Tentative Connection
Rumpelstiltskin turned the key and twisted the knob, and he slipped inside the room that hadn't been used for centuries, except when Belle had found it and managed to gain entry to it, and when he was here for certain missions. All of Bae's clothes and his ball were exactly as he had left them. Most of the items were a little dusty, but Rumpelstiltskin had frequently made a point of maintaining those objects that Bae had valued, the ball included. He walked over to the bed, lay the portrait on the nightstand, sat down, and opened the book to the illustration of his boy. "What went wrong?" he whispered, studying the page but not really seeing anything. "What went wrong?"
OUAT
Weirdo. He would have to get used to that moniker, and he would especially have to get used to the sneers, snickers, and jokes the others gave him because of it. He'd never get used to the imaginary food or any other oddities of the new world he now inhabited, and that he knew after only a few days there.
And he was weird, too. So far as he knew, he was the only Lost Boy to want his family back. He was the only one to want to see his father again and ask him why he let him go. And until he found a way to do that, he had to figure out how to survive in an unfamiliar land.
OUAT
Rumpelstiltskin wiped a tear from his eye and whispered, "I'm a coward and a fool, Baelfire." A coward and a fool whose biggest mistake was failing his son and whose whole life was based on an effort to correct it based on the word of a fairy who was more than capable of lying. Lying to him was one thing, but that flying blue bitch had lied to Bae. Bae!
He threw the book across the room and buried his face in his hands. "Baelfire," he said again. He looked up, his hands over his mouth, and thought, I will find you, no matter what I have to do.
OUAT
Bae looked up and peered into the sky, for a moment convinced he'd heard something, or someone. He heard someone call his name, his full name, and he was almost certain it sounded like his father. He felt the tendril of energy in the air, and he whispered, "Papa," just before it passed him by.
OUAT
"Papa?" Rumpelstiltskin whispered. "Someone called me Papa." He stood. "Bae? Is that you I hear?" But the thin thread of magic that he felt breaching the veil between worlds was gone. His possible link to Bae was gone. He sank to the bed, his first instinct to despair, but then he said, "Of course," and he stood again, took up his cane, and limped out of his son's room.
The thread he just felt must have been the key to finding his son. He was certain of it. He just needed to find the connection again and figure out how to utilize it.
OUAT
If that was his father, Baelfire could finally talk to him again, ask him why he let go. But he had to find out how to get the connection back and check his theory. He studied his surroundings for a moment and then shook his head to clear it. First, he'd need his bow and arrows, and then he'd need a plan. He couldn't wander beyond the haven without a plan of action and a sense of direction.
But he did have a plan. And a sense of where to go.
He returned to the village for his weapon, and then he walked down the cobblestone path toward the very edge of the haven and beyond.