At eleven o'clock that evening, Belle found herself going to the front room of Granny's Inn, but sans Rumplestiltskin because he had claimed that he needed to stay late at the shop to take inventory. She'd also returned Jolie to Tinkerbell, and she couldn't find Ruby, but at least she'd been able to locate Emma.

When they arrived, they found that Aurora and Mulan were settling in on the couch by the fireplace. Apparently, they'd heard about the gathering through the grapevine and it piqued their curiosity, plus they already lived at the inn, so they were bound to find out anyway. Mary Margaret was in the armchair next to the couch looking lost in thought, so Emma went to join her. Even Mother Superior was in attendance, although she was in her own armchair and focusing more on a pair of knitting needles floating in midair in front of her and tracking their progress on a nearly completed baby blanket. Other than Tinkerbell, for obvious reasons, the only one missing was Regina.

Just as Belle made herself comfortable on Aurora's other side, she felt something brush up against her knees, and when she looked down, she saw Ruby in her wolf appearance, looking up at her with the saddest eyes she'd ever seen.

Unable to resist her, Belle gave her a scratch behind the ears.

"Come on up here, Ruby. You look like you could use a friend."

Nudging her sister's hand in appreciation, Ruby clambered up onto the couch and curled up with her head in Belle's lap. Curious about what had Ruby in such a sad mood, Belle turned to Aurora.

"Do you know what's the matter with her?"

The princess shook her head. "I do not, but she's been like this for a few hours."

"Has she been alone?"

"She doesn't seem to want to be because she was with Mary Margaret during the downpour of rain earlier, but almost immediately after, she was out wandering with me in the woods, keeping me company."

Aurora didn't feel like mentioning that Ruby had kept her company and provided a listening ear while had decided on exactly how she was going to break the news to Mulan about her current condition.

"Well, that was nice of her."

"Yes. Ruby is a good friend."

The wolf wagged her tail appreciatively at the praise, and it was at that moment that Granny entered from the diner. Although she'd only invited a handful of the women in the room, she wasn't at all bothered by the influx of extra people.

The way she saw it, everyone in the room was in her inner circle or that of the Charmings' inner circle, so they all might as well learn the truth, too.

Everybody watched her sit down in one of the many armchairs by the fire and start on her own knitting project before she felt comfortable enough to begin.

"Well, I'm not surprised that so many of you showed up for this because we're all more or less family, and there are no secrets in this town. At one point in our village in the Enchanted Forest, there was a terrible frost that depleted our crops, pushing us almost to the brink of starvation. That was also when Tinkerbell came through, injured and on the run from Her Majesty."

Mulan furrowed her eyebrows. "But she's a pixie, though. Couldn't she have just used magic to heal herself?"

"Not in this case - she'd been shot dangerously close to the heart with an arrow."

"For what?" blurted Aurora. "I thought pixies were supposed to be good and true."

Mother Superior looked up from her blanket to add her two cents. "No, those would be the fairies, and I should know because I'm their queen. The pixies are different, but this is neither the time nor place to talk about that aspect. Although I not there, I learned from Granny a little while ago that Tinkerbell had to resort to thievery to get food for herself. It was just unfortunate that the there was a law in place at the time that stated stealing from the queen's private stores - like she had - meant automatic punishment by death, no exceptions. Rather than face that, my daughter chose to run."

"Wait a minute, back up." Emma interjected. "You're Tinkerbell's mom?"

"Which makes Mother Superior my grandmother." Belle added smugly. "Process that."

"I am so going to need to draw out a map when I get home…"

"I'll help." Mary Margaret volunteered.

Granny cleared her throat. "Back to the point - even though Tinkerbell was an outlaw, the whole village pitched in to hide her and nurse her back to health. In return, she saved our crops by making them harvestable again. The year after that, my wonderful but strange daughter Anita decided that she would rather embrace her wolf side and those ideals, rather than living as both a human and a werewolf. I tried to get her to stay, but she was ridiculously stubborn, so I had no choice but to let her go. Almost exactly a year later, King Maurice was passing through."

Belle shuddered at the mentioned of her father. "I hope this part goes quickly."

Aurora elbowed her. "Then shush and let her continue!"

Belle capitulated, so Granny kept going.

"We didn't think to much about it because we only let him to stop to rest his horses and then give him directions and then he was gone again. In the mean time, Anita fell off my radar for ages until Tinkerbell came for a visit again to tell me that Anita was with child but not feeling too much attachment."

If it was possible, Ruby felt her heart sink even lower. Belle sensed her sadness and ran her fingers through the wolf's fur and little did she know, it was the only thing keeping Ruby grounded.

"I asked Anita to let me raise Ruby for her since she didn't want her, but she turned me down and it wasn't until another three years had gone by that I met Ruby when she was abandoned by her mother in our village."

Belle raised a hand. "Isn't there some point where I enter this whole thing?"

"Yes. Around the time Ruby arrived, Tinkerbell had caught the eye of the king and married him, although under another name - Alina. She was also celebrating the birth of her newborn, and that was you. What's the matter?"

Belle had been biting her lip, turning a question over in her mind and it was making her tense. "If you knew of this, the entire time, then why on earth did I have to wait until we were here to even learn about my sister?"

"I suggested the two of you meeting, but Anita wouldn't hear of it."

"Fine, but did my parents know any of this at the time?"

"Oh yes, but he'd been given explicit instructions to stay away from the whole pack. Your mother was also told to stay away because it wasn't 'any of her concern.' She out up more of a fight, though."

"Did my mum know about her?"

Granny nodded. "She did, but she never got near her."

"If only..."

Belle turned to Mother Superior who had finished the blanket she had been making and was now watching the scene very calmly.

"And you are the queen of the fairies, Blue! My mum - your own flesh and blood - was in agony, and I had to grow up watching her be afraid to love me all the way because my father was obsessed with marrying me off, and that was only because I wasn't born a boy! Why didn't you save us? If the fairies are the ones that are supposed to be good and true, why not come for us? You could have!"

"My sweet child, your mother was in exile from Neverland as a punishment for falling in love with a human. I love your mother because she's my daughter, but there were laws in place that strictly forbade me from going after her."

"And as queen, it was your obligation to honor them, huh?"

Mother Superior nodded. "Until your mother found me here and told me her story, I had absolutely no idea what you two had gone through, and that wrecks me. If I'd been able, I would've done everything to bring you both back home and if it had been asked, I would've brought Ruby, too."

"Bloody hell - mum had to run away from home and leave me behind. If not for my engagement to Gaston, I would have also gone, but I bound by that and because I was next in line to rule Avonlea." Belle crossed her arms and scowled. "Lacey came back twice before mum left, and the second time, she almost killed mum in a fit of rage, and I know you ran into Lacey because I remember what she did when she was here. Maybe her acrimony was payback for all of the things you let us go through!"

"Do not pin this on me!"

"Then maybe I should wake Lacey up and see what she says!"

Mother Superior shut down immediately, actually afraid of her granddaughter's flamboyant but dark and unhinged split personality. Ruby, meanwhile, was ready to pounce at a moment's notice if things go ugly, but she was torn about who to protect. Mulan was also apprehensive - and wondering who this Lacey was - but she wasn't getting on any particular side because her loyalty first and foremost to Aurora. Granny was almost wishing that she had her crossbow on hand, although she knew it would be no match against the two magical beings in front of her. Emma and Mary Margaret were watching the whole thing in fascination, although from a safe distance.

That left Aurora, who was literally in the middle of the silent stand-off. She distracted everyone the only way she knew how.

"I'm pregnant."

Everybody turned to her in surprise, although it left Mulan sputtering a little.

"E-excuse me, Rora? When were you planning on telling me this?"

"The second I'd found my c-Mulan, come back! Don't be like that! I love you!"

The warrior had risen to her feet and was walking towards the door because she needed fresh air, but she nearly stumbled at her princess' abrupt confession; she knew it wouldn't have been spoken if there wasn't any truth behind it. Aurora was on her feet in the blink of an eye, chasing after her and she left a stunned silence in her wake. Emma started to go after them, but Mother Superior got up first, insisting that she would do it.

Before leaving, the nun kissed Belle on the forehead in a soft, motherly way and placed the new blanket in Belle's lap.

"No matter what you want to say, believe or even threaten to do, I'm still going to love you, your mother and Ruby and Jolie. The blanket is for your little one."

Belle's eyes filled with tears, overwhelmed, and she lifted the soft fabric to her face, inhaling the faint lavender scent and imagining her baby newborn baby swaddled up in it. She was also drifting back down a rabbit hole she didn't want to go down, and when she came back to reality, she looked around the room to see that she and Ruby were the only ones left.

"I don't want to go home." She told her sister. "May I stay with you tonight? Please?"

Ruby gave a nod and then motioned with her head toward the stairs. When she and Belle were settled in her room for the night, fifteen minutes later, neither of them were anywhere close to sleeping.

They were both wide awake and grateful for each other's company, but both silent and once more pondering what it would've been like if they'd gotten to grow up together.

How things could've been.

How things should've been.