He woke the next morning just the same as he had the morning before. Belle folded into his side with that same pained look on her face, their arms folded around one another, just as naked as the day they'd been born. It was a remarkable feat to him when he considered that he had his magic back and he was the Dark One again. Dark Ones didn't need sleep, just like they didn't need food. As the Dark One, he'd gone years, decades even, without a single night sleep, without a meal. And yet, here they were, sharing meals and sleeping. Two nights in a row. He'd never slept two nights in a row, not in all his time as the Dark One. The voices had never allowed it. But they were quiet around her. It was like a magic that belonged to her and her alone. And he was grateful for the possibilities it offered.

He'd slept so deeply last night that he'd had a nightmare, just as he had before the Curse broke. She woke with him when he startled. She'd argued when he'd gotten up and gone downstairs to pace, to try and get the image of Bae falling away from him out of his head. He hadn't been successful, not until he returned to their bedroom to find her waiting up for him. One look from her, and he was comforted. One touch on his back, and he was content to fall back into her arms and go to sleep once more, risking the nightmares. The second he stepped into her presence, the moment she was in his arms, all whispers and hissings ceased. His head was quiet. He had magic, but he felt damn near human around her. And he liked it. He liked the effect that she had on him. She was good for him.

But he was ever aware that he couldn't stay with her forever. They couldn't haul themselves up into a house on a hill forever. His son was still out there. And he had work to do. So, after spending what he deemed to be an appropriate amount of time rubbing her back until her own nightmares vanished, he kissed her head, asked her to roll over, and in a sleepy haze, she eventually released him. He showered and made breakfast as he always did, he considered leaving another note for her to read, but when he looked at the dishwasher, she was determined to empty on her own he remembered that she wanted practice. He'd have to trust her at some point to figure out what to do on her own. She'd be fine. And if she wasn't, she'd call, and he was just a thought away.

Upstairs, he woke her with a kiss one more time to tell her he was leaving and would return for lunch. She nodded, but he could still see sleep pulling her under. Was that her? Was she simply not an early riser, or were there still drugs in her system?

"Rest, but try not to sleep too much," he encouraged, just as he had the day before. She nodded again before he kissed her goodbye and, when he looked back to close the door, realized she was asleep again.

He'd had a plan when he got into the shop. He had a "to-do" list that consisted of figuring out more of what was going on in the world. He wanted to find Booth, have a conversation with David, figure out what he knew regarding Emma and Mary Margaret, he wanted to look into a few cities, and try to figure out how he was going to make his way out into the world with Emma and potentially with Booth to find his son. But a lot of his plan took a wrong turn when he got into the shop and used his magic to take him to Booth.

He ended up right back in the middle of a forest, just like the day before. However, unlike the day before, it was a different place, a different area. He could taste magic in the air.

He didn't like it. He especially didn't like it when he realized that he could all too easily summon himself back to the shop and get where he needed to be. It suggested that Booth had magic of some kind, that he had figured out how to cloak himself from him out in those woods. A Cloaking Spell wasn't a half-bad idea. How he'd gotten one or known to use it was uncertain, but it bothered him. It suggested that Booth had no intention of helping him find Baelfire, and given the deal they'd made, the deal he'd made good on, that was aggravating. And a Cloaking Spell…yes, the damn thing could be broken, all magic could be broken, but that particular spell could be a tricky little devil, especially if he didn't know who's magic the boy had used to hide himself. Fairy Magic would have been his first guess, but he had no proof of it. And if it was a fairy, well, that too was disappointing. It would be all the harder to break unless the fairy voluntarily lifted the magic, and given their relationship, he found that highly unlikely.

When he returned after lunch, he determined to put Booth out of mind. Emma was friends with him. When she returned, he'd tell her that he was making good on his deal and needed her to find his son. Then he'd be sure to let her know that Booth would be the first person she should check with to get that location. And then…

And then what?

His plans had seemed so much easier a week ago before the Curse broke. Get Emma to take him to his son, find Baelfire, go from there. But now…what was he supposed to do about Belle?

When he'd gone home for lunch, she'd emptied the dishwasher, managed to make herself breakfast as well as their lunch, and was moving about the kitchen a bit more confidently. But she wasn't ready to go out into the wide world yet. He didn't even think he was ready for that! What was he going to tell her when he left? What was he going to tell Baelfire about her? Who could he rely on to keep her safe from Regina? Perhaps he had no choice but to take her! But of course, that plan offered problems of its own.

The bell ringing in his shop as the door crashed open brought him out of his stupor. He had a long list of things he wanted to do but hadn't even realized that he'd been standing in front of his shop just staring into nothing as he thought. He expected to see Regina, hoped to see David, but instead, the face that greeted him was one he didn't even have on his radar. He snickered.

"Well, well…if it isn't Little Bo Peep herself."

"Gold…or do you prefer Rumpelstiltskin these days."

"That depends entirely on the conversation we're about to have."

The former warlord put her fisted hands on her hips and sauntered across the shop, swaying her hips in a way that would have made one of her dresses back home swish impressively but just looked ridiculous in the pants she wore now.

"I've been told you are the person to come to when looking for missing things."

He smiled. Was he? Odd how that was getting around despite that no one had come to him yet. Perhaps they all knew and just didn't want to bother him. He could live with that.

"Has Little Bo Peep lost her sheep? Don't quite know where to find them?" he teased. The girl let out a huff as she looked away as if she'd just been scandalized or insulted. "Or is it that you don't know how to find them?"

Finally, her eyes fell on him. She glared for a moment the cocked her head to one side. "I take it I'm talking to the infamous Dark One now?" she questioned. "So hard to tell these days."

"Indeed, you are, but fortunately for you, it's Mr. Gold who has just the thing you are looking for." He walked to the wall around the corner. Leaning against the little niche was a long stick of wood, one imbued with magic, not by him, but enough that it had apparently found this place in the Curse.

"My staff!" Sheri Lewis shrieked excitedly.

"My staff, actually," he corrected, looking it over with a pawnbroker's eye. "It was pawned off to Mr. Gold years ago. I didn't give the individual much for it. There wasn't much value in its materials though it was a quaint little antique."

"Someone sold it to you…" she woman scoffed. "Poppycock. You stole it!"

"No. It may have been stolen from you, dearie, but I was Cursed just as much as you were. Just because it ended up here with me doesn't mean I was the one who stole it."

The woman stomped over to him, the heels of her heavy shoes thudding against the floor. "Give it to me, now!"

"Oh, well, certainly…but you know, you can't get something for nothing."

"It belongs to me."

"It belongs to me…I have the paperwork to prove that. Paperwork that will stand up in a court of law in this land. What do you have?"

"If I don't get that staff back-"

"You'll what?" he snapped. "Send you muscle men after me? I'm the Dark One, dearie, threats like that may have scared Mr. Gold, but do you really think they'll stand a chance against the Dark One? And where are those men now? Retrieving a staff from the shop across the street certainly seems like a lesser task one of them could have done. Unless, of course, they are the sheep you've lost."

Again she averted her eyes. She bent her knee and stuck her hip out so that she bounced, looking antsy as she crossed her arms over her chest. She was irritated. With him, probably, but he suspected that it went deeper. More than likely, she was irritated by loyal servants who were suddenly not so loyal.

"No…I suspect that your brutes have all gone away," he pressed. "That's the reason you need the staff. To find them. To make them pay for their abandonment. To remind them who they belong to. That makes this one expensive staff indeed."

"Now it's about cost then, is it, Mr. Gold?"

"Can't get something for nothing," he repeated. "And this seems to be a very unique piece suddenly. Perhaps my previous appraisal was incorrect."

Lewis gave a wild snort then put her hands down on the counter between them. "You own my shop, my home…you own the dealership that I make my car payments to, so tell me then, Mr. Gold…what more do you want from me?"

The slope of her shoulders, the way she arched her back and pushed her breasts up and out between her arms…he recognized those motions, those seductive and suggestive poses that were meant to draw him in and might have worked on a lesser man, but on him? An offer of sex for a staff? He nearly laughed. Even when he'd been Mr. Gold, he wouldn't have taken her up on that offer. He had standards. And now that he had his memories back, now that he had Belle at home and they shared a bed, those sorts of poses only seemed silly, girlish, and utterly disgusting when he got right down to it. Belle's timid blush, the awkward way she'd asked if they could go to bed but not to sleep…that was far more attractive to him than any amount of cleavage that Little Miss Bo Peep could ever flaunt in front of him. He'd been celibate for years, centuries really before Belle had come along, and now he couldn't imagine being with anyone else except for her. She'd ruined him for all other women, and he was just fine with that.

But then what did he want for the staff, if not sex?

Thinking about Belle, about what he'd been worrying about when she came in…he knew what he wanted, he knew what he'd be happy to trade the woman for.

"I'll give you the staff," he explained, looking the pathetic stick over. "In return, you'll stay far away from me and mine."

The woman laughed and took a step away from him, taking her breasts off the table in a way that was a little too literal for his taste. "'You and yours'? What…you and your pawnshop?"

She continued to chuckle as if it were a joke. He kept his face straight and unyielding. "You'll stay far away from me, from my family, from those who associate with me."

"And how will I know who that is? Will you give me a list? Do they wear a brand telling me not to come near them"?

"I suppose you'll just have to use an abundance of caution," he smirked, leaning the staff in her direction. He watched as she stopped laughing and realized that they were approaching a deal. She weighed her options, all the while looking between him and the staff as if worried it was a trick. Then, obviously deciding that even if it was the risk was worth it, she took the staff in her hand. And left without a word.

On the surface, it might not have been the best deal he'd ever made, but it was certainly worth something to him. While Bo Peep was harmless, her visit had stirred something in him, something he hadn't thought to worry about. This town, Storybrooke, it was a town of heroes and villains. And just as one was not dead, neither was the other. When he left town for Baelfire, he didn't know what he was going to do with Belle yet, if she'd be ready for the wide world so that he could take her with him or if she'd have to stay here. That left him no choice but to plan for both possibilities. He didn't intend for Belle to ever come into contact with Sheri Lewis, but his deal at least ensured retribution would be his if the woman did come across her and brand her. Fortunately, with Lewis, that was the worst she could do. But there were still dozens of other villains in this town. He couldn't scheme his way into a deal with all of them for her safety, and the spell he'd placed on her to make her harder to trace with magic wasn't foolproof. Maybe it would be safer to just take her with him. She could wait in a hotel room when he left to talk to Baelfire. He could travel separately from Emma. He could…his options felt like they were becoming fewer with every thought he had.

The sound of the door closing behind him alerted him to the fact that he'd come home. He'd hardly been aware of locking the Pawn Shop up and getting in the car to drive, and now here he was.

And there she was. Bolting down the stairs at such a speed that he had to ask what was wrong before she bounded into his arms and buried her face in his neck. It wasn't until she pulled away that he could see she was smiling wide. She was happy. Something had made her very happy indeed. But the look in her eyes was smart and secretive as she grabbed his hand and led him into the living room.

She'd been cleaning. He knew it the moment he looked around that she'd been organizing and cleaning just like she would have at his castle. It made his stomach turn over in his gut, but when he looked at her, at her pride even though she obviously hadn't "finished," he knew there was something more at play. She led him to the sofa, where a small pile of familiar objects from around the house greeted him.

"Did you know these were here? My things?"

Her things? Her things indeed. A book, a pair of shoes, one of the blankets he'd given her in the castle for a cold night. His fingers automatically reached out for a shawl that he recalled her sitting by the fireplace in so long ago. They were familiar objects. They'd been in his house these twenty-eight years; he just didn't realize what they were until now.

"In a way. My cursed self knew they were here but didn't necessarily know what they were. I haven't thought of them since I got my memories back, so I couldn't understand their significance until now."

Suddenly she took the shawl from his hands and set it back into the small pile that she'd made before placing her hands at his shoulders, forcing him to turn and confront her happy smile.

"I belong here!" she beamed and then threw her arms around his neck before he could respond. He held her tight, felt tears move into his eyes as he realized that such a thought would make her smile like that. She belonged with him. He was starting to believe that. Truly he was. What was she supposed to do when he was gone?

This chapter has nothing to do with the resurrected Exile Chapters. It's a bit of an oasis in that sense. However, in keeping with the 2x01-2x04 theme, this chapter is certainly set up for season 4. Yes, I know, we have no evidence that something like this scene ever took place, but the idea that it didn't take place is honestly downright hysterical to me. Damn near every magical and important item in town made its way to the pawnshop during the Curse. Still, we're supposed to believe that Bo Peep, the butcher, just so happened to have her frilly little staff at her side the entire time and it was immune to the weird magical black hole that was Gold's Pawnshop? Yeah, I don't buy that. So...I fixed it. I made her have to go to Gold just like everyone else in the world for her staff so that she'd have it when the time came. And really, dear reader, now that you're thinking about it too, doesn't it just make sense?! I mean, even David and Hook went to Gold's first, right?!

Thank you for your reviews on the last chapter, Grace5231973 and Alarda! I'm glad you are enjoying the fluff and watching Belle's progress through Rumple's eyes. It's fun when it's the main plot in one story, but just sort of a minor plot in another. Same with this chapter, really, only in reverse. In Moments we get an entire chapter of Belle organizing and cleaning and finding her stuff as she realizes she belongs. Who would have thought reading that chapter that this was the day that Rumple had experienced before coming home to her?! Peace and Happy Reading!