A/N: Once Upon a Time and all the characters you recognized are property of ABC.

I've been rewatching the series on Netflix and came up with this idea. The original story of Rumpelstiltskin had him taking children as payment for his deals. I know we saw a bit of that with the Cinderella story, but I thought that probably wasn't his first or last deal like that and what if he still had one of those children when the curse was done. What kind of parent would he be in our world without his Dark One powers? Hope you all enjoy it. Please read and review. Rating may go up in future chapters.


It was two weeks after he had sent Belle away that his latest contract became due. In that time he had shut himself up in Dark Castle and refused to answer any calls for his services. He thought about just ignoring this one as well, but he couldn't.

Six months before a young peasant girl had called out for him, wanting to get rid of an unwanted child. Seems she had been having an indiscretion with a local married nobleman and had gotten with child only to find that he no longer wanted her with a brat in tow. Even if it was his brat. So, desperate, she'd called out for Rumpelstiltskin to help her get rid of the child.

What she'd actually wanted was to get rid of the pregnancy, but he had made her another deal instead. If she carried the child to term, then he would take the child to a good home. He would also make it so that her lover didn't remember any of this and reward her handsomely besides. He had never exacted so low a price before. A child that she wanted to be rid of anyway, but it was an answer for him as well. Besides, as hard as he tried, he couldn't help but feel a little pity for the poor girl. She was already cursed to only be able to feed her crippled mother and younger siblings by warming the bed of such a callous man and their world was cruel to those without power or money. Which was exactly why he had to keep this contract. If the girl had been desperate enough to make the deal, what might she do if he didn't keep his end of it?

He left for the small village, wondering what he should do with child. When he'd made the deal, he'd plan to give the child to Belle. She'd confided in him that while she didn't miss Gaston or the other men her father and the council had suggested she marry, she did miss the possibility of having children and a family. And that, unlike love, he could give her, due to a young woman with a baby she didn't want. Of course he would have had to tell her the truth about where he got it, probably with some proof from the mother that the child was truly unwanted.

After all, monsters didn't like children. They ate them in soup. Where had that particular story come from anyway? He didn't eat children. He may be a monster, but he wasn't a cannibal. He did take them from ungrateful men and women , who sought to trade them for something they thought they needed, but he always found them a good home. Sometimes to other women who had come to him to ask for a child, sometimes calling in favors for other debts, and sometimes, just leaving them on the doorsteps of families he thought worthy.

That night, he conjured up some goat's milk and fed the child, then cleaned her up and put her in the cradle that had been Bae's. In the morning he would have to find some farm girl to come look after her until he could find her a proper family. He thought about all the people who owed him a favor and none of them seemed good enough. After all, if they were good enough for Belle's child and that's how he truly thought of her, then they wouldn't be having dealings with him in the first place. Perhaps Charming and Snow White, if they could get their act together, but at the moment, Snow was running around the countryside pretending to be a bandit and Charming was pretending to be a Prince and not a shepherd. He thought briefly of Charming's own mother, but she was too old for a newborn. It would take some doing, finding the perfect family for the child because only perfect would do for Belle's daughter.