Robbie doesn't know what's happening. He knows some things, though, and so he starts to recite them in his head. Belle loves me. We're going to have a child. We share a home, and a bed, and she loves me with all of her heart.

Robbie is laying down on the bed, curled into the fetal position as he thinks about his life. For the most part, his life is great. He has a beautiful(not to mention absolutely wonderful) fiance, who's going to have his child, and he has his own house. He can come and go as he pleases. He's free but it doesn't feel like it. He's trapped.

Robbie lets out a startled cry, that he'll deny ever making if Belle questions him about it. His mind travels farther back into his past, and the horrors that go with it. Before there was Belle, before there was goodness in his life, there was hurt. Plenty of it. From emotional to even physical abuse, he's had it all.

His father did not care about him. He knows this as a fact. His father had drilled it into him from the time his memory worked. He wasn't wanted, and he never would be.

Milah had been his first steady girlfriend, at grade eight. She wasn't much better than his father, in terms of the abuse he was given. Milah found him.. lacking. In everything. He could do nothing right, and she made sure he knew that.

He did. It was ingrained in his soul. He was a worthless, scrawny little thing, and he did not deserve someone as breathtaking as Belle French. He needed to leave, needed to set her free before she latched herself to him. He wouldn't let her become the woman who married the town's monster.

He began to pack, stuffing clothes into his backpack, and he was so focused on not crying his eyes out, that he didn't notice that Belle was home until she had her arms around his waist, her chin just barely reaching his shoulder.

"Hey handsome." she greets him softly. "Are you going somewhere? Should I pack?" Robbie winces, pulling away from her to glance into her eyes one last time. "I was….I was…" he stammers. Belle takes his hand, and leads him to the bed where she urges him to sit beside her.

"Tell me what you were doing, love. I'll help you." Belle promises, smiling gently at him. She reaches out and touches his cheek.

Robbie flinches again. "I was leaving." He whispered. "I was going to set you free." It sounds stupid to his own ears, and they burn with the embarrassment from admitting that.

Belle's hand drops shakily. "What?" her voice is a little too high to be considered calm, but she is not yet hysterical.

"I love you, Belle, but I can't let you marry me." he whispers. "I-I'm nothing. And you… You're everything. Everything, Belle. Please don't think that this is because of you. It's me - it's always me, really - being… well, me." he blubbers, looking down at the ground.

Belle smiles softly to herself, having figured out what was going on. "Robbie, love, I'm not leaving. And neither are you." She coos gently, urging him to lay down and put his head in her lap. She waits until he does that before stroking his hair and talking again. "We're in love, Robbie Gold, and if you ever try to leave me again, I'll hunt you down and murder you in cold blood." Her gentle tone, the caresses, don't match the words, but Robbie can't hardly focus on anything.

"I...I don't want to." Robbie admits, his control snapping under her touch. "I don't want to leave. But I want to give you a happy ending and I- I'm not that." Belle rolls her eyes, and yanks his face up to hers by his hair. "You, sir, are my happy ending." Belle says quietly, her breath mingling with his. "Without you, I am nothing. I'd be drugged and used and attacked on a daily basis by Gary, without you, sir." she says sternly. "You have saved me, and you continue to save me. Everyday." she takes his hand tenderly, and places it on her stomach.

"We love you, Robbie." she whispers. "Don't leave us." Robbie sobbed at her words, pushing his face into hers until they were kissing. She fell back onto the bed, and he kissed her sideways, not quite on top of her. He didn't dare hurt the baby. "Please forgive me." Robbie whispers against her lips. "I thought- I thought I would be doing you a favour."

Belle rolls her eyes again, and kisses him slowly and deeply. "The only favours you'll be doing me are around our house, thank you very much." She snarks. Robbie nods earnestly. "I'll make it up to you." he promises, kissing her gently back. "I promise. You're my saviour." he whispers.


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