I've been informed that the reviews on this story aren't showing up, and while I'm sorry, I'm afraid it's an issue for support, not me. I'm hoping it's just one of those bugs that goes away soon. Anyway - onto the last chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter Four: The Lives They Wanted
He couldn't really hold his side and the sword, and manage to stay upright, Rumplestiltskin saw, so he leaned against a tree, feeling pain from the wound shoot through his whole body as he took up as good a fighting stance as he could.
Hook laughed, and they both knew how pathetic Rumplestiltskin looked, standing there. I can't die here, Rumple reminded himself sharply – and a good thing it was too, given how this looked. He wouldn't die here – but he still had to fight Hook.
So he did, but he was quickly weakening from blood loss, and was no real match for the pirate's fury. In only a matter of minutes, he hit his knees, facing the edge of Hook's sword and the very real imminence of a stab wound that just might be the death of him the moment they left this godforsaken underworld.
Hook wore an expression of unfettered, sickening glee as his blade sliced down through the air towards Rumplestiltskin – and hit another sword with an unexpected clang of metal against metal.
"Get out of the way, boy!" Hook snarled, shoving at the intruder upon his moment.
"Bae!" Rumplestiltskin gasped, realizing his son had interceded with the help of David's sword.
Baelfire glanced back at Rumplestiltskin for a split-second, gritting out, "I won't let you surrender."
"Stop!" Emma suddenly screamed, emerging from where she had still been watching the proceedings. Her hands were already glowing, and as she came closer, she shot beams of light magic at Hook hard enough to throw him across the bank and onto his back.
"Swan!" Hook gasped, at the same time as Bae cried, "Watch out, Emma!"
Hook scrambled onto his feet, reaching Emma before anyone else could, and Rumple heard him say softly, "Thank the gods you're here! They wanted to abandon me here in favor of Rumplestiltskin's son! Your own family wanted to hurt your true love, Swan!" The pirate put a hand against Emma's back and tried to move her towards her family – funny how the others who'd been surrounding the heroes had gone elsewhere – as he ordered, "Tell them you won't let that happen, Emma."
Emma locked her jaw, eyes flashing as she let Hook guide her towards her family. Once she was by them, she whipped around towards Hook and declared icily, "Touch me again and I'll end you. In a non-criminal way." Her smirk was perfectly deadly as she asked, "After all, I hear you can't be murdered down here – but I know plenty of ways to cause eternal pain."
"They were going to let me stay dead!" Hook cried.
"I saw everything you did, Killian!" Emma shouted, pain and rage lacing her voice as she declared, "I'm going to let you stay dead too!"
"Then you came all the way to the underworld for nothing?" Hook asked incredulously.
"Of course not," Emma replied, suddenly oh-so-casual. "Neal," she turned towards Rumplestiltskin's son, declaring, "I won't let you die. Leaving you here would be like losing you all over again, and I don't want that. If you're willing to come back with us and put up with me again, I'm willing to share my heart with you."
There were tears in both Bae's and Emma's eyes – and most everyone else's – as Bae went to Emma and scooped her up into his arms, kissing her soundly. Just as Rumplestiltskin faded into unconsciousness, he heard Bae answer her with a heartfelt, "I'd love that."
Rumplestiltskin woke up, recognizing his surrounding by the familiar scent alone. He was back in his shop, and he could feel the cot underneath him while he lay on it. But there was a weight on the side of it, like someone was sitting on the edge of it.
He opened his eyes slowly, to find blue eyes staring back at him with the gentlest of smiles. "Hey there, hero," Belle whispered. "How are you feeling?"
Rumple mumbled nothing in particular, doing his best to sit up until Belle shook her head, pressing a hand to his shoulder to keep him still. "Not yet. No sudden movements. Dr. Whale's orders. You took a pretty nasty wound to the side."
He shrugged. "It was necessary to get exactly the life I wanted to live… with exactly the person I wanted to live it with."
Belle smiled at him again, leaning down to give him a sweet kiss as she replied, "I love you too. I always have, and I always will."
For a few long moments they simply clung to each other, both of them absorbing how many good things this meant for their relationship, and then Rumple asked suddenly, "Bae?"
"Came back with Emma," Belle informed him with an ever-widening smile. "They told me everything that happened. I'm proud of you all."
"I'm proud of you all, too," Bae declared from the doorway, stepping past the curtains with his hands in his pockets. He knocked his shoulder against that of the blonde at his side and declared, "Especially you."
"Why me?" Emma asked in surprise.
"Because you were willing to go after love – to believe in it so much that you were willing to give up everything that you thought you wanted to get it."
Emma hummed nothing in particular, looping her arm through Bae's as she declared, "I got something much better than I lost."
"I think you might've started a trend in that, for at least a couple of people," Rumplestiltskin spoke up with a grin. "You're a natural born revolutionary, Miss Swan."
"No," Emma shook her head. "I'm just one person who chose what was best for her and her family." She shrugged. "It just so happens that you apparently did the same thing. So I'm proud of us both for it."
"Me too," Belle whispered, so that only Rumplestiltskin could hear.
He squeezed the hand of his true love, pulling her down to him for another kiss and getting too caught up in his wife to notice when Emma and Bae shared a kiss as well.