No Love Lost (Rumbelle AU)

Chapter 41

Belle sat sullen and silent on her porch chair, a cup of steaming hot tea and plates of small pastries in front of her on the mini foldaway table. Next to her was Emma, sipping on hot cocoa. The sun was setting, creating beautiful orange, red, and purple hues in the sky. The air held a wind slightly chilly at this hour, making it a perfect time to enjoy hot drinks outside with a friend.

Belle could appreciate none of it.

It had been more than thirty days since Robert's arrest. Thirty days plus. To Belle, it felt so much longer than that. Never had the house seemed more cool and desolate, or the town of Storybrooke more unpleasant and cruel.

Belle had tried so many ways, as well as Emma, to reason with Clark, but there was no use. Law enforcement believed he murdered Regina, but it was a definite fact that he DID kill his first wife. And that brand new information was MAJOR gossip throughout the town. Even though they didn't know the details of the full story, no one could stop speculating and making up stories on how he killed Milah and the reasons for doing it. He was an insanely dangerous lunatic in the eyes of Storybrooke and deserved to be put away and, eventually, punished.

Belle always found her hand near her baby. She had gone to Dr. Whale a couple weeks before and he told her, rather distantly, that she needed to calm her stress. Honestly, Belle was surprised she hadn't already lost the child.

She decided it was time to just give up on the community. She couldn't do anything about her husband at the moment. Henry was of course a lost cause. People laughed at her, taunted her and her family, and sometimes cursed and spit at her. Belle couldn't take much more of it. She went to work, then came home and locked herself away in this old pink house.

She didn't bother taking care of things, nor herself. She let the house mostly rot, as she saw no point in dusting or cleaning. It was just too much work.

She no longer took the time to pamper or make herself look that presentable. Belle sported her dark under-eye bags from sleepless nights of bawling, her face no longer held any color or warmth to it besides a fading tan, her hair had seen better days, and her clothes were simple and comfortable to get her through each miserable day. A miserable day of working at a place she once loved only to now have no one appreciate her, and then to go back to an empty house to sleep alone and wake up to another meaningless day.

Emma touched Belle's hand, the one placed over her still flat stomach. Belle responded by putting her other hand over it, but she still remained quiet while staring off at nothing. Emma had been one of the only constants after Robert was taken. Belle had finally cracked a few weeks ago and told her about the pregnancy, the escape she and Robert had been planning, and the man responsible for all the crap piling onto their lives.

Killian Jones had hid the cameras in the house. He had the recordings, and he knew about Milah. He was after Belle, and Belle believed he was also after Emma, hence the reason Robert and Henry were out of the way. Belle knew it could only be him to kill Regina. She recalled all of his unwanted, harmful advances, threats, and spying. He had been trouble since the day she met him.

And now, Emma knew about these thoughts and actions as well. She knew about Milah and the story behind it all. Belle had told her everything. It did nothing but hurt and Emma cried, but it wasn't the furious type of cry. It was more of a held back devastation. Emma herself began confessing to how Killian treated her at home, away from the outside world. They've been having problems for months, but it was always reassured with an "I love you" and comforting sex. Lately he had gotten more violent, but Emma couldn't get herself to leave him. She felt she had no one else. She had clung onto him a few days after he first started courting her. He was so good to her...but then he wasn't. He was a terrible person, but he always tried to make it up to her.