Barely a minute after Emma had disappeared into the back, she reemerged, this time with her family in her wake murmuring something about Granny's and dinner. Her arm was wrapped around Henry, the Dwarves followed out with Ruby, and Mary Margaret and David, now awake and significantly happier than before, kept their arms firmly around one another. Emma glanced his way only once before squeezing her son tighter and leading the way out the front door.

And just like that, it was over. The emergency lifted, the trouble gone, and everyone, including him, was free to go about their business. The shop was empty…save for one lone heartbeat he sensed the moment the others left his property. Regina. She hadn't gone with them. Curious, he moved into the back to find her standing there, her eyes cast downward as everyone had left her alone to celebrate. She'd made a great sacrifice to make that happen, just as he'd been willing to make a great sacrifice to keep his Belle safe, a sacrifice he now had to take responsibility for. Henry was right…villains never won…not really.

"Congratulations," he muttered, bringing her gaze back up to him. "You just reunited mother and son. Maybe one day, they'll even invite you for dinner."

His words stung her. He could see that. But he couldn't bring himself to care. Today changed very little in his mind. What had happened in the past had still happened. She'd still held Belle prisoner, and the actions she'd taken today, the sacrifice that she'd made, would have put Belle back in that precarious position. As she moved around him wordlessly and left, he realized that no matter how guilty he felt over it all, he wasn't willing to forget that one fact—especially given the trip he was now forced to make.

He wished this wasn't becoming a pattern. He wished that he wasn't constantly preparing himself for his last conversation with Belle. But here he was again, readying himself, telling himself that he needed to do this, preparing his heart for the break it would feel when she decided that she couldn't take it and kick him out. All the other times she'd forgiven him, he could come up with an argument for why she'd done it. This time…he didn't see a way out. He couldn't see her being okay with what he'd done today. He couldn't see her accepting it. The fallout was going to hurt. It was going to sting. But like before, he owed her the truth. He'd meant what he'd said to Regina when they'd attempted lunch yesterday…he didn't want it to be kept secret from Belle, and with the witnesses, it was foolish to think that he could keep it secret from her. She deserved to hear it from his mouth before anyone else had the chance to tell her.

He let himself into the library, making certain to lock the downstairs door before he began the suddenly long trek up her stairs to the apartment door above. His mouth was dry as he knocked and listened to the sound of the locks on the door tumbling out of place before she finally pulled open the door to reveal herself.

She stared at him for a second, a small pause to look him up and down before she let out a breath and he found her in his arms.

He probably should have stopped her, seeing as how he was here to make a confession that would probably make her regret this embrace later. But instead, he released a breath that he hadn't known he was holding and returned the gesture, held her closer as she buried her head into his shoulder. He memorized the feel of her body against his own, every dip and curve of her body. He let himself enjoy it while he could, let himself cherish it. He wanted to live in this moment, cast a Curse that would keep them like this forever, instead of moving forward into the inevitable.

"Belle," he finally choked out after a hard swallow.

She loosened her grip on him but didn't move away, merely let her forehead bump against his as she inspected him in a way that confirmed he'd gotten to her before Ruby had. It was good. It was what he wanted, but the coward in him acknowledged it might have been easier the other way.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

No. He most definitely was not. But for her purposes…

He nodded. "But more importantly…so are you."

"Come on," she whispered, taking his hand and pulling him inside. "Come talk to me."

She led him back over to the couch, the very place that she had sat nights ago as he'd unknowingly pushed magic into her wrist while he'd iced it. It was fine now. The bruises were gone, and if she realized why she didn't say. She just helped to sit him down and make him comfortable.

"I'll, uh…I'll make some tea…"

But before she could rise fully to walk away from him, he grabbed for her hand. If he got too comfortable, if he was left too long on his own to think about options, he might not have the courage to do what he needed to do. And besides, once she heard it, she might regret the comfort that she offered to him.

"Stay," he urged. "Please."

Her face turned white as she moved to sit back down beside him. He wedged himself back into the corner of her couch, suddenly aware that it was the first time his body had rested since all this began, and rubbed his forehead, trying to find a place to begin the tale that wouldn't sound so bad that she would run before he completed it. It didn't help that she held his other hand between her own and brought it to rest on her leg.

"Rumple, what happened?" she urged. "You can tell me anything, Rumple, really you can."

Could he? Yes. He could. He knew that now. What he didn't know was how she would react to his news.

"I…I attempted to do something very bad today, Belle. I worked with Regina to try and carry out a plot. Had I been successful, Mary Margaret and Emma would be dead right now instead of over at Granny's having dinner."

There was a pause as she considered his words, a pause as he waited for her to drop his hand and move away. She did stiffen slightly, shook her head in what he recognized as confusion, but she stayed where she was. Her hands stayed where they were.

"Wait…Emma…Emma and Mary Margaret are back, and…you tried to…to kill them?!"

"No," he answered honestly. "We tried to kill Cora, but Mary Margaret and Emma…"

And then he told her everything, explained it step by step in a way he'd never explained himself to anyone before. He told her about what happened yesterday, about everything from the moment he'd left her onward: Henry, Aurora, the messages, putting David under the Sleeping Curse, and all that followed. He told her of the panic he'd felt when David didn't wake, and they had no confirmation that their messages had been received and his certainty that if they hadn't, then Cora wouldn't be defeated, that she'd arrive in Storybrooke and tear the place apart, that she'd go after Henry and her and…

It was right around the time he told her of their plot to kill her and stop her that he realized he was no longer afraid, that he was no longer waiting for her to get up and move away from him or drop his hand. He held tighter to her hand, an anchor and guiding light in the midst of his confession. He'd never expected she'd make it this far, and yet here they were, still talking. Maybe, just maybe, he could tell her everything.

"…and they're at the diner now, but I…I wanted to come see you first, to tell you myself, so you didn't have to hear it from anyone else or think I was keeping anything from you. I wanted to ask your forgiveness, though I know that I've no right to it after-"

"People make mistakes, Rumple. I don't expect you to be perfect just to try not to give in to the Darkness," she insisted. "What it sounds like, to me, is that you made a mistake, one that Regina rectified before it was too late, but you did it for the town, to keep me and Henry and everyone else safe."

"You're not angry?" he half question, half-realized with shock.

She swallowed hard and nodded her head in an unnervingly uncertain sort of way. "Your methods might not have been best, but I can't fault your intentions."

Oh, it wasn't possible. It wasn't possible that again, after everything he'd done, she was still here. That she was still here, that she believed him and wanted to stay with him. It wasn't possible that she could forgive him for any of this, and yet she was doing just that again. If he had the energy, he'd have scooped her up and kissed her until the morning. But the room was warm, and her couch was cozy, and her presence calming. For the first time, the terror was over, and she made him feel human in ways that surprised even him.

"And Cora?" she pushed further, her grip on his hand tightening. "Who is she exactly?"

Cora…that dreadful story, the only part of this he'd left out because it hadn't applied to what had happened today. He owed her that story. But cliché as it was, for now, he just wanted to sit here with her in the stillness and listen to her heartbeat. He wanted only to treasure her presence.

"One day, I'm going to tell you that," he promised with a heavy sigh, "just not today."

She examined him, then nodded as if in acceptance and understanding. He wished that she'd close the distance between them, that she'd stop staring at their hands and let him hold her, a true sign that all was right and well between them. He wished-

"I'm sorry." Her apology wretched out of her with a near sob as she glanced his way. His hackles rose at the implication of it. What did she have to apologize for? "I'm sorry that she used you like that…that she used me against you like that."

He took a breath and sat up, trying to rouse his mind and body as he understood what she was talking about. Regina. The "she" she was talking about was Regina. And "used me against you"…she thought that Regina had pressured him into all this. Which she had…yesterday. Today he'd been the one to do the pressuring because he knew better than to risk Cora coming here. To let her think anything but that was to do her a terrible disservice. It wasn't honest.

"She didn't," he insisted. "One way or another, I would have come to the same conclusion. I would have done it all over again to keep you safe. Whether she realized it first or I did, I would have done the same thing."

"I don't want to cause you problems. I didn't know that I made you weak," she cried, her voice cracking on the dreadful word Regina had used yesterday. "I never wanted to be your weakness, not with those women that took me and not with…"

Cora.

She was rambling. He couldn't even be sure which woman she was talking about. Her mind was so scattered and hung up on that one word that Regina had accused her of being. "His weakness." She was his weakness. He knew that. He'd known that when he'd taken her home and never wanted her to leave. But the longer they sat here together, his hand in hers, he was coming to believe that she might have been more than that. Without her, he wouldn't be half as stable as he felt now. He wouldn't be half as clear-minded or half as restrained as he'd been. She was his weakness, but she was something else too.

"You are," he explained, tightening his fingers around hers so that she squeezed back. "You are my weakness…" and then he moved to test touching her further by cupping her cheek into his other hand. She leaned in…not away, closing her eyes and sighing as if it was a balm for her soul just as she was a balm for his. He felt the bonds between them tighten further than he'd ever known possible. It was his confirmation. She was a weakness, but also…

"But you are also my greatest strength. Never doubt that, my beautiful Belle. Never."

She opened her eyes to look at him finally, and tears slid down her cheeks as she pulled her hand free from his. His stomach lurched in a second of panic before she finally did what he'd been waiting for. She moved her arms around his waist and kissed him. He took it happily before kissing her forehead and settling them back against the couch. Legs tucked under her, head resting on his chest, he sighed as he held her to him and left the day behind him.

I loved when I first wrote this scene in Moments. I don't know what could possibly be more than love, but that's how I felt about writing it from Rumple's perspective. This version actually has a few more details than the Moments version does, not details that derail the scene, but rather some details that emphasize their individual characters. It's meant to really show you what is important to them. Rumple's confession is covered a bit more thoroughly in this version because at the heart of it, that's what matters most to Rumple, his confession, and Belle's forgiveness. In Belle's version some of the detail for the confession is missing, not because it's not important to her, I think it is, but rather because in that time for Belle she was really torn up over the idea of being used by Regina as Rumple's weakness and so in her chapter that really takes center stage.

Thank you so much, Grace5231973, for your review of the last chapter. I hope that you'll enjoy this one almost as much as I enjoyed writing it. And I do hope that you'll enjoy the differences I've tried to add to some of the chapters that are shared between Moments and Chronicles. I had a great time finding all those little ways that I could bring out individual character for them both. Peace and Happy Reading!