Chapter Summary: In which Belle deals with an influx of memories, Rumple makes some big moves, and Regina has a bad day.

"What happened?" Belle gasped, shaking her head and trying to make sense of the flood of memories crashing through her mind and mixing with the increasingly confusing Storybrooke ones that were already there. "Where are we?"

"Belle," Rumple said, his voice achingly tender and filled with wonder. His hands hovered around her shoulders as if not daring to touch her, a funny thing considering the manner in which she'd awoken.

She couldn't help her eyes sliding over the man in front of her. He looked so different than she remembered. His skin was smooth, his eyes dark amber. He was so normal, so human.

Belle shook her head again. She had a lifetime of memories with Andrew Gold, but Andrew Gold didn't exist. This was her Rumple, all along. And she'd never seen Rumple in such a state of undress.

Belatedly, she realized she too was stark naked. With a squeak, she wrapped her arms around herself, covering her chest, her cheeks burning. She had a lifetime of memories with this man, but now she was Belle, not Izzy, and she felt far too exposed.

Rumple reached to the side of the bed, plucking his discarded shirt from the floor and wrapping it around Belle's shoulders. She took it, gratefully, sliding her arms into the still warm silk and buttoning it up. Rumple, however, made no move to dress himself, still staring at her as if she would disappear at any moment.

She couldn't help but notice his erection had completely dissipated. Belle's cheeks flushed even redder. She'd been with Rumple once before, a quick fumble in his dungeons before he'd thrown her out. She hadn't seen him naked then. But now he sat before her completely bare.

"What happened?" she repeated her question, now that her mind was a little clearer. The last thing she remembered from before Storybrooke was sitting in her tower cell as purple mist leaked in from the high barred window. And now she was here, with Rumple, in a world so unlike the one she'd last known.

"A curse," Rumple explained. "Regina's revenge. She brought us all here, to a world without magic."

"How long?"

"Twenty-eight years," Rumple said. "We've been trapped here, time unmoving, reliving the same hellish existence day after day."

Belle let out a ragged sob. Twenty-eight years she'd been here. Longer than her entire life in the Enchanted Forest. She couldn't quite piece together what was real and what was just a planted memory. She hadn't been born in Australia, had never set foot there. She was from the Marchlands. She'd never married Andrew, never worn a white dress and stood before the justice of the peace. She'd always just been here, in this house. She'd never lived with her father…

"My father!" she exclaimed. "The accident…"

Rumple's eyes shadowed and he looked away from her. It was the only confirmation she needed.

"The baby," she croaked out, her throat suddenly tight. "That was real?"

Rumple nodded sadly. "I'm so sorry, Belle. It's all my fault. Once time started moving again you were able to get pregnant. I never should have touched you. I should have been stronger…"

How could he think she was upset at being pregnant, rather than losing their child? "I lost our baby," she said, the horrible truth dawning on her. "I was pregnant and now I'm not."

"It wasn't your fault," Rumple insisted, shaking his head. "It was mine and Regina's but never yours."

It didn't matter whose fault it was, who shouldered the blame. They had created new life together, out of their love, and it had been snuffed out before it ever had a chance.

Belle wrapped her arms around herself, as if holding herself together physically could mend her broken heart. She'd never given much thought to children. It was a foregone conclusion that she'd be expected to give Gaston sons upon their marriage, but once she'd gone off with Rumple it seemed that part of her life was over. She'd never allowed herself the luxury of daydreaming about children with Rumple even as she was falling for him. That relationship was always so precarious, it seemed an impossibility that he would ever open up enough to her for that. But now she had been pregnant and it suddenly seemed as though it was something she'd always wanted and never realized. How could she miss something she'd never even really had?

"I lost our baby," she repeated, hollowly. Izzy had grieved her child, but for Belle it was a fresh wound. She felt the loss all over again, tears welling in her eyes. "We made a baby and we lost it."

Rumple chanced placing a hand against her back and Belle crumpled into his side, letting the tears fall. Rumple stroked her back, letting her mourn. They sat there for a long moment reflecting on all they had lost, but, Belle ruminated, there was still so much she didn't know.

"How did I wake up?" she asked eventually, her voice croaky from her tears.

"True love's kiss," Rumple supplied. "Or an approximation thereof."

Belle shook her head. That couldn't be right. They'd kissed plenty of times in the past few months. Why hadn't she woken before now?

"Why did it only work now?" she asked. "This wasn't the first time we…" she trailed off, motioning at the rumpled bed behind them.

"Perhaps Izzy didn't truly love me until just now," he said. But Belle just shook her head again.

"She's loved you for months, that can't be it."

Rumple nodded, folding his hands and looking down at them. "Then perhaps it's that I didn't truly let myself believe it until now."

Belle gave him a sad smile. Wasn't that the truth? It was the very reason he'd thrown her out so many years ago. Because he thought no one could ever love him.

"You never did," she acknowledged.

"Because I don't deserve it, Belle," he said, his face crumpling. " I've tried to understand, but I never have and I never will. After everything I've done, after all the ways I've hurt you…"

He trailed off, staring down at his knees. Belle wondered for a moment if he was still talking about the pregnancy, or throwing her out of the castle, or the years she'd spent in Regina's prison. She had been hurt, but she didn't blame Rumple for any of it.

Her memories were still struggling to sort themselves, to make sense of what was real and what wasn't. But suddenly one important question rose to the surface.

"How long have you been awake?" she asked.

"Since the night Emma came to town," Rumple said, looking ever more miserable at the admission. "A loophole I'd built into the curse for myself, that I'd awaken when I heard the Savior's name. If I'd known you were alive, I'd have done the same for you I swear it."

Belle nodded. She remembered finding the parchment with Emma's name on it in Andrew's safe all those months ago; a remnant from the old world, along with his dagger and their cup.

"That was the night Izzy was going to leave Mr. Gold," she recalled. She'd had her bags packed until Andrew had stumbled in looking wild and kissed her for the first time in recent memory. He'd been trying to awaken her, Belle realized, an attempt at true love's kiss. But everything that happened since had been Rumple, not Mr. Gold.

"So Ashley's baby, the fire at city hall, the separation, the threats, you were awake for all of it?" she asked. "That was you, not Mr. Gold?"

Rumple cast his eyes down, pulling at the bedding until he could cover his lap with the duvet. It seemed he'd belatedly realized his own nakedness.

"Yes," he said with a stiff nod. "I'd thought to wake you up, but after what happened to Graham I decided you would be safer in ignorance, as far from me as possible."

"So you drove me off on purpose," she supplied. Rumple just nodded again. "What changed your mind?"

"The accident. Regina orchestrated those events to force me into admitting I remembered. Once that was out in the open it seemed silly to leave you a sitting duck for her. The best thing that could happen would be for you to remember. At least that way I could tell you the whole truth even if it meant losing you."

"Losing me?" she said with a shake of her head.

"After everything I've done, I know there's nothing I can do to convince you to stay," he said, spreading his hands wide. "I have no excuse for my behavior other than that I thought I was doing my best to protect you. But even then you were hurt. Belle, you have every right to leave right now and never look back."

Belle let out a ragged laugh. He was letting her go – again – after all this time and the incontrovertible proof that they were, indeed, true love. He may have accepted that she loved him, but it seemed beyond Rumple that she could want to be with him as well.

"Rumplestiltskin," she said, taking his hands in her own, her voice remarkably even. He looked up at her, meeting her eyes at last. "I love you. I meant it all those years ago in your castle and I mean it now. We're true love. And when you find something like that, you don't just give up."

Rumple nodded, tears springing to his eyes as he took a ragged breath. "Yes," he agreed. "And I love you too."

She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him and Rumple went to her willingly. They stayed like that for a long moment, just holding each other. Belle thought it might be the best feeling in the world, just to be held by the person you love. Of course there'd been another feeling she'd been quite enjoying prior to her memories returning.

Rumple's hands were skimming up and down her back, his touch light against the silky fabric of her borrowed shirt. She was keenly aware of just how naked they both still were and of how close she'd been to that wonderful release before her returning memories interrupted them.

"I, um, I don't think we were quite finished," she said, pulling back with a blush, her hand skimming down to rest on his thigh.

Rumple's eyebrows rose toward his hairline, his mouth falling open slightly.

"What…what do you mean?" he stammered out.

"I mean that I missed you," she said with a shrug. "Even if we've apparently spent the past 28 years together, it wasn't really us. I missed you so much during those long nights in Regina's prison. I want to show you just how much."

"Belle," he said with a shake of his head. "You don't…"

"Have to?" she finished for him. "I know. But I want to."

She kissed him then. A gentle, sweet kiss. Rumple cupped her cheek with his hand, his other going about her waist.

"I love you," he murmured against her lips. And Belle couldn't help herself, she kissed him harder, pushing her hands into his hair and directing him where she wanted him.

They'd kissed a thousand times. They'd made love more times than she could remember. But at the same time this was new, different and unexplored. She felt both naïve and worldly, brazen and self-conscious. But there was such a thing as muscle memory and her body knew what to do.

She pushed Rumple back against the bedclothes, straddling his hips. Rumple was gazing up at her with a look of awe upon his face and it was enough to cure Belle of any lingering embarrassment. She shrugged off his shirt casting it to the side of the bed. Izzy had much more hands on experience with all of this than she did and she looked forward to putting her newfound knowledge to good use.

Rumplestiltskin awoke the next morning warm and happier than he could remember being in decades. Belle was snuggled into his side. Belle, not Izzy. He still couldn't believe she was here, awake.

After they'd worn themselves out making up for lost time, they'd stayed up a bit later just talking. Belle told him how she'd left his castle and ended up in a dwarf tavern, about her adventure with a Yaoguai, and how she'd determined to return to him when she'd been captured by Regina. He tried not to think how different their lives might be if Regina hadn't found her. There was no use dwelling on a past that could never be.

Then talk had turned to their current predicament – how to break the curse. Belle marveled at how much more sense everything made now that she had her true memories. She'd been utterly confused by why Mayor Mills would want to frame Mary Margaret Blanchard for murder, but the Evil Queen going after Snow White was much more understandable.

As he and Izzy had discussed earlier in the week, Rumple had offered his services to Mary Margaret as an attorney. Regina was under the impression he was keeping a close eye on proceedings, making sure their plan came to fruition. But he could fill books with the things Regina didn't know.

"So you're going to save Snow White via legal loophole?" Belle asked, looking up at him from where her head was pillowed on his chest.

Rumple snorted. "Not quite," he countered. "I'm going to turn Regina's frame job on her."

Belle pushed herself up onto her elbows, looking down at Rumple.

"How?" she asked. "Or should I point out once again that Kathryn is alive and well. We can't keep her locked up with Jefferson forever."

"No," Rumple agreed. "But Regina being arrested for murder is all I need to break the curse. It needn't be permanent."

Belle bit her lip, her look pensive. "I trust you," she said finally. "Prove that I'm right to."

Mr. Gold had a meeting with his new client first thing that morning, so it was with a fair amount of regret that he extracted himself from the warm circle of Belle's arms and set about getting dressed as the first rays of sun cut through the curtains of the guest bedroom window. Belle snuffled lightly in her sleep at the disruption and Rumple smiled, leaning down to kiss her bare shoulder.

"Early," she complained, burying her face in the pillow. "Too early."

"I know," he murmured against her soft skin. "Go back to sleep."

Mary Margaret looked pale and frightened when he entered the sheriff's station later that morning. Emma shared a furtive look with Mary Margaret before leaving to give them their privacy. He took a seat opposite her, the bars of the cell providing a barrier between client and attorney.

"Thank you for doing this, Mr. Gold," Mary Margaret said once Emma had reluctantly shuffled out. "I know I'm not the most popular person in town these days."

"I've never much concerned myself with popularity," he said, giving her a smile with a glint of gold tooth. "I'm more concerned with proving your innocence before this thing goes to trial."

Mary Margaret shuddered at that, wrapping her arms around herself.

"And how do you propose to do that?" she asked. "Everyone seems to have already decided I'm guilty."

"Yes, well, public opinion hardly matters, Miss Blanchard. Evidence does. There's still no murder weapon, the evidence against you is insufficient, and anyone who met you could see you're not the type of person to stab a woman in the heart."

Mary Margaret shook her head. "I don't know how that heart ended up in my jewelry box," she said. "Someone must have broken in to my house and stolen it. I know that sounds crazy and I can't imagine why anyone would want to frame me for murder, but I swear to you I didn't kill Kathryn, Mr. Gold."

Rumple nodded. "And I believe you, Miss Blanchard."

Mary Margaret coughed out a wet little laugh. "I think you must be the only one."

"Well, lucky for you, I'm the only one that matters," he said with a small incline of his head. "There's still plenty of time for me to work a little magic."

Mary Margaret shook her head looking hopeless. It wasn't a good look on Snow White.

"Mr. Gold," came a voice from the entrance to the station. "Might I have a word with the prisoner?"

Rumple turned to see Regina saunter in like she owned the place. Behind him he could feel rather than see Mary Margaret tense at the intrusion.

"Mayor Mills," he said, pushing himself up from the chair with the aid of his cane. He turned to face Regina, blocking Mary Margaret from her view. "I'm afraid my client isn't seeing any visitors today. I'll see you out."

Anger flared in Regina's eyes at being thwarted.

"If you please," he continued, crossing the room to motion her out the door she'd entered. Regina had no choice but to comply, turning to glare at Rumple once they were in the hallway outside.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"Saving you from yourself," he replied. "I hardly think coming to gloat over your fallen rival is prudent at this point."

Regina crossed her arms against her chest, letting out a huff.

"I can do whatever I want," she said. "Or haven't you noticed who holds the power in this town. This plan is getting stagnant and I intend to see it through."

"Oh you've done your part well enough," he said flippantly. "Procuring Miss Blanchard's jewelry box to hide the heart in was enough to get her behind bars."

"And there she sits," Regina spat. "I want her to suffer, Rumple. And as much fun as it is to see this town turn against her, you know it's not enough."

"Yes, yes," he said dismissively. "You want the girl dead I'm well aware. There's an easy enough way for that to happen."

Regina narrowed her eyes. "Go on."

"If we go to trial, I'll motion for a change of venue. She's unlikely to find a fair and impartial jury in this town."

"That could take months," Regina growled out.

Rumple shook his head. Regina had never been one for the slow and subtle games he played. He wondered at how she restrained herself from simply strangling young Snow for ten solid years as her stepmother.

"That key ring of yours, the one you think I know nothing about, the one you used to break in to Miss Blanchard's apartment," he nodded to the handbag slung over Regina's shoulder. She rolled her eyes before pulling the key ring in question from inside the depths of her bag, jingling the assorted keys merrily at him.

"I imagine one of those lovelies opens the door to Miss Blanchard's cell," he reasoned. "And if you were to plant it somewhere she could find it, I very much doubt she could resist making a run for it."

A slow smile spread across Regina's face.

"One way or another, she's leaving this town," she said.

"Don't be ridiculous, dear," Rumple feigned ignorance. "You know as well as I that no one ever leaves."

Regina's laugh echoed through the hallway, cold and icy as her heart.

"As always, it's been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Gold," she said, her smile never fading as she turned and left the building.

Slight of hand passed for magic in this world, but it was nothing more than a swindle. Follow the lady was a trick Rumple's father had taught him by the time he was old enough to walk. He fingered the heavy key ring in his coat pocket as Regina sashayed away. She could enjoy her feeling of triumph for now. It wouldn't last long.

It was the work of an afternoon to plant the hunting knife in Regina's office. An anonymous tip called in to the sheriff's office had Emma arriving with a warrant and by 4:00 that evening, Mayor Regina Mills had been brought in for questioning as a person of interest in the Kathryn Nolan murder investigation.

The discovery of a murder weapon was a serious hiccup in the case building against Mary Margaret Blanchard. The bloodied hunting knife had been found wrapped in a towel and stuffed in a locked bottom drawer of Mayor Mills' desk, one to which she held the sole key.

The final blow was the discovery of a key to Mary Margaret's apartment hidden alongside the murder weapon, almost as though someone had broken in to the poor schoolteacher's home to frame her for a murder she didn't commit.

By the time Rumple closed up the shop that evening, Mary Margaret Blanchard had been released due to insufficient evidence, and Regina Mills had taken up residence in her vacated cell. But Rumple's plan wasn't completed yet. That would have to wait until the following morning.

So instead, he headed home to Belle with a light heart.

"You did it!" she exclaimed as he walked through the front door, launching herself into his arms in the entrance hall. Rumple clung to Belle to keep from tipping backward, a smile blooming across his face. He'd missed Belle, missed her unbridled optimism and her tactile nature. Even in the Dark Castle she'd never hesitated to hug him, place a hand on his shoulder, grab his hand across the table during tea. For someone as touch starved as he had been in those days it was both thrilling and terrifying, but now he relished it.

"Mary Margaret is free and Regina is behind bars where she belongs," Belle continued, pulling back from him, but keeping her arms looped around his neck. "How did you do it?"

"Magic," Rumple said with a waggle of his eyebrows.

Belle let out a snort. "This is a land without magic."

Rumple just shrugged. "Magic comes in many forms, sweetheart. A little slight of hand, a little manipulation, and a fabricated murder weapon were all it took."

"So Regina's safely locked away," Belle said. "But the curse still hasn't broken."

"No," he agreed. "I'm afraid only the Savior can do that. And in order for that to happen, she needs to believe."

Belle raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical. "She doesn't seem the believer type," she said. "How are you going to manage that?"

Rumplestiltskin smiled. "By taking the one thing that Regina loves and giving it to Emma Swan."

The next morning found Rumple whistling a tune as he entered the police station. Sheriff Swan appeared to have had a bit of a lie in, hardly surprising given the events of the previous day, and the fact she now had a young charge to get ready for school.

Rumple pulled the envelope from his pocket, his ace in the hole.

Regina was curled up on the cell cot, her arms wrapped around herself, looking deceptively small and harmless. He'd almost feel bad for her if he couldn't picture Belle in the exact same state, left to molder in Regina's dungeons, her only crime loving a beast.

He banged his cane against the cell bars as he approached, and Regina sat up startled. Her black pantsuit was rumpled, her hair flat from the pillow, and her eyes suspiciously red.

"You look awful, dearie. It seems prison doesn't agree with you."

Regina glared at him from between the bars of her cell, but otherwise remained silent. Rumple grabbed the chair he'd used just the day before in his conference with Mary Margaret and set it across from the cell.

"I fear your bad day is about to get worse," he said as he took his seat, pulling a sheet of paper from the envelope.

Regina continued to glare at him, her lip curling menacingly. Rumple didn't let her silence deter him.

"I have here a court order granting emergency temporary custody of Henry Mills to one Emma Swan," he said, waving the paper in the air.

Regina shook her head, her expression murderous, angry tears glinting in her eyes.

"You're certainly proud of yourself aren't you?" she spat. "Why did you give me the curse in the first place if you want it broken so badly? Why did you orchestrate any of this?"

"Oh my reasons are my own, dearie," he said softly. "But I won't pretend seeing you behind bars isn't an added bonus. Not after what you did to Belle."

Regina let out a mirthless chuckle, her shoulders bobbing manically.

"We know each other, Rumple," she said. "We know each other quite well. So tell me, do you really think I won't get out of here? And do you really think I won't burn you to ash when I do?"

Rumple just smiled, shaking his head condescendingly.

"Now that's the exact kind of thinking that got you into this mess, Your Majesty," he chided. "Thinking you could ever get one over on me. You just forget that I play a very long game, and you've never been anything more than my pawn."

Regina crossed her arms, somehow managing to look regal despite her disheveled state. "If that's true, why all the machinations just to get me in this cell? Why involve Henry at all? You've exposed yourself, Rumple. I'm your equal. Your greatest enemy."

"Oh, no, no, no. You see this," he said, holding up the court order, "this is simply an eye for an eye. You took my child from me, and I told you I'd take Henry from you. Lucky for you I have a soft spot for children you don't seem to possess."

It was the right button to push.

"Henry is my son!" Regina growled, jumping up from her perch on the prison cot and coming to face Rumple at the bars of the cell. "He is my son and no piece of paper can ever change that."

"Perhaps a piece of paper won't," Rumple conceded. "But what about your son's opinion of you? I didn't think it could possibly sink lower, but apparently that was a failure of imagination."

Regina backed away and despite the bravado she always put on, he could see the pain in her eyes. Some part of her truly loved the boy, and now she'd lost him. Rumple could sympathize. Almost.

"He is all I have!" she shouted, her voice cracking on the words. She wouldn't cry in front of him, of that Rumple was certain. But it was taking everything in her not to break.

"I suppose you should have realized that before you got caught up in your little revenge scheme. That's the thing about you Regina, you think everyone else is out to take away your happiness when the only person truly capable of doing that is the one you see in the mirror every morning."

He stood, pocketing the court order and turning to leave.

"I will destroy you!" Regina called after him. "I will destroy you and everything you love."

"I have no doubt you'll try," he tossed over his shoulder without looking back.

Rumplestiltskin made his way to his pawnshop with a spring in his step. Belle was back, Regina was getting her comeuppance, and the curse was so close to being broken he could practically taste it. He'd never been an optimistic sort, but Rumple allowed himself, just for a moment, to imagine a near future where he was reunited with both his son and his true love. A happy family at last.

He pushed open the pawnshop door, the bell sounding particularly cheerful on this bright spring morning, when his cane slipped against something on the floor. He braced himself against the doorframe, scowling down at a red envelope. He glanced back out the open pawnshop door. Someone must have slipped it under while he was out but there was little chance of them still lurking about now.

With difficulty, he bent to retrieve the envelope, turning it over to reveal an elaborate wax seal of a running rabbit holding it closed.

With a sinking heart, Rumple broke the seal, pulling one single piece of thick cardstock from within. The paper was blank save for two words in elaborate gold script.

Time's up.