[center][img=http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d94/Malfoys_one_and_only_girl/240x160StorybrookeGold.gif?t=1407788619][img=http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d94/Malfoys_one_and_only_girl/Signatures/belle.gif?t=1412654595][img=http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d94/Malfoys_one_and_only_girl/240x160StorybrookeRegina.gif?t=1407788618][/center]

[b][i]Presently...[/i][/b]

"Y-you're alive?" Mr. Gold...Rumpelstiltskin...could not fathom what his eyes were telling him he was seeing. It was Belle, and yet, it couldn't be. Her spirit had been the epitome of his sleepless nights, watching over him as he tossed and turned and cried out into the night when nightmares haunted him. She was the subject of many dreams, some good, and others that left him with tears in his eyes when he woke. He had seen her heart get ripped out in front of him and crushed into dust; a fact that finally brought his tearful brown eyes away from Belle and down to Regina who was doing her best to get herself up and off of the floor though he made no move to help her. Instead, he extended a bony finger, pointing accusingly at Regina with his sombre expression gone with the blink of an eye, replaced with a menacing snarl with his eyes growing dark once again with his nostrils flared.

"What did you do?" He asked Regina slowly, setting the chipped teacup back down onto the desk delicately. Regina made no reply though as her full concentration was on her arms pulling her off of the floor with the help of the wall and desk.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!" Rumpelstiltskin repeated, this time shouting and throwing all caution to the wind. He needed answers...now, before he decided to end Regina's miserable life all together.

"I could have killed her, but I didn't-" Regina replied using the back of her dress shirt sleeve to wipe the blood that ran down her split eyebrow and into her eye, letting her back rest up against the wall in attempt to catch her breath.

"-No...you did much worse than that..." Rumpelstiltskin interjected, the word barely above a whisper, rolling over the top of his snarled lips and began heading towards Regina with a purpose; blood lust in his eyes.

It only seemed to take a couple minutes before Rumpelstiltskin grew vicious, a gaze Belle had seen before. Glancing over her shoulder at the struggling Queen, Belle returned her gaze to Rumpelstiltskin who slowly began to approach. Stepping in between the two Belle stopped the man. 

“Leave her be Rumpel.” Belle looked down at the bleeding queen and clenched her jaw. Before returning her gaze to Rumpelstiltskin, she moved closer to him and met his eyes. “ She is a nuisance, yes and a horrible person. Killing her would not make you any better than she.” Belle’s arm rested on his shoulder as she made sure to keep his gaze. “Just leave her alone.”

Rumpelstiltskin's dilated eyes focused away from Regina and onto the beauty that stood in between them, slowly softening until the blood lust left in them melted into anger, and then hurt. Her delicate hand on his shoulder sent electricity shooting through his tempering blood, bringing a fairly new type of energy to the older man that for once didn't stem around anger. It was more than just a reassuring touch to him, it was also the reality that she really was here; with him and alive...[i]really[/i] alive!

His face softened as he read the stubborn expression on Belle's face that matched her determined words. It was the first time he was able to look at Belle, [i]really[/i] look at her and he couldn't help but to think that she had looked better after spending a week locked up in his dungeon than she did now. Her hair was splayed and disheveled, dark bags hanging under her eyes from lack of sleep and poor nutrition...she looked much thinner than he remembered, probably being starved to death...but despite her current state, she had never looked more beautiful to him. He couldn't push the fact aside though, that Regina had caused this, thus stirring up the angry beast hidden within him, but he remained vigil and kept his anger at bay, instead trying to reason with Belle.

"But she tried to harm you!" He exclaimed softly, afraid that if he were to raise his voice, she would become angry with him.

“But I’m here now.” She spoke softly. It was odd seeing Rumpel this way. He seemed so normal, so human. Belle smiled softly for a brief moment.
 
Rumpelstiltskin looked conflicted, his eyes darting past Belle to Regina who had made a mess of her own blood on her sleeve as a sort of compress to stop the bleeding. Their eyes met and Mr. Gold could identify the fear she so desperately tried to hide in her eyes.

"Go." He growled and pointed a finger towards the back door of his shop.

Regina's eyes flickered from Mr. Gold to Belle and then back at the pawnshop broker, perhaps with relief as she pushed herself from the wall and headed towards the exit. She supposed she should have been grateful that his little pet had intervened, but she was feeling anything but. She kept her head held high as she left the pawnshop, holding onto any bit of dignity the Mayor of Storybrooke might have left. The door closed shut, and Rumpelstiltskin and Belle were left alone.

Rumpelstiltskin let go of a breath he didn't realize he was holding, his eyes coming away from the door and back to Belle. He set his cane aside, letting it rest up against the desk and placed both of his hands on Belle's arms gently.

"My darling Belle, you have to tell me what happened to you..."

Belle met Rumpelstiltskin’s gaze, the soft smile still on her lips. Seeing him like this, as a man, made her happy. The last time he was even remotely close to looking human had been long ago and Belle had been practically removed from his life. 

“She had me imprisoned. It was like a dungeon but different. This world…it’s so odd.” Belle spoke. “I lost count, I couldn’t tell when the days began or when they ended.” She continued. “Occasionally she would come see me. Then the man came he let me out. I couldn’t recognize him, I had never seen him before. He spoke words I didn’t understand. Hospital…Maine?” Belle shook her head and blinked before looking back up at Rumpelstiltskin. 

“He said your name was Mr. Gold.” She looked at him with a confused gaze.

Mr. Gold nodded with understanding, though he tried to remain sympathetic towards Belle, he couldn't help but to feel more and more angry with Regina.

"We're in a new land Belle," He began to explain, keeping his hands light on her arms; afraid that if he let go she would disappear, and that this would all be a dream. "The Queen cast a curse on our land, ripped everyone from there and put us all here. It is a land without magic, we all have different lives, false memories...false names. As you said, I am Mr. Gold. Here, everyone refers to me as such. Here, there is no Dark One...no Rumpelstiltskin..."

He studied her face carefully, suddenly realizing that Belle had called him by name to begin with, and his concerned face turned to curiosity.

"But not you..." This gave him pause...if Belle wasn't affected by the curse, there had to be a reason for it. "Five years; five years Regina had you locked up." He shook his head, vocalizing the thoughts running through his head. Where he had been keeping Belle was beyond him, but it wouldn't be the first time Regina had a little hidden place within Storybrooke, though he only knew of the one under the clock tower.

"I can't let this stand Belle-I [i]wont[/i] let this stand!" His voice was raised, unable to quell the anger this time though not at all directed towards Belle. He had to do [i]something[/i], simply beating Regina to a bloody mass just wasn't enough; and that was simply because he thought Belle to be dead; circumstances had changed and Regina would pay the ultimate price.

No magic? False memories? The queen used to abuse her powers and in this world she had none, it didn’t make sense to Belle. She looked at the man. “You best not be thinking about hurting her in any way Rumpel.” Belle spoke as she saw a surprisingly familiar glint in his eye. “You have no reason to in this world. She can’t harm you, she can’t threaten your power. All you have are hateful memories, things from the past that can’t be undone. You have me again, we have each other.” Belle moved closer as she made sure their gazes met. “Promise me you won’t hurt her Rumpel. Promise me and we can be together!”

Confliction overcame the older gentleman's face, his eyes darting away from Belle's as for the moment he couldn't look into her bright amber orbs, afraid of what he might find there or even worse, what she might find in his own. What Regina did was inexcusable, she [i]would[/i] pay somehow, he would most certainly see to that. Belle didn't understand...how could she? She had no knowledge of Storybrooke, of what had transpired here over the last five years (and more importantly what had happened the last two weeks).

He nodded dumbly for a few moments, gathering the courage to look back into her gleaming eyes and let his hand move up from his light hold on her arm to touch the side of her face delicately with the back of his fingers.

"Oh sweetheart..." He found himself choking on his words. Whatever emotion that was going through him that caused him to do so was a mystery even to him, unable to understand this overbearing sense of protection he had for Belle that had only grown substantially since the very day she agreed to take her father's place as his prisoner. There were so many things he wish he could have done differently back then, in what felt like another lifetime; perhaps it was regret that was causing his brown eyes to well up with tears as he looked upon his beauty with such a look of adoration it was incapable of [i]not[/i] being called love.

"I promise."

He didn't realize until their lips had already met that he had taken the initiative to bend his neck down towards her and kiss her with a longing he hadn't known he had held within him, though a small pang of regret tugging at the back of his mind unsure of how welcomed the notion was.

He had initiated the kiss, and she hadn’t pulled away. Belle leaned in with no complaints and kissed him with a passion that she didn’t even know she held for him. It felt right, this is how it was meant to be for them. 

At this point, Belle didn’t care that Rumpel had lied to her, told her that she wasn’t meant to be with him, that he had sent her off and pushed her away for his selfish reasons. Now she could finally be with him and not worry about loosing him again.

Rumpelstiltskin's hand let up from her face and found it resting now on the small of her back, feeling the intricate patterns of the red cloak she wore to cover herself, pulling her in closer to him as the kiss was reciprocated and the cold wall of ice he had been building up for centuries shattered, allowing her into him on a level of vulnerability he hadn't shared with a single person in the thousand years of his lifetime, kissing her in a way that no words could ever even begin to compare to relate 'I love you.'

When breath became an almost alarming matter, their lips parted but they kept their faces close, gazing into the others eyes. He watched her smile at what he was sure was a look of sheer stupor on his face and felt his chest grow warm as she nuzzled herself into him and relax. He kept his arms around her, holding her close and resting his chin on the top of her head ever so lightly, content to just hold him to her for the remainder of his days, however numbered they may be.