Welcome to a Nightmare

Chapter 41: Jogging Some Memories

"Just try to eat something," Henry says. "You need to get your strength back."

In front of a very frightened Belle is some warm soup, a sandwich, a glass of water, and some applesauce; all things that she had not received in the cell. The best she could get most days was cold oatmeal and maybe a plain sandwich, but all of this looked very filling, something her body seemed to be longing for. Despite how tempting the food was, her mind doesn't allow her stomach to eat... something still doesn't want to trust these total strangers.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Belle asks, staring at the meal and then at the two people who have brought her to this strange house in the middle of nowhere. If she didn't know any better, she would expect that these people were trying to kidnap her, hold her for ransom or kill her in some sort of twisted act of evil. Down in the cell, she was safe, safe from all the evil in the outside world. "You don't even know me..."

"But we do, you may not be able to remember it, but we've known you for a long time," Henry answers.

Him longer than me, Crystal thinks to herself. Despite how close she was to Henry's family, she was still kind of distant from Belle; most likely because she had yet to find a deeper connection to the woman who is her stepmother. Maybe it was because the beauty was so close to Rumpel, and the father and daughter duo could only tolerate each other so much... but that didn't seem likely since Crystal often hugged her father out of affection and love, creating a decent bond of closeness between the two. Or maybe going back and forth to New York hadn't allowed the beauty and her stepdaughter to become properly acquainted. Or maybe it's because the daughter of the Dark One doesn't want her stepmother to replace her real mother. While this would never truly happen, Lillian Miller was a hero and would never be forgotten by those who loved her, Crystal had found comfort and family with the people in Storybrooke. Snow White and Regina already filled a lot of the surrogate mother roles, but Belle had technically just entered motherhood herself and she didn't know how to properly connect with children yet. However, if that were true, Belle and Henry seem to get along famously. Maybe it was because Crystal was already an adult and didn't need that connection anymore... Or that the two of them didn't want a connection...

No! The latter idea of not wanting to connect seemed ridiculous; Crystal wanted a family for the longest time, and now she had more than she could have ever asked for, and that family included Belle. It would come, just after the damn curse was broken.

"How... How could you have known me for a long time? I've been locked in that cell for fourteen years..."

"No, you haven't," the male of the group insists. While he doesn't want to admit that she had been in a similar situation before; locked in the ward below the hospital by his adoptive mother for twenty-eight years, that was a conversation for another time. "You've been the librarian of Storybrooke for a long time now, you've gone on great adventures, you've fought for those you love, you've been married and you've had a child..."

"THEN HOW COME I CAN'T REMEMBER IT?!" she screeches angrily, newfound strength entering her body. She slams her fist on the table, nearly sending all her food flying.

Both Henry and Crystal look at one another, trying to find some way to respond, bringing up the curse is the last thing either of them wants to do right now. They just want to get Belle to trust them and believe that they can help her remember.

"Because Fiona didn't want you to," Crystal finally answers.

"Why? What would happen if I actually had some decent and pleasant memories?"

"Her entire plan would fall apart," Henry says.

"What do you mean by that? What plan?"

"Fiona thinks that by keeping you from your real family, she can continue to manipulate everyone around her."