It wasn't a vision.

That was the conclusion he'd arrived at after several hours of spinning.

What he'd seen in his head, at least after she'd fallen…it wasn't a vision. It just wasn't. Plain and simple.

It was a chemical reaction. It was human. Something about who she was had triggered something left in his human brain, and catching her like some sort of valiant, dashing hero in the books she read mixed with some hormone or other, and that was was it. It may have been a startling and disturbing conclusion for the Dark One to make, but it was a necessary one.

He'd had a good long time to think after she'd fallen off that ladder. When she'd gone to return the foul ladder, that he was certain he'd burn at his first chance, he'd used his magic to remove the nails he'd placed over the curtains, then opened them and allowed the light to come in. Not for himself. Not because he wanted to get used to it. But because he figured it was the best way to keep her happy. Keeping her happy meant she would stay on her side of the room, and he could stay on his. He tried to pretend, to act as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened as though he hadn't just saved her life. He hadn't! She hadn't fallen far. She'd have been badly injured, but she wouldn't have died! Any pains she acquired could have been easily fixed with magic, and maybe he should have let it happen. Then he wouldn't have those images in his head now.

Images. That's all they were.

The second she'd retired to her dungeon, he'd torn out of the Great Room and went to hide in his bedroom, to be alone with his thoughts and work out what he'd seen. It was only once he sat down and started reliving the images that he'd seen that it dawned on him these were not the first images of her that he'd created. In the bed, not long ago, during the long Winters, he'd had other images of her in his head. They got stuck there sometimes, a memory of her doing this or that. Sometimes the memories branched off into fantasy, conversations he wished they'd had but hadn't, things he wished he'd done but didn't.

That was what had happened when he'd caught her. That was all that happened. The image of her in his arms like a blushing bride had gotten stuck in his head, and he'd daydreamed a bit. It was nothing. And as for his response…

He still felt it now, a tightening in his pants and a deeper curling of his insides. It came when he thought too long and too hard about what he'd seen.

It was normal. A chemical reaction. He wasn't proud of it, but it made sense to him, logical normal sense.

He was the Dark One, yes, but even Dark Ones had…needs. The voices inside his mind, coupled with their memories of past lovers, told him that. Dark One or not, he was also a man. And Belle was a woman. A beautiful woman. The first woman he'd really developed something of a relationship with since Cora, though the thought of that word, "relationship", had him sneering all over again. That wasn't the right word for it. They didn't have a relationship because he didn't have relationships. He had business enemies, business partners, and a few of those partners he might go so far as to call acquaintances. But he didn't have friends or lovers, and certainly not relationships. Not after the last time. The closest he'd ever come to that was Cora, but she left a foul taste in his mouth. In fact, she was probably the reason he was so determined not to engage in any human matter beyond business deals. Once emotions came into play, things had a tendency to get a little too…dicey.

He had to stop thinking of it as a relationship. He didn't have a relationship with Belle, and he wouldn't. What he had now was simply a physiological reaction to too many days spent in close confines with her. Their Winter had been calm and quiet. Instead of going off and working, he'd taken some time so that she wouldn't go insane living in solitary confinement. They'd had a few conversations, and he'd found a few things about her that he liked. The end.

This was simply something that was created by boredom. He was a man and she was a woman. She was smart and funny, well-educated with hobbies that made speaking with her so easy sometimes he forgot to censor himself around her, especially on the days that were much too quiet for his taste. And he wasn't going to even try to convince himself she wasn't pretty. She was. It was one of the reasons he hadn't denied it when Regina had suggested it. As far as her looks went, she was gorgeous. Clear, pale skin; red lips; skinny, but a figure that had curves in all the right places; soft hands; a smile that could disarm him; and her eyes! While most royal women had gazes that suggested nothing but thoughts of gossip, Belle's eyes could communicate an entire conversation with just a single look.

She was beautiful. He knew that. He'd known that from the first day when she'd chipped her cup and panicked about it. He'd known even then that her beauty was something he'd have to be wary of. What he hadn't planned on was finding interest in her mind and her work ethic.

It wasn't a vision. It was nothing to panic over, nothing to dismiss her over. He was just going to have to learn to handle it the way he handled everything in life. Silently.

And really…in the end, what harm could a little manly interest do? Other than the embarrassing pressure he felt in his groin, of course. Even that had its benefits. After so long he should have been amazed his body still worked that way. Other Dark One's had engaged in affairs, he hadn't. What was the harm in a bit of flirting with her? In taking a bit of pleasure in her company? He could give into his fears, let these fantasies run his life, and send her away or he could keep her here. He could discover something so terribly unattractive about her that he would lose interest, perhaps even get back to the point that she annoyed him so much that he wanted to send her away. Maybe she picked her teeth, or couldn't sing, or snorted when she laughed.

Those were examples, of course, poor ones because she'd been here long enough that he knew she never displayed manners that were anything less than royal, she preferred hum when she did her work, and her laugh was lyrical. But maybe there would be something else. And, one day, when he discovered the real reason why she was important to the future, when he finally did have a vision, a real vision, of her that realistic and not fueled by testosterone, then he would send her away and have his peace and quiet back, distraction-free.

He tried to ignore the sudden wash of sadness at that thought. She hadn't been here long, not considering how long he'd lived here. Really, she'd been here merely a fraction of the time he had, but imagining this place without her presence here, it almost seemed impossible.

And then, there they were, images in his head of her time here. Belle walking the halls, cleaning the tables, washing his sheets, doing her chores. Belle sitting by the fire in the evening reading...

They weren't visions. All he'd seen where fantasies of his own making, not the Seer's. And a good thing too. Visions like he'd had of her, he'd have no choice but to send her away. Images like he'd made up...there was no need to overreact. It was more time that he had to keep her close, to prove that there was nothing there before he lost interest, got his real answer, and sent her away.

And there was no reason not to have a little fun with her until that day arrived.


So, I know this chapter seems a lot like rambling, like Rumple is repeating himself over and over again, but that's done on purpose. I wanted this chapter to be rambling, I wanted us to see his conflict, to feel a little but if his fear, to maybe even feel a bit overwhelmed by it all. And then I wanted to watch him justify getting that kind of information and not sending Belle away because of it. The big question I got after the last chapter was "but if he sees this future, how is he going to ever believe that Belle is dead?" Simple answer, revealed here, he's going to convince himself that he's made it all up. The Seer revealed that this was going to happen when it did because up until that moment he might have screwed it up. We've said a dozen times that if he knew he was going to fall in love with Belle, he would have stayed clear of her so it didn't happen. At the heart of it, he doesn't want to believe that anything in his life could ever be just as important as his son. So now you have the Seer, giving him these visions, and in doing so it's like she's saying "it's too late, you're already in love with her, you can run but you can't hide, baby!" Which, hilariously, is what he sort of does. He goes to his room, and correctly concludes that if those visions are true then he should send her away. But he's already bound to her and really doesn't want it to happen. So, what else is there to do other than convince himself that he made it all up in his head. He's created a fantasy. So long as he chooses to believe it's not true, Belle can stay and he'll be happy. Clear as mud?

Big thank yous going out to Grace5231973, Spunkymouse, and Jennifer Baratta for your reviews of the last chapter. I know the above answer is long and sort of seems complicated to your answer, but after thinking long and hard about it, this really does work for the plot. "How is Rumple going to believe she's dead?" Well, if you are a Moments reader, he's actually already given you the answer to this question. This explantation tracks with something he later tells Belle in Chapter 48 of Moments Revealed and Unrevealed. He tells Belle that he should have known she wasn't dead. At that point, he states that he'd studied true love, that deep down, even if he didn't want to believe it he knew they shared it, and knew that he should have felt something when she died and didn't. Her "death" and lack of feeling that, in the end, played into this fantasy he creates. It only further convinces him that what he saw was made up. So, readers digest: he sees the future, convinces himself it's all made up, and when Regina says "she's dead", that only confirms what he wants to believe and that's that. And how committed is he to this lie-not-lie? You'll have to read the next chapter, where he has a really strange, sort of laughable, but very Rumple reaction to it all. Peace and Happy Reading.