Rumple and Belle make it back to the present and find that not all changes are bad.

All good things must come to an end. I have had so much fun writing this verse and its remix. I can't thank you enough for reading, commenting, prompting and supporting this story. It was my hiatus project after the season 3 finale and it's finally ending just in time for season 4. I cannot wait for the premiere THIS SUNDAY! So, thanks again and happy Once Upon a Time premiere week to you all!

Once Rumple's breathing had evened out, his arms going lax around her, Belle slipped from the bed and padded down the corridor in her bare feet. She was relieved that Rumple had worked out whatever was blocking his use of the Black Fairy wand, but it meant she had limited time to carry out her half formed plan.

She made her way up to Rumple's tower laboratory, quickly locating a quill and some parchment and sitting down to work. She had to be clever about this. If she made even one misstep it could vitally change their future. There was only one thing she wished to change. She knew all magic came with a price, but ever since the fateful event had happened she'd researched, gone over every outcome in her mind. She knew there was another way, she just never thought she'd have an opportunity to test it.

She scribbled down her instructions quickly, praying that her handwriting was legible enough to be read over thirty years in the future. Once she was finished, she addressed it to Rumplestiltskin along with a date and time.

"What are you doing?" came a voice from the doorway, causing Belle to jump and splatter ink across the envelope she was addressing.

She whipped around only to see the past Rumple stalking toward her. A wave of his hand lit all the candles in the tower room, everything suddenly bathed in light. Belle grabbed the envelope from the table, hiding it behind her back.

"Nothing," she said quickly, not sounding nearly as nonchalant as she would hope. "Having trouble sleeping."

Rumplestiltskin arched an eyebrow at her.

"So you decided a trip to the most dangerous room in the castle was in order?"

Belle sighed, her shoulders slumping. There was no use hiding the truth from him. In fact, perhaps it would work better this way.

"I was writing you a letter," she said, holding up the offending parchment. "There are things you need to know about the future. Things I can't tell you right now, but will one day."

Rumplestiltskin's eyebrow arched so high it was at risk of disappearing into his hairline.

"And all those pretty words about everything working out for the best, were they for my benefit or yours?"

"I still think that's true," Belle clamored to explain. "But there's one thing that you absolutely must change."

"Baelfire," he said resolutely.

Belle blanched. "How? How do you know that?"

"Because every time I mention him my older self looks like he's in unbearable pain," Rumplestiltskin explained. "What happens to him?"

Belle held forth the letter, waiting for the imp to take it. "Everything is in here. But you still have to take the potion. You have to forget this conversation and everything else that's happened this past week."

"Why would I do that?" he growled, grabbing the letter from her hand. "If something happens to my son, and I can prevent it, why would I wipe my memory?"

"Because if you don't, too much of our future will change," she cried, willing him to understand. "You can save Bae, but not at the cost of everything else. You have to trust me."

Rumplestiltskin looked down at the envelope in his hands, reading off the date and time Belle had written.

"You promise me this will be enough time?" he asked, looking at her with so much vulnerability in his strange eyes that it almost broke her heart.

"I promise," she replied, hoping against hope she was right.

The sorcerer held her gaze for another long minute, his eyes searching. Then he waved his hand and the envelope disappeared.

"I've sealed it with my magic," he explained. "It will only appear to me at the date and time you specified. That should also allay any doubts I have as to the origin of the letter."

Belle could only nod. She'd done her part. The rest was up to Rumple. She only hoped it would be enough.

She headed for the open doorway, intending to go back to bed when Rumplestiltskin caught her by the elbow.

"I'm trusting you with this, Belle," he said softly. "I think you know better than most how difficult that is for me."

Belle nodded again, then reached up to hug him tightly. This was goodbye, after all. Tomorrow they would go back to the present and she might never see her imp again. She loved all of Rumple, including this part that wore his darkness wrapped around him like a cloak of armor.

She was surprised to feel his arms come around her, holding her close and breathing her in. They stood there in the candlelit tower just holding each other for another long moment. When they finally let go, Rumple had tears in his eyes.

"Goodnight, Rumplestiltskin," she said, cupping his cheek.

"Goodnight, Belle."

Dawn came quickly, the bright morning sun streaming through the windows of his laboratory all too soon. Rumplestiltskin hated mornings. He was a creature of darkness, the bright morning sun leaving him nowhere to hide. It had taken all his strength not to rip open the letter Belle had given him. Now it was sealed, he was incapable of summoning it until it appeared at its appointed date and time. Whatever happened to Baelfire in the future, he was helpless to do anything about it until that moment arrived. He only hoped Belle had given him enough information and enough time to undo whatever was set in motion in the future.

It was a startling to realize that he trusted her. Rumplestiltskin had learned long ago never to trust anyone, knowing that to put your faith in another person was just asking them to let you down. He'd trusted his father and the man had abandoned him in pursuit of his own youth. He'd trusted Milah and she'd shunned him when he'd returned from battle. He'd even allowed himself to trust Cora and she'd ripped out her own heart rather than be with him. He'd had copious life experience to prove he should never trust anyone, and yet here he was putting the fate of his only child in the hands of a little slip of a girl. A slip of a girl he loved.

He was going to forget that fact, and soon if he read the signs correctly. When Belle had hugged him last night, it felt like a farewell. Whatever had been hindering their return to the future seemed to have been resolved. Today might very well be the last he had with Belle for a long time. He would hurt her, banish her, the woman he loved and trusted. It was an inevitability he couldn't change. Then there was the ominous way the future Belle had spoken of her heartache and pain. He had a feeling that having her heart broken by him was only the start of her troubles.

He shut his eyes, blocking out the sunlight glittering off his beakers and glass vials. If he started thinking like that, he'd never take the forgetting potion. Everything would work out in the end, he had visual evidence of that. That comfort would have to be enough.

He set about finishing the two doses of forgetting potion he had spent the wee hours of the morning concocting. Corking the vials, he set them aside. Each contained enough potion to erase the past five days from his and Belle's memories. There'd undoubtedly be some confusion, but it would be as if those days had never happened. They would have never kissed, never admitted their love for each other, never had a glimpse of their own futures. They would return to their roles as maid and master, not knowing they were really so much more.

A knock from the doorway called his attention and he turned to see the time travelers entering the room, both dressed strangely. Belle was wearing a skirt short enough to reveal her legs all the way to mid thigh. Despite the thick tights she was wearing, he could still clearly make out the lovely shape of them and he swallowed hard, averting his eyes from her. His older self was wearing a beautifully cut jacket and trousers. At least he seemed to still have some sense of style in the land without magic.

"So you're leaving, finally?" he asked, turning back to his workbench and idly moving things about in an effort to look busy. He'd wanted them gone from the moment they arrived, but now that the moment of departure was here he found himself wishing for more time.

"The wand should work now," Rumple replied. "Is your potion ready?"

Rumplestiltskin waved the vials in the other sorcerer's direction.

"Good," he continued. "You absolutely must take that, both you and Belle."

"I know," Rumplestiltskin growled. "We'll drink them as soon as your portal closes."

His future self nodded, moving to the center of the room where the Black Fairy's wand was lying on the table.

With a snap of his fingers, Rumplestiltskin summoned his Belle to the tower room and she appeared in a swirl of purple smoke a moment later holding a tea tray.

"You know I hate when you do that!" she exclaimed, setting the tea down on a nearby bench. "You almost made me drop the tray. I know you like your chipped cup but I don't think you want the entire set to..." she trailed off, suddenly noticing their future selves' strange clothes.

"We're leaving," the future Belle told her. "It's time."

Belle's eyes widened as she looked back and forth among the others.

"So soon?"

"It's been nearly a week, dearest," Rumplestiltskin said. "They must go back to their own time before we end up altering future events."

"I know," she said with a nod of her head. "I just thought we had more time before..."

"I know," he replied. This was it, the end of their short little romance. At least for now. One heated kiss behind closed doors, a little awkward fumbling, and that was it.

"It was nice to see you again," the older Belle said with a laugh, hugging her younger self. Rumplestiltskin was slightly overcome for a moment at the sight of two Belle's holding each other but shook his head. Now was definitely not the time for such thoughts.

The future Rumple picked up the wand from the table, weighing it in his hand for a moment before closing his eyes and giving it one simple flick. Almost immediately a large swirling portal appeared in the middle of the room and Rumplestiltskin backed away from it instinctively.

"Thank you for your hospitality," his future self said with a smirk. "It's been a strange few days, but not unpleasant."

Rumplestiltskin just nodded at his future self. Belle walked forward, grabbing her fiancé's hand. She turned and gave Rumplestiltskin a tremulous smile.

"I suppose this isn't really goodbye, since we're you and technically still here. But I'll miss you all the same."

"Goodbye," his Belle croaked out from beside him.

With a final little wave, the future Belle walked toward the portal tugging her Rumple behind her. The portal swallowed them up and then closed as if it had never been there in the first place. They were gone.

They stood there for a long moment, staring at the place their future selves had just disappeared.

"Bah, time travel," Rumplestiltskin said with a shudder. "It's unnatural."

Belle just giggled, reaching out to run one hand down the length of his arm.

"It's time to uphold our end of the bargain," he said, turning to entwine his fingers with hers.

"There's no getting around this is there?" Belle asked, her blue eyes wide as she stared up at him.

He handed her one vial of forgetting potion, keeping the other for himself.

"I cannot jeopardize my future with Baelfire," he replied, trailing a finger down her soft cheek. "I'm sorry, sweetheart."

Belle just nodded, tears springing to her eyes. "I understand. And I have faith that we will be together again."

He pulled her to him then, daring to kiss her forehead softly. "I love you," he murmured into her hair. "That won't change just because we forget this week."

Belle nodded once more. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

She gripped his hand as they both drank down the contents of their vials.

For a moment, he thought it hadn't worked, but then a fuzzy feeling overcame him and he was left standing in his lab, holding hands with his maid. Rumplestiltskin dropped her hand as though it had burned him.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked a dazed looking Belle. "Go clean or whatever it is you do. I'm busy."

Belle gave him an unimpressed look as she turned to leave. It was only after she was gone that he realized he had tears in his eyes.

What the hell had just happened?

Belle landed hard on her knees on the barn floor, pulling herself up just as Rumple came through the portal, landing decidedly more gracefully than she had.

"It's still dark out," Rumple observed, glancing through the open barn doors. "If the wand worked correctly, it should be like no time has passed."

"You mean my body has aged a week in the span of seconds?" Belle asked with an arched eyebrow.

"You didn't age at all for twenty-eight years," he pointed out. "You're in very good condition for a fifty-four year old."

"And you don't look a day over two hundred and fifty," Belle shot back with a giggle.

Rumple rolled his eyes at her joke before pulling her into his arms and kissing her soundly.

"What was that for?" Belle asked when they broke apart.

"It's our wedding day," he replied with a soft smile. Belle couldn't help but return his smile, a giddy feeling bubbling up beneath her breastbone.

"Well then, let's get married."

They walked hand in hand back into town, glancing at the bright lights and crowd of people at Granny's Diner.

"I suppose we should stop in," Belle observed. "We were headed there before the whole time portal fiasco."

Rumple looked for a moment like he wanted to disagree, but Belle insisted.

"Come on," she exclaimed before he could voice his protest, dragging him toward the diner. "Princes aren't born every day, after all."

Rumple mumbled something under his breath about an idiot born every minute but she chose to ignore it.

Belle swung open the diner door, greeted by what appeared to be most of the town crammed into the small space and the overwhelming scent of Granny's delicious cooking causing her stomach to rumble appreciatively. Belle had been reminded over the past week what a dismal cook she'd been in the Dark Castle. No wonder Rumple had been so scrawny.

Ruby waved at her from the counter, Archie was seated with Leroy and Princess Abigail at the bar, Regina was canoodling with Robin in a corner booth, and in the center of the cacophony were David and Snow, cuddled up together with their new baby nestled between them. Everything appeared to be exactly as they left it.

Belle let out a sigh of relief, turning to share her observation with Rumple when someone caught her eye making her heart stutter to a stop in her chest.

"Where have you guys been?" asked a familiar voice from behind Rumple. "You know what, don't answer that. I don't want to know. But you almost missed the entire coronation. Go pay your respects to Baby Graham."

Rumple had whipped around at the sound of the voice, staring at its owner with wide eyes.

"Bae?" he rasped out, his hands trembling at his sides. "Is it really you?"

Neal took a long sip of his beer, completely unfazed by the fact he'd just miraculously returned from the dead. But, Belle supposed, in this timeline he had never died in the first place.

"Are you feeling okay, Papa?" he asked with a lopsided grin. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Belle?" Rumple whipped around to look at her. "How -"

Belle was almost as overcome as Rumple. She had hoped, dreamed but never truly believed.

"Consider it a wedding present," she said tremulously. "Your best man."

"Oh, son," Rumple gasped before grabbing Neal and pulling him into a bone crushing hug. "My beautiful boy."

Neal looked slightly bemused, patting his father on the back as Rumple continued to stroke his hair, crying into the collar of his shirt.

"Care to explain?" he asked Belle, looking at her with arched eyebrows.

Belle just shook her head, unable to contain the tears in her own eyes. She hadn't known if it would work, if Rumple would find the letter, if he would believe its contents, if he would follow its instructions. It appeared he had.

She wrapped her arms around both men, not caring about the spectacle they were making in the middle of Granny's. All that mattered was that they were together. Her family was whole.

"Um, guys," Neal said after a moment, slightly alarmed by his father and soon to be step-mother dissolving in tears in the middle of a party celebrating his son's baby uncle. "This is nice, but I've got to go meet Emma at the jail. She went to check in on Zelena."

Belle felt Rumple tense beneath her arms as he pulled back from his son at long last.

"What?" Rumple asked darkly.

"She might be harmless, but she's still a crazy bitch. It seemed smart to check in on her occasionally." Neal said, looking suddenly worried. "Don't worry, Papa. Emma's got her contained and she's lost her magic. There's nothing more she can do."

Rumple turned to look at Belle with a strange expression, but she knew what he was thinking. All magic came with a price. Saving Neal's life had managed to save someone else's as well, and the implications of that made Belle's head spin.

anonymous prompted: If you're still taking Back to the Future Rumbelle prompts, I'd love to see Belle spill the beans about Bae after Rumple goes through the portal, and rather than say "he died a hero, don't take that away," tell him the circumstances of Bae's death, that his little maid loves research as much as reading, not to change anything prior to Bae's death day, and good luck. Belle was wondering what to get Rumple for a wedding present, and she can't imagine a better one than his son as best man.

I didn't want to post the prompt at the beginning of the chapter and give everything away!