Chapter Twenty~

When Mr. Gold went to check in on Odette he knocked first wanting to make sure that she was modest asking,

"Odette, are you awake?" when he got no reply he knocked again asking a bit louder,

"Are you awake Odette?" and this time tried the door and opening it slowly discovered the bedroom was—empty—and the window wide open with the sheet tied as a rope. Snarl on his face, he stormed to the front door and got into his car. Only he realized, he had no idea where she'd go. To Mary Margret's apartment perhaps but she also did manage to see the memory of him with Belle…..so with that he started the car and headed for the library. Little did he know that he should have gone with choice (A) because she was just entering the apartment to find Emma, Mary and David inside sitting in the kitchen.

"Darcy!" Emma cried running over to hug her so that the woman laughed hugging her back with tears in her eyes saying,

"Goodness Emma don't need to act so emotional." but when she pulled back she added,

"Though I know why."

"Then it worked?" Mary asked so that Darcy said,

"I'm Princess Odette—but also Darcy. I don't know which name to go by but for now I just want to be with my family." this made the Charming's smile as Emma had to hug her again before pulling back to say,

"So what happened with Gold then?" at the name Darcy frowned saying,

"Let's not talk about that just now ok? I'm just glad to be home." everyone raised an eyebrow so that Emma, seeing the twinge of sadness in her best friend's eyes suddenly realized something.

"Hey listen I just remembered I forgot something down at the station. Let me go get it while you three reminisce about stuff from the Enchanted Forest ok?" Emma said suddenly heading for the door leaving Mary to say,

"What?" but Emma shot her a look so that Mary quickly shut it as Emma left leaving the three to talk. They settled in the family room with David and Mary on the couch and Darcy on a chair.

"So has anyone seen or heard from Regina?" Darcy dared to ask but the two of them shook their heads with David saying,

"Not since we got you out of the mines, it's as if she and Sidney vanished."

"Doubt it, she's around here—somewhere." Darcy said grimly but David told her how her house was empty and they have it under twenty-four hour surveillance in case she does come back. They talked for about an hour—maybe two before Emma came storming in looking enraged with the world so that she cause the three to jump out of their seats as Mary asked,

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, come on Darcy we have something to do." Emma said grabbing her best friends hand and pulling her out of the room and down the stairs into the streets leaving the Charming's standing in the apartment clueless.

"Please tell me this isn't about Mr. Gold." Darcy begged but Emma nodded saying tightly,

"Damn right it is."

"Emma!" Darcy said putting her heels into the pavement making Emma turned to see her—they had stopped in front of the library.

"I don't care ok! I really don't need that slimy old man in my life if he's going to—going to—" but Darcy began to choke as Emma realized she couldn't bring herself to come to terms with what was going on. Exhaling deeply, she put her hands on her shoulders and said,

"Listen, I might have hated and or loathed that man to the ends of the earth before and while it involved you—but True Loves Kiss is never wrong. Both sides have to love each other, and Darcy, like it or not you love him. The fact that that slime ball was and is willing to break your heart though is what I won't allow to get away with. Now come on." and with that the two entered the library to hear moaning in the back behind the shelves. Suddenly Darcy felt rage inside her like nothing she ever felt before and stormed over and around to find—Mr. Gold kissing the female librarian known as Belle.

"You son of a bitch!" she screamed at the top of her lungs causing the two of them to stop and turn to see her face red and fists tight with her rage and knuckles white. Mr. Gold's face became one of pure shock as Darcy stepped over and as he detangled himself from the librarian she slapped him so hard across the cheek she cut his lip as she shouted at him,

"You foul, loathsome, evil little rat! You cowardly, cheating, backstabbing bastard! You said you loved me! You used True Loves Kiss in the mines to bring me back to life and you're going to cheat on me with some old fling?! How dare you just throw away you're Happy Ending that I was so willing to give you!" at those words Mr. Gold's face broke as she turned to Belle and said,

"And you! I can't believe you either!"

"I—I didn't know. I'm so sorry really truly I am." she said trying to straighten her dress but Darcy snorted saying,

"Save it sister you can have the worm." then she turned back to Mr. Gold and spat in his face saying,

"Keep the change you filth animal!" then she turned on her heel to leave with Emma at her shoulder proud of her best friend but also upset for her seeing her so hurt over this.

"Darcy please don't!" Mr. Gold tried to say but they were already gone and outside leaving Darcy to collapse onto the ground and burry her face into her hands. Emma was by her side in a heartbeat to try and help her up again saying,

"Come on, let's get you home." as the two walked on home it began to rain, as if the very sense of nature could feel the anguish of Darcy as they reached Mary's apartment. Once there she ran for the shared bedroom and slammed the door shut to collapse on the bed and cry her heart out, never feeling so broken in her life. Mary, who had watched her run past, asked Emma hesitantly,

"What happened?"

"We caught Gold cheating on the female librarian." Emma growled out grabbing a random newspaper and ripping it up into tiny pieces to get out her rage as Mary gasps making Emma groan and flop down onto the couch as the two listen to the heart wrenching sobs from the bedroom.

"How dare he! He saved her with True Loves Kiss!" Mary said before taking a seat besides Emma saying softer,

"Who would go against that?" just then Emma thought of something—they hadn't seen this 'Belle' person until they were working on finding Darcy during the mine incident. And Regina has been missing since then and since then only Belle has been around.

"I think—I know who Belle really is." Emma said turning slowly towards Mary who asked raising an eyebrow,

"What do you mean 'really is'?"

"Regina hasn't been seen since the cave in at the mines, and this Belle lady appeared at the library just before all of that. What if, Belle is Regina in disguise!?" Emma said turning a bit to see Mary who was about to speak when they heard a knock on the door. It was Emma who went to get it and found it to be Archie with Pongo who was whimpering and whining.

"Archie, what's wrong?" Emma said confused at seeing the red haired man who said stuttering a bit,

"I—I think it's about Regina."

"What about her?" Emma asked leaning on the doorframe so that he dug out of his pocket a piece of paper saying,

"I found this while walking Pongo here, he hasn't stopped whining since I found it. Whatever it is it has to be something of Dark Magic I just know it. He can sense it—that's why." looking it over, Emma saw it was some strange sort of text in some strange rune language but what's worse was scribbled in the corner were the words 'TO GET BACK AT GOLD'.

"Archie, I think you just saved Mr. Gold's life by finding this." she said before shouting to Mary,

"I have to go Mary!" then she was out the door, not knowing that Darcy had heard every word.