Belle awoke to a feeling of nausea and the sound of whirring machines. She stared at the white tiled ceiling for a moment, before realizing that she was no longer at the library. Most of what had happened before she passed out came flooding back.

She had snapped awake previously in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and immediately began asking questions through the oxygen mask covering her face, but the paramedics were busy at her feet. The pain in her abdomen causing her to panic and the obvious worry on Rumpelstiltskin's face as he tried to calm her, made Belle struggle to get the mask off, but the paramedics had apparently strapped her down to keep her from sliding off the stretcher. Pleading with Rumpelstiltskin to let her free, she finally raised her head enough to see the blood seeping onto the stretcher from between her legs, staining the white cloth. It had occurred to her momentarily that seeing your own blood so starkly contrasted against what couldn't be soothing to anyone. Another pain had wracked her body then and she had passed out again. She now had hazy images of being wheeled off of the ambulance and into a very bright room.

The memories after that were so disjointed, though, that she wasn't sure what was real between then and now. Belle registered that now the pain was gone, as was the oxygen mask, but she was covered with tubes and she felt…empty, somehow. 'Empty' seemed to be the only adequate way to describe the sensation. It was then that she knew. Her precious little one was gone.

Closing her eyes again, Belle ignored the dull throb in her head and sorted through what she could vaguely remember after being wheeled into the hospital.

She had screamed for Rumpelstiltskin, but knew that he had not been in the room when she was told to push. She remembered thinking that she had no choice in the matter as the pain was so intense she couldn't do anything but push. She remembered eyes with no faces or names to go with them and hushed but firm voices coaching her and telling her she was 'doing good'. Urgent words were spoken, but she only made out a few: "incompetent cervix", "wrapped cord". Then the pain and need to push had ended in one final surge of heart-racing tension. It was as if everything inside of her had gushed out between her legs, but something was wrong. There was no crying. Everything she had read had described the sound of your child's initial wail after it was all done. Before she blacked out again, Belle had realized her little boy hadn't even drawn a first breath to expel.

The sob that rose up in Belle's throat came out as a squeak. The flood of tears she could feel behind her eyelids, started as a single drop that fell down her cheek and was wiped away by a thumb. Not her own, she registered. Rumpelstiltskin's. Belle opened her eyes slowly and blinked a few times causing more tears to leak down her face. Her lover was sitting in a chair pulled as close to her hospital bed as physics would allow. He ran his thumb across her cheek and cupped the side of her face in his palm. She turned into it and wept as he leaned forward and pressed their foreheads together skin meeting at their temples. Belle didn't even register that he was crying himself until her right hand unwrapped itself from the tangle of tubes and she could feel his body shaking as she clutched the arm Rumpelstiltskin had resting lightly across her ribs.

After several moments clinging to each other, Belle asked hesitantly, "Will they….will they let me see him?"

Rumpelstiltskin nodded, "They will." He had been weighing in his mind whether he wanted to do the same when the offer was put forward earlier by one of the nurses. They would see their boy together he decided in that moment. "I was told they could bring him to us, as soon as you're up to it. I think we should let your meds wear off first, though." His voice sounded thick with emotion, something foreign even to his own ears.

Belle nodded. She wouldn't let any detail be left to the haze of her mind. "Where am I?" She finally asked. It was not the maternity ward they had toured last week. This room was small, private. There was a plexi-glass wall to her right that looked into an observation or waiting room with a sink. Next to the sink was an archway that looked out into a hallway and the nurses' desk.

"ICU," Rumpelstiltskin answered taking her hand into his. "You went into shock…after," he paused, "…you lost a lot of blood." Another pause, "Belle-"

She cut him off quickly. "Not now, Rum. I can't….I…not now." Belle really had no idea what he was about to say, but the tone of his voice indicated a discussion or a confession she couldn't deal with at the moment. The awkwardness was thick, but it couldn't be dealt with now. Not here.

Rumpelstiltskin nodded, biting back whatever he was about to say. Instead he kissed his dear girl's forehead and stood. "I'm just gonna go let the nurse know you're awake. And update Miss Lucas and Sherriff Swan." He smiled at her and brushed a thumb across her cheek. "We thought we were going to lose you, too."

Belle willed herself not to start crying again. "Henry. Henry saw everything. He must have been so scared."

"He was a little prince, that one," Rumpelstiltskin reassured her. "He came to get me just like you told him. Even rescued my cane from being abandoned at the library." He tapped said cane on the ground as he retrieved it from where it leaned against the bed.

Nodding, Belle tried to lower her head as the silent tears came. Her lover lowered himself back down to his unoccupied chair. "Oh sweetheart," he entwined his hands with hers. "We will get through this."

Belle nodded again and sniffled. She smiled slightly as he handed her his handkerchief. He stood and made it to the door this time before she stopped him.

"Can you send Ruby in?" Belle asked. "I'd like her to bring me some things from home."