"I'm fine," she whispered in his ear once more before pulling back too soon.
His heart wrenched at the thought that she would dismiss him again so quickly, that he'd performed his rescue and now he'd have to leave her again. But, to his surprise, she didn't let him go far, but rather just let her head rest against her own. He breathed her in, breathed in the scent of lemons and roses he'd lived without for the last week. She was losing his scent, just as he'd been losing hers a little bit more every day they'd been apart. It saddened him to acknowledge that but made him unbelievably happy to realize that for however long this lasted, he'd get a small taste of it again…the smell of them. It made him embrace her tighter, hold her just a little closer.
"I have some ice upstairs," she commented suddenly, her voice low and serious. "Come with me?"
Ice? It took his mind a moment to work, to remember the damage done to her wrist and realize that she might have been in pain. He had something much better than ice.
"I can…"
"Ice...will work just fine," she exclaimed, cutting him off before he could finish his suggestion. And without giving him a moment to argue, or question, or really think about what was happening, she grabbed his hand and led him through the library, up the back stairs, and into the little apartment that she owned.
She'd changed the apartment since he'd last seen it. Ruby had probably had a hand in it and as angry as he was at the woman right now, he had to admit that it looked good. He'd only been up a few times when the Curse had been in place, then once when he dropped off some stuff for her. Ironically it had been Ruby that had collected the boxes and sent him on his way. He'd longed to correct the girl, but while he hadn't seen her he knew that Belle had been within hearing range, and being on his best behavior for her, wanting her to see that he could change, he'd sadly left and gone back to the shop. The apartment was small, but he liked what she'd done with it in his absence. It was clean, naturally, and had more light in it. Though every single appliance looked older than dirt, Belle had added color to it. It was homey now, the books that he spotted in piles nearly everywhere reflected her personality perfectly. He was happy he could finally see it, even under these conditions.
"Sit," he pointed at the tiny couch with his cane and, her wrist in hand, she obeyed as he moved to the freezer. He'd rather heal her with magic, and he'd probably sneak a little magic into it as he iced it, but if she wanted to be bruised then he'd accept that as her choice. Sometimes it was remarkable how much she had in common with his son.
He plopped a few cubes of ice onto a tea towel and brought it to her. But instead of letting her take it, he sat opposite her on the small coffee table that she'd moved in front of the couch and without request, she gave him her hand. He examined the small circles blooming over her wrist closer. They were getting worse. It took every fiber of self-control not to get up and find that she-wolf.
"What happened?" he growled moving the ice over her skin.
"She was just scared," she muttered wincing slightly. "She wanted to protect me, to keep me from stopping her and getting in the way of…"
"The wolf?" he finished for her when her voice trailed off.
"Yes," she breathed sounding sad and overwhelmed.
He shook his head at her. He was trying to keep himself level, trying not to feel so angry at the girl and at Belle. But it was difficult. She'd have harbored a deadly dangerous wolf in a heartbeat, she'd have died trying to heal something that was beyond help without a second thought. He loved her, but sometimes she could be incredibly foolish. Her good heart would have cost them both.
"When are you going to see that you do not have the power to cure monsters..." he muttered realizing only too late that he'd said the words out loud. He tried to cover his words with an action, by removing the ice and checking her wrist again, wondering if she'd notice if he applied a little bit of healing to it, just enough to stop the damage and-
But suddenly the hand was gone from his own. His stomach tightened, fearing that she'd take his words the wrong way and kick him out. And then she placed her hand under his chin and brought his gaze to meet her clear blue eyes. Beautiful. Angry or happy, sad or bored, he'd missed looking into those eyes.
"Don't I?" she refuted intelligently with her eyebrows raised as if in "checkmate".
He tried not to smile, tried not to show any kind of grin. He, Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One, was currently sitting in a small apartment holding ice over a woman's wrist held captive by her gaze alone instead of going out and killing the one that had put her in danger. Point taken. No, she didn't have the power to cure monsters but apparently could soothe at least one.
"That's different," he whispered, taking her hand in his own again and settling ice over it once more so that he could avoid her eyes…avoid the guilt.
"Because you love me?" she assumed, making it sound like a lilting question he dare not deny and couldn't.
Yes. Because he loved her. Because he loved her more than he'd ever loved anyone in his entire life. But maybe it was also because she loved him as well.
Suddenly she moved again. She moved forward just enough that her knees brushed against his own, and her hands were suddenly framing his face. Her fingers moved aside his hair, and once more she forced him to meet her gaze, serious, smiling, beautiful, and unyielding.
"Because you love me?" she repeated.
"Yes," he breathed, absolutely amazed at her. Did she really need to hear the words? Well, after what he'd done, how he'd lied and tricked her. He hadn't exactly acted as though he loved her more than his own life. He'd acted… selfishly. Why she still continued to love him after that, to be here in this room with him was beyond him. But if he had the opportunity, then he had to take it, to apologize, to fix the wrong. He just wished he knew how. He wished he knew how to do what every nerve in his body told him not to do. He'd carried the truth alone for so long, he didn't know how to tell others.
"I miss you," she stated suddenly, making his heart melt like the ice in the tea towel.
"I miss you, too," he muttered, the words coming automatically enough. "Belle," he moved forward as she had, and covered one of her hands with his own. "You have to know, I don't want to lose you," he turned and kissed her palm. "Not again."
He'd bore the pain of that once, of the idea that his actions had condemned her to death once before, he couldn't do it again. He had to figure out how to be close to her again. How to protect her. But how…
She leaned in suddenly and placed his lips on her own. His thoughts drifted away like snow in the wind. And the voices of the Dark Ones faded into nothing just as they had every time she'd kissed him. He missed those times. He missed being able to sleep because she was close. He missed being as close to her as humanly possible. He missed her, he wanted her. Desperately. And he could feel it in her mouth, the way she clung to him, pulled him closer, for some reason or another, she wanted him too.
"Stay," she muttered against him, pulling away but not so far that he couldn't feel her breath still against him. "With me," she went on still trying to catch her breath, "tonight."
He pulled back just far enough to glance into her eyes, her beautiful pleading eyes, and knew he really had no choice. He would have done anything that she commanded, but tonight the request was simple. It was easy to fulfill given just how much he knew they both wanted to be with each other. After so long apart, saying "no" wasn't possible.
So, he nodded, letting her know that he would, and took off his jacket, a signal that he wasn't planning on leaving. Suddenly he realized that she might have been the only one in this little town that had seen him without it in all the years he'd lived here. No, she couldn't cure all monsters, but she had the ability to at least make this one into a man again, if only temporarily.
Ugh, I dropped the ball on this one. I loved this reunion chapter in Moments, it was smooth and perfect. But from Rumple's point of view, it's just...choppy. And sort of awkward. That one's on me. The writing is just not up to par. And I'm sorry it's so short. My apologies. It's just the odd way the chapters are divided out. This reunion was obviously not the rescue and it's obviously not the conversation that comes next. It needed it's own chapter and that made it...well...short.
Thank you Grace5231973 for your review of the last chapter. I'm glad that you thought Granny worked a little bit better in the story than David did. We are not done with 2x07 yet, we've got another couple of chapters left, and up next is a very important conversation! Peace and Happy Reading!