I don't own Once Upon a Time: it is the property of Adam Horowitz and Eddy Kitsis and ABC. I am making no money off this fic: it's just for fun :)

Thanks for reading - comments always welcome :)

Much More Than a Flicker

None of them noticed the box as they rushed to Henry's side. It was Neal whose eye was caught by the glowing light first. Out of everything that shimmered gold in that cave, this light was different: purer somehow. Thinking it was a trick of Pan's all the same, he turned his attention back to his son and his worry about how they were going to save him.

Suddenly, though, the light coalesced into a figure and Neal noticed that it was coming from Pandora's Box, and he realised that it was taking the form of his father.

'Papa?'

'What?' Pan asked, and turned to see Rumplestiltskin holding Pandora's Box, wisps of golden light still clinging to it and to him. 'That's not possible! There's no way out of that box unless someone opens it.'

'Did you forget what Pandora left in the box when she freed evil into the world?' Rumplestiltskin asked, advancing on Pan with the box in his hand. 'Don't you remember the legend? Pandora's Box still contains one thing: Hope, and that was what freed me.'

'And what have you to hope for?' Pan demanded, taunting him again.

Rumplestiltskin only smiled. 'You should know: you're the one who said it.'

'What am I supposed to have said that gave you so much hope?'

Rumpestiltskin's smile widened: of course Pan would have forgotten that, but he hadn't. 'Oh, something about a nice girl waiting for me back home and a fresh start.' He looked at Pan. 'You didn't quite understand what she means to me, did you? But then you wouldn't understand the concept of True Love because you don't have an unselfish bone in your body, do you, Papa?'

'What?' Neal shouted.

Rumplestiltskin turned to his son. 'Yeah, I neglected to mention that. Meet your grandfather, Neal.'

'My-my grandfather?'

'Yes, your miserable, worthless, good-for-nothing grandfather, who traded his own son for youth.'

'Peter Pan is your father?' Regina asked.

'Unfortunately, yes,' Rumplestiltskin returned.

'This is totally messed up,' Emma murmured. 'Can this family tree get any frickin' weirder?'

Neal was looking between his father and his grandfather now. 'Papa, he has Henry's heart,' he said. And Rumplestiltskin didn't blame his son for sounding totally unsure about what was about to happen.

Rumplestiltskin nodded. 'I know: we'll get it back, son, don't worry.'

'Oh, now look who's being all reassuring and parental,' Pan mocked: 'pity you couldn't be like that when he was clinging to your hand that night you let him go.'

'What happened that night is my greatest regret,' Rumplestiltskin said, speaking to his son now. 'I was afraid, son, afraid that I'd lose you anyway, because the last time I went through one of those portals, I lost my father. I didn't wanna lose you too, but I did, and I'll never forgive myself for letting you go.'

Neal blinked. His father had been through a portal like that before? And he'd lost his father because of it? Why hadn't he told him that? So, it wasn't that he didn't want to be with him: it was because he was afraid…

He cleared his throat. 'Papa, we-we can talk about everything later, but can you save Henry?' he asked desperately.

'I can.'

'And just how do you plan to do that?' Pan queried: 'I have the Heart of the Truest Believer now and I can do anything.'

'It's true: you do have the Heart of the Truest Believer,' Rumplestiltskin agreed, 'but there's more to it than that. Henry is the Truest Believer, but do you know what powers his belief?'

Pan didn't answer for a moment, still hovering in mid air above them, but then he shrugged. 'It doesn't matter: you won't win, laddie.'

'Do you actually know the answer?'

'I don't think he does,' Emma said, still crouched beside her son and looking from him to Pan every few seconds.

'No, but we do, don't we?' Rumplestiltskin asked.

'Love,' Emma, Neal, and Regina all said as one.

'Exactly,' Rumplestiltskin said, 'and love is something you have no concept of.' He looked at Pan.

'And you do? The man who traded his son for the power of a dagger!' Pan laughed.

'If I had no concept of love, I couldn't have escaped from that box,' Rumplestiltskin said.

'You just said that Hope freed you from the box,' Pan reminded him.

Rumplestiltskin smiled. 'Don't you understand? Love is Hope and my love for Belle, and hers for me, was the hope I needed to be free of that prison. I once called her a flicker of light on an ocean of darkness, but she's so much more than that. You said make a fresh start and I will, with Belle, and with her by my side, I can do anything: I believe that I can be a better man, and I believe that I can save Henry.'

So saying, Rumplestiltskin rose into the air. 'See, Papa: I'm not scared to fly any more.'

Pan stared at him. 'How are you doing that? You need pixie dust to fly!'

'Do you?' Rumplestiltskin asked. 'You said it yourself: all you have to do is believe and you can make anything happen in Neverland. So, whose belief is stronger, hmm: the belief of a selfish coward who never took responsibility for anything in his life, or the belief of a man who tried to do the right thing: who failed, yes, but who tried, and who's learned what love really is? What do you think, hmm?'

Pan's eyes widened. 'Rumple, please!'

'Please, what, Papa?'

'Don't call me that!' Pan tried to fly away, but Rumplestiltskin caught his arm and turned him around to face him.

'Still trying to run away from your responsibilities? Tsk, tsk: you can't run forever.'

He saw Pan look at the large hourglass in the middle of the room and smiled. He took that opportunity to throw Pandora's Box down to Neal, who caught it deftly.

'Open it when I say, son,' he called.

'Got it, Papa.'

Rumplestiltskin looked at his father. 'After I leave here,' he said quietly, 'I will never think of you again. Memories of you are not gonna haunt me any more, Papa, but I think that memories of me will haunt you.'

Pan flinched and Rumplestiltskin could see that the child his father had become was beginning to be haunted by memories of the child he'd abandoned. A child couldn't have a child, he'd said: he had to believe he was a boy in order to be one, he'd said, but he could no longer believe that: he could no longer deny his son.

Rumplestiltskin used that moment of distraction to reach into his father's chest and remove his grandson's heart.

'Now, Neal!' he shouted, and seconds later, Pan was being enveloped by the magic of the box.

'Rumple, no!'

'Good luck getting out of there with no love, no hope, in your heart,' he said, and felt no remorse at seeing the horror in his father's eyes.

Rumplestiltskin descended to the floor as his father was sucked into Pandora's Box. The golden light that had surrounded him seemed to sink into his skin and he breathed deeply, feeling lighter than he had in centuries.

'Papa?' Neal asked, and he looked so like the little boy he used to be.

Rumplestiltskin smiled at his son and put his hand on his shoulder. Then he held out Henry's heart for Neal to take.

'I'll take the box,' he said, 'and you give my grandson back his heart; then we can all go home.'

Neal took his son's heart and handed over the box; then he clasped his father's shoulder and smiled a little.

'Thank you, Papa,' he murmured: 'thank you.'

Rumplestiltskin nodded and watched as his son returned his own son's heart to where it belonged. It was over; he'd faced his demons, and now he could go home to the angel waiting for him. Now, he could start again: now he could be happy with Belle.

End

Thanks for reading :)