Once Upon a Time 1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this is an idea that spun off from another that comes after it. Put more simply, I had an idea for a SwanFire fic, but in order to get to the point of writing that, I needed this story as a prequel. This one is all about the Rumbelle and the Rumpel-Bae relationship too. I hope it gets a few readers, but if not, I'm going to write it anyway, just because I love the entire arc I've come up with - I just hope I can do the concept that's in my head some justice in the actual writing of it!**

_**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters and any recognisable dialogue from Once Upon A Time belongs to the creators and writers, not me.**_

Book 1, Chapter 1

It was true love. He would like to deny it because it suited him better to believe she was in cahoots with Regina. Easier to let himself think it was all a charade, a trick, but Rumpelstiltskin knew the truth. The feelings he had for Belle were such that he never expected to feel again, if he had ever felt them at all. He had loved Milah, she was his wife and he had adored her, and yet Belle was so different. As beautiful and courageous certainly, all the best of his previous beloved and yet so much more besides. Milah had struggled to love the man Rumpelstiltskin had become, and yet Belle seemed able to find a place in her heart for the monster he was now. It ought not to be possible.

In looks he was not handsome, if he ever had been as a man, he certainly wasn't as the Dark One. In temper he was that much worse, and his heart so black and charred it was surely beyond saving, so Rumpel had always thought until she came into his life.

Green-gold fingers went absently to his lips as he recalled what had gone before. True love's kiss, it was the only thing strong enough to break even the Dark One's curse. He rarely thought of what he was as such a terrible thing. His status gave him power, control, the abilities he needed to get to his son, his Bae. Without the power of the Dark One to wield, he would never see Baelfire again, Rumpelstiltskin was sure on that, or he had been until Belle.

Believing in oneself was easy enough with all the powers that Rumpel possessed, but as a man he was a coward, useless and hopeless. Belle did not seem concerned by either the darkness in his heart or how lacking he might be as a man if he became one again. She said she loved him, the touch of her lips bringing back his former self proving it completely to Rumpelstiltskin, and yet he could not give in.

Accusing her of being in league with Regina was foolish. The idea had to be considered. After all, his one-time student was one for pulling pranks, and causing him to lose his powers, making her the all-powerful one, that would suit the woman they called the Evil Queen all too well, Rumpel was sure. Still, he didn't really believe for a moment that Belle was working for her, not by choice, not even by coercion. Regina put the idea in her head, but sweet innocent Belle meant him no harm, and up until he threw her back into her dungeon, she had believed them to be in love.

"Love," the word echoed from the Dark One's mouth as he thought of that moment, Belle's lips against his own.

It had been quite the rush, a feeling the like of which he had never known before as her sweet affection enveloped him, surging into all the spaces, pushing the magic out and replacing it with its own power. If true love were the most powerful magic, and Rumpel knew that to be true, he wondered at being afraid of letting it replace what he already possessed. Without practical magic he would never see his son again, that had been his first thought, and a hundred other thoughts after that, but he had to wonder if he were being honest with himself.

Looking towards the door, Rumpel considered his options. He turned away again in a moment. He couldn't give in, couldn't let that little wench into his mind, into his heart. Fingers pressing to his temples, he backed against the wall as if putting more distance between himself and Belle, all of an extra ten feet, would make a difference to her effect upon him. If he threw her out entirely she would still haunt his dreams, both asleep and waking. She had wormed her way in, crept under the door like the mouse she seemed to be, and now he would never be free of her. Rumpelstiltskin never thought he would be the one locked in a cage, at least not until the time was right, but he was more imprisoned than Belle now that she had his heart, his stupid weak little heart.

Tearing out of the room, he hurried down the steps to the dungeon, unbolting the lock with a wave of his hand and flinging the door aside the same way. Belle didn't even flinch as he stalked into the room and faced her. She was tear-stained and sad enough, but defiant as anything as soon as he entered. Up on her feet, she stared him down like a true adversary. Rumpelstiltskin would have been proud of her if he could bear to look at her more than a second at a time.

"Get out!" he told her, eyes to the ground because it ought to be easier.

That might have been true if she weren't standing so close, smelling of roses and looking like an angel. She didn't offer to move, to leave as he told her to. He thought of repeating himself but never got the chance.

"Why?" she asked. "Why do you want me to leave? Because I love you?" she challenged him.

Rumpel's temper rose and yet just as soon as he brought his eyes up to met hers he lost the fight inside himself. It did make him angry that she had so confounded him, with her talk of love and her powerful kiss, but more than that he was frustrated by the situation he found himself caught in. He wanted her, he cared about her, the first person he had felt anything real for in more years than he cared to calculate. This beautiful, exquisite woman who could fall in love with a beast like him, it was quite incredible, and yet he must keep his distance, must remove the threat to his power.

"I don't want you anymore, dearie," he said coldly, looking away because he had to if he was ever going to succeed in throwing her out. "You speak falsehoods and you annoy me," he lied through his teeth and they both knew it.

"Falsehoods?" she echoed, laughter almost creeping into her words, albeit the humourless scoffing kind. "You don't believe that. I know you felt it, your curse lifting. Of all people, you know that means this is true love. It wouldn't work if it was anything less," she insisted, fighting to meet his eyes even as he looked everywhere but at her.

Rumpel wanted to argue, would have given anything to be able to, would've given more to be able to kiss her again but he couldn't. The love of a good woman, a woman like Belle that he could never deserve but ached to try, it ought to be everything to him, but there was something more for Rumpel. Baelfire was his son, his blood, the only connection he had left, the only person he ever broke a deal with. He had to make it up to him, bring his boy home, spend the rest of his years repenting, repaying. He couldn't do that if he let Belle distract him, if he let her love him and take away the power he so needed.

"True love it may be, dearie," he told her, much more quietly than he had been speaking before, finally letting his gaze meet her own determined look. "But I have something larger to lose than my magic if I allow you in," he said, hand over his battered under-used heart. "My son."

Belle frowned at his confession. He had mentioned his son, spoken of him with affection and yet been vague about what exactly happened to the boy. If there was a way for Rumpel to get his child back, then of course Belle wanted that too, she wanted him happy more than anything. What that had to do with her loving him, with his dark magic, she couldn't understand.

"You think you need magic to bring your son home?" she asked curiously.

Rumpelstiltskin visibly swallowed hard.

"My boy, Baelfire," he nodded then. "He is lost to another realm, and if I am to find him, I need my power," he said softly, eyes becoming like solid ice a second later. "You are a distraction, dearie, one I can ill afford, so you must go."

The idea of her causing him never to find Bae was enough to harden Rumpel's heart against Belle in an instant, but she would not be so easily cast aside. She truly loved him. His happiness meant as much if not more than her own. With that being true, Rumpelstiltskin ought to have realised that Belle would make sacrifices for him, even if he could make none for her.

"I don't want to distract you, Rumpel," she urged him to understand, a hand reaching out to him, but he very deliberately backed up a step.

It hurt to have him back away again, but she understood. He feared the loss of his power, as she suspected, but he had good reasons. Rumpel needed the power of the Dark One to find his son, the only other person in the world that really mattered to him. Belle understood that, and was determined that her true love not have to make a choice between the boy and her. He could have both, he would have them.

"You like to make deals," she smiled then, knowing she could quite easily play him at his own game. "The one you made with my father tied me to you, to this place, for the rest of my life. Now you say you want to break that agreement? Well, I don't", she said firmly. "So, we renegotiate."

She had him intrigued, Belle knew she did. His eyes lit up with curiousity and intrigue as he stared at her, head tilting as he wondered where her plans tended now.

"Go on," he prompted when she did not continue immediately.

Belle bit back a smile, mindful of looking too triumphant before anything was firmly settled. Still, she had his attention, and she had a plan.

"I want to stay here with you, I want to be allowed to love you, but I do understand what it would cost," she nodded earnestly. "If you let me stay, let me help you get to your son, to bring Baelfire home maybe, then I will promise not to do anything that will cause you to lose your power."

Rumpelstiltskin considered her proposition carefully, as one always should with potentially life-altering deals. So many jumped in with both feet, never mind the consequences, but not Rumpel. He knew the dangers, and so much more than most other beings could ever understand. He would love for Belle to stay here. She was distracting and a temptation, no question on that, but she wanted to help him and to love him. She could be an asset in his life, in so many ways, so very many joyous ways. The fact remained of course that he already had a way to get Bae back and doubted Belle could be of any further help in that area. Of course, he had also thought no-one in the world could ever love him again, and she had proven him wrong.

"If I allow you to stay," he said, emphasis on the 'if', "you will do as you are told, still clean and polish, keep the estate as I wish it," he told her definitely. "You may read your books, attempt to assist me in my endeavours to find Baelfire, but you will not stir out of the castle grounds anymore. I will not have Regina telling tales."

"I don't want to go anywhere, you silly man," Belle laughed more out of relief than anything else. "Haven't you been listening? I only want to be allowed to stay. I only want to help you, and... and love you," she said definitely.

Rumpel didn't mind hearing those words. There was a skip in his heart that made him feel a hundred years younger whenever the word 'love' passed her lips, when she smiled at him just so. Belle was a tonic in his life, one he never knew he needed until she came around. Now she wished to stay, to keep her distance enough that he would not lose the powers he needed, but to love him because it was all she could think to do. She could be dangerous. In fact, Rumpel could prove a danger to himself as sorely tempted as he was by the vixen, but that was by the by.

"Then you shall stay," he said, turning towards the door, pausing on the threshold. "But, if you dare to try to kiss me again or work any sort of trick, you will die."

He couldn't look at her when he said it. Such an empty threat would never carry if he had to meet her eyes. As it was she had to know he wasn't entirely serious. To admit love for a person and then threaten their life, it would take a mad man or a monster to mean such words. She had already proven she believed him to be neither, his dear sweet Belle.

"You have my word, I will keep my side of the deal for as long as you keep yours," she said somewhere behind him. "And we will find your son, Rumpelstiltskin. Together, I truly believe we can do anything."

He smiled a sad smile at that, hoping rather than believing she was right. He had a plan in motion to get to Baelfire, but it was far from guaranteed or fool proof. It hinged greatly on Regina doing as she was told, something the Evil Queen was not prone to doing, especially of late. Perhaps there was another way and if anyone was willing to help him find it, Rumpel was sure Belle would be the one, his love, his saviour... He frowned a little at the wording that came to mind, and then headed back to his private rooms for now. He needed to think.

_To Be Continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 2

It had been a few weeks now since their new arrangement was made. Belle's presence in Rumpel's life was as distracting as he expected, especially now he knew the taste of her lips, the softness of her skin. He craved her and yet held firm in what he said about them never being close, her never kissing him again. It was not worth the inevitable outcome, not while Bae was still lost somewhere out there. Of course what Rumpel hadn't bargained for was the strength and joy he got out of Belle's company. She may be distracting sometimes, but she could focus his mind like no other as well. When he came home from a trip, making deals with Regina, Snow White, Prince Charming or whoever else would assist his cause, it was pleasant enough to find her waiting with a cup of tea and a bright inviting smile. He told her little of what he did all day and she seemed to know better than to ask. Instead they discussed books she had read, and times past that he had known, nothing incriminating or dangerous for either of them to be a part of.

Sometimes they spoke of Baelfire. Belle was eager to know more about him, and Rumpel found it pleasant enough to speak of his dear son's childhood. He left out much when it came to Milah, only sticking to his original story that she died. It was the truth, not the whole truth, but enough for now. Instead of her, he fixed his tales on Bae, on the good times when father and son were inseparable and loved each other so. Belle delighted in the stories and told a few of her own, about being a girl in the castle of her father, about the mother she missed terribly and the people who had been her friends. She spoke rarely of being parted from them, and always changed the subject quickly if she felt her resolve start to crumble. Each and every time, Rumpel came close to offering her the chance to go home, and yet he knew it was pointless. Belle had struck not one but two deals when it came to staying in the Dark Castle. She would not break her word even if given the chance, she so wanted to stay. Every day, Rumpelstiltskin asked himself why she would want him, how she could love him, but never managed to come up with an answer that made sense.

This particular day was one on which Belle was a minor topic in his mind, the one and only more important person he had ever known pushing her aside from his thoughts. Today was Baelfire's birthday.

"How old will he be?" asked Belle, at which Rumpel smiled.

"That really depends on where he is," he explained. "My boy was headed for the land without magic, and I can only assume that is where he remains, but I cannot know for sure. To myself, he shall be fourteen until we meet again."

With a wave of his hand, Rumpel was suddenly holding an old piece of vellum, on which there was a charcoal rendering of a young boy. He showed the picture to Belle and watched a smile spread across her lips.

"He is a handsome young man, and I am certain good of heart," she declared.

"You cannot tell that from a drawing," Rumpel snapped, magicking the paper away.

"I have good instincts where people are concerned," she reminded him with a look. "And I'm sure wherever Baelfire is today, he's thinking of his father, wishing you two were together."

Rumpelstiltskin would like to believe that what she said was true, but he had his doubts. He and Bae had parted on bad terms, a deal undone, a promise broken. After all these years, Rumple hoped that his boy might forgive him, but that could only come to pass if his son could even be found. His Dark Curse that he planned to have Regina cast would take him to the Land Without Magic where Baelfire was likely still to be, and yet Rumpel wasn't entirely comfortable in his own presumptions.

"I have plans in progress," he told Belle. "Not sure Bae would approve of them, but they would bring me to him, bring us to him perhaps," he smiled slightly.

"Us to him?" she questioned. "I thought the idea was to bring him home to you?"

"That is a great deal easier said than done, dearie," he sighed.

Rumpel had never told Belle his plans, the whole truth about the Dark Curse. She suspected things, he was certain, though she never did ask out-right. He wondered if she was afraid to delve too deep, and yet she professed to love him and never seemed shy about saying what she wanted. No, Rumpel suspected she was more worried about causing him pain rather than starting a fight or finding out something that scared her. He wondered if she was even capable of fear, given all she had already faced without wavering.

"You remember your dealings with the Evil Queen?" he said with a flourish of his hands as he got up from his seat.

"Of course," said Belle, looking almost guilty as she recalled that day.

"She thinks she is in charge of her own destiny," he continued to explain, wandering around the room, shifting trinkets on their plinths, taking a look out of the window. "I have known her since she was a child, and she is unknowingly the key to bringing my child back to me," he concluded, pointing to himself as he grinned widely.

"You... you're controlling her?" asked Belle, confusion etched on her face.

Of course she knew of Rumpelstiltskin's deals. He was famous for them, and for the harm they had caused to some. She couldn't justify it any more than he could, and Belle was fairly certain he didn't care to in any case. Still, to find he was the one controlling Regina, and therefore affecting the lives of Snow White and so many others, it seemed so wrong.

Rumpelstiltskin's eyes narrowed at her tone. She was judging and he knew it. Belle was a fine person with a good heart. Though she knew much of what he had done and seemed to accept it anyway, she could not possibly approve of the worst of his crimes. She did not know all but only some. What she did know did not seem to colour her good opinion, perhaps because she blamed much of his questionable behaviour on the darkness within him, something she saw as separate to the man he should be. Still, Rumpel would not take her insolence or accusatory tone, that much he made clear.

"You will not judge me, dearie," he said coldly. "Unless perhaps the 'twue love' you told me of was merely fleeting after all?"

Belle got as mad as he seemed to be at that suggestion.

"You think it's that simple?" she scoffed. "I know you, Rumpel, I know what you are, I'm under no illusions. My love for you is true, that much I've proven, but that doesn't mean I have to approve of everything you do," she explained.

"Then the Dark Curse must be on my list of faults," he smiled in spite of the evil he spoke of. "Regina shall cast this curse and we all shall be banished to the Land Without Magic, where I shall find Bae. Not even you can stop the plan in motion, Belle," he said definitely, defiant as he had ever been,

Belle didn't know what to say. A curse was to be cast. Why Rumpel was not casting it himself, she had no idea, and asking him seemed pointless when he was in this kind of mood. Clearly the emotions of the day were playing with his head and heart, painful memories making him so angry and sad. Leaving him alone seemed cruel in one way, and yet probably for the best in the long run. She excused herself to the library, and Belle was only glad Rumpel didn't argue with her going. She had research to do into this Dark Curse that he spoke of, and into the other worlds a person might travel to and the means by which the journey might be taken. If she could help Rumpel get Baelfire back without hurting anyone else in the process, that would be ideal. She believed that perhaps she could, and sometimes a little faith was all that was needed, Belle knew. Together, she and Rumpel could achieve anything, she was certain, and even if she turned out to be wrong, at least she could say she had tried.

* * *

Belle hated to feel useless. It happened a lot when she lived at home in her own kingdom, for she was a woman and seen as lowly in the eyes of men, no matter her title of Lady. She was of substance and breeding, but considered of no brains worth mentioning. That at least ceased to be true for as long as she was within the walls of the Dark Castle. Rumpelstiltskin had brought her here to cook and clean, skills she had never needed before and had to acquire, but he never thought her stupid, at least not after the first few days of getting to know her.

It had been months now since she arrived at the castle, and weeks since Belle and Rumpel had made their new deal. She loved him, and since she could not prove her love in the usual ways, through physical intimacy and the like, she chose to prove it by dedication. They talked a great deal, about all kinds of things, and the man they called the Dark One imparted many secrets Belle was sure he had seldom shared before with anyone else. She told him a lot about herself too, even if there were a limited number of things to tell that anyone would ever care to hear. It wasn't just the talking and time spent in his company that proved Belle's dedication to her love for Rumpel. She wanted to help with Baelfire too.

Getting his son back in his life was Rumpel's top priority. His idea of having Regina cast a Dark Curse over the land would work, Belle had no doubt, but the cost of it would be great. A whole swathe of people, the entire land, to have their memories wiped clean like blank slates, to live in a world they didn't understand as persons unknown. It was terrifying, and would tear a great many lives asunder. For herself, as much as anyone, Belle did want to live that way. To forget Rumpelstiltskin and the love they shared, to see her father again perhaps and not know it, she did not want to live that way, and yet these were only selfish reasons to find another way.

Belle considered the suffering of others. Snow White and Prince Charming were said to have made it as far as their wedding and beyond. There was talk of a child to be born, an innocent. Belle could not stand the thought of others losing their children just so Rumpel could get his back. She had told him as much and watched him grow angry. Belle was never scared when he lost his temper and she would not avoid bringing up topics that angered him just to avoid a fight. He was being selfish. It still didn't change the fact that she loved him, but his selfish temper was a trait she did not like, even if she could accept it.

Diligently, Belle worked on finding another way. If Baelfire was indeed in the Land Without Magic there had to be a way to find him and bring him home, or travel to him without the need for the dreadful Dark Curse. She poured over books, spoke in length to Rumpel's associate Jefferson about the abilities of his travelling hat, but everything seemed like a dead end.

Spells and curses almost always had the most vile consequences, and though she was sure that Jefferson's hat would easily take people to the Land Without Magic, there was the chance that there would be no way back since the magic in the hat would cease to activate once they got there. It was suspected that a magic bean could take them across worlds and home again, but a second would be needed or the return journey, and even one seemed impossible to locate these days since the giants land was destroyed.

Belle sighed, got up from the floor of the library and stretched her aching limbs. She went over to the bookshelf and selected another volume. She almost dropped that book on the ground when someone spoke behind her.

"You really are the most dedicated reader I ever met, Belle."

"Jefferson!" she gasped, her hand going over her chest as she turned to look at him. "You startled me."

"I'm sorry," he smirked slightly, more amused that he had made her jump than genuinely apologetic, but then Belle was well used to that. "I actually come bearing gifts," he told her, setting down a box on the desk in the corner.

Belle frowned at that. She couldn't imagine what kind of gift Jefferson would be bringing her. All 'merchandise' he brought to the castle was for Rumpel, either particular requested items or things he thought he could offload for a strand of precious gold. He would stop and talk with Belle sometimes, and Rumpelstiltskin didn't seem to mind too much, but Jefferson never brought gifts

"I don't understand," she said as she wandered over. "It's not my birthday, and you and I are not... I mean, we're friends, but..."

"Relax, Belle," he smiled warmly at her. "This is not a lover's token. As much as I might not understand the attraction between you and the crazy old imp, I know it's for real, and I wouldn't dream of coming between you two," he promised. "After all our conversations about travelling between worlds, and your theory that Rumpelstiltskin's son might not even be in the Land Without Magic anymore, I stumbled upon this and thought you could use it."

Unlatching the box he lifted off the lid to reveal a globe in plain white, almost like frosted glass. Belle had seen those that contained maps of all the lands within the realms of the Enchanted Forest, as well as depictions of other worlds. She had never seen a blank one, which seemed altogether pointless, unless...

"This is magic?" she checked.

"It is," Jefferson nodded his agreement, as Belle stared too intently at the needle point on top of the blank globe. "As I understand it, if you prick your finger on the needle, and think of your lost person whilst the blood drips onto the globe, it will form a map of the place that lost person is, and even mark the spot where you might find them."

Belle was a little sceptical of what he was saying at first, until suddenly she recalled hearing of something similar before. Rushing away she rifled through a pile of carefully sorted books, until she pulled out the particular red leather-bound volume she needed. With a smile on her face she turned to the correct page in moments and rushed back to show Jefferson what she had found. He took the book from her and skimmed down the page, nodding his head as he reached the bottom.

"This is it," he agreed with her assumption. "The description is exactly right, and I see no reason why it can't help you to find the Dark One's son."

Belle's smile faded at that.

"If you know it will work, why bring it to me?" she checked. "You could've taken it to Rumpel..."

"And he would've lost his mind if he knew you ever told me his private business," said Jefferson definitely. "Besides, as much fun as it might be to have Rumpelstiltskin owe me a debt, of gratitude or otherwise, I didn't bring this here for payment. I brought it for you. You have been a friend to me these past months, Belle, a friendly ear when I've struggled with what my life has become. This is thank you," he smiled slightly, tipping his hat as he suddenly turned to go.

He was gone down the stairs before Belle had a chance to even thank him for his kindness. Stepping closer towards the desk where the globe sat, she knew what she had to do. If she could do this, if it proved Bae was in the Land Without Magic there was no reason to ever tell Rumpel she had it, but if he was elsewhere, at least they would know. Honestly Belle hoped for the latter, at least it might put paid to Rumpel's curse idea, and another place might be easier to get to. Baelfire might even be back in the Enchanted Forest by now, that would be the greatest truth to find.

Taking a deep breath, Belle steeled herself against the pain and pricked her finger deliberately on the needle atop the globe. As her blood dripped down she closed her eyes and thought of Baelfire, of all the tales Rumpelstiltskin had told her of the boy, of the charcoal drawing she had seen so many times and committed to memory. Slowly but surely the globe performed it's magic and a map appeared.

* * *

"No!" Rumpel reacted with shock and as close to fear as Belle had ever seen in his face. "No, no, no!" he repeated, turning away.

Belle was astounded by his reaction. She supposed this meant that the Dark Curse would not be of any use, but surely knowing Bae was lost in Neverland could be no worse than the Land Without Magic, yet Rumpel seemed so distressed, she hardly knew what to think. She couldn't know his reasons, because Rumpelstiltskin had never spoken of his father, the king of Neverland, the dreaded Peter Pan.

Inside his mind was so much rage, Rumpelstiltskin could hardly contain it. With Belle in the room, he fought to maintain calm, but it was next to impossible in the circumstances. His boy, his beloved son, Baelfire, was potentially in the clutches of Pan, the monster that had already betrayed Rumpel himself, the reason he had been abandoned as a child and become what he was today. The entire chain began with Malcolm who had since become Peter Pan. The Dark One was enraged.

"Rumpel..." he heard Belle's voice and winced at the sound.

He could not take her comfort now, could not bear it at all.

"Leave me, Belle. I mean it, leave me!" he told her coldly, listening with his back still to her as her heeled shoes clicked out down the corridor.

Then he could let go.

From the hallway Belle heard one almighty crash after another as Rumpel laid waste to his room. Tears came to her eyes and her hand covered her mouth as she stayed, back flat against the wall, listening to the screams and cries of her beloved as he wrecked every stick of furniture, ever fragile trinket, reducing the contents of his room to rubble and tinder. She wanted to make things better, she only wanted to help the one she loved, and yet the news revealed today had made it that much worse.

Belle waited until the crashing finally ended, and all she could hear was whispered cries. Hesitantly she moved back around the corner to the door, pushed it open carefully and saw Rumpel on the floor in the centre of the room, sobbing like his heart would break. Crouching down carefully beside him, Belle wrapped her arm around his shoulders, offering any comfort she could. He flinched as if to get away at first and then turned into her embrace to continue crying all over her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry, Rumpel," she cried with him, holding him tight, only wanting to help and comfort him. "I'm so sorry."

_To Be Continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 3

It was strange to think she had been here more than eight years now. Sometimes it seemed to Belle as if she never lived anywhere else but the Dark Castle, but for the most part she was amazed at how quickly it had gone by. The rest of the land beckoned her out of the castle grounds and yet she never strayed far beyond the walls. In the gardens, she planted rose bushes and tended the vegetable patch. Sometimes in summer she sat under a tree to read and in winter she would build sculptures in the snow. There were times when Rumpelstiltskin would join her in her various activities both inside the castle and out. He would smile and laugh, dance her around the dining room table or magick up a new dress to please her. Other days he was as dark as his title suggested, sullen and cold, wanting to do nothing but hide away.

Belle accepted all the moods of her true love and did her best to act accordingly. She enjoyed his company when he wanted to share, listened to his troubles when he wished to voice them, and should he beg to be left alone, she found solace in her books and household chores.

Eight years they had lived together here in comfort and good company. Baelfire was still mentioned, most especially on his birthday and the anniversary of his leaving the Enchanted Forest through a portal bound for the Land Without Magic. The trouble was that he wasn't there anymore. Lost to Neverland, apparently he was that much harder to retrieve than ever before. In all these years, Belle had never been able to figure out why. There was little information on Neverland in any of the books she had within the castle walls, and since she would not break her deal with Rumpel by asking to venture as far as any shop to purchase more, she had to put up with not being able to help any further in Rumpel's search for his boy. That hurt, almost as much as being forced to be at arm's length constantly. He would hug her sometimes or allow her to hold his hand, but nothing more intimate than that for fear of what might happen, that his power might be lost.

Belle took it as a good sign that he still abstained from her kiss. If he longed to keep his power then he could not have truly given up on finding Bae, since that was what he reckoned on needing his dark magicks for. Belle fought to keep her hope alive as well as Rumpel's own. She did everything she could to be supportive, but as time went on, it all started to look very bleak.

The Dark Curse that would have banished all inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest to the Land Without Magic was useless now. As such, Rumpel had no wish for it to be cast. Were it to be done, there was every chance he would be impotent of magic himself in the new land, and then getting to Neverland, rescuing Baelfire, it would be ever less likely than getting to him from here.

Regina had been thwarted and for that at least Belle could not be sorry. The Evil Queen had her plans to kill Snow White or at the very least keep her throne from her. When Rumpel had got over the shock of discovering Bae was in Neverland, he had gone directly to Regina's castle and tried to talk her out of the Dark Curse. When that failed, he made a deal with Snow and Charming. In return for owing him a favour, he would render Regina powerless and help them with keeping her trapped somewhere she could no longer do harm. Belle was so proud of him that day, for he had helped so many people, perhaps even levelling the balance that had been so negatively swayed up to now. Surely he saved more lives than he had ever managed to ruin, or so she thought. Honestly, Belle concluded it better never to ask him outright.

In his dark moods, Rumpel had told her some of his very worst deeds. Belle had not liked to hear them, but she knew very well it was all a test. He still could not understand how anyone could love him after all he had done wrong. Belle could not understand how he couldn't see it was not all entirely his fault, or that love was so much stronger than anything else. The power that overcame him when he changed from man to supposed monster had caused him to be ruled by darkness rather than his mind or heart. Even if one could say he had done all he had by his own free will, the over-riding reason for his actions still had to be considered. It was all for the love of Baelfire, and in an attempt to get back to his son. Belle could not condemn Rumpel for loving too much. No man, woman, or child should be censured for that.

"Another year has passed," he said as he lit a candle, the usual symbol that marked Baelfire's birthday.

She had been within the castle for nine of these occasions and on each one she cried tears of pure sadness for both Rumpel and his son whom she had never met. There had to be a way to bring them back together, there just had to, and yet she knew of none and it seemed Rumpel didn't either. She hardly ever mentioned it to him, afraid of his reactions, not wishing to cause further pain, but after so long, Belle could no longer hold her tongue.

"I know so little of Neverland," she admitted quietly. "But I can't help but wonder why it is so difficult to get to. You found a curse powerful enough to take this whole world to the Land Without Magic and yet you know no way to get just the two of us to Neverland?" she asked.

The strange burst of laughter from Rumpelstilstkin's lips startled Belle as he wheeled around to face her. His eyes caught her gaze and she held firm. If she was supposed to be scared, she wasn't. If she was supposed to back down like a hundred times before, well, she wasn't going to. She wanted to know what Rumpel was holding back, certain that there was something, just not knowing what it could possibly be.

"There are ways enough to get to that land," he admitted in too low a voice, bereft of any humour or warmth at all. "Many are rare and hard to come by, the usual beans and portals," he explained with his characteristic hand gestures and flick of his wrist. "One is easier and yet impossible still."

Belle frowned at his riddle, a way he often talked when he only wanted to annoy her she was sure. Still, she would not give in.

"If there is a way..." she began, but Rumpel shook his head.

"You do not understand!" he yelled over whatever she had planned to say. "Why do you persist in bothering me with all your thoughts and fantasies, woman!" he bellowed, moving to stride out of the room.

Belle stepped out into his path, not even flinching as he glared into her face.

"I have lived here for more than eight years," she told him defiantly. "I have loved you, I have stayed with you, and I have never broken my promise not to kiss you in all this time, even though it kills me to be this close to you and never closer," she said, tears filling he eyes that she refused to shed. "I listen to all that you tell me, I deal with your foul moods and accept your flaws, but damn it, Rumpelstiltskin, you made a deal with me! You said you would let me help you find Baelfire. We know he's in Neverland, and you know how to get there, so why the hell are we sitting around lighting candles and doing nothing?" she all but screamed. "You're keeping something from me, I'm more certain of that now than ever before. What is it?"

Rumpelstiltskin watched her rage, as she had never raged before, and something inside of him broke. It might have been more significant even than when she kissed him and almost broke his curse. In spite of her frustrations, which had been bubbling up literally for years, she had held her tongue, kept her countenance. Now it was too much to bear anymore. She was right of course, they had made a deal and he hadn't really been keeping up his end of the bargain. It meant revealing himself to Belle in a way he had not up to now dared to do. She knew everything of Bae and so much more of his unclean past that he hardly liked to remember himself, but no word had ever been spoken when it came to his true fears that lie in Neverland.

"What do you know of that world?" he asked in too quiet a voice. "Of Neverland?"

Belle felt all the fight go out of her at the sound of his child-like voice asking such a question.

"Very little," she admitted at length. "It is rumoured to be a land of imagination and great magic. There are mermaids there, and fairies, pirates even," she reeled off all she knew. "Beyond that..." she shook her head, finding that was literally all the information that came to mind.

Rumpel nodded in understanding. He did not really expect her to know more. It had been quite the deliberate act to keep any and all references to Neverland out of his castle, so all she was likely to know was what she had heard as a child or what she might have gleaned from Jefferson, perhaps even vague mentions in books that talked largely of other things that had accidentally found their way into Rumpel's home. The details of that place were known to few, the exact origins of Peter Pan to even less.

"Come, Belle, sit down," he urged her, still far too quiet for her liking, though she did as he asked.

He led her to a chair and there she sat, Rumpel soon joining her in the next seat over. All the life seemed to have gone out of him after Belle's demands that she hear the truth from him and nothing more. It almost made her feel guilty for getting so angry, but the frustration Belle had been feeling too long now just seemed to boil over out of all her control. At least it seemed that at last she might learn all she wished to know, even if once she heard it she wanted to take back that wish immediately. At least Rumpelstiltskin would no longer bare his burden alone.

"I have been to Neverland," he explained, seemingly looking at the floor and yet Belle believed he was seeing a memory play out behind his eyes. "Only on one occasion, when I was very young. My father took me there."

"Your father?" Belle gasped. "But... but I didn't know that you ever knew him at all. You said you were raised by spinsters?"

"Aye, I was," he confirmed with a dreamy type of smile. "But that was after. My father was a chancer, a crook, and a devil. He had not the Dark One's powers to blame for his selfish ways. Even you would struggle to see the good in him, sweet Belle."

She did not know how to speak to him right now, how to even hold his gaze when he looked at her. Belle had seen Rumpel angry and she had seen him broken, the worst time being when he found out that Baelfire was in Neverland. Still, she had never seen him quite like this, so very much like a lost little boy. It was as if he were reliving a time long ago when his father had clearly hurt him. She dare not say a word and only waited, breath held, until he continued.

"He wanted to start our lives anew. We travelled to Neverland through a portal made with a magic bean," said Rumpelstiltskin eventually, vague hand gestures demonstrating the swirling depths of the gateway that had taken him and his Papa to that far off place. "I thought it would be the start of a better life, but it was not so for me, only for him. Given the chance to have his youth returned and reign eternal in that world, he sacrificed me, his son."

Belle shuddered at the way his voice dropped to a dangerously low level, his hand over his heart as he spoke of its shattering at his father's hand.

"A simple choice was granted to him, Belle. His son or his eternal youth in a land he might rule over. I was torn from him by his own choice. He abandoned me, and now he is more powerful, more dangerous than I could ever be myself. He is the monster they call Peter Pan."

Her heart broke for him, and yet Belle had a sudden understanding of so many things that made little sense before. Rumpel's utter loathing and fear of Neverland and its ruler, his obsession with making things right with his own son. He feared that Baelfire saw him as Rumpel himself saw his own father, a man who abandoned him, sacrificed him for his own greed and power. That was not exactly what had happened, but she could see how it might be perceived that way. Tears ran down her cheeks unchecked as she reached to grasp Rumpel's hand between both of her own.

"I am so sorry for what you have suffered, Rumpel," she told him, only noticing now as he turned wide pained eyes upon her, that he was crying too.

Pulling him into her arms, Belle brought as much comfort as she could, whilst her true loved sobbed on her shoulder. This had been so painful for the both of them, but at least now she knew the truth and could help him move forward. That was all she ever wanted to do.

_To Be Continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

_**(for disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 4

It was almost a week now since Rumpelstiltskin had told Belle of his father's fate, how the man who was once named Malcom had been returned to youth and bore the title Peter Pan, the evil ruler of Neverland. It had taken some time for Belle to even comprehend such a tale. After days of thinking over and over on the topic, she still could not reconcile such behaviour. To sacrifice a child's love and happiness for your own selfish ends, Belle knew Rumpel was as guilty as Malcolm on that score, but the difference was the behaviour that came after.

From the very moment Rumpel lost Bae he seemed to have been searching for a way to get him back. Over the years of living together in the Dark Castle, he had explained in detail all that he had done to retrieve his own lost boy. He had manipulated not just Regina but her mother before her, and a hundred other nameless, faceless people like pawns on an enormous chess board the size of all the lands combined. Belle was disgusted in one way and utterly impressed in another. Rumpelstiltskin was a genius in his way, and though his despicable acts did not make her love him more, she could never say she loved him less.

There was a good man buried deep beneath the Dark One's power and strange looks. He was the person Belle had fallen in love with, the one she believed in with all her heart. She vowed still to help him get his son back, and Rumpel's confessions about Neverland only made her more determined to rescue Baelfire from that place. If he was under Pan's control, being hurt in some way, it was just too awful to comprehend. Though Belle had never met Bae, she felt so much as if she knew him after years of hearing tales, staring into the dark eyes of the boy in pictures Rumpel kept always close. She had to do something.

There was no-one to turn to for guidance anymore. Jefferson had stopped visiting long ago, as had everybody else. Belle had seen no-one but Rumpelstiltskin for years now, and though she would never regret the deal she made to stay within the castle grounds, she did miss other people, any people. At least another perspective on matters might help, but there was no-one.

Belle found solace in her books as she so often had before. It didn't really help. She had little information on Neverland before and no more was to be gleaned from the same few books, read over and over until the leather wore and the spines cracked. The only person who had the facts she needed was Rumpel and it was such a sore topic for him, she hardly dare breathe a word.

She was serving tea to her beloved when he asked her what was wrong. Belle shied away from the question, offering only that she was tired after a hard days cleaning. Rumpel didn't believe her. After so long and so close a relationship as they had now, it was impossible for them not to know each other's quirks. He saw in her face how sad and frustrated she had become and would not rest until she spoke of her reasons.

"You won't like what I tell you," she said definitely, meeting his eyes.

Rumpel stared at her.

"More questions about Neverland," he guessed, his face expressionless. "Go ahead, dearie, I promise not to throw the tea things."

It sounded like he meant to make a joke and yet no humour at all leaked into his tone. Still, he offered her the chance to speak her piece and Belle was determined to take it.

"You told me, more than once, that there is a way to get to Neverland," she reminded him, taking the seat beside his own at the table. "I never understood why you dismissed it every time, and even though I know now that Pan is a part of your concern, I don't believe that's the whole truth," she said firmly.

Rumpel's lips twitched as if he might speak or even smile, but nothing actually seemed to occur, no more than a slight movement like an involuntary tic. Belle pressed on.

"If you love Baelfire the way I know you do, if his safety is so important and your feelings so strong for your son, then you would go through anything to get him back, even facing your own father," she said definitely. "It's not fear and loathing of Pan that stops you going after Bae in Neverland, so please, Rumpel, tell me what the real reason is."

He stared at her for several long beats, whilst Belle's heart pounded in her chest. He didn't look angry, but then Rumpel didn't always. There were these odd moments of calm that seemed to come before he completely exploded at times. If that was what he was going to do now, then Belle felt she was braced accordingly. Still, no real bout of anger ever came.

Rumpelstiltskin got up quickly from his chair and turned away. Belle was right, and he wasn't sure how he felt about that. He loved her intelligence, and her ever-present ability to see him as the best version of himself, a man Rumpel had believed was long dead until she came into his life. So determined was Belle to see him happy, she would do anything and everything to get Baelfire back. She cared so much, it was almost as if she loved the boy as Rumpel himself did, and all this without ever meeting Bae. She loved him because of Rumpelstiltskin, because he and Baelfire were so deeply connected, by blood and special bond. Belle cared so much more than he could ever deserve and Rumpel knew it, and yet all her attempts to help were in vain.

"It cannot be done," he said almost too softly to be heard. "Even if I could face Pan, and I would for my boy," he said definitely, spinning on his heel to face a now standing Belle. "The way there is not for me, nor any person grown."

Belle frowned at his words. No person grown meant perhaps that only children could travel into Neverland. That would make some sense, if not for the fact she knew from Rumpel himself that his adult father had gained entry all those years ago. Perhaps it was that the only route left available was for children, where no magic beans, curses, or portals existed anymore.

"How can it be done if a person were young enough?" she asked curiously.

"The Shadow Man," Rumpelstiltskin smiled, not a kind and benevolent expression as it should have been but cold and evil as a crocodile.

Belle shuddered as he came closer.

"At night, when little children dream in their beds, they wish for adventures, they call for the shadow to come and take them away," he explained, fingers twitching, eyes flashing as he spun his ghostly tale. "He comes, and they fly away to Neverland... never to be seen again."

It took a moment, as Belle swallowed hard and forced herself to keep eye contact with Rumpel, even when he tried his best to scare her. She wouldn't allow that. The tale he spun was true, she was sure of that. He would not lie to her, especially not about something so very important. The cogs in her brain caught up with the actual words he had said rather than the spooky spin he tried to put on each one. Children called for the shadow.

"The Shadow won't come for just anyone," she said suddenly. "Not for a grown man or woman, only for a child who wishes to see the wonders of Neverland."

"Oh so innocent and young, fly away to the land of fun," Rumpelstiltstkin sang cruelly. "Second star to the right, straight on 'til morning. Never, never come back, leave parents mourning."

Belle fought off another shiver that wanted to run through her entire body. It was all so awful, so cruel. Children dreaming of adventure, ripped from their parents, probably without realising they would never come back. Poor lonely parents, left to wonder whatever happened to their babies. Belle wanted to cry, but she wouldn't give in to the tears that fought to leave her eyes.

"So, we just need a child," she said suddenly.

Rumpel had turned to walk away from her by then, but stopped stock still when he heard her voice.

"If we have someone's child call for the Shadow, he will come. Then it would be simple enough to grab onto it and fly away ourselves, surely."

As far as Belle could fathom, she was saying something completely logical. If they had a good grip on The Shadow and it went back to Neverland, something it was bound to do since that was the place it called home, surely it would deposit her and Rumpel there too. It worked with all the children that willingly followed, therefore magic must be a key part of The Shadow's make up. That being said, it had to have the ability to cross through worlds, and to take 'passengers' with it.

Rumpelstiltskin turned on his heel, ever so slowly and peered back at Belle.

"Ourselves," he echoed the word she herself had used. "You would come with me? To Neverland?"

"I promised you that I would help you find your son, and bring him home, if we could," Belle reminded him, head held high and expression strong. "We could go together to save him."

Even after all this time, Rumpelstiltskin had trouble believing this incredible woman could really love him, and yet she did insist on proving it over and over. Still, there was a flaw in her plan that was plain to see as far as The Dark One was concerned.

"And I suppose you just have a child milling around the castle that we can employ for the task, dearie?" he asked her, knowing of course that she did not.

"No," she replied flatly. "But in these kind of circumstances, I don't think it would be unreasonable for you to make a deal that allowed you to borrow someone's son or daughter for the task."

"Who would be fool enough to allow their child to be put in such peril?" he scoffed, before a thought came into his mind so suddenly, he physically reeled from the impact of it on his brain. "Unless they already owed me favour," he smiled wickedly. "Hmm, time to pay a visit," he chuckled maniacally, and then he was gone.

* * *

"I am not happy about this," said Prince Charming, shaking his head.

Snow put her hand to his arm and got his attention.

"I'm not exactly thrilled either, but we owe him a debt and this will wipe the slate clean," she told her husband in a whisper.

"She's right, you know?" Rumpelstiltskin giggled as he appeared behind them, seemingly out of nowhere, making them both jump. "A few simple words from your pretty little princess and our deal is done. A small price to pay when you consider what I did for you," he said, a sharp-nailed finger pointing into his own chest and then at the two of them.

Across the room, Belle was knelt on the floor of the nursery, playing at a tea party with Princess Emma and a bunch of teddy bears and the like. The little girl was only seven, but easily as beautiful as her mother already. She knew little to nothing of what was really going on here, and her parents would be happy if she stayed that way. Still, they knew they did owe Rumpelstiltskin a debt, and this wasn't too heinous a way of paying it.

"You look like a doll," said young Emma, even as she poured fake tea into a cup for Belle. "A pretty doll."

"Well, thank you, Emma," she smiled back at her, accepting the cup with a nod of her head. "I do like your dress. No doll was ever so lucky as to have a dress like that."

"It's okay," the little princess shrugged, before moving in closer to Belle and speaking in a too loud whisper. "Most of the time, I wear pants and furs. Mama takes me out to ride and shoot arrows, and Daddy is getting me my first sword soon."

Belle wasn't entirely surprised to hear such tales from the princess. After all, Snow White and Prince Charming were both the adventurous type, and clearly modern thinking enough to want their little girl to be more than just a pretty but mindless young woman when she grew up. Belle was just a little jealous. Though she had been permitted to read from childhood, she had never been formerly educated in anything useful or brought up to be much more than a decorative wife for a man her father chose. Thank goodness it seemed such a fate did not await Princess Emma.

"Emma, sweetheart," said Queen Snow then as she approached.

Belle got up and moved away; watching from a spot between Rumpel and Charming whilst mother spoke to daughter.

"We appreciate what you are allowing, your majesty," she told the prince. "I promise you, no harm will come to Emma. We wouldn't dream of allowing that to happen."

He nodded to acknowledge she had spoken, but David never said a word. He wasn't happy, that much was clear, but Snow was right. They owed Rumpelstiltskin a debt and it would be paid today. If all went to plan, no harm would befall Emma. If it did... the little girl's father couldn't even bear to think of it.

A few moments later, Emma was positioned by the window. The prince drew his sword but hung back in the shadows of the nursery, mindful of the need to protect his daughter, and with his life, if necessary. Snow moved away from her baby girl, nodding for her to now call out as she had been asked. Emma looked uncertain but knew her parents would not ask her to do anything bad. She didn't understand why the doll-like lady was here, or what the strange imp of a man with her really was, but that couldn't matter now.

"You will have to move quickly," she heard the strange man tell her mother. "The moment the shadow appears..."

"I know," Snow answered, before turning her attention back to Emma. "Go ahead, honey," she encouraged her.

Nodding her head, Emma trained her eyes on the night sky, took a deep breath and called out; "I believe!"

At first, there was nothing. It seemed not to have worked at all, and then just when the assembled group thought something was wrong, the wind shifted. From the light of the almost-full moon, a black shape emerged. A dot in the distance was the shape of a person within seconds, headed straight for Emma.

"Now!" Rumpelstiltskin screamed, barrelling forward with Belle, as Snow grabbed her daughter out of harm's way.

Charming stepped up behind Rumpel, sword raised, prepared to defend his family from whatever happened next. He had no need to worry. The visiting couple grabbed onto the shadow's feet with the tightest of grips even as it tried to get away. The Shadow flew off, dragging its passengers behind. Emma peered out from behind her mother's arm, around her father's legs, to the view out of the window.

"Where are they going?" she asked, wide eyed and confused.

"Nowhere anybody should ever want to go," said Snow shakily, as Charming turned around to hug them both, sighing in relief that they were all safe yet.

"Somewhere most people never come back from."

_To Be Continued..._


	5. Chapter 5

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 5

Baelfire was lonely. He would never say so, even if he had someone to say it to, but he missed companionship, friends he had once known. His home was so very far away, not just in distance but in time. Too many decades spent here in Neverland, so many he had almost lost count of those years, lost to this island that was supposed to be so magical. Bae knew there were reasons enough to fear magic and all it could do. Meeting Pan had proven beyond doubt that he had been right to worry for his father and for himself. Magic had the ability to create wonderful things but also the power to destroy much. Friendships, families, people. Baelfire didn't want any part of it, such he had told Pan more times than he had a mind to calculate.

Bae was one of the few that seemed to make Pan uncomfortable, ill at ease. He had joined the Lost Boys very unwillingly, and yet the only person less pleased with Baelfire's presence than the boy himself had been Pan. The reason had never been revealed, but it wasn't long before Bae started trying to find ways off the island and away. On realising such a thing was as impossible as he had been told by Captain Hook, he never really gave up the struggle. Still, Baelfire knew he had to find a way to survive for as long as he was in Neverland. He found a place to make his home and hid there much of the time. Pan and the Lost Boys rarely bothered him, seemingly happy to let him live out his perpetual fourteen-year-old existence in relative peace.

As much as he tried to hate his Papa for allowing this to become his life, Baelfire always found it impossible to truly hate Rumpelstiltskin. The Dark One's powers had infected him, altered his mind, made him much more selfish than he had ever been before. Bae always thought it was him and his Papa against the world, but that world changed, and so they were ripped apart.

Every night when he went to sleep, the last image in Baelfire's mind was that of his father's face, twisted with the agony of a decision he hated to make. He screamed in panic at the idea of the Land Without Magic and Bae's fingers slipped through Rumpelstiltskin's grip. It had been terrifying, but at least in that world he had found friends, family.

There was no way to regret what he had done for the Darling family. Bae knew he had to prevent the Shadow from taking Wendy again, or either of her brothers. Never once had he wished things had been different, that one of them had been brought to Neverland instead of him. At least Baelfire knew how to survive out in the world, knew of magic and how such things worked, and he wasn't afraid. The son of the Dark One need never be afraid of anything after all he had already seen, heard, been a part of, but that didn't mean he liked being here in Neverland.

At night he dreamt of escape, plans that were impossible, ideas that were ridiculous. In the darkness, his imagination came alive, and he would go back to Enchanted Forest. There he found his father, sometimes his mother too. The world was soft and warm, and Baelfire was loved and never alone. When he woke each morning, just his cold lonely hideaway around him, no company or anyone to care, he used to cry. Now the breaking of each day brought steely resolve to the jaded young man who still looked fourteen and yet had lived so much longer. If no escape was to be had, then so be it. He could never completely give up hope, and he was certainly going to survive this ordeal for just as long as it lasted. He was no coward.

* * *

Belle's every muscle was screaming as she stirred on the coarse sand of an unfamiliar beach. One hand went to her aching head as she fought to sit up and get her bearings. The journey to Neverland had been painful and far too long. She suspected the children brought here found flying fun and magical. It was a different story when two adults were fighting for free passage to the land of imagination against the will of their travelling companion.

The Shadow had tried to shake them off at every opportunity, but Belle's grip was strong, as was Rumpelstiltskin's own. They held on tight, fought through the agony of being dragged what felt like miles and miles, some indeterminate distance across space, time, and worlds. They had only let go on Rumpel's own command when they reached land.

Belle had been terrified of falling into the sea. She could swim, of course, but she knew by now what horrors lie in wait in those waters. Mermaids swum beneath the surface, some evil creatures that would drown a pretty girl that was not of their kind without a second thought. Above the surface, at least one pirate ship was rumoured to sail, and Belle dreaded to think what her fate might be at such hands. As it was they were safe, or relatively so, she suspected. She was here with Rumpestiltskin and he appeared no less effected by their travelling experience than she was. Belle was grateful for that at least.

Rumpelstiltskin himself got to his feet much faster than Belle felt able to do. His eyes scanned the scenery, and a sense of familiarity came over him. Where such a feeling might usually be warm and comforting, the particular memories that sprang forth only brought a cold kind of pain and sadness.

"I never thought to be here again," he said, more to himself than to Belle.

It was true enough that Rumpel would have happily avoided Neverland for the rest of his days. Belle didn't wonder at it given his circumstances, but now they knew there was a way to get Baelfire back, they just had to come, there was no choice. Belle tried to stand but her legs refused to hold her. She slumped back onto the sand, breathing hard. Immediately she had Rumpel's attention.

"Take it slowly, dearie," he advised, reaching for her hands as he met her eyes. "Travelling across realms is quite the ordeal if you're not used to it," he smiled slightly, hoping to be comforting, sweet even.

Belle wondered how many people ever saw such good in him. She suspected perhaps no more than herself, Baelfire, and Rumpel's late wife. It was a shame. There was so much good buried deep inside the man that wore a supposed monster's face. He cared so much for her, she knew that he did.

Belle had to admit that a tiny part of her reason for wanting to help Rumpelstiltskin to find Bae was selfish. With his son back, Rumpel might just give up the powers he always felt he needed for tracking down his boy alone. Then he and Belle could finally be together fully, and with Baelfire they would be the happiest little family, she was certain, so very certain.

"We're here, Rumpel," she told him shakily. "We're within reach of your son."

His eyes sparkled at her words, glittering gold and green combined. He knew she was right, that they were closer to his son now than they had ever been. How they would find him, there was no way to know. How they would get back home, if such a thing were even possible, everything was so very up in the air, but what was certain was that they were all in the same place now. Baelfire was close by and they would find him, that much was definite, and Belle couldn't be happier when she saw Rumpel smile at the realisation of it.

* * *

Baelfire had learnt to hunt and to do it well. Fish could be caught from the lake if one was careful of the creatures in the deeper water. Small animals could be snared or stunned with a well-fashioned catapult or similar. Berries and leaves from the surrounding vegetation balanced out his diet, so long as Dreamshade was duly avoided, and so Bae survived on this island they called Neverland. It was not a fine way to live, but he coped, he survived, always.

When he did have the misfortune to run across the Lost Boys, Bae had also learnt to fight well. Mostly he had no need for a scuffle. As much as he learnt to track prey, he also knew the signs of being followed himself. Much of the time he was able to steer clear of trouble and that was just fine by him. Being alone would not be his first choice, but it was better than the alternative.

On this day, Bae had been out in the jungle, gathering more food to eat. He was half way back to his hide-out, when he realised he was not alone. The under brush was too damaged to be all his own doing. The birds were silent, the creatures that usually rustled in the trees had run away. That could only mean one thing.

"Pan," muttered Bae, quickening his pace.

He zig-zagged through the bushes and trees, mindful of leaving obvious tracks, determined not to be caught. It was almost useless and Baelfire knew it. If Peter Pan really wanted to catch up to him then he would. He had magic and was not afraid to use it, plus he knew the island best of anyone, but on that score at least Bae felt he was evening the odds. As time went on, he learnt the ways of Neverland, the landmarks, the terrain. It was easy to stay out of the way of those he would rather avoid, that was for sure.

Almost back to his hiding place, Bae considered making a detour and doubling back. He had a feeling Pan knew of his make-shift home, and yet he had never come and faced him there. If ever he wanted a face to face, he sent his Lost Boys to pick Baelfire up out of the jungle or from the lakeside and bring him back to their camp, usually blind-folded so he would never find it again by himself even if he had a mind to.

It moved a lot, the base camp of Pan and his Lost Boys. Bae thought he might be safer if he kept changing places himself, and yet he had become accustomed to his little hollow. Pan seemed to let him be there most of the time so he stuck to it, now he was afraid of having his hide away be discovered, if he really was being tracked.

Bae paused behind a tree and listened for sounds. Two pairs of feet trudged through the undergrowth. It was unlikely to be Pan himself, more likely Felix and a friend. Reaching down, Baelfire drew his sword, knowing he may yet need to fight to get away. His stalkers were very close and yet they were not calling him out or being particularly stealthy in their approach. Usually they appeared as if from nowhere or made it very clear they wanted his attention. This was different and it confused him.

"They want the unexpected, they can have it," he said quietly to himself, taking a deep breath and then rushing out from behind the trees.

Running full pelt as his supposed attackers, Baelfire bowled one of the dark-clad figures right over off his feet. He raised his sword ready to strike, but when his eyes met those of his victim he realised his mistake and stopped stock-still as a statue. A familiar gaze was upon him, a darkness underlying paternal affection that Bae had not seen for so very many years.

"Papa?" he said, as he took in the face of the Dark One staring back at him.

"Baelfire," Rumpelstiltskin smiled widely. "My son," he cried.

It was by instinct alone that they embraced one another, watched by a shaking Belle who was so overwhelmed by the whole situation. Neither man nor boy noticed her at all in this moment, and neither should they. This was a moment so very many years in the making. Finally, father and son had found each other again. There was a great deal of problems still to be overcome, but the largest of the obstacles had been surmounted. A family reunited and a bond doubtless to be reforged. Belle couldn't help the tears that fell from her eyes as she watched the pair hug each other, it was almost too beautiful to bear.

_To Be Continued..._

**A/N2: This fic is now going on hold til 2015. I do this every year as I have a lot of other stuff to do in December, including a lot of fics to write for exchanges and as gifts for friends. Please rest assured, I will be back in the new year! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Anybody miss me? Well, if you did, I'm back! And now we're in Neverland :)**

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see Chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 6

Baelfire's make-shift shelter on the island of Neverland was always big enough for him alone. It wasn't as if a person had guests in such a place, at least not until now. With three of them in the small space it suddenly became almost claustrophobic and yet they were all well aware of the need to be out of sight, especially given the nature of the conversations to be had.

Though he had been happy enough to see his Papa again initially, Baelfire was not at all thrilled with Rumpelstiltskin's previous actions. The pain and hurt still existed, dark and strong as ever inside his heart. His father who was supposed to love him more than anything in the world, who had made a deal with Bae and broken his promise at the last moment, he could not just forgive all of that in an instant. After hurrying his father and the mysterious lady at his side into the dark hollow of his hide-out, Bae sat at a distance from the couple and eyed them suspiciously.

They were real, of that much Baelfire was certain. Though here in the land of imagination it was easy enough to be fooled by illusions and tricks, especially of Pan's making, Bae knew that it really was his Papa come to save him. He felt that truth in his heart and soul, but it did not mean he was entirely happy still.

"I am grateful, Papa, that you came to find me," he said then. "But you have taken too long to look. I have had to survive this world alone, too many years to count, and before this The Land Without Magic," he explained.

"I know, Bae, and I am so sorry," said Rumpelstiltskin desperately. "I know you have been through so much, but I swear to you, I have been trying all of this time to find you. I promise, Bae, it has been my life's work, every waking hour."

"If you would've kept your promise, honoured our deal and come with me, you wouldn't have had to struggle so much in finding me again!" the young boy snapped.

Belle winced at the tone and volume both but she well understood his pain. Poor Baelfire. It was true enough that Rumpel had abandoned him, and it was the only fact he knew to be true for far too many years. Though he appeared just fourteen still, Belle knew the boy was much older than she, as Rumpelstiltskin was. They had been decades apart, suffering the loss of one another. As much as she loved Rumpel, Belle was well aware that his own actions had torn father and son apart. He had to bear the guilt for that, there was no-one else to blame.

"Son," he said painfully. "I did wrong, I know, but for every second after that I have been trying to get you back. I spent years upon years setting up a plan to come and find you in the Land Without Magic. There was to be a curse..."

"A curse?" echoed Bae as he interrupted, eyes widening. "You would have cursed our land just to find me?"

He honestly didn't know whether to be heartened by the lengths his Papa would go to retrieve him or disgusted by the tragedy Rumpelstiltskin was still prepared to rain down on others for his own selfish reasons. Baelfire was in turmoil, more than he had been in years of tortuous loneliness. He turned his face away.

"Bae," Rumpel reached for him, but his son flinched at the contact.

The Dark One retracted his hands, allowed himself to be comforted by Belle's arm around his back. She didn't want this, to see father and son at odds. It wasn't that she didn't understand both sides of the situation, perhaps the problem was that she understood exactly. Anything she might venture to say was bound to hurt one or the other of them, and really, it was none of her business in the first place. Still, she had to try, they had to make progress here.

"Baelfire," she said softly, getting his attention. "I have heard so many stories about you, about your life with your papa before you left the Enchanted Forest," she explained. "I feel as if I know you, and... and I cannot believe that a part of you isn't at all glad to see Rumpelstiltskin again," she said carefully. "You know, I had to leave my family, and though it was my choice, it was a tough one. I haven't seen my father in over eight years and if he were here now, regardless what had gone before, I would be happy."

Bae stared at the mystery woman, wondering at her own tale. There were a myriad of possible reasons why she did not see her own father anymore, nor any member of her family. It was her choice apparently but not an easy one to make. There was a deep pain in the lady's eyes as she spoke of her lost parent, Bae didn't doubt for a second that every word was sincere. So far all that had been said of who she was had been Rumpelstiltskin's assertion that she was on their side as Baelfire allowed her into his home. He wanted to know more.

"Who are you?" he asked her out-right. "How did you come to be my father's companion?"

Belle felt more awkward than ever then. To explain how she had come to be first in the Dark One's service and then how she fell in love, it might be too much for the angry fourteen year old son of Rumpelstiltskin. Still, it was the truth, and a little more of that might be just exactly what this situation needed.

"My name is Belle, and several years ago I became your father's housekeeper," she explained. "He saved my people in the Second Ogre Wars and I was to pay off the debt we owed in working for him, but then things changed," she smiled, her fingers lacing with Rumpel's own at his knee. "We got to know each other, and we fell in love."

Baelfire was confused by the story he was being told. He loved his Papa dearly, but that was different. He never truly believed a woman could love the Dark One, or that Rumpelstiltskin would want them too. Bae's memories of his mother were fairly vague, she was often away from the house, and when she was home she was always cold and bitter towards her husband. Baelfire was too young to understand and even now was unsure as to why his mother and father never really seemed to love each other like some other people's parents did. This was all before his papa gained his powers. After that, Baelfire couldn't imagine ever having a mother-figure in his life again, not until this moment.

Belle was beautiful, like a china doll, and seemed so warm and friendly. There was a natural truth in her eyes when he looked, and Baelfire never thought for a moment that she was somehow under Rumpelstiltskin's thrall or similar. Love was one thing that could not be created by magick, though he suspected if there was a way around that rule, the Dark One could find it. Still, Bae did believe what Belle was saying, that she and Papa had just come to fall in love. It was bizarre, but it was real.

"It has been more than eight years now since Belle came into my life and changed it forever," said Rumpelstiltskin with a smile. "She is good for me, Bae. She loves me with a pure heart and... and she makes me try harder to be the man I should be, the man I should've been for you. Bae, I have spent so much time trying to find a way to put right what I did to you, letting you go," he said honestly, tears filling his eyes. "If not for Belle, I might never have found you."

Baelfire couldn't bear to see his father so close to tears. In spite of everything that had happened, he still loved the man he called Papa and was sure Rumpelstiltskin had to love him too. Letting him go, breaking their deal, it was the worst thing he could've done to Baelfire, but the boy who had lived longer than some men could boast at least believed that his father regretted what he had done. He wished to make amends, and before he could do that, he had to find Bae. Apparently, that had not been easy and Baelfire believed that too.

"How did you find me?" he asked curiously. "I went to the Land Without Magic, and you said you tried to follow there."

"Which was near to impossible," Rumpel confirmed. "And then, just when I had all the pieces of a plan in motion, Belle found you were gone from that place and here instead. Neverland is hardly any easier to get to than the Land Without Magic."

Belle wondered at his not mentioning the other reason for not coming to Neverland sooner. It was true enough that transport had been a problem, but the other factor was most definitely Rumpel's father being Pan. Bae couldn't know that, Belle was sure, and though she would love to share the secret and have everybody on the same page before they began their struggle home, it was not her place to say. If Rumpelstiltskin felt it was not pertinent to mention yet, she would go along with his wishes. He knew Baelfire better than she did, he had to have good reasons for not saying anything yet.

"The Shadow brought me here," said Bae then. "I met a family in the Land Without Magic, The Darlings. They were kind to me, took me in, fed me, gave me clothes and a bed to sleep in," he explained. "Then one night the Shadow came. It took Wendy first, and though it returned her the next day, it left her with a threat of taking her brothers next. John and Michael were scared, Wendy too, they knew so little of magic," he went on, eyes glazing over as he stared off into space, to a spot on the cave wall or perhaps even further than that, to a place and time long ago. "I tried to fight of The Shadow, then I realised all I could do to save my new family was take their place. I grabbed onto the Shadow and he brought me here. I was told there was no way home, though I have tried to find any way I can. It has been no use so far."

Rumpelstiltskin didn't know what to say. All that his boy had been through, he could never apologise enough for that. In the beginning it was his fault, even if the events of latter years were not directly his doing. He was glad to know a nice family had tried to do their best by his son for a while. Bae had clearly been in Neverland a long time since then. If the chalk marks across so many walls were anything to go by, the days had turned into weeks, months, years all too fast. He could cry for his boy's suffering, and was not surprised to hear Belle sniffle beside him, tears falling unchecked from her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Baelfire," she apologised, rubbing the back of her hand across her face. "We should have come sooner, we would have if we could..."

"I never should have let you go alone through the portal," said Rumpel sadly, so strangely subdued compared to the maniacal imp the people of the Enchanted Forest knew.

Belle had seen such a change in him over the years, and now Baelfire was seeing it too. Though his skin was still thick and coloured in green-gold, while his nails still pointed and his eyes glittered with power, Bae saw a man much more like his Papa than he had been when he first became the Dark One. He saw true emotion and real feeling, he saw the love that Rumpel had for both Belle and for himself, and Baelfire wondered at it.

"You're here now," he said, nodding his head. "I cannot forget what you did, Papa. It will always hurt that you let me go, but if you can find us a way home, I will go with you."

It was a small acquiescence and Rumpelstiltskin knew it, but then it was probably the best he was going to get. He did not deserve his boy to forgive him, no matter how much he wished Baelfire might look upon him more kindly in time. What he had done was the very worst repeat of history. Rumpel could never forgive his own father, and wondered if Bae could ever forgive him. He hoped at least he could make up for things a little now they were together again. Rumpel was also well aware that much of Baelfire's agreement to go home with himself and Belle was just for the sake of escape more than anything else. Neverland seemed like a dream to many, but it could be a hell for those abandoned there alone.

"I wish it were so simple to go home," said Belle, regaining control of herself after a moments tears. "We used The Shadow to get here, at you did, Baelfire," she explained. "But I'm afraid we came without knowing how to get back. Our only goal, your father's only wish, was to get to you."

"There may be a way," said Rumpel staring only at his boy right now. "If the power of The Shadow can be harnessed somehow... it would take a great deal of magic, but it may be possible."

Baelfire shuddered as he replied.

"To control The Shadow would mean facing Pan. They are completely connected, to each other and to the island," he explained. "Pan is too powerful. I doubt even the Dark One's powers would be enough."

Rumpelstiltskin would love to be able to tell his son that he was indeed more powerful than Pan, but that was probably a lie. Rumpel didn't know for sure if Peter Pan possessed more actual magic and strength than he himself could conjure, but the boy who had once been the man Rumpel called Papa would certainly know how to bring him to his knees in other ways, playing on deep emotions and past pain.

"I know I don't possess actual powers," said Belle then. "And I don't suppose Bae does either, but if we all stand together... We have love on our side. I thought that was the strongest of all magic?"

Rumpelstiltskin smiled slowly.

"It should be, dearie," he told her, patting her hand. "But this is not our world."

"I know enough of this world to even the playing field," said Bae definitely. "I think Belle is right. Perhaps with all three of us working together we can be strong enough against Pan."

Just as faith swelled in each of their hearts, a sound from above shattered every piece of hope they could muster. A burst of childish laughter, edged with an evil that made every one of the trio shiver as if suddenly frozen by an ill wind. Though he spoke not a word, they all knew Pan was out there, just on the other side of the entry to the hide-out.

"Like rats trapped in a hole in the ground!" he said loudly. "What are you waiting for Baelfire? Will you not bring out your guests for us to meet? Or do I have to come down there and get them myself?"

By the last question Pan had lost his fake joviality, the words cruel and twisted as he demanded their presence. Belle wasn't sure who looked more afraid right now, Bae or Rumpel. She actually suspected the latter, but then she knew the reasons why. Certainly she had not expected to be facing off with Peter Pan so soon but if that was how it must be, she was not about to back down and couldn't imagine either Rumpelstiltskin or Baelfire wishing to either.

Belle felt Rumpel's hand tighten around her fingers and then watched as he held his other hand out to Bae. The boy looked at it for all of a second before taking a hold. Father and son shared a small smile, not because they were truly happy, but almost to confirm that whatever happened they would stand together against a common foe. For now, that was good enough.

_To Be Continued..._


	7. Chapter 7

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 7

The lurch of landing amongst unfamiliar trees via magic alone made Belle feel sick, though she never said a word. Now was not the time for dramatics, for giving in to a little nausea. They had much bigger problems. When Rumpel took her hand and then reached for Bae's as well, she had wondered what plan he was forming in his genius mind. To stand up and face Pan in the normal way that people stood against each other, that was what she had expected at first, and then she saw a look pass over Rumpel's face and knew he had something else in mind. In a moment they landed here in the jungle. Baelfire looked just about as disorientated as Belle felt, and much more angry than she.

"How could you?" he yelled, before remembering himself, lowering his voice so that no-one would hear and come looking for them. "Papa, you said you came to find me, that you wanted us to stand together to defeat Pan and go home to our land," he said crossly, tearing his hand from his father's grasp. "And still you take the easy way out, the coward's way!"

"I had to get us away!" he snapped back at Baelfire, also realising too late that yelling was not going to help, both with keeping their location a secret or getting his boy on side. "Bae, we need more of a plan before we go up against an enemy such as Pan," he told him in a more levelled tone. "He is powerful, and I don't know this world, I don't know all the dangers we might face."

"But Baelfire does," said Belle, unable to help the fact that she was just a little bit on Bae's side in this. "Rumpel, when you took my hand I thought it was for the sake of strength and unity. I never expected a spell to magic us far away," she shook her head. "The more time we waste, the more angry Pan could become. Won't that be worse?"

"I don't know! I can't think!" Rumpelstiltskin cried, arms aloft as he raved. "I need to think of what to do!"

"Well, here is not the place to think" said Baelfire definitely, eyes scanning the area. "You brought us to the worst part of the jungle."

"Are... are we in more danger here?" asked Belle nervously.

Bae shook his head.

"It's not that Pan will find us any more easily, but this... _this_ is the danger," he said, carefully plucking a sprig of leaves from a nearby bush.

Holding it out towards his father, Bae watched as Rumpel shifted closer and carefully observed the plant. He knew what it was now, though he had never once seen it in reality. Books told of it, rumours and legends too.

"Dreamshade," he whispered, eyes glittering as he moved around Baelfire's hand, appraising the plant sprig from all angles. "A fatal poison."

"It can be," Baelfire agreed. "There is only one cure, and it is here on this island."

"But if there is a cure, then what is the danger?" asked Belle with a frown.

Baelfire threw the leaves from his hand carefully amongst the Dreamshade bushes and backed away towards her.

"The cure is water imbued with magic. It comes from spring high up on top of Dead Man's Peak. It will cure anything, including Dreamshade, but there is a price."

"Because magic always comes with a price," said Rumpel with much less glee now than he had said it to so many victims before.

Bae well understood the look that passed over his father's face. The Dark One's magic certainly came with a much higher price than Rumpelstiltskin had been expecting, and in the end Baelfire had paid it quite as much as his papa had. Now was not the time to talk of it though. Escaping Neverland came first, everything else would be dealt with later.

"If you drink the water, it will cure you," Bae explained. "But if you should try to leave Neverland, its effects will end, the pain will return."

"And death will follow," said Rumpel, finishing the words for his son, knowing it must be true.

Such curses were well-documented in other places, and Neverland was that much crueller than it ever seemed in childhood dreams and fantasies. It made sense that a fountain of youth or healng would have a cost. Such a thing could not be so simple, magic never was. There was always a price and this was one of the ultimate ones, to be tied forever to this hell. Some might say it would be better just to die and be done.

There was no time to think about it anymore. A rustle in the undergrowth, a childish war cry, it alerted the family group to Pan and his Lost Boys approaching. Before Rumple could even open his mouth or think of using another relocation spell, Pan was upon them, glowering the way only he could. Though he appeared as a child, no older than a teen, his eyes gave him away. In those cold, dark pools Rumpel still saw his father, the nasty selfish brute that had abandoned him so long ago, that could still hurt him yet.

"Running out on the host. It is as if you have no manners at all!" Pan grinned wickedly as he appeared from the shadows.

They had expected him to be flanked by his followers, and yet the Lost Boys were nowhere to be seen. There was every chance at least some of them were lurking out of sight, something Belle was wary of, and yet Rumpel seemed hypnotised by the sight of Peter Pan. She well understood why of course, even if Baelfire couldn't comprehend.

"You have no reason to hurt us, Pan," said the boy, with more confidence than he felt, Belle was certain. "I've lived in this place a long time, I've co-operated with you, never made trouble."

"Never caused trouble?" Pan checked. "Really, Bae, that is not how I remember things, and as you know I have a very long memory," he smiled, eyes drifting to Rumpelstiltskin's green-gold face. "It seems the things I heard were true about you, laddie."

Baelfire was a little bemused by such a term being applied to his father. Belle stepped in closer to Rumpel, a little behind him in fact. She wanted to be there to support him and at the same time keep herself protected. Pan was very powerful and she had no magic herself.

"People do change, _Pan_," Rumpel emphasised the name purposefully, distancing himself from the man he used to call papa.

This wasn't his father anymore. He had done too much, changed too much. If he was to be defeated, potentially put down forever, then Rumpel had to stop remembering, stop thinking of him as Malcolm or Papa. He was Pan now, and he meant to cause even more harm than before. If the choice was his father or his son and his true love, there was no choice at all as far as Rumpelstiltskin was concerned.

"You know him?" asked Bae, looking to his father. "I don't understand."

"Baelfire..." Belle tried to call him to her side, out of harm's way but he didn't even seem to notice she had spoken.

"We may have been keeping a secret from you, Bae," said Pan then, his smile turning into an evil smirk.

Rumpel shook his head almost imperceptibly. He had hoped to avoid this, hoped against hope that Pan would not recognise him, or that he would never be quite so cruel as to hurt Baelfire like this. He ought to have known better.

"Did your father never speak of his own dear papa, Bae?" asked Pan, eyes still fixed on Rumpelstiltskin. "Unfortunately, little Rumpel was such a disappointment to his father that he was abandoned. His father had dreams, ambitions, and in the end I got everything I ever wanted once I was free of him."

Baelfire looked so confused, so shocked and overwhelmed. Belle moved around Rumpelstiltskin to the poor boy, reaching a careful hand to his shoulder. Bae flinched at her touch, mostly just because she had startled him. He couldn't believe what he was hearing, that the great and powerful evil being that was Peter Pan had once been a man with a son, was by blood his own grandfather. He felt sick.

"Papa?" he said then, looking to Rumpel who had tears in his eyes. "Is it true?"

There was a long pause before he finally nodded.

"The truth does hurt, doesn't it?" said Pan.

Belle felt a terrible bubble of rage building inside her on seeing Rumpel's tears and Bae's that matched.

"You are cruel and pathetic!" she told Pan without even thinking about the consequences. "You talk about how these people are your family, your blood kin, and yet you take delight in torturing them, in causing them pain!" she yelled. "How can you be so... so evil?"

"Quite easily actually," said Pan with a shrug of his shoulders and a boyish innocence ever-present on his face. "I don't need them, my supposed son, my lost grandson. What are they supposed to mean to me, the ruler of all Neverland?"

Belle didn't know how to respond to such a question. She held onto Bae by his shoulders, sure he was going to fall or break if somebody didn't keep him on his feet right now, and glared at Pan still. There was no compassion in him, no love, no nothing. He had a blackened heart, he was a lost soul. In Rumpelstiltskin, Belle had seen the good hidden deep inside the Dark One, and yet she suspected Pan would wear that title with more pride and be more deserving of it. He was darker than anyone else she had ever met, dark and cruel.

"You don't want us here," she said eventually, her tone more even. "And we certainly don't want to stay, so why not let us go home? Instruct your Shadow to take us, send us with whatever magic you are supposed to possess..."

At the sound of her request, Pan began to laugh, a hollow chuckle that made Belle shudder. Her eyes flitted briefly to Rumpel as he seemed to back away from his father, inch by inch, as if he were an animal afraid of being struck by his master. She had never seen him so fearful in her life, so down-trodden. That was more frightening than anything Pan could throw at her, Belle was sure.

"Perhaps I don't want you, not any of you," Pan agreed. "But that doesn't mean I owe you any favours. I might just keep you all here for sport, to chase and hunt when I'm bored, to call upon for entertainment's sake."

His eyes were on Baelfire when he said it and Belle swallowed hard at the realisation that these were exactly the reasons why Pan kept Bae around in the first place. He could have had him go home, at the very least back to the family he had joined in the Land Without Magic, but no. Pan knew who Baelfire was and how he could use him. It pleased him to do so.

"You're disgusting," she told him with abhorrence.

Pan did not care a jot.

"Hold your tongue, wench, before you push my patience too far!" he told her. "Be grateful I like to play games with my friends," he said with a look. "If you can't at least pretend to be friendly, perhaps I will change my mind about keeping you around. Perhaps I will just kill you all, one by one."

Rumpelstiltskin, who had been all but inanimate throughout the whole exchange, seemed to come alive at the sound of the word 'kill'. Keeping him here would be bad enough, but so long as he had Bae and Belle, Rumpel was almost certain he could deal with anything. They were a family, they could survive for as long as it took them to find a way off this wretched island, but now Pan was threatening their lives, Belle and Baelfire's very existence. Rumpel would not let that stand, not even the suggestion of harming them at all. He loved them, with all of his shattered heart, every misty shred of what was left of his soul. All that he had, all that he did was for his boy and his true love.

Rage, adrenaline, a whole mixture of emotions and force bubbled up from deep within the Dark One, his eyes flashing a myriad of colours as the magicks rose up from his toes to his fingers. Pan sensed something, but almost too late to react. He flinched a second before Rumpelstiltskin's hands shot up to the sky and lightning-like magic crackled from his finger tips. Fire sprung up from his palm next that he threw into the dark.

Pan dodged every attack and called his Lost Boys into the fray in a second. Belle backed up out of the way and tried to take Baelfire with her, but he wouldn't budge. From his belt he pulled a sword and began to fight any of the Lost Boys that came his way. Belle tried to keep her eye on Pan, but he seemed to disappear and reappear at will, her eyes could not keep up with him, not through the clashing of weapons and sparks of dark magic flying by.

Searching around for some way to be of use, Belle came upon a fallen branch and then headed into the fray. She was not much of a fighter, and swinging a wooden club at young boys would usually seem criminal, but there was no choice. These children had lived much longer than she, and would do goodness knows what harm if they were not stopped. She stuck to defensive manoeuvres, driving back anyone who swung a blade or club at her or tried to catch Rumpel or Bae unaware from behind. Still the flames and lightning bolts flew from the Dark One's hands, like a deadly rain of evil magic. Belle barely recognised the man she loved as he raged on and on for just as long as Pan allowed it. Eventually he was going to end the battle, Belle was sure. If he really was as powerful as Rumpel implied, he was certainly likely to try anyway.

They all lost track of time as they fought. The sound of childish voices yelling war cries, as magic crackled through the air, Belle felt as if she were losing her mind amongst the fracas, and then out of nowhere Pan's voice broke through everything. He demanded an end to the battle as he appeared in the centre of it, dissipating Rumpel's magic with a sweep of his hands.

"This is pathetic!" Pan cried, as even his own Lost Boys seemed to cower when he rose above the ground in flight.

The motion of his hands, pressing down at Rumpelstiltskin seemed to bring the Dark One literally to his knees.

"Papa!" Baelfire cried, moving as if to run towards him.

Belle held him back.

"No, Bae," she urged him. "Rumpel, fight back!" she encouraged her true love then. "He cannot defeat you if you don't let him. You're stronger than this!"

"You should listen to her, laddie!" yelled Pan from several feet in the air. "But you won't! You are a pathetic little coward of a boy, just as you always were!" he bellowed. "Selfish too, your father's son," he laughed cruelly. "I left you, you left Baelfire, and now they will leave you, just as you deserve!"

Rumpelstiltskin couldn't breathe. Whether it was all the emotions overtaking him or whatever magicks Pan was using to keep him on his knees, he really couldn't tell. So much pain, dark and agonising memories of his childhood, mixed with the physical screaming of his muscles fighting against Pan's power. To hear him laugh, to know what he might yet do to Bae and Belle, it was unbearable. As Pan kept one hand steady, holding back the man that was his son, he rose his other arm into the air. Belle backed up a step but there were Lost Boys everywhere, determined to keep her and Baelfire in place. Deadly flames crackled up from Pan's fingers, somehow blackened by the darkness of his power, but still just as hot and deadly as real fire.

"You can't do this!" Baelfire screamed against the howling of all the magic flying around. "Please, you can't!"

His eyes went to his father who was struggling against the force holding him back. It seemed as if all hope was lost. Belle closed her eyes a moment, steeling herself against what came next. Then something changed. A shift in the air, she knew something was happening and her eyes flew open to see Rumpelstiltskin break free of Pan's hold. His eyes flitted from Pan to her and Bae, then past them. In a split second she followed that path with her own gaze and realised the fault in his plan.

"Rumpel, no!" she screamed too late.

Baelfire could make no sound himself, the air knocked out of him less from the shove he received than by the shock of realising what his father had done. Flying in front of himself and Belle, Rumpelstiltskin magicked away the fire that would strike them, the flames fading to nothing as if they had all been an illusion. What he had not factored into his leap was where he might land or perhaps he had and just did not care. Rumpel's entire focus was removing the threat from those he loved, he saw nothing but a need to save them. A moment later he landed head first in the undergrowth, scraped and scratched on every area of bare skin by the poisonous barbs of the Dreamshade bushes all around.

The Dark One felt pain from the gashes, and in his head that bumped hard against the ground, and then he felt nothing as he fell into unconsciousness

_To Be Continued..._


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Dropped the ball for a bit there, sorry. I wasn't feeling so well, and updates lapsed, but we are now back to your regularly scheduled Rumbelle ;)**

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 8

"Oh, Rumpel, you foolish man!" said Belle desperately as she cradled his head in her lap.

After Rumpelstiltskin sacrificed himself to save his son and his true love, Pan had taken his Lost Boys and disappeared into the jungle. Nobody cared about going after him or worried what his next move might be, Belle and Bae could only think to run to Rumpel and help him. They carefully pulled his motionless form from the Dreamshade bushes, mindful of getting scratched themselves. The poison was clearly more powerful than any magicks that kept the Dark One cursed. Blood seeped from cuts on Rumpel's face and hands, and Belle feared for his life as the skin around each scratch darkened almost immediately.

"He risked his life to save us," said Baelfire, staring down at his injured Papa.

It was as if he couldn't quite believe the truth of it, and yet in his heart he had expected nothing less. For years enough, growing up with his father, Baelfire had always felt loved and protected. They were a team, the two of them against the world, at least up until Rumpelstiltskin became the Dark One. He still professed to care for Bae, to love his son and want only the best for him, but he changed, so much so that he was unrecognisable, and not just because his skin was thicker or his eyes darker. He was not the same man anymore, and could not entirely be trusted, not even by his own son, such had been proven the day their deal was broken, when Bae's hand slipped from his father's grasp and he fell down through the portal. His life had changed so much then, but now Papa had proven himself. He had fought long and hard to find Baelfire, and had risked his life to save him, as well as Belle. Rumpelstiltskin could love, he did love, and was willing to die to prove it.

"We have to help him," said Bae, shaking off too many thoughts. "The water from the spring."

"Yes, it's the only way," Belle agreed, wanting nothing more in this moment than to kiss the man she loved and tell him everything would be fine, but she couldn't.

She had made a promise not to kiss Rumpel until they found Bae and brought him home. Until then, he needed his powers, they all needed whatever magic Rumpel could conjure to get them off this island.

A thought struck Belle as she and Bae tried their best to carry Rumpel's lifeless body out of the worst part of the jungle. If he drank of the water he would live, but would forever be tied to the island. If he stayed, then Belle must stay too, she couldn't live without him now. She suspected Baelfire would want to be here with his Papa too. They were condemning the whole family to a life in Neverland, and yet it must be done. Letting Rumpel die just wasn't an option.

They hadn't walked far when he groaned and shifted awkwardly in their grasp.

"Papa?"

"Bae? Belle?" he checked they were both there as his eyes flickered open.

They stopped walking and let him sit down as he came to. Rumpel took a moment to get over the disorientation of having been unconscious. One hand went to the back of his head where he had struck it. The wound was already healing, as such wounds usually did on the Dark One. Still he was sore, on his face and hands. Looking down he saw the cuts and scratches on his fingers, his palms, his wrists. Rumple had no doubt similar marks existed on his cheeks and forehead too.

"Dreamshade," he whispered, seeing the darkness under his skin, feeling the poison seeping in.

"It's okay, Rumpel," Belle assured him. "We're taking you to the spring. You'll drink and you'll live."

"And be tied to this hell forever," he added bitterly.

"We are not going to let you die" insisted Belle, sure he was about to argue. "If you must stay here, then I will too."

"And me," Bae agreed. "At least we'll be together."

Rumpelstiltskin thought he had been overwhelmed by Pan's power and cruelty, but this was something else entirely. A warmth spread through his whole body, doubling at his old black heart. These people that he loved, they loved him too. On some level he knew that already, but to hear them commit themselves to such a life and all for him, it was so very much more than he deserved. Still, sentimentality could not be the focus now. They were all in danger for as long as they stayed put. Moving was the only option, and certainly the healing waters up on Dead Man's Peak were necessary if he was to keep the Dreamshade poison at bay.

Getting up off his knees, Rumpel found his feet were unsteady yet. When Belle allowed him to lean on her, he really could not refuse. He smiled as she took a little of his weight.

"Thank you, dearie," he told her, glad to see her smile back, even if there were tears in her eyes. "Now, lead on, Bae. There's a good boy."

His son nodded his agreement, pulled out his sword to cut through the undergrowth and pushed on to higher ground. It would be a struggle for Rumpel to follow, but he would do it. He had Baelfire and Belle to fight for. He would've died for them if that was what it took. Now he had to live for them, for just as long as he could.

* * *

It was the strangest thing to watch the terrible black marks that marred Rumpel's skin start to dissipate the moment he had drunk down the water. It was a pleasure to see him look like himself again, even though the healing process was clearly painful, at least at first. Belle crouched down by the spring collecting a healthy measure of water in a bottle Baelfire had provided. It should work, keeping the water with them as and when they went home to the Enchanted Forest. Of course there was a niggling worry in Belle's heart and mind, wondering if the worst might yet happen, that they would either never escape this place, or worse, they would get away only for Rumpel to suffer and die. Her reflection in the water wavered with emotion as much as with the effects of the rippling surface. Swallowing hard she pushed away all the overwhelming feelings and rejoined Rumpel and Bae.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her hand to Rumpel's face which now showed no signs of the deadly Dreamshade.

"Better," he assured her with a shaky smile. "It is quite the day to mark when the Dark One can be overcome by the magic of others," he said thoughtfully then.

Belle hated to see him so downcast. He had fought back when it counted, but it was clear he took no pleasure in being here, in facing off with the boy who had once been a man and his father. She simply could not imagine what he was going through, and a glance at Baelfire proved the boy was equally as overcome by the events of the past few hours.

"I should find food," he said, getting to his feet. "It's been a long day and I don't suppose Pan is done with us yet. We'll need our strength."

Bae wandered off amongst the plants and trees up ahead, and Rumpelstiltskin watched him leave with a shudder of fear.

"Belle? Go with him," he urged her.

"I need to stay here with you," she insisted, but he only gripped her hand tighter and made her meet his eyes.

"Please, go with him."

Belle wasn't sure why he was asking her to go, but she couldn't argue. Perhaps she felt Bae would feel better with company, or maybe he hoped the two of them could protect each other. Belle wasn't certain but she just pressed the bottle into Rumple's hand, ran a gentle hand over his hair and then followed Baelfire out of sight.

Rumpelstiltskin breathed a sigh of relief. His body felt as if he had been pulled on a rack and stuffed through a mangle after all he had been through today. Commanding so much power, fighting off something almost stronger than his own resolve, and then having to cope with the stresses of Dreamshade and its cure. It would take him a while to get his strength back, and yet somehow he doubted he had that long. His main reason for sending Belle with Baelfire was because he felt the darkness of the visit coming. A twisted smile formed on his lips as he forced himself to his feet, his back still to the enemy.

"You're somewhat more predictable than you think, you know," he said, turning to face Pan.

The man with the boy's form smiled cruelly.

"Well of all people, you should know me best, laddie," he told Rumpel. "For as long as you live, and it has been a long time now, you and I shall always know each other best of anyone."

Rumpelstiltskin would not give Pan the pleasure of reacting to such a remark. He thought he knew so much, but that was quite untrue. Peter Pan recalled his days as Malcolm, remembered a scared little boy that had been his son. For all that he had made Rumpel cower before, he could not do so again. The people who really mattered, Belle and Baelfire, their lives and the love they bore for Rumpel were worth fighting for, standing up to Pan.

"You will not break us," he said with defiance. "Some way we will get out of this place, and none of your dirty tricks will be enough," he told Pan, trying to keep the shake out of his voice.

As much as he believed in the power of the love he shared with Belle and with Bae, he was still wary. There was a deep-seated fear and pain inside of him that Rumpel couldn't quite rid himself of. It was too imbedded in his heart and soul. Still, he stood tall, he would not break, not now.

"Little Rumpel, all grown up," said Pan, a cruel smirk twisting his lips. "Goodness knows why any man would choose such a fate, but goodness is something I need to know little of. Nevertheless, you shall not be here long, laddie. I cannot care enough to keep you."

That made Rumpelstiltskin frown. Pan's words did not seem all that threatening, it was almost as if he was giving him a free pass, allowing him to leave if he wished. They both knew it was not that simple, it never could be.

"I don't understand," he admitted, trying not to flinch as Pan stepped in closer, his face suddenly aglow with moonlight.

"It's quite simple really," he said, glancing up to where his shadow flew overhead, and then back to Rumpel. "I'm letting you go, my boy. You, your wench, and your son. I want you off my island, back where you came from. You're too much trouble to keep here."

Rumpelstiltskin was bemused. He was happy enough if he could get back to the Enchanted Forest with his loved ones, but it made no sense for Pan to be so amiable, so helpful. There had to be a catch, a trick, a trap, but even as his expression betrayed his thoughts, Pan denied it.

"I will not go back on my word," he said definitely. "In this land of imagination, we can have anything we want, or at least I can," he smirked. "Behold your vessel home, Rumpel," he said, gesturing down to the bay where a ship bobbed on the water. "With the help of my shadow, you and your loved ones shall go home, and never bother me again."

It was almost too good to be true, and yet Rumpelstiltskin had to believe it. The evidence was there before his eyes, a ship to which he watched Pan command his shadow to fly, pinning the darkness of it to the sail. With the vessel and its magical force combined, they could get back to the Enchanted Forest. Rumpel so wanted to take Belle and Bae back where they belonged, for their sakes perhaps more than his own in this moment. His eyes shifted to Pan as a rush of wind proved he was lifting off the ground.

"Enjoy what you have for as long as it lasts, Rumpelstiltskin!" Pan warned, even as he began to fly away. "One day, you might find it all slips away from you again. When that time comes, there will be no going back."

With that he was gone, leaving the Dark One baffled in his wake, and with tears in his eyes that he could never explain. His father really was lost forever, but the future looked hopeful. He was taking his family home.

* * *

Baelfire looked up at the main sail, in awe of the sight. The Shadow that he had so feared, Pan's most dangerous weapon, was seemingly tied to the sail, staining the crisp white of the fabric with its evil inky black. It strained to get away, but it did no good, and all it achieved was to fly higher and further, dragging the ship with it. Pan had commanded it to take them all home, that was what Papa had said. Bae was still confused about their lucky escape, and wary of trusting in it.

"Why would he let us go?" he asked his Rumpelstiltskin. "After all this time, after leaving you before..."

"Perhaps that's exactly why he let us go," said Belle from Rumpel's other side, whilst he steered the ship by its wheel. "Perhaps Pan feels badly for how he treated Rumpel, even for how he treated you, Baelfire," she suggested.

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head, a most terrible smile coming to his lips.

"No. He meant every word he said to me about letting us go, there is no trick, I would've known if he was lying," he said definitely. "But his allowing us to leave was not merciful, only for his own gain."

That didn't make sense in so many ways. Bae and Belle took the words at face value, that Pan really did just want rid of them from his island because they could potentially cause a lot of trouble. Rumpel knew better. His father's boyhood self meant to make a threat when he told his son to enjoy his life, his family, for as long as he had them, as if he knew the joy could not last forever. Still, there was no point in dwelling on that now. His only focus was getting home, with Baelfire and with Belle, to live the life the two of them deserved, even if it would be so much more than Rumpelstiltskin could ever have earnt himself.

"I still can't believe he's your father," said Bae, shuddering with the horror of such a reality. "I'm so sorry, Papa."

"You have nothing to be sorry for, son," he promised, putting an arm around the lad's shoulders and hugging him close. "I let you go, just as he let me go, the difference is I cared enough to find you again. It does not excuse what I did, Bae, I will always be sorry for hurting you, for condemning you to a life alone for so long, but... but I could never have given up on finding you, I never did."

There were tears in both their eyes as they hugged each other tight. Belle put a hand on the wheel, keeping the ship steady during such an emotional moment. So much had happened and in so short a time, it was entirely overwhelming, but it didn't matter. They were going home now, her and Rumpel, and his precious son, Bae. These two finally had a chance to be a family again, and Belle felt so very privileged to know she might yet be a part of that. In the end it seemed she had been right to believe that love was the most powerful of all magic. It had proven itself to be so, even in Neverland.

_To Be Continued..._


	9. Chapter 9

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 9

Baelfire approached the Dark Castle with a sense of foreboding. As much as he was glad to be home again, here with Papa, safe from Pan and Neverland, it was hard to think of his home life without a little fear and loathing. Before Rumpelstiltskin took on the power of the Dark One, things had been fine. They were never rich, and Baelfire was very much aware of the rumours in town that said his father was a coward, but that never mattered to him. They were a happy family of two for years enough. The dark power that overtook Rumpelstiltskin changed everything. Suddenly with the ability to reign and to be as cruel as he pleased without consequence, Rumpel changed, and Baelfire grew to dislike his father, though his love for Papa remained. Now he saw a castle that was to be his home, a dark and threatening edifice. It was not what Baelfire was used to at all and dreaded to think how this place had come to be his father's own. Through trickery, through magic, he hardly wanted to ask, and yet he felt he must.

"This place was abandoned by its owners, Bae," his father assured him. "I promise you, I merely banished the ogres from it who had tried to make it their own. I caused no harm to anyone in procuring my castle, I only wish I could say the same for all that I have come to possess," he admitted sadly, eyes on the ground then. "But please, son, believe me that our home was come by honest enough means. I simply took on an abandoned building and made it my own, not just for me, but for us."

Belle watched the exchange with interest and no lack of tension. It was almost like the first meeting between father and son all over again. The reunion between them had been volatile. Baelfire was understandably upset by how he and Rumpel had come to be parted, and his father was so very sorry for ever hurting him. Belle only wanted them to work it out, all three of them somehow. She loved Rumpel so much, loved the idea of Bae though she never met him until recently. They could make a family, at least that was what she most hoped for, but it was hard to tell if it could all work out yet.

"I believe you," said Bae. "If you tell me it's true, then of course I believe, Papa."

He couldn't say he believed because his father's word was always trustworthy. Still, he had only ever lied once, breaking the most important promise by letting Bae fall to his inevitable doom through the portal to the Land Without Magic. It would be easy to keep on blaming him for that, but Baelfire knew he had wasted enough of his life already, in the Land Without Magic, in Neverland. Finally he was back where he belonged, with the only family that remained for him. He was happy and hoped to stay that way. Dwelling on the past seemed foolish and petty, even though the situation in question was serious enough.

"Won't you come inside, Bae?" Rumpel urged him, reaching out a hand to enchant the front door, releasing its magical lock. "There is a room here for you, any room you wish, as many rooms as you like," he rattled on.

Belle smiled at his nervous energy. Poor Rumpel, this was his greatest dream and wish, to have his son come home to him. Now Baelfire was here, and though to forgive his father completely would probably take time, and he would never forget what happened, they were patching things up. It mattered that Rumpelstiltskin had proven himself in Neverland. Of course a life and death situation was never what anybody wanted to find themselves in, but perhaps destiny had a plan, Belle thought. It gave Rumpel the chance to sacrifice himself in a way, making clear to Baelfire just how much he meant to him. Belle didn't need that proof for herself, but she got it none the less. She always knew Rumpelstiltskin loved her, and she couldn't care any more for him than she already did.

They all went inside, and Belle hadn't noticed her own tears until Rumpel pointed them out to her.

"We are home, together and happy," he told her with a smile. "And yet she cries," he said, reaching a gentle hand to her cheek and wiping away a single tear.

"I am happy, Rumpel," she promised, smiling brightly even as more tears came. "I cannot tell you how happy. You have your son," she said with wonder as they both looked over to see Baelfire exploring the room, moving through the far door to see more of the castle.

"My son," he echoed, staring at him. "It is so much more than I deserve..."

"No," Belle shook her head, silencing him with her soft but sudden exclamation. "Rumpel, don't say you don't deserve this. You fought so hard to get Baelfire back, you proved over and over how much you loved him, how sorry you were for letting him go," she said definitely.

His eyes were drawn down to the thin rope around his neck when she spoke of his hard fought battles and proving of his love for Bae. Rumpelstiltskin wore a small vial of healing water from Neverland about his neck, keeping it close until such time as he could properly cure himself of the Dreamshade poisoning he had suffered.

"There is work still to be done," he said thoughtfully.

Belle nodded her agreement as he glanced up to meet her eyes.

"Go, spend some time showing Baelfire the castle, and then get to work on your magic potion," she advised, wiping her tear-stained face dry with both hands. "I really should get cleaned up and start on some dinner," she said, moving away quickly.

Rumpelstiltskin frowned slightly as he watched her go.

"Belle!" he called after her, but she didn't look back.

"Bae needs you Rumpel," she told him again and then she was gone from sight.

* * *

It took only a few days for Rumpelstiltskin to find the right way to cure the poison that was Dreamshade. Quite a frightening moment came when he poured the last of the Neverland water away, waiting to see if the elixir he had swallowed kept him alive when the healing liquid from the magical island was gone. After a full five minutes with no ill effects, he truly believed he had completed his task.

Baelfire spent time with Belle whilst Rumpelstiltskin was busy with his potion making. The two of them seemed to have become fast friends, and Rumpel couldn't have been happier when he went in search of them and found a happy scene in the kitchen, flour everywhere as they attempted to bake something it seemed.

"Quite the family moment!" he said, in his usual jovial tone. "Such a moment ought to be captured for posterity," he joked, making a square with his fingers to frame the picture of his beloved and his son.

"Oh, Rumpel!" Belle laughed still, brushing flour from her apron. "Baelfire was just helping me."

"Belle was teaching me how to make a cake," Bae told his father, grinning all over his face. "I'm afraid I'm not very good with the sifter yet."

Rumpelstiltskin laughed along with them as he came closer and saw that the cake mixture looked tasty enough, in spite of all the mess. He dipped a green-gold finger into the bowl and took a taste. Belle slapped his hand for being so cheeky.

"Rumpel!" she explained, though she smiled still in any case. "Can't you wait until it's cooked? How is your son to learn manners under such a bad influence?" she asked, her tone all light and joking so no offence could ever be taken.

"My sincere apologies, dearie," her true love apologised, bowing low. "Perhaps there is some way I can make up for my behaviour. Hearing of my good news may improve your mood," he told her with a look.

Baelfire wasn't sure what to make the of the glances and touches that passed between Belle and Papa. They seemed so comfortable with each other, so affectionate, and yet they did not seem to act as a married couple might. Bae never saw them kiss, not even embrace so far in the whole week he had been home. It was as if they were no more than best friends, though his father spoke of Belle as his true love. Baelfire wanted to ask, but dare not. He did not want to cause any upset when their new little family had just found peace and equilibrium.

Bae's attention was diverted from his wonderings on the relationship between his father and Belle, when she suddenly gasped.

"The bottle, it's gone," she said, putting the mixing bowl down with a thud and gesturing vaguely towards Rumpel's chest.

Bae followed her pointing fingers and his eyes went wide. She was right. The bottle of life-saving water from Neverland no longer hung about Rumpelstiltskin's throat. If he was here, alive still, without that vessel present, then it could only mean one thing.

"Papa, are you truly cured of the Dreamshade?" he checked, almost unable to believe it, and yet he so wanted to.

"I am, Bae," Rumpel confirmed with a nod. "I am as healthy as you, and safe from harm."

Baelfire dived into his father's arms and hugged him tight, not even thinking of the consequences of his actions until he noticed cloudy puffs of flour coming up between them. Belle laughed in spite of herself as the two parted, both brushing themselves down.

"Perhaps now might be a good time for a bath, Bae," Rumpel advised. "By the time you are cleaned up, I'm sure the cake will be baked and ready for decoration."

The teen didn't take much convincing to go, though he did spare his father another brief embrace and a bright smile before he disappeared. Belle turned back to her cake mixture wondering if she should get it into a tin and start it baking after what Rumpel just told Bae, still her mind was wandering in wild patterns as she realised with relief that the panic was over. On some level she had been worrying about Rumpelstiltskin these passed seven days together. She had great faith in his mind and his magic, sure he would be able to cure himself of the Dreamshade before it was too late. At the same time, she knew how fate had treated him over the years and feared that the ultimate irony may yet occur, that just when Baelfire was home again, Rumpel might be taken out of the world once and for all. It was such a blessed relief to know he was okay, she couldn't help the sobs that began to rack her body the moment she allowed herself to believe it.

"Sweet Belle," said Rumpel behind her, his arms wrapping around her waist.

She leaned into his embrace happily, though she wondered at his sudden want to be so close. They did hold each other sometimes, but such moments were brief and she usually initiated them herself. Physical contact was a dangerous thing between them as the years went by. Belle had such love for Rumpelstiltskin, it transcended a simple want to be physically close to him. Most would not look at him and see an attractive man, but Belle didn't care about the colour of his skin or anything like that. In his eyes she saw such beauty, in the depths of his heart and soul, such love and truth. She longed to be with him, in every way that it was possible for two people in love to be close. Belle felt as if she had been waiting forever, and yet when Rumpel encouraged her to turn in his arms and face him, she was astonished to realise he seemed to be about to kiss her.

"Rumpel..." she said too quietly, shaking her head almost imperceptibly. "We had a deal."

"Yes," he agreed with a soft smile. "You and I, we did make a deal, Belle, that you should be allowed stay with me and help me to find my son and bring him home. Your side of the bargain was to keep your distance from me as much as possible, to love me but to never kiss me," he recapped things she knew so well already. "I too made a deal with myself, to not allow you to bewitch me, dearie, to never let you too close. It has been far from easy to keep you at arm's length, darling Belle."

His hands ran down her back as he spoke, eliciting feelings like tiny electric shocks through her body. Belle had never been held like this, not by Rumpel, not by anyone. Too long waiting, wanting, yearning, and now here they were. Her mind raced with possibilities, and arguments as she fought internally with her own good sense. They had kept their distance as much as they could to save Rumpel from losing his powers. His magic was a necessary tool if Baelfire was to be brought home. Now Bae was here, and yet Belle never considered that Rumpelstiltskin would be so quick as to give up the dark power he possessed. Perhaps she should have had more faith.

"For as long as I had to search for my son, I needed the power that being the Dark One gave me," he explained, one hand leaving Belle's body and rising to caress her cheek. "On our homecoming, I needed my magic still to cure me of the Dreamshade permenantly, but now that is done. This curse of mine has been a blessing in it's own way, but now? A curse is all I have left," he told her. "Baelfire tries to love me in this guise, but he misses the man he called Papa long ago. I believe even you, dear, sweet, patient love of mine, would like me better as the man you think you see inside."

"I do see him, Rumpel," she promised him. "I see the real you, beneath this mask, because that is all it is to me, just a mask. Your heart is true, if it weren't you couldn't love Bae as you do, or..."

She wanted to say that he couldn't love her as he did without a true heart but dare not speak the words. It had taken so long to get to this point, to feel as if finally they might be together and happy at last. Baelfire was here, Rumpelstiltskin had no excuse for hanging on to his magic, and yet Belle had believed he might find some other reason. Perhaps she had been wrong.

"Belle, you know what I feel for you," he told her, staring deep into her eyes. "If it were not the true love you spoke of, so many years ago, you would not have come so close to breaking this curse that holds me."

She nodded in agreement, all words escaping her.

"We have a chance, Belle, you and I, and Bae. To be a family, a normal, happy family."

Rumpelstiltskin had inched ever closer as he spoke, until there was but a hairs breadth between their lips. In the end it was Belle that had to clear the final distance and initiate the kiss. Whether he had deliberately given her the final choice or just lost his nerve, she supposed she would never know, but Belle also couldn't care. The kiss they shared was everything she had been waiting for as the world fell away and all either of them knew was each other. His fingers tangled in her hair and her arms held him close as the kiss went on and on.

When finally they parted to breathe, Belle looked into the clear bright eyes of a man, the man she loved, and for the first time since she met him, his whole face matched those eyes. He was as he had once been, no longer the Dark One, just Rumpelstiltskin.

"Thank you, Belle," he breathed, leaning his forehead against her own as the force of the power leaving him overwhelmed his body and mind. "My true love, you have freed me of a curse I should never have allowed to overtake me."

"And you have given me the greatest of gifts yourself, by being my true love, by allowing me to find a home and a life and a family here," she smiled, her hands at his handsome face. "I love you, Rumpel," she assured him, planting another brief kiss on his lips.

"And I love you, Belle," he smiled. "I shall never be able to tell you how much."

_To Be Continued..._


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: This is the final chapter in this Rumbelle tale, but if you're interested in a sequel that jumps forward in time, and focuses on Baelfire and Emma, look out for the second story in this series, coming soon to afanfic site near you ;)**

_**(For disclaimer, etc. - see Chapter 1)**_

Book 1, Chapter 10

Belle woke to the warmth of another body close to hers and soft kisses on her neck and shoulder. A smile graced her lips as she allowed her eyes to open and she turned into the embrace of her beloved.

"Good morning, Rumpel," she greeted him and kissed his lips.

"Good morning, sweet Belle," he replied in kind. "I thought I should never tire of watching you sleep, and yet I felt compelled to wake you."

"I shall certainly never tire of that kind of awakening," she promised him. "Is it early?" she checked, noticing the room was barely in half-light yet.

"A little," he confessed. "I was having trouble sleeping myself."

Belle frowned a little at that.

"Are you in pain?" she checked, worrying her lip.

Since he ceased to be the Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin had to get used to things physically hurting again. He had a bad ankle and Belle knew why. It was one of many stories he had told her over the years they spent together, though he was not proud of injuring himself. He had said he was almost glad to have the pain back, reminding him of the man he had been once, the coward he would never be again. Still, Belle hated knowing he felt any pain.

"The leg is not so bad," he assured her, smiling at her concern. "It took a while to adjust to feeling it again, that was all," he told her. "All these months gone by, it's not so bad."

"Then what's bothering you, Rumpel?" she asked worriedly.

Life had been a constant series of adjustments for the past eight months. Coming back from Neverland with Baelfire, it made Rumpelstiltskin happy, and Belle was hardly less grateful for the way things turned out. Of course, that didn't mean everything was perfect, nothing ever really was that. They all had to adjust to their new lives, their new roles, and it had taken some time to all be completely comfortable together. They seemed to be there now, and yet Rumpelstiltskin couldn't help the worries that plagued him.

He was lucky, he knew that much. Things could have been so different, so awful. Finally, Rumpel had his son back in his life, and the teenager that seemed to grow like a weed had adjusted to his new lifestyle quite well. Baelfire still got upset sometimes, had nightmares, threw accusations in Rumpel's face the moment there was a disagreement, but their scuffles were less all the time, and ultimately Bae seemed happy to be home. He and Belle were the greatest of friends. She could never replace his mother and Rumpel knew neither of them would want that anyway, but she was motherly enough when Baelfire needed that, and a friend and confidante when that was what was required. She played peacemaker very well too, as and when any bickering began.

As for Belle herself, Rumpelstiltskin still wondered at how she could love him as she did, and perhaps ever more so at how he had kept his distance from her year on year. He supposed with almost all his focus pinned on finding Bae, missing the son he had betrayed and feeling guilty as any person could for what he had put him through, it was that much easier to put Belle to the back of his mind much of the time. Now she was very much in the forefront of his thoughts, central to his life. In relative terms she was his wife. They had made their vows to each other and started to share a bed within a week of her breaking his curse, though nothing was official. Rumpel feared anyone outside the castle knowing he was powerless now, and Belle, as well as Baelfire, well understood that. The two of them would go to town, with Rumpeltiltskin's accumulated riches in hand to buy whatever provisions they needed. He hardly ever stirred out of doors and certainly never went beyond the castle grounds. Most of the time, Rumpel couldn't imagine wanting to leave the bed he shared with Belle, apart from to spend time with his son. The two of them were his life, his world, all he could ever want, and perhaps that was why he worried so.

"I wonder at my life, Belle. All it has been... all it might yet be," he considered in a voice so soft, had she not been paying full attention Belle was sure she wouldn't have heard a word. "If I had continued in my plans, forcing Regina's hand until she cast the dark curse..."

"But you didn't," she cut in.

Rumpel shook his head.

"Because of you, dearie," he told her honestly. "My love for Bae, it blinded me to what I was doing, to how many lives I was destroying for my own ends," he said, staring off into space, perhaps seeing the past or some form of the future there, Belle couldn't be sure. "And then you came along. Your love opened my eyes to new possibilities, Belle, to a life I never dreamt could be mine," he said, hand cupping her cheek as he met her eyes once more. "I shall never be able to thank you enough for all you have done for me."

"I don't want your thanks, you silly man," she assured him, leaning into his touch. "You love me, and that is all I need. Our love sustains us, all of us," she reminded him. "You told me yourself that true love is the strongest of all magic. That's true whether it's romantic, or between a parent and child, or amongst friends. Nothing is stronger than the three of us now. It never could be."

Tears came to Rumpel's eyes as he moved in and kissed Belle's lips. She was the most incredible creature he had ever met in his entire life, and certainly he had lived longer than many a man could ever dream of. What she said was true, he was certain. The love in their family, between the two of them and his son too, it was stronger than anything. The power of it was that much more than any magic Rumpelstiltskin had ever wielded in darkness. This was a light magic, a power that was overwhelming and yet felt perfectly safe to hold on to.

"You know, if the curse had been cast, I still think we would have found each other," said Belle then. "We were fated, Rumpel. Destined to be together, and I believe that if we had been thrown into the Land Without Magic or been cursed to stay in Neverland forever, it wouldn't matter. You and I would always find each other, Baelfire would always come back to us. Somehow, some way, we were always going to end up exactly like this."

He smiled at her pretty words, and though it seemed like such a far-fetched idea, he would like to believe she was right. Certainly true love was supposed to always find a way. Through it all, Snow White and her Prince Charming never failed in getting back to each other in the end, and their trials had been numerous to say the least. Perhaps Belle was exactly right in what she said.

Rumpelstiltskin opened his mouth to say as much when a knock came on the door. Frowning, he moved away from Belle and ensured the covers were arranged properly over the both of them before he called 'come in' to the only person who could be on the other side of the door.

"Baelfire, what have you been up to?" asked Belle with a smile as the boy, who was by now quite the young man, approached the bed with a tray laden down with food.

"I got up early," he explained. "I wanted to do something special, so I used all the skills you taught me in the kitchen. I might've made a mess down there," he admitted, looking awkward. "But I'll clean it up. Hopefully it was worth it," he said, presenting his tray to the couple. "Happy Father's Day, Papa."

It was clearly a surprise to Rumpelstiltskin to realise it was even that particular occasion today, and he was completely bowled over by his son's charming gesture of breakfast in bed.

"And since there is no day on which we might honour Belle, I thought she could share with you," said Baelfire with a bashful grin.

"Oh, you are so sweet!" his step-mother enthused, gesturing for him to come closer so she could hug him.

"Aye, son. You've done a grand job," his father smiled, feeling quite overcome. "Thank you, Bae."

"You're welcome, Papa," Baelfire smiled back at him.

It was the start to another happy day in a castle that no longer deserved its title of dark. There was far too much love and happiness within the family living there for it to ever be true again.

* * *

"Happy Father's Day, Daddy!" yelled eight year old Emma as she threw herself bodily onto the bed, startling her father and almost doing him an injury into the bargain.

"Thank you, Emma," David chuckled none the less as he sat up, stirring Snow at the same time. "But is it not a little early yet?"

"It's never too early for presents," the little princess rolled her eyes as she forced a handmade card and a wrapped gift into her father's hands.

Snow sat herself up and watched the joyful interactions between her husband and daughter. She loved days like this, happy family days with no commitments to worry about. Being Queen was all well and good, but it could be tiring. Every once in a while she got to take a day, or even part of a day, to enjoy being a wife and a mother, and those were her very favourite times.

Of course, Father's Day was tinged with sadness for a woman who had since lost both her parents at the hands of those to remain nameless and unmentioned. All Snow could do to console herself was remember that at least justice had been done on her mother and father's behalf. Regina was behind bars, since before Emma was even born, and had posed no threat in all that time. The kingdom was a calm, peaceful place for the majority of the time. Even Rumpelstiltskin had not shown his face in months now. Some said he never had returned from Neverland. Others claimed he was holed up in his castle, nursing a broken body or a broken heart, perhaps both. Snow wasn't sure what to think. Her only concern for the longest time had been Emma's welfare, what might become of her after the night when she summoned Pan's shadow to her window. She never had mentioned it, not since the event itself occurred, and Snow certainly wasn't going to bring it up herself. There had been no nightmares, no fears or worries, so Snow let the concern she had felt slip away.

"Wow, that is... that's really something," said Charming with a smile as he looked over the home-made gift his daughter had given him.

Snow took pity on her husband within a moment when she realised he hadn't a clue what he held in his hands.

"I told Emma you would love a birdhouse for the garden," she explained with a look. "After all, you were the one teaching her all the names of every bird in the woods. Now they might come and visit us more often."

The little house meant for feathered friends was kind of lopsided and painted in an odd design, but the prince knew his baby girl had been heart-felt in her gift. He grinned as he placed the birdhouse on the nightstand and pulled his little girl into his lap, hugging her close.

"Thank you, Emma," he told her, planting a kiss on her forehead. "It is the third most perfect gift I have ever received in my life."

"Only the third?" she asked, looking a little hurt, but Daddy was quick to console her.

"Yes, third. After you and your mother," he promised. "You two are the greatest gifts a man could ever wish for."

Snow couldn't keep the smile off her face at the sound of those words and leaned over to kiss her husband's cheek.

"Still as charming as ever," she teased him.

Emma was grinning with joy as she threw herself into the centre of the bed right between her parents and looked up at them both from the pillows with dancing eyes. Even at eight years old, Emma was certain that when she was older, she wanted to be just like her mother and be married to a man as great as her father. They were so very happy, it amazed her sometimes.

"I love you, Mommy. I love you, Daddy," she told them in turn.

"We love you too, sweetheart," Snow promised, leaning down to kiss her face, wondering why she ever worried for a moment about things going wrong.

For as long as it lasted, she really should enjoy this happily ever after she had found, just in case it didn't quite last forever.

The End


End file.
