Once Upon A Time

Dagian spent the morning away from the village. She didn't want to see anyone, least of all her son.

She shouldn't feel this ashamed spending the night with her husband. He was her husband for the sake of the gods and the only reason she hated herself was because of his curse and how it changed him.

Well that should be reason enough in her mind. She'd seen him hurt people. Not just Dauis or the assassins but other villagers over things that he found perfectly justifiable.

He told her it wouldn't mean anything but they both knew that it wouldn't be the case.

Her hand went to her stomach as she was thinking about what he said. She wouldn't conceive. Nothing to bind them except for the son they already had and the fact that they had to look at each other every single day and she had to work in that house.

She couldn't…just sit there. She needed to talk to him. They needed to figure out where exactly it was that they stood.

"Mom?"

She looked up from her spot in the lily field and then looked back at the dead grass.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked.

"You left pretty early this morning, I thought-," he took a breath and then looked conflicted, "You didn't sleep in your room last night."

She looked at him, that was most certainly none of his business, "Watch your mouth, son."

He looked hesitant and then his face changed into a grim protectiveness that she saw so rarely in him, "Don't hurt him again."

"Bae-"

"No one told me what happened to him when you left," He said, "But I do know that it cut him deeply when you left. He never trusted anyone again. He thinks…well everyone else said it, but he thinks that you left him in disgust."

She tensed, "Bae- No."

Bae looked hurt, "Mom, I am not a child. I know that no matter what happened between you two last night, there is little chance that I will see you together. However, I think the both of you should talk.

Dagian put her son next to her, and she explained to him that it was her own fault and her own shame that she left. Not anything she felt towards her husband.

That night when Rumpelstiltskin finally came home, he wordlessly sat in the chair opposite of her from the fireplace.

"Is Bae asleep?" he asked.

She nodded, "An hour ago."

"And you're still here in the cabin."

She didn't look up at him; maybe it was her imagination that she detected some hope in his voice, "It didn't seem right to leave the boy alone until you came home."

"Oh."

She looked at him, might as well get this out now "Rumpelstiltskin-."

"Don't Dagian," he warned, "It was a very long day and I'm very tired."

"I don't wish to talk about that," she said quickly, "Although gods know that we should. But I want you to know that I never left because I was disgusted with you. I was disgusted with myself. I never hated you then."

HE kept his face expressionless, "And now?"

"I don't know," she admitted, "Still trying to work that out."

"Well, while you're figuring it out, you should take it into consideration that I won't change. No matter how I wish it was possible sometimes, it isn't."

"Sometimes?" she repeated.

He smiled wryly, "Having this much power is intoxicating Dagian. If you knew what it was like…you understood my position."

"Oh gods, may it never come to that," she stood, "Goodnight Rumpelstiltskin."

He sat back and watched the fire as she left, "Well, at least we're talking."


Present Day

Dawn walked into the grocery store and grabbed a basket without even looking. She was starting to memorize where everything was in this store. She needed to find a way to get these cravings under control before she started cleaning out the entire store whenever she got hungry.

She grabbed a large bar of chocolate and threw it in the basket, cinnamon rolls sounded good too. So did strawberries and grapes…

She went to the back of the store and threw a couple of cans in the basket. She would've gone to the bakery but her boss wasn't apt to waking up at one in the morning just because she wanted something hot and fresh.

And she certainly wasn't going to get up at two in the morning to make them fresh either. She had a life.

She passed some fruit and tried to remember if they had any fruit in the fridge or not.

She picked up a cantaloupe and smelled it. It wasn't exactly the season for it but she imagined she could do something with it. Her husband enjoyed cantaloupe, she should cut it up for him for dinner.

Something fell behind her and she turned to see a tall dark man picking up something that he'd knocked over from the shelf.

This must've been the stranger that she'd heard so much about.

An orange rolled by her foot and she picked it up.

The stranger walked over and accepted it from her, "Thank you m-…Mrs. Gold."

She didn't question how he knew her name. He'd been in town long enough to know who she was.

She even been awakened a couple of times at the sound of his motorcycle in the early hours of the morning too. They were practically neighbors now.

"You're welcome," she nodded and realized that he wouldn't stop staring at her, "Um…can I help you with something?"

His eyes fell on her stomach, "You're pregnant?"

She smiled and instinctively her hand went to her stomach, "Yes, I suppose I'm really starting to show?"

He looked at her as if he wanted to tell her something but then decided against it, "Are you alright?"

She looked at him in confusion, "Yes…why wouldn't I be?"

"I just…some people around town have been talking about how difficult it's been for you to get pregnant."

She felt defensive all of a sudden, "Well they were wrong."

"I didn't mean to hurt you, Mrs. Gold. I just wanted to congratulate you."

She nodded curtly, "Thank you."

She started to walk off and he followed her, "Would you like someone to walk you home?"

"I'm fully capable of walking, Mr. Booth."

"Someone should carry your groceries for you."

She stopped and sighed, "Really? You're going to pull that card?

"Trust me Mrs. Gold the last thing on my mind is wanting to hit on you. I just want to make sure that you get home safely."

"I don't even know you

"Well you seem to trust me anyway given that you're still talking to me," he gave her a satisfied smile, "Doesn't seem like many others can say the same."

Dawn couldn't help but admit that she liked him. He seemed quite proud of himself and she had to admit that she enjoyed his audacity.

And she was desperately in need of some company. Sometimes the loneliness hit her hard and staring at him sort of reminded her of how alone she felt sometimes.

"Well," she sighed, "Gentlemen are all but obsolete; I suppose I can let you walk me."

"You are aware that people will talk?" he told her as she set up her basket on the counter.

"They do little else," she said and pulled out her wallet


August stayed glued to Dawn's side as they walked down the street towards her house. He carried her bag which annoyed her because she was perfectly capable of doing it herself but he talked her into it because he thought he was a gentleman and it just wouldn't feel right that she had to carry her own grocery bag while he walked with his hands free.

"Is the baby healthy so far?" August asked, finally breaking the silence.

She instinctively closed her coat a little more over her stomach and nodded, "Yes, so far it's fine."

"You shouldn't hide it," he said, "Considering you're practically glowing, I would think you would be shouting your pregnancy from the rooftops."

"Because it's none of anyone's business," she snapped, "And if I announce my pregnancy then I have to deal with a million people offering me their congratulations when they would barely talk to me beforehand. It's the hypocrisy of society and I just don't want to deal with them."

He smirked in amusement, "I can see how your blunt attitude had made you a lot of friends."

"I keep people at a distance, they keep me at a distance and we're all happier that way."

"Are you?"

She blinked, "What?"

"Are you happy?"

She swallowed and lowered her head. No one had asked her that before except for Archie and her husband and she knew exactly what to tell them to get them off her back.

"Some days I question if I am," she told him honestly. She didn't know why she was opening up to him, she just did. Maybe it was a long time coming and she was just waiting for the right person to talk to, "But then I think about what happiness is. What makes people happy? It's when they're safe and secure and they have the life that they want and I have all that so I must be happy. I don't' live under anyone's pity anymore, I have a husband that I care about and a baby on the way. I have everything I could possibly want. So therefore I must be happy."

"Care about? What about love?"

She scoffed, "I tell my husband that I love him not but we both know there's no such thing."

"You're wrong, Mrs. Gold."

"If love existed then why is the world getting worse every day?" she challenged, "Why is the divorce rate so high if people loved each other like they said they do? What we're talking about is a concept, not an actuality "

"People believe in a form of love but they don't want to open their eyes to true love."

"Oh true love, now there's a bigger joke."

"You're such an optimist."

"How can there be true love when people die left and right?" she asked again. She'd been hearing these people talk about this kind of stuff for years and now it just came pouring out, "What happens if your true love falls off a cliff before you even meet them? Is there another true love waiting for you? It can't, because there can only be one, right? Or is anyone that you marry after that just doomed to a life of mediocrity because you'll never meet your true love because they're dead."

"You've taken some time to think about this, haven't you?"

"It used to keep me up at night," she replied, "and then I started getting dark circles under my eyes and I kept falling asleep at the computer and during dinner. Let's just say that that stopped when I was having oatmeal."

"Well, I don't claim to have any answers Mrs. Gold but I have traveled the world and I can tell you that the things I've seen…I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that love exists."

"I guess we'll have to agree to disagree then," she sighed tiredly, "Because with the things I've seen and the things I've experienced I have to wonder if love exists in a world so corrupted by evil."

"You'll love your child won't you?"

"That's not the same."

"Well if that love exists then why can't others?"

"Because I haven't seen proof of it."

"And here I heard that things were getting better for you and your husband and the way you treat each other. Aren't you both trying to learn to love the other? How can you do try something that you don't believe exists?"

"Because I keep hoping I'll be wrong. And unfortunately because my husband and I are near impossible people to love then I don't think that'll ever happen."

August stopped in front of her house and wrapped his arms around her shoulders in an embrace, "Love exists. You just haven't found it yet."

She tensed at the sudden move but didn't pull away. She was good at reading people and understanding their emotions through gestures and interactions. He wasn't hitting on her nor was the embrace meant to be anything near sexual or anything near romantic. It reminded her of her son when he embraced her for the first time…

She pulled away and shook her head as if to clear it. SheWAS tired. She didn't have a son. Where did that even come from?

"I have to go," she whispered and winced when she felt pain in her stomach.

"Are you alright?" he asked and she could detect a panic in his voice.

Pain laced around her back and hips and she shook her head, "I think something's wrong."