Fall Desperation

Disclaimer: I do not own anything (unfortunately)

Rumpelstiltskin knew that the charming family must have been desperate. There was a list that was strictly abided to for these kinds of situations. If Emma couldn't watch Henry then Charming was called. If he was unavailable then snow was called. If she was busy Baelfire was called. If they couldn't find him then they called a baby-sitter (usually Ruby, or Granny). It was only in the rare event that no one else was available that Rumpelstiltskin was called. He found himself in such a situation one fall evening.

It was one of those days where you truly knew it was fall, and not just because the calendar said it was October. The wind was cool, and somehow crisp. The rays of the sun where bright and you could feel yourself soaking it in. The leaves where brightly colored, and everywhere, not just on the trees.

Emma was receiving call after call at the sheriff's station. Everything from the desperate woman who was watching the lost boys ("They refuse to take a bath!") to a teenaged girl who set her house on fire ("I must have forgotten to turn my straightener before I left."), to a drunk Leroy ("Granny don't have no more pie, You Emma! Emma you gotta help comes bake some pie!"). Charming and Snow had left 3 days ago to who knows where. Emma might have worried if they had not left a 3 line note about going on a romantic getaway and getting back when they got back. Bae had gone back to the city for the week. Red had a date that she refused to cancel. Granny had a baking contest bright and early the next morning. As such the Charming family had little choice but to call him.

He had been having a fairly normal day. Three people had come in to complain about the price hike in their rent. A teenaged girl had come in to ask his opinion on what she should do about her unplanned pregnancy. He found it ridiculous that couples that didn't want, or where not yet ready to have children didn't think until after the fact. In the Enchanted Forest forest he had taken the children and found better homes for them, in this world all he could do was advise her to tell her parents. Why children who had no job, no money, and no sense of responsibility, even found themselves in such a situation was beyond him, it was completely inappropriate for people of their age.

It was about 10:00 AM when Emma called. He would never admit it but he was extremely nervous (as well as excited) about watching the boy. Rumpelstiltskin loved his grandson, but he had always loved him from afar. The disaster he had made of the relationship between Bae and himself made him cautious of making a mistake with Henry. He dealt with the problem by just staying away from his young grandson altogether. He couldn't make a mess of anything that way. Until today it had worked out just fine. The Charming family keep Henry away from him, and he did his best to stay in the background. Today for the first time no one else was available to watch him, so Rumpelstiltskin would.

Not 15 minutes after the call Henry walked in, Emma following behind him. Without acknowledging anyone Henry started walking around the store occasionally stopping and looking at random bits that caught his interest.

"You going to be alright here kid?"

"It'll be great Emma, where going to have fun, right?"

Rumple looked at Henry "Indeed." then he turned his head to the older occupant of the room "He'll be fine Miss Swan. I will return him at 6 PM sharp."

"Alright. Call me if you need anything Henry, O.K?"

"Emmmaaa!" Rumpelstiltskin wasn't sure if it was a shout or a wine, perhaps a cross of both? At any rate Emma turned her head towards Rumple.

"I better not here about him getting hurt." He admired Emma for that. Most people, even in this land, where too afraid to make even vague threats against him. He could appreciate that kind of protection for Henry. Not that his grandson needed it, anyone who dared try to hurt the boy would meet a not so unfortunate (at least in his eyes) fait by Rumple's hand.

"I have a policy against harming children Miss Swan." It was true, he did. Unfortunately, it didn't always work with family. Look at what he had done to his son. She seemed grudgingly satisfied with the response, and walked out of the shop, cell phone ringing.

Henry spun around as soon as his mother left. "What do I call you?"

The child's forwardness made a hint of a smile appear on his lips, Bae was the same. "What would you like to call me?"

"Grandpa, no that's what I call David, how about Papa?"

"An excellent choice."

"So Papa, what are we doing today?"

"What would you like to do?"

The boy looked up from the marble he had picked up and was in the process of examining. "Why do you always answer a question with a question?" Henry's nose scrunched up and the brown eyes looked directly into his own.

Clever and observant Rumple thought to himself. "You learn a lot about a person from the way they answer."

"Oh, well if you wanted to know something about me you just could have asked. My favorite colors are blue and green. I love to read, and my favorite books are the Harry Potter series, and my book. I play baseball on the school team, and right now I want to go to the park."

Rumple thought it endearing that the boy rattled off information as if he were being interviewed. He made sure to store the information away for later use. "Well then why don't we head to Granny's and get some sandwiches and lemonade for a picnic at the park?"

"Cool." Rumpelstiltskin grabbed his keys from under the counter, his cane, also under the counter, and limped around the counter to the door. He flipped the sign on the door, declaring the shop closed. He couldn't help but notice Henry's hesitancy to put the marble down.

"Keep it." Henry looked up

"Really?"

"Really. It's yours." It had belonged to a rather wealthy couple in the Enchanted Forest who had desperately wanted to get rid of their child. It had turned out that the child was a girl, and they had wanted a son. He had agreed, for a price of course. The marble was made of a rare type of glass. Everyone, Rumple included had thought it had all been destroyed. It would have fetched a hansom price, and he had intended to give it to the family who had taken the child in, but they had refused it. He had no use for it, but Henry seemed infatuated with it. It was one of the things in the shop that he wouldn't worry about the boy having.

"Let's get a move on. We want to get to get to the park before sundown." Henry slowed his pace considerably so Rumple could keep up with him, but anyone could tell he was nipping at his heels.

"Why don't you go on and place the order." The boy had made it a quarter of the way down the street before he shouted an answer back.

"K!"

They had spent the entire day at the park. Henry playing with the neighborhood children, and Rumple observing him. It was after 1:30 when Henry had decided that he was hungry; running over to the picnic table Rumple was sitting at.

"Papa, I'm hungry." Rumple thought there might be something wrong with his heart when it contracted with Henry's casual use of the word Papa. It felt better than it imagined.

"Well then I suppose it's lunch time." He unpacked two of the four sandwiches that Granny had packed, cups, the container of lemonade, and a few napkins. The way that Henry scarfed down his sandwich you would have thought him starved. When he didn't move to go play after he was finished Rumple smiled indulgently and handed him another sandwich. Henry had finished his second peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich before Rumpelstiltskin had finished his first. As soon as he was finished he was off to play again.

Soon after Henry had run off to play a small red-haired girl walked up to him. She couldn't be more than 5 and her directness startled him. The woman who was clearly her mother was conflicted looking. She had no desire to get any closer than she already was, but she certainly didn't want her daughter around him either.

"Mommy didn't bring any food." She announced it in a plain voice, just stating a fact. The woman's eyes widened, rumple wasn't sure if it was at her daughters audacity or at the look he threw her. Rumple reached for the last sandwich in the basket.

"Here you are dearie." The woman waited what she assumed was a safe distance away for her daughter to reach her. When she finally did the woman picked her up and left the park, taking the sandwich from her hand and scolding her for speaking to strangers the whole way. Rumple would be willing to bet just about anything that the sandwich would end up in the trash. Rumple couldn't blame her; he would have done the same. The child really should learn not to accept anything from strangers.

They spent the whole day at the park. It was around 5 when Rumple called for Henry telling him it was time to leave. Henry complained a bit, trying to wheedle 5 or 10 more minutes out of his Papa. It would have been easy enough to do with Emma, Grandpa, Grandma, or really anyone else. Henry was good at talking people into things. Unfortunately it looked like Rumple just wouldn't be talked into anything. He kept pushing until he heard his Papa's voice go sharp.

"Now young man!" Bae had always been good at driving a bargain, a talent he had gotten from Rumple himself, and something Henry had clearly inherited too. If you mixed that with the Charming family's well... charm, charisma if you will, and added to the fact that Henry was in fact a young prince it was no wonder Henry was used to getting his own way.

Dinner at Granny's was a quite affair, so much so that rumple wondered if Henry was upset at him for not allowing a few extra minutes at the park. Not that he would change his decision; the boy couldn't get everything that he wanted, but still.

When he arrived at the door to the 2 bedroom apartment the Charming family was staying in it was all too soon. He wished he had told Emma that he would drop Henry off later. He hadn't though, and he refused to go back on a deal, so he knocked sharply on the door. Emma threw it open almost immediately.

"Hay kiddo, how was your day."

"It was fun, we spent the whole day at the park."

"Thanks for watching him."

"It was my pleasure Miss Swan."

"Come on kid, have you ate?'

"Yeah." Henry grabbed the door that his mother had already walked in, then paused and let go. He ran up to his Papa and threw his arms around him. Instinctively Rumple put his own arms around the smaller form and squeezed slightly.

"Thank you Papa, it was the best day ever! Have a good night, Love you." With that the boy was gone, the door closed behind him. Rumpelstiltskin was left standing in the hallway. He groaned to himself, he knew this was a bad ideal. Now he would never be able to stay away, looks like the Charming family was going to be expanding to include him. Ugg

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