Author's Note: Hello, my lovelies! I wanted to let you all know that this is going to be the last chapter for the week- my boyfriend and I are moving in our new house this week and have to get odds and ends and it's just going to be a long week for us. But please enjoy the chapter!

"It is the false shame of fools to try to conceal wounds that have not healed." ~Horace

Rumpelstiltskin reclined on the lounge, his legs propped up on a spare chair. Belle was leaning against his chest, reading. It was comforting to him to feel…to feel something aside from anguish. He heard her close her book and cast it aside, her arm now draping across his lap. Reflexively, he put his arm around her, gently stroking her shoulder.

"What really happened to your son?" Belle asked, looking up into his face.

Rumpelstiltskin's eyes darkened, not wanting to remember that day. It was a traitorous wound that would close and reopen without provocation.

"I lost him, dearie. Quite simple."

"But how?" she pressed gently. From the stuffed animal she'd held in the morning, she knew there was great love and great regret.

"Are you an inquisitor as well as a Pain-Eater?" he asked.

"No. But just from what you're feeling, I can tell it's an unresolved issue," she said. He couldn't help but chuckle at that. He knew she wasn't taking anything from him or giving anything to him emotionally- not feeding him or feeding from him. It seemed she'd just grown more receptive to him in general.

Rumpelstiltskin sighed heavily, not wanting to cause the wound in his own dark heart to open again. Belle didn't press him, feeling his sadness and regret with what had happened. But on the same note, she knew that he had considered this wound healed to a scar when in truth, it broke open slowly each and every day.

Belle slightly jumped when Rumpelstiltskin broke the silence.

"I'd wanted to save him. I had no other choice, nor option until the night I became what I am."

"What happened then?" Belle asked.

"Long story short- I broke our deal. Nothing more to it, dearie," Rumpelstiltskin said, dismissing the issue as he stood, pushing Belle away from him as he went to his wheel to spin.

Belle looked at him, tears forming in her eyes. She could feel his regret and disappointment with himself.

"You can't save people, Rumpelstiltskin. You can only love them," she said.

Rumpelstiltskin scoffed and looked up at her.

"This coming from an inexperienced, naïve princess. Tell me, dearie- exactly how does being a martyr, a sacrificial lamb suit you?"

Affronted, Belle stood up and started to walk out of the room. His words had hurt her- a razor to the skin.

"Perhaps I'm not as world-weary as you, or as experienced. But I have had my own share of pain and troubles. I'm quite literally the definition of a bleeding heart, Rumpelstiltskin. The difference between us is that I don't live under the false pretense of them having healed."

Red stood watch at the camp, her eyes on the moon. It was full and her cloak was beside her, glimmering in the moonbeams.

It was still strange to her- not being entirely bound by the curse of the wolf. She had made a deal with the Dark One when it became too much for her to bear.

Red had begged for the curse to be lifted. But it was impossible- curses born of blood can not be assuaged. The most that could be done was refashion them, as Rumpelstiltskin had done with her- for a future favor in return. He had made it so that she could control the wolf inside her, becoming more so of a shifter rather than a werewolf. Granted, there were times when she had lost complete control- times when the wolf inside her had risen to a point where there was no going back.

She smiled to herself, remembering when she had first met Jiminy and how he had helped her control the wolf.

She'd been on the road for months- a self imposed exile until she could learn to control herself. She remembered smelling blood and followed the scent.

It was night and although the moon wasn't full, she still wore her cloak. She entered a small clearing when she saw Jiminy lying on the grass, a wound from his side. His breath had been shallow and his eyes glassy from pain. She heard the chirp of crickets surrounding him.

Gasping, she ran to him and knelt beside him, lifting his head to her lap. He'd been attacked by robbers who knew of his past, he told her.

She had cared for him for the next few weeks, drawn to him and the sense of solitude surrounding him. They'd grown to become friends over this time when he had told her about his past- his con artist parents, a terrible mistake he had made that he felt he would have to seek eternal atonement for. He told her of meeting The Blue Faerie and how she had given him the chance to redeem himself. But as his charge grew older, his own conscience had developed and Jiminy's guidance was no longer needed.

The Blue Faerie had felt Jiminy had redeemed himself and made him human again, yet he felt the opposite. He felt the need to not only make right the sins of his parents, but his own sin.

Red had in turn told him of her troubles and misery- what had led her to the path of her own perdition. She had broken down when she spoke of what she had done to Peter, the anguish of the memory tearing her apart.

Yet, Jiminy had not looked at her with disgust, nor pity. He looked at her with love and comfort.

Later that evening, he had told Red of his plans to leave. Each word he said felt like a knife twisting through her heart.

"I don't want you to leave," she whispered, embracing him and crying into his chest. He held her tightly, not wanting to leave the lovely woman he had fallen in love with. He was one of many children of perdition- the eternally lost, damned by the sins of blood and the sins their actions.

"I'm meant to be alone, Red," he whispered against her raven hair, holding her tightly.

Red sobbed harder, feeling the sadness cause her wolf to rise.

She looked at him, her eyes shifting from the beautiful brown to topaz. Jiminy cupped his hands in her face, looking her in the eyes.

"Pace, iubi meu," he said. "Peace, my love."

Hearing the words he had spoken to her held the wolf back. Red was in control, but broken-hearted.

Tears continued to fall from her eyes as she placed her hands on his cheeks.

"Singur împreună," she whispered, knowing he knew what she meant- alone together. If we're meant to be alone, we're meant to be alone together.

He nodded slowly as he kissed her.

Looking back on those memories, Red's heart lifted, a smile on her face. She heard dead leaves crunch and knew it was Jiminy.

He sat down next to her, holding her in his arms. He knew she'd become pensive since the unexpected encounter with The Dark One. Jiminy kissed her forehead softly and whispered to her what had become their secret promise: Singur împreună.

Belle was curled up in her bed, too angry and hurt to even sleep.

He spoke to her as if she knew nothing of sacrifice or loss.

She had felt it. For one so young, she had experienced more than a lifetime's worth of pain- pain from others. Not from her. She'd rather deal with her own misery than bear the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Rumpelstiltskin knocked on her door, seemingly wanted to talk. She could feel his desire to apologize, yet she wanted nothing of it. His words were empty- always a deal to be broken, always a promise to be broken.

She bgean to cry as she remembered last night- how gentle he was. Loving and caring. It conflicted with the being outside her door.

She cried more, feeling loss for the man he could have been and feeling sorrow for knowing her burden.

She loved him. She had fallen in love with The Dark One, a damnable sin according to others. To her, there was no sin in falling in love with a person who deserved it.

She fell asleep, tears still falling.

They were damned. They were children of perdition.