntlet in time to stop Gold from killing Hook and freeing himself from the dagger.
He knew about the prophecy that his grandfather had been running from ever since they had found Baelfire in Manhattan. Everyone thought it had been fulfilled when Gold sacrificed himself to kill Pan. Yet here he was again, twice undone by his grandson. Even if he did wake, he would never be the same.
Henry sat next to him on the cot and wrapped his arms around him. "I'm sorry, Grandpa," he whispered. "I don't care if you never forgive me, but please, wake up." He hugged him tighter as his own tears started to fall. "You gotta wake up. You have to come home."
Archie came over and put a hand on Henry's shoulder. "It's time to go."
Henry sniffled. "We can't just leave him like this."
"Belle and the others will look after him," said Archie. "And your moms will let you back in to visit." Henry loosened his grip and wiped at his tears. "You did everything you could, and it is well past your bedtime. Regina will barge in here soon if we don't get you home."
Henry stood and shoved the book back into his bag. He left the shredded pages scattered on the floor. "Goodnight, Grandpa Gold," he said, following Archie out. We love you. Please come back to us.
Mr. Gold sat there, unmoving except for the tears that fell from slowly blinking, yet unseeing eyes.
Where once was light, now darkness falls.
Where once was love, love is no more.
Don't say goodbye. Don't say I didn't try.
These tears we cry are falling rain
for all the lies you told us, the hurt, the blame.
And we will weep to be so alone.
We are lost. We can never go home.
A/N: The lyrics in this chapter are from The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers credits, called "Gollum's Song". Listen to it after you've read the chapter once, then maybe read it again while it plays. I may or may not continue this over the summer. Depends on how the rest of the season plays out and whether or not a plot bunny bites, but this was the intended ending for now.
A/N POST SEASON 4 FINALE: Okay, so I was hoping a plot bunny would strike when they were reunited, but that didn't really happen, did it? I mean, it kinda happened, but it ended basically in the same predicament this story is in. Should I press forward regardless? Or keep waiting until who-knows-when next season, by which point this fic will be all but obsolete? Or should this story be left as-is and marked complete?