Author's Notes: I do not own Once Upon A Time which is a show on ABC where I only thought I was tired of Peter Pan... then I met Zelena. Thank you so much for the reads and reviews and favorites and follows! I really appreciate them. I appreciate you, too, lurkers. So, please let me know what you think and happy reading!

Also, non-US readers, if you were wondering about the PSAT, SAT, ACT, etc. they are all basically university entrance exams that are tests of how good you are at taking tests. Hope that helps if you need it.


Beatrice liked clothes. It was an obsession she hadn't come to understand until she had time to observe Gold for a while. Her mother was of course, beautiful, and that meant when she put even the most unlikely outfits together onlookers would marvel and she would get compliments. Beatrice's own fixation was more exacting and always had been since she was a little girl, picking out the correct barrettes to go with an outfit and to Belle's consternation even the correct ponytail holder to go with her pajamas.

When she finally had the chance to observe Gold it made sense. His jewelry, carefully chosen to impress. The suits, the shirts, the ties and pocket square. The cane? He had sleeve garters something Beatrice had never seen aside from the Dapper Dans at Walt Disney World. Freed from the Curse, Belle had brought jewelry back into her wardrobe and it accompanied her usual palette of blues, yellows, golds and sometimes purple or gray.

Her parents had never said it, but Beatrice had gotten the hint that looking like a schlub was not a good thing in Storybrooke. People stared, she didn't want to think they were staring at her clothes. Gold had even given Martha a red leather collar with a gold name tag he had made the day before.

They seemed more dressed up than usual for the first day of Mother Superior's trial. Beatrice walked with her parents to the town square carrying Martha and all eyes were on them. Gold had chosen a black suit with dark gray today. Belle's own dress was more of a slate blue than Beatrice was used to seeing. They walked arm in arm as the townspeople gawked.

Then she saw Merlin. She had basically only seen him in his Enchanted Forest clothes once: leather pants, high boots an embroidered jacket. She was fairly certain his Storybrooke wardrobe came from a Land's End catalog: all chinos, a light brown jacket and woven shirts, completely belying his power. Her dad wanted to impress with his appearance, Merlin couldn't be bothered with perception. Today he had on a gray suit, crisp white shirt and shiny black shoes.

"I see that look," Merlin warned.

"I didn't say anything," said Beatrice.

"You're saying it all with your eyes."

"I think you look handsome," said Belle.

He rolled his eyes. He nodded down at Martha. "Who's this?"

"Martha," said Beatrice.

"Hello, Martha."

"Hey, are magical puppies a thing?," asked Beatrice.

"I don't see why not," said Merlin.

"They are not," said Gold.

The sheriff's patrol car pulled up and Emma walked Mother Superior out. The crowd in front of city hall parted from the sidewalk. Belle turned back to Beatrice.

"You should be off to school," she said.

"What about Martha?"

Gold took the puppy. "I'm going to take Martha to the shop. I'll check on her a few times before you get out of school. I'll meet you back here at three, alright?"

"Alright," said Beatrice.

"We'll eat lunch with her," said Belle. She gave Beatrice a kiss. Gold followed suit and she was off.

"Hey, try to overshadow the other children, alright?," said Merlin. "Shouldn't be hard."


"Merlin?," Venus called in a sing-song voice. "Merlin!"

Merlin sighed as the great doors opened to his room. His mother strode in barefoot as her skirts billowed around her.

"Why are you hiding?," she asked.

"I'm not hiding," said the boy. "I'm reading."

She sat down on the bed next to him. "What are you reading?"

He didn't answer. She peered over his shoulder.

"Magic," she said.

"Yes."

"You know you don't need it."

"That's easy for you to say."

"You should get some air. Why don't you join Adonis on a hunt?"

"I don't want to join Adonis on a hunt."

She took the book from him. "Then why don't you at least go play in the garden? You have been up here all day."

"I like reading."

"Yes and so do I, but you can't hide in your room all the time. That's no way to pass a childhood."

"How would you know?"

"That doesn't change anything. Garden. Now."


The makeshift courtroom brimmed with townspeople, filling all the seats and having a standing row in the back. The defense side was filled with the nuns and even the Knights of the Round Table had dared to show their faces. The prosecution side had Gold, Belle and Merlin. Belle would have guessed that at the slow rate it filled up, most of the others just needed a seat.

Gold walked in and joined them.

"Sorry, Dove had to help me with Martha's playpen."

"Her playpen?," asked Belle.

He shrugged. "It was the only one he could find this morning."

Regina looked back from her table. "You put your dog in a playpen?"

"You concentrate on what you're doing, alright, dearie?," said Gold.

Venus entered, looking more ceremonial in what had to be a goddess gown. She took her seat at the makeshift throne, a chair that was alone in the center of the room even if it was not ornate.

"I'm calling to order this trial of Viviane known to other realms as the Blue Fairy and to this realm as Mother Superior," said Venus. "Regina shall make her case and then Viviane will make hers. You will keep order in this court, but all that happens here shall be known."

The last words seemed to bellow.

Venus motioned. "Regina, please make your opening argument."

"Goddess Venus, people of Storybrooke, I intend to show that you have all been deceived. The Blue Fairy has for centuries told everyone that she acted on the side of good and good alone, yet that's just not the case. While there may have been a few good tokens here and there, a princess who got to a ball, a young boy brought to life, she has always acted with her own agenda and I intend to show you just what that agenda entails. People whose lives have been ruined and families that have been torn apart. Foremost of that agenda is a young girl who has done nothing to the Blue Fairy or to anyone for that matter, but has incurred her wrath since before her birth and the harassment of her family for hundreds of years before. The time has finally come for these crimes to come to light."

Regina took her seat with a look of satisfaction.

"Kathryn," said Venus.

Kathryn looked down at some index cards and back up. She finally stood.

"I have no opening statement," said Kathryn.

There was an audible gasp. Regina's smirk grew larger. Mother Superior looked aghast.

"Really?," asked Venus. "No opening statement?"

"We'll let the facts speak for themselves," said Kathryn.

"Do you think that's a good idea?," asked the goddess.

Kathryn didn't answer.

"Fine," said Venus. "No opening statement, but if you should wish to make the one at the beginning of your case, I'll allow it. Regina, you may call your first witness."


Merlin made his way to the garden. Finding a patch of flowers, he sought to see if anything was in his magic book that he could use.

"You're Venus' son, aren't you?"

"One of the many." He looked up to see a girl around his own age with a sweet smile and her hair in brown ringlets.

"What's your name?," she asked.

"Merlin."

"I'm Viviane," she said, sitting down on the grass with her basket. "I heard you're a halfling like me."

"No."

"No?"

"My father was a demon."

"Really?," she asked. "You must be very powerful."

"No."

She looked up at him. "I'm sure that's not true."


The curiosity was starting to be unbearable.

Every day her parents dressed like they were going to battle and went to city hall. Every day Beatrice followed them, she was sent to school and she handed off the puppy. She came back to the square after school and waited for her father. Before he arrived, she tried to overhear some details and everyone suddenly clammed up. She tried asking Aurora if she had heard anything, but unfortunately the one person in Storybrooke who might be likely to talk to her was the one person who knew even less than her. So every day, Gold arrived, gave Beatrice her puppy and sent her home.

"Kathryn!," Mary Margaret called.

Beatrice looked to see Mary Margaret and David following Kathryn out of city hall. Beatrice hid as she reluctantly turned.

"Is that all?," asked Mary Margaret.

"You try defending her, see if you can do better," said Kathryn.

"What about all the good Sister Evangelina did as a fairy?"

"So what? She didn't want to be a fairy. She never even got to see her family again. I don't have a way to spin that."

"It's not spinning," Mary Margaret said. "It's telling the whole truth."

"I am doing what I can, but I don't have a lot to work with. Do you know what happens tomorrow? Regina starts the Beatrice portion of her case."

"The Beatrice portion?," asked David.

"Everything she has ever done to stop Beatrice and she's starting with-"

Beatrice realized she wasn't very clever at hiding because Kathryn had spotted her. Mary Margaret and David turned.

"Well, trust me, there's no way to spin it," Kathryn said with disgust as she walked away.


That was the day Beatrice broke. Gold made dinner as usual a pot roast with potatoes and carrots. They talked and Martha lurked under the table to beg. Gold would attempt to break her of it, then secretly give her a carrot. Beatrice bided her time answering idle questions about school and chose a quiet moment to act.

"What have I been missing?," asked Beatrice.

Her parents looked up.

"The trial?," asked Beatrice. "No one talks to me, I'm like the only one in town without a clue."

"Which is how we want it," said Belle.

"Your mother's right," said Gold. "You needn't worry yourself."

"Could you give me the PG version?"

"Beatrice, this really isn't your concern," said Gold. "It's just a parade of all the lives ruined by the fairy's callousness so far. The dwarf and his love, those who became fairies who didn't want to, those cast aside when they disobeyed her."

"Anyone else she tried to kill?," asked Beatrice.

She got her answer from her parents' silence.

"Wow, I feel so much better," said Beatrice.

"We are trying to protect you," said Belle.

"And how long do you think you can do that?"

Belle looked at her. "Let us try a while longer."


"Merlin!"

He looked up to see his mother. He and Viviane had been meeting in the garden a few weeks now. His mother had not made her way down until now, he presumed she was too busy with Adonis.

"Goddess Venus," said Viviane, bowing her head.

"You're new here, aren't you?"

"Yes, my father was kind enough to bring me to Olympus after my mother died."

"Then you ought to go back to him," said Venus.

"Bye, Merlin," said Viviane getting up and running off,

Merlin waved hopelessly. He looked up at his mother's hard look.

"I don't want you to see that girl again."

"Why not?!"

"Because I can see straight through to her soul and it is a shady, shady place," said Venus.

"It's just Viviane!"

"Merlin, my son, I have no doubt you have many extraordinary talents and will be a great, great man, but you cannot yet divine souls. That one is shady. She will do awful things and you are to never see her again. Understood?"

Merlin sighed. "Yes, Mother."


Beatrice stood outside the town square and checked the time on her iPhone. Her dad had said he would meet her here with Martha, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Hearing the door to city hall open, she turned expecting to see Gold. They froze as they looked at her and hurried off.

Beatrice went inside. There were more people milling about outside the makeshift courtroom. As the door opened, she slid inside, standing in the back row.

"Ms. Ingersoll," said Regina. "When you arrived at Sir Maurice's castle, what did you find?"

The old woman seemed hesitant to speak.

"I was taken to the dungeon."

"Was there anyone in Sir Maurice's dungeon?"

"Yes, Mistress Belle."

"Was the Blue Fairy there?"

"Yes."

"Did she give any instructions?," Regina asked turning an icy glare towards the fairy.

"Yes."

"Well, what were they, Ms. Ingersoll?"

"The Blue Fairy explained that Belle had been taken by a demon and within her lived his spawn."

"What did Belle say?"

"She said nothing."

"Why is that?"

"The Blue Fairy said she had taken her voice, for fear of summoning the demon."

"What did the Blue Fairy ask you to do?"

"To rid her of the child."

"Did Belle make any protest?"

"She couldn't speak," the old woman retorted.

"Then I'll rephrase. Did she try to stop you in any way?"

"Yes."

"What then?"

"She struck me. My nose bled."

"Does that seem like something someone anxious to be rid of a demon spawn would do?," asked Regina.

"Objection," Kathryn said halfheartedly. "Speculation."

"I didn't ask her Belle's motives, I merely asked if it seemed like a logical conclusion that any passerby would make."

"You'll answer, but we'll stick to facts from now on," said Venus.

"No," the old woman answered.

"What happened next?"

"The clerics tied her down. They held her mouth open as I poured the potion down her throat."

"Did the potion have the desired effect?"

"No."

"Did you try again?"

"Yes."

"How many times?"

"I don't recall."

"Does five seem right?," asked Regina.

The old woman waited to answer.

"It seems like the number of times I tried before she lost consciousness."

There was a murmur over the courtroom.

"You tried more after she was unconscious?"

"Yes, the demon spawn wouldn't die."

"You mean the baby," said Regina. "What happened next?"

"She convulsed. She had to be released from her bindings or she would have choked on her own vomit."

"What was next?"

Beatrice turned and walked out into the hall.

The rain started and she realized what she had done. She desperately tried to gain control over it, to do what her dad had shown her, to draw it back with a happy memory, but it kept going back to imagining her mom tied up in a dungeon because she was pregnant with her.

"Beatrice?"

She heard Mary Margaret's voice. The woman wiped her nose with a handkerchief. She shook her head.

"Beatrice, you shouldn't have heard that..."

She snorted. "Why not?," she asked bitterly.

Thunder rolled outside.

"Beatrice, I am so-" Mary Margaret began, edging closer.

"I need a minute! I am trying to get control over the weather! Icy roads suck, I get that!," she snapped.

The door opened again and Gold emerged. He walked over to Beatrice.

"Oh, sweetheart, I wish you hadn't heard that..."

She shook her head. "I can't get control." She tossed her messenger bag aside and sank to the floor as if everything just weighed too much.

Gold knelt down. "Breathe. Let it out, take only the good things back in."

She shook her head. "I can't."

"You're thinking too much."

"Mr. Gold?"

They looked up to see Dove with Martha tucked under his overcoat.

"Yes, thank you, Mr. Dove," said Gold, taking the puppy with a smile. He handed her to Beatrice. The dog nuzzled in concern, but Beatrice clutched her closely and the rain dissipated. Gold helped Beatrice up and Dove handed her the bag. "I'm going to go have a word with your mother and then come home with you. Dove will take you to your car."


Merlin wasn't sure who he ought to blame. His mother, her lover, Viviane or himself.

He was hunting.

He didn't want to hunt. He couldn't see the point. Where was the prowess in killing some defenseless animal or some dangerous animal?

His mother was off seeing to her duties and he had been left in her lover's charge. He felt that really it was Adonis who ought to have been left in his charge. Yet he had not failed in his instructions to keep Merlin apart from Viviane.

Merlin heard hooves and low snorting in the distance as Adonis readied his bow, drawing an arrow from his quiver.

"Don't make a sound," he instructed.

Merlin rolled his eyes. The trouble was that as he had been told to not make a sound, all he wanted to do was make a sound.

So he did, his mocking roar reverberating and causing the birds to fly from the trees.

Yet the boar did not run. It turned to face Adonis and Merlin.

It was not afraid.

His mother's other instruction had been to be wary of a beast who showed no fear.

The boar ran towards Adonis and gouged through him, blood spilling out onto the ground. Merlin stood uncertain of what to do, what he could do as his mother's lover groaned. He was not a god, yet his own studies of magic did not include defying death. The god of the Underworld would always get his due.

His mother appeared, tears in her eyes. She practically fell to Adonis' side and his blood soaked her white dress and the ground.

Still crying, she took nectar and sprinkled it over the blood. Red flowers with a black center bloomed as Adnonis' body vanished.


Emma felt like this was one of the strangest duties she had ever been called upon to perform as the sheriff of Storybrooke and that was saying something since they once had to chase down a giant.

The Foleys had been puzzled by Venus' request, but seeing as she was Venus, they really weren't in a position to argue. She collected him from his house and brought him to Granny's.

"Hello, Mike," said Venus. "Why don't you sit?"

He took a seat across from her in the booth.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Of course," he said almost dismissively.

"Are you hungry? I'm buying," said Venus. She looked up at Emma. "You can wait over there, Sheriff."

Emma went to the counter and kept looking back.

"I saw your picture," said Venus, taking out the poster from the town square.

Mike eyed it. "I didn't make that."

"It has your name. Is that your signature?"

"Yes."

"Then how is it that you didn't draw it?" She paused. "Do you have a brother?"

"Yes. That's not him, though. He's older than me."

Venus looked. It was a younger boy.

"You're not missing a brother? You weren't separated by the Curse?"

"No."

"What was your name back in the Enchanted Forest?"

"Michael."

"If you tell me this was a joke, that's okay," said Venus. "I'll forgive you. I just need to know the truth."

Merlin entered the diner and Venus looked up at him. He walked over.

"This is my son, Merlin," said Venus. "Merlin, this is my new friend, Michael."

Merlin looked down. Venus saw a spark of recognition.

"Michael, why don't you go with Emma and order us some pie?," said Venus.

Mike got up and hurried towards the counter. Merlin sat and fingered the poster Mike drew.

"I take it you know him."

"Do you?"

"I'm the goddess of love. Don't you think I can spot these things?"

"I don't know where he went."

Venus nodded. "I told you a dark streak ran through that one."

"Are you going to add this to her list of crimes?," he asked.

"No," said Venus. "True Love usually sorts itself out."

"And the family?"

"As I said, True Love usually sorts itself out. When she finds him, you can break the curse they're under."

"You're just going to hope things work out?"

"You have spent centuries writing Beatrice's story. Now she needs to write her own."


It had not been a smooth morning for Beatrice. For one thing, her dad was the one to wake her up which never happened. She never woke up late and she rushed to get ready, throwing her makeup in her bag to do later and her father sending her off with a breakfast she could eat as she drove.

That did not stop her from the Starbucks stop, though. She had eight minutes to spare when she parked her car and ran to the class with the cup carefully balanced.

"Oh, good, didn't want to miss our resident smart ass," said Blake.

"I'm sorry, I was running late," said Beatrice, putting her back down and getting out the study guide.

"Not too late for Starbucks," he remarked.

She sat.

"You're late," he snapped.

"If I get three of those, do I get a detention?," she asked. "Oh, wait, I don't because this isn't a real school."

"Why don't you tell me the right way to solve this problem?"

Beatrice glanced up at the test question posed on the overhead projector. "If the radius of a circle is increased by by 20%, then the area is increased by..."

"It's B."

"And how did you reach that conclusion?"

"Because 44% is the answer."

"Yes, but you won't have time to work out every problem on the test. You need a strategy which is why you're not in real school."

Kennedy gave her a sympathetic look.

"So, math strategies..."


Mary Margaret entered the library. Belle didn't glare, she just went back to the computer.

Summoning her courage, Mary Margaret stepped up to the desk.

"You were right," said Mary Margaret. "I haven't been owning up to the choices I made. I thought that saving Emma justified everything and maybe it did, but it doesn't excuse it. It doesn't excuse her being alone for most of her life and it doesn't excuse what happened to you. I should have asked where the tree came from, I should have been more critical after what I knew the Blue Fairy had done. Maybe things would have been different for all of us."

"I didn't tell you everything," said Belle.

"No, because you were always the brave one."

Belle looked up.

"My mother always told me to keep to the good and I believed her. I like being seen as good."

Belle snorted. "Yeah, you really do."

Mary Margaret nodded her head fervently, her eyes grew teary. "I know and sometimes the good thing may not have been the right thing because I should have been your friend."

"You didn't know about the tree."

"I should have done more and I'm sorry about the beans, I-"

Before either of them quite realized it, Belle was hugging Mary Margaret.

"I don't deserve your forgiveness-" said Mary Margaret.

"Maybe not, but we've been friends too long. Besides, we've had worse fights before."

Mary Margaret nearly choked on a laugh. "Over dolls."

"You pulled my hair out," said Belle.

"You elbowed me in the chin," Mary Margaret said plaintively.

They broke apart.

"And what about the trial?," asked Belle.

"David and I are just going to let it happen from now on," said Mary Margaret. "We won't help either way."

Belle nodded.


"Does anyone know what to do?," Blake asked.

The class was silent. He turned to Beatrice. She snapped back from the distraction of thinking about the trial. Try as she did, she just couldn't get what had happened to her mother out of her head. How much more was there that they weren't telling her?

"No answers from our resident smart ass?," he asked.

"Well, I think your pedagogical methods leave something to be desired."

"Oh, look who's been using her vocabulary flash cards."

"You've been going on for two hours, how do you expect them to remember anything?"

"There's no breaks at the PSAT."

Beatrice looked around. "Who wants a break?"

There was no answer.

Beatrice sighed. "Guys, if you all get up now, he can't stop you." She motioned her hand and they did. "Thank you. Let's all be back in ten minutes or whenever we get through the Starbucks line."

The other students shrugged at each other and dispersed. Blake glared at Beatrice.

"I suppose you think you're cute. Does that work in that no-name town you're from?"

Beatrice picked up her messenger bag. "You have no idea what works for me there."

"Well, let's see, you're a pretty girl who thinks she's smart and you think all your nerd hobbies make you special. Your family must be rich because you have a car that's almost brand new and who else sends a sixteen year old with twelve hundred dollars in cash? You think you can get anything you want because your daddy will get it for you."

Beatrice gritted her teeth. "You really don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, somebody has daddy issues..."

"Well, let's see about you, dearie," said Beatrice, not even noticing the endearment as it flew from her mouth, "you're twenty. You had an almost perfect score on the SAT, but you're not in the ivy league. Instead, you're at a state school, not even that great of a state school, and you have to lord over a bunch of high school kids to feel superior because you are pissed off that you're still here."

"I'm still here because I don't have anyone to pay my way and I got my score from studying, not because my parents paid anyone to teach me."

"I bet a trained monkey could do it."

"Well, it could probably get a better score than you did this morning."

"Yeah, because it wouldn't understand what you're saying."

Then he kissed her.

Beatrice stepped back and shoved him.

"What was that?!," she shouted.

"Don't act like you didn't enjoy it."

"I didn't!"

"You like me. I can tell."

Beatrice screwed her face up. "No, you're gross and a jerk." She gathered her things.

"What? Are you going to run home and tell Daddy?"

"You would not like it if I did," she said, walking out.


Merlin stayed in his room. Venus stayed in her room.

"I haven't seen you in the garden."

He looked up to see Viviane.

She smiled sweetly. "I thought I would come up here." She held out a plate of figs and honey in offering.

Merlin took one.

"What are you reading?," she asked.

"It's a book about magic," he said.

"Magic?," she asked with her eyes lighting up.


Merlin walked down the street and saw Beatrice's car parked at the end of the street. More than that, Beatrice was in it, looking a million miles away. He walked down, waved his hand to unlock the door and sat in the passenger seat.

"What are you doing?," he asked. "Your parents will want you home. They hardly know what to do with themselves when you're gone."

Beatrice shook her head. "I seriously doubt that."

"Well, they can entertain themselves for a little while, but not forever." He eyed her. "What's wrong?"

She let out a sob.

"Beatrice, what is it?"

"Dad's netherworld, was there anything real in it?"

"You were real. He was real."

"Anything else?"

"Granted, your magic probably gave it a thread of truth, but if you're worried about something from there happening, it probably never will-"

She snorted through a stuffed nose. "That figures."

"What does?"

"I had a boyfriend."

Merlin tried to hide all curiosity. "Did you now?"

"I didn't see him. I met his brother, but I had this memory of kissing him and it... it... I don't... I know what I am. I know I'm not some girly girl. I don't feel things like other people do but the memory of that felt... It felt like something."

"And why bring this up now?"

"That jerk instructor I told you about?"

"Yes?"

"He kissed me."

"He did what?!," Merlin exclaimed.

"Are you going to freak out about this?"

"I'm your grandfather, of course I am! What did you do?"

"I shoved him..."

"So, it was not welcome?"

"No, and it just felt..." She stopped and looked at him. "It felt like nothing. Just mechanics, just trying not to bang into his teeth."

"You're the product of True Love, Beatrice. You can't be moved by mere displays of physicality."

"Yeah, but I'm never going to meet my True Love."

"What makes you say that?"

"Suppose my Sideways Boyfriend was it, well, he's probably in elementary school right now."

"You could still meet him."

"Great and when he's ready to get married, I can be a pathetic cougar."

"Your father had to wait hundreds of years to meet your mother. Don't start whingeing about the extra ten that you just imagined. For all you know, your True Love could be anywhere..."

"Or nowhere. Or maybe he doesn't exist. Maybe I just imagined some imaginary boyfriend."

"You need to go home," said Merlin. "And you need to tell your parents what happened."

Beatrice groaned. "No... That will just make it worse."

"Oh, no, you need your parents help with this."

"He'll flip out."

"Obviously, but you need your mother and trust me, he will know everything she knows so you had better just tell them both and be grateful that he can't leave town at the moment to kill the boy."


Beatrice walked in the house. Neal was there. Martha jumped from her perch sitting with him and bounded to Beatrice. She gratefully picked up the dog.

"Were we having dinner?," she asked.

"Not quite. Henry bailed on me for a birthday party and I remembered you guys had a giant TV so I thought we could watch the Knicks."

Beatrice wrinkled her nose. "Who are they playing?"

"The Spurs. They're going to get their ass handed to them." He looked up at her. "What's wrong?"

Gold and Belle entered.

"There you are," said Belle, greeting her with a kiss. "Papa was starting to worry."

"Beatrice?," asked Gold.

"Anyway..." said Beatrice. She summoned her courage, deciding quick was the best strategy. "Anyway, you know the jerk instructor? He like kissed me and I totally wasn't into it and I left so I don't know what's going to happen with your course fee and I sort of walked out and I thought he was a jerk anyway so there's really no need to freak out or anything, but Merlin said I had to tell you anyway and I am going to go to my room now, okay?"

She started making a break for it with the puppy, but Gold had her by the arm. He let go as she relaxed from her bolting position.

"He did what?," he said in his most serious tone.

"Kissed me. He's a jerk. I'm fine."

"Did he do anything else?," asked Gold.

"I dealt with it."

"Unless he's lying in a bloody broken heap on a cold slab of pavement, you have not dealt with it," said Gold.

"Rumple..." said Belle.

"Look, this hasn't worked out great for me either. It's not exactly been my week so if I could just go to my room, that would be great," said Beatrice.

Beatrice went up the stairs.

"I will kill him," Gold seethed.

"You can't leave town," Neal reminded him.

"Rumple, give her a minute. It was her first kiss." Belle grimaced. "Stolen from her."

Neal groaned. "Fine. I'll go kick the guy's ass."


Beatrice laid on her bed, holding a rope toy for the puppy. Belle entered wordlessly and laid down next to her.

"I am sorry your first kiss was stolen," said Belle.

"It's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal," said Belle.

"Like you even remember yours."

Belle laughed. "I do."

"Please..."

Belle turned and propped herself on her elbow. "There was this man and I thought I might be in love with him and that he might love me. So, on some bad advice I kissed him and he threw me in a dungeon."

Beatrice slowly turned to face her mother.

"He brought me tea," she offered.

"That's it," Beatrice said critically. "That's your first kiss?"

"I'm sorry it's not more impressive," Belle said with a smile.

"Uh, yeah! So am I! I knew he was hopeless- hello, wife who ran off with a pirate and woman who likes to rip hearts out- but I was holding out some hope for you. You are like the worst fangirl ever!"

"How am I a fangirl?," asked Belle.

"Oh, no one understands him, he's so dark and mysterious and ancient and his skin sparkles..." she said mockingly. "Oh, my God, put vampire in place of Dark One and you're a Twihard... No, wait, Stephanie Meyer ripped you off. Am I the vampire baby?"

"Beatrice, we had a pact to never discuss those books and please don't compare me to that girl who only seems to define herself through her relationship before we even get into the technical problems with the writing."

"Sorry," said Beatrice.

Belle brought her other hand to Beatrice's hair and ran her fingers through it.

"Love is hope, you know," said Belle.

"And I am hopeless."

Belle smiled. "You're the product of True Love, how could you ever be hopeless?"