"Who is here?" Rumplestiltskin asked, stepping away from Belle to face the other maid.
"Milady Regina." Mrs. Potts answered her hands gripping at the white apron nervously. "But she can't enter the castle, because Milady Fiona locked it with some powerful protection spells."
That information was vital to Belle. Of course, Fiona would have locked the damn castle, but if Regina was there and only if she could get out, then maybe she could ask for help. Otherwise she was fated to spend the rest of her life there, watching the Black Fairy play her sick mind games, drinking to her victory.
"Send her away." The imp said with a flourish of his hands, totally uninterested. "I don't want to speak to her."
"But - " the maid started, looking from him to Belle, a little desperate.
What Rumple didn't even start to imagine was that the two women were thinking the very same thing. They couldn't just tell Regina to leave and never come back, because she was the only salvation they had now and Belle was really grateful that someone had the presence of mind, to look for them after almost three weeks without a word.
"I'll do this." She said, cleaning her hands in a dish cloth. "Mrs. Potts, can you finish the dinner for me?"
"Of course."
Mrs. Potts took her place in front of the counter, finishing to peel the potatoes she had left aside. Rumplestiltskin watched the two of them with a mistrustful glance, as if he knew that the youngest maid was about to do something he wouldn't approve.
"Belle, what are you going to do?" He asked.
"Just send her away, like my master wishes."
She walked towards the entryway as fast as she could, seeing the dark-haired woman standing right in front of the open door, wearing a cream outfit, the short stripes of her hair tied in a braid that ended up just over her shoulder, unable to get inside the castle.
"Regina!"
An invisible barrier kept the lady from reaching her, just like the expected and she slammed her fists against it, frustrated.
"Belle! What the hell are all of those spells? I can't take them down!" The former Evil Queen asked, before Belle found strength enough in herself to grip at Regina's wrist through the barrier, feeling the spells make a terrible pressure in her skin as she pulled the other woman as closer as she could. "Hey, what are you doing?"
"Listen to me," Belle whispered. "You need to come back with every helpful person you find."
"What? Why?"
"I'm a prisoner in here. The Black Fairy took the castle and did something in Rumple's mind. He doesn't remember me."
Regina's eyes got wide. "That freaking bitch is here?"
Nodding, Belle gave the other woman her most pleading look. If Regina couldn't do anything for her, nobody would. She didn't know if they were friends at this point, but the lady believed so and friends supported each other, so she hoped it meant something.
"Yeah, and she can be listening to us. Please, help me. I fear for my children."
"Alright. I'll be back as soon as I can." Regina said, pulling away from her grip. "But, Belle - "
"What is it?"
"A true love's kiss can break any curse." She said, before turning into a purple cloud of smoke and disappearing.
Belle stood there, facing the gardens where she could no longer take afternoon walks, the ghost of a happy life passing in front of her eyes, bringing some forgotten memories of those sunny summer days her family spent there. She sighed, touching the spell's barrier and feeling like a bird locked in a cage when a new presence behind made Belle suck a breath, afraid of being caught doing another stupid, impulsive thing.
"What is happening in here?" Fiona asked.
"There was a visitor." She explained, not daring to say who exactly had been there if the Black Fairy didn't require this strict information or her last hope could end too soon. "Your son told me to send her away."
Shrugging, Fiona grabbed her by the arm, closing the doors with her magic before dragging Belle through the hallway, making the maid stumble in her own feet, trying to accompany her fast steps.
"We need to have a private talk." The Black Fairy said. "Follow me."
She took Belle to Rumplestiltskin's laboratory – which she had taken as hers since her arrival at the Dark Castle – starting to talk when the two of them were as far from the other residents of the property as possible.
"You see, I've thought that I could have you around to watch my reign, but you have been behaving really badly and I can't allow you ruin everything that I worked so hard to get."
"What do you mean?"
"I need you very far away from this castle, so I got this."
Fiona took a small blue thing from inside a black wooden box, lifting it at Belle's face level a suddenly things made sense to her, because that object that she only heard and read about but never truly saw, held an enormous power, that a lot of people seek, mainly when they wanted to exile someone. And today she was the one who should be banished from that realm.
"A magic bean." Belle whispered, with a lump in her throat.
"Yeah, one capable of taking you to a place where you will never ever be a trouble for me again." The lazy smile on Fiona's face only got wider as she spoke, walking around the laboratory as if she owned the whole place. "I would use it no if wasn't for the fact that, if you go today, your silly daughter won't survive for long, as she refuses to be feed by anyone than you and it isn't that easy find a good seer those days. But, if I caught you near my son again, I won't think twice before using this and let your precious little girl starve to death."
She stopped right in front of Belle, to give impact to her words while she rubbed her fingers against the bean, but what she certainly wasn't expecting, was the lady's reaction. The Black Fairy's coldness had reached its peak, getting Belle so angry and full of hate that she used all of her strength to slap Fiona in the face, a loud sound echoing in the walls when her palm made contact with the skin of her cheek.
It got Belle's fingers aching a little, but it was so rapturing that she couldn't regret. All of her recently frustrations were gathered in that slap and as she watched the fearful Black Fairy cup her own cheek, stupefied, she felt more proud of herself than she ever did before.
"No matter what you say, how many threats you make or where you send me, Fiona, I will never stop fighting for Rumple and our family. What we have is true and you will never know something like that."
"Is that all you have?" She laughed, taking a menacing step in the lady's direction. "For now, Belle, princess of Avonlea, I owe you, so you will be a good, quiet maid, to keep yourself and your children alive."
"I'm not the princess of Avonlea anymore, and I haven't been for long." Belle lifted her chin, putting all of her pride and petulance in the next phrase. "I am the Dark Lady. Nothing you can do you will ever change this."
The heels of Fiona's shoes made a muffled insistent sound when she walked towards Belle, placing the magic been back to its place inside the box, which she carried with her on her way to the laboratory's door.
"Well, let me tell you a secret, darling." Fiona said standing at the doorframe, irritatingly slowly. "The consort of the darkness, can't be light."
"That's what you think." Belle muttered, when she was gone. "I'll break this curse and after this, I'll watch you burn."
Fiona left the castle that same night, to look for some ingredients for a new spell she was trying, saying that she should be back on the next day for lunch. It gave Belle some time to work on her newest plan. She wanted to talk to Neal and explain everything to him, but he was occupied with distracting Gideon and she didn't want to give Rumple another reason to push her away.
However, in the middle of the night, Mrs. Potts woke her, saying that there was something wrong with Rose and nobody was able to calm her and put her to sleep. Belle rushed upstairs, finding Rumple, Neal and Gideon all inside the nursery, looking at the squealing baby with worried faces. She shrunk inside her night vest that covered the white gown and reached for her daughter without even asking for permission, cradling her gently and kissing the top of her head, feeling the how hot she was.
"Dear gods, she is burning in fever." She whispered, looking at Rumple like he was a great idiot for not realising this before. "Go get a medicine for her!"
Nodding he waved his hand, vanishing from there with his magic.
"Mama, is she going to be fine?" Gideon questioned.
"Hopefully, yes, sweetie." Belle answered, before turning to Neal. "Can you please put him to bed again?"
"Sure. Come on, buddy." Neal said picking up Gideon from the floor and making him laugh when he swung him, his glance remaining on Belle for another moment. The young didn't trust his father right now and was afraid of what he could do to her. "Will you be fine here?"
"Yeah, Mrs. Potts will stay with me."
Neal's lips tightened in a thin line, his brow narrowing, but despite of his fears, he did what he was asked and took his brother back to his chambers. Rose was still screaming, filling the nursery with her cries and making Belle's heart race with worry. She had handled fevers before, but her little girl had never been sick before and Gideon only did when he was quietly older than her, so the lady couldn't help but to feel scared.
"Oh, darling, don't cry, your papa is going to bring something to heal your illness."
Mrs. Potts watched them with distressed eyes, walking to the nightstand where a bowl with water was set, damping a cloth and bringing it to her lady to let her place it on the baby's forehead to help the temperature to low down.
Rumplestiltskin reappeared a moment later with a bottle of medicine and a spoon in his hands, anxious.
"Here, a dose of this will resolve the problem." He said opening the lid and filling the spoon with it.
She sat at the rock chair, taking it from him, and leaning the spoon slowly to the little girl, already knowing that she wasn't going to want to take it.
"Rose, sweetheart, look at mama. Open this little mouth, huh?" The baby screamed and Belle took the chance to make her drink the medicine. "Good girl." She whispered, looking up at the imp to give back the spoon as she straightened the cloth on Rose's head, smoothing her back as her cries fade and she leaned against the mother's shoulder. "Hush, hush, my child."
None of them were paying attention at Belle's terms, they were just relived that Rose had finally get calm and lifted the own thumb to her mouth, sucking at it.
"You can get back to your chambers, master." Belle said.
Rumplestiltskin lifted an eyebrow. "But she's not fine."
Mrs. Potts placed a hand on his shoulder inclined to help her lady at any cost. He looked at her surprised and annoyed by the gesture, quickly moving away from the chubby woman, like her touch had burned him.
"You have two maids to take care of this to you." Mrs. Potts bounced. "Go to sleep."
"Alright. But it is better that nothing happens to this child in my absence." Rumplestiltskin said, impishly, but then, he sighed looking down at Rose as she closed her eyelids, drowning in a deep sleep, and added more softly: "Call me if you need."
He exited the nursery, closing the door behind him, leaving Belle with a heavy heart for the fact that he hasn't fought them to stay there with his daughter like he would when he still had his memories. But at least, Belle won what she wanted: some precious time with her girl. She didn't care if she had to spend the rest of the night wide awake, changing the damped cloths in Rose's forehead, she was a mother a she would gladly take care of her child, mainly now, after all that time barely been given five minutes in her company at time.
"My darling baby looks so helpless."
Accommodating herself in an armchair near the windows, Mrs. Potts smiled tenderly to her. "She will get better now that she took the medicine, milady."
Belle laid Rose inside the crib, pushing the rock chair to its side, so she had a full view of the baby. It was a very peaceful image, one that gave her hope despite of the whole bad situation it was set on. Rose was tucked inside a soft cotton nightgown, her cheek bright pink because of the fever and her short stripes of auburn hair starting to curl in the back of her head. She smiled, thinking to herself how she and Rumple had done such a perfect human-being. Some years ago if someone told her that she was not just going to be madly in love with the Dark One, but she would also have his children, Belle would have laugh, but now every single road her life took seemed to have been leading her to there.
"I'll watch for her sleep to make sure." The lady finally found herself able to say, but Mrs. Potts was no longer hearing, since her eyes had closed and she was sleeping in the armchair.
Belle on the other hand, didn't slept a bit. She kept checking Rose's temperature at each five minutes, worried that if she just closed her eyes, something bad would happen to her daughter. The fever came back some hours before the sunrise and she gave the baby another dose of the medicine Rumple had brought, which made its work efficiently, vanish the high temperatures from the little girl's body.
Rose woke up crying early in the morning. Belle changed and bathed her before walking back to the rock chair where she passed a terrible sleepless night in, to feed her. At this point, she was just so tired that her eyes were heavy, her back hurt and she barely felt the weight of the baby's body on her arms, feeling that her mind was very far away from her own body. The lady was so sleepy, unconsciousness swinging on the chair, that she didn't heard when the door opened.
"You're her mother." The Dark One's voice said.
Eye's flowing open, Belle started at him in shock, because she hadn't even thought about the possibility of him walking in there while she breastfed their baby, when he didn't know that she was their baby.
"Rumplestiltskin, I - "
"You stayed with her all night, you're the only one who can soothe her and - " he swallowed hard, taking some careful steps in her direction. "And you are feeding her."
"Yes."
Departing the baby's mouth from her, Belle closed her nightgown and stood up, apprehensive under Rumple's puzzled glance. He seemed to be trying to fit all the parts on his mind, looking at her like she was some kind of exquisite creature that he wasn't able to comprehend at all.
"You and I have a past." He mumbled, still stunned.
"That we do." Belle answered, placing Rose back on the crib.
"I don't remember."
"I know."
"Belle - " he reached for her, having the strong need of been in contact with any part of her that could assure him that this was not another disillusion of his, that this time she was there and she was real, that the fantasy of the perfect family in his head, wasn't a fantasy and that someday, somehow, he really did have it. "This doesn't make sense at all. How could someone like you end up with someone like me? I am a monster and during the last few weeks all I did was to prove it so."
"Rumple," his name sounded so beautiful slipping through her mouth that he felt that his heart was about to burst. "This is on your mother, not you. Everything that happened it's her fault." She touched his face and the only thing he could do was to desperately lean against her palm. "But can have our lives back, if you only believe me. If you choose our family instead of her."
"I do." He said. "I choose you."
Bending to so slow, as if he was asking her permission, Rumplestiltskin covered her throat with both his hands, bringing her face close to his as he moulded their mouths together in the sweetest lock of lips anyone could have. It was like a wave of light in his large ocean of darkness and suddenly the memories came back, one by one, brought to him by her love and devotion.
She was Belle, former princess of Avonlea, earned by him, the Dark One in one of his many deals. She became his maid, the light of his days, the object of his desire, his lover, the mother of his children and the eternal Dark Lady. She was Belle, a she was the bravest hero people never heard about. And in that moment, he realised something else: she was his one True Love.
"Belle!" Rumplestiltskin exclaimed pulling away, just to grab her by the waist and clutch her petite body against his, inhaling her floral scent. "I remember. I love you."
"I love you too." Belle replied, dropping some tears of joy. "Oh, I can't believe that I have you back. I told you that we were going to find our way back to each other."
"And you are always right. I'll never doubt you again." He said, kissing the top of her head. "You broke the curse my mother casted on my heart. You are my True Love, Belle."
"I didn't need a curse to know that."
Belle caressed the thick skin of his face. She was truly happy and it had been so long since the last time she felt this way that it was almost like a daydream.
"Sweetheart, I promise you, I'll never let anyone do us apart this way again. No one will ever hurt our children, but now I need to make Fiona pay." His expression had turned darker and his eyes were wild, but his question came as soft and full of love as it could: "Will you allow me to do whatever I must to stop her?"
"Yes. My trust is yours."
Author's Note: I'm really happy for finally been posting this chapter, and even happier that this is coming up right on my birthday, because I can give you guys something good instead of more angst. So, I hope you have enjoyed it, we are almost done with this fic!