This is my first OUaT piece, and I'm afraid it may be a little OOC and AU (Neal is still alive, but Rumbelle is married); hopefully you guys enjoy it anyway. Feedback would be great! Thanks!:)
"I'm not sick, Rum!" Belle all but whined as she fell dramatically back onto her bed.
"You're not feeling well, though," Rumpelstiltskin pointed out, looking down on her with a small frown. "I know for a fact that's the third day in a row you've gotten sick."
"So? It's probably because I've been eating your cooking."
Belle was only half teasing, and Rumple knew it, so he contradicted, "But I only started doing the cooking once you started not feeling well – and that was over two weeks ago, despite what you've been trying to tell me about 'feeling fine.' I notice more than you think I do, dearie. All I'm asking is that you do what normal people do and go see Dr. Whale."
"But I'm not sick!"
"But I am worried for you." Rumple tried for a pleading expression instead of the stern one he'd been employing as he said, "Please; for me?"
Belle groaned and Rumple fought back a smile of triumph when she agreed, "Alright, but it's a waste of time; I'm not ill."
Rumple just raised his eyebrows in amusement as he handed her a pair of her flats to put on. She took the shoes and irritably hit him on the arm with one.
He smiled as he heard her mumble under her breath again, "I'm not ill."
He chose not to point out that he'd never once said the words "sick" or "ill," just that he wanted her to get seen by a doctor, for reasons that he was keeping to himself for now.
It was a well known fact in town that news tended to spread like wildfire around Storybrooke. Belle's going to see Dr. Whale was a perfect example of that, and Rumple's wife wasn't happy about it. When she had left the waiting room to be seen by Dr. Whale, her husband had been the only one in the room who was there with her in mind. Dr. Whale decided to run a test, and by the time he had the results and went to retrieve Rumple (Is something actually wrong? Is it really bad? Belle had to wonder)– he wanted to tell them the news together – Rumple was followed into the tiny room by Emma, Bae, and even Henry.
"Alright," Belle burst out when she saw them all. "Is it really that bad? What am I, Dr. Whale, dying?"
The doctor's face gave away nothing, so Belle's eyes snapped to Rumple, only to find him looking as confused and concerned. Apparently he didn't know anything yet, either.
Dr. Whale turned to Rumple, asking calmly, "Can you guess what the first words were that she told me when we got back here?"
Rumple guessed, looking like he wasn't sure where the doctor was taking this line of questioning, "That she wasn't ill?"
"Exactly," Dr. Whale smiled. "And, as it turns out, she's right."
Rumple's entire expression changed then, becoming relaxed, and he raised his eyebrows, a smile playing freely about his mouth as he asked almost conspiratorially "Is she?"
"She's not sick, no."
"Then what is she?"
"Right here!" Belle snapped. "If you could manage to not speak about me like I'm not."
"Of course," Rumple replied. "My apologies, dearie. My question, Dr.?"
"You're smarter than this, Mr. Gold; I think you already know the answer to your own question."
Rumple laughed out loud – until he saw that the look of shock on Belle's face was quickly becoming one of anger as she demanded, "What is that supposed to mean, Rumpelstiltskin?"
"It's nothing harmful, you have my word," he promised, moving to take one of her hands in his own. "Surely you can figure it out, can't you? In my defense, I didn't know anything for certain until Dr. Whale just confirmed it, and I didn't want to give you false hope if I wasn't sure."
"What are you talking about, Rumplestiltskin?!"
"Think about it, dearie," he coaxed.
Dr. Whale pointed out, "I think you or I had better tell her, Mr. Gold, or you might just find yourself in the doghouse…"
"Oh," Belle promised, her eyes beginning to flash. "He's already there if he doesn't tell me what's going on."
"Might as well have some fun with it," Rumple said with a nearly playful shrug.
"You intolerable man!" Belle seethed, slapping his arm for the second time that morning.
"Wait!" Henry yelped suddenly, interrupting what was about to become a very ugly rant from Belle. He gestured for a huddle with his biological parents and whispered something in fervent tones so quiet that no one but the three of them could hear it.
"What is it?" Belle asked, noting in particular how Bae's eyebrows had risen to remarkably near his hairline. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing is wrong," Henry said simply, turning to look at her. "If I'm right, something's just changed."
Rumple narrowed his eyes as he looked at his grandson and queried curiously, "For the better, or for the worse?"
"That's a matter of opinion."
"Would someone just speak plainly, please?" Belle asked a little loudly.
"You really shouldn't be taunting her like this, guys," Emma spoke up pityingly.
"Okay," Dr. Whale said slowly before slipping out of the examination room. "Just know this, Mrs. Gold: you have nothing to worry about; from what I know, your husband has a good bit of experience dealing in what's going on."
"Dealing with what?" Belle pleaded, looking at the four people still in the room with her. "I don't even know what sort of a test he ran!"
"You really should've asked at least that much," Rumple chided teasingly.
Belle reached out to hit him again, but Bae surged forward and grabbed her wrist, informing her in a careful tone, "That's not what Dr. Whale said."
"What are you talking about now?!"
Henry understood what Belle didn't, and the boy further explained with a sparkle in his eye, "Dr. Whale said 'dealing in'; you said 'dealing with'."
Belle just shrugged helplessly, looking pleadingly to Emma, as the other woman appeared to be her last hope for assistance.
"Rumpelstiltskin, explain what's going on to your poor wife before she loses it; if she gets much more stressed, she might lose more than her mind."
Evidently Emma had struck the perfect chord, because all traces of teasing vanished from Rumple's expression, but Bae objected, "She's not made of glass, Emma; she won't break that easily."
"No, but I might break the lot of you if I don't get some real answers – right now, please!"
"Very well," Rumple replied, finally looking like he might tell her plainly what was going on. "I'm sorry to have worried you so much; that was mean of me – and of Dr. Whale, to be fair."
"Rum!" Her husband's tongue darted nervously across his lips before he leaned towards her ear and whispered two small words. Belle's heart stopped for a second and she turned her face to his, demanding with an edge of excitement in her voice, "Really?"
Rumple nodded a little carefully, watching her closely with that same almost boyish smile on his face – one he was trying and miserably failing to contain. Belle screamed with glee and Rum gave up all pretences, laughing aloud as she threw her arms around his neck. Emma, Bae, and Henry burst into almost simultaneous grinning as Belle triple-checked with her husband, "We're having a baby?"
Rumple's smile widened even further with out and out glee as he kissed her, affirming, "Mrs. Gold, we are having a baby."