Ten Years- Once Upon A Time- ON HOLD

What's Your Real Name

Neal went to see Mr. Gold the next day, but before he could reach his father's shop he ran into Regina when walking past her road.

"Hello, Neal." She said.

"Good afternoon, Mayor Mills."

"Please, call me Regina," She smiled at him, but noticed he looked nervous, "Is there something wrong?"

"No, there's nothing wrong." Neal lied.

Regina could see right through this lie, but she didn't let him know that.

"Do you want to come in for a drink? My house is just down the road from here, and I've got some great apple cider."

Neal really wanted to go and find Mr. Gold before he changed his mind about the whole thing, but he couldn't think of a way to refuse.

"One drink can't hurt, can it?" He decided.

He followed Regina down the road to her house, the biggest on the road. Neal didn't know why this surprised him; she was the mayor after all.

Once they were inside, Regina went to her study to pour Neal a drink. She made sure she had her back to him when she did this, so he didn't see her tip the contents of a tiny bottle into his glass.

~~~~

Neal didn't stay at Regina's long. He wanted to get to the pawn shop as soon as possible. He now stood outside the door, debating whether he would actually go inside.

He eventually decided that he would. The bell rang as he opened the door to the shop. Mr. Gold looked up from a piece of paper he held in his hand.

"Ah, Mr. Cassidy, is it?" Gold asked.

"No," Neal said, "Well, it is, but-"

"Why are you getting confused over your own name?"

"I have more than one. Neal's a name I made up for myself." Neal admitted.

"Then what's your real name?"

Neal was regretting this already. What was he actually going to say once Gold realised that he was looking at his son. It had been hundreds of years since they last saw each other and here they were, finally, and all Neal wanted to was yell at him for being a coward.

"It's Baelfire." He eventually said.

Gold dropped the paper he was holding and stared at Neal with tears in his eyes.

"Bae?"

He stepped around the counter he had been standing behind and walked towards Neal, but Neal moved away from him.

"Baelfire? What's wrong?"

"Really? You left me and you think that everything will be alright just because I came back?" Neal said, "I haven't forgiven you."

"I understand that," Gold said, leaning on his cane, "I was a coward. If there's anything I can do to try and make it up to you, I'll do it."

An idea hit Neal almost instantly.

"Help Emma break the curse," He said, "You created the curse, now break it."

"It's not that simple, it was prophesied that the curse would break on her 28th birthday."

"I can't wait that long. I want Emma back." Neal said.

Gold thought for a moment, hoping that there was a way he could help his son, but before he could say anything his phone rang.

"Do you mind?" He asked.

"No, you're fine." Neal grumbled.

Gold took his phone out of his pocket and rolled his eyes when he saw it was Regina.

"What can I help you with now, Regina?"

"I did it." Regina said. She sounded excited.

"Did what?"

"I poisoned Neal. He'll be dead in half an hour."

Gold's eyes widened.

"Is this a bad time?" Neal whispered.

Gold held up a hand, indicating that he'd answer in a minute.

"Regina, undo it." He said.

"What? No!" Regina cried, "I need to strengthen the curse!"

"Listen, I'm staying at Granny's," Neal muttered, "Come and find me there if you think of something."

Gold nodded, thankful to be able to talk to Regina without Neal knowing he could die. Neal turned around and walked out of the shop.

"Regina, is there any way you can save him?" Gold asked as soon as Neal had left.

"Why do you want to save him all of a sudden?"

"He's my son. He's Baelfire," Gold explained, "Regina, please."

"Dammit Gold!" Regina snapped, "I don't know how!"

"What did you use on him?" Gold asked.

"Um... I don't know. The label's in a different language." Regina said.

Gold hurried into the back room of the shop and took a book off the shelf.

"Send me a picture of the label. If I can translate it I might be able to find a way to stop this." He said, placing the book on his desk and opening it to the first page.

It took 15 minutes and three different books for Gold to translate the label in the photo Regina sent him, and then he had to find the name of the poison in a fourth book. By then he feared it would be too late.

"Have you found it?" Regina asked.

Gold skimmed to the bottom of the page he was on until he saw what he was looking for.

"Destroying the container this potion was last kept in will stop its effects." He read aloud.

"What does that mean?"

"Smash the glass he drank from. It'll save him." Gold ordered.

"But that's a really nice glass!"

"Regina! We have a deal!" Gold yelled, "Do you really want to break that deal with me now?"

~~~~

And we're back! I think it's been about 9 weeks too! I was really close to putting this on hold! I'm sorry this took so long but I had a lot of deadlines to meet over the last two months and I didn't really know how this chapter was going to work. But I know what's happening in the next chapter so hopefully I'll have that done soon :)