Title: Therapy
AUTHOR: obisgirl
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Belle, Archie, and Mr. Gold
Summary: Doctor Archie Hopper treats Belle and Mr. Gold at the same time, but doesn't realize how connected they are. The more he learns about both of them, the more he starts to question his own sanity.
Spoilers: Based on something Raphael Sbarge said at Paley Festival that he would be getting two new patients in addition to Henry this season. Part of this fic is "AU" since nothing has been said about Belle becoming one of Archie's patients this season.
Disclaimer: Once Upon a Time characters are property of Disney and Adam Horowitz, Edward Kitsis. This fanfic is for pure entertainment.

Belle feels uncomfortable, trying to get comfortable in Dr. Hopper's office. Walls still make her nervous and she doesn't like talking to people she doesn't know. Emma assures her that Archie isn't going to hurt her and she won't leave until she is ready for her to leave, so she waits outside the office. Emma is Belle's personal bodyguard.

Archie is surprisingly patient with Belle; Emma warned him before meeting her that she had been locked away underneath the hospital with no human contact.

"There's no light in here," Belle says finally, going over to the window, clearing the curtains.

"Was that what was bothering you?" he asks.

Belle stops, turning back to him. She doesn't know how to respond to that statement. "I'd been locked up down there for so long, I rarely saw the light," she muses. "I rarely saw anyone at all,"

Archie sympathizes with her. He can't understand how anyone can lock up a person for 28 years? What was it about this girl that she warranted such treatment?

"I barely feel like myself," Belle continues, finally sitting down, "whatever that means,"

"You still have trouble remembering things?"

"I don't know… everything is coming back in pieces. None of it makes sense. I don't know if that's the hospital's work or something else," she cries, "but I need to be positive, right? I'm free. I'm not there anymore,"

Archie smiles. "That's right, you're not a prisoner anymore," he says.

"I still am," she muses, pointing to her head, "a prisoner of my own memories. Why can't I remember it all?"

"You need to be patient," he soothes, "You can't force your memories to make sense. The brain doesn't work that way,"

Belle sighs, "And what happens if I never remember?"

Archie doesn't know how to answer that.

Belle's question bothers Archie throughout the day, he barely notices the time when Mr. Gold shows up, promptly at 5 o'clock for his therapy session. Dr. Hopper was reluctant at first to take him on but quietly agreed after their first discussion. After several sessions with him, Archie quickly learned that Mr. Gold was a complex man.

During most of their sessions, Gold ranted about Regina but rarely talked about himself. He did find it odd that everything he talked about all seemed to lead back to the Mayor.

"Something preoccupying you today doctor?" Gold ventures.

Archie sighs. "It's nothing," he says. "This therapy session isn't about me; it's about you, Mr. Gold,"

Gold shrugs. "I visited Moe French today at the hospital," he reveals, "I even brought him flowers,"

"Oh," Archie smiles, "That's very nice of you. How is Mr. French doing?"

"His recuperation is slow but he'll live," he says, "He didn't want to see me at first but his nurses persuaded him to see me,"

"What did he say?"

"He said if I ever came near him again, he'd kill me," he muses, "A lot of good the roses did, I trashed them on my way out of his room,"

Archie frowns. "I don't mean to be blunt but you did almost kill the man,"

Gold closes up. "He took something from me, something very important. I needed to get it back," he defends.

"I understand that Mr. Gold but violence never solves anything,"

"This trinket holds special value in my heart," he says finally, "It's the only thing I have left of..."

Archie looks at him curiously and remembers Emma telling him that he mentioned a 'she' and Archie thinks maybe he will finally learn the identity of the "she."

"She's gone now," Gold continues, "No use talking about it anymore,"

Archie sighs.

Belle arrives early for her next session, wearing a blue sun dress. She looks livelier than their last session, there's even color in her cheeks and her blue eyes look more vibrant.

"I made a decision yesterday," she starts, "The more I try to reconcile my memories, the crazier it's going to make me so I decided that I'm not going to let them interfere with my recovery,"

Archie frowns. "That's a shame,"

"Why? I thought that would be a good thing,"

He removes his glasses, cleaning them. "Unfortunately, in your case, I think trying to ignore your memories will cause you more harm than good. You need to deal with them head on in order to understand what happened to you," he says.

Belle scowls. She thought that she was making progress. She looks at her hands and smoothes her dress, looking plainly at him. "I want to get better Doctor Hopper but I'm scared of what my memories might reveal. What if I deserved to be locked up in there? I could be dangerous,"

Archie leans foreword. "Listen to me Belle; no one deserves to be locked up like that, especially you. Don't ever think that you deserved to have that happen to you because you didn't. And you are not dangerous,"

"How can you be sure of that? You barely know me,"

"Because look at you now," he says, "Your memory maybe hazy but you look more like yourself than you did the first time I met you,"

Belle smiles slightly.

Mr. Gold arrives promptly at 5 o'clock but very disturbed. He says that he needs a drink and Archie offers him some water but he brushes it away, saying that he needs something stronger. Unfortunately, Archie doesn't have anything stronger in his office and Mr. Gold gruffly accepts the glass of water.

"Visit Moe French again?" he ventures.

"No," Gold replies, "I couldn't sleep last night, had horrible nightmares and nearly missed opening my shop on time today. That never happens to me,"

Archie raised a curious eyebrow. "What happened in your dreams?"

Gold sighs. "I saw her face,"

"Her face? Who is she?"

He shrugs, drinking the water like its scotch or something. "She's dead," is all her offers.

"Oh," Archie muses, "I'm sorry to hear that,"

"What I don't understand is why am I dreaming about her now?"

"Maybe something's changed to make you dream about her," he offers.

"But what?"

Archie doesn't know.

Archie has chamomile tea prepared when Belle shows up for her session in a different blue dress. Belle likes the tea and Archie says he thought it would help her relax. He wants to try a new exercise to help her remember. He instructs Belle to lie down on the couch and close her eyes.

Belle's hesitant to at first but complies, setting the tea cup down. She fixes her hair before lying flat, closing her eyes.

He asks if she can still hear his voice and Belle nods.

"I want to let your thought drift to your dreams, relax, let them come to you," he soothes.

Belle scrunches her nose but relaxes. She sees a plethora of images, none of which make any sense to her. Then she sees his wretched face taunting her and she wakes up abruptly, spilling the tea.

"Oh Gods, I'm sorry," she cries, hurriedly grabbing a napkin and cleaning up the mess.

"Don't worry about that tea," Archie says, "What did you see?"

Belle doesn't know how to describe what she saw but she knows how she felt when she saw his face. It frightened her and would rather never see that face ever again.

"Its okay, its okay," Archie continues, "Take your time,"

Belle stands up, goes to the other side of the room, near the curtains and buries her face in them. "I don't want to see his face again," she says finally.

"I understand that but you remembered something important, Belle," Archie continues, "That's progress,"

Progress, she thinks, or something else, something dark.

tbc