Warning: Semi-graphic descriptions of violence/torture this chapter. But it pays off in the end.
Chapter Ninety-Five—"Null and Void"
Co-parenting with her brother-in-law and her niece was strangely easy. Regina was used to having David around, of course, but Emma was a bit of a wildcard, particularly since Emma had wound up moving into the Nolan house along with her parents. Not that Regina begrudged Snow and David for wanting to have their daughter in the same house—or that she really minded—but it was just…odd. The house was plenty big (it had eight bedrooms, which still left them with four empties to spare), and it did make sharing Henry a lot easier, but there were still times when Regina really wondered how they was going to cope with this long-term or if the wheels would snap off one day and their odd little family would fall apart.
However, at the moment, it certainly made things easier. Regina had agreed to watch Roland that morning while Robin tried to sort out some mess or another at the fire department, but she hadn't remembered that it was a teacher work day at the school at the time. David was interviewing new employees for the shelter, so he'd be busy, and Snow was going to be hearing disputes all morning. It really is amazing how many things people can find to complain about when we're still battling for control of the damn town, she thought, straightening her jacket. People would run scared if Cora so much as looked at them, but they were happy to hound Snow for days over stupid little arguments like why the newspaper hadn't been delivered.
"Got a date?" Emma teased her as the later walked downstairs.
"Hardly," Regina rolled her eyes. "I'm babysitting."
"For Robin?"
"No, for the postman. Of course for Robin." Just ask her, Regina. Don't hesitate because you're embarrassed that you forgot something, she told herself firmly. This isn't a competition to find out who can be Henry's best mom. Trying to sound casual, she asked: "Do I need to bring Henry with me, or can you watch him?"
"Mom, I'm ten, not two!" Predictably, Henry had walked into the room at the wrong moment, scowling. "I can watch myself."
Emma's eye roll was perfectly timed to match hers', and they exchanged long-suffering looks. "I can watch him," Emma said. "Besides, Henry and I have a breakfast date with his dad."
"You do?" Regina asked, just as Henry echoed:
"We do?"
"Yup. It was supposed to be a surprise, but those never seem to last in this family," Emma shrugged.
"Tell me about it," Regina muttered, thinking on her own situation. Snow had been ecstatic when she'd learned that Robin had woken Regina up with True Love's kiss, and Regina had an awful feeling that her sister was already halfway done with planning her wedding. She'd shared dinner with Robin last night, and it had been wonderful, but Regina still wanted a little bit more time to get her feet under herself before making any kind of crazy commitment like that.
I think I'm the only one of Henry's mothers that has that desire, though, she thought, glancing Emma's way. Yes, there was definitely something that Emma wasn't saying, and Regina hadn't forgotten about the contract. She could figure out what Emma had decided, but she'd let the younger woman tell her in her own time. There was no need to press.
Besides, she was already running late.
"You're telling me that there isn't a real jewelry store in this town," Bae said incredulously as Belle unlocked the pawn shop.
"No, there is," she answered, making herself smile as she turned the lights on. Belle hadn't set foot in the shop since the day Rumplestiltskin had given up the dagger, and she'd really wanted to stay away until they came up with a way to get him back. But this was important, so she shoved her sick emptiness aside. "It's just full of cheap costume jewelry, nothing nice."
"So you're taking me to the pawn shop?" her stepson said. "No offense to Papa and all, given that his name is on the sign, but I doubt there's going to be anything better here."
"You might be surprised," Belle answered, leading him towards the jewelry cases in the front. "And besides, you're the one who waited until this morning to have a bit of a fit over not having a ring for Emma. Good luck trying to get Juvelisto's to open before eight, anyway."
Bae groaned, but obligingly went over to look at the case full of rings. The ones in the front case were the non-magical ones, of course; Rumple had done an inventory shortly after she'd brought magic and move the cursed and/or enchanted rings into the back. As near as they'd been able to tell, these rings were all from the Land Without Magic; they'd appeared like the guitars and antique telephones when the curse had built the pawn shop. Not everything in there had belonged to someone back home, after all. Just most of it.
"There's some pretty neat stuff in here, actually," he admitted after a moment, and Belle stifled a laugh.
"That's what you get for deciding that I don't know what I'm doing," she teased him, and was rewarded by a nervous smile.
"I still can't believe she said yes. I keep thinking I'm going to wake up and she'll have changed her mind."
"I don't think Emma's that type," Belle said as reasonably as she could, even though she knew it wouldn't calm his nerves.
"Not unless I get her a really crappy ring, anyway!"
They laughed together, and spent the next forty-five minutes trying to find a ring that would suit Emma Swan. There really were a surprising number of rings in the shop—over two hundred, according to the last inventory—and Belle knew that getting one resized would be easy. Finally, Bae picked out a diamond flanked by two rubies, set in gold. The ring was at least a hundred years old, but he kept going back to it, and Belle knew that it would be perfect.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Jefferson asked Jafar. "Wonderland is really a rather…psychedelic place. Not the kind of place you want to go unless you're tripping out on drugs or something."
Jafar's dark eyebrows rose, but the sorcerer still shrugged. "I'm not terribly particular about the landscape if the world suits my purposes. And, frankly, the more miserable the place, the less likely Cora is to visit."
"I can't blame you for wanting to get away from her, man, but there are seriously better places to do so than Wonderland," the Hatter replied.
Despite his own misgivings, he had actually come to like Jafar a bit. He'd taken the other man along to Arendelle the day before and been rather surprised how much he'd enjoyed the trip. Jefferson had particularly liked watching Jafar make mincemeat of that idiot prince who seemed to think he was going to be in charge. Prince Hans apparently had a grudge against any and all magic users, and an ego even bigger than Cora's, so it hadn't gone over terribly well when Jafar had turned him into a monkey. That adventure had turned into a whirlwind of pirates, a princess, and a very odd rescue mission that Jefferson hadn't thought Jafar would be interested in, but apparently the sorcerer was very good at understanding when to seek power and when not to. In the end, they'd left Princess Anna and her fiancé ruling Arendelle, and Jafar had decided the world didn't suit their purposes at all.
"Humor me," Jafar said now, folding his hands over his snake-shaped staff. "If it's really so terrible, you won't have a hard time getting me to leave, now, will you?"
Jefferson just groaned. If there was one thing he'd learned about Jafar, it was that he was impossible to dissuade once he had an idea in his mind, so he took the sorcerer to Wonderland, trying desperately not to think about his late wife and what had happened there before.
Her mother was standing in front of her when Regina got out of the car.
"Mother," she grated out, trying not to grit her teeth. There was no sign of Rumplestiltskin or—worse yet—Zelena, and Cora didn't seem to be ready to attack her. Not that Regina was going to trust that.
"There's no need to get your defenses up, Regina. I'm not here to fight," Cora said in that falsely-sweet voice she used all the time, the one that was supposed to convince Regina she cared about her.
"Sorry if I'm not so trusting. The last conversation you and I had wasn't exactly friendly."
Cora frowned. "Misunderstandings happen in every family, darling."
"Most mothers don't have one daughter stab the other with a sleeping curse," she retorted. "Don't call us a normal family. We aren't."
"We could be," her mother said persuasively. "I know I was wrong to treat you the way I did, and I understand that you're angry. But I did it out of love, because I didn't want you caught in the crossfire. I didn't want to see you hurt."
"So, I'm supposed to feel special because you didn't use a Nightmare Curse on me instead? No, you just reserved that for my son!" Regina snarled. "Don't give me this 'you acted out of love' bullshit, Mother. You wouldn't know love if it bit you on the ass and left a calling card."
That finally made her mother bristle. "I'm here to offer you an olive branch, Regina. Don't throw it in my face."
"Why ever not? I chose my side a long time ago, right about when you killed Daniel." The old heartbreak roared back in on her, but now it was colored by fury and not just by loss. "Do you even remember Daniel, Mother? You killed him to cast your curse because destroying my heart was the ingredient that you needed. So don't talk to me about love. You destroyed any chance of that we had."
"And yet now you have a new love." The false sweetness was gone, replaced by murderous calculation that Regina knew all too well.
"If you even think about threatening anyone I care about, Mother—and that goes from Snow to anyone else—I swear I will find a way to kill you myself. And then I will dance on your grave!"
Cora actually flinched at that last part, and Regina was glad. It was high time that someone reminded her mother that she couldn't have it all. Unfortunately, that reminder only seemed to anger Cora, whose eyes flashed dangerously.
"You've brought this down on yourself," her mother said softly. "When you're left with nothing, remember that I offered you a place by my side, a way to save those you love."
"You can offer it, but we both know that you'll never keep your promises." Regina snorted sadly. "It's the most dependable thing about you."
"Regina—"
"No." For the first time she could remember, she cut her mother off, her voice hard. "I'm leaving. You can stop me if you want, but I'll make a fight out of it. I'm done knuckling under because of your threats. I'm just done."
Surprisingly, Cora let her walk away, and for a few hours, Regina actually felt like she had won.
Of course, they waited until the food arrived to actually sayanything important. Not that Henry wasn't happy to go out to breakfast with his birth parents; in fact, it was kind of special that he got to do so. But he knew something was up, and every moment that ticked by—complete with loaded looks passing between Emma and Baelfire—he only got antsier. Finally, Emma put down her hot chocolate and cleared her throat.
"So, Henry, there's something that we need to tell you," she said, sounding hesitant. Henry, however, really didn't want to play the wait-for-the-adults-to-clue-him-in game, so he decided to have a little fun with them.
"Let me guess. Dad's leaving Storybrooke and never coming back?" he asked before Emma could continue.
"No!" Bae looked at him like he'd gone mad, but Henry just shrugged.
"Emma's going to move to New York and pretend she's never heard of magic?"
"I wish," Emma muttered, and then shrugged when they both looked at her. "Sometimes, anyway. Sort of."
"Okay, then, so if nobody's leaving, I guess it's that you two are going to get married," he said cheerfully, watching his birth mother try not to swear and his birth father shake his head ruefully.
"We really can't keep secrets from you, can we?" Bae asked.
"Nope." He grinned.
Emma still looked nervous, though. "Are you…okay with this, Henry?"
"Of course I am. I know you two are still crazy about each other," he replied. "You try to hide it and he really doesn't, but I can see it."
"Henry…" his birth mother groaned.
"What?" Henry shrugged. "I'm just telling it like I see it." Neither of them seemed to know what to say to that, so he plowed on: "So, when are you going to tie the knot?"
"We were thinking tomorrow, actually," Bae said quietly. "It's fast, but…"
"But we need to do it before I chicken out," Emma said, and Henry leaned over to hug her.
Sometimes his birth mother seemed so lost, and it was moments like this when he understood why she'd given him up. Emma had grown up without a family, and she hadn't wanted Henry to have to do the same. Sometimes he wondered what it would have been like if Emma and Bae had been married before and never given him up, but he couldn't really imagine growing up with any other parents other than Regina and David, even if David had been cursed. Henry now had four parents, but that didn't mean he loved any of them any less. Just differently.
"You'll be happy," he said. "I know it."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, kid," she whispered, and Henry gave her his best smile.
Even as he did, however, a thought occurred to him—followed by a plan. "Anytime," he answered sunnily. "I'll be right back."
"Where are you going?" Bae asked, but Henry had already bounced out of his seat and was heading over to the counter.
"Just to talk to Belle!" he called over his shoulder, making his way over to his step-grandmother who didn't want to be called that.
"Hello, Henry," the former librarian smiled, but there was strain in her eyes that Henry knew wouldn't leave until Grandpa Gold was safe again.
"Can I ask you for a favor?" he asked as quietly as he could.
"Of course you can."
"I need to find Emma and Bae a gift. They're getting married tomorrow," he said, figuring that at least Belle probably knew, since Bae was living with her. "Do you think there's anything in the shop?"
"There are thousands of things in the shop, but I've got to head home after I pick up breakfast. Babette can't watch Gabi very long today," she said.
"You could give me the keys," Henry wheedled her.
"And let you wander around town by yourself?" Belle gave him a hard look. "I don't think so."
Henry really missed the days when no one blinked if he wandered Storybrooke by himself. Things were supposed to get safer when the curse broke, but instead everything had gotten worse, and he really wished that he didn't have to come up with an adult to keep an eye on him just to make everyone feel safer. Sure, he understood that the Evil Queen was dangerous—he'd been telling the adults that for months before anyone believed him!—but if she went after him, it would break the contract, and then everything would be better. Sometimes, he really thought that his parents (all four of them) just thought of him as a little baby that needed protecting.
"I could go right to the animal shelter afterwards," he offered. "Gramps will be there all day, and there's a phone in the shop in case anything goes wrong, right?"
Belle sighed. "There is, but I don't like the idea of you going off by yourself. What are you going to tell your parents?"
"Mom's at Robin's all morning, and I'll tell Emma that I'm going to go find Gabi a birthday present." He had it all worked out already, and Henry knew it would work. He didn't need long to find them a present—probably only an hour, tops. Then he really would go to the animal shelter, because he really wanted to convince David to let him get a dog.
"Gabi's birthday is in two months," Belle pointed out.
"So? I like to plan ahead."
Another sigh, and Henry knew he had her. "I'll give you the keys on two conditions," she said. "One, you promise me that you'll go right to the animal shelter after you're done—no stopping anywhere else, and you'll call me David to let him know you're on your way."
"I can do that. I promise."
"Two, you don't take anything that's remotely magical, and you bring the gift by to show it to me before you try to give it to them. I don't want you pulling out some cursed amulet that will have a wraith pop out to suck people off to a netherworld."
"You have those in the shop?" he couldn't help the excited question from coming out. "That's so cool!"
"Henry." Belle gave him a hard look, and he made himself calm down.
"Sorry. I'm a kid; I can't help it. But I promise I'll show it to you first. Maybe…maybe you'll help me wrap it? I'm no good with wrapping paper."
"I'll help you," she laughed, fishing the key ring out of her purse and handing it over. Henry made sure to hide it with his body so that his parents didn't notice, and then he thanked Belle and headed back to the table. It was time to trick Emma and Bae into going off with each other so that he could find them a present.
Judging from the way they were looking at one another, that wouldn't be hard.
Cora returned in a towering fury, and as usual, she took it out on Rumplestiltskin. Ten days of such treatment no longer left him surprised, only hurting and drained. Rumplestiltskin was growing disturbingly used to being her punching bag, but he wasn't quite broken enough to feel fully grateful when she stopped earlier than usual, still fuming dangerously. Still, the way she jerked the dagger to bring him to his knees was anything but kind, and Rumplestiltskin couldn't hold back a moan as his abused body obeyed her.
"These so-called heroes need to be taught a lesson," Cora hissed. "One that will finally make them understand who the power in this pathetic little town is. I will no longer tolerate defiance. I will not allow this little rebellion to continue."
"Spare me the rhetoric, dearie," he rasped, knowing it was a bad idea but feeling a real surge of fear for his family. He knew Bae and Belle were neck deep in whatever the heroes were working on, although Rumplestiltskin was too isolated from current events to know anything other than what little he'd gleaned during their outings. Still, he couldn't afford to let Cora go after his wife or his children, even if doing so would break the contract and free him. Eventually, he knew that she would, but in the rage she was in right now, she would kill them quickly, which he could not allow.
So Rumplestiltskin protected them the only way he could: he brought Cora's wrath down on him instead.
Cora didn't disappoint. Pain surged in through his curse, sending him crashing to the floor, screaming weakly. Rumplestiltskin lost track of how long she kept him under, how long she used his darkness to claw at his already shredded soul, but he was utterly unable to scream by the time it was over. He just lay at her feet twitching and shaking, unable to focus and unable to even hear, floating in the pain. Still coherent enough to wish that he couldn't feel pain, Rumplestiltskin knew that he wouldn't manage to completely go under unless Cora let him, and given her mood, she wasn't going to let him at all. But she kept the pressure, kept the pain, lashing at him until the silent command of on your knees made it through the haze in his mind.
Somehow, he made his way there, blood trickling out of his nose as he struggled to breathe. But he couldn't understand a word she said until the next command, Focus, sliced through the pain, and Rumplestiltskin looked up at Cora woozily.
"I have a task for you. Talk back to me again, and we'll discuss it after a session of electricity," she told him flatly, and Rumplestiltskin couldn't stop himself from flinching.
Hard.
"What do you want me to do?" he whispered, hating himself for giving in like this. But everything hurt, and the burns from the previous session—just the night before—had barely even begun to heal. Rumplestiltskin was shaking, and he couldn't figure out how to stop himself.
"You're going to kill my 'grandson'," Cora smiled. "It is time that Regina learned there is a price for helping those heroes, and his death will hit them all hard."
Rumplestiltskin's heart plummeted. He couldn't. Not a child. Not any child, let alone one he knew.
"Cora—" he started to protest, only to have her twitch the dagger and pain slam into him hard enough to make him scream.
The assault only lasted a moment, but it still knocked him over, and Cora was looming over him when his vision cleared.
"Yes, dear?" she cooed.
He was too tired, too hurt, to try to find a loophole. All he could do was beg. "Please not a child," Rumplestiltskin whispered brokenly. "I can't—"
Another twitch of the dagger; another raw scream.
"You can," Cora said bluntly. "You will."
"Please not this. Anything but this. Anything but a child," he tried, not caring about dignity or his pride. The one thing he had never done, even in his worst moments as the Dark One, was hurt a child. Rumpelstiltskin knew that doing so would chip away a piece of his soul he could never get back.
This time Cora just sliced down with the dagger, cutting his right side open, right along the bottom of his ribcage. Pure darkness boiled into the wound, burning like acid, and Rumplestiltskin shrieked hoarsely, convulsing in pain. He wanted to pull away from her but couldn't, could only try to curl up and shield himself, even if it meant pressing the fresh wound into the cold cellar floor. He was shaking and shuddering, feeling the darkness within him coiling and burning.
"Do you still want to argue with me?"
"Yes!" Anything but this. He couldn't fight her, but he had to.
Another slice, this one to his left side, matching the one on the right, and Rumplestiltskin wailed.
"On your back," Cora ordered, and he had no choice but to comply.
Slowly, methodically, she brought the dagger down for another shallow cut, this one across his abdomen. His vision went black, and Rumplestiltskin tried to scream, but the sound would barely come out. The next cut was higher, and the third worked its way up his sternum. None of the wounds were even remotely dangerous, and they didn't even bleed much. But they didn't have to. Each cut was like someone stabbed fire into his bloodstream, and Rumplestiltskin was reduced to a sobbing mess by the time Cora rolled him over and started cutting his lower back open, right on top of where some of the worst burns were and working her way downwards.
Then she forced him back to his knees, putting the dagger under his chin to drag his chin upwards while Rumplestiltskin stared at her through his tears.
"You're going to go find Henry," Cora ordered, her words clipped and precise. "You're going to rip his heart out. Then you're going to take it—and him—to Regina. And you will crush Henry's heart in front of her. Do you understand?"
The words were an inescapable command; Rumplestiltskin shuddered. The broken whisper came out on its own:
"Yes."
She could have done that earlier, of course. Despite his arguments, he would have had to obey her. But Cora wanted to break him far enough so that he stopped protesting, and Rumplestiltskin hated himself for falling so far.
Henry had been in the shop for an hour and still couldn't decide what he wanted to get for his parents. At first, he'd thought he could get them one thing to share, then he realized that they might not actually live together for a while, so he should definitely get them two separate things. But what? How could he decide what to get them, even if it was free? He'd known Emma since October, and had already figured out that she didn't put a lot of stock in material possessions, even if she did like nice music and good movies (though it wasn't like he could find either of those in the pawn shop, unless she wanted a guitar, which there were three of). Baelfire, on the other hand, had been in Storybrooke for about two weeks, and Henry had no idea what he liked. Picking something out was way harder than he expected, which made him really glad that he'd talked Belle into giving him the keys and came by himself.
He could give Emma the unicorn mobile, but that felt like cheating, since it was hers, anyway. There were a bunch of paintings, but they all looked boring, and what kind of kid gave his parents a painting as a wedding gift? Sure, if one of them had looked like it came from the Enchanted Forest it might be interesting, since Emma'd never seen it, but they all looked like generic stuff from this world. There were two really creepy dolls that he thought might be Geppetto's dead parents—but that was a bad idea, given how everyone had heard just last night that Geppetto and August were both dead. Thinking like that made Henry sad again.
Presents. He was here for presents. Maybe he could give them the rowboat hanging from the ceiling. Then they might take him out in it, and that would be pretty cool.
Henry had tried to foist them off to have some 'romantic' time together, but that had turned into a trip down to the Rabbit Hole when they got the call that Keith had been seen driving drunk again. That turned into a ride to the sheriff's station, where they locked Emma's former deputy away despite his drunken raging.
Not to mention the new bruise on his face that Bae had put there when the jerk had tried to feel Emma up.
"You looking for a job now that you're staying here?" Emma asked him as they walked into her office.
"You're joking, right?" he asked.
"Only sort of. I can't exactly keep the Sheriff of Nottingham and Guy of Gisburne on as deputies, and you handled yourself pretty well," she shrugged.
"I don't exactly have any qualifications, you know. Unless you count stealing. Or hacking," Bae pointed out.
"Neither did I. Closest I ever got was becoming a bail bondsperson," Emma replied. "Wait a minute. Hacking?"
"Yeah." He shrugged. "I sort of became a legal hacker. I break people's websites for a living then tell them how to fix them. It pays pretty well, and I can do it anywhere I have internet access."
Emma blinked, looking surprised, and then laughed a little. "You went legit."
"Mostly. I still did a couple of under the table things, but I've been trying to get out of that. Hard to do with some of the people in New York, though," he admitted. "It's actually kind of good to get out of that city for a lot of reasons."
"I bet. So…you want to keep at that, or maybe do something else?"
"Wouldn't it be a conflict of interest? Working for you once we, um, get married and all…" Bae trailed off, and Emma actually blushed.
They were still feeling their way into what they were going to do once they got married, figuring out if they were going to try to get an apartment of their own, keep living separately, try to get partial custody of Henry, or just have a gentleman's agreement with Emma's dad and her aunt. The fact that those two were apparently were going to keep living together—with the addition of Emma's mom and maybe someday a certain outlaw and his kid—made things a little simpler, but everything about their future was still amazingly complicated. Bae was still stuck on the amazing fact that Emma was willing to marry him, and that she didn't just want to sign the papers and pretend nothing else had changed. They were actually going to try to make this work, to see if what they'd had ten years earlier was solid enough to give them a future together. He still felt winded when he thought about it, felt his heart beat faster.
He wanted this so badly that it hurt, and Bae wanted to do it right.
"You might be right," Emma said quietly, shrugging. "I don't know. I've never been married before."
"Well, me neither, so let's just make it up as we go along, okay?"
"Sure," she grinned at him, and Bae wanted to kiss her again. But he wasn't sure if that would be welcomed, so he just kind of shifted awkwardly, probably looking pathetic as all hell.
Bae almost didn't know she was coming before Emma darted in, pressing her lips to his as hesitantly as he'd kissed her the day before. What had once been easier than breathing was now complicated and a little rough around the edges. So, the kiss was short and not very sweet, but they smiled at one another anyway, a little drunk on the weird combination of newness and familiarity in their relationship.
"I'm gonna leave Keith here to sober up and then head over to the hospital," Emma said after a moment, wearing a tiny smile. "You want to come along, or you gonna head home?"
"I should probably head home. Belle keeps thinking of going and trying to make herself a target, and I kind of want to keep an eye on her."
That made Emma grimace. "Good idea. She really loves him, doesn't she?"
"Yeah. I don't always get it, but she does," Bae said. "I've never even seen them together, y'know?"
"I have. It's almost cute the way your dad melts around her. I've never seen anyone else boss him around the way she can. Anyone else would get turned into a slug, but he never seems to mind when she does."
For a moment, Bae thought back to the relationship between his parents, remembered the way his mother yelled at his father all the time, belittling him and always making demands. But he couldn't imagine Belle doing that; her touch was much softer, and he imagined that Belle could get whatever she wanted from his father with a smile and those blue eyes. She wasn't the shouting type, anyway. She was gentle and kind, and Bae usually wondered what Belle saw in his father rather than the other way around. Then again, she would have fit him perfectly the way he was…before.
"I guess he has changed," he said aloud, as much in response to his own thought as to what Emma had said.
Abruptly, Emma took his hand and squeezed it. "You go home and keep Belle from doing anything stupid. I'll finish up and give you a call later."
"All right," Bae replied and they did just that.
Cora had allowed him enough magic to hold back the worst of the pain, but she hadn't let Rumplestiltskin heal himself. No, she dangled that in front of him like bait that she knew she'd never let him take; by now, Rumplestiltskin knew that Cora would keep him in as much pain as she thought he could manage, right up until the moment he shattered completely and became desperate to please her in order to make the torture stop. Part of Rumplestiltskin just wanted to plunge off that cliff now, because he knew where this was going to end. Or, rather that it wasn't going to end. Or at least not soon enough to save his sanity.
The latest command burned into his soul, hanging there like a heavy brand as Rumplestiltskin wrapped his magic around himself like armor, using the darkness as a shield to hold back some of the pain and to give him the strength to do what Cora had demanded. As presentable as he could be in his condition, he simply let his magic take him to where young Henry Nolan was, not bothering to work out a spell to pinpoint the location first. It didn't matter where Henry was; Rumplestiltskin would still have to do as he was bid.
Go find Henry. Rip his heart out. Then take it—and him—to Regina. Crush Henry's heart in front of her.
The words echoed in his mind over and over again, louder than his own thoughts and twice as painful. He had no choice, even when the ragged bits of his soul protested against murdering an innocent child. But Rumplestiltskin did still start in surprise when he found himself standing inside his own shop, faced with a ten year old boy who jumped as Rumplestiltskin appeared in a cloud of dark smoke.
"Mr. Gold?" Henry asked cautiously, brown eyes wide and startled.
A quick look around the shop revealed that Henry seemed to be alone, and the relief that flowed through him made Rumplestiltskin feel terribly ashamed. But if Belle or Bae had been there…he didn't know how he would have coped with this. He could only pray that neither of them was nearby when he'd have to take the boy to Regina. Killing his former student's son in front of her would be horrible enough without his family watching. I'm sorry, he thought towards Regina, knowing that he'd apologize to her even as he killed her child. I have to.
Go find Henry. Rip his heart out. Then take it—and him—to Regina. Crush Henry's heart in front of her.
"Henry," he said heavily, almost surprised by how hoarse his voice was. "I'm sorry about this. I truly am."
Oh, the boy was bright. Fear washed over his features, but he was brave, too, and stood his ground. "The Evil Queen sent you to kill me, didn't she? Because she's mad at my mom. And everyone else."
"Yes," Rumplestiltskin said softly. There was no point in lying to the lad when he was so valiant.
"Oh." Henry looked very young when he said that, and Rumplestiltskin felt his own heart break. Rip his heart out, the voice of his curse demanded, roaring up painfully within him. Do it now!
"I'm sorry," he repeated as his feet carried him forward, wishing that the boy would just run. If he ran fast enough, he might find someone who could actually summon up enough power to stop Rumplestiltskin—
That was a ridiculous dream, though. Henry backed up a step, swallowing hard, but he didn't try to flee. Rip the heart out and revel in the darkness! the imp within him cackled, but Rumplestiltskin barely noticed it. His eyes were on Henry, because, coward though he was, the boy deserved to have someone witness his courage. And brave Henry was. He bit his lip as Rumplestiltskin tried unsuccessfully to will his right hand to stop moving, watching in horror as it came up, moving rapidly towards Henry's chest. Henry gasped sharply as the Dark One's hand plunged into his chest, trying too late to get away as fear contorted his young features. Once, the feeling of wrapping his fingers around someone's heart had felt like the height of power, but now it just made Rumplestiltskin feel sick.
A familiar weight landed in his left hand, a jeweled hilt worn smooth by centuries of use, and Rumplestiltskin's head snapped down to stare at the Dark One's dagger. Abruptly, the magical chains around him disintegrated, the cage he had lived in for ten days vanishing. He was free. The dagger was in his hand, and no one could command him ever again.
No one could hurt him.
Stumbling back in confusion, Rumplestiltskin released Henry's heart just before he could pull it free of the boy's chest. Pain crashed in on him even as he instinctually used magic to push it aside, but that didn't matter. This didn't make any sense; harming Henry should not have broken the contract, should not have returned the dagger to him. Yet there the dagger was, held tightly in his left hand as Rumplestiltskin reeled for balance, catching himself breathlessly against the counter to his left.
"How…?" he stuttered, finally looking up at Henry.
The boy grinned at him, all traces of fear gone. "I guess no one told you you're my grandpa, huh?"
"What?" Rumplestiltskin stared stupidly at that answer, certain he'd heard wrong. That didn't make sense. It couldn't make sense. Looking down at the dagger in his hand again, Rumplestiltskin blinked several times before he could bring himself to look back up at Henry.
"My dad's your kid," Henry replied. "Baelfire."
"He…what?" This was almost too much for his pain-addled mind to wrap itself around, but his coherency increased as the fact that he was free sank in. Clearing his throat, Rumplestiltskin finally managed to ask a vaguely intelligent question. "Bae's your…father?"
"Yeah. Kinda weird, huh? But he and Emma, um, knew each other. They both say it's a really long story that started when they both stole the same car. Though I don't think I was supposed to overhear that last part."
He had a grandson. His son had a son…and Rumplestiltskin had nearly killed him.
"Oh, Henry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry. I would never…" Rumplestiltskin trailed off. The lad would never forgive him. He'd had his hand in his chest and had nearly ripped his heart out!
Yet again, Henry surprised him. "I know," he said easily. "That was all the Evil Queen. Dad told me a bit about how the dagger works, and I know about the contract. I knew you wouldn't do it once you knew."
His hands were shaking with relief; Rumplestiltskin sucked in a shuddering breath, trying to center himself. "I still owe you an apology that words cannot express."
"How about with presents?" Henry suggested jokingly. "I'm a kid. Kids can always be bribed with presents."
A surprised laugh tore out of Rumplestiltskin, and oh, it felt like it had been an eternity since he had actually laughed. "I think I can manage that," he replied, swallowing back the urge to weep from relief. He had a grandson. Bae had a son. Somehow, a crooked smile made it past the shock and relief. "Every now and then."
"It's okay, Grandpa," the lad said, stepping forward and—much to Rumplestiltskin's surprise—hugging him around the waist. Had he not used magic earlier to mitigate the pain, that might have been anything but pleasant, but because Rumplestiltskin had, it just made his heart fill to bursting. Henry looked up at him. "Is it all right if I call you that?"
"Of course it is," he whispered, still reeling.
"We should probably get out of here before the Evil Queen figures out what happened," Henry suggested. "I know Belle's at your house."
"Belle..." The mere thought of his wife filled Rumplestiltskin with longing, and he suddenly realized that he actually would be able to see her today. Now, even. He was so torn up inside that he was almost ashamed to let Belle see him like this, because she knew him better than anyone and would be able to see what a mess he was…but he needed her too badly to hide himself away. Rumplestiltskin didn't even realize he'd spoken aloud until Henry added:
"Can I come with you? I've never been teleported before, and I really don't want to be here when she comes looking for you."
"Of course you can," Rumplestiltskin replied, forcing himself to focus. He had a grandson—and suddenly more family than he'd ever imagined. There was no way this side of hell that Cora was going to hurt Henry, not while he breathed.
Your time is coming, dearie, he thought darkly as his magic wrapped around his grandson, taking them both home. Soon.
A/N: And Rumplestiltskin has the dagger back! Stay tuned for Chapter Ninety-Six—"Winds of Change", in which many reunions happen, Cora tries to figure out why the dagger she has won't work, and Regina goes to see Graham. And some fluff, finally.