A/N: So this is something of a departure for me. I usually read and write Swan Queen, but when I was re-watching Season 4, it struck me how similar the situation Belle and Emma found themselves in at the midpoint - when Belle kicked Rumpel out of Storybrooke and Emma was still convinced Regina hated her and her parents feared her. With a bit of a twist, they could have had so much in common. There are nods in this story to my Swan Queen trilogy The Hero's Way, but this is a new story that should be read on its own.

Rest assured that I am still working on The Hero's Way Back. This plot bunny grabbed hold of me last night and refused to let go until it was down on paper, and once I started, I couldn't stop. 3500 words written in a matter of hours. I plan to continue the Hero's Way - that won't be left unfinished, but this idea is really interesting to me and depending on your feedback, I will keep this going, too.

No beta sullied themselves with my pitiful scribbles; all mistakes are mine. I claim no ownership of the show, characters, settings, or plots. Any resemblance to any real people, places, or events is entirely coincidental.

Enjoy!

Reading Between Their Lines Chapter 1

It started, as these things so often do, with a drink.

It ended with two words.

But The Savior would argue until her dying breath that it was the story in between the catalyst and the happy ending that was the most interesting.

The Librarian, being an expert on stories in general, generally agreed.

It was their story, after all.

The actual beginning of these events happened before the drink.

Rumpel was gone, for good. Belle found the dagger that he'd hidden from her, lied about, loved more than her. Fury rose hot and wild in her, for once daring to stand up to the cowardly Dark One. She threw him out. Banished across the town line, where he could be no danger to anyone she cared about, least of all to herself.

The very next day she'd marched into the Mayor's office, ignoring the squeak of protest from her secretary. Throwing open the doors with a resounding boom, she watched in satisfaction as Regina's eyes bulged at the intrusion before she murmured to the person on her phone that she'd call them back. "What can I do for you, Mrs. Gold?" She asked, needling just a bit in retaliation for the interruption.

"You can help with the Mrs. Gold part," Belle shot back, "Rumpel's gone. I banished him with his own dagger. He's across the town line with no magic and can't get back in."

"I seem to have noticed this morning being brighter, citizens being more cheerful, even Snow's irritating birds were less bothersome than usual," Regina grinned, sitting back in her chair, "And you don't seem the least bit down about this turn of events."

"I'm not," retorted Belle, "he's lied to me and treated me like garbage for the last time. I'm here to call in a favor."

"Really?" asked Regina, looking interested. "And what favor is it that you think I owe you?"

"Try 28 years locked in a dark, dank cell of a mental institution, being used as a pawn in a power struggle. Ring any bells?" Belle asked, fists on her hips.

Tilting her chin upward, Regina conceded the point. "One of the things I regret most about this curse," she admitted, folding her hands and leaning forward onto her desk. "So what is this favor?"

"Divorce me," ordered Belle.

That brought a chuckle out of the Mayor. "My dear, I wasn't aware we were married."

"You know what I mean!" Belle exploded, pacing around the room. "I'm done with Rumpel and his lies. He loves power more than me, always has. Well now he has neither. Our marriage was never legal in the sense of this realm, but as Queen and Mayor, you can force the paperwork through to dissolve the union validly for both realms. This is my favor. Sever my ties to the Dark One and we're even."

Regina studied her intently for the briefest of moments before seeing the sense in the request. "Agreed. I'll have the papers to the library tomorrow morning." She made a note on the pad she kept near her phone for just such occasions."

"Thank you, Regina," Belle breathed, her bravado evaporating with relief.

Demurring, the Mayor waved her off. "Glad to help. Anything that even has a chance to rankle that old man is something I'm glad to do. What are you going to do now that you're a free woman?"

Belle turned thoughtful, truly not having considered her courses of action. "I really hadn't thought much beyond the divorce, honestly. I need to mourn the relationship at least a little. He was my first love, and for a while I even felt he was my true love. We were together for years even before the Dark Curse, and then a couple years afterward. I need to process that before I make any big changes. After that, I think I want to live for myself for once. I spent my childhood being told what to do by my father, who tried to marry me off against my will, then sold me for peace. Then I spent my adulthood being imprisoned by the Dark One before falling in love with him. Stockholm Syndrome they call it in this world. I think I need some time to just figure out who Belle French is. Start with a clean slate."

Regina nodded, impressed at the librarian's analysis of her situation. "I agree, for what it's worth. I've always felt you were much stronger than either your father or the Dark One."

Turning to leave, Belle gave Regina one more look. "Regina, I've always hated the years I spent in the cell here, and I don't know if I'll ever really get over that, but I wanted to thank you."

Jaw dropping, the older woman looked at Belle like she'd grown a second head. "THANK me? What in God's name for?"

"Without the Dark Curse, I'd have been stuck in that castle, bonded to the Dark One forever as another of his toys that he played with when it suited him. Sending us to this realm was a huge help for me. It brought me out from under both Rumpel and my father's control, in this world where women have far more rights than they did back in the Enchanted Forest. I can be who I want here, do what I want, and think what I want. Having indoor plumbing, central heating, and the Internet is pretty nice too," the Librarian grinned. "So thank you. I hope someday I can work through my feelings about the first 30 years here and we can become friends."

"I'd like that too," Regina admitted with a quiet smile.

Nodding, Belle left the office without another word, closing the door behind her with much less force than she had upon her entrance.

Emma's story was slightly different.

Not long after their return from Neverland Emma had shown up at his ship with a pizza in one hand and a six-pack in the other, intending on introducing him to some of the delights of this particular realm. "Hook? Hook?" she called, wondering what was going on when she didn't hear a reply. She made it as far as the door outside his chambers when the sound of grunts, moans, and squeaking springs gave her all the answers she needed. It was the same old story. "Sorry, Emma, but you're just not enough."

Just a few months later, her parents were accusing her of being a monster and knocking a light post onto her father on purpose when Ingrid riled up her insecurities, thus proving them true.

Her loved ones feared her.

From there things had gone from bad to worse. Regina stopped speaking to her after she'd accidentally brought Marian back from the past and unwittingly reunited Regina's fairy-dust foretold (thanks, Tink! Emma growled to herself) True Love with his formerly deceased wife. The thing made her head hurt when she tried to puzzle it out.

What made it all worst was when she tried to apologize. She really did. Time after time she tried to corner Regina and say she was sorry for hurting her. She didn't know what would happen, but she was the damned Savior, it was in her job description to save people that needed saving.

None of it mattered.

Regina went from what seemed to be a contest with herself to see how hard she could slam the door in Emma's face to using magic to teleport her to interesting places all over Storybrooke. More than once Emma had found herself swimming back to shore, in a compromising position at Granny's, or inside her own jail cells.

Still she kept coming. Somehow, some way she was going to make things right with Regina, even if she couldn't make her True Love return her feelings.

None of it got her anywhere. With the Arendellean royals returned home and the Dark One banished, life in Storybrooke should have calmed down.

Should have.

Instead of falling into a humdrum small-town America existence with her long-lost family and where Emma made amends with Regina for what happened in her past, Emma had found herself more and more isolated.

Her parents were spending most of their time with her baby brother. She knew in her mind that babies needed lots of care and attention, but her heart hurt at every missed glance, every half-answer, and every unanswered phone call. She was more like a sister to her parents than her daughter.

That said nothing of her son, either. Having decided that his brunette mother needed far more support and love than his blonde mother did, Henry had moved back to the Mansion full-time. Having moved out of the loft into her own place when her brother's sleepless nights showed no sign of abating, Emma was well and truly alone.

Which was a damned good enough reason for her feet to find their way to The Rabbit Hole one evening.

Pushing open the door, she gazed around the crowded interior before finding a familiar face seated alone at the bar. Needing some company, any kind of company, Emma made her way to the empty spot next to the woman who was pounding shot after shot, sensing a kindred spirit.

"This seat taken?" She asked Belle.

"Doesn't look like anyone's ass is there, Sheriff," the brunette snarked back.

Eyebrows shooting almost into her hair, Emma slid onto the stool. "What's got you drinking so hard today?"

Belle snorted. "How much time ya got?" she muttered in an uncharacteristic display of bluntness from the usually soft-spoken, gentle librarian.

"I got all the time in the world," Emma shot back, sensing the mood of the evening.

"Well, let's see: my best friend was outside the Enchanted Forest when your parents cast the second Curse that brought us back here, so she's still somewhere in another realm. I just banished my ex-husband across the town line because I got tired of his years and years of lying to me. I have no close friends here in Storybrooke, and my own father still resents me for choosing to live with the Dark One in the first place, so I'm living in the apartments above the library all on my own," Belle rambled, her speech increasing in speed until she was breathless at the end.

"Well, I'm not Ruby, but if you're okay with it I could be some company tonight? I've been told I have a sympathetic ear," offered Emma. Second choice again, she wasn't Belle's preferred companion that evening, but after being ignored by her entire family so soon after finding them, she was just happy to be something to someone, whether it was their first choice or not.

"You might as well, Sheriff. Talking to someone other than stacks of books would be nice for a change."

"If it helps, my son chose to live with his adoptive mother because she was so depressed after I accidentally brought back her True Love's first wife from the past. She's refusing to speak to me, and my parents, when they aren't accusing me of dropping major structures on top of them and protecting babies from my very presence, are focusing all their attention on their perfect second child, the one they named after Henry's dead father and the one they didn't shove through a portal to save themselves, ignoring me at every turn," Emma rushed, matching Belle word for word, feeling the lessening of her pain the more she spoke.

Regarding the blonde with a surprisingly thoughtful expression given the amount of liquor she'd slugged back in just the time Emma had been there, Belle signaled for two more shots without breaking their gaze. "Sounds like I just found myself a drinking buddy."

"I'll toast to that," Emma answered, picking up the glass of amber liquid, gesturing to her new companion, and slugging back the… "Yech. What the hell is this stuff?"

"Spiced rum," explained Belle, trailing off as she realized that Emma might not find the drink to her tastes for any number of reasons.

Shaking her head, Emma gestured for the bartender. "Two shots of my favorite, please."

Belle watched as a different amber liquid seemed to materialize in front of them. "What is this?"

Emma grinned. "When you live in Boston for as long as I did, you learn to appreciate good whiskey. This is my favorite Irish whiskey in this world."

Belle stared at the small glass suspiciously before shrugging and picking it up. Emma met her gaze, fighting down the shiver that went up and down her spine at the intensity of the other woman's blue eyes and raised her own glass. "Sláinte!"

"What does that mean?"

"It means 'to your good health,' or something like that, shrugged Emma. "Now let's drink!"

Clinking glasses, they each threw back their drink. Belle coughed as the drink made its way down her throat. "Oh that burns!"

"Just give it a second," Emma grinned, waiting. She could see as the initial heat faded based on Belle's face relaxing.

Swallowing a few times, the brunette finally got the full taste notes of the drink. "That's much better than I thought it would be!"

One drink turned into two, and two into three. Before long they were giggling and telling each other stories of humiliations past, letting the whiskey and confessions burn away their loneliness in the company of a kindred spirit. The crowd ebbed and flowed around them until it was deep into the night and they were among the only patrons left.

"I'm sorry that Rumpel didn't love you more than his power," Emma slurred in a quiet moment between memories, "You d-deserve all that and more. He was an idi – itidi – moron for not seeing it." She emphasized her point by tucking a strand of auburn silk behind Belle's ears and caressing her cheek. The librarian's skin felt like silk over the world's softest pillow, and Emma had to shake off the errant thought that there were plenty of other places on the other woman that she wanted to check to see if they felt just as wonderful to the touch.

"Thanks, Emma. It means a lot to hear someone say that," Belle admitted quietly.

"You're more than just Rumpelsi…Rumpele…The Dark One's girl or your father's daughter," Emma insisted through her whiskey-fueled haze, needing Belle to understand how sincere she was, "You're a wonderful, intelligent, strong woman who has done more for this town than most of its other residents. I haven't spent as much time getting to know you as I wish I could have now."

For her part, Belle hoped both that the shiver she felt at Emma's contact and the flush that she knew was taking over her face could be attributed to the drink more so than her proximity to the blonde. She'd always been impressed with Emma when they were attempting to head off the Crisis of the Week in Storybrooke. The younger woman had a strength about her that was more than just her almost-otherworldly physique (not that she had spent too much time checking her out, it was more an appreciation of another person's…person, she told herself, hoping she believed it) or the presence of her innate magic. It was something about her personality, tempered like steel in the fires of a brutal childhood, growing up without warmth, care, or love. Emma knew what she wanted and went after it. It was a characteristic that a meek librarian who made the mistake of falling for her captor the Dark One could admire.

"Well if it heps – helps YOU any," Belle responded with her own stutter, waving her hand in a gesture that probably meant some form of emphasis, "I think Hook was a moron himself. Tink has nothing on you. Nothing on your looks – serioushly you have to tell me how you manage to get those jeans on every morning without buckets of baby oil," the image of Emma's legs covered in baby oil as she pulled the jeans on almost short-circuited her brain – she was NOT imagining the panties that adorned the top of her legs – and she had to shake her head to get back on track, "not to mention how quickly you've adapted to living in this crazy town. What your parents did was unconscho…unconsho…bad, but they didn't know what they were doing. I'd be just as upset as you are, trust me."

During her own attempt at offering comfort, Belle's hand found its way to Emma's. She squeezed the other woman's strong fingers, trying to convey with the gesture what she was unable to express verbally at that moment.

Unsatisfied with the touch, Emma put her newest round down and reached out, embracing the other woman. When she pulled back, Emma saw the same intensity in the other woman's eyes that had been sending tremors down her spine and raising goosebumps on her arms the entire evening.

Unwilling to act on the feelings coursing through her for fear that they were fueled by whiskey instead of true emotion – not to mention the fact that she didn't know whether or not Belle was feeling the same things, Emma backed down. "Wow, I didn't realize how late it was getting. Thank you for being a sympathetic ear," she said, hating how weak her voice sounded and sure that Belle would see her retreat for what it was.

"Two in the morning? You're right, it's incredibly late. We should do it again sometime, though," the librarian answered.

"Really?" answered the blonde, hoping the eagerness she felt didn't make her seem like she was coming on too strong. It had been so long since she had someone she could count as a friend.

"Really. What shift do you work tomorrow?" asked Belle, throwing a few bills from her purse onto the bar.

One of these days Emma was going to have to figure out exactly how US currency made its way into Storybrooke. "I have the late shift. David wanted to be home more nights to help with N- my brother."

Sensing the pain behind Emma's barely-avoided use of her sibling's name, Belle gave her a reassuring smile. "I understand. What would you say to meeting at Granny's for lunch the day after?"

"I can do that, Emma responded with a shy smile.

"Great! See you at noon, then?"

"It's a date!" answered Emma, sliding back into her jacket. "Are you okay to walk home?"

Belle's giggle sounded throughout the much-quieter bar. "What if I'm not? Is the Sheriff's department going to arrest me?"

"I may just have to walk you home to the library," Emma said in false seriousness. "Just to be sure that you get home safely. You never know what's going to be going on in Storybrooke."

"That is true," Belle pretended to consider the idea. "Okay, fine. I'll let you escort me home."

With a shared smile, Emma offered her elbow to the brunette, who happily took it. They walked out of The Rabbit Hole much happier than when they came in, secure in the knowledge that they'd found a kindred spirit. The excitement of a new friendship was enough to banish the demons for that evening.

A/N: So yeah, this was a leap for me. What did you think? I have more chapters mapped out in my head, but this can stand on its own as a one-shot. What say you? Should I continue?