"Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after…"

He'd been hearing that singsong rhyme in his head all night; almost as soon as he'd decided to summon his mother and ask her about the Curse. The rhyme sounded like something a child might sing, but it was known by adults and children alike throughout the land where the pair had once reigned. A stupid couple, really. Jack had been the bastard son of a King. He took a woman named Jill for a wife. In his youth, Jack's thieving brother had risen to the throne, but Jill had convinced Jack that he would make a better king. He'd managed to gather some followers, risen against the King, his brother, and then, because it really had been a stupid path to follow, his brother had crushed the rebellion. Anyone else would have probably made sure Jack and Jill were both killed, but being that special kind of evil, his brother had a different idea in mind. He'd killed every last supporter his brother had, man, woman, and child. Meanwhile, Jack and Jill were permitted to be released back to their farm, to "live with" what their actions had brought. Now it haunted them just as much as the silence from their friendless life. For the King's lesson was well remembered with the people. No one dared to make Jack and Jill their friends after what had happened. The King had made it so that exiling them would have been a far kinder fate.

Proof of that came years ago, when, after the rebellion, Jack had slipped coming down a hill with a pail of fresh water. He'd injured himself, cracked his skull, his brain had swollen, he was on death's door, but still no doctor had come to help him. It didn't matter how much Jill cried, how many doors she knocked on, the doctors she stalked, no one was interested in assisting her. All she'd been able to do was make Jack comfortable, and turn to someone far more sinister to help her...the Dark One.

And why did this matter? Why was any of it important? Why was he so suddenly consumed with thoughts of this pair now?

Because after the Blue Fairy had left him with the idea to summon his dear mother, hed done his research. He'd found the summoning spell that was necessary to get his mother to the Enchanted Forest. It wasn't as simple as raising a dagger and calling her forth from wherever she was. She was in another realm, and that meant that she required a special summoning with special...requirements. He needed bait.

Summoning someone from another land had to have heart to it. There had to be a connection of some kind. If his childhood had taught him anything about the Black Fairy, it was that she was always happy to come and take away children from those that didn't want them. And fortunately for him...he knew just how to get his hands on a child.

When he'd healed poor, throneless Jack, he hadn't asked for anything in return except for a payment one day in the form of the most valuable thing dear Jill possessed. That idea had come from the Seer herself. And now he knew why. A few months ago, Jill, all on her own, without help from even a mid-wife, had given birth to a baby boy. The boy's name was Gideon. "Gideon"…it was one of the names that the Seer had placed in his head when he'd first taken on the power. He was now convinced this was why. He was meant to take the child, to use him, to speak with the Black Fairy. It was imperative for moving forward, for planning the Curse, for finding his son! Gideon was hardly an unwanted child, a few hours of watching him with his parents told him that, but he was hoping that the Black Fairy wouldn't sense that. He'd come this far; he couldn't risk something going wrong now.

The young parents startled when he announced his presence that afternoon. He couldn't blame them, he'd waited until Jack returned from the well to make sure both parents were present, then appeared behind them and interrupted their quaint little conversation. They'd never seen him coming.

"Rumpelstiltskin, wh-what are you doing here?!" Jack questioned.

He laughed. It was a reflex, merely an act. It was all to hide the truth. The truth was that it killed him to do something like this. All around, there was an element of darkness to his current plan that he'd never sensed or felt before. But, close as he was to getting his son back, he felt certain that he had no choice. This was the only plan he had. He had to make it work.

"What kind of greeting is that?" he asked of Jack. "No, hello? No, how are you Rumpy? Quite rude for someone who once saved your life, don't you think, Jack?"

"Of course!" Jill chimed in, prepared to save the day as she always was. "What my husband meant was, it's just been so long, and we weren't expecting you. Would you care for a cup of tea, we have fresh water."

"No, thank you, Jill, but I won't be here long. You see, I've just come to collect on the deal we made." The parents looked nervous as they looked back and forth between each other. He hated this. He just wanted to get it over with. "Perhaps I can refresh your memory. 'Jack and Jill went up a hill to fetch a pail of water, Jack fell down and broke his crown and Jill came tumbling after.' And then Jill went to see the Dark One, and he agreed to fix Jack's crushed skull...for a price!"

"I remember," Jill confirmed. "You saved his life." Their hearts were pounding and both were hardly breathing. They were terrified. "And I am happy to repay you with what I promised...with the most valuable thing that I have..."

He watched as she approached him and pulled from her finger a ring with a diamond on it. The same ring she'd looked at sadly on the day that they'd made the deal in the first place.

"I can't take that!" he laughed, shooing her away. He kept up his act despite the fact that he was just as terrified as they were. He was terrified that none of this would work, terrified that something might go wrong, terrified of the information his mother might hold. But he needed to know. He needed to do this.

"You can't? Why not?"

"Because we both know that was the most valuable thing you had then. But...that's no longer the case...is it?"

"Of course it is. What else do you think that we have?" Jack demanded.

He wanted to sigh and roll his eyes. People could be so stupid, only seeing value in money and earthly possessions. They so rarely considered their flesh and blood something of value. Perhaps this would be good for all involved, he'd talk to his mother about the Curse, they'd learn the importance of young Gideon.

"What about that thing hiding over there!" he pointed to the basket that Gideon currently resided in, making small little noises of his own entertainment as his parents went pale. "What don't you show me that!"

His stomach turned as they blanched, he prepared for a fight, but his heart couldn't take this. He hated to take a child from his parents, if only temporarily. He hated to use Belle in the way he was going to. But most of all he hated his mother! He hated that he had to summon her, he hated that this was what he had to do in order to do it, he hated that this was how they were going to meet for the first time! He hated that she was forcing him to do this and had nothing but contempt for the entire situation. But with no choice, he suddenly wasn't interested in acting. He had no interest in drawing this out any more than he had to. His parents too stunned to stop him, he removed the blanket from the basket, glanced down at the baby, and with barely a few words of departure, he took him. They fought him, but only barely. They cried and screamed. It made him cringe. Their reaction reminded him of went he guards had come through his former village to reap the children for the army against the ogres. Then, just as Jack and Jill did now, they'd done nothing because what power did anyone have against the Dark One?

He'd bring the child back. That was his plan, that was always his plan! But he didn't dare say it. He didn't want to give them false hope in case something went wrong tonight...or now...

"No! Put down that child!" All at once he found his path blocked by none other than the lying secretive bitch herself, the Blue Fairy! If he didn't know any better, he'd say that she'd followed him here, that she was worried about what he might do with the information that she'd given him. But unfortunately, he did know better. He knew magic better than to assume she'd been following him.

"Let me guess! Fairy Godmother!"

"Yes!" she growled in response. "My duty is to protect him!"

She raised her wand, but he didn't hesitate. He didn't move as she cast her spells. He didn't do anything to defend himself because he didn't have to. Magic had a law all it's own. His contracts were legal and binding. And that meant she couldn't do anything. Her magic failed because his claim to the child was fair. All he'd done was produce the contract Jill had signed all those years ago. The child was his. He could do whatever he wanted with it. The Blue Bug was so caught off guard that he didn't even have to try hard to use his magic to sweep her away.

"No!" Jill cried. He turned just in time to see her falling to the ground. "Please! Please, you tricked us. If you take our son, he will never know how much we cared about him."

"Oh..."

He hated this. He hated it because he'd been on the other side of this and knew how it felt. That was the only reason why he was so determined to make this work. If it did, then by this time tomorrow they'd have their son back, and he'd be one step closer to having his own back. But he had a reputation to protect, better heartbreak and a hard lesson learned now than a ruined reputation...

"Now you should have thought about that before you made a deal with the Dark One or entrusted a fairy to protect him...too-da-loo!"

The child secure, he had to make sure the next part of his plan was in place. He'd spent half of his time the previous night looking and looking for a summoning that he could translate…but sadly, all he ever found was in a fairy language he couldn't read. Even the Dark Ones were suspiciously silent when it came to translating it. However, he had seen this language before, just once, he'd seen these characters on a book that was sitting on a nightstand of a certain princess whose mind he'd saved.

Belle had an affinity for languages. He'd known she was intelligent before she arrived, but now that she'd been here for months on end, he knew that she enjoyed translating languages. She stood a higher chance of translating the spell than he did. But he couldn't just ask her. She'd ask too many questions if he asked her. She didn't know it, but by the time he brought Gideon into the castle, he'd already begun to manipulate her as well…even if it did make his stomach churn.

"Rumpelstiltskin, you're back!" she exclaimed almost cheerfully as he strode into the room just before tea time. She was happy to see him; she almost seemed excited about it. After skulking around his tower for these last few days, ignoring her, skipping meals, he almost understood it. He tried to maintain a confident gate, to keep his heart steely in her presence, to tell himself that he didn't care, but he couldn't help but wonder what kind of relationship they'd have after all this was possible, after he locked her in his tower and took the child home. Would she trust that was what happened? Or would she think he'd sold the child to his mother?

It didn't matter. She was nothing to him, and as soon as he realized the real reason the Seer wanted her he'd send her away and prove that.

"I uh…I did the wash, and I polished the silver, like you asked."

"Good. Now you can take care of this."

Without looking at her, he dropped the basket with Gideon in it onto the table. Immediately, the jostling woke the sleeping child. Every instinct he had inside of him as a father demanded he move forward, lift the baby into his arms, and comfort him back to sleep. Instead, he walked away and left Belle to explore what he'd left her.

"A baby?!" she shrieked, looking into the basket at him.

"But where-where did it come from? What…" she stuttered, looking about as if it had appeared out of thin air. "Where are it's parents?"

"They no longer matter," he dismissed as he forced his eyes down onto some books he'd purposefully left out before his departure. He'd hoped that by leaving them there, Belle might be intrigued and tempted to look through them, but they appeared to be in the exact same place he'd left them. That was fine. It only meant that he'd have to try and make her temptation to look irresistible. He had to do this just right. He couldn't let himself be absorbed by her or the child's cries. "The child's mine now."

"Y-yours?" she blanched. "What you…you stole him?!"

"Yes," he lied. "Scandalous, isn't it?"

He glanced up just long enough to see her face morph. Shock. Horror. Dread. Disbelief.

Disappointment.

He could tell that she was working up to say something, opening her mouth to scream at him, to give him a piece of her mind. After what had just happened with his parents and what he intended to do with him, he would have happily admitted he deserved, but before she could say anything, Gideon let out another shriek.

"Shh," she hushed, finally pulling the child into her arms and bouncing him up and down like an expert.

Belle with a baby in her arms.

The flash he'd had the day he caught her forced its way into his mind's eye, but he quickly pushed it out.

"It's okay. Shh. Oh, shh…" she cooed, bringing him back into reality. It wasn't a vision. Merely a fantasy, male hormones running wild! Besides, this didn't fit that fantasy, the room was a lot darker in that fantasy, clearly at night. This was mid-afternoon. It was only further proof that it meant nothing. Surely it was just some embarrassing evolutionary habit of seeing attractive women with babies.

"What kind of beast steals a child from its parents?" she questioned with fire in her voice. "I mean…what happened to you that made you like this?"

Well that was the thing, wasn't it. He didn't know. But maybe, just maybe, if things went according to plan, he might find out. If he had a little bit of extra time after he'd asked the necessary questions, of course. His questions. Not hers.

"You'd do best to stop asking so many questions," he responded coldly before plucking the scroll with the summoning free from the books. "Ahh, there it is!" His pronouncement drew her quizzical gaze. She was intrigued. Good. Now he just needed to get her to translate it for him. "I have work to do. I'm not to be disturbed."

"Well, at least tell me his name so I can soothe him! Or did you not even bother to find out!"

Give her his name? No. Everyone knew the second someone or something had a name an attachment formed. This child wasn't staying. It was his hope that in twenty-four hours, he'd have him back home with his family. She didn't need to know a name. She just had to look after him for a few hours. And want to protect him. Yes. He smiled as a new plan formed in his head. She hadn't done any translating when she'd put the scroll right in front of her, but if she knew he was going to use it against the child…that might be what he needed to get her to do the translation.

Of course…if he just told her about Baelfire, if he told her what he needed, she might also do what he wanted. She might even take his side.

No. The last time he'd told anyone about his son was Cora. He wasn't about to repeat those mistakes again.

"Why would I?" he giggled aloud. "A name's a special thing. You don't waste it on something you've no intention of becoming…a-attached to."

That was good. He'd done well up until that last little stutter. He nearly believed it himself. But more importantly, the suspicious look in her eyes told him that she believed him, and that was enough.

"What do you mean? What do you plan on doing with this child?!" she demanded frantically.

"I shall be back at sundown," he instructed strictly. "Don't think about trying to hide it. I'll find out."

"You-"

"Ah-ah-ah!" he hissed at her. He'd given her a timeline, he'd given her a child to protect, he'd made a show of taking something important that she knew to be crucial to the child's fate. Now he just had to give her the opportunity to rescue him.

And so without an explanation, he left her standing there with the baby in her arms.

The 6x09 section was fun to write on numerous levels. For starters, by the time I was updating MK&U with 6x09, I was already working hard at developing Rumple's story. Working on them both at the same time meant that I knew things you didn't and I'm excited to finally share Rumple's side of 6x09 with you. I wanted to make this episode very planned for Rumple. I always wanted him to have the intention of returning the child, because not having that intention and letting the Black Fairy take the child was always a little too evil in my opinion, even for the Dark One. In addition, I wanted him to have the intention of using Belle, I wanted it to be a plan that he had and developed, and went through with...just to see it all go to shit a little later.

Thank you Jennifer Baratta and Grace5231973 for your comments on the previous chapter. As always it's much appreciated. I remember telling you all when I first wrote this from Belle's POV that there was a reason I wanted the child to be named Gideon, I hope that's a little bit more clear now. This was pretty much the reason. I wanted him to have that name in his head during this, I wanted him to think that it meant he was supposed to do this. And of course, if he dismisses the name Gideon now, that means it'll come as quite the shock when he realizes exactly why he had that name in his head! Peace and Happy Reading.