Chapter Sixteen: So it Seems
Belle told Mr. Gold she was going to try and get some sleep, and she explained she would be on the couch in the waiting room if he wanted to find her. Belle did not want to sleep in a chair, and the waiting room wasn't too far away. Emma and the others had already gone home for the night.
The doors to the hospital opened, and in came Jefferson, Ruby, Dopey, Grumpy, and David. Doc was still awake, siting in the chair behind the desk. He stood up at the sight of Ruby and Dopey.
"Oh my," Doc said, walking with haste towards Dopey. "What happened?"
"That Queen sent him to the ground. We think he broke his leg," Grumpy replied. Doc had Ruby carry the dwarf a little farther into the room next to Baelfire.
Whenever something barely hit Dopey's leg, he struggled in pain and he whimpered. Doc sorrowfully looked at him, nodding his head. After confirming his injury, Doc sent another doctor on the late night shift to help straighten Dopey's leg and put it into a cast. Doc held Dopey's hand as the doctor did his work. Though the dwarf's leg hurt terribly, once it was set, everything was just fine. He clutched to Doc for a few more minutes, and that's when he spotted Belle making herself comfortable on the couch.
Cautiously, Doc made Dopey release him as he made his way out of the room.
"How's Bae?" Doc asked. Belle looked up with a tired gaze in her eyes.
"The same..." she sighed. "I wish I could do more, but I can't."
"Well, I'm sure you're helping him somehow," Doc said. "Why are you out here?"
"I'm tired. I just wanted to sleep out here. I don't really belong in there. Bae isn't my child."
"So?" Doc asked, shooing her off the couch. "Go on, don't be nervous. Go in there by him. You're all he's got if Bae is not awake."
Belle sighed, thinking the old dwarf might be right, so she took a blanket with her into Baelfire's room, sitting into a chair and wrapping herself up, yawning. Rumpelstiltskin watched her as she drifted in and out of sleep.
"Papa?" a faint voice stirred, causing him to turn instantly to see his son's eyes peaking open as if it was the early morning.
"Bae," Rumpel said, making Belle's eyes open more. "Bae..." He stroked his son's hair as the boy began to open his eyes wider, and he looked around the dark room, seeing only his father, Belle, and the lamp that lit the room. As he blinked, behind the glass came more into focus, where he saw a little dwarf being wheeled around.
"What happened?" Bae asked, looking at the dwarf the entire time.
"I don't know Bae...I wish I did," Rumpel said, his eyes filling up with tears as he held his son against him. Baelfire recognized that smell.
"That poor dwarf," Bae said, and that's when Belle opened her eyes and saw Dopey in a wheelchair. Doc came into the room, seeing Baelfire was awake...and perhaps Belle.
"How are you Baelfire?" Doc asked. "My name is Doc. You suffered quite a bit today, but you can rest now."
"Who's that?" Bae asked, looking outside.
"That's Dopey," Doc said. "He broke his leg."
"Oh, how?" Bae asked. Doc was shocked that all the boy could think about was Dopey when he himself had just been in the Evil Queen's grasp himself for hours.
"He was fighting Regina," Doc explained. Then a loud growl was heard along with a howl and a few barks, startling everyone in the room. Doc announced that he should leave and attend to Ruby.
Rumpel could see that Baelfire was confused, and Belle sat up on the bed with him.
"Bae, it's all right," Belle said. "Regina just put a spell on you, but we fixed it."
"You did?" Bae asked, looking at his father. Rumpel nodded, a sad look upon his face. "What's wrong, Papa? Did I miss something?"
Belle looked at Rumpelstiltskin, encouraging him to tell his son what happened to him. However, he couldn't and as soon as Belle saw that, she thought to cover for him...for now.
"Well, you told me that it was magic that was killing you, and by the time I got you to the hospital, Doc was already figuring things out. Regina kept you to get revenge on your father for whatever reason," Belle looked to Rumpelstiltskin.
"Probably Henry," Mr. Gold replied. "But he's a long story, Bae. You're safe now, and I'm never gonna let you go again."
Baelfire grasped his father into a hug, asking what Belle meant when she said they could 'kiss properly.' Belle smirked and looked at the floor, a little embarrassed that he'd heard that. She explained that there was something that had changed within his father...
"Papa..." Bae was waiting for him to tell the tale.
"Son...I no longer have any magic," Rumpelstiltskin confessed. Bae's eyes widened.
"What?" he gasped. "How is that possible?" He looked at Belle, who simply nodded, then back to his father. He didn't believe this.
"When I told you how much you meant to me, I gave up the magic. I didn't know I could, but I wanted you more, so Regina's spell was neutralized when it left me," Rumpel told Bae. "My magic is gone."
No one knew what had happened to the Dark One's power, but Bae began to wonder what could have. His father was the Dark One, there had always been a Dark One. How could the magic just disappear?
"Magic can't just disappear, Papa. It's everywhere. How can-" Bae said, looking at his father. But then, he began to think about other things than magic. His father's magic was gone. They could be together!
"Papa! We can be together," Baelfire exclaimed, hugging his father tighter and burying his face into Rumpel's chest. "You're not the Dark One anymore." The boy began to cry, making Rumpelstiltskin cry a little as well.
"No, Bae. Not anymore," he replied, rubbing his son's shoulder. Belle smiled at them, and Rumpelstiltskin pulled her into him too, forcing her to wrap an arm around Bae as well.
Bae released both of them, thanking Belle for bringing him to the hospital, and then wiping the tears from his face. He looked extremely happy to Rumpel and Belle. Now that the dark magic left his father, there was nothing to come between them.
As long as Bae was awake, Rumpelstiltskin tried to explain all that he could to his son. To Baelfire, this reminded him of when his father would tell him legends and stories before he went to sleep, only this time he was awake, just trying to come around. Belle had fallen asleep almost right away when Mr. Gold began to tell Bae about Regina. She'd been exhausted from the day, so the boys decided to let her sleep in the chair as they whispered to each other.
"Do you think...I can walk around?" Bae asked. Rumpel was hesitant.
"If you really wish to try," he told the boy. "I'll help you." Bae didn't know how his body would treat him, and he felt very sore, and when he pulled back the covers for the first time, he saw all the bandages wrapped around his legs. There were a few on his arms, including a fresh one on his palm, but his legs seemed to sustain more damage.
"At least I didn't break my leg," Bae said, looking to see Dopey still in the chair outside with another dwarf.
"That's Grumpy," Rumpel explained as he took Bae's hands to held him stand up.
His feet weren't too weak, but his left leg hurt more than the right. When his father asked how he felt, Bae let one of his father's hands go, thinking he could balance just fine with one.
"It's the left one," he informed his father, therefore taking hold of Rumpel's right hand. "Hurts, but I want to try."
That was Baelfire.
Bae managed to favor his right leg all the way to the door, where he found that he could stand comfortably without putting too much pressure for his left leg to handle. Rumpel opened the door out into the hall, where the kid took hold of Rumpel's hand again and began to walk. Jefferson smiled, just coming out of Ruby's room.
"Hey, he's walkin'!" the hatter said with a smile. Grumpy turned, and Dopey tried to get a view too, though he couldn't until Grumpy turned him around. The dwarves and Jefferson watched as the boy stood close to his father, looking up at them.
"Who are all of you?" Bae asked, feeling a bit bombarded by people.
"Oh! I'm Jefferson," the hatter introduced himself, thinking just one name was enough for the boy to handle.
"I'm Grumpy," the standing dwarf said. "This is Dopey. He broke his leg when Regina picked him up and threw him from a tree." Bae flinched.
"Stop it you're scaring him," Rumpelstiltskin demanded.
"I'm Baelfire," the boy said, looking at all of them. "Do any of you know what that barking was?"
"Oh, that's Ruby," Jefferson answered, thinking Grumpy had done enough and Dopey wasn't about to say anything anytime soon. "She had some pretty bad wounds, but thanks to your father, they were healing right when she sustained them."
Rumpel sneered at Jefferson, and then the conversation went silent. Bae just wanted to know what happened, thinking that these people could help him understand the situation a little better. With Rumpelstiltskin not seeming to mind, for Bae knew already more than they did, Jefferson told the boy that he, Grumpy, Dopey, David, and Ruby had been holding off Regina.
Bae had done a lot of listening tonight, as he felt he should since he hadn't been conscious for most of the day today, and he continued not to talk much. He was in a lot of pain and only felt like being around his father and Belle. Doc emerged from Ruby's room, seemingly happy to see the boy up and walking.
"Feeling okay?" Doc asked, noticing the boy favoring his right leg.
"I'm sore, but I'll be fine," Bae replied, making Doc smile.
"A stubborn one," he told everyone. "You'll heal in no time. Nothing severe, no broken bones, I'd say you got off pretty lucky."
"So it seems," Bae replied, finding that it was all right to talk. The two took a rest in the chairs since they were in the waiting room. Bae had to get used to this for a while.