Chapter Twenty-eight

Belle had spent her years growing up with her nose stuck in a book. Her mother had encouraged it, and by the time that she passed, Maurice hadn't been able to stop it. If she was going to be trapped in a castle for the rest of her days and destined to live in a loveless marriage - to a man that she didn't necessarily hate, but had less personality than the stones that made up the castle walls - then she would have at least one escape. Then the ogres had come and so had Rumplestiltskin. Not even her boundless imagination could have come up with what had followed.

Looking back, she couldn't be certain when she had fallen in love with him. Theirs was most certainly not love at first sight. It had never been that easy for them, and she didn't think his curse would allow for that. Perhaps the first time that she'd seen the glimmer of the man that she'd come to know over the years might have been when he realized that his escaping thief was a father and his aim had gone awry. On purpose. He'd denied it, of course, but Belle knew better. She'd seen the look in his eyes and she'd put the information back to think on and turn over in the privacy of her own mind. She'd found clothing that had belonged to his son at one point, and an old walking stick that had notches dug into it to mark the same boy's growth. By the time he'd thrown her out, she'd peeled back several layers and somewhere in there she'd found a man that she could love. A man she did love.

Storybrooke had been a wild adventure of magic filtering through and pirates and lost memories. She was quite certain she'd never expected Peter Pan to be such a terrible villain, or to lose her love that day. They'd taken every moment they could to love each other during those days, reaching for them and sometimes Rumple had pushed other things aside that perhaps he shouldn't have. He was sweet, in his way, and she knew him well enough to recognize it. He had his own brand of kindness meant for only a few and for those he would pull the worlds apart or put them back together, whichever they'd prefered.

Belle had hated herself when she'd left him in that damp, smelly cellar. He'd been caged and in pain. His son was dead and she'd reached out to him, begging him to believe in their love. He had and then she'd run. She'd been driven away by fear and she wouldn't let it happen again. "I'm not leaving you this time," she told him firmly. She was only a few steps away now and she could feel the darkness around him. It felt like being caught in a terrible storm and she couldn't imagine that the sun was shining overhead. His eyes were gold, not their usual dark brown and they were wild. She'd seen that look only a collection of times in the Enchanted Forest. It was the look that came before he did something truly terrible, truly horrific.

He was begging her to go, just as he had from his cage, except this time his own curse was likely ordering her death.

"Rumplestiltskin," she pressed and she reached forward. It felt like something was pushing her back, keeping them apart. It seemed to be the story of their relationship, though. Every time they got close something would tear them apart. It could be a foolish action or a terrible tragedy. She'd lost count on how many times it had happened, but she refused to let it happen again. She finally caught hold of his hand and the winds seemed to ease just a little. "Rumple."

He turned to her and for just a moment his gaze reminded her of the moment of clarity he'd had in the cage in his own castle before Snow had cast the curse. She tried to smile for him, but the fear fell back into place. "Please, Belle," he said again and there was such desperation. "I don't… Please. I can't hurt you."

"You won't."

"I will."

She reached up, her hand against his cheek. Despite the raging darkness in his soul he leaned into it, his eyes lulling and she took the moment. "You won't," Belle whispered and tipped up on her toes to press her lips against his. He jerked, as if he meant to pull back at first, but her free hand came to the other side of his face and she held him there, deepening the kiss until she felt the rush that they both knew. She'd seen what it looked like and even those without magic could see the faint gust of it when True Love washed through and outward from a couple. It really was the most powerful magic in all the realms.

Belle didn't pull back, didn't let him break away until she felt his arms go around her. One hand buried itself in her thick hair and the other was at the small of her back, fingers gripped tightly into the material as if she were his anchor. Finally, after a length of time she couldn't hope to guage, she pulled back, hovering closer and feeling him hold her so that he nearly lifted her off the ground. Briefly a memory caught her of them walking through the woods and towards the wishing well. She remembered that she loved him and that he loved her too.

Blue eyes flickered up and met brown. Relief washed through her as purely as the True Love magic had. "Rumple," she breathed and kissed him again. "I love you. I love you so much."

He clung to her. "And I you," he rasped, his voice raw as if he'd spent the last week screaming at the top of his lungs. "It worked."

"And you let it," she teased softly, kissing him again. He didn't seem to want to release her and, truth be told, she didn't want to be released, but the others were making their way closer, Bae having been just behind her to begin with. She moved so that she stood to his right, one arm wrapped around his back and she felt him lean a bit into her, the spell he'd obviously been using to keep himself steady wearing slowly off.

"Hey Papa," Bae greeted tentatively. "You okay?"

"I think so," came the surprisingly honest response. "Thanks to Belle."

She felt her face heat. "I didn't do anything."

"You did everything," he countered and pressed a kiss against her forehead.

Henry came flying down the hill now like he was in a race. He nearly took both Rumple and Belle down in his haste as he wrapped his arms around his grandpa's middle. "I told him you'd win. Heroes don't lose."

Rumplestiltskin stiffened a little. "I'm hardly a hero, Henry. Best you put that notion out of your mind."

"Well, you're not evil," Henry answered with all the confidence of a teenager and certainly more wisdom.

Bae crouched down into the leaves and picked up the discarded dagger. He held it up, showing the smooth steel. "Nice work, Belle."

"Two cures: death and True Love," she said with a laugh and tightened her grip on her own love. "I preferred the latter."

"What about Mary Margaret's heart?" David asked.

"Zoso was keeping it over here," Henry offered, releasing his grandpa so that he could pull a pouch out of a hiding place. He held it up and his gramps took it from him, a quirked smile as a thank you. "So why does it look like she only has half a heart?"

Belle couldn't help but smile even as she tightened her hold on the man at her side, leaning up against him. He was watching everything around him like someone coming out of a dream, though with what they had just been through - what they had all been through in the past year - it might as well have been a nightmare. He gave a heavy sigh and she squeezed again, feeling him wince. "Sorry."

"It's alright," he answered automatically.

"So… You were trying to ask me something earlier. You know, before all hell broke loose. Again."

This tugged a smile from him and he chuckled, the sound low and it made her smile as well. "Story of our lives."

"Seems to be, but I think it's worth it."

"Every bit. Fighting for it makes True Love stronger, you know."

"I had heard that before." She leaned into him a little. "What were you going to ask? It sounded important."

Rumple stiffened a little, eyes flickering to where everyone was moving about, Mary Margaret holding tightly to Henry like she might not let go and Bae glanced over, causing his papa to look back to the ground. "What is it?" she pushed, feeling his silence weigh and it made her nervous.

"I suppose the time will never be right, will it?" he breathed. "I keep thinking that we'll slow down for a moment, that… That I can actually do this right."

"Do what right?"

He turned to look at her then, his dark eyes full of emotions that she couldn't completely decipher. There was so much love there, and hope, and yes even a little fear. Okay, maybe a lot of fear. He was so nervous and the smooth words were put away in a fashion that only seemed to follow an argument in which he had to admit she'd been right. "I love you," he began, one hand coming to the side of her face, "and I never want to lose you."

"You won't, Rumple. Our love just did away with a pretty nasty curse, didn't it? It can defeat anything that blocks our path."

"I mess everything up, given time." She kissed him again and a small smile returned to his lips. "Will you marry me?" he asked, the words pushed together almost as if they wouldn't have come out separately.

Belle felt the world stop and she didn't even hear the soft chuckle from Baelfire just a few feet away. She stared at him, finding those dark eyes that she knew so well staring straight back and she couldn't quite pull in the air needed to form the words. That was until the fear started to creep into those watching eyes and he started to pull back from her, started to retreat behind the walls. She didn't need to breath to kiss him, though, so she wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her lips to his, feeling a giggle bubble up. "Yes," she managed after a moment. "Yes, a thousand times yes."

The tension seemed to melt from him and he pulled her up and into his arms. They held onto each other, for once not bothering to care about onlookers. For a few moments, they were the only ones in the world.

He'd never have imagined that taking on a secondary Dark One's curse would actually help in the healing process. Though it was possible that the almost limitless power he'd held onto for just a few brief moments had finished knitting together wounds that his own magic hadn't yet, Rumplestiltskin had a sneaky suspicion that it was actually the rush of magic that had washed away the rest of the physical pain. True Love's kiss was a powerful bit of magic, and while the wounds caused by the dagger - both his own and Zoso's - had been painful when Belle had come anywhere close to them, it seemed now that it had really just been the same necessary pain that came with any healing process. Her love forced the darkness out. It had fought back, strongly, but their love had won.

Zoso was dead, the dagger having most certainly done the trick, and the very same dagger now was nothing more than a relic. He'd put it away in his shop's little safe where no one could access it without being able to access his own blood magic. It was done and with the Wicked Witch and the second raised Dark One both dealt with - likely commiserating at that very moment over their hatred of him from the Vault - Rumple felt like he could actually breathe for a moment.

"How're you feeling?" a voice sounded behind him, startling him into turning. It was getting late, but he'd thought his son and grandson were asleep in the house. Ruby had been determined to take Belle out on a girl's night to show off the pretty new ring that he'd fashioned for her and had taken Emma and several others along with them. He'd come down to the basement to spin, letting his mind wander through any loose ends that needed to be tied up.

"Oh, I'm fine, Bae," the elder man answered from his place at the wheel.

"Still no urges to murder anyone for looking at you wrong?" his son asked with a smirk.

"No more than usual."

Bae circled around him, pulling up a chair from the workbench and taking a seat. He was silent for several moments until his papa's expert hand started to move again, the creak of the wheel filling the silence. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Needed to talk to you."

Rumplestiltskin looked over to his son at the serious tone. He'd been waiting for this, though after several days had followed with no mention of it, he thought perhaps he'd let it slide. He'd taken the decision out of Bae's hands and had acted, something that had always set badly with his boy. He doubted that a few centuries had done anything to change that. He doubted that an eternity would ever change that particular stubborn streak.

"Let's take a walk, shall we?" he murmured, his voice calm and giving nothing of his understanding away. He grabbed for his cane and stood slowly, his ankle protesting as he put a bit of pressure on it, but the two men slowly made their way up the stairs and out into the small garden that Belle kept. The crisp night air felt good, like it might wash away the threatening conversation. Rumple finally turned to look at his son. "Now, what did you want to talk about?"

"I think he know what, Papa."

Rumplestiltskin made a soft sound of acknowledgement. "I'm not going to lie to you, son. I did what I felt I had to do to protect Henry."

Bae's lips thinned and his brows were drawn closely together. "You took the choice away from me. He's my son."

"And what would you have done?" his father asked, voice not holding any of the bite that it would have for anyone else. "Killed Zoso? Then you would have taken it on. This was the only way. I knew it, I just didn't want to admit it until it was almost too late." He'd been afraid. Afraid of making the wrong move, of chasing Bae away again.

Baelfire sighed, his eyes flickering to meet ones the same colour. "Is it always going to be like this?"

"I live in darkness so you don't have to, remember?" Rumplestiltskin murmured softly, their earlier conversation doing something to ease the stress lines in his son's face. He reached a hand out, but Bae didn't take it right away. He stared at it for a moment.

"I didn't bring this up right after because at first I was worried that it hadn't really worked, you know? That you were hiding it."

"Bae-"

"No, let me finish. I was pissed. I mean really pissed. We've been over this kind of stuff." He paused, as if seeing if Rumple would jump in again but his papa refused to break silence. Bae wanted to speak his mind and he had every right. He wouldn't stop him and he wouldn't fight it. After a moment, though, he realized his son's hands were gripped tightly into fists at his side and he seemed be holding something back. He was about ready to say something - plead with him, anything - when Bae reached forward very suddenly and wrapped his arms around his neck, pulling him into a crushing hug. "Not sure when I realized that I wasn't pissed, I was scared."

Rumplestiltskin felt his heart clench in his chest and he returned the embrace. "Of what, son?" he coaxed softly and he could hear the tears in the younger man's voice.

"Of losing you to it all over again."

Then his heart shattered and he found himself holding onto him like he had when he was a small boy, shaking and afraid. "It's alright, Bae," he promised softly. "It's alright. I swear to you that I'm never going to leave you again."

"I know," Baelfire managed. "I know, Papa."

Growing up, Emma had been more of a beer-in-the-back-of-a-truck sort of girl than a wild partier. She moved around too much to have more than a few friends, so the party scene had always been a bit foreign to her. She had to admit, though, Ruby knew how to have fun when she wanted to, and she'd never been more grateful that Neal had been happy to watch after Henry that night.

Belle had driven back to the house and was currently supporting the elder woman as she swayed a little on her tall heels. "I think that last shot could have been left for another time," she offered with a small laugh.

"I think the last three could have been," Emma managed and stopped just a moment to steady herself. She had a high tolerance, but apparently the last rounds of crazy had finally driven her over that limit.

"Maybe so," Belle answered as she reached towards the door and Emma felt the magic working as it unlocked under her touch. She'd felt waves of magic before, but if she weren't looking for them they were usually large, like the one that had rushed out from Gold and Belle when she'd kissed him a few days earlier and broken the second curse. She didn't know if the fact that her little-more-than-tipsy-self could recognize a spell better than her sober self was disconcerting or not. She'd have to try to remember to ask Regina.

The lights were on in the front room as they entered and Neal and his father were sitting on the couch, the conversation strangely easy between them in comparison to how it used to be. They both looked up, like deer caught in the headlights, and in that moment she saw a resemblance that she couldn't always see. Their expressions were mirrors of each other and they looked like they'd been caught making some sort of mischievous plan. "Okay," she muttered as her eyes went from face to face. "Now I get it."

"Get what?" Neal asked, his expression breaking into that grin that told her beyond any shadow of doubt that they were up to no good.

"I just… Weird. No more weird."

"I think Emma could do with a cup of coffee," Belle murmured to her side.

Neal unfolded himself. "Got it," he said, his eyes still dancing.

Emma hadn't realized she'd kicked her shoes off when she entered, but the wooden floors were cold against her bare feet as he guided her gently to the kitchen. She leaned in and he wrapped an arm around her, carefully guiding her past the island in the middle and over to where the coffee maker was. She watched him as he reached for things in the kitchen like this had been the house he had grown up. Slowly, carefully, she turned so she could glance past the half wall and into the room where Belle had taken a seat with her True Love and they were speaking quietly. She was leaned into him, her head resting against his shoulder and he kissed the top of her head as she told him about their evening.

"You think we'll be like that?" Emma asked without really meaning to. When she looked back, Neal had paused mid-movement and was slowly shifting to look at her.

"Like what?"

She didn't miss the hesitation his voice and she rolled her eyes. "Like your dad and Belle. True Love and all that. Do you think that's us? Don't lie. I'll know if you're lying."

"No you won't."

"Yes I will," she answered, sounding entirely offended.

That smile that she loved tilted his lips. It wasn't the grin that spread across his entire face - though she certainly liked that one too - but the one that she knew came with him being honest with her. "I hope so. I know you're mine."

She leaned against the island, focused entirely on him. "How?"

He turned back to the coffee maker and finished shuffling the beans into it even as he spoke "When Belle and I were in my dad's castle in the Enchanted Forest I found your necklace tucked away in my pocket. She told me it'd come through because you were my True Love."

"That's how you know?"

"Nah. I knew it long before then."

"When?"

"When I first met you."

"No you didn't."

"Did so. Why do you think I stuck my neck out for you when that cop pulled us over?"

She laughed and he pulled two coffee cups down, pouring just the right amount of creamer in them. As he poured the coffee in she wanted to ask him why he really left. If he thought they were True Loves, why had he let her go, but she paused, finding that the strange fluttering feeling in her chest stopped her. That was in the past and they were heading into a future. He handed her the mug and she set it down on the counter behind him and leaned in, her lips pressing against his. There was a rush, pure and fantastic. It filled her up and did away with all the fears. If this wasn't True Love, she wasn't sure she'd ever know what was.

End.

Notes: This makes me so sad to end this story. I had such a blast with it. Thank you to everyone that's been reading! Hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did.

I've started in on my next Once project, and I hope to start posting early next week (depends how much writing I get done this weekend). Keep a lookout for Whatever it Takes in which Rumple takes a different path in defeating Pan in Going Home. I'm so looking forward to tomorrow's finale and hoping that Rumple comes clean on his lie (potentially of omission) to Belle. Just can't wait!

Thanks again everyone! See you next time :)

TS