True Love's Proof

Chapter Nine

Two days after their kiss on the sidewalk, everything changed.

Belle tilted her head to the side. "You knew this was coming. I hope you're not shocked or disapproving of this choice but I have a feeling you knew it would end this way. That's why you did it, isn't it? That's why you asked him to watch over me."

She knelt down on the ground and pressed her hand against the name etched in the cold stone. "Oh Rumple, I wish I knew for certain that you would be okay with this."

"Belle!"

She stood up quickly and saw Bae and Emma running through the cemetery towards her. "What?"

"You've got to go!" Bae shouted. "Blue said the gate is going to close in a few minutes."

Emma picked up the duffle bag at Belle's feet and slung it over her shoulder. "Come on, short cut's through the woods."

Bae smiled at Belle and she could see traces of Rumplestiltskin in that grin. "He would want you to be happy. He would want you to have your adventures. Go."

Belle kissed the palm of her hand and pressed it against the stone before following Emma at a sprint into the woods. The curse had broken that morning when Emma and Bae had shared true love's kiss. The Savior had the love of her child to break the first part of the curse, the love of her true love to break down the boundaries of the curse. As soon as the curse was broken, a wormhole opened up in the woods close to where Emma had first seen Nick walking into town.

For once, her clumsy feet carried her swiftly over the ground and they broke into the clearing where the wormhole was glowing. It was a circle, silvery and rippling like water. The dwarves, Charming and Snow were shoving crates through as quickly as possible. Supplies for the Destiny crew that had been offered to Nick prior to the gateway's appearance.

"Nick?"

Emma handed Belle her bag. "Already went through."

Belle pressed her lips together. He had warned her when this day came he would have to leave immediately, no times for goodbyes or tears. She had let him believe that she understood. She never told him that he would never have to say good bye to her. She had told her father of her plan to leave and even though he didn't understand, he let her go.

"Thank you," she said to Emma, giving the woman a hug. "Thank you for saving us."

"That's what I'm here for." The tone was light but when Belle drew back there were tears in Emma's eyes. Belle turned to Bae.

"I'm so glad that I was able to meet you."

He stepped forward and embraced her warmly. "Me too. Thank you for loving my father."

"Thank you for loving him."

Belle stepped away from them, wished them both the best and started towards the wormhole. She was surprised to find Red and Jiminy waiting there for her as the last of the supplies were pushed through. Drawing a deep breath, she was getting ready to defend her decision when Red held out her hand to Belle.

"We've decided to go with you."

"What?"

Red shrugged. "No full moons in space. Though I'm bringing this," she patted her red cloak, "just in case."

"And Dr. Rush said they didn't have a counselor of any kind on board and could use one," Jiminy added. "There's nothing left for us here anymore either."

Belle took Red's offered hand and nodded. "If you're sure."

They both shared a look and nodded. Without looking back, Belle took a deep breath and stepped into the shimmery surface. When she drew her next breath, she was in a completely different world. She heard Red and Jiminy moving behind her and suddenly the gate that was active behind them, disappeared.

Belle dropped her duffle bag next to a crate of medical supplies and looked around what was going to be their new home. The ceiling was high but they were surrounded by metal. Metal walls, metal walkways, metal floors. She had once spent her life surrounded by stone and then concrete. She could handle metal.

Archie cleared his throat, the sound echoing off the space. "Where's Dr. Rush?"

Red sniffed the air and then wrinkled her nose. "It's too new for me to track him."

"He'll come back here," Belle said. "He knew we were sending supplies so he'll come back here to go through them. So, let's start organizing them. Food over there, medical supplies to the left and the weapons can stay where they are."

They started going through boxes and Belle concentrated on the task at hand. Every few minutes, her eyes drifted towards the hallway that led away from the large room they were currently occupying. She knew Nick would be angry at their arrival but she hoped it would pass. She looked back at the large arch where they passed through just moments ago. There was no way to go home now. She wanted adventure and now she had it. She just hoped an angry Nick wasn't part of the experience.

But then a new concern made itself known. Belle was a little more concerned about where the rest of the crew was. Did they all follow Nick off to somewhere else in the ship? Why didn't they have someone in this room to handle the supplies? The ship sounded so quiet, too quiet and she wondered where everyone was.

Nick had expected to defend himself, answer hurled questions as quickly as possible or deal with whatever system was failing as soon as he stepped through the wormhole. But none of those things greeted him when he stepped back onto Destiny. The ship was silent. No one was around. He went over to the gate room console and looked at the readout.

Destiny was running on bare minimum power. A course was already set, a three year course. The majority of the power that was being used was coming from the stasis pods that they had discovered shortly before his stint in Storybrooke. Before he altered any of settings, he needed to find out from Eli what exactly had happened. Supplies were still being pushed through the gate but they would keep until he had some answers.

Everyone must has have been in the pods. He didn't see any sign of life as he walked the familiar hallways. At one time, he would have loved the opportunity the explore the ship at his leisure, have no interruptions to his learning of the ship and its systems. That was before Storybrooke, before Belle.

He had used his time there to properly grieve for Gloria and Amanda both. He had dealt with the stress, the pain and the disappointments. He was coming back to Destiny with renewed purpose and emotional clarity. Gloria had told him through the chair simulation that her death had turned him callous and she had been right. It took watching Belle grieve to see how it could be done without forsaking your own humanity. He never told Belle just how much she had helped him, restored him to who he was before Gloria's death. He could only be that better man now.

He reached the pod rooms and wandered through the chambers. He was surprised at the feeling of relief to see everyone there and accounted for. The pods were functioning beautifully, everyone was stable. Looking at the console, they had only been in stasis for two weeks at most. He found Eli's chamber and brought it offline. He thought about doing to the same to Young's but he wanted answers about what made them set a three year course and go into stasis. He wasn't ready just yet to answer the questions that would come his way. Young could wait for now.

Eli stepped out of the pod, warily looking around at everyone else still very much in stasis. Finally, his eyes rested on Nick who was still standing behind the console. "Rush?"

"The one and only." He was surprised when Eli came over to him and hugged him.

"We didn't know where you went, if you could get back," Eli told him.

"How long was I gone?"

"I don't know. How long were we in stasis?"

"Two weeks, from the look at it."

"Then you've only been gone for about five weeks then. Where did you go? How did you get back?"

So much for getting answers immediately. "It's a long story and I'll tell it to you and Young but first, I want to know what happened here."

Eli shrugged and shoved his hands into his sweatshirt. "We were running out of food and supplies. The drones were blocking every available star for us to refuel. With the weapons systems not being able to be used at full strength because we can't replenish the fuel...we were running out of options."

Nick looked over the console, the programed route. "Three years traveling in FTL. That would take you into the next galaxy."

"We were hoping the drones wouldn't be in the next galaxy. How did you get back?"

"The gate, which means we've dropped out of FTL."

"How long have you been back?"

"Fifteen, twenty minutes. Even that will be enough to throw off your calculations from the looks of it."

Eli laughed shortly and pointed to the gate room monitor. "Not to mention the three people you brought back with you."

Nick switched over to the monitor in the gate room where clear as day, he could see Red, Jiminy and Belle moving the supplies into three separate piles. The gate was already closed. They were trapped. Red and Jiminy could be there accidentally but Belle, he knew wasn't. Strangely enough, he had an urge to punch a bulk head and kiss her senseless.

"I suppose we should wake up Young and bring him up to speed."

Eli gave him a concerned look. "Where exactly did you go?"

Belle heard voices echoing off the dark hallways. Red and Jiminy came to stand next to her as a trio appeared. She tried to hide her relief at seeing Nick leading the group and the lack of anger in his posture. He even gave her a brief smile. There were two other men with him, both dark haired but one was very somber looking while the other seemed slightly more interested in them.

"Colonel, Eli," Nick motioned to Jiminy first, "this is Dr. Archie Hopper, Ruby Lucas and Belle French."

Eli stepped forward, grinning widely. "So, which fairytale characters are you guys? I've always wanted to meet Snow White. Did you know Snow White? In this town in Maine?"

"Eli," Nick reprimanded.

"Well," Young said, "we'll have to find out some time."

Nick motioned to them again. "Very well, Jiminy Cricket, Red Riding Hood and, well, Belle from Beauty and the Beast."

"Really?" Eli looked like he had just woken up to Christmas morning. "What was the Beast like? Was there dancing silverware? I use to watch that movie..." he finally reigned himself in, "like, whenever it came on TV and Twilight Zone was a repeat."

Belle had to laugh. Nick's description of the boy genius was true to form and she found herself endeared to him even more because of it. "There was dancing silverware at one point, yes."

"Now that the important things have been covered," Young interrupted, "why did you want to come here and what can you do for us? Dr. Rush explained to you the situation we have, the lack of supplies, the state of the ship. Everyone here has to pull their own weight."

"We understand that," Belle spoke up. "And we're prepared to do whatever needs to be done."

Red stepped forward. "We grew up and lived in basically what you would consider medieval times. We know how to forage, hunt and make the most from the land."

"I'm a trained and certified psychologist, something that Dr. Rush said was lacking. We're prepared to help."

"We've brought supplies," Belle offered. "Nick gave us a list of things that you routinely need and the residents of Storybrooke gathered as much of that as we could."

Young looked at some of the supplies and nodded. "Let's go wake up some people up and get this stuff put away then. And welcome to the Destiny."

Nick glanced at his watch again. He had been back on Destiny for entire twenty-four hours and already the lack of sleep was catching up with him. He was used to sleeping eight hours every night, having coffee in the morning. Getting back into the routine of what Destiny demanded of him was going to take some adjustment.

"So what exactly do we do with it?" Brody asked.

"I don't know." Nick dropped the glass bottle that held true love back into the box and locked it. "But since this is all we have, I suggest we know precisely what needs to be done with it before we start experimenting without purpose."

"True love," Volker commented. "Never would have thought about that to get us home. Maybe we should shove you through wormholes more often and see what you come back with."

Ah yes, the little digs at just how unwelcome he was on the science team. Another thing he would have to get used to once more. Before he could say anything in response, Eli beat him to it.

"Not if we have to listen to you every time complaining 'how are we suppose to do this without Rush?'."

Nick snapped his notebook closed. "On that note, I'm calling it a day." He picked up the box and left the console room, heading to his quarters. Eli's defense of him gave him hope that he hadn't burned all bridges when he left. Brody and Park had always showed respect for the knowledge base he had and that was something. It wasn't hopeless and as a science team they would figure out how to use the bottled love to get them home, he was certain of that.

Instead of going to his quarters though, he went to the next door down and knocked. He hadn't seen Belle in the last twelve hours and he needed to check on her, make sure she was alright and adjusting to the new environment. He needed to make sure she hadn't regretted her decision to come here. The door slid open and a very sleepy Belle greeted him.

"Hey, Nick." She stepped aside to let him into her room.

"I didn't mean to wake you."

She stifled a yawn. "I'm glad you did. Is everything okay?"

He put the box down on a little table in the room. "Everything's fine. Bringing those supplies made everyone quite happy."

"Good." She sat down on the couch, pulling her legs up underneath her. "And you? Are you happy now that you're back?"

He sat down next to her. "I don't know if happy is right word. I'm back to work at least. How are you doing?"

"Tired. It's hard to keep track of time without any sun."

"Do you have a watch?"

She nodded.

"Did you get something to eat?"

"Yes," she smiled and reached into a bag that was by her feet. She pulled out a large muffin. "I saved one of Granny's muffins for you. There were these two soldiers who were devouring them, um, Scott and Greer, I think were their names."

Nick smiled and took the muffin. "Sounds like them."

"So why are you really here, Nick?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Getting settled in and have everything you need."

"You wanted to make sure I still wanted to be here."

Nick shook his head. "Do you always see through people so easily?"

"Yes," she answered with confidence and slipped her hand into his. "And I don't regret being here."

"That's the best news I've heard all day." He kissed the back of her hand. "And now I should let you sleep."

"You need to sleep too." She stood up, still keeping a firm grasp on his hand. "And I have feeling if I let you go back to your room, you'll just work until your next shift."

He didn't want to confirm her assumption so he kept his mouth shut as she lead him into her bedroom. He toed off his shoes and pulled his outer shirt off before crawling under the covers with Belle. It was the first time they had ever shared a bed despite multiple occurrences of falling asleep together on her couch. Belle quickly found her place against him, his arms falling easily around her.

As he closed his eyes, he took comfort in the fact that it was going to be uncomplicated and quite easy to move his things over to her room.