Howdy! So, I've been having a terrible time breaking through some ridiculous writers block…needed to clear my head a bit and when I did finally break through, this was the result.

Never fear! Something Wicked and Burn the Kingdom Down are still in the works, just had to get away from them for a bit.

This is more or less a different take on The Miller's Daughter, where Rumplestiltskin makes a different choice and is left trying to figure out if it is the right one. I purposely left out direct mentions of Rumplestiltskin/Cora mostly because I'm not sure how to write them yet…you can assume though that it's still canon and I may address it more in part 4.

Originally several posts on my Tumblr (hey, check out my profile for the link, we can be friends!) it will be 4 total parts – here is 1-3.

The Sinking Man is by of Monsters and Men, not mine nor are the characters of Once Upon a Time. No money is being made or infringement intended. I hope you enjoy!


Part 1: With My Heart's Every Beat

Cold, dark sea
Wrapping its arms around me,
Pulling me down to the deep.
All eyes on me.

Rumplestiltskin felt the poison move closer to his heart with it's every beat. It was liquid hot fire in his veins and his betraying, traitorous heart was laboring heavy with it, killing him with every slow beat as it moved the blood and wretched witch's poison through his body.

"The boy will be your undoing"the seer's words rang in his ears, he pressed harder into the compress that was against his chest. He coughed, a strangled, choking sound that hurt even worse than it sounded. His chest constricting with the pain the poison was in his lungs now, he felt it burning holes. He felt the acid eating away.

Part of him was angry; most of him was in pain. When he was angry, when he was in pain he knew that he went into the darkest parts of himself, he knew this and he welcomed it. In the darkness he didn't have to look at it, he didn't have to feel it. In the darkness there was the safety of no eyes upon his sins. The darkness was a constant friend.

"You're Henry's grandfather. We're family now and I'm going to save you," Emma was in front of him, earnestly, adamantly avowing to him his safety. He wanted to laugh at her words, laugh at the absurd and completely asinine promise. She could not promise that, she could not ensure that…not simply with the sheer will of her lofty words. There was no truth in it, no guarantee. That was not a deal she could make, well certainly not if she expected to keep it.

But they were family he realized, coldness in a wave washing over him. The truth of it cascaded through him, into him, into his veins mixing with that vile poison. This was the True Love of his son, of his Bae, this was the mother of his …his grandson. His grandson was the boy that would be his undoing.

The Dark One with no family, no confidants, no friends, no love, had somehow gathered back to his breast a son, a daughter, a grandson…and for a time his own True Love. He had never planned for that; never seen that, never believed it would have been possible.

Find Bae. Had been his only desire, his only goal for far too many years, his single focused sight. At the cost of everything, up to and including his life it would seem, he had found Bae, of that he had succeed.

Of course now he was dying, hope of surviving dwindling with every moment longer that the ship took to reach the shores of Storybrooke, dying with no salvation, no way to even consider all that he had now gained before he lost it once again, to the waves of the darkness that were pulling him down with welcoming arms, arms welcoming back their old friend.