Thank you Grace5231973 for reviewing! Rumple is the type of man that can't see happiness for himself even if it's right in his face, so of course he can't believe that the child is his. Yeah, I was just trying to play things up a bit for everything to be a bit more dramatic in the beginning.

Thank you cynicsquest for reviewing! Thank you very much for your complements. The idea just came to me while I was on a road trip and had worried that others wouldn't like it.

Thank you NinaGold for reviewing! I wish I had time, but I hardly have time to update nowadays since college is picking up and I'm finding myself becoming more and more forgetful when it comes to writing.

Thank you Helena Menezes for reviewing! What did you mean?

Thank you Alex Beckett for reviewing! There isn't much for them to do in a town essentially walled off from others. There's a few time skips throughout the story, but mostly it'll take place in two ages from now on.

Thank you Queen of Light for reviewing!

It was surprisingly easy to keep Iris from doing magic, especially since she was normally such a calm child that didn't want for much. Belle had decided to limit everyone's visits to when Iris was either wide awake or fast asleep, not in between like before so Iris would have a reason to throw another fit and use magic. This routine started to work out fine and Iris didn't use magic again until a year later.

Belle had decided to take her out with her while she did her annual check on the lantern that was protecting their town from outside harm. It was a needless act, she knew, but she couldn't help but to go out and make sure everyone was safe from the outside world. They had only been protected for two years under this spell and it wasn't looking like it was going to fail any time soon. At least, Belle hoped it wouldn't for the sake of her daughter who was the most magical person in the town aside from the fairies.

Iris had recently learned the joy of being able to run around on her own without the need of someone helping her take a step, so Belle had allowed her to walk and play in the street so long as she promised not to get too close to the line that marked where the barrier should be. Of course, Iris being her child, Belle should have known that she would be too curious about the barrier for her own good. Belle heard her squeal as she was putting up the lantern once more and couldn't tell if the little girl's squeal was out of delight or out of fear. Belle whipped around to see Iris leaning on an invisible barrier, hitting it with her small fists.

"Iris, get away from there," Belle called, hastening her movements in replacing the lantern so she could hurry to her daughter's side.

"Mama! Boo!" Iris called, still hitting the barrier. Belle was confused by her daughter's words, but not in a way one would normally think. Belle knew quite well that 'boo' to Iris was actually the word 'boy,' but Belle couldn't figure out how Iris could see a boy through the magic barrier. "Bi boo!"

"A big boy?" Belle repeated, scooping up her daughter protectively. Iris sniffled as she reached out to the barrier once more, clearly wanting whoever was on the other side.

"Bi bo boo!" Iris yelled at her mother, squirming to try and free herself from the woman's grasp.

"What kind of big boy?" Belle asked her daughter, fighting the little girl's squirms so she wouldn't let go.

"Bo! Bo! Loy si bo!" Iris screamed at her mother, turning red in the face as she used up all of her oxygen to scream what she wanted to say at her mother. Belle's mind worked frantically at trying to understand the girl's words so she would calm down and not use magic again, but it was hard to understand any of it when the back of her mind made a note that Iris had never been this worked up about anything before.

Belle gasped when the barrier seemed to ripple and a entryway formed just big enough to reveal the person who was standing on the other side of it and looking around thoughtfully.

"Neil!" Belle called in surprise, catching the man's attention. Neil saw his step mother and smiled slightly, quickly making his way through the barrier before the entry could close.

"I've been out there for five days and you just now come and get me?" Neil said, mock reprimanding her before spotting the squirming girl in her arms. "Who's this?"

"Neil, uh, Baelfire," Belle said a bit nervously, unsure of how to address him while telling him such big news. "This is your sister, Iris."

To say that Neil looked stunned was an understatement. If someone had suggested to him that his centuries old father would have another child, Neil would have laughed in their face at the impossibility, but looking at the young girl was enough to squash that idea in Neil's head before it even formed all of the way. This girl looked so unbelievably much like their father, that it was a bit scary to Neil. It was like looking at an exact female replica of the man he once hated.

Neil reached out for the girl, marveling in the fact that she existed just like he had marveled at the sight of his own son. He smiled slightly when the girl, Iris his mind corrected, reached out for him as well. Belle hesitantly let Neil take Iris into his arms and her existence suddenly felt very real to Neil now that he was holding her.

"Bo!" Iris squealed happily as she hugged Neil, confusing both adults. "Bo mine!"

Belle was absolutely perplexed by her daughter's sentence. Iris had never before said something was her's, she was actually a very good child when it came to sharing what things were actually hers with people.

"Yeah, I'm your brother," Neil said, having somehow completely understood what the little girl had said to him. This only made Iris squeal again and latch onto his shirt tighter. Neil glanced at Belle with a small smile. "Let's go back to Dad's so we can talk about everything that's happened to all of us."

"I think that would be a good idea," Belle said slowly before turning to lead him back into town, wondering what in the world was going on.