Chapter 7

"We make mistakes, and throughout our lives, there's no avoiding them."

- Mr. Gold (4.02 White Out – deleted scene)

Dr. Whale met them in the waiting room. Mr. Gold's heart attack remained inexplicable, but he was out of danger for now. In fact, he was quite healthy physically, which meant, the doctor was reluctant to admit, the cause was likely magical.

"How it that possible?" Regina asked. She, Emma, and Mary Margaret had arrived while Henry and Belle were waiting for news. "The cuff is supposed to block magic."

"Maybe you didn't do it right," Emma suggested. That same comment coming from Grandpa Gold, Henry knew, would have put Regina on the defensive with its snarkiness, but coming from Emma just didn't have the same effect.

They were all tired and worried. Banishment was one thing, but none of them wanted to watch Mr. Gold die a second time, even if it was just for Henry's sake. If any of them had considered giving up and letting him stay in this strange waking coma, they hadn't mentioned it in front of Henry.

"Rumple was wearing the cuff when he killed Pan," Belle said. "He couldn't use magic, but he was still able to call his shadow."

"He also didn't have to use his cane," Henry pointed out. Mr. Gold without his cane was a sight he was still getting used to.

Regina nodded. "Which means we're just as clueless as Dr. Frankenstein. The cuff works, but not on all forms of magic."

"There has to be some way we can keep an eye on him," Belle said. "Some way to predict another magical attack that the hospital equipment won't catch."

Regina shook her head, and Emma slowly looked over at Henry. He knew from her expression she was about to apologize, but as she opened her mouth, she paused, staring at Henry as if he'd said something unexpected.

"There is a way," she whispered.

Now it was her turn to be stared at. "Emma?" Mary Margaret asked.

Emma had that dazed look she got when confronted with evidence that challenged her Land Without Magic beliefs. She shook it off and turned to Belle. "You and Gold," she said. "You're Beauty and the Beast." She turned back to Henry before Belle could process her confusion enough to respond. "Right, kid?"

Right, but... Oh.

Henry grinned, and Emma smiled back. "The rose!" he blurted, perhaps a little too enthusiastically for a waiting room.

"The what?" Regina snapped, but Emma was already summoning her magic.

A ball of light glowed between her hands before expanding into the shape of a bell jar. The light faded inward, first revealing the glass jar, its wooden base, and then finally the beautiful red rose suspended inside. Before it was even fully formed, several petals broke loose and drifted to the bottom of the case.

Emma handed the rose over to Belle saying, "Gold's alive, and as long as there are petals left on the rose, there's a chance we might be able to help him."

Regina snorted and turned away, but Henry suspected she was secretly impressed. Or she would be, once she stopped being miffed that it hadn't been her idea.

Belle held the case gingerly, as though afraid a single jolt would knock all the petals off. "So many have fallen already." She frowned, brushing the glass with the fingers of her right hand.

"Can you blame him?" Mary Margaret asked. "Heart attack or not, whatever happened to him, it wasn't minor." She put a hand on Belle's knee. "The important thing to remember is that there's still hope."

"Until the last petal falls," Belle murmured.

"Yeah," Henry said. "Which is why we need to figure out what we're going to do before that happens."

"We'll start in the library," Mary Margaret said. "Will you help us, Belle?"

After a worried glance in the direction of Mr. Gold's room, Belle nodded. She looked up at Dr. Whale. "Can I see him before I go?"

"Of course. I'll be nearby in case you need anything." The doctor smiled and left to check on other patients.

Despite having permission, Belle didn't get up right away. Instead, she sat there staring at the rose in her lap while the others hashed out a plan that involved figuring out how to release everyone that Mr. Gold had sucked into the Sorcerer's hat. Hook had told Emma that in addition to the fairies, there was an old man who had seemed to know about the hat and the Dark One. Between him, the Blue Fairy, and Regina, they had to have a shot at hitting on a solution.

Henry only half-listened to the plan. Like Belle, he was too wrapped up in is own thoughts. It all came back to the book. He had written in one of the Sorcerer's blank storybooks, not realizing the price that would come of it. The only good thing his writing had done was break the curse on the town border, but what was that compared to the threat to Grandpa Gold's life? It was all Henry's fault, and nothing he'd tried had helped a bit.

He remembered the look in his grandfather's eyes when Henry convinced him to let him help out in the pawnshop. It had been an undercover scheme for Operation Mongoose, but Henry had told Grandpa Gold it was because he was his only remaining link to his father. He felt a little guilty about that, especially after Mr. Gold had mistaken Henry for Baelfire during his hallucination in the library.

It was obvious how much Grandpa Gold missed his son, just by how his whole demeanor would change at the mention of him. Henry had talked to Dr. Hopper about it after the incident in the library. If the hallucinations were based on what Henry had written in the storybook, then that moment never should have happened. Dr. Hopper suggested that intense emotional attachment could explain how Henry had been momentarily able to break through the curse. Under the circumstances, he felt it would not be unusual for Mr. Gold to still be in mourning. The loss of his son and the aftermath of his enslavement had to weigh heavily on him, no matter how much he had tried to suppress it. Dr. Hopper suspected it had a large influence on the events leading up to his banishment.

And now he was trapped inside a cursed dreamworld of Henry's design, a place where everyone he loved was stripped from him until there was nothing left, not even hope. A fate worse than banishment.

It would have been better if Mr. Gold hadn't come back.