Disclaimer: Only the plot is mine
A Beauty's Bedtime Story
"Tell me the story again, Mama!" Gideon urged. "Please!"
"Oh, come now, Gideon," Belle chided gently. "I know you like the story, but I told it to you yesterday, and the night before that, and the night before that. Sometimes I wonder if you really want to hear it, or are just using it as a way to delay going to bed on time."
"I'm not," Gideon told his mother firmly. "Tell me it again, please? Or I'll get Papa to."
"No, no," Belle shook her head. "I might as well." She loved her husband, but when it came to Gideon, Rumple was a bit soft and their son had figured this out, making it much easier to stay up past his bed time if she wasn't there to be firm about it. "Go brush your teeth and then when you return. I'll tell you the story. And then you'll go to sleep. Do I have your word?"
"Yes, Mama," Gideon nodded with a sweet grin. "I promise."
He ran to brush his teeth, nearly bumping into his father on the way to the bathroom. "Sorry, Papa," he apologized as Rumple grabbed hold of him to steady them both and stop Gideon from hurting himself.
"It's all right, my boy," Rumple assured him. "But where are you running to so fast?"
"I have to brush my teeth so I can get back to Mama and she can tell me my favorite bedtime story!"
"If you don't mind, I might join you for that," Rumple decided. "Of course I know what happens in it because I was there, but...I want to hear exactly what it is that your mother is telling you."
"Okay!" Gideon nodded. "
Rumple waited for Gideon to brush his teeth and then they hurried back to Belle together.
"What's this?" Belle asked warily. "Gideon, you promised me that you wouldn't use your father as a way to stay up!"
"He isn't," Rumple told her. "I just wanted to hear the bedtime story. He'll go to bed at his usual time, I promise."
"Well, in that case, let's begin," Belle said and helped Rumple tuck Gideon into bed. "Gideon, you know how this begins, don't you?"
"Yes, I do," Gideon nodded. "Once upon a time..."
"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful village that was being ravaged by horrible ogres," Belle continued. "And not only that, the daughter of the ruler of the town was being held hostage by him, wanting to do more, but never managing to get away."
"Because," Rumple interjected, "She was engaged to a self-absorbed fool, and the man who ruled over the town, her father, was a complete and utter fool too."
Belle was about to protest this addition to the story, but had to concede (even though she would never say it out loud) that that was true.
"Sorry," Rumple told Belle with a sheepish look on his face. "I know this is your story. Please continue. I didn't mean to interrupt."
"Can you keep interrupting?" Gideon implored. "I like stuff like this in the story!"
"It depends on what your mother thinks," Rumple told his son, although his eyes remained on his wife.
"Oh, all right," Belle grinned. "I don't suppose it would hurt to have some help because there are things I leave out. Just...don't add in anything violent that will give Gideon nightmares, all right? Can you do that?"
"Yes," Rumple nodded. "That's fair."
"Can we get back to the story?" Gideon begged impatiently. "Please? What happened with the ogres?"
"Well, things were getting worse and worse for the little town," Rumple took up the tale. "People were in..big trouble. Until the very smart daughter of the town got it into her head to call a very powerful and very handsome sorcerer to come and save everyone."
"People called her crazy," Belle added. "Including her own father, because they saw this very handsome sorcerer as...a bit unpredictable. They didn't know what he would ask for in return for their rescue. And that scared them very much.
"But the very smart daughter stayed firm in her belief that the very handsome sorcerer would save them. And just at the last minute...when they thought everything was lost...he finally showed up."
"Why do you say it like that?" Rumple asked Belle. "Do you know how many people wanted things from me? I couldn't do everything people wanted the second they wanted it. There's only one of me!"
"Sorry," Belle flushed a little.
"Thank you," Rumple replied. "Anyway, the handsome and powerful sorcerer showed up and everyone was frightened of him. Scared of all his power, even though they knew in their hearts that it was the only thing that would save their sorry village. And he agreed to do it...for a price."
"And what was the price?" Gideon grinned. "Papa, tell me the price!"
"The sorcerer was very lonely, even though he'd never admit it," Belle said. "So...so he chose the very smart daughter. He wanted her to come to his castle and live with him, watch over things. And since it was a way for her to give back to her people, she agreed to go with him. Forever."
"Were you scared?" Gideon asked his mother. He knew very well, of course, that the smart daughter was his mother.
"At first," Belle told him, "The smart daughter was very scared. She didn't know what she was getting into, and being taken away from everything she knew and loved to go into the unknown, no matter how heroic it made her feel, was very frightening. But even though she was frightened, she had made a promise, and she kept it with dignity."
"Until she actually got to the castle," Rumple added. "Then she cried all night. The handsome sorcerer couldn't even hear himself think or focus on spinning, she was that noisy. So he brought her a pillow."
"It turned out to be a very comfortable pillow," Belle said. "One comfort in a cold, uncomfortable cell. And on that first night, as she tried her best to get to sleep, she thought that maybe the sorcerer was just as frightening and horrible as the people in her village had made her out to be. Maybe she'd made a mistake.
"But she soon found out, as the days went by, and she got used to being at the castle, that it wasn't so bad. She was soon taken out of the cell, and although she had to cook and clean as promised, she had free run of the place."
"And luckily for the sorcerer, he could do magic," Rumple told Gideon. "Because the smart daughter was way too focused on making him talk about his feelings to do a decent job of cooking and cleaning on her own."
"Oh, like you minded," Belle got out and hit him gently on the arm. "If you wanted me to focus on other things, you should have said something!"
"It was fine," Rumple sighed in an exaggerated fashion. "It all worked out."
Gideon made a face then. "Was there lots of kissing? If there was, you don't have to tell me about it. You can skip that part."
Belle and Rumple stared at one another. It wasn't as if they'd planned on putting anything like that in the story. That was just for between them.
"Don't worry," Rumple assured his son. "We won't bore you with those sorts of details."
"Good," Gideon nodded. "I'm glad."
"As the days went by, the smart daughter began to see that what she'd suspected was true," Belle took Rumple's hand and looked him in the eye, telling the next bit more to her husband than her son. "The sorcerer was a much nicer man that he wanted people to believe. He was just a good man deep down, but very lonely and hurt and abandoned by those who didn't appreciate all he had to give."
"My goodness, she really was a smart daughter," Rumple got out, blushing. Then he looked at Gideon. "Yes, the sorcerer really liked having the smart daughter in the castle with him, even if she didn't always get his jokes and sometimes made him think about things he'd rather not. He realized that he loved her very much...and even though it probably wasn't the case, he hoped that she loved him too."
"And she did." Belle finished. "And even though there were some trials in their relationship going forward, even though they were separated time and again by people who just didn't understand, they always found each other again. Just like they knew they would.
"And then they had a wonderful and handsome son named Gideon and lived happily every after," Gideon finished with a yawn. With his parents always going off tangent and making mushy faces at each other, he had no idea how long this story was going to go on and he was beginning to get sleepy.
"Exactly," Belle agreed with a grin and told her son good night as Rumple tucked him in. "And they lived happily ever after." She then went to her and Rumple's bedroom and read until Rumple reappeared and climbed in the bed beside her.
"Everything went well," he told her. "Gideon is asleep."
"Good," Belle nodded. "And...thank you for your help with Gideon's bedtime story tonight."
"You're welcome," Rumple grinned. "Although it was probably for the best that he requested we leave out all the romantic things." He reached out, took Belle's hand, and kissed the palm before kissing her lips. "I like to think of that as being just between us."
"Yes," Belle nodded before throwing her arms around him and kissing him back. "I agree."
Then, when they separated, he asked her one last thing: "Was everything you told him true? Has it truly been a good life for you?"
"Oh, yes," Belle nodded. "Wonderful. Everything seems to have worked itself out now. No more darkness, just beautiful, wonderful light."
"Yes," Rumple agreed. "Not that it's easy for me to believe in 'Happily Ever After' but I think we have one."
"It took long enough," Belle said. "But I truly think, at last, we have everything we ever wanted."
The End