Christmas Wrapping

A Once holiday fic

The Enchanted Forest:

"Bae, I don't know about this," Rumplestiltskin, also known as the Dark One since he had been cursed over a year ago, said to his fourteen-year-old son as they walked through the deepening dusk amid the gnarled oak and elder trees. He was wearing his customary silk shirt and leather pants, and a tooled leather vest with a cloak wrapped about him. His dark curling hair flowed about his shoulders and enhanced his golden scaled skin and deep amber eyes.

"Papa, this is the only way we can break your curse and then we can be like we used to," Bae persuaded, his curly dark hair just brushing his shoulders. He was wearing a soft blue-gray shawl over a white tunic and brown pants with black boots. He resembled his father in his facial features, though his hair was his mother's. His hand caressed the magic bean given to him by the Blue Fairy in his pocket.

"Bae, I don't trust fairies," Rumple objected. "They often say one thing and do something unexpected."

Like you do now, Papa, his son thought but did not say aloud. The last thing he wanted was to quarrel with his father, especially since getting him to agree to this had been difficult enough. "Papa, she promised to help me—help us both."

The sorcerer sighed. "Bae, did she say where this bean would take us?"

The boy shrugged. "Uh . . .she said to a Land Without Magic. Over there your curse would be inactive or something."

"I hope you're right, Baelfire." Rumple was still uneasy about this deal he'd made. Not only because he didn't trust the sanctimonious fairy who'd given Bae the bean, but also because he was frightened of becoming a cripple again and unable to protect his son. For the first time in his life, after he had become the Dark One, his perpetual anxiety and terrible self-esteem had vanished, as if it had never been. He was no longer afraid of anyone or anything. Instead people were afraid of him. For a man who had been mocked, taunted, and spit on since he was a child, first for being the son of a grifter, cheat, and coward, then later called one himself for choosing to believe a seer's two-bit prophecy that he would die in battle the following morning and leave his son fatherless, and then breaking his own ankle so he could return home to his infant son, making himself a cripple, being feared was a novelty and a wonder. As was being able to finally protect his son the way a father should.

Rumple had always felt ashamed of himself, for not being the sort of father he felt Bae should have, the kind who was strong and unhampered by a crippled foot, a coward's reputation, and someone to be proud of. He'd done his best for the boy, but he felt it was never enough, and his gentle nature made him the target of bullies and arrogant cruel men.

But as the Dark One, with all the power of the dark magic at his fingertips, he could make men tremble in their boots, and all those who had once mocked and hurt him run away in fear like little boys sobbing from the boogeyman.

He wasn't sure if he could give that up.

Still, a deal was a deal. And Rumple might be cursed, but he broke his word to no one.

Especially his son.

Bae threw the bean down and it landed on the ground and a greenish spinning vortex formed, rather like a reverse cyclone.

The wind picked up suddenly and howled like a lost soul and the vortex spun about, pulling at their boots. Tree branches cracked and snapped like brittle bones and leaves were shredded and sucked into the portal.

Bae grabbed Rumple's hand and tugged. "C'mon, Papa! Before it fades! It's our only chance!"

Still Rumple hesitated, reluctant to commit to that irrevocable last step. "Bae, maybe we shouldn't—"

"Papa, we have to!" Bae shouted above the roar of the wind. "Please! You promised!" The boy tugged on his papa's hand, and his foot slipped, making him tumble over the edge of the gaping greenish maw of magical energy.

"Bae!" Rumple shouted, fear creasing his features. He struggled to pull the boy up.

"Papa! Don't break our deal!" Bae's eyes were filled with terror and determination.

Rumple felt the siren song of the dagger tug at him relentlessly. It whispered seductively into his ears, promising him power unending . . .but only if he stayed within the boundaries of the Enchanted Forest.

"Papa!" Bae screamed, trying to hang onto his parent while the portal dragged him down. "I'm slipping! Papa, you promised we'd always be together!"

Rumple found himself dragged to the edge of the pit, his heart slamming in his throat as a visceral fear such as he'd never known even when he was a spinner gripped him like a vice. He could feel Bae's fingers slowly being torn from him.

"Hang on, Bae!" he yelped, struggling to grab his son's other hand with his own. "I've got you! Your papa's here!"

But just as his free hand closed upon Bae's other one, the portal snatched his son and then Rumple found himself falling through a greenish cyclone, spun around and around, until they were spat out onto a dirt road in the middle of a snowy moonlit field somewhere far far away.

They landed hard and Bae had the wind knocked out of him and Rumple slammed his head into the ground so hard he saw stars and was dizzy for several moments.

"Bae . . .Bae are you all right?" he croaked, for it hurt to speak.

It was a moment before Bae could respond, he was wheezing trying to get air into his lungs.

"Papa . . .I think we're here," he managed to say. "How're you?"

"I . . .don't think anything's broken," Rumple moaned, and tried to climb to his feet. But as he attempted to stand, his leg crumbled beneath him and he fell back down again with a soft cry of pain.

"Papa!" Bae gasped.

"My leg . . .I'm crippled again," his father groaned. "I need a stick, Bae."

His magic was gone, he could feel a great gaping hole where it had been, and even the dagger had vanished.

"One moment, Papa," Bae jumped to his feet then and went in search of a stick.

Luckily after wandering a few feet down the dirt road he found a small oak tree with its branches laden with snow, and he tugged one free or Rumple to use as a crutch. "Here, Papa," he handed Rumple the stick and aided his father to his feet.

Rumple glanced around. They seemed to be in the middle of a winding dirt road covered in snow. A vast land filled with snow and a few trees seemed to stretch on into the horizon. A sharp chill wind began to blow and the former sorcerer shivered and said, "We need to keep moving, Bae. Find some shelter out of the wind and cold before we freeze."

"I know, Papa. Which way shall we go?"

Rumple saw his son shivering with cold, and tried to see if he could spot smoke from a chimney or a campfire but saw nothing save the gray leaden sky. And it looked as if it were going to snow again. "That way," he pointed south down the road randomly. At this point, one direction was as good as another.

Clutching his stick, he limped down the road.

Bae followed, thinking that if only they could find a shelter, this wouldn't be half bad.

An hour later, father and son were both frozen to the bone, and struggling to stay awake. The road led them through endless fields of snow without a town or any sign of civilization in sight. Both were staggering, and bae had his hand on Rumple's shoulder to keep him upright.

The sky had begun to spit snow and it fell in soft flakes upon them, until they looked like walking abominable snowmen, their hair and faces wet with snow.

Finally they saw some lights in the distance, and Bae cried, "Look, Papa! I see something glowing! Like a lantern!"

"How far, Bae?" Rumple wheezed. His leg was aching so much he felt like he was going to pass out, and he was so cold he could barely feel his good leg.

"Umm, not too far," his son encouraged. "C'mon, Papa. You can do it!" Now Bae felt bad for dragging his father with him to this new land. The Blue Fairy had promised he could find a land of plenty, and yet so far all they'd encountered was snow and freezing cold.

His teeth chattering, Bae muttered, "I think you were right, Papa. The Blue Fairy lied."

"T-told you so!" Rumple shivered. "Fairies always double talk you."

Snow clung to them now like a second skin, but they kept staggering towards the light, until it resolved into a small house behind a split rail fence with a fir tree in the yard. The light was coming from the windows and there was a wreath of fir branches and holly with a big red bow on the door. Strings of cranberries and popcorn were strung on the fir tree and a small stone chimney smoked into the frosty air.

"A house!" gasped Rumple, and stumbled up the walk, which was slippery with a crust of snow and ice.

Bae went to run ahead of his papa when Rumple skidded on a patch of ice and his feet went right out from under him.

For the second time that night his head hit the hard ground and this time he passed out from the pain.

Bae turned upon hearing the thud as Rumple slammed into the ground. For a moment he just stared, stunned. Then he ran back and knelt by Rumple's side. "Papa!"

Rumple was still and Bae saw a trickle of blood stain the snow beside his father's cheek. Panicked, Bae jumped to his feet and raced the few feet to the cottage door and pounded on it. "Help! Help! My papa's hurt and needs help!"

There was no answer and Bae feared they were all asleep and the glow came from a banked fire.

Until the door was flung open and a teenage girl with long dark hair in two braids wearing a fringed deerskin coat lined with sheepskin stood there. "Who are you?" she cried.

"My name's Bae and my papa's hurt over there," Bae pointed to his father lying in the middle of the path. "Can you call your brother or papa to help me?"

The girl tossed her head. "Don't got a papa or a brother. Just a mama, but we manage. Name's Regina Winters." She peered out at the fallen Rumple. "He looks like he's in a bad way. Better get him inside quick. Mama!" she called.

Soon she was joined by a small dark haired woman with bright blue eyes wearing a blue dress and sturdy black shoes. "Regina, what's all the ruckus? Oh!"

"Please, mistress, you gotta help me!" Bae pleaded. "My papa slipped on the ice and fell and he hurt his head."

"I'll do my best, son. I'm Belle Winters," Belle replied, and then she reached over and grabbed another deerhide sheepskin coat from a hook and put it on. Then she stepped into a pair of boots that looked almost too large for her small feet and walked over to where Rumple lay.

She knelt and carefully felt the side of his neck for a pulse and upon finding one said, "We need to get him inside where it's warm. Then I can see about treating his head wound. Regina, Bae, can you get his feet?"

Belle picked up Rumple's shoulders, gently cradling his head against her breast, and together the three managed to move the unconscious spinner into the house.

"Let's put him on the settle by the fire," Belle instructed, and they carefully laid Rumple down.

"I need to get his stick," Bae informed them. "He's lame and needs it to walk."

He hurried out to get it and Belle began examining her surprise guest.

Bae returned to find her examining Rumple's eyes, and listening to his heart with an odd looking wooden bell attached to her ears with a black cord. "What're you doing? Are you some kind of . . .of witch?"

"Medicine woman," Regina corrected automatically. Then she wished she had swallowed her tongue for babbling. She waited for Bae to sneer and order her mama away, the way most townsfolk did once they learned Belle's past. "Umm . . I mean . . ."

But Bae didn't seem to care about what that implied, simply saying, "So is she a good healer then?"

Regina nodded. "Uh huh. She was taught by Willow Heart. If anyone can cure your papa, she can."

"Regina, put on the kettle to boil and get me some clean cloths and my salve," Belle ordered, brushing the snow from her injured guest. She couldn't help but notice the fine features of the man lying on the couch and was quick to suppress a most unladylike flicker of desire as she covered him with some blankets Bae gave her and then washed and dressed the slight bump on Rumple's head. Once that was done, Belle wrapped a hot brick that had been warming by the fire into a flannel and put it by Rumple's feet, after removing his boots and checking to see if his lame leg hadn't been injured in the fall as well.

Then she turned to Bae and said, "I didn't catch your name, young man."

"It's Baelfire, but you can call me Bae. And my papa . . .is Mr. Gold," he said thinking fast. The name fit since Rumple could spin straw into gold. Often the mere sight of the Dark One made people tremble and he wasn't sure if he should tell her who Rumple really was.

He glanced around at the room, and saw that it was sturdily built of wooden logs and besides the settle near the hearth there was also a maple rocking chair with some mending in a basket beside it. On the fireplace mantle was an old fashioned clock, a bone china shepherdess, and several carvings of different animals.

Hung on the mantle was two stockings, red knitted ones, and decorative swags of greenery and more red bows adorned the mantle. In the corner was a small tree decorated lovingly with strings of cranberries, and paper ornaments of birds and tea cups and other small objects.

"You have a tree in your house?" Bae blurted.

"It's a Christmas tree," Regina said, rolling her eyes. "For Christmas."

Bae didn't know what to say to that, and not wanting to seem foolish, he just nodded. Then, because snow was dripping onto the back of his neck and into his hair, he began shivering.

Belle looked up from where she was tucking another blanket about her patient and said softly, "You need to get out of those wet clothes, before you get pneumonia. Regina, give him the ones in the chest that you have." She knew the girl would know which ones she meant.

Regina gave her an incredulous look, then went to a small chest against the wall, beautifully carved with flying hawks, trees, wolves, and a howling wind, and opened it. The smell of cedar hit her nostrils and she removed two items from the chest. They were a pair of butter soft deerskin leggings and a blue chambray shirt, sewn lovingly by her own hands.

"Here," she handed the items to him. "You can wear these."

"Thanks," he said, and then took another towel that Belle handed him.

"You can go in there to change," Belle pointed to a small necessary off the main room.

Bae hurried inside to get changed, wondering where the clothes had come from, since Regina had said she had no brothers or papa. Then he quickly stripped off his wet things and pulled on the soft breeches and shirt, thinking they were well made clothes, as good as any his papa had made as a spinner.

He emerged with his wet clothing in his hands, and Regina took them to hang by the fire to dry. "Would you like something to drink? Some tea?"

Bae nodded then glanced back at his papa sleeping on the sofa. "Will he be all right, Mistress Winters?"

"I believe so," Belle replied. "When he wakes I shall give him some medicine for the pain and swelling. What were you doing out in such weather?"

"Uh, trying to find someplace to sleep," Bae replied diffidently. "We . . .err . . . got lost."

"Were you heading to Storybrooke, then?" asked Regina. "That's the town yonder."

Bae was puzzled. "Uh . . .yeah I suppose so. But . . .don't you live in town too?"

"No, we are just . . .outside of it," Belle answered matter-of-factly, not bothering to mention the reason, because she and her child were not welcome in it. She began boiling a kettle of water and preparing some tea.

Bae sat on the end of another sofa and sipped the hot tea he was given, grateful the two women asked no more awkward questions about where he had come from since he didn't have any answers for them. How could he explain that? He realized suddenly he should have planned this better, not rushed into it headlong, and that perhaps he should have thought about what might happen on the other side of that portal, instead of assuming the fairy had his best interests at heart. He certainly hadn't expected to end up in a raging blizzard! Or with his father injured so badly.

As the tea penetrated his chilled body, warming it from the inside out, he thought sleepily that he really hadn't expected anything once he'd dragged an unwilling Rumple through the portal except breaking his papa's curse. That at least had happened, he thought, and hid a yawn. "Sorry . . .sleepy."

"You can sleep on the small settle," Belle said, and motioned for her daughter to get more blankets.

Regina did so, then remarked, "You and your papa must have come a long way, from the looks of you."

"Uh, yeah we have," Bae nodded, thinking they would never believe how far.

"For the hot springs Storybrooke was built around? For your papa's leg?" the girl went on. "It's all anybody would ever come to this place in the middle of nowhere for." Her tone was slightly bitter.

"Regina, don't bother our guest," Belle reproved quietly. "He's all done in."

But Bae was grateful for the girl's curiosity, since it provided him with answers he didn't otherwise have at the moment.

Soon he was nodding over his cup and Belle took it away and gently ushered him to the couch. "Now you just have yourself a good rest and don't worry about your papa."

"Yes, ma'am," he muttered and curled up on the couch, amused when the older woman tucked the blankets around him. Guess this is what it must be like to have a mama. In seconds he was asleep.

Regina stared at the two unexpected guest, arrived two days before Christmas, and muttered, "Mama, what are we gonna do? If folks find out about them . . .they'll talk. Two strange men in a house with only us."

Belle shook her head. "What were we to do? Leave them to freeze? Besides, what have I told you before about the folks around here, Regina?"

"Folks will use any excuse to talk bad about someone else, no matter what's right or what's the truth," the girl recited. Then she added angrily, "But they already talk bad about you, Mama. And me too, because of what I am." She glanced worriedly at the couch where the boy and the man slept. "Mama, what if they find out about us? About what happened and all? They'll be just like all the others, calling us filthy savages and worse!"

Belle put a hand on her shoulder. "People are ignorant, Regina. And ignorance breeds intolerance and ugliness. It always has. I would hope, however, since it's Christmas, that these two will be so grateful for our hospitality, they will overlook our pasts, unlike the good people of Storybrooke." There was a faint note of disparagement in her voice as she said that last.

"They should," Regina said softly. "Mama, where do you think they come from?" she brushed the skirt of her red dress and pointed at Bae's clothing drying on the hearth. "His clothes . . .aren't like our own, or even those of the Indians around here. They're like . . .almost like those in the old storybook you read to me. Look."

She ran and pulled down a worn copy of a book of fairy tales and opened it to an illustration. "See? The boy was dressed just like this one." She pointed to a boy in the story.

Belle examined the illustration with practiced eyes, for she had been a librarian back in Boston, traveling here to this remote Maine town built upon some hot springs before the incident that had changed her life forever occurred.

"You're right, Regina. And I noticed that the man also is wearing similar garb." She gently closed the book. "I fear it's a mystery we must wait to solve, darling. Now it's time for bed, we have to get up early to bake the cookies and make the gingerbread cake for Christmas Eve."

"And what else shall we be having?" the girl asked. "Chicken soup? Bread and butter?"

"If that's all we have, then we shall be grateful for it. If our Lord can be born in a stable then we can have bread and butter and soup for Christmas dinner." Belle said firmly.

"I could Call a duck or something," Regina argued.

"No. Remember, we promised Mayor Spencer no magic," Belle reminded her.

"Mr. Spencer is a hypocrite and a fool!" Regina burst out. "He can't even tell the difference between good magic and witch's magic!"

"Nevertheless, we made an agreement and we must keep it," Belle said softly. "Now let's go to bed, my dear. We have a busy day tomorrow."

Together, mother and daughter entered their rooms on the south side of the house, after Belle had banked the fire for the night, pulled the latch, and dimmed the lamps in case their guests needed to use the necessary during the night.

Outside the snow fell and covered the land with a blanket of icy white and frosting the trees with a glittering cloak. In the distance a lone star glowed through the darkness, shining so lost travelers could find their way to a safe haven, the same star that had guided three kings to a baby in a manger.

A/N: I felt we needed some Christmas cheer after the whole S4 debacle, which I quit watching after the fourth episode. So disappointing! And in my stories I am basically ignoring that whole season, it doesn't exist for me. This story takes place in 1835, in frontier Maine, and will feature a different Belle and Regina and former Dark One/spinner Rumple and Bae. Hope you all like! This will be about three or four chapters. Happy holidays!