Disclaimer: Alas, I am not Edward Kitsis or Adam Horowitz.

Author's Note: So this idea came to me while I was at work and it wouldn't leave me alone, so I had to write it. Please let me know what you think.

"Why do you spin so much?"

Rumplestiltskin remembered the first time Belle had asked him that.

"It helps me forget."

It was true…the answer he gave her. It did help him to forget for a while, to bury the memories.

But as he made his way back to his cage, as ordered by Zelena, he came face to face with his wheel.

He had used a wheel when his father traded the responsibility of parenting for eternal youth and became Peter Pan.

For a while, it had helped…but it did not help him forget.

He had used a wheel when he had sent Belle away in the hopes of forgetting the feelings that he had begun to have toward her.

It didn't help.

Watching the wheel spin didn't make him feel better at all.

At the time, part of him wanted to forget Belle…but there was a larger part of him that didn't.

But Bae…

Baelfire…

He didn't want to forget Baelfire.

He didn't want to forget how it felt to hold his son in his arms for the first time.

He didn't want forget how Bae stood by his side as he was dying from poison.

He didn't want to forget how his son had sacrificed himself so he could save the residents of Storybrooke.

He didn't want to forget Bae at all.

As he entered his cage, he made his way over to the corner and sat down.

His spinning wheel was on the other side.

Now was not the time to forget.

Now was the time to remember.