He needed to figure out what to do about Belle before she became the problem Cora had been. But Belle wasn't like Cora. Not one bit. His history with Cora left a foul taste in his mouth that persisted even to this day. But Belle…Belle was exceptional. Belle wanted none of what Cora ever wanted. She was a woman who had been in a place of power and comfort and had traded all of it in a heartbeat for the lives of those in her Kingdom, lives she didn't even know! Cora, on the other hand, had traded her heart for power and might. Though both women were hardworking, Cora had despised every second of her bone-breaking work. Belle seemed to thrive in it; asking to go to the market, for more work, was evidence of it. Cora longed to see herself on a throne. Belle longed to see the world.

But that didn't mean that Belle couldn't become the same problem that Cora had been. He truly doubted that she would ever be the same type of problem Cora was, but he was starting to see something else that disturbed him.

Those fantasies he'd had, the ones that he'd convinced himself he'd concocted all on his own, the result of male hormones driven wild…he was starting to doubt that he'd concocted them. It was in her behavior, but it was especially in his own behavior. All of a sudden, he was bold with her. Despite telling himself he needed distance, he found himself touching her, getting her gifts, wondering what life would be if there ever were more than they were now. He'd behaved that way with Cora, and if he was honest he'd behaved that way with Milah too in the beginning, when he was human. Both women had become distractions he couldn't afford to have in his life. He'd pursued them both and where had that gotten him? Nowhere. Misery. Devastation beyond anything he could ever have imagined. Hate.

Belle was nothing like his former paramours. He didn't think she had an evil bone in her body. Unlike Milah and Cora, there was nothing that hinted at an inner darkness or savagery that he might find if he got to know her better. But the scary thing was that he felt like he had already gotten to know her, potentially even more than he'd gotten to know Cora and Milah. And when he looked at her, and she looked back, he felt like she was seeing something inside of him that neither woman had ever seen, something that maybe even Baelfire hadn't seen. And he liked it. Whether because of fantasy or vision, he could see something stirring between them that wasn't just physical. He wished it was. It might be easier to dismiss if it was. The question was, now that he acknowledged it, what was he going to do about it.

He liked her. He could admit that. If nothing else, he liked the work she did and her presence in his life. He enjoyed her company. But that alone made her a distraction when getting back to Baelfire had to be his first and only goal. She wouldn't be the problem in anything going forward, rather it was the potential distraction she presented him with. He told himself he could ignore it. He could ignore her; he could hold himself in check! And yet, this morning when she'd left for the market, he'd touched her. Without thought and before he could catch himself, he reached out and touched her shoulders and even her face. All it would take was one touch to lead to another, and that was where a problem could arise; literally, if his nighttime fantasies were any indication.

But what to do about it?! He knew the answer. He knew what this was going to come down to, he just didn't like it. Every day she was here was another day of attachment. It was another day to allow his attraction to bind him tighter to her. Every day made it harder for him to imagine this place without her walking the halls. And the danger of sending her away. How would he do it? He was almost certain, knowing her that she wouldn't go back to her family. But where would she go? If he left her out into the world alone, there were plenty of dangers that awaited her. The Queens of Darkness were proof people would use her to get to him, if she wasn't here or somewhere else that he knew about, then he couldn't promise that he could keep her safe. But if he found her other arrangements, another home, there was no telling if he'd be able to stay away. If he missed her too much then he might retrieve her. If she missed him...

It was a problem.

But then…so was the little jump he felt in his belly and the smile that spread over his face when he felt her enter back into the castle grounds. He was happy she was home. The knowledge of it made his heart race with joy and relief and then…

Panic.

She wasn't alone.

"Rumpelstiltskin," he heard her cry as he materialized inside the foyer and threw open the doors to find her.

She wasn't alone, but she wasn't in danger either. Trailing behind her, he saw that she pulled a cart of some kind. Inside the cart there was a body; a heartbeat aside from hers and his own. It was alive. But the smell of infection, magic, and sap from other doctors trying to heal him reached his nose so that it wrinkled. Alive, but not by much, it seemed. And what did she think she was doing? Bringing home a stray like this? Did she expect to heal him? There was magic already on him, clearly some other wizard had already tried. The man was nothing to him, why should he bother to do it?! Just when he was starting to think she could do no wrong!

"I need your help!" she cried, coming to a stop at the stairs.

"Please tell me it doesn't have anything to do with the cart of rotting flesh behind you!"

"Rumple!" she gasped setting down her load and running back to the cart to try and rouse the starkly white man. It was an innocent maneuver, one that required her to put her arms around him and try to set him up. She touched his chest and back and his shoulders and he felt jealousy surge through him. He didn't like it when she touched him. Not when a touch like that was what he craved. "He's badly wounded," she exclaimed. "He may die!"

Fine with him; they'd see if she was so eager to touch him then.

"I seem to remember that you went out to buy food, yet you return with a stranger. Do you expect me to eat him?"

That was the wrong joke to make. The glare she gave him as she set the boy back down in the cart threatened to make him shiver. He hated when she did that.

"He's not a stranger to me!" she snapped. "And your magic is the only thing that might be able to heal him. Please! We can send him on his way as soon as he's better."

Not a stranger to her? She knew him? That was why she was so comfortable putting her hands on him? Because she had some experience with him before? What kind? And why did it bother him so much if she managed to save him? This was exactly the kind of thing he'd worried about when he decided to send her to the market! That she might meet someone who would spark her interest or take her away, and there was no benefit in that for him.

"And why should I assist this? What do I get out of it?" he dismissed, using a tone that he usually reserved for making deals. He'd long since abandoned such speech with her, but if this didn't qualify as making a deal, he didn't know what would.

"Nothing…" she breathed. She opened her mouth to speak again, but at that moment, their conversation was interrupted by the boy she'd brought with her. He hadn't woken, but he let out a miserable sounding groan that made him cringe, not because he was hurt, but because he almost sounded like he was faking it. For heaven's sake, he'd walked hundreds of miles on a broken ankle in his time and hadn't made such noises. This was…what…an infection, by the smell of it? And he was passed out in a cart, while Belle looked after him? What did he have to moan and groan about?

He rolled his eyes. But Belle fell for the noises. He clenched his jaw as she swooped back down the stairs to tend to him. She picked up a rag of some sort and wiped his brow so tenderly it made him want to punch someone or break something.

"But it's the right thing to do!" Belle finally finished, glancing down at him with fucking tears in her eyes that made him so angry he wanted to-

"What have you done to this rag?!" she shrieked.

He hadn't meant to make a scene. For a brief second, he'd merely had the wish that he would have liked to remove the cloth from her hands so she would stop fawning over him, and in the next second, it was in his hands. He hadn't lost control of his magic like that in a century.

"I was just trying to make a point!" he covered, looking at it and sneering. He didn't know what kind of diseases were attached to it, but it had touched the boy's face, and he wanted so badly to burn it. "Already, my belongings are being rendered into filthy wrecks!"

Apparently, that was also not the right thing to say. The moment the words were out of his mouth her jaw dropped open and then she was storming up the stairs, her feet pounding so hard that he thought her own legs might crack. She flew at him so fast he wasn't sure she was going to stop and took a step back from her in fear.

"You are being awful!" she yelled. "I won't just stand here and do nothing while you play games and let him die!"

"All right!" he shouted back before she could become even more unhappy. "Bring him in then, I won't help him, but I won't snuff out his breath either. If he dies, he dies, we'll let fate decide, shall we?"

She wasn't exactly happy with that answer either, but he'd given her at least most of what she wanted, so he didn't think she was likely to argue with him. He turned to go back inside and put some distance between them-

"Rumpelstiltskin, wait!" she cried out. He glanced over his shoulder, returning his attention to her. As if his attention wasn't always on her these days…

She was standing by the cart, her hands back around the boy's torso, she was pulling so hard that she was turning red, and when the wind drove the smell of the infection back to him, he realized that there was a reason he didn't want her touching him that much. Her life was mortal, fleeting. If she caught sick and died, he would never forgive himself.

"Please," she cried. I can't move him. He needs a clean bed and rest and I can't-"

One second he was there and the next he was gone, but this time it was on purpose. In a plume of smoke the boy was no longer by her side but rather in one of the upstairs bedrooms. It was a small one, nothing fancy, but it was still bright and sunny enough to satisfy her so that she wouldn't feel the need to move him again; anything to keep her from touching him like that again.

"I believe you'll find him in one of the second-floor bedrooms you've insisted on cleaning out," he responded to settle her shocked face. Immediately she sighed as relief coursed over her features. She nodded and quickly scurried up the steps back into the castle, but when she passed by him, he extended his arm and caught her again. He touched her, grabbed her was perhaps more accurate a word, but he noted that he hadn't had to apply much pressure to get her to stop and listen. And her arm…he'd caught her just at the elbow. He'd grabbed enough people in his lifetime to know when the touch was unwanted, to know the feeling of fear and dissatisfaction. Her skin stayed soft, her muscles didn't tense, and she didn't step away, not even when he took a step closer to her. It was almost as if she wanted his touch.

"Use your time to nurse the lost puppy wisely," he whispered in her ear. "I'll still expect your chores to be done, including dinner at its appropriate time."

She breathed for a couple of heartbeats, long enough for him to move his thumb over the little knob on her arm before she nodded. Good. They understood each other.

That wasn't shocking, he was beginning to think they understood each other better than anyone ever had.

With a flash of magic, he summoned a basket that had revealed itself in the cart the moment he sent the boy away. Food. At least she'd managed to remember that.

"You left this in the cart," he muttered, sliding it up her arm and into the bend in her elbow.

"It-it'll be ready in time. You'll enjoy it, I promise," she breathed. Then she glanced up at him, big beautiful eyes beneath perfect dark lashes. And he was suddenly aware of just how close she was. So close he could feel her breath against his chest where his shirt was open. Inches. There was a mere few inches between her mouth and his, and it would be so easy to lean down and see what it would really be like to kiss her instead of just thinking about it.

Just do it!

"I have to check on Samuel," she finally muttered, pulling away so that her arm and her mouth were out of reach again. The motion left him feeling dizzy. He felt as though he'd just jumped into a lake of ice the feeling was so sobering.

"Thank you, for letting Samuel stay…thank you."

Samuel…who was Samuel?

She moved away from him and dashed up the stairs reminding him exactly who this Samuel person was.

It was the boy.

So, a couple of fun things that I wanted to put on display here. The first part of this chapter is meant to showcase his circular logic where Belle is concerned. I wanted it to seem like he's arguing with himself. I wanted it to sound like he's saying "hey, Belle could be a problem like Cora" and then have himself argue all the ways that she's not a problem. But still come back and say "well, she could be a problem this way" and then have him argue why that's not really a problem. Then still conclude "yeah but she could still be a problem." It's supposed to show that he is simultaneously winning and losing his own arguments. Readers digest, he's really conflicted when it comes to Belle. Also, other thing I really wanted to showcase here, I wanted to add a new layer to their relationship: jealousy. He feels jealous of her attention to Samuel. I liked incorporating that in there because I really didn't want to show that when he first met her with Gaston. It was too soon for something like that. But here, now...it seems like a good thing to take advantage of.

Big thank yous going out to Alarda, Jennifer Baratta, and Grace5231973 for your continued reviews. I'm glad you enjoyed that last chapter. Of course, I'm hoping you'll enjoy this one and the next couple as well. If you've read Moments or "Truth and Daggers" then you know there is a need to excuse Rumple from Belle's storyline for a bit. I think you'll like what I did with Rumple in that time. I used that excuse to help close out another storyline of my own making that has been left "open" for a little while now. That's one of the main focuses in these next two chapters so get ready for something unexpected! Peace and Happy Reading!