I do not own Once Upon a Time.

OK, so the friendships are up first. This one was hinted in his recruitment.

Belle really did enjoy her job as owner of Beauty and the Book. She attracted a lot of children who liked to get lost in fantasy. Girls who loved to pretend to be sweet princesses and powerful sorceresses. Boys who wanted to be charming princes or daring pirates. Then there were the very imaginative ones who wanted to be everything.

One child in peculiar caught her attention. A blonde girl who tended to sit alone in the corner with a stuffed rabbit. She read an old copy of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" in a sweet voice to the rabbit. It was the cutest thing Belle had ever seen. And this was coming from the woman who had thousands of cute cat pictures on her computer.

Then a frazzled young man rushed in the store, almost knocking over a pile of books. "Have you seen my daughter? Blonde hair, brown eyes?" He asked. Belle thought he looked a bit like a younger mad matter. But he sounded like a father who couldn't find his daughter. Her heart ached, she missed her own father.

"With a white stuffed rabbit?" Belle asked, the man nodded. "In the back corner, I think she's in the middle of a story with her rabbit."

The frazzled father went to the back corner only to come back up front a few minutes later.

"She kicked me out during story time." He leaned heavy on the corner. "So much like her mother, needs her space to get lost in a book."

"Your wife sounds like a very intelligent woman." Belle said, noticing the man's wedding ring.

"She was…" He met her eyes. "I lost Alice the day Grace was born."

Belle's heart ached even more. She now felt guilty that she had her own mother until her teenage years. "You are doing an amazing job raising her. She always talks about what a wonderful father she has."

"She does? I feel like I'm not around enough."

"She knows you are doing your best and providing for her." Belle informed him, trying to reassure him.

"You lost your mother." He said it as a statement, not a question. Belle looked a little confused. How did he know that? "You have the same look in your eyes as my daughter."

"Oh." That made sense. "I did lose my mother and then my father." She told him.

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't be telling a complete stranger your life story. I'm Jefferson Carroll."

"Belle French." They shook hands.

Then Grace came towards the front of the store. "I'm ready to go home now Daddy." She loudly announced.

"Are you now, Princess?" Jefferson asked.

"I'm not a princess, I'm a queen. The White Queen." Grace corrected her father.

"Will Your Highness be gracing us with your presence at the next story time?" Belle asked.

"Of course, I love coming here, it's my favorite place in the whole wide world." Grace told Belle.

"Then I will see you tomorrow, your father wants to go home. And please don't worry him by running off."

"Ok.' Grace looked sad that she had been scolded.

Jefferson picked her up and mouthed "Thank you" to Belle who nodded.

Grace showed up the following day just as Belle started to read 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarves' to a small group of children. Grace sat down in the middle and smiled at Belle. Jefferson entered the shop a few minutes later and browsed the stacks until story time was over.

Suddenly there was a commotion up from the front of the store. By the time Belle rushed there, Jefferson had a large metal rod in his hand and the door slammed shut after someone ran out of the store.

"What happened? She asked.

Jefferson lowered the rod. "I caught him stealing from the cash register."

Belle paled slightly. Stealing had never been a problem; she thought the shop was in a good part of town. But she knew she was good hands, her own. However, Belle kept that to herself.

The next day, Belle had security cameras set up and sadly she put an ad in the newspaper for an employee. Someone had to watch the front while she did story time. Honestly, if Grace had been older, Belle would have hired her in a heartbeat. But she needed someone older and with retail experience.

Jefferson came by during the day while Grace was in school to finish the installation. He was up on a ladder when he heard a noise behind him. Thinking it was Belle, he turned around.

But it was not Belle. Standing in front of him was a man with a gun pointed at Jefferson's chest.

The first thing going through Jefferson's mind was Grace and what would happen to her if he died. Then he thought of Belle and hoped she was in the back and would stay there. Or if she did see, call the police. He prayed that nothing happened. He closed his eyes and there was a loud thud.

He carefully opened his eyes and was met with the bravest and possibly the stupidest sight he had ever seen. The gunman was on the ground, knocked out, Belle stood over him, gun in her hands now.

Jefferson couldn't form words so Belle did it for him. "Could you call the police so they can take him away before he wakes up?" She asked calmly. He nodded and quickly placed the call.

When the police arrived, they spoke to both Belle and Jefferson. They described the scene and answered all the questions asked of them.

When the shop was quiet again, Jefferson finally spoke directly to Belle. "What was that?"

She looked up at him innocently. She had taken up making tea as his hands hadn't stopped shaking. "What was what?"

"You took down a gunman. Where did you learn to do that?"

"I'm a black belt." She handed him the mug, thankfully she hadn't let go or it would have dropped to the ground and shattered.

"You're a black belt? You don't look…"

"That I can handle myself? Jefferson, you should never judge a book by its cover."

Reviews?

I love her, in this story is going to have more strength to her.