Somehow, Rumpelstiltskin had begun to be brave.

He wasn't sure he fully believed it; it seemed too good to be true. Just like it seemed too good to be true to have finally gotten away from Emma and be reunited with his wife. But he had saved Belle from a bear, even though he was back to nothing but a crippled old man, and then somehow, that knowledge had given him the strength he needed to pull Excalibur from the stone, freeing himself and Merida from Emma's clutches. Now they were all safely ensconced in Regina's house, which not even the Dark One would be able to enter easily, about to have a meeting to figure out how to stop her. Even though it seemed rather rich to Belle that after willingly leaving him as Emma's prisoner, they expected him to drop everything to help (and honestly, did nobody remember how he'd once died to save everybody in this ungrateful town, and never gotten anything in return except having to watch his son die?), she supposed she shouldn't be all that surprised. And Rumple didn't like it either, but now that he was a hero, he sort of felt obligated to offer whatever assistance he could.

So far Regina, Robin Hood, Granny, the Charmings, Blue, and other people at the center of their club were here too, all clustered in the living room, even now (perhaps through force of habit) giving him and Belle a bit of a berth. He was too relieved to care, just leaning on his cane and getting reassurance from having Belle holding his other arm. And then who should walk in but Hook.

The pirate was feeling (rather understandably) distraught; the woman he loved seemed to have gone thoroughly evil, and every day seemed to bring her farther away from what she was. Not just hurting him, but hurting her parents, her friends, even her own son, all to apparently unite the two weapons. And it didn't help matters when he stepped into Regina's house for the important meeting, and saw the man who should have been containing all the darkness that was now in Emma standing there, with Belle, as if he had never been away.

Killian knew that he wasn't the Dark One anymore, and that having the curse had led to things like killing Milah, trying to kill Emma, even trying to kill him. And if the man had acted more like his old timid spinner self that he remembered-avoided his eyes, cringed, something like that-he could have let his anger and need for someone to blame go for now. But Rumpelstiltskin saw him come in, and though he was clearly nowhere near as confident as he'd been as the Dark One, and even if there was some fear in his eyes, when Hook glared at him...he gave him a defiant glare back. The kind that refused to back down despite his fear, that in his present mood, Hook took as a challenge. Ignoring the voice of his resurrected conscience which whispered that maybe it was wrong to bully a crippled old man, and that they were both different people from when they had first met, the pirate began striding towards him...only to find a petite, dark-haired woman standing in his way.

"What are you doing?" Belle asked in a tone of voice that made it quite clear she had guessed how he was feeling, and wasn't going to stand for it.

Killian struggled to answer for a second, before Belle finally said, "Actually, come here. I need to get something straight between you two." She spun around and walked back to her husband; Killian, feeling a little confused, followed.

Once the three were clustered in that part of the room, Belle said, "Let me make one thing clear: I know you have done horrible things to each other, including trying to kill each other several times, or similarly get revenge. But you both really need to let it go, because we have a far bigger issue than old grudges to settle. Also, it is not Rumple's fault that Emma's the Dark One now, so if you were planning on taking some kind of revenge for it, you can just get that notion out of your head, Killian Jones."

"Belle-" the pirate began, but she pointed a finger at him.

"It was wrong for you to run off with his first wife-" she spun around to point that same finger at Rumple, who was sort of giving him a smug smile over her shoulder as she told him off- "and it was wrong for you to later get revenge for it. It was wrong for you to try to kill me-" pointing back at Hook- "and wrong for you-" back to Rumple- "to try to kill Emma. It was wrong for you-" back to Hook- "to blackmail him to get your hand back, and wrong for you-" Rumple again- "to take his heart. Basically, you have hurt each other several times, all because of your anger over Milah, so you should count yourselves even."

"It's become more than just that-" Rumple began to protest.

"Let me finish," Belle interrupted more gently than she had Killian. Then she put her hands on her hips, and said, "I'm not asking you to kiss and make up (both men looked fairly horrified at the notion, making her smile the tiniest bit), but we need to set that aside, for now at least, and focus on the more important problem: stopping Emma. Is that clear?"

Rumple and Hook looked at each other, expressions saying that they could never learn to like each other, and they sure as heck didn't like the idea of being forced to work together. Even Rumple, who had become far more the timid, gentle man he'd been before, was allowing himself to openly express his anger towards the pirate for what he'd done to him.

Belle sighed.

"Please. You did it once in Neverland. You can do it again. At least try to make things so I can turn my back without you going for each other's throats. Please."

After another moment of hesitation...

"Fine," both men growled in almost unison.

Belle smiled. "Good."

At that moment, Regina called the meeting together as the dwarfs finally arrived, and they got to planning.