"I'm so proud of you," said Robin from the passenger seat of Regina's car. Regina looked on fondly from the driver's seat as they drove down to the cemetery.
"You're proud of me? For what?"
"I mean, you really have come a long way… from being the Evil Queen, to being a mother and the town's savior… all while being the mayor. However do you manage?"
Regina stopped her car before entering the cemetery's gates and turned to look at Robin, "You're also forgetting loving girlfriend."
"Ah yes, there's tha-" but before Robin could finish his sentence Regina leaned into his face and kissed him passionately. When she pulled back from him she smiled at him incessantly. "Don't ever stop doing that."
"Kissing you?" she asked.
"I meant your smile; it's brilliant and most enchanting." Regina blushed as she moved forward into the lot toward her family's shrouded tomb. "Men would fall to their knees and quiver at such radiance."
"Really?" chuckled Regina in disbelief, "That's refreshing to hear. You know, once upon a time, men fell to their knees before me because they quivered out of fear."
"As I've said, you've come a long way."
"I guess I have," agreed Regina as she looked forward and reflected.
"So… is this the surprise you were talking to me about earlier?" Robin said looking wildly about the cemetery from inside Regina's car.
"Well, every once in a while I like to retreat to my family's sanctuary for, you know… privacy; away from prying eyes and speculation."
"Privacy, huh?" said Robin looking over at Regina curiously, reading between the lines of Regina's hidden agenda with a knowing smile. Regina looked over at Robin with a confirming smirk when suddenly she spotted another vehicle parked in front of her family's sanctuary. "It appears that someone else knows about your hiding spot too," Robin noted.
"What the-?"
"Isn't that… Mr. Gold's car?" observed Robin. "What's he doing here?"
"I don't know, but I intend to find out."
Regina immediately parked her vehicle and got out, looking around the edifice to see if Mr. Gold was simply lurking around the outskirts. Robin did the same and followed after Regina as they entered the tomb and descended to the lower catacombs. As they got closer to the room where she kept residual potions and materials, the sounds of papers being shuffled and bottles knocking could be heard ricocheting from off of the walls.
"Gold! What the hell are you doing?!" exclaimed Regina as she and Robin watched Gold move from one side of the room to the other. Gold continued scouring the room as if looking for something specific.
"Gold?" questioned Robin as he observed Gold's questionable pacing back and forth in the room.
"…I've got to find something that will stop her…" Gold mumbled to himself.
"Rumplestiltskin STOP!" said Regina as she rushed over to him, placing both of her hands on his wrists to physically stop him. "What are you doing? What are you looking for?"
He immediately shirked off her grip and stepped back from her. "Don't you have any stationary charms?" he asked almost nervously; unafraid of her, but terrified of something else.
Regina was alarmed by his odd behavior and watched as he stood before her trembling. "No. You know there isn't any magic in Storybrooke. You don't look well dear. What's going on?"
"Belle is going to leave Storybrooke if I don't find a way to keep her here."
"Why don't you simply talk to her? Magic won't solve your marital problems?" chimed Robin.
Robin's statement caused Gold to pause in his tracks. His sudden silence led Regina to conclude that it was exactly the reason why he was here. "Boy, you really are desperate for magic if you're coming down to my sanctuary to search for it. What? Did you run out of reserves at your shop?"
"I need it," Gold replied with a crazed growl.
"And you think storming and ransacking my tomb will solve your issues? Perhaps you should have Dr. Whale look at you… or Dr. Hopper for that matter," said Regina noting his manic behavior.
"I'm quite fine, thank you very much," Gold snapped back bitterly. The room was actually quite large, but with the hostility they were experiencing the tension made the room feel extremely claustrophobic.
"Why does Belle suddenly want to leave Storybrooke?" asked Robin, trying to calm everyone in the room by redirecting the tone of the confrontation from accusatory to understanding.
"With the absence of magic, people can now cross the town line and still retain their memories. She wants to leave Storybrooke and have our child where there isn't magic. She wants to leave before magic has a chance to return to Storybrooke."
"And you think magic will return to Storybrooke? What if it doesn't?" asked Regina.
"I assure you, it will," stated Gold confidently. "And if I don't find something to stop her, then I will lose her and my child."
Robin looked confused as he thought out loud, "I don't understand. What's stopping you from going with her? If you love your wife and she wants you to move with her and you have the means to do it, then why not go?"
When Gold didn't respond right away, Regina answered for him, "Because Storybrooke is the only place in this world where magic exists… and your curse has your fate perpetually bound to it. I've known you for a long time, my friend, and I've never known you to shy away from magic." Regina looked over at Robin, "His problem isn't 'why doesn't he go?' He has to decide between his power and True Love?'"
"You think you know me, dearie, but you don't," Gold said snarling at Regina. "I can and will have both."
"That's hogwash," inserted Robin. "You tempt fate like the rules don't apply to you. I've traveled to many realms and no one is that omnipotent. There's not enough power in the world to change your fate. If you're fated to be with Belle, then that's what you're supposed to do even if that means sacrificing your power. Your power has blinded you to think you have control and having control over your fate is the biggest illusion of them all. As powerful as you are, even you can't control your own fate. No one can."
"I'm inclined to agree with Robin," Regina added, "even when you thought you were controlling your fate by sacrificing yourself to your father, you were brought back to life again by your wife and son. You thought that was your ending, but it wasn't. Shouldn't that be enough proof that you have no control over it?"
"So says the Evil Queen who's now the town hero and the thief who no longer steals. Sorry, I have to disagree with you. You both were able to change your fate and no one decides my fate but me." Gold was surprised by the recognizable words as they escaped his mouth. He had heard those exact same words from somewhere before… Belle.
It made him reflect back to the person he once was from when they had first met. It wasn't until after the words left his lips that he realized the poignancy of them and how right Belle was all along. Perhaps she was right about their happy ending too. In that one brief moment he thought about how far and how much he had changed since his first meeting with Belle. And then he remembered his vows to her…
"…I will never forget the distance between what I was and who I am…"
Because of his True Love's kiss with Belle he literally changed and because of her his transformation made him stronger and better and he knew it. She was his catalyst to his constant reformation and he realized that her gentle pushes for change were never out of malice or self-interest, but always out of love. Perhaps she was right about this too, like she is about everything else. Perhaps this change, this push, this move, was another way she transformed him. Belle was right, he was scared. He was scared of the risks it took to be happy because every time he did anything good, something bad followed soon after. The very idea of happiness even felt unbelievably foreign to him. He spent so long of his cursed life in misery that he almost didn't feel worthy of a happy ending, just like how at first he didn't feel worthy of Belle when they got married. Despite his horrific past, Belle still seemed to think he was worthy of a happy ending… and so did his son. Belle was the only one left in this world who truly loved him, and in his history of knowing her she had never led them astray. Perhaps it was time to trust her, like how she trusted him.
Robin argued back, "Look, fate isn't who you are or what you have it's what you're destined to be. I can agree with you to some degree that we have the ability to make choices, but we didn't control our fates by acquiring power to beat it. It's the choices we made that determined the kind of path we took that lead us to each other; to our fates. We…" he said while pointing back and forth between himself and Regina, "are fated to be together and yes we have changed, but if it weren't for those choices that changed us it would have taken a lot longer to be together."
"And how exactly do you know that you two were fated to be together?"
"Fairy dust and Henry's book-"
Just then a sudden burst of magic pulsated through them within Regina's family tomb, causing potions to bubble and other random objects in the room to light up. Gold's heart fluttered rapidly when magic pierced through his body and the sudden impact knocked him up against a wall.
"What the hell was that?" Regina questioned out of alarm as she steadied herself by holding on to a nearby shelf. When she finally looked up, she saw Gold stagger at the opposite end of the room and called out to him, "Gold, are you alright?"
Gold tried to stand up, but stumbled as he felt his rapidly beating heart in his chest. If his heart was pounding this severely then so was Belle's and that was never a good sign. "That…" he said in between struggled breaths, "…was magic."
"Magic is back?" Robin replied. "How?"
As if the moment couldn't get any more tense, Gold's phone went off in his pocket. His breathing began to stabilize as he reached into his trench coat pocket for the ringing phone. He pulled it out and looked at the screen. He breathed out, "It's Henry…"
"Henry?" cried out Regina. "What's he calling you for?"
"Henry?" answered Gold when he placed the phone to his ears. At first his face was twisted with confusion, but then his eyebrows suddenly shot up into the sky. "I'll be right there. Don't move!"
"What is it? What's going on?"
"Well," Gold said hanging up the phone and placing it back in his jacket pocket. "It really has been nice chatting with you, but… my wife needs me."
"Gold, wait!" shouted Regina. A sudden cloud of reddish-purple smoke swirled engulfing Gold and he disappeared from Regina's sanctuary. "Gah!" sighed Regina out of frustration. "Quick, let's get back to the car and…" She was so accustomed to not using magic that Regina suddenly remembered that there was magic and that she could disappear from her vault too. "Wait, what am I talking about? I can just magic myself there. Robin, you take the car back to my house. I'll meet you there. I've got to go collect my son."
After giving Robin her orders, Regina suddenly disappeared in her own magical cloud leaving Robin behind in her vault.
… …
A cloud of reddish-purple smoke appeared in front of both Henry and Belle. Rumplestiltskin burst through the cloud and rushed over to his wife and grandson.
"Belle!" he exclaimed out of concern for his wife, but as he got closer to them he suddenly felt calmer. The bubble around them felt pleasant… peaceful? Happy? Rumple immediately recognized the enchanted feeling. He looked over at Henry who was mumbling nervous words to himself while rocking back and forth. Somehow, whatever it was that he was doing, it was soothing his wife and Gold was grateful for that. When Gold approached his grandson to place an assuring hand on him, he recognized the word he was softly chanting.
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious… Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious…"
"Henry, how is it that you know Mary Poppin's Impossible Possible spell?" Gold wondered.
"Is that what it is? I just… with magic coming back and Belle going into labor… I didn't know what to say or do. Hanging around Mary Poppins… she made me think of it and… I guess I've always known it because of my time outside of Storybrooke. I don't know why I've been saying it, but repeating it makes me feel better."
Just then Regina appeared in a dark red cloud of her own and approached her son. "Henry!" called out Regina to her son.
"Mom! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" apologized Henry as he went forward towards his mother for a comforting embrace.
"What's going on here? Is she ok?" said Regina as she saw Gold help his pregnant wife walk down the stairs to Belle's car.
"I'm fine!" claimed Belle as she gave a contradictory wince. They passed by Henry and Regina and Belle reached out her hand grabbing Henry's arm. "Henry, it's gonna be ok," said Belle, doing her best to give him an assuring smile. "This is not your fault. Thank you for staying with me and keeping me calm. I'm going to be fine."
"You're not fine. We need to go home," contradicted Gold.
"How? My keys are in..." asked Belle, trying to think of where she had placed her purse, assuming that he was taking them to her car. But before he could answer her question a reddish cloud of magic enveloped the couple and they disappeared from outside the Charming apartment.
"…my purse. Ugh," moaned Belle as she experienced another contraction. Disoriented, she swayed where they stood, but was soon caught and stabilized by her husband. The cloud quickly dispersed and she suddenly realized where he had taken them. Not only did he take them home, but inside their living room. "You know, it would have been perfectly fine if you had driven us home."
"I didn't want you to move unnecessarily," he said with anxiety as he continued to hold on to her.
"Rumple, it's ok if I move. I'm not dying," she said, trying to reason with him in a comforting and calm voice. She noticed the excited panic he was expressing and placed a soft hand on his face to smooth out his anxious wrinkles. At her touch, he was able to calm down a little; both of their hearts still fluttering. "Look, we're going to be fine," she confidently assured him while looking deep into his eyes with a soft smile. "But you have to calm down…" she said placing his hand over her heart, "… for both of our sakes."
It wasn't until he felt her rapidly beating heart that he realized that it was his own excitement that was causing it. The gesture reminded him of the dream he had and it caused tears to form in his eyes, "I don't want to lose you."
"You won't."
"How can you possibly know for sure?" he said with a trembling voice.
"I just do," promised Belle with a joyous smile. The truth in her eyes and the brightness of her smile was enough to light up any darkened room and it pacified his worried heart. He moved his head toward her head slightly and she moved towards his until finally their lips met for a loving kiss. He closed his eyes to remember the moment. Their lips pulled away from each other and Belle said excitedly, "I can't believe this is happening. We're going to have a baby today!"
"Belle… I'm-" he began to say, but before he could open his eyes to finish the rest of his sentence the doorbell suddenly rang. He turned at the sound and cursed at the front door, "Now who in the hell could that be?"
"Unh!" groaned Belle as she felt another contraction, retracting from him and holding her belly. Gold's attention was immediately redirected to Belle as he fired questions at her. "Would you like to sit down? Here," he directed, helping her sit, "Should I get more pillows? Juice? Water? Can I get anything for you?"
"Yeah," Belle said as she sat down on the couch behind her, "could you get the door?"
Seeing that Belle was fine, Gold turned and went to answer the front door. He took off his suit jacket along the way and placed it on the hanger as he stared at the short silhouette beyond the glass. Not recognizing the shape he grabbed the door's knob and turned it.
"Nurse Bouquet?" he said with surprise after opening the door.
"I heard that someone was having a baby here," said Nurse Bouquet as she welcomed herself into their home carrying a small duffle bag with her.
"As a matter of speaking…" Gold said as he stepped back allowing her passage into their home. He was slightly taken back by her brash forwardness as she continued walking into their home, but then again that just seemed to be in her personality. Nurse Bouquet moved into the entranceway and tried not to gape as she marveled over the luxuriousness of their home. Astonished by her bravery, he almost lost his train of thought when he asked, "How did you know to come here? We only just arrived here moments ago."
"Do you know of a woman by the name of Mary Poppins?"
"I do."
"Well, she helped out my family a long time ago… while we were living in the Enchanted Forest. And when we bumped into the diner a few days ago, we connected again and exchanged numbers. She called me just a few moments ago about her daughter going into labor and that she would needing my experience and expertise very soon. When she told me who the mother-to-be was, well… I came straight over."
"This really is a small town," exhaled Gold under his breath.
"Rumple? Rumple who is it?" called Belle from the other room. Gold led the nurse to the living room where Belle was still sitting.
"Nurse Bouquet? How did you? Who told you…?" Belle stammered with confusion.
"Your mother," answered her husband.
"She really is something, isn't she?" remarked Belle.
"Yeah," concurred Gold.
"Hello Belle. How are we feeling?" said the nurse looking down at Belle.
"Besides these vicious cramps that happen every once in a while, I'm doing well," answered Belle.
"How far apart are the contractions?" asked the nurse as she knelt down in front of her. She immediately pulled out a stethoscope from within her duffle bag down and placed the ear pieces in her ears to listen to Belle's womb.
"So far, like every five minutes."
After placing the stethoscope on different parts of Belle's stomach and listening intently, she leaned back and said, "Ok. Here's what I need you both to do… first thing… breathe." At the nurse's insistence the couple exhaled a sigh of relief together. "We've got some time before your baby arrives."
"How much time?"
"Television likes to over-dramatize birth, portraying it as immediate and extremely painful. Not true. After her water breaks it could be as little as one hour or multiple hours, but it all depends on the mother because each pregnancy is different. So we can relax. However, I won't know for certain unless I check her cervix." When they both appeared more relaxed than they did before she continued, "Ok, Belle I need you to get dressed into the most comfortable outfit you can find. If that means sweat pants and a shirt, so be it. Heck, if you're comfortable being naked then do it. Point is, do not dress to impress. It will only be me, you and your husband. You're about to get sweaty and your contractions will make you feel uncomfortable, so the least you can do for yourself is dress comfortably." Bouquet looked over at Gold and implied, "Perhaps you can go help her?"
"Of course," gulped Gold as he immediately went over to Belle to help her to her feet.
"Belle, when you're dressed and ready let me know. In a little bit, I'm going to check how dilated you are and that will determine where you are in your labor. Take your time, though. We're going to go at your pace. Also, should you find yourself having another contraction I want you to breathe through it and count the seconds. They can be anywhere between 30 to 90 seconds long, so it can be another thing you both can work through together."
Belle got to her feet and with the help of her husband they walked slowly up the staircase to go to their bedroom. Belle went up the stairs first with Gold following closely behind to spot her should she fall. They were halfway up the staircase when another contraction occurred. "Rumple," exhaled Belle, turning slightly toward her husband to reach for his hand. While she placed the majority of her weight on the hand railing beside her, he quickly came up behind her to scoop up her available hand, placing his other to support her backside. He looked down at her and counted as she focused on exhaling slowly. When it appeared that the pain had passed, he asked, "Better?"
"Yes… Now that you're here."
"Why wouldn't I be here? I wouldn't miss this for the world."
"I just…" she began as they resumed the ascent towards their bedroom. "…couldn't imagine doing this without you."
"Well, I'm here now." Belle smiled at his words and she continued to make it the rest of the way up the stairs. "Belle…" said Gold causing Belle to stop and turn around. "I love you."
"I know. I love you too… and that's all that matters."
We're almost there! One more! Only one more! Interesting topic of discussion between Robin, Regina and Gold about Fate. What are your thoughts on Fate? Do you decide your Fate or is it something beyond your control? I did some reading online about this philosophical topic and everyone seemed 50/50. Thank you to Imusicluver23, Montreat11, CrypticCobra, and ladybugsmamma for reviewing the previous chapter. A special shout out to Imusicluver23 and Grace5231973… after much dialogue happening behind the scenes I thought of you guys the most while writing this chapter specifically. I was inspired. Persuaded? Influenced? All of the above? Thank you thank you thank you! oxox