A/N: Okay, here is my version of what happened to Belle right after what had happened to her in Skin Deep. Although what happened to her might be explained in season 2 (squees of utter fangirl delight) I still wanted to right my version of it. Hope you like it and please review. Also, I really suck at doing paragraphs and stuff like that, so sorry if there are huge chunks of type or very tiny ones.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters that are from ABC's television series, Once Upon a Time, those rights belong to the creators, writers, ABC and all that jazz.
What Happened to Belle
"And all you'll have is a broken heart, and a chipped cup." Those last words bounced off of Belle's head as she rushed out of her 'room' and sadly, out of his life. She ran out of the castle, past the drawbridge and well into the woods before she finally broke down. All too soon, her legs gave way beneath her and she fell hard to the ground, sobs already escaping her lips.
"My power means more to me than you."
"Shut the hell up!"
"No one can ever, ever love me!"
"Or is it you? This is you playing the hero and killing the beast!"
"True love's kiss can break any curse."
"Shut up!" Belle screamed, pounding on the hard packed dirt and just letting herself go. There was no one here, no one to hear her screams, her cries, she would take advantage of it. Pounding her fists into the ground, Belle screamed and yelled and called out his name, but her only answer was the rustle of the trees.
Belle wasn't sure how long she sat there, pounding at the ground, scratching at it, all the while screaming and crying until eventually she didn't even have enough energy to do that. All the while, he kept floating through her mind. What went wrong? She loved him, why couldn't he see that? She just wanted to help him turn back into the man she knew he once was, and could be again. Her heart ached so much, she didn't know how she was able to stand it at all.
Somehow though, she managed to pick herself up and start to walk. Where, she wasn't sure. All she knew was that she hadn't thought to take anything with her, then again, she never really had anything to begin with. An hour later, however, fate smiled down upon her as she came upon a small pub. Within her walk, Belle had began to lose hope and started to go completely numb, so she only responded with a tired sigh as she entered the warm quarters.
She hadn't even noticed how cold it was outside until she was greeted by the soft light of a fire in a hearth and a room full of hearty people drinking and laughing. The sight tugged at Belle's emotions, but she wouldn't let herself feel anything, not just yet. Walking up to a man at the bar drying off a glass, she asked "May I have a drink?"
The man looked her up and down, his hands rhythmically cleaning the glass. "You got any coins?" the man asked in response. For a crushing second, Belle realized she had literally nothing with her, save the clothes on her back. Then, a bright realization came to her. "One moment," she said, digging through the folds of her dress. Ah, here it was. Pulling from a small pocket she had sewn into her dress, a small string of gold appeared, glimmering in the firelight. Belle remembered when she had taken it, and the thought felt like a twisted knife in her gut.
Often when she wasn't attending to one of her duties, she would sit quietly while Rumpelstiltskin weaved his straw into gold, which was always a magical thing to watch. He moved so rhythmically, his hands turning the wheel subconsciously as the straw moved through his fingers. It was only during this time that he seemed completely oblivious to the world around him, not an all powerful being, but a man doing something he loved. Once when this happened, he had stood up so suddenly that Belle almost fell from her perch. "See something you like, dearie?" Rumpelstiltskin asked, a devilish grin that never seemed to leave his lips splayed on his face. "Um...uh...no, sir, I just..." Belle had spluttered, still quiet intimidated by the creature that was now her master for eternity. He giggled at her nervousness, obviously entertained by her apprehension of him. "It's just," she said, pulling in her courage and taking a deep breath. "It's extraordinary, I mean, what you can do with the straw. How exactly do you do it?" This only caused him to laugh even more manically. "Ah, come now and here I thought you were intelligent." Rumpelstiltskin said, causing her to gasp in indignation. "It's magic dearie, no more no less." At this, he cut a long strand from his newly made heap and handed it to her. "See," he said, putting it into her hands. "Just a lesson for you. That any ordinary thing can be turned into something completely different."
That was the first time that Belle had felt okay around him, and other times while he was weaving, she would take just a little more. "I need to relearn the lesson," she would say. Who would've known that those small pieces of string would be of such big help now? The bartender snatched the string from her fingers, looking it up and down, examining it for counterfeit.
He nodded gruffly at the thread, satisfied, and put it into his pocket. "A room and board for three months," he said, before turning to another customer. Belle sighed with relief. So, she would have three months here to figure out what to do next.
The next few weeks were a cold blur to Belle. People would come in, she would help out Seamus, the bartender that she met her first night, with his customers, leaving her nights free to drown out her sorrows with drink, the strongest she could manage. It was her third week staying at the dingy little pub, in fact, when she met Dreamy.
Dwarves were a common group here, but Belle never really tried making conversation with them. They were always hung in big groups, very kind and social, but Belle never really took notice in them, until she overheard one talking about the one thing she understood. He was such a naive man, someone completely lost in the ways of romance. Belle had thought she had given him the right advice, telling him to be with her. His group had left in high spirits, and gave Belle just one feeling, something she hadn't had in a very long time. Hope. Her days in this place had made her completely numb to the world, the drink making a big impact on that. But Dreamy had given her the one thing she really needed. After all, if a dwarf and fairy could be together, what was stopping her from going back and trying to right things with Rumpelstiltskin? Nothing but her own cowardice. I will go see him again, Belle vowed that night as she tried to catch some sleep. It was all decided.
She had told Seamus her tale the next day, not leaving out any detail, trying so hard to find some guidance, even if it was from a drunkard. He had listened intently, asking very little questions until she was done. "Belle, hon, you're crazy," was his response at the end of her story. Belle immediately went on the offensive. "How? Because of what I did? Because I fell in love with an apparently horrid man?" she asked. Seamus shook his head grasping her hand kindly. "You don't understand. I'm saying you're crazy because you are." She began to argue again but he shushed her. "People who believe in true love are insane. Right fools, mind you. But, if you really believe that you love him, and that he loves you, than you're my kind of fool. I'll help you with packing." Belle looked at him with surprise, happiness tainting her sallow cheeks. "You will?" Seamus nodded, and she jumped from her seat and gave him the biggest hug she could manage.
"All right, all right, easy there, girly," Seamus said, patting her on the back. They agreed that she would leave in a week, giving her enough time to actually let her plan sink in and get ready. She would stop the drinking for now, and put some color in her cheeks by eating real food. "We want to make you look good for your fella, don't we?" Seamus said in the days to come. Belle hadn't felt this good in a while, good enough that even the withdrawal from drinking hardly affected her. She was going back, and confront him, make him see reason. He deserved a happily ever after, and she would help give it to him. Belle spent her next few days staring outside and dreaming about the one person that mattered to her most.
She had practiced what she would say to him, what she would do. She would explain what she had done, even if it meant shouting through a dungeon cell. She would profess her love, truly and unconditionally. She would tell him about Dreamy and Nova and how if two people so different could be together, could find happiness, then why couldn't they? Then, at the last possible second, she would say something completely off her rocker that he would have to admire it. Belle would say that he owed her a story. She had made a deal with him, and he was going to keep his end. Belle smiled at the thought. She would make him see, that's all she wanted. Belle was ready.
However, the night before she was to leave, everything went wrong. It was late, but there were still plenty of late nighters out, and Belle was helping lend a hand before she left, dawdling inside the warm and homy pub. Now that the time was upon her, Belle was a little reluctant to leave the warm insides of the pub into the unknown. Over her time here she had made a few friends and had felt like a person again, the thought of seeing Rumpelstiltskin sent a shudder through her, and she was unsure of whether it was a good one or not. Trying to avoid the many prospects, Belle began to look at everyone and everything in the pub, drinking it all in.
She noticed that a group of dwarves had stopped by for a pint, and Belle looked around expectantly, hoping that this would be Dreamy's team and she could tell him her good news. She recognized some of them from his team, but he seemed to be missing. Curious, she approached the one she was most familiar with, a kind yet sneaky little dwarf dressed all in black. "Stealthy, right?" she asked the small miner. He gave her a smile and nodded. Belle gave a smile and sat across from him."Well, where's Dreamy? How did it go with him and Nova?" Belle asked, bursting with suspense on what had happened with the two lovebirds.
Her question seemed to cause the entire group to darken, the joyous laughter diminished by her words. Stealthy's eyes looked downcast, staring into his cup. Belle looked at him in confusion, wondering what she had done to upset him so. "You don't know," Stealthy said. It wasn't it a question.
"About what?" Belle asked. Stealthy took a deep breath, along with a generous swig from his cup. "Everything went wrong, miss. He followed your advice, but something went terribly wrong. He was going to run away with her, Dreamy was, but he came back, and something changed in him. He wasn't Dreamy anymore. He broke his axe. Do you know what that means?"
Belle just gave him a blank look. Stealthy sighed. "It means that Dreamy wasn't Dreamy anymore. When we get our pickaxe, it tells us who were are. He destroyed his and his new one named him Grumpy. It's who he is now." Belle gasped. Surely he was mistaken. "Show me," she commanded. "Take me to Dream- I mean Grumpy and let me see for myself."
This led to Stealthy looking even more distraught. "What?" Stealthy shook his head again, despair plain on his face. "Well, sometime after that, Grumpy was caught with stolen jewels. We all knew that he was innocent and that there must have been some mistake, but King George wouldn't have any argument on the matter and locked him away in his dungeons. He's a prisoner." Belle's mouth gaped open, her eyes stinging with tears. "But it's okay, I'm going to break him out soon," Stealthy continued, but Belle hadn't even noticed.
"No," she said, pushing herself form the table. Stealthy looked up at her, concern etched on his features. He stood up and started to go towards Belle, but she just pushed away from his outreached hands, tears coming towards her eyes. "No...they were going to be together," Belle said, looking into the dwarf's eyes. "They were in love. It was supposed to work." How could so much have gone so wrong? She had just seen the dwarf what was it, a month maybe? How could in a blink of an eye, her entire reason for leaving be destroyed?
Belle couldn't believe it, the one thing that had given her the strength to go back, to confront her fears, was complete rubbish. Her words had meant nothing, in fact, they had probably helped in the imprisonment of an innocent dwarf. All of this was too much.
Belle could already fell her body begin to shut down, same as when she left Rumpelstiltskin's castle that awful night. Her plan was ruined, her confidence gone. What was she to do now? Her question was answered however, by the doors of the pub swinging open and two guards appearing, uniforms she recognized from her father's kingdom. A man was with them, pointing at her. He was saying something, but she couldn't make it out, she had gone too numb from what the dwarf had said. The guards began to approach her, one of them looking at her strangely. Was that fear in his eyes? Belle could only question the strangeness of what was going on before she fell into blackness.
A/N: Ooh, what has happened to our brunette heroin? Read on to find out! Hope you guys will like it and please review, I crave reviews, especially long ones! ;)