Emma leaves the mayor's office feeling very proud of herself. Her presentation went better than she thought it would. She can't help grinning when she thinks of the moment when the mayor's chief opponent tore into her, expecting her to be an easy target. Instead, she stood her ground and managed to counter intelligently each one of his concerns, almost as well as her mother had the other day. He clearly hadn't expected that, since her counter-arguments rendered him speechless as if he had expected her to wilt under his cruel words. He was so upset that his plan to humiliate her failed that he actually left the meeting in a huff.
When she looked at her mother after that, Snow was beaming with pride. For the first time Emma actually thought she could be a princess. After that, the council voted to approve her recommendation and because it was her proposal, she would be the one to oversee the project. While only yesterday she'd felt dread, now she felt hope and excitement. For so long she had lived with no one caring about her, only surviving by sheer determination to make something of herself. Then when her last set of foster parents stole the money she was saving for college, they took that away too. Now she had everything she could have ever wished for and more. A man she loved with all her heart, a baby on the way, parents who loved her, great friends, and a job that would give her real fulfillment.
Her daydreams catch her up so much that she isn't paying attention to where she is walking and bumps right into Isabella as she is coming out of the bathroom, sending them both sprawling to the floor.
"I'm so sorry," Belle apologizes, as they get up.
"No it was my fault," Emma says. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
"That's all right," Belle says.
"Why are you still here anyway?" Emma asks. "I stayed late because Neal called and said he would be a bit late for dinner tonight because he had a big problem at work, so I figured I'd hang around and work out the first stages of the power grid upgrades. Since it was my proposal, I'll be overseeing the project and I want everything to go perfectly."
"I'm sure it will," Belle replies. "I just wanted to compliment you on how well you did in there today. If I didn't know better, I would have sworn you had been giving public presentations for years. You were a natural."
"Thank you," Emma says.
Belle looks around to make sure they are alone. "When we return to our world, you'll be a great princess," she says. "Even though you have no knowledge of our world from what you demonstrated in our study sessions, you'll learn everything you need to know in no time."
"I hope you're right," Emma says. "But you didn't answer my question, why are you still here?"
"I stayed late because I wanted to talk to you," Belle says.
Emma quickly realizes what she wants to discuss. "Is it about Neal?" she asks.
"Yes," Belle answers, pausing a moment before continuing, "I want to know how Neal is handling the revelation about the curse."
"Not too well," Emma says. "When he first told me what his father did, he blamed himself for the fact that I grew up without a family. I tried to convince him that it wasn't his fault, but I'm not sure I've been entirely successful yet. As for his father, so much has happened in such a short time that I haven't had a chance to have an in-depth conversation with Neal about him yet. But I don't think he's feeling too happy with him right now."
"I can understand that," Belle says quietly. "I wasn't expecting him to forgive his father immediately. I just hope he'll give him a chance." She pauses for a moment. "How do you feel about him?"
"About your husband?" Emma asks.
"It's because of his curse that you grew up without a family," Belle says. "His original intention was for your parents to accompany you, but something went wrong and you went through alone. If you hate him, hate both of us I'd understand."
"I don't hate you," Emma says. "As for your husband, I haven't really thought about the fact that it's his fault I grew up alone. Since I've moved to this town, I've been focusing on how great my life has become. And in the few days since I found out Mary and David are my parents and learned that I'm pregnant I've been focusing on getting to know them and on the future rather than dwelling on the past."
"Focusing on the future is all well and good..." Belle pauses as she realizes what Emma has just said. "Wait, what did you just say?"
Emma quickly realizes she slipped up, but figures everyone will find out eventually anyway. "I just found out I'm pregnant," she says. "When I was talking to Ashley I realized that my period was late and I bought a pregnancy test. At first I was freaked out, but now I'm really excited," she adds smiling.
"Congratulations," Belle says, also smiling, although she feels a small pang of jealously. She still wants her own child so badly, but she's barren…or is she? She was still a virgin back in the Enchanted Forest because she and Rumple couldn't sleep together back there without him losing his powers and he told her that the nature of the curse would make it so no one could get pregnant in this town while time was still frozen. This makes it possible that she can have children of her own, but that is something she will think about later on. Even if she can have children of her own, now isn't the best time to bring it up because she knows Rumple has to work out the issues with his son first. "How far along are you?"
"The doctor said around four or five weeks," Emma answers excitedly. "I still can't believe I'm going to be a mother."
"Well you'll make a great mother," Belle says. "How did Neal take the news?"
Emma's smile falters a little. "I learned I was pregnant on the same day I learned Mary was my mother and Neal found out about his father and the curse," she says, "so he was a bit upset about that when I brought it up, but he seemed to become really excited when he heard the news."
"Let me just say again how sorry I am for everything the curse put you through," Belle says. "I don't know what David, Mary, and Neal may have told you about my husband, and while it was true he did a lot of horrible things, he also had another side to him that people rarely saw. He was a good man who only became the Dark One by accident, while he was trying to save his son. He did horrible things because he couldn't always control the darkness, but even under all of that, there was always a spark of goodness in him."
"I believe you," Emma says quietly. "I've gotten to know you quite well in the past few weeks and I know you would never stay with a heartless monster."
"Thank you for believing me," Belle says. "I have a favor to ask you. If you could talk to Neal and convince him to just hear his father out. I know it will be a long road for him to forgive his father, but all Rumple wants is a chance."
"I'll do that," Emma says. "Besides I think it would be good for Neal to make peace with his own father before he becomes one himself." She pauses for a minute. "So who are you in fairy tale land anyway? I don't recall any stories about Rumplestiltskin having a wife."
"My name is Belle," she replies. "As in Beauty and the Beast, Belle. As you can probably guess from the stories your parents probably told you, Disney movies didn't exactly get everything right with our lives."
"Yeah I know," Emma says. "So Rumplestiltskin didn't have fur in the other world?"
"No," Belle answers, "although he did have gold skin."
Emma is about to ask more questions when Neal walks into the town hall. "Hey Neal," Emma says. "How was your day?"
"Not too good," Neal replies. "A couple of kids tried to play a practical joke on one of their neighbors, by putting some kind of chemical they made in science class into his pipes to clog up all the drains. However whatever the chemical was, it worked too well and caused all his pipes to burst. His entire house flooded, which destroyed nearly everything in it. There was at least a hundred thousand dollars' worth of damage and as you can imagine the man was livid."
"What happened to the kids?" Emma asks.
"After Ruby managed to calm the man down somewhat, we took him, the kids, and their parents, downtown," Neal says. "Then all of us, including district attorney Kathryn Sheppard had a meeting to determine what to do with them. After the man found out his insurance company will pay for the damages, they managed to come to an agreement. The kids are receiving a severe punishment, eight hours of community service every Saturday and Sunday for the next year. Their service will start with the two of them helping to clean up the mess they made."
"That seems a little harsh, doesn't it?" Emma asks.
"Actually they got off easy," Neal says. "If it went to trial, they could have faced six months in Juvenile Hall. It was only due to Kathryn and Ruby's diplomatic skills that the man didn't press charges against the kids." He pauses. "So how did your presentation go?"
"It went great," Emma says smiling. "Everything went perfectly. They voted to approve the project and I'll be overseeing it."
"I knew you'd do great," Neal says, hugging Emma.
"She left out the best part," Belle says. "She actually handled herself so well when dealing with objections about the proposal, Snow's chief opponent walked out in a huff."
Neal turns to Belle, noticing that she's there for the first time. "Hello Isabella," he says.
"Hello Neal," Belle says, and then pauses as she gathers her thoughts. "I know things were a bit awkward around us this morning. After all finding out someone who's only seven years older than you is your stepmother couldn't have been easy."
"No it wasn't," Neal says.
"I know you have issues with your father you need to work out and I'll understand if you don't want to be around me for a while," Belle says. "But if you're willing, I'd love to keep helping you with your studies. Instead of concentrating on your GEDs, I'm sure you'll want to concentrate on learning more about the current state of the Enchanted Forest for when we go back and if you can believe it, I was even more of a bookworm back there than I am here."
"That would be appreciated," Neal says as he checks his watch. "But right now we should get moving. We're going to be late."
"Late for what?" Emma asks.
"I made reservations for us at Talia's restaurant," Neal answers. "I knew your presentation would go well and I know you want to go there."
"Thank you," Emma says, giving him a quick kiss. "This will be our first time going to a fancy restaurant. I love the food Granny's, but it's not the sort of place you wear fancy dresses. I asked Amelia if she's ever eaten there, and she said she endured it when she was dating Christopher, but for some reason the place reminded her of some sad memories."
"I wonder why," Neal says.
"She doesn't like it, because Talia is the name of her mother in fairy tale land," Belle says. "Her kingdom was conquered by Maleficent a couple of years before the curse was cast. A prince eventually rescued Aurora from her captivity and she and Mulan were working on trying to rescue her parents and free their kingdom when Regina cast the curse. Her parents didn't come through to Storybrooke, so I think when she goes there it reminds her of her parents' predicament."
"That's horrible," Emma says.
"Wait, if the restaurant is named Talia's and she isn't in Storybrooke, then who owns it?" Neal asks.
"I think it's owned by Talia's former chief chef," Belle answers.
"So Amelia and Michelle are actually Princess Aurora and Mulan?" Emma asks. "And you knew both of them back in our world?"
"I only knew Mulan," Belle answers. "I met her after Rumplestiltskin dismissed me from his castle. The two of us went on an adventure together and I managed to rescue Aurora's former fiancé, Philip, whom Maleficent had turned into a mindless beast. After that, Regina captured me and held me prisoner for two years. Then when Rumplestiltskin rescued me, I had to remain in his castle for my protection, so he gave me an enchanted crystal ball that allowed me to view the outside world."
"After that story I'm not sure if celebrating would be the right thing to do," Emma says.
"No, don't let my story ruin your night," Belle protests. "You deserve to have some fun. There will be plenty of time to worry about that when the curse is broken."
"I guess you're right," Emma says, then turns to Neal. "We'll go home and I'll get ready. I bought a new red dress that I want to wear and I might as well wear it now before I get too big to fit in it."
"Have fun you two," Belle says as they turn to leave, "and congratulations again you'll make wonderful parents."