Captain Swan One Shots

Second Chances and What If's

This one's for MCStoryteller14 who wanted babysitting Neal and Belle and Will dating. I got a little carried away and sappy with the Scarlet Beauty but here is the result! (Read it and let me know if I change your mind about Scarlet Beauty even if you don't ship them!)
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Belle had been crushed for weeks after a Rumple left, and with reason.

The first man who she thought truly loved her, who had changed for her, who she deeply believed who was no longer that beast... He turned out to just be a selfish coward.

Maybe Hook had been right after all.

She had bonded with Killian over the three weeks Rumple had been gone, but obviously they were simply friends. Killian had his own love and quite honestly, Belle adored Emma and Killian together. They completed each other.

Every time she saw them, she thought of Rumple. She missed Rumple so much, but at the same time, the though of him made her angry. As much as she missed him, she also despised him.

Belle began to realize that love was something she needed in her life.

Which is why when Will Scarlet came sauntering into the library one morning, bearing coffee and apologies for breaking a window a few weeks prior, she'd accepted his apology along with the coffee with a smile.

Will came back the next day.

And the day after that.

It became a routine and after a week, he asked her to lunch, to which she bashfully accepted.

At some point between their meeting and their first kiss after that date, Belle had stopped wearing her wedding ring.

For the first time, she felt one hundred percent secure in her relationship.

Will wasn't some sort of evil sorcerer who would betray her in the end.

He made her smile. He made her laugh. He made her feel whole for the first time since Rumple left.

Their daily routine of coffee at the library with Killian, searching for a way to free the fairies became something Belle looked forward to each morning.

The subject of Rumple became less of a stab in the gut and more of a pinch in the arm.

Will was helping her trust again, be happy again... Love again.

Everyone noticed.

Not a single person objected, something she was eternally grateful for.

When David and Mary Margaret went out for their weekly double date with Killian and Emma, they invited Belle and Will.

Belle declined, unsure if Will would be up to spending time with Killian. She knew about their rivalry of sorts.

Instead, she offered to babysit Neal with Will.

They now say on the Charmings' couch, his arm around her shoulders, her head resting on his chest, Neal asleep in his crib in front of them.

"You ever think of having kids?" She asked him.

"It never crossed my mind. I was always too busy runnin' from one thing or another. Tryin' to find what I needed, never finding what I was looking for though," he shook his head.

"I haven't either," she said sadly, "I've spent so much time with people I thought I could trust, who betray me in the end. Then I realized... What if it's simpler than that? What if what I'm looking for is right here, sitting beside me, my second chance?" She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling.

"What if?" He looked down at her with a genuine smile before leaning down to kiss her.

Maybe her second chance was Will Scarlet.

From that moment on, she secretly wanted children one day, far off in the future.

Not with someone who betrayed her, who lied to her, who had lost her.

With someone who she knew would never betray her, never lie, who would stand by her. Someone she was falling in love with so fast it scared her because it had only been a month since she'd sent her husband away forever.

Belle didn't get much from sending Rumplestiltskin over that town line, but she did get Will Scarlet.

She did get a second chance.

And maybe that was enough.