"You know that's not my name anymore," Neal says through gritted teeth. He feels the veins in his head begin to pop as his blood boils from seeing Gold again.
"Wait you know him?!" Lacey says in confusion.
"Why would anyone want to know him?" Leroy grumbles.
Gold ignores him. "Of course I know him, he's my son."
The hallway seems to go quiet from this realization. No one knew this, not even David, Mary Margret or Regina, who had known him the longest. David looks at Neal and then over at Gold.
"I can see some resemblance," he says quietly.
"Something I wish wasn't true," Neal grimaces.
Gold takes a step towards his son. "Bae, how long has it been?"
"Not long enough," Neal practically snarls. "And my name is Neal!"
Gold's son then storms off, towards the exit. Henry races after him in desperation.
"Dad, Dad wait!"
One could tell that Mary Margret wanted to go after Henry, but with the weight of her baby, it was impossible.
"Go follow them, Killian," she requests.
"Why?" he asks, raising his eyebrow.
"In case Neal tries to take Henry for his own."
"Right," Killian says and follows to where the two Cassidy men disappeared. Once the docks man is gone, David turns back to Gold, who has lost a lot of colour in his face.
"Are you okay?" Lacey asks.
"B-Bae told me that he had a son, I didn't realize it was Swan's son too."
"You seriously didn't know?" Anna calls from the doorway.
"Well, Baelfire and I are not exactly the closest anymore."
"Baelfire?" Lacey says in confusion, raising her eyebrow.
"That is... Neal's original name," Gold explains. He feels a tiny bit of guilt for not taking Swan's case more seriously, especially if she was the Emma.
Gold and Neal had never had a good relationship. Gold was always working and had very little time for his son when he was home, he put so much pressure on his son to succeed, Neal developed low self-esteem. On top of that, Neal's mother was very unfaithful to the family and often left the kid alone. Neither parent seemed to take much notice of their own son; Gold did love him, very much, it's just with his wife's infidelity, the only way to cope with the stress was to work hard to provide for his family. He wanted Baelfire to be like him and therefore tried to get him to work very hard to be successful. His wife couldn't keep a job and was out drinking most nights during Neal's childhood. Neal had been basically forced to raise himself and had tried to run away many times, but due to his father's resources, he was always brought home again. The minute he turned eighteen, Neal was gone, left with little contact with either of his parents. He went around working odd jobs and stealing when he needed to survive. When he met Emma, he knew he was in love and wanted to succeed where his father failed. When Henry was born, Neal swore to never let his father or mother near his son for fear they might do what they did to him. Gold did try to reach out to Neal a few times, having a private investigator track him down. Gold begged for his son to at least talk to him occasionally and despite everything, the two had the occasional phone call, but Neal kept his father out of his new life. When Emma got a job at the police station, Neal never went to visit her for fear of running into his father and just kept any questions she asked about his family vague.
When Henry turned ten, his father called saying his mother had died of alcohol poisoning in a bar bathroom. Neal told Emma he was having a guys weekend and went to her funeral. Several months later, his father called again to tell him he was engaged to a much younger woman. This horrified Neal and he tried to sever all communications with his father. Neal fell into his mother's patterns of drinking and infidelity until the guilt built up and he decided to propose to Emma. He never wanted to make his father's or mother's mistakes. However, the phone call of the divorce was too much for Neal and he left everything behind.
...
Neal sits out on a bench in front of the police station and pulls out a cigarette. He lights up and begins smoking to calm down his rage.
"Dad!" Henry calls out, coming down the steps in front of the police station. The teen stops short to see his father smoking.
"Hey buddy," Neal says meekly.
"When...When did you start smoking?"
"Awhile back, you just never noticed."
Henry feels something stir in his stomach, some form of anger. His eyes well up with confused tears.
"Mr...Mr. Gold is your dad?" Henry whispers.
Neal blows out some smoke before answering. "Yes, unfortunately..."
"Why-Why-Why didn't you ever say anything?!"
"It's complicated," Neal sighs. He looks over at his son who's on the verge of a mental breakdown. He motions for his son to sit next to him. Henry's face twists at the foul smell of the cigarette. Neal flicks the butt into the street.
"Come and sit down," he says. "It's time you learned the truth..."
Killian opens the door quietly and sees the two sitting on a bench talking, he was going to back and tell Mary Margret, but curiosity gets the best of him and he stays in the shadows to listen.
Neal tells his son everything that led up to him leaving. He is saving the engagement stuff for much later, hopefully after Emma was found. Henry cries most of the time, looking at his dad in disbelief and shaking his head often. Neal knew this was hard for him, but it was probably even harder for his son. He had the urge to pull Henry into a hug and never let him go. He missed the times Henry would come running into the bedroom at six o'clock in the morning and jump on him in excitement. He missed when the two would wrestle on the bed until Neal pinned his small son down and tickled him into submission. He could almost hear his son's delightful giggles in his ears. The happy image of his son, gave way to this growing teenager, with sad eyes and shaggy hair. He missed Henry's first day of high school, his swim meets, his elementary school graduation and now... he missed seeing his son get a girlfriend from the looks of it. Neal knew he should have never left, but it just happened and missed seeing his son grow up even more. He knew that neither Henry nor Emma would ever forgive him for running off, but Henry needed someone now... and so did Emma.
When Neal is done, the two sit in awkward silence for a long time as the Boston traffic quiets down as the night grows later and later. The two sit beside a street light and the autumn wind sends dried leaves across the sidewalk.
Henry gets up without saying a word and goes back to the station. Neal knew his son needed time to process everything and he wanted to give the teen his space. Once Henry is out of sight, Neal lights up another cigarette and Killian comes out of his hiding spot. He takes a few slow steps towards Emma's ex-fiancé.
"Did you catch all that?" Neal asks out loud, having figured out pretty quickly that Killian was listening.
"Every word," Killian hisses quietly.
"Felt like the kid finally deserved the truth," Neal sighs, blowing out a large puff of smoke. Killian stands beside the bench now, almost afraid to approach Neal as if he's a bomb that is about to detonate.
"He did indeed," Killian says sharply.
"Look, you can judge me all you want, but I'm not trying to hurt him. I'm here to help find Emma."
"Didn't seem to bother you when you hurt them before," Killian points out.
Neal glares at Killian. "You don't think I felt guilty about leaving? You don't think I spent nights crying myself to sleep because I couldn't see my son or the woman I loved? You don't think I spent many evenings staring at the phone wanting to pick it up and apologize?"
Killian takes a step back as Neal's anger seems to rise.
"I made a bad choice and now I'm reaping the consequences for it. I'll live with this for the rest of my life, but I came to help..."
Killian swallows. He does feel angry about what Neal did to Emma and Henry, but he could also understand the man's point of view. Neal's life had been very hard, as had his and they reacted in the only ways they knew how; Neal by running away and Killian by drinking. "I've made quite a few mistakes in my lifetime too, and I'll have to live with the consequences as well."
Neal looks at the man in the light of the streetlamp. The two stayed quiet for a long while.
"I hope you were treating her well," Neal says. "I know it's not my place, but I did hope that she would find someone much better than me."
"I'm not exactly Prince Charming, I've come from a broken family too and had my fair share of demons, but..."
"But Emma made all of them go away?" Neal prompts.
Killian almost smiles as he pictures Emma's beautiful face in his mind.
"Aye, she did and made me feel like the most important person in the world. She was an enigma, but she was worth it. Worth every minute of it"
Neal gives a weak smile. Reality then hits the two men again; Emma was missing and they had not found her at all. The two of them missed her dearly.
"I won't try to steal her back," Neal says quietly after a long silence. "I didn't come here to try and win her back. I'm not trying to redeem myself, but I want to do what I can to bring her home. If I didn't, I'd probably be haunted by her missing person's image forever and I might kill myself. I don't deserve her anymore and clearly, she made her choice..."
Killian nods lightly before looking back into the station.
"When are you going to tell the Lad you're dating again?" Killian asks.
The colour drains from Neal's face. "How...How did you know that?"
"I saw you phone light up in your pocket with a girl's name, I could only assume you were dating again."
"I'm actually engaged," Neal corrects. He swallows a large lump in his throat. His stomach turns in guilt and he wonders if Killian is thinking that he is trying to replace Emma in some way. "I'm just not sure how to tell Henry."
"Gently, I hope," Killian says earnestly. "The lad is another step from falling down the rabbit hole."
"I should've just stayed away," Neal sighs, crushing his cigarette under his foot. "The last thing he needs is me coming back and revealing all my secrets to him. I just came back to help. It's as if my good deed might give me some form of self-respect back, but with my father here, that went out the window."
"It did indeed," Killian agrees.
The wind begins to pick up again and Killian decides it's time to head back inside.
"You coming in Mate?" Killian asks.
"No, I can't face my father right now, Henry's had enough drama for one night."
"Where are you staying?" Killian asks.
"At a motel. Tell Henry I'll call him in the morning."
Killian nods and watches as Neal walks down the street towards his car. Killian had very mixed feelings about this man. He had good qualities and bad, like everyone else and he did seem concerned in trying to find Emma again. The thought of the beautiful blonde makes his stomach turn and drags him back to cruel reality. Their search party only turned up her phone and nothing else. Killian wants to find her so badly. He wants to see her lively green eyes again and hear her laugh. He wanted to see Henry smile again and he wanted to pull her into his arms and never let her go again.
...
"We managed to get a partial fingerprint from the phone," Nova explains to David.
"Anything else?" David asks.
"We're still waiting on the cell phone company to find which cell tower her phone last pinged off of. From there we can search the general area."
David sighs and stretches out, the heat and exhaustion of the day are weighing on him heavily. At least they had something, it was better than what they had before, but they still could not identify this man or better yet, know if Emma was still alive... He pushes the thought down when it comes up.
"You should go home David," Nova says. "Everyone should go home and rest."
"What about...?"
"I can take care of it, I wasn't out all day on the city streets looking for my friend."
"I just wish we could've found more..." David mutters.
"You did what you could and it paid off in the long run. It will be okay," Nova says giving him a reassuring smile.
David gives the best smile he can muster before going to find everyone else. He finds most of them in the cafeteria, some half asleep.
Out of the corner of his eye, David sees Gold in his uniform and he actually seems to be talking to someone, which was very rare. There is even a hint of a smile on his face, even rarer. David blinks a few times to make sure he's not hallucinating from exhaustion and sure enough, the commissioner is talking to Lacey while wearing an old shirt that Gold had dug out of the evidence locker for her. Her bright blue eyes seem to be locked on this older man as if the anger and resentment from before had been wiped clean away. As David pushes open the cafeteria door, he swears he hears Gold laugh.
What a strange day... he thinks to himself. You never know what will happen.
Here's Chapter 26. Thank you for all the great reviews. Please keep them coming and follow the story.