Morning came and Rosalinda slowly awoke feeling better than she could remember ever feeling and as her senses slowly came more and more into focus she began to feel the soft feel of the sheets under her and how big the bed felt and confusion overtook
her before she remember what happened.

Rosalinda opened her eyes and took in the room and pushed back the thick heavy blankets and felt so small compared to most of the objects in the house, yet she could sense this familiarity to it. Rosalinda grabbed her doll in her hand as she crawled her
way over to the edge of the bed before trying to get off, only to slightly fall onto the floor since she wasn't used to the height.

She landed with a small grunt of pain but soon shook it off as she began to explore the big room. She was so busy exploring the room that she hadn't noticed her father had made his way to the door was watching her.

Rumpelstiltskin watched as Rosalinda soon made her way over to a chest that he had some of the magical items he dared not leave in his shop. However, he also knew the chest was fully secured and locked so he wasn't that concern. He watched as she tried
to open it to see what was inside, similar to how her mother used to try to search the Dark Castle looking for secrets and such whenever she thought she was alone.

Rumpelstiltskin smiled when Rosalinda tried to open the chest only to find it was locked and how she crossed her arms and pouted, and if there was any doubt that his daughter had inherit her mother determines, it was pushed right out the window as she
seemed to be looking for some way into the chest. However, to his surprise he watched as she raised her hand and placed it over where he had secure the magic keeping it locked and watched as her hand glow a faint rainbow of colours and to his surprise
he heard the locks give a click sound showing that it was no longer locked. Rumpelstiltskin was so taken by surprise, he barely register her opening the chest and it was only when she was about to touch a small silver jewel that was believed to be
curse with death that he snapped out of it and quickly casted a spell that repelled her hand.

"Carefully dearie," stated Rumpelstiltskin walking into the room. "That isn't something to play with."

"Papa?" asked Rosalinda looking at him as he made his way over and quickly closed the chest relocking it. "I'm sorry…. I'm sorry…. I didn't mean to be bad…."

Rumpelstiltskin saw that Rosalinda looked like she was about to have a panic attack and silently curse whoever had taken her as he gently picked her up and held her against him trying to calm her down.

"Princess…. Rosie…. Its okay sweetheart," began Rumpelstiltskin running his hand along her back in hopes of calming her down. "I'm not mad, I just don't want you to get hurt."

"No, please…." Began Rose her mind flashing to how her godmother always said something like that to her. "I'll be good. Please don't lock me up."

"Oh honey," stated Rumpelstiltskin as he began to rock her like he did when she was a baby hoping the familiar feeling would calm her down. "I won't lock you up. It's okay, you're not in trouble princess."

"I'm not," began Rosalinda lightly hiccupping from the panic attack.

"No, you're not," stated Rumpelstiltskin. "It's my fault; I shouldn't have left that there. Its okay."

"I'm sorry."

"Hush now…" lightly commanded Rumpelstiltskin still silently cursing whoever had caused his little girl to be so scared. "How about we get you some breakfast and then we can go shopping."

"I can go outside?" asked Rosalinda her little voice so filled with hope over just the possibility of going outside that Rumpelstiltskin felt like someone had stabbed his heart.

"Of course sweetheart," promised Rumpelstiltskin.

"Pony?" asked Rosalinda clearly remembering Thanatos.

"Well I'm entirely sure where he is right now, but I can promise you'll see him again."

Rosalinda eyes grew wide with so much joy that Rumpelstiltskin was now cursing his heart because he now knew that he would never be able to keep Thanatos from her, nor would be most likely be able to turn him into glue either if he was to gather a guess.

"Come on princess," stated Rumpelstiltskin still carrying her. "Let's get some food in you; you must be starving by now."

Before Rosalinda had a chance to reply, her stomach beaten her to it and Rumpelstiltskin smiled as he lightly began to tickle her.

"I'll take that as a yes huh," stated Rumpelstiltskin still tickling his daughter who was squealing in pure happiness.

"Papa, stop," laughed Rosalinda trying to get out of his grip but to little success.

"Sorry, I have four years of tickling to make up for," laughed Rumpelstiltskin.

Rumpelstiltskin continued to torture Rosalinda with more tickling for a few more seconds before stopping and letting her catch her breath and she gave him a mock glare which he laughed off. Once again he was reminded of Belle and he gave a small smile
before carrying Rosalinda downstairs and placed her onto one of the chairs as he moved into the kitchen trying to think of something he could make before deciding on pancakes. It didn't take long before he had the pancake batter made and poured into
it the already hot frying pan and watched it carefully cook.

Once he was positive it was fully cooked he turned off the stove and placed the pancake onto a plate before cutting it into small bites size pieces. He poured a decent amount of syrup onto it before carrying it over to Rosalinda who looked so small sitting
at the table. She didn't even really see over the table. He placed the plate on the table before picking up his daughter and took a seat in the chair before placing her so she was now sitting in his lap and handed her the fork. Rosalinda looked over
at him before stabbing a piece of the pancake and began lifting it to her face. Some of the syrup fell off of the piece landing both on him and Rosalinda outfit but he didn't care as he watched her take her first bite and at first seemed confused
before she gave a wide smile and began to quickly eat her meal with speed he didn't think he knew she had.

It wasn't long before the pancake was done and both Rosalinda and he was cover in syrup which he was admitting no longer felt great but still seeing his daughters happy face made him happy.

"Come on princess sticky," mumbled Rumpelstiltskin. "You need a bath young lady."

Rumpelstiltskin carried his daughter in one arm while grabbing the plate and fork and placed them into the kitchen. He placed the dishes into the sink before heading back up the stairs and into the bathroom where he began to run a warm bath for her before
helping her out of her dirty sticky clothes and placed her into the tub once he was satisfied there was enough water.

Rumpelstiltskin gently began to wash his daughter, making sure to get the sticky syrup off of her as well as the grime from the day before. He also quickly used a little bit of soap to wash his daughters long beautiful hair being extra careful not to
get any soap in her eyes. Once he was satisfied that he had fully cleaned he removed her from the tub and began to dry her off wrapping her tightly in the towel when he realized he didn't have anything else to put her in. Her old clothes were sticky
and dirty and just putting them back on would have made the bath pointless. He was just considering using his magic when he heard a knock on the front door.

Rumpelstiltskin sighed and hoped whoever it was would take a hint and go away but when the knocking continued, he realized whoever it was, wasn't going away so he carried his daughter into his room and placed her so she was sitting on his bed, still wrapped
tightly in the towel.

"Stay here princess," softly commanded Rumpelstiltskin as he stood up. "Papa just going to go see who that is and then I'll be right back."

"Promise?" came the soft reply from Rosalinda as she stared at him.

"Promise."

Rosalinda nodded and grabbed one of her old books and Rumpelstiltskin smiled as he walked out of the door and headed downstairs and stood in front of the door and used the peephole to see who it was. To his surprise he saw Henry standing there holding
not only his storybook he almost never let out of his sight and also a plastic bag as well. He was also was clearly out of breath, almost like he had ran all the way over instead of taking his car his mothers had brought him last year. Very slowly,
Rumpelstiltskin opened the door and Henry gave him a smile.

"Henry?" asked Rumpelstiltskin.

"Is it true?" asked Henry still trying to catch his breath.

"Is what true?" asked Rumpelstiltskin moving aside enough to let Henry in, which he quickly did.

"This," stated Henry as he handed him the storybook.

Rumpelstiltskin sighed before walking into the kitchen grabbing a bottle of water before handing it to Henry who muttered his thanks before slowly sipping on the water. Rumpelstiltskin open the book to the page where he has the bookmark and his eyes widen
as he saw Henry had somehow managed to write about how he was able to rescue his daughter. He flipped through the pages hoping that maybe whoever had kidnapped his daughter would be revealed but alas all it showed was his rescue.

"Did you really find her?" asked Henry.

"Yes," began Rumpelstiltskin as he closed the book with a snap. "She's upstairs. I just gave her a bath."

"And the horse?" asked Henry.

"He claims he's here to help me protect her," stated Rumpelstiltskin deciding to trust Henry if only for the reason he was his only other family excluding his daughter.

"Do you trust him?"

"For now," stated Rumpelstiltskin his tone saying that it could change at a moment notice if he thought that he was a danger to his daughter. "What's in the bag?"

"Oh, here," stated Henry as he handed it over to him.

Rumpelstiltskin took the bag from him and handed the storybook back to Henry who gently took it back as he watched his grandfather open the bag and saw what looked like girls' clothing.

"Where did you get this?" asked Rumpelstiltskin.

"I went shopping this morning," stated Henry. "I figure if it was true you might need a couple of things."

"Thank-you," stated Rumpelstiltskin as he took a quick look at the bag.

There wasn't much it in but he did see a pack of socks, underwear, a hair brush along with a couple of hair ribbons and a new dress that was a soft green in colour and had the design of butterflies flying on it. Rumpelstiltskin smiled at his grandson
who was becoming a good honest man more and more with each passing day.

"How about you take a seat in the dining room," stated Rumpelstiltskin. "I'm just going to go get her dressed and then how would you like to join us for a family outing."

"Well I'm supposed to be in school right now," began Henry as he seemed to be thinking it over. "I didn't exactly tell my mom where I was going this morning. I didn't want to risk telling people only to find out it wasn't true."

"I see, well if you want I can drop you off instead," stated Rumpelstiltskin. "That will at least stop you from being completely late."

"Okay," stated Henry but it was clear that he was feeling a little upset that he couldn't join them.

"Or if you want you can call your moms and tell them the truth and tell them I'm requesting a family day," stated Rumpelstiltskin.

"Really?" asked Henry. "You're okay with me telling them?"

"Most of Storybrooke is going to know by the end of the day anyway," stated Rumpelstiltskin knowing the moment he took his daughter out into public, gossip was going to spread faster than wildfire. "I don't really see a reason to hide it at this point."
/"Okay," replied Henry as he moved towards the dining room pulling out his cellphone at the same time.

Rumpelstiltskin turned to head back up the stairs just as Henry said hello mom and he couldn't help but wonder which one he had decided to call, but shook his head. He made his way back into his room and saw his daughter still sitting there but it was
clear she had moved on to a different book than the one he left her and smiled. Rumpelstiltskin made his way over to his daughter and she turned to look at him.

"Come on, let's get you dressed," stated Rumpelstiltskin as he began to dress his daughter in the new outfit, Henry had brought over, he was just about to run the brush though her hair when she turned to face him staring at one of the picture in her book.
/"Papa?" asked Rosalinda.

"Yes sweetie?"

"Where is mama?"

Rumpelstiltskin felt his blood run cold. How was he going to explain this to her? Would she even understand what death was? He took a deep breath trying to gather her thoughts before gently pulling her onto his lap and holding him close to him.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but mama isn't here anymore," started Rumpelstiltskin as he tried to break this to her as gently as he could.

"Where she go?" asked Rosalinda clearly not following him.

"She went to…" paused Rumpelstiltskin trying to think if saving heaven was correct when he knew about the underworld and how she might be there. "the afterlife."

"Afterlife?" asked Rosalinda.

"Yeah," stated Rumpelstiltskin. "You see sweetie, shortly after you were taken away from us, your mommy got very sick. She just got to weak and she had to go to the afterlife."

"Will I get to visit her?" asked Rosalinda still clearly not understanding what he was trying to tell her.

"No sweetie, not for a very, very, very long time," stated Rumpelstiltskin. "You see you can only go to the afterlife when you…. When you…. When you die."

"Die?" asked Rosalinda.

"Yeah, you see princess, when a person time comes; they die and get to go on to their afterlife. I'm sorry princess but mama won't be coming back," stated Rumpelstiltskin.

Rosalinda seemed to understand to an extent but there was still a sign of confusion in her eyes. Her eyes filled with tears and Rumpelstiltskin pulled her closer to him and began to rub her back.

"Shh… princess, I know," began Rumpelstiltskin.

Rumpelstiltskin held her against him as he waited for her to calm down and once he did he quickly finished brushing her hair pulling it back into a loose ponytail using one of the hair ribbons and stood up holding his hand out to her.

"Come on, there is someone I want you to meet," stated Rumpelstiltskin as Rosalinda took his hand and he began to lead her downstairs.

A/N: So there is chapter 9. I hope I did the conversation between Rumpelstiltskin and Rosalinda okay about Belle. I'm trying to recall how my parents explained it to me and honestly I can't fully recall it. So I just tried to pretend how I would explain
it to my daughter (if I had one).

Next chapter: Rosalinda meets Henry.