The night Emma Swan arrived in Storybrooke, Rumpelstiltskin made two stops before returning to his empty home. The first was his pawn shop, where he retrieved the dagger which he'd been keeping displayed with a variety of other blades and had priced for about two hundred dollars (and my wasn't that a terrifyingly bad idea). The second, with the dagger tucked safely in his jacket, was the library across the street. It was boarded up – probably because Regina hated happiness, including her own – but that didn't mean it wasn't stocked. He smashed a window and let himself in after double and triple checking for witnesses. If anyone bothered to even file a police report, he was reasonably certain the entire thing would be blamed on "teenagers."
A quick check of the mouldering card catalog led him to section 419 – sign language. Of course, Regina couldn't be content to provide anything that might be useful for anyone who wanted to communicate with Belle – Delilah, he reminded himself, here she was Delilah – but even so he took the book of sign language for business and the finger spelling for children. The only other book that might possibly help was on baby signing and he was reasonably certain nothing there was going to hbe relevant.
On returning home and cracking open the first of the books, he suddenly became aware of how very hard this was going to be. Belle had been fluent in several languages, and magic had allowed Rumpelstiltskin mastery of whatever spoken language was required. He'd never had to learn one, and it hadn't occurred to him that signing would be so incredibly complicated. The book for business had a brief intro to deaf culture (though he was fairly sure Delilah wasn't deaf, just mute) as well as a short piece on the sign language alphabet. Rumpelstiltskin hadn't been aware that there was a separate written alphabet in sign language and hoped to whatever god might be listening that Belle (Delilah, dammit!) knew the English alphabet as well – he hadn't ever seen her write notes, after all and the book was maddeningly uninformative as to the use of the ASL alphabets compared to the English one in the deaf community. It would be just like Regina to give her a language that nobody else understood and then also take away her ability to communicate in any other.
After a quick perusal of the business book left him discouraged at the sheer volume of information to acquire, he tossed it aside and picked up the one for children. This one featured basic signs (man, woman, boy, girl, dog, cat, etc.) being demonstrated by a variety of multi-colored puppets but is also had instructions for every letter used to fingerspell. He wasn't sure if he'd ever master ASL, but he was fairly certain he could at least learn the alphabet. It wasn't much, but it would be something after all, and when the curse was broken and he'd restored his magic then he would be in a much better position to deal with this as well as have a better idea of what he needed to do.
Meanwhile, he had until Thursday afternoon to learn twenty-six signs. The thing about places like Storybrooke was that routines were key. Everyone kept one, and nobody quite realized it. Delilah (did she even have a last name? Her father's surname here was French but did she realize that was her father?) was in the habit of visiting his shop every Thursday afternoon at some point between one and three. He suspected Regina sent her on an errand that brought her nearby on Thursdays and then she had nothing to do until she collected Henry. Given that it was Saturday night, he was a little pressed for time.
He saw her around, of course – she kept a routine and he lurked after her like a gargoyle. The problem, though, was that he couldn't quite approach her without drawing suspicion. By the time Thursday finally rolled around, Rumpelstiltskin was on pins and needles. He'd had a busy week of stalking Delilah (she seemed to spent most of her time at Regina's house but tended to get lunch at the diner once or twice a week) and generally trying to antagonize Regina as much as possible. Hopefully Delilah would keep to her schedule even as the rest of the town began to abandon theirs.
He could still scarcely believe she was alive. Regina had told him...well, never mind what Regina had told him. Regina would pay, of that he was certain. He needed her just a little bit longer – just until the Savior believed – and then she became extremely disposable. He was fairly certain Regina had no clue just exactly how disposable she actually was to him now. That was her fatal flaw, really. It never occurred to her that other people might have their own agendas. Everyone was simply a pawn and she was the queen and that was that.
He had no intention of remaining a pawn for long.
It had taken all his willpower to wait for Delilah to approach him on Thursday, when all he really wanted to do was steal her away in the night and keep her safe in his home as he should have kept Belle, as a dragon kept its hoard. He jumped so hard when the little bell over his door rang out that he knocked over the antique clock he'd been winding, denting the case and very nearly shattering the face.
There was no room for annoyance, though, when he saw the pale face and wavy brown hair that he'd seen in every dream he'd had between her leaving and the curse striking. He could have drawn her from memory, except that in his memories she was bold and brave and here she was shy and sad. She glanced at him quickly, averted her eyes, and made her way silently to the few antique books he kept (and which he now recognized as having come from her library). So, she likely could read and write in English at least. That was good, it meant she wasn't entirely lost to him.
He gulped down air as he watched her. She occasionally would look over to him and glance away on noticing his attention on her. He couldn't tell if that was interest or confusion at why he was staring at her and if it was the latter he needed to make a move soon or she was going to leave.
What was it she had once said to him? Do the brave thing and bravery will follow. Steeling himself against her inevitable rejection, Rumpelstiltskin made his way over to the books.
"Something I can help you find?" he said as casually as possible when he was staring into the eyes of his true love and wishing to hell she remembered him.
She blinked at him once or twice, looking down at her hands and back to him.
"Oh," he said dully. "Yes, right. Sorry."
He wasn't entirely sure how that particular detail had slipped his mind, but there they were. He needed to sign something to her and he needed to do it quickly because she looked extremely confused and he just had to make sure she stayed.
He took a deep breath and started signing.
D-O-Y-O-U-L-I-K-E-B-O-O-K-S
He hoped he'd done that right, and that he'd not accidentally signed something terribly offensive. She wasn't helping his nerves particularly, instead she was staring at him with her jaw hanging open. He was on the verge of backpedaling and excusing himself from this attempted conversation when her face suddenly broke out into a huge smile and she began nodding eagerly.
I-C-A-N-H-E-A-R she signed back very, very slowly.
"Oh good," he breathed. "I'm afraid your signing is a lot better than mine."
Y-O-U-W-E-R-E-D-O-I-N-G-W-E-L-L she signed with such an earnest expression on her face he couldn't help feel that maybe she wasn't just humoring him.
"I really wasn't," he replied with a smile. "But that's kind of you to say."
She didn't respond, just kept grinning happily at him.
"I noticed you always look at the books," he changed the subject. "But you never buy one. Was there something in particular you're looking for? I may be able to acquire it."
She blushed and glanced away.
N-O-J-U-S-T-L-I-K-E-T-H-E-M she replied slowly. He hated the embarrassment he saw in her face. It occurred to him then that Regina probably didn't pay her much at all. She probably couldn't really afford one. Oh, gods.
"Have you read any of these?" he continued as conversationally as he dared.
She nodded, pointing to the ones she was familiar with, and he knew those were ones she'd read back in his castle. He wasn't sure why these were the books that were brought with him, but he was glad at least some of them were new to her.
"Tell you what," he said finally. "I don't do much business in old books, so if you'd like to borrow any of these you're welcome to do so."
A-R-E-Y-O-U-S-U-R-E
"I hardly think you borrowing one or two of them will bankrupt me," he replied with a wink. "Just don't tell anyone, I wouldn't want to ruin my fearsome reputation after all. This can be our little secret."
She didn't reply, but then she didn't need to. Instead, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. He wasn't sure he'd ever quite adjust to her hugging him, though at least this time he was able to recall himself enough to wrap his arms around her as well. He indulged himself in hugging her as long as she'd allow it, breathing in her scent and wishing he could take her home with him now. He shouldn't have offered to lend her the books, but he didn't think there was any love lost between her and Regina and even so...the idea of Belle being without books was intolerable. He could take this risk if it meant that she could have even a little bit of her old self back.
T-H-A-N-K-Y-O-U she signed after she finally pulled away from him. A-N-Y-B-O-O-K?
He smiled and nodded, leaning against a wall as she took her time examining the spines of each book, running her fingers across the leather and gilt edging of them. He would save her, he vowed. He'd done nothing but wrong by her in the old world, but this was a fresh start. He could be good for her this time, and as she exited his shop a half hour later carrying a beautiful book of chivalric tales and leaving behind a promise to return on Thursday to swap it out for a new one he was left with the unmistakable realization that he'd made a date to see her again. Maybe this time he could be better.