Love Can Thaw

Chapter 4: No One Will Believe Me

"Belle, I'm telling you he's up to something," Crystal insists as Belle reorganizes a stack of books in the library.

The daughter of Rumpelstiltskin knew that she couldn't keep this secret to herself and spent all night trying to find out who to tell. She knew Emma and her family were too busy trying to stop the Snow Queen from casting her curse, while Elsa was distracted with finding Anna and then Regina with trying to unfreeze Marian, so she crossed them off her list. She knew the town's safety relied on all the heroes, but she had to try and help Hook in some way. If she wanted to be a hero, she'd have to try and do something. She knew she'd have to do this in secret so she was teleporting very quietly and staying in the shadows, hoping her father wasn't following her. She decided on the only person who would have the time to listen, which was her new stepmother. However, in order to avoid her father following through with his threats, she left out the major details and worded it as if she's concerned that her father had not changed as the beauty had suspected and what he'd done to her at the mansion the night before. Belle of all people should know that her father was far from perfect and could easily deceive others, but the more she talks to the librarian, the more it seemed that this is not true.

"He froze me last night."

"How can you be sure it's him?"

"The demographic with magic is pretty darn small, plus I know where Elsa and Emma were when it happened."

"What about Regina, she could've done it to prevent you from hurting Emma or you hurting yourself."

"I wasn't going to hurt Emma!"

"Then maybe she did it to prevent you from getting hurt so she could handle it herself. She is more experienced with magic after all."

"Then why didn't she stop Elsa as well?" Crystal snaps back.

Belle pushes a cart of books down one of the aisles, trying to escape Crystal's bantering, but the girl follows right beside her.

"I don't have the answers Crystal, I just think you're misreading the situation. You don't have the evidence to create a valid argument."

"He did it so I wouldn't interfere with whatever he's planning."

"Crystal, we've been through this, your father is not planning anything anymore. He has changed for the better."

The young woman rolls her eyes in frustration. "Look, I'm happy you two got married, more power to you and actual happiness for him. Yay, but he's still the Dark One and he will do whatever he wants whenever he wants."

Belle puts a few books on the shelves of the Fantasy section before turning to her stepdaughter. "If that were true, would he have given me the Dark One dagger for safekeeping if he was 'planning' something?"

"How do you know it's not a fake?" she challenged.

"How could you say that Crystal?" Belle sighs, getting frustrated and a little hurt by the implication.

"Because that's the way he's always been, he wouldn't trust anyone, not even his own daughter with the thing that could literally control or kill him."

"Please keep in mind that the first time you came to Storybrooke, you did try to kill him, so I wouldn't blame him for not trusting you completely yet. Besides, I know it's not fake because I used it when Elsa asked about whether he knew about Anna or not."

Sick of this and her rage seething at the surface, she retorts. "All right, you think it's real, give it to me so I can make him give Hook's heart back and confess his plan to everyone."

She pauses, regretting letting some of the details slip, but at this point, she just wanted to be believed.

Belle glares at her. "You should be ashamed of yourself Crystal. I will not hand over the dagger just so you can use it to prove a point. That's cruel not just to your father, but to me as well."

"Okay, you want to talk cruelty? How do you explain the fact that Hook no longer has a heart in his chest?"

"How can you possibly know that?"

"My vision," Crystal reminds her.

"Maybe your vision was wrong."

"My vision is never wrong! It's how I was able to see all of you as your true selves when I first came here and it's all linked to your energies too."

Belle goes behind the main desk of the library. She won't hear any more about her husband. He's made an effort change, she wouldn't have married him if he hadn't.

"Magic isn't always stable and things can be deceiving.

Crystal sighs angrily, knowing she's only got one piece of evidence to prove to her stepmother that she wasn't lying.

"Then how about the text he sent me last night, threatening Killian's life..." she grabs her phone and scrolls to the text. She holds it up for Belle to read. There's a pause as Crystal waits for a response.

"I hardly call that threatening."

"WHAT?" the girl looks at her phone. She reads the message over. Instead of the menacing and intimidating text message, it's a bunch of mushy slop about how much Rumpelstiltskin loves her and how he hopes they can have lunch sometime soon.

"Th-That's impossible. The message threatened to hurt Killian if I told anyone."

"Maybe you misread it."

"I DIDN'T MISREAD IT!" Crystal barks angrily. The lights above the front desk flicker in response to her rage. "Dad messed with my phone when I wasn't looking! He has that ability of technopathy you know. It's hard not to misinterpret when someone is threatening the death of another person." She wants to use her magic to get the original message back, but she's not experienced enough yet.

"Crystal, please calm down. You're seeing things that are not there. You're just looking for an excuse to villainize your father again. I understand that us getting married is hard for you to handle and you're looking for any excuse to break us up, but it's not going to happen. We love each other and nothing will stand in the way of that again."

The girl blinks in utter disbelief and throws her fist down on the desk so hard, she nearly cracks the surface. "I can't believe this. I thought you were supposed to be the smart one! I love that you two got married, I even gave you a wedding present! The music box that plays the Beauty and the Beast tune. How does that not prove that I support your union?! I actually thought that love would be able to control my dad and give him a reason to route for good, but from what I've seen and been through, he's just as cold-hearted as before."

"Maybe he's not the one who's cold-hearted anymore..." Belle says before disappearing behind several of the bookshelves. She won't buy any more of this nonsense. Her step-daughter is telling the same lies that the mirror in the ice queen's cave told her. The fake dagger, that Rumpel doesn't really love her and that he'll always choose power over love.

"I give up!" the daughter of the Dark One snaps. "Just don't come crying to me when your heart gets broken AGAIN. If there's one thing I've learned about Dad is that you can't trust him without being hurt along the way."

Crystal forces the door open and walks away from the clock tower in anger. Of course, her father's plan is working, he has everyone totally fooled and nothing she can say or do will change that.

She hikes through the streets, pulling her jean jacket around herself tightly. She needs to take a walk to clear her head. Her hands flicker with purple, light indicating she was losing control slightly. The girl knows the last thing this town needs is the daughter of the Dark One to lose control. Emma's powers were mostly harmless, but with the darkness flowing through her veins, Crystal knows it would be much worse. At the same time, she must help Killian before her father succeeds with his plans. Obviously, the pirate saw through the Dark One's façade; now he's suffering for it and she can do nothing about it.

Crystal finds her way to the local waterfall deep in the forest. Sometimes she comes here when she needs to think more. The ripples created by the river and the soft white noise calms her down significantly. She begins skipping rocks into the flowing stream as a form of distraction. She's so angry that she doesn't notice the drop in temperature and that some of the plant life is frosting over.

"Hard, isn't it?" Crystal hears behind her.

A/N: Hope a lot of people can relate to how frustrating it is when no one believes you. Thank you to any followers. Please read and review.