Belle sat in the sitting room with a book cracked open on her knee, enjoying a moment of quiet having just finished her rounds for the day. She was already halfway through her copy of Maggie-Now, and she hoped the make quite the dent in it before she got caught up in her work. Just as she was getting to an exciting part of her book, the telephone rang jolting her out of it. Belle sighed and marked her place before going to the hall to answer the call.
"Antioch House, midwife speaking," she said, balancing the phone between her ear and her shoulder to grab a pencil.
"Belle?" a voice said. Belle nearly dropped the phone, her blood running cold the instant she heard his voice, "I can't believe I found you."
"How did you get this number?" Belle managed to choke out.
"Doesn't matter, Belle please just come back. I'm so sorry," Belle could hear that he was starting to cry as he begged her to come back to him. She couldn't respond, her chest felt tight and her skin began to itch all over. She stood frozen in place as she listened to her ex-fiancee plead with her. Ruby chose that moment to come back from her Cub Scouts meeting, her eyes locked with Belle's.
"Everything okay?" She mouthed. Belle shook her head no, her hand starting to shake. Ruby marched over and took the phone from Belle's hand.
"This line is for people needing the attention of a midwife or sister, not for harassing midwives. Do not call back here or I can assure you, you will not be a fan of who shows up at your door," she snapped before slamming the phone onto the receiver. "Are you alright?" she asked Belle, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder.
Belle shook her head as the tears began to fall, Ruby pulled her into a tight hug and whispered soothing words into Belle's hair.
"I'm sorry," Belle said once she had calmed down.
"What happened?" Ruby asked, brushing the hair out of Belle's face and cupping her cheek.
"It's complicated," Belle shook her head.
"I've got time," Ruby replied softly, "Here, let's just go upstairs, I'll fix you a drink and we can talk." Ruby lead her upstairs, her arm draped around Belle's shoulders as they came to their bedroom. Belle flopped onto her bed while Ruby grabbed the bottle of gin she kept hidden in her sock drawer. She poured a generous amount into both their glasses and offered one to Belle before sitting on her own bed.
Belle took a large gulp of her drink, wrinkling her nose as the alcohol burned its way down her throat. "Thanks," she coughed.
"You're welcome, now tell me who was that on the phone?" Ruby asked.
"It was someone from a long time ago," Belle shook her head and took another sip of her drink.
"I got that," Ruby cocked an eyebrow at her. "Belle you know you can tell me anything, and seeing you like that really has me worried about you. Have they ever called here before?"
"No this was the first time I've spoken to him in almost three years," Belle took a deep breath, "I have no idea how he found out I was here but I'm not overall surprised to be honest." Ruby tilted her head, giving Belle the opportunity to go on without interruption. "My father was a good man but he did love to gamble. He ended up owing a man called Mr. Gold a large sum of money and to help pay it off I volunteered to go and serve as a maid in his house. I was young and naive but I ended up falling for him and he said he would pay for my nursing education."
Belle held out her glass so Ruby could refill it; Ruby poured more gin into the glass and sat back to listen. Belle gulped down the drink and continued, "I convinced myself that I could see him for who he really was, I even accepted his proposal."
Ruby's eyebrows shot up, "You were engaged?"
"Only until I found out he was still in charge of his gambling ring. He had told me he'd given it up but one day I found his books with deals dated with the day after he proposed. I packed my bag that night and worked my way through my nursing and midwifery courses. I have no idea how he could have found me,I haven't had any contact with him since the night I left," Belle bit her lip nervously. Ruby couldn't take her eyes off Belle's lip and was struck with the urge to suck her lip between her own, to run her hand through Belle's chestnut colored hair and comfort her.
"Well I think I may have scared him off from calling here again," Ruby smiled warmly, she got up off her bed and sat down next to Belle, draping her arm around her shoulders, "Come here."
Belle rested her head on Ruby's shoulder, "Sorry for unloading all of that onto you."
"You don't need to apologize you didn't do anything wrong," Ruby leaned her cheek against the crown of Belle's head, reveling in the closeness, "You deserve to be loved by someone who values you and who doesn't hide anything from you."
"You mean that?" Belle asked softly.
"With all my heart," Ruby whispered.
A few hours later Elsa had joined Belle and Ruby in their room to chat and relax after a long day.
"How did the birth at the Smith's go?" Ruby asked Elsa, who was busy braiding her hair.
"The baby was breech but it ended up going rather well, the Smiths seem delighted with their beautiful new daughter," Elsa smiled.
Emma walked into the room holding a stack of mail and reading a magazine, "Oh Ruby, I found a good picture of Sean Connery for your wall," she smirked and handed the magazine over for Ruby's inspection.
"Good spot!" Ruby said, carefully tearing out the page, "I think he'll look fantastic next to Cary Grant here."
"You do realize this is the kind of thing school girls do?" Belle smiled at her while pin curling her hair.
"Why should they get all the fun?" Ruby smirked at her, "Besides just because we live with nuns doesn't mean we should act like them."
"Whatever you say," Emma rolled her eyes and opened an envelope from Ashley, the young mother had kept in contact with Emma, sending her letters and pictures every few weeks. Emma smiled at the snapshot of Ashley holding Alexandra in front of the little inn they now lived in.
"Speaking of living like a nun," Ruby started, "Emma when was the last time you went on a date?"
"I had lunch with Graham recently," Emma said defensively stuffing the photo and Ashley's letter back in the envelope.
"Yes to talk about how to shut down Spencer's brothel, that doesn't count as a date," Ruby said.
"Why does it matter? I certainly don't need a man in my life right now," Emma put her hands on her hips, "What even brought this up?"
"A certain Killian Jones asked about you when he picked up his son from Cub Scouts today," Ruby smirked.
"Really? What did he say?" Belle asked, Emma shot her a look.
"He said 'I haven't seen a certain fiery blonde around much, how is she?' Emma he's clearly interested in you!" Ruby actually squealed.
"I'm not the only blonde in the house, he could easily have been talking about Elsa or Sister Ingrid for all we know," Emma stalled.
"Oh come on Emma, I somehow doubt Killian was asking about a nun," Belle said exasperatedly.
"And let's be honest, I could hardly be described as 'fiery', besides he's never even met me," Elsa shook her head, "But Emma what harm would there be in going on one date with a very handsome man?"
"He's not that handsome," Emma ran a hand through her hair.
"Now that's a lie if I've ever heard one," Ruby cocked her eyebrow at Emma.
"Okay so he's handsome and charming in an annoying sort of way," Emma admitted to the delight of her fellow midwives. The excited chatter was broken by the distant chiming of the clock striking midnight.
"That'll be the start of the Holy Silence," Elsa said finishing off Ruby's braid, "We should probably get ready for bed."
"What do you think we've been doing for the past two hours?" Belle chuckled, pinning the final curl into place. Elsa and Emma said goodnight to Ruby and Belle and walked across the hall into their room. Emma's head hit her pillow, her thoughts still racing through her mind.
"I can practically hear you thinking," Elsa said from her bed.
"I'm just not much for dating," Emma tried to reason, more to herself than to Elsa.
"Emma," Elsa turned to face Emma, "You have a wall, I don't know why it's there but it is. And one thing I know about walls is that while they may keep out pain, but they also keep out love. I'm not saying you have to marry Killian, but at least be open to the idea of letting him in."
"But what if it doesn't work out?" Emma asked, feeling more like a scared little girl than a 28 year old woman.
"Then you have all of us here to fall back on," Elsa assured her.
A/N: Surprise this is also a Red Beauty fic! Even though we will probably never get them in canon, I refuse to let this ship go. As for those of you who want more Captain Swan interaction, chapter 5 will be very CS focused.
