Can someone suggest a better chap name, I can't think of one and I don't like this one very much.
Emma and Gold left the hospital, the term in shock might have been an understatement.
Triplets. Triple – ets. Three. Threeeee. First, second, and third.
'Three times the opportunity to mess up.' Gold thought.
"Emma." Gold said. "Emma… was I hearing things in there… triplets?!." Gold wasn't sure how to classify that sentence
"No. I'm almost certain I heard the same thing."
"Three kids, at once." Gold said.
"Yep."
"Three times the dippers."
"Yep."
"Three times the crying."
"Yep."
"Three times the heartache."
"Yep."
"Three times more likely they will end up hating me."
"Ye…" Emma's brain managed to catch up. "Wait, Gold, you can't honestly be thinking that."
"Why not? I failed miserably at raising one child, and his last words to me were full of hate. Everyone I have ever loved has hated me. Why not them?"
"Because you aren't a bad father. I've seen how you are with Henry. You will be wonderful with them."
"Emma, don't try and be logical right now, the flashing neon sign in my head telling me I'm doomed to fail won't listen."
Emma understood, the same thing was happening to her as well, dear havens what she wouldn't give to be able to have a glass of whiskey right now. Just to make her brain shut up until the shock of it all wore off. 'Triplets, and to think having one seemed so impossible not to long ago.' She thought.
When Gold and Emma made it to Granny's they found Michal, Madelyn, Mary, Winter, Henry, and even Dove waiting. They had put some tables together in the corner, and when they went to sit down they found two hot burgers waiting for them. "Well." Mary said. And dear heavens, she was taking this grandmother thing to heart Emma thought. She looked as proud and happy as any grandmother Emma had ever seen waiting for the news.
"Yeah, where's the picture?" Henry asked.
"Hold up, I want a look to." Granny said. "Need to make sure the horns aren't too obvious."
"Granny." Ruby had also come over with an almost empty coffee pot and was reprimanding her grandmother.
"Before we show you." Gold said. "I have some news, it turns out we are not having a baby."
The entire table looked at him in shock. "What do you mean?" Henry asked concerned.
"It turns out were having,…" He then stuttered. "We're having tr-…" He stuttered again, unable to finish the sentence. "I'm sorry; the reality has just started to hit me. Were having,.." He stuttered and coughed and as his brain slowly melted from the shock. Finding English to be impossible to use at the moment he chose to instead hold up three fingers.
CRASH. Ruby dropped the coffee pot she had been holding.
CLANCK. Both Mary dropped empty coffee mugs.
BANG. A second latter the dinner plate Granny had been drying joined the rest of her dishes on the floor.
TINGLE. Henry dropped his spoon to the ground landing on a piece of plate.
CRAAAASSSHH. A water glass that had been perched precariously on the table was knocked over by some carless elbow.
CLANGANGANGANGINGINGINGingingingingrrrrrrn. Just when everything had quieted down Granny chose to let the second plate slide from her hand and down her leg to go spinning about on the floor until it settled. Gold looked over at his wife and just about lost it at her expression.
"Well I think they took it well."
"TRIPLETS?!" Was there response to his sarcastic remark.
SPLASH. A lady reading a book over a bowl of soup had dropped the book in.
VOOOSH, CRASH. Leroy had been sliding a glass forward had ended up shoving it and it crashed behind the counter.
SPOOSHHH. Several patron's drinks now added to the décor.
PUH PHU PHU. And several more were sounding like boats trying to start, being unable to swallow the food in their mouths.
'Well, now all we need is a car crash or a heart attack and it might be comical.' Emma's Gold voice said. 'Anyone else?'
"Well, now all we need is a car crash or a heart attack and it might be comical." Gold said. "Anyone else?"
'Well no that is weird.' Emma thought
'Imagine, if they can cause this level of destruction in the womb, what they can do when they learn how to move.' The Gold voice said.
"Imagine, if they can cause this level of destruction in the womb, what they can do when they learn how to move." Gold said, and Emma was getting weirder out
The dinner slowly returned to normal, after Granny got her cleaver out and started 'recruiting' people to help clean.
Gold motioned her over. "Granny, now I know we have had our differences."
"Well not that is an understatement."
Gold let it go. "But I was wondering if you would like your rent lowered?"
Emma was surprised there wasn't a replay of a few minutes ago. From what she had heard, Gold lowering rent was rarer then the red sea parting.
Granny looked at him suspiciously. "Yeah, who are you and what have you done with the man we all know and hate."
"Granny." Ruby glared. "Can you at least see why Gold is offering us something as nice as rent being lowered?"
"Probably wants' you for a live in nurse or something."
"As offended as I am that you think I would let Ruby watch over my children, I was hoping for it to be a gift upon your excepting of my offer."
"And the offer is you want my soul or something."
"I want you to be a godparent to one of my children." Gold said very seriously.
Granny looked like Gold had just hit her with a truck. "What?" Was all she could say in wide eyed astonishment.
"Who better then you? A person who can easily watch over my children on dates, will not bat an eye at cutting of a boys hand or anything else if he starts to get brave, a horrifying stare to remove any thoughts of trying anything. Not to mention I'd finally stop being charged extra for the pickles." Gold said smiling.
Granny seemed to be thinking for a moment as Gold stood up. "Do we have a deal?" He said sticking his hand out. Always the business man.
Granny went and hugged him instead. The contact was short lived and unpleasant, but Granny looked like she was tearing up. "That would mean a lot to me Gold." She said smiling.
"Good." Gold said smiling. "Hopper." Gold called.
"Yes?" That man said.
"How would you like to be another of the godparents?"
"M, m, m, me?" Archie stuttered.
"Who else than the town's moral compass?" Gold said smiling.
"I would be honored."
"Good." He then turned to Emma. "Well, we have two godfathers and a godmother."
"Ruby could be a godmother." Emma suggested.
"I want you to think about that for a moment." Gold said. "If Ruby was a godmother, I'd be getting call at two in the morning about who knows what kinds of trouble. I'd need to post Dove outside the Rabbit Hole to make sure Ruby didn't corrupt them."
"Hay." Ruby said, coming over after cleaning up the broken glass behind the counter. "Maybe I'll be more mellow and calm in my middle age."
"And maybe pigs will fly north for the winter." Gold retorted.
"Well you never know."
"Trust me dearie, I know."
"Well what about me?" Madelyn asked.
"What about you?" Gold said.
"Do I get to be a godmother?"
"There is a very large part of me that wants to say yes. But then I remember how responsible you are."
"Oh come on Gold. You know I would be the very definition of responsible and dependable around your kids."
"Said the wolf to a sheep dog."
"Will you at least think about it?"
"Maybe, a BIG maybe."
Gold's Shop
"So what are you guy's goanna name them?" Henry asked as he followed Mary, Emma, and Gold into the shop.
"Henry, we just found out we were having three, we don't even know the gender." Emma said.
"Well Mary had your name picked out years before you were born."
"Really! How'd I manage that?" Mary asked, curious as to how she supposedly picked Emma's name.
"Ruth, David's mom had a talisman that could predict the gender of your first born years before the baby was even conceived. And because George gave you a potion that made it so you couldn't have kids, and Ruth gave her life so you could, you wanted Emma's middle name to be Ruth."
"Hu, I kind of like my mother in law." Mary said.
"You know, Mary." Gold said with a smug glint in his eye. "There is actually a way to prove once and for all if you have had children."
"Really." Both Mary and Henry looked at him in shock. Emma looked at him with slight concern.
"Well, I was reading some of those pamphlets the doctor gave us. I'll spare you most of the gruesome details, but one was on the body after the birth. Unless you had a c- section before labor really started the cervix, a mussel that keeps the baby in you and is what has to stretch to let the baby out. Before childbirth it looks like a doughnut with a tiny circular hole in the center, like the bud of a flower before it first blooms. And it's only after childbirth that it changes to look like a, well; I'm not quite sure how to describe it."
"What's your point Mr. Gold?" Mary asked
"Well, if you were willing, you could ask to have a doctor examine you, make sure you're not at risk of some medical disease or something. And if you were to have them tell you what that mussel looked like, proving once and for all whether or not you have had children before, well." He said smiling.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Emma asked, nodding to the back room.
"Sure dear." Gold said smiling.
When they got back their Emma began to talk in a low whisper. "What the hell are you doing?"
"I thought I might try to help with Henry." Gold said.
"Yes, but suggesting Mary does something like that."
"What is the problem, women have test like that done all the time. The pamphlet said it was not an invasive process and this would either prove or disprove Henry's theory."
"How on Earth would it prove it or disprove it?"
"Mary has never had kids that she can remember; Snow White did according to Henry. Have you anything more logical then his theory to explain how if the test came back and said she has had kids and given birth to them and not remember. What did she fall asleep for nine months and have a kid during that time?"
Emma looked like she wanted to respond, but he did have a point, so Gold continued. "And if the test says she never had kids, then that disproves one of the foundations of his theory. It would be like trying to make Christianity work without Jesus ever being born."
"So, Mary dose test. And it either proves she had a kid and has no memory of it at all. Or it proves Mary never had kids and cuts his theory off at the knees." Emma clarified.
"You must admit, not the worst idea ever."
"And so this might disprove Henry's theory once and for all."
"Or prove it beyond much doubt."
"Gold." Emma said annoyed.
"Well you never know, maybe he is right; I never rule anything out, especially when it's someone as smart as Henry."
Emma just laughed slightly. "Very funny." They then went out to the front of the shop.
"Mary, would you be willing to help."
"It wouldn't hurt would it?"
"No, it said it wasn't invasive."
"Well…" Mary had to think. On one hand it would help Henry with curing him of all this curse talk, but on the other hand, it was kind of personal.
Mary wanted to say yes for a minute, but then something made her say. "No."
Henry tried to reason with her, and Gold tried to suppress a smile.
Gold's House
"You know what Emma. I have come to a conclusion."
"Really, and what is that?" Emma asked. She had long ago learned that meal time was when Gold was most human, he could discuss anything from Victoria Secret catalogs, and try and convince Emma they should go to the New York flag ship store again next year so she could, as Gold put it, 'model more clothes' if you use the term loosely, to discussing the origin of life.
"I have finally realized what a good analogy for bad memories is. Family."
"Oh, and how do you figure that."
"Whenever you invite family over, inevitably that one uncle of cousin you hate will show up, the bad one that eats too much and you just want to leave before they ruin your couch by sitting on it for too long. Memories come and with the good ones and the bad, they eat away at your will to live, and by the time they leave you have a big mess."
"Well, and is there a reason for this sudden insight?"
"Yes actually. When the children are born, there will be baby showers, birthdays, family trips."
"Your point?"
"Well, I have no family I want to see, and I don't think you do either. But what about friends and so forth, who do we invite, do we want a big party or a small affair, or no one at all. And I for one have no good memories involving family."
"So you're wondering that because beyond the people that we had a lunch today and maybe the godparents you chose, without me I might add."
"I didn't hear you objecting to my choices."
"Well they were good, but it's the concept of the thing. And the back to the point, you are wondering how we should celebrate."
"Personally I'm of the opinion of the less the more food for us."
"But what about the baby shower." Emma then chuckled. "After all I missed my bridal shower."
"If you really want one you can have one you can go and hand out the invitations."
"Ok, but what happens when the kids start to have friends they want to invite?"
"We can cross that bridge when we come to it, in five or so years after the idea of a birthday doesn't inspire fear." Gold then was silently thinking. "By the way, how would you feel about a night nurse to help take care of the screaming children at 2 a.m.?"
"I would make love to you right now for hours on end if you promised me that." Emma said seriously.
"Well then, with an offer like that." And they went to the bedroom.
The next day Gold placed a call to Jefferson.
"What?" Jefferson said
"And a good morning to you to Jefferson, how did you sleep?"
"About as well as always, why?"
"I want you to go outside."
"Ha ha, you and I both know my curse is I can't leave my home."
"Not anymore." Gold said smiling.
In the background Gold could hear Jefferson going through his house. After about a minute he said. "How?"
"The curse is really shifting, by the way Emma is having triplets."
"WOW, I believe congratulations are in order."
"Thank you, I got Mary to consider doing something that would prove if she had had children or not before, the curse had to intervene, so I got it to let you go to grab her."
"I assume there is a price."
"Other then continued loyalty, pulse if you went and were able to leave your home, Regina will think the curse is more broken then it is."
"And she might tip her hand."
"Yes, and it just so happens I know a certain young lady is going to be at the rabbit hole at around 8:30 tonight, I don't suppose you'd be interested."
"I'll get my best hat, this I must prepare to look my best."
"Have fun." Gold said chuckling.
Ok, meant to ask this last chap, but what do you all think of the triplets. Everybody else does one kid of two, and for some reason I've yet to find a Gold x anyone were they have a son first.
1)So there will be a boy and a girl, but what do you want the third one to be?
2)Do you want identical kids?
3)Who do you think Jefferson is meeting?
Now, please know that while I'm no doctor, my description was more or less accurate for the whole cervix thing; and while my description in the last chap was not accurate about how a first trimester having triplets, that is because Michal placed a spell on Emma in chap 11 to protect the kids and lessen the pregnancy symptoms.
Thank you Twyla Mercedes, Winters-Dawn1221, CosPalp, both Guests, and I'm sad no one else mentioned my VCR explanation or found it funny, I know some of you must be old enough to remember what they were and must have found the need to explain funny. *Sighs.* Tough crowd. And lozzy035 of course.