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He was in the back of the pawnshop tinkering with a clock whose repair had eluded him for far too long when the bell jingled out front. He started to set down his tools, remove the eyepiece he was wearing for the close work, when he remembered that Belle was in the front of the shop. He could well imagine her touching each object, dusting it off. She was no longer his servant and yet she enjoyed keeping the shop tidy. It gave her something to do, she always insisted and with an indulgent smile he would allow her to do whatever she wanted.
"Lacey." Rumplestiltskin cringed just slightly as he heard his son say the name of Belle's cursed persona. He could hear the hesitation in his voice, could well imagine what he was thinking considering the last and only time he had met her.
"Actually, it's Belle." The words were spoken brightly.
"Belle?" Confusion laced his son's voice. "You're the one of the phone call."
"I am."
"Then…"
"I fell over the town line. Regina…she created a false personality, false memories. That wasn't me." A pause. "Well, not the real me at any rate. It's all very confusing as you can imagine." Belle had spoken to him only on occasion about her memories of being Lacey. She hadn't shied away from it, but he could tell that the whole thing pained her slightly. She was quick to assure him she didn't blame him for what happened, that she understood, but he knew it was hard to reconcile the Belle he knew, the one that always strove to bring out the best with him, with the young woman named Lacey who brought out the darkness.
"He called you a hero…?"
"He saved our kingdom from the ogres and in exchange I agreed to go with him." It was strange to hear it spoken of so plainly, but he supposed that really was an apt description of their rather inauspicious beginning.
"You made a deal with my father?"
"I did…I agreed to be the caretaker for his castle."
"So all of this is then…"
"Oh no." And he could hear her laugh. "The deal has long since been concluded. This is something entirely different."
"The woman who loved an ugly man."
"In spirit only. Neal, he's trying. You must know that." Her words had turned earnest, almost pleading. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear this. He thought about stepping out back so he couldn't hear anymore, maybe even making his presence known and stopping the conversation before it could get too far, or maybe he should just stick in some earplugs and go back to his clock repair.
Instead he continued to listen. Because he couldn't stop even if he wanted to.
Neal must have been moving around the shop because he could hear the soft thud of footsteps followed by the click of Belle's heels. His own champion. He never could have imagined she would be such a thing when he first agreed to their deal. He expected a spoiled princess who would grudgingly do as he asked to save her kingdom, all the while scorning the beast who had taken her in. He hadn't expected Belle.
"What's that?" Belle's voice sounded curious, as it so often did. He felt his lips turn up in a slight smile.
There was silence for a long moment and he wondered what was going on. He almost pulled the curtain back just to see if he could figure out what was happening.
"It's my ball." The words were spoken so softly that Rumplestiltskin almost didn't hear them. He walked a few feet closer to the curtains that separated him from his love and his estranged son. "He kept it all these years." He can hear the awe in his voice. What his son probably didn't realize was that not only did he keep it, but it was one of the first things he made sure came over from the other world to here. He had spent countless hours magically tagging items he wanted the curse to take. It was a painstaking process, but one that had been important to him. Some items he knew might be needed for breaking the curse, other items might be useful for once the curse had been broken. And others had been purely sentimental items that Mr. Gold knew nothing about, but Rumplestiltskin held dear to his heart. The teacup Belle chipped, the ball his son had spent countless hours playing with, the shawl he once wore. All had made it over and all had been clung to when he discovered them soon after remembering who he really was.
"I suspect there's many things your father kept." He can hear the comfort inherent in her voice. He wondered if his son could too. He heard her walk back across the room and she shut his eyes. He knew exactly what she was going to do. "Here…"
"A broken cup?" He almost laughed at that one.
"I dropped it and chipped it on my first day at his castle." She sounds almost nostalgic. "I was so scared he'd do something awful to me. I'd heard the stories…"
"Most people had I'm sure."
"He told me it was 'just a cup.' And then he ended up using that cup the entire time I was with him. He brought it here too. A reminder of our past when he thought I was dead." She paused and he could only imagine his son's reaction. "Regina locked me up and kept me in the hospital here during the curse. He never knew until I was freed by someone and sent to his shop." He felt the familiar rage at Regina's going unpunished over that. Thirty years of being locked up, most of that time being without any memories at all. And Regina walked free. He wondered if she would ever know just how Belle had spared her life.
"Wow. That really sucks."
"Neal? Have you ever considered giving him another chance?" He started at that. Should he stop her? Wait? Her voice was quiet, but sincere. He wasn't sure he wanted to hear the answer.
Silence reigned for so long that he finally decided it was time to make his appearance. He did so quietly, only the tapping of his cane alerting the others to his presence. Belle turned around rapidly and greeted him with a huge smile. She immediately rushed to his side, wrapping her arms around one of his, and standing close to him as she turned to face his son once more.
"Bae." The word came out with such pain that Belle squeezed his arm just a little bit tighter and brought one hand up to rub the back of his neck gently.
"Father." He looked away from his father and he could see his eyes fall on the ball. It was ancient, almost falling apart, but there it sat still in a place of honor hundreds of years away from when he last played with it and in a whole new world.
"It's all I want Bae. A chance. I know, son, that it can never be right between us. I know what I've done. I know where you've been." His voice broke on the last, remembering the horror that was Neverland. "I know forgiveness is not warranted and that you may not be able to. But I just want a chance to get to know you again. I've spent a lifetime…several lifetimes in fact…trying to get back to you, just so I can tell you how sorry I am. And how much I love you."
His son watched him for a long moment and he was sure he wasn't imagining the brightness to his eyes. "Maybe we can try that." And then he turned and walked out.
Rumplestiltskin took a deep breath and sagged slightly. The only thing still holding him up was Belle. His Belle. She was always there for him, always knew the right things to say. She walked with him to the back of the pawn shop and he knew she was helping to keep him upright, even though she made it seem more like she was clinging to him.
He sat on the couch and she sat with him, not letting him go, their arms still linked. She reached out to grasp his hand in hers.
Bringing one hand up, he cupped her face with his long fingers. "Thank you." They might have been the most sincere, the most honest, words he had spoken in his entire life. Leaning in he pressed a soft kiss to her upturned mouth. She may have just saved his relationship with his son. Thanks were not nearly enough for such a thing, but it was all he had at the moment.