Twyla Mercedes: thanks for the kind review

Guest: thanks as well

I tried to update faster but my computer hates me, so does Microsoft word, and I couldn't stop my brain from saying "add this" and "reword that, it doesn't sound right.

One thing though, I read a wonderful story that I thought people might like. It's called Once upon a Dream by TriplePirouette. It's a great story that I think disserves some attention, it is a great story that is very heartwarming, heartbreaking, and very well written, it's 29,750 words though, so it's a bit long but well worth it. I would recommend it to anyone, and the author has some more great stories as well.

"Emma, how could you get married to him!" Mary Margaret all but yelled at Emma when they sat down at a booth at Granny's.

"Mary, shh, not so loud. And if you really want to know, it involved a lot of alcohol." Emma said, in desperate need of coffee and aspirin. "Wait. How did you know about that?" Emma asked, she was sure she hadn't said anything about it to Mary when she called her and asked to meet up.

Mary was about to answer when Ruby came up, literally bouncing with energy. "So, I never thought you'd tie the knot with him. In fact, I never thought anyone would." She said.

"OK, how do you know this? I only found out less than 30 minutes ago." Emma said, unhappy at the lack of help from her friends.

Ruby ran over to the counter and got a copy of the Mirror. 'Why do I get the feeling I was better off not knowing.' Emma thought before reading the front page.

SHERIFF DEAD,

AND

DEPUTY WED.

Last night, Sheriff Graham Humbert died at the sheriff station,

In the arms of Deputy Emma Swan.

And a few hours later, she emerged from the Court House as

Mrs. Gold.

Emma could barely get through half of the story before she got so mad she tore the paper in two. "Sidney has some explaining to do."

"I'm guessing you didn't like the article I wrote, it's one of the best stories ever, the paper is having record sales and I got a nice bonus." 'Speak of the devil and he shall appear. And this one seems to lack a sense of self-preservation' Emma thought when she heard Sidney's voice. A thought that just got worse when she saw that stupid "I take pride in the life I just tried to destroy and discomfort it is causing" smile.

"Yes I don't like it. WHY would I? A good man died last night. And all you care about is saying how I apparently couldn't wait more than 3 hours to rebound from losing him to marry Gold. And just for the record. NO, Graham and I didn't date. I didn't go and get married because I just couldn't stand being alone, because we weren't together. And the reason I married Gold was not because he is the richest guy in town, I did it because I was trying to get drunk enough so I could forget watching a good man's life slowly leave his eyes as he died in my arms!" Emma said, yelling the last part only loud enough so China could hear her. And after a few deep breaths she said. "Now you go write a retraction of that article and write a story about how this town lost a good man, or I will have my new husband, who as you said is the wealthiest man in this town, sue the paper for every dime it has."

"I don't think that will be needed Emma." Everyone turned to see Mr. Gold standing in the door way. "I rather liked the story, it solved a problem I was having."

"It did?" Sidney said. Not sure if he should jump for joy or cower in fear.

"You did?" Emma said, unable to hide her shock.

"Yes it did. In fact I think everyone will love his story in a minute." He said smirking. And looking around to see he had their undivided attention, that smirk only grew. "You see Sidney. I woke up today with a problem. Being recently married, like the story said, I wanted to take my new wife on a Honeymoon. The question was, how to pay for it?" Then I thought I could just raise the rent a bit, and then go and have fun." He paused, enjoying the looks of terror the idea of raising the rent caused. "But then I read the paper, and it solved all that. You see, if you and the paper are getting rich off my new wife's discomfort, then I thought I should use those riches to make her comfortable again." Sidney started to lose some color as the meaning of what he said became clear. "So I think that unless you do as Emma said, I'm afraid I'll have to triple yours and the papers rent to be able to properly provide her with a relaxing vacation, and if you do what Emma said I will only double it. So run along now, and be glad you spared others the pain of more rent." He said with a Joker smile. And just before Sidney left he snapped his fingers like he forgot something and said. "Oh and tell Regina her rent is also going up and I need to talk to her please." And with that, he started running.

Mr. Gold then went and sat in the booth with Emma. "You forgot this at the house." He said handing her her badge. Then Ruby came over with a pot of coffee.

"You weren't really going to raise everyone's rent were you?" She asked.

"Would any of you be very mad if I said I was planning on only raising Regina's rent?" "The article and Emma's public display of anger just gave me a reason to raise the Mirror's and Sidney's rent, which means we can go on five helicopter rides instead of just three." He said with the world's biggest smirk at the shock on their faces. "That last one was a quip – not serious. I want this to be a relaxing vacation, the first one I've had in what feels like 30 years. Now if you need me, I'll be at my shop, waiting for Regina's grand entrance. Oh and Emma, if you need help picking someone to watch the station and make sure Pongo doesn't give Miss Ginger a panic attack, I might have a suggestion." And getting up to leave he said. "Oh, and if any of you see Henry, tell him he will be having dinner with Emma and I tonight."

"What makes you so sure Regina will let you have him?" Mary Margret asked.

"If the threat of more rent doesn't work, I'm sure I have at least one favor I can call in." He said, the smirk never leaving his face as he walked out.

"That man is infuriating." Emma all but yelled after he left.

"How? He just got Sidney to run out of here, by this time tomorrow everyone's is going to be reading how wrong he was in today's story, you're going on a vacation which should be lots of fun and relaxing, and considering how life has been lately you could use it, and he is going to have Regina let you see Henry tonight. I don't see what the problem is." Mary Margret said.

"Because I wanted to be able to do that myself, and not have to marry a one man mafia to do it."

"Well, to be fair, you were going use him as your ace to get Sidney to write the retraction Emma." Ruby said, earning a glare from Emma. "Well you were, and technically it was your idea that the two of you get married."

After Ruby said that, you could hear Emma's brain stop and all the color drained from her face, 'It was her idea. Now that was impossible, she heard Ruby wrong. It could not have been her idea that they get married'. After a minute her brain started going again, although it was very slow. "It….was…..my…idea…no...that's...not...possible... I don't care how drunk I was, there is no way I asked to marry him." She then noticed that Archie and Leroy were sitting in the next both over. Archie looking uncomfortable and upset and Leroy looking drunk as usual.

"I'm sorry Emma but you did." Archie said.

"Yah, you said "Why don't you and I get married" really loud last night. It made me stone cold sober for a few seconds from the shock or something of hearing you say it to him, you would not believe how shocked he looked." Leroy said, and then got hit by Ruby for being so loud.

"And after I said this, did all of you just think, 'Emma is drunker then Leroy would be after being locked in a room for three days with nothing but Jack Daniel's to drink, she's with Mr. Gold, and she just said that they should get married. Well nothing can go horribly wrong for Emma here, so I won't try and prevent her from getting at worst married to the creepiest guy in town, at best making it so she can never go out in public again from the shame of what she said and might do.'." All they did was look down in shame at this point. "So what were you thinking?"

"I was drunk sister, I couldn't walk straight, and the shock of what you said only let me think clearly for a few seconds. It's really weird now that I think about it; I looked over at Gold and could have sworn he looked like he had gold colored skin and scales, and that Doc here was a giant cricket with a hat and coat."

"Maybe you and I should have a talk at my office later Leroy." " I thought that Mr. Gold there to help prevent you from making a fool of yourself, he even made a video of the conversation you had last night. And he never struck me as the type to take a drunken girl down the aisle, or anyone for that matter."

"Wait, he made a video, how did he have a camera?"

"That was my fault." Ruby said. "I was playing with it last night, hoping to have something to help keep Leroy in line with. Then you came in, and I thought I could make some money off the Mirror to help pay the rent, money is a bit tight. Then Mr. Gold came in and saw what I was doing, and told me to give him the camera or else he would raise the rent so high no amount of pictures could pay it, so I did. I asked him why he wanted it, why he cared, and if I would get it back, and he said that you would probably want some video evidence of what happened the night Graham died, that he didn't care but didn't want Regina to have any ammo to get you kicked out of the sheriff position, and that he would return it after Emma saw the video and it was deleted."

By the end of the story the small amount of color that had come back to her face was gone again. "Are you saying that he has a video of what happened last night? Why not just attach the puppet strings now. Do you have any idea what he could do with that? Blackmail would be the understatement of the century."

"Look on the bright side; it can't get any worse for you." Mary Margret said.

Emma looked at her in disbelief "Pleases tell me you did not just dare Fate to do something worse."

It took a second for what Emma said to dawn on her. But before she could knock on wood (or any of their heads might work) they heard the bell ring and an unhappy ten-year-old's voice. "Emma."

The Beginning of Henry's day

Henry had never been the most popular of people; sure people liked him, mostly out of fear of Regina, although some did truly like him. There was also the problem of that no one else aged, so bonding was a bit hard. But today was just wired, he could swear there was a bubble ten feet around him that nobody would enter. It wasn't that noticeable, that is until some of the nuns tried to run across to the other side of the street to avoid him without him noticing, it would have worked if they weren't running across the middle of the block, or running at all. He then noticed that everyone was acting wired; crossing the street, hiding behind newspapers, ducking into shops. He began to think of all the reasons this might happen, ranging from Regina has finally proved to everyone how evil she is, in a way which made everyone fear for their life should they anger her; the curse was weakening so everyone noticed that Henry was aging; there was a giant fire breathing dragon behind him that everyone but him could see; or maybe something bad had happened and no one wanted to tell him about it and were too sad to be around him because he was happy; or may…

"Henry!" When he heard his voice being called, it broke his concentration from his list, but he was happy to see it was Paige, or Grace. She ran up and hugged him. "I'm so sorry."

"Hi Paige!" "Why is everyone avoiding me like I have a wall of fire around me? No one but you has gotten within ten feet of me all day." He said after the shock wore off. "And why are you sorry?"

"You haven't heard." She said in astonishment.

"Heard what?"

She then took his hand and ran over to a newspaper display. And Henry's jaw not only hit the pavement, it probably left a dent to, when he saw the cover. "Everyone is talking about it, they all say either the Mirror got a bad calendar and thought it was April 1st, or Emma has lost her mind. My dad said both were more likely than the story Sidney wrote."

"So this is why no one is coming near me."

"Considering your Mom is the mayor and your Stepdad is Mr. Gold, everyone thinks hellfire will rain down upon them in the most painful of ways if they go near you."

"But why would my Mom marry Mr. Gold. She hates him?"

Paige had to think fast, she liked Henry a lot, and knew that given half the chance; his mind would come up with a ton of very unpleasant ideas. "Maybe…" She thought for a moment. "Maybe… you know how you said your Mom doesn't like Regina. That she's worried about you. Maybe this is her plan to help you. I mean the only person who could beat Regina is Mr. Gold. So maybe she married him to help get you back." She smiled as she said this; hoping it would give Henry some hope.

"But what does it have to do with the Sheriff dying?"

"Um, well, maybe she realized how important you are, when he died in her arms, maybe it convinced her that she needed you." That at least might help with the Sheriffs death.

"But what did she have to give Gold to have him help her?"

Ok, that was a hard one. "Maybe, she…well…maybe she asked for his help and he said he would if she married him."

"Why would he do that?"

"To make Regina angry, and to make getting you back for Emma easier, you know, with them being married and all."

"I guess, maybe I should go see how she is."

"That would be great, I'm sure she would love to see you. Why don't you go that way and I'll go this way." She said, pointing toward the opposite direction of Granny's. "I'll go to Granny's if I don't find her, and you go to Gold's shop. I'll wait at Granny's for you if she's not at Gold's." She felt terrible for lying to him, but she had to warn Emma to go along with what she said, or else Henry would get worried that Gold was going to hurt Emma.

Granny's

"Emma." 'Wait, that wasn't Henry's voice' Mary Margret thought. She then turned to see Paige running toward them.

"Paige, what are you doing here?" Mary asked.

"Warning Emma, I sent Henry to Gold's shop, so we don't have a lot of time. I told Henry that the reason you guys got married was because when the sheriff died, you realized you wanted Henry back, you went to Gold for help, and the price was you had to marry him, and you agreed because it would mean it would be easier to get Henry. Please tell me at least part of what I told him is true, because he's going to think Gold wants to hurt you somehow if it isn't, and he'll get really worried." She said in one breath.

"I'm sorry Paige, but the reason I married Gold was because I was too drunk to think clearly, but apparently you're right that it was my idea, at least according to those three." She said pointing and Ruby, Archie, and Leroy.

"Can't you just tell him that you had a good reason?"

"I can't lie to him." Could she?

"You could tell him that, it was a drunken mistake that you married Gold, but your planning on getting a lot out of it" Mary suggested.

"Yah, you could remind him that now you have plenty of money, and so you could fight for him." Ruby said.

"So you guys want me to tell him that I got drunk, convinced Gold to tie the knot, and am planning on saving him from the Evil Queen, something I'm still meagerly on the fence about, and that I'm a gold digger" Ruby tried and failed to contain a snort at that. "You know that's not what I meant."

"Would you rather he starts concocting a million theories about how Gold is planning on using the savior to help reach his own evil ends." Archie said, earning a strange look from everyone unaware of Henry's fairytale idea. "Henry has a very active and unique imagination. And the point still stands that you can either watch him worry himself sick about you, lie to him, something I would strongly advise against, or you can bite the bullet and tell him it was you who caused this mess, but you're trying to make it work out for your benefit."

"Wouldn't I still be lying to him if I said that?"

"Not if you do intend to have this work to your advantage, if you aren't going to try and make this work out well for you, then it would be a lie, and you would have to be very stupid."

The bell rang, and in came a very excited Henry. "Emma, you will not believe what just happened."

Gold's

Rumpelstiltskin had many things he had to do today, and most of them he was not going to enjoy, so he decided to overlap the good visits and the bad. First he saw Sidney, a very bad way to start the day. Then Emma, which was a bit of a gamble of how it would go, but it seemed to go well. Next was Regina, seeing her might be worse than bathing in hot oil, but if he played his cards right, he might get some satisfaction from it. Ding 'Right on schedule' he thought.

"Emma are you in here?" 'Wait, what was Henry doing here? He should be, well if it's Saturday, considering the headlines, it's not too surprising, but why look for Emma here?'

"I'm afraid not Henry." He said, stepping into the front of the shop. "How are you doing, and why are you looking for Emma here?"

Henry filched when he saw Gold, not that he hated Gold, the man had always been very nice to him, and Gold was the only person that treated him like a person, and not like some sort of time bomb that would cause Regina to rain terror down upon them, more of a feeling of dread in the back of his mind, probably from all of Regina's talks about how he should never go near the man without her, and the fact that he was still a little scary. "I'm doing well, I wanted to talk to Emma, about your, well, you know, how you guys…"

"You mean us getting married." Gold said, sensing the boy's discomfort.

"Yes."

"Well I'm sure she'd love to see you. She's at Granny's still I think."

"Oh, thanks." Henry was about to leave but stopped. "Mr. Gold, Why did you marry my mom?"

"Well I don't think I married the Mayor."

"No, gross, I meant Emma."

"I know, but the look on your face was priceless. However if you want to know why I married her, you'll have to wait till dinner tonight."

"Regina didn't say anything about diner with you tonight?"

"She doesn't know yet." He said with a smirk, and then saw a black figure coming toward the shop. "But this should be entertaining, why don't you go hide back in the back, and sneak out the back door."

"Why?"

"Because I don't think Regina is here for a friendly visit." He said looking toward the angry mayor walking down the street. Luckily, Henry didn't need to be told twice, and ran into the back room. 'I don't think he will really leave', and when Regina entered, he didn't hear the sound of the back door opening during the whole talk. "To what do I own the pleasure of your company Madam Mayor?"

"A funny thing happened on my way to the diner today Gold. Sidney came running up to me, saying something about our rent going up."

"Ah, so he did give you the message, wonderful." He interrupted.

"Yes, but what I want to know is why the head line of today's paper said that you and Miss Swan were married." She said throwing the paper down on the counter Gold was behind.

"First off, Madam Mayor, I believe its Mrs. Swan or Gold. Second, I don't recall it being needed for you to approve a marriage for it to happen. In fact I think the requirement for a happy marriage is for you to disapprove of it. And last, but not least, why do you care what my wife dose as long as she's away from her son?"

"He's my son, and I care that she now has a reason to stay in town, if nothing else, she'll have to stay long enough to get the divorce papers signed."

"Feeling optimistic that it will fail, you forget dearie, that there are powers in this world that should not be trifled with. There are thousands of women in unhappy marriages that last for years, and do you know why?"

"I have a feeling you're going to tell me anyway."

"The love of a child. Now Emma might not love me, but that could change, and if she were to," He began walking around the room, acting like he did the day Cinderella had the audacity to try and trick him. "believe, that her son, her flesh and blood, was unhappy, well, you and I both know the lengths a mother would go to make her child happy." He said, smiling at the fact that the mention of Cora didn't entirely fly over her head.

"And just what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Emma has the potential to destroy you, she already doesn't like you, and she has the sheriff position."

"Which she will get over my dead body."

"Let's not tempt me dearie, it's a bad habit." "It would please me greatly if you let her have it, plus a deputy and a file clerk, but back to what's important, she has power, the enemy; she is close to having the drive necessary to go after you from the way she sees how sad Henry is." "Honestly I'm surprised she's managed to last this long without wrapping her hands around your throat, and now she has an ally, who also doesn't like you very much, and who has more power then you." "You know what I call that?"

"No, what do you call it, because I call it doomed to failure, if she cared about Henry, she wouldn't have given him up."

"I call it a time bomb, one you just can't stop lighting the fuse of. You and I both know she gave Henry up to give him the best life, and if she thinks you're not it, then you should watch your back." He said before going back to his books. "You can go now."

"We are not done."

"Oh please, I think you and I both know we are." And so Regina turned to leave, but before she could Rumple snapped his fingers remembering something. "Oh and Regina." Regina then turned around. "Emma and I would love it if Henry could come over for dinner tonight."

"He can't, I don't let him have dinner with people who are a bad influence."

"Well then, you will be pleased to know that Emma and I are not bad influences, and I would like Henry to have dinner with us tonight." But when Regina looked like she wanted to say something he said. "Please have him at my house by six." And so she had no choice but to say.

"Alright then, when should I expect him to come home?"

"Around 11P.M., or if he wants, maybe noon tomorrow."

"But…

"Please, let's not argue, it's too tiresome." And with that she left. "Henry!" Rumple called to the back room.

"Yes."

"Please go tell Emma the good news; you'll be having dinner at our house tonight."

"Ok, and thanks Mr. Gold."

"For what?"

"For helping my mom and me." Henry said, and he left the shop, running off to Granny's.

Now on to what could be either a very pleasant or unpleasant visit, depending on what the missing box meant, god help him if it wasn't what he hopped.

Later in Storybroke…

Mr. Gold stood in front of a nice house on the outskirts of town. It was a nice house, stone, and looked like something out of Victorian England, in it, was Mr. Gold's old friend, Michal Myrddin, and he was an old friend in the Enchanted Forest. He just hoped that what he thought was right when he rang the doorbell, letting Rumpelstiltskin be in full control. "Gold, what brings you around, rents not due yet is it?"

"No Michal, I wanted to talk to you. May I come in?" Rumple asked, feeling years younger, a feeling he missed from the old days in the old wizard's presence.

"Of course, come in, I just had Madelyn prepare a cup of tea." He said, motioning for him to come and sit in the living room. "Madelyn, Gold's here, come bring an extra cup would you."

"Gold? Here, oh lord, he's here to steal our souls isn't he, I told you, you needed to pay the rent sooner." Yelled the young voice of Michal's maid, although really, she was more like a daughter to him, or more like a very old friend, and one of the few people who could get away with making a joke in Mr. Gold's, or Rumpelstiltskin's presence. When she came in she was carrying an extra cup, but decided to hug him instead of give it to him, something the Gold part of him didn't like. "To what do we owe the pleasure, you old fossil?"

"Well, it rather embarrassing, a few years ago, I sold Michal a few things that I wanted to get rid of, a nice gilded box with a few trinkets and bobbles from my younger days inside. Something that an old man wouldn't want, but a child might, and because I'm recently married, and may have the chance to enjoy youngsters in my life again, I was wondering if I could buy it back?"

"I don't see why not Gold, I think I remember the object in question, wonderful craftsmanship, looked like it came from another world. I'd swear it looked like the gold thread on top was spun from wool, like something from Rumpelstiltskin's tower." Michal said.

"I suppose you could be right. Maybe it was made with magic."

"Well if you two are done acting like to old men, I'll go get this box, where is it?" Madelyn said.

"Up in my room, in the back of the closet, get it while I discuss a price with Gold." And so, she left and two of the greatest magic users were left alone to discuss price. "So, what will you give me for such a great object? After all, it's not every day I get to play the savior."

"No, I suppose Emma would fit that role better than us." Rumple replied.

"So why did you marry her, I mean besides that she could be the fairest of them all?"

"I was felling rather lonely, it feels like, for the first time in 28 years that something is happening. Don't you think?"

"Yes, it does, I was most curious to know whether you felt like that, after all, some plans are a bit of a gamble."

"Yes, so tell me, can you remember our first meeting?"

"Yes, I'd say I've never forgotten that day. What about you?"

"I'd say I've begun to remember things, shortly after Emma came."

"Good." Michal said with an all knowing smile, and then Madelyn came with the box. "So Gold, What offer will you take?"

"I think you might like this." He said, holding up a small box, inside was a gold necklace with a large blood red stone. "I think this is a fair offer."

"So it is." Michal smiled, and then handing him the box, he took the necklace. "I hope everything is as you left it."

"It is thank you." And with that, Rumple left. And he once again let his Mr. Gold side take a more active role. He had got what he wanted; they both knew the other remembered.

So, what did you think, please review and tell me.

If you're wondering, when I pictured Sidney's smile, it was like the one where he showed Regina the article he wrote about Emma having birthed Henry in jail.

So, I left about a dozen clues as to who Michal is, let's see if anyone is smart enough to figure it out. (One more clues is Syfy)

And because this story is based on the it sucking, I hope your Thanksgiving doesn't.