35 minutes

She felt like she was floating. Drifting. Gliding. She felt like she was empty. Hallow. Unfeeling. Like something wasn't connecting her mind to her body. Was that what a soul was for and she'd just never known it? Was this what she'd felt like before she'd known him, before he'd come into her life? Had she always been empty and just never known any better before that deal?

She didn't know. And she couldn't find the will to care. To wake herself up. She couldn't find a reason to be strong…except for Neal. Except for the one part of him that was holding her up. He hadn't promised her happiness before he'd died, merely reminded her that she could make those around her strong. It was Neal who held the promise of happiness…she wanted that for him, if only because he wanted it for his son.

But it was hard to breathe now. Hard to focus and feel strong when she felt like she was a burden Bae hadn't asked for, wanted, or even anticipated! And yet, here he was. It was honorable. If it wasn't for Neal she wouldn't be here now. She would have disappeared into that forest and never come back. What would have happened to her body was irrelevant as far as she was concerned. Her soul was already gone. But here she was. Holding tight to Baelfire's elbow as he led her back to the crowd. Yes, she felt like she was floating, but Neal was her tether, her life raft, her support. If it wasn't for him she wouldn't be here. If it wasn't for his arm she would have fallen. If it wasn't for his eagerness she'd have nothing to goad her on. She felt like she was barely living, so if Neal was the only thing keeping her from dying completely then she'd hold on with everything she had...even if it wasn't much.

She couldn't look anyone they passed in the eye, didn't have the strength to hold her head high enough to do it. Just put one foot in front of the another, taking agonizing step after step, and glanced around her through her eyelashes and heavy lids that just wanted to curl up somewhere, go to sleep, and never wake up, to give into the hallow empty feeling within her. Each breath she took seemed like it was unfair. Each heartbeat a betrayal. But whether it was unfair to him or to her…she just couldn't say yet.

So, she stopped thinking. About herself. About him. About…the end. Just focused on this moment. If she was going to stay with Neal then she was going to need to be more than a walking shell of who she'd once been. She focused on the present. On her footsteps. On her tether. She focused, excruciatingly, on those around her.

The surprise seemed to have passed from the little she saw. People were regrouping, buzzing around, talking to one another, figuring out what to do next now that they were here. They were living.

It hurt to watch them.

"Aurora!" Neal shouted next to her, making her head automatically pop up and follow his gaze toward the same gazebo that she'd seen when the smoke cleared. The Evil Queen and Hook were nearby, wandering nearly as aimlessly as she was, but Snow White and Prince Charming were talking to the two people she'd seen before. The woman glanced over at her and Neal right away. Aurora. That must have been her name. It sounded familiar. Like she'd heard it somewhere before. And the man…no, she still couldn't place him. But she didn't appear to be the only one. From the way he was looking at her, she felt like they'd met somewhere she just couldn't figure it out. But she wasn't terribly surprised by that. There wasn't a lot that she felt like she could put together right now.

"Neal!" The woman, Aurora, she assumed, called back, turning toward him with a beaming smile and offering him a hug that he could only partially return because his other arm was the only thing keeping her on her feet at the moment. "Thank heavens you're alright, we were so worried after you didn't return with Mulan-"

"You two know each other?" she heard David ask. But she couldn't see because she was suddenly feeling overwhelmed again. Like the water was pouring in threatening to drown her and there was nothing she could do to keep it out.

This was too much.

All of it.

Too much too soon!

Everything that had happened with Pan, in Neverland. In Storybrooke. Then with him. And now they were in the Enchanted Forest!

There were too many people here, too many conversations, too much happening. Too much life!

Whether he sensed it or not she felt herself take a step closer to Neal in an attempt to balance herself, seek some form of shelter. He was a rock, comfort, familiarity even if that familiarity was only faint. Barely two days. That was all she'd known him for. But she felt like if she didn't have that right now, if she didn't have Neal by her side, she might just come apart at the seams.

"Yeah," Neal answered as Aurora pulled away from them, "it's a long story, I'll fill you in later. Listen-"

"I know you," the man who had been beside Aurora interrupted suddenly. When no one said anything she finally picked her head up to face the crowd. He was looking at her, pointing, waiting for her to respond. He did recognize her then. It wasn't her imagination at all. How? She swallowed, tried to breathe, and took a moment to look him over as she forced her brain to work against the thick fog she was fighting against. From somewhere deep within her a memory struggled to surface. His face. The event. The beast.

Prince Philip, the Yaoguai.

"Belle!" he breathed suddenly. He seemed to recognize her the same moment that she had and reached forward to hug her. She should feel something, should be able to hug him back, should be happy that he was here with a woman that she could only assume was the true love he'd been separated from. But she just couldn't bring herself to do it. "I hardly recognized you! You look so different from the last time we met!"

His smile twisted the knife in her heart.

His touch burned.

His happiness threatened to pull her down and drown her completely.

Fortunately, Philip didn't seem to notice her reaction in his excitement. Just pulled away and looked at her with reverence as he kept a hand against her shoulder. Raw as she felt, she wished he wouldn't touch her. "Aurora this is the woman that freed me from Maleficent's curse! Without her…we wouldn't be together today."

Aurora smiled happily as she looked at her, recognizing her from a story he must have shared with her. Alone? Under moonlight? Private words when the world wasn't looking…

She took a deep breath, trying to hold back her tears as the woman launched herself at her. Yet another hug that she could barely tolerate, a gesture she couldn't return. How had she managed only moments ago with Henry and Emma? It must have been sheer luck...

She squeezed Neal's arm. She wanted to go. To be away from here, away from…everything. Somewhere she wouldn't feel like she was being bled dry, her wounds reopened before they could even begin to heal. She'd felt like this wasn't that hard when it had been the two of them, but around all these people?! It was just too much life, and happiness, and joy, and hope…

And she felt like she was screaming, like she wanted to scream more than anything…but she just couldn't find her voice to do it. She needed someone to see it. Someone to read her mind, to understand what was happening inside her. But the only person who'd ever been able to do that was-

"We owe you debt," Aurora smiled with tears in her eyes as she pulled away, keeping her hands against her shoulders.

Still, no words came.

"Maybe you can pay it," she heard Bae answer for her. She could have cried in relief. "We're a long way from…anywhere," he pointed out, looking awkwardly around him and shuffling his weight as if expecting to see a city rise up from the trees at any moment. "I assume wherever we go we're walking from here and she can't exactly go hiking through the forest like this. Maybe you have something else?"

"Oh…yes! Yes, of course!" Aurora answers her eyes wide with excitement. "Anything! I have a few dresses around here from the days we spent alone in the woods and we look about the same size…" she moved into the gazebo and began to rifle through a trunk she hadn't seen before. It looked like they'd been on a picnic, there was uneaten food laid out, but it also looked like they spent far too much time living here in the woods. Why else would Aurora have spare dresses on a gazebo? Was this a getaway? Like they'd used the cabin for? She didn't ask. That thought alone threatened to bring tears to her eyes and she felt like she was barely hanging on as it was.

Next to her, she heard Philip tell Charming that he could find something for him as well, "something less bloody", and that they were welcome to whatever they had here. They'd help them get on their way as fast as possible.

Charming thanked Philip for his offer, but stated that what they really needed at the moment was information. When Aurora returned with a large bundle for her, which she managed to hold against her chest with only an arm, Philip suggested that they talk privately about that and led them into the gazebo, Hook and Regina trailed behind them as she could only assume they all began to talk. She glanced up at Neal, did he want to go? To listen?

"Go ahead and change, I'll be here when you get back" he insisted with a little nudge, like a mother bird might give to urge her young out of the nest. She hated to give up the grip she had on him. But she knew, she just couldn't hang there on his arm for the rest of her life. Sooner or later she'd have to let go, to tread water, and start swimming on her own again. At least the task he'd given her was simple. At least it required little thinking. At least it required solitude.

Finally she gave a small nod, released him, and found she could stand without swaying. He seemed to be waiting to make sure she could steady herself and gave the smallest look of relief at the little accomplishment. It was something. Something was better than nothing. So she took a deep breath, hoping to find strength somewhere inside her when all she felt was exhaustion and disappeared into the woods to find a private spot to change.

She found a large growth of trees that created a curtain between her and the gathering crowd she'd once wanted so much to be a part of and took her time, not because of all the buttons and layers that she had forgotten about faster than she would have thought possible, but because she liked the quiet. The small space. The private area. Because when tears finally couldn't be held back anymore no one could give comfort she couldn't take, or offer hallow encouraging words, or meaningless advice.

People hurt.

Life hurt.

The world hurt.

Neal…

Baelfire. Bae. He didn't hurt.

She would have thought he would. That seeing his expressions and his eyes in the face of his son would tear her heart out each and every time. They'd never been close before now, but she felt like they were suddenly. It had been hours, maybe, since they'd walked out of that store arm in arm. It had barely been a day since they'd sat down together in Granny's and danced around one another, a small uncomfortable connection neither knew what to do with. But now…

She couldn't explain it. Maybe it was for all the reasons being near him should hurt…but Neal felt like safety. She felt as though her insides were melting. The world crushing down on her and the people around her only crowded her more, but a glance at Neal, a few kind words?!

The world might not have righted itself around him, but at least she didn't feel like she couldn't breathe.

She had to live. She had no choice in the matter. If she could have she would have simply commanded her heart to cease beating there in the town square! But it didn't work that way. He'd killed their soul and left her body to…whatever this was supposed to be. But she had to figure out how to live again without him. To walk. To sleep. To talk. Or at least pretend she could. Without him, without the hope of ever seeing him again, she didn't think she'd ever be able to swim. So she'd have to settle for simply holding her own head above water. For Neal's sake.

Love is layered. And that's not just romantic love. Layered love is going to extend through the friendship of Neal and Belle. Over the next few "months" (Moments Time) they are going to morph and become a great many things for each other. They started in the first chapter as "it". They only remnant of family that either of them have, however distant they are it. Here they morph again. For Belle, Neal is her attack dog, her shelter, her rock. She's just suffered a great loss and like so many do in the wake of loss she's attached herself to him as this one safe and reliable thing and you know what, I don't think that makes her look weak I think that it makes her a person. It makes her human. It's why families come together to grieve in the wake of loss, because they are comfortable around one another. For Neal...well, for him right now I think he takes some responsibility for Belle. Skeptical as he is, he is a caring person that takes care of others no matter what; Henry, Emma, Wendy, John, Michael...it's in his nature. He may not have trusted Belle before, but after what Rumple did, the speech he made, I think he recognizes her as something of a widow and while he's grieving in his own way I think he knows that she is hurting in a way that he isn't and he feels like he has to take responsibility for her. So he willingly becomes her helper here, her protector. They will morph again soon, but for now they are what they are. I hope you'll like where I take this friendship. It's one of my favorites.

Thank you to Agent66, Meredith Pechta, Kathryn O'Conner, Rumbellefan, Skitzoeinhoven, Raizen Yusuke, Francisco Rose, and Katido for your reviews on the last chapter! We are off to a great start and I can't wait to continue! Peace and Happy Reading!