AS YOU WISH

Rumpelstiltskin pushed his wife through the door and stumbled in after her slamming the door behind them and magicing away the cold blast that had chased them back into his shop and was even now buffeting their door with icy determination.

Belle brushed the snow from her white coat and turned to her husband, "Ok, Rumple, what exactly did you do to her?"

Rumpelstilskin swallowed softly and looked down. It was so hard to look Belle in the eyes these days, "Nothing. I swear it, Dearest." he said, "All I did was try to help the poor girl. She had a bit of an... emotional problem."

"Emotional problem? I don't think I understand. Why would she come to you for that? Surely her family, her friends, a good book, the fairies..."

Rumpelstilskin's face tightened at the mention of 'fairies'. Belle was far too innocent to know the true nature of fairies. "Yes, yes, I'm sure it she had been an ordinary woman than such sources would've been far preferable to making a deal with The Dark One, but sadly for poor Elsa, is no ordinary woman." he paused, "You see, Dearest, all magic comes from emotion and Elsa couldn't control her powers. She came to me for help after she'd nearly killed her sister. Such a tragedy."

"And of course you agreed to help her - for a price."

"Hey... it's what I do." he looked at Belle and his face softened, "Well it was what I did."

"So what happened, Rumple." Belle crossed her arms,"The truth. All of it. Now."

"It was a fairly standard deal for me at that time. I would train her to control and harness her frigid powers and, in the fullness of time, she would give me... erm, her first born."

"Rumple!"

"What can I say?" he shrugged, "The number of childless monarchs in the Enchanted Forest was truly staggering." He smiled, that usually worked with Belle.

Belle decided to put that one down as a quip and let it slide, "So what happened?" she repeated her earlier question.

"Well I trained her, quite successfully I might add, but unfortunately she... kind of fell in love with me."

"What?! Not another one. Seriously Rumple, that's the third one in as many years!"

"Third, Dearest?"

"Yes, there was The Wicked Witch."

"Yes yes, shame what happened to poor Zelena."

"And before her there was Cora."

Rumple startled a bit, "And just how did you hear about her?"

"Blue told me."

"That figures" he muttered, rotten little creatures.

"Elsa...," he started, pulling the topic back to their current predicament, "well, it seemed that she had spent the majority of her life alone." he explained, "Shut away by her well meaning, but tragically short-sighted parents. In fact the only companion she seemed to have at the time she came to me was some neurotic snowman, who never shut up and seemed oddly immune to my melting spell."

"And... ?" Belle prompted.

"After I rejected her chilly advances she went a wee bit crazy and tried to freeze me. ME!"

Belle's large eyes moistened in sympathy, "I think I can understand her feelings" she said, "Even if she did choose to express herself rather badly. She must've felt such terrible rejection..."

"She tried to make me a pop-sicle!"

"You did reject her, Rumple. It must've been very painful for her..."

"Dearest she froze my wand collection!"

"I'm not making excuses for her, Rumple."

"She froze my spinning wheel!"

"Even so, you didn't have too..."

"To... zap her inside an urn, seal it tight with magic and then lock her away in my dark vaults? Dearest, she froze my entire castle!"

"That does not make it ok, Rumple and besides, I thought you said you were a difficult man to love? It seems to me that I'm only the latest in a long line of your conquests..."

Rumpelstilkskin shrugged, "Hey, it happens." he smiled, "And yes, Dearie, I AM indeed a very difficult man to love, that is for someone like you to love, someone good, someone with real ...warmth in her heart." he placed his hand over his wife's heart to illustrate his point.

Belle smiled and shook her head with amusement. Rumple never failed to keep her life interesting. She reached into her purse for the dagger.

"Rumpelstiltskin!" she said raising the (fake) dagger and adding in her most commanding tone of voice, "I hereby command you to love me and only me from this day forward!"

Rumpelstilskin smiled and silently blessed whatever God there may be in heaven, for bothering to send him of all people such a wonderfully forgiving woman to be his wife...

"As you wish, dearest." he said, swooping her into his arms for a long kiss.

Belle didn't need a dagger to get her wish that night.