It was a shock for everyone to see the once all powerful Dark One as an ordinary man- a cripple at that. There were some old legends passed down of how he had become the Dark One, but anyone besides Bae or Hook who knew the truth was long dead. Even Hook had only ever heard rumors. The stories told now had been passed down for so many generations that there was little truth left in them. Few had known he was ever crippled.
At first, Rumple honestly expected that he would be openly mocked, the once mighty now powerless. He was still the grandfather of the king though. Much to his surprise, Henry still asked his advise on many issues.
"You offered to be my adviser as my grandfather, not as the Dark One," Henry reminded him. "You're still my grandpa. You still have the same advise to give."
As expected, Belle was overjoyed the curse had been lifted from the man she loved so much. Rumple still couldn't understand why she loved him. As the Dark One, he could never expected the love of anyone, especially someone like her. As the man he was without the curse? Milah had taught him well enough how women saw that man.
Yet when he found Belle in the library one day after the curse was broken, she looked at him with as much love as ever. Rumple gave her a soft smile, and noticed the book in her hand.
"The Tempest?" he asked. It was one he had picked up when he'd visited Dr. Jekyll's world.
"Have you read it?" Belle asked. She knew there were more books in the library he'd given her than she could read in a normal human lifetime, but then Rumple had lived much longer than that. She shouldn't have been surprised he'd read it, but she hadn't expected him to begin reciting. He spoke the lines so well it was if he was Prospero. No doubt he understood the play's main character.
"And now my charms are all o'erthrown. What strength I have's mine own," he smiled sadly at the way the line ended. "Which is most faint."
He didn't regret his choice, but he did miss the feel of magic. The Dark One's magic had never been his own, but having magic at all just felt so right.
"I'm not so sure it is faint," Belle told him. "You know who- well who your mother was." Rumple stiffened at the memory of the night he had first summoned his mother, the Black Fairy. He hadn't been able to get an answer from her the night he had contacted her when he'd asked why she had left him. That and his encounters with the Blue Fairy had left him with a hatred for fairies in general. He didn't want to admit he had Fae blood in him, but it was there whether he liked the fact or not. That should have meant he had magic of his own.
Bae had a feeling about that too, and spoke of it with Henry one day.
"I'm glad he isn't cursed any more, but it's hard seeing him rely on a cane," Henry told his father. "There's more broken about him than just his leg, but the curse can't be the only cure for that."
Bae was thoughtful a moment, then told Henry a story from when he was little.
"You know he made his living as a spinner and weaver. Wool has lanolin in it, and it's highly flammable. One day some wool caught fire. He ran across the room to put it out. He shouldn't have been able to run. The way his leg was broken, it would never heal on it's own. As a child I didn't see it that way, but he had to have used magic. It's the only way he could have ran."
"So we're right," Henry said. "He does have magic of his own. He just doesn't believe he does."
"His whole life he's been told he's nothing," Bae said sadly. "It was all I heard as a boy too. 'oh you're the coward's son.'"
"But he isn't!" Henry said, outraged at the people who had treated his grandfather that way.
"If you're told something often enough, you believe it," Bae told him. "And he's been told how worthless he is his whole life," he grimaced. "Including by my mother. The way she used to speak to him-." he shook his head.
"I have a feeling it will take more than telling him how wrong that his for him to believe it," Henry groaned.
It turned out that words would not be needed. When spring arrived, Belle planned to go for a ride. With his leg, Rumple didn't ride, but decided to watch her from the castle. He took out a crystal ball, glad he didn't need magic of his own to use it. He smiled watching Belle have a good canter, but that smile turned to an expression of terror within moments.
It all happened so quickly. Belle's horse, Philippe, was usually level headed, but he had not been able to get enough exercises over the winter. He was simply too full of energy, and when a fox darted out in front of him he reared up before Belle could steady him. She lost her balance and fell, twisting before landing on her back. She didn't get up.
In that moment, Rumple forgot he was no longer the Dark One. He forgot Henry could heal someone and, as far as he knew, he himself could not. His only thought was that Belle had been hurt. Acting on instinct alone, he transported himself to where Belle had fallen. She was in obvious pain, but at least she was conscious.
"I'm here," he told her gently, trying to help her to set up. She winced, but as soon as he put his hand against the small of her back, the pain stopped. She looked at him in astonishment.
"Rumple- how did you even get here?"
"I-" he stared at her, only then realizing he had transported himself. And he had healed her! "But- I don't understand. I'm not the Dark One anymore." He looked at his hands as if expecting the scales to return.
He helped her to her feet, and realized after a moment that his legs were both steady under him, with his cane laying forgotten in the castle. Belle was smiling at him with a look in her eyes that said "I tried telling you you were more than what you believed."
"Rumple with or without magic, I always knew you were someone special. Now you know it too."
He had magic! And this power didn't come from any curse. It was his own, a part of him. Belle grinned and kissed him, and for the first time in his life, Rumple felt completely whole.