[May 18th] [Once Upon a Time] A Very Unusual Scene

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Title: A Very Unusual Scene
Day/Theme: May 18th - Come, we'll go where there is no road / where no one lives, no one is settled
Series: Once Upon a Time
Character/Pairing: Rumbelle, Neal/Baelfire, Emma, Hook, Henry (mentioned)
Rating: K+/PG

Continuing my post-season 3A series. In other words, everything after 3A has not happened here. But the characters are aware of the canon twists via a strange book. That, however, is a subplot compared to the unfolding of a new way of restoring Emma and Henry's memories. And future installments may try to develop Hook and his protagonist status based around his season 2 characterization instead of ignoring it, as the show did.


By Lucky_Ladybug

It was Rumpelstiltskin who was driving as they entered the concrete jungle of Manhattan. Belle looked through all the front windows, still fascinated by the modern city and its “castles.” But she continued to hold her tongue, especially when she saw how tensely Rumpel was gripping the steering wheel. It was a huge sacrifice for him to come on this journey at all, away from his shop and his ability to use magic and his comfortable niche where he felt safe.

Neal noticed Belle’s intrigue, however. “It’s a great place, isn’t it,” he said with a smile.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Belle admitted.

“Hopefully we’ll have some downtime and I can show you around.” Neal looked out his window and his eyes took on a far-off expression.

“Hopefully Emma and Henry will be with us too,” Belle said quietly, knowing that was what Neal was thinking.

“Yeah.” Neal fell silent.

Rumpel looked at his son with sympathy and understanding in the rear-view mirror. “. . . What does the compass say now?” he asked after giving Neal a moment to himself.

Neal started and looked to the huge sphere that had been placed on the floor opposite to where he was sitting. “We’re going the right direction. I wonder if they’re living in my old apartment,” he muttered.

Rumpel might have replied, but the heavy traffic quickly distracted him. He scowled, slowing down with all the other cars. From his expression, he looked like he wanted to magic a path for them to go on ahead through the jam. But outside of Storybrooke he could not, and Belle wondered if he could even do a complex spell like that in Storybrooke now that he was not The Dark One.

“Hey,” Neal suddenly exclaimed. “More pages have been added to this crazy book!”

That nearly caused Rumpel to throw on the brakes. “What?!”

Belle’s eyes widened. “What’s written in it now?” she asked in alarm.

Neal flipped through the additions. “Oh, this is just getting too bizarre,” he declared. “Everybody went to the Underworld to save Hook, and people like Cora are being redeemed just because she set up a play-date between Regina and this Zelena person when they were kids. And Regina’s forgiven this Zelena for all of the garbage she pulled—murder, sexual assault—and apparently trusts her too, just because they’ve remembered their sisterly play-date.” He looked up at Rumpel. “This is starting to sound like a big joke. Who could take this seriously?”

“It sounds like they’re deliberately messing with our heads,” said Rumpel. “Redemption never comes easily.”

Belle frowned. “So this woman is given a free pass while everyone continues to treat Rumpel poorly?”

“That’s about the size of it,” Neal said. “And you and he are having more problems. You’re . . .” He trailed off, suddenly finding it awkward to blurt out what he was reading around her.

Belle twisted around in the seat. “We’re what?” she demanded.

“. . . You’re gonna have a kid,” Neal finally admitted. “Only Poppa’s got some contract he’s being forced to honor where his second kid is given to some creep in the Underworld. He and you are trying to break it, but you’re not having any luck, and there’s something in here about some guy named Gaston . . .”

“What?” Belle was shocked. “What about Gaston?”

“He’s in the Underworld too,” Neal said. “And Hades tries to force you to set up a fight between him and Poppa, saying that if you do and one of them loses to the other, he’ll revoke the contract on your kid.”

Belle stared, gripping the top of the seat. “What do I do?”

“You set it up,” Neal admitted. “But then you can’t bear to go through with it and you try to stop it. You end up knocking Gaston into something called the River of Lost Souls and you feel awful about it because you didn’t want either of them to have that fate.”

Belle slowly sank back in the seat, looking sick. The traffic continued to inch along, but now Rumpel was mostly ignoring it. His expression had become a storm cloud.

“We were meant to find this book,” he said darkly. “Someone wants very badly to torment us. Now they’re targeting Belle the most. That is unacceptable.”

“Well, I don’t know how we’re ever going to find out who’s doing this,” Neal said. “That must be part of the torment too. They’re totally mocking you.”

“What else does the book say?” The chill and the venom in Rumpel’s voice were downright frightening now. But neither Neal nor Belle could really blame him.

“A bunch more junk about Zelena and Hades,” Neal said. “And . . . Belle put herself in a sleeping spell, I think to try to protect the baby. Now you’re obsessed with waking her up, True Love’s Kiss won’t work, and no one will even lift a finger to help her. Not her father and not Mary-Margaret and David and Regina. . . .” He trailed off again. “And not Emma and Henry,” he added quietly. “There’s some bizarre thing about Henry having the power to write things into being now, but instead of waking Belle up so you won’t try to drain all the magic from Storybrooke in order to wake her up, Henry just writes that he steals some magical object from you. You’re just completely treated without compassion even though it looks like the only thing you want is to help Belle.”

“While other people who have done horrible things are looked on kindly and even accepted by Mary-Margaret and the rest,” Belle frowned. “And most of them haven’t even done nearly as much as you, Rumpel, in trying to turn good and be helpful.” This was hitting much too close to home after her dissatisfaction and disappointment with the townspeople’s reactions to Rumpel saving all of them from Peter Pan. It made it even worse that Regina was so widely accepted and even people such as Hook were coming to be.

“Don’t concern yourself with any of that, Belle,” Rumpel said. “That isn’t important. What’s important is . . .” He muttered a curse at the practically standstill traffic. “What’s important is figuring out who’s behind this. Right now, I still don’t have any idea. We don’t have any shortage of enemies. Perhaps it wouldn’t even have to be a writer who’s doing this. They could just magic the stories they want written into the book, whether they themselves are capable of putting them together in a literary manner or not. The spell would take care of that.”

“That would mean it could be anyone,” Belle said in horror.

“We’ve really got some sick enemies somewhere,” Neal declared, definitely disturbed.

At last the traffic eased up enough that Rumpel was able to swing around a corner and cut through an alley going in the same direction. “Do you recognize this area, Bae?” he asked.

“Kind of,” Neal replied. “We still have to go deeper into the city.”

“Can we go through these alleys all the rest of the way?” Belle wondered.

“Probably not, but we’ll go through them for as long as we can,” Rumpel replied.

It took practically another hour to maneuver through several more alleys and the continuing slow-moving traffic. By the time they finally pulled up at the apartment complex the compass had led them to, they were all exhausted, exasperated, and Rumpel looked absolutely beyond furious. It was hard to say what he was more aggravated about at the moment: the problems with the magic book or the horrors of New York City traffic.

“Look!” Belle exclaimed then. “There’s Henry on the front steps.”

Neal leaned over the backseat for a better look. “He’s playing a video game,” he said in some surprise. “I know most kids like them, but Henry didn’t seem that big on them. Of course, I didn’t even get to know him for very long. Now he won’t even remember me.” He spoke wistfully.

“He will,” Rumpel determined.

“Should we go over now?” Belle studied the scene. There were other people on both sides of the street, but no one was paying attention to Henry. Neal had told her that most New Yorkers minded their own business and probably wouldn’t interfere if they tried to talk to Henry and Emma out in public. That sounded just fine to Rumpel, but Belle felt sad to think that a large city wouldn’t have more camaraderie. Perhaps, she thought, it depended on the neighborhood.

“Emma’s probably at work,” Neal mused. “Maybe we should wait until she’s home.”

“We could ask Henry,” Belle said. “For all we know, she’s off today. Or maybe she works at home.”

Neal sighed, continuing to stare ahead at the son he barely knew. “I’ve been thinking this whole trip about what to say to Henry and Emma and how to approach them. Nothing really sounds right. I can’t just go up and say, ‘Hi, I’m your father.’”

“Why not?” Belle suddenly asked.

Neal started. “That’s not the kind of thing you say to a kid who doesn’t even remember meeting you! I don’t even know what Emma’s told him about me. In the real world, she told him I was a firefighter and I was dead! Maybe that part of reality is still true here.”

“That’s possible,” Rumpel said. “I remember Henry was quite upset about being lied to when he found out the truth. No, I don’t think Bae should spring this on him. Let’s wait for Emma.”

“Let’s hope they’ll wait too,” Neal abruptly said.

Again everyone turned to look. Neal was looking at a car on the opposite side of the street. The only occupant he could see was Hook, on the passenger side up front. The driver was moving, but the face wasn’t visible.

Rumpel scowled. “Well, we knew someone was following us. Does that look like the car you saw, Belle?”

“Yes,” Belle asserted. “Yes, it does. I’m sure of it.”

Rumpel watched for a moment. “Hook will surely wait for Emma as well, unless for some reason he thinks he can make points with Henry,” he said at last.

“So we’re just going to sit here and watch the building?” Belle said in disbelief. “That’s going to look suspicious.”

“I’ve got another idea.” Neal started to open the car door. “I’ll use one of your ideas, Belle. I’ll go over and say Hello and ask Henry if his mom’s home.”

“Good luck,” Belle said worriedly. She was still in favor of Neal going over sooner rather than later, but now there was the concern over what Hook might say or do, especially if they made a move first.

Rumpel watched Hook with a tense glare. But if Hook was aware of it, he gave no indication of it. Instead he watched as Neal approached Henry and greeted him.

Even without his memories, Henry was his usual friendly self. Rumpel could see how Neal relaxed as he spoke with the boy and asked about his mother. When Henry got up and hurried inside and Neal headed back their way, he looked happy, yet uneasy as well.

“Emma’s home,” he announced. “We can go on up.”

“Good.” Rumpel immediately opened the door and got out, grabbing his cane as he went. He leaned heavily on it, moving slowly but surely to the sidewalk.

“What did you tell him?” Belle asked while exiting the car.

“I just said Hi and commented on his game, so we talked about that for a minute,” Neal said. “Then I asked if his mom was home. He said Yes and asked if I wanted to see her. I said we wanted to talk with both her and him and he said to come on up. . . . Oh no.”

All of them stared as Hook got out of the other car and moved swiftly across the street. “Thank you for leading us here,” he said smoothly. “We never would have found it otherwise.”

“What do you want?” Belle frowned.

“To speak with Emma, of course,” Hook replied, leaping up the front steps and into the building.

“She won’t know you,” Rumpel retorted. If Hook heard, he ignored the warning.

It didn’t take long for the trio to get inside and up the stairs to the right apartment. They were just in time to hear Hook insisting that he needed to talk with Emma and that her parents were in danger, followed by the sight of Emma karate-kicking Hook out of the apartment and into the hall. All three stopped and stared.

“Ho boy,” Neal groaned. “We’ve really got our work cut out for us.” He looked like he wanted to turn around and leave without even trying to meet with them. Surely it wouldn’t go over well after this.

Rumpel rested a hand on his shoulder. At the same moment, Emma heard his voice and looked over with a start. The color drained from her face. “Neal?”

Neal took a deep breath. “Yeah,” he replied. “I don’t blame you if you want to kick me out like you just did to that guy, but will you give me a chance to come in and talk?”

Emma looked completely conflicted. In her expression, her happiness over the idyllic life she and Henry had been experiencing was visibly falling away, replaced by the agony of reality crashing in on her. She didn’t like this intrusion one bit. Perhaps she liked it even less than Hook’s. But Henry had already seen Neal and talked with him, and he would ask questions if she just sent Neal away. Already he was standing behind Emma, gawking at the scene.

At last she nodded and stepped out of the doorway. “Okay,” she said, her voice strained.

Hook glared daggers at him, Rumpel, and Belle from the floor. As they entered the apartment and Emma shut the door after them, Hook carefully picked himself up and continued to stare at the closed door. This wasn’t over, he silently vowed. He cared about Emma too and he would find a way to get her to listen to him and bring her memories back.

He turned away, heading downstairs to find his chauffeur.