Disclaimer: Only the plot belongs to me!

Part One: Apocalypse

"I saw something when I was coming back from the library today," Belle remarked to Rumple one evening. Maybe it was just a hallucination, but…"

"Don't just dismiss it," Rumple told her. "What did you see?"

"I saw Cora," Belle confessed and then turned to stare out the window. "But it's raining so I could have been hallucinating. I don't want to alarm anyone."

"No, no, no," Rumple shook his head, grabbed his cane, and got to his feet. "It's better to check up on something like that than rejecting it out of hand. Where did you see her?"

"I can't tell you exactly," Belle confessed. "She was just standing on a street corner and staring at me. But it was only for a second." She paused. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

"Of course not," Rumple shook his head. "Like I told you, we can't ignore something like this, even if you just think you were seeing things."

"And what are we going to do now?" Belle asked. "How can we be sure of what I saw?"

"We'll have to take a drive, won't we?" Rumple asked. "See if we can see Cora again. Find out what she's up to. Cause if she really is around, whatever she's planning can't be good."

"No," Belle shivered. "It can't."

So they waited until the rain cleared, although the sky continued to be ominously dark, and it wasn't long before they discovered that yes, indeed, Cora was in fact in Storybrooke. They found this out because she zapped their car off the road and soon they found themselves face down on the floor of the basement of an abandoned, overgrown mansion in the woods.

"What do you want with us?" Belle coughed and winced as she felt the bump on her head before leaning against Rumple as they watched Cora pace back and forth in front of them.

"If you're trying to warn us about whatever evil plan you're enacting, that's very generous of you," Rumple said.

"Oh, it's not generous," Cora told them. "But I suppose I could tell you. It's not like it will do you any good anyway." She chuckled. "I decided to get rid of this little town. What Regina expects to accomplish with it after so long is beyond me. I think it's time she moved on to more important things. I have plans for her that can't wait any longer."

"What makes you think I'll let you do anything with her?" Rumple asked.

"Cause you won't be around to stop me," Cora remarked and hit Rumple over the head with his cane, knocking him unconscious and putting a sleeping spell on Belle before going out to make sure that Regina would have no use for the town anymore, and no choice but to leave with her.

When Belle came to again, Rumple was sitting across from her in a chair with a worried look on his face. "Oh, sweetheart!" He cried. "I thought you weren't going to wake up again. I'm so happy you are."

"Let's leave here," Belle told him. "I don't want to stay in this house anymore. Where's Cora?"

Rumple sighed. "She's gone," he said. "But we can't leave."

"Why not?" Belle asked.

"Well, her plan to get Regina to leave with her was to kill everyone except Regina, then come back, finish us off, and then leave. But…" Rumple sighed.

"What did you do?" Belle asked. "Is it something horrible?"

"Not intentionally," Rumple shook his head. "I thought I was going to make things better, but good intentions always blow up in my face. I meant to adjust Cora's spell so that no one actually died. So they just slept and then when she was gone, they would wake up again. But something went wrong and now…"

Belle let out a shriek as a gang of three very dead looking people burst through the wall, their clothes torn, their skin pale, the stench coming off them impressive. "Now what?" She asked and scooted back as Rumple gave one of the slowly advancing bodies a whack that sent its head flying off into Belle's lap. "Now they're all zombies," he finished. "That's what the spell did. And I don't know what we're going to do now."

"Well," Belle swallowed as the headless zombie reached into her lap, grabbed its head and put it back on, "We'll have to think of something, won't we?"

"Obviously!" Rumple nodded. "But what?" He paused, a resolute expression on his face. "There's only one thing we can do that will keep us safe!"

Knowing the sort of actions that usually followed when Rumple had that resolute, thin-lipped exression on his face and made a proclamation like the one he'd just made, Belle tried to stall him. "Are you going to kill them?" She asked. "Please tell me what you're going to do!"

"I think it should be obvious what we're going to do!" He cried. "Of course I'm going to kill them! What other option do we have? Just let them roam free? They're mindless, soulless killing machines! If you didn't have the smarts to run, they would not hesitate to kill you in two seconds! We have to dispose of them before they kill us!"

"That can't be true! There has to be some sort of soul or whatever you call it left in them! I have to find it!" Belle exclaimed with a determined expression, and as Rumple cried out, she ran out into the street.

"What are you doing?" He called out the open door.

"I'm going to show you that they aren't all bad!" Belle told him, and came back a few seconds later with her hand on Zombie Henry, who was trying to chew on her arm. "Stop that," she remonstrated him gently and pushed him away. "That's not how to behave if you want to stay here with us."

Henry grunted and looked as ashamed as a zombie could look, then sat down heavily in a chair while Belle went and grabbed him a full chicken from the refrigerator. "Here, eat that," she suggested. "It's much better than people."

"Well, look at that," Rumple remarked, not even trying to hide his amazement as Henry gnawed on the chicken leg like an animal and completely lost interest in either of them. "It seems you've tamed him. How did you do that?"

"The same way I did it with you," Belle explained. "Patience, firmness, and resolve. Now we just have to see if we can repeat it with the others."

"All of them?" Rumple asked, dumbfounded. "Everyone in Storybrooke is going to be a reformed zombie? What if they can't all be reasoned with, despite all your efforts? Then can we kill them?"

"I have some ideas for things that could calm them down," Belle told him firmly. "Let me try them and if they don't work and the zombies continue to be dangerous, you may kill them. Is that fair?"

"Yes, I suppose," Rumple sighed. "But if they try and kill you, I'm going after them. There's no negotiation about this."

"All right," Belle agreed after a long sigh. "If they try and kill me, I won't protest when you take action."

"Of course you won't," Rumple scoffed. "I'm sure you'll have other things on your mind at that point." He paused. "Where should we keep them until you've done what you needed to do to try and calm them down?"

"I thought that we could put them in the hotel you took from its owners when they couldn't pay their rent anymore," Belle replied. "It's large and just been sitting there doing nothing for years. This could finally put it to good use."

"That's not a bad solution," Rumple replied thoughtfully. "It's a good distance away from us so we won't have to worry about being hurt on a daily basis, and since it's condemned, I don't have to worry about out of control zombies ruining a bunch of lovely furnishings."

"Good," Belle smiled. "Can you zap them there and make it so they can't get out?"

"Sure I will," Rumple smiled. "It will be my pleasure."

Part Two: A New Start

It took hours of work, but Belle and Rumple finally managed to get the zombie citizenry of Storybrooke relocated and contained in the abandoned hotel Belle had mentioned.

"Good work," Belle panted and collapsed on the sofa, taking Rumple's hand. "That was difficult to do, and I know you don't exactly approve, but…" she gave her husband a smile. "Thank you for helping me, Rumple."

"You're welcome," he told her with a smile. "Anything to make you happy, Belle. Now, I know that you'd like to go to your library and research the ingredients for that potion you were talking about, but if you don't mind, I'd like to mend some of your cuts first. They look nasty."

"All right," Belle nodded. "Thank you."

So he went to mend her cuts and then they went into the library so that she could grab a large stack of books and spent a few hours looking through them before she finally found the right potion.

"This is pretty complicated," Belle remarked as she looked it over. "It'll take me some time to make." She looked at Rumple. "Would you mind watching the zombies while I do that?"

"Are you sure you want me near them without supervision, knowing how I feel about them?" Rumple questioned.

"Will you seriously kill them all if I'm not watching you every minute?" Belle asked. "Can't you just watch them without hurting them? For me?"

"Oh, all right," Rumple sighed. "I suppose I could…but I could also make the potion myself and you could watch the zombies and everyone will be happy."

"All right," Belle nodded. "Maybe that would be a better idea."

"Now before I go, I have to ask this even though you might hate me for it," Rumple told Belle as he prepared to leave the hotel and make the potion in the shop. "Are you certain you'll be fine here by yourself with a bunch of zombies? I contained them well enough but if there are any other safety measures you would like me to take, please don't hesitate to say something."

"I have my phone," Belle said and held it up. "If something goes wrong that I can't handle, I'll call you and you can get come over in no time at all to help me, right?"

"Of course," Rumple nodded. "Something goes wrong, you call me and I'll be over here immediately." He paused and took her in his arms then, looking at her with tenderness and as if this would be the last time he ever saw her, even though he was trying really hard to trust her ability to keep herself safe. "All right," he sighed at last and let her go. "Now that I know you have your phone and will call me if anything bad happens, I'll be on my way back to the house to make that potion."

"All right," Belle smiled and kissed him. "Good luck, Rumple!"

It was hard for him to leave her in a hotel with a bunch of out of control zombies and had to fight his urge to run back, pick her up, and poof her away to a room where he could lock her in until every last zombie had been decimated. He had to learn to trust her, and really…by making this potion to render the zombies more docile, he was protecting her too…in a way that she was more likely to appreciate than his usual methods.

Even so, no matter how much he tried to trust and put his focus where it belonged, he couldn't help but picture a defenseless Belle getting torn apart by a mob of the undead. That worried him so much that his anxiety overtook him and he had to go spin for several minutes before his mind finally calmed and he was able to focus on the work at hand. But before he began the potion, he had to do one quick thing.

"Belle?" He asked when she answered the phone. "How are you? Are you all right? In one piece? Please tell me you are!"

"Yes, I am, I promise," Belle assured him. "Have you been thinking otherwise? Oh, Rumple, I'm so sorry!"

"No, that's…that's all right," he told her. "I took time to spin and as you know, that eases my mind. Now I'm able to get back to business and I should be back to you with the potion soon."

"All right," Belle told him. "Take all the time you need. I'll be waiting for you."

"I won't need very long," Rumple assured her. "But I'm glad to hear it."

Just as promised, he arrived at the hotel an hour or so later with a vat of the potion.

"You're right, it didn't take you very long," Belle came over and hugged him as they heard pounding and groaning coming from the floor above. "And that's good. I think it won't be long until they finally break loose!"

"Oh, how delightful," Rumple remarked through his teeth as he gripped his cane tight. "Because frankly, I'm ready for a good fight…if one just happens to happen." He turned his head toward Belle. "Just so we're on the same page…under what conditions, if any, am I allowed to fight the zombies?"

"You know under what conditions you can't," Belle told him and put a hand on his chest. "But if the right moment comes along, I have no doubt you'll know it. And I promise, if it comes to that…if we have that moment…I won't stop you. I will let you be my hero, no matter what you have to do to save me."

"All right," Rumple nodded, taking her hand and kissing it. "But let's hope it doesn't come to that."

Using a spell to transport it, they took the potion along with them to the floor above and after he urged Belle to stand back, Rumple opened each door on the floor, exposing the three or four zombies being held captive per room and doused them with potion, rendering them docile and feeling very pleased with himself that the potion had been properly made despite his emotional turmoil. Soon, Belle was leading a line of obedient, cooperative undead down the stairs and back into the lobby, where they stayed, sitting in chairs and on the floor, looking much like they normally did except for their pale skin and somewhat vacant expressions (the potion had thankfully done something about the stench because the point of it was to make the zombies more human) as Rumple and Belle discussed what to do with them.

"We can't take them back to the house with us," Rumple told her. "There's not enough room. And it would be dangerous to have them in the shop. They could break things! They—" He paused and let out a cry when it appeared that one of the zombies had not been affected by the potion in the same way that the rest of them had. Cora had separated from the group and soon had Belle pinned to the floor, choking her and trying to bite her face.

"Oh, no!" Rumple shook his head and began whacking at Zombie Cora with his cane and then using his magic to lift her up and bang her hard against the wall so Belle could have a chance to get to her feet.

"Are you all right?" He asked worriedly as Belle coughed and sputtered and her face went from blue to its normal color.

"Yes, I'm fine," Belle smiled. "Thanks to you. I knew that you'd know the right moment to save me." She then looked over his shoulder. "She's coming back. You might want to get your gun out."

Without even moving his head, Rumple made a gun appear in his hand, moved his arm, and whispered to Belle, "Where is she? Just tell me when to shoot."

Belle watched as Cora got closer and closer…until she was just brushing up against the back of Rumple's navy blue suit jacket. "Do it!" She cried. "Rumple, do it! Shoot her now!"

And he did, riddling Cora with bullets until her body was still, and, when they were certain she wouldn't rise again, Rumple told Belle, "You stay here with our new…" he surveyed the room full of compliant zombies. He was never going to get used to this. "…Our new charges until I've disposed of Cora's body. Then I will come back and we'll figure out where to put them."

"Oh, I don't think we'll have to move them far at all!" Belle said. She looked at all the zombies, who were eying her like bored students learning a lesson at school. "All right," she said patiently. "If you can understand me, tell me if you want to live here now."

"They will not understand you!" Rumple sighed.

But the zombies all raised their hands and made noises of approval. "See?" Belle grinned cheekily. "They can understand and they want to be here. They'll be safe, I promise."

"I guess we can be glad they don't want to live with us," Rumple remarked. "What a nightmare that would be. So they'll live here until I can figure out a potion to make them completely human again and then things will resume as normal in Storybrooke." He paused and chuckled. "Or at least what passes for normal in Storybrooke."

"I like the sound of that," Belle smiled and kissed him. "Now, you might want to bury Cora before she starts to rot any more than she already is. Are you sure you don't need help?"

"No," Rumple smiled, shook his head, and zapped Cora's body away. "It's all taken care of."

"Good," Belle told him and took his hand. "Now we can make room assignments!"

Rumple had to smile at her eager face. "I think you would be better at that than I would," he said. "Why don't I go back to the shop and see what I need to make that other potion? That's going to take a lot of time and planning, you know. And I'm going to have to keep making batches of the other cause it's not permanent, you know."

"You do that," Belle smiled. "Good luck." She paused. "And Rumple?"

"Yes?" Rumple turned at the hotel door. "What?"

"Thank you for helping me with the zombie plan, even though I know you don't approve," Belle told him again. "You're my hero."

"And you're mine," Rumple told her before coming to give her a kiss and then leaving to go back to the shop and work on the potions as promised.

The End