Magic is coming


Chapter Three: Beauty and the Beast

Somewhere in America
Carlisle Cullen walked through the door that lead to the garage, just as he was about to set his medical bag down in his study, that was closest to the garage – Alice Cullen, followed shortly by the family apart from Edward – he looked at them, confused.
"We have a problem."
"What's the problem?" Carlisle replied, looking towards Esme, his wife and the mother of the Cullen family who shrugged as her golden eyes darted over to Alice, who looked as if she could cry.
"Bella… Her future-?"
"Didn't Edward clearly state that we shouldn't meddle in her life anymore?" Rosalie huffed, as she flicked a lock of blonde hair over her shoulder. "Why should we bother at all?"
"Her future disappeared! Not only that – so did Charlie's!" Alice snapped, making Rosalie roll her eyes in annoyance. "They met a blonde woman, at lease I think she was blonde – she was all fuzzy… I couldn't see her properly and then bam! Bella and Charlie both disappeared from my sight!"
"Okay, go back through everything…"

*Flashback*
Alice Cullen was busy arranging the flowers that stood on top of the cabinet in the hallway, she was going against Edward's instructions on peering into Bella's future; she watched as Charlie announce to Bella that they were leaving Forks, which Bella agreed. She watched as both Bella and Charlie packed up their small, two bedroom house into a countless amount of cardboard boxes – marking them for where they should go. Alice then watched as they boarded the plane and landed in Boston – she watched with slight annoyance and worry as a tall, fuzzy vision of a blonde woman greeted them both; she couldn't quite hear the woman's voice. It was as if someone shoved boxful tissues into her ears as soon as the woman started speaking; she only heard the woman's name – Emma.
Alice watched with annoyance as Charlie, Bella and the unknown woman hopped into an ancient looking, yellow bug that had seen better days.
As soon as they reached the borderline crossing over into the small town, known as StoryBrooke – they completely disappeared.
*Flashback ends*

StoryBrooke, Maine
The morning came around too quickly for Emma's liking, she was just about to cover her head with one of the pillows but before she could do that; the door knocked and both Mary Margaret's and Henry's voices came to her attention. Emma glanced at the time on the small alarm clock she had on her bedside table, groaned in annoyance as she sat up just as Henry comes bursting into her room blabbing on about something that she couldn't understand.
"…Belle from Beauty and the Beast!"
"What?" Emma muttered, looking up into the deep, brown eyes of her son. "Who's Belle?"
"Bella of course!"
Emma's eyebrows rose as Bella's name escaped from Henry's mouth, Mary Margret; who was standing in the doorway, quickly came in and sat on the edge of Emma's bed just as soon as Henry pulled out his Fairy-tale book – the same book that Mary Margret gave him.
"Kid, why are you so convinced that Bella's Belle from Beauty and the Beast?" Emma asked, as another yawn came and she stretched her arms above her head.

"Well," Henry stated, biting down on the laugh that was about to escape from his lips as he watched Emma try to fully wake herself up. "Her name for one thing, it stands for Beautiful in Italian."
"She certainly fits her name," Mary Margret added, earning a nod from Emma – who yawned again. "She is quite beautiful, but she looked very sad last night."
"And her father's name is Charlie."
"What does that have anything to with it?" Emma asked, looking back at Henry.
"Well, Belle's father in the book is Charlie, which also makes him King Arthur, and..." Henry starts, making Emma's eyes widen.
"Whoa, whoa… Hold on a minute… King Arthur? As in Camelot's King Arthur?" Emma replies as Henry nods. "How is Charlie, King Arthur?"
"King Arthur was named after his father, while his father was alive Arthur went by his middle name – Charles or 'Charlie' to his closest friends to prevent any confusion within the Kingdom." Henry explains, as Emma rubbed her eyes and rolled them at the same time.
"Of course, heaven forbid there is anything more confusing than your theory that Charlie Swan, the same Charlie Swan that showed me the ropes in Law Enforcement is actually King bloody Arthur of Camelot." Emma quickly blurted out.
Mary Margret and Emma both looked towards each other in slight confusion – that was not the same fairy-tale that they heard. "Anyway, when his father died, Charlie took on the more formal title of his birth name, Arthur, and became king. Shortly after, he married Gwenivere, who was Snow White's aunt."

"Snow White and Belle are cousins?" Mary Margret asked, earning a nod from Henry, who was flipping through the pages of the book – trying to locate a good picture of Belle.
"Yes, but they're more like sisters. Especially since Snow lost her mother very young, Belle and her became very close, until her father married the Evil Queen. So, Gwen and Arthur were living their Happily Ever After when Arthur is betrayed by his best friend, Maurice, who hands Arthur over as a prisoner to the Evil Queen."
"Um, where does Bella – I mean Belle come into all of this?"
"My thoughts exactly." Emma added.
"Well, you see, when Arthur was taken prisoner, his wife, Gwen, had just learned that she was with child. She was going to tell him, but never got the chance. She ends up marrying him..."
"What? Why?" Emma replies, shaking her head. "He doesn't sound exactly like Prince Charming, why would she marry him?"
"Well, you see. Gwen never really liked Maurice, who was secretly in love with her. She suspected that he was in league with the Evil Queen when her husband mysteriously "died" while out hunting. She knew of the Queen's power and feared for her unborn child, as well as the people of Camelot. So, she quickly married him to avoid any trouble, and convinced him that the child she was carrying was really his. When she gives birth to Belle, the Blue Fairy comes to place a blessing on the child, and Gwen told her the truth of Belle's parentage." Henry explains, as he stops on the picture of Belle holding the Beast's hand before leaving her Kingdom. "Maurice overheard and spent the next 18 years planning on a way to get rid of the child and have his own with Gwen and place that child on the throne. However, Gwen died of a fever a few nights later. Maurice got his ultimate vengeance when The Beast made a deal with him to save his kingdom, which was under attack by Ogre's, by handing over Belle as the price for peace."

"That…" Emma muttered, shaking her head. "Is one, totally messed up story."
"If Bella is Beauty," Mary Margret asked, earning Emma's and Henry's attention. "Than what happened between her and the Beast?"
"Belle was the Beast's caretaker of his castle for months, during that time they both fell secretly in love with each other." Henry explained, as both Emma and Mary Margret were hooked onto the story. "When on an errand for the Beast, Belle is told by the Evil Queen about the kiss of True Love, when Belle kisses the Beast – he thinks it's nothing more than a trick played by her and the Evil Queen, he then pushes her away and sends her back to Camelot"
"What kind of love story is that?!" Emma muttered, shaking her head. "For that girl to go through all of that and then end up getting pushed away because of a kiss."
"Why would he think a kiss is a trick?" Mary Margret asked, curious as to know why.
"He couldn't believe that someone as lovely, innocent and beautiful as Belle could ever love something like him and immediately assumed that it was a trick."
"That's so sad."
"That's not even the worst bit."
"It gets worst?"

Henry just nods as he continues with his explanation on Belle's history. "Yeah, when Belle returns to Camelot, she learns the truth about her true father, her mother, and what Maurice has done and he tortures her, driving her into madness until she throws herself from the highest tower of the castle. Shortly after, the Evil Queen delivers the news to the Beast and he realizes that he does love her and that if he hadn't turned her away then, they she would still be alive."
A tense moment of silence went throughout Emma's room, which then glanced at the clock again and quickly got to her feet – which made both Henry and Mary Margret jump.
"I need to collect Charlie, introduce him to the town…" Emma stated, then she looked back at Henry. "You, kid, need to go to school – I don't need Regina on my back about you skipping school again."
"That was one time!"
"One time that Regina won't let me forget."

Emma gives Bella directions of the town, known locations – mainly Granny's dinner and the Police station in case she goes and gets herself lost.
Charlie watches from his mirror as Bella heads over to the dinner to start her exploration of the town from there, Emma pulls into the Police Station's car-park and then she grunted in annoyance; before Charlie could even ask her what the problem was Emma was out of the car just as a sleek, well looked after, silver Mercedes pulled up beside them.
From where Charlie sat in the front-passenger seat, the driver of the Mercedes was a dark haired woman, who once she stepped out of the car was well dressed.
"Sheriff Swan, since you're here" The woman replied, her tone was dark, cold and full of authority. "I need to talk to you."
"Sorry Regina, not today." Emma muttered. "I'm busy."
"In doing what exactly – sitting down and waiting for something to happen?"
"No, I'm showing around my new Deputy."

"Deputy?" Regina asked darkly, annoyed. "What Deputy? Why wasn't I aware of this?"
Regina's attention suddenly focused in on the person sitting in the passenger seat, the passenger's door opened up and a man climbed out; from his back Regina knew he meant business, she quickly glanced at Emma who had a slight, sly smile on her face.
"Regina, this here is my new, Deputy Sheriff." Emma said, in a snarky tone – making Regina look at Emma in annoyance. "Charlie Swan."
The man, Charlie, turned around to face Regina – who was frozen on the spot as if she seen a ghost – this man was exactly the person she thought wouldn't turn up in StoryBrooke – but yet, here he was.
"Please to meet you," Regina said, as soon as she found her voice and shook Charlie's hand. "I'm Regina Mills, the mayor of StoryBrooke."
"Charlie Swan."
Emma, seeing the small, slightly evil smirk creep on Regina's face, quickly got Charlie's attention and ushered him into the Police station, knowing that the dark haired and eyed Mayor was watching them very closely.

To close for Emma's liking.

Bella was completely and utterly lost, the map that the waitress, Ruby, gave her was gone – blown away by the wind that had suddenly came and went – she was walking around trying to remember the way back to Grannie's dinner. Bella turned around a corner, breathed with slight relief as she came to where she started, the Town's square.
She didn't want to go back to Grannie's dinner just yet – she still wanted to explore the town a little bit – she heard the jiggle of a shop's bell, looking towards the source of the noise, Bella watched a short, older looking gentleman with a cane limp into one of the many shops behind her; she looked towards the shop's name, a Pawn shop – well she might as well start her adventure there.
Not knowing why she wanted to start right there, Bella hesitates outside the shop not before opening the door, hearing the small jiggle of the bell as a small smile came to her face.