Chapter 11
"The future is like a puzzle with missing pieces. Difficult to read, and never, never what you think."
- Mr. Gold (2.14 Manhattan)
Even though Grandpa Gold still thought Henry and Belle were ghosts, Dr. Hopper had them wait outside while he spoke to him. It would be a breach of doctor-patient confidentiality, he said, when Gold eventually came to realize they had been there the whole time. It wasn't right for those he cared about to take advantage of his temporary delusion like that, even if he never said anything to Archie that he wouldn't want them to hear.
It was hard, though, especially on bad days when Grandpa Gold spoke to them as if seeing spirits was just a fact of life. More than once, he'd asked Henry why Neal hadn't come to see him yet. Henry never had an answer for him that wouldn't break Dr. Hopper's rules, and it hurt to see his grandfather interpret his silence as confirmation that Neal was angry with Mr. Gold for letting Henry die. He'd try to deny it, but Mr. Gold would just shrug it off and change the subject. On really bad days, he'd beg Henry or Belle to stay when he saw Dr. Hopper arrive, and they would have to promise to return before he would let go of them.
The only good thing about Archie's visits was that Henry had been able to convince him to ask Mr. Gold about translating the spell required to free those trapped in the hat. The psychiatrist had refused to allow anyone else in to see Mr. Gold, particularly Henry's mom's, for fear of his patient's reaction. Within a month of Grandpa Gold's waking, Archie succeeded in obtaining the translation, and Regina freed the prisoners the next day.
The old man Hook had helped trap turned out to be the Sorcerer's apprentice. Because of his familiarity with the Dark One curse, he became the first person to be allowed to sit in on one of Archie's sessions with Mr. Gold. When he came out, he asked to speak with Henry.
"Dr. Hopper tells me you've been writing in one of the books you found in the mansion." The Apprentice's tone was soft, but Henry still felt like he'd been sent to the principal's office for misbehaving.
"I didn't mean for this to happen," he murmured.
"No, of course not," the Apprentice said, taking a seat next to Henry. "But the fact remains that it did. May I see the book?"
Henry pulled it out of his backpack and handed it over. "I don't know how much help it will be. I tore out the pages that caused this."
The Apprentice flipped through the pages, lingering on the untidy chicken scratch on the last used page. "This was the last thing you wrote before he woke?"
"Yeah. But it didn't do anything. Even True Love's Kiss didn't work. He almost died."
"Are you sure?"
Henry blinked. "What?"
"Are you sure it had no effect?" The Apprentice smiled, showing Henry the scribbles on that last page.
The marks were etched firmly into the paper, crisp and dark and threatening to bleed through to the other side, if it didn't tear a hole first. He couldn't even read his own writing, the words slanting this way and that and running over each other. He tried to remember what he wrote, but could only recall the fear and desperate need to save his grandfather before the last petal fell.
"What's written in the book is very hard to undo," the Apprentice continued. "It can't change the past, but if the Author has enough belief and desire, it can influence the present."
"But I'm not the Author."
"Are you sure?" the Apprentice asked again. "You have the Heart of the Truest Believer. In time, I think you may be worthy to be trusted with the Author's pen. In the meantime, I suggest you stay away from writing in the storybooks."
"I'm sorry. I never should have touched it."
The Apprentice hummed and nodded. "But then your grandfather would still be banished and the nuns and I would still be trapped inside the hat." He stood, patting Henry on the shoulder. "Come. It is time we make things right."