Chapter Eight: The Search for Baelfire part one

Belle felt Mr. Gold stir against her, realizing she too had fallen asleep shortly after he had and she was leaning against the couch. She murmured to him words that made no sense as she opened her eyes.

Rumpelstiltskin told her to get ready quickly and that he didn't really care what she looked like. They were going to look for Bae, and Belle knew there was no stopping him now. Hell, holding him off last night was a miracle. Changing as fast as she could, Belle threw on sweatpants and her warmest hooded sweatshirt, realizing it would be cold out at seven am, despite the fact that it was closer to spring it seemed every day.

Gold locked up the house, and Belle still felt tired. Her yawning told Gold he may have rushed her, but she seemed to keep up with his stride.

"Where do you think he'd be?" she asked, letting another yawn escape as she tried to stretch her legs as she walked. It was becoming a fail though, and she was falling a bit behind each time, so she stopped altogether for a second.

Rumpel waited for her, and he wrapped an arm around her when she came close to him. Her arms were crossed as she tried to keep the heat around her, finding that Mr. Gold was much warmer than she. They looked around the forest first near where Rumpel found the moped.

"Why didn't you bring Bae's moped?" Belle asked. "Then we wouldn't have to walk. The motor is pretty quiet." Rumpel looked at Belle.

"I can't control that thing," Rumpel confessed, making Belle burst out a short laugh, and he thought it was kinda funny too. "Besides, I don't think it was made for the grass and the trees."

They came to the spot in the forest Bae and Rumpel had argued in, where Bae cut his palm open (that bandage, though the wound was better, probably needed to be changed too now that he thought about that), and where they finally yelled at each other for all that had happened in the past.

The yelling helped more than hurt them, or so Rumpelstiltskin thought. That way, everything was out in the open. There weren't any secrets between them, and Baelfire certainly wasn't keeping any. Whenever the situation arose, Bae told his father what he'd been up to. Rumpel found it difficult to connect with his son, though, as his manner seemed to alter since he last saw him.

Baelfire was far more independent than Rumpel remembered. He practically did everything on his own since he arrived. Other than the cut, Rumpelstiltskin rarely touched him at all. They were just starting conversation again, but he knew Baelfire was still very angry with him. Belle even suggested they go to Doctor Hopper about their issues, but Rumpelstiltskin instantly refused, recalling what August did to him. At least he knew for a fact this was Baelfire.

And then to find that this whole time, Baelfire hadn't aged a hair! It was so strange to him that, because he was the Dark One, Bae was never untouched by magic, and when the curse came and stopped all time for 28 years, his son too, still hadn't age. It seemed Bae was trapped, but now he may have started aging again, along with the rest of them. Even after he let Bae go through the vortex, he must not have aged!

He was also a lot stronger, though Rumpelstiltskin had no idea what that boy had been up to ever since he crossed the barriers of time and space to this realm. Either way, he had his son one moment, the next he didn't. That angered him more than anything else in the world. Belle at his side, she tapped him on the shoulder.

"What's that?" Belle asked, pointing to a tree branch.

There Bae's cloak was neatly hung a tree branch, and Rumpel rushed to it, not heading Belle's warnings to wait for her, seeing the trap net a little too late. He was thrown up by surprise into this large fishing net, but his magic instinctively cut through it, though his landing was rather rough.

"Are you all right?" Belle asked, helping him get up.

"I'm fine dearie," he told her, hearing the contradicting crack in his back as he stood back up. "She has him. I know she does!"

"What? Who has him?"

"Regina."

Bae felt an odd sensation inside of him. Instantly, pain shot through him, forcing him awake. There was a woman sitting across from him, that same woman who'd been stalking him since he got to Storybrooke!

His mouth was tied, so he couldn't say anything, but the woman looked far from poverty now. She was a powerful enchantress, not on the right side as the Blue Fairy would have told him. The sun was brightly shining behind him, already causing him to squint.

"Seems my little tricks are working well," she said. "Oh won't this be fun? You'll see your father in good time, child. Don't you worry." This woman must be the Evil Queen his father talked about. He wondered how she knew who he was and that Rumpelstiltskin was his father.

The pain disappeared in a few minutes, but a while later, pain shot through him again, and he grunted through the cloth between his teeth. Clenching his fist hurt for his left hand still, but he'd never let her see that. When she walked out of the room after taunting him with promising words of revenge, Bae tried to look for a way out. Immediately, he saw that she had striped him of his hunting knife, laying it on the table across from him, but he figured out he wouldn't be needing that. She may have tightened the cloth around him, but Bae used his tongue to manipulate its positioning.

Using his tongue, the cloth came off of his mouth and down to his neck. That tasted awful! His cloak was missing as well, but he was coming around as fast as he could. Wondering how much time had passed and how much his father was probably worrying, if at all, about him, Bae wasn't sure what to think about his father these days. He'd only just arrived, it'd been about two weeks and he was already in this mess! That was when he began to question what exactly his father had gotten into since he left all those years ago.

Baelfire, now that he could breathe properly, loosened the bonds at his legs by continually stretching the cloth. After a few minutes, his legs hurt, but it was well worth the trouble. He stood up, twisting his body so that he could get a better view of his hands. He had to be careful with the left one, but he only saw one big knot. A big, messy, knot.

"Great, just great," he whispered to himself.

He laid the chair down, getting himself under it by lifting its legs up with his arms from the body of the chair so that he could come right back around and undo the knot. Bae was very successful in doing this, for he was just tall enough to slip his arms down far enough on the back of the chair so that his arms that were tied could lift up the chair. The rest of his body held it after he lifted it and got under. Then, starting with the legs of the chair and stretching out, he was able to come back to the knot. Bae squirmed between the back of the chair and the floor, emerging exactly where he wanted to be.

Now, the knot was right in front of him. He undid it with his teeth. Free!

He smirked, proud of himself, and he grabbed the first weapon he saw: his knife. Now, why would she leave that out in the open like this, so simple for him to get? With it, Bae found a small window and stabbed at the glass, trying to hurry.

Hearing footsteps, Bae thought to just charge for it. He ran from the farthest part of the room, climbed up the wall a little with his feet and stabbed his entire arm through the glass, pulling himself up. The adrenaline rushed through his veins as he heard her open the door. Blood began to flow along his arm, for he was unsuccessful at yielding to the glass he was in such a rush to get out. He'd take any pain over the chance to gain.

He was gone when the Evil Queen returned, but that was exactly what she wanted.