Author's Note: This has been sitting in my file folder forever and I don't understand why I forgot about it because it needed, like, two sentences to tie the paragraphs together and it was done and I was happy with it. So whoops. It's been so long that I can't remember what else happened in the episode (4x06) so I'm trusting my past self and editing very little.
From what I do remember, this was meant to be an additional chapter to my story "Chip" and the only reason it wasn't added to that story file is because this piece couldn't match the style of the others. That is, I didn't write a scene from Belle's life in the Enchanted Forest and follow with a scene from her life in Storybrooke. This was because I no longer thought of those lives as separate, in the way they had been when I wrote them in "Chip". However, this is still intended as a continuation from / companion for "Chip" and takes place immediately after the events in the episode.
They go to bed quiet that night.
It's not that they say nothing to each other. No, he's still murmuring soft, sweet reassurances into her hair and pressing close and gentle each time. Rather, she's the one who's fallen quiet.
In some ways she thinks she is falling. Tumbling. Shattering. Not quite like Anna did – though the ever-curious girl fills her thoughts as well – but more like the stone that was her memories. She had tried, after a short moment of grief and regret, to collect the scattered fragments of what she had lost but it was as if the pieces had dissolved in the sunlight. The shards were nowhere to be found and Belle's memories were truly gone for good. Upon realizing this, she had considered returning to Papi, the rock troll, but she knew enough to know there was nothing to be done. The troll had fashioned the stone by pulling the shaded memories directly from her own mind instead of creating them by magic; if the stone was gone then so were the last living moments of her mother.
Belle still wonders what her mother's final words were. This knowledge is what she yearns for, more than anything else. It is what has haunted her dreams and nightmares since. Some days she is glad not to know, fearing that her mama's last breath was devoted to a scream, but most days the not-knowing tortures her with feelings of loneliness and failure.
It isn't until they're on the bed that night, cuddled close and comfortable, that Gold speaks to her.
"Belle," he mutters, "is there anything I can do?"
She nods, head pressed close against his heart. "Will you read to me?"
"Of course, love."
She doesn't bother getting up to peruse her bookshelf, she doesn't need to. She's always kept this one stashed under her side of the bed, close at hand so that she can cradle its spine in the middle of a nightmare or get it to safety should she ever need to abandon her home again.
Once it is in his hands, she just breathes and settles in warm by his side, trying not to think too much lest her mind wander into the dark places the mirror had revealed; trying instead to be swept away to far-off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, and a prince in disguise.
As he reads, she loses herself in what may as well have been her mother's first words to her, this time read anew by her husband (her husband) and her True Love.
Author's Note: As is usual for my writings in Rumbelle, I had to slip in a Disney's Beauty and the Beast reference in there. Feel free to let me know your thoughts and feels!