Chapter 26—"Never Out of Sight"


"I get it, you know." Mulan had found herself spending quite a bit of time with LeFou; they'd led the search for Gaston together, and in the process, she'd realized that she wasn't the only one whose romantic tastes ran a bit outside the Enchanted Forest's norm.

Learning that really was a relief. There were times when Mulan felt like she was the only one.

LeFou jumped like she'd slapped him. "Get what?"

"You like Gaston."

"I mean, he's my friend—or was before all of this, and—"

"Not like that. I know how it is. I'm, um, not really into men. Not any more than you are into women." Mulan didn't know how she could have said that more awkwardly, but at least it was out. And at least she knew she wasn't wrong.

"Oh." Crestfallen, LeFou peered at her out from under long eyelashes. "Is it that obvious?"

"A bit, yeah." She shrugged. "But maybe not to everyone. I—"

"Well, what have we here?" A voice cut her off, and Mulan spun to face the newcomer, her sword already in hand. But the green-faced woman just waved her hand casually. "You won't be needing that, I think."

Suddenly, Mulan's sword ripped out of her hand, tearing away and flying into the sky before she could stop it. LeFou drew his own weapon immediately, lunging forward to her side, but the witch merely laughed and waved her hand again. Now it was LeFou who went flying, flying far enough that he hit the castle wall with a loud thump. He crumbled to the ground immediately, and didn't move.

"LeFou!" Mulan tried to rush to his side, but after three steps, her feet stopped obeying her commands.

"Not so fast, little warrior girl." Magic tugged her around like a puppet on strings, and Mulan found herself facing the witch.

"You must be Zelena." There was no one else this could be; the green skin was a dead giveaway, as was the entitled smirk. Belle's description was spot-on.

"Queen Zelena." The smirk turned into a sneer. "And you must be Mulan, the maid's little friend."

"Belle has a name."

"Yes, I'm sure she does, but why would I care about that?" Zelena's eyes narrowed. "What I care about is having a little bit of insurance before I go talk to my dear teacher, and that's where you come in."

Mulan snorted. "I'm not helping you with anything."

"Silly girl. Who ever said I was going to give you a choice?"

Zelena laughed again, and then her hand plunged right into Mulan's chest.


"Mother, we need to talk." Rumplestiltskin was not in a mood for games; Fiona had managed to distract Belle with news that her friend LeFou had fallen and hit his head; Mulan had apparently found the clumsy fool, and Belle had rushed off to be with the pair. Rumplestiltskin, however, was not so easily sidetracked.

"About what, dear?" Fiona looked far too innocent, which immediately made his skin crawl. This was hardly the first time she'd stopped them from kissing—or even the second! Something was up.

"Your well-timed interruptions," he spat. But then an awkward feeling wrapped around him as Rumplestiltskin realized he was talking to his mother about this. "Every time Belle and I, um—that is to say, we begin, uh…"

"Begin what, Rumple?"

"You know what I mean!"

"Of course I don't. If I did, I wouldn't be asking." Fiona genuinely looked confused, and Rumplestiltskin couldn't tell if she was acting or not. He'd shared his castle with her for over twenty years. Surely he should know the difference by now?

I never thought you were smart, Spinner, but this really takes the cake. How stupid can you be? He could practically hear Zoso rolling his eyes, and Rumplestiltskin wanted to burn his predecessor out of his mind. Will you just shut up?

Never. You're stuck with us, Spinner.

Nimue's smile sent a chill down his spine. Forever.

"Nevermind," Rumplestiltskin muttered, looking away. He didn't want to discuss his romance with Belle with his mother, not when everything was moving so fast and there was so much hope for the future. And certainly not when the other Dark Ones would not leave him alone.

You'll break her heart, you know, Nimue said smugly. Or she'll break yours. And we're the ones who will be here when you fall apart. We're the only security you have.

Everyone else leaves.


It started with a stupid accident. Although officially both Tiger Lily's apprentice healers, Beans and Bae both often grew bored with learning herb lore and simple ways to patch up wounds. Bae was better with the art than Beans was, but Beans was way better at growing all the various plants and herbs they needed. Still, Beans was prone to wandering off when Tiger Lily wasn't watching, and Bae looked up from crushing dried henbane to find Beans had climbed the tree that towered over the garden wall…again. Beans was supposed to be picking more henbane while Bae crushed the stuff they'd gathered last week, but as usual, he preferred to be high off the ground.

"C'mon." Bae heaved a sigh. "You're supposed to be helping me!"

"I hate that stuff! You know that!" Beans leaned out of the tree, waving to some cart as it rumbled by.

"You think I don't?" Bae wasn't really keen on playing with something that was poisonous, but Tiger Lily insisted that it was a good painkiller—at least in small doses. Don't really want to find out, though.

"Least you're not—" Crack!

"Beans!" Bae was on his feet in an instant, bowl of henbane forgotten, but it was far too late. Beans tumbled out of the tree as the branch his arms were hooked over broke, plummeting to the ground thirty feet below. The other boy yelped and then hit the ground with a horrible crash.

Bae was halfway there when Beans screamed in pain.


Honesty was nother best color, but even Fiona was starting to realize that she had to enlist someone else to help with her scheme. She contemplated shanghaiing Maurice to become her minion, but immediately discarded the idea—as much as Belle's father might like to stop his daughter from kissing the Dark One, he wasn't innovative enough to pull it off. One more blustering and blubbering attempt at 'understanding' from Maurice might well send Rumplestiltskin over the edge, and while Fiona found the urge to turn the man into a rosebush entirely understandable, doing so wouldn't do Rumplestiltskin's relationship with Belle a whit of good.

Damn families, she thought irritably, staring at her third failed attempt at creating a True Love potion. Always in the way. Not that she wanted to think of her own husband. Ex-husband? Fiona thought that reverting oneself into an abhorrently obnoxious teenaged version of yourself negated your marriage more than turning into an evil fairy did. Either way, her marriage was decidedly over, and that wasn't the point, anyway, was it? Not growling out loud was hard.

"Why are you so hard?" She shook the vial, or what was left of it, but the bottom had burned out without the requisite magic forming, again. The last one had fizzled and turned into a truly noxious gas that almost knocked her unconscious, and this one had burned right through the glass, turning the bottom half of the vial into a melted puddle on her dresser.

"Why is who so hard?" Tink's question made her jump; she hadn't expected the young fairy to show up quite so quickly.

Fiona scowled. "You're early."

Tink snorted. "And there's no one else here. You know, they say that talking to yourself is the first sign of—"

"Oh, do take your mocking little smile elsewhere." Fiona vanished the remnants of the vial with an angry wave of her hand. "I wasn't talking to anyone."

"Do you want me to leave, or do you want me to stay?" Tink cocked her head, all innocence. "Because I seem to recall getting a message about you needing something. Something about helping Belle."

Heaving a sigh, Fiona threw herself into her favorite armchair. She'd phrased her message that way because she knew that Tink liked Belle, and asking for help for herself really wasn't in her nature. And besides, this was helping Belle. It just required a good bit more honesty than she was really prepared to embrace.

It's what's needed, Fiona told herself for the hundredth time. And I will do anything—anything!—to save my son. She checked another sigh. Might as well get on with it.

"Well, yes," she said after a moment. "I need your help keeping her from kissing my son."

"What? Why?" Tink blinked. "Kissing is one of the better things you get to do when you're in love—not that I'd know that from personal experience, but I'd think that you would."

"Harrumph." Kissing Malcolm had been quite nice, at least before he'd become an overpowered manchild. "Hardly the point. If she succeeds in kissing him, Rumple's likely to freak out—"

"What, he doesn't want her to kiss him? I thought you said he'd gone and fallen in love with her."

"He has, but if she kisses him, his curse might break."

Now Tink looked truly flabbergasted, which only made Fiona wish she'd managed the damned potion and could just get on with saving her boy. "How is that a problem? I mean, I know you're the Black Fairy and darkness is kind of what you do, but if you love him, you don't really want him to stay like this. Even if he's surprisingly decent for a Dark One. Sometimes."

"No, I don't want him to stay like this," Fiona snapped before she could stop herself. "But that's exactly the point! Think on what you know of the Dark One's curse for a moment. It's the most insidious and corruptive curse in creation. Do you think it would let a little thing like True Love's kiss break it?"

"True Love's kiss can break any curse."

"A curse is not a curse if the bearer wants it." Fiona shook her head. "No, he's more likely to freak out, and the darkness inside him will feed that. And then it's over. Once the curse is resistant to the kiss, it'll never work. No, I have to stop them from kissing until I know if they're True Love, and then he has to make a choice to let it work."

Blinking slowly, Tink seemed to mull that over for a long moment before speaking. "Do you think he will?"

"I hope so." She didn't dare express how terribly she hoped, and Fiona tried very hard to hide the way her heart clenched.

"And you think they're True Love?"

"You've seen how the idiots look at one another. He dealt for an ugly excuse for a candelabra to avoid upsetting her at all. If they aren't True Love, I refuse to believe in the entire concept."

Tink crossed her arms. "Then why the elaborate plans? Why not just talk to them?"

"Because the idiot boy won't believe me without proof." Fiona flung a gesture towards the setup of vials and hairs on her dresser. "Hence my need to make a True Love potion to prove it to them. Or, namely, my son."

"But no one can bottle—"

"Already been done." A frustrated snarl. "Alas, I cannot ask the one who has done so, since it was Rumplestiltskin."

"So you're just going to keep them from kissing one another until you can manage to brew a potion that you apparently haven't been able to." Tink arched a dubious eyebrow. "Really? This is your plan?"

"Yes! And you're going to help me."

Tink groaned. "There is no way I can see this going well."


He should have been bored. Belle was giving him the grand tour of Avonlea (which was a truly uninspiring little duchy, but Rumplestiltskin wasn't about to tell Belle that!), and the darkness inside him positively itched. Yet every time Belle so much as touched his hand the voices went silent, and Rumplestiltskin could listen to her talk all day long. She was so passionate about her people, so caring and so very beloved by them. He'd never seen this side of her, and Rumplestiltskin found himself positively enchanted. The Belle he knew was brilliant and brave, but this Belle was a leader, too. She spoke to her people with confidence and compassion, and they clearly looked up to her.

Of course, the same peasants admired her father, too, which possibly meant their judgment was a bit lacking. Then again, he didn't actually volunteer to give up his child. As much as I despise him for letting her make such a sacrifice…who can tell Belle no? Rumplestiltskin certainly couldn't, and, well, if Belle regularly ran rings around Sir Maurice, who was he to cast stones?

"Rumple? What do you think?"

His head snapped around guiltily. "Um, er, I think—"

"You weren't listening, were you?" Belle's smile was fond, at least until the carriage they were riding across Avonlea hit a bump and made her oofh. She bounced into his shoulder and Rumplestiltskin steadied her with a smile of his own. He might not have been listening, but he adored her.

"Not really, no," he admitted. "I was, uh, thinking."

"About what?" Thankfully, her question was curious, not accusing; there were times Rumplestiltskin still couldn't understand the basic goodness and compassion at Belle's core. Cora would have been incandescent if he'd ignored a question from her, and even his mother would have been sharp. Usually.

"You." He was not blushing. His cheeks were not heating up. "You…you understand these people. They love you." Who am I to ask you to come with me and leave this behind?

"They love me because I got rid of Gaston. By next week, they'll be back to thinking I have ideas beyond my station because I'm a woman." Belle sounded bitter enough to take Rumplestiltskin aback. She snorted angrily. "I read too much. I think too much. I should find myself a good husband and settle into my 'duty' of making babies."

Rumplestiltskin couldn't help gaping. "They can't—what kind of fool thinks you can't lead them because you're a woman?"

"Pretty much every man in Avonlea. And some of the women." Belle slumped. "They only followed me because Gaston was stupid. He was demanding twice the normal taxes, and taking any young woman he wanted. If he hadn't done that, they probably would have been fine with him." She sighed. "Avonlea's worse than most kingdoms. Why do you think I wanted to come with you? That was my only chance of making a difference."

"Oh, Belle." Rumplestiltskin wanted to argue, but couldn't find words. He knew how the world was, even if he found it stupid. Powerful women were hardly unknown in the Enchanted Forest; even if one discounted Zelena, there were plenty of others. Yes, they had to fight harder than many to get to the top, but they were there, and refusing to follow someone because they were a woman was just stupid.

"It's all right. I know you don't think less of me because I'm a woman." She laughed softly. "I can't imagine you trying that with yourmother around, even if you'd been so inclined before she came to the Dark Castle."

Now it was his turn to snort. "No, I wasn't." Long ago, when Rumplestiltskin had been a peasant, he'd had a much narrower view of the world. But realizing that the first Dark One had been a woman had very much opened his eyes—as had meeting several powerful sorceresses, and having more than one Queen refuse to back down even when he bullied them. They usually fare better than the kings, really.

"Good." Belle's smile was soft, but real. "I'm glad to know I haven't misjudged you, then."

Rumplestiltskin giggled. "Don't be so sure about that, dearie."

Belle just grinned and smacked him on the arm.


Bae had gotten Beans inside their small home by the time Tiger Lily got there; Beans had been drifting in and out of consciousness, but Tiger Lily managed to wake him as Bae hurriedly mixed the henbane with water. It was the best painkiller they had, so long as you didn't give someone too much—even Bae knew that henbane could also be used as poison. Pretty sure this stuff was on Neverland, too. Pity I didn't know more about it, then.

Tiger Lily took the newly-made potion out of his hands. "Here," she said softly, leaning over Beans. "This will help with the pain."

"Nuh." Beans shook his head dizzily.

Tiger Lily moved the worn clay cup towards his lips. "Beans, I can't set your leg without—"

"No!" Suddenly, Beans' hand snapped up, and he slapped the potion away. The cup bounced off the floor with a crunch, shattering and spraying the table legs with dark liquid.

"Beans!"

"Can't." Beans gulped, his face pale and hands shaking. "Allergic. All giants are allergic."

Confusion made Bae frown. "Is he babbling?" Giants were definitely not relevant to the situation.

"Not babbling." Beans glared dizzily at him. "'M a giant."

"You're awfully small for a giant." Bae snorted out a laugh.

"And all the giants are gone," Tiger Lily added at the same time.

"Got small. And cursed."

"What kind of curse?" Tiger Lily suddenly looked alert. "The only thing I know of that can make giants shrink is mushrooms from Wonderland—"

"Ate one 'for she cursed me. Was a dare." Beans sucked air in quickly, wheezing. "Then she found me. She wanted to curse me to stay young forever."

"Like Neverland already does?" Bae couldn't help sounding skeptical; this was all just a little too weird. And way too convenient. The only thing I believe right now is that he's allergic to henbane, because who wants to stay in pain like this for fun?

"Kinda." Beans coughed as Tiger Lily started crushing something else up; Bae thought it was poppy seeds. "'Cept she wanted to suck away the et—eternal youth so she could have it."

"That sounds pretty dumb." Bae couldn't stop himself, but Beans looked too dizzy to remember this later, so what did it matter how obnoxious he was? "Why not just put the spell on herself?"

"Because you can't grant yourself eternal youth." Tiger Lily looked grim, now, which made Bae blink. Did she believe this?

"So you give someone else eternal youth just so you can take it away?"

"That's the idea, yeah." Tiger Lily's frown grew deeper. "I've heard of that kind of thing, but the fairies should have put a stop to it."

Bae snorted. "Fairies helping. Sure."

Tiger Lily shot him a funny look. "Is there something you're not saying?"

"Yeah. But I'm still not saying it." Bae really didn't want to let an ex-fairy know that his father had been the Dark One, even if Tiger Lily had been good to him and was someone he considered a friend. But the more he thought about the convenient way the Blue Fairy had given him a magic bean, the more suspicious everything sounded. Beans was younger than he was—probably—and that meant Blue hadn't had the last bean at all. She'd seemed so nice, but the world she'd sent him to had really sucked.

Papa would have died there without magic. I almost did. Bae didn't like thinking about that, but he knew it was true. Had Blue wanted to kill the Dark One like that? He knew that the Dark One was the enemy of the fairies and always had been, and that meant that Tiger Lily wouldn't like who his father was any more than Blue had. Fortunately, when she opened her mouth to ask for further answers, Beans groaned in pain and they both turned their attention back to him. Tiger Lily mixed up a new painkiller while Bae started working on a splint, and by the time they were done, Bae's past had been forgotten.

Or at least he hoped it had.


"We should talk about the future, Rumple." Belle waited until the day after their tour of Avonlea to bring the subject up; she knew that Rumplestiltskin would be skittish, but there was no way around that. She knew that he loved her, and that she loved him, but a relationship needed more than just love.

True to form, Rumplestiltskin jumped. "Future?" He squeaked the word as if it could bite him if he held onto it for too long.

"Yes, the future." Belle squeezed his arm, hoping that the quiet corner of the garden she'd found to share with him would keep them safe from interruptions. But his eyes were still wide, so she gave him her gentlest smile and tried to put him out of his misery. "I want to spend that future with you. Together."

"You—you do?" He looked adorable when he stuttered, but Belle could see panic starting to form in his eyes. "But your home—your people—"

"My father will live a long while yet. And when the day comes that he's not here, I'm sure I'll manage." Belle loved Avonlea and her people, and in the worst case, she'd make sure to select a good regent to be there when she couldn't be herself. But she saw no reason why Rumplestiltskin couldn't bring her to Avonlea whenever she needed to be there—surely, he could create some sort of magical link between the two places. Belle had read about such things.

"You still want to come with me?" Of course, the way he spoke made the words all rush together, more like youstillwantocomewithmeeee?

"I did promise, forever, you silly man. You might have let me out of our deal, but I still want that."

"Oh. Oh. You want…that?"

"To marry you?" Belle found herself laughing. "Of course I do. Does forever mean something else where you're from?"

Rumplestiltskin gaped, and then finally seemed to find his voice. "You can't possibly want to marry a monster like me."

"I don't find you a monster, but I'm willing to wait until you come around to understand that about yourself." Sensing that she'd pushed too far, Belle leaned in and kissed Rumplestiltskin on the cheek. "For now, yes, I want to come back with you. And I want to go as soon as Zelena is dealt with."

As expected, that made him smile. "Your wish is my command."

"Good." Belle grinned, and then squeezed his arm once more. Rumplestiltskin was still jumpy, and still clearly believed he was unworthy of her, despite the fact that he knew she loved him. She'd have to work on that—and maybe she'd talk to Fiona, too. No matter how strangely Fiona had been acting lately, her plan to free Rumplestiltskin of the darkness couldn't have been discarded. After all—

"Um, sorry to interrupt the moment, but Zelena's here."

The new voice made Belle and Rumplestiltskin both turn to face Tink, and for once, Belle wasn't angry at the interruption. She wasn't sure when Tink had arrived, but that didn't matter. Keeping her people—and her father—safe did.

"Where?" Rumplestiltskin snapped the word before Belle could.

"The war room." Tink flashed Belle a quick smile of greeting. "Your mother is, um, dealing with her at the moment."

"Oh, dear," Belle muttered. Rumplestiltskin swore under his breath, and then magic suddenly tugged them away.


A/N: So, I am a writing fool who is doing this story for NaNoWriMo in addition to working on my masters. Hopefully, that means I can punch out the end of this story in the near future and keep updates on a more frequent schedule.

Stay tuned for Chapter 27—"Something Truly Terrible Inside", in which Rumplestiltskin deals with Zelena, Beans has an important vision, Fiona finds some hope, Zelena plots and plans, and Rumplestiltskin tells Belle a story.