SUPRISES

It was hard to know what he was thinking. Even as Gold, he was a closed book. The smile could mean many things, yet all of the possibilities were lost to her. His frustrated demeanour slowly vanished as he eyed her up and down.

"You have your mothers chin" he said, his menacing tone making her feel queasy.

She crossed her arms, trying not to look weak, "so I've been told".

His smile grew even wider, "What a wonder this must be for you"

"Why?" she asked, not expecting a response, "because I've never been here before, because this is all new to me"

She stared at him, a hint of anger in her eyes.

"Come to think of it", the shrill rising in his voice, "you look more like your father"

Emma rolled her eyes, "Let's just get to the point"

"You wish to make a deal?" he said, as though hungry for her answer.

Now it was Emma's turn to smile.

"No" she said calmly.

Rumplestiltskin looked slightly taken aback. He moved his face closer to the bars, "No?"

Emma shook her head, her eyes narrowing, "you're going to help me, free of charge, so to speak"

"And why" he whispered, "would I do that?"

Emma looked at the beast sadly, "because if you don't, your son will die"

Suddenly Rumplestiltskin let go of the bars and backed away from the cage. His breathing grew heavy. He did not know what to think. He knew the point of the curse was to find Bae but everything that happened today was not a part of his plan.

"You lie" he spat in disbelief.

Emma looked at him incredulously, "why would I lie?"

Emma was trying to remain firm but he wasn't interested in what she had to say.

Emma fell backwards in fright as he leaped onto the bars, "Because!" he yelled, "you're trying to beat me! You want to prevent the curse from happening! Well think again dearie…it cannot be stopped!"

Suddenly the bars began to shake. Emma tried to get up off the ground, but part of her was frozen as she witnessed the maddening sight. At the corner of her eye she noticed him reaching for a piece of parchment within his pocket.

'The quill ink!' Emma thought. She knew she was in trouble.

"Listen to me!" she yelled, standing up quickly, "Your son is dying; he needs you to help him. Just calm down and listen to me!"

"Stop it! You're lying!" he snarled, moving the parchment to his mouth.

"No" Emma muttered under her breath.

She began to walk backwards, a sense of hopelessness overcoming her. This was not how she thought the conversation would go. Panic swept over her like a storm arriving out of thin air. Neal was going to die, the timeline will be changed and Henry will cease to exist. It was a fear as frightening as the beast in front of her about to break free from his cage. Her thoughts flashed back to that moment in Gold's shop "You could've gotten out!" "I was exactly where I needed to be". She really was changing time and she knew it wasn't a good thing.

"EMMA!"

A familiar voice echoed through the room and it did not come from Rumplestilskin.

Emma turned, confusion written all over her face.

Illuminated by the brilliant orange torch light, stood her father, sword in his hand. He looked at her and then at Rumplestilskin who was now blowing the ink onto the bars. Slowly the wooden bars began to dissolve.

Before Emma could react, she felt a strong pull on her arm. David had thrown down the torch and placed a firm grip around her wrist. He yanked her towards him and practically pushed her towards the exit of the cave.
"Go!" he yelled.

"What about you?"

"I'm right behind you, Go!"

Emma did what she was told. She ran. Part of her did not want to escape though because part of her wondered if there would be anything left to return to.

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"What?"

"You lied. You could have told us the truth to begin with" said Snow as she paced the chamber, her nerves getting the better of her. She knew what the Blue fairy had said and she knew what she had told David only a short while ago. Snow had truly believed that the truth was worth keeping.

That was before she knew the young woman was Emma, though. Now... she was just angry...angry and frightened, all at the same time.

Neal was still awake and alert. Part of him wished he was unconscious though. These were the questions he was hoping to leave for Emma to answer.

"It's complicated" was all he could manage to say.

He glanced suddenly at the door; he had hoped Emma would be back by now. He feared what his father might do to her. She did not know Rumplestilskin like he did. This made him angry, angry at her, angry at himself. After all, he was the reason they were here. He should have believed Emma about Tamara. He thought he knew what evil looked like, but Tamara had him fooled. Now he was dying and Emma was with the monster that was once his father.

Snow stared at him suspiciously "you lied about your name too. David told me that when you were disoriented you said your name was Baelfire"

Neal looked down at the floor, the nature of his dreams rushing back to him.

"Emma lied because it's complicated" she said, her gaze making its way down to her stomach.

She then looked back at him, "so why did you lie, Baelfire?"

"I haven't gone by Baelfire in a long time" he said sadly.

Snow smiled, "I know a little something about running away from your past"

"Yeah" he said, resting his head back onto his pillow.

He did not rest for long however.

A loud bang, ricochet throughout the castle, like a large explosion, causing even the cement walls to shake.