Once Upon A Time in Storybrooke

It was cloudy the next morning and so Dawn searched the house until she found an umbrella, locked up the house with some keys her husband left her on the table as well as some money and walked down the stairs.

Mr. White's car down the street couldn't have been any more obvious.

She smiled to herself and walked towards it, part of her expected him to drive off as soon as she spotted him but he looked resigned that he'd been caught and rolled down the window, "I'm sorry Mrs. Gold but he pays me to do this."

She opened the door and climbed in.

"What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Well, there's no point in going around in two separate cars, is there? Nor is there any point in walking while you follow me. I need to go to the grocery store and then to buy some clothes."

"I'm not your driver."

"You're my husband's bodyguard and he assigned you to watch me and make sure my father doesn't come calling. Driving me around isn't taking away from your bodyguard duties. If anything it ensures that you can watch me a little bit better, right?"

"You just want a ride."

"That wouldn't hurt either," she looked at him, "I'll buy you lunch?"


Dawn held the grocery basket and walked down the aisles. What did one take when they were going camping? She really doubted her husband was a s'mores kind of guy but she imagined she'd be surprised at some of the guilty pleasures he had. And she couldn't take anything refrigerated because she wasn't sure how well the power worked there.

"Dawn!"

She turned to see her father walking down the aisle and she immediately took a few steps back. She searched over the aisles for Mr. White but at a time like this, it looked like he had gone to place some of his own groceries in the car.

Her father looked cleaned up but that didn't mean anything. He'd made several promises to reform before and always went back on his word.

"Dawn," he smiled as if relieved to see her; "You look good."


She found her voice and felt her anger after years of mistreatment come through, "Yes, it's amazing what a few days of being safe will do to a person."

"Safe with Mr. Gold of all people."

"Safer than when I was with you."

His jaw set, "At least until he gets tired of you. Or until he finds someone else far prettier than you are. Why do you think that he chose you? Because he knew that you'd take the first man that came along and he can do whatever he wants to anyone else and you won't say anything. You'll just take it."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw that Mr. White had spied them talking through the window and was now rushing towards the front doors.

"What do you want, dad?" she demanded.

"I need some money for rent."

It was a lie, "You have enough money for rent. I made sure of that before I left."

"You left out 50 dollars."

"Dad, come on," she scoffed.

"Dawn," he grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him, "Don't walk away from me."

Mr. White appeared behind him and placed what looked like a vice grip on his shoulder. He didn't say anything. He didn't need to. Her father reluctantly let her go and she placed her basket on a shelf and walked out to the car.

She didn't see her father walk out of the store but Mr. White came out with a grocery bag that he'd placed on her lap when he got in the car, "Are you alright?"

She didn't look at him, "I'm certainly glad we got clothes first."

"Do you want me to take you by the pawn shop?"

"No," she shook her head and tried to keep from crying in front of him, "Just take me home."

"I'm going to have to tell him you know."

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Your husband asked me specifically to tell him if your father ever confronted you. I have to do it."

"I know. I would just rather you didn't," she adjusted the bag in her lap, "Thank you for the groceries."

"I don't suppose I can get it past your husband to pay me extra for being your driver and grocer today, can I?"

A small smile creeped on her lips, "I don't imagine he will but it'd be worth his face to see you try."


Dawn had packed by noon and all that was left was the waiting.

She tried to imagine what her husband would say and she tried to imagine explaining what happened to him. He'd want to talk about it. Would he be angry? Upset?

She tried to take a nap but she found herself lying in the bed staring at the ceiling while it began to rain outside. Not even the rain settled her down and she tried reading but still found herself distracted.

Finally at six she was greeted by her husband as he walked in the door. Mr. White wasn't with him, thank God, but she could tell from the look on his face that he'd heard what happened.

"Hello darling," she greeted.

He didn't answer her at first, instead he walked over and examined her quickly, "Did he hurt you?"

"No."

"Are you alright?"

"Yes."

It was a lie and he saw right through it immediately, "Are you packed?"

She nodded and hopped off the counter, "I suddenly found myself anticipating this even more a few hours ago."


Present Day

When Mr. Gold found his door ajar later that morning, his first thoughts went to his wife. Dawn probably left it open because she was grabbing something but she never did that. She always shut the door so that someone couldn't follow her in and steal something.

The house was eerily silent when he walked in. It was almost unsettling.

But the lock wasn't broken…

However he saw from the front threshold that some things had been messed with. Dawn usually didn't mess with the antiques unless she was dusting them or doing whatever else to make sure that they stayed working.

Dawn was supposed to be home by now.

The thought that someone had broken in while she was home sent an icy cold chill down his spine and that protective anger he'd felt so many times before took hold.

What if they hurt her? Or were holding her hostage? It wouldn't be the first time that either one of those happened, but he doubted he could get away with what he'd done to the attackers as easily as he had in the Realms.

He creeped through the house with his gun drawn. He was perfectly within his rights to kill any intruder if he thought they were a threat to him or his wife. Moe French crossed his mind but he doubted the man would be stupid enough to go after Dawn should she be home when he broke in. He'd taken his van for failure to pay a loan, the consequences should he happen to go after Dawn would be astronomical.

Something creaked behind him and he turned around to find the sheriff standing there with a gun.

Relief filled him, "Sheriff Swan."

"Neighbors saw your front door open, they called it in."

"It appears I've been robbed."

This was just perfect. Now not only was his home broken into and he was in desperate need to call his wife and make sure she was okay, but now he had to deal with the Sheriff and her sticking her nose in where it didn't belong.

"Funny how that keeps happening to you."

Over her shoulder he saw immediately what was taken.

The teacup that reminded him of Belle.

He kept his face from showing emotion and lowered the gun, "Yes well…I'm a difficult man to love."

Dawn was pulled from her thoughts at the ringing of her cellphone. She answered it immediately even though she wasn't sure if she should have it on in here and sighed, "Yes?"

"Dawn," she heard her husband's relief in his voice, "Are you alright?"

Crap. He knew. "Uh-huh, why wouldn't I be?"

"Did you leave the door unlocked this morning?"

She stopped for a second and tried to remember if she had or not, "No…I remember because I dropped the keys after I locked it. Um…why are you asking? What happened?"

"Someone broke into the house."

She froze. Had she locked the door? No, she remembered locking the door, she had even tried to make sure it was locked like she always did, "Oh God, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I wasn't home. Where are you? I was scared that you'd be home when they broke in."

"Um….running some errands," she stopped and mentally cursed the intercom when it came on.

"What was that?" she heard her husband's baffled voice.

"Nothing. I'll be home as soon as I can."

"I hope that you hurry darling. I imagine that you're the only one that's going to keep me calm right now."

"Well who did it?"

"I have my suspicions. I'll talk to you more when you get home."

"I'll…be there when I get there."

"How long?" he asked.

"Hopefully just a few more minutes."

"What could bloody be more important than this?"

"Wow, you are IMPOSSIBLE to talk to when you're in this mood. I'll see you at home."

She hung up the phone and pulled her coat over her hospital gown

Once Upon A Time

"Bae's going to be crawling soon."

Dagian was pulled out of her thoughts and looked at her husband as they walked through the village, "He's barely six months old, darling. I don't think he's going to be crawling for at least another month yet."

"I think it'll be sooner," he smiled at the son in his arms, "He's a smart boy."

She smiled at his fatherly pride. These moments were starting to be far and few in between now that everyone was starting to come back. The conversation with the dark one bothered Dagian day and night until it was all she thought about. It ate at her every time she looked at herself, it bothered her every time she looked at her family, and it bothered her every time she looked at the other villagers.

The trouble started a week after she'd had the conversation with…it. Rumpelstiltskin was begrudgingly accepted when he worked because most of the others were too traumatized or too injured to get a lot of work done. They shunned him though. The children taunted him with names and there were whispers behind his back. The only reason they didn't taunt him to his face was because he had stayed with the women when he returned and managed to help pull of a decent if scarce harvest that they could all survive on.

Dagian was a different story. She had all her limbs, she was healthy, and she was a perfectly acceptable target for those that felt bad for harassing her crippled husband.

The taunts were bolder when she walked down the street alone or with her son. People spit on her or in front of her but she tried to hold her head high and ignore them.

A sort of cloud settled down in their marriage now. They didn't talk as much as they used to. She never told him about the abuse she suffered and he didn't talk about his. But they both knew what the other went through.

"I think I'd take your word on his intelligence if he slept through the night," Dagian muttered.

"Well since he's weaned, I imagine I can feed him now and you can rest."

"No, you put in a lot more work during the day then I do. You need your sleep."

"And you haven't had a good night's sleep since he was born. I don't mind, Dagian."

She was about to answer him when she froze and put her hand on her husband's arm, "Rumpelstiltskin…"

He saw it too. Someone had ripped their curtain in the entrance of their home almost in two and it only hung by one hook now. The word 'coward' had been carved in large letters on their doorframe.

"Gods," he muttered and handed the baby, "Stay here."

She wrapped her arms around her son protectively and glared at the townspeople that were starting to mill around the house in curiosity.

She would rather face whoever was in there than face their glances and glares and she walked into the house.

The entire house was destroyed. The cradle was broken their bed had been overturned and torn with what looked like a large knife. Their table was overturned as well, scattering wool and straw so close to the fireplace that it was a wonder the entire place hadn't been burned down.

Bent and twisted was a candelabrum that Baelfire had given them for their wedding.

Rumpelstiltskin stood on the far end of the hearth; he looked at her with sad eyes, "Don't come in here Dagian."

She felt tears slide down her face, "Who did this?"

"Dagian, go outside."

She noticed he was standing in front of something as if he were hiding it. The location of where he was in the house immediately clued her in and she felt her heart start to race, "What did they do?"

"Just take the baby outside-"

"What did they do?" she demanded.

He moved out of the way and showed her the broken box and she walked forward. When Rumpelstiltskin had found out her name after she'd been brought here, he and Baelfire had ridden to the abandoned village and gathered some of the things that had belonged to her family. Some toys she had as a child, some jewelry…her mother's wedding band that she hid in fear of being robbed. And a small box that her father had carved her. She had kept everything in that box and buried it when the war started in fear of looters.

How did they find it?

She pushed past her husband and looked for the belongings. The jewelry was broken and scattered. Its glass beads that were still intact shone on the floor. The toys and her mother's wedding band had been thrown in the fire. The toys were burned beyond repair and somehow her mother's ring had been twisted so while the fire wasn't hot enough to melt it, it was ruined.

"Darling," she felt her husband catch her, and she wasn't even aware that she was about to fall. He set up a chair and helped her sit down. And then he put the baby in the cradle. It'd been broken but it was still usable, "Dagian. Please talk to me."

"We can't stay here."

He knelt in front of her, "And where else are we going to go? Have you seen the way the traders look at me, Dagian? Everyone on this side of the Realm knows me and what I did. There's no one safer to go."

She stared sobbing, those mementos were all she had left of her family and now they were destroyed. And for what? What purpose did this all serve?

"So we just have to sit back and take what they do to us, is that it?" she demanded angrily through her tears, "They hate us here, don't you understand that?"

No," he reached over the table and grabbed her hand, "Dagian if we leave then they're going to use that as an excuse to try and conscript me again because they can claim that I haven't been drafted yet if we end up in a village that hasn't had its villagers drafted. Or they could claim that I went from village to village in an attempt to avoid the draft."

"Well we have to do something," Dawn said, she knew that she was just taking out her anger on him but she was tired of keeping quiet about this. She was tired of crying herself to sleep at night with him none the wiser "We can't keep living about this, Rumpelstiltskin. We can't."

"What do you propose that we do? How far do you expect to run with a baby and a crippled husband?"

Another solution that she'd been considering popped in her mind and she bowed her head in humiliation.

He stared at her in stunned silence and then his face crumbled, "No, no, no, Dagian you can't consider that."

She felt the tears fall down her face, "It's been easier for you. You don't know what it's been like for me."

"No," he grabbed her wrists in an iron grip, eyes begging, "What do you want Dagian? What haven't I given you?"

"I want to be safe!" she nearly screamed and then drew a sobbing breath. IT was hard to breathe when one was crying this hard "I don't want them hating us anymore. I want it to be like it was. Where- where you didn't wake up from nightmares and I wasn't counting down the days where they would come for me. I want it to be like when we were happy. And we're not happy Rumpelstiltskin; we haven't been for a long time."

"You promised you would stand by me," he argued, "You knew the consequences of what I did and you promised to stand by me."

"I know. But I didn't think it would be this bad. I didn't think our beloved village would go as far as they have. "

"You and Bae were the only reason I survived the war. You were the only reasons I had to come back. Dagian," he looked at her, eyes begging, "Dagian please. You're all that I have. I can't…I'm trying. Just tell me what you want. Tell me how we can fix this."

"I don't think there's any way we CAN fix this. We can't run away. I can't stay here. Rumpelstiltskin I'm at my breaking point and they-"

"What did they do?" he demanded, "What else have they done? I know you've been unhappy for awhile. I can see it. Tell me what they did and I'll make it right."

"They're not going to listen to you and it's not just them."

"Then what is it?" he demanded.

She looked away; she didn't know how she was expected to explain the thing that she'd seen at the well? Especially when he'd done nothing to her. He'd just confirmed her suspicions and planted the seeds of doubt that had quickly taken root. It would be easy to cast the blame on him, and Rumpelstiltskin would believe her. But she knew it was a lie.

"Please," he interlocked his fingers into hers and she wanted nothing more than to pull away. Not because she hated him but because she was ashamed of the thoughts going through her mind, "You're tired…you haven't slept all night in months and the midwives said that your body could take up to a year to be fully healed. And they talked about a depression that you would probably go through. That's part of what you're feeling, right? We can fix this. We can…we can clean up and I'll ask Morraine's mother to watch Bae and we'll sleep and tomorrow we'll go somewhere and talk and we'll make this right."

She closed her eyes and lowered her head. She knew that they wouldn't solve anything. They were just putting off what was inevitable. She knew that he would talk her into staying. She could never say 'no' to him when he got upset or emotional.

But if she stayed then she feared the abuse would get worse. And even if that happened then she would eventually be drafted. Dauis had left them alone since he'd sent her into labor but that didn't mean he forgot. The last time the recruiters were there to take some of the women that hadn't served before; she'd seen him glaring at her. AS if he was counting down the weeks till he could force her to serve as well.

She knew that she might as well be signing her own death certificate if she left. She had nowhere to go, barely any money to her own name. The only thing she could do was to start walking and never turn back.

If she left then they wouldn't force Rumpelstiltskin to become drafted again because someone would have to raise the baby. At least if the duke had some honor left.

Oh gods, she was justifying it.

She pressed the palms of her hands against her eyes and tried to keep from sobbing. She was tired of living like this. She wished they could go back to like it was but they couldn't.

Rumpelstiltskin slowly stood when he didn't get an answer and the hurt and angry look that he gave her made her hate herself more. It reminded her of everything he'd done for her, of everything he'd hoped and all the plans they'd made together. It made her think of the life that she was forsaking by doing this.

"At least grant me one thing before you leave," he said, his voice had taken a hard edge, "At least let me have Bae. The roads are no place for a baby. You of all people would know that."

She flinched but she deserved that barb. She knew she deserved a lot worse.

The rustle of the curtain meant that he'd left. She turned to see that he'd taken Bae with him.

Dagian was gone when he returned.

Rumpelstiltskin felt his heart shatter when he saw that she had taken some clothes and money that she'd earned from selling wool and he tried to swallow the lump in his throat as his son started to stir on his shoulder.

"It's alright Bae," he kissed his son on the forehead, "You're mother…died today. But we'll be fine. We'll be alright. It's just going to be you and me now."

Eventually he came to almost believe the lie himself.


The Dark One kept the shadows as he watched the woman walk down the King's Road by herself.

Finally. He was worried that he was going to have to kill her to remove her from the picture and take away the only voice of reason that Rumpelstiltskin was going to have in 14 years when he talked him into taking the dagger and killing him. Destroying the house and her things had been the last straw. It wouldn't be so bad in itself but thanks to her depression after giving birth, and her exhaustion, followed by the shame of her feelings for thinking he was a coward, the townspeople's mistreatment of him and him appearing to her and it was inevitable that she would leave.

He even thought she would leave with the baby but Rumpelstiltskin had put a stop to that.

The girl would be fine though. That recruiter that had taken to her…Filib or whatever his name was….he would find her and keep her alive long enough for Rumpelstiltskin to distribute whatever justice he wanted for her leaving him.

And he imagined arrogance would keep her alive, she was a general's daughter. She had pride and that was her weakness.

Rumpelstiltskin would be a good candidate for shouldering the curse. He wouldn't abuse it like so many in his position would

13 and a half years and it would be over.

Well, when one was 657, what was almost another decade and a half?