Sat in one of the booths in Grannies, Belle nursed the hot cup of tea between her hands and her thumb traced the rim of the cup fondly remembering their chipped teacup. The others were sitting around her at various tables. Gideon was faithfully staying by her side, sitting opposite her, whilst listening and joining into the deep conversation with the group. Belle was not interested. They were so fixed on breaking the shadow spell that the Black Fairy had cast on Rumpel, that they were missing the bigger picture. They needed to take care of the Black Fairy. The self-deluded woman needed to be defeated before she took Rumpel's power.
Belle had no idea where Rumpel was now hiding his dagger. She had not seen it since their little trip to the underworld and it was not as if they had been very close since returning. Asking Rumpel could lead the Black Fairy to finding it first, if she was watching them with Rumpel. As she found entertainment in watching her only son in pain, Belle knew that the woman would be nearby watching them, laughing at their attempts to free him. Finishing her tea Belle closed her eyes and wished that it were over already.
Regina suddenly stood from one of the stools at the counter and turned to the rest of the room. "We need to find his dagger then. If we cannot help Rumpel, then we need to do what Belle wanted to do. We need to put a stop to this crazy lady."
"Where does Rumpel keep it?" Snow asked, crooking her head to see Belle over her shoulder from where she sat on one of the middle tables.
Belle took a deep breath as a pause to think and then said. "Well… I don't know. He used to keep it on him, but I would have thought if it was there, the Black Fairy would already have used it on him. He must have hid it somewhere."
"Any ideas where he would keep it?" Charming questioned, sitting opposite Snow.
"Nope." Belle said and then sadly added. "We haven't really spent any time together since… Since I was woken up from the sleeping spell. We've spent more time arguing." Gideon's hand came over the table and squeezed her hand. He knew it had not been easy on Belle. The longing of watching your husband from afar. The tease of wanting him, but her pride had got the better of her.
"We need to go and search." Emma instructed. "We'll split up and go and search his shop and home, and maybe some other places he could have hid it."
"Charming and I will search the shop." Snow volunteered and Charming and her left Grannies, putting their coats on as they went through the door. Belle did not envy them, especially as the back room now looked like a tornado had been through it.
"Someone needs to go out and check the woods. August told me once that Rumpel had hid his dagger in the woods." Emma said, guiding Hook towards the door with a hand on his shoulder, and left.
Regina motioned for Henry to follow her and said to Belle, making her way to the door. "Henry and I will go and see if we can find anything more out about the Black Fairy that might help. I'll leave you to go to his house. I don't want know to know what I could find in his sock draw."
Belle nodded and scooted out from the booth with the door closing behind Regina and Henry, and put her coat on as she stood. Gideon stood up next to her and pulled down his rumpled shirt. She half-hearted smiled at him and made her way out of Grannies with Gideon close behind her. Casually going down the steps of Grannies, Belle looked over her shoulder at Gideon and waited a second for him to match her stride, linking arms with him as they walked to the sidewalk.
"Belle!" Blue was jogging down the sidewalk to them. "Rumpel wants you."
With no second thought, Belle quickly walked in Rumpel's direction but stopped when she heard Blue talking to Gideon. "He said he wants to speak to Belle on her own. Sorry, Gideon."
Gideon looked pained. "But…?"
"It's okay, Gideon. I won't be long. Go and get your father's car." Belle said. His shoulders dropped as he sulked off to get the car. She watched him go pass her and off towards his father's shop. As much as he was twenty-eight years old, he was very much a child.
Belle smiled briefly at the thought whilst striding over to the other big kid in her life. The nearer she got to him, the more her heart sank. Rumpel was still held in mid-air by the spikes. She could see exactly where the spikes had penetrated into his chest and leg. The blood around the spike wounds had dried. He had been through an ordeal overnight and his face showed the pain.
She came to stand less than a foot away from him. A tear threatened to fall down her cheek as Belle was assaulted by his oaky smell, her body lurching to touch him and kiss his pain away. Rumpel had his eyes shut when she approached, but as she had stopped close to him, his eyes had opened and a ghostly smile tried to tug at the corner of his lips.
"Belle." His voice sounded sore.
"Hey." She tried her best to give him a smile. Belle quickly folded her arms over her chest, not to protect herself, but to protect him from the temptation she felt to touch him. To stoke his face and run her fingers through his short hair.
"I love you, sweetheart." He whispered, swallowing after he spoke to soothe the rawness of his throat.
The tear, that had threatened to fall, fell and quickly ran down her cheek. "I love you too!"
He shuddered at her words. "I want you… I want you to forget... I want you to forget about me and move on with your life. Find someone who can love you like you deserve, sweetheart."
Her arms detangled instantly at his words. Belle was close to him now, she could feel his breath on her face, and cupped at his face with her hand. Rumpel gasped at her touch, his eyes clenched shut waiting for the pain. The terror of what she had done suddenly dawned on Belle and she took a step back retracting her hand from Rumpel's face instantly.
They waited. Silence between them. Slowly Rumpel opened his eyes and looked from Belle to the ground beneath him. Belle's eyebrows pushed up her forehead.
"Nothing." Rumpel whispered.
"I don't understand." Belle took a hesitant step back to her husband, her eyes studying his face. "Why?"
"I don't know." As he finished speaking, his eyes came to rest on Belle, staring deep into her eyes. A small chuckle of relief escaped Belle. She timidly touched his face again and waited… Nothing. Nothing happened when she touched Rumpel. All night the others had tried to help him and had only caused him to howl to the night. Charming had even tried lifting Rumpel off the spikes, but had only caused Rumpel pain as soon as Charming hands had touched him.
Belle could not contain herself any longer. Cupping his face between her hands, she kissed him and he returned it. She broke the kiss but did not move far away from him, her forehead rested against him. His eyes remained shut with his lips slightly parted.
"I'm not going to question it. I'm just glad I can touch you," Belle said to him and Rumpel opened his eyes. "Because I've been wanting to do that all night."
Rumpel looked puzzled for a second. "I've been in agony and you've been wanting to kiss me. That makes total sense, sweetheart."
She smiled at him. "Anyway, do not talk to me like this is the end." She caressed the side of his face, his fresh stubble had grown making his face rough. "We're stronger than that."
"I don't know whether we're strong enough to defeat her." Rumpel was honest.
"We will defeat her. We have more important things to deal with." Belle told him, rubbing at some of the dry blood in his hairline from his head wound he had gotten last night.
"Important things?" Rumpel questioned, his eyebrows crunched up at her words.
Belle lean towards his ear to whisper, his stubble grazed her cheek and made her toes curl up inside her boots. "Us."
She did not have to look at his face. She felt the smile on his face. As Belle moved back, she kissed him again and then stepped back. The smile did not leave his face. If anything, there was a renewed energy about him. A strength that had been taken from him.
"I'm going round you house now, with our son, so I hope there is nothing to find in your house that will embarrass you." Belle said playfully.
"Oh… I… Don't…" Rumpel quickly contemplated it. "Nope. Nope, it fine."
"Rumpel," Belle was amused by his reaction. "was there something?"
"We'll talk about it… Later." Rumpel said with a cheeky glint in his eyes. Belle could not help the full-blown smile as she walked away from him. The sad feeling that had sat in the pit of her stomach was gone.
Gideon sat outside Rumpel's store inside the car. Belle pulled open the car door and got inside, still smiling as she looked at Gideon. He frowned at her and put the car into drive to take her to Rumpel's house. Everything passed by so quickly. The only care in the world, that Belle had right now, was getting through all this so they could sit down and have that little chat they had promised each other.
The house stood out in the distance, its salmon paint making it stand out from the other houses on the street. The car squeaked to a halt in Rumpel's driveway. Belle had not been to his house since their confrontation. She clambered out of the car and shut the door, and looked up at a house she had once called her own. Called theirs. It seemed a lifetime had happened since he had first brought her home, welcoming her warmly. He had been treated her like a porcelain doll, scared she was going to break and be gone forever again.
Gideon was the first up the steps and opened the door to his father's house. Belle followed slowly, memories haunting her as she crossed the threshold into Rumpel's house. She left the door open and wandered into the sitting room. It was just as it was the last time she had been there. The furniture never used in that room. If Rumpel were going to hide his dagger in his house, it would not be in this room.
Ambling through the sitting room into the dining room, she looked around the room. Distantly she could hear Gideon searching through the kitchen with draws and cupboards opening and closing as he searched them. Belle shook her head, knowing that Rumpel would not be so careless to hide it where anyone could find it.
As she came through the other door out of the dining room, she entered the kitchen to see Gideon opening the cupboard under the sink. Belle smiled at the thought of Rumpel hiding it under the sink and climbed the stairs to the landing. She entered Rumpel's bedroom and paused in the doorway. Her eyes stared at the chest of draws that they had pinned the other against in the heat of the moment, broken by the lamp that sat on top of them.
"Damn lamp." Belle mumbled to herself and finally entered the room. She had no clue where the dagger could be. The only thing she wanted to do with it was throw it into the sea of lost souls.
With a heavy sigh, Belle dropped to sit onto the bed and lay back onto the bed. She stared at the ceiling above her. The last time she had been in this bed was when Gideon was probably conceived. Thinking of that afternoon spent in bed, Belle blushed and turned into the bedspread to hide it. Although she had joked to Rumpel about Gideon finding something he should not, she had not expected so many fond memories to come flooding back to her.
Rumpel had never been what she expected from a lover. All her reading had told her that the man led, but never Rumpel. He had always been more giving, allowing her to take control and do whatever she wanted. He seemed to get more pleasure from doing what she wanted then following his natural wants. Maybe it was age, he did have two centuries on her and she was not oblivious to the fact he had been with women before her. Nevertheless, it never stopped Belle feeling like it was always their first time, the exploration of skin and finding those sweet sensitive spots.
"Mother." Gideon called from the doorway. Belle shot up from the bed and quickly straightened the bedspread, and pulled at her coat. She wiped at her cheeks and her hair, trying to calm the redness from her cheeks. There was an amused smile on Gideon's face as Belle turned to face him.
"Yes, Gideon." She said, giving the young man a stern look, and tried to control herself.
"It's not downstairs." Gideon said, his hand indicating back down the stairs.
Taking a deep breath, Belle said. "Go and check the other bedrooms. I'll head down to the basement."
He nodded his head acknowledging her instruction and left her. Glancing around her old bedroom, Belle left Rumpel's bedroom and headed downstairs, and then down into the basement. It was its usual sight. Things were laid out over the workbenches, his spinner was in the corner and the bookshelves were all in a neat and tidy order. She missed watching him work. Belle could spend hours watching him from the steps of the basement.
Belle sighed heavily and began investigating the room. Her fingers ran over the edges of workbench nearest to her and then onto the bookshelf as she passed them. There thirst for knowledge was definitely a common interest for Rumpel and Belle. They had spent many evenings sat on the patio, both reading a book, their hands laced together over the table between them. He would read a book about magic while she would read a romance novel of some kind. He hated them with a passion, which was why she had stopped in front of one on the bookshelf.
"What are you doing here?" She ran her finger down its spine as she spoke to it. Belle pulled the book but it would not come from the shelf. Another tug at the spine and she heard a click near her foot. Looking down at the floor, Belle could see part of the bottom shelf had popped from the rest of it. She bent down and slowly opened the fake shelf. Belle gasped seeing the glint of his dagger, his name bold on the cheek of the blade.
Belle did not say anything as she grabbed the knife and quickly hid it into her coat. She pushed the compartment shut again and stood, and made sure the book was back in position. As Belle turned from the shelf feeling triumphant, the force that struck her across the face spun her round and into the bookshelf. Belle raised her hand to face, her cheek stung. Looking over her shoulder, the Black Fairy stood a few feet away looking very smug.
"I have been looking for that everywhere!" The Black Fairy placed her hands on her hips. "That boy certainly is good at hiding it." Belle did not say anything. She turned and pressed herself against the bookshelf behind her.
"Come on then, darling, hand it over." The Black Fairy said, holding her hand out for the dagger.
"You'll never have it." Belle stated.
"Now, now. Give me the dagger." The Black Fairy took a step towards Belle, who countered by shuffling further away against the bookshelf.
"You'll never have his power." Belle protectively held a hand over the dagger on the outside of her coat.
The smug look washed off the Black Fairy's face. "You do know that I could just take it from you. I don't even have to come over there."
"Try it!" Came a growl from behind the Black Fairy.
Startled by Gideon, the Black Fairy quickly turned round and put a hand over her heart. "Oh, you silly boy! What have I told you about creeping up on me!"
"I won't let you touch my mother!" Gideon stepped further into the room. Her son stood in front of her, flabbergasted Belle at how much he reminded her of Rumpel. The look, the intensity, it was all Rumpel.
"Don't get in my way, boy." The Black Fairy warned. Gideon had already edge his way to Belle's side, keeping her sheltered behind his back. Belle clutched at his shirt and kept a hand over the dagger. As the Black Fairy made a step forward towards them, Belle and Gideon were engulfed into a cloud of smoke. When it dissipated, Belle found that they were standing in middle of Grannies.
Gideon turned and hugged Belle. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have left you."
"It's okay, Gideon." Belle comforted him by stroking the back of his head. "You were there when I needed you." She kissed the side of his face as they pulled apart.