Once Upon A Time
Dagian pulled a bag out from under the bed and started packing her things.
She wasn't going to stay with him, not after this. This was…she didn't even know what to think of this, this crossed a line.
He would try to justify it. He might say that Bae slipped but she knew what she saw. He let him go.
She threw a working dress into the bag and a clean cloak. The one she wore was covered in mud. She opened the small pantry and grabbed a couple of loaves of bread as much fruit as she could get in her bag. Rumpelstiltskin kept the food supply well stocked; he'd done so since he got back. Baelfire had told her that they had barely survived a couple of winters and so since Rumpelstiltskin turned, he always made sure that they were fed.
At the thought of her son, she stopped everything, gripped the table and tried to hold in her emotions.
Bae was gone. It didn't even feel real. It didn't even feel different. She was dreaming. Maybe she'd wake up and she'd be sleeping next to her husband and Bae would be upstairs and they'd continue like they were.
But she didn't wake up and she knew that this was real.
Her legs were shaking and for a second she thought she would have to sit down.
She didn't have time for this. She wanted to be as far away from her husband as she could get before he realized she was gone.
As she reached for her bag just as the door opened and she froze.
"What are you doing Dagian?" she heard him whisper.
"What does it look like?" she said, "You brought me here as a move of goodwill toward Baelfire, and since you let him fall our deal is null and void."
"And where do you think you'd go?"
"Somewhere that's not here."
"I can get him back Dagian."
"He fell in a vortex to another world Rumpelstiltskin, he used the last bean. IF you could get him back then I imagine you wouldn't be here talking with me."
"The Rheul Ghorim told me that there was a curse that existed
She looked at him doubtfully, "Really? The Rheul Ghorim said that?"
He shrugged, "Not in so many words, no. But there is a curse that exists."
She didn't want to hear this. She didn't want to hear his excuses, his false hopes, "Goodbye Rumpelstiltskin."
"You won't get very far," he told her, "I'll bring you back."
She looked at him and sighed in exhaustion, "I'll just leave again. Eventually one of us is going to get bored."
Present Day
For years Rumpelstiltskin had made peace with the fact that Dagian would leave him as soon as she woke up.
But even though he knew that would be the reality, the idea that she would pack up and go as soon as she wanted to angered him. It made him feel possessive of her. She was his. He'd made sure that she lived comfortably and content since she woke up here. He hadn't forced her feelings; he hadn't forced their little relationship. It had been like that before they lost Bae. They didn't love each other, he knew that now, but that hadn't stopped them before.
But he could understand how Dagian would think he'd taken advantage of her. He just needed her to understand that there was more 'Dagian' in Dawn and vice versa than she was really thinking about.
He hadn't manipulated her emotions and how she felt about him. Sure he played with her memories but deep down she wasn't that different. Her memories said that he saved her from a father that would probably kill her and she stayed with him in agreement that she would be safe.
He'd done the same in the Realms. He saved her when they first met and everyone thought she was dead and she had actually survived. He'd saved her when he became the Dark One and those men killed her true love and kidnapped her to make a bargain. And she stayed with him because he'd kept her safe. At least for the latter one. She'd stayed with him because she loved him when they first met.
At least for a while.
So what was the plan now? He didn't want to lose her. He did care about her and he saw no point in separating or divorcing with a child on the way and them both wanting the same thing.
Especially since the only person Dagian had was the ten year old Henry whom he'd watched follow Dagian home chattering happily like she was his new best friend.
Gold supposed Henry knew about Dawn's awakening because he avoided her like the plague otherwise.
He lay in bed and stared at the ceiling. Dagian had stayed out well past dinner and so he'd retired back to the room by himself. She wouldn't come home unless she was sure she wouldn't have him waiting for her.
He should claim that she didn't want a fight but he knew differently. He saw it in her eyes earlier; he still saw some semblance of desire. He still saw Dawn in there and her feelings for him. She was worried that he'd win her back. And she could pretend that he couldn't but he was quite confident that he could.
Rumpelstiltskin would get her back. It was only a matter of time before she realized that this was their chance to start over. They could be happy. Sure they had hurt and betrayed each other in the past but this was a comfortable relationship that he didn't really want to give up.
She would realize the same.
He had until Emma broke this curse and defeated Regina to get Dagian's love back. And looking human was an advantage on his side because she associated his human form to times of happiness and nostalgia. That combined with everything they'd been through…
He was reluctant to use their daughter unless absolutely necessary. Regina used her child like he was a toy and she was the biggest child on the playground and refused to let the other children play with it. Rumpelstiltskin hated the way she treated Henry and he wasn't going to hurt his daughter and he wasn't going to hurt his wife by stooping low enough to do the same.
Daughter. What did their new rift mean for her?
It was a thought that plagued him as he drifted off to sleep.
And then the nightmares hit. It was the one that he hated and it was the reason he hardly slept after the incident with Bae and he turned into the dark one.
Bae slipped from his grip and into the vortex. Rumpelstiltskin didn't let go in his nightmares, Bae slipped. And in some ways it made it worse because Rumpelstiltskin not only had to relive what happened but he had to wake up and remember that his dream was different and he had to remember that Bae didn't slip. He let go.
And he heard Bae screaming and Dagian crying and like always he was awakened by his own screams and Dagian shaking him awake.
He sat up and she tensed as if he was going to come out of the bed.
It wasn't until his breathing slowed that he realized that there was a chill in the room. However, he was covered in sweat.
"Are you alright?" Dagian asked.
He lowered his head and nodded, "Just a dream."
She looked at him for a several seconds, it was dark but he could see her eyes going over the conflict in her mind. Finally something won out and she sat next to him on the bed. He realized that you could put another person between them but the fact that she pitied him enough to be this close might as well be a breakthrough.
"Dawn used to wonder about the nightmares," she told him, "When you had them she couldn't sleep for the rest of the night because it was usually the only time you were ever visibly shaken."
Did you dream about Bae?"
"I dream about a lot of things," he said and looked at her. Gods, with her hair undone and her makeup off, she still looked like the beauty that he fell in love with all those years ago, "But that's usually the worst one."
Dagian pulled her robe closer around her and brushed some of her hair back, "I used to dream about Bae shortly after he was gone. I think my screams filled the dark castle but you never came. I was alone there."
"I know," he whispered and looked down. In his vow to love no one and nothing else and at his shame of losing Bae he had neglected Dagian in that large castle. If he hadn't neglected her then he liked to think that things might've been different between them in the long run, "I'm sorry, Dagian. I only…I couldn't look at you afterwards, I was ashamed that I let go of our son. I lost him and it's my fault that everything afterwards happened. "
She looked up at him as if she was stunned. He was being vulnerable to her, now when was the last time he did that?
He looked at her and blinked back tears, "I brought us here for Bae, Dagian. So that we could find him find him. I brought us here so that I could make things right; for him, for you.
"And everything you did to me?"
He swallowed his pride and looked at her, "Dagian, I'm so sorry. I know that nothing can make up for what I did to you, but just give me a chance to make this right."
Even in the dark he could sense her wearied expression, she put her head in her hands. A few minutes of silence passed, "I can't sleep in that bloody bed."
He smiled wryly, "And what do you want to do about that?"
"You do realize that if I crawled in that bed with you it wouldn't mean anything. I just want to sleep."
"Well it's a start," he said, "And just for the record I know nothing will happen dear. I just want to sleep too."
She lay next to him, "Aw, you miss me."
"Well it's not my fault that I can't sleep without your snoring."
"Lovely," she muttered, "Keep your hands to yourself."
"No promises dear."
Rumpelstiltskin didn't fool himself into thinking that their banter was any sign of progress. It was nothing more than a wall that Dagian put up so they didn't talk about things that were truly wrong.
But at least she was talking to him. It was a start.
