Immediately after Lacey turned to speak to Red, Neal took his chance and fled. He slipped between Mulan and Aurora, smiling apologetically, and snuck out the door. He didn't care if Lacey was Belle again, he did not want to meet the woman. What kind of woman would his father fall in love with, and what kind of woman would love him back? Was she interested in his money, turned on by his power? Was she casually disinterested, like his Mama had been? Or more of a meddler, like Old Mother Hubbard who'd lived two doors down? Wait, wasn't that a fairy tale too? Dammit. He sighed, and trudged back to his room in the inn, hands in his pockets. He'd managed to avoid Lacey because she was a late riser, and spent the afternoons (and early mornings) in the bar. He rarely drank, and spent most of his time in the quiet of the library. What if she was a reader? Who was her fairy tale persona anyway? No 'Belles' immediately came to mind. He sighed again, and threw himself onto the bed. He could deal with the woman tomorrow. For now he just wanted to sleep.
He got up again at six in the morning, found himself at Granny's eating grilled cheese for breakfast and drinking hot chocolate. It actually tasted really great with cinnamon. He was chatting with Granny, no one else in Storybrooke was out this early, even Ruby was still in bed, when the old woman smiled at whoever had just entered her diner. The young woman passed his table by the door to go over to the counter, and he was irritated to find it was Lacey. Who he had been sincerely hoping to avoid. Thankfully, her attention was immediately grabbed by Granny. "When you said you'd be going straight back into your old routines I didn't realise that meant getting up at five in the morning! Honestly girl, you should be resting!" Lacey grinned at the woman, a bright smile that looked nothing like it used to. "But mornings are the best part of the day! The sunrise helps. You know it looks different here? I can't figure out why. Perhaps its the lack of mountains?" The two chatted on for a good while until the young brunette finally placed her order. That was when she realised someone else was in the diner.
She managed to turn to face him at the first try, and her eyes lit up the moment she saw him. "Baelfire!" She stood up to greet him and walk over, and he hastily took a large bite of his grilled cheese, depositing a twenty dollar bill on the table. Granny would appreciate the tip, and he didn't want to explain to Lacey why she'd missed him at the diner yesterday. He stood up abruptly, gave a little glare, and left, the bell ringing above the door. A brief glance back when he was halfway down the street showed the young woman wiping her cheeks, but he told himself pregnancy hormones made women cry at everything. He did feel a little bad though. The young brunette had apparently lost her memories of the old world twice; once when the curse hit, and again about a month before the 'Trigger', which she'd managed to do by crossing the town line. He supposed she shouldn't have been surprised, though. What did she expect, going near the town's borders? Everybody already knew what was going to happen. He shook his head. Clearly the woman wasn't very bright. He shook his head, and decided to spend the day at the library again. When he first got there he found one of the shelves shoved over, and he was offended by the treatment of the books. As a boy who grew up not knowing how to read, and then spent 300 years in a land where only the mermaids, pixies and pirates used the written word (to insult each other), he found himself oddly protective of books.
Hiding out in the library he managed to avoid people for the rest of the day, except for the little girl Grace who came in to tell him stories about Henry, and her Papa, who was the Mad Hatter. He hadn't been able to open the Library yet because, as Red told him, the person who owned the library was 'very, very sick', and wanted to be there when it was opened. A part of him was sure his Papa owned the library, and no one wanted to piss the man off. He sighed. It would be nice if they could at least find the key to the apartment upstairs. He wanted to explore, but felt bad about just kicking the door down. He sauntered off to Granny's at six, meeting Mulan, Phillip and Aurora there like he always did. He was a bit suspicious about the nature of their relationship, but if they had two True Loves, he wasn't going to get in their way. They stayed for a while after their meal, the other three describing some new contraption they'd discovered that day. "...and you shut the doors and turn it on and your food starts to spin inside. And the little box magically heats it up. It's great!" He shook his head at them. "You guys have been here two months, and you only just discovered the microwave?" They mock glared at him, and Phillip gave him a sheepish shrug. "We eat all of our meals here" was Aurora's excuse. "Hey Red, have you seen Belle? I never got the chance to ask what her baby was." Mulan had waved the waitress over, and the lanky werewolf immediately gave an apologetic smile. "Sorry, but I think she went home. She was feeling a little tired. And I don't think she knows yet, but she said Victor was going to call to tell her what time her appointment would be. I'm sure it'll be soon." With a bright smile and an offering of extra coffee, she dashed off to serve other customers.
The next morning at six Neal made it to the diner for his customary grilled cheese and hot chocolate, and prayed he wouldn't run into Lacey. Alas, it was not to be. As he waited for his order he glanced out the window just before he sat down, and spotted the bubbly brunette practically skipping down the street. Somebody called to her from behind, and within seconds Frankenstein was walking beside her. He gestured to her stomach (no doubt making sure the baby was fine), and she gestured to her face (probably apologising about the whole 'lick my boot' thing), and then the two grinned and chatted the rest of the way down the street. They stopped just before the hedge that would block his view of them, and Lacey mouthed something that looked like 'Mufasa', but was easily interchangeable with 'My father'. Sure enough, a large man walked up to them, blocked by the hedge, and a moment later Whale was waving goodbye. Lacey and her father entered the diner not a minute later.
They got a table in the middle of the room, the man picking it and not taking into account the fact that it would have been easier for his daughter to have sat on one of the stools at the counter. She nervously sat down facing her father (and Neal), and the two began a conversation that he couldn't hear. When he was halfway into his grilled cheese, and Lacey had stopped picking at her food and pretending she planned to eat it, their conversation got a little louder. Or perhaps he just chewed a little quieter. Either way, he could hear them clearly now. "So. My Belle." She frowned at the possessive 'my'. "What are you gonna do with it?" She frowned again, clearly confused, and he clarified. "The kid. What are you gonna do with the kid? Are you putting it up for adoption? Because I'd heard you were considering it, and I don't think anyone would want that child." The young woman opened and closed her mouth a few times, clearly confused and affronted. A hand flitted nervously to her stomach. "No I'm not giving up my child for adoption. And what do you mean nobody would want it?" "Is Rumplestiltskin definitely the father?" "Of course!" Well at least she was loyal to him. More than could be said for Milah. Even if she had flirted with her boyfriend's son... The conversation at the table continued. "Well there you go then, my girl. The man's a monster, and his child will be too. So you're going with the only option left then?" The florist (Neal was sure that was his job) clearly didn't know how to communicate with his daughter. The poor girl was blinking back tears. "He's not a monster Papa. And neither is our child. And of course I'm going with the 'other' option." The florist nodded, and even from behind Neal could tell the man was relieved. He stood up to take his plate and (almost empty) mug to the counter to pay. "Good, good. So when's your appointment?" Lacey narrowed her eyes for a moment, and said "Appointment for what, Papa?" She noticed Neal stood up, and gave him a weak smile that was cut short by her father's next words.
"Well your appointment for the abortion, of course. It's not too late is it?" Her gaze snapped back to him in horror, and she scooted her chair back a little from the table. Tears dripped unhindered down her cheeks, and her hands flitted nervously around her stomach again. "I'm not killing this child Papa. How can you even suggest such a thing!?" She was barely choking the words out now, but the large man plowed on regardless. "Well what are you going to do with it then? You aren't going to keep it are you?" His face scrunched up, as though to even consider such an action was disgusting. Neal found himself liking the man less and less. Lacey sadly shook her head at him, slowly standing up. "Of course I'm keeping it Papa. Thank you for the breakfast, but I think it's best you stay away from me for a while. Or forever, if you aren't going to change your attitude towards my child." Her words were softly spoken and cracked, and Neal admired the girl for standing up to her father like that. It seemed that 'Belle' had more backbone than Lacey did, at least. She stumbled out of the diner, not even looking at him or Granny, and slowly walked back in the direction she'd come from. Her father, the despicable excuse for a man, paid for his meal and stood up as well, shaking his head. "Foolish girl." Neal felt like punching him.
The next three days were entirely Lacey-Free, the woman not appearing in the diner at breakfast, lunch or dinner, and Red was getting concerned. She said she'd gone to visit Belle at 'Gold's Victorian' (he had no idea she was staying in his father's house), but nobody answered the door. In fact, nobody saw her at all. Much as he despised the woman (actually, now it was down to a high level of dislike, at least the girl was brave), he was worried she was injured or something, and her whereabouts were what occupied his mind as he shelved books at the back of the library. He'd found more in the library basement (avoiding the creepy spirit thing that was apparently Maleficent from the 'Sleeping Beauty' tale), and these seemed to be from the Enchanted Forest. Thus, they got their own section. His mind was snapped out of his worries, however, when he heard the library door open. He expected a voice to call out to him and he waited for it, but it never came. He became suspicious when he heard a slightly unsteady tread begin to make its way up the stairs, to the apartment and the clock tower. He moved into the main part of the library, and followed the mystery person up the staircase. It seemed they'd bypassed the apartment, and he came to the tower room just in time to see Lacey kneel on the floor by the clock face.
She carried with her a large box and he stood, intrigued, as she opened it. He didn't know what he'd been expecting, but it certainly hadn't been his Papa's crooked dagger. "Hey!" She immediately started and dropped the thing with a thud, looking at him with wide eyes. "What are you doing with my Papa's knife?" She stared at him for a moment, before she managed to get her thoughts straight. "I was, uh... I was going to put it back where it's supposed to be." She gestured to the wall behind herself, and he leaned forwards to pick up the discarded note on the floor. My darling Belle. If you take the potion that will make you yourself again, please place my dagger back in its concealed location. I trust you remember where that is, and I trust that this is actually you, since you're the only one I told my safe combination to. Much love, as always - R. He glared at her suspiciously for a moment, and then helped her to her feet. "Go on then." She gave him a nervous smile, and hesitantly went to place the dagger in the hand of the clock. It was only when she stood that he saw the small teacup on the floor, that she must have brought with her. He vaguely recalled Henry mentioning something about a chipped teacup being his Papa's most cherished possession. He wondered if that was it, and why Lacey had it. The young woman bent to pick it up after closing the panel on the clock, and he held his arm out to her when she looked at him again. "Come on. I wanna know how you met my Papa." Perhaps that would give him some insight on how they could stand to be near each other.
Three hesitant hours later and Belle had fallen asleep on the bed of the library's apartment (turned out she owned the library after Papa had given her the key), and he saw her in a new light. She'd been brave, loving his Papa even in his darkest moments. When he chose power over her she still tried to get back to him to make him understand her side of it. Even after thirty-two years as the Evil Queen's prisoner (for twenty-eight of those years her mind had been completely empty - not even Lacey had filled it) her love hadn't died, and she was still as kind and caring as she had always been. She'd found his Papa and stood by him, but still been brave enough to walk away from True Love when the man refused to let her in. And when he started to search for his son, she helped him however she could giving him as much support as she could. Neal was brought to tears when she told him how she had lost her memory. That had thought she was a fool for going anywhere near that neon banner, when in reality she had been testing his Papa's plan for setting off for New York! He felt awful for that, but she waved him off. And that was the end of her story. He understood now why his Papa loved her, why the teacup had become so important to him, and why the majority of the town was glad to see her back.
He looked forwards to getting to know Belle better, and meeting his little brother or sister.