A/N: I didn't like how Going Home ended, so I changed what happened to Rumplestiltskin. This has a lot of Rumple/Belle, but can he keep his happy ending?

Chapter One

Rumplestiltskin didn't know how long he looked at leather wristband on his left wrist, but he knew the only way to remove the leather wristband was to cut his hand off just below the leather wristband.

"You should have killed him when you had the chance," a soft voice inside his head said and he sighed, looking at the ceiling.

"I just wanted to talk to him one last time," he said when he saw something out of the corner of his eye and tilted his head to one side. Frowning, he watched as his shadow floating over the floor and he wondered how it was able to get into his shop.

"What do you want?" he asked, feeling a little foolish. The shadow floated around him when it swatted at his hand and he frowned. "You don't want me to cut my hand off?"

The shadow shook its head as he thought for a few seconds then a small smiled appeared on his face.

"Then this is what I need you to do."

Emma, Regina and the others stood stone still from the spell Pan cast as he gloated about what he was going to do when Emma saw the door to Rumplestiltskin's shop opening and was stunned at the angry look on Rumplestiltskin's face. She wondered what he was up to when Rumplestiltskin came to a stop and stood behind Pan. Frowning, Pan tilted his head to one side as he looked at her and folding his arms over his chest.

"What are you looking at?" Pan demanded when he felt someone grab hold of his shoulder and spun him around to look into a pair of angry, brown eyes. "Well, look who it is."

"Let them go," Rumplestiltskin said through clenched teeth and Pan smiled.

"No," Pan said and Rumplestiltskin dug his fingers into Pan's shoulder hard enough to make him wince. "Well, you finally found your courage."

"Do you want to see real courage?" Rumplestiltskin asked then slowly raised his right hand and they watched as his shadow floated downward and it was holding something. The shadow placed his silver blade dagger in his hand as he wrapped his fingers around the handle then looked at Belle with pure love in his eyes. "Belle, I love you."

"What do you know about love?" Pan asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"I know enough," Rumplestiltskin growled.

"And you really think she can love someone like you?" Pan asked then winced as Rumplestiltskin dug his finger further into his shoulder.

"To be honest," he said as he locked eyes with Belle and pressed his lips together. "No, I was a monster."

"No, you weren't," Belle thought, wanting so much to run to him and hold him in her arms.

"I had caged up my heart after losing so much that I never thought anyone should ever love me. I was proven wrong," he said and sadly smiled. "She looked passed the beast and saw the man."

"And you think she could love a coward?" Pan asked then winced while Rumplestiltskin's fingers dug deeper into his shoulder.

"Yes, even after the way I treated her when I found out she had talked to Regina," he said as he looked at Regina and anger filled his eyes. "When I thought Belle had died, a part of me died, too."

"Rumple," Belle thought and a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"Oh please," Pan said, rolling his eyes.

"Do you want to know what true love really is?" he asked and Pan nodded his head.

"True love is mourning for someone and feeling like you'll never be warm again. True love is burying the love you have so far down that helping someone finds their true love kills you inside," he said and looked at Snow White and Charming.

"So that's why he looked so sad while helping me find Snow," Charming thought.

"True love doesn't exist!" Pan said and Rumplestiltskin fought back the urge to slap the smug look off his face.

"Yes…it…does," he growled then looked at Neal and felt the tears in the corners of his eyes. "Bae, oh Bae, I am so sorry."

"Oh, please," Pan sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Shut up," Rumplestiltskin growled, digging his fingers deeper into Pan's shoulder.

"Why are you feeling so sentimental now? You abandoned him, remember?" Pan asked with a grin.

"That is not exactly what happened," he said then gave him a blank look. "For someone who seems to know a lot about me, you have no real clue to who really I am."

"Enlighten me," Pan said with a smug look on his face.

"Fine," he said then looked at the others. "To start off, I am a coward, but not in the way you think. I was told by a seer that my wife was going to have a baby and I would die in battle, never knowing my son. If wanting to avoid that fate makes me a coward, then so be it. And, yes, I admit to injuring myself so I could go back to my wife and son. Imagine the courage it took to take a hammer and smash it into my leg, crippling me for life."

"Ow," Emma thought.

"When I returned home, Milah asked me if it was true that I hurt myself on purpose. I never did learn how my wife learned that I had," he said then looked at Pan with a puzzled look on his face.

"Don't look at me."

"I told her the truth and she left, leaving me to care for our infant son."

"Whoa," Henry thought.

"Gee, like father like son," Pan said and Rumplestiltskin growled.

"The only difference is I wanted my son. I did everything within my power to provide food, clothes and shelter for us, never once thinking of anyone, but him."

'Then why did you become the Dark One?"

"I was protecting my son. They wanted to take him to fight in the war with the ogres and I wanted a way to stop the fighting and save not only him, but bring home all the other children."

"I remember you saying that," Neal thought.

"What about later on?" Pan asked.

"I admit I'm not perfect. Using the power became a habit and I just wanted us to be happy."

"But he wasn't happy, was he? If he was then he wouldn't have come to me."

"You're right," Rumplestiltskin said with a sigh.

"You couldn't even pick him out of the other boys."

"No, I couldn't, even though they were masked."

"You still should have been able to," Pan said with a smug look on his face.

"Did you know we made a deal shortly afterwards. He wanted to go somewhere and start over," Rumplestiltskin said and gave him a look that read "Sound familiar?" and Pan sighed. "I promised to go with him and…"

"Why?"

"Why did I want to go?"

"Yes?"

"I told you. I wanted him to be happy."

"Did he tell you where you were going?"

"No," he said with a shake of his head. "When we got to where we were going, I had no idea what he was going to do until he opened the portal."

"So you just pushed him in and left."

"NO!" Rumplestiltskin shouted. "The portal opened and he started to go inside it. I grabbed onto his hand and told him I couldn't do it."

"Because you were afraid," Pan said and Rumplestiltskin sighed.

"Yes."

"So you let go and he went bye-bye."

"No, I was trying to pull him out," Rumplestiltskin said while Neal replayed that night over in his head and his heart thumped hard in his chest.

"Oh, crap, he was," Neal thought.

"Why couldn't you do it?" Pan asked.

"If you want to know, it wasn't because I was going to lose my power and my magic. It was because I didn't want to go through what happened the last time I went through a portal," Rumplestiltskin said and Pan saw the anger and hate in his eyes.

"What is he talking about?" Regina thought.

"When I was a child, my father and I went through a portal. He said we were going to start over somewhere else and I believed him. When we got to where we were going, he…,"

"Oh, please, do we have to listen to this?" Pan sighed.

"Shut up, you little shit," Neal thought.

"When I let go of my son was when I became a coward. What you don't know is the time I spent trying to find him. I spent nearly every waking moment looking for him and I never forgot how much I love him."

"Papa," Neal thought and was surprised that he could swallow the lump in his throat.

"That's more than I can say for my father," he said and Pan smirked at him.

"Maybe the reason why he never looked for you was because he never loved you or wanted you. You were nothing, but a burden and he wished you had died the day you were born!" Pan shouted.

Rumplestiltskin felt like his heart had been ripped out of his chest as he held the handle of the dagger tighter in his hand then moved closer until his lips were near Pan's ear.

"Well, guess what. Today I am going to die," he whispered then grabbed hold of Pan and pinned him against him. Pan tried to break free, but Rumplestiltskin was stronger as he held Pan tightly in his arms then slammed the blade of the dagger through Pan's back. Pan grunted as Rumplestiltskin felt the blade sinking into his chest, but didn't wince. A black smoke rose around them when Pan changed into his father and Rumplestiltskin smiled, tightening his grip on Malcolm. "Hello, Papa."

"Wait, Pan was his papa?" Emma thought. "Then that means Henry was nearly killed by his great-grandfather."

"Rumple, please, don't do this. Let's start over. We can have a happy ending," Malcolm said when Rumplestiltskin kissed his cheek and sighed. He didn't know why, but he forgave his father and placed his lips near his ear.

"I'm a villain. Villains don't get happy endings," he said and was about to plunge the dagger further when for some unknown reason he pulled the dagger out so the blade wasn't sticking in him and Malcolm screamed. Shifting the dagger slightly, he plunged the blade further into Malcolm and Malcolm gasped, closing his eyes. Feeling his heart shuttering in his chest, Rumplestiltskin watched the black smoke enveloping them as they sank to the ground and he sighed.

"Good-bye, Belle," he thought and a tear rolled down his cheek.

"Rumple!" Belle shouted after Pan's spell faded and she and Neal ran to him. Rumplestiltskin was lying on his back as he felt the blood pouring out of his chest and the sky was flickering in and out of focus. Malcolm was nowhere to be seen as Belle and Neal knelt to Rumplestiltskin and Belle placed Rumplestiltskin's head in her lap, stroking the hair from his eyes.

"Hand," he whispered as Neal looked at Rumplestiltskin's left hand and unfolded his fingers. In his hand was the curse as Neal took the rolled up paper and saw the silver blade dagger was still in Rumplestiltskin's right hand. He took the silver blade dagger out of his father's hand when he slid the silver blade dagger into his jacket and Rumplestiltskin softly moaned. Coughing, Rumplestiltskin felt his heart shuttering in his chest as he looked at Belle and Belle looked toward Emma, Regina, Snow White and the others.

"Do something!" she begged while the others came closer and she looked at them with tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," Emma said when Henry thought of something and knelt next to Belle.

"Kiss him," he said and Belle looked at him with a confused look in her eyes.

"You want me to kiss him?" Belle asked.

"In Beauty and the Beast, Beauty kissed the Beast as he was about to die and broke the curse."

"Henry, this isn't a fairy tale," Emma said and knew that Henry was trying to help. He had believed so much in the stories in his book, but the idea of Belle kissing Rumplestiltskin to save his life was impossible.

"Please, you have to try!" Henry said as Belle looked at Rumplestiltskin and a small trail of blood dribbled from the corner of Rumplestiltskin's mouth and blood was spreading on either side of him. Lowering his head to the ground then leaning closer, she arched Rumplestiltskin's head back then kissed his lips. She poured every ounce of love she had for him into the kiss when she felt something moving through her and realized it was his love for her.

"Come back to me," she thought then moved back and stroked his hair. Rumplestiltskin's skin felt cold and he was barely breathing when his eyes widened and he started shaking. They moved back while the blood moved back into his body and the wound in his chest started closing. A gold light shimmered around him while they watched and his shadow appeared, floating over the gold light then slid inside him. Suddenly Rumplestiltskin's body floated off the ground like he was nothing more than a rag doll and the gold light grew brighter and brighter. His body rose higher and higher while the gold light shimmered around him then flared and they covered their eyes. Opening their eyes, they looked to see Rumplestiltskin standing in front of them and blinked his eyes a few times.

"No way," Emma said softly.

"Yes way," Neal whispered and slid his arm around her waist.

With shaking hands, Rumplestiltskin removed his tie, opened his shirt and slid his hand inside, moving his fingers over his chest. He removed his hand to see there was no blood when he smiled and looked at the others.

"You're alive!" Belle said as she ran to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Yes," he said.

"I told you it would work," Henry whispered and Emma gently nudged him.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Belle said as she opened his shirt wider and Rumplestiltskin softly blushed.

"Belle," he whispered while her cool fingers moved over his chest and he smiled. "As much as I like you doing that, we're not alone."

"I don't care," she whispered and buttoned his shirt, tucking his tie in his suit jacket pocket. Holding her head in his hands, he kissed her when she moved back and saw the love he felt for her in his soft brown eyes. Neal came closer when he hugged Rumplestiltskin and Rumplestiltskin gently patted Neal's back.

"Um," Snow said as they looked at her and she held onto Charming. "Sorry to interrupt, but what about the curse?"

"The curse is coming!" Grumpy shouted as he ran toward them and Rumplestiltskin held Belle against him.

"Here, Papa," Neal said when he handed Rumplestiltskin the rolled piece of paper and he walked to Regina, holding out his hand so Regina could see the rolled up paper.

"Break the curse," he half growled and Regina took the rolled up paper from his hand.

"If I do, I will have to pay a price," she said softly as she looked at Henry then at Emma.

"What sort of price?" Charming asked.

"I will…I will have to give up something very precious to me," she said as Emma looked at Henry and frowned. "I will have to give up Henry."

"What do you mean?" Henry asked.

"If I break the curse, everyone in this town will go back to where they belong and this town will vanish. It wasn't real to begin with."

"Wait, you mean we all get to go home?" Emma asked.

"No, Henry can't go. He isn't of our world," Regina said while Henry ran to her and she held him. "He has to stay here."

"I am not leaving him behind," Emma shouted.

"Do you think I want to?!"

"There has to be a way for him to come with us," Snow said, but Regina only shook her head.

"Then I'm not going," Emma said and Snow White and Charming gave her a stunned look. "Face it. I'm not of your world either. Before you say anything, I know I was born there, but I was raised here. This is where I belong."

"Are you sure?" Regina asked and Emma nodded her head. "Then I'll give you one last gift. When you leave, I will make it so neither of you will remember any of this."

Snow White gasped then buried her face in Charming's chest and he held her tightly in his arms.

"Alright," Emma said as she walked to her and stroked the top of Henry's head.