The Author

Attempt

Belle stirred and for a moment she thought she was back in New York, but the smell wasn't right. The air smelt a bit musty and old. She woke up and to her disappointment she found herself on a couch back in her Storybrooke Victorian home.

What time is it? How did I make it to the couch? She wondered.

She sat up immediately and looked around the living room for a clock. The face-clock on the mantle read 9:36 p.m.

Where's Rumple? He was on the porch, no... that was a dream, wait... was it?

"Rumple?!" Belle called out into the void. She got up and headed toward the basement. "Rumple?" she called out again.

"I'm down here," he answered back.

Belle descended the stairs and upon the bottom could see that he had been busy. For the past few hours of their arrival he had apparently unearthed equipment, organized potions bottles and categorized ingredients. It wasn't until she saw Lily's jacket on the work table that she realized what he had been up to.

"Lily's jacket?" Belle questioned.

"I needed something of hers for the tracking spell to work. For the past few hours, I've been searching and assembling the right ingredients together to create the spell. As you can see, there's a lot down here I had to look through."

"Is the spell ready?"

"Not yet..." he said as he added a drop of something silver from a potion bottle, "I'm afraid the last ingredient I need is in my shop."

"Rumple... let me come with you when you go to the shop."

He glanced up from the work table with a raised brow, "What's wrong?"

"I just... had this strange dream that you were apologizing to me and..." His face twisted with concern as she started to rehash the tale to him. Upon seeing that there was no merit to finishing the tale and that nothing would come of it, she shook her head to disregard it. "...um, nevermind. It's probably nothing. This place is starting to get to me as I'm sure it has already with you." Gold remained stoic; neither confirming nor denying her assumptions about how he was handling magic. She continued, "So long as Merlin and Arthur are out there and the town remains cursed, I don't think we should split up. I, personally, would feel much better knowing that you were nearby."

Gold nodded understandably, "Alright. You're right. There's no telling who we can trust and you're the only person I trust at the moment. The last thing we need is for one of us to get cursed."

Belle exhaled a sigh of relief at his reassurance. She looked around his work table as he waved his hand over the items. Potions, herbs and other items were magically storing themselves in boxes and slipped perfectly back on the shelf behind. Apparently, magic was coming back to him more naturally than she had expected. Then a thought occurred to her, when they found Lily would he want to leave again, leave magic? She had only asked him once when they were living in New York, whether or not he missed it and his answer was, "So long as I have you two to live out the rest of my life with." It was then that she realized he had never really answered her question.

"Rumple..."

"Mmm?" he said as he collected Lily's jacket.

"We're not going to stay in Storybrooke. Our home is in New York, right?"

It took him a beat to respond, "Yes, of course." He hesitated, the tone of his voice filled with reluctance. "...Once we find Lily, we'll head back home."

"Ok," she said with uncertainty.

He started to get up from where he sat on the stool, but as soon as he did he wavered. He was fatigued. Magic may have healed his physical body, but his mental acuity was faltering. He had driven all morning, worked in the basement all evening, all while he worried about losing his daughter. It was enough to tax anyone. He leaned forward, placing his two hands on the work table and closed his darkened eyes.