Work Text:
Outside, the clock struck midnight and the sound of the bell reached their ears.
One...
Rumpelstiltskin breathed.
Two...
He had to keep himself together. For Belle.
Three...
She reached for his cheek and his face crumbled against her palm.
Four...
“It's alright,” said her soft voice.
Five...
God, he was so scared .
Eight...
He reached for her.
“Don't let me go.”
“I won't.”
Ten...
He kissed her cheek, over and over.
“You're a hero! You are my hero!”
Eleven...
She tried to tell him she loved him but she couldn't control her sobs.
“A hero! That's who you are and don't you ever forget that!”
More than anything in the world, she needed him to know, he couldn't leave without knowing.
But his mouth covered hers and silenced her attempt in a desperate kiss.
Twelve.
Rumpelstiltskin went limp in her arms and collapsed on the floor.
Calling his name would be in vain. Belle knew that.
She did it anyway.
Pain came first, as it usually did. Sharp and insistent up his calf. A morning reminder of past sins and of a dreadful day ahead. His sleep, however, had been a quiet, uneventful one. A true blessing.
Although... if he focused... maybe there had been a dream. Not a bad one. Something about a clock. And there had been a woman.
Outside, he could hear the voices of the people in the village, up and about their business, a mere whisper in his ears.
“It's getting late.”
“Leave him. He's exhausted.”
And there he was. Still in bed, thinking of dreams.
He sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his hands.
“Lazy idiot,” he sighed to himself, quietly. They couldn't afford to lose a few hours of work. “Bae!” he said, louder, but still too quietly to actually pull the boy out of bed. Rumpelstiltskin wasn't a man who shouted very often. “Wake up, boy. Time to get to work.”
Belle did her best to speak as softly as she could. “Please, don't scream.”
It didn't work.
The first thing he did was scream and recoil against the wall.
“Well!” Regina said, clapping her hands together. “We're off to a good start.”
“I'm sorry!” Belle said, urgently, holding up her hands. “I'm sorry, we didn't mean to scare you.”
Emma couldn't help but think they were failing miserably because Rumpelstiltskin seemed to be on the verge of panic already. He was pressing his back against the wall as if he wanted to merge with it and his eyes were about to jump out of its sockets. They traveled from Belle to Regina, to Emma, to Belle again, and then settled on David, who was standing right behind them, arms crossed, giving the women a chance to explain. Despite having said no words, Rumpelstiltskin still looked at him as if he was the most terrifying thing in the room.
“Who are you?” he asked, meekly. His hand fumbled for something on his right side.
“I'm so sorry, please,” Belle repeated. “We're friends, we're not here to harm you.”
“I don't have friends. Who are you?” Then his eyes looked away from David and took in the whole room. “Where am I? Why did you bring me here?”
“We can explain everything, Rumpelstiltskin. Just, please, calm down and we can talk.”
Panic finally got to his eyes. “You know my name.”
Emma frowned. He didn't seem concern about how Belle knew his name, but that she knew it at all. As if that alone could only mean horrible things.
“Yes,” Belle said. “As I told you, we're friends. We didn't come here to do you harm.”
E mma watched wrinkles forming on his forehead, as if the concept of visitors that didn't mean to hurt him was foreign to him.
The conclusion he reached was, “ You're here for my son.”
“No,” Belle said, still trying to remain calm, but already feeling exhausted. How was she going to do this? It hadn't been two minutes and she already needed a break. “No, we're not here to take your son. No one will do you harm. Please. Believe me.”
He actually seemed to consider it. But then lips trembled and he looked around, shouting, “BAE! BAE!”
“Rumpelstiltskin, please,” Belle pleaded, but he didn't pay attention to her, shouting his son's name over and over again.
Regina sighed, twisting her mouth in a way that indicated she was not pleased with the way things were going. “Alright, we need to change our approach.”
She raised her hands, but Emma slapped them down. “No!”
Though the slap was not directed at him, Rumpelstiltskin stopped shouting for his son and stared at Emma with big wet eyes. She didn't notice, too busy keeping her eyes on Regina, who seemed to be very annoyed by the slap.
“It won't hurt him,” she explained. “We just need him to stand still.”
“You're not using magic on him, you'll only scare him further,” Emma hissed, half eying Rumpelstiltskin, half eying the Evil Queen, and keeping her voice low.
“Its a freezing spell,” Regina said, not bothering to keep her voice low. “So he won't freak out and run away, for goodness sake.”
“Will you stop this? You're scaring him!” Emma said, volume rising.
“Because you keep talking about magic in front of a cowardly peasant.”
“You're the one who-”
“You two are not helping!” Belle said, looking back at them. When she turned to face him again, she noticed his right hand was still fumbling the wall in search of something. Belle said, “Would you like your cane?”
That only seemed to make increase his terror. “Stay away from me.” In any other mouth, those words would have been a threat. In his, they were nothing but a plea.
David looked around and found the cane resting against the cabinet closest to him. Maybe he'd calm down once he had it. “Is right here-”
“I said stay away!” he repeated, volume only making him sound more terrified.
“It's fine, you can have it.”
He stepped closer and held it out to him, giving the handle for him to grasp, but that seemed to disturb him more than anything else because he stumbled out of bed, his right foot landing on the floor loudly. It made him grimace, but didn't slow him down when he rushed out the door.
“Oh, look!” Regina pointed out in the most obvious tone she could muster. “He ran away!”
Belle shouted, “Shut up, Regina!” And followed her husband.
*
Rumpelstiltskin managed to limp to the front of the shop, though he didn't pay enough attention to it to realize it was a shop. His leg was killing him, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was his son.
“BAE!” he shouted. “BAE, PLEASE!”
But there was no reply.
Where were they keeping him? They needed to get out of here! And why had they brought him there in the first place? Were they afraid he'd fight back? No. Couldn't be. It had to be something else. They were going to punish him. Him and the boy for trying to run away. Had Bae been dragged to war already? Lord, please, not that! They couldn't have. He was only a boy.
“Rumpel, wait!”
It was the woman's voice. The one that looked eager, and sweet. Deceivingly kind.
What else could they take from him? Why couldn't they leave him alone?
He couldn't stay there. They were coming to get him and do lord knows what.
He had to leave.
He had to leave now.
The woman shouted after him, “No, Rumpel, don't, it's not safe-!” But the door closed and her voice was gone.
The sun blinded his eyes. For a moment, he couldn't see anything, but he stumbled away from the door anyway. There was no time to lose. He had to find the battlefield. Had to find Baelfire. There was still a chance.
A screeching sound made him stop. His balance, already poor, gave completely and, suddenly, he had his hands on a large, metal beast.
“Goddammit, Stiltskin! Get off the road!”
It spoke.
It roared at him.
It was going to devour him.
“Rumpel, please, come back!”
“Can I use magic now?” asked the other woman. The one that sounded frustrated, but honest.
Rumpel looked over his shoulder. All four of them were coming after him, walking out of a strange hut that didn't look like the ones in his village. This wasn't his village. And there was a metal beast staring at him, it's one eye large and bright under the sun. Menacing.
And that was when Regina decided not to wait for permission and knocked him out cold on the asphalt with a spell.