Beautiful Lily

Cold turkey

Belle watched Emma leave to go talk to her son and waited until she was completely out the door before turning to Rumple to address his issue. She saw nothing but dread and shock on his face as he continued to stare at the vacant spot where Henry sat. She reached for his arm hoping that her touch would bring him back to reality and asked, "Rumple... what is it? Something's wrong and you're not telling me."

"Can't you feel it?" he asked with panic in his voice and on his face.

"No?" said Belle, baffled by Rumple's odd question. "Feel what?"

Something was wrong and he knew what it was. He didn't want to say what it was out loud and feared that by saying it would only validate his fear. Without saying another word, he ripped his arm away from Belle's grasp and bolted out of the living room.

"Where... where are you going?" Belle asked, doing her best to catch up to her husband who was already heading down to their basement from inside the house. Belle took her time descending down the stairs. From above she heard bottles clinging together violently followed quickly by the sound of glass shattering to the floor as she made her way down the steps.

"Rumple?!" Belle called out in alarm, but Rumple didn't respond to her. "Are you alright?"

As she got closer to the basement floor, she came upon a disturbing sight. Rumple was pacing franticly, going to and fro tossing books from shelves, spilling potions, emptying jars, and knocking vials all across the floor. Belle noticed all the liquid that painted the floor and hesitated going any further fearing that the spilled liquids were most likely hazardous concoctions. She had never seen him in this much anxiety before and it frightened her. It was like she was witnessing two of the worst versions of him; the coward and the beast.

"Rumple! Rumple! Please stop! What are you doing?!"

"Belle, it's gone! It's all gone!" he exclaimed looking wildly about him anxiously combing his fingers through his hair. She wanted to get closer to him, but was afraid to take another step forward. So she stood at the second to the last step and called to him from there, "Rumple stop! What's all gone?"

"Magic!" he shrilled in an almost crazed-like manner. "I can't even perform or create a simple potion!"

"What?! How is that even possible? You brought magic into Storybrooke."

Rumple paused in his frenzy, thinking of the answer to Belle's most astute and pertinent question. How?

"...Henry," he answered with a sinister growl.

He ran back up the stairs passing Belle to get to Henry. Belle climbed back up the stairs and tried to follow her husband. When she reached the top of the stairs and back into the house she called after him faintly feeling incredibly strange as the words escaped her mouth, "...Rumple."

She felt the heart within her chest beat abnormally fast, like she was involuntarily running a marathon. Her legs trembled and she became dizzy as the room spun inexplicably about her. Rumple turned around and saw Belle staggering forward toward him. He ran over to her as quickly as he could, catching her in time as she fainted in his arms.

... ...

"Belle... Belle... sweetheart, please wake up..." Rumplestiltskin calmly pleaded, gently coaxing his wife to wake. She could feel his hand holding hers as her eyes fluttered open. As her eyes adjusted, she saw that he was kneeling down beside her at the couch with the look of worry and sadness on his face. She looked about the room from the couch she was lying on and realized that he had lifted her from where she fell and placed her there.

"Rumple, what happened?" Belle asked as she tried to sit up.

Rumple stopped her, placing two gentle hands on her shoulders to help her lie back down, "No, no, no... lie back down for just a little while longer. You fainted... and it's my fault."