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Belle looked at her husband's sleeping figure.
The Blue Fairy had come saying she should have left with the others to find Emma but had she refused.
She couldn't leave her husband all alone in Storybrooke, especially knowing very well no one would have cared to look after him during her absence.
The group had understood and had left without pressure.
"Oh Rumple..." she sighed as she caressed his forehead.
"Wake up please, come back to me"
The hospital room was quiet, Belle had managed to have him stay in a private room because she knew he would have hated having people seeing him like that.
He had a reputation after all.
Belle smiled thinking about him getting mad for it and then her smile faded when she thought back at his current condition.
Dr. Whale hadn't been able to tell when he would have woken up and Belle was getting more and more nervous.
Was he even going to wake up?
She thought back to him trying to get rid of the dagger, her banishing him and all the things he had done, she had been mad at him of course but now her anger was gone, she just wanted her husband back, nothing more.
She had talked to Archie, he said it could have been some sort of trauma giving what had happened with Zelena and with him losing his son.
Belle had cried a lot.
She had cursed herself for not trying to understand his reasons, she knew what he did was wrong but she also knew she should have let him explain, she should have tried to understand him before acting like she did.
"I'm so sorry Rumple..." Belle sobbed while holding his hand tighter.
She just wanted him to wake up and talk to him.
She needed to hear his voice again.
What if it was too late now?
"I should have listened to you..." the woman said lowering her head.
She felt guilty of Rumple's condition, she thought that maybe if she didn't banish him he would have been fine.
Archie had tried his best to comfort her and she had appreciated his efforts, he was a precious friend but that guilt feeling couldn't go away.
Henry had given her his book.
He had suggested reading to him their stories maybe he would have woken up.
Belle placed the book in her lap and smiled, Henry was genuinely worried about his grandfather, he was a good boy.
"What about a little fairy tale Rumple?" she asked like he could have answered her.
Belle opened the book and started reading to him.
She read their fairy tale.
She read and talked gently to him holding his hand, she didn't know if he could hear her voice but she had to try everything.
For his part Rumple was actually listening to her.
His mind was confused and his body ached but he could hear her.
"Belle..." he murmured.
He was in a bad state, he didn't even know if he would have ever woken up.
He felt guilty for everything he did but most of all he felt bad for hurting her feelings.
"Belle... I don't deserve you..." he murmured.
He had thought about letting himself go.
He had thought her love for him was gone forever.
"I only see the beast!" she had said.
Those words had hurt him more than his heart did.
He had lost his son and without her he would have been nothing.
"I'll just let it go Belle and you will never see me again..." the man had said.
"You know, I think you have been really brave!" He heard Belle say.
Rumple stopped his thinking and just listened to her voice.
"Everyone had always been telling you were a coward for injuring yourself and trying to run away with Baelfire but I think you weren't"
Was she reading his story?
"You are brave Rumple and a good person, you risked your own life to protect your son's! That's not what a beast would do" she kept saying.
"You don't really think it... I heard it! I heard how you said you didn't see the man anymore only the beast!" Rumple shouted knowing very well Belle couldn't hear him.
Tears were forming in his eyes.
He thought Belle hadn't seen them but he was wrong, the woman noticed how his cheeks became wet with tears.
A flash of hope passed through her eyes as she quickly got up from her chair calling Dr. Whale on top of her lungs.
"He... he cried..."
The doctor quickly examined him.
"Well, I can't really tell what kind of coma it is but it seems there was some sort of reaction to something you said to him" the man said.
"What should I do?" Belle asked.
"You should keep talking to him I guess"
After the doctor had left the room Belle returned to her chair and grabbed Rumple's hand again.
"All right Rumple, I'll keep reading you this book all night long if that's what it takes for you to wake up!"
"I don't need it..." Rumple muttered in his mind.
He kept listening to Belle anyway.
"Look! That's when we met!" the woman said.
"I remember it like it was yesterday..." the man smiled.
"I was a bit afraid of you at the start but then I get used to your tantrums!"
"I... didn't throw tantrums... I'm not a child" the man thought offended by her words.
He heard Belle giggling.
"But that's what makes you the man you are I guess and I like it"
Rumple felt the tears coming back.
"You were annoying sometimes but... but... you were also able to make me smile..." Belle said between tears.
"Don't do that Belle! Don't cry for me!" Rumple pleaded.
"I want to listen to you and to fix our relationship Rumple! I know you are a good man and I'm sorry if I called you a beast!" Belle was almost yelling between tears.
She didn't want him to go.
"I... I still love you!"
Rumple couldn't believe his hears.
Did she really loved him?
After all he did to her?
"Wake up!" he ordered to himself.
He didn't want to let himself go anymore.
He wanted his Belle.
She still loved him.
He still had a chance to apologize.
"WAKE UP"
He slowly opened his eyes.
The lights were blinding him, it took a while but he was finally able to fully open his eyes.
"Belle..." he whined stretching his arm in front of him.
"Belle where are you?"
The woman quickly turned her head towards him.
"Rumple?"
Then she realised.
He was awake!
"Rumple!" she yelled throwing herself at him.
She grabbed his hand squeezing it to make him feel she was really there.
"Belle!" Rumple smiled with teary eyes.
Belle hugged him with all her strength as Rumple whimpered into her shoulder.
"Belle I'm sorry!" he said.
"It's all right Rumple..." she soothed him caressing his head.
"No it's not! I don't deserve your love! Why did you stay with me?" Rumple said hiding his face into her dress.
Belle caressed his back.
"Because I love you! I love you Rumple and it's not true you don't deserve my love!" she told him.
Rumple opened his eyes.
"What?"
"I love you and I'm ready to tell you everyday if that makes you feel better!"
Rumple slowly broke the hug and just stared at her with teary eyes.
"Belle... I'm sorry..."
Belle smiled.
"Rumple... I should be the one apologizing"
"You don't have anything to be sorry for"
Belle shook her head.
"That's not true, I made you cross the townline without even letting you talk... and I was the reason you get sick..." Belle preferred staring down at the covers rather than into Rumple's eyes.
"No! It's not your fault I would have been sick anyways, it... was because of my curse..."
Belle wiped a few tears from her eyes.
"Maybe you would have been sick anyways but I still made you leave by using the dagger and without anything... I'm so sorry Rumple..."
"Don't be..."
Belle took a deep breath to calm down a bit.
"I won't if you tell me everything..."
"What do you mean?"
"I didn't let you speak that night and I regret it! Please talk to me now!"
Rumple nodded.
"Yes" he said.
Belle smiled and held him close to her again.
As he rested his head on her shoulder Rumple thought that he was happy for not letting himself go.
He still had Belle by his side who loved him.
He loved her too and he loved her even more than before, she had been his strength and she would have always been.