How did they meet? Did Neal help put Rumple in the cage?
Maybe upon his arrival back in the EF, young Baelfire joined the royal army and helped King David and Queen Snow defeat the Evil Queen, a feat for which he was knighted. After that, Emma fell in love with Sir Baelfire, a knight of her father’s table. Soon after he married Princess Emma, Prince Baelfire died in combat, but not before he got her with child and secured an heir to the throne, as was his royal duty. Rumple went insane upon the death of his boy, after which the dark one had to be imprisoned because an insane dark one is a danger. You can probably tell I’ve thought about this a lot since I watched the finale.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy