There was a celebration at Granny's, as there always should be when matters are settled and everything is finally alright. Elsa was promised that she would get an other bean – the stalk in Regina's house that she had grown while Greg and Tamara were threatening the town was luckily still in place, growing fast and healthy - but she would have to wait for a few months before a new set of bearing would attain full growth. Although she was still a bit suspicious, she didn't cause any more trouble, and, if the winter hadn't disappeared, at least it grew a bit warmer and they no longer had to fear sudden storms. The children were finally let out to play in the snow; one had to watch out for snowballs when walking on the streets, and the wide grin of snowmen greeted them on each corner.

Regina left the diner as happily as she could possibly be with a broken heart. She was even smiling, although there was no one to take note of that on the empty streets. She was the hero of the day, again. Henry had promised to go home with her, like he had done up to now, knowing that it supported her more than anything else, but he wanted to stay in the diner for a little while longer; so when she couldn't bear to watch a single more time how Hook imitated the snow monster or smile patiently through another toast she had departed on her own. This walk reminded her awfully well of another one, one she had to take about a week ago, only now she felt hopeful and not like it was the end of the world, not like there was nothing to live for and no one to trust. She was proud of no matter how life had held out on her she had still fought the darkness, and, if hadn't returned to being the girl she had once been – there was no way back to that kind of hope and happiness - she had still redeemed and had preserved the strength of her heart.

'Regina!' she turned around, surprised that someone had come after her, and perhaps even a bit irritated that she couldn't go home in peace – until she saw it was Robin. Then, her annoyance turned to nervousness and her surprise to butterflies in her belly. Her heart raced and she was afraid of what he might say, not wanting to get hurt.

'You left so suddenly,' he complained, 'I had no time to thank you properly.' She smiled, and he smiled back, just as sadly, as if they both knew what was on the other's mind. 'If it weren't for you, I would've lost my son,' he said. 'I will never forget.' She was so grateful for his gratefulness that tears welled in her eyes. She fought the lump in her throat to point out, 'You still lost your wife… I'm truly sorry, Robin, it's my fault…'

He looked her deep in the eye. 'No, I won't let you think that,' he sad slowly, as if to make sure she understood. 'It's her own fault that she fell through. Only hers and no one else's, especially not yours. Please, don't burden yourself with that, too.' With some difficulty, she nodded.

'I think I'd better be on my way,' she mumbled before she could get too emotional, but Robin didn't seem to hear or understand. He struggled to press some words out of him, looking like they were the most difficult thing to say in the world. 'Could you…' he stuttered, his voice breaking, his eyes filling up with regretful tears, 'Could you ever forgive me?'

Her tears fell out, but she smiled honestly as she said, 'There's nothing to forgive.' She thought of how she would have felt if it was Daniel who was returned, of how lost and confused she would have been, of how her heart would have ached till it would have ripped into two separate parts… There was nothing to forgive. It was a great wonder that guilt hadn't driven him mad.

He looked so relieved as if she had just decided that he wouldn't be executed tomorrow. 'Goodnight, Robin,' she said warmly.

'Goodnight, my Queen.'

She locked herself inside the library, and would not come out for days and days. Her emotions were a big knot that she couldn't disentangle; she didn't know anymore how to feel about Rumple or what to think of her mad attempt to escape from town, or the happenings that followed. Her whole world had turned upside down; everything she had believed in fell apart like a false dream, tumbled down like the walls of a castle in a mighty earthquake; her hopes, her trust, his redemption... She could have paused to look inside her heart and find out what lay in its depth, but she just wasn't ready to be honest to herself yet, and his offence was still too fresh, so she just buried herself in books and tried to avoid thinking entirely.

But when she couldn't distract her thoughts with anything anymore her feelings returned, and however perplexed they were, one thing crystallised in her mind: that she missed him terribly. If she had been brave enough she would already have admitted to herself that from the moment his door closed behind her she missed him more than anyone ever before.

She missed his guilty face, his shameless smirks, his abrupt nature and haughty demeanor. She missed his voice painfully, and their silent talks in his shop, and she felt like a single dearie would make her happy for a whole day. She missed him when she went to sleep and there was no one to hug onto her heart, she missed him when she woke up all on her own in an empty apartment, and she couldn't be free of him even in her dreams.

But most of all, she missed his presence. There was a hole in her heart where true love should have been, and without it she felt lost like a misshapen leaf carried by the wind. Without him around, she felt utterly alone, and she knew that from now on, she always would, even when standing in the middle of a crowd or laughing with a friend, and the thought terrified her.

As the days turned to weeks her anger gradually faded and her head finally cleared. Instead of dwelling on how many times he had wronged her she began to remember the happy memories, and the times he had saved her life. She remembered the day he had died for her, and her heart filled with regret as she realised that he had been ready to do so again against Elsa. How could she have been so unjust as to greet him back to life with a slap in the face and not a kiss of true love?

Instead of trying to understand herself, she tried to understand him. It was easy to figure out why he couldn't resist going after Zelena, it was the other part of the whole matter that she couldn't get her head around. Although he had not always told her everything, he had never lied to her before, and she struggled to understand why would he have done that now when they were getting married, now that the were supposed to be the happiest together.

One day she woke up and had no doubt: she had forgiven him. Again. She was so relieved as if she had been freed of some heavy shackles that had been strangling her heart, but she couldn't help feeling a little afraid for herself; she knew that whatever he did, she would always return to him in the end and let him break her down again and again till nothing was left of her happy hopes.

He could separate her from her family and everyone she had ever known and force her to be a caretaker; he could act like a monster and be the ugliest man she had known and she had fallen for him still. He could shout at her and send her away, she could be locked away, he could break his promises or leave her behind, and she would always go back to him. He could could have died in front of her eyes, and she still refused to let him go, didn't rest till she brought him back to her life.

If she would never stop loving him anyway, she thought, why did she have to be the one to keep them apart?

She knocked, feeling a thousand things at once. His house looked huge as a castle – it was a long time since she had been here.

The door opened. She had thought her heart had been pounding before, but it turned out that she was wrong – the moment she finally looked upon his face her heart demanded to conquer her whole chest and wanted to tear it apart. She hardened herself so as not to run in his arms before she knew what she wanted to know. 'Belle.' He looked like he wanted to hope but refrained himself because he didn't want to get hurt. He looked like he was the guiltiest man in the world, and then again, probably he was. She wondered, not for the first time, that how could a conscious man like him make choices that he knew he would regret greatly for the rest of his life? 'Why did you lie to me?' she asked sharply.

He hadn't expected to hear that. He looked afraid, but he gathered himself up in a second and said, 'Are you sure you want to hear my terrible excuses?' She did; more than anything. If he had a reason, however pathetic one, she felt like she could get over these horrible feelings about being betrayed. She nodded. She knew that honesty had always been difficult for him, but she didn't care; if he wasn't able to tell this to her now she might as well turn around and head back for the library as if she had never come.

He sighed. 'I lost my son,' he began with some difficulty, 'you know that he was the world to me. And when he died he asked me to kill Zelena so his family – Emma and Henry –would be safe. I had to grant his last wish, Belle, I couldn't let him die in vain!' He sounded as if he was pleading. She hadn't known of this, because they had avoided the topic; and she had thought he had killed her merely for the sake of revenge which he had mastered during his sorry life. 'And then you asked me not to do it. All the while when I was a puppet of Zelena's the only thing that kept me going was the hope that I would break free and I could hold you in my arms again. And when I finally did, you asked me not to go after her… and I couldn't say no, I couldn't risk losing you too!' He was weeping by now, and she thought she knew what he thought: and I then I have anyway.

'I would have understood,' she said, 'I wouldn't have been happy about it, and I wouldn't have agreed, but I would have understood.' 'I know,' he wailed, 'I'm so sorry…' She finally let her strict mask drop and smiled at him sadly. 'You didn't give me a chance to understand it then, so I must understand now.' She swallowed the lump in her throat. 'And I do.'

'Thank you,' he whispered, fighting his tears. 'I hope you know how much it means to me.' She just smiled. How could she have left him for a whole month? 'But Belle, don't be so forgiving. I … I've waited for this day since… since…' he couldn't say it, '…then, but don't come back to me. We both know that I will only hurt you again.'

What, and should she just leave him here broken, without anyone in the world who would care for him, without any hope or the slightest chance for happiness? Never.

'When we first met, ' she said, ' and I agreed to go with you, you warned me that it was forever. Don't you remember?' She couldn't keep herself from him anymore, she stepped inside and flew in his arms, right where she belonged.

He clutched to her tighter than ever before. 'God, I missed you so much,' he whispered.

...And this is the end. Congratulations and thank you a hundred times if you made it here with me! I hope this last chapter have solaced you a bit as well, not just me as I wrote it.

Sorry for having posted three chapters today, I know it's a lot suddenly but otherwise you would've had to wait for a week and I thought that that was the worse possibility.

(I'm still waiting for some feedback eagerly, so if you feel like, have mercy on me and leave me one, on any of my chapters really, please, please, please.)

I hope you're having a nice summer and I wish you all a wonderful weekend!