Henry couldn't focus at all during school that Tuesday. He wanted to go practice magic. He wanted to learn how to enact the Traveling Spell from his book. Paul, the small boy from the book, used a bed-knob to travel. Henry didn't want to lug around a bed or a bed-knob. He needed something small that he could carry around with him, yes… but something that he could twist. That's what the spell required. Henry figured that perhaps there was something in his grandfather's pawnshop that could give him ideas. Henry figured, that he did mention to his grandfather that he would come by to visit him. Why not today? So when the school bell rang, he bolted right out of the classroom beating the entire student body out of the building. He ran as much and as far as he could until he was out of breath.

He walked the rest of the way until he reached downtown Main Street. He passed the library and continued further down the street stopping in front of his grandfather's shop. He looked up at the foreboding sign, "Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop" and gawked at it. Henry took in a nervous breath, readjusted the strap to his book bag and entered the shop.

The bell to his shop gave a little jingle, signaling Henry's presence. Henry walked in to discover Mr. Gold standing behind his register tinkering with a pocket-watch. Mr. Gold looked up to his grandson with gleeful surprise, "Henry!"

"Hi Mr. Go… Grandpa," Henry said smiling awkwardly. It still felt a bit strange calling him that.

"How are you? How are things?" Gold asked, ignoring Henry's awkward greeting.

"Good… things are good. School is boring though," Henry said. From where Henry stood he looked around at the menagerie of items in his shop. He looked back at his grandfather, "Can I… uh… look around your shop?"

"By all means, have a look around," Gold said coming around from the register to meet Henry face-to-face. "Anything in mind that you're looking for?"

"I'll know it when I see it," replied Henry cryptically, as he peered through the glass containers holding random objects. Henry felt awkward in the silence he was sharing with his grandfather so he decided to make conversation. "So… when you first started learning magic… was it difficult for you?"

"Well… I didn't learn magic. Magic became part of me when I became the Dark One," said Gold as he got closer to Henry, resting his hand on the glass case Henry was looking at. Henry moved on and walked over to the other side of the shop, looking up at all the items that were sitting on the shelves against the wall.

"How old was the youngest student you've ever taught magic to?" Henry asked curiously. Gold looked at Henry curiously, but then played along with his questions by responding, "Well you see, youth and age are relative. It all really depends on the creature. Are we talking… human? Elf? Gnome? Dwarf?"

Henry grinned at Gold's reply, "Human."

Gold nodded, looking down as he reflected. "Fourteen… Your father actually… He was my first student. I taught him basics and fundamentals, but he was much too young. He made for a poor student because he never wanted any part of it."

"And what, would you say, qualifies a person to be magical?" he asked as he looked at some of the objects that were dangling from the center ceiling. He saw a bike hanging there, which would have made an excellent candidate for his traveling spell, but it was still too large.

"I would say that anyone with the belief and desire for magic would qualify as someone being magical, unless of course, you were born with it."

To be born with magic, Gold reiterated in his head. Emma was born with magic and she is the product of True Love. Wouldn't their child also be the product of True Love? When he and Belle kissed for the first time, almost breaking his curse, it initially broke from their True Love's kiss. Wasn't that evidence enough of their True Love for each other? There was no way of knowing for certain until their daughter was born and Gold wasn't going to wait idly by for the next eight months to find out. When it came down to the safety of his family, he wasn't going to leave anything to chance. He had told Belle that he would do everything in his power to make sure she wasn't going to die from this. So he decided right then and there, that even if their child was the product of True Love, he would still sacrifice his life for her, for them; even if that meant sacrificing his own heart.

Gold stood there thinking as Henry hovered over at his jewelry counter, staring at necklaces, bracelets and rings. "What are you working on?" Henry asked, noticing tools, spare gears and other tiny screws.

"I'm fixing a pocket-watch."

"By hand?"

"Yes, Henry. Not everything I do involves magic."

"How much is it worth?" Henry asked. The watch was perfect! He had access to the hands on the face; something he could twist. The watch was small enough to carry around and not too bulky for it to be conspicuous.

"A cog."

"A cog?"

"It's worthless now until I can find that missing piece for it to work properly. Only," Gold said looking around his shop and patting the pockets of his vest, "I seem to have misplaced it."

"Cogsworth," Henry chuckled to himself as he stared at the pocket-watch.

"What's so funny?" Gold asked, confused by Henry's reaction.

"Nothing, I was just reminded of a movie," Henry grinned amusingly to himself. Henry knew that Mr. Gold could simply conjure another spare part for the watch, and was just flattered to see that even a powerful sorcerer like him would consign himself to doing menial tasks such as fixing a watch. Gold was humanizing himself in front of his grandson and was doing his best to appear less intimidating and more welcoming. "Can I have it?" Henry asked, looking up from the watch.

"I tell you what… come by my shop again sometime after school. You can help me categorize everything in the shop. Along the way, if you happen to find the missing piece to this watch, it's yours. That way, you can work off your wages for it and help me organize the shop in the process."

"Deal!" said Henry shaking Mr. Gold's hand. Henry turned to exit his shop when his grandfather shouted after him, "Henry, wait."

"Yeah?"

"I need to ask you a favor."

"Me?"

"Belle and I have an appointment shortly to meet with your mother, Regina. There's an urgent matter of grave importance we need to discuss with her," said Gold as he went around a counter to reach for his suit jacket, "Belle and I would really appreciate your presence there when we discuss the matter and I would really like to keep the news within the family."

"Sure," nodded Henry seriously, "No problem, Grandpa."

"I'm going to go pick up Belle at the library and then we can all drive together to your mom's work."

"Ok."

… …

Henry walked ahead of Gold and Belle as they went up to Regina's office. They approached the Mayor's closed office door and Henry gave a knock.

"Come in," Regina called from within her office. Henry entered the room first followed by Belle and Gold. Regina stood up, alarmed at the sight of her son with Rumplestiltskin. "Henry, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be home right now."

"Hi Mom." Henry walked around, grabbing one of the many spare chairs in her office and pulled it up beside Regina's office chair behind her desk.

"I asked him to be here. For this meeting," Gold said, intervening on Henry's behalf.

"Yes and why are we meeting?" Regina demanded. Henry walked over to his mother and greeted her with a hug. Before Henry sat down in his chair Henry answered, "Supposedly there's news that they want to share with us and want it just between us."

"Is that so?" Regina said looking over at the couple who were taking their seats in front of her. Everyone was sitting down around her so Regina took her cue and sat down as well.

"We're pregnant," stated Belle, getting straight to the point.

"Wow! Another aunt or uncle! Cool!" exclaimed Henry excitedly. Unlike Henry's reaction, Regina replied more sarcastically, "Well you guys certainly didn't waste any time now, did you?"

"Jealous? Are things not going well between you and Robin?" Gold teased offensively.

"Rumple…" Belle hushed, placing a gentle hand on her husband's leg.

"Robin and I are civil. And no, I'm not jealous because I'm perfectly happy with the child I have already," said Regina as she placed a loving hand on Henry's shoulders. "Why are you telling us this?"

Rumple sat there awkwardly, unsure how to begin. He looked over at Belle, and she took it as her cue to explain. "When our child is born, she'll be cursed with Dark Magic and the price of that magic is the death of a heart… my heart."

Belle looked hesitantly back at her husband and then back at Regina and continued explaining, "When Snow sacrificed David's heart to go back to Storybrooke the second time, is it true that you took Snow White's heart and split it between them?"

"Yes…?" said Regina, unsure where Belle was going with this knowledge.

"Could you do the same for both of our hearts? Split both of our hearts in two?" asked Belle.

"And then do what with them exactly?"

"I'll perform the spell that will sew the two different halves together," interjected Gold. "You needn't worry about that."

"What do I look like, a cardiologist? Whale is the doctor, not me, that's his area of expertise."

"Well, this calls for a magical touch. This… splitting of the hearts is new to me… and I am partly curious to see how you did it the first time," commented Gold.

"Please," Belle begged kindly, "if this works, when our child is born only my half of the heart will be sacrificed. I'm not magical and so it's only fitting that only half the magic will be passed on to our child. With Rumple's enchanted half-heart still beating in me, I'll surely survive."

"I don't know… I wasn't sure it was going to work with Snow White's heart, and that was only one heart! What you're asking of me is a lot," Regina replied.

"That's why we asked Henry to partake in witnessing the operation," Gold pointed out. "Not only is he my grandson and part of my family, he's also your son. And since you're supposedly using good magic now, Henry will help make sure you continue on that path, should you decide to do this."

"There's… one other thing…" Belle added.

"There's more?!" Regina said unbelievably. "Are you guys expecting twins?"

"No… uh," Belle looked expectantly over at her husband to which Gold explained, "Ever since your mother, Cora, I've placed many enchantments on my heart to prevent anyone from gaining access to it."

"So how do you intend on lifting these enchantments?" Regina said looking at Gold.

Gold looked down at the floor, not believing that this moment was happening… admission. "I have to confess… sins from my past…"

"Should I get a priest?" Regina poked sarcastically.

"Mom…" Henry said looking at his mother seriously, "Hear him out. This can't be easy."

"Thank you Henry," said Gold grateful for Henry's understanding, "I have to unburden the things that tether my heart to the magic I've placed on it, but to completely lift the barriers I have to confess in front of people I've afflicted."

Regina took a few moments to think about the favor she was being asked to do. She looked over at Henry and felt that despite her past with Rumplestiltskin, she owed it to her son to show that she now possessed light magic.

"Ok," Regina said more genuinely and seriously. "I'll do this for you both," she looked back over at her son, "…and for Henry. Goodness knows I've done my fair share of horrific things, but it'll be much more interesting to hear yours. When and where would you like to do this?"

Belle answered, "Tomorrow evening, our house. That should be enough time to prepare and get our affairs in order."

"I must warn everyone here," Gold added, "that the things I will say will offend you. In order for the enchantments to truly break I must be honest with everyone. Harsh truths will come out."

"Do what you need to do, Gold, and prepare yourselves. Henry and I will come over to your place in the evening."

"Thank you," said Belle gratefully to Regina and Henry. Belle stood up and reached for her husband's hand. Gold stood up as well, taking her hand and they both silently left Regina's office together.

When the office door finally closed behind them Henry remarked out loud, "Huh… I am going to be older than my uncle and newborn aunt. I suppose there aren't too many people that can say that."

"Honey, how can you possibly know that from that conversation?"

"When our child is born, she'll be cursed," Henry quoted, "It's what Belle said when she was explaining their problem."

"Huh… I suppose she did. How observant?" Regina commented staring at her office door. She thought about the startling revelations she would hear tomorrow evening. She wondered about Rumplestiltskin's past and was even more curious about how those revelations would affect her. Before she could ponder any further on the matter, she snapped back to reality and turned to her son, "Come, let's go home. I have a lot to think about and read from my spell books. There's a lot of pressure riding on me too and I want to make sure I do this well."

Hi guys! Hello fanfiction! Oh how I've missed you all.

My vacation was awesome. Got my cell phone stolen, so that sucked, but overall had a really good time! Had my little composition notebook with me the entire time, so while my friends were checking out their phones, I was working on this story. I meant to post on the 28th, but I was traveling. I had intended to post yesterday, but I got jet-lagged and spent the time unpacking and unwinding. It gave me the opportunity to finally see the premiere! I totally swooned at the Rumbelle dance, didn't you? lol.

Did you guys like my introduction of Cogsworth? Lol. Let me know what you guys think. I look forward to hearing from you all again to catch up. Forewarned: Tomorrow's chapter… There's no dicing it… it's a doozy. It's really long. So prepare yourselves for that big mamma jamma coming your way.

Again, I missed you guys. Talk to you soon. See you next chapter. :)