She left the door unlocked. If the pirate was still in the library she wanted him to leave without trouble. She swallowed hard as she let the air around her invade her senses and calm her nerves. It was relaxing to her, but seemed to have the opposite effect on him. His senses were on high alert, she didn't know who the pirate with the hook for a hand was but he seemed to have done an adequate job frightening the both of them.

"Who was he?" she asked breathlessly. "The man?"

He shook his head and continued to scan the town passing around them. "No one you'll ever have to deal with, again." She didn't like the sound of his tone and he clearly didn't understand what was happening, what had already happened.

"I've already had to deal with him again!" Her words caught his attention and he grabbed her elbow suddenly, before they could go a step further. His eye brows raised in shock and confusion, a look that demanded she tell him what that meant right away. "He came to my cell in the Queen's palace. He thought I would know how to defeat you, but since I didn't at the time I was hardly worth his time," she explained quickly. "Who is he?!" she asked again, this time a little more insistent.

"One hand?" he asked her, seeking clarification. She nodded and Rumple suddenly continued to walk, his jaw suddenly clenched together. "Hook," he hissed with disgust. She'd purposefully left out the part about how he'd slapped her, but he seemed to have put together that he had hurt her in some way.

"Where..." she had to run to catch up with him, "where did he come from?" she asked. Obviously he'd been hunting Rumple even then, so why was he attacking now? Why not when the curse had broken?

He shook his head, continuing to move on, he seemed nearly as nervous as she was, like this man, this Hook, could be lurking around any corner. "I can't answer that," he responded, "until this moment I had it on good authority that Hook wasn't in Storybrooke, that the curse hadn't worked on him."

The news nearly knocked her backward. How was that even possible? "Are you sure?"

"Trust me," he snapped coming to a stop at the corner, "the information was reliable." She shook her head, wishing she hadn't asked the question. She believed him, of course, but she didn't want to know how he had gotten "the information", she knew from his tone that it wasn't good. "We should get you somewhere safe, get Ruby to take you to my house or stay at the diner for a while," he suggested walking swiftly down the sidewalk again. Alone? He wanted to leave her again?

"Where are you going?" she asked, trying to figure out what might be more important to him than protecting her. Why wasn't he taking her away? The man wanted to kill both of them they needed to go into hiding together!

"The shop," he said simply. He hurried her along, across the street and toward his shop faster than she had ever seen him move, flinching at the slightest noises and looking around, eyeing everyone with suspicion, even the kid across the street walking to school.

"Why?" she exclaimed, her heart racing. She didn't want to stay in town and she didn't want him to either. And she especially didn't want them to go somewhere so obvious, like a place that had his name right on the sign! Shouldn't they go somewhere else, together. Somewhere harder for him to get to, like Granny's or his house, or even the cabin?!

"Well...let's just say there are many wonderful things there that I could use to make sure that pirate never comes near you ever again." His voice was gentle but she could sense the protection and anger in it. She'd been expecting an answer like that. It was always his first response when something was wrong, especially when someone threatened her. He had a penchant for trying to take the world on all by himself and thinking that no one could help, but it was in those times that he made the rash decisions that usually wound up backfiring. Besides, he'd been doing so well, they'd been doing so well, and he couldn't risk anything now. Not when he was so close to leaving and finding his son. If she kept him from that she would never be able to forgive herself. And if he got hurt...she didn't even want to think of that possibility. No, this was not a situation he should handle on his own; it wasn't even one that they should handle together. It scared her too much. And besides, this wasn't their land where no one could be trusted. Here there were systems in place to handle this sort of thing appropriately.

"Rumple, no, we need to report this to the sheriff, they'll take care of him," she insisted, trying to remind him that justice wasn't always delivered by him personally. But she could tell that the suggestion upset him and that it wasn't something he was going to let go of that easily. "You're so close to finding your son, please..." she begged, trying to get him to see sense, "please, don't let your hatred for this man get in the way of that."

"But...he tried to harm you!" he countered. In her mind "try" was the important word. She was fine and safe now and that was all that mattered. But she knew it wasn't enough for him. He wouldn't stand for "try".

"But, why?" she blurted out. It didn't make any sense to her then and it didn't now. To go after her was to attack him personally, everyone in town knew it and that was why they stayed far away from her. Even if the pirate, Hook, hadn't been in town, he did know of the connection they shared! Coming after her was a death sentence, so why had he done it? What had he been fighting for that he was willing to risk everything just to get the attention of Rumpelstiltskin?! "What happened between you two?"

"Belle..." she could feel his hand at her back again, pushing her forward. "You know this is really not your concern." She tried not to be upset by his words, to show how she felt like they were a slap in the face, but it was hard not to be. She hated the tone that he had in his voice. It sounded like he was talking to a child, placing her in the corner and telling her to play quietly with her toys while the grown-ups took care of everything for her. She'd had that life once before, in her fathers castle, and she'd vowed never to live it again. She'd made that abundantly clear to him before and she surely wasn't going to let him do that to her, not again, not when it was her that this man was coming after! If her life was in danger then she wanted to know why...she deserved to know why.

"He attacked me, it most definitely is my concern!" she corrected as she turned to face him, cutting him off and stopping him in his tracks. He bounced his hand nervously at his side and looked her up and down, judging her stance and realizing that she wasn't going to let up. With any luck he would realize that she also had a point. But instead of understanding she saw fear in his eyes. He glanced around them again like he was nervous, like he was looking for a way out, and couldn't find one. She wouldn't move until he gave her the answer she was looking for.

With a sigh, he threw his hand up in the air, frustrated. His defenses came down only too easy against her own stubbornness. "Many years ago..." he began, obviously choosing his words with care, and looking around them nervously to be sure no one else was listening. "I was married to a woman named Milah, until Hook crossed our paths."

The wife that he had told her about, the one he had lost long before she ever came along, he'd finally given her a name after all this time."She was...Baelfire's mother?" she assumed correctly.

"Yeah..." he confirmed, looking beyond her and into his own past. "And because of that marauding cur, he grew up without her," he spat angrily with his teeth clenched tight. She'd often wondered what had happened between him and his wife. Ever since she had brought it up when they were living at his castle, she had sensed even then that he despised the woman but she hadn't known why, or what her crime against him had been. Now she saw that it wasn't something she had done to him, it was what she had done to his son. He paused, calming himself, and looking her over, like he was judging whether or not she could handle what came next. "He took my wife, he took Bae's mother..." he swallowed and clenched his teeth together again, "so I took his hand!"

A vague memory of a black and decaying hand resting upon a pillow as part of his collection worked its way into the front of her mind, turning her stomach. Had that been it?

He started walking again, satisfied that he had answered her question and that she would follow. She did, but she wasn't exactly "satisfied" with the answer. It was a shocking tale, a terrible deed, but she'd heard acts that were much worse than just taking a hand. And she wasn't sure what had motivated Hook, but she was sure that it hadn't just been the loss of the hand, it was a silly thing to risk your life to take revenge on. From the amount of shifting that he had done and from the way he had thought about which words he was going to use, she knew there was more than what he was telling her.

"That's why he came after me," she said writing it off and running to catch up with him. She would go along with his side of the story, but there was still an element missing...and she had a feeling she knew what it was. She hoped she was wrong. But, if the man had taken his wife, if he had lived this long, then why hadn't Milah? Where was she? "But, uh, what about...what about her?" she asked as they arrived at his shop. "What did he do?" she asked, hoping that it was the man who had done something and not him. She could forgive him for his past, she had before and she would again and probably again after that. But believing it was Hook would certainly make it a lot easier.

Unfortunately he gave her that look again. The look a parent gave a child that asked one too many questions, or when the question that they asked didn't have an easy answer. There was fear in his eyes again and it was never a good thing when he pulled away and refused to look at her like he was now. With a shake of his head, he finally faced her again. He would never beg, but he didn't have to, it was written on his face plain as day. He really didn't want her to ask that question, because he really didn't want to answer it. In the past she might have stepped away. She might have taken what she had been given and saved the rest for another time. But she'd also never been attacked before in an effort to get to him. He was still running scared and there was simply no need to...not with her.

She stepped forward with a sigh and grabbed the hand wrapped around his cane, giving her support the only way she knew how. "Rumple, you can...you can tell me anything," she assured him, trying to put an end to his fearful look, hoping that he remembered how she'd stayed after he'd told her about Cora. More than anything, she wanted him to know that it was true.

Relief coursed through her body as some of the tension left his face at her assurance, and he smiled down at her, nodding when he finally looked her in the eyes again. "She died," he whispered, "that's all that matters." He pulled away from her and turned to unlock the shop for them. She was disappointed by his answer. He hadn't lied to her, she would have known if he had. But he hadn't been completely honest with her either. It wasn't all that mattered.


Another wonderful and lovely straight forward chapter that required almost no work at all! I hope that you'll enjoy it because I know I enjoyed writing it!

Thank you to Grace5231973 for your review on the last chapter! The encouragement is much appreciated, as always. You are awesome! Peace and Happy Reading!