Dear Rumple,

how are you? I hope, you and Regina and Hook have a truce. After all, you are all on a mission and it would be the last, if you make war on each other. I'm doing well, except that I can't sleep through nights. I lay awake until after midnight. I'm thinking and remembering of all the experiences we had together and I often wake up after a few hours of sleep before I fall asleep again. Of course, I'm completely tired the next day, but luckily there's a "black gold", which called coffee. :)

Today I've thought a lot about myself. The past few days seemed to me like a dream from which you've freed me. Most of all, I can't believe how Lacey was so attracted to your dark side. She was standing next to you when you've beaten Keith or rather the Sheriff of Nottingham. She just found it fascinating and it turned her on in some way. Her interest was aroused in this night and she wanted to see more of your dark person.

Before this happened, my second me find you quite boring, especially at our "date". Lacey recognized, that the people know you as a dangerous business man and then you were so different that entire day...so incredibly loving. You jumped over your shadow and you asked her out on a date. I still see your eyes and I know it was hard for you. Lacey felt only pity and the evening was boring for her. It would've been a lovely evening for Belle. If "I" wouldn't have gone, then we might had a date, which maybe hadn't been interrupted. But Lacey really wanted to go and leave you alone. Eventually she would have landed in the "Rabbit Hole" again, but then there was Keith and they started to flirt. She felt attracted even to him. In retrospect, I thank you that you saved me from a big stupidity. Only at the thought of the offer, which he had proposed to you in Sherwood, an icy shiver runs down my spine. So, after you chased him away and Lacey said to you clearly, she isn't Belle, she went back to the "Rabbit Hole". And then she met you again, when she was on her way home.
The event with Dr. Whale was completely embarrassing. The poor guy probably didn't know, what was wrong. But I can understand your reaction. Lacey was so much attracted to your dark side, that you thought, this would be the only way you could bring me back. Also there was "me" again, who stood next to you and it was fun for her to watch. I apologized to Dr. Whale and I told him the circumstances. Fortunately, he accepted the apology.
I find it also so terribly, that my second me said, that you have to stop the person, who's your undoing. Indirectly, she has incited you to kill Henry, even though she didn't really know, who you're talking about. She had a really bad influence on you!

A further point on which I had to think, is magic. How Lacey reacted to magic, it didn't shock me so much. Even back then in your castle, I was never particularly impressed by magic. I knew it exists and I knew that I lived with the most powerful and most magical being. But that was it. Whether in the enchanted forest or here in Storybrooke, I couldn't forbid you to use magic. I simply accepted it, even if I didn't like it. But as long as you don't hurt anyone, it was okay for me.
But Lacey was just as fascinated by magic as of your dark side. She thought it was really cool, what you've all can do with it. She was so impressed, that she even asked you to immortalize her. A thought, which I think now, it's no longer so far-fetched, if I'm honest. But then I have only one condition: We both! Side by side! Forever!

Lacey is and was so completely different. And yet she's a part of me now. I drink, for example, one glass of wine (I don't do it very often and I don't fill the glass till the edge and I don't get drunk!) and I'm more open to magic. It depends on, what magic you use for and in what situations. I think, it also decides, what price you have to pay for it. I don't want to say, that I make you responsible for all your mistakes. You're the Dark One, so you must have a dark side and this side determines your cruelty. All your bad decisions didn't come directly from your heart. It was determined by your power. You're not as terrible as everyone thinks. Basically, you're a man who wants to be loved and you have so much love in you. You're afraid to hurt and to lose the people, who you love. But as long as you're the Dark One, there is also a dangerous side in you.

Besides, I loved it, how you've stood by me despite everything. Like me, you tried to take influence on Lacey. While she was in your shop, you had control over how much she drinks. You were around her. She was so accustomed at you in the few days. She found you more than just sympathetic. Personally, I like the way you cared about "me" and that I was your focus. Even if you have should take care more of Bealfire, but I can only imagine how hard it must have been for you. If you wanted to win back Bealfire, you had to let me go or vice versa, it was the same. I'm so sorry, that it has come to this!

By the way, the necklace you gave me is exactly the same, which I had dreamed of weeks ago. It was this morning, when I woke up and I saw you in the basement, practicing magic again. I wasn't really mad at you, but just incredible worried, that you may default back into your old patterns. And I thought not only of magic, but rather at the wrong decisions you've made thereby.
So, we both were in your shop and you had a gift for me. I should turn around and you've closed the chain in my neck. I thanked you with a kiss and we hugged before Leroy came in and wanted to have his ax again. You said no or proposed a deal (I don't know exactly anymore). You went to him, pushed him against the wall and I wanted to stop you. Then you turned around and I saw you again as the real Rumpelstiltskin. At this moment, I woke up and went to look for you.

That's it for today. I'm really tired now. Tomorrow I'll write you, what came out in the mayoral election and how I felt, when I was finally myself again.

Good night! Sleep well and dream of me as I of you every night!

I love you!
Belle

A/N: Tomorrow there will be a little surprise. I hope you have fun with this long letter. :)