Fairy Tale Land

The Enchanted Forest

"King Leopold didn't waste any time, did he?" Rumplestiltskin leered at Regina making her recoil in disgust and gag - quietly - on the bile at the back of her throat.

"It isn't- it's not... the King's. It could never be his- we haven't even, it is NOT his child! Do you understand me?" Regina crossed her arms over her chest and swallowed hard, eyes angrily staring down the imp in front of her, infuriated by the Dark Ones suggestion.

She had only ever been intimate with one man, only ever loved one man and only wanted to spend the rest of her life with one man. Daniel Colter. It would always be Daniel... no matter what or who the future sent her way.

It was sickening to her that he thought she was that easy to get into bed, that she would be that easily manipulated and naive... or that she was anything at all, like her heartless and conniving mother. Regina was NOTHING like Cora (which she knew, greatly bothered her mother and only complicated their relationship even more) and she never would be.

Rumple seemed to get a perverse joy out of knowing that there had been another man (that this child wasn't the Kings and that Cora's plans were going up in smoke), dancing around like a deranged ballerina and giggling maniacally.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND? Regina roared, uncharacteristically, surprising herself and Rumplestiltskin. She immediately regreted it, not because it could've set the Dark One off but because she didn't want anyone else in the Palace to hear and come running, ruining everything she had planned.

"Yes yes..." Rumple stood still (images of the future running through his mind, calculations of risk and reward) making the decision to help Regina in that moment but not for her... no, for his own gains. A child no one anticipated being brought into existence had the potential to derail his plans to find his son, Neal "So, there was another... and so recently. Curious! Where is this other man now?"

Names and firstborns were Rumplestiltskin's stock and trade, he was always spinning plans for the future. Being the Dark One afforded him knowledge of what was to come and how intrinsically connected... everything, even the supposed little things were to one another. People, places and events. It was all connected and he fancied himself the puppet master of everyone's fates.

"Gone... he's just gone!"

"Gone? Where?"

"My mother ripped his heart out... right in front of me! I suppose I have YOU to thank for that, don't I?" Regina sighed, pacing around nervously and took a few slow steps back to her velvet cushioned chair to sit back down at her antique dressing table.

The realisation that she was carrying Daniel's child and this upsetting conversation combined with her early on set morning sickness was draining and she no longer wanted to continue with tonight's magic lesson. It had only been six short weeks since Daniel's heart, Regina's innocence and their future together had been torn from them by Cora in a fit of jealousy (because she could never fully feel that kind of true love, after removing her own heart as a safety measure) and need to control what her daughters future would become. Cora had worked too hard for Regina to throw her life away on a stable boy and destroyed everything to stop it from happening.

"Hmm, indeed. Your mother was my greatest student..." Rumple said, pausing briefly and then mumbled to himself "and my greatest personal failure"

Almost twenty years ago, Rumple had seeked out Cora because he knew that the young woman standing in front of him right now was key to getting his son back. He had offered her a deal; her firstborn child, a daughter... for his help to gain magic, power and all she desired. But they had fallen in love, somehow. Rumplestiltskin had given Cora everything and she had thrown it away the second that power gave her what she had always wanted (or so she had thought). A better life, a kingdom to reign over... with Prince Henry. But he was never to be King and all of her hopes were dashed again. Until Cora found out she was pregnant and a new future for her family presented itself.

"I want you to leave. I don't feel well enough to continue with our lesson... come back two nights from now. And do not speak a word of this to anyone!" Regina stood up, walking over to her closet and then over to her bed placing her silk nightgown on the end.

"Don't presume to tell me what to do, I will speak to whomever I like and leave when I am ready to leave"

Rumplestiltskin followed Regina from the closet to the bed, furiously formulating a plan to remove this child from the chessboard. Regina turned around quickly, facing him, tears running down her face and a gentle hand on her still flat stomach. There was fire in her eyes, a look he had seen in her mothers, and knew before she spoke that it would so much easier than he thought to get rid of the baby.

"The King can never know! I don't want anyone to know. If my mother ever found out... she would, I..." Regina tried to breathe but the words caught in her throat, forcing them out after a moment spent trying to compose herself "You know what she would do! No! No one can ever know about this. I need a potion, or a glamour spell. I... I need something... to, to hide this from everyone" she finished, breathing heavily and on the verge of tears.

"You... you need? That's not how this works, dearie. I'm about give and take. I make deals, I don't help foolish little girls" Rumple turned his head slightly from her view, grinning wickedly.

This was what he wanted, no... it was what he needed to happen. A chance to make a deal for Regina's child was exactly what he needed to keep her in line, to keep the path he foresaw on the right track and to end the potential of a child born of true love. The most powerful magic of all and his end.