Chapter Six: New Projects
Mr. Gold really had a ton of junk in his office. The old picture frames were worthless, but Bae put them in a separate pile, thinking he could do something with them later. Any other cloth Bae saved to reuse too, thinking that if Belle had to clean the whole place, she'd need probably far more than what she already had in supplies.
With old picture frames and cloth on the side, Bae sorted through countless loose tools like nails and screws, to wood shavings which he brushed into a garbage bag along with all the other junk he found. When that was full, he tied the bag up, refilled it, and started on another. His father was in the front, doing who knows what, but Bae couldn't help but notice that the bell rang almost never.
Baelfire, after finishing a few drawers and a large corner where he retrieved a bunch of frames, went to find his father.
"Are you hungry?" was the first thing his father asked. However, he declined this offer and asked his father if he could take a break for a little while, say an hour. His father granted this, telling him to be back at the shop in exactly an hour.
Bae's first stop was the house, and he brought the rags there for Belle, letting himself in with the spare key his father gave him.
"Belle, you here?" he said, entering. The girl turned to see him with a large pile of rags. "I thought you could use them for...cleaning." Belle smiled.
"Thank you Baelfire," she said, not sure what else to say. "Where did you get these?"
"The shop. Papa has me sorting through the office, and if I still know him, he can cause quite a mess. I just thought you could use more of these. I'll let you sort through them, cut them as you wish, and I'll toss the rest," Bae told her.
In his eyes, Belle saw a kindness she could never describe. This is what she thought was inside of Rumpelstiltskin, and here it was inside of his son the entire time!
"I don't know what to say. If you could please put them in my room. I'll sort through them later. Thank you, and Bae..." she said before he made his way upstairs. "Rumpel is very lucky to have you."
"I could say the same about you."
The boy ran to grab the old picture frames next, making his way to the school, thinking of no better place to store them. He thought that if he was in Storybrooke, he may as well meet the people here too.
He made his way, stumbling across the hallways. Bae couldn't even see what was beyond the picture frames there were so many, so he was never sure who was directly in front of him.
One of the frames began to tip to one side, so Bae decided to follow it, hoping it wouldn't fall off the pile. He nearly tripped over his own feet, but he hit something for but a second. Just enough to allow him to catch both his footing and shift the frame back into the pile.
Turns out, he'd just interrupted into a classroom full of children. However, Bae soon found himself unable to hold the frames anymore, there were so many! It was Snow's class of fourth graders, and they all stared at him as he nearly tripped over his feet again in surprise.
"Excuse me," Baelfire said at once. Another look and he couldn't help but ask. "Hey, aren't you Snow White?" The teacher nodded her head slowly, staring at him and wondering who he was.
"I'm sorry for barging in like this. My name is Baelfire," Bae introduced himself, setting the frames down gently onto what he hoped was an empty table. Henry's face lit up in the room and Snow saw it. Bae looked at Henry too, but he held his firm stance.
"I have a project I want to work on, and I was gonna use these, but I don't want everyone knowing about it, so if I could hide this here..."
"Yeah sure!" Henry blurted out, startling his teacher and some of the other kids. "We'll help you too if you want." The class began to rile up at Henry's statements, but Snow calmed them down, taking Bae out in the hallway, asking what the hell he was doing here, who he was, and what he wanted with those frames.
Bae explained that he wanted to make something out of them, perhaps a larger picture frame or something from wood. He told her that he was just visiting town and established recently; however, when she asked how he knew she was Snow White, Bae told her that he'd rather not talk about it for now. Either way, she was kind enough to let him store his secret project in her classroom after she found out his intention with it, thinking he could use the wood shop across the hall when the time came.
"Where did you get those?" Snow finally asked.
"The pawn shop," he answered simply, as if it were no big deal to him. "I've taken up a job with Rumpelstiltskin."
That was in itself a mystery to Snow, and she began to grow weary of this boy. Obviously, he wasn't afraid of Mr. Gold, and he knew who Mr. Gold was too. Bae reassured her he didn't have any magic, and that his intent with the frames was a surprise. One was for Ruby and Granny because he knew Granny and as a payback for the free iced tea. The other was for someone special to him.
He stayed a little while in the classroom to talk to the kids awhile so he didn't seem so strange just barging in and then disappearing, but he had to return to work 20 minutes later. Henry seemed hesitant to approach this boy, which Snow found even stranger. She was sure Henry would relate Bae to his book of fairytales, in fact, she hoped he would because then maybe she could know more about him. Henry, much to Snow's dismay, remained at a distance.
After that, Bae left plenty of time for a stop at Granny's, for he came in with money this time, and asked for that iced tea he had before. Granny whipped one up, Red watching in the background closely at Baelfire, blindly serving the person in the booth who was reading the newspaper. Bae paid for his beverage and was off again to return to work with his father. The stranger in the booth whispered to herself, sending a small aurora emit for a second within Bae's drink.
The little bell rang as he entered the shop from the front, throwing his father a look of content and then returning to work. However, his father stopped him.
"Where did you get that?" Rumpel asked, pointing to the drink in his hand.
"Granny's, like I did last time," Bae replied, setting it down near his station of work. "Why?"
"I think it's enchanted," Rumpel said outright, but Bae wasn't having this today. He sighed, shutting his eyes.
"Don't be silly Papa, you know I hate magic, and there's none in here. Please, I just want to get back to work," Bae told him.
"I don't know Bae, I think something's up. Look at that," his father pointed to the top where there was blue cream on the top of the drink.
"I told Granny I wanted whipped cream on it...the whipped cream is blue..." Bae said wearily, thinking his father was acting very strange. He took a drink of it, seeing the expression on his father's face filled with worry.
But nothing happened.
"See? It's fine," Bae reassured him, putting a hand on his father's shoulder after setting down the tea again. "I feel fine, really."
Rumpelstiltskin let him go on this, thinking that he had to trust his son when he said he was fine, and he couldn't prove there was anything wrong with the drink anyway. Granny certainly was no witch, for she would be too kind to do such a dirty deed. Mr. Gold returned to his work.
Later that evening, Mary Margaret rang the bell to enter Gold's shop.
"Ah, Snow," Rumpel said. "What can I do for you this evening?"
"Is Baelfire here?" she asked, and he was taken aback. How did she know he was here? Rumpel thought to protect his son and say no, but the boy was too quick.
"Good evening, Snow White," Bae greeted, appearing from behind the curtain.
"Baelfire, um, I just wanted to stop by and ask how long you wanted me to keep that stuff in my classroom. I forgot to ask you," she said, looking wearily towards Rumpelstiltskin.
Rumpelstiltskin looked to his son as Bae was forced to answer her. Well, that certainly wasn't what Bae wanted to happen. He thought that his father would still be feared enough that no one would come to the shop, as proven throughout the course of the day.
"Well, if you have the kids help by organizing a few things for me, then a few weeks at the most. Otherwise, I'll have it out in two months time, I promise," Bae said, then proceeding to think about Snow's schedule, just to be prepared. "Is that too long?"
"No, I was just wondering," Snow answered. "Thank you. Good day to you, Mr. Gold." She threw him a glance, one Bae knew wasn't the meaning of mutual friendship, and then she was heading out.
"Good day to you, Miss Blanchart," Rumpel said, waiting for her to leave. Bae had already made his way back to his work when his father appeared from the other side of the curtain after the bell rang.
"What was that about?" he asked, his eyes reflecting angst and perhaps a hint of anger.
"Just a project I have in mind. Snow was nice enough to let me keep some stuff in her classroom until I have the time to work on them," Bae replied, looking at his father, smiling a little. "But work here comes first."
"All right, all right," Rumpel said, unable to comprehend his son's behavior since he's returned. "You sure you don't want anything to eat?"
"I can wait until dinner," Bae replied, returning to work.
Mr. Gold saw the progress Bae was making, and it was better than he expected for the boy's first day. Rumpelstiltskin told him that he could be done for the day, complimenting that he'd never expected Bae to be so quick and efficient with his work.
Bae made sure Rumpel was okay with this, and he told his father that he'd go and find Snow at the school, for classes must just have gotten out ten minutes ago. He promised to be home for dinner, but before he left, he made sure he put his father first.
"Papa," he said, making sure Rumpel was paying attention.
"Yes Bae?" he asked, turning to face him. It was then Bae wrapped his arms around his father, bringing him in for hug.
"Thank you," he said, leaning his head in close to rest of his father's right shoulder. "I'll be home for dinner." Rumpel returned the hug, feeling something inside of him alter significantly. There was a hole far deeper than skin within him, where he left Bae, but in that moment, he felt like that hole was beginning to fill.
He wanted to hold Bae for hours and never let go, but he was forced to when Bae was pulling away.
"Papa, I gotta catch Snow," he begged. When his father let him go, Bae smiled and then left running back to the house where he grabbed his moped and was off to the school.
Regina smiled at a distance, watching Bae race through the wind towards the school. Bae tossed the empty cup of tea before he entered the school.