Chapter 61
"How did I get roped into this?" Gold growls as he tugs at the white beard that's already making him itch. Even though Clara's assured him the entire suit, including the beard, was thoroughly cleaned after the last use, he has his doubts. "I used to be respected in this town."
"No, you used to be feared in this town. There's a difference." Belle is struggling to stuff his stockinged foot into a black plastic boot. She's panting and sweating, and he's tried to talk her out of helping him dress; "Let Whale do it. This is his fault." But she reminds him Whale's already occupied, and besides, it'll be so much fun afterward, undressing Magic Santa. When he's fully Santa-ized, he sits down with his three elves, Blue, Bernie and Ceecee, for last-minute instructions, as Belle surrenders herself to Ruby to be transformed into Mrs. Claus.
When they walk out onto the makeshift stage in the cafeteria, MC Henry wraps up his last joke of the evening and shouts, "And now, a man who needs no introduction: straight from the North Pole, Santa Claus!" The Clauses walk hand-in-hand into the audience, offering hugs and candy canes; behind them, the elves dance from child to child, delivering presents out of a sleigh pulled by two not-so-tiny reindeer: Jo and Whale in luminescent antlers and head-to-toe costumes sewn by Mr. Browning.
"Ho ho ho, merry Christmas, boys and girls! You've all been good children this year. Mrs. Claus and I are very proud of you!" Gold makes his voice deep; it helps to cover up the quaver in his throat. His favorite, Angelo, is upstairs in intensive care.
From the corner of his eye, he watches Belle kneel before the children in wheelchairs. She touches their hands softly, smooths back their hair and chats to them about the reindeer (who have been very naughty this year and may be getting lumps of coal instead of candy in their stockings) and the sleigh and how the toys are made. She's become an assistant in his magic act; it means so much to her to be with these children. Earlier this week he reciprocated by doing his Magic Santa at the library story time.
After his magic act, Ruby comes out in a red taffeta gown and as her husband plays piano, she prompts the crowd—parents, grandparents and hospital staff as well as kids—to sing along to an assortment of carols. Finally, the queen and the prince arrive, she in a white gown, he in a hunter green suit styled by Mr. Browning to match the red suit Rumplestiltskin had conjured for him, so many years ago. A shining sword dangles from his hip and he permits the children to touch the hilt. The queen settles onto a folding chair and reads "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" as the Clauses make the rounds again, shaking hands, hugging.
Belle gives extra time to a two-year-old with a heart problem.
When it's all over, the performers throw off their costumes in relief and join the hospital staff in the doctors' lounge for a nosh catered by Fran. Gold fulfills his promise to Belle by staying at the party a full ten minutes before he wanders off. She trails after him, perhaps to chew him out for being anti-social, but when she sees where he's headed, she catches up to him and silently takes his hand to walk beside him. First it's a stop at the nursery window, then up another floor to Intensive Care. They can't go inside, of course, but Gold searches for his little friend beneath all the tubes and wires, and he feels more at ease when he finds him sleeping. "I think I'll call Angelo's parents tomorrow, wish them happy Christmas," Gold murmurs. "And see if there's anything they need."
Belle grabs his arm. "Rumple, why are lights on that monitor flashing?"
"Crap!" Without thinking, Gold summons his magic and with a wave of his hand, brings Whale and a couple of nurses to this floor. Before they can protest, Belle is pushing the nurses inside, yelling, "The monitor!"
Gold seizes Whale's lapel. "I want to know as soon as you have news."
"That information is res–." A glare from Gold changes Whale's mind. "Fine."
Whale rushes into Angelo's room. Blocked by the staff's backs, the Golds can't see Angelo any more, and through the thick walls they can hear nothing. "I suppose we should go find out if his parents have been called," Belle suggests.
Gold nods and allows her to lead him to the nurses' station.
Fifteen minutes later, they're sitting with the Romanos in the waiting room. Belle fetches coffee for everyone and they struggle for a while to make conversation, then they all fall silent. At twenty minutes, Whale makes an appearance. "We'll have to operate tonight. We have a neurosurgeon choppering in from Portland."
The Romanos look a little relieved; a specialist is coming. When Whale goes back to Intensive Care, the Romanos join hands and bow their heads. "Would you like to pray with us?"
"Of course," Belle says, accepting the offered hand. After a moment of hesitation, Gold joins in. He doesn't know the words to the prayer as the Romanos call upon St. Jude for assistance, but he thinks he can feel a tingling in his skin. Maybe his magic is offering its services.
A half-hour passes and Whale comes, pulling Gold, and only Gold, aside. "The helicopter can't take off. There's a snowstorm in Portland. Can you pop the surgeon over, like you did me?"
"My magic won't work beyond Storybrooke."
Whale curses. "We don't have anyone here with that level of expertise."
"Can't you do it? Your surgery's saved many lives."
"The tumor's situated at the base of the spine; it's very delicate work. I know what has to be done, but without a neurosurgeon to guide me—"
"Skype. I'll conjure a computer monitor over the operating table, large enough that the neurosurgeon can see what you're doing, and he can guide you."
"Can't your magic make the tumor disappear?"
"If I had that much knowledge and skill, no child would ever need a hospital. You can do this, Whale. You will do this."
"Maybe. . . " Whale is beginning to believe. "But—" he shows Gold that his hands are shaking. "I'm so nervous. It's a child, Gold."
"I can help with that too." He seizes Whale's hands and shoots a bolt of magic through them. The hands stop shaking. "Better?"
"Yeah. I can do this. Go on up to the operating room and magic us a computer monitor." He waves a Candy Striper over. "Ms. Martinez will show you the way. I'm calling my colleague." Reaching for his phone, he walks away.
"Mr. Gold!" The volunteer beams. "Remember me?" She's the young woman who jumped to Belle's assistance when the hospital was in chaos after the curse broke.
"I certainly do, Ms. Martinez. I wish we could be meeting again under easier circumstances."
"Later, we can catch up. Let's go to work." She links her arm in his. "Angelo is a favorite of mine, too."
Mr. Romano dangles half-on, half-off on the short vinyl couch. He's asleep and snoring. With a flick of his finger, Gold stops the snoring and lengthens the couch. Romano rolls over, pulling his feet up from the floor.
Mrs. Romano is trying to teach Belle how to embroider—a pleasant way to while away the time, she says; and she's had a lot of waiting time in hospitals. Belle pretends to be interested.
Gold is reading a book on his iPad. He's studying a chapter about herbs that can reduce post-operative pain. It's sunrise and the pale light coming in through the blinds causes glare on his screen, so he half-mindedly conjures a curtain. Then he remembers Belle is sitting across from him and he vanishes the curtain before Belle can chew him out. He shields his screen with a hand instead.
The elevator dings and Whale, his cap askew and his surgical gown damp, steps off. He's smiling. As he approaches Mrs. Romano to give her the news, he winks at Gold. "Who would've thought you to be a techie, old man?"
"Same Fates that thought you to be a reindeer, I suppose."
"Belle, your husband deserves a scoop of ice cream. His Skype idea was brilliant."
Belle blushes.
"Mr. Romano." Whale shakes the man's shoulder, gets him to roll over. "Mrs. Romano. I expect a full recovery for your son. You can see him for a few moments tonight. For now, I suggest you go home and get some rest, and I'll do the same."
"Dr. Whale, you're a hero." Mrs. Romano kisses Victor's cheek. "Don't eat supper tonight. I'll bring you a plate of my famous shrimp linguini."
"Yeah, I did earn my pay today, didn't I?" Whale beams.
Dove is waiting in the parking lot to drive them home. "Thought you'd be too tired," he says. "Fran and I will come back later for your car."
"How did you know?" Belle wonders.
"A Candy Striper called me." Dove uses the rear-view mirror to look at his passengers. "Seems you've got quite a following now, among the local teens. Fangirls and fanboys, Ms. Martinez called them."
Gold smiles over at Belle. "Maybe this will score me some points with Henry."
"It scores some points with me," Belle purrs, cuddling against him. She laces her fingers with his and a small sudden frown creases her forehead as she looks down at his hand.
He whispers into her hair, "It was the only thing I could think of."
"The price of magic to save a life must be high," she remembers. "It had to be something you truly cherished." She raises his hand to her lips and kisses the now bare space on his fourth right finger. "Where did it go? Is there a way to bring it back?"
He shakes his head, turning his face toward the window to stare at the fresh mounds of snow that have fallen in the hours they've spent in the hospital.
Belle can't resist the call of a story, and she suspects there's one here. "You've had that ring as long as I can remember, in this world, anyway. I don't recall seeing it in the Enchanted Forest."
"I acquired it after we separated," he says quietly, then corrects himself. "After I threw you out." His eyes fix on something out there that doesn't exist here.
"You wore it constantly in this world." Her hand touches his knee gently. "Would you tell me the story?"
"It was called the Remembrance Ring. Long before I was born, the Far Northern Highlands were ruled by a man called Alured Eofghern: Alured the Eagle-Hearted. A man of vision and compassion, it's said, he reached out to kingdoms far and wide to form alliances that brought his people out of poverty and ignorance. He was beloved by his people, but in his younger years, his efforts to serve them took up all his time, leaving none for a personal life, and so when he came into his later years, he looked about him at all he had accomplished, and he was well pleased, but he had no heir to pass it all on to. He went then in search of a wife. Though he was nearing the end of his life—he was almost fifty—he donned the clothes of a common man and with his loyal squire, he traveled his lands, looking for a woman of the people, industrious, smart, practical, for these are the qualities he wanted to pass along to his heir. He was nearly sixty when he found her: a golden-haired, blue-eyed daughter of a physician with healing powers of her own. From the moment he laid eyes upon her, drawing water from a well, Alured knew this was the future mother of his children. He dropped from the saddle to his knees and proposed to her on the spot. The Fates were hard at work that day, it seems, because Dionisia recognized in him the heart of the eagle. This was the man she had been waiting for all her life. They were married the next day, and a year later, she delivered to him his heir.
"But life is fragile and fleeting, and a plague carried into the kingdom by sailors from the southern seas swept through the kingdom. Dionisia sent her child to live with her family far away, and so Sarvaric survived to ascend to the throne in later years. But Dionisia the Healer gathered her herbs and went out among the poor to fight the plague with the same courage her husband had shown. She broke the back of the plague, but not before she herself contracted it. As the church bells pealed in celebration of the coming of spring and the ending of the plague, she lay dying in her husband's arms. 'Forget me not,' were her last words, and so that he would always have something of her close to him, Alured captured her tears. On the third day following her funeral, Alured summoned a powerful sorcerer and asked him to fashion a stone of those tears. When he asked what price the sorcerer would charge, the sorcerer said, 'I do this in service to love.' The sorcerer added just a drop of magic, and thereby created the stone, which for the rest of his days, Alured wore on a chain around his neck.
"The stone bore a magical power derived, not from the sorcerer's magic, but from the magic of love. The stone would change color in the presence or absence of true love, and so anyone who wore it could always find his beloved, and once found, the wearer would never forget her. A later possessor of the stone had it fashioned into a ring."
"Like Snow's ring," Belle suggested.
"Exactly. I stole the idea for her ring's enchantment from the Remembrance Ring. I did not, however, steal the ring; I bargained for it. It was a hard bargain, but I gladly paid it. Once I had the ring, I enchanted it with your tears, which I'd extracted from that tasseled pillow I gave you, after I brought you to the Dark Castle. At the time I took those tears, I didn't know what you would come to mean to me: I simply wanted the tears of a pure-hearted maiden, because they're a powerful ingredient for certain spells." He blushes a little as he glances at her, then returns his gaze to the window.
"What price did you pay for the ring?"
He spits the word: "Prison. A year in Charming's prison. In the year she was preparing to cast the curse, Regina needed to keep me under her thumb, or so I convinced her; I didn't want her to leave me behind when she cast it, as she was tempted to do. So I made a deal with her: if she would bring me Alured's Ring, I would remain at her beck and call in the year preceding the curse. Regina has never been a history buff, has no curiosity about antiques, so she was unfamiliar with the legend of the ring. She thought it was simply some old and rare bauble, so she stole it and gave it to me. But Regina's never fully trusted me, so her idea of keeping me under her thumb was to imprison me in the dwarf mines, where the fairy dust would block my magic. I agreed to it—one of my many goofs. I expected it would only be a few days; the curse was completely written; she need only gather the last ingredient to cast it, but it took her five months. I thought, 'It's Charming; how bad can his prison be? After all, when he locked Regina up, he gave her an entire tower with a soft bed and books and three hot meals a day.' I still haven't figured out why he decided to play prison warden with me. "
He swings around at last to face her. "I wore that ring constantly from the moment Regina brought it to me. Charming's guards were afraid to get close enough to me to steal it, I suppose. Through the ring my memories of you were perfectly preserved. It was both torture and comfort to me."
"Because Regina had told you I was dead."
"That's why the ring was so precious to me. While there was no magic in this world, the magic of the ring lay dormant, but I knew that once I brought magic here, the ring would restore my memories of you, every detail of every moment we'd had together. Of course, once the curse broke, I learned I had something better than the ring." He runs his right hand across the fourth finger of his left. "And now I have this ring so that I will always find you. Losing Alured's Ring, then, was a sacrifice, but not a tremendous one."
"You gave it up for a child you barely know. I'm proud of you, Rumple."
He shakes his head. "I'm a father. Another kid's father helped my son when he was cold and hungry; I couldn't walk away from this boy, when I had the power to help."