"It's a good thing no one has ever succeeded this time travel nonsense," Hook stated clearly. Clever attempt as it was, it didn't put her at ease, or anyone else for that matter. But she knew what no one else did at the moment. No one had ever succeeded, and she didn't know why, but she knew that it had never ended well. Death and destruction always followed wherever this portal went. Even if she didn't succeed she could still end up killing herself and half the town with her. No. She'd already lost him once and she couldn't do it again. She didn't know how he was walking around right now, what had led up to Neal releasing him from that vault, but she knew that she might not get another chance like this. Zelena might not succeed, but they had to keep her from even trying to-
"The baby!" David rose suddenly as if struck by lightning or maybe just an idea or a thought.
"What?" Hook questioned, voicing the question all of them were asking. Mary Margaret didn't look healthy at the moment but she didn't look dead, what was wrong with the baby?
"That's what's missing, that's why none have succeeded," he went on. "Somehow, some way, our baby is the key!" She glanced at Mary Margaret who was looking nearly as shocked and confused at the pronouncement as everyone else. "Zelena went to a lot of effort to get close to our unborn child, that's what she's after! She felt an eerie tingle spread over her skin as she realized that he was right. Why hadn't she seen it before?! Why hadn't any of them?! She'd practically told them days ago, after Neal's funeral. "Don't worry, I'm not here for your baby. Not today anyway." It hadn't just been a threat. It had been the truth. And everyone seemed to suddenly know it!
"What does she want to do with it?" Mary Margaret questioned, her hand protectively resting across her swollen belly. That was an excellent question. One she didn't have the answer for. Would Regina know?
"It doesn't matter," David stated kneeling down again. "She's not gonna get it, we're gonna stop her, since our baby's not born, she's stuck. We have what we need: time." She swallowed nervously. Time to stop a time spell. It was terribly ironic, but he was right.
Mary Margaret suddenly looked down at her stomach then shook her head at him and his pronouncement. "Just not very much of it."
Her stomach turned over. David was right, but so was Mary Margaret. She'd been worried because she thought that she had all three ingredients that she needed but as long as Mary Margaret was still pregnant they still had time on their side, they didn't have to worry about what would happen if she cast it in the middle of the night because she didn't have what she needed. But the moment the baby was born, their time would run out.
"Okay, now we're calling you a doctor," Emma said pulling a cell phone out of her pocket. "If everything rests on you staying pregnant then let's make sure nothing happened here and you're going to stay pregnant." Emma left the room with the phone held to her ear. David held his hand out for Mary Margaret to stand, but then, as if on a second thought, swept her up into his arms in a princely manner against her overwhelming objections that she could walk. He merely told her they were going to make her more comfortable and left after Emma.
She sighed as she turned to pick up her book. Mary Margaret's baby. Zelena wanted Mary Margaret's baby! What on earth did she think that would add to the time travel spell?
"I don't suppose you know why she wants it?" she asked, looking over at Regina who still looked like she was in a state of shock.
She snorted, then glanced over her shoulder at her. "I have no idea," she muttered honestly, sounding as if she was disappointed in herself for not being able to figure out what was happening before this moment. "Do you?" she asked.
"No," she muttered shaking her head.
"Why my heart?!" she asked her suddenly. The question didn't come to her as a witch trying to learn something about her craft, it was a sister, that just wanted to know why her sister was doing this to her. She couldn't be entirely positive, but she'd gathered enough to take a guess.
"Three ingredients," she began. "The histories say that there needs to be something physical, mental, and emotional as well as something that represents past present and future. It can be either light or dark in nature. Your heart represents the emotional aspect. Whatever emotion you feel, whether good or bad is always strong. But you also represent the present. The spell requires a heart strong enough to withstand the difficulties of putting the spell together…also the reason she needs your heart. You, your heart...you're resilient."
Regina nodded. "So David's courage?"
"Represents physicality and the courage it takes to change the future."
"Which makes Rumpelstiltskin's brain-"
"The mental," she interrupted Hook. "His knowledge of the past makes him the prime candidate."
"And the baby?" Hook prompted, as if he expected the answer to suddenly appear in her head since the last time that she'd been asked.
"I'll do more research," she concluded. "See if I can figure out why she's trying to change the spell or why she thinks that she'll be any more successful that the others that have tried this in the past."
"The others who have tried this," Regina asked, standing to look at her and looking perfectly serious, "what happened to them? Why weren't they successful?" She was a witch again, better yet she was the mayor, pitching in, trying to figure what was happening in her town. She only wished she had better news.
"They died," she told her. "Mostly. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part their attempts ended in death and…" she swallowed, trying to find a good way to break the news, to instill hope, she couldn't think of a way that would happen though. "Attempts to open a portal back in time usually resulted in the death of the caster and catastrophic events that killed others in the vicinity. Sometimes the entire town."
Regina rolled her eyes and dropped her arms against her sides looking frustrated. "Of course it does!" she laughed, but it wasn't a funny laugh. It was an ironic laugh, the kind of laugh that came with no hope with news that just kept getting worse instead of better.
She didn't want to believe there was no hope, but she also didn't know how to assure her that there was hope. Well, there was, she supposed, but she wanted more hope than the kind that rested with a woman who looked ready to deliver a baby any second suddenly going into labor. So she did the only thing she could do. She left Regina alone in the room and followed Hook downstairs, wondering how she would get back home, or rather back to the shop when she heard voices in the living room. Mary Margaret hadn't gone to the hospital, it appeared the hospital had come to her in the form of...Dr. Whale.
It all came back to her so quickly, like a terrible slap in the face. He was the one, the stranger that had been more than willing to believe at the meeting that Regina had cursed them all. She hadn't recognized him then, understandably there had been too much on her mind but now that she saw him, examining Mary Margaret seriously, the cursed knowledge she held of the town provided the name. That was how she knew him, Lacey on the other hand, she had different memory, a different experience with him that she, Belle, would just as soon rather forget!
Dr. Whale was the doctor that Rumple had harmed for looking at Lacey and suddenly she knew exactly what Regina felt like upstairs. Of course an unfriendly reminder of Lacey would come charging back into her life now, on tonight of all nights when things couldn't seem bleaker! This week really couldn't get any better. She stayed away from him, watched from the door frame as he pulled out a stethoscope and listened to her belly then poked and prodded before finally sighing and taking the tubes out of his ears.
"I don't know what to tell you," he said looking between her and David. "Physically, scientifically, you're fine, so is the baby, and you're not in labor." The Charming family seemed to sigh with relief at the pronouncement. She wanted to but couldn't help but wonder...Mary Margaret wasn't in labor now, but what about tomorrow, or the day after that, or the day after that! She couldn't stay pregnant forever, and she really didn't think she could stay that pregnant for long. No one was that pregnant for long. "But then again," the doctor went on, "I don't know the effects a magical parasite would have on a fetus. I'd like to have you come down to the hospital in the morning for more tests and an ultrasound, but, to be honest, I don't think they're going to tell me what we don't already know."
David nodded as Whale stood and gathered his things. "We'll consider it in the morning," he muttered in a voice so cold it made her shiver. Clearly there was something between the two men, but still, whatever it was, she hoped they'd more than consider it.
And she really wished that it wasn't her Whale was staring at right now. Her mouth went dry and she found herself praying that Regina had appeared just over her shoulder or there was a beautiful painting that he was suddenly fawning over instead of eyeing her like he was. She turned and was confronted with an empty hall as her stomach gave an uncomfortable lurch.
He was staring at her.
"While I'm here does anyone need a ride home?" Funny, he'd made it sound like he was asking the room but was looking only at her with interested eyes. She knew what those eyes meant, or Lacey did and she was unamused and unflattered. Who the hell shows up for a house call and hits on a woman?! was what Lacey wanted to know. But the only voice she could hear shrieking as loud as possible in her head was her own. Why now?! she wanted to scream at the universe. It was enough they were trying to figure out time travel spells, did she really need to suddenly wish she had one in order to go back in time and make sure that time in her life never happened! "How about you?" he asked pointing at her finally making it obvious.
She swallowed, biting back Lacey's sharp answer and trying to contain her feelings, make herself as small as possible and remember her head. "Thank you, but I'm...I'm fine."
"Are you sure?" he asked again.
"Whale-" David muttered behind also unamused. The doctor ignored him.
"The night is still young, we could get some drinks and maybe even-"
"You do know that Rumpelstiltskin isn't dead, don't you?!" she snapped at him. No, not her. It was Lacey, that boldness that Ruby had shown her she had, the stress of today, of what might be just around the corner had unchained it and forced it out of her without warning. At a time like this, when he got that terrified look on his face, she couldn't say that she was ungrateful for it.
"So it's true what they're saying. He really is back from the dead? I thought that was a joke, a rumor."
"No. It's true. He was in the town square last night. So, scientifically what do you think the effects of Rumpelstiltskin finding out you propositioned me would have on the body?"
Whale opened his mouth as if to respond but then grabbed his arm nervously and closed it. "Point taken," he muttered before glancing back at the royal family, "I'll see you all tomorrow." With that he moved around her so carefully it was as if she'd burned him and left.
She sighed with relief and looked around at the people in the room staring at her as if she'd grown a second head. Yes, they hadn't exactly seen her as Lacey, she supposed it would have sounded strange to them. It sounded strange to her, and guilt twisted in her stomach at the thought that she'd used him as a threat like that, just as Zelena was doing now! He wouldn't have minded, it would have been something he'd said himself and been proud of her for, but she did mind! She never wanted to do that again! Never wanted that kind of power or force over someone in all her life least of all Rumpelstiltskin! That was enough to chain Lacey again, to clear her head, and sober her reality. Hope. She needed hope, not guilt.
"Sorry," she muttered to the room as Whale left, knowing there was no excuse, "I just-"
"Don't be!" David interrupted with a happy smirk. "It's about time someone told him off." She shouldn't have, but she did find herself smiling. She didn't know Dr. Whale but she was glad that at least it wasn't something completely uncalled for. "We'll take you home," David sighed glancing at her and reaching out for Mary Margaret.
"Actually, David," Mary Margaret responded. "I think I'll stay just a bit longer, with Regina. Whale doesn't know anything but she might be able to diagnose something magical." David looked unsure, Emma looked the same, like she wanted to point out that the last time they'd left her with Regina they'd needed Whale to come look at her. But no one brought it up.
"Are you sure?" David asked.
"Yes, go. Cora's gone I'll be fine. Emma you can go too, we'll be fine."
"We can wait for you," he insisted, but she could see that for whatever reason she wanted David to leave. She didn't know why she wanted to be left here alone with Regina, especially after what had just happened, but she knew that she did. And despite their past history, despite the fact that she knew she shouldn't trust Regina, in this one matter, at least until the witch was defeated, she did trust the Evil Queen.
"Actually..." she insisted, "I've got to do some more research to do tonight, about your baby, to try to figure out what's happening, and it's best I have as much time as possible especially since..." she nodded at Mary Margaret and her pregnant belly and was surprised to see that she seemed grateful for the help. Especially when David complied and the four of them left the two women in the house alone again. She hoped something good would come out of it this time…
I'll be curious to see what everyone thinks about the interaction between Belle and Whale. When I brought him back I couldn't help but have something get said between them but even I was surprised by what transpired. I thought it was perfectly in line for Lacey and an excellent moment to bring her and her spunk back into the mix. But what I really wanted to dome from this chapter was a great dislike from Belle for using Rumple in the way that she just did, like he was a weapon. I felt it was important for future chapters and future fictions.
Thank you to Meredith Pechta, Sara K M, Raizen Yusuke, Deweymay, and Onlyinyourdreams77 for your comments on the last chapter. I'm so happy everyone is happy. It is what I live for darlings! Peace and Happy Reading!