A/N: It's been forever, I know. To add to that, I went looking for this chapter (about half of it was done weeks ago, then I got really busy) only to have a mini heart attack when I couldn't find it in my initial search. I was all, "Noooo!" Thank goodness it was not actually lost forever.

Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who or Once Upon a Time and do not make any profit with this story. Please do not sue me. I have no money.

Chapter 9

"Fairy Tales"

Previously:

The Doctor grinned.

"Hardly, I'm just warming up. Like I said, I have many names. You might be from another universe, but things do tend to seep on through no matter what. I've been around long enough, made enough enemies, to be one of those things." The Doctor lowered his voice, leaning forward. "So, let's try that introduction again, shall we? I am the Doctor, the last of the Time Lords, the Oncoming Storm, and I am not going to let innocent people die because you thought a curse was a good idea."

Mr. Gold was silent for a moment, showing no reaction. Then, he smirked.

"I'll be counting on it, Doctor."

888

Somewhere in the Enchanted Forest

"Wait," the fallen seer said, holding her hand up. "As gratitude, I offer you one piece of the puzzle. You will be reunited with your son and it will come in a most unexpected way."

"How?"

"A boy, a young boy will lead you to him. But beware, Rumpelstiltskin, for that boy is more than he appears. He will lead you to what you seek, but there will be a price. The boy will be your undoing." With that final warning, the seer's limbs go limp and the glowing blue eyes on her hands shut.

The Dark One looks at the dead seer, taking in her death as if watching a cricket hop by. Death was an everyday occurrence - especially when he was around - so why should it really concern him? He had far better things to put his energy into, after all.

"Then I'll just have to kill him," he said, then began to walk away from the lifeless body. Only, it wasn't quite lifeless just yet. One of the seer's eyes shot open upon her hand and air hissed out of her mouth in the shape of a single word.

"Storm," she said. Rumpelstiltskin paused.

"What?" The seer takes a rattling breath, one the Dark One would later remember while staring down his death in a town out of place.

"A storm is coming." The words come out slow, and it seems like she is using every fiber of her being to accomplish the sentence. Rumpelstiltskin wrinkles his brow, confused, and steps towards her to ask what it means, why she won't just die and stop bearing ill news.

"Why should a storm concern me?" His tone is arrogant. If he has no worries concerning the boy, then a little storm was nothing to even bat an eye toward. The seer, however, surprises him by chuckling. She barely had any energy left to spare, but she kept on laughing - at him. Rumpelstiltskin growled, readying himself to strike the girl back into death, but froze as her laughter suddenly ceased.

"He is not meant to be part of the puzzle, but he is. Clever boy… Old boy. Boy with tricks up his sleeves and pain in his hearts."

"Stop speaking in riddles. Is this the same boy you spoke of before?"

"No."

"Then why speak of him at all? Is he a threat?"

"There is power that comes with him," she said, "Power you cannot imagine."

"Power I can use? Take?"

"It is beyond you," she said, smirking.

"Nothing is beyond me," Rumpelstiltskin said.

"We shall see." The seer then gasped as her whole body seized.

Then, she was gone.

Storybrooke Hospital - Present (Someone's present, anyway)

"So, what's the plan?" Emma asked. She ignored the hovering figure next to her, checking for injuries and flashing lights in her eyes, to focus on the Doctor.

There was another, far more annoying doctor she probably should be paying attention to at that moment - seeing as he was the one blinding her with a pen light - but Emma didn't feel that concerned with her health at the moment. It probably had something to do with the fact that her world was being upset once again.

Curses, magic, parents her own age… now an alien who traveled in a police call box was telling her their whole town was in danger if they did not find a way to stop a beast that consumed magic. Emma couldn't bring herself to feel surprised anymore. But, she was worried and more than her fair share of annoyed.

"Doctor?" she asked again, then added, "No, not you, Whale."

Dr. Whale looked irritated, most likely her doing, but he was nice enough to back away from his prodding and testing of her senses. He looked at the "Doctor" she referred to, who was absorbed in working on something that looked like a cross between a cellphone and a protractor.

Henry sat next to the man, watching him work, while Mary Margaret and David were talking with the dwarves and the Blue Fairy off to the side. Regina sat quietly across from Henry, brow wrinkled. As for Mr. Gold - he was acting strange; stranger than usually, anyway.

He had found Belle in all of the chaos that had scattered the townspeople. His attention was mainly on her, but whenever his gaze drifted it would always end up on the Doctor. This was reasonable enough, seeing as everyone who had noticed the strange man was sparing a few odd looks in his direction, except Mr. Gold didn't look at him in the same way. He looked hopeful, interested… hungry. Emma hoped he wasn't plotting anything. She really couldn't handle something like that right now.

Hopping off of the hospital bed she'd been forced onto, Emma hurried over to the Doctor. She ignored the protests from Dr. Whale and simply plopped herself next to the Doctor in the spare plastic chair. Emma finally got the man's attention when she plucked the odd contraption from his hands.

"Hey!" The Doctor scowled, snatching it back from her. "No touching."

"What is that thing?"

"It's a trans-dimensional magic teleportation device to send the creature far, far away," the Doctor answered.

"Really?"

"No, I just made that up." The Doctor ignored the glares sent his way. "It does something else."

"Which is what exactly?" Henry asked, trying to drag out the answer from the Doctor.

"Hopefully something to help buy us more time - not that time can be bought." The Doctor dropped his hands, expression confused. "Who came up with that expression? It doesn't actually make any sense, if you think about it."

Henry shrugged and the Doctor went back to work on his "time buying" device. Emma shook her head. There was hardly a dull moment with the man around, and Emma wondered if it was always like this for him.

"What happens when that time runs out?" Regina asked, straightening in her chair and aiming her worried gaze at the Doctor.

"Time doesn't run out," the Doctor said. Regina opened her mouth to protest, looking annoyed by his reply. She froze, however, when the Doctor met her angry eyes with a reassuring gaze. "Not while I'm around."

"Well, that should do it," the Doctor quickly said. He stood up, device ready in his hand. Buttons were pushed, something beeped and then Emma felt something that was difficult to describe. It felt like the prickling you get at the back of your neck when something creeps up on you, only she felt it everywhere. Emma rubbed her arms, shifting a little at the strange sensation that refused to fade away. She noticed everyone else reacting in a similar way.

"What is that? What did you do?" Regina asked. She looked surprised.

"Don't worry. It's just something to temporarily dampen your energy."

"You have a device that can block magic? Fascinating," Dr. Whale said. He went in for a closer look at the device, which the Doctor pulled away.

"Dampen, not block. It would take far too much time to make something that could do that," he said. Then, added as almost petulantly, "And no touching."

Dr. Whale blinked a few times, taken aback by the Doctor's slightly childish manner, before putting on a civil yet arrogant smile.

"Unlike most of the people of this town, I am a man of science. I assure you that I have no intention to break such an intriguing piece of machinery."

"A man of science in a town of fairytale characters?"

"He's Dr. Frankenstein," Emma quickly explained.

The Doctor's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yep."

"Fascinating." The Doctor drew in closer to Dr. Whale, uncomfortably close, and took his hand to shake. "Brilliant. I've met the woman who wrote about you."

"Ummm." Dr. Whale didn't get a chance to collect his thoughts when the Doctor pulled him in closer to whisper.

"Turns out, not all of her nightmares were nightmares."

"That book is a highly inaccurate depiction of my life," Dr. Whale managed to say, sounding offended that the Doctor would even mention it.

"Most books are," the Doctor said, backing out of Dr. Whale's personal space. "They take your life and they put it into symbols that make words and sentences that never quite manage to grasp the greatness, the love, the pain and the horror. Words are powerful, but they would break apart if we managed to put our everything into them. The Time Lord's written language once came close, but we saw what those words could do and it, well, it wasn't always pleasant or even a little bit fun."

"Are you speaking from experience or just making this up as you go along," Mr. Gold asked, stepping into the conversation. The Doctor's gaze swung around to him. Mr. Gold planted his cane into the ground, much like he did in front of his shop. The Doctor flexed his jaw, then plastered on a carefree smile.

"Oh, it's all made up. I'm good at that - making things up. Haven't you figured that out by now?" Though his voice was bright, it was clear he was egging Mr. Gold on, daring him to react, which the man did with the same underlying tone.

"You've made it quite clear, actually. Tell me, what plan are you making up now to save us?"

"Rumpelstiltskin," Belle said in warning at his side.

"Belle," Mr. Gold began, ready to argue. The Doctor's eyebrows shot up as he heard her name, but the man made no remarks.

"Hey, let's try not to make this any worse than it already is," Emma said, stepping in as well. Mr. Gold did not say anything else, but his gaze remained intense as he looked at the Doctor. Emma didn't like it at all. She understood that the man was nervous - she would be if it was her on the creature's menu of choice - but there was something still lurking in the back of Gold's gaze that was setting off her gut instincts that told her something bad was going to happen.

She turned to the Doctor. "How much time has that thing of yours given us?"

"Forty minutes - no, make that twenty-five, tops," the Doctor said absently.

"Then we'd better figure this out before that time runs out," she replied. "And not get at each other's throats while we're at it."

"Agreed," Belle said when Gold remained silent. A gentle touch from her brought the man out of his stare. The dark swirls in his gaze faded as he took her hand. Belle smiled at him and then looked back at the group. "So, what's the plan?"

Everyone looked to the Doctor, who seemed to be staring at something unseen as he slowly wrung his hands together. If he felt the stares, he did not indicate that he did. His shoulders remained slumped and his head ducked. The rest of the world no longer existed for the Doctor.

After a moment, as the silence began to grow awkward, Emma noticed the Doctor's gaze flicker from looking at an unknown abyss to Belle's hand on Mr. Gold's arm. Emma reached out her own hand to tug on the Doctor's tweed clad arm, but grabbed for air instead when he suddenly moved.

"Aha, got it!" The Doctor practically glided forward, surprising Belle by taking her other hand and kissing it. "Brilliant! Thank you, Beauty! And I mean that in so many ways."

Mr. Gold growled. Belle carefully extracted her hand from the Doctor's grip.

"Um, you're welcome?" When Belle caught the murderous look on Gold's face, she quickly added, "Though I have no idea why." Then, she shot Rumpelstiltskin a warning look.

"I've always liked your character very much," the Doctor said, grinning. "Beauty and the Beast. Clever, clever Belle and her hideous beast… Sorry."

Mr. Gold looked annoyed but didn't reply, choosing instead to glare the other man down until he took a step away from Belle. It seemed as if the Doctor had some level of self-preservation in him after all.

"Right then," the Doctor said, running his hands through his hair, "Time to tame the beast - You, over there, get your mind out of the gutter. I didn't mean it that way. Shame on you."

One of the dwarves, Emma wasn't sure which he was exactly, coughed and began looking everywhere but in the direction of the Doctor. Emma rolled her eyes, while Grumpy gave his fellow dwarf an exasperated shove.

"Tame it with what, exactly?" Regina asked. The Doctor turned and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"With what else but the most unreasonable, remarkable, ridiculous, brilliant and powerful thing in all the universes?"

"What would that be?" Regina looked a little uncomfortable with the close proximity, but didn't pull away. She seemed too intrigued. The Doctor paused, a bittersweet smile growing on his lips as he studied her features.

"Love," he replied.

A/N: Yeah, I did it. I made the secret weapon love. What of it? Huh? Don't groan and unfollow me just yet. It's going to go well… Or, at least I hope it goes well. I dedicate this chapter to my oldest sister. She'll probably understand why this one is specifically dedicated to her.