True Love's Proof
Chapter Three
He had spent too long around people living on a knife's edge of tension not to pick up on it when he sensed it. It had become almost a sixth sense for Nick Rush, to know when to leave a volatile situation but staying away from it afterwards, he still had to learn. He made a large loop around the neighborhood where Rumplestiltskin lived, thankful to breathe actual air and have the freedom to be outside.
By the time he passed by the house, he saw Belle sitting in her car. When she didn't start the car, he walked up the driveway to check on her. Rumplestiltskin wanted him to keep tabs on her and even though she was sitting in his driveway, Nick felt compelled to check on her anyway. She jumped when he tapped on the passenger side window but opened the door for him.
"Everything alright?"
She swiped at her eyes. "Fine."
Her voice was thick with previously shed tears and she refused to look at him. She was far from fine and it really wasn't his business. He noticed her fiddling with a small tea cup with blue roses and a chip in the rim and decided to change the subject. "What's that?"
She turned the cup over her hand once, her eyes glistening in the dark. "It's just a cup."
He can tell by the inflection it was anything but just a cup. He started to tell her he was only checking on her when she dropped the cup into her purse and started the car.
"You want that ride back to Granny's now?"
"I would much rather make sure you make it home safely." He doesn't know where this chivalry came from, but it produced a tiny smile from her and he doesn't feel like a complete fool.
"Storybrooke isn't exactly ridden by crime. I'll make it home just fine."
"It doesn't have to be crime ridden. All it takes is one-"
"I'll be fine."
"If it's all the same to you-"
"Well it's not." She snapped. "Granny's or get out, Dr. Rush."
He opened his mouth to tell her exactly what he thought about her silly stubbornness when he was being nothing but nice, nice dammit, but then realized they were well on their way into an argument. Again. After something upsetting had happened between her and Rumplestiltskin, no less. "Granny's then."
She pulled out of the driveway and he glanced up at the darkened windows of the Victorian home. "So how do you know Rumplestiltskin?"
Belle released a slow breath through her nose. "It's a long story."
"Are you two...together?" He was stepping over boundaries but then again, he was never one that cared about such things. He wanted to know where she and Rumplestiltskin stood, why he was supposed to keep an eye on her. Was it a jealousy issue or was someone out to harm her? If it was the first, he could keep the details vague when he reported back to Rumplestiltskin. She was a grown woman and he wasn't about to help a jealous lover tighten his grip. If it was the other reason, well, he wasn't about to lay down his life for this girl when a full crew on Destiny needed him.
"That's the question of the night apparently."
"Quite forthcoming with your answers, I see."
"Fine," she sat up straighter in her seat. "Tell me about the last woman you loved and how it went horribly wrong."
That finally silenced him until she parked in front of the bed and breakfast. He unbuckled the seat belt, opened the door but turned back to her. "My wife died of cancer and the last woman I loved ended up murdered but her conscience is now in a quarantined section of the Destiny's computer system where I can't reach her." He stepped out of the car. "Goodnight, Miss French."
And he shut the door, stopping any response that may have come from her. He heard the car pull away but refused to turn around to see for himself. When he entered the building, Granny was sitting behind the desk with a cup of tea, knitting.
"Dr. Rush."
"Mrs. Lucas."
"I have a favor to ask of you."
He really wasn't in the mood in for this right now. "Don't trust Rumplestiltskin. Stay away from Belle French and don't come in so late."
She never even paused in her knitting. "Are you done?"
He was starting to feel a headache coming. "Yes."
"Good." She set her work down and took off her glasses. "My granddaughter dropped out of high school but now she's talking of making a life for herself here, in this world. She wants to be a veterinarian and the vet in town has already offered her the intern position but she needs a GED on file. The only subject she needs help with is the sciences. You help her pass the GED and I'll give you'll that room for free for as long as you need it."
"That's...very generous of you, Mrs. Lucas."
"Maybe if you dropped the attitude, you would find people willing to be generous towards you more often."
"That hasn't been my experience but I'll take it into consideration. What time would you like me to meet with her?"
"Tomorrow morning at nine. She has to start work at the diner at noon."
"Tomorrow at nine it is." He started towards the stairs when the phone at the front desk rang. As far as he knew, he was the only guest there so he hung around for the duration of the call. It was a short conversation and she hung up with a confused look on her face.
"That was Belle French."
"Oh?" He tried to keep his unease out of his voice and expression.
"She wanted me to tell you that she got home just fine."
He released the breath he had been holding. "Good. Thank you."
Granny snatched up her knitting. "Watch yourself, Dr. Rush. Everyone in town gives Belle French a wide berth for a reason."
He nodded his understanding and quickly headed up to his room. He indulged in another shower and was in possession of enough energy to actually crawl underneath the sheets this time. But despite how tired he felt, he couldn't fall asleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Gloria. He hadn't realized just how similar Belle and Gloria were, well spoken, strong minded women who made questionable decisions in men.
It was no surprise to him that when he finally did fall asleep, his dreams were plagued with hospital beds, violin music and two women having tea, commiserating over the men they had chosen to love.
Nick drank five cups of coffee the following morning in attempt to stay awake through Red's tutoring session. She was bright when she stopped second guessing herself which only made him think of Eli and how far the MIT drop out had come. He pushed through the basics of chemistry in the three hour window he had and once she worked through the bookwork he assigned her, she should do just fine. Next week he promised physics and tried to ignore it when she rolled her eyes on the way out the door.
He cleaned the coffee pot for good measure, not wanting to cross Granny Lucas in any way, before heading to the pawnshop. Despite his determination to stay out of the personal affairs of others, he couldn't find it in himself to leave this particular situation alone. Gloria would continue to haunt his dreams just as she was dogging his steps through this time-suspended town. Nothing made sense here and he had to find something to understand, to fix. Destiny had just further trained him to find solutions to problems. Air, water, energy, food, repairs, there was always something that needed fixed.
Rumplestiltskin was behind the counter writing in a ledger when Nick came through the door. "Ah, Dr. Rush. How are you this afternoon?"
"Fine. Have you heard from Belle today?"
The good natured smile vanished completely. "No. Is something the matter?"
"You tell me. I ran into her last night after dinner. She seemed most upset."
Rumplestiltskin closed the ledger and laid the pen on top of it reverently. "Yes, I know. I would appreciate it if you would continue to keep watch over her during this time."
They both were upset over this, separation? Was that even the right word? He didn't know what was going on between them but it was obvious neither one wanted it to be happening. "I don't understand what's going on and frankly, it's none of my business. But I can tell you from personal experience, time spent with someone you love shouldn't be squandered."
A razor blade smile cut across Rumplestiltskin's face. "You're talking to the wrong person about time squandering, dearie."
Dearie? That was a new name he hadn't been called before. "All I'm saying is..." And he couldn't. That familiar constriction of his throat closed out the words and if he turned around, he would see Gloria standing behind him.
"I see," Rumplestiltskin said, the edge knocked off of his voice. "You have ghosts that follow you around as well."
"My wife died of cancer while I was trying to solve an ancient mathematical equation. When I should have been by her side."
"But that's life, Dr. Rush." He made a flourish with one of his hands. "Everyone has a choice. Everyone has a price to pay for those choices."
"Another person, one that you love, shouldn't have to pay the price though."
"You don't think of guilt as a price?"
Nick ran a hand over his face. "I hadn't thought about it that way."
"Here's the trick though, knowing when the debt has been paid. There has to come a time in your life when you realize you've paid enough and move on. That too, is a choice." He turned away briefly. "And that's the hardest choice of them all."
"Why are you pushing her away?"
"Why do you care so much?"
Nick clenched his jaw to keep any words from coming out. He knew enough of jealousy to read it in the other man's eyes. He had to answer this carefully so he wouldn't find himself out of this man's good graces and lose a job that will keep him fed. "She reminds me of my wife. That's all."
Rumplestiltskin scrutinized him with narrowed eyes for a moment. "I see. Between you and me, my time is limited and I want to know she has others around her to protect and care for her when that time runs out."
It doesn't take Nick long to interpret what was just said to him. "You want me to take care of her? That's impossible. She'll have better luck out in the real world on her own. If she goes with me, I'll be taking her back to a ship that's in complete disrepair and billions of light years from Earth. I damned over 80 people by putting them on that ship and I will not do it to another person."
Rumplestiltskin actually smiled. "That's the thing you'll learn about Belle. No one decides her fate but her. If she wants to go with you, she will."
"I won't allow it."
"Choices, Dr. Rush. We all have to make our own choices and we can't make decisions for other people."
Nick knew the answer to the question before he even asked it. "This, time limit, are you sick?"
Rumplestiltskin shook his head. "No, nothing like that. Let's just say I can see the handwriting on the wall and there's nothing to do to change it."
"I've seen my share of handwriting on the wall and I have changed it." Nick took a deep breath. "Perhaps you need to make a different choice."
Nick had another rough night and spent the first couple hours of Sunday morning drinking multiple cups of coffee and reading the local paper. The words blended together and he wasn't retaining anything he was reading. Eventually, he took to working out equations on the napkins in an effort to wake up and make some use of his day. He didn't see Belle at all yesterday and would have to figure out how to track her down today.
"Do you mind if I join you?"
He looked up to see Belle standing there, an unsure look on her face. He nodded and she slid easily into the booth. He wished all his problems were so easily solved. "Are you alright?"
She shrugged and gazed out of the window. "I spoke with him yesterday evening. He told me you had stopped by and nobly attempted to fix things for us."
Nick tried to keep his teeth from grinding. From the outside, it looked like an act of kindness from Rumplestiltskin, speaking of Nick's good deeds. But now that Nick knew Rumplestiltskin's endeavor to endear him to Belle, it was ten times more sinister. He now wondered if the physics teacher's car accident was really an accident. Well, Rumplestiltskin wasn't the only puppet master in town anymore.
"Well," Nick folded his hands on the table, "when two people love each other, they should be together."
"Especially when it's true love." She glanced down at the equations decorating the napkins. "I suppose someone who makes their living out of understanding such set things doesn't believe in something like true love."
"Show me the proof and I'll believe in it."
"It's not something you can see written down. You have to feel it."
He hmmed into his coffee mug. "I usually make it a point not to believe in something that can't be seen or proven."
"You know in the fairytales where true love's kiss breaks the curse? That happened to us. I saw with my own eyes as Rumplestiltskin's curse started to recede. That is proof enough for me."
Nick folded his hands around the mug. "So where's your happy ending?"
Belle's confidence wavered and her gaze turned back out the window. "Out there, being a complete and utter ass about it."
"So you can have true love but not a happy ending? There's a missing page out of the storybooks."
"If you're so cynical about it, why did you go talk to him yesterday?"
Nick took a steadying breath. "Because I have seen people with limited time dance around each other until it's too late."
"Like your wife?"
"Indeed."
"What happened to her? Rum wouldn't tell me."
"She died."
Belle shook her head. "You two really are so similar."
Nick grabbed another napkin and started another equation. "I've said my piece, to the both of you now, and I will not bother with your personal issues anymore."
"Fair enough." Belle started to get up from the table but paused.
Nick looked up to see what had stopped her departure to see a man standing there by their booth. He looked to be in his mid-thirties, clean shaven, thick dark hair and earnest brown eyes. He was dressed nicely in jeans, a plaid shirt and a leather jacket. Nick glanced over at Belle and saw she was just as thrown off as he was by the stranger's appearance. Nick pulled his glasses off and tried to figure out what to say when the stranger broke into an unsure smile. His hands clenched and unclenched in nervousness.
"Hello, Papa."
Nick looked over to Belle for help but her hand was over her mouth, her eyes wide and he really wished someone would tell him on who this was. The stranger stepped forward, closer to them.
"It's me, Papa. It's Bae."