A/N: This was a request from orthankg1. Apparently the idea of "the other woman" is pretty popular. Consider this the alternative to the last one-shot. Enjoy!

Mine

"Gold?"

Emma charged freely into her husband's shop. The curse had broken that very morning and it was still too strange to believe that the man she thought she knew so well was actually the fabled Rumpelstiltskin. Funny; she always pictured that particular fairytale character as a dwarfish, creepy, boggle-eyed creature with a nasty temper.

Her husband wasn't that short in stature and his deep brown eyes were one of his best features. The temper and the creepy factor was spot on.

It was even stranger to learn that her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming. All the way down the street, they had bombarded her with embarrassing questions about her life so far and expressed more than enough concern about her marriage to Gold-uh, Rumpelstiltskin. Even now, as they dogged her heels and surveyed the empty shop, they didn't appear too disappointed.

"Looks like he's not here. Shame. I was really looking forward to having tea with the son-in-law that happens to be three centuries older than me," Charming said, putting on an exaggerated scowl. Emma was starting to see where she got her sense of humor.

"Who knows? Maybe he's overcome with happiness that the curse broke and decided to join in the celebration," Snow suggested. It was difficult to tell whether that optimism belonged to Snow White or Mary Margaret. Both tended to look on the bright side. Emma dismissed it with a quick shake of her head.

"Trust me. Gold isn't the big celebration type. Remember your welcome home party after you got out of jail? All he did was sulk by the window all evening. David-or Charming or whoever you are now-he didn't even attend your welcome home party. Besides, he has no real reason to be happy just for the sake of the curse breaking. He's been awake for months."

"He's had his real memories this whole time and he never bothered to help any of us? That selfish imp," Charming hissed. Snow's green eyes too deliberately flickered to that case of knives sitting on the counter. It was bad enough they were torn away from their daughter, but it stung worse when they realized they were getting to know her this entire time without being their true selves.

Emma was about to usher her parents out of the shop-preferrably before they nitpicked her again for marrying Gold-but suddenly a shuffling sound came from the back room. She stopped and strained her ears. Only silence filled the shop. Had she imagined it?

No, there it was again. A scrape of a step in the back. The curtain fluttered, but remained closed, preventing her from getting a clear view of the back.

It couldn't be anyone except her husband. Why would he hide from her?

"Hold on," she murmured to her parents, sidled past Charming, and made a sharp beeline for that wavering black curtain. With one rough sweep of the arm, she raked aside the curtain and stomped into the back room. "Whoa! What the hell are you doing?"

Emma whirled away and shut her eyes. Too late; the sight was burned behind her eyelids. Her parents rushed to her side, but hesitated just a few inches shy of the curtain, unsure of what they might discover in that back room.

It wasn't anything repulsive or horrifying to behold. It wasn't an act of cruelty or anything to make her cheeks blaze with embarrassment. It was just...unexpected. Alarming. Perhaps she had exaggerated.

She had expected to find her husband behind that curtain, doing only-he-knew-what. Instead she found...someone else. Wrong gender.

"Currently," the brunette choked out. "I'm getting dressed."

Amazingly, the woman's blue eyes boldly held Emma's when she finally turned around, as if she felt little to no humiliation. She finished zipping up the dress she wore. Emma had walked in at the wrong time and caught the woman fishing for the zipper, the front part of her dress down, and her breasts exposed.

"Well, this is awkward," Charming said, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"At least Rumpelstiltskin isn't here and naked as well," Snow whispered to her husband.

"Right. Otherwise I'd have to kill him."

"I thought you didn't want Emma to be with him."

"I don't, but if he ever hurts her, it's my obligation as her father to retaliate."

While the two of them speculated over it in hushed tones, Emma's mind continued to buzz with questions. She could only gawk at the woman in shock, as though she might be a fragment of a dream come to haunt her. At last, some tiny ounce of logic kicked back to life in her brain and she remembered how to form words.

"Okay, why is there a half-naked woman in the back of my husband's shop?" Emma wondered aloud.

"Maybe she broke in," Charming suggested, much to the mysterious woman's displeasure. "It's becoming a common occurrence in this town."

"He really should invest in a better security system. Even a net will do," Snow added. She shared a secretive glance with Charming. It took Emma a moment to recall an early detail of her parents' love story: her father trapped her mother in a net and it was smooth sailing from there.

Those two had been nothing but rainbows, sunshine, and kisses since the curse broke.

"You said he was your husband?" The young woman-whose name Emma still did not catch-smoothed down the dark blue skirt of her dress and stepped forward to interrogate her. Like everyone in town, she was not impressed with the news, but there was some other darker emotion underneath.

Disappointment. Jealousy.

Emma proudly planted her hands on her hips, standing tall, but then let her arms fall away when the posture made her feel too much like Wonder Woman.

"Yes. Gold is my husband. You know, bound in holy matrimony. In sickness and in health, til death do us part, that sort of thing. It happened fast, but we just got married. I should be on my honeymoon right about now. Would be, if my son didn't nearly die last night."

The memory of Henry lying deathly still in that hospital bed ached inside her heart even now. That was Regina's fault and it made Emma's hands curl into fists by her sides. The woman in front of her released a heavy breath she must have been holding. It sounded too much like a sigh of relief.

"So you haven't consummated your marriage yet. Good."

Something about the way she said it bothered Emma. It was the need to stake her claim that drove her forward, until she was nose-to-nose with her. Emma had to give her credit for not backing down.

"Oh, believe me, we "consummated" our relationship long before we got married. As a matter of fact, the minute we finished getting married, we did it in the backseat of my car."

That wasn't necessarily true. After they were officially married, Emma had wanted to do it right then and there, but Gold had stopped her after a few kisses. He had insisted that the right way to consummate their marriage had to be in a proper marriage bed and so he carried her home. For this occasion, though, Emma threw caution to the winds.

A noise of disgust interrupted from behind.

"Some of us did not need to hear that, Emma," Charming groaned and took an odd fascination to the three swords displayed behind a shield on the wall.

"Car?" The word held no familiarity on the woman's tongue. She cocked her head to the side in confusion. "Oh, you mean one of those amazing horseless carriages. How...peculiar and...ladylike of you."

Emma narrowed her eyes. Was this woman honestly criticizing her preference in sexual activity? Look who's so high and mighty, she thought bitterly.

"Who the hell are you?" Emma roared impatiently. Now it was her opponent that stood tall and proud. In truth, she looked more like a princess than Emma did.

"Invoking the name of the Underworld is one of your favorite habits, isn't it?" Emma was baffled by this woman's unfamiliar way of speech. She truly did come from another world that Emma never knew. "My name is Belle. I happen to be Rumpelstiltskin's true love."

The breath stopped in Emma's throat before she could make any other protest. She suddenly saw Belle in a new, though not welcome, light. Behind her, Snow gasped. Charming whistled lowly.

"Not sure I understand the modern lingo of this world, but...oh, snap seems to fit here," he commented. Emma shot her head around to glare at him again.

True love. Those were fighting words.

"I understand if he didn't explain it to you yet," Belle continued. Emma blinked rapidly, perplexed. All too quickly, she was losing control in this emotional battle of wits. Heat climbed along the back of her neck, a result of her anger and humiliation.

"What are you talking about? Explain what?" Belle took another confident step forward. To Emma's dismay, her body betrayed her and she had the urge to take a step back. Those small, lily-white hands were clasped together as though in prayer.

"We are true loves," she spoke gently. She souned like a teacher explaining something patiently to a confused child. "I'm sorry you had to find out this way, but Rumpel and I are meant to be together. Whatever you have with Rumpel is bound to end. Perhaps the reason he didn't tell you is because he's afraid to hurt your feelings."

"She's right, I'm afraid. Nothing ever stands in the way of true love," Charming stated and laced his fingers with Snow's to prove his point. Snow whipped her hand away and slapped her husband on the shoulder.

"Charming! You're supposed to have faith in our daughter!" She scolded. Charming rubbed his shoulder where Snow's hand had landed.

"I do have faith in her! It's his motive that irks me. I just don't want to see my daughter end up with someone like him!"

"If you won't be supportive of Emma, then I will. If Emma is happy with someone like Rumpelstiltskin, no matter what we think, I say it's only fair if she fights to keep that happiness. In short: go, Emma!"

Deliberately, Emma kept her back to her parents. Mostly so they wouldn't be offended when she swallowed back a curse and rolled her eyes. Belle didn't seem to know what to make of them, either.

"Look, lady, Gold is my husband and I intend to fight for him so long as he's mine," Emma declared. Judging from Belle's petite frame, she would only need one solid punch. Still Belle held her chin high, her nostrils flaring as her patience ran out.

"See, you can't even call him by his true name! It's Rumpelstiltskin, not this...Mr. Gold. You should consider the fact that you don't know him as well as I do."

"Can you blame me? You people have been cursed with false identities for three decades! So I'm a little late in jumping on the fairytale bandwagon!"

"Oh, now you're delusional! Fairy tales? Is that what you think I am? I'm just as real as you are! Next you'll tell me Mr. Darcy isn't a fictional character!"

"Clearly you've never had a Disney marathon! You people could have jumped out of a television screen for all I know!"

"This is nonsense. Rumpelstiltskin is my true love!"

"Gold is my husband!"

"What in seven hells is happening here?" Another voice lent itself to their feud.

Both women stopped short and turned their heads to watch Gold-or Rumpel-step into the back room. Unnaturally, his eyes had flown wide open as he examined the scene before him, studying first Emma, then past her shoulder to Belle. He completely disregarded Snow and Charming.

"Rumpel, you never introduced me to your wife. I wasn't even aware you were married," Belle said coolly, crossing her arms over her chest as she confronted the object of her affection.

"I was planning to-"

"Gold, you didn't tell me you found your true love," Emma pushed him further and joined Belle's side in the confrontation. Now he floundered in his speechlessness, gaping fearfully at the two women. Emma met her rival's eye and they came to an unspoken agreement: he had kept secrets from them both.

"I believe he needs some time to sort out his priorities," Belle told Emma, giving Rumpel the cold shoulder. "I don't know about you, but I could use a drink." Emma softened up a bit.

"Have you ever tried Granny's burgers and iced tea?" Belle perked up, her rosy cheeks lifting with a bright smile. Without so much tension in her shoulders, Emma thought she looked rather pleasant.

"No, I haven't, but I do love trying new things. Perhaps you can fill me in on what I missed with Rumpel all these years."

"Yeah, and I'm sure you have plenty of stories about what he was like back then," Emma replied. Even her parents grimaced at whatever true memory came to mind. Together Emma and Belle wandered past a pale, frozen Rumpel, who was helpless to stop them.

"What? I...but...um..." He puzzled over what just happened. He wasn't the only one.

"Did Emma just make a friend?" Snow questioned, staring after her daughter. With her motherly instincts still so new to her, she was on the verge of gushing over this moment in her daughter's life.

"Not just any friend," Charming noted. "That's Rumpelstiltskin's true love and ex-girlfriend. Oh, you know those two will swap stories about you."

Rumpel was not pleased to be reminded of it. His imagination already worked overtime, supplying endless possibilities about what those two women would say when they brought up his name. Thankfully, Emma's parents intended to spend every waking instant with their daughter and so they hurried out of the shop.

They would be back. All of them would be back once they realized he sent a wraith after Regina's soul. For now, he grumbled in frustration and settled behind his desk to take in the blessed silence of his shop.

How had he managed to miss Emma's first encounter with Belle? It was the moment he had dreaded since Belle showed up again. Neither of them had bruises, blood splatters, or weapons in hand, so it couldn't have gone too terribly. He reclined his head on the back of the chair, folded his hands over his chest, and let his mind drift as he awaited the return of the heroes.

In his mind, he began to fantasize about how that deadly confrontation between Emma and Belle should have happened...

Fingers tangled in locks of dark and sunshine hair, pulling. Blood pumping. Insults flying, his name on their tongues. Hot breath. Arms and legs flailing. Clothes shredded. Breasts heaving as they rolled together across the floor.

He's mine!

No, he's mine!

Mine!

"Nah," he mumbled and dismissed the escalating fantasy, even though the bulge under his belt begged to differ. "Who would I place bets on?"

...

Thank you, orthankg1, for the request. I'm glad I finally got around to writing it. Originially I didn't see how I could add in Belle and Emma fighting in the literal sense while still being realistic, but then I threw it in at the end in a different way. I hope you liked what I did with it. It was also a fun challenge writing Belle as the jealous type.

Many thanks to the other reviewers: Marcie Gore, 1994omi, and RazieLynn.