Faith Healing (Once Upon A Time)
Dec. 29th, 2012 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spankingfemmeArtist/Author: Done for me by my husband, Jason :P He is fantastic about taking my plot bunnies and making them a reality ;)
Type of work: Fiction
Title: Faith Healing: Chapter 1 Collections
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Spanking Pairing(s) or/and Main Characters: Blue Faerie (AKA Reul Ghorm) and Mr. Gold (AKA Rumpelstiltskin)
Type of Spanking: Adult, Punishment
Implement(s): Paddle
Summary: Takes place after the curse has been broken. Mr.Gold gets more than he bargained for when he goes to collect his rent money from the mother superior formerly known as, Reul Ghorm, the blue faerie matron of all faeries. As many secrets as Rumpelstiltskin has, Reul Ghorm knows more than enough about his motivations to know the curse was his idea.
Rating: T
Word Count or Length (videos, podfic, etc): 3,040
Notes & Warnings: Harsh, Non-Consensual, angst
Spoiler up to: Season 2
Links to Previous Work in this Verse: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8850452/1/
Rumpelstiltskin limped through the doorway, pausing briefly to glance around at his surroundings. The small church was empty save for himself and a few nuns. He wrinkled his nose at them in slight disgust. Even after all of these years in this strange land, he could smell their strangeness with his keen senses.
He ignored the few women who bustled about the room and moved to the next room, where a small library was kept to host children’s book clubs. Therein an older woman stood cataloging books and returning them to their shelves.
She glanced up as Rumpelstiltskin cleared his throat, “Mr. Gold… I did not expect to be seeing you here. Have you perhaps come seeking confession?”
Rumpelstiltskin smirked at the thought and shook his head, “No, dearie; I’m here for the rent. What with all the crazy goings on, you’ve fallen a bit behind. I understand, though, and will waive the usual late charges. You’ll need to pay what you owe in full now, though.”
The Mother Superior turned to face him, cocking an eyebrow at Rumpelstiltskin, “Yes… I do believe I have what you need in my office; why don’t you come with me, then?”
She moved past him and Rumpelstiltskin followed, smiling as he continued to look around at the stained glass windows and antiquity of the church. “Y’know, when the curse broke and everyone remembered who and what they were, I really didn’t expect you and your girls to still be… here.”
Rumpelstiltskin watched her for a reaction, but the Reul Ghorm was as impassive as ever, staring straight ahead as they walked. She replied simply, “We considered the addition of false memories the curse gave us a blessing as well, for it opened our minds to the love of God.”
Rumpelstiltskin laughed, “Found God, then? Doesn’t the bible of this land condemn magic? How can you profess to follow a faith that detests what you are at your core, fae?”
The nun still showed no reaction to his jibes, replying in mild tones, “Not all schools of Christian thought condemn magic, Rumpelstiltskin. We believe it to merely be another of God’s gifts.”
Rumpelstiltskin shook his head, still smiling, “You never cease to amaze me with that blind faith, sister. I will tell you this; you wear nun well.”
The Mother Superior smiled at him and gestured as they entered her small office, “I’ll need to fetch what we need from my desk, feel free to have a seat if you like.”
Rumpelstiltskin shook his head, “Nah, that’s alright, I’ll just stand.” He glanced around at the modest array of furniture in the room, the walls blank save for a cross above the Mother Superior’s desk. “Rather Spartan arrangement you have here, you really should consider sprucing the place up a bit.”
The Blue Fairy glanced up at him as she walked around the heavy desk, “The Lord does not require that we decorate, and the simplicity of the atmosphere allows for focus on our true objectives here.”
Rumpelstiltskin shrugged and looked over to her as she reached into her desk. He had come with her many times to fetch payment from the Reul Ghorm, and she always retrieved an envelope in the same manner for him, but suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he frowned.
The Mother Superior still moved casually, and her demeanor remained calm, but it was not money that she withdrew from the desk but instead a long thin cylindrical object that Rumpelstiltskin recognized immediately; a fae wand.
Perhaps it was the unassuming way that she sauntered over to him, but Rumpelstiltskin reacted sluggishly, and she had crossed the room before he thought to defend himself.
Silently remanding himself for lowering his guard around his old enemy, he cast out a web of defensive spells at the speed of thought.
She should have been powerless; after all, she herself had mentioned how she and her fellow fairies were unable to use magic without fairy dust, even if she had gotten her hands on a wand. So unknowing of what sort of attack spell she might be casting, he placed every ward he could think of on his person, his brow furrowed in concentration.
Rumpelstiltskin raised his hands in surprise when the nun walked all the way up to him, placing the wand against his chest. He glanced down, frowning, and finally allowed himself to notice that the wand was dull and lifeless.
Mr. Gold almost laughed, “No fae dust; no magic… are you trying to make sort of point, or is this a sad attempt to summon magic when you simply don’t have it, dearie?”
The Mother Superior gave him a slight smile, “There are things outside of even your vast knowledge of me and my kind, which only a fae would know. Since we always had access to dust when you knew us, you never saw what happens when a fairy becomes desperate.”
Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow, glancing down at the wand with a frown, “Do you plan on poking me to death then? That artifact is dead, sweetness.”
Even as he spoke though, the wand began to glow, first a deep purple and then a fierce blue until finally blindingly white and he could sense a sort of drawing sensation, like the air around him shimmered in vacuum. “Wha… what are you doing?”
The nun continued to smile serenely at him as she explained, “I’m absorbing whatever magic you have on you, and it seems you have quite a lot. Paranoid, were we?”
Rumpelstiltskin’s mouth dropped open and he stared dumbly a moment, his hands still up in the air in surprise. “That’s not possible… our magic isn’t even the same type, you can’t just siphon my power like that!”
She nodded, “You’re correct; I can’t use the magic I take from you, but my enchanted wand is still capable of drawing power from you. I’m sure you imagined I planned on casting some horrendous spell to melt you away or turn you into a toad, but really that’s more your style.”
The Mother Superior casually reached across and stuck her hand into his jacket, pulling out a ceremonial dagger that had been hidden there. “No, I just needed your magic to tell me where this was. Figures you would be walking around with it on your person.”
His eyes widened in disbelief and Rumpelstiltskin quickly reached out to grab the dagger back, but a sharp poke from the wand at his chest distracted him as she retreated with it in her grasp. “Ow! No… damn you!”
The Blue Fairy gave him a grim smile, “I’m not out to harm you, Rumpelstiltskin; I just need to be sure you are no longer a threat to yourself and others, so I will be keeping this.”
Rumpelstiltskin’s hands balled into fists at his sides as he glared hatefully at the Reul Ghorm, “To make a puppet of me, you mean. Well, Mother Superior… you have me by the balls now; what next?”
The nun placed the dagger into her own robes and likewise secreted away her wand, folding her hands in front of herself as she appraised Mr. Gold. “Well, I mentioned that I had what you needed when you first arrived here, and I wasn’t lying. Today we shall begin the steady process of your reformation.”
Anger flashed across Rumpelstiltskin’s face and he spoke through barred teeth, “Why bother with pretenses? You can’t force me to your point of view, despite your ability to command me, so if this is a misguided notion of getting me to convert religions you might as well hang it up, dearie.”
The Mother Superior shook her head, “No, Mr. Gold. You have been coming to this church for over twenty-eight years, taxing a handful of nuns for a building and land that you have no right to tax us for. And this is the least of your sins. No, I had re-education in mind for you, Rumpelstiltskin.”
She pointed to the large desk, “I want you to turn around and put your hands on that desk.”
Mr. Gold looked at her incredulously, “You’ve got to be out of your mind…”
The fairy shook her head, “Quite the opposite; by the power of your name, I command you to lie upon my desk, Rumpelstiltskin.”
Rumpelstiltskin glared at her with a look of murderous intent, but he followed her directions, compelled by the blade she had taken from him. He walked over to the desk, placing his hands upon it as he leaned over it, feeling exposed as he rested on his stomach.
For her part, the Mother Superior moved around him to a smaller dresser and opened one of its drawers, rummaging through it for a moment before removing a large flat wooden paddle, which looked smooth, heavy and aged.
Mr. Gold turned to look over his own shoulder at her as she tested the weight of it in her hand, “Wait… wait, you can’t be serious?”
The Reul Ghorm moved around behind him, bouncing the paddle on her upturned palm as she looked him over. “Pull down your pants.”
Rumpelstiltskin went red in the face as he raged at her, “I will do no such thing!”
She shrugged as she leaned down to pull his pants down, revealing his white buttocks. “Very well; we will just have to take measures to remove that belligerence from you. By your name you are not allowed to rise from this position, Rumpelstiltskin.”
Mr. Gold bared his teeth at her, “Enjoy this while you can, you have nothing over me without that dagger, and when you lose it, a reckoning as you have never seen will come.”
The Mother Superior shook her head slightly as she raised the paddle a few feet above his twisting rear, “Of reckonings we have only yours to consider at the moment, so I suggest you turn your focus there. You may have forgotten, but I have not, and I know every sin you have committed since you became the Dark One, Mr. Gold.”
Rumpelstiltskin open his mouth to retort but hissed instead as she brought the flat of the paddle down hard across his cheeks, a sharp slapping sound ringing through the air as she hit him in even, measured swats.
“Besides,” she continued, “I won’t need the power of your foul blade beyond this point anyways. I have faith that the remainder of the correction needed can be handled by simpler means.”
As she continued to assail him with the paddle Rumpelstiltskin winced, gripping the desk tightly with both hands, as he had little other recourse. He felt helpless, the feeling he feared most in life, and the awful sting that blossomed from the Blue Fairy’s efforts only compounded his frustrated impotence. “You awful bitch… you have no idea the pain you bring on yourself making an enemy of me!”
The Reul Ghorm clucked her tongue at him, “So forgetful; you are the one who has antagonized us, Rumpelstiltskin. Almost every soul in this town has been hurt by you, and yet you ever blame others for your mistakes, just as you blame me for your son’s disappearance.”
Rumpelstiltskin kicked and thrashed on the desk, knocking the few papers that rested on it off, along with an assortment of pens and a paperweight. His face was livid with anger as he spoke, “You took him from me! Filled his head with ideas of a better place and giving him the means to doom us both to this hellish world!”
The Mother Superior frowned down at him, pausing a moment. “Your son sought me out. The plan was his, and I warned him that you may not be capable of making such a choice. And you weren’t; you failed to uphold your promise to your son, and no amount of blaming me will change that.”
Rumpelstiltskin roared at her in fury, but she only responded by resuming her steady paddling, causing his voice to change in timber mid-yell. He cursed her in every tongue and in every way he knew, his face red as he fought the overwhelming pain and more importantly, the truth.
The truth stung him most as he huffed, lying on the desk as her punishment rocked his body. He knew at his core that the reason he lashed out at the Reul Ghorm was because he couldn’t bear to think on how thoroughly he had destroyed the most important bond in his life…
The Blue Fairy continued her even tempo of swats, and listened as his screams of anger died down and eventually became sobs of despair. His voice was mournful as he wailed, “Why didn’t you stop him? You knew what a coward I was…”
The Mother Superior shook her head sadly at him as he looked back at her tearfully, “You have still been acting the coward, and while I see that much of your prior evil has left you, you still are too afraid to take accountability for your own actions.”
Rumpelstiltskin buried his head in his hands, his voice wavering with the intensity of his feeling, “You don’t know the first thing about me!”
The Reul Ghorm nodded, “Perhaps, but the Lord God knows you, and is always ready to help you change. You must only take the first step toward him yourself if you wish to finally absolve yourself of the heavy burdens that weigh your soul.”
Mr. Gold pulled at his own hair, tears trickling down his face as he thought of those last moments, when he had truly failed his son. “He’s going to hate me, hate the coward I’ve always been. I’ve tried to change, but I can’t… I can’t…”
He sobbed into his arms and the Blue Fairy stopped paddling him, setting the wooden paddle down and sitting on the desk next to him. Rumpelstiltskin felt even more exposed standing bent over the desk as she so casually observed the deep red marks crisscrossing his bared bottom.
She spoke up, “You can and you will, and I will help you by not allowing room for failure. Every time you transgress I will be visiting you to remind you of the sting of consequence. We will have you whipped into shape by the time we find your son.”
Rumpelstiltskin blinked at her, “You mean… after everything I’ve done, you still want to help me?”
The Mother Superior smiled down at him, “The Lord teaches forgiveness.” She hopped off of the desk and picked up the paddle again, “And he also teaches justice; I will finish tanning your hide now so that you feel it for the next few days and find it easy to contemplate your sins.”
Mr. Gold objected but he might as well have saved his breath; the Blue Fairy began again in earnest, and he twisted as he yelped out his pain, his tender ass only hurting more now that she had paused in his punishment. “Please… stop!”
She didn’t listen to him, of course, and continued until he was once more crying upon the desk. At this point, she surprised him, helping him to stand and giving him a hug as he wept. He was stiff in her arms, startled.
“There there”, she whispered, “You have suffered much too, I know. But all of God’s children deserve a second chance, including you.”
Rumpelstiltskin gasped at her words and the kindness in her voice and after a moment hugged her back, covering his face and shame in her shoulder and he continued to sob, his shoulders shaking with his wracking cries. “I’m… I’m so sorry…”
She ran a hand through his hair, patting his back with the other, “I know. You have been afraid too to seek help, but you will have it now whether you like it or not. I will not fail you, Rumpelstiltskin.”
They held each other for long minutes until the Mother Superior pulled away, holding him at arm’s length as he wiped at the tears upon his cheeks, “You still have time; make yourself into the father that would make Baelfire proud.”
Rumpelstiltskin just stood there as she pulled his pants back up, feeling numb. Too many things at once conflicted for dominance of his mental state, his anger, embarrassment and guilt all warring to drive him mad.
The sister seemed to see his confusion, and guided him back to the door with a gentle hand. “Now you go get yourself cleaned up, and perhaps the next time we meet can be under happier circumstances.”
Rumpelstiltskin found himself walking out of the church, his cheeks chafing at the touch of his pants and burning with a physical pain to match the growing humiliation he felt over what had just transpired. He winced and stood back up when getting into his car, returning to the seat more gingerly before driving home.
Once there he ate a meal somberly, allowing his mind to drift over the painful events that had transpired, but ultimately he could think of nothing other than the ominous feeling that had begun to overtake him.
As he lay in bed that night that feeling grew; his past was catching up to him. When no one in town had remembered their land of origin or specifically him, the Dark One, he had not had to consider it. But now he was faced with people who knew him and the awful things he had done.
And the Mother Superior… she knew everything. Every terrible deed, every horrible decision he had told himself was necessary. Now he could run from his guilt no longer, and the essential question haunted him again; what would Bae think of him now?
Mr. Gold rolled over, covering his head with his pillow as he cried himself to sleep. Would his son forgive him as the nun did? Could he?
Type of work: Fiction
Title: Faith Healing: Chapter 1 Collections
Fandom: Once Upon a Time
Spanking Pairing(s) or/and Main Characters: Blue Faerie (AKA Reul Ghorm) and Mr. Gold (AKA Rumpelstiltskin)
Type of Spanking: Adult, Punishment
Implement(s): Paddle
Summary: Takes place after the curse has been broken. Mr.Gold gets more than he bargained for when he goes to collect his rent money from the mother superior formerly known as, Reul Ghorm, the blue faerie matron of all faeries. As many secrets as Rumpelstiltskin has, Reul Ghorm knows more than enough about his motivations to know the curse was his idea.
Rating: T
Word Count or Length (videos, podfic, etc): 3,040
Notes & Warnings: Harsh, Non-Consensual, angst
Spoiler up to: Season 2
Links to Previous Work in this Verse: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8850452/1/
Rumpelstiltskin limped through the doorway, pausing briefly to glance around at his surroundings. The small church was empty save for himself and a few nuns. He wrinkled his nose at them in slight disgust. Even after all of these years in this strange land, he could smell their strangeness with his keen senses.
He ignored the few women who bustled about the room and moved to the next room, where a small library was kept to host children’s book clubs. Therein an older woman stood cataloging books and returning them to their shelves.
She glanced up as Rumpelstiltskin cleared his throat, “Mr. Gold… I did not expect to be seeing you here. Have you perhaps come seeking confession?”
Rumpelstiltskin smirked at the thought and shook his head, “No, dearie; I’m here for the rent. What with all the crazy goings on, you’ve fallen a bit behind. I understand, though, and will waive the usual late charges. You’ll need to pay what you owe in full now, though.”
The Mother Superior turned to face him, cocking an eyebrow at Rumpelstiltskin, “Yes… I do believe I have what you need in my office; why don’t you come with me, then?”
She moved past him and Rumpelstiltskin followed, smiling as he continued to look around at the stained glass windows and antiquity of the church. “Y’know, when the curse broke and everyone remembered who and what they were, I really didn’t expect you and your girls to still be… here.”
Rumpelstiltskin watched her for a reaction, but the Reul Ghorm was as impassive as ever, staring straight ahead as they walked. She replied simply, “We considered the addition of false memories the curse gave us a blessing as well, for it opened our minds to the love of God.”
Rumpelstiltskin laughed, “Found God, then? Doesn’t the bible of this land condemn magic? How can you profess to follow a faith that detests what you are at your core, fae?”
The nun still showed no reaction to his jibes, replying in mild tones, “Not all schools of Christian thought condemn magic, Rumpelstiltskin. We believe it to merely be another of God’s gifts.”
Rumpelstiltskin shook his head, still smiling, “You never cease to amaze me with that blind faith, sister. I will tell you this; you wear nun well.”
The Mother Superior smiled at him and gestured as they entered her small office, “I’ll need to fetch what we need from my desk, feel free to have a seat if you like.”
Rumpelstiltskin shook his head, “Nah, that’s alright, I’ll just stand.” He glanced around at the modest array of furniture in the room, the walls blank save for a cross above the Mother Superior’s desk. “Rather Spartan arrangement you have here, you really should consider sprucing the place up a bit.”
The Blue Fairy glanced up at him as she walked around the heavy desk, “The Lord does not require that we decorate, and the simplicity of the atmosphere allows for focus on our true objectives here.”
Rumpelstiltskin shrugged and looked over to her as she reached into her desk. He had come with her many times to fetch payment from the Reul Ghorm, and she always retrieved an envelope in the same manner for him, but suddenly the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he frowned.
The Mother Superior still moved casually, and her demeanor remained calm, but it was not money that she withdrew from the desk but instead a long thin cylindrical object that Rumpelstiltskin recognized immediately; a fae wand.
Perhaps it was the unassuming way that she sauntered over to him, but Rumpelstiltskin reacted sluggishly, and she had crossed the room before he thought to defend himself.
Silently remanding himself for lowering his guard around his old enemy, he cast out a web of defensive spells at the speed of thought.
She should have been powerless; after all, she herself had mentioned how she and her fellow fairies were unable to use magic without fairy dust, even if she had gotten her hands on a wand. So unknowing of what sort of attack spell she might be casting, he placed every ward he could think of on his person, his brow furrowed in concentration.
Rumpelstiltskin raised his hands in surprise when the nun walked all the way up to him, placing the wand against his chest. He glanced down, frowning, and finally allowed himself to notice that the wand was dull and lifeless.
Mr. Gold almost laughed, “No fae dust; no magic… are you trying to make sort of point, or is this a sad attempt to summon magic when you simply don’t have it, dearie?”
The Mother Superior gave him a slight smile, “There are things outside of even your vast knowledge of me and my kind, which only a fae would know. Since we always had access to dust when you knew us, you never saw what happens when a fairy becomes desperate.”
Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow, glancing down at the wand with a frown, “Do you plan on poking me to death then? That artifact is dead, sweetness.”
Even as he spoke though, the wand began to glow, first a deep purple and then a fierce blue until finally blindingly white and he could sense a sort of drawing sensation, like the air around him shimmered in vacuum. “Wha… what are you doing?”
The nun continued to smile serenely at him as she explained, “I’m absorbing whatever magic you have on you, and it seems you have quite a lot. Paranoid, were we?”
Rumpelstiltskin’s mouth dropped open and he stared dumbly a moment, his hands still up in the air in surprise. “That’s not possible… our magic isn’t even the same type, you can’t just siphon my power like that!”
She nodded, “You’re correct; I can’t use the magic I take from you, but my enchanted wand is still capable of drawing power from you. I’m sure you imagined I planned on casting some horrendous spell to melt you away or turn you into a toad, but really that’s more your style.”
The Mother Superior casually reached across and stuck her hand into his jacket, pulling out a ceremonial dagger that had been hidden there. “No, I just needed your magic to tell me where this was. Figures you would be walking around with it on your person.”
His eyes widened in disbelief and Rumpelstiltskin quickly reached out to grab the dagger back, but a sharp poke from the wand at his chest distracted him as she retreated with it in her grasp. “Ow! No… damn you!”
The Blue Fairy gave him a grim smile, “I’m not out to harm you, Rumpelstiltskin; I just need to be sure you are no longer a threat to yourself and others, so I will be keeping this.”
Rumpelstiltskin’s hands balled into fists at his sides as he glared hatefully at the Reul Ghorm, “To make a puppet of me, you mean. Well, Mother Superior… you have me by the balls now; what next?”
The nun placed the dagger into her own robes and likewise secreted away her wand, folding her hands in front of herself as she appraised Mr. Gold. “Well, I mentioned that I had what you needed when you first arrived here, and I wasn’t lying. Today we shall begin the steady process of your reformation.”
Anger flashed across Rumpelstiltskin’s face and he spoke through barred teeth, “Why bother with pretenses? You can’t force me to your point of view, despite your ability to command me, so if this is a misguided notion of getting me to convert religions you might as well hang it up, dearie.”
The Mother Superior shook her head, “No, Mr. Gold. You have been coming to this church for over twenty-eight years, taxing a handful of nuns for a building and land that you have no right to tax us for. And this is the least of your sins. No, I had re-education in mind for you, Rumpelstiltskin.”
She pointed to the large desk, “I want you to turn around and put your hands on that desk.”
Mr. Gold looked at her incredulously, “You’ve got to be out of your mind…”
The fairy shook her head, “Quite the opposite; by the power of your name, I command you to lie upon my desk, Rumpelstiltskin.”
Rumpelstiltskin glared at her with a look of murderous intent, but he followed her directions, compelled by the blade she had taken from him. He walked over to the desk, placing his hands upon it as he leaned over it, feeling exposed as he rested on his stomach.
For her part, the Mother Superior moved around him to a smaller dresser and opened one of its drawers, rummaging through it for a moment before removing a large flat wooden paddle, which looked smooth, heavy and aged.
Mr. Gold turned to look over his own shoulder at her as she tested the weight of it in her hand, “Wait… wait, you can’t be serious?”
The Reul Ghorm moved around behind him, bouncing the paddle on her upturned palm as she looked him over. “Pull down your pants.”
Rumpelstiltskin went red in the face as he raged at her, “I will do no such thing!”
She shrugged as she leaned down to pull his pants down, revealing his white buttocks. “Very well; we will just have to take measures to remove that belligerence from you. By your name you are not allowed to rise from this position, Rumpelstiltskin.”
Mr. Gold bared his teeth at her, “Enjoy this while you can, you have nothing over me without that dagger, and when you lose it, a reckoning as you have never seen will come.”
The Mother Superior shook her head slightly as she raised the paddle a few feet above his twisting rear, “Of reckonings we have only yours to consider at the moment, so I suggest you turn your focus there. You may have forgotten, but I have not, and I know every sin you have committed since you became the Dark One, Mr. Gold.”
Rumpelstiltskin open his mouth to retort but hissed instead as she brought the flat of the paddle down hard across his cheeks, a sharp slapping sound ringing through the air as she hit him in even, measured swats.
“Besides,” she continued, “I won’t need the power of your foul blade beyond this point anyways. I have faith that the remainder of the correction needed can be handled by simpler means.”
As she continued to assail him with the paddle Rumpelstiltskin winced, gripping the desk tightly with both hands, as he had little other recourse. He felt helpless, the feeling he feared most in life, and the awful sting that blossomed from the Blue Fairy’s efforts only compounded his frustrated impotence. “You awful bitch… you have no idea the pain you bring on yourself making an enemy of me!”
The Reul Ghorm clucked her tongue at him, “So forgetful; you are the one who has antagonized us, Rumpelstiltskin. Almost every soul in this town has been hurt by you, and yet you ever blame others for your mistakes, just as you blame me for your son’s disappearance.”
Rumpelstiltskin kicked and thrashed on the desk, knocking the few papers that rested on it off, along with an assortment of pens and a paperweight. His face was livid with anger as he spoke, “You took him from me! Filled his head with ideas of a better place and giving him the means to doom us both to this hellish world!”
The Mother Superior frowned down at him, pausing a moment. “Your son sought me out. The plan was his, and I warned him that you may not be capable of making such a choice. And you weren’t; you failed to uphold your promise to your son, and no amount of blaming me will change that.”
Rumpelstiltskin roared at her in fury, but she only responded by resuming her steady paddling, causing his voice to change in timber mid-yell. He cursed her in every tongue and in every way he knew, his face red as he fought the overwhelming pain and more importantly, the truth.
The truth stung him most as he huffed, lying on the desk as her punishment rocked his body. He knew at his core that the reason he lashed out at the Reul Ghorm was because he couldn’t bear to think on how thoroughly he had destroyed the most important bond in his life…
The Blue Fairy continued her even tempo of swats, and listened as his screams of anger died down and eventually became sobs of despair. His voice was mournful as he wailed, “Why didn’t you stop him? You knew what a coward I was…”
The Mother Superior shook her head sadly at him as he looked back at her tearfully, “You have still been acting the coward, and while I see that much of your prior evil has left you, you still are too afraid to take accountability for your own actions.”
Rumpelstiltskin buried his head in his hands, his voice wavering with the intensity of his feeling, “You don’t know the first thing about me!”
The Reul Ghorm nodded, “Perhaps, but the Lord God knows you, and is always ready to help you change. You must only take the first step toward him yourself if you wish to finally absolve yourself of the heavy burdens that weigh your soul.”
Mr. Gold pulled at his own hair, tears trickling down his face as he thought of those last moments, when he had truly failed his son. “He’s going to hate me, hate the coward I’ve always been. I’ve tried to change, but I can’t… I can’t…”
He sobbed into his arms and the Blue Fairy stopped paddling him, setting the wooden paddle down and sitting on the desk next to him. Rumpelstiltskin felt even more exposed standing bent over the desk as she so casually observed the deep red marks crisscrossing his bared bottom.
She spoke up, “You can and you will, and I will help you by not allowing room for failure. Every time you transgress I will be visiting you to remind you of the sting of consequence. We will have you whipped into shape by the time we find your son.”
Rumpelstiltskin blinked at her, “You mean… after everything I’ve done, you still want to help me?”
The Mother Superior smiled down at him, “The Lord teaches forgiveness.” She hopped off of the desk and picked up the paddle again, “And he also teaches justice; I will finish tanning your hide now so that you feel it for the next few days and find it easy to contemplate your sins.”
Mr. Gold objected but he might as well have saved his breath; the Blue Fairy began again in earnest, and he twisted as he yelped out his pain, his tender ass only hurting more now that she had paused in his punishment. “Please… stop!”
She didn’t listen to him, of course, and continued until he was once more crying upon the desk. At this point, she surprised him, helping him to stand and giving him a hug as he wept. He was stiff in her arms, startled.
“There there”, she whispered, “You have suffered much too, I know. But all of God’s children deserve a second chance, including you.”
Rumpelstiltskin gasped at her words and the kindness in her voice and after a moment hugged her back, covering his face and shame in her shoulder and he continued to sob, his shoulders shaking with his wracking cries. “I’m… I’m so sorry…”
She ran a hand through his hair, patting his back with the other, “I know. You have been afraid too to seek help, but you will have it now whether you like it or not. I will not fail you, Rumpelstiltskin.”
They held each other for long minutes until the Mother Superior pulled away, holding him at arm’s length as he wiped at the tears upon his cheeks, “You still have time; make yourself into the father that would make Baelfire proud.”
Rumpelstiltskin just stood there as she pulled his pants back up, feeling numb. Too many things at once conflicted for dominance of his mental state, his anger, embarrassment and guilt all warring to drive him mad.
The sister seemed to see his confusion, and guided him back to the door with a gentle hand. “Now you go get yourself cleaned up, and perhaps the next time we meet can be under happier circumstances.”
Rumpelstiltskin found himself walking out of the church, his cheeks chafing at the touch of his pants and burning with a physical pain to match the growing humiliation he felt over what had just transpired. He winced and stood back up when getting into his car, returning to the seat more gingerly before driving home.
Once there he ate a meal somberly, allowing his mind to drift over the painful events that had transpired, but ultimately he could think of nothing other than the ominous feeling that had begun to overtake him.
As he lay in bed that night that feeling grew; his past was catching up to him. When no one in town had remembered their land of origin or specifically him, the Dark One, he had not had to consider it. But now he was faced with people who knew him and the awful things he had done.
And the Mother Superior… she knew everything. Every terrible deed, every horrible decision he had told himself was necessary. Now he could run from his guilt no longer, and the essential question haunted him again; what would Bae think of him now?
Mr. Gold rolled over, covering his head with his pillow as he cried himself to sleep. Would his son forgive him as the nun did? Could he?
