A/N: Okay, now it gets a little complicated (like it wasn't already! lol)

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 25

Belle was completely thrown to see all of her old team in her latest home. She knew that August was around, and she had tried to contact David and Mary, she just hadn't expected them to be here so fast. She was glad to hear that they had not brought baby Emma into this mess, though she wondered about the safe place they had found for her whilst they were here. She dare not ask too much right now.

Jefferson was the biggest surprise, and Belle's eyes grew wider every second as he explained how he had come to bring the team back together like this.

"I had to play both sides of the line, they didn't give me a choice in that," he told the assembled team from his place perched on the sideboard.

"A person always has a choice, Jefferson," said Mary definitely. "When we walked away from each other, you could've done anything you wanted..."

"And what do I want, Snow?" he asked her crossly. "I only want what I can't have! So, the only real choice for me if I was going to keep on living was to keep on working, doing what this team was built to do."

His tone returned to a normal level and volume, and Belle was glad of it. Jefferson was always the live wire in their team, the only one she ever worried about with regards to stability. He was a good guy and she did trust him. Jefferson had saved her life more than once, and that she would never forget. At the same time, she knew that if he lost it, which he was prone to do, he could be dangerous.

"You worked for Gold and for Regina," she said, bringing the conversation back on track. "Which one were you trying to bring down?"

"Would you believe both?" he smirked across at her. "Well, I hoped I could, eventually. In the beginning, I was only working for Gold, not because I wanted to, but it was a means to an end," he explained quickly, when all of the others seemed ready to yell at him for his decision. "I thought I could use his resources to my own ends, access records and secrets of other businessmen that needed crushing, and at the same time bring Gold down too, from inside the belly of the beast. I had a false identity ready built, he never suspected, at least not for a very long time..."

"Tarrant Hatter," said Belle out of the blue, not at all amused when Jefferson grinned at her, one finger on his nose and the other pointed right at her - she was right. "You worked at Gold Industries. The girls there, they told me that you went mad and committed suicide."

"That's what they were told," he smirked, licking his lips as he talked of Belle's fellow administrators. "It's what the whole world was told actually. The truth was, Gold figured out who I was, what I might be up to. Instead of taking out his frustrations on me, I managed to talk him around. We agreed to work together against a mutual enemy. I became what you might call a double-agent."

"And this was when your crazy plan became bringing down Gold and Regina?" asked David with wide eyes. "You're good Jefferson, but you're not that good."

"Good enough that I doubt Regina suspected anything," August considered from his spot in the armchair, "but then maybe that's why she hired Belle and me? To break Gold before he could break her?"

There was a general discussion that started up, bickering and throwing heated opinions around. Belle let her ears switch off from it all. Now over the initial shock of her team being here, she could think a little more clearly about her situation. It was great that they were here, Mary and David, August and Jefferson. Between the five of them, they should be able to much more easily bring Regina to her knees, but Belle wondered how easy it would really be to explain her connection to Gold and his apparent innocence. He seemed so dark and evil from the outside. It was hard to believe that her team would ever listen if she tried to tell them he was good, much less that she loved him and he might indeed love her too. Hell, just today she had asked the guy out on a date!

"Belle?" said August, his hand at her knee getting her attention. "You okay?"

"No," she admitted with a slight shake of her head. "I'm glad you're all here. Honestly, I've wanted my team back for a while now, just as soon as things started to get so messy... I never did want to work for Regina," she admitted, tears coming to her eyes that she wished she could fight back.

"We know that, sweetie," said Mary kindly, looking genuinely sympathetic to her friend's plight. "As soon as Jefferson realised you were the new grifter Regina hired to send after Gold, he called to rally the troops."

Belle looked to Jefferson and found a watery smile. They got along, as the whole team did, but she never felt that she really understood the master hacker and thief. He was so odd sometimes, following the beat of his own drum, as some might say. Belle never was sure what Jefferson was thinking or what he might do next. On this occasion he had helped her, and it wasn't the first time. Just as soon as he knew she may be in danger or might need help, he had made sure she got support. That meant a lot.

"Gold did suspect you actually, in the beginning," he explained, moving his hat from hand to hand in some random gestures. "Apparently you were convincing enough that you won him round in the end."

There was a look on his face when he said it, Belle would've sworn Jefferson knew more than he was saying. He wouldn't keep his silence to spare her blushes, so he had to be hoping that he was forcing her to reveal everything herself. It was the only way, and Belle knew it too, however awkward or embarrassing.

"How close are you to this... beast?" asked David then, watching Belle's expression shift through the entire spectrum of emotions, it seemed.

"I... I need to start from the beginning," she said, ducking her head, her hair hiding her face from everyone.

Mary and David shared a look. As good a grifter as Belle was, she had a tough time lying to these people, her friends, her family.

"You care for him?" said August, sitting up straight and leaning forward with his elbows on his knees as he tried to see Belle's face. "Do you, Belle?"

"Yes!" she replied suddenly and with such force that every person in the room jumped. "Yes, I care for him, but he is not the monster that we thought he was!" she yelled, making her point very clear.

She knew her team would all be shocked. It couldn't possibly make sense to them, how a woman like her had come to fall for a man like Gold. They knew her reputation and that was mostly true, but what they knew of Robert was almost entirely fabricated. Whether Regina and her cronies had spread rumours or Gold himself had chosen to get himself a fake rep as a bad guy to help with his deals, Belle still didn't know. All she could say for certain was that he wasn't a beast, and it seemed to take a few moments for that to sink in with Mary, David, and August. Jefferson, on the other hand, was smiling.

"I know you got a bigger peek behind the curtain than I did," he said, smirking still, "but I already had Gold figured out a while back. It's true, he's not some evil monster," he shook his head as the others all turned their attention to him. "He's not exactly a saint either, but hey, who amongst us can say we are?"

"He's a manipulator! A shark!" said David definitely, pointing his finger hard into the coffee table to emphasise his point. "We've all heard the stories."

"Stories can be exaggerated, even completely invented" Belle reminded him. "Are all the stories about you completely true?" she asked, knowing already that the answer was a definite no and David couldn't deny it. "Yes, Gold has done some seemingly bad things. He's exploited tax loopholes, thrown a few bribes around, but nothing any other normal everyday businessman hasn't tried," she explained. "I'm been through all his financials, everything I can lay my hands on, and believe me, that was a lot. He's not a beast, he's just a man, and deep down he's a good man too."

The look on Mary's face was a picture to behold, and David's matched it perfectly. Though they were grifters and thieves themselves, each person in this room had been driven to their crimes by circumstances far out of their control. In their hearts, they were good people, at least good enough. It was not so crazy to believe that Gold was not the bad person they thought. Belle knew it, and she realised now that they were starting to know it too.

"Gold may not be the evil little imp that he seems," said August slowly, "but Regina is still as dark as she always was."

"Agreed," Belle nodded once. "If we work together, all of us, along with what I know from working with Robert... with Gold, we can bring Regal Corp to its knees and see Regina Mills put down for good," she said definitely. "I've known for a while now that all I really needed to pull it off was my team," she smiled then.

The others barely managed to return such a look, except for Jefferson. He was on her side for once. It almost never happened but it was happening now and right when Belle needed it most. Mary was still wearing a too serious expression, even when David and August began to agree that their best option was to work on collapsing Regina's world and keeping Gold out of it. Belle knew what was distracting the only other woman in the room. Mary had noticed her slip, her use of Gold's first name. When she said she cared for him, Belle knew that wasn't enough to really prove she had fallen, but all the evidence together proved her heart was lost to a man that had long since been thought of as an enemy.

Belle couldn't help but wonder what Robert was doing right now. She hoped he was thinking fondly of her for as long as he could. At some point in this unholy mess, the truth was bound to come out. So much for happiness, and the date the two of them had planned just this morning. That was once again a far off dream as a great barrier came up to block Belle's view of any kind of happy ending. This giant hurdle was Regina and her ultimate destruction. At least she didn't have to do it alone anymore.

Robert Gold was knee-deep in paperwork. Honestly, it didn't all need his attention right now, especially not as the hour grew later all the time, but he had to do something. Forcing himself to concentrate on work was the only way to stop his mind wandering back to Belle every five minutes.

She had asked him out on a date. He still could not quite wrap his head around the concept, though he had happily accepted her invitation. It wasn't that this was Belle, a beautiful young woman, asking for his company. It was that anyone, male or female, young or old, would choose him above all others to be their companion. There was no sense to such a decision as far as Robert Gold was concerned, and that train of thought led to self-pity and melancholy. He would not allow it, and so he worked through the mixed up thoughts.

The usual paperwork, the accounts and the contracts, it was almost too easy. Much of it was delegated anyway, leaving Gold with little to do but check what was already prepared at his instruction. Becoming restless and running out of tasks that must be done, he switched his attention to the icons on his computer desktop. He was always much happier with pen and paper than machines, but modern technology was vital these days and certainly had its advantages. Spying was an uncouth sort of a word for it, but it was true that big brother was watching at Gold Industries.

Flipping through some of the records, browser histories and call logs, Gold found nothing of interest at first. He saw that Ruby couldn't help but look at shoes whenever she had a free moment, and that Ashley on the front desk was a little too obsessed with finding half-naked pictures of Zac Efron, none of which either bothered or interested him. He saw that Archie called his psychologist associates often, most likely for second opinions, and that Leroy made personal calls, but mostly on his breaks. There was really nothing exciting or interesting for Gold to deal with, and then his cursor hovered over the icon tagged as Belle's records.

Robert couldn't really say what made him do it. Years of mistrust, especially when it came to women; the latest confusion and pain caused by a fake Baelfire in their midst. In a moment, he was opening up the full report of all Belle's activities since she joined the company. There was really nothing incriminating in the websites she visited or calls she made. All had to do with work, every single one, and that was what really made Gold curious. Nobody was such a goody two shoes that they looked at nothing they shouldn't, called no-one that wasn't a work contact. It was almost as if she were trying to cover something up. As much as he hated himself for thinking such things, Gold couldn't help it. Immediately he started digging a little deeper, pulling up lists of every file Belle had ever accessed on the servers. Lists and lists of data scrolled across the screen, so many more documents than she never could've needed to look at, in areas she would have no reason to stray to.

Robert's brow furrowed with confusion and no small hint of anger. Something was not right here, and instinct made him want to smash everything in his path until he got to the truth. He all but leapt to his feet, regretting it as his ankle reacted with a flare of pain. It gave him a moment to pause and to breathe. No, if he went in all guns blazing, accusing Belle when he really had no evidence, it could ruin everything. He was probably being paranoid and ridiculous. He had to be, there was no way she could be this terrible person, not his Belle.

Lowering himself back into the chair, Gold thought over his options. He spun a ring on his finger in some nervous or frustrated habit that made no sense. Belle could have been looking where she shouldn't out of idle curiosity. She may even have strayed into the wrong areas of the system by mistake. Gold couldn't decide if he genuinely believed that or was just making excuses to salve his breaking heart. If Belle was what he had once thought she may be - a traitor sent by Regina - then it might just kill him to face that truth. On the other hand, his paranoia was both a blessing and a curse to him. If he was wrong and accused her, then he would lose Belle through his own actions, his own fault.

Serious thought had to be applied, Gold knew, before he made any kind of move. One thing was for sure, he couldn't concentrate on this paperwork anymore, or his computer screen. He needed a drink, a large one, and ultimately a friend to talk to. Shame then that the one he immediately thought of was out of bounds, because the only name that sprang to mind was Belle herself.

To Be Continued...