CHAPTER SIXTEEN – Back in the Library
Rumplestiltskin stood frozen, struggling to compose himself. The four adults from the past observed that he hadn't changed much at all. He still looked like a man, like Mr. Gold, except he wore the Dark One's traditional clothing, and now he wore his slick grey hair in a short ponytail.
As for Regina, she removed the spell from the rest of them (not knowing the trouble that was to cause in the corridor with poor Belle).
"Well, this is just what we need. Now Rumplestiltskin has to swoop in and meddle with this entire situation, just like old times. What do you want now? And really, I don't think anyone here is in any mood for your shifty deals or riddles or whatever you do now." Regina said as she walked up to him. "Hello? Rumple? Anyone there?" She waved her hand in front of his face, then snapped her fingers under his eyes.
Rumple composed himself as best he could. "Ah, yes, hello dearie. Nice to see you as well. Now would you be so kind as to explain why my – Belle, yourself, the pirate, and Miss Swan are doing here? Judging by your appearances, I would guess you're from….seventeen to eighteen years in the past?"
"How about I stick my sword in that ugly head of yours first, Crocodile?" Killian sneered as he drew his sword and held it toward Rumple, who held up his hands in surrender. For Killian, it was still a relatively short time since Rumplestiltskin had tried to crush his heart and consequently almost killed him.
"Not so fast, dearie. We don't want to do this in front of the children, do we?"
"Would everyone please be QUIET!?" Colette yelled at the group. Everyone froze. She was not the kind of girl who would lose her temper easily, but at the moment she thought she had just figured out a question that had been plaguing her for years. She needed to know if what she assumed, especially after that encounter with her mother from the past, was indeed correct.
"Y-you," she said, pointing at Rumple, "How d-do you know….my…mother? How exactly do you know her?" Magic started sparking from her fingers in dark blue and gold sparks. Everyone took a step back.
Kendra held her hands out "Now Colette, please, it's going to be fine." Wind started howling outside, and lightning lit up the windows. Now the wind came inside the library, pulling at their clothing and blowing the books from their shelves. It started to swirl around Colette as the sparks coming from her fingertips intensified.
Rumple shouted over the storm brewing both inside and outside "Belle is – was my wife. She saw the man inside me when no one else did. But I betrayed her, and her trust. At that time, I thought I had found a way to completely control my powers and separate myself from the dagger. My lust for power returned and became my greatest weakness, and your mother, she thought – she thought that it meant I had stopped loving her for my powers instead. And since I was mad with power and ready to kill for it," at this he gestured to Killian, "she banished me from Storybrooke. I tried enlisting the help of the Queens of Darkness, since I still thought power was the only way to win your mother back, that only through power could villains get their happy endings. In the end, it never worked, but only sent all of us back to the Enchanted Forest."
Storm clouds now covered the ceiling of the library, and thunder rumbled in the clouds overhead. "But I was wrong!" Rumple started again. "Regina showed me that. She got her happy ending by doing the right thing, and for the seventeen years we have been back in the Enchanted Forest, I've been trying to do the same. Yes, I am your father."
(Emma at a later time would chuckle over this memory, thinking of one of Henry's favorite science fiction adventure movies)
The storm stopped, both inside and outside, just as suddenly as it started. Colette had collapsed onto her knees, the sparking from her hands had stopped. Rumple hesitantly approached her.
"When you first arrived at my palace, your mother sent a brief note saying that you were my daughter, that she discovered that you had magic, and that this was the only relationship I was to ever have with you. I suppose she still hated me then, as she does now, but I deserve it. I have never stopped loving your mother though. And as for you, I love you just as if I had been able to raise you myself. Can I still be your father, after all these years? Please, Colette." Tears were streaming down his face, and he reached down to hold his daughter for the first time.
But she would have nothing of it. Her emotions swirled inside her just as her storm had moments ago, and she needed some time to sort all of this out. Alone. She rose abruptly, and ran out through a side entrance to the Library, wiping away the tears that she had held back for so long.
"Colette!" Liam yelled, and raced after her. Rumple just watched them both disappear through the door.
"Gold-Rumplestiltskin, would you – I mean, shouldn't you follow her?" Emma timidly asked. This was indeed not the Rumple she knew. Even she could see that he really had changed now.
"No, no dearie, she will decide if she wants me as a father or not. I will not force her into any decision. I will still love her no matter what." He sighed dejectedly.
"Okay, will someone please explain what in the world is going on? I thought we were supposed to have no more impossible magical problems to fix here, correct? So why am I staring at a younger clone of myself?" Regina from the future asked.
"Uh-oh." Kendra said. She and Oliver took a step back. Two sets of parents in the same room was just a tad bit too weird for the both of them.
Killian, Emma, Regina, Robin, Belle, and Past Belle from stood in the doorway, staring at their past-selves. Belle whispered something to Future Belle, both not meeting Rumple's imploring eye. Future Belle finally looked up at her husband, whom she hadn't seen for seventeen years, but who she thought about every day. Rumple, for his part, tried to not break down again at the sight of his true love dressed in the same gown he had created for their first dance after their wedding.
She cleared her throat, walked up to him, and said "I believe it's finally time we talked about all this. Alone."