He planned to make dancing a new pastime for them both. Just as he planned to make surprising her with feasts a new pastime they'd share. Just as he planned on making their lives something they'd share.

It was a perfect day. And she didn't even know half of it. Resisting the urge to go to the shop, the talk with Baelfire, giving the dagger back, all were things that she'd never know, or he at least hoped she wouldn't discover for quite some time. So far as she knew, the day consisted of this. Time together. Alone. They'd had a lazy morning, danced the afternoon away, then searched out a bedroom to set up shop in, and, when she'd disappeared into the bathroom, he'd left her to steal some of the food he'd gotten for the cabin cooked into a feast which he served with side by side place settings in the dining room so they could look out the windows as the sun went down. The look on her face when she discovered what he'd done made it all worth it. They didn't hardly need to say anything as they ate, they just enjoyed the peace and quiet that came from one another's company…company they'd enjoy for the rest of their lives.

"We should go to bed," she suggested once the sun had gone down and her head lay already on his shoulder. "It's getting late, and it's been a long day."

It had been a long day. But at least it had been a day. The day they'd dreamed about and truly deserved.

Belle commented about slipping into something more comfortable, and he was up and out of his seat like a rocket, unable to resist a temptation like that. They left their dishes where they were and climbed the stairs back up to the bedroom they'd chosen, which was just as clean and impersonal as the rest of the house—with the exception, of course, of what he suspected might be downstairs, which he had yet to investigate.

Belle was changing in the bathroom. He'd started the process but stopped when he saw that Belle had taken the dagger out of her bag and set it aside. The Dark Ones whispered possibilities into his head as he stared at it; they shared hopes of a life made free from that dagger, free from fear. If the object downstairs was what he thought it was, then there was a possibility that it would be his ticket to making that dagger wrapped in a scarf just a simple dagger, a fragment of a once great sword that bore his true name. It would still be useful for summoning other Dark Ones if he wished to converse with their memories, but otherwise, it would be scrap metal. What a life he might make with such a limitless power.

But Belle…she'd love nothing more than to see him free. But the power it might take if the cylinder was what he thought it was, the cost of that particular gift…she wouldn't see it as worth it. She'd want him to find another way without understanding that just because one wanted another way didn't mean that another way necessarily existed. He'd been wanting a solution to the problem Merlin had bound him to for hundreds of years, every Dark One wanted that too, if another solution existed, they'd never found it. There was only one. And the cost was significant, but for a Dark One it was but a drop in the bucket of sins.

Behind him, Belle cleared her throat, and the bathroom door closed less gracefully. These thoughts were better explored later. Once, she was asleep. Though the idea of doing something like this as she slept…that wasn't quite the fresh start he'd imagined for them.

"I think today was one of the best days of my life…"

Finally, he glanced over his shoulder at her and realized that she was in a lovely nightgown that provided him with an ample view of cleavage, even as she lay under the blankets. But her eyes…they were heavy, not with desire but rather with sleep. For as much time as they'd spent in bed in the last twenty-four hours, he supposed not much of it had been time spent sleeping. It was their honeymoon, after all.

He completed the scene by lighting a fire in the grate behind her. The quick flicker of his gaze must not have given her enough warning because she immediately jumped at the action before putting two and two together and calming.

"Good thinking. It was getting chilly," she commented, playing it off too easily.

"Well, we can't have that," he muttered, rolling his body so that he could lay on his side beside her, staring into her tired eyes. He wasn't ready for bed quite yet, but he knew it wouldn't matter. As far as sex went, there would be plenty in their lives. And as far as he went, after she went to sleep, he had something he wanted to retrieve, something that might change their lives, but something he was sure she'd hate if she knew about it.

"Is something wrong?" she asked, looking him over.

"No," he lied. "No, that's impossible right now."

"We finally got our one day," she smiled.

"Indeed we did," he agreed, moving his hand to her face and running a thumb over her cheek. "And we used it well."

Her small, sleepy smile suddenly grew into a wide grin. "We broke into a stranger's house for our honeymoon."

Her joy was almost childlike, and it was contagious. He would never have thought her capable of doing such a thing, yet here they were in a home he was confident was lived in by no one.

"It's not breaking in if it's unlocked and abandoned. And if breaking into an unclaimed, unlocked house is the worst thing we've done in our time together, then I think we're doing all right."

She laughed at his comment as a far more sinister laugh purred in his head.

And yet you are thinking of doing much worse already, are you not, Rumpelstiltskin?

Fucking Nimue and her fucking-

"We needed this," Belle muttered with laughter still in her tone as she settled.

"Marriage?"

"That too," she smirked.

The day, then. For as much as they'd needed marriage, they'd needed a day together. Not to be Belle the librarian and his love in the same day. Not to be the Dark One and a Pawnbroker, and a rent collector, and her Rumple in the same hour. But just to be this. Belle and Rumpelstiltskin. Mr. and Mrs. Gold…fuck, that was growing on him all too easily.

"Yes," he agreed with a nod. "We needed this as well as that."

She was beginning to drift. He wasn't even in bed, and he could already see that her eyes were beginning to drift shut, sleep threatening to claim her. And somewhere downstairs, that cylinder sat, tempting and calling. Calling him to it and away from her, away from her in so many ways.

It would be so easy just to let her fall asleep, to get up and give in to the murmurings in his head, the instructions. It would be good for him, they suggested.

"Hell, it would be good for you…both of you!" Zoso suggested, suddenly standing at the corner of the fireplace. "She doesn't like carrying that dagger any more than you like letting her carry it."

But the cost. She'd never agree to-

"Perhaps it's time to learn that old adage that men have learned in their married lives since the beginning of time. 'What the missus doesn't know, won't hurt her. Happy wife…happy life.'"

But he'd know. He'd have to deceive her and then eventually confess. And he'd just made a promise to Baelfire-

"Belle…" her body twitched as he called out to her, and she startled back to awareness. Her eyes were still tired, but she looked at him with curiosity. "Belle, will you do me a favor?" he begged, ignoring Zoso's presence over her shoulder.

"Of course."

"Tell me about him…about my son." That would help. Hearing about Baelfire, about the man he was, would help remind him about the vows he'd taken and committed himself to.

But he could hear the hitch in Belle's breath at the question, the pain and panic that flooded her eyes as he asked. It was raw for her. Whatever their relationship had been, the pain of losing him was fierce; he could see that now. Was it greater than his own?

"He was a good man, Rumple," she answered in a quiet voice. "He loved his family. Henry and Emma, me and you. He…he didn't like to admit, but he did love you. And he was like you, in a lot of ways-"

"How?" he interrupted. "How was he like me?"

Perhaps that was the secret. If Bae could be like him, then maybe he could find a way to be like Bae. Belle wouldn't like the cost of what he was considering. Perhaps he could find the strength to resist. He'd get through the morning, then maybe send Dove up here to retrieve it and hide it, bury it somewhere he didn't know. He could give the boy a memory potion so that he couldn't recover the information so that it would be lost, and he'd never be tempted again-

"He was protective," Belle answered with a smirk. "Too protective sometimes. He liked his solitude, liked to stick to himself, and didn't give his trust away easily. He was responsible and didn't take any responsibility lightly. He cared for me when he didn't have to, when we had no link, and I shouldn't have been his concern. He loved his family. He loved his family so much he was willing to do anything to see them again. And that made him brave and fearless, and sometimes…sometimes that wasn't always a good thing."

Protective, private, responsible, distrusting, brave, fearless, loving…

"There are things I recognize, things I remember, but…" Thinking back on the image of Bae as a teenager that he'd carried with him for so long. Loving, responsible, and brave, those words all fit the boy he'd known. But the others, the parts he recognized that were more like him, protective, private, distrusting…he recognized them in adult Neal, but sometimes they still didn't feel like they belonged to the same person. "It's like he's two people. The son I lost isn't the one you knew…"

"He grew up, Rumple. He changed from what you knew then, but he told me enough to know…he was still your son, still Baelfire, just…just different…older." More damaged. Damaged as he had been damaged. As most people he touched were damaged because of this curse.

"You should be proud of him," Belle insisted. "Of all that he is, because he'd be proud of you and all that you are now! He'd be happy about this!" She reached for his hand and ran her finger over the ring that now adorned his left hand. "He'd be very happy about all of it."

Shed told him that earlier. More than once now. Neal would be happy he had a family, happy he'd married Belle because Baelfire was a man who also loved his family. And would do anything for them…even if it wasn't always a good thing.

He put his free hand on her cheek, then moved closer to her so that he could share her pillow and press his forehead to hers as she fell asleep.

He was about to do something he shouldn't, something that he was positive Belle wouldn't ever call "good." And for that reason, he was about to go back on his promise and keep it secret from her. But maybe that only made him more like Bae than he thought he was. This wasn't just for him it was for his family. It was a hard choice to do the right thing in the end.

He hoped…

This is another chapter that is much better from Rumple's perspective. We knew when we saw this chapter through Belle's eyes in Moments that he'd already seen the hat and that this conversation he wants to have about Baelfire might be more than it appeared to Belle. Well, now we know that it was. There was a reason he was asking about Baelfire, and it was undoubtedly a good reason. He's really struggling here with right and wrong, and, obviously, from the last fiction, we know that he must be incredibly tempted because the Dark Ones only appear in person when he's really conflicted.

Thank you so much, Rsbeall, for your review of the last chapter. I'm very interested to see how you feel about this chapter. Does seeing it from the other side matter as much to you as it does to me? Peace and Happy Reading!