Dearies!

Love the feedback for Cha. 19!

Ya'll are so wonderful and really inspire me with the twists and turns I wana take with my little story!

Plus ya'll are bright as fuck ;)

This is a little short, but I'll make it up to ya'll with 21

Than you all so much and please review!

Chapter 20

"…Can people really fall in love so soon?"

Belle sang to herself as she walked down the hallway en route to the receiving hall for tea with her palm a constant protection against her lower stomach.

Baby mine….

Rumplestiltskin had only been gone a day, but his absence tugged at her heartstrings and the previous night she had given in and cried herself to sleep.

Wouldn't have been the first time….

The worst pain in the world is to know that the man you love doesn't want a child with you.

It made Belle feel...inadequate.

He didn't want her or their child, that much was plain she gaged by his reaction.

He just wanted to live forever with his power and no one else.

His fucking power.

It always came down to that.

Belle or power.

But now it wasn't just Belle anymore, there was another person coming into the picture whether Rumplesitltksin wanted it or not.

A beautiful little girl with russet waves like her Papa and brilliant blue eyes like her Mama….

"You're all mine." Belle whispered to her stomach.

"You are all I have."

"Did you get it?"

Regina scowled at Rumplestiltskin and pulled from underneath her cape a small vial filled with clear liquid.

"Of course I did." She snarled.

"Well," he huffed as he pranced over and plucked it from her, "it certainly took you long enough."

"Yes, well time is different there with her, it moves agonizingly slow."

"I've already lost a day here thanks to her."

Regina flung her cape over her bed and made quick work of her gloves, "It was all her, naturally she had to regale me with all that has happened to her in the last three centuries."

She crossed over to her vanity and sat down.

"As if I hadn't heard it countless times before…"

While Regina was chattering away about her "visit" with Maleficent, Rumplestiltskin studied the potion as he held it up to the light.

It was odorless and colorless.

Like water…

He could slip this into anything and none would be the wiser.

Belle shouldn't have to be mother to a monster, she already bedded with one.

He could at least spare her this shame.

He would slip this into her tea and that would take care of it.

A little blood on the sheets...

It would be gone, washed away from her body and if she wanted, he could even wash it away from her mind.

"I'll never touch her again." He whispered under his breath as he gripped the vial in his claws.

She was too good.

Too beautiful.

After it was eliminated he would send her away where no one knew her and she could begin life again.

Without him.

No more pain for Belle, no more humiliation and no more slander.

"Never again.."

"I'm sorry what?"

He looked over at Regina, that lump of vanity, and shook his head.

"Nothing dearie, pray continue."

Perhaps she would have long, golden curls like her Mama had, with a blue silk ribbon hanging down her back…

Maybe she would have big, brown eyes like Rumplestiltskin...

She had caught a glimmer of what his eyes must have been life before…

All wide and muddy, deep and bottomless.

Belle could see her daughter now running to her with the bright sun outlining her smiling face and her arms outstretched.

She would have dimples.

And her Papa's heart….

Rumplestiltskin had been back for over an hour now.

He just sat staring at the dead embers of a fire long grown cold and dead.

The vial felt heavier and heavier in his hand.

"I am with child..."

Belle's words kept swimming around in his head as he rolled the vial between his palms contemplating the reality of the situation he had gotten himself into.

"Belle." He croaked as he placed his head in his hands and looked down at the floor.

This is wrong…this is murder…

"Papa!"

In his mind Rumplestiltskin saw a little chestnut haired girl with humongous blue eyes running toward him with a perfect smile.

She was beautiful.

Little Belle….

He couldn't kill little Belle….

But what if she came out with shimmering scales and haunted golden eyes?

No ocean blue orbs full of love…just blackness tainted by his curse?

"Papa!"

His perfect little girl, his own little Belle to pet and spoil as he wished.

His sweetheart.

The Dark Princess.

"Rumplestiltskin what is that in your hand?"