Chapter Nine: After-Math
"This isn't possible; it has to some kind of trick," Emma says, her eyes wide with shock as she, Belle and Sheriff Gram review the footage over and over again.
Belle stares at the strange figure of Rumplestiltskin, now that she's seeing it play over and over on the computer screen she can't help but feel that this wasn't some skilled teenage prank, like in past instances of a "historic figure" showing up in the museum. Most of the time, the teens were caught fairly quickly, but this? This wasn't some prank, at least not one that was harmless.
"Ms. French," Gram says turning to her, while Emma continues to stare at the screen, checking for any time skips to prove that the film was tampered with, "Can we talk alone for a moment?"
Belle mutely nods and follows the messy haired sheriff into his office, where he motions for her to sit in one of the chairs, before sitting at his desk himself.
Gram bites his lower lip, and is silent for a few moments, then looks up at Belle and asks, "This . . . Rumplestiltskin, that's a fairytale name yeah?"
Belle nods, remembering the book of fairytales that her close friend, Mary Margaret had given Henry, one of them involving the impish figure with a fetish for deal-making.
"Do you have any idea as to why this man would call himself that?" Gram asks, folding his arms across his chest, though his face remained warm, and encouraging towards her, "Most criminals aren't usually so willing to give a name".
Belle started to shake her head no, but then realized something, and said, "In the story . . . Rumplestiltskin makes a deal for a favor from the miller's daughter later, her first born child. Our intruder . . . he . . . he kept asking if I wanted to make a deal. When I told him to turn around and put his hands behind his head, I think he thought I was making a deal with him, and before he vanished, he said he would collect. I-I think he might be our dagger thief. Maybe he thought since he felt I owed him that he could get me to help him in a heist or something".
While she talks, Gram's expression turns from encouraging to thoughtful, it seems he's considering her words.
After she stops talking, he remains silent for a moment then opens his mouth to talk, but before he can say anything, Emma comes into the room, saying, "There isn't any time jumps on the footage. Whatever he did . . . however he did it, it didn't involve tampering with the footage. At least not from what I can see."
Gram nods and then says, facing Emma, "Well, I think we may have a way to find this . . . Rumplestiltskin. As Belle said, he thought he was making a deal with her, then maybe he will make good on his word and come back for a deal."
Emma grins, realization spreading across her face, "And if he was the dagger thief, then we'll be able to bust him for both".
Gram nods and turns back to Belle, "I hate to ask this of you Belle, but he's left us no trace on both times he managed to sneak into the museum, you're the only possible lead we have on him . . ."
Belle stood up and smiled reassuringly at Gram, knowing the sheriff was in a difficult situation and only wanted to solve the problem as soon as possible. "It's fine," Belle told him, "I don't mind being used as bait. I didn't become a security guard only to fail my duty by letting some crazy man escape".
Gram nodded, his face grim, "Thank you for helping us Ms. French, but I will have Emma trail you as often as she can without being conspicuous. And if you can manage it, stay with at least another person, I don't want this maniac hurting you".
Belle nodded, "I'll try".
Gram spun around in his chair and picked up his phone, saying, "Emma, can you look up Mr. Gold's phone number, I need to let him know of what occurred last night".
Before Emma can say anything, Belle speaks up, "I can if you want Sheriff, I'm going over to his shop anyway to check on him."
Gram nodded, and said, "Go ahead, but I'm at least required to leave a message, besides I'll have to ask him if he knows anything anyway later on".
X*X*X*X*X*
Mr. Gold stared at the Dark One's dagger picture on the screen; unable to tear his eyes away from it, though he couldn't fathom why.
He just felt the strangest pull towards it, even before he had bought it, he had still felt that same tug.
Sighing, he leaned back in the chair behind his desk and tapped his fingers on the desk top beside the laptop.
It still didn't make sense to him how someone had not only managed to sneak into his museum with both a security guard on duty but also with the most high-tech security system money could buy, but also hadn't touched or gone after anything but the Dark One's dagger.
He blinked, how had the thief known that the dagger would be on display that very night? He hadn't yet announced it on the Storybrooke museum's website. Somehow, the theif had already known when the dagger would arrive . . . Mr. Gold knew it wasn't either of his security guards. Gaston was too stupid to know the value of the dagger, and Belle . . . well, the young librarian/security guard had been with friends.
A sudden idea lit up in his mind and he typed up in google search: Storybrooke, Maine—Ancient Dagger?
Naturally Mr. Gold knew the legend surrounding the ancient dagger, but he also knew that it hadn't originated in any of the olden countries, but had rather shown up during the Salem witch-trials.
A dozen different sites popped up on cue from his search—phrase, but one stood out in particular, an old newspaper article from Storybrooke during the nineteen hundreds. He clicked on it.
His eyes widened ever so slightly as he read through it.
According to the article, a strange woman had showed up in the town soon after a series of strange robberies had started happening, all caused by the same woman, a young lady named Nimue. According to the article, Nimue was supposedly under some sort of spell cast by the strange woman through an ancient dagger that had been discovered in an old crate buried ten feet underground.
Mr. Gold hummed thoughtfully to himself. He had read the old article before, but it had only now just dawned on him that the ancient dagger mentioned in the article could be the Dark One's dagger. Both were described as a wavy, foot long blade with black markings on them.
He copied and pasted the page, and sent it as an email to the Sheriff, maybe it would help them solve the case. In any case it certainly was interesting.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard the soft chime of the bell as someone walked into his shop. Judging from the tapping sound of high heels, he guessed that it was either Madam Mayor or Belle. He secretly hoped it was Belle, for some reason, she was starting to become another flicker of light in his life.
"Mr. Gold?" came her lovely Australian accent.
"In the back," Mr. Gold answered, and a moment later, she came into the back room, wearing a pale blue knee-length dress and a golden jacket, her hair tied back in a pony-tail.
"Oh, there you are. Ready for your session?" she asked him, stopping just in front of his desk.
Mr. Gold shrugged and stood up, before he closed the laptop.
He limped over to where she was, and gave her a small smile.
Belle bit her lower lip, and then said, "Listen, last night, at the museum—"
Mr. Gold waved a hand at her, saying, "I know Ms. French, Sheriff Gram came over earlier and asked me a few questions." He paused for a moment then said, "You're not hurt are you?"
She smiled at him, pleasantly surprised and a bit touched that he cared for her well-being. And people said he was the town monster, pffh, Belle didn't think so, or at least she didn't anymore.
She shook her head, still smiling, "No, but thanks to this guy's fetish for deals, we may have a way to catch him".
Mr. Gold nodded, "Good, I've already done some more research over the dagger and I sent the findings to Sheriff Gram. With any luck, it'll help put that criminal behind bars, and away from you Ms. French."
Belle reached out and put her hand on his shoulder, he seemed to startle a little at the sudden contact, "I hope we do catch him soon, but anyway, let's start shall we?"
He nodded, "What first?" he asked.
"Let's try some toe-touches ok?" Belle said.
Mr. Gold huffed softly, "Naturally we have to start with something the ole town monster hates doing," he sighed, starting to comply.
Belle snorted, she didn't like him thinking of himself and such a way, and she was a horrible friend if she didn't try to change his mind about that.
She rested her hand on his back.
Surprised, he stood back up again, a puzzled look on his face.
"What?" he asked, cocking his head to the side, his hair falling into his face.
Belle folded her arms across her chest, "You're not a monster Mr. Gold".
He smirked at her, "Oh to the contrar Ms. French—"
"Belle," she corrected him.
"Belle, but I think the rest of the town disagrees with you, including myself," he said, still smirking.
He was so smug, so sure that he was indeed the monster that the town made him out to be. Belle wanted nothing more than to kiss that look right off his face and prove to him that he wasn't a monster.
Wait was that really what she wanted? Belle thought, shocked by her own thoughts. Suddenly she remembered her heated dream that she'd had at Mr. Gold's house . . . Was she falling in love with him, she couldn't help but wonder.
She took a deep breath and looked back at Mr. Gold. He was still smug, looking as if he thought he had won their little argument. Well, she'd just have to show him.
Do the brave thing and bravery will follow, she told herself.
"Oh really," she said, matching his smug tone.
He blinked, puzzlement starting to replace the smugness.
"Come here," she said, and took his hand in hers. A pleasant tingle ran up her arm at the contact.
She led him over to a full length mirror in the corner of the room, and stopped just in front of it with him. She let go of his hand and moved behind him, resting her hands on his shoulders, and rested her head on his shoulder as well.
He stared blankly at the mirror, a blush starting to creep up his neck to his face. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't the only one, Belle was blushing from their sudden closeness as well.
Mr. Gold suddenly shrugged, "And your point is Belle?"
Belle exhaled, blowing warm air over his neck, and he shivered, his face becoming even redder. He turned his head ever so slightly to look back at her.
Belle reached out with her hand and gently tilted his face back towards the mirror, so that he was once again looking at his reflection.
"You know what I see when I look at you Mr. Gold," she asked him in a low whisper.
He didn't answer; he just stared at their reflection, his mouth slightly open, and swallowed hard. His Adam's apple bobbing.
She brought her hand close to his face, and gently, slowly petted the hair on the side of his head, right beside his ear. She then leaned closer and whispered in his ear, "I see a sophisticated gentleman doing business with people who fail to read the contract. Not a monster".
He turned his head towards her so that their faces were only centimeters apart.
"Belle . . . I," he started to say, his voice husky.
Ding! The shop door opened and two pairs of footsteps clomped into the shop.
"Hey Dad!" Bae called from the front of the shop.
Gold's eyes widened in sudden alarm and he jerked away from Belle, his face bright red, mirroring Belle's.
Baedden and Henry walked into the backroom, their faces lighting up with surprise when they saw their father and Belle, both red faced and alone in the back.
Both boys grinned.
Baedden liked the idea of his father finally having found love again. But knowing his dad, he and his half-brother Henry would have to give them a little nudge.
"Um, I-uh, better be going, I'll see you later to help you with that session Mr. Gold," Belle told him, starting to back out of the room, but she accidently backed into a petistool with an antique tea set on top of it.
She gave a shocked yelp when one of the cups fell off and hit the floor.
Both Henry and Bae suddenly looked nervous, they knew their father was very protective of the antiques in his store.
Belle leaned down and picked the cup up, suddenly very worried, "I-I'm sorry, but i-its chipped," she said.
Mr. Gold stared at her, perplexed, his face still red.
He shrugged, "Its just a cup Belle," he said.
Belle gave a relieved smile, and set the cup back down, "O-ok," she said, "I'll see you later then Mr. Gold".
"Bye Belle, I'll see you later then," he said.
Henry nudged Baedden as Belle left the shop, their father watching her go, an almost lovestruck look in his sable brown eyes.
"I think they need a little push, don't you Henry?" Bae whispered.
Henry grinned and nodded excitedly.
