27

Chapter 26: Just a Flesh Wound

Rage.

Was something that Rumpelstiltskin knew so well. He had felt it many times throughout his long life, but nothing was the rage he felt when one of his children were in danger. That had been, after all, what caused him to become the Dark One in the first place. The rage he felt for the unfairness of the drafts that occurred because of the orgs. How could anyone think it was okay for a fourteen year-old to go to war?

Of course, after becoming the Dark One his rage became a lot different. Less controlled, more frequent. While over the years, he might've gotten the control part a tad bit better—depending on who you talked to—he was still prone to frequent rages.

And nothing put him in a rage more than knowing his child was missing.

Belle had come running into the shop in a panic, due to the fact that Harry was missing it didn't take Rumple that long to figure out what was going on. But he didn't know how or why.

"What happened?" He asked.

Belle tearfully explained how Harry had somehow found out the truth. The whole truth, about his origins and everything else. All thanks to Henry Mills and that stupid book.

"I'm going to kill him." Rumple exclaimed when Belle was telling her tale.

She looked at him, "Seriously? Henry is a child, Rumple."

"A Charming." He countered.

She rolled her eyes. "You know, I usually ignore your evil ramblings, but he is just a kid, Rum. I will repeat, a kid."

He sighed heavily. He wasn't actually going to kill Henry Mills. Belle was right was a child, and he did have limits. Though there were some troll babies that many people would consider heroic to slay. And of course, there was Peter Pan who wasn't really a kid. He was always on the top of Rumple's to kill list.

Though, Henry Mills was annoying.

Belle looked at him, "Fine. I'm just not backing you up if you do anything to Henry. I'm not going to marry a child murderer."

"I'm not going to kill Henry." I said, "I was upset. I'm still upset. I don't get how Harry was able to break through those wards."

"Well, there's no use in trying to figure out how, we have to find him." Belle said.

Sometimes it surprised him, how his fiancée could sound much more parental than him. He was a parent. Twice. Belle had never given birth to a child, and honestly it was something they never even talked about.

He didn't even know he was still able to reproduce. Well, he thought it was a possibility. Given the amendment to the contract that he made with Cora, but he hadn't really thought the likelihood of succeeding was there.

But there was Harry.

Belle really did treat him as her own, despite barely knowing the boy.

Rumple frowned as he went throughout the list of spells in his head to locate his son. With the wards being down, it made all the easy locator spells null and void.

He could use the blood globe, he guessed. But he would have to unravel all the fine-tuning spells he had been performing on it these past few weeks to find Bae. And just doing that would take time, even at his fastest it would take him a good night—as he later told an angry Regina—but alas it was his only option.

Which was why instead of looking around town for his son, like Belle and Regina had been, he had been stuck in the basement of his house doing spell work.

He didn't notice how much time had passed.

It didn't really matter to him.

His son was out there.

So many scenarios went through the Dark One's head. Each one worse than the last. And he grew more frantic, almost sloppy in his magic.

He had to force himself to calm down.

There was no reason to be fast, he told himself. Magic took time. Harry needed him to be careful.

"Gold," A voice barked breaking his concentration.

He turned around to see an annoyed looking Regina. She almost looked like that cat that he had seen on the Internet. The one with the weird face and had that movie on that Lifetime Channel Belle forced him to watch. He still didn't get those Internet meme things, let alone how a cat its own movie. Honestly, the only thing worthwhile on the web he had found was Ebay. Cheating suckers online never made a dark wizard happier.

Belle always rolled her eyes as he shipped his junk to exotic places like Tampa and Kalamazoo.

"It's better than turning them into snails, sweetheart." He said.

She didn't seem to buy his claim, but she didn't stop him either. Rumple figured she liked him cheating a few dollars off of an ignorant antique hunter in Ontario than turning the Charmings latest spawn into a cockroach.

Cockroaches.

That was something different than snails.

Maybe Henry would make a nice cockroach—he was kidding (sort of).

He really wasn't going to mess with the boy, especially after what Regina told him. Harry had been at the Charmings.

Of course, he was gone now. But they had a location. What was alarming though was what Regina said next.

"There was an accident."

"An accident?" He said, "Was Harry involved."

"I don't know." Regina said biting her lip. He could tell she was upset. Rumple hadn't seen her look like this since that stable boy had died all those years ago. "I just…I need your help. I want to do some Magic CSI before Swan and her caravan of idiots gets there."

"Magic CSI?"

Regina rolled her eyes. "Swan mentioned it, and it sounded catchy. Besides, are you ready…"

"What?" Rumple said.

"You look fried, imp."

He glared at her, "Where was this accident?"

"Near the park." Regina said.

Needless to say, two seconds later they were right across from Storybrooke Park (Regina was oh so original with names) and there was a pool of blood a big pool. And a book. A book that Rumple and Regina knew well.

Regina groaned as she nailed down to pick up the book, "No."

Rumple didn't even have to ask her, by the look on her face. He knew what had happened, Henry had given Harry that book. The blood, the blood was his son's. He didn't even have to use Magic CSI to know that.

If he hadn't performed that adjustment spell on his leg, he knew it would've been giving out that moment. As it was, he still needed to lean on his cane—now worn for pure decoration—to stand up. He felt something coming up his throat.

No, he would not throw up. Not even the pool of blood was large and more than likely Harry's. He needed to be there for his son.

Taking a deep breath Gold waved his hand a vial of the blood appeared in his hand. A few more waves confirmed what he already knew, "Damn it."

Regina stopped sobbing. "It's his then?"

"What do you think?" He asked back. As he saw the approaching headlights of Emma's car in the distance. "Great. Team Good is almost here."

"I don't think I can deal with Swan." Regina said almost in tears.

"You'll deal with her." Rumple sneered.

And they did, deal with her. Came up with a cockamamie story about a deer and then disappeared. Now that he had Harry's blood, Rumple thought he could find him. Or at least once he got the blood globe spell undone he could use Harry's blood to pinpoint his exact location.

Regina turned up a few minutes after him.

"What are we going to do? He could be hurt."

Rumple looked at her, "You think? You can help me undue these spells. You do remember how to do that, don't you?"

She glared at him. "Of course, why aren't you having Bookworm Barbie do that?"

He glared at her. "I just called her. She's driving around, seeing if she can see any banged up cars. And then she's going to the police station. Emma isn't as suspicious of her as she is of us."

"Really," Regina said. "Swan suspicious? Are we talking about the same Swan who has the common sense of the Blue Fairy?"

"She has more sense than that doxie."

Regina rolled her eyes, but helped with the spell. They both worked in silence. The work was long and tedious. Undoing spells was always annoyed even the most seasoned and talented of sorcerers. Especially when it involved undoing his own spells. The feelings of panic didn't help matters.

It was throughout this process that Rumple felt it. It was a gentle tug at first, almost one he could ignore, but then it grew into something he was very aware of. And then he heard his name. In his son's voice.

He knew where Harry was.

Regina looked at him, "What is going on?"

Rumple didn't answer her. Instead, he summoned the vile of potion that had been waiting for him to take when he had planned to take his family out of town. Once he drank it, he hopefully would never need to take it again.

"Where is he?" Regina asked, but Gold was gone.

When he appeared he was in a shabby looking hotel room and imagine to his shock and horror when he saw that Moe French had just shot a gun at his child.

Oh, this would not do.

He had always hated Moe French. As evident of the beat down he had given him, pre-lifting of the curse.

In hindsight, that was a bit stupid. And it had lots him plenty of points with Belle, when Moe went on how Rumple was an evil thing spiel (seriously, couldn't French tell that he was a he. It wasn't exactly rocket science) he always pointed out that lapse in judgment.

However, now Gold knew he could justify it in a you-need-to-control-your-rage/you're-better-than-that lecture. Pointing a gun and shooting it at an eleven-year-old, truly justified a beat down if not more.

He was thinking that Moe might become a nice cockroach that he could step on. Or grind up with his cane.

Waving his hand he stopped the bullet in mid air. He had half a mind to send it back straight into French's stupid mouth, but he really didn't think that was future son in-law behavior. So, he tried to be nice.

"Oh, French. I thought you learned your lesson before. Messing with Belle was bad enough. But no one, no one, messes with my son." He finally said before sending turning the bullet to graze Moe's hand causing him to drop the gun.

Seriously, what did he think he was going to do?

Let this completely go? He might be engaged to Moe's daughter, but that didn't give him a free pass for kidnapping his son.

Rumple looked at the gun. He was halfway tempted to cause the weapon to disintegrate right there and then, but he thought better. There needed to be a weapon when he called the cops (the actual cops, not Emma Swan who'd probably give Moe a Full House-ish lecture and then some milk and cookies before asking him kindly not to kill the next relative of Gold's that he decided to kidnapped). So, he kicked the weapon with his cane to the other end of the room.

"Gold?" A voice coughed out.

Rumple turned around to see his son on the floor.

Dear lord, Harry looked almost as pale as the day he met them.

Gold knelt down on the floor to tend to him. "Are you okay?"

Harry shook his head. "Tried…tried to heal my leg, but I couldn't. He saw me and he tried to kill. I think I might've banged my head, I need you to heal me, Dad."

He passed out then. Rumple didn't even think about the fact he said the "dad" word. It was something he wanted to hear, and he was sort of surprised to hear it. He didn't think much of it though, since Harry was delirious obviously from being injured. Maybe, he'd get Belle to sanction another Moe beating.

Or maybe, he would claim he had to beat the idiot for trying to attack his son multiple times. And he had to defend them by beating him.

Rumple inwardly smirked.

But again, his focus was on his son. Healing the leg wasn't as bad as the first time. After the initial healing, he'd have to adjust Harry's potion levels. That wasn't what worried him. What truly worried Rumple, was that Harry had obviously suffered from a lot of blood lost and had head trauma.

He could heal as much as he could here, but he really didn't feel comfortable on moving him. He was going to need help.

He sighed heavily. Trying to figure out the whole thing. While he was used to the World Without Magic (Amended with Magic because the Blue Doxie is an Idiot), he wasn't that familiar with how the real world—non-Regina world worked. Of course, he knew the basics. And he didn't feel completely helpless, since he had both his money and magic here. But this was his son. He wasn't going to put the upmost fear in these people with the mere sight of his face.

And he didn't know these doctors. And people. Sure, the police had to be more competent than Emma Swan and the doctor's were going to be mere patsies but…

Click.

"I got you now, demon." A befuddled voice said.

"Didn't I mess up your trigger finger?" Gold asked. "I knew I should've blown it off instead of merely graze it. You think this will get Belle to get me a Segway for Christmas?"

"Shut up." His future father in-law said. "You're not immortal in this world."

"That might not exactly be true." Gold said. "As you can see…"

"Shut up." Moe said. "Or I'll blow a hole in both you and your brat. Thought you were so smart, coming in here. Saving the day. Bet you taught that little demon of yours that calling your name trick like Belle, should've known better."

"Are you going to do it already or not?" Gold snapped thinking what sort of shield spell he could throw up to protect himself and Harry.

"Let me monologue." Moe said.

Gold rolled his eyes. "Fine, you know monologing will give me time to come up with a way to foil your plan."

Moe grumbled something about know it all devils. And finally shot again. This time Rumple was ready. The shield sprung up protecting him and Harry and flinging Moe against the wall.

Now that was more like it.

Although, it did leave Moe with more than a flesh wound this time around.

Quite a big flesh wound in the chest.

He wished the rest of it was that easy. Despite, having documentation that he was a respectable member of society. It was still hard explaining what had happened at the dirty hotel room. Let alone, getting Harry admitted to a hospital. And imagine to his surprise when Regina and Belle were there at the hospital.

"How?" He asked.

"Blood globe." Regina snapped. "I fixed it when you were gone, imagine to my surprise when I find out my brother's in the hospital."

Much like he was surprise when he saw Harry in the hospital that day.

Rumple nodded. "Do you mind visiting with him while I talk to Belle?"

Regina nodded as he turned to face his fiancée. "We need to talk."

Belle sighed, but nodded. Rumple could only hope that true love could survive her psychotic father. Somehow, he doubted this conversation was going to end with him getting a Segway.