A/N: Yeah, general disclaimer thing that I don't own OUAT or the characters and such. So this is just something I came up with today, I've never done this before but it was in my head and I wrote it down. It has the potential I suppose to be a multichapter story but for now it's just a one shoot. I guess I'll just see how it goes over on here and if people want more of it I can do that I suppose. For now, just let me know how much it sucks I guess.


Emma Swan sat at her desk in the police station thinking over the evidence she had just found. She didn't know exactly what it meant that Tamara had a list of everyone in storybrooke and their fairytale land counter parts but she knew it couldn't be good. Nothing in Storybrooke was ever simple. Everything was always complicated and there was always some sort of scheming going on. All Emma did know what that Tamara had lied when she had said she could be trusted and that's all that mattered to her.

The problem now was what was she going to do about it. She needed to tell someone about here suspicions but that wasn't a simple thing either. Mary Margaret already thought that her suspicions were because she still had feelings for Neal. She honestly didn't have feelings for Neal anymore. But who would believe that? After all, he was the father of her son. She couldn't blame people for thinking that but she needed them to know it wasn't true if she was going to get to the bottom of this whole Tamara issue.

As she sat leaning back in her chair, feet propped up on her desk she considered going to Gold for help. She was sure he would want to help simply because Tamara was involved with his son, but he too would surely think it was because she was jealous of Tamara for being with Neal. He'd already told her he thought she had feelings for Neal still. But she knew Gold. All she would have to do was proposition him with a deal of some kind and she knew he wouldn't be able to resist. What deal she would make with him, she didn't know. Maybe another favor would work. With her mind made up she grabbed her keys off her desk and her jacket off the hanger and headed to Gold's shop.

Right as she was approaching the door to his shop, the door flew wide open and nearly hit her.

"Oh sorry" the woman chuckled as she exited. Emma realized it was Belle and was about to ask how she was doing until she got a better look at her. She didn't look at all like the Belle she remembered. The Belle she knew always looked all dolled up, dressed in bright colors and summery dresses. This Belle looked like she was ready to go to a dingy bar to shoot some pool.

"Umm hi...?" Emma trailed off.

"Lacey" she supplied.

"Right."

"You're the sheriff here right?"

"Uh yeah, that's right" Emma answered.

"Has Mr. Gold been bad?" Lacey asked with a hint of glee and a suggestive tone.

"Um...not that I'm aware of, I just need to talk to him about something" she replied.

"Oh, well have a good day sheriff" Lacey said. Emma thought she sounded almost sarcastic but decided it didn't really matter right now, she had other things to deal with. She'd just ask Gold what was up with all of that.

"Ah, Ms. Swan, I'm sorry I don't really have time to talk with you right now."

"Yeah, you do actually, or at least you're gonna make time, Gold."

"Ohh, is that so? Gold said with a breathy chuckle.

"Yeah it is. It's about Tamara."

"And why should I concern myself with her?"

Taken aback a bit by his curt tone and how he seemed to have no interest in talking about his soon to be daughter-in-law she quickly recovered saying "Well, she is marrying your son…so…"

"I don't think that's going to happen." Gold said chuckling again. Emma started to wonder what the hell was going on with Gold, he was acting like much more of an ass than she'd ever seen him act before.

"And why's that?" she asked.

"A marriage between Bae and that woman is never going to happen, not while the two of you still harbor feelings for one another." If she didn't know any better she would've thought he sounded a bit jealous as he said that.

"Ugh I don't have feelings for him" she said exasperated.

"Oh no, of course not, you're only coming to me to talk about Tamara and I could tell by the way you strolled in her with such purpose that you suspect she's up to something. You couldn't possibly be suspicious of her because she's cozying up to a man you once loved."

"'Once loved' being the operative phrase there. Look I knew you would think that anyway and I don't care what you think, you're wrong. I'm just telling you that I think she's playing your son and is up to something. She's got a list of everyone in Storybrooke and who they are in the Enchanted Forest and she lied to me, she told me I could trust her and she lied."

"And what is it you want me to do about these suspicions of yours exactly?" Gold asked.

"I don't know, I just need you to help me figure out what she's up to."

"I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to do that, dearie."

"And why not, too busy with Lacey?" she asked disdainfully.

"Yes as a matter of fact. I don't have time to indulge in the theories of a jealous-ex" he said as he swiftly turned around and headed to his backroom. As much as she wanted to, she didn't follow him back. She turned around too and stormed out of his shop, angrier than when he had refused to help her gain custody of Henry.


"This wasn't Gold, he's too busy with his old/new girlfriend" Emma said to Mary Margaret and David with just the tiniest hint of jealousy after they realized that Regina's office had been broken into.

"Then who would it have been?" David asked.

"This was Tamara" Emma said with all the conviction she could muster.

"Emma, we've been down this road already, you checked her out and couldn't find anything" Mary Margaret pleaded.

"Maybe I didn't look hard enough. I'm telling you she's up to something, she did this I know it." Emma said.

"Well we can't put all of our efforts into checking her out again" she replied.

"We won't." Emma said.

"So what, you want us" Mary Margaret said motioning to herself and David "to check her out while you go talk to Gold?"

"Why would I want to talk to him?" she asked utterly confused.

"Well he's got magic, maybe he can help us find Regina" David supplied.

"Right" Emma said. "Well you guys can go talk to Gold" she spat his name. She didn't want anything to do with him at the moment, she was still mad at him for not helping her. She decided to ignore the jealous feelings that rose with her anger as well, she didn't have the time or patience to think about what that might mean at the moment. "and I'll go back Tamara's room, there's gotta be something I missed."

"I think you should go talk to Gold, Emma, the three of us can go check Tamara's room" Mary Margaret said, point to Henry this time too.

"Why do you think that" she said trying not to make it clear that she really didn't want to see Gold right now.

"He likes you." Mary Margaret stated matter of factly. "Not to mention I'm not really too into having a conversation with the man who managed to convince me to murder someone" she said starting to get a bit angry.

She decided to ignore that first bit and focused on the last bit beginning to feel a bit ashamed, she should've realized Mary wouldn't have wanted to be around Gold and suddenly her reasons for feeling the same didn't feel quite so serious. "I'm sorry, you're right, I'll go talk to Gold and see if he can help." She turned to Henry "Make sure you check that loose floorboard again, kid."

"I will." Henry replied.

"All right, let's go" Emma said as they all headed out of Regina's office. Once outside, Mary Margaret, David and Henry went off to Granny's Inn and Emma begrudgingly made her way to Gold's shop.


"Back again Ms. Swan?"

"Very observant of you, Gold." She said bitingly.

"Ooh, you seem a bit wound up, dearie. I do hope this isn't about your suspicions of Tamara again, because I'm afraid my answer's going to be the same, I can't help you."

"Actually it is about Tamara and you are going to help me."

"You think so?"

"I know so. You owe me, Gold. I saved your life. If it wasn't for me you would've died."

"Actually, I think if it wasn't for your dear mother, I would've died" he spat back.

"Can you please just help me out for Christ's sake. Regina is missing and so are all the magic beans she had in her office and I think Tamara took her, someone had the guts to break into Regina's office and if it wasn't me and it wasn't you, who else could it have been." She said, starting to yell.

"Magic beans, as in the ones that make portals?" Gold said, completely ignoring the bit about Regina's office being broken into and her being kidnapped.

"Yes, what other magic beans are there?" She barked.

"So this doesn't have anything to do with Neal..." he said and Emma thought he almost sounded hopeful.

"Oh my god, yes, that's what I tried to tell you before damn it. I don't have feelings for Neal; this isn't about him. Tamara is behind this and she needs to be stopped before someone gets hurt."

"Fine, I'll help, just give me a second to try and locate Regina." He said. Emma sighed in relief that she'd finally gotten through to him.


Gold had managed to see that Regina was in fact being held captive so the two of them set out to go get her. Since Gold was the one who saw where Regina was, he drove, Emma sitting in the passenger seat. They drove in silence for a while before Emma couldn't take it anymore and decided to start up a conversation.

"So what's up with this 'Lacey' thing?" she asked making air quote as she said the name.

"Well Regina was kind enough to help restore her memories" he began sarcastically "unfortunately they were her curse memories so she only has memories of being a regular at The Rabbit Hole and seems to have a thing for bad boys." Emma looked a bit taken aback at that last bit.

"Doesn't sound much like Belle" Emma noted giving Gold a sidelong glance and a bit of an accusatory tone.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" he asked having noticed her accusatory tone.

"Nothing, I'm just saying she's not exactly your Belle, is she". Even Emma seemed surprised at what she was saying. She wasn't even sure where she was going with that.

"No she's not." He said sounding a bit disappointed. Emma almost started to feel bad about saying what she had, almost. The jealous feeling inside of her that she was still unwilling to attempt to understand was poking out and was happy that Gold was disappointed and seemed to doubt his relationship with Lacey.

"You know, I'm not sure I really understand why you're trying so hard to get Belle/Lacey. I mean do either Lacey or Belle really love you?"

"What are you even saying?" Gold said his voice trembling a bit.

"I'm just saying that they both seem to be in love with a version of you, Belle the good version and Lacey the bad, but neither of them seem to love the real you."

"The real me, and what, you think you know the real me?" he asked, his tone laced with doubt.

"Maybe, maybe not, but I do know that you're not wholly bad and you're not wholly good, so why waste your time with someone who only loves part of you?" she said, trying to get a rise out of him. She succeeded.

"Because, because that's all I have!" He shouted as he pulled the car over to a stop and faced her properly. "I don't have anything else, this as close to love as I'm ever going to get. I'd rather pretend that it's the real thing and let them love the man they wish I was and keep telling them I'll be that man one day than live without that glimmer of hope that one day she'll accept me as I am and truly love me." he yelled.

Emma was a bit stunned that he'd gotten as mad as he was. She was trying to get him mad but she didn't realize she was going to break the dam.

"I've gotten used to it over my long, long life. No one loves the real me, so I've given up." He continued calming down slightly.

Emma was feeling a little bit bad now for having pushed his buttons so far and she put her arm on his shoulder. He didn't look up at her; he just stared down into his lap. She'd pushed him too far but that wasn't going to stop her from saying what she wanted to say next. "You don't have to give up." She said softly.

"Easy for you to say, you've already found your true love." He said bitingly, starting to get worked up again and finally looking bad up at her.

"What?" she asked genuinely confused.

"Neal, of course." He stated.

"I thought we went over this already, I don't have feelings for Neal." She nearly yelled.

"I've seen the gleam in your eyes when he's around." Gold said.

"Yeah, well maybe that gleam you're seeing isn't for him." Emma accidentally blurted exasperatedly.

Immediately she began to regret her lack of restraint. Gold was giving her a very strange look and she knew he'd understood what she meant. She was hoping he hadn't. Her conscious mind wasn't ready to admit that she had feelings for Gold but apparently her subconscious had other plans. She looked steadfastly forward, refusing to acknowledge that Gold was staring intently at her.

"Are you implying, what I think you're implying?" Gold asked slowly after nearly a whole minute of silence between them.

"No." She denied. "Just forget it, I don't know what I was saying, just drive." She said getting a bit panicky.

"Oh no, dearie, I think we've got to discuss what you've just said. Everything comes with a price, dearie and what you've just said comes with the hefty price of talking about it." He said seriously.

"Look, I didn't mean to say that, okay, just forget about it, please."

"No." Gold replied simply. "You may not have meant to say it but you did and now you've got to pay for it."

"What the hell do you want me to say, huh? That I have feelings for you?" Emma asked.

"Well do you?" He asked.

"Maybe. So what if I do?" She said

But Gold never got a chance to answer as his car door was swung open and Gold was ripped from the car.