Beautiful Lily

Beyond the red line

CHAPTER 50 Omg. It's been so nice writing this and reading your comments. Please enjoy this chapter :) Untill next time XtachlushX

Belle drove her new vehicle around Storybrooke for about an hour or so. Not only did she want to get comfortable with all the modern gadgetry, but somehow the new contraption gave her a sense of freedom. The whole feeling felt strangely familiar. She was happy with the purchase, but for some reason she felt incredibly sad; like she shouldn't be alone in this joy. It was the same feeling she had when Rumple gave her freedom back, telling her to leave the Dark Castle and expecting her to never return. The car ride was fun, but she knew she needed to return home; to return to him.

She was about to turn around when she realized where she had mindlessly driven to; Storybrooke's town-line. She stopped about a half-mile away from the border. She could still see the spray painted line from where she parked that separated their world from the world out there. She knew Rumple had been beyond the border to find Neal and it made her wonder what was out there. What was it about this world that was worth cursing the Enchanted Forest? This other world was a place with no magic; a place that Neal desperately wanted to go to so that he and his father could be together. Neal saw this world as their happy ending. She wondered about their happy ending; hers and Rumple's. Could theirs be out there as well?

She continued staring out the windshield. She pondered, was their happy ending just beyond that red line? Was it destiny? If it was, then their destiny was just a half mile away; so close. Now that magic was gone from Storybrooke, what would happen if she crossed the border again? Would she lose her memories like she did before? Or would something else bad happen to her, like what she heard had happened to other people before the first curse broke?

Belle wasn't going to force fate's hand and take that risk in endangering herself, but somewhere deep inside she knew Storybrooke wasn't their happy ending. In fact, she believed that it was this town that fed into Rumplestiltskin's belief in his need for magic. Belle didn't know much about business, but she could remember reading something about supply and demand from one of her father's economic books. In the business of magic her husband, Rumplestiltskin, created both the supply and the demand in Storybrooke. She speculated. At the moment, Storybrooke lacked the supply in magic, but in Rumple's mind he felt that there was this constant demand for it. What would happen to Rumple if magic no longer existed and there was no demand for it? Perhaps that's what Baelfire saw all those years ago in this Land Without Magic. Perhaps that's what still lied in store for them; their happy ending. She believed in their happy ending, but did he? No, and that was the problem. She needed to convince her husband that their happy ending existed and that it was just beyond that red line. If she could figure out a way to show him that there was no longer a demand for magic, then they could move on and forward to their happiness; and that was the key to their happy ending. If she could convince him of that, then his story would come full circle to what Baelfire had requested of him all those years ago.

She sat in the car and bit her lip as she chewed on the thought some more. When she realized that this was something she needed to discuss with her husband, it made her want to see him even more. After all, their happiness was at stake. Somehow they would find a way for both of them to live outside of Storybrooke. As she turned the car around and headed back to Main Street she thought about how receptive Rumple would be to her insights. As of lately with the loss of magic and the added pressure of their expectancy, he was overwhelmed, irritable and ridden with anxiety. It was his current critical state that made Belle decide against sharing her thoughts. But that wouldn't stop her from seeking out different avenues to getting to their happy ending. Perhaps there was something in her library that could help them; a clue of some sort. She wanted to see her husband, but she wanted to arm herself with knowledge first.