Notes: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. :)
Belle got there first. Baelfire still got surprised when she sprinted like that, being this short. But she could run pretty fast. They have spotted the house after hours being lost inside this thick wood. She started to knock at the door.
"Hello? Is somebody here? Hello?" Belle called, frantically. They didn't heard any sound coming out from the house. And there wasn't any signs of any kind of live there. Too much dust, not smoke coming from the chimney, and through the windows you only saw an empty room.
"Let it go, there's nobody here since long ago. We must have missed the right road." He wasn't that sure about it but, if there was any kind of hiding spell they didn't have the tools to break it.
"No! I know it's here!" They locks eyes. She knows, and he knows. But if he is in there, then he is hiding and there's the possibility that he doesn't want to be found by anyone.
"I know too, Belle," he starts, talking in whispers. "I can understand you, it has been almost ten years since that happened but you need to understand that..." he didn't finished. The door opened.
"Yes?"
A boy. A little boy. A little boy with wide brown eyes, and brown hair and there is no way in the world he can't recognise that kind of look. His gaze. It's him. He can't talk, the words trapped in his throat.
Besides him, Belle fell to the floor, crying her heart out, but not making any kind of sound. That was when he realised he was crying too, and gaping.
"Let them inside, Ian, my sweet," the voice of an old woman told the child.
He looked in, and then outside. His hands were trembling. He was trembling. Maybe we has afraid of them.
"Co...come in?"
Oh, goddess! How he wanted to hug him.
/0/
Belle was still unable to speak. She was looking at the kid, how he nodded when his grandmother, or grandma, how he called her, asked him to fetch them some refreshing. She was hyperaware of him. She could hear him doing things in the kitchen.
"So, you have come to take him away," the woman's voice was bitter.
"Yes," Bae, at her side, answered.
"Well, you can go and come back after a century has passed, because he is staying with me. And don't try to kidnap him because I can and will beat you both until your dead!" Her voice was nothing more than a murmur, soft, caring even, but it was full of menace.
"We don't want to harm him," Belle spoke, at last. "We have been looking for him all these years. We found evidence that told us he might be still a live. And..." She looked in the direction of the kitchen. "He is."
The woman's gaze relaxed a bit. "What business do you have with my grandson, Ian?"
Belle looked back at the woman, and before Bae could answer she said: "Rumpelstiltskin was my True Love before this happened to him. And the man here is his son."
The woman's eyes widened in alarm. She looked at the door and let out a sigh of relief. "You shouldn't say that name here. He is Ian. He has been Ian for the last 70 years."
Belle and Bae nodded. "A crash in time," he said.
"Do you have his dagger?" Belle asked. The woman shifted, uncomfortable. "Of course we know about the dagger. He is the Dark One. And we know the danger of that thing. If you have it, better to put it away, to hide it where no one can even find it."
The woman looked at Belle, reassured by her words. "I can tell that that's what you really meant." She looked at Bae too. "I was about to tell him before you came. But if you are here, you can take him with you, and he can have a normal life as a normal child. In this realm he ages slower than the Mother Earth herself. He will age normally in you realm, I hope."
Belle smiled, Bae smiled, the woman smiled.
"My name is Belle of the Marchlands."
"I am Baelfire, son of Rumpelstiltskin."
"My name is Miranda, Priestess of Gaia, Great Sorceress of the Winterless Hollow, also mother, grandmother and great-grandmother of Ian, the Lost Child of the Lost Woods."
That was an awful lot of titles, Belle thought, more relaxed now. This was the moment when Ian came in with a tray and a tea set with some pastries. He looked afraid, unsure, and wary of them. His hands trembled a little when she helped him to set the tray over the table.
/0/
It hurt a lot when he said that he didn't want to go with them. Bae could hide it, but Belle was unable and the kid saw it. Or at least Bae thought he did. He couldn't tell, he was looking at him but at Miranda. He complained a little more, and at some part looked at Bae and Belle, trying to get some aid in the matter. But they won't. It hurts to be rejected like this, thought Bae. He watched Belle, who straightened a little in her seat.
"I..., maybe he can stay here until..." she left the rest untold. They all knew that she was referring to Miranda's dead.
"And we can stay here as well. We will protect this place," Bae said, looking at Miranda in the eyes. She nodded.
"I know you will," she replied, caressing Ian's hair. He was looking at them again, a curious gaze that run from their armours to their weapons.
"We will do whatever is necessary to protect, both of you. I can't assure that we would be able to repel an army, but if there are bandits or the sort roaming here, we can keep them at bay."
"I expect no less from you two. And you, Baelfire, look like you have dealt with ogres before."
He nodded. It seemed that this conversation was only him and Miranda. They discussed strategics, at which point Belle came into the chat and contributed her own ideas. While they talked, Ian fell asleep.
/0/
He was looking at her blade, at her clothes, at her boots. Then, he looked at her eyes. She recognised that stare, and old feelings came to her as old friends coming to greet you. She must have shown them in any way because he averted his gaze. Belle sighed, trying to get back to the conversation. They talked about defensive and offensive points around the house. Oh! Good, she knew a little about this kind of thing. This may keep me distracted, she thought. She couldn't bear his side stares, it was too difficult, after all this years.
She still had those feelings inside her chest, and every time she looked in his eyes, they became stronger. And she shouldn't have this feelings now, because he was a child, and they were worlds apart now. What she, they, could do now was to protect him, and let him have a nice life. She... couldn't be a mother, not his mother, but she could be his mentor, someone who relay on, someone who trust, someone to run to when having difficulties.
She watched him, how he slowly fell asleep. She... Belle needed some fresh air. When they started to look for him, she didn't thought it would end this way. Why was he a child? Was this another opportunity to correct his behaviour? Wasn't there any other way?
Bae took her hand and squeezed it. She smiled at him. He was so sweet. When Bae acted like this, it reminded her of his father. It was warm and it hurt at the same time. But it wasn't Bae's fault. Not at all. It was hers, for mixing this and that and not being able to disentangled this mess.
"Where does he sleep?" she asked.
"Up. He has his own room. He used to sleep with me, but about thirty or thirty-five years ago he asked me to have his own bed. He wanted to feel like a grown up," answered Miranda. She had a warm smile on her lips, and she was caressing Ian's hair again.
"I'll take him, then, so you can rest," resolved Belle. Both Miranda and Baelfire looked at her, surprised. "I won't harm him."
"Yes, I know but... Nothing," said Bae.
Belle reached then to take Ian in her arms. He was lighter than what he looked. His head fell heavily on her shoulder and he muttered something unintelligible. She smiled.
"I'll be back."
Belle felt Miranda's eyes on her neck all the way out of her room. But she didn't care. What mattered now was the heat of this little body, the unstoppable hammering of that beautiful heart that told Belle that what she had feared all these years was only that, a fear, and not a reality. He was alive.
She got him inside his bed, pulled the sheets and the covers and kissed his forehead. "It was so painful. I saw you dying, and couldn't do nothing. And now... you are here," she sighed, trembling a bit. "I love you, Rumpel. And now I am going to do something. I am going to protect you this time." She left the room, hot tears coming down from her eyes.
/0/
They have been together a whole week by now and Ian was really careful around them. He didn't trust them yet. Well, he thought, he will come to trust us when he know us enough. Belle and Ian were talking about names in the kitchen while Bae was sitting in the living room. He had helped Miranda out of bed, she was sitting beside him.
"So, tell me about him," she asked.
"I'm afraid I won't tell anything until you tell me about you."
"Always so careful?"
"Yes. It had been a really rough journey. At first we gave away too many secrets, so now, we have to be careful. I don't know what you are capable of, and you could kill us, adding something in the meals, for example."
"Is that why you and Belle take turns to make the meals?"
He winced. "No entirely. He needs to get used to our way of cocking. The sooner, the better."
She nodded. In this few days he had come to like this old woman. She knew far too much. And when she wanted, she could be really charming and lovely.
"I'll tell you a story," she said at last. Taking a deep breath, then releasing the air slowly, she started her tale. "Long, long ago, when the Priestess like me were gave a potion to make it impossible for them to conceive, a young priestess felt a disruption in the delicate fabric of magic. This disruption guided her to the deepest part of the Sacred Lost Wood. She was the only one who sensed it, so, worried, she run to her superior. She still needed guidance in her way to become a real Priestess."
'"But she could find anything to help her. She was told that since she felt it, she had to go and fix it. This young priestess was afraid, so she ignored it for weeks, for months. Until, one day, the breach fixed itself. But that fixing was shabby and wouldn't hold long. She decided then that she had to go."
'"In her way there, she found that the Lost Woods didn't have any kind of animals, just plants. No birds, no deers, nothing alive aside from the plants. Those huge trees breathed, singed, lived. They guided her, so she wouldn't get lost in there. Soon after she entered the woods the cry of a living creature startled her in her dreams. Whenever she closed her eyes, there was the cry. She feared the creature that produced that sound, for no living creature inside the woods made one like that."
'"Her name was called then. She tried to ignore it, but her name was called. Again and again and again. Tired, she run towards the crying creature," she stopped and looked at Bae. " What do you think she found?"
"My father," whispered Bae, breathlessly. "I... I mean, a baby."
Miranda smiled. "Yes, I found him. He was the one who closed the breach, though he had too little control over his powers, so the fixing wouldn't last. I took his Dagger, and commanded him to seal it properly. Even as a little wee baby he had such powerful magic. That's why I sealed it into his mind. But..." She sighed. "As time passes- he started to lose memories, fragments of his life. And I am afraid that when he lose the last one, this will be irreversible." She took out the wooden box.
Over the lid it had a name craved: Iuán. She opened it and showed its content, a silver dagger, a name on the blade. The name Rumpelstiltskin was fading away, and over it, covering the greyed name another one, greyed too but more visible. It was shorter. Bae felt a cold sweat. Ian, over Rumpelstiltskin, looked stronger.
"You understand what will happen, right? When his past life name completely disappears from the blade, inside this child will only be Ian. He won't be your father anymore. He will still be the Dark One, though." She closed the lid. "So please, be very careful. If he loses all his memories, try to give him a new life. Don't trap him in the memories you both have of him."
She looked defeated. And Bae felt that way too.
"Is... there a way to prevent it from happening?"
"I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that question."
Bae nodded. Now, he was afraid.
"One more thing, child," she called. "If this dagger gets out the box before it's time, he will suffer."
"So, do not take out the dagger, whatever happens."
She nodded. "That's the idea. I made this specially for that purpose."
/0/
Smoke. She could smell smoke. She opened her eyes and got out the bed, startled. Through the windows light came, but she was sure it was night time. She looked out to find someone had surrounded the house with a wall of fire.
"Oh my god," she whispered. "Guys, hey, guys, get up, get up, get up!"
"Wha...?"
"We are under attack. Gather the indispensable and go out, NOW!"
She run while putting on her clothes and helped Ian to dress with something more adequate. Bae helped Miranda, who was coughing too much by now. She put Ian in the door and got the weapons. Bae gathered some food and more clothes and was about to take Miranda on his shoulders when she refused, still coughing.
"No, you three go out. I can still hold the barrier up, they won't see you, but I need to focus so I can't move."
"Granny," cried Ian.
"Oh, sweetheart, don't worry. Now, go."
"No, Granny, Grandma! NOO!"
Belle took him in her arms. He struggled to stay, but they couldn't do any other thing.
"Baelfire!" She heard Miranda calling Bae, but she didn't look back, she just got out the house and run towards the defensible place she and Bae made if something like this happened. There were people outside, but they didn't saw them. She could heard them laughing.
"Now, that witch knows what is it to be in hell." Laughs.
"Yes. I feel sorry for the kid. It's not his fault that she cast that spell over him."
"The sooner they disappear, the better for us. You know what our lord said, right? She is the one who is to blame for the disasters that have been happening to us all this time."
They laughed a little more, but when a strange sound came, a haunting sound, the sound of the death, they flew.
Belle hid, holding tight the child, covering his hears. He was crying on her shoulder, shivering.
"C'mon, Bae, come out. C'mon!"
She saw him and relief run through her body. She must have loosened her grip on Ian, because he got off her and run towards the house.
"Grandma!"
"BAE! Get him!" she screamed.
"Nooo! NOO! Mirandaa! MIRANDAA! NOO! DON'T LEAVE ME, MIRANDA. I LOVE YOU, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME. I'LL BE GOOD. PLEASE, PLEASE!"
Bae could get him, but something fell to the ground. The wooden box opened and the Dagger touched the earth. Immediately after that, the light that came from the fire was dimmed, a cold breeze danced around them and Ian eyes shone with a golden glow.
Belle run towards them and helped Bae with Ian, who had a hand directed to the house, still calling for Miranda, crying, yelling. The fire ceased completely but the house was burned.
"What's happening to him?" Belle asked when Ian skin started to change. The breeze became wind, getting stronger, and stronger.
The house creaked and the wood planks that made one of the walls started to fall apart. Then, an earthquake.
"The Dagger! It has to be inside the box." They had to yell to hear the other, since Ian's voice was getting louder and louder, maybe by magic.
"Go get it in! Do it, DO IT NOW!"
Bae released Ian, unbalancing both he and Belle and with quick sharp movements got the Dagger into the box and closed it.
It all ended as suddenly as it started. Belle and Ian fell to the floor. Ian was crying. Belle tried to get him to calm down when she realised that he had lost consciousness and was still crying.
"We..., we have to get out of here," she said, her voice shacking as much as her frame.
"I... agree."
/0/
He was smaller. Miranda was looking at him. She smiled, he didn't.
"What are you doing down there?" she asked, still smiling. He was hiding under her bed. "Did the lightings scare you? Don't worry, my child, they can't hurt you if you are with me. Come, come here." She reached, but he didn't move. Miranda didn't lose her smile, she just sat there, almost lying on the floor, looking at him with her bright deep blue eyes.
"Miranda," he said, with a high pitched voice, the voice of a small child. What was he? Six? Four? He couldn't remember. "Why are you not scared of them?"
She laughed, she laughed like the rain. "Because I am a Priestess. And Priestess don't get scared of the nature of the skies. It is true that if a lighting were to fall on you, you will be dead, but as long as you don't go out, you will be safe."
He got out,going directly to her arms. She embraced him and caressed his hair and his back.
"You are safe with me, my child."
He nodded, his face hidden on her chest, still startling whenever a thunder sounded.
"I love you, Miranda."
"I know, my child."
He looked up. "Why do not I have a name?"
"Do you require a name, my little one?"
"Yes," he nodded. "I want one as pretty as yours.
She smiled at him, and this time, he did too. "Okay, give me some time and I'll find your name."
"Thank you, Miranda."
She kissed him on the forehead.
/0/
"He has fever," commented Belle, with a hand on the child's forehead.
Bae sat beside her, looking at him too. "Maybe the jump from one realm to another is too much for a child his age."
Belle nodded.
"Don't worry, he will be alright. Go get some rest. I'll watch him tonight."
Belle nodded again, and left the room. Bae watched her go. And sighed. Their relationship was awkward to begin with, and now it was more awkward. Sometimes he didn't know what to think of her. Was she brave? Was she not? How come she loved so much his father? What happened between them? He knew only scraps of their story. They never had real time to talk about it. And he had so much questions. But he never asked, seeing the hurt in Belle's eyes whenever they talked about his papa.
"Papa, how did you do it?" He rearranged the sheets, watching the little child in his sleep. "She loves you dearly, and deeply." Bae stopped talking for a few minutes, listening to him breath. "Did you ever loved mama like that?"
The kid remained silent, breathing irregularly. Bae changed the wet cloth he put on his forehead. He has never taken care of a child, but he remember his papa doing these things to ease his pain when he was ill. He even sang to him, sweet melodies that calmed him down and keep the nightmares at bay.
Baelfire rescue one of those an started singing, not so sure about it, voice shaking, and a shade of plea. "Don't cry, don't cry, my wee lad. Don't cry for your papa is here. Your papa is here, he takes care of you, takes care of you, and the nightmare is gone. Smile, just smile, my wee, little one, for your papa protects you."
This seemed to work, because Ian calmed down a bit and stopped stirring, then sighed. Bae smiled. Right now, Henry came to his mind. He must be twenty or twenty-one, if he remember correctly.
"Don't worry, papa, you are not his replacement."
/0/
"Come out, come out," came as a sing-song the voice of Miranda.
He tried to muffle a giggle. She must not find him. Hide and seek was his favourite game, and these huge trees helped him to hide. Miranda always sang like that when she was near to find him, to make him laugh so he would reveal where he was.
"Come out, little Ian, come out and I won't eat you."
This time he couldn't stop the giggle, even when he put his hands over his mouth.
"Found you!" She appeared right at his side, with a wide smile and raised arms, fingers flexed a little, jumping a little.
"Iaaa," he screamed while he ran away, laughing now.
"You won't escape me!" She ran after him, and caught him, throwing both to the ground, tickling him
"Nooo, ha ha ha ha!"
She was laughing too. Dry leaves on their hairs, clothes. Mud on their faces.
"I like my name, Miranda," he said after a while.
"Of course you like it, Ian, I chose it."
Then, his eyes unfocused, and his head fell.
"Ian? Ian!"
When he looked at her again, something was different. "Mama, I want to go home. I feel bad."
Miranda looked at the child, a bit worried. "Do you know who is Miranda?" she asked. He nodded. "Who is she?"
"She is great-grandma, right?"
She froze. It seemed like he just forgot something important. A fine breeze passed by. Magic!? "Yes, yes, it's grandma. Let's get in. It's started to chill."
/0/
"Nightmares," she murmured to the night. Beside her, Baelfire nodded. He had an arm around her shoulders and she was leaning onto him.
"He had been having them after the fever."
"And... Those are his memories," she added. "Our memories."
"He... When he loses the last of them, he won't be him anymore. He will be Ian, just Ian."
Belle shivered and Bae hugged her tighter. She leaned into the touch, feeling reassured by the proximity. She didn't know how she felt about Bae. She always pictured him as a child, or a teenager at much. She never thought of finding a grown up man – a man who reminded her so much of her Rumpel. She missed him, and she knew Bae did too. She supposed they supported one another. It was warm in there. She liked being with him.
A knock into the door separated them.
"Come in," said Belle.
With short and unsure steps Ian entered the room. When he spotted Bae there, he looked at them with suspicious eyes. He was still ill, with red cheeks and fever, but he could walk now, and he got bored easy in his bed. So he investigated the place, always well covered by layers and layers of warm clothes.
He walked towards Belle and sat on her lap, laying his head on he shoulder and closing his eyes. She looked up to Bae, who was still standing and saw his eyes full of kindness, warmth and love, a small smile spreading over his lips. He was handsome when he looked like this. When she saw this side of him she could perfectly well see his father on him, and it was maddening. It hurt even more now that she had him in her arms.
"I had a nightmare, but I can't remember it," mumbled Ian.
Bae lowered himself to be at his same eye level. "You are okay now. You have us. We are going to protect you." The boy nodded. "Listen, if you can't sleep, you can stay with me tonight," he said, glancing over Belle briefly. "Or you could stay with Belle. Whatever you prefer."
Ian nodded, eyes closed, breathing even, maybe falling asleep. She smiled at him, caressing his hair and kissing the top of his head. He was so small, so defenceless.
"Let's get you to your room, darling. You need to rest. We will stay with you until you fall asleep, okay?"
"'kay..." he whispered, almost completely in Morfeo's arms.
Baelfire helped her to get up with the child in her arms and opened and closed doors. While she stood in the middle of the room, Bae accommodated the bed clothes and the pillows. They both put the child in it, and covered him with the sheets.
/0/
Bae stayed while Belle came back to her own room to rest. He sighed heavily. He could understand why his papa fell in love with her. She was too kind to anyone, but when she needed, she was firm as steel. She was a fine woman with a beautiful smile. A sad, sad smile. Too beautiful and too sad. It hurt him that she was unhappy, but he was grateful to her for being with him all those years, instead of staying with the heroes. The ones who couldn't beat Pan, the ones who needed to be saved by his father.
He sighed again, toying with a ball that was in the room. In moments like these he missed Emma even more. He wanted to see Henry, and dreaded that he was missing his life yet again. He needed to see her, and embrace her. But the only one who was there to held him was Belle. Not Emma. Not Henry.
But now. Now he had his papa again. And his papa needed him like no one in this or other land. He was sure Emma would raise Henry greatly. Mixed memories came to him, making him cry. He saw his own tears running down his face on the mirror. It wasn't anything special, that mirror, just the wooden decoration. It rested over a desk. It had the face of an angel on top of it. The eyes of the angel were almost as his eyes level. Over the desk was the box with the Dark One's Dagger.
They had conveyed that the box should stay on Ian's room, closed. They trusted the child not to open it until they told him he could. He had obeyed this far, but maybe when he grew a little older, or when he stopped being sick, he would open the box.
He sat down and opened it. The silver like glow at the moonlit let him see clearly the name. Rumpelstiltskin was almost gone, while Ian was gaining more and more strength. There was nothing they could do. He knew the latest nightmares of Ian were the memories of his papa. And when he woke up from those nightmares those memories were lost. Losing them meant losing his identity as Rumpelstiltskin.
"Rest well."
He left the room, closing the door quietly.
"Is he ok?"
He almost let out a yell. Jumping he looked around to find Belle standing near to him, with a grin.
"I didn't know you were a scaredy-cat."
"I am not, but you scared me."
They both smiled.
"I... can't sleep," she said.
"If you want, we can talk by the fire with something to drink. I think I won't be able to sleep either."
Neither of then saw the boy, listening to their short chat, standing by the door. They did not, because he was covered by the shadows, a golden gleam on his brown eyes.
/0/
"Listen, and listen well, child. You are forbidden to use your magic powers, even if they look harmless. We still don't know how bad things would turn out if you did a too powerful enchantment. You could kill yourself."
"Okay, Grandma, I won't use my powers."
Miranda nodded. But still, she looked worried. He knew why. She saw him kill all those people with the blink of an eye. He was just trying to protect them, but it was too frightening. If this was inconvenient for her, he would not use his powers anymore.
"Grandma."
"Yes?"
"Who is Rumpelstiltskin?"
She looked surprised. "I don't know. Where did you heard that name?"
"In my dreams. A woman called... called... I can't remember her name, but a woman was calling that name as if she was going to die. She... She was crying while saying that. It was as if she thought Rumpelstiltskin was about to die."
Miranda's breath was caught. "That... sounds like a memory," she whispered. But it seemed like Ian didn't heard that, because he was focused on the woods.
"Miranda!" he said to the trees. Then, he turned. "Grandma, who is Baelfire? I think... it is important."
"It is, my child. But I don't have the answers. I am sorry." She hugged him, he was crying. She cried with him.