[December 16th] [Once Upon a Time] Memories and Ruminations

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Title: Memories and Ruminations
Day/Theme: December 16th - Will we ever more kiss on the boardwalk’s fading rail?
Series: Once Upon a Time
Character/Pairing: Rumpelstiltskin/Belle, Mary-Margaret/David
Rating: K+/PG

Continues from the pieces I wrote here last month. Seasons 3B and 4A have not happened.


By Lucky_Ladybug

Mary-Margaret was troubled as she walked back to her and David’s house. He was inside, checking on the turkey and beginning tonight’s dinner preparations, and she had to smile to herself as she watched him through the window. Unlocking the door, she stepped inside. “David?”

He turned, instantly taking in her troubled expression. “Uh oh. What happened? Was Gold less than pleased with the invitation?”

“I don’t know what he would have thought,” Mary-Margaret replied, setting her purse down and shutting the door. “I talked to Belle. She was nice but said no.”

“And said something else too, I’m guessing.” David wiped his hands on a washcloth and came into the living room. “What was it?”

She paused, for a moment gazing off into the distance. “Remember back in the Enchanted Forest, when she accused everyone of shunning her and showing ingratitude for Gold saving everyone?”

“Yeah.” David frowned. “She was on that again?”

“I can’t say I blame her.” Mary-Margaret started to pace. “It bothered me when she said those things in the Enchanted Forest, but I realized she was probably right. And yet we didn’t really try to correct those wrongs after that, either there or here. Why?”

David followed her. “We were worried about Emma and Henry.”

“She had just lost the person who was the most precious to her!” Mary-Margaret spun around, spreading her arms for emphasis. “She needed some kind of comfort, kind words . . . something, anything other than what everyone—what we—gave her.” Her voice lowered. “I know how I would have felt, if I had lost you. So why didn’t we do anything?”

David fell silent, considering her question. “Maybe we didn’t think she really loved him that much?” he suggested. “That no one could really love Gold? Maybe we thought she’d get over it easy enough and realize that it was for the better for him to be out of her life. Maybe . . . I thought that.”

Mary-Margaret nodded. “I think we both did.”

“It’s funny, you know?” David said. He stepped back, starting to walk towards the couch. “Gold came to me several times wanting romantic advice.”

Mary-Margaret stared at him. “Are you serious?”

“Oh yeah. He was pretty awkward about it.” David smiled a bit. “Thinking back on it, it was kind of weird—the Dark One being awkward about anything, especially that. I always wondered why he thought I’d help him.”

“And why did you?” Mary-Margaret’s voice was quiet now.

“I’m not even sure. I remember demanding a favor from him in return at least once. It seemed like an eye for an eye, after all the deals he’d made with everyone.” David sat on the edge of the couch and leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees and clasping his hands. “We probably all have our own horror stories about making deals with him. He was messed up. And then he went and sacrificed himself to get rid of Pan. I didn’t get it then and I still don’t now. Why would he do that?”

Mary-Margaret shook her head. “Maybe he couldn’t stand to go on with his magic cut off by Pan’s bracelet.” She sat next to him, running her fingers over his back. “He could have figured that dying was better than a life without his powers.”

“He could have cut his hand off,” David objected. “Heck, he could have reattached it after slipping the bracelet off. So it must have been something else.”

“Maybe he really does love Belle,” Mary-Margaret said softly. “Neal too. Maybe he didn’t want them to suffer under Pan’s spell.”

“Maybe he didn’t,” David agreed.

“But all of this doesn’t make me feel any better about how Belle was treated.” Mary-Margaret frowned. “I know at least some of the townspeople felt that she didn’t deserve any sympathy for losing someone like Rumpelstiltskin. All the way home, I’ve been worrying and wondering if I felt that way too. And no matter what he was like, Belle could never deserve being shunned. She never hurt any of us.”

David turned to look at her in shock. “You would never feel like she didn’t deserve sympathy,” he objected.

“Wouldn’t I? Neither of us liked Gold. Maybe deep down, I was disgusted with Belle for caring about him.” Mary-Margaret sighed and stood up. “We were right there watching when he died, and even though I was shocked and horrified by the death of someone I knew, I just stood there staring. We all did. Not one of us even tried to help Belle up when she fell to her knees. We were so caught up in our own shock that we didn’t think about her heart breaking. And then we were so caught up worrying about Emma and Henry and thinking about finding a way back here after we were forced to go back to the Enchanted Forest.”

David stood too. “You can find a way to make it up to her.”

“I’m not sure I can.” Mary-Margaret’s eyes were filled with regret. “She doesn’t trust us now. Maybe she never will.”

“Maybe that’s just as well, considering everything Gold’s done in the past and might be capable of doing in the future,” David said. “Anyway, they probably prefer keeping to themselves.”

“Feeling shunned would sure make them feel like it all the more,” Mary-Margaret said.

David drew an arm around her. “I know you’ll figure out what to do, if anything,” he said quietly.

She thought about that as she leaned into his embrace. “Belle also asked if I was only inviting them because of Henry,” she said. “I wonder if I was.”

“That wouldn’t be such a bad thing,” David said, “to try to connect with them because of knowing Henry would want to.”

“Maybe not, but it would mean I wasn’t really thinking about their feelings,” Mary-Margaret sighed. “I guess I never really have.”
****
Belle was at the kitchen sink, rinsing dishes for the dishwasher, when a flash of memory came back to her—painful and unpleasant. She gripped the plate, gazing out the window at the winter night without really seeing it.

“Belle? What is it?”

She turned at the sound of Rumpel’s concerned voice. He had limped into the kitchen and was leaning on his cane, watching her.

She set the plate in the dishwasher. “I was just thinking about that first night back in the Enchanted Forest,” she explained. “I went back to the Dark Castle and wandered the halls. Everything was so lonely. I kept wanting to believe that somehow, someway, you would be there alive and waiting for me, even though I knew you weren’t.

“I started fixing the rooms, to have something to do. I went into the dining room and found the plates that went with the cups.” She didn’t need to say which cups she meant. “I just stood and stared at them for the longest time. Then I thought about the cup and wondered if it had come back with everything else. I started looking for it.

“I finally found it in the kitchen. I don’t know why it was there, but seeing it was both a relief and a piercing jolt to my heart. I thought about when I broke the cup by accident after we first met . . . and when I shattered it on purpose in the hospital here. I thought about the look in your eyes. I couldn’t stand having put that look there. And thinking about it really drove home that you were gone and would never be coming home.”

He gazed at her sadly. “Belle, I’m so sorry.”

“You had to do what you did.” She walked past him, idly looking out one of the other windows in the large room. “I told that to myself over and over, even as another part of me was screaming Why did you do it?!

“Neal and I tried to find a way to bring you back. He was every bit as distraught over losing you as I was, if not more. He was determined that there had to be some way to restore you, in spite of Dr. Whale’s failure to bring back Regina’s love from the dead. We even looked into something called the Dark One’s Vault.”

At that Rumpelstiltskin’s eyes widened in alarm. “What?! You didn’t try to use it,” he exclaimed.

“Neal wanted to, but something didn’t feel right about it to me,” Belle said. “And then I realized that it likely wouldn’t work because you’d given up your powers when you killed yourself.” She looked down.

“So you didn’t use it?” Rumpel sounded urgent.

She looked up again and smiled reassuringly. “We didn’t, I promise. I did some more research on it and found out that it was basically an exchange. Neal was still considering going through with it anyway, feeling that you were needed more than he was. I managed to convince him that you would never want to come back at the expense of his life, especially since you had sacrificed yourself at least in part to save him.”

He relaxed. “Thank you, Belle.”

She touched his arm, her smile fading. “So as far as we knew, there wasn’t any way to get you back. I never thought there would be any hope at all. But I guess a part of me always kept hoping for the impossible.” She took his hand. “And now we have it.”

He smiled. “Yes, we do.”

She could see a bit of worry flickering in his eyes. “. . . What are you going to do about the missing compass?” She, he, and Neal had gone over the entire shop more than once, coming up empty each time. Rumpel had decided to put the problem away until after dinner, but Belle knew it had been troubling him all the while.

“I don’t know.” He frowned. “Either it somehow got left behind in the Enchanted Forest or someone stole it.”

“Oh no.” Immediately Belle felt guilty. Had it been smuggled out of the shop without her knowledge?

“Unless word got all over town about my having it, the only other people who knew were on the ship to Neverland,” Rumpel said.

“Maybe the Charmings took it to try to find Emma and Henry,” Belle suggested.

“I believe they would have asked for it,” Rumpel said. “If Regina or Hook weren’t aware that it requires a blood relation to operate, one of them might have taken it.” His eyes darkened. “And my money’s on Hook.”

Belle’s stomach rolled. The last thing she wanted was a confrontation between those old enemies. “So you’ll go to him and find out?”

He started to smirk. “It’s enjoyable to think of him stealing the globe and trying and failing to use it. I can just picture his consternation. Perhaps he will bring it here and demand to know what kind of spell I put on it.”

“You’d think he might have done that before now,” Belle said.

“Ah, maybe not, when I was thought dead. But now I’m back. And I can’t believe Hook wouldn’t decide to come over, if he took it. I’ll be waiting for him.”

“What will you do to him?” Belle asked in some concern. Said concern was more because she hated to see her love behave in a twisted manner rather than that she was especially worried for Hook.

“Oh . . . I suppose I’ll teach him a little lesson about stealing from my shop.” That said, Rumpel really wasn’t sure what he would do specifically. He wasn’t even sure how much magic he could perform at this point. Even though he possessed all the knowledge from centuries before, his most powerful spells were only accessible to him as the Dark One. And he still didn’t want to let anyone know that he no longer had that mantel, particularly a nemesis like Hook.

“What if he doesn’t come?” Belle was wondering now.

“I doubt he has any concept of holidays,” Rumpel said. “But if he doesn’t come by Friday, I’ll go find him.”

Either way, Belle hoped it would not be problematic.