Gold

{43}

I winced as Rumple gasped once again. We were on the Jolly Roger, in one of the rooms below deck.

Rumple was laid against my shoulder, but he seemed even worse than before. His face was paler than ever and his breathing was shaky.

"Claire. I know that earlier you wanted to end things, but if I'm going to die, can't I at least die with you as my fiance?" Rumple asked me weakly.

"Rumple, I love you. I would never let you die without letting you know that. And I will be by your side, Rumple, but you're not dying on me. You can't die on me." I told him, holding onto his hand.

"I'll try my best." He whispered to me as I heard footsteps.

I looked over to see Emma walking down the steps and towards us.

"You don't look comfortable." Emma observed.

"The poison racing towards my heart will have that effect." Rumple told her.

Emma rolled her eyes at that.

"So tell me. This knife of yours.. Cora and Regina, if they have it, they can make you do anything?" Emma asked him.

"Indeed." Rumple told her.

"Like kill us all? Even Claire?" Emma asked and I stiffened. It made me nervous to think about my life and my family's life in Cora's hands.

I wasn't surprised that Regina was helping her either, because she had been wrongly accused. Cora must have framed her to get her on her side once again. And now they were working together.

"Yeah. You're hoping I bleed to death now, aren't you?" Rumple asked her and Emma shook her head.

"You're Henry's grandfather. We're family now. I'm gonna save you." Emma told him.

"Oh, I feel so reassured." Rumple told her and Emma gave him a look.

The rest of the sailing passed quickly and soon the ship stopped altogether. I realized we must have made it to the docks at Storybrooke.

Emma and Baelfire walked in and helped me get Rumple out of the ship.

I saw Charming and Snow were waiting on the docks with David's truck.

"Hey! Are you all right?" Snow asked as she took over helping me take Rumple to Charming's truck.

"I will be when he is." I told her. "Are you okay?" I asked her, noticing something seemed different with her. She seemed harder, like when our mother had passed away. It seemed like even more of her light had dimmed.

"I will be." Snow told me, but that didn't reassure me.

Ahead of us, Henry was telling Charming that he drove a pirate ship. "My dad taught me." Henry said and Snow and David looked curiously to Baelfire.

"Yeah, that's me." He said awkwardly.

We reached Charming's truck and I helped Rumple inside. "Thank you." He said.

"Is Cora trying to control you with the dagger?" Charming asked Rumple.

"Well, you'd know if she was, because most of you would be dead by now." Rumple told him.

"Well, then we'll just have to take the fight to her before that can happen." Snow told us.

"We will." Charming assured her.

"And this time, we finish it." Snow said and I looked to her in surprise.

"Finish it? Snow, what happened while I was gone?" I asked her and she turned to me.