I don't own OUAT

Rumplestiltskin stood beside the agreed-upon meeting spot, dressed in his finest dragon-skin suit, awaiting his love. He began to pace with anticipation, doubting she was even planning on showing up at all. His face broke into a grin as he saw her approach with a box held tightly against her chest. She wore a cloak to protect herself from the cold night air that was lined with some kind of exotic fur. It was nice, but he could make her far better when they returned to his own castle.

"I was starting to grow concerned." He shoulders bobbed slightly, partially in true indifference and partially as an act. She could not let herself love him. The lack of heart helped, but it was not enough. While she did not care for him as she typically would, her body ached for him. She had to keep it restrained.

"Well, here I am." They kissed deeply, but it lacked passion. It was not from lack of physicality, but a lack of emotional attachment that had always been so strong. Had he paid enough attention, he might have noticed that the heart in the box she held had sped up at the kiss. However, he paid more attention to the vacant look that covered her face instead of her usual pleasure and longing. There was a flicker of something in her eyes, but it hadn't lasted long enough to be real.

"Something's not right." She nodded, not feeling the need to elaborate. At his silent, pleading look, she took pity on him with a vocal response.

"Yes, you're correct." The response was like a slap in the face, but the slap would at least have shown some passion from the fiery little mistress he had come to know as his. Instead, there was nothing. Something was very wrong, and it was something that he could not fix unless she wished for him to. It seemed like she didn't wish for much of anything now. He tried to taunt her as he had grown so accustomed to doing with her to tempt his witch into fighting him. A fight was better than being ignored.

"Well, what happened? Couldn't you take the King's heart?" She frowned slightly, seeming slightly upset by his lack of faith in her, but not caring enough for his opinion to try to change it much.

"No, I was able to do it. I chose not to." It was an automatic response, a response that any servant could have given him had he decided to hire a maid to clean his home who decided to do something else instead. A bit of humility in that she had disobeyed, but no hint of remorse or anger at his mocking. This was not his Cora.

"Ah." His resigned sound seemed to finally break through her walls enough for a grain of pity to form in her eyes as she gazed at him. Pity that he was weaker than she, condemned by his own heart.

"I'm sorry, my dear Rumple, but I'm not going with you. You see, I have a wedding to go to." She paused briefly, and he motioned for her to go on. It was agony, knowing what she was going to say and yet hoping to heaven that he was wrong. Knowing what the future held and yet ignoring it and not believing it for the sake of a life without pain. The pain grew as she continued, doing as he had always known she would do. "My own."

His eyes darted to the box held tightly to her chest, nearly concealed by her arms. The shock at what she had done washed over him as he spat out words he desperately didn't want to say, a question he desperately wanted left unanswered.

"Whose heart is in the box." Genuine concern for him flooded through her as she begged him not to make it harder than it had to be. His shock gave way to pure rage, red tinting his vision. "You lied to me!" It came out as a roar, a screech. It was all he could do not to turn her into some foul creature for daring to toy with him. "Whose. Heart?"

"Mine. I had to!" Though her words were pleading, her cool tone did not match what was in her eyes. He could not decipher which was real and which was not, the pain in her eyes or the indifference of her voice. She was not that good of an actress. She continued, giving an explanation that sounded so cruel and yet would not have been needed by one who truly didn't care. "You told me not to let anything stop me until they were on their knees! My heart was stopping me!" Tears were welling up in her eyes, and that made him angrier. She had the audacity to cry when he was the one who was being betrayed!

"You never loved me. Never!" As he fought back tears of his own, all he could return to was the need for vengeance that Milah had instilled in him years ago that he now let loose on this woman. He could not punish Milah as she deserved, the wench, and here was his second chance. This was not second heartbreak, but a second chance at giving a traitorous woman exactly what she deserved. "You're not going to get away with this! We had a contract. I'll take your baby!" Now he was certain tears fell from Cora's eyes as she gazed at him with regret. Those were not the eyes of a woman who could not feel. But he couldn't let himself think of that. Not when she was hurting him so.

"You changed the contract, Rumple. You only get your own child. And any baby I have... It won't be yours." It was time to make the choice his dearest apprentice had already made in its own precious hue. Love or revenge. He could let her leave and hope she was happy. But he wouldn't. He would never learn from his mistakes. He would choose as she had and strive for the world. If he couldn't have her, then the world was a worthy enough second place.