Ten years. He could not remember the past ten years of his life. But how was that possible?
Rumple sat at the dining table with his supposed family. Belle sat on his left side, her stomach so round and full with child. Bae sat at his right, and Rose sat next to Belle, and the boy, Tobias, sat next to Bae. They were all eating breakfast, quietly. Rumple wasn't hungry, and he sat in his chair as he let Bae's explanations from earlier sink in.
Apparently, ten years ago, Rumple had fallen in love with Belle, and he had married her. His curse had been broken with their true love's kiss, but some how he had been able to keep his magic and no longer could be controlled by the dagger. At first, he didn't believe this, but they both wore gold bands on their fingers and he was human. Rose had come to the world about a year later, and he glanced at the little girl. She looked a lot like Belle, with some differences, like his long fingers and his brown eyes instead of Belle's blue. She seemed nervous, and wasn't looking directly at him. He didn't blame her, he had given her a scare. He didn't want to feel guilty about it, but he did. If that was his child, he didn't want to hurt her... What the hell was he thinking? This was all obviously some sort of trick that was being played on him, Regina, no doubt, or perhaps the fairies.
Belle had been a month pregnant with Tobias when they had finally located Bae, who had been in Neverland. They had gone there to bring his son home, who had been shocked about his father being married and having a child and another on the way. But he had been so eager to get away from Pan and his goons. Pan had made threats, it hadn't been a reunion that was happy. Rumple had fought the boy that had once been his father. It hadn't ended well, apparently Rumple had been killed. How he was still here, they were unsure. Something about a white light as the fairy Tinkerbell had sprinkled the last of her fairy dust on him, and he had lived.
But at a price. After he had died, there were complications with his memory. He would have terrible nightmares, and when he woke up, he couldn't remember past a certain point in his life. One time he had woken up and his memories were only as far as when he was a poor spinner, and Bae had still been a small toddler. Another time had been during the curse before he had ever met Belle. Every time had been incredibly hard on their family, but they remained strong. It had been a few months since the last memory incident, and they had been hoping that it was all over. Apparently not. They said that he should get his memories back within a week or so, concluding form past experiences. A week?!
Rumplestiltskin looked at his supposed family. What they all must have gone through. And he didn't remember a second of it. Why? Why didn't he remember anything? There must be some reason. He would have to figure out a way to get these memories back, if they existed at all. If this wasn't some fairy trick. Hells, maybe that Tinkerbell person had his memories, after all, she had sprinkled the dust on him. He would have to figure this out.
It was very quiet as they all ate. He didn't really like the silence since there were people around. If he was alone, silence was fine, but if there were others, it just made things awkward. Every once in a while, Tobias would drop an egg from his plate and Bae would smile and help him pick it up. Belle kept glancing at Rumple, her hand on her stomach as she ate. He couldn't help but look at her swollen stomach. That was... their baby. Rose was their baby, Tobias was their baby. They had children, a family. They were supposed to be in love and happy and enjoying their happily every after. He felt... responsible for her unhappiness, for all of their unhappiness. And he didn't know what he could do about it.
Clearing his throat, he took a drink of his tea and then looked at them. "I ah... I'm sorry about all of this... about this morning... I'm going to try my hardest to remember all of you, and set this straight..." he said softly. Belle smiled softly and Bae nodded. Rose just stared down at her food and Tobias ate some toast. Obviously that didn't help very much. "...You don't have to sit here in silence, you can talk..."
They all nodded, but still, nothing was said. Gods, this was awkward... After they had all finished, Belle turned to Rumple. "I ah... I was hoping that you and I could go walk in the gardens for a bit..." she said hopefully.
"Are you sure you should be walking around?" he asked. With her condition, he didn't want anything to go wrong.
She smiled softly. "I'm not sue for another two months," she said. "Please walk with me?"
Damn, ten years, and he still couldn't say no to her. He nodded. "Yeah, ah... We can walk," he said.
She had tried to hold his hand as they walked through the gardens, but his muscles had been so tense from the sudden contact, that perhaps he would have been used to if he remembered, that she let go and rested her hands on her stomach again. It was late fall, it would start snowing soon. Their baby would probably be born around Christmas...
"I am sorry," he said softly as they walked. "I... I just don't remember."
"I know," she sighed as she nodded. "I know you don't. And I know you don't remember your promises either... We had just hoped that this was all behind us, that we could finally be all together... The last time this happened, you thought you had acquired Rose and Toby in a deal and you had tried to lock them in the dungeons..."
His heart dropped. He had done that to his children?! "Oh, gods, Belle, I'm so sorry!" he said. "I would never-"
"I know," she said, and she patted his hand. "That was why I had made you promise, when your memory came back, that you would never hurt your children... Rose still remembers that, Toby has forgiven you, but Rose... She's taking all of this memory loss very hard. She remembers a bit before you died... She just wants that back."
He sighed. She wasn't telling him all this to make him feel bad, he knew her better than that. But he still felt terrible. She had to put up with all of this, even if she didn't love him, it was truly terrible. "And I promise you that I won't do that again. You have my word, I'll never hurt them... I need to talk to Rose."
"I think that would be better for when you remember again," she said. "She needs time."
"No, what she needs is her father... But I don't remember being that man. I don't know how he is around her... I don't know her, or the boy..."
"But you will," she said, taking his hand. "I'll help you remember, and so will Bae. Ok?"
He looked at her. He could understand why he had been in love with her, she was a wonderful person, he knew that even if he didn't remember all of that. He nodded and held her hand. "Ok."
