She knew what waking Blue would mean to him, it was an explanation of things he needed the answer to but didn't necessarily want the answer to. His unease was evidence of his confliction and she understood it all too simply. She on the other hand didn't feel unease, only fear. He'd come so far, and she couldn't help but wonder if the news that Mother Superior had would break him in some way, setting back all the progress he'd made for his family in these weeks. She wanted to think it wouldn't happen, but it was hard to believe that when she'd seen it before. So with everyone breathing a sigh of relief over Mother Superior, she reached back and threw her arms around his neck, happy to feel his firm grip come over her back.
"Thank you, Rumple," she muttered in his ear.
He didn't answer her just held on equally as tight until she let him go and even then he kept his arm around her waist.
"Great, her hearts beating, why isn't she waking up?" Emma questioned staring down at her.
"Her body needs time to heal," Rumple explained quietly. "The Blue Fairy has been one of the most powerful magical beings for centuries, and she's just survived having her magic taken from her. That little crystal gives her back magic but it's just like planting a seed. It needs time to grow before she'll wake. It's not unlike after I lost my own magic."
"You were asleep for weeks!" Emma blanched. "If the stories about the Black Fairy are true we don't have weeks to wait for her to come around, and I doubt we're going to find something that touched her before she was a fairy."
"I suppose you can count True Love's Kiss off the list, as well," Zelena added.
"Rumple…the egg," she muttered looking up at him. "Would it work with her like this?"
He took a deep breath looking over the body and finally nodded. "It might…but she'd be incredibly weak. To force her awake without her magic being fully restored would leave her vulnerable."
"We can protect her," Emma assured him. "What egg are we supposed to be looking for?"
"One that never hatched…"
They all looked around Emma in surprise as the answer came not from Rumple, but rather from Regina.
"It's a dragon egg that never hatched," she explained while she held their attention.
"Where do we find a dragon egg that never hatched?" Emma questioned. "I haven't exactly seen Maleficent and Lily flying overhead lately."
"It doesn't have to be fresh," Regina pointed out. "But I do like your thinking. Maleficent will probably laid her fair share of eggs in her lifetime, I'm sure we can find at least one that never hatched. And if it's to do with Maleficent in the Enchanted Forest then under the library would be the first place we should look."
"Belle, have you ever seen something like that under the library?" Emma asked unexpectedly.
She immediately felt her eyes raise in shock at the question. "I-I-I don't know I've never been down there," she stuttered. Silence fell over the room as the women and Rumple stared at her in shock. Even she had to admit that she was a bit surprised not just at her answer, but her reasoning for it. It seemed like such a long time ago that it had all started, it seemed silly even to her.
"You told me not to go down there," she admitted looking up at Rumple.
He puffed out his chest in a small snort, and she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. "So I did."
And she had. She'd never taken the elevator down to whatever was below the library, she'd never had reason to, and after his warning, she'd never had a desire to. Odd how that worked.
"That cavern is vast," Regina finally suggested, breaking the silence. "It could take all night to search."
"Okay," Emma sighed digging her phone out of her pocket. "I'm going to call Hook; if we wake her up he's going to have questions."
"All due respect Miss. Swan, we'll all have questions."
"These questions potentially have the ability to destroy the fairy or at the very least send her back to where she was while we figure out how. Gold, can you stay here and look after the Blue Fairy while we're searching?"
"Isn't that what I've been doing all week?"
"Yeah, in the back of your shop, not exactly a great hiding place."
"I believe it kept you at bay."
Emma narrowed her eyes at him. "This isn't a game, Gold. Will you or won't you?"
"He will," she answered for him, because every combative line that passed between the two of them was time they could be using to search the cavern for what they needed. "I'm going with you," she muttered quickly, before anyone could argue for or against it.
"Never doubted you would," Emma commented at the same time Rumple tugged on her arm and pulled her aside. "Five minutes," Emma shot over her shoulder, still focusing on her phone as the other three walked out.
"I'm going Rumple, whether you like it or not."
"I'm not going to argue," he insisted. "I never wanted you down there because of the dragon, now that she's gone the threat is as well, but the tunnels beneath the library are untamed, and your ankle will be more difficult to heal should you hurt it."
It took her a few moments to realize what he was talking about, to remember that she'd broken her ankle not long ago and because he'd healed the bone as he had it would be weaker and more difficult to repair again via magic. She wasn't going to complain, she felt just as he did that healing it then and there was best, as doing everything that she'd done this last week for Gideon in a cast wouldn't have been possible, but she smiled as she came to the conclusion that magic wasn't always the best most powerful option. Though it would have taken a long time to heal, if this were an ordinary week she'd have suffered through with it.
"I'll be careful. You have my word."
"And keep your eyes open," he pressed placing his hands against her arms with a tight grasp. "They may be willing to go along with this plan for now, but we've no assurance that they'd be interested in helping retrieve Gideon's heart."
She didn't have it in her to tell him that she'd already told them about the heart simply because she couldn't be sure about it either. She wanted to believe the would help with that but they hadn't said much about it when she'd told them. She could only hope that while she was with them she might discover what exactly it was that Hook thought was going to send the Black Fairy away and that she might convince them that sending her back to where they came from with Gideon still in Storybrooke and the children still in her realm was an option that helped no one. The children would be harmed, and if she continued to possess Gideon's heart then they had to be prepared for the exact same thing to potentially happen again and she wasn't about to do that to her son.
With a sigh she took his hands from her shoulders and held them in her own. "I'll be careful, Rumple," she assured him again. "Trust me."
Her breath caught as she realized what exactly she was asking of him. Trust was something they were working on rebuilding. Though for a long time she'd thought that he had no right to doubt her day by day, sometimes hour by hour, she was becoming more and more aware what she had put him through during their time apart. Though it didn't forgive any of what he had done, it did help her to realize she had to earn it back from him as well. And then, maybe someday, forgiven it would all be. On both sides.
He nodded his head, and though the word "yes" didn't quite make it out of his mouth he at least formed the word. And his willingness not to argue, but let her go with them made her chest fill up with unexpected happiness in these dark times. She threw her arms around his neck once more and held tight, certain that this embrace meant something more than the others, but unable to identify what that "more" was.
"I'll be back soon," she muttered against his shoulder.
"Be careful," he insisted once more. She nodded. Entrusting her safety to others was not something he did simply. But instead of locking her away in the shop he was doing it. It was progress.
"I will," she assured him a third time before letting go to move out of the room. Still, as she moved away she fought back a grin as she realized that their hands had lingered as she'd moved away, still desperate for the last touch.
Progress! This chapter has a lot of progress in it and there was no hiding it. It was meant to be obvious. Belle's "trust me" was meant to harken back the chapters in the beginning of the Enchanted Forest when she'd asked if he trusted her and he responded with a "you more than her" comment. The fact that he's letting her go off and not trying to stop her as well as the fact that he's not locking her away...that's all progress! I hope it feels like progress. I know that for me, personally, a lot of these things felt like they came out of left field simply because they didn't have a lot of time to explore these little things like I've tried to. I get it. Television show, they can't show everything. I hope that I've done a decent job filling in the blanks so that this progression had felt a little more natural.
Thank you, thank you, thank you to Grace5231973, Paintbrush123, and Fox24 for your reviews on the last chapter. I know this fiction had been long, it's one of the longest in the entire series, but I hope you all know how much it means that you've stuck with me through it! I'm so grateful for all of you and for your kind words and support! Peace and Happy Reading!
