A/N: didi, thank you for your comments. It's so good to see that someone reads and care about the story.

When Belle woke up the apartment was empty. There was a piece of paper on the table though and Belle took it curiously.

'Belle,

thank you for the place to stay. This one night made a difference. Perhaps some day I will be able to return the favor.

I also helped myself to some breakfast. I must say that peach jam was exquisite.

Lana'

Belle raised her eyebrows and, in the first silly moment, checked how much jam did Lana use up. Too much for Belle's taste as it turned out. Belle sighed and just hoped that Lana would be okay and that they wouldn't meet again. It was, at the very least, too tiring.

Few days later Belle was invited to Ruby and Victor for dinner. Granny was going to be there too. Belle found out that she wasn't as enthusiastic to the idea of the big dinner as one would expect. Mainly because she would be peppered with questions and she didn't have any new answers. Life has been just the same since the divorce. No exciting jobs or travels in sight, no newly met men, and she certainly wasn't going to tell them about Lana. She didn't need to, she could easily imagine the shock, disbelief and flat accusations about being naive. She loved Granny and Ruby, but on occasions they were a little too much to bear. Belle wouldn't argue that she sometimes did naive things, but how could she learn what is not naive any other way than trying to do something on her own? And blind self preservation was as bad as any blindness, right?

She had to face the same problem when she decided to marry Robert. Granny was very opposed to the idea from the beginning, Ruby was more understanding, but still so worried. Now Belle felt compelled to defend herself to both, Granny especially, because she didn't regret her marriage itself, only that it ended badly. She was still certain that she would regret not marrying Robert much, much more. But explaining this to others seemed like an awfully unattractive option. And a futile one, as everyone there could just say that they are worried because, unlike Belle, they have first-hand experience with the world of crime. What was Granny's experience from years ago Belle didn't exactly know, but the old lady was very sure of herself using it as an argument.

It might have been a bad influence of Lana's stay, but Belle called Ruby with a made up excuse of terrible headache.

'Yes, Ruby, I promise I'll take care of myself,' said Belle without enthusiasm. Still, better half a minute of over-worried Ruby on the phone than a whole evening of over-worried Ruby and Granny, not to mention the silent presence of Victor who usually tried to blend into a wall when forced to spend more than two minutes with the old lady.

Feeling slightly guilty about lying to her best friend, Belle took her coat and hat and went for a walk, planning to enjoy the last two hours of daylight. Maybe she'll even do some shopping?

'Belle!'

Belle whirled hearing her name, reflexively wondering what trouble fell on her now. But then she saw a redheaded, smiling woman approaching her quickly.

'Ariel!'

Soon they were chatting over the coffee in one of the little coffee shops. Belle didn't see Ariel for several years and the redhead flooded her with enthusiastic description of her husband, baby daughter and her work in archeological museum, complete with travels to various excavation places.

Belle felt jealous. She hated it, especially when Ariel was such a sweet, happy soul, but she honestly couldn't remember a time in her life when she felt this jealous.

Finally she feigned a forgotten meeting to flee the coffee shop in a hurry, leaving confused, but not offended Ariel with her coffee cup only half empty.

Belle wasn't sure what she wanted or even what she felt beside the burning jealousy and a sense of being unjustly hurt, but she regretted that she didn't have Robert's new address. She could go there and shout at him, and maybe even hit him, and trash his apartment, and do other things to show him how much she was angry with him for taking away from her everything that she so badly wanted.

She sat on the bench to think it over without bumping into people on the street. She wanted to have another person in her life. Another loving, staying forever person. Who also would be a man she desired. And someone to be there for her as she could be for him. Because even getting her dreams come true was damn cold when she didn't have anyone to share her joy with and to rely on in case something failed. Maybe there were people who were just fine on their own, but right now Belle didn't feel like one of them and somehow it didn't have anything to do with being dependent and constricted, as she often thought. It felt just like a fine thing to feel.

But of course the damned man had to ruin that and Belle felt like weeping. More precise, she felt as if someone close to her died and she had to go through all the grief process - alone. Still, it was better to do it alone than to hear that she did the right thing, or even that she fixed the previous mistake of marrying Robert, and how all this is so good for her.

There was nothing good in this. They were meant to build a happy relationship and they failed. She should be allowed to grieve for this, even if it was completely unclear at the moment what (and if) she should have done differently. She hoped there was something though, because being the innocent girl allowing herself to be harmed felt downright repulsive, like some sort of nightmarish maze. No fault meant no responsibility, no responsibility meant no control and no power to make things work in the future. Just passive, hopeful waiting for the right people, right men, to appear. And still, she didn't believe that meeting Robert and marrying him was a mistake, she hated each and every comment implying that it was, even if said with the best intentions. She could decide to risk being hurt and no one could tell or force her to think and do otherwise. Still, what was left for her now, when she didn't know what she could change?

She hoped something could happen, something new, that would allow her to escape the maze, to change, to regain control. Even something as cheap as waking up at the end of Alice in Wonderland, where she could wake up next to Robert and discover that all of this never happened.

Of course, the universe wasn't so accommodating. In the next minute a black car stopped right before her and Lana got out of it.

'Belle,' she said courtly. 'I need you to go with me. I believe you might be in danger.'

Be careful what you wish for, they say.