6

Luck Is What You Make It

A very frustrated Robert Gold, aka RUmplestiltskin, slammed his cane into the glittering wall of the corridor, and began swearing angrily in two different languages, English and Gaelic, which he'd learned after coming to this world. Whack! Thwack! Whack! He slammed the wall so hard he should have cracked the wood on the wall, or damaged his cane, but both things were magical in nature and so endured the pounding he gave them.

Belle eyed her husband in concern, but she let him beat the wall a few more times before she called, "Robert! Stop! You're going to give yourself a stroke."

Bobby slammed the wall a few more times, his eyes blazing.

Belle caught his arm as he drew it back again, unafraid. "Rumplestiltskin!" she snapped, enunciating the three syllables of his true name in his ear. "Enough! Beating the hell out of the wall isn't getting us anywhere."

He lowered his cane, breathing harshly, reining in his sudden spate of temper. He shot his wife a rueful look. "Sorry. I just . . . needed to . . . hit something . . . we're close, Belle, so very close . . . I can feel it . . . but their magic is blocking us and that damned leprechaun isn't here, and he promised he would be . . .!"

She put her arm around him. "We'll find her, Bobby. You mustn't lose faith. We will. You have to believe that."

"I do. But I'm afraid, dearie, we might be too late," he sighed. He glared balefully at the wall.

Just then there was a pop and Shea appeared in the corridor. "My sincerest apologies, Mr. and Mrs. Gold. I woulda been here sooner, but I'm Seneschal o' this castle an' have duties to attend to, ye ken. I couldna get off till now."

"Spare us the pretty excuses," Gold growled. "Just help us find the way to our daughter, as we agreed."

"Aye, I can do that," the leprechaun said. Then he clapped his hands three times and they were all whisked away in a swirl of evergreen light.

Page~*~*~*~Break

Ava had managed to grab the pear from the bowl and was about to take a bite of the tempting golden fruit when the door to Maeve's quarters opened and a familiar voice cried, "Ava, dearie, where are you? We've come to take you home, baby girl!"

In the door was her father, and as he came into the room, her mother appeared behind him. Both were dressed in funny costumes, but they were here at last.

"Papa! Mama!" the child yelled, and the pear tumbled from her hands and fell unnoticed to the floor as she jumped off the chair and raced towards her parents, her blue eyes shimmering with sheer joy.

Until she slammed into an invisible barrier and stumbled backwards and landed hard on her bottom. Holding out her hands to her parents, she burst into tears, sobbing hysterically.

Behind her, the pillows on the bed shredded themselves in a magical counterpoint to her howls.

"Rumple!" Belle shouted. "What's wrong?"

"There's a barrier blocking her from leaving," he cried. Then he began to call upon his magic. "But not for long!" His hand glowing with eldritch fire, he set it upon the invisible wall and bid it unmake itself.

Fire spread from his hands and along the invisible wall, making it glitter, and then it was gone, banished back into the ether from whence it had come.

Then he went to step forward, ready to grab up his daughter, when there was flicker of blue light, and a tall woman in a green dress with platinum hair dressed with diamonds and emeralds appeared before him, her pointed ears and slanted eyes of deep green marking her as one of the Sidhe.

"How dare you invade my home, mortal?" she said coldly, her own hand sparking with magical energy.

"How dare we invade your home?" Bobby repeated incredulously. "How dare you steal our child, woman?"

Belle darted forward, attempting to grab Ava, but Maeve put out a hand and she froze in place.

"Let her go!" snapped Bobby, and gave a quick gesture and Belle was released from the binding ward. "Who are you, that dares to take one of mine?"

The Sidhe drew herself up, she towered a good foot about the sorcerer. "I am Maeve Highgarden, princess of the Seelie Court. And I took your daughter because I wish a child of my own."

"What do you think this is, some kind of adoption agency?" demanded Belle. "That's my baby you're holding prisoner there, and I want her back!"

"You can always have another. You mortals breed like rabbits," sneered Maeve.

"That doesn't give you the right to steal another's child," interrupted Robert coldly. "Ava is our daughter and we love her. She belongs with us." He gestured to his sobbing daughter, whose cries tore him apart. "Look at her. She's unhappy here, can't you see that?"

"She'll grow used to it in time. She's not the first mortal who has learned to live here," Maeve said. "How did you get here anyway? My chambers are warded and impossible to locate unless-" then she caught sight of the leprechaun standing behind the two mortals. "Shea! You brought them here?"

Shea opened his mouth to speak, but Bobby said swiftly, "I made him do so. Now give me my child, or else!"

"Or else what?" Maeve laughed, and gestured with a hand.

Wind slammed into Gold, knocking him flying. His cane clattered across the floor as he was thrown into the wall opposite him.

"Bobby!" Belle shouted, furious. She drew her revolver and pointed it at the Sidhe princess. Then she fired.

The bullet almost grazed Maeve's head as it whizzed past to bury itself in the bedroom wall.

"Papa!" sobbed Ava, and suddenly pieces of fruit flew at the princess and whacked her in the face and the back, as the neophyte sorceress attacked her captor.

"Oww!" Maeve yelped, trying to duck the fruit that slammed into her.

Belle brought up the gun again, her eyes icy. "Nobody hurts my husband, princess! Or kidnaps my daughter! Do you know what this is? It's a gun, from my world. It shoots steel bullets, and if one hits you, you'll die from iron poisoning or a gunshot wound, whatever comes first. And don't think I won't use it on you." She pointed the barrel at Maeve. "I missed on purpose the first time. I won't the second. Now . . . give me my child!"

"I'd do as she says, Yer Highness," said Shea.

Maeve hesitated for a fraction of a second. Then she nodded wearily. "Fine. Take her. But know that I never would have harmed her. I'm not like my dark kin. I just wanted a child to love . . . for I lost my own the day I lost my husband."

While Belle kept the gun trained on the sorceress, Bobby climbed to his feet, after summoning his cane to him. He limped over and picked up Ava in his arms. "Shh . . . it's okay, sweetheart," he crooned as his little girl wrapped her arms about his neck in a death grip. "Papa's here. I've got you."

As she calmed down, the fruit fell to the ground.

Bobby shot a death glare at Maeve. "While I understand your grief, princess, what you did was utterly unconscionable. You stole a baby from her family . . . a family who loved and wanted her. When there are plenty of children who are unwanted in our world, who have nothing and no one. How could you do such a thing?"

"I . . . just saw her playing one day . . . it was chance . . . and then . . . I thought . . . she made me happy . . . so I took her away . . . I thought we could be happy, that in time she would forget you . . ."

"And we would forget her?" Belle snapped. "But you were wrong. Ava is our child, and we never would have stopped looking for her or missing her. Anymore than you have the one you lost."

"But you can have more children!" Maeve said.

"Why can't you?" asked Bobby, stroking his daughter's hair.

"It's different for us," Maeve said. "We have never been able to . . . procreate like you mortals. My husband and I were married for centuries . . . and the child I lost was the only one I ever conceived. Then I lost both of them, one after the other."

"That's too bad, dearie, but you should never have tried to take my daughter," Bobby lectured. "Have you never heard the old tale of Oisin and Niamh?"

Maeve frowned. "What tale is this, sorcerer?"

"A cautionary tale of why it's often a bad idea for mortal and fae to mix," Robert answered. He began the story, "Oisin met Niamh on a white sand beach and they fell in love. She took him with her to the Land of Youth, although his father was against it. Tir na nOg was a beautiful, peaceful place, but Oisin didn't feel time passing at all. After what felt like merely days to him, he got homesick and wanted to go back to see his father. Niamh loved him deeply and didn't want him to go, but when he wouldn't be dissuaded, she said her goodbyes to him, knowing he wouldn't return. She asked him not to set his foot on Irish soil, made him promise he wouldn't, and he laughed, but did. He took a horse and rode it across the sea, but when he returned home, he discovered that everyone he knew had long since passed away. He was crushed, and he wanted to return to Niamh. Just as he was on his way to the beach, the stirrup on his saddle broke, and though he was a good rider, he slipped, and one foot touched the ground, turning him into an old, old man... with nothing but his memories..."

"How terrible!" Belle remarked.

"Yes, a sad tale," Maeve said, nodding. She gazed wistfully again at Ava. "We have long known that congress between mortal and fae often results in sorrow. But on occasion we have brought mortal children here and raised them as our own."

"Children you stole?" asked Bobby accusingly.

"They were happy here!" Maeve snapped. "They lived almost forever, unlike the paltry handful of years mortals claim."

"Who wants to live forever, princess?" sneered the sorcerer. "Forever is endless without love, without happiness. Trust me, no one knows that better than me!"

"I could keep you all here forever," Maeve threatened. "Then I would have everything."

"You could . . ." Gold allowed. "But I make a bad enemy, dearie. And so does Belle. And if anything ever happened to either of us, Ava would never forgive you." He put on his 'let's make a deal' face. "How about this? You let us go—and make sure that when we return to our world, only a short time, say perhaps a day or so has passed, not a hundred years—and I give you a child?"

"How can you do that? The healers said I can have no more after my son was lost!"

"Why?" demanded Belle. "Was it a difficult birth?"

"I was riding when I got the news my husband had been slain by orcs. I was so distraught I fell . . . and that brought on my labor. My son was too small to live . . . and they said I should have no more children," Maeve said tightly.

"May I see, dearie? I'm a fair healer," Bobby told her.

Maeve extended her hand.

He took it and using his healing energies, fixed what had been wrong with her womb, there had been some damage to it, but it was fixable—if one knew what one was doing. A glowing green light surrounded her for a moment. Then he withdrew his hand. "There! You can now carry a child to term again. Now go find a husband, dearie."

Maeve eyed him speculatively. "You would do . . ." she murmured, licking her perfect lips.

"He's married!" Belle said, glaring at the other woman. "And I don't share! Now go find your own!" She kept the gun trained upon the Sidhe, not trusting the other woman a bit, even after the deal Robert had struck with her. The Sidhe might not be able to lie, but they were as tricky as they came.

Maeve tossed her head and chuckled. "Pity. We could have had some good times there!" Then she waved a languid hand at them. "You may go."

As Bobby turned to leave, the princess called, "Wait," then went over to a basket in a corner of the room and picked something up out of it. "Here. A parting gift for Ava." She held out a small calico kitten.

Belle stiffened. "What strings come attached with it?"

"None. The grimalkin and her played together while she was here and this one says she wants to bond with your lassie. So . . . here, a gift, freely given."

"Kitty!" Ava cried, and reached for the kitten.

"Hey, easy there, dearie," Bobby remonstrated. "You don't squish the kitten." He let Maeve put the kitten in his arms, where it curled up next to Ava, purring.

The little girl kissed the kitten happily. "Pretty kitty!"

He looked at Maeve. "And what powers does this little scrap have?"

"Oh, the same as all grimalkins," the Sidhe princess grinned. "But you'll figure them out in time, as the kitten does. Fare thee well, Ava Gold."

Ava looked at her, then gave a small wave. "Bye, old lady!"

Belle burst out laughing.

"Old? Me?" gasped Maeve, sounding slightly insulted.

Bobby smirked. "It's the hair, dearie," he indicated the Sidhe's silvery hair. "Only old ladies have that color where we come from."

Then they turned and left the room, allowing Shea to guide them from the palace and back across the drawbridge.

With the leprechaun in attendance, the wolfhounds remained calm and did not attack.

"Can ye get yerself home from here?" asked the leprechaun.

"I can," Bobby reassured him, indicating the golden string in his pocket.

Shea bowed to him. "Then may the luck o' the little people go with ye!" And he gestured and some gold coins appeared in his hand with a flourish. "Fer savin' me hide with yer half-truth back there."

"Thank you," Rumple took the gold and put it in his pocket. "I'll save that for Ava. She can use it to go to college." Then he added, "But luck is what you make of it, Shea."

Then they turned and walked towards the river, with the kitten and Ava, to where the kelpie waited still, bound by the golden bridle.

Once across the river, Robert released the kelpie from the bridle and it jumped back into the river and vanished. Then they followed the golden string back through the meadow and the tunnel into Storybrooke again.

When they stepped through the tunnel, they found the sun had moved in the sky, it was high noon now, and the air seemed . . . warmer somehow.

"What day is it?" Belle wondered.

"I have no idea," her husband answered. "But let's go home and find out, dearie. Take my hand."

Belle wrapped her arms about him instead, and then he transported them all back home in a cloud of purple smoke.

They found out it was now St. Patrick's Day, according to Gold's computer clock. Three days had passed while they had been in Tir Na Nog.

"Well, we can now have that picnic!" Belle said, and went to pack the basket full of food.

But instead of going to the park, they stayed right there in their own backyard, eating all the delicious food Belle had made upon the cloth on the lawn, while Ava ran after the calico kitten she had acquired, whom Bobby had dubbed Shannon.

The two parents watched their daughter running and giggling and smiled, then Bobby reached over and kissed Belle passionately.

"A kiss for luck, dearie!" he teased.

Belle smirked. "Because I'm so lucky to have you."

"Same here," he grinned, then he grunted as the kitten jumped onto his shoulder and Ava crashed into him, yelling, "'Mere, Shannon!"

Laughing, Gold picked up his daughter. "But the best luck of all is your child beside you," he said, and he gave his daughter a kiss too, before going to eat some shamrock cookies from the basket.

A/N: Special thanks to OneMagician for giving me the tale of Oisin and Niamh. Also, who wants a sequel with Rumple, Belle, and Ava finding Bae and bringing him back to Storybrooke?