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jackabelle73 · 7 years

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Between Present and Past, ch 2

OUaT fic: Rumbelle and Swanfire pairings.

Word count: ~2,200 for this chapter.

A/N: This was not supposed to be a multi-chapter fic. But I asked @beliza-fryler for a prompt and gave me two innocent little letters-- A and U--that set my brain spinning. So heck with it. I’m gonna try something different with this story. Shorter chapters with (hopefully) frequent updates. Fair warning that I don’t really know where I’m going with this, I’m just gonna pants the darn thing. I’m open to prompts if anyone has any.

Chapter One here. (Previously under a different title; I changed it.) AO3

It started with their facial expressions…Neal’s incredulous and angry, and Emma’s defensive, guilty, leading quickly to anger. Belle watched them through the window from her chair inside the bar. Emma and Neal had helped her back there, and convinced her to sit with her shoes off and her swollen left ankle propped on another chair. Emma had asked for an ice pack from the bartender and placed it on Belle’s ankle before following Neal outside. Belle couldn’t hear what the pair was saying to each other, but it was easy enough to see the escalation of their discussion from their body language.

Belle sighed, pulling her phone from her purse. She really couldn’t put off calling Rumple any longer. He had to be frantic by now and to be honest, she was surprised he hadn’t shown up already. Though she supposed the only reason why he hadn’t, was the lack of magic. In Storybrooke he’d have tracked her and poofed to her side within five minutes.

He answered before the first ring even finished chiming in her ear.

“Belle! Where are you? Is Bae there?”

“He’s here,” she assured him quickly. “He’s right outside, talking to Emma. I think you need to get here, Rumple.”

“Outside where? Give me the address.”

“Oh, it’s…umm. Let me find it.” She searched the outside pocket of her purse where she’d stashed the slip of paper.

“I’m getting in a cab right now, and heading in the direction you took when you left.”

“What’s a cab?” she asked, pulling the paper out. From the corner of her eye, she caught the bartender’s curious glance.

“It’s a car, sweetheart. A car for hire. I’m paying the driver to take me to you.” She heard a car door slam. “Now please, the address.”

“Right.” She read it off to him, and heard him relay it to someone else.

“Thank you, Belle. I’ll be there in a few minutes, just don’t let Bae leave.”

From the look of things, Bae wasn’t thinking of leaving. He was too busy shouting at Emma, and she was shouting right back. Passers-by were giving them a wide berth.

“What happened when you found Bae?” Rumple asked. “Tell me everything.”

“Rumple, I need you to slow down, and listen to me for a moment. I think that Bae is going to come back to Storybrooke with us, but not for the reason you might think. There’s been a…complication.” She winced as she said it, still mortified that she’d been the reason the complication was revealed.

It had been clear from Emma’s reaction that she’d never meant to tell Neal about Henry, and it only took seconds for Belle to put it together. She didn’t know everything that had passed between the two of them twelve years ago, what factors had led to Emma giving Henry up for adoption and Neal never knowing that he had a son. But it was a pretty safe bet that Emma’s reasons had been highly personal, and Belle felt bad that she’d exposed the other woman’s secret against her will.

But at the same time…Neal had a son, which meant that Rumple had a grandson. In spite of the complicated situation which could still lead any number of ways, she couldn’t help the hopeful joy that was welling up in her on Rumple’s behalf. He was a man who loved his family beyond all reasonable mortal limits, who would do anything for those he loved. Yet he’d gone centuries with no family and no one to love him. But now, since the curse broke, she’d returned to him. Today he had the knowledge that his beloved son was alive and well, and soon he would know about his grandson as well. Through Henry he’d be related to Emma, the Charmings, and even Regina. Well, okay, not all the relations would welcome him with open arms, but at least he wouldn’t be alone anymore.

“Belle? What kind of complication?” Rumple asked urgently, and Belle realized that it wasn’t the first time he’d asked. She hesitated, wondering if it was better to warn Rumple before he arrived, or let Bae and Emma break the news.

Outside, Neal threw up his hands and turned away from Emma, taking several angry steps before turning back to her and saying something else. Neither of them looked ready to offer rational explanations to anyone.

“Rumple…did you know that Bae and Emma knew each other, years ago?” The shocked silence at the other end told her the answer.

“When?”

“Oh…I’d say about nine months before Henry was born.” This time he stayed quiet so long that only the honking of car horns that she could hear through the connection, let her know that he hadn’t hung up. “Rumple, are you still there?”

“Bae is…Henry’s father.” The words came out slowly, as though he were testing how it felt to say them.

“Yes. Emma obviously never meant to tell him, and he’s pretty angry with her right now. But he’s already said that he wants to meet Henry. So hopefully, he’ll come back to Storybrooke with us.”

“For Henry.” His flat tone said that he’d seen right through her attempt to emphasize the positive. “So he wants nothing to do with me.”

“Rumple…he’s still hurting from what happened between you all those years ago. And he’s in shock. He had no idea you were here, in this land. No idea you were looking for him. And he certainly didn’t expect for his ex-girlfriend to show up on your behalf and then find out that he has an eleven-year-old son he never knew about. Try to be patient with him, Rumple. Please.”

“Alright,” he answered after a long moment. “I’ll try. I’m almost there, are you--” He cut himself off and even over the phone she could hear his gasp. “I can see him. That’s him, outside with Emma. Oh, Belle…it’s him.”

The line went dead before a yellow car pulled up outside and she could see Rumple getting out of the back seat, gaining his feet awkwardly with the help of his cane but never taking his eyes off his son.

Neal froze where he stood, and Emma took a step back, giving the father and son space. Belle eased her injured foot off the chair and used the table to support her weight as she stood, grimacing as soon as her left foot touched the floor, even without weight on it. Using chairs and tables to help her balance, she made her way to the door and hobbled outside in her stocking feet, her eyes fixed on Rumple’s face and the extraordinary range of emotions on display there. Hope, fear, happiness, sorrow, regret…Belle wanted to stand by him and offer her support. Instead she stayed in the bar’s entry where she could cling to the door and balance on one foot.

Outside, the city assaulted her senses again with the exhaust fumes from the hundreds of cars on the street, every one of which seemed to be honking at the others. People rushed by on the sidewalk where their little group stood like a still life, but the pedestrians seemed to instinctively know not to walk between Rumple and Bae, instead altering course to go around them. The moment stretched between the two men, neither of them taking the initiative to speak first. Belle looked back and forth between the two of them, wondering how to break the tension.

“Hey, anybody gonna pay me?” The man in the yellow car was looking irate. Emma gave a brief look at Rumple, still in shock and paying no attention to the man behind him. She walked over to the cab, pulling her wallet out.

“Bae. Is it really you?” Rumple had yet to look away from his son.

“Yeah. I guess I’ve changed a little since the last time you saw me, huh?” Neal shrugged and leaned back against the building, arms crossed and trying to affect an attitude of nonchalance.

Rumple nodded, at a rare loss for words.

“You traded in the scales for a three-piece suit,” Bae observed. “Is that…my swaddling blanket?”

Rumple looked down, fingering the old piece of fabric he was wearing as a shawl. “Yes. I kept it, Bae. All these years, and even through the curse that brought me to this land. It’s my most prized possession, my talisman. It was all I had left of you, and I charmed it to allow me to keep my memories outside Storybrooke. So I could find you, finally.”

He took a limping step toward his son, who held up a hand and shook his head. Rumple stopped, and Belle’s heart ached for him.

“No. You don’t get to touch me,” Neal said flatly. “You shouldn’t even get to talk to me.”

“But…I found you, Bae.”

Emma shifted from foot to foot behind Rumple. Belle met Emma’s eyes, and saw that she was no more comfortable with this than anyone else.

“Yeah? That’s real touching. Doesn’t change what you did to me. You abandoned me, dropped me through a portal and left me all alone. And you have no idea, none, what I’ve been through!” He shouted that last, causing a couple who passed by to eye him curiously. He lowered his voice to add, “Coming after me centuries later…doesn’t change anything.”

Belle watched as Rumple’s face fell, saw him acknowledge the truth of what Bae said.

“I’m sorry, Bae. I never meant for it to happen; I just panicked. I’ve been looking for you all these years, so I could apologize, and tell you that I love you, that I never stopped loving you.”

Bae snorted his disbelief. “Just words. You always were good with words, but they’re not enough anymore. I was hoping I’d get away before you showed up, so I wouldn’t have to deal with you at all. But that one--” He waved at Emma, still standing at the curb after the cab pulled away. “She dropped a truth bomb on me, and now I find out that I’ve got a son. And nothing, in this realm or any other, will keep me from meeting my son now that I know about him. I figured she would call you,” he jerked his head toward Belle. “But not even having to deal with you, will keep me from getting to Henry. I’m not going to abandon my son.”

Rumple glanced toward Belle when Bae pointed to her, for the first time acknowledging her, and saw the way she leaned on the door.

“What happened to you?” He scanned down to her feet, still with no shoes, and how she held one foot off the ground.

“I tripped, that’s all.” Belle tried to put some weight on it, but snatched her foot back up again.

Emma walked past Rumple and Bae to her side, offering support. “It looks like a bad sprain. She should see a doctor. Do you know one close by?” She directed the question at Bae in an obvious attempt to change the subject.

“There’s no need for that,” Rumple said. “Once we get back to Storybrooke, I can heal it. We should get back to the rental car, so we can get underway. It’ll take a few hours, do you think you can wait that long, Belle?”

She flinched at the idea of waiting several more hours for the pain in her ankle to go away, even as Bae spoke up.

“Uh, no. I’m not getting in a car with you. Not putting myself in a position where I have to talk to you for hours on end. I washed my hands of you years ago, and you showing up, out of the blue like this and saying you’re sorry? Doesn’t prove anything.”

“It proves that I care, doesn’t it?” Rumple asked. “Bae, please. What do I have to do to gain your forgiveness?”

He shrugged. “Don’t think you can. But if you want to prove your sincerity, that would be a start.”

“Yes. Tell me what you want me to do,” he offered, and Belle breathed a sigh of relief. She’d been so afraid that he would refuse to compromise.

“I want you to keep our deal. The one you broke when I was a kid. You promised you’d go with me to a Land Without Magic, that you’d give up magic forever to prove your love for me.”

“Bae, I don’t understand.” Both hands on his cane, Rumple gave that little shrug of his. But he was listening. “That was centuries ago, what do you want me to do now?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Bae spread his hands, indicating the city around them. “We’re here now, in a Land Without Magic. If you want to prove yourself to me, you’re gonna stay here, while I go to Storybrooke to meet my son.” He smiled at his father, and Belle saw another similarity between father and son, that triumphant glint in the eye when they knew they were in a position of power over their petitioner and held all the cards. Bae pointed at Rumple with a satisfied smirk. “I want you to keep your promise, finally. I want you to give up magic.”

CHAPTER THREE

#ouat #rumbelle #swanfire #au fic #between present and past

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