He watched.
He had to watch. Because if they got their hands on the potion, then they'd take it right to Henry, and while the potion would work on the boy, it wasn't meant for him. He had to intercept that potion before they could use it. One way or another, he would. With Emma leading the charge, alone, he figured she would have come back to him once she realized that the egg was locked. Who else would have the key except he who crafted it? From there it would have been easy to fend the girl off, take the potion, and run, figuratively speaking. But with Regina in the mix…that changed everything.
Fortunately for him, he had time to think. Why they did it, he couldn't bring himself to even try and fathom, but instead of heading straight to the library, they turned and walked in the opposite direction. A moment later, he saw Emma's bug drive by. Where they were going when the library was right across the street, he hadn't a clue. But he tried to keep himself calm. If they'd thought of another plan, then it would fail. One way or another, they'd come back to the library. They'd have no choice but to try and vanquish the dragon.
So he watched and waited and plotted and planned.
And finally, about an hour before sunrise, he saw Emma Swan walk to the library and stand at the front entrance. She had the sword with her. He saw her gaze over into the shop just once as she waited, but he'd been expecting that and already had himself well hidden among the shadows and shelves, so he'd be difficult to make out at that distance. Once Regina showed up, she unlocked the building, and the two of them entered alone.
Showtime.
He took his cane, made sure a length of rope was hidden in his sleeve, and a roll of duct tape wasn't noticeable on his wrist, then put his gun in his jacket pocket. He made sure that things were ready when he returned because he was certain that when he did, he wouldn't have much time. Once he was positive preparations were made, he left the shop and walked across the street. The boarded-up and papered windows on the library meant that he didn't have to worry about being seen, and the darkness outside meant that he didn't have to worry too much about his shadow being cast either.
He stayed at the main doors to the lobby and listened. Inside it was quiet, no crank of machinery, no footsteps on the floor, no voices. His entire plan hinged on Regina sending Emma down alone while she waited upstairs. If he got anything wrong, if he opened that door and there was no one there, or it was Emma instead of Regina, his plan might not work, and he'd need to think of something else as he went along. He hoped he was right.
After a few minutes of waiting and listening to quiet, he held his breath and opened the door.
"What are you doing here?"
He managed to hold in his sigh of relief as he found Regina standing by the side of the open elevator shaft, waiting for the signal to lift it from Emma below. It was perfect, just perfect only…how much time did he have. He figured Emma would go down the elevator; that was a minute or two. She'd need a minute to find the dragon, then another to be shocked that it was real. She'd probably use another few minutes fighting her instinct to hide from it before she gave in and fought back; that could be anywhere from two to seven minutes. Then she'd need another two minutes to come back up…well…one minute and forty seconds if his plan worked. He had maybe ten minutes, and he'd already spent at least three outside. Seven minutes left at best. He had to get on with it.
"Just checking on progress and seeing that Miss. Swan does her job, of course."
Regina huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She watched him saunter through the abandoned library, appearing as though he'd merely found a chair to rest upon himself. That was what he wanted it to look like, at least.
"About that…you and I are going to have to have a nice talk when all this is over about what exactly her 'job' is and why you brought her here in the first place. Why create a Curse you intended to be broken, Rumple?"
"Those are all excellent questions. And I'm sure it'll be a lovely little chat, but first…why don't you take a seat, Your Majesty," he offered, tapping the back of the chair for her. When she rolled her eyes at him, an obvious refusal, he reached into his pocket for his gun. He made sure it made an audible and identifiable "click."
Regina went still with something like fear and shock, and then she straightened her back, realizing what was happening. "You've got to be joking."
"Not at all," he whispered. "Take…a seat!" he ordered, growled at her, through clenched teeth keeping the gun carefully aimed at her. Still, she made no move to sit, but rather looked around as if for something to defend herself with. He let out a low chuckle. "We both know you've got nothing to use against me. You've used up the last of your magic here, remember, " he pointed out before motioning to the gun in his hand. "Fortunately, for me, this will still do plenty of damage."
She let out a heavy sigh, then looked up at him and sneered before moving toward him and falling into the seat. She automatically put her hands behind the back of the chair, expecting the rope he pulled free.
"Gold, I swear-"
"Convenient to find you up here," he interrupted as he tied. "I'm not surprised you didn't show her where the emergency controls were; just let her go down there by herself to face the beast. What exactly was the plan, Your Majesty? Trap her in an elevator shaft? Get her to pass you the potion so she can pull herself up? Leave with the potion yourself. Be a hero?"
"Funny, you know it so well it's almost like it's your plan."
"Perhaps it is," he shrugged, finishing his work and stepping away from her. It was close enough anyway, up until the last bit.
"What do you want with that potion? What will it really do?"
"Exactly what I said it would, break any curse."
"But not Henry's!"
He smiled. He hadn't lied to Booth. True Love's Kiss could break any curse. Even in this cursed state everyone found themselves in. Magic was in this world. It was what was keeping the Curse in place. Something small meant the magic wouldn't be absorbed by the Curse, which was probably how Regina had gotten by and how he'd been able to use a few simple spells and potions over the years. But with something big, the Curse would leech onto whatever magic was there, absorb it for itself and use it to keep itself running. True Love's Kiss, on the other hand, that powerful pulse of magic he'd first felt when Prince Charming had kissed Snow White, he had no doubt that was powerful enough to overwhelm the Curse, to give it too much magic to absorb. It would temporarily and break the Sleeping Curse that held Henry hostage. It might even…
A powerful infusion of Light Magic from True Love's Kiss that could not be easily absorbed by the Dark Curse…it might even be powerful enough to overwhelm it all together. And break it.
So that was how it would be done. It all came down to True Love's Kiss. He'd never been given a vision of how the Curse would break, only had the knowledge that the Savior would break it. And now, as everything seemed to line up so perfectly, it was so brilliantly clear that this was it, this was how it would be done. True Love's Kiss…
But it had to be True Love. If it wasn't, then there was no luck. Fortunately, considering how Emma had reacted to Henry being cursed, the limits she was willing to pass in order to get him back…it was True Love. Love between a parent and a child. And Regina hadn't been able to break it. What did that say about their relationship?
"You've had the power to do that all along, dearie."
"How?" she snarled.
He only smiled and shook his head at her ignorance. Only a minute or two left. He had other things to do.
"Tell me how?!"
"If I have to tell you, it'll never work," he answered before tearing a piece of tape off of the roll he'd brought with him and moving toward her to place it over her mouth.
"No!" Regina cried before moving her head out of the way foolishly as if a few quick movements could stop it. "No! I have something you want!" she screamed suddenly. "I have something precious of yours. You don't even know…I'll give it to you! If you just help-"
He didn't listen to her. The moment she turned back to him, he lunged and fit the tape over her mouth. "You've tried that once before, Your Majesty," he reminded her. "Didn't work then. It won't work now." The only thing precious to him now was Baelfire. It was she who didn't know that no matter what she thought she had, it was nothing compared to his own son. Especially not when he knew that there was something that would get him back, and it was on its way up…now.
Suddenly a light on the elevator flashed on, and he felt his stomach jump. It was light to let the operator know that it was safe to raise the lift. So he did. He threw the switch as Regina had meant to and recalled it. But when the lift was perhaps a floor or two below, he shut it off abruptly. Regina whined. He turned to glance at her, to throw her a warning, but she didn't see. She was too busy trying to get her hands loose.
"Regina!" Emma called up the lift. "What the hell was that? Regina!"
Regina whined again, but clearly, the girl couldn't hear her. This was the part where her suspicion of her was going to come in very handy.
"Miss Swan?" he called, innocently poking his head into the open shaft and looking down at her. "You got it?"
"Mr. Gold," the Savior cried, looking up at him. Thank the gods…clutched against her chest was a golden egg that he hadn't seen in a very long time. She'd done it. "What are you doing here?"
"I've come to check on you. I'm glad I did. Regina abandoned you and sabotaged the elevator," he lied as Regina made strangled muffled sounds against her bonds.
"What?" she cried before looking around the caged lift. "I'm coming up!"
He watched as she delicately balanced the egg on the top of the ragged lift in a way that would have made him nervous, even if his main goal wasn't to have her toss it up to him so he could take it and run.
"Now, there's…there's no time for this. You can't possibly scale the wall and carry that."
"Yeah? Well, I can try," she called, climbing up onto the top.
"No, you can't," he insisted, even though she was doing just fine thus far. "Just toss it up," he urged as she looked up at him sadly. He straightened his back, trying hard to look as tall as possible so that she felt as small as possible and found no other choice but to do as he said. He smiled down at her reassuringly and placed a hand over his chest. "Your boy's going to be fine. I promise. We're running out of time. Toss it up."
He wasn't lying. And least that's what he told himself. Henry was Cursed, this magic would help him, but there was another kind of magic that would help him, magic that she possessed. She'd figure that out. He knew it.
Finally, Emma nodded and swallowed hard. "You hold on to it. I'll be right up," she said.
Then she tossed the egg up to him. He caught it easily in one hand. He looked it over, recognizing his own work. If he'd had the key with him, he would have checked for the potion, but seeing as how the key was safely in his office and the egg was undamaged, he didn't feel the need to. Nor did he feel the urge to free Regina as he turned and left quickly, listening to Emma calling his name all the way out.
I loved this revisit of Regina offering Gold "something precious." We all know what, or who that is, right? It's Belle. She's always said she's a chess piece, and I liked seeing Regina willing to use her. This is the second time, and I tried to do Regina a little bit of justice in the places that I have her offer Belle up. The first time was in the Enchanted Forest when she was trying to bring about the Curse; now, she does it in order to save Henry. Of course, the problem now is the problem then. He's done too good a job convincing himself that Regina's lie is true and that Belle is dead, so when she offers "something precious," he doesn't even consider what it could be. Truthfully, even if she did say, "I have Belle, I took her a long time ago and locked her up, she's in the asylum, and you can go get her now..." I don't think he'd buy it. He's so focused here I think he'd assume she was lying and go off and do the same thing he intends to here.
Thank you for your reviews on the last chapter, Grace. Well, Rumple's got the egg. I think you know what's coming next. We've only got three chapters left, if you can believe it. I'll see you back here on Thursday so that we can begin to finish off our last batch of chapters. (And see a character I know that you've all be dying to see again!) Peace and Happy Reading!