"I'm going to the convent."

"Be safe," he heard Belle instruct Bae as he wandered off.

"You, too." Bae made brief eye contact with him as he walked off and gave him a small nod of acknowledgment as he moved back to Belle's side. He hoped that a nod would translate well, that he'd know he was appreciative that he'd stayed beside her while he'd been away. He hoped that he knew he wanted him to be careful just as much as Belle wanted him to be safe. If he had things his way, Bae would be coming with him. But his son was a grown man, and he was probably more experienced with Pan and the Shadow than he was. If he wanted to go to the convent and find the Black Fairy's wand, he couldn't stop him. Besides, the risk to him was probably about the same as it was to the pair of them as they walked back to the car.

Inside. He'd feel so much better when he got Belle into a building with him. Until then, as they left the cemetery arm in arm, as they drove through the streets, he was on alert for that damned Shadow. It had already killed the Blue Fairy, he wasn't about to let it anywhere near Belle.

"We're not going back to the shop?" she asked as they made a turn that took him away from the others who were heading to town. She turned in her seat and looked back as the others took their separate turn. They'd no doubt be worried when they figured it out, his phone would probably start ringing soon, but they had nothing to fear, he was going to go to the shop, just not right away.

"No, there's something I need from the house first," he answered.

"What would you keep at the house that you wouldn't want in your shop?"

"Magic that I didn't want to end up in the wrong hands, not even by accident. Magic I needed to find Bae."

Magic he was going to need to find Henry's body. The Black Fairy's wand would merely be a tool, but the spell he had in mind, not only was that in a book he had at home, but it was going to need a few ingredients that he only ever kept at the house so that blood could find blood.

But Belle wouldn't know that. She might suspect it, but not know. It hadn't dawned on him before now, but she'd never been in the basement. She'd seen him there, or claimed to, the night before she'd left what felt like a lifetime ago, but the door to that room had remained solidly locked to her, not only magically, but physically as well. The key to the basement door was not one that he'd given her this morning. It wasn't that he'd deliberately kept her from it, he just hadn't really thought to give her one. It was another locked door in his life he hadn't meant to keep from her but had unwittingly. How much more often would this occur? Not very-not if his father won today. He had to be stopped. Not just for his life, but for the sake of his family.

He pulled Belle along the hallway when they finally arrived, he didn't want her to leave his sight, but this was something different. He needed her by his side for what he was about to do. He found the right book on the bookshelf and quickly shook its pages so that the spare key fell out from between them and landed in his hand.

"My only copy," he informed her, handing it over. "You can add it to your collection."

She took it from him, and her brows furrowed. "You keep an extra key right next to the lock?"

Yes, that would have been a very stupid decision on his part. But only if the lock was the only thing keeping others at bay.

"It's only the physical lock," he corrected, digging around in his pocket for his own. "It's required but not enough to open the door."

And even if it was, the house was enchanted to let him know who was coming and going. By the time anyone broke in, even if they managed to guess the right place to look for it, he'd have been there to stop them. But that was unnecessary because of the spell placed upon the door, the one that would only recognize him or his blood…and now Belle.

He unlocked the door and then reached out for her. "I need your hand," he explained quickly. "I have to do this quickly, or else it'll burn."

Without hesitation, she put her hand in his. She trusted him. And he trusted her, which was why he guided her hand onto the knob and pushed magic into it. He imagined it was similar to programming a new user into a computer. The knob heated at her touch, but at his magic, the suggestion that her hand belonged there, the enchantment faded. What should have become hot enough to burn flesh suddenly cooled. It would have that effect on her forever now. There were no more locked doors in this house.

"There," he pulled her hand away and gave it a cursory check, looking for burns he needed to heal in case he hadn't been fast enough. It was red but otherwise uninjured. "It'll always open for you now. As will the one outside."

If they'd done this earlier when he'd given her the other keys, there might have been kissing, she might have thrown her arms around him, and he'd have held her joyously at this new change in his life. But now the threat loomed over them, and the second all was well, he flung open the door, turned on the light, and headed down the stairs.

He didn't need to search, he didn't need to plot or plan, he knew precisely what he was looking for-the book across the room on the second shelf. He pulled it free and listened to the Dark One who'd owned it previously as she told him exactly what page to turn to. The Spell of the Displaced Soul. It was meant to do the displacing, but it would work just fine in this situation. The paste he'd have to make for it was simple enough, and all the ingredients were in his shop. The only thing was that the Spell required the individuals to be close by. With any luck, namely the Black Fairy's wand, that wouldn't matter.

"Do I want to know what is in that?" Belle asked from wherever she stood.

This particular spell…it wasn't the worst, but it was only a shadow of what else was in this book, why he kept it here instead of the shop. Did she want to know? No. But since she was asking…

"Nothing happy."

He read on, double-checking the ingredients for the paste, assuring himself that nothing would be forgotten. Perhaps he should take a few of the juju bug legs…just in case. He wasn't sure if he had those or not.

"Thank you for not lying about it," Belle muttered as he pocketed some.

Desperate as he was to get going, he felt a vise squeeze over his heart. He shouldn't be thanked for not lying to her. The only reason that would be necessary was because she felt that he had. She felt…it was more than that. He had lied to her in the past. No more.

"It makes little sense to lie to the one person who could see straight through it. Besides…" he glanced up at her, standing on the stairs looking down at him in his domain. It was different from when they were in his castle, and he'd worked in his tower and she below. Different…and yet not at the same time. That was a shame. He wanted it to be different. "I have no desire to hide anything from you. Not anymore."

And he'd love to take a moment to rejoice in that, but at times like this, a moment could be the difference between victory and defeat. Juju bug legs. He needed them. And now that he was thinking about it, if he was going for strength in this Spell, then he could forgo tap water and use some that he had stashed away from their world from an Enchanted Waterfall. Anything that might help.

"I need some other items," he commented, turning to the table to consider the ingredients and if he had more powerful versions here or at the shop. There were a few other things he could grab. There was a bag beside him, he could put it all in there.

"I'm, uh…I'm going upstairs to change."

"No!" he shouted up at her as he finished his gathering. "Stay here, with me, please."

"I'll only be a minute," she called.

"Belle!" he cried after her, but she was already at the top of the stairs, halfway to their bedroom. "Fuck!"

The house was empty, but Pan's Shadow, he wasn't entirely sure that it would register as a human presence. If it was here, it could be hiding anywhere! Without thought, he quickly shoved the rest of what he'd gathered into the bag, then moved back to the stairs.

"Belle!" he locked the door with magic as he closed it behind him and heard noises from upstairs. "Belle…" he left the bag by the door and quickly moved upstairs, opening their door.

"Rumple!" she squealed with a little jump as she put her hands and the fabric within them to her chest. "You scared me!"

Fair was fair.

"Don't walk away!" he cried when he saw her again. "Not at a time like this!"

Oh, he'd scared her?! For fuck's sake, the Shadow could have been lurking in the hallway and ripped her shadow away from her before she'd had time to call for help! He wanted her with him or with Baelfire at all times until this was over!

"What aren't you telling me?" Belle asked suddenly, her face hardening as she walked to the bed and put the clothes that she'd retrieved for herself down. He watched as she quickly stripped them off and began to change, but all the while kept her eyes on him, looking accusatorily. "You're being far more protective than you usually are, there's a reason for that. What is it?"

Smart fucking woman was going to be the death of him. He didn't want to scare her

"I just want you close until we catch him," he explained easily enough before wandering into his own closet and picking out a few other clothes as she did. He was sure there was a reason she wanted to change, maybe if he followed suit, he'd calm the fuck down too.

"Rumple! Tell me what is going on!" But then again, when had easy answers ever worked on her? "What is the Shadow everyone is talking about? Why aren't you telling me?"

He let out a growl-like sigh. Because he didn't know he had to? Because he didn't think it was an issue? Because he thought they had more time.

"I assumed you already knew. You have read the tales in your library on Peter Pan, haven't you?"

"Yes, and in the stories, Pan's Shadow caused mischief but nothing more!"

"This Shadow isn't Pan's," he corrected stubbornly. There wasn't time to go over all this! And yet, if he didn't go over it…he had to make sure she knew the gravity of the situation. "The Shadow was in Neverland long before he was, but it does take orders from him. It's crossed realms for him for hundreds of years, doing Pan's bidding and, if he requests it, that Darkness won't hesitate to kill you."

"And how exactly would a Shadow go about killing a person?" she challenged, meeting his warning tone with one of her own, one that demanded truth and information. He let out a frustrated sigh. They didn't have time for this…

"It will tear your shadow from your body," he answered obediently. "Whether under Pan's orders or its own blood lust, you won't survive."

Belle nodded slightly, she let out a soft sigh that suggested she understood as she thought it over. "Is there no way to stop it? No way to fight back, to keep it away?"

"Yes!" Had they not gone over this already? "Stay close to me until it's caught, until this is over. Don't isolate yourself and become an easy target!" Don't run up into their bedroom when he was two floors away and couldn't check to be sure the room was absolutely safe!

"You should have told this to Baelfire before he wandered off in search of the Shadow! Not me!" she shouted at him suddenly.

"Baelfire's never given me reason to suspect he'd go off on his own when his life is in danger."

Fuck. The words left his mouth before he had time to think about them. And now he knew just from the glare she was casting him…she was mad.

For fuck's sake…

He loved her. And he loved Bae. And he loved Henry. But sometimes, he thought they'd be the death of them.

"Baelfire was with others seeking out the Shadow, he spent time in Neverland and knows the danger. Bae is safe…you're the one I'm concerned with at the moment. If he comes after you-"

"How would the Shadow know to come after me in the first place?" she interrupted before he could finish that sentence.

"I would hardly think that needs explaining."

"No, not 'why'!" she snapped. "I understand why. What I don't understand is 'how.' How would he know about me? Baelfire was with you in Neverland, the Shadow knows who he is, he should be the target! How would the Shadow even know to come after me if he doesn't know I exist?"

The full understanding of what she was asking dawned on him, and suddenly the world stopped. She didn't know. They were running out of time, but it hadn't dawned on him just how little he'd been able to tell her today until now, until she asked that question. He hadn't told her about the way the Shadow had disguised itself, what Peter Pan had said to suggest he'd spied on her, what he'd known or how he'd-

"You told the Shadow…" she assumed in his silence, looking at him with shock on her face.

"No!" he shouted instinctually. "I would never do that! You know I'd never put you in the sight of something as bloodthirsty as that creature!"

"So then how else could he know about me?!"

"I don't know!" he screamed back at her, his temper gaining a foothold he hadn't wanted it to.

He hated that was the answer he had for her, truly he did. But it was the truth. He didn't know. He had suspicions and thoughts as to how that had happened, but no true or honest answer from his father as to how he'd truly found out, when he'd spied on her, when he'd learned about her, what the Shadow had seen of her. But he wished he did. He wished he knew how much of their lives had been torn open at the seams and exposed. But for now…for now, it wasn't important. All that was important was that it had happened.

"I can't be sure how he knows about you, there are too many possibilities, but what's important is that he does," he admitted getting his anger under control. They were running out of time, but he knew Belle. He knew that the best way around this was to explain as much as he could, as calmly as he could, so they could move on and go to the shop quickly and present a united front. "He knows how you look; he knows how you sound, how you talk. He knows what you are to me and how I feel about you. And in Neverland…Pan was able to use that knowledge to conjure a vision of you, to use you against me."

Belle gaped at his confession. Her mouth fell open, and he watched as she processed it and slowly sank onto the bed. She was hurt by what he'd said. And it made him hurt, too.

"You told me you didn't want to hide anything from me anymore," she stated calmly. "Why didn't you tell me this earlier? This morning? When you told me about Pan?"

"I wasn't trying to withhold it from you," he admitted. "I just didn't think it was one of the important things you had to know about right away. I would have gotten around to it eventually-"

"You should have told me," she insisted.

"Belle…" he sighed before coming to sit beside her on the bed.

Yes. She was right, he should have been the one to tell her this. But he'd thought there was time to do just that. He would have told her, one day, one night when the world wasn't on fire. And if he'd known that all this was going to unfold, he'd have told her himself this morning, but he hadn't known. His visions of the future didn't work like that. And now…it was unfair, he knew that, but it was also imperative that they not dwell on this just now.

"Sweetheart, I have lived hundreds of years," he pointed out as gently as possible. "I can't just sit down and tell you everything that has happened in my life in one sitting."

"This isn't something from long ago, this is something that just happened, something important that affects us."

"I know that, and you are right, I should have told you, and if we'd had more time I would have, but I didn't expect things to go this way."

She nodded and shrugged a single shoulder. "You're right, I know, I just…"

Belle swallowed hard, and that was when he saw it. The anger in her eyes, it wasn't pure anger, it was fear-based. She was afraid. She was scared. That was what he wanted. He wanted her to be afraid of the Shadow, afraid enough to register it as the threat it was, but he didn't want her to be scared to death of it.

"Rumple…if the Curse comes to pass-"

"It won't," he insisted quickly.

"But if it does-"

"It won't! We're going to fix this!"

But Belle only continued to shake her head in disbelief as she rocked on the bed and tried to take in great gulps of breath. She didn't just smell of fear she smelled of panic.

"Rumple, I can't go back," she finally choked out. "I can't do it again. I can't be cursed again. I can't be Lacey. I'd rather have no memories at all than be her again. But even if I have no memories, if everything resets itself…I've nothing to go back to but a padded cell. I can't do it, I can't be Lacey, and I can't be crazy."

"You won't be!" he insisted, channeling cooling into his hand and setting it along her neck. Guilt roared through him. When he'd made that announcement at the cemetery about going back…he should have been more careful. He should have remembered that even though a perfect reset was unlikely, it was right where certain minds were doomed to go, and for some, like Belle, a reset didn't mean a grand mansion, like it meant for Regina or a cute little loft like it did for Mary Margaret. A reset for Belle was a hellish existence with no hope for coming out of it.

He couldn't say a "reset" was impossible because the Curse would bend to whatever whim Pan had for it, if he wanted a reset, then it would be reset. But the more realistic idea was that he wouldn't do that but likely something that would make all of them react much the same way Belle was now. Either way, it wasn't a reality because they were going to stop it. It was unlike him, he knew, to be positive, but he'd learned long ago when hunting for Bae that believing in anything other than the ending one wanted was less than helpful. They were going to stop this. He had to stop it. For Henry and Bae, but now especially for Belle silently weeping on the bed beside him.

He gently pulled her closer so that her head could rest against his shoulder as she collected herself. They had time enough for this.

"You won't," he assured her quietly. "I won't let it happen. You'll be safe, Baelfire and Henry as well. The three of you are the greatest motivation I have to succeed.

Against his shoulder, he felt her nod, but she made no attempt to pick her head up from his shoulder, just let it rest as she continued to cry. "I believe you," she muttered despite the sadness. He'd take that.

"Good," he responded, holding her closer. "Because Pan will only take you from me over my dead body."

And that, he meant with all his heart.

Holy Foreshadowing, Batman! It's everywhere in this chapter even if I didn't mean it to be. When I was writing Moments the only little bit that I meant to really be foreshadowing was Rumple's last sentence. That bit should be obvious. But as I wrote this I realized there were other little bits written into it as well. For all you Moments Exchanged people out there, the first part with Rumple nodding to Bae and hoping that he conveys that he'd rather her be with him than anyone else, we all know just how powerful an urge that will become as after Rumple dies Baelfire really take Belle on as his responsibility in their realm. So in that way, message received. Also, this one is a bit of a stretch, but...the locked doors. If you've read Moments Beyond then you know that Gideon goes through a phase where he locks his door. This is actually a very normal thing for a kid to do, but it drives Rumple crazy, perhaps a little crazier than it should. Well, this chapter, I think, helps us to get a little glimpse into why when it comes to that. To Rumple, a locked door is never just a locked door.

Peace and Happy Reading!