Chapter Four: Love is Enough

A/N: It would do me some good to stop promising new chapters on certain days. *Insert foot in mouth*.

I don't think Emma would actually act like this, ever, but I was rewatching a couple episodes set after the curse break, and I think Emma was kind of thinking some of this stuff in them, although she didn't voice the thoughts. Also, Rumplestiltskin's task (mentioned in last chapter's A/N) might not be as hard as he thinks…

This is the last chapter of this fic, mostly because I am totally freaking out about the cover bunnies stories I need to work on and don't have time to write this as well. Thanks for sticking with me, dearies.

Also, this chapter is pretty much unedited, so I apologize ahead of time for grammatical or punctuation- related screwups, etc. Enjoy:)

"Emma, where've you been?" David demanded upon her reentrance into the apartment, Henry scurrying past them up to his room to play video games.

"With Belle and Gold," she said reluctantly, flopping down onto the couch.

"What?" her father nearly yelled. "Why?"

She barely stopped herself from bashing her head into the table. "To hear some stories." David looked very displeased. "Really. Belle told me about her life in- well, fairytale land- and that was pretty much… it. And then I came here, and you weren't here, actually, so I took Henry for ice cream. Okay?"

Honestly, Emma didn't mean to let out her frustration on David, but this whole life thing was infuriating her: the pressure to go back, the pressure to be a good mother, the pressure to act like she'd been their freaking daughter their whole lives and automatically loved them-

It had been hard enough with Henry. But she had grown to love him quickly, because he was of her blood and heart, and he was a good kid who just wanted his mother. David Nolan she had seen do terrible things, amongst them being the events that had broken Mary Margaret Blanchard's pure little heart, betrayed a good woman who expected her husband to love and be faithful to her, and somehow manage to shatter two people who loved him at once. All in all, he had been an asshole. And although she had been assured many times that David Nolan was very much not Prince Charming, she had still seen the events, lived them through her own eyes. It increased the stress and difficulty of coping with all of it; no one wanted to see their father take their mother's heart and, figuratively, crush it into a billion pieces.

She had to try, though.

For Henry.

Two days later, she came out of her room to find Mary Margaret and David standing in front of her, holding hands. "Emma, we need to talk."

She was taken aback. "Uh-"

"You found out the story of Gold's True Love, a woman you don't even know, before you heard ours. That- it hurts," Mary Margaret finished, looking all at once ecstatic and terrified and heartbroken. Is she always this melodramatic?

Emma's words were out of her mouth before she could pull them back and bury them in the more shadowy recesses of her heart. "Well, it hurt to be abandoned on the side of a road in Maine and orphaned for twenty- eight years, but I dealt with it. I already know your story. My son told me. I don't want to talk about fairytale land! If I go back, it'll be for Henry."

Mary Margaret- she refused to call her her mother- had tears welling up in her eyes before David could wrap a comforting arm around her. "What?" she said.

"Leave me alone." She made for the door only to have it open, so fast she darted back to avoid it smacking into her face.

Who she saw was also the one who had shattered her heart. But everything broken was reparable.

"Neal?"

He was grinning, the bastard. Outrageously so. His face was alight, his hair nearly covering his eyes, his clothing simple but somewhat expensive, and it all infuriated her. "Emma."

She realized, with a jolt of fear, that her son was upstairs and likely could hear everything they were saying. She lowered her voice. "Get out," she hissed at him, two seconds away from shoving him out the door herself.

"Emma, let me talk to you at least- I'm sorry-" he began.

She snapped. "No, you do not get to say you're SORRY! Do you KNOW how it FEELS to be ABANDONED AGAIN?! I am not dealing with your bullshit, Neal! I don't want to see you here again! Get OUT!"

His answer was not at all what she had expected. "That isn't my name, Em," he told her quietly. "Not Neal. Baelfire."

"You're Baelfire?" Henry said from behind Emma, and she leaped about ten feet into the air.

"HENRY! What the hell, kid?" she demanded, trying and failing to cover up her terror. "Go back upstairs!"

Her son ignored her completely. "You're Mr. Gold's son," he said calmly, as if telling a young child the answer to one plus one.

Emma buried her head in her hands. "Oh God," she whispered, mentally noting that she sounded like Mary Margaret.

Mary Margaret and David. Standing mere feet away. Observing this whole real- life nightmare.

"Who's Mr. Gold?" Neal asked obliviously.

Crap. Rumplestiltskin's son… was Henry's father… which meant Rumplestiltskin was Henry's grandfather.

"Don't you know?" replied Henry with a grin, although he couldn't know who Neal really was. And if Emma had any say in it, he never would, but she suspected that was all about to change. "Rumplestiltskin!"

Belle walked into Granny's bright and early that morning- sans her True Love, who was working on a potion to find Baelfire after Charming had told them of the fate of the dwarf who had crossed the line.

She recognized the red- clad waitress- Ruby- from Rumple's shop. "Hey," she said slowly, still cautious around the people of Storybrooke, whose reactions had been mostly mixed.

"Hey, Belle," Ruby said cheerfully. "How are you?"

"Good," she answered with a smile. "Do you serve tea here?"

The werewolf-turned-waitress raised her eyebrows but didn't comment. "Iced tea?" she suggested, and Belle nodded, accepting the glass as she passed it to her.

"Thanks."

Ruby inclined her head. "So how's Gold?" she inquired curiously.

Belle shrugged. "Busy, I guess," she responded. "He's making something to find his son." She didn't really know if she was supposed to be disclosing that fact, but she had a feeling she could trust Ruby.

"He has a son?"

Belle flushed. "Yes. Um- they are… estranged."

Ruby nodded in understanding.

Neal's mouth opened and closed silently, gawking at Henry. He looked at Emma. "Is he mine?" he asked.

She wanted to scream, to throw something, to hide, to run and plead and fight and destroy. "Neal- Henry, go back upstairs. Now," she said, ushering him away. Her son stayed where he was, his feet firmly planted on the hardwood floor.

"Emma, is he mine?" Neal reiterated.

She whirled around, glaring furiously. "You do not get to ask that, Neal. YOU DO NOT GET TO ASK THAT QUESTION. Henry- go."

Henry was heading toward the stairs. Now on the stairs. And Neal just had to shout those words, those unforgettable and destroying words. "Kid, how old are you?"

Shit.

Henry didn't answer. "How old are you?" Neal yelled, as if he hadn't heard the first time.

"Eleven!" her son- her son, not Neal's, hell he was more Regina's than Neal's - finally spat. "Now what is everyone talking about?"

She felt sick, sick satisfaction in watching Neal falter, his eternally cocky look falling away from those eyes-

T-hose curling melted-chocolate like eyes, that she suddenly saw the resemblance in- Gold had those eyes, no, no, no, this was not-

"Emma, is this my son?"

She lost the raging war against her urge to scream, and scream until her throat bled out and she was empty of everything she'd locked up for over ten years. "YES, NEAL! But you don't get to stay because you left me in a jail cell and I hate you and you betrayed me and you don't deserve to be a father any more than Gold in fact he deserves it more- at least he didn't condemn Belle to jail when she was freaking pregnant- GET OUT!"

"My dad is dead," Henry said, dumbfounded. "He was a fireman. He died saving a family. He's dead." There was a strange blankness in his tone that she would never be able to associate with Henry; it was like he was watching someone die as he looked at Emma.

"Henry," Emma whispered brokenly.

"And Mom you're wrong the Evil Queen locked her up for like thirty years," her son said, ignoring her, sounding strangled.

"I'm sorry, Emma, August said I had to for the sake of the curse breaking-"

"YOU SENT ME TO PRISON WHILE I WAS PREGNANT BECAUSE PINOCCHIO TOLD YOU TO?!" Emma shrieked. Oh no, August had known her before and still done all that bullshit nonsense to her when he'd come to Storybrooke even when he had caused her to be imprisoned, to have her child in jail- oh God no.

"You lied to me!" Henry interjected, betrayal in his eyes. "You told me my dad was dead!"

She didn't know what to say to that. "Henry, I'm sorry-"

"Wait, you're Gold's son?" David said, seeming to just grasp what had already been clarified. She felt a burst of anger at his interruption. "You weren't part of the curse?"

"I'm assuming I was the reason for the curse. That's what my dad said."

Inconsiderate bastard. "What, and he didn't think to call?" she demanded. Without further discussion, she threw open the front door and strode past Neal, out and headed to Gold's shop, hoping he and Belle weren't… er, no more thoughts needed on the topic, thank you.

Belle had headed back to Rumplestiltskin's shop after speaking with Ruby for a while, and watched him spin gold for a potion to try and locate Baelfire. She had most definitely not expected Emma to storm in, screaming something about someone called Neal and some more about Henry and Regina and her parents. From the look on Rumple's face, he had never seen the Saviour so uncontrolled.

"Pardon, Miss Swan?" Rumplestiltskin said to the furious Sheriff.

"Your son!" she shouted.

Belle's eyes widened, shockingly so. She couldn't judge how Rumple was feeling based on the impassive guard he had put up, but she knew in her heart that it hit him hard.

"Your son is Henry's-" she said a very unladylike word, one Belle had only ever heard from her father's knights or Rumple in an extreme fit of pique "-father!"

Belle dropped the books she'd been holding, and then scrambled to pick them up. Her Rumple was stock- still, frozen in absolute surprise and what looked like terror. Neither of them spoke.

"And he's come to my door knocking and now he expects me to let him be with Henry and please, I don't know what to do and my parents with their perfect love lives will never understand, you would!" She was seemingly beyond hysterical, eyes wild and frantic.

"Bae is here?" Rumplestiltskin finally said. He looked almost detached from the world, unable to accept that his son was here and no longer entire realms away from him, and all Belle wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and never, ever let go.

"Your son's here?" Belle repeated, mostly for something to say.

Emma nodded, practically vibrating.

Rumple smiled, the widest, purest smile she'd seen on his face in all the time she had known him, and then they were in the Charming's apartment again, and Emma was coughing out purple smoke.

Vaguely, Belle wondered where her books had gone as she took in the features of the face she felt like she already knew. Brown eyes identical to her Rumplestiltskin's, messy brown hair, a half-smile. She committed the moment to memory as she examined the face of her True Love, who looked as if he might fall over, and discreetly slipped her arm into his.

"Bae," whispered Rumple, desperately, his eyes pleading for forgiveness.

Baelfire (/Neal?)'s head shot up; he gaped at his father, unbelieving. "-Papa?" he stuttered out.

There were gasps that Belle half- registered: Snow's and Charming's, Henry's, and Emma's barely- there exhale. All she really could know was her Rumple gently but quickly pulling his arm free and moving to embracing his boy, tears in both of their eyes, his murmurs a perpetual apology. "Bae, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I never wanted to leave you. Please forgive me, I'm so sorry."

It felt like a thorn was torn away from her heart when Bae wholeheartedly threw his arms around his father and hugged him, whispering forgiveness. Belle remembered to breathe again, so utterly relieved, and then Rumplestiltskin seemed to recall her presence two feet away from him, and extended an arm to wrap around her waist and pull her in. She clung to him, but wrapped a cautious arm around Baelfire's shoulders.

"Bae, this is Belle," Rumple nearly whispered.

Baelfire looked at her then, smiling and friendly. "Hi, Belle. Uh-"

And he was going to ask what she was to his father, of course. Thankfully, Henry chimed in, surprisingly cheerful. "They're True Love."

Baelfire's eyes shot wide open, and Belle glanced at Rumple nervously. "When-"

"Perhaps a year before the curse," Rumple said thoughtfully. "Son-"

"It's good to meet you, Belle," interjected Baelfire, facial expression warm.

She relaxed a bit, and in doing so was free to notice Emma, standing and glaring rather fiercely at the whole scene. Belle sighed quietly, debating, and then freed herself from the embrace and went over to throw her arms around Emma.

The Saviour froze, shocked, before awkwardly and tentatively embracing her in return. "I know how you feel," Belle muttered, feeling as though it needed to be said.

"Sorry." Emma fidgeted. "It's just an assault on the brain, ya know, finding out that Gold is Henry's grandfather and stuff."

"I know," Belle was quick to assure her. "Thank you."

The blonde sheriff raised her eyebrows. "For what?"

"Breaking the curse. I need Rumple in my life, and he needs his son. And Emma, I think this will end well for you." Belle was confident in her words. She knew heartbreak well, and had seen it in the Saviour's green eyes as well as in the face of Rumple's son, and was sure they would reunite at some point.

"How can you tell?"

Belle smiled. "I have… a sense about people." It had been true enough back in the Dark Castle.

"Well, thank you," Emma said softly. Belle grinned at her again and released her, leaving her to the tight embrace of Snow and Charming and Henry all at once, and returning to Rumple and Bae.

This was the mending of the shattered fragments that her heart had broken into. This was her- their- happy ending. She would not let it slip away.

Belle loved Rumplestiltskin, and he loved her, and it was enough.

A/N: The End!

I am very sorry about this chapter. It was too short for my liking and didn't end with much, but I am in an exhaustion- induced stupor and typing half-asleep, so apologies.

This is the end to this story, and I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favourited, or followed it. It means so much to me and I really appreciate the commentary.

AquaJasmine23