#as henry and paige rekindle their relationship

[phoebehalliwell]

so, Paige and Henry hook up one night as teens, then Paige finds out she's pregnant, alone and fifteen, she's got no way to raise twins on her own, so she gives them up for adoption. their adoptive family gives them up when they come into their powers as toddlers, and they get split up into different foster homes. Kat has a bit more stability than Tam, since her powers are less destructive; Tam winds up bouncing from home to home, never able to find a family willing to accept her (1/2)

Cut to s8: Paige's charge while they're in hiding is a young, angry teen girl, with powers she can barely control and a massive abandonment complex. And while Paige is trying to get Tam to trust her, she ends up meeting Henry and his adopted daughter Kat. The girls realize they're twins, at some point, Paige and Henry realize they're their babies, and in the background, some evil is rising, and it turns out Tam and Kat are the ultimate key to stopping it once and for all

omg,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, bro. okay. so like. the twins come into their powers when they’re like still babies so they might not fully even remember they’re twins but they’ve got like. an inkling. some little faded memory i might have a sibling. and no one can really notice kat’s power bc like you know only witches are immune so she gets raised nice and normal and then tam on the other hand is labeled as like a pyromaniac with anger issues (with only feeds into her panic and anger and inability to control her power) so she just like. runs away. lives on the streets fends for herself all that because no family wants her and even the ones that think they do and think they can fix her can’t and she’ll never stay anyways. so uh. life of crime. get caught. juvie. parole officer. and henry’s like look kid i know a lot about you hell i was just like you i know it’s not easy out there and tam’s like oh? you know me? yeah eat shit old man. you know nothing about me. and kat’s like well adjusted teen minding her own business and there’s this stray dog that’s always just like. following her around. and she’s like yes hello? i love dogs but i cannot take you home with me. you are beautiful tho and the dog is like woof : ) and so like kat doesn’t take the dog home with her bc her parents wouldn’t allow it but she does buy some treats from like the local petco just to give to the dog (who she’s named dog. bc her name is kat.) and does sorta like regard it as Her Dog. and blah blah blah paige gets a new charge and it’s kat and she sees dog at some point and is like oh you have a familiar and kat’s like a what and paige is like A Familiar they guide young witches blah blah blah and kat’s like oh sick! and paige is like yeah 👍 but this whole time she’s like why is this kid so familiar why is this kid so familiar so blah blah blah she’s like vibing at home when she’s like hey,, how common is molecular immobilization? and piper’s like uhh. well mom had it. and uhh so did melinda warren. and paige is like but anyone like outside the family and piper’s like i don’t know i can’t say we know many other witches so...... and paige is like yeah huh LEO and leo’s like hi and paige is like you know stuff about things and leo’s like uhh yeah i guess you could say that and paige is like do you find freezing like piper’s power outside of the family? and leo’s like i mean i’ve heard of it i’ve never met anyone who’s had it it’s pretty rare but it’s out there why do you ask? and paige is like thanks i gotta go check something out bye!! meanwhile henry’s just learned tamora’s homeless and he’s like !!!!! i gotta find a home for this kid oh my god uhhhhhhh and tamora’s still very like leave me alone! i’m not accepting anything from you! and henry’s like !!!!!!!!!!! and then dog starts bookin it and kat remembers what paige said about familiars and guiding and all that and is like clearly i should follow dog! and paige has a laundry list of questions to ask kat at the top of which is are you adopted and do you know who your biological mother is so she orbs to kat who is led by dog to tamora who is currently in an argument with henry and well you can call that a family reunion.

[eirian-houpe]

The Pawn Shop On Main Street - Chapter 1

Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Mad Hatter | Jefferson & Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold

Characters: Belle (Once Upon a Time), Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Mad Hatter | Jefferson, Grace | Paige, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, Widow Lucas | Granny, Red Riding Hood | Ruby, Jiminy Cricket | Archie Hopper, Grumpy | Leroy, Blue Fairy | Mother Superior, Emma Swan, Prince Charming | David Nolan, Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Sneezy | Tom Clark, Merida (Once Upon a Time), Cloe, Mother Trude, Dove (Once Upon a Time)

Additional Tags: Cursed Storybrooke (Once Upon a Time), Angst, Romance, Eventual Smut, Will add more as apropriate

Summary: Gold is suddenly awakened from the curse, not by the fail-safe that he programmed into his mind, but by the unexpected presence of his long lost maid, with whom he fell in love well before Regina cast his Dark Curse, Rumplestiltskin must now find a way past Belle's disbelief and fear. She is still under the influence of the curse. With the help of his dear - his oldest - friend, Gold seeks a way past obstacles so that he can rekindle the love which he rejected back in the Dark Castle. 

The story is set in the same 'verse as The Library Beneath the Clock Tower, and could be considered a sequel of sorts.

Chapter 1 - Old Friends

He felt drawn to her. He could not look away, his gaze transfixed as her eyes took in the fireworks bursting overhead. They paled by comparison. Nothing could compare.

…a brief flicker of light in an ocean of darkness.

The thought caught him off guard, as if he were standing on the edge of a fall, with a gust of wind buffeting him toward the edge. He felt suddenly thirsty - the earth waiting for the cloud above his head to burst like the sparkles and fizzles overhead.

All this time she had been right there, within reach, the meaning that had been missing for as long as he could remember - as long as he had been in Storybrooke. It made sense of everything he’d done, but at the same time made no sense at all.

Suddenly afraid, for no reason he could understand, he took a step closer, right behind her, caressing her fingers softly, before taking her hands, slowly, into his own. Their fingers entwined.

It flashed through him in a pulse; bright, vibrant, burning away the fog of years and realms.

She mocked him.  Regina mocked him - how dare she, and yet, he had no energy, and even less will to react to her impudence.

“Is this about that girl I met on the road?” She laughed and stalked the room, her hips swaying in exaggerated sensuality. It reminded him of Cora, and that did little to change his mood… the reminder of other betrayals, other… abandonments. Regina glanced his way. “What was her name? Margie? Verna?

Rumplestiltskin barely breathed her name. “Belle.”

Suddenly business-like, this evil queen he had created, said matter-of-fact as she fixed herself some tea - uninvited, “Right. Well... you can rest assured I had nothing to do with that tragedy.”

He stopped idly spinning the wheel and turned to walk toward her, all but willing pox into the cup she was stirring, “What… tragedy?”

“You don't know?” Regina asked as though scandalized, then chuckled as she cleaned the spoon with her mouth and set it down.  “Well, After she got home… her fiancé had gone missing.” He feigned innocence, but Regina knew. Her expression told him so. She took only a few steps away before turning around. “And after her stay here, her… association… with you, no one would want her, of course. Her father shunned her, cut her off, shut her out.”

Hope flared in his heart, and in an unguarded moment, he let the words slip from deep within that hope. “So she needs… a home?”

Regina laughed cruelly, though whether at what had happened, or at him for his weakness he was uncertain, then went on, “He was cruel to her. He locked her in a tower and sent in clerics to cleanse her soul with scourges and flaying. After a while, she threw herself off the tower. She died.”

She spoke the last two words with such careless triumph that the urge to throttle the life from the conniving bitch almost choked him… murdered his hope.

“You're lying,” he growled.

“Am I?” she countered, leaving him cold and dead inside.

He wanted to be angry now, to rail against the lies Regina had told him, blatant fabrications, right to his face, and yet… Here was his light.  Hale, whole and…

“You’re real,” he breathed. “You’re alive!”

He moved closer yet, moving his fingers again in a soft, quiet caress.  The curse was lifted, he remembered. Everything, and oh, how beastly he had been when they had last seen one another. When he had sent her away.

”I’m not a coward, dearie. It’s quite simple really… my power… means more to me than you.”  

She pulled herself up to her full, diminutive height, and looked him full in the face. “No. No, it doesn't. You just don't think I can love you. Now, you've made your choice. And you're going to regret it.”

His heart broke as her voice quivered - a roar of pain that almost drowned out her following word, “Forever.”

He curled his hands into fists. His hard, pointed talons left wheal marks in his palms, but he couldn’t allow her to see how much her words affected him.

“And all you'll have... is an empty heart,” her voice broke, and she forced herself to go on, “and a chipped cup.”

Her eyes were filled with tears, but she held his gaze, and he had to push his own rising tears deep inside lest he belie his words.  Not until she had turned, and walked away, out of the cell, and out of his life… forever… and he could no longer see or hear her, did he move - and then only to close his eyes.

Was she feeling this too? Did she remember?  A part of him hoped not; hoped that fate had delivered him a way to right the wrongs of his past; to woo her, to love her as she deserved to be loved, and yet, the Dark One knew that ‘loopholes’ was another word for lies. Gold wanted no more lies.

For a moment, one sweet, sharp moment she leaned against him, tightened her fingers around his, and he knew… he knew without any doubt that she remembered. At least in that moment, she remembered.

“Belle,” he whispered.

Then, like the icy fall of rain that dampened even the hottest fire, she snatched her hands from his, and he was suddenly frozen, bereft. Helpless to do anything other that watch with mounting fear as she turned to face him; tried with all his heart to let her see that she had been right all along - that she had the measure of him, and not only that - but now, in the face of seeing her again, though he wanted nothing more than to reach out and draw her into his arms, hold her forever - protected, loved - he was still a coward.

“Belle,” he whispered again, reaching too late to catch her as she picked up her skirts and fled.  He cried out for her, as he should have done then, in the Dark Castle - called her back, “Belle!”

His cry was echoed a moment later and he registered a familiar voice behind the calling. His friend, Jefferson. A Storybrooke friend, yes, but the Dark One’s only friend through all the ages. How could he not have known?

He stared. He stared after Belle, who stopped at neither of their calling, and he stared toward Jefferson, meeting the horrified expression that mirrored his own.

The Hatter seemed torn, glanced away as if to find Belle in the crowd, but ultimately turned his steps and hurried to Gold’s side.

"You knew!" Gold almost sobbed, and reaching out, grabbed Jefferson by the lapels of his flamboyant, silk tailcoat and pulled him closer, almost shaking the man. "How could you know… know me and yet say nothing?"

Jefferson’s long fingers closed around his wrists, not to prevent, but to anchor, as if the Portal Jumper feared to let go and needed to hold him close as he spoke.

"The man you are here and I said that?" Jefferson said, pained, and only then Gold saw the tears that were gathered in the other man’s blue eyes. "How could I, and not have you cast me away?"

For all that he saw, for all that he felt, still Gold gave vent to his own pain. "But you were my… we were friends!"

Instead of words, Jefferson answered with cry, almost of anguish, and suddenly releasing his wrists, clutched Gold close.

"We are friends," he sobbed, clinging tightly. "We are!"

At first, startled, Gold struggled, tried to push Jefferson away, but as the present melted away leaving just the two of them alone on the rise above where the other revelers were lost in their drunken celebrations of the night, Gold… Rumplestiltskin missed his friend, and already held tightly in Jefferson’s embrace, pulled the man closer still, and held him through the maelstrom of all that he was - pawnbroker, landlord, deal maker, sorcerer, master, Dark One, killer, father, husband, lover… coward - all of it, every little piece of him returning in a rush, he clung to Jefferson like a man drowning.

Eventually, both spent, they each slumped, exhausted to the ground, mute and panting for breath, though as he looked across at Jefferson, Rumplestiltskin saw that silent tears still ran down Jefferson’s face. Intuitively he knew the cause.

“I didn’t know,” he said, and Jefferson raised his face to look at him, incomprehension in his wet and shining eyes. “Grace,” Gold offered. “I didn’t know what Regina planned.”

“I know,” Jefferson whispered, before finding his voice. “I have always known it was her doing, and hers alone.” He reached out for Gold’s hand, and he took it without hesitation, listening as Jefferson continued. “For all that we didn’t see things the same way much of the time; for all that we fought, I knew and never once doubted that you’d ever do something like that to another man, another father. I saw what you did for Baelfire and—”

“Bae,” Gold interrupted. His voice hoarse and rasping. He felt Jefferson’s fingers tighten around his own, and he took a breath. “If I had the power,” he said, “to undo what she did.”

“No!” Jefferson sounded alarmed, almost terrified, then went on more calmly, “No. Not until we can be together. Not until I can be sure she won’t hate me for abandoning her. She can’t know.” His voice cracked as he went on. “Cloe’s her mother here. She knows nothing about a foolish man who made a promise and then broke it; who abandoned her to ignominy and hardship.”

“Jefferson…”

The other man blanched, and releasing his grip on Gold held up both hands in surrender, as if he thought he’d just delivered some kind of terrible insult.

“That wasn’t your fault,” Gold murmured quietly.

“Then whose?” Jefferson shook his head; argued. “I can recite a whole litany of ‘if I hadn’ts’ going all the way back to before we first met. Who else’s fault can it be?”

Gold fixed him with a level, uncompromising look.

“No,” Jefferson said firmly. “You are not responsible for all the ills of every realm.”

Gold was silent for a long time. He knew Jefferson well enough to understand that when he had his mind fixed on something - especially something self-deprecating - there could be no moving him; not until he saw the truth of it for himself.

Both men sighed, almost at the same time, and that made Gold chuckle just a little, with a good deal of his own self-deprecation, before he said, “And that… that, my good man, is why you are the Dark One’s only true friend.”

Jefferson let out another sigh, then offered Gold a smile through half-pursed lips, and then started to push himself up off the ground where they had both fallen.

“I’ll find her,” he promised softly. “Make sure she’s safe and gets home all right. We can fix this. We’ll find a way.”

“Ever the optimist, Jefferson.”

“Hardly,” the Hatter said dryly, before turning, ready to begin his descent from the hill. He stopped after just a few steps, and turned back. “Rumplestiltskin?”

Gold looked up, his head tipped to one side. “Hmm?”

“How long?”

Gold looked skyward, as if the position of the stars could give him the answer to Jefferson’s question, and they might well have - had time not been motionless in Storybrooke these past…  He shook his head. He knew the answer. It was written into the fabric of the Dark Curse, into the single drop of ‘True Love’ he had dripped onto the parchment; The single drop that would herald the arrival of The Savior.

“Twenty-eight years,” he answered quietly. “Twenty-eight years.”

[sulietsexual]

A little while ago, some smart anon gave you a Charmed reimagine with Prue as the oldest, Lana Lang as the middle sister, and Paige as the youngest. Loved it :) How do you think that would go? Give as many head canons and possible scenarios that you could come up with. :)

Patty Halliwell neverexpected to end up with three daughters from three different men, but afterVictor walked out on her and Prue, she found it hard to trust men enough to doanything other than casually date. When her beautiful, half-Chinese Lana had comealong, she had made Prue promise to protect her younger sister from bullies andracists, but little Lana had a fiery personality from the start, and never hadany problems standing up for herself. When tiny Paige came along, halfwhitelighter and already orbing from two months old, Patty had Grams bindPaige’s whitelighter half until she was old enough to control her powers.

In this reality, thePact was still made and the girls grew up without their powers. Prue remainedthe most dominant of the sisters, but little Lana made her own feistypersonality known, and tiny Paige became the peace maker between her two fieryolder sisters. Play times were spent with Prue and Lana fighting over toys andarguing over who would get to rescue the princess from the tower, while littlePaige drew pictures on Grams’ antique furniture with permanent markers, andcharmed her way out of her grandmother’s wrath with her adorable smiles andpleasing disposition.

Patty still drownedin this story, her oldest daughter still there to witness her mother’s horrificend. Six-year-old Prue hardened after her mother’s death, developing a maturity and bitterness which concerned Grams, who worried about a child so youngdeveloping such hard qualities. Lana withdrew into herself, resolving to be theperfect daughter to make her mother proud. Tiny Paige grew up missing a mothershe barely knew, covering for her pain with snark and indifference.

Prue still grew upprotective of her younger sisters, still pushed into parenthood from an earlyage by Grams, maintaining a close but somewhat fiery relationship with Lana,full of heated arguments and clashing personalities, but with a strong bond andloving emotions underneath, always there to protect her younger sister whenignorant people teased Lana about not looking like her sisters. Lana admiredher older sister, but clashed with her on occasion, as the two dominantpersonalities met. Her relationship with Paige was easier, Paige’s easy goingpersonality allowing for Lana’s fieriness, and the bond between the two youngersisters only grew and strengthened over time. Paige adored her eldest sister,developing something akin to hero worship when it came to Prue, knowing thatshe could always go to her for advice, comfort and protection.

The sisters grew upbelieving they were normal, average girls. Prue flourished in school, risingthrough the ranks of popularity, and earning titles such as Head Cheerleaderand Class President. Lana, following her own inner desire to make her motherproud, stayed out of trouble at school, joined the cheerleading squad, ran forstudent council, and suppressed her more fiery side, moulding herself into adocile and compliant personality. Paige, feeling the absence of her mother moreand more as she grew older, tried to fill the void by falling in with a moretrouble-oriented crowd, soon spending her weekends indulging in alcohol and theoccasional ecstasy tablet. After a drunken car accident which nearly ended herlife, Paige turned to her eldest sister for help, and Prue saw her baby sisterthrough the difficult process of alcohol withdrawal, ferrying her to Meetingsand removing all traces of alcohol from the Manor.

Grams still died of aheart attack, collapsing at the bottom of the attic stairs as Lana screamed forhelp and Prue and Paige rushed to her side. After Grams passed away, the threesisters returned to the Manor, where they spent the night downstairs, Lanacurled silently in a chair, Paige crying softly on the sofa, while Prue stoodby the window and tried to figure out how she was supposed to carry the weightof the family on her shoulders. The next day Paige went back to College andPrue went to the museum, but Lana called in sick to the tiny café she managed,and which she would eventually own, and stayed home, her curiosity about whyGrams had been hiding in the attic before her death propelling her up thestairs.

In this reality, themiddle sister found the Book of Shadows, blew the dust from the cover andrecited the incantation, activating the Charmed Ones and changing the destinyof the sisters forever. Prue’s powers still activated through anger at Roger,who, in this reality, she had broken up with because he actually did cheat onher, just not with her sister. Walking away from him and her job much earlierin this story, she left him with the same parting gift, ink spraying him in theface as she walked out the door.

In this story, theyoungest sister received the power to freeze time. Paige’s powers activatedafter class, when a lone Teacher’s Assistant named Jeremy stalked her down adark alley and attempted to stab her with an athame. Panicked and scared, Paigethrew up her hands and froze the warlock, but he broke through her new powers,and, in her fear, Paige orbed away and found herself two streets over,startling a group of teenagers and wondering how the hell she got there.

Lana’s power ofpremonition activated as she descended the stairs from the attic and picked upa photo of herself and her sisters. Flashes of Paige being chased by athreatening figure engulfed her mind, as her sister’s panic infused her being,leaving a ringing in her ears. When her sisters returned home, panicking andconfused by their new powers, they put all their emotions aside and bandedtogether to defeat Jeremy, who in this reality was not as close to the sisters,but was just as threatening.

The three CharmedOnes still faced demons and fought off warlocks. Prue still came into magicwith apprehension and suspicion in her heart, whereas Lana embraced her newdestiny, enjoying the fact that being a witch made her feel special, and hopingthat she could still make her mother proud. Paige, delighted with her powersand taking an almost child-like enthusiasm in spellcasting and demonvanquishing, dedicated herself to learning the craft.

Leo still appeared astheir Whitelighter, but did not fall for any of the sisters this time around.Keeping a clear head and an uncompromised heart, he guided the sisters throughthe first few years of their destiny and, once they became strong enough tooutgrow his guidance, he took a step back, instead, helping Paige deal with herWhitelighter half, and bringing her her first charge – her estranged father.

When Cole arrived onthe scene, it was Lana he went after, appealing not to her romantic side, butto the darkness which lived within her, even in this story. Posing this time asan investor in her café, Cole tempted Lana with talks of power and freedom,revealing himself as a demon far earlier than he had done in the original story.Lana, who had picked up some of some of her older sister’s distrust, never theless found herself drawn to the dark side of Cole. A romance sparked, but Lanafound herself scared by her own thirst for power and, with the help of hersisters, extracted herself from Cole’s influence, and vanquished him before hisinfluence and reach could be felt too deeply.

In this story, Pruesurvived, the three sisters vanquishing Shax in the safety of the Manor. No sisterwent missing down in the Underworld and the middle sister was spared the bulletfrom a crazy fan. The Charmed Ones remained intact and no sister had to livethrough the pain of losing the others.

Prue was the first tomarry, to an old flame who had flickered back into her life. Four years afterAndy’s death, Leo mentioned, in passing, a fellow Whitelighter named Andrew,and Prue’s heart had leaped at the possibility of seeing Andy again. This timearound, it was Prue who broke the rules, scrying for and finding Andy, andrekindling their romance. After considered thought, and with the rationalizationthat he was not the Charmed Ones’ whitelighter, Andy and Prue were allowed tomarry, and two years later, Melinda Lana Halliwell became the first child ofthe next generation of Charmed Ones.

Paige still marriedHenry in this reality, drawn to his kindness and compassion, and his acceptanceof her witchcraft, this time around giving birth to twin daughters, Patriciaand Penelope. As in her original story, Paige gave her later years over todeveloping her Whitelighter side, taking on more charges and guiding youngwitches through their destinies.

Lana remained singlelong into adulthood, happy with her independence and sense of freedom. Shebabysat for her nieces, visited with her sisters, and dedicated herself todoing good for others, both through witchcraft and her own personal efforts.

In this story, thesisters remained strong, bonded and very close. Prue and Lana still had heatedarguments and allowed tempers to rule when together, but remembered underneathit all how much they loved and respected one another. Paige never quite losther hero worship for her eldest sister, and maintained a close, funrelationship with her middle sister. They saw each other through Lana’s turndown the dark path, stood by Prue when she lost, and then found Andy, and sawPaige through her addiction and depression. Together, they remained thestrongest force of good in the Universe, and, in the end, Lana’s deepest desirewas realised – as a trio, as sisters, as witches, these girls made their motherproud.

[eirian-houpe]

The Pawn Shop On Main Street - Chapter 2

Fandom: Once Upon a Time (TV)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Mad Hatter | Jefferson & Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold

Characters: Belle (Once Upon a Time), Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Mad Hatter | Jefferson, Grace | Paige, Evil Queen | Regina Mills, Widow Lucas | Granny, Red Riding Hood | Ruby, Jiminy Cricket | Archie Hopper, Grumpy | Leroy, Blue Fairy | Mother Superior, Emma Swan, Prince Charming | David Nolan, Snow White | Mary Margaret Blanchard, Henry Mills (Once Upon a Time), Sneezy | Tom Clark, Merida (Once Upon a Time), Cloe, Mother Trude, Dove (Once Upon a Time)

Additional Tags: Cursed Storybrooke (Once Upon a Time), Angst, Romance, Eventual Smut, Will add more as apropriate

Summary: Gold is suddenly awakened from the curse, not by the fail-safe that he programmed into his mind, but by the unexpected presence of his long lost maid, with whom he fell in love well before Regina cast his Dark Curse, Rumplestiltskin must now find a way past Belle's disbelief and fear. She is still under the influence of the curse. With the help of his dear - his oldest - friend, Gold seeks a way past obstacles so that he can rekindle the love which he rejected back in the Dark Castle.

The story is set in the same 'verse as The Library Beneath the Clock Tower, and could be considered a sequel of sorts.

Read previous chapters on AO3

Chapter 2 - The Lock On the Door

If anyone had asked, he couldn’t have said how long he sat there, spent, a lump in the darkness like an abandoned sack of potatoes, staring over the top of the revelers and into the sky. He watched the stars move, the moon set, and the horizon darken toward dawn, and still he didn’t move, lost in memory, and the pain of memory, and the ecstasy of one sweet moment he denied himself… denied her.

Finally, as the flickering embers of the bonfire collapsed into a glowing, almost neat circle of color against the darkness, he reached out to find the handle of his cane, and hauled himself to his feet. Then, one limping step after another, made his way down to where the Cadillac was parked.

At that moment he was simply concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other to make it to the car. Then, in the car focused on the steps necessary to safely drive a vehicle such as this, the juxtaposition of his former and his current personae warring inside of him, the familiar and the unfamiliar.

One thing remained true in both worlds - Rumplestiltskin - Gold was a man of power.

By the time he pulled up onto the driveway of the pink Victorian, the maelstrom inside of him was so great that he was all but ready to take up his cane and smash anything breakable within reach. The imagined gratification of bringing the handle of his cane down on the mailbox, the trunk of the car, the rear windshield, with its melodious sound of splintering glass, the tail lights, the windows at the side…

…the soft expression that was there, barely a heartbeat, but there in Belle’s eyes. A second chance…

The desire to break things melted like ice in the midsummer sun, and Gold sat, breathing hard from the exertion of mere thought. He had gripped the steering wheel as though it were his lifeline. Slowly, he forced himself to release his grasp, and then get out of the car. He walked, with seeming infinite care, up to the house, and in through the door as soon as he had it unlocked. Then, without even waiting to see if it closed behind him, he lowered himself into a chair just inside the lounge, and put his head in his hands.

He didn’t think he had any more tears inside of him than those he’d shed with Jefferson. Yet, as he thought on Belle, on all that he’d - that they’d - lost when he sent her away from the dark castle, and on the emptiness of his life until the moment he took Belle’s hand, he wept for it all.

It was long into the morning by the time he emerged, exhausted, from his despairing self recriminations. Although there were things he knew he needed to do - even on the day after the Miner’s Day Festival - he also knew that he would not be at his best without some rest. Even a little would help. So, he slowly climbed the stairs toward his bedroom, stripped off the gold brocade jacket, which was now in need of a good dry-cleaning, peeled himself out of the rest of his finery, and fell exhausted into bed, where he dreamed, strange and knotted dreams of past and present interlaced and with a warring warp and weft.

It was a late morning by the time Gold woke, and for all that he’d had so little sleep, he felt remarkably well rested and, more importantly, clear headed. He knew exactly what he had to do, and made himself a mental checklist. He had a reputation to uphold after all.

For the first time in as long as he could remember, Gold got out of bed with a spark of hope in his heart, which he took with him to the shower, where he hummed softly to himself; a tune that his aunties used to sing when they were spinning, or better yet, baking the meat pies he loved so much. He stopped suddenly in the middle of soaping his chest and stomach. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d thought, so happily and peacefully, of his aunties. It made him wonder how long it had been since he used the memory to draw back the power of his magic. He shook his head at himself, and smiled, feeling so full of love in that moment it was almost painful, but it was not love for his aunties, it was love for Belle, who had unlocked all of the kind wonders inside of him…

…a flicker of light in an ocean of darkness…

…and for the first time in longer than memory, that thought didn’t hurt him to the core.

The first order of business for the day was a short stop at Granny’s and then on to the hardware store. It would be remiss of him not to fix the lock on the door to the library apartment, especially since he noticed it hadn’t closed properly the day before. What kind of landlord would he be if he didn’t attend to the safety of his tenants? The hopeful spring in his step had nothing to do with the possibility of seeing Miss Marchland again. Not at all.

He smiled as he passed the library and saw the sign stuck on the door declaring the public building closed for the day. That meant that Belle would be home, and he would have the opportunity to… apologize for whatever it was that had caused her to run off at the Miner’s Day Festival - and a part of him, a small part hoped that it was not because she remembered their life together and had not forgiven him for sending her away. The larger part hoped that he, his intensity as he had remembered everything, had simply spooked her, and she didn’t yet remember. That way he would have the chance to court her properly - if she would give him the time of day.

His impulse pulled at him to climb the stairs, once he had the outer door unlocked, and knock on Belle’s door, but no. He could not force his company upon her, so instead, he set to work on the lock. He tried to make sure that the action of the catch was as smooth as silk and closed first time, every time. Hadn’t he promised Belle forever?

He knew the thought was a kind of loophole. She had promised him forever, but what he had denied in the Enchanted Forest he embraced as the truth. Forever was a flow of time that looped both ways, and surrounded them both. He smiled and leaned down one more time to finish reattaching the catch-plate to the door.

He was so focused - or perhaps so lost to his surroundings - that when the sharp cry came from behind him, followed by the discordant jangle of keys hitting the sidewalk, he almost echoed it with a cry of his own surprise. He covered the slip, however, by reaching for the keys, and straightened up before he turned and found himself face to face with Belle.

“Miss Marchland,” he greeted her, using all of his self control to appear calm and collected. He gestured behind him. “I was just working on the door. Seems a little attention was necessary to ensure it closes properly.”

“Well,” he watched as she punctuated her own greeting with a deep breath, he guessed, to compose herself in kind. “Thank you, Mister Gold. I appreciate it.”

The slight pink already creeping into her cheek was delightful, alluring, and he couldn’t help but tease gently as he said, “Well, we can’t have just anyone walking up to the apartment without invitation, now, can we?” He raised an eyebrow and was more delighted than he had been in many a long year when she returned the gesture. In another life, he might have thought she was flirting with him, but there, he dare not hope for it.

“No indeed. There’s no telling in what state they might discover me,” she said, and the pink in her cheek deepened to flush of red. It warmed him deep within.

Ever the gentleman, however, he did not want to cause her discomfort or embarrassment. “Don’t worry,” he said, “I’ll be out of your hair before too long.”

He was about to turn back to be sure he had indeed finished when she completely derailed his attention by snapping, “Why didn’t you tell me what was happening with Paige?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Paige,” she began, then added, “Grace,” and his heart lurched with an almost painful hope. Did she remember, then? “The girl that helps me in the library.”

“Yes,” he said, his heart sinking when he realized that she was simply using the girl’s cursed surname. “I know the girl to whom you refer. However, I fail to see what I should have told yo—”

“Oh, drop it, Gold! You knew, and you said nothing!” The fire in her eyes brought back the painful memories of the last time he had seen it, and he almost stepped towards her; almost moved to protest his innocence, and tell her how wrong she was. Her next words snapped him from the memory of it, and he closed his mouth on the words that were about to reach out to her. “That poor girl has been… maid and… nurse, and… who knows what else besides. I could have done something, could have helped. Instead you pretended there was nothing wrong, and let it all continue. And for what!”

“Be… very careful, Miss Marchland,” he rumbled, part in annoyance at her challenge, but the greater part in warning for fear of what she might stir up, should Regina decide to oppose her right-hearted desire to help poor Grace. “You know very little of which you speak, and none of the harm your interference could—”

“Interference?” He winced at the incredulity he heard in the tone and pitch of her voice. “Only you could think of offering help as interference. You are unbelievable, you know that?”

“No, Miss Marchland,” he said, trying, by his words, to convey the meaning of his warning, without openly making accusations in the street. “I am a man that simply knows how, and when to best take sides.”

“Take sides?” He frowned as she threw up her hands, and the pitch of her voice grew higher yet. “This is a child’s life we’re talking about, not some meaningless argument about… parking restrictions on Main Street.”

“Indeed,” he said and nodded his agreement. “Which is exactly why I have acted as I have.”

“Done nothing, you mean,” she spat. “At least you didn’t try to deny you knew what’s going on. At least I’ll give you that.” 

He said nothing to counter that accusation either, and she made a sound of derision, before she stepped forward, obviously meaning to push past him as she finished curtly, “Excuse me, I have cleaning to do.”

He caught her elbow as she did, and stepped in closer to her as he held her against the open door. For just a moment at least, his eyes met and held hers in an uncompromising stare as he repeated a warning, his mouth almost against her ear.

“Everything comes with a price, Miss Marchland, so you need to be very sure how much you’re willing to pay.”

She held his gaze still longer, as if searching for something within his eyes, and he held his breath, willing her to find what she sought. After only a moment though, her face clouded with anger and she snatched her arm out of his grasp, pushed past him and left him watching after her as she mounted the stairs toward the apartment.

With a sigh, and no further excuse to loiter at the door, he closed it softly, and hanging his head, began to walk away. She was right, of course. Even before he awakened, he knew what was happening to Paige - to Grace - and who was behind it, of course. As much as he opposed Regina and her hold on the town of Storybrooke, as much as he had always stood in opposition to her, he never did anything to help that child, who now turned out to be the daughter of his oldest, dearest friend. He felt ashamed, and it was an uncomfortable feeling. He should have acted.

He continued walking toward the pawn shop, and pulled out his cell phone as he went, dialing the number that he knew by heart, but only now knew that the man he’d known as a friend for all this time, had been in his heart for so much longer.

“Rumplestiltskin…?”

The sound of his name, his true name on Jefferson’s lips, even through the artificial sound of the phone, brought a smile to his face, though it was a sorrowful one as he thought about all that he and Jefferson had shared.

“Can…” he cleared throat as his voice cracked a little, “Can you meet me at the shop? There’s something I’d like to discuss.”

He could almost hear the hesitant frown on the other man’s face as he answered, “All right, I’ll… head that way.”

“Thank you,” Gold said quietly, “And Jefferson—”

“I’ll see you in a little while,” Jefferson cut him off, and disconnected the call before he could say any more.

He spent the intervening time between then, and when the bell above the door sounded to announce his friend’s arrival, cleaning and polishing every item in one of the glass display-cases. He was agitated, and even that mundane task did little to quell his nervous energy.

“I think you missed a spot,” Jefferson raised a cheeky eyebrow, and made a pantomime of polishing the top of the case with the sleeve of his coat.

“Funny,” Gold answered dryly, making Jefferson chuckle.

“What’s so important,” he asked as the chuckled failed, “that you had to drag me all the way into town.”

“An… apology,” Gold answered, hesitation drawing out the words, and making Jefferson frown.

“There’s nothing—” Jefferson began, but Gold interrupted.

“Grace,” he said. “I should have—”

Jefferson shook his head, and craved softly, “Don’t. There was nothing you could have done. Regina—”

“I should have done something.”

“And what!” Jefferson asked, beginning to pace in agitation of his own. “She would never have let you interfere with whatever reason she has to punish me.” Gold’s heart broke as Jefferson swung round to face him, stopping dead as if he hadn’t been pacing at all, and ran his hand through his hair, leaving the front even more mussed than usual. He let out a huff then. “She has no reason to punish me… save perhaps spite. She had already separated me from my daughter. Trapped me in Wonderland, where—”

He stopped suddenly, as if whatever he had to say was some great shame, and Gold stepped toward him, took a tentative hold on his arms.

“Where?” he prompted, his tone tender, full of the worry he had for the man, but Jefferson shook his head.

“I can’t,” he whispered. “I can’t.”

“No one blames you, Jefferson,” Gold told him, his voice low, soft, compassionate.

“They should!” The Hatter suddenly cried, throwing up his arms and breaking Gold’s hold on them. He paced away again, then swung an accusatory glare his way. “She begged me - pleaded with me - not to go, but no… my arrogance, my certainty that one. Last. Job…” a sob that became a shiver, then a tremor that shook his body. “If I had listened. If I had stayed,” he continued in a whisper, “Grace would still have a mother. We’d still be a family. She wouldn’t be trapped, living a hell, with a withered hag as a jailer.”

Gold knew Jefferson was referring, not to Cloe Grace, but to Mother Trude, the ‘neighbor’ supposedly looking out for Grace, where the woman the curse had cast as her mother could not.

“I can fix this,” he whispered.

“No!” Jefferson cried, snatching at him and hauling him close as if to shake him like a rag doll. “Rumplestiltskin, No!”

“You can have her back. Your Grace.”

“She doesn’t know me!” Jefferson released Gold, and unbalanced he teetered back until Jefferson steadied him, but then The Hatter threw up his arms again. “Not as her father. As far as she knows, her papa was taken away when she was small. Ripped away from her by the authorities for gods know what!”

“Jefferson…” he tried to interrupt the man’s agonized tirade.

“That’s her reality. All she’s ever known in this world.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Gold said softly, when Jefferson’s anguish burned itself out. “Nor in the way she has to live now.”

“You think Regina wouldn’t find some way to torment her to punish me if anything about the life she inflicted on Grace changed? Especially if she knew you were involved… even if she doesn’t know you’re awake?”

Gold shook his head, but couldn’t find the words to disarm Jefferson’s justifiable fears.

“And if she finds out!?” Jefferson’s agitation rose again, and he filled the space around him with desperate gestures. “No… Rumplestiltskin, no. I… I can’t… I…”

Through Jefferson’s flailing, and over his shoulder, Gold saw the shadow of a figure moving past the front of the shop, pausing for a moment by the door as if the person would come inside. No one did, but Gold had recognized the figure none-the-less. He would know her anywhere.

“It may now be out of either of our hands,” he said, and watched as Jefferson turned in time to see the shadow move away from the door.