Author's Note: Hello again! I'm wrapping up at work and that's taken a lot of time. But "What Once was Lost" is not forgotten! I'm so very thankful for all the feedback I've received. It's really rewarding to be able to share this with you, and I hope you enjoy this new chapter. :D

Parking in front of the sheriff's department proved puzzling. And yet he'd said they'd arrived. Audacious. It was the only word to describe hiding a magic dagger that represented the key to the Dark One's curse in the middle of town.

Rumplestiltskin opened the driver's side door and stepped out into the night. He didn't walk far, stopping by the curb. Belle followed his lead and halted at his side. Once again the darkness was striking; the dim fluorescent station lights could barely penetrate the pitch black.

"Why here?" Belle asked, surprised to see Rumplestiltskin kneel and reach into a rain gutter rather than use magic to summon the weapon. Perhaps he recognized the simple spell may contribute to his karmic debts and wasn't taking any chances. At her question, Rumplestiltskin looked up at her with a subtle smirk that was almost a shadow of his characteristic crafty confidence.

"Locations I've selected are normally a little more remote. I'll admit that," he laughed softly, twisting his arm in the storm drain. "But when I left the town I needed a different type of protection."

"You mean this is the last place you'd expect Regina to be?" Belle extrapolated. It was clever. Hiding his power in plain sight, in close proximity to the enemies of his enemies. She took a step closer to conceal him somewhat and glanced around for signs of others as he continued to search.

It appeared they were alone.

"Yes. Here the person most likely to find it would be the 'valiant prince.' And he's hardly any threat." Belle bit her lip and glanced towards the sheriff station. The reminder of David Nolan brought her back to the shouting match in front of the pawnshop, and she wondered whether her father was spending the night in a jail cell. The twinge of guilt passed and Belle returned to the present. There would be time to make amends. Afterwards.

"I almost feel…there." Rumplestiltskin breathed, pulling the cloth-covered weapon out in to the open and slowly returning to his feet. Near reverently he pulled back the covering and she could make out the steel's jagged shape. Belle shivered. She felt it radiate something sinister. But soon this would all be over.

Now that they had the dagger, they could finalize a plan. They could get back on track to their forever.

Seemingly on the same note, Rumplestiltskin covered the dagger again, turned to face her, and gently pressed it in to Belle's hands. On some level the gesture was an unprecedented level of trust. The sum of their history, beginning with his suspicion of her love in the Dark Castle to his reluctance to disclose his search for Baelfire at their reunion, made it difficult for Belle to imagine Rumplestiltskin with an abundance of allies. Hers may have been the only other hands to hold the blade in hundreds of years. Looking at the symbol of his darkness made her stomach turn. So she slipped it in to the pocket of her jacket. And Belle looked at Rumplestiltskin instead.

So often watching him was like seeing her future. He was so brilliant and funny and passionate. Though he grappled with his demons as years and hurt made him susceptible to darker impulses, Belle had always sensed the good in him. But at that moment, from his haggard resolve, she still perceived something off and incomplete. Though she saw weak glimpses of his swagger from the library forward, Rumplestiltskin had not completely discarded the exhaustion and latent baggage that he'd brought back from New York. He seemed to be taking her in and after a beat sighed almost imperceptibly.

"And now," he murmured softly. "You know what you must do."

Rumplestitlskin reached into the pocket of his coat, produced his car keys, and leaned forward to kiss her softly on the cheek. By reflex Belle's fingers wrapped around them as he gave them to her though all she felt was shock.

"What? No, I…I don't understand," her voice cracked and it took all her resolve to hold back the tears that so quickly materialized. "We were supposed to be together!"

Mentally she replayed their conversation by the well. He hadn't responded to her insistence of a partnership. He hadn't made her any promises, and then a last conclusion hit her. He hadn't planned on making an escape.

Hurt, love, anxiety, frustration – she felt it all as he shook his head and confirmed her fear. Maybe she should have seen it sooner when they hadn't traveled by magic.

He had brought the car so he could send her away.

"Belle, I'm so sorry. But I can't put you in danger. I don't have anything left –" she couldn't listen.

"You have me! Your son is alive! We can go to him! There's still a chance!" Belle exclaimed desperately. She swallowed against the lump in her throat before weakly releasing her hope to him. "We could be a family…"

In him, she saw everything she ever wanted. A dream though never spoken, she'd always thought he shared. Belle felt her heart breaking as he looked away.

"You don't understand. Think about what's happened to you since you made a deal with me: you were kidnapped by Regina and held captive for twenty-eight years. You were shot by Captain Hook and you lost your memory. I've taken so much more from you than what you've willingly given me."

"No..." the quiet, wet objection was all she could manage. She tried to step closer to him but stopped when he weakly raised a hand in front of him. Though the gesture was likely to silence her, Belle felt as if it erected an invisible wall between them. The distance hurt nearly as much as his inability to see what loving him had given her.

"And with Bae…" he trailed off for a moment, sounding so weary. Though Belle couldn't say when she'd started weeping, Rumplestiltskin seemed to lack the emote above his hollow tone.

"I did this to myself," he tapped his cane softly against his bad leg by way of explanation. "To make it home to Bae. I became the Dark One to keep him from the Ogre Wars. And when I let him go it was the biggest mistake I've ever made. I knew exactly what it was to be abandoned by my father and when it came to choosing between my son and my power…"

She was aching just to hold him. It hurt indescribably that he wouldn't let her.

"It's more than how he cast me off," Rumplestiltskin disclosed. "I realized it was for the best when I saw Bae with Henry. I have no right to his forgiveness. But more than that, I can't continue to let everyone I love pay the price for my magic and for my indiscretions. Bae was right to stay away. I can't keep burning through the people closest to me. I can't stop all the forces that pursue me. And I...I can't leave another child fatherless."

She was overwhelmed by his heart. Sacrifice on that scale couldn't be the only option. She needed him. More than anything. She had to help him see what he meant to her. How they could rebuild everything he'd lost. That true love was the strongest magic of all.

She could only manage one word.

"Rumplestiltskin…" she choked in to the night and he finally he allowed her to lose herself in him. Belle kissed him desperately, pulling him as close to her as possible. Contact with his chest pushed the dagger between them closer to her. Though her eyes were closed, a foreign dampness on her cheek told her he broke. As her arms wrapped around Rumplestiltskin and she could feel him shaking. When they came apart, she pressed her head in to his shoulder and brought her arms up his spine to wipe away his tears. Holding each other seemed to soothe both of them and after what seemed like eons she finally had the strength to take a step away from him.

Breathing deeply, Belle began to feel more grounded. Her heartbeat slowed. She wiped her own eyes and tried to digest all that had happened. Before she could say anything the silence that hung between them was shattered by the sounds of approaching footsteps.

"Gold!?" Emma Swan's voice cut through the night. Belle looked up and Rumplestiltskin whirled sharply around. She was not alone. Rumpelstiltskin's sharp intake of air led Belle to suspect the stranger with the sheriff was not someone unknown.

His next utterance confirmed her deduction.

"Bae," Rumple exhaled breathlessly.