He stopped watching the group after they all settled in around the campfire for the night. He had a headache and his eyes were sore, but still, his work wasn't done. He had a conundrum to solve. The Swan still hadn't used magic. That was a problem for him. A big one. He'd hoped that somewhere along this journey of hers she might get desperate enough to use it. There had been plenty of desperate situations, but she hadn't used her magic in any of them. Now that the true danger had passed, he doubted she would. He had some thinking to do on that, on how to force her to reveal it, otherwise the pair were never going to get back to where they'd come from, and he'd have to do something very unpleasant to keep the pair out of trouble.
In the morning, before those around the campsite woke up, he let them be as they were and went to have breakfast with Belle. Then, after they were done eating, he did something he'd never allowed himself to do before. He allowed himself to stay with her. He moved her chair to the fireplace for her when she went down to finish their dishes, and then he gathered his work from the tower and began to fashion the memory potion right there. He even used his crystal ball in her presence to keep watch over the crew at the campfire who were finally waking up and beginning preparations for whatever came next. Perhaps intrigued by his sudden change, she stayed. Sitting in her chair, she read her book throughout much of the morning. He was pleased with that reaction; he had been hoping that would have been her response, otherwise there was no sense in being here.
In anticipation of all this coming to an end and the memory potion would work, he was feeling optimistic and...indugent. If he was to forget all of this, then what was the harm in basking in her presence for a few hours and allowing himself to feel...whatever it was that he was feeling. What he felt...it was the closest to contentment that he'd been in centuries. She was perfect. They were perfect, everything inside of this space and time was ideal. He worked, she read. She didn't ask questions or sneak glimpses of things she shouldn't. She didn't even ask why he was working there, she just accepted it when he made up an excuse about a potion gone wrong and the tower smelling. They had the ability to be quite the pair when they were together. So for once in his life, he allowed himself to enjoy the feeling he got whenever she glanced his way. He wanted to allow his mind to wander, to ponder the things he'd seen before he forgot them.
A vision of her in white…
Was it possible? Would that come to mean in that world what it did in this one? Was it foolish to hope it did? Even if he had no intention of allowing it? It was nice to hope. It was nice to glance over at her when her nose was half buried in her book and think the word "wife", just to see what it felt like. It was nice to imagine a future where they might share a home or even a room and be perfectly content with one another as they were now. It was nice to imagine…but no more than that.
Just before lunchtime, the vision struck him. It stole his breath and had him force his hands down on the table just to steady himself. He'd had this vision before, only once before, but it was long ago when he hadn't known the players or been able to put names to faces. Now he saw it again, with all his wisdom, it seemed different even though it was the same.
"First born of Princess Cora to cast the curse to end all curses," the Seer's voice whispered inside his head.
Eva, cradling baby Snow in her arms. Snow White, grown but not of this world, rather the one they were going to, her hair cut short. The name Neal. A face hidden beneath a gray hood. A dock upon which the Savior, the one he'd come to know, stood. The book he'd once given to Cora, the one with his name on it. A family gathered around a table, a family that included Regina, Snow, David, a young boy, Captain Hook, and the Swan.
"A twin will become the false prince…"
He saw his own face in a mirror, unscarred by the curse he possessed. The name Gideon. A baby in his arms, the same child he'd seen in Belle's arms in the vision when she'd fallen.
A sunset. A golden-haired boy he couldn't identify yet.
"Storybrooke, Maine, United States of America."
A globe of land masses still unrecognizable.
An imagine of Captain Hook beside the Swan.
A checkered dress.
"Snow White and Prince Charming shall bear the Savior who will return to break the curse on her twenty-eighth birthday."
An image of Snow White and David as he knew them now.
"I love you." The voice unmistakeably Belle's.
Roses and a crystal necklace that hung from her beautiful neck and sat perfectly upon her chest.
"And I love you." His own voice returning her affections. Before the image of Neverland floated into his mind.
"A precious debt from a woman of ash will find the boy of fire…"
A woman in rags with golden hair that he knew he hadn't met yet.
Six wands lined up on a shelf in perfect order.
A pink house.
The perfect form of Belle beside him in the bed.
His mother laughing melodically.
"The final battle between good and evil will begin…"
He knew what it meant when he saw it. When everything returned to normal, he knew exactly what it meant. And he didn't know if he wanted to weep with joy or dread for what he was about to do to change such a wonderful and bright future.
"Are you alright?" Belle asked from her position by the fire. He felt his chest swell at her concern. He'd leaned forward, gripped the table, and gone still during the vision. She was worried. He worried her. The vision of Belle in white flashed briefly in his head of it's own accord and he saw just how quickly, how primed and ready what this was between them was to become that. It was dangerous.
"Fine, fine," he dismissed quickly, looking up only when the words hurt his heart and he couldn't avoid looking at her. He knew what he had to do, what he still had to do to create a perfect loophole that they could both slip free from. This loophole was for her. To risk her life just to experience what he had in that vision…he couldn't do it. "I'm fine. I…I have business arriving soon."
"I assume you'll want to work here?" she questioned, the implication innocent and obvious. She assumed he wanted her to leave. Never could such words be more right and wrong at the same time.
"It'll be necessary," he managed to choke out.
She nodded and rose from her seat, taking her book with her. "I have work to do anyway," she smiled.
He had to bite his tongue to keep from calling out after her. He had to press his fingers into a table or else he might have run out after her and what he would have done then...he couldn't trust himself to find out. But he managed to keep quiet and calm, staying there at the table while she gracefully exited. He even let himself smile when he saw her look back on him. "Let himself smile"...as if it was something he could have helped when he'd had no control over the behavior.
He wasn't in love. But he could see how all too easily it could grow if he allowed things to continue as they were. And after watching and waiting all night long, he had a plan. He knew his loophole. And with the potion nearly completed, he was nearly ready to enact it.
With a breath and a burst of magic, he summoned the image of the Swan and Hook back to him through the crystal ball. The vision he'd experienced meant that things were right again. It was clear enough to him, even if it wasn't yet to them. He watched as Snow and David went their separate ways along a path, she back into the woods and he back to the castle. The Swan and Hook watched an exchange from the bushes, allowing it to happen while a happy tear rolled down her eye. The pages of the storybook filled in again, and it was time. Back at the campsite, he watched as Hook picked something up and threw it over his shoulder, the pair of them heading for the cart David had bought them yesterday. But they were in Regina's land now. It would take them weeks to get to him through that method, and they'd caused enough trouble in the short time they'd been here. He didn't want to wait any longer.
With a snap of his fingers, he summoned them to him in his castle and darkened the crystal ball before sending it back to the tower.
"Swan…did you-"
"No…we just-"
"In here, dearies!" he called out, drawing their attention from where they were in the foyer. A moment later, he heard hurried footsteps.
"We did it!" the Swan explained, pushing her way through the doors. Obviously. Otherwise, he wouldn't have summoned them back. But since she was being so forthcoming, and he wouldn't remember this anyway.
"Your parents are together?" he questioned, adding another ingredient.
"They're right back on track. We're ready to go."
"I see," he muttered before glancing over at the body that was hung over Hook's shoulder. Maid Marian, she should have been executed right around the time Snow White supposedly was. Instead, she hung limply across his back, and it was…surprising. There was magic rolling off the girl that he had never sensed before. Albeit, he'd never paid much attention to her, she'd never given him reason to. Perhaps that magic would make the future a bit more interesting. He could live with that. "And you brought some luggage."
He knew what they were doing, what they were plotting, and he hadn't a problem with it. This was how Robin Hood lost his wife, removing her from their timeline would certainly mean she'd be missing for a long time, perhaps long enough for Regina and Robin to have their own little fling all before she reappeared again wherever they were going and oh! He couldn't wait to watch that unfold!
"Long story," Emma breathed. "So, how's the portal coming? Can you open it?"
He paused for a moment, purposefully building tension in order to build up hope and then destroy it. Nothing was more effective to tap into magical power than desperation.
"I cannot," he answered, watching the girl's face fall.
"Then what are you working on?" she snapped.
"Oh, this is for me. A forgetting potion," he explained cleverly, trying to get a rise out of her just to see if she could do magic. "I know too much about my future. The only way to protect it is to forget it."
"Well, what about this wand? You said that could help us!" she snapped, motioning to his mother's wand, purposefully placed on the table to draw her attention.
"Oh, that," he answered offhandedly. "Well, apparently, only those who used the portal can reopen it. So unless you can wield magic, I'm afraid, you're going nowhere." He picked the wand up and tossed it at her. "Can you?"
She caught it and positioned it in her hands correctly, but he felt no flare of magic come from her, and her face held no recognition, leaving him only to speculate. Was it the glamour he'd placed on them? Did she truly not know how to use what was inside of her? Or did she just not want to? Had she ever before? He'd assumed so since she was responsible for breaking the Curse in the new world, but in the future he knew he'd help her along with that. For now, it seemed, she was stuck right where she was, which was fine with him. If he'd already gotten to Baelfire in his time, then he had no need for her in the future. At least not as far as he knew.
"Thought not."
"So, you just expect us to stay here? What about protecting your precious future?"
"That's exactly what I'm going to do!"
Suddenly Jones drew his sword and pointed it right at him. "He means to kill us, Swan."
He laughed. "No. I mean to put you someplace safe. Someplace even I dare not go. Where I store the magic that is too dark or unpredictable even for me."
And if they happened to starve to death while they were waiting for their future to arrive…so be it!
"Rumplestilts-"
She didn't even have time to get the last word out before he waved his hand. All at once, he enacted a few simple spells, one to remove the glamor he'd put on them, another to return their clothes, one more to remove Hook's sword from his hand, mostly just because he could, and another to put them down in his Room-Without-a-Door. There. That was taken care of. Now he could do what he needed to do in peace, and with any luck, in a few days, or maybe less, the Swan would figure out her powers and get them back to their timeline. After all, he'd put them in a place that not even Belle would hear them call for help. Their lives depended on her working that magic. And, as for the matter of his maid…
He bottled the potion he'd finished and with a wave of his hand took himself and his things back up to his tower.
He had a loophole to create.
I do love this chapter. It is so very Rumbelle centric even if Hook and Emma are there at the end. And it is cute. I think it shows just how deep his feelings for her run already, he just needed someone to point them out.
Thank you Alarda, Grace5231973, and Jennifer Baratta for your reviews and very kind thoughts on the last chapter. Only two more chapters left in the 3x21/3x22 chapters. Up next we're going to see what his loophole is. Anyone have any guesses as to what he's going to attempt to do? Peace and Happy Reading!