Little Dark Ones? LITTLE DARK ONES?! Could this woman be any more insulting?

Belle hastily left the building insulted and furious. She left so quickly that she suddenly found herself standing in front of the library doors. She took her keys and angrily jammed them into the locks to open the doors. When she entered the building she immediately closed the doors behind her. Belle wanted to place as much distance between herself and that miserable woman as possible. Of all people and creatures, only Regina knew how to make skin crawl and her stomach flop. And just when she thought she had been doing so well keeping her nausea at bay. But the thought did make her wonder…

With her cursed Lacey memories still intact, she knew about her menstrual cycle and was aware of the reproductive system. Had she really been that careless or that forgetful? She needed to see the words in front of her face. She walked over to the section of the library labeled, 'Maternity' and pulled the first random book she could get her hands on. She propped open the books in her hands and immediately began flipping through the pages.

28 days… Her period was definitely a week late.

Signs and symptoms…

"Hey," said Rumplestiltskin as he poked his head from around a bookshelf to find her. She was so consumed by the material at hand that she forgot about their lunch date. "What are you reading?"

Realizing he was here, she panicked. Her heart raced as she quickly looked for a place to hide the book. "Nothing. Just some, uh," she said tossing the book blindly back onto a random shelf, "just something that caught my eye."

"Are you ok? You're sweating," he observed.

"Oh, I… just got back from the Sheriff's station. Apparently Dr. Hopper is counseling Elsa now because she came to apologize to me," she said quickly.

"Really?" he asked clearly confused. "At the Sheriff's station?"

"Emma came by the library and told me there was somebody she wanted me to meet. I figured it might have been Gaston or somebody I knew from my past that finally found me. So she escorted me there and along the way I got to post up my flyers for the book club around town. When I arrived I was surprised to see Dr. Hopper and Elsa already there. Apparently Emma and Archie were only there to moderate the apology. I suppose they were expecting you to come flying in with guns-a-blazing or whatever."

"What else happened?"

"Well," Belle began, evacuating quickly from that section of the library, "I accepted her apology. She felt obligated to owe me a favor, but I told her to simply pay it forward. Has she come to apologize to you yet?"

"No… I don't think I shall be expecting an apology from her anytime soon," he said following after her, "Let's just say that I think we've already come to an unspoken understanding of each other. That is, unless, she comes back to either one of us again and becomes uncivil. In which case, I think then we'll exchange some words. However, that is not the case. And since you're fine, we're fine. So I wouldn't worry so much about her anymore. I don't think she'll bother us again."

Belle walked over to the circulation desk to pick up her purse and other belongings. Her heart was still beating against her chest like a trapped hummingbird. Her mind raced with a million questions along with another million concerns and the whirlwind of thoughts was making her dizzy. She couldn't panic on what she didn't know for positive. For all she knew she was jumping to conclusions. She needed to focus on one thing at a time and right now that was lunch.

"Lunch?" she asked shouldering her belongings.

"Lunch."

… …

For the next few nights Belle was restless. As much as she wanted to forget about it she couldn't. At first she wanted to be in denial because being in denial was easy. But thinking whether or not she was pregnant plagued her mind like an incessant cold. She had to know. She wanted to find out on her own first to determine whether her worry was worth the worry. She then decided that only if she was positive would she then bring Rumplestiltskin into the fold about her concern. But how?

How could she discreetly determine if she was pregnant without the whole town finding out? Belle immediately knew through her cursed persona, Lacey, that there were options of finding out. But to go to the town's convenient store to purchase a pregnancy test would arouse suspicion and she knew Clark would probably let slip to his dwarf brethren on what he saw. If Henry's discovery of their marriage had spread to everyone in the community, who knew what kind of wild rumors would start with her wanting to find out. Despite her aversion of hospitals, Belle even thought about the option of going to be tested there. Even if she was that desperate, the creepy Doctor Whale would most likely be her doctor. He was Mary-Margaret's doctor after all. And that thought grossed her out most of all.

All these paranoid thoughts perpetually looped around in her mind and it was making her nauseous again.

It was three o'clock in the morning and Belle tried with all her might to lie still. With her restlessness, she feared that moving would arouse suspicion from Rumple. Somehow he always knew when she was thinking when they laid in bed together, so for the past few nights she did her best to pretend to sleep and tried desperately to think of absolutely nothing. Her method apparently worked because for the past few new he hadn't questioned what it was that she was thinking. But then, after a few hours or so, somehow the thoughts would creep their way back in.

As much as he knew of her thinking habits, she finally understood his sleeping habits. She knew he was a light sleeper, but after a certain hour there was a particular way he breathed at night that signaled to her when he was officially at rest. She discovered that when he did sleep, however rare it was, his breaths were gentle, deep and rhythmic. The sound of his sleeping was perfect, like a pristine and finely tuned watch; it was divine. She was only able to discover this about him during the past few days of her sleepless nights, so if there was any consolation to what was happening to her, this would be it.

On a typical night his simple breathing would have been sufficient enough to put her asleep, but these past few nights not so much. Belle opened her eyes and looked over at the face clock again over on his side of the bed.

3:43 am

She knew that if she wanted to be somewhat rested for the book club meeting today she would have to at least close her eyes. She looked over at her sleeping husband and became suddenly quite jealous. He slept curled over on his side facing away from her and in about an hour or so he would probably be waking up soon.

Just when she was closing her eyes a wave of nausea hit her. This one wasn't like the previous nausea spells; this one felt productive. She flipped open her eyes and immediately sprang from the bed dashing straight toward the bathroom's toilet…

… …

Rumplestiltskin's eyes fluttered open. He was getting so accustomed to the dream, that by now, he no longer woke with a violent jerk. At this point, the dream became annoying. Each day for the past few weeks the dream left him feeling helpless; helpless, because he didn't know how to interpret it. Every time he felt closer to understanding the meaning, it would evade his grasp and he would become flustered by it. He was getting tired of being flustered. He was getting tired of the dream. He turned over in bed expecting to see Belle only to discover tossed blankets and a void.

He sat up in bed and noticed the bathroom door cracked with the light on inside. Rumple got up from bed and walked towards the bathroom.

"If you're up before me that can never be a good sign," he said as he opened their bathroom door. When he opened the door, he discovered Belle sitting on the floor next the toilet, leaning up against the wall with eyes closed.

"Belle!" he called out to her. His heart jumped to his throat fearing the worst. Belle immediately opened her eyes and was practically face to face with her husband. "What happened? Are you alright?"

"Rumple I'm fine! I'm fine. Just..." she began as he helped her to her feet. Panic riddled his face and her assurances were unconvincing. "I just haven't felt like myself lately."

"Here… let me help…" he said raising his glowing purple hand.

"No," she said lowering his arm, "No magic. Please."

He looked over at the toilet and saw evidence of her illness. "Come, Belle. Let's go see a physician then."

"No. Please no hospitals. You know how I feel about going back there." She walked past him and stood at the bathroom door. He came up behind her and placed a gentle supportive hand on her back.

"Belle, why are you arguing with me? You're ill. If you refuse magic and you don't want to see a doctor, then how can we identify what's wrong to help you get better?"

"This nausea will pass. Nothing is wrong with me," Belle said defiantly, looking up and suddenly noticing the time on the clock.

"Oh!" She exclaimed furiously to herself.

"What is it now?" Rumple asked confused and slightly irritated.

"I'm late for my book club!" she said running immediately to the dresser drawer. She completely lost track of the time.

"You shouldn't be going anywhere," he stated firmly to her as she rummaged for clothes to wear.

"I have worked… so hard… to put this thing together," she said while struggling to put on dress pants, "There's no way I'm backing out now."

"Belle…" Rumple said getting frustrated. Belle ran around him and all about the room grabbing earrings, slipping on shoes and buttoning the last button of her blouse. She ran into the bathroom once more to quickly throw on some makeup and rinse out her mouth with mouthwash. "…I really must insist that you stay."

"I'm taking your car into town, unless you want to come?" she asked completely ignoring his plea.

"No," he replied disappointedly, realizing that there was no convincing of her to stay. She stopped in her tracks and turned to Rumplestiltskin. She could see 'worry' written all over his face. She knew she was running late, but his happiness was more important to her at the moment. She slowed down even more and walked calmly back over to him. She grabbed both of his hands and held them dearly.

"Look, Rumple, I'm fine. Please don't worry," she said planting a soft kiss on his cheek. His eyebrows continued to furrow as she stepped back to look into his eyes, "I love you."

"I love you too," he said giving her a half-smile. She smiled back. And although his feelings on the matter were conflicted, his effort to smile was encouraging. Belle felt it wrong to leave him worried like that.

"Oh! Before I forget, I promised Ruby I'd help her move later today. It'll only be a few hours. I'll give you a call around one for lunch?" she said walking down the stairs. She shuffled over to the coat rack and grabbed her purse that she left hanging there. He followed after her, descending the staircase.

"Sounds good," he said meeting her by the front door.

"Ok, good. I'll talk to you soon," she said giving him one last quick kiss on the lips before running hurriedly out the door and into his car.