Disclaimer: I do not own Once Upon A Time. I'm just playing in their world for a bit.

WARNINGS: Rumbelle heartbreak

SPOILERS: Takes place immediately after the Season 4 winter finale, "Heroes and Villains", not counting the "six weeks later" teaser. Minor reference to Queens of Darkness, but essentially focuses on what happens after the scene at the town line.

Self-Prompt: I had a dream the morning of the winter finale that a special Rumple-only episode aired Sunday morning with a western-y Rumple voiceover narration. The dream meshed so well with the actual "Heroes and Villains" episode, that I couldn't help but give this a shot. Started off as tragic/comic and ended up kinda... well I'll let you find out. Currently four chapters.

Gone Forever

"Love. It's like a delicate flame. And once it's gone, it's gone forever."

- Mr. Gold (1.12 Skin Deep)

Storybrooke was gone. Belle was gone. And it hurt all the worse because the town was there. Somewhere less than a foot away from where his palms rested against the asphalt, a hideous orange line was spray-painted across the road. He just couldn't see it. He couldn't see her. He couldn't hear her. He had no way of knowing if she was still standing not five feet away, holding the dagger out behind her turned back.

Had she turned, he knew she could see him, could hear his pleas and his tears. But all the begging in the world could not convince the spell concealing the town to allow him back in. And even if Belle hadn't walked away or called for a lift back into town, she had shown no intention of joining him in exile.

Still he knelt there, staring down a dark forest road, murmuring his wife's name each time a fresh wave of tears struck. So many lies, so many regrets woven into the thick cloak of darkness that even now was wrapped around his soul. He was powerless in the Land Without Magic. Even the spell supporting his ankle dissipated the moment he stepped through the barrier. But the darkness, the fear, remained. The distance he would have to limp, or even crawl, to reach the diner down the road was impossible. How could he face that long, painful journey when his light, his heart, his Belle was here?

He spent the night by that invisible barrier. It took hours for him to convince himself that Belle had long since made it back to town, that no one remained to listen to his cries. It took another hour to inch his way to the side of the road, because each twinge in his ankle would remind him of Bae, of the promise he'd made on his son's grave, a promise he'd broken almost immediately, and he would curl into himself and weep for all he had lost.

It was almost dawn by the time he settled into the grass to sleep. It wasn't much more comfortable than the middle of the road, but at least he had a tree to lean against and a root to rest his ankle on. He didn't sleep anyway, only snoozed, waking in fitful starts whenever he imagined he heard a car.

But no one was coming for him. No one could. He had to figure out a way to get back in and win Belle back, but his traitorous mind kept replaying her words as she'd banished him.

It's too late. Once, I saw the man behind the beast. Now there's only a beast.

He had her love, and he shut her out to the point that she shut him out when he needed most to be let in. And now she was gone. Gone forever. She wasn't coming back. And it was his fault. Always his fault.

He had just made up his mind to try to reach that diner before spending another night by the road when something changed. At first it was just a flicker, a wavy disruption in the air like heat in summer. But then he blinked, and there was the orange line stretching across the road.

He scrambled for a branch, any fallen branch, to use in place of a cane. The barrier was gone. He could go home. To Belle. Whether it had faded on its own or the Charmings and Regina had found a way to bring it down didn't matter. He was going home.

He found a suitable walking stick and limped to the line. Belle would be upset at first, thinking he'd orchestrated his own return, but he could handle that. As long as she didn't use the dagger to force him into a more permanent exile. He just needed a chance to explain, to apologize. Even if she chose to lock him in a jail cell for everything he'd done, it would still be preferable to never seeing her again.

He stepped over the line.

… And the former Evil Queen was able to leave Storybrooke to seek her happy ending and bring Robin Hood home.

Henry put down his pen and sighed. If only happy endings were that easy. He had found this library, the Author's secret lair, only last night. Operation Mongoose was in full swing. But then this morning, Ruby was comforting a red-eyed Belle over breakfast at Granny's, and Emma and Hook had told him what he had missed.

He didn't understand it. He didn't want to believe it. But the long list of recent misdeeds Killian rattled off was hard to defend. Grandpa Gold was a villain. And Operation Mongoose was ruined. If Beauty and the Beast could go from happy ending to devastation in a matter of months, what hope did his mom have as the Evil Queen?

He had run here to hide and think. The result of those thoughts lay before him, several pages covered in scribbles of heartbreak, betrayal, and a desperate desire for hope. He had never kept a journal before, but it seemed to help more than those sessions with Dr. Hopper his mom made him go to before the curse broke. He probably shouldn't have used one of the blank storybooks, but now that he had, he might as well keep it.

He tucked the book into his bag and headed back into town. The abandoned mansion was on the outskirts of Storybrooke, near the water. By the time he reached Main Street, it was almost evening, and the town was abuzz with gossip. He slowed, watching people whisper to each other then scurry across the way to confer with someone else. He hadn't seen this much activity in terms of gossip since the curse broke and Sneezy lost his memories stepping over the town line.

He stopped someone and asked what was going on.

"The Snow Queen's spell is broken," they whispered, excitement mixing with fear. "The Dark One has returned, but he's gone mad!"

Damn stupid portals.

I stepped over the line outside Storybrooke, Maine, and landed on an empty bloody beach in the Enchanted Forest. Which beach, I couldn't tell. The sun was just beginning its decent over the ocean behind me, and this wide stretch of sand met a forest further inland. Not any beach I knew.

My ankle was whole, the tree branch I had been leaning on was gone, and my cursed appearance was back, but I was still wearing my suit instead of dragonskin leathers.

Bloody stupid indecisive portals.

With my magic back, that inconsistency was rectified immediately. Now all I had to do was find Belle and figure out how to apologize.

Because that's how portals work. They take you to wherever you were thinking of. Belle had banished me from Storybrooke, but if the portal had taken me here, then she had to be in the Enchanted Forest, no matter the implausibility of how she got here.

I just had to find her.