Chapter Fourteen: Breaking into the basement
After a few tense moments of silence had passed, Jefferson had explained that he had heard Rumple was back in town and had wanted to rekindle their friendship as well as break the curse.
Killian had asked him why he was carrying a frying pan around, and Rumple had responded that they hadn't exactly been on good terms when they had last met. With a confused look at both, Killian had let the matter drop.
Mainly because Rumple had taken the love spell off of him, so that he was no longer completely ogling over Emma.
Now they were trudging through the darkened city to the hospital to lock Tink up in the basement cells, where Jefferson said there was someone who needed Rumple's help.
Rumple and Killian walked in back while Jefferson roughly carried Tink while he led the way to the hospital.
"So," Jefferson said, slowing his pace so that he could walk between Killian and Rumple, "What's the plan on getting in?"
"How well guarded is it?" Rumple inquired.
"Not very, but we'll have to get past the severe nurse to get into the basement," Jefferson said, "And breaking into the main hospital in the middle of the night is very easy, its how I found out about our little person of interest".
"I can take care of the nurse," Killian said with a wink, and a roguish grin, "But who's the person of interest you keep bringing up".
"It's a surprise," Jefferson said excitedly, "Besides, Rumple here won't believe me if I just tell him, so both of you will have to wait until we get there".
"I can take care of the video cameras if you can take care of the locks Jeff," Rumple said, for the last couple of minutes, he'd been desperate trying to figure out who the "person of interest" was. He knew it wasn't someone who would hurt him or Killian. Despite everything, Jefferson was still his best friend and the two had saved each other's lives over and over again. Plus Jefferson had been the only person to stand by him after the little incident with the old enemy Tink had earlier mentioned.
When they arrived at the back door to the hospital, Jeff gave Tink to Rumple, who carried her into the hospital after Jefferson had very skillfully broken the lock, allowing them inside.
Inside, they were in the area where the more longer residents stayed, most of which were snoring away. Despite the dark, several lights were shining in other areas of the hospital.
With a snap of his fingers, Rumple swiftly turned all of the cameras off.
Jefferson led them out of the room and into a lit hallway, before coming to a stop before a locked door, which he easily opened with his skillful fingers.
Once they door opened, they headed down the stairs and into the basement, where sitting behind a desk, reading a book was the severe nurse.
"You're up Killian," Rumple whispered.
Killian nodded, and swaggered into the nurse's line of sight, a roguish smile on his face.
"Hello love, the name's Killian, and you look quite lovely," Killian flirted, and within moments, the nurse was plenty busy insulting Killian.
Rumple and Jefferson slipped past unnoticed.
They opened the first unlocked door they could find and Rumple went in and placed Tink down on the mattress before quickly leaving and locking the room.
"Alright come on, she's this way," Jefferson grabbed Rumple's wrist and tugged him farther down the hall to a cell door with no name plate.
Jefferson swiftly and quite excitedly unlocked the door and swung it open, before shoving Rumple into the room.
"Jeff, what the—" Rumple's words died in his throat the moment he saw what the room held.
His heart started beating rapidly, and rose into his throat, his eyes widening with mingled disbelief and happiness. He stared open mouthed at the young brown haired woman in front of him for a moment then whispered hoarsely, "Belle! Y-you're alive".
The young woman stared blankly at him for a moment, then slid off raised mattress she had been sitting on by the barred window, and slowly approached him, "You know who I am?" she asked in a confused voice.
Rumple walked over to her in swift strides, wrapping his arms around her in a warm embrace, "I can't believe it! You're alive! Y-you're ok".
"I'm sorry," Belle said in a confused voice, wrapping her arms around him as well, though more hesitantly, "Do I know you?"
"No," Rumple said softly, "But you will. Don't worry I'll protect you from anyone who wants to keep you here".
"Hey, the nurse ran upstairs, something's going on—Hey, what's going on here?" Killian's voice snapped Rumple out of his blissful daze and he shook himself, stepping away from Belle, before tugging impatiently on her hand, his eyes hopeful.
"Come on you two, we have to go, Now!" Jefferson said, nervously hopping from right to left foot.
"Who's the girl?" Killian asked as the four of them hurried away from the room and up the stairs.
"My name's Belle," Belle told Killian, then she looked at Rumple, "That's what you said it was right?"
Rumple nodded his head vigorously, his hand tightening around hers, "Yes, your name's Belle, and I'm never going to let someone hurt you ever again".
On the main floor of the hospital, people were running everywhere! Apparently someone was very badly hurt.
"Rumple!" Regina stormed towards them, Emma just behind her, both looked frantic, but Emma also looked ticked off. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Emma now believed.
"What's going on?" Killian demanded, while Rumple drew his arm around Belle protectively, Jefferson stepping closer to Rumple, his eyes narrowing in dislike at Regina.
"Gold, it's Henry. You have to help us, he-he ate some of the poisoned apple pie that I gave to Emma to eat. You have to help!" Regina begged, tears springing in her dark eyes.
"If you've ever been on my side, we need your help now!" Emma added, looking fired up.
"Wait, Henry's been poisoned!" Rumple's hurt gave a painful lurch. Despite the Dark One's curse, he still had grown fond of the boy and didn't want to see him hurt, "Lucky for you two's stupidity, I have bottled some true love that can save him."
"You have?" Regina, Jefferson and Killian said in unison, looking startled.
"Where is it?" Emma asked, a fire of determination burning in her eyes.
"What are you all talking about?" Belle inquired, completely clueless.
"Regina"—Rumple turned to the Evil Queen—"Is your friend still in the basement?" Now everyone except for Rumple and Regina looked as clueless as Belle, attracting several odd looks from the nearby hospital staff. But then again, they might be wondering why Rumple had his arm around a woman nearly half his age, or why Rumple, Killian and Jefferson were in the hospital in the first place.
Emma and Regina were probably wondering that too, but were probably far too concerned about Henry to ask or care.
"You little imp," Regina said, wrinkling her nose in disgust, "You hid it with her".
Rumple couldn't hold back the small chuckle of amusement that rose in his throat despite the grave situation, "Not with her dearie. In her. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist bringing her over when the curse was cast".
"Well, then what are we waiting for, let's get the potion and save Henry, where is it?" Emma said, apparently not caring what they had to do to get the potion.
"First," Rumple raised his free hand, and with a poof of magic, a sword appeared in his hand, he handed it to Emma, explaining, "It was your father's sword, believe me it'll come in handy".
Regina broke the door to the library open with a blast of her magic, and she, Emma, Rumple and Killian burst in.
Rumple had left Belle at the hospital, asking Jefferson to please watch her, to which his best friend had happily agreed before the rest of them had raced to the library to find Malificent and get the potion from her.
Rumple and Regina used their magic to get the elevator going and the four of them hopped in and headed down. For a couple of tense moments, they listened to the clanking of the elevator as it went down, then the massive doors opened and revealed a pile of ash with a vile sitting on top, a glowing pinkish red liquid inside.
"Did you really think beating me would be that easy?" Blue inquired as she stepped out of the shadows and then to Rumple and Killian's horror downed the contents of a green vile.
"Blue, what are you—" Regina stared at the fairy in confusion, as did Emma.
But then, Blue's eyes turned a dark golden color, and her pupils became snake like slits. Her skin became a scaly greenish gold color, her teeth sharpening into k-nines, her finger nails turning into claws.
Then a giant cloud of blue magic consumed her and when it cleared, in the fairy's place was a giant and very angry dragon.
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter; I'll get the last chapter of this story up soon and don't worry, there's going to be a sequel where Rumple tries to find Neal, and a lot of other things happen.