Prompt-How about really angsty prompt ? Gold was badly beaten and raped in his shop. Belle found him and then she's there for him all the time. To help him recover and show how much she still love him.
Trigger warning, no direct reference of rape, but indications. If he actually was, I suppose it's up to you to decide.
Hardcore angst with a fluffy ending. Like fluffy enough that it made me all ;_;
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She had been wearing a smile until she noted that the window of his back door had been shattered, her heart giving a sickening lurch in response.
"Rumple?!" she called at once, pushing the ajar door open, eyes quickly taking in the mess that had been made of his back room. Artifacts had been thrown to the ground and smashed and papers had been strewn across the floor.
She hadn't realized the mass in the center of the room was Rumplestiltskin himself until he had shifted, giving a muted groan.
He had been bloody and broken, trying to push her away as she knelt beside him, even in his battered state.
"No," he had croaked, bruised hands weakly trying to brush her aside.
"Rumple," her voice came out in a whimper as she saw the tears on his face. Humiliation.
She didn't question what had happened or why his clothes were so rumpled and loosened on him, but she did shift his head onto her thighs as she knelt there, craning over his body and embracing him, as if shielding him from the pain he was obviously experiencing.
"Rumple," she softly crooned, stroking his back as his body began to tremble, a few damp tears soaking through her tights.
She had remained there with him for another half an hour until she worked up the courage to fix his trousers and jacket, helping him stand afterwards.
"No hospital," were his sharp words, Belle wanting very much to argue, but biting her tongue.
He'd leaned heavily on her as she guided him home, glad that it was so late, for it left the streets empty.
She stood with him in the shower that night after removing glass from his knee, wearing nothing but one of his baggy shirts and briefs to leave him feeling comfortable as she scrubbed the blood, sweat and tears from him.
How the glass had found its way into his knee, she wasn't sure, but she would save the questions for a day when he was not avoiding her gaze and flinching at her touch.
She dressed him after that, even after he'd shoved her away, trying to do it himself, but failing as she gently nudged his hands away.
"No," she sternly spoke, glaring up at him as she resumed tugging the sweatpants she had unearthed from his closet over his bandaged knee.
He tried pushing her away that night in bed, clearly uncomfortable with her at his side, afraid he'd harm her somehow when she wondered if it was her he was afraid of.
He had finally settled once she had gently slid her arms around him, his head buried in the crook of her neck and his breaths softening.
That night, he'd woken her with his thrashing, shoving her from the bed in his dreaming state.
She stood immediately, forcing her arms around him, holding him to her until his shouts died down to sobs.
This was how it went for the next month until he was comfortable again.
He'd been raped of his pride, of his power.
He told her this as he finally opened up about the assault, the way the masked man had slammed his knee into one of his display cases, had beaten him relentlessly with no good reason.
Things were somewhat normal after that, though the occasional nightmare did happen, driving her off the bed and reducing him into a sobbing mass against her side.
She never let him work alone at night anymore and he was fine with this, happy to have her company as he went through his ledgers.
They'd even made love her first night there in the cot in the back room, his demeanor changing for the better after.
Belle liked to believe that it was their joining that had healed him, but she knew the true savior was Lucy.
The child had been born in fall, Gold tearing up as the nurse brought the swaddled babe to them in the small hospital room, Belle joining him as they held her together, his arms around her shoulders, fingers against the infant's rosy cheeks.
The next few years passed in a blur of diapers and smiles, Belle finally deciding that the man was finally freed from the scarring left by the incident as she was in the garden, weeding and watching the two in the yard.
"Baba!" Lucy squealed as he caught her around the waist, managing to heft her up against his hip, a heavy grip on his cane.
"Baba, no!" she shrieked as he sat down with her, the toddler squiggling from his arms and pushing him onto his back, Gold theatrically falling backwards in response to her nudges. The blue-eyed girl sat on his chest, planting kisses on his cheeks and squeezing his nose with her pudgy fingers, giving a delighted giggle as he gave a mock wince.
He caught her hand, giving each finger tip a kiss before tugging the girl into a snug hug "I love you, Lucy," he softly crooned.
"Love Baba," she replied, tilting her head upwards to shoot him a bleary smile.
Belle watched with pursed lips, wiping the tear that had leaked down her cheek and resuming her gardening with a smile stretched across her lips.
Four years ago she wouldn't have thought she'd see him this happy and free again.
And yet here he was, smiling with ease, even laughing freely around her and their daughter.
"Once we've fallen to the bottom, we can only climb up."
He'd told her this once a long while ago, after she'd been broken just as he had, but by Regina and her asylum beneath the hospital.
As far as Belle was concerned, they had finally reached the top and would remain there for the rest of their lives.