New Beginnings

Rumbelle AU: Belle was indeed sent away from the dark castle, but she was never captured by the Evil Queen. Belle intended to return to the dark castle when she found out she was with child, but fear and uncertainty kept her from doing so.
Months went by, and each day Belle grew more anxious with what she would tell her child of it’s parentage. She had found work at a local inn of a small village. She didn’t get to see the world as she had wished, but all she wanted now was to be with the man she loved, and rise their child together.
News traveled that the dark one had been captured by King George’s son, and was held in an enchanted cave that he could not magic himself out of. Determined, Belle traveled to the cave to see her Rumplestiltskin. When she got there, the man she saw was not quite the Rumplestiltskin she had come to know and love. The man behind the bars was wild and dark, on the brink of falling from reality. Rumplestiltskin had lost the light he had left to cling to. His shrill voice sent chills down her spine when she entered the cave, his impish giggle no longer amusing and childlike, now it was cold and hallow.
“Who is that? Come into the light, dearie. It’s not often I have visitors,” his voice taunted darkly.
Belle took a deep breath before stepping forward, an arms length away from the bars. She had never feared Rumplestiltskin before, even in her early days in the Dark Castle she never feared him as she did now. The imp’s eyes seemed to look through her, beyond her, not seeing her in front of him.
“Rumple?” her soft voice beckoned. Only when she spoke did his eyes finally land on her, her frail hands cradling her swollen belly. His oddly colored eyes began to focus as he licked his cracked lips.
“Belle?” her name on his lips sounded so desperate, so unlike the man who never showed weakness in front of anyone besides her. “Why did you come back?” his words echoed a time she soon wished to forget.
“I wasn’t going to, but then…something changed my mind,” her eyes fell to her unborn child. Only then did the imp take notice of her change of state. His hand reached out to gently touch the precious cargo.
“Belle…our-“
“Yes,” she finished for him. He didn’t have to ask if she was in fact carrying his child. Regardless of what had happened between them he knew, somehow he knew.
“I’m so sorry Belle,” his tone was lower, more human like. The tone he only used when he was vulnerable around her. Belle simply shook her head. Apologies were not needed now, for some reason it didn’t matter. She knew he was sorry the moment he told her to leave. The state she found him in proved her absence had in fact impacted him deeply, perhaps even more so than herself.
“I promise I will take care of you and our child,” Belle’s brow furrowed.
“Rumple how do you expect to do that behind these bars? I have no magic to free you.”
The Imp’s lips twitched, curling into a secretive smirk.
“Not in this life, dearie, but perhaps in the next.” His hands reached out for hers, lacing their fingers together. A roaring wind began to echo in the cave, swirling plumes of purple smoke that tasted of magic began to engulf them, taring away the walls of the cave. Rumplestiltskin did not let go of Belle’s hands, even when the bars vanished from between them.
“Rumple, what’s going on? Where are we going?” Rumplestiltskin reached his hand out and cupped her pale cheek.
“A place of new beginnings.”

Once Upon A Time (C) ABC

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