So Much More
By Lina Muro
Summary: AU, Dark One!Belle, Rumbelle. "The curse of the Dark One is a strange one. It doesn't change you. Not as much as you'd want to believe. It takes your strongest traits, your desires, and warps them...draws them to the surface and forces back the rest of the things that made you human. It's nice to be brave. But when you stop feeling fear…after a while you don't feel anything else either."
Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time.
A/N: Long story short, my computer died taking all of my outline for this story with it. Finally gotten a new computer, and I'll see what I can do with this. Sorry folks. Hope you still enjoy.
At first the trip passed in silence. Baelfire had taken to whittling to pass his time, carving out small horses, knights, and princesses. He was too old to play make believe with them, but the small wooden figures were charming to look at, and Rumplestiltskin often found himself watching his son. The boy had clever fingers when it came to wood carving, something he had never quite mastered with spinning. Rumple wondered if he would be good at drawing, like his mother had been.
They stopped after dark, and Rumple found himself sore from sitting so long. He wasn't used to it, constantly moving during his day to stoke the fire, shear sheep, barter in the village, fetch water, spin wool. Even though movement caused his leg pain, it was nothing compared to the ache of being idle.
Both the spinner and his son stretched, muscles relaxing and joints cracking as they emerged. The Dark One showed no such discomfort. She watched them for a moment before summoning a basket to her side. It was a simple movement, a flash of purple smoke and the item was there, but Rumple stared at her, startled. He'd never seen magic before.
"I'm going to the village," she said. "We will need a fire for the night, but stay within sight of the coach." Then she left.
They quickly collected wood to bring light to the darkening clearing. They made a rough hole and piled the wood into it, using a flint to start a blaze. They had found two sturdy sticks and a metal pole in the wagon and had set it up a spit over the pit.
"What are we supposed to eat?" Bae asked, poking at the flames with a stick.
"It'll be fine, Bae," Rumple said cheerily, hanging a kettle to heat over the fire. "I'm sure she'll bring back something. She said she'd take care of us."
Baelfire didn't reply, but Rumple could sense his doubts.
It was almost a physical ache that Rumplestiltskin could bring no peace to his son. The topic of the Dark One had left them with a barrier that hadn't existed before. Baelfire was questioning his father's judgment, struggling to be strong and to trust, and there was no explanation the spinner could find that was good enough for his actions. Even without the knowledge that Milah had survived her encounter with Jones, Rumple had never feared danger from the Dark One. He had told only Milah about that moment on the battlefield as the sorceress had saved his life.
How could he explain any of it to his son without first admitting his own cowardice?
The Dark One returned before the moon had risen. They heard her coming from a distance, her footsteps silent, but her sweet voice as she hummed carrying through the woods. the father and son exchanged a perplexed look. Perhaps she didn't know they could hear her? It reminded Rumple of her brief moment with the horse when they had left the village. By the time she reached them, she was silent again, her scaled, glittering face without expression. The basket she had left with was full now, and she set it by the fire.
"Eat your fill, and we'll carry the rest with us," she said, removing her cloak. Without it, she appeared even smaller, Rumple mused, almost as if the cloak were designed to give her stature. The contradiction was both perplexing and amusing. The powerful, intimidating woman stood only a hair's breadth taller than Baelfire.
As the Dark One returned her cloak to the coach, Baelfire reached into the basket and pulled back the cloth on top. There were several loaves of bread, a roasted chicken, and a pot of brother. Bae set them on top of the cloth one by one, a small smile on his face. It calmed Rumplestiltskin's doubts to see his son smile, and to know he'd sleep with a full belly that night. He set about preparing the tea.
"What's this?"
His focus was broken when Bae spoke, and he glanced up to the see the boy holding a small leather pouch. He had opened it, looking for salts, only to find a small glass vial. Inside the vial was a strange, opalescent liquid. He held it up in from of him, peering at it through the firelight, tilting it back and forth.
There was a sudden gasp, and without warning the Dark One was behind them. Her face contorted in rage, and before either of them could move, she shrieked and grabbed Baelfire by his hair. She pulled him back off of the stump, and he cried out in pain, dropping the vial as he reached up to ease her grip.
Rumplestiltskin was startled by the sudden assault, and lunged forward. He pulled the vial from the dirt around the fire pit and hobbled after the pair, his crutch forgotten.
She had spun Baelfire around, her hands gripping his shoulders, and was screaming and shaking him, her words barely intelligible. "What made you think you could play with that?!" she howled. "Vials of emotion are precious things! Magical things! Do you know the magic needed to capture an emotion? The effort it takes? To find the right person, the right feeling? If you had broken that-"
"Stop it! Stop! Don't hurt my son!" Rumple yelled over her. He pushed his way in between the two, shielding Baelfire with his body. "It was an accident! He's just a boy. He didn't know!" He held the vial out to her, almost shoving it in her face to make her see. "It's not broken! It's fine. He didn't know."
Her screaming had stopped, and she stared at him, her chest heaving. There was a panic in her eyes as she met Rumplestiltskin's gaze. It shifted then, to something he didn't quite recognize, and before he could label the pain hidden there, she grabbed the vial and bolted into the forest.
Father and son stood in shocked silence. It was only when Rumplestiltskin's leg began to buckle and he stumbled that they moved. Baelfire grabbed him under the arm and led him back to the fire. They sat down next to each other, not touching the food and not talking, both too shaken by what had happened. Rumple put his arm around his son.
After a several long moment, the spinner broke their quiet. "Are you alright?"
Baelfire nodded, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, I am." He paused. "We shouldn't be here. She's dangerous."
"I know…."
"Then why are we still here?" Bae demanded, rising to his feet. "We should leave now, before she comes back."
Rumple shook his head. "I can't, son."
"Why not?"
The spinner hesitated, looking away from his son. He was ashamed to meet his gaze, and when he didn't answer, Bae pulled away from him, glaring. "Answer me. You say we can't leave, so tell me why."
"Bae…"
"No! Tell me. I deserve to know."
"I…." Rumplestiltskin let out a sigh. "Your mother's not dead, Bae."
In the pause that followed Baelfire only stared at him, sinking to the ground. "She's….she's alive?"
"Yes," Rumple replied, defeated. "I…I didn't know how to tell you, Bae. I still don't know what to make of it myself."
"This is about the deal she made with the Dark One, isn't it? The reason why she was even bothering with us…." he said, putting the pieces together. Then, "She said she'd help you find Mama?"
"Yes," the spinner replied. "When Milah was taken by those pirates, and I assumed they were going to kill her. And when the Dark One showed up telling me she had to collect from her, and that you can't collect from a dead woman…" His voice choked with emotion. "She bargained for my life, Bae. If we could find her..."
"Do you…" Baelfire bit his lip, sounding more childlike then he had in many years. "Do you think we could be a family again?"
"I don't know, son."
Baelfire turned his head to watch the flames dancing in the pit.
Rumple couldn't begin to fathom what was going through the boy's mind. There was so much for him to think about as well. There were so many unanswered questions. He thought about Milah, still alive while for seven years he'd tortured himself about being unable to save her. Had she suffered much? And what deal had she struck with the Dark One? What did she possible have to trade? Then, for a moment, he saw the Dark One's face in his mind right before she disappeared into the woods. He was suddenly very tired, emotionally drained and confused.
He knew it wasn't right to put his son in danger. He knew he wanted to find his wife. And as for the Dark One….Rumple shook his head. He wasn't so sure about her any more. She'd saved his life. But did that mean the same thing when Milah had bargained for it?
"We'll stay."
Pulled from his reverie, Rumplestiltskin looked at his son. Baelfire's face was set with grim determination.
"We don't touch her things. We don't talk to her," he said, a tinge of bitterness to his voice. "We stay until we find Mama."
Rumplestiltskin didn't reply. Instead, he nodded, then reached across Bael and grabbed the loaf of bread, tearing off the end and handing it to his son. He forced a smile as Bae began to eat. He wanted to agree, and say he was only doing this for Bae, and for Milah.
But he couldn't shake how lost the cursed woman had looked, and wonder what kind of pain it took to summon up that much anger over a potion…
TBc...