A/N: So, I've read some stories with this kind of crossover idea, and wanted to give it a try. Let me know if it's any good, will ya? Once Upon A Time is turning into one of my favorite shows this year, even though its years old now. LoL!

If you have any suggestions, please let me know in a REVIEW and/or PM!

Enough of this crap! On with the show!

Story Summary: So many poor unfortunate souls. It was a good thing that they all chose to beg so desperately for help. It was the only thing that Rumplestiltskin had not planned. But thankfully he could adapt. For their sake, of course.

Chapter 1: So many Deals, So Little Time… Part 01

Lily Potter sat beside her baby boy's crib with tears shining in her emerald eyes. She'd never been delicate. She was no flower in the field despite what her name implied. But dammit, every day she lived through now felt like the walls were closing in.

Not on her.

On her little Harry.

There was all the chance in the world that neither she or James wouldn't live to see the end of the wizards' war.

No, Lily reminded herself with a shake of her head. This was not the fault of wizards, toe-rags though they were.

This was all Voldemort's responsibility! He was making this happen! His wanton need for the suffering and enslavement of all around him!

"At least war," Lily choked out as she wiped the snot from her nose with a handkerchief, "it brings out the best in the people around you. Oh, Harry… I pray you never see a day of war when you're old enough to understand. But baby, it has stopped even Severus and Sirius from hating each other. They were back-to-back yesterday. Fighting to keep the other safe. I saw it, and I knew that was what was at the heart of humanity. We might fight and argue, but when darkness comes for us, we stand and fight it together. Evil will never win. Good will always prevail, sweet pea. It's what we do."

Lily got up from her chair, gently smoothing down her toddler's messy black hair. Harry looked up at her through bleary eyes. It was late, and he was getting sleepy as children often did. She sat back down, throwing her own fiery red locks over her shoulder with a deep breath.

Damn Voldemort. Damn the prophecy. Damn it all straight to hell!

Voldemort wanted her baby. Her precious little Harry.

All because of some idiotic prophecy that Trelawney spouted out at random without even remembering. A prophecy that Lily didn't believe for a second, despite whatever impression she'd given James and Professor Dumbledore when she'd burst into tears upon being told about it.

"That vile man wants you, and he will never have you. Harry, you will live… even," Lily sobbed, the tears running down her cheeks. She placed a hand over her mouth to stay quiet. She tried to be strong. She was strong. But with each passing day hidden away under Professor Dumbledore's protection charm, Lily found herself growing fretful and hopeless. "Even if I don't get to see you lose that first tooth that kept us all up at night… Or ride a bicycle into a tree… Have your first crush… Attend Hogwarts… Get your first scolding from Professor McGonagall. Girlfriends, marriage, children of your own… Heh, h-heh… It will all be so beautiful, but I… But, I…"

"You seem to have his life all plotted out, love. That's just wrong of you." James's voice startled her into standing. Lily tried to hide her face from her husband, but he had already seen it. James came over to her, calmly turning her toward her. Her gaze met his, and Lily found herself thinking of the first time she had seen her husband as James instead of Toerag Potter. "What if he likes boys? Or adopts a kid with his wife? Or decides children aren't in his future at all? Heavens help us all if he decides he wants to be Muggle."

Lily laughed tearfully, but James only shook his head.

"Nothing wrong with that, I say." James went on as Lily retook her seat by Harry's crib. James looked down at her from beside the chair, hands resting softly upon her shoulders. "But then again, my only real look into the life of Muggles is your side of the family, so… Yeah…"

Lily snorted while wiping away her tears. "M-My sister and her husband are not prime examples of normal living. They are, in fact, the far right of the spectrum."

"Well they can stay that way, so long as they don't cause us any more headaches." James sighed, rubbing his wife's shoulders a little.

Lily looked up at the love of her life, green eyes glistening with wetness. "How can you be so calm? For the last couple of months, you've been just as casual as always. Meanwhile, I've been falling to pieces trying to stay strong for Harry, if not myself. How do you do it?"

"Me?" James flicked his gaze up to the ceiling, then back down to Harry, who was laying in his crib dispelling a yawn. "Well, I guess you could say I know everything will turn out alright. It will all be fine, I tell myself. Every morning when I wake up, and every night before I go to bed. A good glass of Firewhiskey in the evening also helps the coping process."

Lily nodded her head in agreement, but her lips were still pursed. "But that's it? I tell myself it'll all be okay all the time…" Lily cast her gaze down to her lap where her hands rested fretfully. "Hasn't really worked great…"

"Because you are… well, you, Lils." James said with a shrug. "You hope for the best, but drag yourself down with the worst. You plan for it, even. Not a bad thing, mind you, but sending Dumbledore a book on blood magic runes in case something happens to everyone you put on that list of yours? I think you work yourself up more than needed."

Lily narrowed her eyes a little. She knew James didn't mean to offend, but this was their child's future he was talking about. Any parent worth their salt should be as thorough, if not more so. "Something very well could happen to us. To Remus. To Sirius. More so to Severus and McGonagall and Slughorn—"

"And I don't disagree," James cut in, because Lily's voice had risen to a tone that said he would be spending the night on a futon if he didn't divert her war path. "But we are fighting a war here. There is going to be pain and lost and tragedy. People will die. Lives irretrievably changed for worse, no matter how small the degree. The Lovegoods had Luna snatched right out of her crib next to them in the bedroom. Arthur and Molly… little Ron was taken just last night…"

Lily gasped, and felt faint, but James's hands tightened around her shoulders, holding her in place.

"Frank and Alice are worried for Neville, and don't even get me started on the way Lucius Malfoy begged me yesterday in front of the Minister himself to hide Draco with us here before, in his own words, accepting a deal with the devil who appeared before him in a dream last night. I swear… this war is making everyone crazy for all the reasons war can drive people insane."

"But our Harry—!"

James got down on bended knee in an instant, meeting Lily at eye-level with a gaze brimming with tears, but also steadfast determination.

"Lily Potter nee Evans…" he breathed her name the way he had when he proposed to her. Lily put a hand over her heart as James cupped the other between his clammy palms. He was beyond nervous, or fretful.

It was then that Lily understood why James could be so calm about it all. James was scared to death all along.

He just happened to be a better faker than she ever thought.

"I k-know I am not a perfect man. I am childish and petty. I drink from the carton. I leave my dirty clothes laying around. I hate your oldest friend with a burning passion, and not just because he has an unhealthy obsession with you." James looked back at Harry, and somehow Lily knew that he wanted her to follow his gaze. "But if there is one thing I know I did perfect in my life. One person in the entire world I want to be that perfect man for… it is Harry James Potter. Because you love me as I am. You made the conscious decision to marry me, stupidity and pranks and all."

"That I did." Lily choked out a laugh, even as she felt her tears come flowing.

"He didn't get a choice. I'm his father, and that's all Lady Fate wrote. I want—no, I need to be perfect for him. Because I will be the standard he looks up to… and a son should always stride to be better than the father…"

"Oh James…!" Lily threw her arms around her husband, getting down on her knees to the floor with him. She kissed along the right side of his face several times before he gave her a single kiss atop her forehead. They held each other close, both with a loving gaze upon the child they brought into the world. "He is all we have in this world. Not money, or status, or anything else. Not even magic, James. He is our everything."

"I know." James said, swallowing down the lump in his throat with little success. He rubbed small circles on the back of his wife's palms using his thumbs. "When he was born, and I held him in my arms for the first time, I knew it… I always knew it…"

James turned back to look at Lily, earthen brown gazing into emerald green. "Lils, I swear to you that those children will be found. Everything will be okay. I swear it, Lily Potter."

Lily shook her head. "You can't promise me that. Not every story has a happy ending, James, and you know this." She rested her head along his back, voice soft and low as she went on. "I don't care what happens to me… so long as our son is safe."

James, being the man that he was for all his adult life, choked back the cry that ripped through him. He did his best to stem the flood of tears. He clenched his fists and beat at the floor, but nothing would stop the ache in his heart or the emotions he was feeling.

This was not the life he wanted for his wife and first—perhaps now, only—child.

They were supposed to stay at Potter Manor for all their days. Have weekends in different countries to give the children some culture.

He was supposed to sneak around Lily's back and show the kids spells they wouldn't learn at Hogwarts. He was supposed to pass on the Marauders Map to Harry as well as his family's Invisibility Cloak for maximum mischief. He was meant to scare boys away from his first daughter until she was in her late twenties.

And all following daughters until they joined a nunnery.

He was meant to make his sons into honorable men, and punch them in the face if they refused to live up to snuff.

Gamble on Harry's first quidditch match, and then subtly work for years into making the boy want to turn pro with a backup plan of becoming Minister for Magic. Make his second son like Transfiguration and become a Professor.

Make his daughters join nunneries, and convents as a backup plan.

Now all of that seemed so far out of reach to him. Like sands from an hourglass slipping between his fingers.

Those fleeting dreams left only a few grains to his grand visions of the future.

James allowed himself to howl in anguish only once, the action startling Harry up from where he was falling asleep. James took a sobering deep breath as he rose to his feet, scooping baby Harry into his arms and shushing him as he began to whine. Lily mirrored him as she wiped away her tears. James did not. He wanted to feel them on his face. The last time he had cried was when his parents died in that car accident nearly two years ago. To him, this was about as painful. They were his past, James understood that. They were meant to be taken from this world before him. He always knew he'd have to stand at their funeral someday.

Not being able to see Harry's future… it felt like a deeper stab to the heart. James felt robbed. His parents had gotten to hold Harry many times in his first six months before they died. They had raised James, seen him become a man with a wife to keep him honest and upright.

But him? Was he to be robbed of even seeing his son off to Hogwarts on his first day?

"The truth of it all, Lils… I'm scared, too. Just as scared as you. More than you. I just hide it better because I have Sirius as a friend." James admitted as he rocked his toddle son in his arms. He turned to his wife, cheeks stained with the tears of a robbed man. "Every day we've been in here… Since meeting Dumbledore up at the castle that night he explained the prophecy and hiding to us… I never saw myself living a day beyond this war against… him…"

Lily was glad her husband didn't breathe that man's chosen name in the presence of their son.

"I'm not scared for myself, though, Lils… I welcome death. I will lay my life down if it means you and Harry get to have that future I see without me included. I have not woken up a single day in this cottage without the fear that you or Harry or both of you would be taken from me, or… worse…"

"James, love…" Lily hugged her husband tight, then wrapped an arm around Harry, who reached out to hug himself to her neck.

"I don't really believe in your muggle God, but… I pray to him… and to magic… and to Merlin… and to anyone who might be listening, Lils…" James continued as Lily shut her eyes. "I pray you raise Harry to be better than me. But, that you don't suck the fun out of him like you try with me. I ask that Harry make as good of friends as I have in Sirius and Remus and Peter. I beg that he play quidditch better than the other kids, so I can watch him be specular from heaven or hell, wherever I'm meant to go. But most of all, I just pray that I not outlive him… Dear Merlin and Gods above, please—please do not let me outlive my child a single day! Please!"

"Please, any deity or saint or whatever out there… We beg of you!" Lily said up to the heavens above her as she held her family together with only her two arms and all the love in her soul. "We beg of you with our naked hearts! Please help us in saving our child!"

"Well, dearies," a strange voice twittered from behind the family, inside the open door of Harry's room, "All you had to do was ask!"

And there it is! The first chapter over and done. Like it? Love it? Hate it? Want to burn it with dragon fire? Leave a REVIEW and let me know!

And if you like what you've read here, and you want to read more just check out my page in order to see more!

Until Next Time, See Ya!