The rope was right where he'd said it would be, in the trunk of the car which was parked a small distance from where she figured she'd started running. It was as if when he'd turned around he'd tried to look for her before moving on. She liked that. It made her smile, which made her think about just how long it had been since she'd done something like smile! How tragic was it that she honestly couldn't remember. She felt like she'd been living in a state of emergency for the last three weeks, longer if she counted the six weeks they'd been gone, which she assumed hadn't been any more fun, and longer than that if she counted the time that he'd been gone. But for the first time in a long time that feeling of complete and utter distress passed and it felt…remarkable! In her youth, she could remember a time when her nurse had accidentally tied her corset too tight, the feeling she'd had when she'd finally got back to her room and taken it off, the feeling of being able to breathe again without pressure against her chest…this felt like that. Beyond words and immeasurable all at once. It was good.

But she still wasn't living in a world of naivety. She knew there was work to do; she knew they needed time, and it scared her. This moment was perfect, but she felt like they lived a romance of moments. Each one was good all on its own but when the moments expanded into a full story that was when they got stuck. That was when she ended up on a road alone at night like before.

Her eyes glazed over as she stared down the road toward the orange line where their moments had ended last time. Her knees shook at the idea of it all, and the thought nearly made her turn and run all over again, to save herself the heartache she feared might be coming. But somewhere in the dark she heard a twig snap, and it broke her concentration.

She looked wildly around at the sound, waiting to see Emma emerge from the shadows. But she didn't. Nothing seemed any different, not to her. "H-hello!" she called out wandering out into the middle of the street. "Is anyone there?!" Nothing but silence greeted her. She couldn't even hear the bats screech or the cricket's slow chirp.

Rumple. She was up here, and he was still down the hill with Merida. He was alone with a bear and her bow, unrestrained while the Dark One still held her heart captive. She didn't have time to be calling out something that may or may not be there and may or may not want to kill her. So without a further thought and a resolution to live in the moment that they were in and not worry too much about the story that was unwritten she made her way carefully back down the hill.

It wasn't easy. She had no idea how Rumple made it down in one piece or how she and Rumple were going to get Merida up in one piece unconscious and tied. She slipped three times on her way down. But how to travel with Merida would be a far better problem than how to beat her. She'd take that any day over-

The sight that greeted her at the bottom of the hill put her in the mindset to run all over again. Rumple was there, still standing on two feet, hands resting on his cane. And there at his feet Merida sat, head in her hands, fingers threaded through her thick curls.

"Rumple!" she burst out. "Grab her bow!"

"Belle-"

"No! No!" the girl shouted when she picked her head up in the direction of the shout. She quickly rose to her two feet and bolted around Rumpelstiltskin. She dropped the rope and turned to run.

"Belle it's okay!" Rumple shouted making her stop.

"It's okay!" Merida echoed stepping up to her. "It's okay. I won' hurt you!"

She took a couple of deep breaths as she examined the woman before her. She wouldn't hurt her after she'd done nothing but try to kill her all afternoon?! "You won't?" she questioned confused.

"No," Merida assured her with a big smile. "I don't have the urge anymore. I must have fought it off."

"It's because you drank the potion," Rumple muttered from behind them. "You told me that Emma ordered you to drink the 'Spell of Mordu'."

"Spell of Mordu?"

"Aye and I did," Merida responded quickly.

Rumple nodded again. "She ordered you to drink it, and you did. You did as you were told, your obligation was fulfilled. The only way you'd come after us again was if Emma ordered you to which she can still do when she realizes her mistake and so for what is about to happen I am sorry, but it's a precaution we must take."

And finally, Rumple walked toward them and took the rope from her. Merida seemed to understand and straightened her back with a nod before making fists and putting them behind her back. The only comment she made the entire time was that he could and should bind the ropes tighter.

She almost felt bad for her. No, that was a lie, she did feel bad for her. She honestly couldn't be sure who Merida was, but she knew that no one deserved what she'd endured, what she must have been enduring. Regina had removed the memories of what she'd forced her to when she'd held her heart captive, but the memories of how she'd felt afterward remained. And it was the oddest feeling she'd ever experienced. She couldn't imagine what Merida was going through knowing that at any moment she could be forced to kill.

"What happened to you?" she asked as Rumple finished the job on her hands. "Where did Emma find you?"

"Which time? Here? Or there?"

Here or there? Camelot? "You met Emma in Camelot?"

"The first time, aye. Crazy lass, I should have killed 'er when I had the chance."

"You wouldn't have been able to," Rumple explained behind her. "Not unless you had the dagger and then her fate would be yours."

Merida was silent for a moment and appeared to take in the news that was just presented to her before widening her stance and shrugging it off. "I don't know anything abou' a dagger, but I know my sword would have at least given 'er a run for 'er money, eh."

Rumple smirked at that and nodded. "Probably," he murmured as he came to stand by her side again. She felt like they were talking in riddles or maybe just a foreign language that she just didn't understand. She shook her head and glanced at the red head again. "You met Emma in Camelot!" she blanched all over again in an attempt to push the conversation forward.

"Aye tha' I did. I was in Camelot chasin' after a Will O' the Wisp, I needed help to find my brothers and those wisps were my only hope. But Emma was lookin' for 'em too. We worked together for a time, but when I heard her talked to nothin' but the air at night about killin' me off I go' outta there as fast as I could."

Emma was off looking for a Will O' the Wisp? "When was this?" she questioned.

"Must have been about nine weeks ago, not that I remember six of those weeks," Merida answered. Her hopes fell. She'd been so hoping that Merida had her memories and that she was somehow talking about what she'd experienced in the middle of their six weeks in Camelot. But nine weeks meant that it had been right in the beginning, possibly before they'd even arrived and found Emma. That would certainly explain talking to herself at night. Or at least it explained the "night" part. The talking to herself on the other hand…

"But that was only just the beginning," Merida went on. "I guess I didn't get away from 'er fast enough because she came after me. The next thing I know she has my heart in the palm of her hand."

"Emma's had your heart for nine weeks?" she questioned. That meant that Emma would have had it in her hand when they'd found her in-

"No. She returned it then, thanks to the crowd of people that came chasin' after her and convinced her to give it back. She took my heart for good a few days ago. I've been in the woods since we got here, trying to figure out this crazy world I woke up in one night and find my brothers. That's when Emma found me. She looked different than she does now, told me she wanted to make up for what she'd done in Camelot and could help me find my brothers, it wasn't until after she captured me and tied me to her dead yellow beast that she changed into the witch she is now!

"She kept me tied there until a couple days ago when she took my heart and kept me in a strange chamber in her house until I started training you," she finished motioning at Rumple with her chin.

Her story was odd and missing pieces but who wasn't missing pieces from Camelot. Still, for the most part, she was able to follow the tale, right up until the odd chamber part that struck a chord of excitement within her again. Another part of the house they'd neglected to search? Was there anything important there?

"Where did she keep you?" she questioned. "Can you describe it?"

Merida shrugged. "Little white room with a mirror, bowl, and a broken fountain of some kind."

"Broken fountain?"

"Great big heavy bowl on the floor with a cover on it and an odd little handle. Pushed it once…it worked for a minute, water left and came back in, then it was broken again."

She tried to think in a way that she hadn't for years. She tried to think through the eyes of who she'd been when she'd just been freed from the asylum and knew nothing of this world. Only one thing came to mind that fit that description, and it wasn't a secret chamber, just an odd one from their world.

"A bathroom," she announced looking at Rumple. "Emma kept her in a bathroom." He nodded in agreement. "So…what do we do now?" she asked turning toward him. "Where do we go from here? Do we contact the others? Do we confront her?"

"Confront Emma you must!" Merida blurt out. "She said she knew what happened to my brothers! I have to know where they are, if they're still alive! It's life and death please!"

"Emma might have been lying to you-"

"If Emma cast the curse then she'd know where they were," Rumple corrected her.

"But is Emma really just going to tell her or return her heart if we politely knock on the door and ask?" she questioned sarcastically. Telling the others seemed like a brighter idea to her. They needed help in this, confronting the Dark One when all the cards seemed to be in her hands just didn't seem like a smart idea. And yet…

Rumple shook his head. "No, she won't. But…with the right amount of leverage and the right person who knows how to think like a Dark One would…Merida's right. We need to confront her. We need to go back to Emma."

Filler chapter, but totally necessary. The guys are infamous for putting bits of conversations, things that the characters shouldn't know yet because they haven't been discussed, in only a short period of time. So naturally I have to put that all in here. I want everyone to be on the same page. It's not so much a big deal to me. I get why they do it, if a chapter like this was a scene it would be a pretty boring and useless one. So while conversations like this are not necessarily new information, it is important information that I feel needs to go back into Moments, but doesn't necessarily need to be on the show. Back when Moments was just starting years ago these were actually the scenes that I absolutely loved writing. I hope you'll like it too, filler or not.

Thank you, Grace5231973, Kathryn Claire O'Connor, Carlyle23, Fox24, Teresa Martin, Rumbellefan, and Ladybugsmomma, for your awesome reviews. I'm glad that you are liking these chapters and not minding the slower pace. I suppose it is good to savor episodes like this, before things got all crazy and frankly just random on the show. Peace and Happy Reading!