Warning: This chapter DOES contain one or more of the following mature materials: Language, Sexual-innuendo, Passionate kissing, S&M, Adult situations. ~_^

A Salvation Called Love

-Chapter 23-

-Annabelle's Composition-

[Annabelle – Three Months Later]

Save your breath, your heart has spoken

You already have my life

I plucked at the piano keys trying to find the right notes. Right now I was in the slow process of transcribing a song for when I got to see Dominic again. The song had been one that had made me think about how he was always fighting against loneliness and love and how he was fighting his feelings about me. I wanted to give him a present when I saw him again. Something with a deep meaning. Something that would help him understand the feelings he was trying to keep locked deep inside of him.

I'd been reading a page of his journal every day since the day we'd parted. I was beginning to see the man he was, the man he'd been hiding away. But I didn't find myself repulsed by what he'd become in order to save his son from war. Sure he'd been misguided in his actions, not taking the right path with the magic, but he'd started out with pure motives. He only wanted the power to stop being a coward and to protect his son. I found myself wishing I could have met Baelfire. He'd been a strong boy, a brave boy from what I'd read so far. But his father's actions had made him fear what his father would do. As I read through the pages chronicling how Rumplestiltskin grew into the feared Dark One I felt myself drawn even more to him. Maybe I just wasn't judgmental like everyone else. Or it could be that I knew this very man to be something different than what he'd portrayed back then. He wasn't as bad as people thought, but he did wield the magic he'd killed for badly. He took precious things from people as a price for using the magic he offered. At least he'd had the sense to warn them that magic always had a price.

From what I could tell by reading he'd been alive for a long time as the Dark One before his son passed away. I hadn't been able to read that entry without crying. When his son had gotten sick he'd possessed the most sought after magic throughout the lands but he couldn't use them to save his own son. He'd been powerless to stop the sickness. Powerless to bring him back to life. That's one of the prices of magic, not being able to use it to bring someone back from the dead. He'd written in journal about how he'd tried over and over to find some way to take the sickness from his son with the magic he possessed but was unsuccessful each time. When his son died a few days later he'd tried to bring him back from the dead. Nothing. He'd gotten nothing from his attempts except anger and coldness in his heart. Nothing but emptiness at the last thing that had been keeping his humanity intact. From there he'd written about his deals throughout the years. I found myself trying to calculate how long he'd been alive but it was nearly impossible. Sometimes there were year-long breaks before he'd write in his journal again, other times just days or weeks. He was hundreds and hundreds of years old and had nothing to live for except making deals with people for their most precious things.

Yesterday I'd finally gotten to the part in his journal where he'd first met Belle. I found myself rapt in reading about the woman who had been me in previous lives. I remembered back to the night that Dominic had told me about Belle and how she'd been someone his ancestor had loved. It had been a lie to cover up for the fact that he was hundreds upon hundreds of years old and that it had in fact been him who had loved Belle. To him she had been nothing at first, just a precious thing taken from someone in need of magic. But he wrote in his journal about the changes he began to feel while she was present at the castle. How things became livelier around the place. He wrote about how he found himself smiling and laughing. I found myself happy for him, yearning for him to remain happy. What surprised me near the end of his time with Belle was that he'd actually written down that he might love her. But he knew that he couldn't keep her forever. She had to make the decision herself whether to stay or not to stay. It reminded me of my predicament. When Belle had come back though he'd thought he'd been tricked by her because the Evil Queen had been at work. I cried as I read how he'd kicked her away from him, back to her own lands. Then how she'd killed herself because she couldn't deal with how her father was treating her after her time spent with Rumplestiltskin. When he'd written about how he'd found out about Belle's death I could feel the heartbreak through his words. His last words for at least a century or two.

That's where I'd stopped reading. I couldn't bring myself to read anymore right now and had decided to work on the piano music for the song. It was coming along slowly, but it was hard because I didn't want it to sound crappy and just another cover of a song. I smiled to myself as I plucked at the keys some more, singing along with the notes as I played and then wrote those notes onto the sheet music.

Another day, another sunrise

Washing over everything

In its time, love will be mine.

I was just about ready to wrap up for the day when one of the doors to the auditorium opened. I stopped playing as I looked back at who had stepped through the door. It was one of my friends, Anya. She smiled at me and waved. "Anna, are you done?"

I tucked the sheet music into my folder and pushed the piano bench back, waving back at her. "Yah. I was just about ready to wrap up."

I hopped off the stage and walked down one of the aisles until I reached her. She gave me a small hug and had a huge grin on her face. "I'm glad you're done. There's something you need to see."

I frowned at her. "What do you mean by something I have to see?"

She just kept grinning and tugged me out of the auditorium. I stopped dragging my feet after a few seconds because it felt like she was going to rip my arm off. The sun blinded me for a few moments as we stepped out the doors and when I could see again I kept frowning at her back as she dragged me across campus. Just when I was about ready to say something about how I hated to be dragged around like a rag-doll she stopped and turned to me, letting my arm go slowly. She grabbed my folder from my grasp and held it out of reach as she started speaking in an excited voice. "I figured you didn't know that this was going on, that's why I came and got you, but it's started to be the talk of the campus!"

By now my frown was almost amusing as I tried to piece together what she was trying to say. "Anya, just tell me what you're trying to say cause I have no clue what it is you want me to be hearing."

She rolled her eyes and turned, pulling me a little with her as she pointed out over the front of the campus by the library. "There. Do you see?"

I squinted at what she was trying to show me. All I saw was a bunch of students, a few guys in black suites and an older man. "What are you…" I stopped saying what I was going to say and blinked in absolute surprise as the older man slowly turned around to face in my direction. I clutched at Anya's hand as she gripped my arm to keep me steady. It was Dominic! He was here! He was on campus! "Anya… that's… that's…"

She gave a loud laugh and pulled out her phone. She dialed a number that I didn't bother to figure out and started talking. "Eva, you can direct him this way if you want. She's finally seen him."

I turned my surprised gaze towards her as she hung up and I just stared at her. "What's the meaning of this, Anya? Why is Dom… why is he here?"

She giggled and gave a small shrug. "We don't know why he's here. Obviously to see you though. He's been asking around for you for about half an hour now. When you weren't in your dorm room he started wandering around campus asking a few of the students. One of them happened to be Eva who knew who he was from the newspaper this summer."

I turned away from her as I heard footsteps slowly approaching and my heart jumped into my throat as Dominic stopped a little ways away from me. He slowly pulled off his dark sunglasses and tucked them into the top of his slightly unbuttoned dress shirt and then rested both of his hands against the head of his cane. The thing that shocked me almost as much as seeing him on campus in front of me was that he wasn't wearing a suit. The dress shirt was light blue and the sleeves were rolled partly up. His legs were covered in dark blue jeans that hugged his legs and flared out into a boot cut at the bottom. He had on a pair of tan Prada boots. I felt myself smirk. "Still have to be fancy don't you, Mr. Gold."

He gave me a small smile, refusing to look anywhere but at me. I found myself being drawn into his beautiful, dark honey brown eyes. "Annabelle." He started to take a small step towards me but stopped himself before he could complete the movement. "It's… it's good to see you, Annabelle."

His Scottish brogue was thicker than normal, probably from his struggle at trying to contain his emotions, but it made me shiver where I stood. "What are you doing here, Mr. Gold?"

His tongue flicked out to lick his lips and I followed the movement. He finally took that step forward, placing himself a little closer. "It's Dominic, Annabelle. Call me Dominic."

I blushed a little and looked sideways at my friend Anya who was intently watching the whole interaction. I took a step forward which brought me within arm reach of him and lowered my voice. "We're in public."

His hand slowly snaked out and wrapped around one of my wrists, pulling me slowly toward him. When I was almost pressed against him he let my wrist go and slid his hand upwards to cup my cheek, his thumb lightly playing across my bottom lip. He leaned forward until I could feel his lips barely brushing against mine. "I don't care."

I reached up and clutched at his shirt as he pulled me into a soft but desperate kiss. I heard him drop his cane as he wrapped both arms around me, moving one to the middle of my back and the other he buried in my hair. I opened my mouth for him, not needing any prodding to do so. His tongue was warm and inviting as it swirled in to meet mine, dancing around and around. I gave myself over to the kiss and found myself pressing my body tightly against him, wanting to feel every inch of his body. I reached up and grabbed a handful of his thick, soft hair keeping his mouth pressed against mine. His hand against my back slowly snaked up beneath the very edge of my shirt and teased back and forth against my skin. I gave a small moan into his mouth and he swallowed it up greedily. I couldn't believe how much I had missed it when he kissed me like this. When he finally pulled away, reluctantly, I found myself light-headed. My knees gave out and I would have collapsed to the ground if Dominic's arms weren't wrapped tightly around me.

I ended up sagging against his body in his arms. It was a rather embarrassing situation but my mind wasn't exactly working properly right now. Dominic slowly scooped me up into his arms instead of leaving me to just hang limply in his arms. He grinned down at me as I slowly found myself slowly playing my fingers back and forth through the tips of his hair. "Are you alright, Annabelle?"

I blinked up at him and forced myself to process his words. It took a bit but my brain finally started working correctly again. I gave a small nod and found myself blushing. "Yah. I… I just… I forgot what it was like kissing you."

He chuckled and slowly shifted me in his arms as he turned. I think he was going to attempt to pick up his cane but my friend Anya beat him to it. "Here you go, Mr. Gold."

I turned to slowly stare at her and my blush turned into a burning flame. Her eyes were completely dilated and her face was flushed as she stared down at me. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten she was there. She'd seen the whole thing. Dominic chuckled and drew my attention back up to him. "Thank you… uh, I don't think I caught your name, Dearie."

Anya gave a small squee as she bounced happily in place. "My name is Anya. Anya Dabrovich. It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr. Gold." I found myself groaning with embarrassment. I was going to kill her. "And you're pretty famous among Anna's friends."

Dominic turned his beautiful eyes down to me and smirked. "I am, am I? How interesting."

I blushed and buried my face against his shirt, refusing to look at him or at Anya. My voice was muffled but it was still loud enough for Anya to hear me. "Don't say ANYTHING else, Anya. I really, really don't feel like being embarrassed any more than I am right now."

Anya giggled and continued to bounce gleefully. "I won't say anything… unless your man asks me of course."

I groaned and turned to glare at her. "Anya."

She grinned and held her hands up in defeat. "Fine, fine, Anna. I won't say anything else." She winked up at Dominic and he chuckled. "I'll just let you two get reacquainted." She walked over and gently handed me my folder before she turned to skip away. She stopped a few feet from us and spoke over her shoulder. "And I wouldn't start kissing anymore. You're drawing a crowd!"

I gave a small squeak and struggled to look around, clutching at Dominic's shirt. Sure enough a bunch of my fellow classmates were laughing and pointing at us. A few of them had their phones out or cameras and were recording and taking pictures. "Dammit!" I wiggled in Dominic's arms and tried to get him to let me go. "Dammit, Dominic. Set me down!"

He laughed heartily and gently sat me down on my feet, keeping his hand pressed against the curve of my back while I steadied myself. "I think we're going to be famous around your school now.'

I turned towards him with a huff and smacked his chest. "Don't say thing like that. It's not you who has to go to school here." I straightened my clothes and glared up at him. "Why did you even come, Dominic? I thought we had a deal that we weren't going to see each other until I graduated."

He gave a small shrug and reached out to slowly entwine our fingers. He lifted my hand up and laid a gentle kiss against my knuckles. "Something… changed my mind. Let's just say I had a very interesting talk with someone. I made my decision to come see you afterwards."

I have a heavy sigh and pulled him in against my side, wrapping one arm around his waist as he wrapped his other arm around my shoulders. He kept a firm grip on his cane as I started us walking towards my dorm. "Why didn't you call me then? I could have met you somewhere instead of the middle of campus where everyone could watch me practically ravish you."

"I think ravish is too big of a description. It's more like we had a great make-out session, Dearie."

I rolled my eyes as we continued to walk. "You're such a bastard, Dominic. I hope you know that. Now I'll never live this down. First the newspapers and now a campus make-out session as you call it."

He pulled me to a stop and turned me to face him. His eyes were serious as he stared down at me. "Are you not happy that I came?"

I made a small tsking noise and reached up to straighten the collar of his shirt, running my hands down the front of it in a familiar gesture. The folder in my hands made it a little hard to do but I succeeded anyways. I stared up into his beautiful eyes and smiled sincerely up at him. "I'm sorry. Of course I'm happy, Dominic. Of course I am."

He reached up and cupped my cheek again. I leaned into it and enjoyed the feeling of his calloused palm pressing against my sensitive skin. "I'm sorry for stirring up trouble.'

I gave a small shake of my head and turned my face a little so that I could lay a small kiss against the center of his palm. "Don't worry about it. I forgive you for now."

He chuckled and slowly pulled me into a warm hug. I wrapped my arms around his waist and laid my ear against his chest, listening to his heart beat loudly. His voice rumbled through his chest as he spoke. "I'm glad you're a forgiving person. Otherwise I might be in trouble."

I gave a small laugh as I hugged him tighter, enjoying the moment. "I never said you weren't in trouble, I just said I forgave you."

His hand gripped my shoulders lightly and he pushed me back so that he could stare down at me with a bemused look. "So what's my punishment going to be then, Dearie?"

I grinned and stood up on tip-toe so that I could give him a quick peck on the lips. "You have to spend the night with me."

He arched a brow. "Here?"

I nodded up at him. "Yes, here."

He leaned down and pressed a soft kiss against my lips, his breath hot as he whispered against them. "Ok."

I pulled back before he could complete the kiss and gave him a stern, very serious look. "And you can't disappear on me in the morning."

He gave a slow nod of his head and leaned back into the kiss. "I promise I won't, dear-heart." I gave a satisfied giggled and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him back against my lips. I'd wanted another night with him for a long time now, ever since I woke up the morning after we'd first made love. Three months was a damn long time to wait to feel his touch again. I'm just glad it wasn't going to be a year.