When the doorbell rang, Belle dashed to answer it. It was probably the mailman with a package, but she still didn't like to let Henry go to the door by himself – there was no telling what kind of person might be coming to Regina's door and he was still a child. It was surprising to see the sheriff there, but not overly alarming. He flashed her a warm smile before speaking.
"Hello, Delilah," he said. "Is Henry here?"
She nodded, holding a finger up to indicate that it would be a minute before going to fetch Henry who was reading his book (as he'd been doing near constantly lately). She knocked on the door to get his attention and he looked up at her curiously.
The sheriff is here, she signed. He wants to see you.
He nodded, hopping down off his bed and making his way to the front door. Belle followed close behind him. She wasn't sure why the sheriff was visiting, but she knew that in Regina's absence Henry was her responsibility, and whatever was going on she would be there for.
"Hey, Henry," he said as soon as the boy opened the door.
"My mom's not here," Henry said, sounding confused.
"Actually, I'm here to see you," he admitted. "I was hoping you could help me."
"Help you with what?"
Belle stood right behind Henry, and saw Graham's eyes flick over to her quickly.
"It's about your book," he said in a whisper, glancing back at Belle as though he were unsure of her. "Am I in it?"
Belle felt her blood run cold. She'd been waiting for something like this to happen, she realized. It hadn't occurred to her that Graham would be the one to come (she'd hoped it would be Rumple) but she had been ready for someone to come to Henry. Their little world was about to break open even further.
Henry nodded excitedly, his face splitting open into a grin as he invited Graham inside – someone new believed in him, after all. Belle wished she could be happy as well, but she couldn't. She, unlike Henry, knew Graham from their world where he had been the Huntsman. He had been one of her jailers in Regina's dungeon, and her occasional companion. He would tell her of his travels and she would tell him about her family and her time with Rumpelstiltskin – even after Regina took her voice, he would come and sit with her try to comfort her. Of all the people in this town, he was the one she most wanted to save and the only one she was sure she couldn't. Regina would not let Graham leave her, and Belle feared for what would happen to him if he tried.
She followed them into Henry's room, watching as they sat on the edge of his bed and began flipping through the book. Graham was having flashes of his past life. It was only a matter of time now before everyone else remembered, wasn't it?
"When did your flashes begin?" Henry asked as he turned pages.
"Uh," Graham blushed a little bit and averted his eyes. "Right after I kissed Emma."
"You kissed my mom?" Henry sounded scandalized in that way children do when they have information about adult goings on that they were secretly pleased to be included in. "What did you see?"
"A wolf," Graham said slowly. "I saw that I had a knife in my hand and I was about to hurt Mary Margaret."
"Were you about to hurt her?"
"Yes!" Graham exclaimed. "How did you know that?"
"Because Mary Margaret is Snow White," Henry said matter-of-factly, flipping open to a certain story. "Which makes you the Huntsman."
"So you think I really could be another person."
Belle felt her stomach drop to the floor. She should have expected this to happen. Henry had never asked her if she knew Graham in the old world and she'd never given him a reason to ask. If she could have spared anyone the truth of their old lives, it would have been the Huntsman. Maybe it was wrong of her to hide this, but Belle had learned the hard way that not all knowledge was good – she would have given nearly anything for the blissful ignorance of a cursed persona. He deserved better than this.
Graham and Henry were still talking about Emma and how Regina stole his heart and the vault that was apparently hidden in the cemetery. She'd never seen Graham so excited, even when he was...even before. He had hope, now, and it was killing Belle that she couldn't hope with him.
"Belle remembers, too," Henry said, snapping her right out of her misery.
Henry... she warned.
"It's true, though!" he argued with her.
"Belle...Delilah?" Graham was looking between them now.
"Delilah is her curse name," Henry explained. "But she doesn't have the memories to go with it. She's Belle, like from Beauty & the Beast."
"You're the beauty?" Graham said with a smile, and Belle simply nodded in reply. "How did you end up here?"
She shrugged and gestured to her throat and then to the house, hoping that was enough explanation.
"My mom held her prisoner," Henry answered. "And took her voice."
"Why?"
Henry looked at Belle, who looked right back at him. He wouldn't give away her secret without permission, at least, but at last she sighed and nodded.
"Because she fell in love with someone," Henry supplied. "And my mom needed her to use against him."
"Ah," Graham looked back to Belle. "Your beast?"
He wasn't a beast, she corrected and Henry translated. He could be beastly, but he was just a man. An ordinary man.
"Anyone I know?"
Henry glanced back to Belle, who gave her consent again.
"Mr. Gold," Henry said. "But he used to be Rumpelstiltskin, in the old world."
"I just saw Mr. Gold," Graham replied. "He was in the woods with a shovel and acting strange."
Strange how?
"I don't know," Graham said after Henry had provided her translation. "Just...off. He said something about dreams being memories of a past life."
Why was Gold in the woods? That made absolutely no sense, and neither did what he as saying, unless – what was it he had told her the day Henry was trapped in the mine? That Henry would be alright, that it was something Emma needed to handle by herself, that he had to keep her a secret...
She could feel the shocked look on her face, and Henry and Graham had both noticed it.
"Belle?" Graham said. "Is there something I should know?"
She shook her head no, she had nothing more than a hunch at this point and anyway she was still mad at him over the mineshaft – even more angry now than she had been, knowing that he may have been Rumpelstiltskin all along and still did that to her. But being angry at him and hating him were two different things, and she would forgive him eventually. She wouldn't reveal him, if he was trying to hide this he had a reason to do so.
"I should be going," Graham finally said. "I need to find that vault, I need to get my heart back."
That snapped Belle out of her reverie more than anything else he could have said.
Don't go, she signed. Please, it's not safe.
"What do you mean?" Graham asked after Henry finished his translation.
We knew each other, she explained. In the queen's palace. I was her prisoner, but you were, too. Please, I know what she did to you. You're not safe here, you need to be patient.
"I can't be patient," he insisted. "You know what she did to me but I don't. I have to know."
Maybe it's better if you don't, she replied, though she scarcely believed that herself. There are some things you can't forget.
"That just makes me need to know," he said gently. He was always gentle, it was why she'd always liked him. "I can't continue like this, Belle. I have to feel something."
She set her lips in a firm line, but nodded her agreement.
Please be careful, she replied. We were friends, there. I'd like us to be again.
"We'll always be friends," he said with a smile and thanked them both.
Henry walked him to the door, but Belle didn't have the heart to watch him go. Something told her that this was the last time she would ever see the man who had been her friend alive again. She stayed in Henry's room until the boy returned.
"He's going to be okay," Henry promised. "Emma can go with him. It'll be okay."
You don't know that, she reminded him. No one can know that.
"Rumpelstiltskin could," Henry replied. "We could ask him."
Rumpelstiltskin's powers of foresight are vastly overestimated, she signed in a huff. He missed seeing a lot of important things and misunderstood what he did see.
"Did he tell you that?"
He never told me much, though he had told her a little. But a lot of it is in your book, too. If you read between the lines.
"Either way," Henry came to sit down next to her and leaned into her side so she'd put her arm around him. "The curse is breaking, Belle. You'll be together soon. I'll help you."
She couldn't answer, not with her arm on his shoulders, but she knew he'd help if she asked. She didn't dare ask, though. This she had to do by herself, or the gesture would be meaningless.
Regina came home late that night. Belle had stayed up, that horrible sense of dread becoming overwhelming the longer she'd waited. She didn't greet the other woman, but Regina wouldn't care. She'd been crying, and seemed shaken, but she would never explain the reason to Belle. She didn't have to, though. Belle knew the moment she laid eyes on Regina what had happened. Graham was dead, and no one would ever pay for it.
Belle bit her lip and blinked back tears as she began a silent retreat to the stairs. She couldn't be caught crying over a man she wasn't supposed to know was dead yet.
"Stay," Regina said, though she'd given no indication she'd even noticed Belle. There was no sense of victory in her voice, no gloating tone – just a sad sort of emptiness that Belle could relate to. "I don't feel like drinking alone tonight."
Belle came warily into the room where Regina had poured them both a glass of scotch, holding one in her hand and setting Belle's on the sideboard.
Neither woman spoke, but this was the closest she'd been to Regina in the thirty years they had known each other. Belle took slow sips of her drink, savoring the burn in her throat as a distraction from the way her heart felt like it was breaking. She should cling to that feeling, she knew. Graham had died to be able to feel that sort of pain again and here Belle was trying to numb it in liquor.
She watched Regina, too. Regina drew no joy from this. Belle had no doubt in her mind that Regina had done something terrible to him, and she knew from first hand experience that she'd been doing horrible things all along, but this was the first time it occurred to her that, in her own way, the Evil Queen might have cared for the Huntsman.
This place was not safe for any of them, but now she began to wonder what had made Regina into this person who would destroy someone just because she couldn't have him. She still hated her, but maybe she was beginning to understand her, as well and that terrified her more than this lifetime she'd spent with Regina ever had.