Tina blinked, surprised, and turned to look at him, knife still in her hand from slicing strawberries. After a minute she nodded.

"Come in, I'll be done here in a minute."

Gold nodded and stepped inside, although he made sure to stay out of the kitchen.

Tina finished with the strawberries and put them on the pie before leaving it to set and wiping her hands on an already well-used towel. And then she turned to look at Gold.

"So what did you need, Mr. Gold?"

"I wanted to come and ask why you... did what you did earlier," Gold said.

"You mean why I defended you to Emma?" Tina shrugged. "I know you didn't do it, and I wasn't going to let her throw you under the bus like that. Besides, no one deserves to be made a sacrificial scapegoat, which is what they were going to do to you."

"You didn't need to do it," Gold pointed out. "I've managed just fine up until now."

"Just because you could doesn't mean you should have to," Tina pointed out. "I know I would hate to be alone if someone was accusing me of stuff like that."

"I didn't ask you to. In fact, I recall asking you to wait elsewhere." Because yes, Gold was going to be stubborn on this.

"Well, now I know who not to have my back if Emma ever comes after me," Tina replied sweetly, going over to the cutting board and taking it to her makeshift counter, staring to slice apples. "Rachel, you want nutmeg in this pie or not this time?"

"Uh, yeah, sure," Rachel replied.

"If I have anything to say about it, Emma will never have a reason to go after you," Gold snapped at Tina.

"If," Tina pointed out, slicing the apples neatly. "There is no guarantee that you'll have anything to say. Like if you're in jail."

"I won't be," Gold replied. "Trust me on that."

"Of course you won't be." Tina rolled her eyes at him, tossing the sliced apples into a bowl. "That would be far too mundane for you, wouldn't it, Mr. Magic-Solves-Everything?"

"I don't expect you to understand how I do things," Gold said. "Or like it."

"Look, if you just came over here to pick a fight, I'll go to your shop tomorrow so we can yell at each other then and not disturb Rachel." Tina swung to look at him, knife still in hand as she glowered at him. "So you may as well leave."

"Contrary to what you might believe," Gold said, "I did not come here to pick a fight. You started yelling at me." He was quiet for a moment. "But you're right about one thing: I do not believe I'm welcome anymore, so I'll go."

Tina had a few seconds where she had to put the knife down because she wanted to strangle him too badly.

"We'll finish this discussion later," she ground out. "Rache, you like cherry tartlets right?"

"You didn't buy enough to make anything else tonight, Tina," Rachel pointed out. She looked at Gold, who turned and left the apartment, and then went over to her friend. "Trust me, sweets, you don't have enough to make any more pastries or anything."

"If I don't I'll be too tempted to go after him and strangle him," Tina said quietly. "And that just wouldn't be good no matter how you look at it."

"Tina, there are physically not enough ingredients in this kitchen for you to make tarts," Rachel pointed out. "You physically will not be able to make anything else."

Tina looked around the kitchen, her lips pursed. "I can make a half-batch of cookies, I think. Maybe. Probably. If I use up the last of a few things."

"I have a better idea," Rachel said. "Is there enough to make some ice cream? I'm sure we have a couple of good cans we can use for it, and kicking around the can for an hour or so would make you feel better."

Tina blinked, thinking that over. "Yeah, we've got enough of everything for that," she agreed. "You want to get the cans out and I'll start mixing?"

Rachel nodded and went to go find acceptable cans for making the ice cream. Once she'd found two of them, she went back to Tina.

Tina shoved everything together and fitted everything properly before she started rolling the cans along the floor, putting her foot on one while she finished making the apple pie and put it in the oven.

And then she spent the next hour and a half kicking both cans around the apartment.