Chapter 2

After looking through endless pages of bank statements and cross-referencing the dates with the memories of his cursed self Rumple decided that it was finally time to get some good sleep and those fluffy pillows and the clean bedsheet practically screamed his name.

But before he could allow himself such a luxury he still had one thing to do: Getting a shower!

Therefore, with a bit of caution, since the quality of the bedroom did not always reflect on the bathroom, he opened the door that was on the left side of his small but comfortable bedroom just to be pleasantly surprised by what he found. A fully furnished bathroom with a walk-in shower that was most importantly clean and free of mold!

He shiver ran down his spine as he thought back to those despicable motels that somehow took pride in being more decrepit then the every accommodation that he was ever forced to live in. Even his cell in the mines below the Charmings castle would have been more preferable and the he slept on straw and dirt or maybe his old hut back in the village but there he also slept on dirt and straw so there wasn't that much difference…

So he peeled of the layers of his suit, discarded the dress shirt and his underwear and stepped inside. He really should have gotten of those at home since his was always a nuisance to get into. He had no doubt that it had been some childish revenge from Regina to grant him luxury beyond measure but filled with inconvenience.

With a slight turn of the quite beautiful brass handle, a cascade of warm water washed over his body and eased his troubled thoughts. Because even though he didn't want to he couldn't stop to think about the home that he had lost, alongside with his son and his True Love. Not to speak of the unspeakable things that the witch had forced him through while she had enslaved him. Better not to dwell on these things otherwise he would have to raid the minibar in his room and while he had quite a bit of money to his mortal name he had no intention of wasting it on getting wasted.
He chuckled quite a bit over his wordplay.

The hotel provided the shampoo and body wash that he needed to really clean himself and he was tempted to steal those miniature bottles since the sandalwood scent was just divine.
Or maybe after a few days of washing himself with unscented bar soap he was just desperate to smell not quite like a homeless person on the run.
Well he was a homeless man on the run but the whole world didn't need to smell that.

To his delight, that hotel also offered some body lotion, which he generously applied to his leg to sooth the tight pulling scar tissue. While it didn't bothered him that much back in Storybrooke especially after magic had returned his hike from the town border, without any walking aid, to the nearest street had taken quite a toll on the limb.
Maybe he really should go to a hospital to let a professional take a look?

The option was always there back home but even while under a curse he had thought that Whale was a quack who had gotten his diploma in some back alley behind a discount store so he had refrained from visiting the hospital as much as possible. That the good doctor spent most of his paycheck down at the Rabbit Hole or at Granny's trying to get drunk was the other reason he did not trust the man.
But in a city like New York he had high hopes to find someone who was at least somewhat competent.

Absentmindedly he started to rub himself dry with the provided towels while his thoughts circled around his bodily condition. For he knew that from a medical point of few he wasn't the pinnacle of health anymore.
His leg was mostly ruined, his body strained form being alive well beyond the natural expiration date and thinking of his heart nearly made him vomit as a sudden wave of nausea overcame him.
His heart…

For any mortal it would look just like a heart should look like, maybe some clogged arteries since his diet consisted mostly of tea and food from the old hag that overcharged him for pickles, but for someone with magic it would glow with a baleful black light with a tiny pinprick of red in its center, at least he hoped so. His sins had tainted his soul and had started to corrupt his most vital organ next to his brain.
Yet without magic, there was little that he could do to fight the decay that he could feel even now, as it coursed through his body.

As he dragged himself to bed, he made the decision: Acquire a stable income and find a good doctor that he could for some techniques to lessen the strain on his body.
Because he would need to so if he wanted to survive for the foreseeable future. Not that he could see the future anymore and even if he could he wouldn't tempt fate just so he could see himself lying dead in an alley.

With these troubled thoughts sleep claimed him yet his mind could not find rest as doubt and worry filled his dreams.