Beautiful Lily

A cog

Henry couldn't focus at all during school that Tuesday. He wanted to go practice magic. He wanted to learn how to enact the Traveling Spell from his book. Paul, the small boy from the book, used a bed-knob to travel. Henry didn't want to lug around a bed or a bed-knob. He needed something small that he could carry around with him, yes... but something that he could twist. That's what the spell required. Henry figured that perhaps there was something in his grandfather's pawnshop that could give him ideas. Henry figured, that he did mention to his grandfather that he would come by to visit him. Why not today? So when the school bell rang, he bolted right out of the classroom beating the entire student body out of the building. He ran as much and as far as he could until he was out of breath.

He walked the rest of the way until he reached downtown Main Street. He passed the library and continued further down the street stopping in front of his grandfather's shop. He looked up at the foreboding sign, "Mr. Gold's Pawn Shop" and gawked at it. Henry took in a nervous breath, readjusted the strap to his book bag and entered the shop.

The bell to his shop gave a little jingle, signaling Henry's presence. Henry walked in to discover Mr. Gold standing behind his register tinkering with a pocket-watch. Mr. Gold looked up to his grandson with gleeful surprise, "Henry!"

"Hi Mr. Go... Grandpa," Henry said smiling awkwardly. It still felt a bit strange calling him that.

"How are you? How are things?" Gold asked, ignoring Henry's awkward greeting.

"Good... things are good. School is boring though," Henry said. From where Henry stood he looked around at the menagerie of items in his shop. He looked back at his grandfather, "Can I... uh... look around your shop?"

"By all means, have a look around," Gold said coming around from the register to meet Henry face-to-face. "Anything in mind that you're looking for?"

"I'll know it when I see it," replied Henry cryptically, as he peered through the glass containers holding random objects. Henry felt awkward in the silence he was sharing with his grandfather so he decided to make conversation. "So... when you first started learning magic... was it difficult for you?"

"Well... I didn't learn magic. Magic became part of me when I became the Dark One," said Gold as he got closer to Henry, resting his hand on the glass case Henry was looking at. Henry moved on and walked over to the other side of the shop, looking up at all the items that were sitting on the shelves against the wall.

"How old was the youngest student you've ever taught magic to?" Henry asked curiously. Gold looked at Henry curiously, but then played along with his questions by responding, "Well you see, youth and age are relative. It all really depends on the creature. Are we talking... human? Elf? Gnome? Dwarf?"

Henry grinned at Gold's reply, "Human."

Gold nodded, looking down as he reflected. "Fourteen... Your father actually... He was my first student. I taught him basics and fundamentals, but he was much too young. He made for a poor student because he never wanted any part of it."

"And what, would you say, qualifies a person to be magical?" he asked as he looked at some of the objects that were dangling from the center ceiling. He saw a bike hanging there, which would have made an excellent candidate for his traveling spell, but it was still too large.

"I would say that anyone with the belief and desire for magic would qualify as someone being magical, unless of course, you were born with it."

To be born with magic, Gold reiterated in his head. Emma was born with magic and she is the product of True Love. Wouldn't their child also be the product of True Love? When he and Belle kissed for the first time, almost breaking his curse, it initially broke from their True Love's kiss. Wasn't that evidence enough of their True Love for each other? There was no way of knowing for certain until their daughter was born and Gold wasn't going to wait idly by for the next eight months to find out. When it came down to the safety of his family, he wasn't going to leave anything to chance. He had told Belle that he would do everything in his power to make sure she wasn't going to die from this. So he decided right then and there, that even if their child was the product of True Love, he would still sacrifice his life for her, for them; even if that meant sacrificing his own heart.