9.

He had been worried about introducing his papa to Emma because he feared that his father might come on too strong, but what Neal hadn't worked into his equation of nerves was that his girlfriend was one of the most fiercely protective people he'd ever met in his life. She rivaled his papa, and that said something. If she had magic, he was convinced that she could - and might - level a small town in attempt to protect someone she loved. His Emma was fierce and brilliant and just a little bit scary sometimes. He loved her, though, and he hoped that in time she and Rumplestiltskin would find at least one common denominator between them: Neal himself.

"So," the blonde said with her arms crossed and looking around the antique-littered house, "what's his deal?"

Neal blinked at her. "I actually thought he was on his best behaviour."

Emma snorted, picking up a small figurine and glaring at it like it has wronged her in a previous life. "He was lying about something."

"Not that again," he sighed a little too quickly. Emma had always been convinced that she could tell a lie as soon as it was spoken. She called it her superpower. He'd tested the theory a few times and found it dodgy at best, so he'd hoped that his papa could manage to somehow sidestep it.

"That again," Emma huffed and turned him with that face she always made when she wanted to be serious about something. "I know that this isn't any of my business-"

"Of course it's your business," Neal cut in.

Emma shrugged. "I don't know much about family. I should just stay out of it."

A sigh escaped him and he didn't give her a chance to duck him as he pulled her close. Instead of squirming she rested her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his middle. "I just don't want to see you get hurt again," she whispered.

"I know," he answered quietly and felt her grip tighten. "I can't promise that I won't be, but... So far he seems to really be trying, and I've seen enough to know he does need my help."

"Do you know who the guys are that are after him? I mean, he looks like the guy that people owe money too, not the other way around."

Neal chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "My dad made a lot of enemies when he was younger, I think. I can't just leave him here to get himself killed."

"I'd be so angry at him if I were you."

"I am, but he's still my papa." Another long breath escaped him. After Neverland, after his father didn't come for him, he'd decided to forget it all - the good and the bad - but the night before and that morning had reminded him of the man he'd missed so desperately. He didn't know how to explain to Emma that Rumplestiltskin had crossed worlds for him and was stuck in this crazy little town because of the curse he wrote to get himself there.

"Do you trust him?"

"That's... really complicated. I want to."

"You've never really told me the whole story, Neal," she said softly. "I mean, a good guy gone bad can mean all sorts of things, you know?"

He grimaced, but nodded. "You deserve the full story," he agreed, and he knew she did. "I just... Keep an open mind, okay?"

Emma opened her mouth to answer him, but both of their attention was stolen by the pounding at the door. Neal started to ignore it, but it came harder in the second round and he grumbled to himself as he turned back to it. He could see a distorted figure outside and as he stepped closer he heard Regina's voice. "Gold, this is important! Open up!"

Neal pulled the door open in a huff.

"Where's your father?"

"Hello to you too. He's not here yet."

"Where is he?"

"The shop. What's going on?"

Regina stepped over the threshold and dark eyes scanned the hall until they came to rest on Emma. Neal's and his papa's conversation about the curse, its caster, and the one that was destined to break it came to mind and he resisted the urge to step between the two. "Who's this?" Regina demanded, but the curt tone wasn't any worse than before she'd laid eyes on the blonde.

"I'm Emma. Neal's girlfriend."

"Ah. The girlfriend. You made it in." She turned back to Neal and he felt an unbelievable rush of relief. She didn't know. He really didn't feel like making an enemy of the one person that had helped him before his papa had come back to himself. "Your dad's not at the shop. His car is gone so I assumed he's here."

"What's going on?" Emma piped up.

"Graham arrested the guy that's trying to hurt your father, but a certain... individual threw everything for a loop when she bullied one of his little cohorts to take the fall."

Blue. He knew without Regina having to say it. "So Magnus is running free and knows that we're onto him?"

Regina shrugged. "Knows that I'm onto him, at least. I have nearly as much of a reason to be wary of his being here as Gold does." Her gaze flickered to Emma and Neal knew that she was biting her tongue for the sake of a girl that had no clue what was happening.

"I'll call him," he answered after a moment.

"He owns a cell?" Regina asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"I'm guessing Graham is a cop?" Emma asked as Neal dialed his father's number. "Why'd he let him go? Wouldn't he have to have more than just-"

"It's complicated," Regina snapped.

"Yeah, I get that, but I can't understand it with half the information."

An automated voicemail clicked into play and Neal frowned. "I'm going to go look for him. He said he wouldn't be right behind us."

Emma caught his arm. "This is bigger than you've said, isn't it?"

A frown tugged at his lips. "Yeah. Listen, if you want to head down to Boston and wait for me to -"

"Hell no. I'm not leaving you alone."

Her fierce and unwavering resolve made him smile. "Thanks, Emma."

"Anyway. You need me."

"Definitely."

"Well isn't that sweet," Regina grumbled, and Neal thought he liked her better when she was playing the part of helpful benefactor. At least now he knew now why his papa had reacted with distrust.

The door opened behind her, causing all three of them to jump and Rumplestiltskin looked a bit startled at finding his front hallway to be the new meeting grounds for their little party. He blinked and nearly dropped what looked like a grocery bag that he was trying to balance with opening the door and not losing his cane. He did manage to recover quickly. "I hear there's been quite a stir down at the sheriff's station, Regina. Thought we were working together on this."

Neal reached forward and grabbed the bag and set it down on a table. His papa offered him a brief thanks before turning a glare on his former student.

"I saw the opportunity and took it," the mayor growled. "So sue me for trying to help take the man that wants you dead off the streets."

He snorted. "And yet he's back out on them, and likely knows more than I'd care for him to."

Neal risked a look back at Emma who looked thoroughly confused. "Hey? Why don't we head upstairs and put your stuff down? I can try to...explain."

She didn't look convinced, but started after him when he took her hand and led her up the stairs.

August had never wanted to leave a place more than he wanted to leave Storybrooke, but he was trapped. Not by the curse that held people there, but by the very real threats silently holding his strings as surely as if he were a puppet once more. The Blue Fairy giveth and the Blue Fairy taketh away, he thought bitterly as he stood on the Main Street, looking into the workshop that his papa was tinkering away in. It was cold, just a few days before Christmas, and all he wanted to do was pull up a stool at the workbench with him and spend time that wasn't hampered by a curse that stole his memories or a few self righteous clerics and fairy that thought he seemed like the best option to use for their less-than-honest plans.

The author huffed a sigh, his breath showing in the cold air, and he sunk a little lower into his coat and scarf. They would have had a fire going during the winter festivities in their village back home. When he'd been very young - before her become a real boy - his papa had always pulled him back from the flames, fearful that he'd catch fire by stepping in too close. It had been a thing of wonder to watch the colours dance and swirl together. He'd thought it was magic.

"Hello?"

August startled out of the memories to the sound of his papa's voice. He found himself grinning like an idiot. "Hi. Hey. Not sure if you're open or not."

"Last minute Christmas shopping?" the man that wore his papa's face, spoke with his papa's voice, but answered to a different name asked with a chuckle.

"Yeah," the author lied easily. "I promise myself every year I'll do better, and here I am. The twenty-second and I'm scrounging,"

Marco - because he wasn't Geppetto, not really without his memories - laughed and held the door open for him. "My wife would always say the same thing, but she never finished until Christmas Eve."

August found himself smiling too. "Lots of kids to buy for?"

"Oh no," the carpenter answered. "We always wanted children, but it wasn't meant to be."

The smile faded a little. Geppetto had never been married as long as August had know him, but at least here he'd had a small comfort here in the false memories that he had, and someday, Blue might actually follow through with her promises. Then they could be together again.

"Take your time. Look around," Marco offered.

"Thanks. This is real quality work."

The elder man looked a bit embarrassed, but the bell ringing over the door caught their attention. August frowned at the two he'd heard referred to as the twins. They weren't identical, but they certainly looked enough alike for brothers. Silas and Soren were their names, and they seemed to be part of some sort of inner circle that Magnus kept near.

Soren offered a smile, though it looked a little less friendly and a little more calculating. "August. There you are. We thought you might have run off."

"Nope, just doing some last minute shopping," the writer answered and turned to inspect a cuckoo clock.

"Shop later. We're going to be late."

August felt a tug of fear and he pushed it aside. "It might not be here when I have a chance to swing back by."

"I'm happy to hold it for you," Marco offered. "Just leave your name and you can pick it up later."

"Booth," August said reluctantly. "August Booth."

Marco thanked him and the twins ushered him out into the cold. The snow was falling again and he offered a glare at the pair of them. "What? Am I not even allowed to talk to him now? You people need to let me know when the rules change."

"You can talk to him when we're done," Silas groused.

"Done with what?"

Soren's lips stretched into a wicked smile. "We're going to pay Mr Gold a visit."

"His shop was closed down when I passed by," August pointed out, not bothering to ask what the visit was about. He didn't want to know. He didn't want to know any of it.

"Good for you then. You won't have to worry about him shooting you when you break in."

August turned a questioning look on Silas. "Break in? To the Dark One's shop? Do you think I'm insane?"

"I think you'll do what you're told, Puppet."

The author swallowed hard. "What am I looking for exactly?"

Soren's smile broadened. "A knife. A very old one with his name on it."

"Gold?"

"Rumplestiltskin."

She was mad. Absolutely mad. Rumplestiltskin couldn't believe what had possessed his former student to think that having her pet sheriff arrest Magnus was a good idea. All she had done was manage to put herself in his sights and likely alert him to the fact that he was awake. If he hadn't already agreed to an alliance with her - if, damn it all, he didn't need her for this - he would have ended her life right there. Instead he had sent her home, tail tucked and Dark One seething. At least he still knew how to get through to her. That was something, he supposed.

"That pasta do something to offend you, Papa?"

Rumplestiltskin startled, looking over his shoulder to find his son leaned up against the wide, open doorway that led into the kitchen from the sitting room. He looked like he might have been there for a bit, just waiting to see if his papa would notice. He'd done that as a child when Rumplestiltskin lost himself to his spinning. He would look up and find hours had gone by and his little boy would be waiting (mostly) patiently for him to reach a stopping point.

He sighed, looking down at the pasta he'd been stirring in time with his once again rising temper. "Just frustrated. I need to get back out after dinner and get a few things from the shop."

"Like what? Why?"

"There's no way to know if Magnus knows I'm awake or not. There are items at the shop I need to keep close and out of his reach."

"Like the dagger?"

He hadn't wanted to say it, but that was Bae: honest to an almost painful point. Rumplestiltskin risked a glance up and found a pair of dark eyes that were so like his own watching him very carefully and he nodded.

"There's no magic here, Papa. He can't hurt you. Not with that. You're free."

A short, mirthless laugh laughed him. "Free," he echoed and placed the cover over the pasta to soak in the sauce. "And what if they take it and find a way to bring magic here?"

"There's no way to bring magic here," Bae said quickly. "That was the whole point."

"Said who?"

"The… Okay. I get your point," his son said quietly. So said the Blue Fairy. The one that had sent some young man after him to use him. She was working with Magnus as she had off and on over the centuries. He hadn't been directly involved in the bean incident, but Rumplestiltskin wouldn't have put it past them for it to have been a joint effort to send the Dark One off to his doom. Bae had told him enough about where he landed to know that he would have died without the preparations he'd made with the curse he'd given to Regina. He'd padded the trip, made sure that his weaknesses were compensated for. Blue wouldn't have given it a thought. She likely meant to send him off to his death, the damn sparkling bug.

Rumplestiltskin moved to the cutting board and laid the seasoned chicken out across it, carefully cutting it into long strips and then down into smaller chunks. "I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"I'll go with you then. I don't want you going alone with this guy gunning for you."

A smile crept up. "I appreciate your concern, Bae, but I'll manage just fine. I'll even take the phone with me so that you feel better, alright?" His eyes remained focused on his work, but he heard Baelfire shift closer behind him. "Anyway, don't you want to spend some time with Emma? How did that explanation go?"

He could almost hear the frown that tugged at his son's lips. "Yeah, well… She's a skeptic at heart."

"Did you try?"

"I may have freaked a little." Rumplestiltskin tilted his head and Bae chuckled at him. "Panicked."

"Did you lie to her?"

"I… may have fudged the truth," he whispered.

"It'll bite you. I speak from experience. Lie all you want, son, but never to those you care about. Never for your own gain."

Bae walked over to the pot and pulled the lid from it, stirring at the pasta idly. "I know. It just sounds crazy, you know? How do you say 'By the way, I haven't been totally honest. When I say that I ran away from home at fifteen, I really meant that I dropped through a magical portal that spit me out in London at the turn of the century. I preceded to live out the next couple of centuries in Neverland after Pan's shadow hauled me off. That doesn't even begin to cover how I so little time passed here compared to what I experienced there." He paused and Rumplestiltskin looked back to see his shoulders sagging a bit. "And then what? My dad cast a curse to bring everyone here so that he could find me? That would go over great."

"I see your point," his papa answered as he dumped the chunks of chicken into a frying pan and limped over to the stove. "Where is she now?"

"Shower. We're good for another twenty minutes or so to talk about anything."

"Do you love her?" Bae blinked at him and Rumplestiltskin turned the heat up on the pan. "It's a simple question."

"I do love her, but that's not a simple question."

"Sure it is. Perhaps not a simple answer, but it is, most assuredly, a simple question."

"I know I have to be honest with her."

"You do."

He heard his son pull in a deep breath. "Papa, you said you were speaking from experience… Was there someone after Mom?"

Well that was something he didn't want to talk about. "It's been over three hundred years since your mother left, Bae." He kicked himself as soon as the words left his mouth, but Bae didn't seem to respond to them. Maybe he already knew that his mother had left rather than died. He'd always been a bright boy.

"I'm not judging. I'm just curious. I didn't know if… Well, if your curse let you love."

Rumplestiltskin stopped immediately and turned to face his only child. "I love you, Bae."

"I know," Baelfire said quickly. "I meant any sort of romantic love. I know you love me, Papa. I love you too."

A smile perked thin lips, but even Rumplestiltskin knew it didn't reach all the way to his eyes. The thought of Belle still tugged at his scarred soul. He'd forced her out and she'd met her end. It was, he knew, his own fault. With many deaths on his conscious, hers weighed the heaviest. "We're not talking about me, Baelfire. We were talking about you."

His son chuckled. "Did I mention the woman I love is a skeptic?"

He dumped the chicken into the pasta and covered it back up to sit for a few minutes in the sauce. "I'd already guessed as much."

"You sure you don't want me to go with you over to the shop?"

"It'll be fine, Bae. It's best you don't know where I hide it, that way you're not at risk."

"I'm supposed to be here to help and I feel like I haven't done a lot of that yet."

His papa quirked an eyebrow. "Really, because I seem to have this odd little memory of you saving me from being gunned down in my own shop. Then you managed to help return my memories to me so that I know what's happening. If you hadn't, I never would stand a chance."

Bae ducked his head a little. "I guess there's that."

Rumplestiltskin chuckled, but any further conversation was cut off by the sound of footsteps coming down the wooden stairs. Emma entered, blonde hair wet and knotted up on her head and what looked like one of Baelfire's t-shirts on. She sniffed the air and grinned. "Okay, if that tastes half as good as it smells, then you need to teach your son to cook."

"Like you can do any better," Bae teased.

"At least I know how long to put a pot pie in the microwave for. Hint: not as long as the oven. They're different machines. And I make a mean breakfast, thank you so much." She turned and offered Rumplestiltskin an exasperated look. "Seriously, tell me the truth, did you raise Neal in a cave or something? He'll never tell me where he's from. Just that it was this tiny little town that I wouldn't know the name of. Was this it?"

Rumplestiltskin couldn't help but chuckle at her. She'd been hostile at first, but curiosity was overwhelming that at least for the moment. He'd prefer to play nice with the little savior, especially if his son cared for her. "No, it was smaller than Storybrooke. We didn't have a great deal when Bae was growing up."

"Win the lotto after he left or something?" Emma asked, and he couldn't quite tell if she was being serious or not. She crossed the kitchen to peek into the oven at the bread that was almost ready.

"I made a few good deals," Rumplestiltskin answered. "I'm a businessman, but everything I've done, I've done to find my son."

She turned to look at him, her hazel eyes squinted as if she were trying to read his words and weigh them for truths and lies. Finally she seemed satisfied. "Okay."

"Okay?" Bae echoed her.

"Either your dad is one hell of a liar, or at least that much is true." She turned back to the elder man. "I don't know if Neal told you, but I've got this sixth sense about liars. I can always tell. You're hiding something, but I believe you that you've been trying to find Neal. He seems to trust you, so you better not hurt him again."

She was very serious in tone and mannerisms, and if they had been in the Enchanted Forest he would have laughed at her. This little princess had gall to talk to one of the most powerful sorcerer in the worlds like that, even if said princess didn't know that she was just that, and said sorcerer didn't have access to magic. She was either cocky or presumptuous, and most certainly not afraid of him. Leave it to Bae to fall for a young lady quite like this. If she could manage to accept what he had to say, their young love might just be something great.

He pulled himself out of those thoughts. This brave girl deserved a truthful answer from him. "I'd rather die than see my son hurt again in any way."

She watched him carefully. After a moment she shrugged, seeming to accept the statement for the truth it was. "Then we're on the same page. Let's eat!"

Dinner went surprisingly smooth after that and Bae seemed to relax a bit after a few minutes of chatter. It was odd to have a house that had been so quiet for something nearing twenty years to be so full of noise and laughter, but Rumplestiltskin could get used to it. Well, so long as Bae was at the center of it, at any rate.

First, though, he needed to make sure that he and his son remained safe. In this world without magic he found that he'd come out on top of Magnus in his place in their little society. That damn cleric might have been able to plan, but now he could too. He wouldn't risk him getting ahead by getting his hands on the Kris Dagger. If he did, he might find a way to bring magic to this place and control him. He'd known Magnus long enough to know that no deed was outside of the realm of possibilities if he thought it would help him obtain his goal.

Rumplestiltskin knew that Bae didn't like the idea of him driving over there alone and he made a show of taking that infernal device that his son asked him to keep with him. He was more than capable of using it, he just didn't like to be attached to it. Anyway, it was unlikely that Magnus had set his next plan into motion - it took him seventeen years to find Bae and start this whole fiasco, so if anyone else had proven to be an expert at the long game, it was Magnus - but that didn't mean that he wouldn't. He needed to act quickly.

The town was quiet for the relatively early hour of the evening. The sun was dipping down and one glance at the clock atop the library showed that Emma's arrival hadn't jarred it into working order, even if there had been the barest of pulsed when she had entered the town. If Regina had felt it at all, she likely had waved it off to simply another person causing a stir in her town.

The car engine died as he switched it off around the back side of the shop. He didn't want to announce his presence there by parking in the usual place. That had him going in the back of the shop and he immediately knew something was wrong. The curtains that separated the front from the back were moving, as if the front door had been opened as well and the draft was catching it. He paused where he was, completely still and listening, and was rewarded by the sound of soft footsteps coming from the front. Perhaps Magnus had moved quicker than he thought.

Rumplestiltskin stepped as quietly as he could. His ankle twinged painfully under the stress, but he managed to make it over to the shelf where he knew the knife had been tucked away for years. Gold had never known why it kept getting shoved further and further back, but Rumplestiltskin was glad it did as he dug as quietly as he could for it. He laid a hand against the wrapped dagger and pulled it from its place, slipping it silent into his inside coat pocket and moving as quietly as he could for the door.

Whoever was in the front of his shop was focused on their task and it gave him his escape. Rumplestiltskin ducked out into the cold of the early evening, remembering that he had left the cell in the car.

He had his hand on the car door when he heard the movement, but didn't get turned around in time before the person behind him latched onto his collar and tore him back off his feet. He stumbled, the weight suddenly on his bad ankle making it fold under him and a sharp cry bit through the air as he fell to the alley street.

His attackers moved into his line of sight and Rumplestiltskin cursed his own assumptions. He recognized Silas and Soren. They were Magnus' trusted twins that loved a good chance to exchange blows with the Dark One. They'd never gotten the upper hand on him. Not until now. Here, though he had power in the form of money and clout, it meant nothing against two men several inches taller and much stronger.

Silas moved to haul him up by the lapels of his overcoat and shoved him hard into the brick wall of the outside of his shop. A grunt of pain escaped him and he didn't have a chance to brace himself as a fist landed hard against his gut. The coat and layers beneath absorbed some of the blow, but it was hard enough to leave him sputtering.

He was shoved forward then, another hand coming down and pulling the top layer from his shoulders and leaving him more exposed. The coat was tossed to the side, the clerics unaware of the prize inside, and he found himself face to face with Soren. His eyes were narrowed as if studying the man he held captive and Rumplestiltskin understood. They were there to see if they were attacking Gold or the Dark One. Damn Regina. A thousand times over damn her.

"What do you people want?" he demanded, hiding very securely behind the shell he had been tucked away inside for the last seventeen years.

"It's not him," Soren growled.

"Don't be so quick to judge," his brother answered. "He's a clever Dark One."

"A clever what?" the shop owner tried to demand, but the last word was cut off by another blow that was not shielded by as many layers. Soren tossed him back down to the street and he couldn't help but curl into himself a little, coughing and trying to pull the cold air into his lungs.

"I think you know," one of them said and a sharp blow came down on his back, a heavy boot slamming into him once as he was trying to pull himself up and again into his ribs to send him tumbling. "I think you know a whole lot more than you'd like to let on."

Rumplestiltskin couldn't get off the ground as another blow hit and then another. He cried out and his vision swam as his head smacked hard against the street. Bae had been right, he thought as darkness tried to swallow him. This hadn't been one of his more clever moves.

TBC

Notes: Well, better late than never. At least I got it up this afternoon, even if I didn't get it up first thing this morning. Sorry guys! This weekend was a mad rush to get everything done that didn't happen the last weekend while I was sick, including that wonderful event of bridesmaid dress shopping. Oh fun. Love the fact that I ended up ordering the first one over the phone anyway and that I found nothing yesterday. Ugh. Needless to say I got home yesterday, sat down to do some work, and realized that I had a chapter to edit down. Didn't get finished till this afternoon. Sorry about that! It's here now though!

Next time - August lands himself in the middle of a very bad situation, Rumple strikes a deal, and Bae breaks down and tells Emma where he's from.