Chapter 22: Confrontations
He couldn't believe she had roped him into saving her. Honestly, he had been more than a little willing to let Bernie drag her out of the lobby and throw her into a real jail cell where they didn't furnish Happy Meals, but he couldn't.
And it wasn't because she was the mother of his child.
Really, Gold had half a mind to rip her heart out right there and then, because it had been obvious that she scared Harry. Not to mention she killed poor Henry Mills, his newly discovered grandchild.
The news had not really sunk into him yet; he could only imagine how Bae was dealing with it. But he had enough tact to let him and Emma talk it out, and besides he knew he needed to talk to Harry try to calm him down and tell him everything was going to be okay, when he doubted that it actually was.
Sure, he had a spy in Pan's orbit now, but he didn't know how long Umbrella Man would really last. And if he knew Pan, which he did, his fiancée was probably all the way in Neverland by now. And Gold was an expert at how difficult realm traveling was.
Which was why he wanted to talk to Regina in private, see if she had any of those beans left, it would be a start he figured.
Of course, talking to Regina was a little next than impossible since she was in her Snow White disguise and seemed to have no interest in changing back to her wretched self soon.
He was really going to need to work on getting her to ditch whatever half-baked plot she had come up with. But first he had to deal with Cora.
"Surely, you must have some feelings for me Rumple." She said looking at him all googly eyed.
He rolled his eyes. The woman before him was not the same woman he had an ill-fated series of dalliances with that resulted in his son.
She was a hardened villain, calculating. He had taught her maybe too well. He didn't care what she plead, there was only one reason she was being used right now. As bait of Pan, he kept telling himself.
He wondered if he was supposed to feel something seeing her again. He probably should, but other than wanting to tear out her heart.
Nothing.
Instead, he was just looking at another one of his many enemies. This one had particularly spurned him. The thirst of revenge was definitely in his mind, which was one of the many reasons he had motioned Regina to take Harry away.
Although, he was a little skeptical about letting a practically defenseless Regina be alone with his son. Though, she claimed that she was packing mace.
Like mace would stop his father.
It was time to get back to Cora. He finally had come up with a half-baked witticism to rebuke her question. "The only feelings I have for you, Cora, that is remotely positive is you were a decent incubator."
"I am not Hadrian's incubator, I am his mother."
"His name is not Hadrian."
"I am his mother, I decide what his name is." Cora said.
At this point, Gold had to do everything to control the Dark One part of him from grabbing her heart and tearing it to itty bitty pieces.
Instead he looked at her and snapped, "You are not his mother. Do not even say that after what you did to him."
"Did to him?" Cora said, "I did nothing to him."
"Exactly, you threw him away like he was rubbish. Or maybe you sold him, thought you could get a nice price for the Dark One's heir, eh?"
Cora looked at him with horror. "I would never do that! I am not that big of a monster."
"Oh, don't lie to me, Cora." He snapped. "Surely, you realize by now that I'm smarter than your little pirate. You can't fool me."
She bit her lip like she was going to make some remark but she stopped herself. "I don't know what sort of sick idea you have in your head, Rumple, but I didn't sale our son. He was taken. By a wizard in lurid robes."
She made no sense. She used to be a better liar, he told her this and she shook her head.
"I'm really not lying about this, Rumple. I would never sale Hadrian not after the child with the gardener."
"So, you're finally admitting Zelena. Guess it is convenient for you now."
"How dare you!" Cora snapped, "You don't know how much pain I was in when I had to give her up."
Gold chuckled. "Oh, yes, you'd win mother of the year. Dumping two of your children, and turning Regina into a full blown sociopath."
"With your assistance." Cora quickly retorted. "Might I remind you how you had her push me into another realm."
Gold laughed. "You made the most of the situation, besides you deserved it after what you did to her stable boy. You know she's never been the same after that, especially in the romance department."
"Oh, don't act like you care about my daughter's love life. Unless, no. She had to be lying you like that mousy librarian too much."
Gold glared at her as she badmouthed Belle. He wanted nothing more to destroy her at this moment. It was her fault, partially to what had happened to his lady love.
"Oh come, on, Rumple." Cora's bravado had warmed up some now. "She is mousy."
Belle was not mousy. However, he knew Cora equated books with mousy and that was one of the many things that annoyed him about her—besides the fact that he sold his son.
He rolled his eyes thinking of the worst way to attack Cora, so he went with her age. He knew how vain she was. He could smell a glamour charm a mile away. And the fact that Hook appeared to be years younger than her was also a tell tell sign, though to be fair, he guess people would assume the same about him since his and Belle's relationship was definitely was someone would coin a May and December romance.
"At least she's fresh as a daisy," He said. "You're a wrinkled weed, Cora."
She glared at him.
"There's no need to be so shallow, Rumple. And if we're going to talk age, I should mention that you're as old as dirt."
"You started this shallow talk when you called Belle mousy." He retorted.
"So sensitive," Cora said. "And so off topic. I want a relationship with my son, Rumple. How dare you keep him away from me!"
Of course, she'd act self-righteous, like she didn't do anything wrong at all. It didn't surprise Rumple, after all that was how she was when she broke up with him.
If you could even consider what they had a break up.
Because it was a no-strings relationship for the most part, until Cora tricked him into thinking she had actual feelings in him. Which ended up with her becoming pregnant with Harry, since one could never trick the Dark One.
This comment was probably one of many things that had pushed him over the edge with her. To be fair, he only pulled out her heart. He put it back though, after he had made some minor justifications.
Still though, it gave his Dark One self the feels watching her squirm.
Oh she deserved to squirm, and then some. However, he needed her and told her that. "You are going to be a pawn for me, pet." He said.
She glared at him. "I'd never—"
He squeezed her black heart causing her to pant and muttered. "Would you really kill the mother of your child?"
He laughed, "Been there, done that already."
To an Average Person it would've sounded horrible, but to Rumple, it was just the truth. Even all these years later, he had no regrets about killing Milah.
He knew he should've.
She was Bae's mother. However, did he regret killing her—hardly. He just wished he would've finished off that realm traveling pirate.
The pirate!
That was the key. He could get the pirate to take him to Neverland and he was going to use Cora to get him to help.
"What are you thinking, Rumple?" Cora hissed.
He smirked as he waved his hand over her heart to control her. Imagine his surprise when he found that her heart was infused with squid ink.
"I have to give it to Regina, she really out did herself on you."
Cora glared at him, "Squid ink doesn't last forever."
"It last long enough," He said. "It's nice seeing you defanged."
"Rumple, I want to—"
She found she couldn't talk.
He giggled. It wasn't like his giggle in the Enchanted Forest, with that unnerving shrill quality about it, but there was still something menacing enough about to have Cora raise an eyebrow.
"You can't ask about our son anymore." He said getting to the point. "In fact, I compelled you not to even as much look at him. You will never be in Harry's life."
"How?" Cora was cut off, naturally.
The former witch glared at him, for she knew heart magic only too well. She was the queen of hearts after all. Having her own talented twisted against her, had obviously touched a nerve.
Rumple was glad.
"Now," He said. "You're going to put yourself to good use. First I want you to call the pirate, and find him. I want a meeting with him."
"But, I don't know where he is?"
He waved his had she stopped speaking. She looked so much better when she didn't talk, he found. She vaguely reminded him of the plucky peasant girl he had thought he had loved.
He was such a silly young thing then. He didn't know how he thought it was love though, looking at her now.
Cora had been twisted to a person he didn't recognize. He knew it was partially his fault. He had molded her into being a vengeance seeking crone. Despite what he told her, he wasn't attracted to her because she was older. The reason the spark for whatever they had died was because of the things she had done.
He'd never forgive her for what she did to Harry. Much like he'd never forgive Milah for what she did to Bae. However, unlike Milah, Cora was still useful and that's why she was still alive.
If only for now.
Cora looked at him, "I'll see what I can do, I don't have Hook on a leash, you know."
"Oh, dearie, I'm sure you can find him if you want to. I want to get to Neverland and you're going to get me there. Now go contact him, I don't want you near our son."
She looked like she was going to cry, but she reluctantly did what he asked. The beauty of heart charms, he thought as he grabbed his phone to call Regina. He needed to plan with someone who was half witted.
And talk to someone too.
The Henry thing had been eating him up alive, and he really didn't have anyone to talk to. Regina was probably the person he was closest to next to Belle, and it sort of pained him to say that.
They wanted to kill each other half of the time, and both of them used each other. But there was a mutual respect thing there, especially since they both came to know of Harry's existence.
He also needed to discuss logistics with Regina, if he was going to go into Pan's lair he needed an ally, and that meant a full powered non-disguised Regina.
That meant he needed to nip this plan of petty revenge in the bud.
Though, he understood her rage.
He had just found out he was Henry's grandfather hours ago, and he wanted to rip Cora's heart into little pieces.
Funny, how much things could change in an hour.
He had felt bad about the boy's death, but now. There was real, genuine pain. The pain of loss. He hated that pain.
The Dark One hated that he felt that pain. He wasn't supposed to feel anything like that, and a part of him hated the fact that he wanted to drink a cup of tea with Regina in part to talk about feelings.
In part to strategize.
Though, that meant he was going to have to leave Harry alone with his son and Emma. And as much as he loved Bae, he didn't trust him completely enough to watch Harry. Not without sophisticated wards that were casted by yours truly—which Bae would complain about.
Harry had briefly mentioned how Bae had tried to cast protection wards around him when he arrived back at the penthouse. Those wards were nothing, he hadn't noticed them when he poofed back to the hotel.
Bae and Emma were his only options though. He couldn't very well let Harry hear the conversation that he was planning with Regina since it was going to involve all the things that villains talk about—evil doings, mayhem, disguising oneself as an annoying do-gooder princess, and potential murder plots.
Yeah, not very kid friendly.
He sighed heavily once he had Harry settled. He had wanted to talk to his son, but how they handled the whole Pan situation was imperative. He was no going to let his father get away with what he did to Belle.
Regina shook her Snow White like head at him after he poofed Harry away. "He's already getting suspicious that we're spending time together. I halfway think he suspects."
"Oh, come on, Regina." Gold said, "Harry is twelve. I doubt he can see through your disguise. I can—"
"Only because you're the Dark One. But Harry is a smart kid, Gold. What do you want to talk about?"
Gold sighed and said something he always hated saying. "I need your help."