Chapter 25: Everything is Awesome
He ended up destroying a whole set on wine glasses after Emma left and he called Regina and told her to fuck off. Of course, he could easily zap the glasses back into pristine condition, which he did, but still he knew he was being out of control.
Harry logically knew that Emma was going to react this way. He knew his wife. He knew how much she liked making her own choices, but God damn it if he wanted to move on.
And he broke the wine glasses again.
He shook his head cursing. Until he became Harry Potter, he had never been this emotional. Yes, he'd have his occasional outburst as the Dark One but he wouldn't break furniture over because of a woman.
Except for one woman.
He sighed heavily as he thought about Belle. It had seemed like such a long time ago. And it had been, really a lifetime ago. He shook his head as he thought about how he acted when he sent the brunette away. He wasn't going to make the same mistake with Emma. He was fighting for them.
At least that's what he told himself as he had the papers prepared. He had told himself, it would be easy enough have her sign the papers then he could leave this life as Harry Potter.
Yes, he'd still have to go and govern magical Britain—something he actually enjoyed doing—but he could have somewhat of a life with Emma, Jaime, and the baby.
Who was he kidding?
This was ridiculous.
It was going to end just as bad as it did before. If not worse, but it was his only option. He knew she'd sign the papers eventually. There was no way in hell Emma wanted to stay married to him. He saw the way she looked at him as Harry versus the way she looked at Ford.
He wanted to laugh at the bitter irony of the situation. Harry was supposed to be the "good" alter ego. His old form was still a monster. The beast. He was still feared by everyone in town despite wearing a face that was less reptilian. Yet, that was the man Emma wanted.
He wanted her to want him.
He remembered when his wife did want him. When they were happy. The fact that it had come to him willing to live two different lives was so fucking ridiculous.
"Harry?"
Jaime. Jaime was home? Harry looked at his watch; sure enough, it was after four. He guessed he had spent enough of his day blowing up wine glasses and putting them together for time to go by.
"Shit," He found himself saying out loud. "I'm sorry, Jaime, I forgot to pick you up."
The boy shrugged. "It wasn't that bad of a walk. And it wasn't your day to pick me up it was Emma's. Is she okay?"
"She's fine why do you ask," Harry lied.
"She didn't return my texts." Jaime said, "That's not like her."
"Her phone's at home." Harry said knowing very well that his wife had left the phone at home after trying to call her a dozen of times. "She's probably at the office."
"Good then," The boy said. "We can talk."
Harry raised his eyebrow, but he knew the talk was going to be about magic and he told Jaime as much.
"So you and Ford talked then."
Harry nodded. "Yeah, we did. He said you're freaking out because you've experienced accidental magic around Regina."
The boy nodded. "I hurt her. And I—I sort of liked it to be honest. I mean, I didn't mean to do it. But she deserved all those things that happened to her."
Harry nodded. "I understand. When I was younger, I did accidental magic to people who were mean to me too. I turned my teacher's hair blue."
"That's hardly like pushing someone down the stairs." Jaime countered. "What if I seriously hurt someone."
Harry sighed. What he really wanted to tell his son that he would give him a fucking medal if he hurt Regina. But of course, he refrained from saying it because it wasn't exactly the most parental thing to say and he really didn't think it would make Jaime feel better. The boy was scared. He remembered the feeling himself, the years when he didn't know what magic was as Harry and then when he first came into his powers as the Dark One.
"I doubt you'll hurt anyone," He said. "Unless you want to, which I doubt you would unless you had to. But I understand your concerns, which is why I'm going to have a friend of mine tutor you after school."
"For real?" Jaime asked.
"You know Hermione, don't you?"
Jaime nodded.
"She's an excellent witch, and will be able to teach you a lot."
"But why don't you teach me?" The boy asked.
Because he was the Dark One, because learning magic from him could very well turn him to a mini-Regina.
Okay, it might not. But Harry knew sooner or later, he would want to teach his son elements of dark magic and Jaime was too young for that. And he really didn't want to be responsible for possibly tainting his son towards darkness. It had been bad enough, in a lot of ways, teaching Hermione dark magic. But he had done that by telling himself he was helping her protect herself in a war, heart pullage was something he definitely did not want his ten-year-old learning.
But he didn't say this instead he said, "Hermione was the smartest witch in our year. She'll have you knowing everything you need to know before you go to Hogwarts."
"Hogwarts?"
"It's the magic school I attended." He said. "It's one of the best magic schools in the world. Well, it will be the best in the world once the new implementations I made to the school go into effect."
"A magic school?" The boy asked.
Harry nodded and then explained to him about the school. That in itself seemed to entertain the boy for awhile. He found the whole concept of the magical boarding school, with the moving stairs, talking portraits, and the likes fascinating.
"So you use wands for magic then?" He asked after Harry explained some of the spells. "That doesn't make sense."
"No, it doesn't." He said. "The school's actually is translating to more wandless forms of magic. It's one of the implementations the new education policy is putting in. Grant it, not everyone is capable of wandless magic."
Being ten, Jaime looked clueless.
"Magic can be done with or without a wand. Some people though have to use a wand."
"Oh, so am I one of those people?"
"I don't think you will be," Harry said frowning as he looked outside. It was dark. "It's late, let's get some dinner."
"Shouldn't we wait for Emma?"
Harry shook his head. "She's probably at the office working on a case. It might be fun having a boy's night out. Don't you think?"
Translation Emma probably wasn't going to come home that evening because she was pissed with him.
The boy nodded. "Yeah, that sounds great. Are you and Emma okay?"
"What do you mean?" Harry asked knowing very well that the boy suspected something.
Hell, he sort of expected that Regina suspected something. She had made enough snafus about them the other day. Or should he saw Ford and Emma. God, his duel identity had him confused.
The boy looked at him, "You know, it's okay if you and Emma aren't together. I'm not under any delusion that we're going to be one big happy family."
Harry sighed. "Jaime, it's complicated."
"I've seen Mr. Gold going into Emma's room in his bathrobe." The kid said, "You sleep on the other side of the house from Emma. I think I get complicated."
"No, you don't." Harry said it was the understatement of the year.
"Just are you and Emma together or not?"
"No," He said. "We are your parents though, regardless of what happens."
"And she's with Mr. Gold, right?"
"Do you have a problem with that?"
"No," The boy said. "I like Mr. Gold. I mean, obviously, he's not you, but he's nice to me and Emma."
Harry nodded.
"You seem ridiculously okay with this." The boy gave him an odd look.
"Do I?"
Harry wanted to laugh, to tell Jaime that to the contrary he was actually pretty fucked up over the thing. But he was playing the role of parent. A role he had played several times in the past, and had fucked up pretty good when it came to Bae.
However, one thing he had been good at as a parent pre and post Dark One was acting like everything was awesome when it indeed sucked.
Milah leaving him: awesome.
Not being able to put food on the table for him and Bae because the tailor shorted him: awesome.
The Ogre Wars forcing children to enlist: awesome
Trying to remedy the Ogre War situation and becoming the Dark One: awesome.
In comparison to the last two, pretending to keep the façade that he was okay with his marriage failing because he was keeping two duel identities and his wife was only attracted to one of them was easy.
"You seem almost too okay with it," Jaime said.
"Emma and I had been separated for a long time," Harry said. "We're both at different places in our lives. If she wants to be with Ford, I'm okay with it. It could be worse."
"She's still your wife though." Jaime said.
Harry shook her head. "It's complicated, Jaime. Now let's say that we get some dinner. It seems like we'll have to go to Granny's since I forgot to pick up some eggs and the rest of the ravioli has been eaten."
"You knew we had ravioli?" The boy asked suspiciously. "I didn't think you got home till today. We ate it all last night."
"There was a bite left over." Harry lied, "And I was hungry when I got in."
Jaime nodded, accepting yet another lie.
He wasn't eating. He didn't expect to eat. The food at Granny's was still rancid, despite the fact that Ashley Boyd was still on maternity leave—in jail. She hadn't gave birth yet, which sort of surprised him then he realized that time had only just started and the wench had only been at the beginning of her third trimester the time this mess started. Like he cared. Only Graham-Cracker complained about the fact that he expected her to give birth in the middle of the night when no one was at the station.
Again, didn't care.
He frowned as he looked at the salad that Ruby had placed in front of him. Even salad was inedible and it seemed like his signature death glare didn't have the same punch here as it did as Ford Gold.
Lucky bastard.
Ford Gold got to have all the fun. And got the girl. The girl who was clearly proving to him that she was mad at him.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Jaime asked noticing that Harry had been merely been picking at his lettuce.
He didn't even know if picking was the right word. More like studying it, making sure that that imbecile Granny had washed said lettuce.
"I'm not that hungry," He said before adding. "Eat your burger."
"Are you okay, Mr. Potter?" Ruby said giving him a suggestive smile.
Of course, Harry Potter had to attract every female in Storybrooke save for the one who he actually wanted to attract.
"I need the bill, Ruby."
She nodded sadly. "Okay, then? You sure you don't want my number, I saw Emma earlier and it looked like things between her and you were over."
"That is ridiculous," He snapped almost sounding like his alter ego.
She flinched. "Well, she did look messed up when she was talking to Mary Margret. I thought the two of you were fighting."
"My marriage is none of your business, Ms. Lucas."
"Okay, okay," Ruby said. "I get when I'm being turned down."
"So, you and Emma got in a fight then?" Jaime asked as Ruby walked off into the kitchen.
"I wouldn't say it was a fight," He said. "Your mom is going through a lot right now."
Like being pregnant with his alter ego's baby. Well, it was technically his baby. It would have his DNA regardless of what form he was in since the form he wore was merely an allusion. Not that Emma was going to demand a paternity test any time soon.
God, it annoyed him how he was starting to think of himself and Ford as two different people. Even though he knew that was ridiculous. It was actually the first time, in a long time he couldn't rationalize his past life self with his present self. Which was ridiculous, he knew that his past was a part of him no matter what. He knew that there had been people in the past that theorized about being able to perform some sort of splitting spell or ritual. But the idea seemed arcane to him. You couldn't get rid of your past, no matter how much you tried. And while there were things about his past that he regretted, he didn't exactly want to be without those memories or experience. God knows, he would always want to remember Bae.
So that was out of the way—though he was really trying to figure out why anyone would want to do said stupid spell in the first place.
He turned his attention back towards Jaime. "We weren't fighting. It's just difficult, the whole situation."
"Ruby noticed that Emma looked upset. That's saying something."
Rumple shook his head wishing that Jaime was a little less like Bae right then and there. Both boys had always knew how to push and prod. Maybe that was just a thing with children. He never found himself to be an especially inquisitive child—in either lives that he lived. But both Bae and Jaime, seemed to notice everything.
"I think I could've probably handled the situation better." He replied honestly as someone opened the diner's door.
He groaned when he saw who it was: Regina.
God, couldn't he go one day without seeing that annoying woman's ugly mug? What was worse was she looked happy. And a happy Regina was never a good thing, just thinking of that made him want to wave his hand and give her the runs. She deserved it. With that little stunt with that ring.
He didn't know quite what she was playing with, with that phony ring. It had vexed him but not in the way, that Emma thought it did. She thought he was mourning his dead wife.
God, what the fuck was with Regina trying to act like he and Belle were married? Was she trying to fuck with him beyond the grave, honestly he didn't want to know. Well, he wanted to know as he ripped her heart out and squeezed it into dust.
He shook his head as she approached the table. "What, no Mrs. Potter tonight?"
"Late night at the office," Harry said curtly as he noticed that Jaime had decided to go mute.
"You know, I hardly see you as a family." Regina casually said as she decided to sit down next to him. "I think I'll join you."
"We were almost done." He said, "And I have an early flight tomorrow."
"Leaving town again so soon?" Regina said, "But who will watch, the boy?"
"Jaime." His son said looking at Regina for the first time.
He hated the way his son looked at his adopted mother. It reminded him very much of how he used to look at his so-called aunt and uncle before he found his Hogwarts letter for the first time. Though based on everything he heard about Regina's parenting skills, she was worse. Way, way, worse.
Sometimes he thought about just killing her outright. It would solve lots of things. Of course, pulling out her heart and squeezing it into dust would reveal who he was right away. And even if he did it while in Ford form, there was the off chance that she had removed it and hid it somewhere. She was Cora's daughter, after all. Not as smart as Cora by any means, but he was sure that Cora had probably taught Regina that if you wanted to be an evil sorceress it was probably a good idea to take your heart out of your chest.
Of course there was other ways to die. He might actual result to a good old fashion world without magic death curse. Sure, Voldemort tended to over use those but it would be sort of fitting for Regina. Though knowing her affinity for dark magic, it probably would bounce right off her like it did him.
"I don't need to be reminded of your name." Regina said, "I am your mother."
"You're not." Harry said rather than letting Jaime speak. "The judge signed on the order. Your adoption is null and void. You are just merely at best a quasi legal kidnapper."
Regina gasped. "The papers were signed by the judge?"
"Signed and filed." Harry snapped. "Ford made sure of it."
Regina had a dark look over her face like she was not pleased. Harry wasn't surprised. "If you would please excuse me, Madam Mayor, we need to get back home. I'd advise you to steer clear of the salad. I think their lettuce is going bad. It might give you the runs."
He started to get up and Regina grabbed his arm. "Mr. Potter—"
"Let go of my arm." He said getting up and glaring at her. "I told you, we're leaving."
"I'm only trying to be friendly," Regina flirted with him.
Yes, flirted. Or at least he was pretty sure that's what she was trying to do. God did he miss the days of having scales and claws where Regina would look at him like he was disgusting.
"You don't want to be friendly with me, Regina. You're mad you lost." He snapped.
She blinked sort of surprised he called her on her shit. She shouldn't be. But he guessed she really didn't know Harry Potter enough to make an assumption.
"I believe there's no win or lose here," She purred in her best mayoral voice. "After all, we're talking about the custody of a child here. Don't you think that Hen—Jaime would benefit from being around everyone that cares about him. Especially, with, well, the circumstances being the way they are."
"I am not getting into this in front of Jaime." He said.
No, if they were going to get into it he'd find some way to kill her. He was done with her shit, but he didn't kill in front of his kids. He learned long ago, that performing dark magic in front of a child could have disastrous consequences.
He inwardly frowned about the destruction of his relationship with Bae. He never had a chance to tell him he was sorry, he wouldn't make the same mistakes with Jaime even though all he wanted to do was permanently maim Regina.
"Fine," Regina said seeing his face. "Tell your lawyer I want to talk to him, whenever he gets the chance."
"Gold's done with you," He snapped.
"He won't be when he sees what I have to offer." She smirked.
"If this is about that ring you sent him, you'd be wise to stop your game." Harry said, "Toying with a man's dead wife is not a smart thing to do, Madam Mayor."
"Who said I was toying with him," Regina said. "I might have information that Mr. Gold would find very interesting."
"Yeah, we'll you'll have to tell him yourself. And I'm pretty sure he would tell you something that isn't child appropriate."
"Like fuck off," Jaime said interjecting himself into the conversation.
Harry sighed. Apparently, shag wasn't the only not so age appropriate term Jaime learned.
When Harry woke up he saw it was still dark. Yet, someone was prodding him awake.
"Emma." He moaned.
"Think again," Hermione's voice said waking him up. "It's five or eleven o'clock London time. Do you or do you not remember you have a conference you have to attend to this afternoon?"
He groaned. "I fucking forgot to set my alarm."
"I sort of figured," She said. "You are sleeping on the couch."
"I was waiting for Emma." He said, "She didn't come home last night. Or if she did it was after I fell asleep which wasn't that long ago."
Hermione sighed, "Do you want to talk about it?"
"Not really," He said as he stretched out. "Let's just say I'm starting to think you're right about the whole double life thing. It's ridiculous."
"So, you're going to tell her the truth then?"
He rolled his eyes. "Hermione, please. You know how that will work out. I'm sort of stuck, unless I do a split myself and that would cause more problems than anything else."
"You can split yourself?" She asked.
"Theoretically, yes." Harry said, "But there are several issues with the whole process. Not to mention, every time someone performs it there are unexpected consequences. See Jekyll and Hyde for further explanation. Yes they're real, and no haven't had the displeasure of meeting them. Besides, I accept myself for whom I am."
"Yet, you're essentially living a double life." She said.
He sighed, "Do I have a choice?"
"You didn't have to sleep with Emma as Ford."
He glared at her.
"I'm just saying Harry," She said as he waved his hand as his rumpled pajamas became a fresh suit.
"I know," He said. "I just—you'll watch Jaime until Emma comes home, right?"
"Of course," She said. "I need to start teaching him anyway, it will give me some time to go over the basis of magical theory."
He nodded not really paying attention to her. He was thinking about his predicament. "I thought I was making the right decision, Hermione. I was giving her what she wanted. A way out to be with Ford Gold and a way to be with Harry Potter. She didn't have to lose it with me."
Hermione sighed clearly frustrated with him. He was frustrated with himself too.
The meeting went fine. They always went fine. He was good at his job. Ruling a country was something that came naturally to him. Not like relationships. He didn't have to think about emotions, about hurting people's feelings. He just had to make the best deal for magical Britain. And making deals had always been his forte, what he wasn't expecting though was when he arrived back at the house Emma was still gone.
"Really," He told Hermione, "This is getting ridiculous."
Even Hermione conceded with that. "Maybe, you should find her and talk to her as your alter ego. Whatever you said as, well, Harry must have pissed her off."
"So, you're actually telling me the two identity thing is the way to go now." He smarted off. He couldn't help it, it had been a long day.
"Well, right now, it seems like it's the only way she'll talk to you." Hermione said.
"Do you know where she is?" He asked.
"Like you said, she left her cell at home," Hermione said. "And it's not I had time to do a tracking spell on her. I've been trying to teach that son of yours theory."
"Where is Jaime?"
"Graham took him to the park." She said. "I told him you and I needed to have some words. Plus, well, an envelope was delivered earlier from the mayor's office and I thought it would be best if Jaime was out of the house when you opened it."
He groaned as Hermione handed him the envelope. "Let's see how Regina is toying with Gold's emotions now."
He opened the envelope not expecting what he saw which were pictures of Belle with today's time date stamped on them.
He couldn't say anything as he studied the pictures for a while the woman was definitely Belle even though her hair had been shaved off of her head and she seemed thinner than she usually was.
"Is that?" Hermione asked frowning at the photos.
"It's probably a trick." He said, "You can easily doctor photos. Regina could easily have some one posing as her."
"You don't know that," Hermione said. "She could have her. She could be alive, Harry."
"But why?" Harry asked. "Belle would've served no purpose to her. Regina thought I was dead."
"I think we should bring the photos to Graham." Hermione said breaking him out of his thoughts. "It might be enough to get probable cause to get a warrant. She was stupid enough to have it delivered from her office."
"She wants me, or should I say Gold to talk to her." He said, "I think she thinks this is leverage for me to undo the custody agreement."
"It's not though?"
"The last thing I'd ever do is make another deal with that barracuda." He hissed. "And this is my son we're talking about. Not that Regina knows that."
"But if she has Belle—"
"She has Belle." He said, "And I'll have to work at getting her out of Regina's clutches. But if she thinks that Belle is going to have me tear up that custody agreement, she's wrong on so many levels. You can get Graham-Cracker to get that warrant. I don't know what good it will do for us, but it will at least be a start."
As the Dark One, you always had to deal with a substantial amount of rage. When he first came into the title, it was hard controlling that rage. Even when he first recovered those memories, there was an adjustment period. He probably wouldn't have reacted near so strongly now to Snape than he did all those years ago.
Oh, he didn't regret killing him. Snivelius needed to go, but he would've been a bit more subtle about it or at least tormented him longer. Then again, with Snape there had been little to no complications when it came to killing him. It wasn't the same as killing Regina, who knew what he was capable and actually could hold some leverage over him.
Like Belle.
Could she really be alive?
The thought that Regina could've again, one upped him and not only that but proceeded to hold Belle prisoner and do God knows what to her for so many years made his blood boil.
The fact she was now using her as some sort of pawn wanted him to take out Regina's heart and squash it to bit even more. But he was bidding his time, he didn't know if Regina was screwing with him or not and she probably had safeguards to make sure he didn't have the upper hand.
Sadistic bitch.
Deep breaths, remain calm, he told himself when he arrived at her office.
Regina smiled when she saw him, "About time. You actually came later than I suspected."
"I want to talk, Regina."
"First, why don't we have some tea?" She asked playing the role of gracious hostess. "If I remember right, you liked it with cream and no sugar."
"I'm in no mood for tea, dearie."
"Are you sure?" Regina said. "I have a very special cup that you might want to use."
He knew it even before she pulled it out that she was going to use the chipped cup. An actual talisman of Belle's something he could use to find her. Not that Regina knew that.
He glared at her as she handed him the cup. "This isn't your property."
"Really." She said frowning. "It's just a cup. A common china pattern. Are you sure?"
"Oh, you know I'm sure, dearie." He said. "Enough where you won't argue if I keep it. Where is she, Regina?"
"Oh, so you want to talk about those photos. I believe that your client said you didn't want to play games with me."
"I'm not here to play game. I want to know if those photos are real. Is Lacey alive?"
"You know I want a lot of things too." Regina said, "Like my son."
"He's not your son." He hissed.
"Really, is blood the only thing that ties a parent to a child."
"Don't get damn philosophical on me. You and I both know it doesn't suit you."
Regina laughed. "It doesn't, does it. But the boy is mine. Surely, you'd be willing to work with me now if I was to help you with your wife."
Take her heart. Kill her.
He ignored the voices. He couldn't let his inner inhibitions loose, not until what he had what he wanted. Then he'd screw Regina over.
"Work with you, really? You're blackmailing me."
"Oh, you know it's not blackmail. It's how people like us work, Gold."
"The photos could've been faked."
"Or they're not." Regina said. "Did you think about that? Did you think about if she survived that accident what might've happened to her? You do remember that accident, don't you, Gold?"
Another test to see if he remembered his Storybrooke life. "Of course, I remember the damn accident Regina. You got that bastard off for manslaughter."
"Maybe Moe really was innocent." She said, "You never really asked him, did you?"
He glared at her. "Oh, you, can be sure I'll ask him now."
Regina laughed. "You do that. And you know what, take the cup. I'm not going to argue about it. I think it's more of a reminder to you or Lacey than your wedding ring. God knows, you had more of a reaction it."
"Shut up, Regina."
"I want my son back, Gold. I think an equitable trade is a fair."
It was all he could do not to pull out her heart if it still existed in that chest of hers.