PART 2B. SORRY IF THE "PARTS" THING IS CONFUSING, BUT IT'S NECESSARY, THIS IS SUCH A LONG SECTION IN THE STORY, I DON'T WANT TO OVERWHELM YOU WITH IT ALL PILED IN ONE CHAPTER.

Belle tilted her head, swirling her skirt as she considered herself in the mirror. She couldn't understand why Hook and Rumple had laughed so hard: all she wanted was to look like a princess. And in this dress, she did.

So it was a little poofy. Well, she liked poofy! And she didn't need Mr.'s Wore-Ridiculously-Tight-Leather and Same-Coat-For-Three-Hundred-Years to give her attitude about her wardrobe.

"It's a good thing you're doing this now," Aurora said, checking her curls in the mirror. "Another couple of months, and I wouldn't have been able to fit into my dress." She beamed around the room. "Phillip and I—"

"Are having another kid, we know," Tink said loudly. "Congratulations, you're bringing another idiot into the world."

Aurora looked highly offended. "Well!"

"Guys," Belle said, holding up her hand. "Just… shut up and talk about my bridal beauty or something."

"Look at her bridal beauty!" a loud voice said as the door opened. Belle turned around to see Hook coming toward her, grinning. She gave him a withering look.

"If you're coming to laugh at me again—"

"Oh, Belle," he said with exaggerated impatience. "Don't be mad."

"No. I'm mad at you," she shrugged, turning back to her reflection.

He looked at her in the mirror with sad eyes. "Don't be mad?" he pleaded, putting his chin on her shoulder. "Please?"

"Why are you in here?" she asked irritably, shrugging her shoulder away. Hook rolled his eyes at her stubbornness as he threw himself down in the chair by the mirror.

"Ruby told me I had to wait here with the other bridesmaids." He shook his head in shame. "Look at me. I'm the head bridesmaid."

"You mean, the head brides-mister?" Tink said dryly, giving Belle a disdainful look. Belle refused to be belittled.

"'Mister-of-honor' is not a stupid term, I don't care what you say," she said staunchly. "You're just jealous, because I thought of it first."

"Oh!" Aurora said suddenly, pressing her hand to her stomach.

Hook, Belle, and Tink slowly trailed their eyes over to her, all wearing the same bored expression. Aurora looked back with wide eyes, apparently thinking they were as breathlessly excited as she was.

"I think I just felt a kick!"

"Little bastard beat me to it," Tink muttered, snapping her fingers. Hook curled his lip.

"What, you've got another little bugger coming?" he said, looking more disgusted than congratulatory.

"I'm two months along," she said, smiling shyly.

Hook looked supremely uninterested. "How fascinating." He glanced down as his phone buzzed with a text. He took it out of his jacket pocket, swiping his thumb across the screen, and squinted at it, the slight frown etched on his face deepening as he read it.

"I'll be back," he said absently, rising from his seat.

"Back? Where are you going?" Belle turned around to watch him walk hurriedly out of the room. "Hook?"

"I'll be back!"

The door closed behind him. Belle blinked a few times, startled by the sudden departure. "What was that all about?"

"Ruby probably got bored and needed something to do," Tink said crassly. Belle made an exasperated noise. Yep—this was why she and Hook had been best friends in Neverland.

"Ugh. Ruby…" She glowered, turning back to the mirror as Tink lazily draped in herself in Hook's abandoned chair. "I hate that bitch."

"Why?" Tink drawled.

"Why what?"

"Why do you hate that bitch?" she clarified with exaggerated patience.

"Don't worry about—"

"OH MY GOD," Tink said, covering her ears. "If you say 'Don't worry about it', I'm going suffocate you with your own dress."

Belle turned around slowly, looking at her in mild surprise; Tink looked back, lifting her eyebrows as if to say, Well?

After a minute, Belle shrugged. "All right. Come fix my hair. I'll tell you."

Tink brightened at the thought of gossiping about Ruby behind her back, and bounded over to the little vanity table. Belle struggled to de-poof her gown enough to sit down as Tink armed herself with a comb and a curler.

"Talk to me," she ordered.

"All ri—ow! Tink! What are you trying to do, rip my head off? Gently."

"Gently," she agreed. "Okay, talk."

Belle grimaced, somewhat reluctant to bare one of her closely guarded secrets—to Tinker Bell, no less. But it would have been nice, if at least one person knew her hatred for Ruby was at least justified, that she wasn't just some random raving bitch. Again, Tinker Bell, but still… it was someone.

"We actually used to be friends," she said grudgingly. "When the first curse broke, me and Rumple were having some problems, and I needed some space. So she helped me get a room, find a job at the library—"

"Wow. What a bitch."

"Tink, shut up." Belle readjusted herself in the seat, thinking that perhaps this dress was a tad poofy, after all. "She helped me out some, so we became pretty good friends. We bonded over iced tea…" she trailed off, getting a little lost in the memory. "Pretty sure she was hitting on me at one point."

Tink's eyebrows shot up. "A scorned lover," she gasped mockingly. "Scandalous."

"Ew, don't say 'lover'," Belle said, wrinkling her nose. "And no, that's not what it was."

Tink shrugged disbelievingly, combing through her hair.

"Ruby was afraid she wouldn't remember how to stay lucid during the full moon. And then she got all freaked out when David found this mangled body by the docks, 'cause she thought she ate him."

"Gross," Tink said nonchalantly. "Who'd she eat?"

"Well, at the time, we thought it was Billy, so everyone was pretty upset because he's our best mechanic," Belle said. "Thankfully, it was just some random guy. I mean, it was still sad and everything, but it's not like we knew him, so…" She was suddenly aware that over the years, she had developed into a cynical, vaguely horrible person. And that it didn't bother her as much as it should have.

"Keep going," Tink prodded.

"Right, so, she got all upset, and then she wanted David to lock her in a cell, but Spencer demanded that she be given up to the mob. Frankly, I was most surprised that he was able to organize a mob, in this day and age. I mean, they had pitchforks and torches and everything."

Tink looked impressed. "Torches, really?"

"Yeah. So David told him to back off and leave her alone—"

"Oh, David's so nice."

"He's awesome, I love that guy. Makes great coffee. But yeah, he told Spencer to back off, and then he, Granny, and Ruby came to me and asked if she could stay in the library during her transformation. I was a little concerned, for obvious reasons, but she brought chains and handcuffs—"

"Kinky."

Belle exhaled impatiently, choosing to ignore her. "So, I was giving her a pep talk, because she was all upset and calling herself a monster and that she deserved to be thrown to the mob and blah blah blah… I was trying to console her, so I gave this really moving speech—" Belle took a deep breath—"and the bitch chains me up."

Tink stared at her for a moment, then grinned. "Fifty Shades of Ruby."

"Oh. My. God." Belle closed her eyes, shaking her head. Tink was possibly the most depraved, dirty-minded nun in the entire universe: a really, really shitty nun. "You know, if I wanted to a running commentary of dirty jokes, I could have just waited for Hook to come back."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Tink said, fighting against her smile. "Go on."

"You need to promise me that you're not going to make any more sex jokes."

"I can't make that promise."

Belle stared at her in disgust. "You're in a church."

"You should probably get on with the story, before I start asking you for details about the hot lesbian sex," Tink said loudly.

Aurora's head snapped up, and she flushed a violent shade of pink. Tink watched with raised eyebrows as she picked up her skirts and scurried out of the room, nearly tripping in her haste. Slowly, Tink turned back around, shrugging. "Must be bad for the baby," she muttered.

"I'll go get her," Ariel offered, standing up.

"Don't bring her back too quickly," Tink said as she opened the door. She looked back at Belle in the mirror. "I can try to keep the jokes to minimum, but you have to stop setting me up."

Belle rolled her eyes. "I'll do my best."

Tink smiled, and waved her hand for her to continue.

"So," she sighed. "She chained me up in the library—"

"Were you guys playing 'Sexy Librarian'? Sorry," Tink said as Belle exhaled in frustration. "It's just—I thought of that one earlier, I just never got a chance to say it. Keep going."

She took a deep breath. "So, I'm sitting in that library, chained up in the dark, for hours and hours and hours. The last thing she says to me is that she's going to give herself up to the mob, so there I am—chained to the wall, thinking she's going to go let herself be ripped apart by angry villagers. Later, I find out she actually spent the night doing some self-discovery and finding herself. Apparently, she and David were gallivanting around, chasing after Spencer, having deep, personal conversations, bonding and shit… Meanwhile, I'm chained in the library. No one thinks to call me to tell me she's okay. No one thinks to check to make sure I wasn't ripped apart by angry villagers. No one thinks to unlock me from the chains, because at this point, my wrist is all red and raw from pulling at them… What assholes.

"But I forgave them," she went on. "Everyone was dealing with shit, and I had my own stuff to worry about, so I didn't have time. It was still a little bitter, but hey, whatever."

Tink nodded slowly. "And…?"

"And then Hook comes to town," Belle said as Tink wrapped a strand of her around the curler. "We have this really weird game of hide and seek for the better part of the day, before he shoots me—"

"That bitch."

"I know. But anyways, he shoots me, and I stumble over the town line, and lose my memory, right? So, I'm in the hospital with amnesia, painfully confused about everything that's going on…and Ruby drops by." Belle shrugged. "Says she's going to help me remember who I am, help me figure things out, keep an eye on me… stuff that friends do for each other.

"Well, for a week or so, she kept her promise. Brought me books, talked to me…" Belle drew out a long, bitter breath. "And then she notices the other victim."

"Hook," Tink said knowingly.

"Hook. And suddenly, she doesn't have time to visit me; she has to discuss things with Dr. Whale while he's checking up on him. And then she doesn't have time to bring me books, because she has to be on guard duty outside his room while Emma questions him. And then she doesn't have time to talk to me, because she has to roll her eyes at him flirting with her. Meanwhile—" Belle's voice rose, and she clenched her fists—"I'm sitting there, being manipulated and used by Regina, getting false memories, thinking I'm some psycho bitch named Lacey, getting mauled by the Sheriff of Nottingham—also known as the sleaziest, most disgusting, most repulsive, only vaguely human piece of shit on the face of the earth—while the love of my life is miserable because I don't remember him or myself! And does she come rushing to my rescue, to help pick me back up from the dark place I've fallen into? No. No, she's far too busy drooling over the newest guy in town: Henry's estranged father, one Mr. Neal Cassidy. Who she doesn't even know." Belle took a minute to catch her breath, looking at Tink's wide-eyed expression in the mirror. "I mean, let's just forget about the fact that I dropped everything to help her when she was having her identity crisis, got chained up in a building that had an angry mob demanding blood outside it, was left there for hours and hours and hours without knowing anything—but when I'm having problems, she doesn't have time to drop in, just to make sure I'm not doing anything or anyone I shouldn't be? I mean, what the fuck?"

Tink stared at her open-mouthed for a long time, not even blinking. "Wow," she said softly. "You have a lot of rage in you."

"Yeah, Archie's going to give me some pills for that," Belle said wearily, putting a hand to her forehead.

Tink nodded slowly. "Tell him not to skimp on the prescription dose."

I KNOW A 2 MONTH FETUS DOESN'T KICK, BUT I LITERALLY DON'T EVEN CARE. I JUST WANTED TO FIT IN SOME ANNOYING PREGNANCY TROPES, AND PLUS AURORA'S KIND OF A DUMBASS.