As it turned out she thought that Emma and Elsa might have actually had an easier time finding Anna than she did with finding Mother Superior. The convent wasn't exactly a number that she kept on her phone, though now she'd have to make sure that it was, and by the time she'd found a dusty old phone book in the shop and called the convent she didn't want to know how much time had passed. Still it wasn't over. It wasn't like the convents number was a direct line to the Blue Fairy, merely to a church office, where a woman named Astrid answered, telling her she'd go off and find Superior. She tapped her toe as she waited. Probably this all would have been faster if she'd just driven up to the woman herself-

"Belle? What can I do for you?"

"Mother!" she finally sighed sitting forward. "There's magic in the air, in the storm, can you feel it?"

"We can Belle," she said sadly. "The Spell of Shattered Sight, I've felt it before. But I don't know a way to stop it I'm afraid."

"I do," she said quickly, "but I think I'm going to need your help." Mother Superior was impressed, naturally, that she'd managed to find some way to defeat this curse, and after she finished her explanation the woman promised her that she and the fairies could help her do what she asked but it would take time and a space that was convenient for everyone to make the distribution easier and faster, in other words not the middle of nowhere as the convent was. She could provide that, or at least she was sure the diner could. Given the circumstances she was sure Granny would let them use it for something like this. All she needed from them was the magic and as much of the ingredients as they could bring. She told her not to worry about that. It wouldn't be an issue. All she needed was a chance to round up the fairies and scrape together what they had in the church vans and they'd be there within the hour.

"A half hour," she amended. "We don't have a lot of time, just until sundown-"

"Understood," she responded. "Secure the diner and we'll be there within the half hour, you have my word."

Fortunately the diners number she did have, along with the inn's and Granny's cell phone. She'd been right. All she said was that she and the fairies needed a place to work out of to fix the curse and Granny had happily responded with "say no more the place is yours. Not like the storm of the century is good for business anyway."

Which left her only one thing left to do and really, in all honesty, she couldn't quite understand why she was so hesitant to call her husband. She'd promised she would, probably she should have called him hours ago, even with the time crunch, but now…she had to do it. And there was no reason not to. He'd be happy about the cure. She didn't know if he could do anything to help but it never hurt to ask, certainly.

"Rumple?" she questioned when she heard his voice on the other end. "Rumple where are you?"

"Making preparations," he answered quickly. "This curse is going to hit and you're going to need to be protected, safe. You should go to the shop and stay there until I arrive." She nearly sighed with relief. Protection. That was like him. She should have figured. But he admired her heroism, wasn't that what he'd said last night? He should have realized that nothing was going to keep her here in the shop.

"Actually it might not be necessary," she commented finding her things, locking up the shop, and starting the walk to the diner. "I may have found something, a way to stop the curse, to cure us all." She told him all that she'd found as she walked down the street, the thunder rolling overhead, the wind whipping around corners as the spell picked up momentum a little more with every second. The diner was empty when she arrived. This could work. "Is there anything you can do to help?" she questioned, allowing herself to take a seat at one of the tables.

"I'm afraid not, Belle, you'll need Light magic for what you are attempting to accomplish and any magic that I possess will be the opposite."

She nodded. It didn't exactly surprise her. She'd honestly expected an answer like that to begin with. But she had hoped…she didn't know what she hoped. It wasn't as though she needed him. The sad truth was that when these things came along they were usually separated to begin with and she was used to working through emergencies without him. They didn't need to do this together.

"You'll be fine," he reassured her on the other end, misinterpreting her silence. "Probably more help than I could be amid a group like that." She smirked and snorted at that comment. Yes. He'd never exactly expressed anything other than annoyance for Mother Superior and her brood, for something like this, perhaps she was better than he was. "But Belle…I will be by in a bit to pick you up. Just in case this doesn't work, the fairies will need to handle it and you'll need to be safe. No matter what I'll keep you safe."

There it was again. The over protective tone that she disliked. The one that tried hard to run her life too much. No one decided her fate but her…and him. She'd decided that when she got him back from Zelena. Either they were in this together or they weren't. Either they were equal partners in this marriage or…there was no or. She had to stay safe for him. She couldn't let him lose her too just because of a stupid mistake she'd made. So when she finally arrived at the diner she confirmed sadly that she would go with him when he arrived but...

Just then the fairies arrived, nearly making her jump as they got up and set to work immediately moving chairs and tables, placing pots and tubes and glass beakers on any surface they could find! They moved swiftly and automatically without instruction or explanation and as she caught a glimpse of Mother Superior at the door, overseeing the work, she knew leaving would be much harder than he would like.

"Just…give me an hour or so," she asked him. "Please Rumple, if I can't see it through to the end I need to know that there will at least be 'an end'."

She heard him sigh on the other end and after the week they'd had she knew the look that would be on his face. "I'll give you what the curse allows," he relented. It wasn't the promise of an hour, but it would have to do. She said good-bye and after a moment she needed to collect herself, she began.

She ran outside to where the vans were parked, began shuttling items into the diner just as the others were until Mother Superior found her and pulled her aside.

"Did you bring it?" She nodded and pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. The necessary ingredients to counter a curse born of a non-magical item. She'd copied them down on a piece of paper because after her argument with Rumple this morning she wasn't about to bring the actual book with her. "Alright," Mother Superior sighed walking into the diner and letting the other fairies continue their assembly line. "The way this works is after we've changed the nature of the spell to light magic, we'll need to apply that magic to every person in the same way The Snow Queen's curse will be distributed."

The same way the curse would be distributed. What did that mean? "How exactly is that?" she questioned.

"The Spell of Shattered gains access through the eyes," she answered quickly, going through the paper before heading into the back room which was already stocked with crates that she suspected were not filled with food for cooking. She began writing on a piece of paper, listing items with numbers like a shopping list or a recipe before she handed it back to her again. "The last curse we made a spell like this for was absorbed through hands. These are the ratios. We'll need at least two drops, per eye, per person…"

She didn't need to do the math to know. They were going to need to produce massive quantities of this spell. "Where do we start? How do I help?"

"Start with the math then start crushing or chopping or grinding something. We don't have a lot of time so we'll need to make sure this spell is nearly ready to go by the time the hair gets here."

"Well do we have enough time?" she asked as Mother Superior began separating things out and moving them around the kitchen.

"If they find the girl fast and we work just as fast, yes. We were lucky you called when you did."

Just in time then. So long as everything went according to plan. They had no time to waste. She glanced over at the ingredients and the number of residents of Storybrooke Mother Superior had written down at the bottom and ingredient by ingredient divided and multiplied to find the exact numbers they needed. Then, just for extra measure, she increased the number of residence by fifty. That should give them enough, plus some to keep in storage for safe keeping on the off chance anything like this every happened again. She looked at the ingredients that they had, she looked at the system the fairies had already put together, and at those who were flitting around doing next to nothing.

No one could be doing nothing right now. It just wouldn't work that way. So she grabbed all the idle fairies she could and gave each of them something to chop, grind, pour, or mix along with its designated number. "No more and no less," she ordered each time. "It has to be exact."

They knew that. But nevertheless every time it happened they smiled at her and gave her polite nods before getting to work. Light magic. She liked it. Working on it felt different than her work with Dark magic. She couldn't quite describe it, but she knew that it was different. Different enough to convince her that Rumple never needed to worry about her practicing Dark magic nearly as much as he would her practicing Light magic. Not that she really could. The only thing that she had to invoke magic at her disposal was golden thread and the base root of that magic was Dark. It always would be. Mirror or no mirror.

She heard the bell to the shop chime and her heart skipped a beat. Emma. She must have found Anna. She could see her friend again! This could work! This could-

Rumple? Rumple was here? She should have guessed from the sudden silence in the room but she didn't understand hadn't he said she had an hour? Had that time passed by already?

"What do you want?" she heard Mother Superior snap behind her.

"Excuse me but I'd like to borrow my wife," he answered coolly making his way toward her. She struggled to find words. It must have been all the Light Magic in the room. She'd become so accustom to it that it made his Dark magic…darker somehow. Or was this just another fault of the mirror? The coming curse? It was possible to feel rain before it poured. Was this just the beginning?

"I need you at the shop for a short while," he requested taking her hand and looking her over almost nervously.

"She's working! We need her," Mother Superior argued behind her back, snapping her back to attention. Magic in the air or not she couldn't let it affect her. She didn't want to go yet. They had time left! He hadn't said he'd get her at the hour he'd said as long as the curse allowed. There was still time. She was needed here.

"Mother Superior's right, this is too important," she felt herself nod, trying to shake her strange feelings away. He needed her, for preparations, for just in case this didn't work but they needed her here. Those preparations wouldn't be necessary if they succeeded here now. "We're really close here Rumple, please? Please be patient?"

He wasn't happy. She could tell by his hesitation, even when he did nod and offer her a smirk of compliance. It wasn't genuine. "Of course," he whispered. "Well, until you can go I'll just, uh…I'll just keep you company," he suggested. Her stomach rolled and left her speechless as she watched him. She didn't understand that reaction, but she did understand her confusion. Hadn't he not wanted to get involved? Hadn't he told her that this was her attempt?

"Perhaps I'll be helpful," he suggested after a moment. Helpful. Yes. Yes, he probably could be even with his Darker magic, but-

Just then she heard a bang behind her and glanced over her shoulder to see Mother Superior stride out of the kitchen, looking upset with him. Just like all the other fairies with her. "This is Light Magic, Dark One!" she argued.

"Well then maybe I'll learn something," he argued with a false charming smile. It was a traditional Dark One smile, one he would have given at the castle when he was toying with someone and she had the urge to snap at him, to tell him to stop, but then again the looks Mother Superior and others were giving him weren't exactly friendly either. His mask was on, but as much as it turned her stomach maybe there was good reason for it to be.


I really wanted for it to be obvious that something wasn't right, that Belle was starting to see more darkness in him and get more and more suspicious of that darkness. And at the same time I wanted her to see something was off, I wanted us to see her dismissing it...again! She's not quite sure, but she knows that something is wrong she just doesn't know what that something is. Is it him? She doesn't want to think that because it would make her a terrible wife. So is it the room then? All the Light Magic in the air? Is it the curse acting early? It must be because in her mind it absolutely cannot be that it's him. In a strange twist of fate her heart here is telling her that things are not alright and her mind is telling her they are.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Kathryn Claire O'Connor, Teresa Martin, Kagi-chan2, Ladybugsmomma, Deweymay, Raizen Yusuke, and Skitzoeinhoven for your reviews on the last chapter. I appreciate that you appreciate all this coming together in the way that it does. It's not easy, but I do my best with it! Peace and Happy Reading!