She was excited! For the first time since she could remember she was happy!

After they'd agreed on their arrangement, he'd left to speak with her doctor about having her discharged into his care and returned only moments later with an empty bag in hand. In only a few short hours he would return to collect her and the feeble belongings she had in the room. She was happy as he told her and she could tell that he was happy too, just up until he was about to leave. In that moment he had looked at her with an expression that was almost tender, like she had just made him the happiest person on the face of the earth, like she was the most important thing he'd ever seen. For a moment he looked like he might even try to kiss her again. Her heart had hammered at the thought, not with fear but anticipation. But, just as quickly as the thought crossed his face, it passed and he'd excused himself telling her simply that he was going back to his house to prepare for her arrival. "I'll see you later, Belle," he'd said as he left the room.

Belle.

The name still didn't trigger any memories. But he'd called her that from the very first moment she knew. It was the first thing that he'd said to her, it was the name the woman Ruby had used, and it was the name that rolled off his tongue easily whether he was healthy or on his death bed. It was a pretty name, one that she was beginning to feel a certain fondness for. Could she be this Belle? Could she ever be that person again? The one that he had spoken of with such beautiful words and desperation. She was starting to believe that she could be, to hope that there was more than this dark haze that she was living in now.

And so there she sat, placing the book Ruby had given her and an extra blanket someone had said she could keep into the duffel bag he'd given her, imaging what her life would be like when she left. There was a knock at the door, it was a little early for him to be coming for her, but nevertheless her belly fluttered with excited butterflies at the noise.

But when she looked up she didn't see him.

There was a woman there instead. She was dressed professionally but not like the nurses and doctors. She had short black hair, but it was her smile that stood out the most. It stopped the butterflies she'd just felt and made her want to shrink back into the bed and pull the covers over her head. A pain in her head buzzed to life, like her brain was mending something. Even when she'd been afraid of Mr. Gold the reaction had never been this strong. Was this one right? Or just as wrong as it had been about him? Greg Mendell hadn't bothered her again, but was that because there really was nothing to fear from him, or because she had insisted on the room change and he just hadn't found her.

"Hello," the woman greeted her in a pleasant tone.

She decided to give the woman the benefit of the doubt. She'd been wrong once before, maybe she was wrong again. "Hi," she smiled, then turned her attention back to gathering up her belongings. She would talk to her, but she hoped the woman wouldn't stay long. Something about her gave her a bad feeling, she felt as though she'd seen her before, but couldn't really place it, like there was a hazy memory in the back of her mind that wanted to break free but couldn't. When she didn't look or listen to her the headache she felt seemed to lessen somehow.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced," the woman said walking forward. That was one way to put it. She was certain that she'd never even met the woman, nothing was familiar about her in the slightest. "I'm Regina," she said. "I'm the mayor of this town." She wasn't sure what to say. She hadn't thought about how to properly introduce herself yet. Should she call herself Belle, start using the name? Or should she ask her why someone like the mayor was concerned with a woman who had no memory? "I just wanted to make sure you're okay," Regina said answering the question for her.

"That's, uh...that's very thorough of you," she said through a laugh she tried to hide behind a smile. That bad feeling had returned along with the strong tingling in her head. The woman was smiling but then why did she get the feeling she was being lied to. "Thank you, but, um, I'm-I'm fine," she muttered, then smiled as she realized the words might for the first time be true. "I think I am," she inadvertently blurted out with a giggle. She said them more for herself, an acknowledgement of all that had happened in such a short time. Suddenly her thoughts were too consumed with the future to think of anything else, or of who was in the room, or why. It wouldn't matter soon. "Mr. Gold is, ah, getting me discharged," she admitted, trying not to appear overly excited, but she couldn't help it. She was. "He thinks he can help me remember who I am."

"Does he now?" Regina laughed, and she was taken back by the strange reappearance of that smile. It made her uncomfortable. Surely she must have something better to do than be here, or was there another reason behind her visit? Either way, she wanted the woman gone. She was finally leaving and starting to feel like the world around her was making sense. She didn't want that feeling to go away. So she turned away and began fiddling with some more objects, hoping Regina would pick up the cue to leave. But instead she bent down like she had dropped something.

"What's this dear?" she asked holding out an object in her hand. "Did you drop it?"

She plucked it from her hand and looked it over. Her nerves were beginning to fray and suddenly all of her good feelings faded. Try as she could to ignore it there would always be something to remind her of how much she had lost. Like this object. It was in her room, but wasn't familiar, like so much else in her life, like Mr. Gold. "Don't think so," she told her confidently, tossing it aside. That would change, someday everything would be familiar again...including him.

"Keep looking, dear," the woman insisted in a harsh tone. If she didn't want to leave so bad she would have screamed to have the woman removed. But the last thing she needed was for the doctors to overreact and drug her again when she was so close to her escape. With a sigh, and a frustrated eye roll, she reached for the matchbook again. She wasn't that ignorant. Probably one of the nurses had dropped it. If it had been hers while she was here then she would have a memory of it. Besides, why would she need matches while she'd been here anyway?! She didn't smoke, at least not that she knew of.

Still, she stared at it, trying to appease the woman so that she would leave.

But suddenly...her headache seemed to peak...and her mind began to swim with a hazy feeling...again.

Well, welcome to the end. I really hope that you enjoyed this story! The next story in the Moments series is Moments Missed and you can find the story by simply heading over to my profile. It picks up with Belle getting Lacey's Memories in "Lacey" and ends with the moment Rumple gives her the potion to make her Belle again in "...And Straight On Till Morning".

Not a Lacey fan? Perfectly fine. Of course, I'd love for everyone to read Moments Missed, but if you don't you should be okay for the rest of the series. I will occasionally make references to her time as Lacey, it would be impossible not to, but I'll do my best to make it understandable in case you didn't read. My advice, if you don't want to read the entire Lacey fiction, read the first chapter. It's more or less an introduction featuring the history, or backstory, that I gave her and it would at least give you a sense of who I thought Lacey was so you get the basics. But if you'd rather skip straight ahead to Belle again then Moment's Shared and Unshared picks up with the moment in Gold's shop where she gets her memories back and you can find that fiction on my profile as well.

Of course, if you liked what you read please review! I love getting those wonderful little gems in my inbox and communicating with the people reading on a personal level. And if you want to read more (and review more) please check out any of the other fictions in the Moments Series. For more information on the Moments Series, upcoming fictions, posting days and publishing dates, or a reading order check out my profile. And to keep up on any editions in the Moments Series throughout the year follow Montreat11 on Twitter! Peace and Happy Reading!