If there was one thing that had the ability to fill Belle's heart with equal parts joy and dread, it would be the reappearance of her estranged husband to Storybrooke.

She had been in the process of closing up the library when Rumplestiltskin had strutted down Main Street, flanked on either side by two women that she had hoped never to have to see again, like he hadn't been banished just over a month ago.

Belle wanted to ignore it all. She wasn't ready to face him yet. Wasn't ready to face what they had done to each other again but she still found herself rushing out the door of the library and shouting his name.

The trio stopped and slowly turned towards her. For a moment when she saw Rumplestiltskin's face, Belle finally felt a weight being taken from her shoulders. He was alive. He was safe and seemed as healthy as ever.

Rumple was dressed as impeccably as always, not a hair out of place and for a moment she felt her heart clench. Whereas she had suffered many agonizing sleepless nights, wrestling with her extreme decision, he looked as perfectly fine as he had before that night, not a single sign of distress in his body.

"Well, well," he finally spoke, and Belle felt herself flinch at that lilting accent as he came to stand before her. "If it isn't my heroic wife, come to welcome me home. Tell me dearest, have you come to banish the beast again?" he finished with a sneer.

Even in their earliest days together in the Dark Castle she had never seen him direct this level of hostility towards herself. A part of her felt like she deserved it for what she had done but the other side of her reasoned that they both had wronged each other and he had no right to speak to her that way.

"That depends, Rumplestiltskin. Have you come to destroy everything you love on the way for your mad quest for power again?"

She didn't mean to say that. She didn't want to say that, but the barb flew from her mouth of its own volition. The women he was with laughed and Rumple's nose twitched in annoyance.

"Oh, you'd like that wouldn't you? Any excuse to use the dagger against me again? Well, I'm sorry to disappoint, wife. I have merely come seeking the one thing a villain can never have… a happy ending."

He spit the words out with such malice that Belle wondered if he really believed that someone like the author could truly change his fate.

"We could have had that happy ending Rumple, but you shut me out. I've told you before you don't need power, you need courage, Rumplestiltskin. There's no author that can give you that. You have to find it yourself. Until then you will never be able to have a happy ending."

It took everything in her body to be able to turn away from his shocked expression then but she did, not even sparing him a backward glance until she was safely back inside of the library, tears threatening to fall from her eyes as she leaned back against the door.

When she finally peaked out the window, Rumple and his associates were long gone, and she wondered if he had ever really been there in the first place.

Belle sighed deeply and tried to cram her thoughts to the back of her mind as she finally locked up for the night nearly twenty minutes later. She didn't want to think of all the things that went wrong tonight. She was too tired for it. All she wanted to do was to go to her apartment, drink a big glass of wine and go to bed.

She rounded the corner behind the library where the steps to her apartment were located and gasped out of shock when she nearly slammed into a waiting Rumplestiltskin.

Belle regained herself and only bit back a sarcastic comment when she took in his state. It was hard to reconcile the man who spoke so vilely of her on the street to the one that stood before her now.

Rumple's walls were let down, that mask of anger absent in the sea of emotions playing across his face. His shoulders were slumped and every fiber of his body seemed to fold into itself in a state of contrition. It was the eyes that got Belle though.

Before they were so full of rage but now they shone with all the hurt and anguish of when she sent him over the line but it was the love that she could see buried behind those emotions that made her heart stop.

"Belle…" he spoke her name with such longing it made her ache.

Oh, how she had missed him…

The next thing she knew Rumple's lips were crushed against her own in a kiss, his hands gripping her hips to pull her against him and she melted into him without a fight, her tongue desperately seeking entrance to his mouth.

Belle's hands roamed from his hair to run up and down his chest and for the first time she realized how loosely his clothes hung from him. She hadn't noticed it before when they were arguing but now it was plain as day how little he had had to eat while he'd been gone. She did that to him. She banished him without a thing but the shirt on his back. She wanted to forget.

They shouldn't be doing this, she knew. It was only going to complicate matters between them even more but she couldn't find it in her to care at the moment. It felt so right to be kissing him again. She had spent weeks agonizing over whether Rumple was even alive anymore and here he was, warm and safe in her arms. She had missed him. She wasn't going to let him go just yet.

"I'm sorry," she heard him whisper as he moved back to rest his forehead against hers, keeping his eyes downcast. "I'm sorry," he repeated again.

Belle wasn't sure if he was sorry for what they were about to do or for his posturing earlier. Perhaps even for how everything went so bad for them. It didn't matter. She understood.

"I know," she whispered back to him and pulled him back in for a kiss, biting his lower lip and Rumple couldn't suppress the moan that escaped. He pushed her back against the cool concrete wall and moved his lips from hers to trail kisses down her jawline and neck, nipping and biting as he went.

His hands moved from her waist down to the hem of her skirt, pushing it up to allow himself better access. He caressed the contours of her thighs before moving back to grip her ass tightly causing Belle to gasp. Encouraged by her response his hand moved around to cup her sex through her panties, gently massaging her through the thin material, before slipping an inquiring finger past it.

"Fuck, Belle," he muttered as he spread her folds to find her wet with desire already.

She couldn't stop herself from grinding against him when he used two fingers to stroke her inner walls. With his thumb he found her clit and rubbed slow circles in time with the thrusts of his hand that had her legs quivering as her orgasm built.

"No, no. Rumple, wait," she gasped, her head felt dizzy with pleasure and if his body was pressed against her she would have been unbalanced. He immediately followed her direction and stopped, raising his brow in confusion.

Rumple narrowed his brow. "Are you okay?" he asked. His voice was deepened, accent hanging heavier upon his words than they normally did making her body ache even more.

"Rumple, please," she moaned, her hands moving to unbuckle his belt. "I need you."

In just a few quick movements Belle had his buckle and pants undone, pushing them down just far enough to release his straining cock. He buried his face in her neck to suppress a moan when she took him in her hand and offered a few strokes, spreading the bead of moisture at his tip with her thumb as she went.

When she released her hold a whimper escaped his throat. Hiking her skirt up further and pushing her panties off, she grabbed his cock again and guided him to her aching core. He needed no further encouragement as he thrust home in a single motion, causing them both to cry out.

It had been so very long since they had last been together, it almost felt foreign to have him inside of her, but at the same time nothing had ever felt so right. What they had always lacked in their communication skills they had always made up for with their passion.

Belle rocked herself against him experimentally, urging him to move with her, and that seemed enough to bring him out of his stupor as he thrust up hard and fast.

Normally, their lovemaking was easy and gentle but there was nothing gentle about this. This was fueled by raw emotion as he pounded her hard against the wall, Belle rolling her hips to meet each one of his thrusts.

Belle had already been close to coming before he was inside of her but each thrust brought her closer to the edge, the heat of her desire pooling inside of her until she thought she might bust. When Rumple slipped his thumb in between them to rub at her clit she felt herself clenching tightly around his cock before finally letting go with a cry.

His thrusts grew more erratic as she spasmed and clenched against him until finally he came too with a hoarse groan, spilling his seed inside of her. He kissed her then, softer than he had all night, and laid his head against her chest. Belle instinctively brought a hand up to run through his dampened hair.

They stood joined like that for a long time, neither willing to move lest they have to confront their conflicting emotions and whatever the hell had just happened.

A sense of dread and regret began to fill Belle's mind as the heat and pleasure of the moment finally passed.

"I'm going to fix this," he whispered against her neck, his breathing slowly returning to normal. He pulled back to look at her and she could see the conflict raging behind his dark eyes. "I'm going to fix us. We'll have our happy ending yet."

Belle could feel the tears starting to form and she suddenly felt exhausted. Physically, emotionally. If she didn't have that wall to lean back on she knew she would have just collapsed then and there.

She wanted to believe that things could work out between them. That some mysterious author could just flick his pen across the page and write them a happy ending but she couldn't. They had both hurt each other so much. It was hard to believe that it would ever be something that they could get past.

"I wish I could believe you, Rumple," she spoke softly, and gently caressed his cheek.

He pulled back then like he had been burned and she already mourned the loss of his body against hers. He quickly readjusted himself back into his trousers and straightened his tie back to perfection. It was as if the last twenty minutes had never happened and Belle could tell when that mask of hardened indifference fell back over his features. She was shut out— again.

"Yeah…me too," he said huskily, the emotions of the last twenty minutes still in his voice, even though his walls were drawn back up.

Without another word or even a backward glance, he was gone. She didn't know whether to be hurt or angry. Belle finally let the tears that had been threatening to take her all evening overwhelm her.

What was to become of them?