Course correction. Emma needed to fight the right battle. He'd love to help her believe, but it had to be done delicately. He'd let August try his way. If it didn't work, then he could always be the backup plan.

It was well past lunchtime when August's prediction came true, and Emma Swan came storming into the stop with little greeting besides "Gold! I want to hire you."

He sighed but didn't put aside his cleaning. "Very well, Miss. Swan. Where is the object?"

His comment caught her off guard, and she made a face as she came to stand on the other side of the glass case. "What? What object?"

"Well, if you are here in my pawnshop looking to hire an antiquities dealer, then I assume you are looking to have something appraised. A family heirloom, perhaps?"

"No…not like that…" she quickly corrected. "I want you to be my lawyer."

"As I recall, Miss Swan, you're not exactly a fan of my methods, legal or otherwise. Besides, it is a bit odd for the sheriff to arrest herself, isn't it?"

"It's nothing criminal. And I think, for this, questionable ethics and methods might be exactly what I need. I want to sue Regina for custody of Henry."

And there it was, the request that Booth had told him was coming. After what that puppet had pulled, he'd half been hoping that he'd be wrong or prove to be unhelpful, but it seemed it was a worth ally. Shame, it meant he couldn't kill him for what he'd done. On the contrary, it gave him a bit of hope. Perhaps the boy could make her believe. He didn't know how he intended to do it, but it wouldn't cost him anything to go along with it for now.

Emma didn't know it, but she was in the middle of a maze, a maze that he had crafted for her before she'd been born; before her parents had even been born! It was a maze of his own making. He needed her to get through to the other side, direct her down the correct path to get out of it. The best way to do that was to start taking away options so that she had no choice as to which path she would take.

"Henry…the boy you turned over to be adopted? Legally signed your rights away? That Henry?"

"I did it so he'd have his best chance. Regina is not his best chance!"

"Regina had to pass the same background checks, tests, and psychological exams that any adult seeking to adopt would have. And you signed off on a closed adoption, Miss Swan. Courts don't often reverse their decisions without good reason, especially not after the child in question has been well cared for after so long."

"Well cared for?!"

"The boy is healthy. Other than having an active imagination, for which Regina immediately put him in therapy, he's well-fed, clean, educated."

"That's not the kind of thing I'm worried about."

"But that's what the court will be worried about. What evidence do you have that Regina is an unfit mother?"

Emma took what looked to be a steadying breath. She stared at him so that he knew she wanted to look him dead in the eye when she gave her next statement. That was good. It meant that she was well aware that everything he'd just told her was true. But at the same time, it also meant that she had something she believed was true and would trump all that.

"Sidney Glass is innocent."

That.

He glanced back down at his work and kept cleaning. Yes, that entire affair, and more, did prove that Regina was an unfit mother, but only if she ever really got to the bottom of who'd arranged it and why. And he knew she never would. He paid his people too well for that. So he let out a long sigh of dismissal.

"Seeing as how he just accepted a guilty plea-"

"This isn't about what he said he did," Emma insisted desperately. "This isn't about the deal that you got him; it's about what actually happened! Sidney is lying, taking the fall for Regina either because she's paid him or…I don't know, maybe he really does love her. Either way, Sidney is innocent. I know it, I can feel it in my bones, and I think you know it too! Regina knows it. But she just used him to get herself out of trouble.

"She wants to be the Mayor of the town, fine, I don't give a damn what she does to this place, all I care about is my kid, and right now she has him in that house, under her roof, and I can't leave him in there with her for the rest of his life. He's screwed up now; what's he going to be like at eighteen?! I have to save him," she concluded. "I have to get Henry away from Regina."

"I must admit, your intentions are admirable," he concluded gently himself. "However, I won't be taking your case," he stated, walking away from her.

"What?" she cried, following after him persistently just the way he wanted her to.

He knew what he was doing. He couldn't tell her to go to August the way the puppet wanted her to, but he could nudge her. He'd been the Dark One for centuries. He knew how people worked. She'd go to Booth because he was an ally. In order to give her that, he had to remove an ally…namely himself. He had to leave her with little hope of doing things the "legal" way and make her want to find an alternative. He needed her to want to believe what was going on in this town. Because if everything that Henry and Booth told her were true, then she could get Henry back, damn legality. It was a beautiful plan…but still delicate.

"You know what Regina did!"

"Yes, but we can't prove it. And, given the Mayor's sway in this town, any proceedings against her would be long and drawn out and futile. The only certainty is Henry would suffer. You can't do that to your boy."

"So, we leave him in the same house with that sociopath?"

"I'm sorry, Sheriff. My mind's made up."

"Well, then change it. The only person I've ever seen go head-to-head with Regina and win is you."

"That's because I know how to pick my battles."

"Then, pick this one!" she screamed, her eyes wide with exactly what he wanted to see…desperation. With the right hint, he'd get her to where she needed to be.

"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I'm just simply not the man to help you beat Mayor Mills."

She glared at him and his carefully chosen words. "No. You're not." She turned on her heel and left the shop in a huff.

He smiled. If she were smart, then she'd put it all together. He wasn't the man to help her. But there was another who was…he hoped.

He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number that had contacted him earlier.

"It's done," he stated when a word of "hello" came from the other end. "Be somewhere she can find you. Give her a while to cool down, to realize she has no options left, and she'll come to you as her only friend in the world."

"I'll take it from here then," Booth replied.

Yes, that was what made him just as nervous as it did hopeful. "Don't give me reason to doubt my limited trust in you, Booth."

"I'll get her there. I'll get her to believe. I have to. My life depends on it."

This is another one where I totally can't remember where my stuff ends and the actual scene begins, so I guess that's a good thing for the writing. Especially since I remember coming into this one with a bit of nervous energy, wondering how I was ever going to start the conversation convincingly in the first place. So from the author who can't remember where her framing for this chapter ends and begins again, to the reader...I hope you enjoy this chapter and can't tell either!

As always, a big thank you is going out to Grace5231973 and Alarda for their reviews on the last chapter and really for their reviews on every chapter thus far. It's incredibly helpful to know you are out there reading and to hear your feedback. As I continue to write the Dark One Chronicles, it helps give me the fuel that keeps me going! Peace and Happy Reading!