A quiet ghost, he had asked her to be and a quiet ghost, Belle made sure that she was. The same couldn't be told about the child, though, as his wailings he could hear all night long, although they were always very weak. She never spoke to him. He never spoke to her. Rumplestiltskin avoided looking at his own child, the baby she held in her arms with such care. A part of him, didn't want the curse to be broken now, because he didn't want to have to look at her eyes, knowing that she was his Belle again, with all the memories of their time together. She already hated him now and it would hurt even more to know that this hate would grow once she had access to their past.

Some nights he would lay in bed remembering about how pure, good and innocent she once had been. Belle wasn't any of it anymore. The expression on her face was always bitter, reminding him of how Milah acted after he came back from battle as a coward. Belle at least, didn't seem to be willing to leave the child she had at any point in her life. She lived for him, as she once promised that she would.

Rumple regretted the things he had done, he hated himself for them, but he couldn't change anything. He very often caught himself about to make an approximation, but then, he pulled away, held himself in place and turned back to being the cold bastard he had always been with his lovely Belle. He bought everything the child needed, but he never touched it. He gave Belle a comfortable bedroom, a few new clothes and provided food for her meals, but he never crossed paths with her. When he was home, she would stay in her room and in the times she needed something from the kitchen and appeared to get it, he observed her from distance.

She was getting more miserable by the day. There were dark bags under her eyes, her skin looked too pale, her lips were white and dry most of the time and she always looked in pain. His poor Belle, who deserved the whole wide world, locked in that house, tied up to that baby forever. All his fault. He growled to himself as he turned around in the bed, thinking that he needed to focus on finding Baelfire instead of keep thinking about something he had already lost forever. Once the curse was broken, Belle would leave him forever and she would take the boy with her.

A few hours of uninterrupted sleep were something he wasn't expecting to get, though. Rumplestiltskin always woke up with Gideon's screams, but that night what woke him was a rude and insistent knock on his door. The Dark One sat up on the bed, rubbing at his eyes and reaching for his cane as the knocking persisted. He was ready to be cold with Belle all over again when he opened the door to find her crying with a limp baby in her arms.

"He is not breathing," she sobbed. "Please, you need to help me. My son is not breathing."

Rumplestiltskin's whole world seemed to have stopped. He looked down at the baby and his breath got caught on his throat. The tiny body Belle held was flaccid, lips getting purple and eyelids closed, he knew he had to do something, but he didn't seem to able to move. Tears fell down Belle's face as she sobbed and clutched the child close to her chest.

"Please," she begged him. "He is the only thing I have. Please do something."

He didn't know what she expected him to do, but Rumplestiltskin picked the baby up from her arms and sat back on the bed, laying him on his legs and with the little knowledge he had, the Dark One tapped his back three times with the needed strength to clean the passage of air again. For a second nothing happened and Belle started to cry harder, but then they heard the smallest of the sounds as if someone was choking and the baby moved slightly, giving Rumple enough hope to repeat the proceeding second time until the child was wailing again, squirming in his legs.

Pulling him up to his arms, Rumple watched as the baby spilled some milk, which was probably suffocating him and Belle immediately reached to clean his little mouth before he could ruin his clothes. She picked him up from the Dark One, nestling him in her arms again and he watched as she soothed the baby, who was slowly regaining his natural pinkish colour.

"Thank you," she murmured between her sobs. "You saved my son."

Although he would have liked to answer, Rumplestiltskin couldn't find the right words to do so. He was in awe, because for the briefest of the moments he had held his son on his arms and it was the most wonderful feeling in the world. A part of him wanted to break down in tears, because he had been ignoring that little boy's existence for the past few weeks and he had almost lost him without even holding him. It hit him hard and all he did was to keep staring at Belle as she nuzzled her nose against the baby's forehead.

"Go to your room," Rumplestiltskin commanded her. "Call me if you need anything and remember to tap his back gently after he is fed."

"I did it," Belle answered. "I don't know why this happened. He was sleeping, then he made a weird sound and stopped breathing."

"Be more careful next time, then."

It was awful that she felt like she needed to explain herself to him, but he only nodded, opening up the door for her and shutting Belle away once more before he fell to the bed again, hiding his face on his hands.

He had envied that baby. He had regretted his existence, but he hadn't realised that he was just another innocent whose life he had ruined too. That poor child deserved better. He was so precious, so little and so sweet! He was pure like Belle and he was a part of both of them. Gods, they had made that child, that little boy Belle claimed to be the only light in her life.

Rumplestiltskin had another son that he so wished to care for, but he couldn't, because he had done everything wrong again.


She woke up in a hospital room, feeling a bit dizzy. Her vision was blurry and her body felt sore as if she had been hit by a truck. Lacey could remember perfectly about what had happened before she finally fainted, so she wasn't exactly expecting to wake up there, or wake up at all. She lifted her own arms with a bit of an effort to see that both her wrists here wrapped in bandage.

Weak as Lacey was at the moment, she could only manage to lay her hands down again, both above her belly that for her surprise wasn't swollen anymore. She would feel a tick fat layer under her hospital gown, but there was no life in there, no baby to kick her and make her feel even for the slightest moments that her life was still worth it. Tears came to her eyes as she desperately looked around to find a nurse injecting something in the bag to which she was connected.

"Where is my baby?" Lacey asked her.

"Ms. French, good that you're awake," the nurse smiled.

Grunting, she pulled herself up to a sitting position, feeling a sharp pain come from her lower belly.

"Where is my baby?" She repeated.

"Just a minute."

A relieved sigh left her when the nurse disappeared through the opened door, because "just a minute" certainly couldn't mean "I'm sorry, but there is no baby anymore". She sat there impatiently waiting until he woman came back holding a little bundle in her arms and her heart attempted to stop at the sight.

"Congratulations, you have a son," the nurse said, handing the baby to her. "I'll give you a moment with him and then I'll come back so we can have a little talk and maybe try breastfeeding. He is very small and fragile, his lungs weren't ready yet, so you might notice he is making a weird noise, but he is just trying to breath."

Lacey nodded, barely understanding what her words meant as she cradled the most perfect thing she had ever held in her arms. He was tiny, very tiny and was sucking at his own little fist, blinking his dark brown eyes at her. He was perfect. She didn't care that he had Gold's damned eyes, she wouldn't care even if he turned out to be his mirrored image, that baby was hers, he represented the love she had felt for that man and she would take care of him until her very last breath.

"Hey little boy," Lacey murmured. "I can't believe I almost lost the chance of holding you. You are going to be loved, alright? I will love you every day of my life and you'll never doubt of that."

He released his fist, a trail of saliva falling on his chin, but she only thought that it was adorable. He was in fact doing some strange noises that had nothing to do with little cries or a small complaining and Lacey became immediately worried about his healthy. Earlier that day she had wished to die and she hadn't cared much if she was dragging him with her or not, but now that she was holding him everything had changed. She wanted her child to live and she would do anything to keep him safe.


Sleep didn't come for Rumple after that little incident in the middle of the night. All he could do was to keep obsessively thinking about Belle and the child. Gideon. His son. He thought about Baelfire too, about everything that meant failing with both of them. It kept him up until it was time to get ready for the day and he headed to the kitchen already wearing one of his usual suits. He stopped in the middle of way though because he found Belle in the living room, crying again, curled up on his couch with the baby sleeping in her arms.

"What are you doing?" He couldn't help himself but to ask.

"Watching him sleep," she shrugged. "I will need to take him to the hospital. His breathing is still hard."

Even from where he was, he could see that the way the child's chest rose and fall wasn't exactly normal, it was slowly and hard as if breathing caused him some kind of pain. He held his cane tighter, taking a few steps towards them and taking a seat beside Belle.

"May I hold him?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to," he said, simply. "He is my son."

Belle furrowed and he relished in the way she still looked beautiful and pure even when she was in fact bitter and scared. There was anger in her eyes, of course, anger for what he had done to her cursed self - the adventurous Lacey - and there was mistrust too. Everything he deserved, of course.

"You never wanted him," she whispered.

"I'm sorry, Lacey, I really am," Rumple answered. "I've made a lot of mistakes, but he is not one of them and I want to fix this."

She glanced down at the baby and with some hesitance, she handed him to the Dark One. A smile appeared in his lips as he watched his son fuss a bit before getting used to his warmth and lean his small cheek against his chest. Belle smiled fondly at the scene for a second, but then that smile faded and she shook her head.

"I'm not sure if I can forgive you."

"I'm not asking for forgiveness," he assured her. "Just let me take care of him too."

More hesitance. She worried at her lip and reached out too touch the baby's brow, which allowed him to see her bare wrists for the first time in long. With the bandages gone he could see the deep wound that was still healing but would soon become a scar in her perfect body. He released a sharp breath, wanting to take her hands and kiss each scar, saying he would do anything so she would never feel like she wanted to end her life again, however he didn't do it.

"Okay," Belle – no, Lacey, he reminded himself – said. "But you need to promise me that you will never, ever hurt him like you hurt me."

Tears pooled in his eyes as he nodded, looking deeply in her sad blue ones before bending down to press a kiss to Gideon's forehead, who made a whiny sound at the gesture.

"I would never hurt him," he answered. "And I'm sorry for what I did to you."

"If…" Lacey tried to start but needed to swallow hard before continuing. "If you really want to get my trust back, you can start by pulling Gideon to his crib and perhaps making me some tea."

She was being imprudent by asking this of him and he could see in her eyes that she was afraid of his reaction, but he only smiled at her and carefully leaned to kiss her cheek tenderly before getting his cane and pulling himself up to his feet with Gideon safely nestled in one arm. He couldn't fix his mistakes, but if Belle, with her kind heart was willing to give him a second chance, he could try and do his best to make it worth it.

"I'll be back in a few moments, then we can talk."