Sleepless in Storybrooke Chapter four, an once upon a time fanfic

So, here we are at the penultimate chapter. Thank you so much for reading and to those who took the time to comment: It means a lot to me.

We see a little more of Emma in this chapter.

As usual, I don't own anything: I'm just having fun.

Sleepless in Storybrooke

Chapter four

The week before Valentine's Day, Tristan gave his son some news.

'I'm gonna be out of town on Valentine's Day, son, and I won't be back till the evening of the fifteenth,' he said.

Bae looked at his father. 'Where are you going?'

'Cora and I have plans.'

Bae's heart sank. If his father and Cora had plans on Valentine's Day, it could only mean one thing, especially if they would be away over night. He had to stop this: he had to stop his father making the biggest mistake of his life, but he needed help.

'So, I guess I'll be staying at the Nolans'?' he asked.

Tristan stared at his son. 'You're not gonna argue with me?'

Bae shot him a look. 'What's the point?' he asked bitterly: 'you wouldn't listen to me anyway.' He stood then and went to his room.

Later that day, Bae was with Emma, pacing as she read Belle's letter. He'd told her about calling the radio station, Belle, Cora, and his father, and he was waiting to hear what she thought of it all.

'I like this letter,' Emma said, and looked up at her friend. 'Bae, can you stop pacing: you're making me dizzy.'

'Sorry,' he said, and slumped into a chair.

'It's like that old movie.' Emma continued.

'What movie?'

'An Affair to Remember,' Emma said: 'the characters arrange to meet on top of the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day.'

'And do they, meet, I mean?'

'She gets in an accident and never turns up, but they meet later.'

'Hold on, you watched an old movie about love?' Bae asked, smiling in disbelief: romantic movies were so not Emma's thing.

'I watched it with Mom, ok,' she defended: 'it was on late one night and Dad was away, so we had a girls' night. Problem?'

'No problem,' he returned, still smiling a little. 'So, was it good?'

'It was ok,' she said: 'Mom cried the whole time. Anyway, this doesn't help us figure out how to get you to New York so you can meet this woman.'

Bae's eyes lit up. 'You're gonna help me?'

She rolled her eyes. 'Of course I'm gonna help, idiot: what are friends for? Plus, this Cora woman sounds like a total nightmare.'

'You have no idea,' he replied ominously.

'So, we gotta get you from here to the bus station, on a bus to Boston, and then to the airport, and then on a flight to New York. You got any money?'

'Well, I can't get into my bank account without Papa signing something, but I've got about a hundred dollars at home.'

She nodded. 'Ok, that should cover bus and cab fares: for the rest, we're gonna need a credit card.'

'Papa'd know if I took his.'

'I've got it covered: be right back,' she said, and left him.

He crept to the door and listened to her conversation with her mother.

'Please, Mom? It's just twenty bucks, and I promise I'll pay you back. Please?'

'Alright, but I'm gonna hold you to that promise, little swan,' Mary Margaret said affectionately.

'Mom! Bae's upstairs: don't call me that when he's around.'

Bae grinned: he could picture the look on Emma's face at the pet name. She was so never gonna live this down.

'Sorry, sorry,' Mary Margaret returned, though she didn't sound at all sorry: 'my credit card's in my purse on the table.'

'Thanks, Mom: you're the best!'

Less than a minute later, Emma was back, holding her mother's credit card triumphantly in her hand and grinning.

'How'd you get her to give it to you?' he asked in awe.

'Guess I'm just a good kid,' she said, 'and I don't ask for a lot, so when I do want something, they usually say yes.'

'Ok, so what do we do?'

'You look up flight times from Logan to JFK and I'll check out bus times.'

A few minutes later, Emma looked up from her phone. 'Ok, good news is that the buses from here stop off at Logan, so you don't have to go into Boston and come back out: that cuts down on travel time. It's still gonna take about three hours to get to Logan, though, and the earliest bus is six thirty in the morning.'

'Well, there's a flight at ten thirty: that should give me enough time, shouldn't it?' Bae asked, looking up from Emma's computer.

'I think so,' she said. 'Bus station's twenty minutes from here: you can borrow my bike. You're gonna have to be up early,' she warned him, knowing full well that Bailey Gold was not a morning person.

He nodded. 'Ok: whatever I have to do.'

'Ok, let's book you a plane ticket.'

Twenty minutes later, they were all done. Bae looked at Emma with a smile.

'I'd never have been able to do this without you,' he said.

'That's true,' she said, smiling.

Suddenly, he leaned over and kissed her cheek. 'Thanks, little swan.'

'Hey!' she cried, and felt her face turning pink with embarrassment, but Bae only grinned at her.

'Later, Em,' he called, heading out the door.

Emma tossed a pillow at the door as it closed; then she sat for a while, dazed, her cheek tingling from where he'd kissed her.

The day before Valentine's Day, Belle got a phone call.

'Hi Dad,' she greeted, smiling into the phone.

'Hi, darling: just called to say hey. What are you up to?'

'Packing for my trip to New York with Ruby.'

'Oh, yeah: the big trip. So, what have you got planned?'

'Well, we're meeting up with Mulan, Aurora, and Philip. We all managed to get some time off together, so we'll be in Manhattan for a few days. We're going to a club on Valentine's night. Do you think you'll get time to do anything special, Dad?' Being a florist, of course, Valentine's was the biggest day of the year for him, but she hoped he might have something planned.

'Well, I've got a bit of news for you, love,' he said a little hesitantly.

'You met someone,' she said knowingly, smiling: 'I'm very happy for you, Dad.'

'You're…alright with it?' he asked, a little surprised.

'Of course!' she said honestly: 'Mum would be too, you know,' she added softly.

'Thank you, darling: that means a lot to me.'

'So, what's her name?'

'Lydia: she owns the dress shop across the street, actually,' he said. 'I'd seen her around lots, but we'd never really spoken. We happened to meet in the supermarket one day and got talking: we just really hit it off. She's a widow with one son: raised him herself after her husband died. I guess we have a few things in common. Anyway, I'm taking her out for dinner on Valentine's night.'

'That's wonderful, Dad: I really am very, very happy for you.'

'What about you?' he asked: 'anyone special in your life? Feel free to tell me to mind my own business if you want to!'

Belle did her best not to sound upset as she replied. 'No, there's no one special: guess I'm just too busy with work.' She laughed a little.

'It'll happen for you, darling,' he said with conviction. 'I know Greg wasn't right for you and I should've accepted that before: I'm sorry I pestered you about him, but you'll meet someone that's perfect for you, I know it.'

Belle bit her lip to keep from sobbing. 'Well, Greg wasn't so bad, I guess,' she said. If it was a choice between Greg and being lonely, she knew she'd pick Greg, and her heart clenched painfully at that realisation. 'And it's ok: I know you were just worried about me. Anyway, look, I'm still coming for a visit in March, so I look forward to meeting Lydia then, and you two have a lovely dinner, alright?'

'Thank you, Belle: I'll see you soon, love, and enjoy Manhattan.'

'Bye Dad.'

After she'd hung up the phone, she went to check on Ruby, who was notoriously indecisive when it came to choosing clothes. If Belle didn't help her pack, she'd be way over the weight restriction.

Ruby saw the look on her face and stopped what she was doing. 'What's wrong?'

'Nothing, I was just talking to Dad. How are you doing in here?'

Ruby knew it wasn't nothing, but she had a plan to fix everything, so she left it alone, for now.

'Thank goodness you're here,' she said: 'I just can't decide what to bring!'

Belle smiled and shook her head. 'Well, for a start, you don't need five pairs of black heels: one will do.'

Tristan checked his watch and rolled his eyes: his son was almost impossible to rouse in the mornings usually, but this morning was particularly bad. He'd shouted up the stairs four times already and now he thought that nothing short of a bucket of ice cold water would get Bailey out of bed.

Sighing, he stood up and made his way up the stairs.

'Bailey, I swear, if you're not up and dressed in five minutes, you and I are gonna have an argument,' he called, walking down the hall to his son's room. He knocked on the door. 'Bae?' No answer. Reaching the end of his tether, he opened the door.

'Bailey Gold–' He stopped yelling because there was no one in the room to yell at: his son's bed was empty.

He checked, just to be sure he hadn't imagined it, but it was empty, and Bae's cell phone was sitting on the bedside table, so he couldn't call him to ask where he was.

Trying to calm his racing heart, he considered where his boy could be. The first location that occurred to him was the Nolans', so he made his way there as fast as his bad leg would allow: luckily, they only lived down the street.

Mary Margaret answered the door and frowned at the look on his face. 'Tristan? What's up?'

'Have you seen Bae?' he asked, breathing hard.

'No, we haven't: why?' She opened the door wider as she spoke and he entered.

'Because when I went to wake him this morning he was gone.'

'Oh, my God! David! Emma!'

'What's wrong?' David asked, running down the stairs.

'Bae's missing,' Mary Margaret said.

David's eyes widened. 'Call Graham: Tristan, think about where he could have gone and you and I will start searching.'

'You'll be wasting your time,' Emma called from halfway up the stairs, 'and there's no point in calling Sheriff Graham either.'

All the adults looked up at her and it was a testament to how brave twelve-year-old Emma was that she didn't look away.

Mary Margaret went to the foot of the stairs. 'Emma, do you know where Bae is?'

Emma nodded. 'Yeah.' She came all the way down the stairs.

'Honey, Tristan's really worried: you have to tell us where he went.'

'He's on his way to New York.'

Tristan stared at her. 'What?'

She looked at him. 'He went to meet the woman from the letter: Belle.'

'Oh, my God,' Mary Margaret breathed.

'Where would he even get the money for something like that?' David wondered.

For the first time since she'd appeared among them, Emma looked sheepish, and her mother spotted it immediately.

'Emma Ruth Nolan, is there something you'd like to tell us?' she demanded.

Emma sighed. 'The other day when I borrowed your credit card, I used it to buy Bae a plane ticket.'

'Oh, my God!' Mary Margaret cried: 'Emma!'

'I had to!' Emma protested: 'he's my friend and he was really upset about this Cora woman, and he showed me Belle's letter, and it was a really sweet letter, and–'

'Enough!' Tristan yelled, and Emma jumped. Mary Margaret hugged her.

'Hey!' David cried, going over to his daughter, who looked scared suddenly: 'I know you're upset, Tristan, but you do not raise your voice to my child.'

Tristan took a deep, shaky breath. 'No: I apologise, I–'

''s ok, Mr Gold,' Emma said softly. She stepped out from between her parents. 'Bae didn't mean to make you worry: he just didn't know how else to make you listen.'

Well, he'd sure got his attention now: he'd been such a fool.

'I know, Emma,' he said softly: 'I understand, it's just… I need to find him: he's all I've got and…'

'He went to the Empire State Building,' she said.

He nodded. 'Then that's where I'll find him.' He moved towards the door and then turned back. 'I'm sorry for yelling, and thanks for your help.'

'Give us a call when you find him?' Mary Margaret requested, and he knew by the look on their faces that they would all worry until he called.

He nodded again. 'I will.'

As he rode in the back of the taxi to the Empire State Building, Bae looked up at all the huge buildings. Boston had some big buildings, but nothing compared to this.

'So, what are you gonna do when you get to the top, kid: spit off the side?' the cab driver asked jovially.

Bae shook his head and smiled. 'I'm gonna meet my new mom.'

But none of the women he asked was named Belle and with each negative response, he felt a little of his hope trickle away.

Tristan had had to wait until the afternoon for a flight because they were all booked until four o'clock. Of course, it would be just his luck that New York was a popular Valentine's Day destination.

He waited and worried and paced until finally they called his flight number and he could board: one step closer to finding his boy.

Ruby had suggested that the four girls have dinner together before meeting Philip. Mulan and Aurora thought it was a great idea, so Belle agreed too, though she wasn't really feeling very jovial and she wasn't sure she'd be good company.

'I found us a great restaurant,' Ruby explained as they walked down the street: 'it's got beautiful views of the city,' she enthused.

'Great,' Belle said, and smiled, though Ruby knew her heart wasn't in it. With a bit of luck, though, everything would turn out right in the end.

'Here we are!' she cried, and led her friends into the building.

The restaurant seemed to be near the top of the building and as the four friends entered it, they saw that the views were indeed spectacular.

Ruby spoke to the greeter quietly and the woman nodded.

'Yes, Lucas, party of four: come right this way,' she invited, and led them towards a table right by the window.

Belle noticed the building opposite immediately: it was hard not to, since it filled the whole window. The Empire State Building stood tall and majestic, in all its art deco glory, right in Belle's eye line.

'What a view, huh?' Ruby commented, and Belle was about to turn to her and yell, or scream, or cry, but instead she gasped, because, suddenly, the windows opposite lit up pink in honour of Valentine's Day, and, just as suddenly, Belle knew.

'I-I have to go,' she said softly.

'Go where, Belle?' Ruby asked.

'There,' Belle said, tilting her head towards the building opposite. 'I have to at least look: otherwise I'll always wonder.'

'You sure?' Ruby asked.

Belle nodded confidently. 'I'm going to do the brave thing.'

Ruby grinned. 'I was hoping you'd say that.'

Belle hugged her friends and they all wished her good luck; then she rushed to the exit to ask for her coat, but the greeter was already holding it out for her.

'Good luck,' she said, smiling.

Belle smiled, amused at the elaborateness of Ruby's scheme, and thanked her.

Luckily, she found a cab quickly, but the traffic was not on her side, so, only halfway there, she got out of the cab and began to run.

Bae sighed and slumped onto the ground beside one of the telescopes. The observation deck was closing: she hadn't come. The worst thing about all this, though, was that he was here alone, and he'd stupidly left his cell phone at home, so he couldn't even call his papa, who was, most likely, furious with him. Even if all his father did was yell at him, he just wished he were there.

Suddenly the sound of tapping caught his attention and he looked up.

'Bae!' his father cried, rushing towards him.

Bae couldn't keep from crying. 'Papa!' he shouted, before being enveloped in his father's arms and clinging to him for dear life.

'What in the world were you thinking?' Tristan demanded of his son, pulling back just enough to say that and then hugging him again.

'I'm sorry,' Bae sobbed. 'I thought she'd be here: I thought she'd come.'

'But what if something had happened to you? What if I couldn't get to you?' Tristan held his son by the shoulders and stared at him. 'You're the most important thing in the world to me, son: if anything happened to you, I would truly, truly turn to dust.'

Bae knew his father meant every word and he was sorry he'd ever been angry with him and made him worry, and he told him so.

'I know, son, and I'm sorry too,' Tristan said. 'I won't be seeing Cora any more and I'm gonna cut back on my workload. All that matters to me is you, and we do alright together, don't we?'

Bae nodded and smiled, and he and his father walked towards the elevator together.

'Hey, maybe when we get home, we could get a dog,' Tristan suggested: 'would you like that?'

'Sure,' Bae said, and smiled up at his father.

Belle rushed up to the reception desk, but the guard said the observation deck was closed for the night. She almost turned away in defeat, but she'd come this far; she wasn't going to give up now. She looked up at the guard.

'It's just… there's someone I was supposed to meet: he's probably not there, but if I don't at least check, I'll always wonder about it.'

'Cary Grant?' the man asked with a genial smile.

Belle smiled. 'You know that movie?'

'My wife's favourite,' the guard said: 'go ahead.' He waved her towards the elevators.

'Thank you!' Belle cried, rushing to a waiting elevator.

There was no one left on the observation deck, though, and her heart sank.

'Sorry, miss,' the attendant said: 'empty.'

Belle nodded, but she suddenly felt like she was going to cry. 'Can-can I just have a minute?' she asked: 'please?'

The attendant nodded understandingly. 'Go ahead.'

Belle smiled gratefully, and made her way out to the deck. The breeze was cool on her face and she breathed in lungfuls of the night air, hoping that would distract her and she wouldn't burst into tears.

After a long moment, she turned to leave and spotted something on the ground by one of the telescopes: it was a bag. Frowning, she picked it up, and was about to open it and search for clues to its owner, when the elevator pinged and she heard voices.

'I left it right by the tele…scopes,' Bae told his father, and then stared at the beautiful woman who was holding his bag.

Belle stared at the man and his son, her heart beating fast. She didn't know what to say, but the man spoke first.

'It's you,' he said, and could have kicked himself: who else would it be? 'I saw you…in the street.'

'Are you Belle?' Bae asked hopefully, and smiled when the woman nodded and sent him a sweet smile.

'You're Belle?' Tristan asked, astonished: this was the woman his son had wanted him to meet? Clearly he needed to give more credence to things his son said.

'I'm Bae,' Bae said, seeing that his papa wasn't up to performing introductions right now, 'and this is my papa: Tristan.'

Belle smiled at the boy: she knew she liked him. 'Hello, Bae,' she said softly, and then looked up at the father and sighed contentedly: 'Tristan.'

He was too dumbfounded to speak and Bae laughed softly.

Belle smiled at him, but she could understand how Tristan was feeling because she was feeling it too. It was easier right now to talk to Bae, so she did.

'So, this must be yours,' she said, holding up the bag she'd found.

'Yeah: thanks.'

The attendant cleared his throat then and the three of them realised they were keeping him waiting.

'I guess we'd better go,' Tristan said, finding his voice at last.

Belle nodded, suddenly feeling bereft. They'd just found each other: she didn't want to say goodbye so soon.

Tristan smiled at her, having no intention of letting her go.

'Shall we?' he asked, holding out his hand for hers.

She smiled and gave him her hand, and the three of them walked to the elevator together. Bae grinned to himself as his papa and Belle kept staring at each other.

'Tristan,' Belle said softly as they stood in the elevator: 'it's very nice to meet you.'

To be continued

And so our lovers have met. Final chapter will be up next Sunday. It just finishes things off a little. I always wanted to know what happened between Sam and Annie next in Sleepless in Seattle, so since this is my RumBelle version, I'm gonna tell you what happens next. Thanks so much for reading.