Chapter 12
The first thing Belle became aware of was how cold she was. Unconsciously, she shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. The next thing she noticed was that she was lying down. Uncomfortable, she slowly began to sit up, and, opening her eyes, blinked to adjust them to the dim light.
Where was she? Belle had no idea where she was or how she had gotten there, but the more she came to her senses, the more a sliver of fear worked its way into her mind. Sitting upright now, Belle found she had been lying on a wooden bench, one of the few objects around her. She was in a small room, the only light coming from a single candle on a table in the opposite corner.
Belle fought back panic, telling herself to remain calm. Trying to remember how she had come to be there, Belle closed her eyes. The last thing she could remember, she had been sitting with Rumple in the library, and then… Then nothing. She didn't remember anything about how she had gotten into this strange room, and the harder she tried to remember the more she began to panic.
Determined not to give in to her fears, Belle decided to focus on where she was at that moment instead of trying to remember how she had gotten there. What was past was past, and all that mattered at the moment was getting out.
Taking a deep breath and looking around for a door or window, Belle was dismayed to find none. How could a room be built with no doors? As soon as she asked herself that question, Belle felt stupid. Rumple had created a vault with no doors or windows, one he could only access with magic. It was entirely possible that there were other rooms like that, and Belle figured this must be one of those. Sighing, Belle dropped her head and stared at her feet. Closing her eyes, Belle thought, What am I supposed to do now?
Telling herself that thinking like that wouldn't solve anything, Belle opened her eyes. When she did, she noticed a small piece of paper lying on the ground by her feet. Bending down, she picked it up. The light was too dim for her to make out the script that crawled across the parchment's brown surface, so she got up and walked over to the table and held it up near the candle, careful not to let it catch fire.
Find your magic, it will show you the way out.
And that was it. Although there was no name on the parchment, Belle recognized the handwriting. It was Rumple's. Was this some sort of test? Why would he do something like this? What if she got stuck in here forever? Belle started to get angry at him, why would he put her in here? Just as she felt anger taking her over, she fought it back. No, she thought, you aren't going to get out of this by being angry. Focus.
The note said to find her magic. Belle thought about what Rumple did whenever he used magic. He would wave his hand and something would happen. Belle knew it wouldn't be that easy for her; she could barely even create her magic to begin with.
So how was she going to get out? Belle closed her eyes and pictured a door appearing on the wall. Waving her hand, she opened her eyes. She was dismayed to find nothing had happened and sighed in frustration.
Okay, think. Rumple wouldn't have put you in here without a reason. What could he have wanted to accomplish? Before, when Belle had worked magic, Rumple had given her the vial of true love, knowing that her feelings for him would be the trigger for her to find her magic. Using that same logic, Belle figured there had to be something in this room that would help her use magic.
But what? Looking around, Belle confirmed what she already knew. There was nothing in the room except a table, a candle and the wooden bench. How could she make a connection to anything?
Giving up on that train of thought, Belle sat back down on the bench in dismay. How was she supposed to get out? The more she thought about it, the less sense it made. She didn't even know where she was. Where was this room even located? It was obviously created with magic, so it could be pretty much anywhere. If that were the case, how could she just create a door and walk out? What if the room was under water, or in the sky? For all she knew, it could be.
Realizing that her thoughts were becoming sarcastic and bitter, Belle tried to remain calm. It wasn't easy, fighting both panic and fear, but she knew she had to. When Rumple had shown her how to use magic, she couldn't do it when she was frustrated or angry, so those emotions weren't going to get her anywhere.
Returning to the problem at hang, Belle realized she was right. She couldn't just make a door. So how could she escape? She'd seen Rumple appear and disappear magically, so could she do that too? Was it possible for her to simply transport herself out of here?
The thought of magically transporting herself from one place to the next seemed crazy, and Belle laughed. Despite her circumstances, she found it amusing that the only seemingly feasible possibility of escape was something that seemed so ludicrous.
So how am I going to get out of here? She thought. How am I going to find my magic? Belle considered all the times she had seen Rumple appear in a cloud of purple smoke, transporting himself with magic. As she tried to remember exactly what she had seen him do, she felt herself scrunching her eyebrows and frowning. When she did, she thought of what Rumple had said to her before, how he'd called that her "thinking face". Remembering that moment, Belle laughed to herself.
Then Belle realized that if she was making her "thinking face", she was probably thinking too much. That meant she wouldn't be able to use her magic. She had to let herself feel.
Closing her eyes as she had the time before, Belle took herself back to the memories of her past. This time, she remembered how she had felt when the curse had broken, to find herself standing in the woods, suddenly being bombarded by memories of a life that she wouldn't have even imagined a few seconds before.
Idly twisting her wedding ring around her finger, Belle remembered the joy she had felt when Rumple had hugged her there in the woods, when she had finally gotten to tell him that she loved him, and when he had told her that he loved her, too.
Belle's musings were interrupted by a sharp pain in her finger. Annoyed, Belle looked down. She had been twisting her ring around her finger, and suddenly it had gotten extremely hot. It had burned her finger where she had been toying with it, but it didn't burn the finger she wore it on.
Confused, Belle studied the ring more closely, and as she did so it began to glow. Surprised, Belle watched as it got a bit brighter, but as she continued to watch, the glow faded back.
Belle didn't know why, or even how, but the ring's glow must have had something to do with her magic. It had glowed when she had been letting herself feel, but when she brought herself back to the present and began to think about it the glow had disappeared. Was her ring the link she was supposed to use? The vial had glowed when she had used magic the first time, and this time her ring had begun to glow. But what did that mean?
Belle thought back to the possible ways she could escape the room. If she really was going to transport herself somewhere, where would she go? She figured going to the last place she remembered being was a good place to start. That meant the library in Rumple's castle, where she had been sitting on a bench with him, reminiscing about their pasts.
So her destination was the library and the ring was her link to her magic. That made sense. She wanted to return to her husband, and her ring was her tangible link to him. She smiled at that thought, saying aloud, "You thought you left me alone in here, didn't you Rumple?" Thinking to herself that he had really been with her the whole time. Knowing him, he was probably watching her somehow. She laughed again, hoping he had heard that.
Glad to finally have some sort of plan, Belle closed her eyes once more and took herself back to the past. As she did so, she twisted her ring around her finger as she had before, and when it started to get hot she smiled to herself.
This time, instead of letting the ring go and opening her eyes, Belle thought about where she wanted to go. She pictured the library, she felt the bench under her and Rumple's arms around her. She willed herself to return to him, to go back to the last place she had remembered being.
As she did so, Belle was aware of a dramatic change in temperature. She was no longer so cold, she could hear things, too. Previously, it had been silent in the room. The eerie, intense silence that hurt your ears more than loud noises. But now Belle realized she could hear the whistling of the wind as it blew past outside.
Slowly, afraid of what she might find, Belle opened her eyes. To her delight and mild surprise, she was back in the library in the castle. You did it! She thought to herself. You made it. Looking around, she was expecting to find her husband waiting to tell her how she had done on his little test.
It was a surprise, then, when Belle found herself alone in the library. Thinking that he had to be there somewhere, Belle called out his name. "Rumple?" She said quietly, somewhat expecting him to jump out of nowhere and scare her.
Thinking more logically, Belle figured he was behind one of the book cases. Raising her voice, she called again, "Rumple? Are you there? How'd I do?" But she got no response. Sighing, Belle went and sat down on the bench they had shared previously.
When had that been? Belle still didn't know how she'd ended up in the room with no doors, and she was annoyed to find she had no idea how much time had passed since. Had it been the previous day? To her, it felt like merely seconds had passed before she awoke in the room, but was that really the case?
It occurred to Belle that she had awoken in the room. That meant that at some point she had to have gone to sleep. She didn't remember going to sleep, and for a terrible moment she entertained the thought that she had been put under a sleeping curse.
As soon as she conjured up that unwelcome thought, she banished it. That couldn't be the case, because she had woken up, and woken up alone. Rumple wasn't there, so there was no way she could have woken up from the sleeping curse, so that wasn't it. No, something else had happened.
If she had somehow fallen asleep, how much time had passed? How much had she missed? Belle realized that if she didn't even remember going to sleep, then there could be other gaps in her memory as well.
Already worried, Belle made it worse for herself by thinking of what all she could have missed. What if they had left the castle, and she and Rumple had gone somewhere else? What if he wasn't here, and she was supposed to go to the last place they had been, but she didn't remember where that was? What if she was in the wrong place?
Belle felt the panic rising in her, quicker this time than it had in the room by herself. If there was one thing Belle truly hated feeling, it was not knowing something. Knowledge had always been her weapon of choice, and now she felt as if it were failing her.
Telling herself to calm down, Belle forced the panic and fear to the peripheral of her mind and focused on the room in front of her. Not really sure what to do, Belle began to walk the length of the library, running her hand across the books as she went, looking for any clues as to what she was supposed to do now.
She was not disappointed. When Belle reached the end of the bookshelf, she noticed Henry's story book protruding from the shelf. Smiling, she pulled it out and opened it. When she did, another piece of parchment fell out of the book, and Belle bent down and picked it up.
Belle,
If you are reading this, congratulations. You successfully found your magic. You are on the way.
I'll be waiting for you in our favorite spot; I have a surprise for you.
Well done my pupil, I'm proud of you.
Love,
Rumple
Belle's first reaction was annoyance. Why hadn't Rumple just waited here in the library for her, if he knew that's where she'd come back? Why let her go through the panic she just encountered? What was the point of any of this? Realizing how little she understood of her husband's plan, Belle resolved to get him to tell her everything when she found him.
That presented her next problem: where was he? Their favorite spot? What did that mean? Belle figured he wouldn't want her to travel around the Enchanted Forest alone, so he most likely meant somewhere in the castle. He knew that in any place the library was always her favorite spot, but clearly that wasn't what he meant. Momentarily confused, Belle frowned.
Then, she had an idea. There was only one place he could have been talking about. Her annoyance and confusion gone, Belle grinned and ran toward the stairs.
As Belle entered the great hall of the castle, her suspicions were confirmed and she grinned even wider when she saw her husband seated at his spinning wheel. She was excited to see him, but stopped herself from running to him and giving him a hug. You have to be serious, you need answers from him, she reminded herself.
Rumple heard her footsteps as she entered the hall, and looked up from his spinning with a smile on his face. "I see you made your way out of my little room," he said, "Was it not to your liking?"
His sarcasm was belied by the smile he gave her, and Belle found it hard to remember she was upset with him. Smiling back, she walked over and took a seat next to him on the bench. "So," she said, "what was that all about?"
"What was what all about?" Rumple said, pretending to be aloof.
"Oh, I don't know," Belle teased, "locking me in a room with no doors, giving me a way to get back but then not being there, hiding a note in Henry's book, and" she added the last part with more excitement than she wished to show, "saying you had a surprise for me?"
Rumple smiled, "Oh, that," faking a surprised expression. "I needed to see if you could get yourself out of that room. I needed to know if you could work magic without me there to guide you, and if you could conquer your fears and get the job done." Looking into her eyes then, he added, "Obviously, you could."
Belle's smile faltered as she realized there had been a weakness in his plan. "What if… What if I couldn't do it? What was your plan then, Rumple? How would you have gotten me out of the room if I couldn't do it?"
Rumple looked confused. "I knew you could do it," he said honestly. "I wasn't worried." Seeing she wasn't convinced, he continued. "I had faith in you, Belle. Your magic is stronger than you think, and you are the smartest person I know. I never doubted you could do it."
Touched by his words, Belle joked, "I'm glad you were so concerned about my safety," but the harshness of her words was undermined by the smile on her face and he happiness in her tone. "So," she said, "What is your surprise?"
Rumple smiled and reached into his pocket. Slowly, he pulled out a necklace and held it up for you to see. It was a simple chain with a small, round pendant at the bottom. Noting the look of shock on her face, Rumple said, "It was yours. I found it Storybrooke, it must have come over with the curse and been lost, like most of the items in my shop. I had forgotten about it, until I saw it the day before we left. Since then, I've been waiting for the right time to give it to you."
Belle didn't know what to say, so she just stared at him, her face a mixture of happiness and surprise. "I… I thought I'd lost this forever," she said, not really believing her eyes. That necklace had meant so much to her when she'd first come to the Dark Castle, because it was the only link she had to her former life. When the curse had broken, she had wondered what happened to it, and now she wondered why she hadn't thought to look in Rumple's shop or ask him.
Rumple was still smiling at her. "Well," he said, "Sometimes the things we thought we'd lost for good have a way of finding us again," and Belle had the feeling he was talking about more than just the necklace.
Rising, Rumple walked to the other side of the bench and reached over Belle's head to put the necklace on her. When he had finished, he sat down behind her and wrapped her up in his arms.
Leaning back against him, Belle laid her head against his chest. "Rumple," she said, turning her head to talk over her shoulder. "What are we going to do?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, not sure he wanted to do much of anything at the moment.
"I mean," Belle sighed, "What is the plan? How are you going to teach me to be able to control my magic, and when you do, how will we find Merlin and get him to help us?"
Sighing, Rumple found himself wishing they could just sit there for a while longer, enjoying each other's company. He started to say just that, but he stopped himself. She deserved some answers, and he needed to let her in. Sighing, Rumple began to tell his wife exactly what he planned to do.