I want to mourn her death. I want to honor her. I want to pay tribute to who she was as a woman, as a mother, as a lawyer, as a fighter, as a wife, as a justice, as a patriot.
I want to mourn her and celebrate her and thank her for everything that she did, all the decisions that she made that helped me grow up in an America where I was safe to pursue all the things I wanted.
Instead the first emotion I felt wasn’t sadness, or humility, or solemnity. It was fear. Chill down the spine, tears in the eyes, heart racing, muscle clenching fear.
So when they showed Storybrooke at the end of the episode, the sign for Mr. Gold’s was still there and lit up. With the realms all merged, Gideon took over his father’s shop. Mr. Gold refers to Gideon now. He gave up his Russian peasant look and pulled out the suits from the Black Fairy curse in honor of his Papa. His best friends are Alice and Robin who are always trying to set him up with a nice guy.
Nook looks out for him, becoming a surrogate father the way Rumple looked out for Alice when he couldn’t. It’s the least Hook could do for his old friend.
Gideon spends a large amount of his inherited gold fixing up and reopening the library, now known as the Belle Gold Memorial Library.
He has dinner with Henry’s family once a week and has taken a shine to his grand niece. He teaches Lucy all the ancient languages his mother once taught him.
He rests easy knowing his parents are together and in love for all eternity and he’ll see them again one day. He broke a teacup on their last wedding anniversary and took it as a sign.
He is happy and loved and fulfilled and so very far from being alone.