Useless. Moe French was wholly and completely useless!

He didn't take anything from Moe. Though he'd been tempted to hold the man down or wallop him over the head to get blood from him to find Belle, he resisted the urge. If she had left on her own and if she did come here, the last thing he wanted her to find was her father lying there bloodied by his own hand. Of course, the second that Moe told Belle about what had happened up in the cabin, he was doomed anyway, but at least he stood a better chance at getting to talk to her by leaving her father in peace. If she'd left on her own free will, if not…

It was time to start making further inquiries. He didn't want to assume the worst where Belle was concerned but history had taught him that he might need to plan for the worst. The worst, in this case, was that Belle had been taken. Whether she'd been lured off the property and taken or left on her own and been found by someone like Regina, he wasn't sure. But he had to consider either scenario.

Unfortunately, the moment he stepped outside the flower shop and looked around, he was struck by a foreboding sense of paranoia. There were people everywhere; people walking down the street, people driving cars, people going about their business. Anyone could have taken Belle. Regina would have been his first suspect, but he doubted that the woman would risk that right now. That still left others. Many others. Enemies he hadn't thought to find with Belle safe in his home, people he'd made deals with that might have carried grudges, even the ever-present shadow of his mother and father presented some torment. So many, many people. If Belle hadn't been taken yet, then he needed to find her before someone else did.

But he didn't know where to begin. He didn't know where to start. He was oscillating again, swaying from panic and anger back into debilitating sadness and hopelessness.

Fuck! He was the Dark One. He couldn't be brought to his knees like this. He had to focus! Usually, in this situation, he would have called Dove and had him mobilize his cousins. That brood would have found her in thirty minutes or less. But after the confrontation with Dove, he didn't know if the man would voluntarily work for him, and after he'd learned that his deal with Regina had fallen through the cracks, he wasn't sure if the one he'd made with Dove's father would have similar results. He was alone. He had to find Belle on his own, or else find someone who would be able to.

Someone who knew how to find someone…he knew of two people who fit that bill perfectly. One of them, unfortunately, was beyond reach at the moment. But the other…David. He and Mary Margaret had moved heaven and earth to get back to each other several times over back home. He knew how to find people, and, by some miracle, he was also one of the few people in town who already had a hint about Belle, thanks to a previous conversation. Maybe he could find her. Or at least tell him how to find her. They had, of course, made a deal to stay out of each other's business, but this arrangement would be a request, a loophole to that deal. And with his own wife and daughter missing, he might just be sympathetic enough to his plight to help in some way.

His magic traced David Nolan to Mary Margaret's apartment. It wasn't surprising. He knew that the makeshift center created in front of Town Hall had all but disappeared in the last few days, and he didn't expect him to go home and live with Kathryn now that their memories were back. The apartment made the most sense for a man waiting for his family to return from another realm.

He thought through his options one last time as he stood before the door, unhappy about what this might imply, but unfortunately, he came to the same conclusion he had before. This was his only option. With a deep breath, he knocked on the door, and it swung open what seemed like impossibly fast to reveal David, who immediately looked at him and rolled his eyes.

"May I have a word…" he managed to get the words out before David could close the door, only for his eyes to be drawn to something gold shining on his belt buckle. "Sheriff?"

"Uh, acting Sheriff," David corrected. He fought back a smile. Mr. Gold processed all the ways that wasn't technically legal, but he didn't particularly care one way or another. With Emma gone, the title suited David in some way. Besides, he'd bet Regina loved it. "And I'm already late on another busy day, cleaning up the mess you made."

"My apologies," he muttered as David ushered him in regardless. He meant it too, looking back on things now and all the trouble this had brought him where Belle and Bae were concerned. If he'd known that, he would have timed things differently. "That was a moment of poor judgment on my part. And it's not lost on me that I'm now here to ask for your help."

"Well then, it shouldn't be lost on you when I say no."

"Hear me out first," he insisted as the boy gestured to the door. He extended his hand and held out the picture of Belle. "I'm here to report a missing person."

There was a long pause while David's hands slid from his face to the paper and then back again, contemplating, thinking about it. His heart beat as he silently made up his mind, and he wondered if this wasn't a mistake. This meant she was anonymous no more. But, he reminded himself, there were worse people in this town that could know about her existence; the Snow Queen, for example. Finally, David took the paper, unfolded it, and looked at her.

"She left my home early this morning. Her name is Belle."

David's mouth hung open as he stared, then glanced up at him suspiciously. "Back in our land, you mentioned you loved someone once. Is-"

"Yes," he answered quickly, turning away from him and trying not to relive that memory.

"You also said she died."

"I'd thought she had." From behind, he heard the sound of the door closing. Good, that was good.

"Well, why don't you just use the tracking spell you gave me to find Jefferson?" Jefferson…was that who he'd been trying to find? Interesting, but not the reason he was here. And also…not relevant to this discussion.

"It only works if you have something the person owned. I don't."

"How can you be sure she's gone missing and not…run away."

"I can't," he interrupted as he felt a sharp pain in his heart that might have had something to do with being the Dark One and having a heart that was slowly blackening or Belle…he wasn't sure. He didn't want her to have run away, but he didn't want someone to have taken her either. Running away was reassuring but also heartbreaking. He just needed to find her. Then he'd know. Then he could decide how he felt.

"Look, the townsfolk are less than sympathetic to my plight. But you… You're in the rather unique position to understand exactly what I'm going through." David sighed and looked away, stared at something behind him. He was getting somewhere with him. He didn't dare look at what he was staring at, just waited for his gaze to return to him. "Will you help me?"

David looked back at him, his jaw set firm. He was staring, but he could practically see the wheels in his head turning uselessly. It was done. David was a stubborn man when he wanted to be. If he made up his mind, then it was made up. If the answer was "no," then he'd have dismissed him by now. The fact that he was still sitting here thinking through it meant that he'd already decided. He'd do it.

Finally, David sighed. "Look…for this to work, you're going to have to give me some information. I know that's not your forte-"

"What do you want to know?"

"Who is she? Really."

No, information wasn't his forte, and he wasn't pleased, but he'd expected that he'd require at least a bit of knowledge before outright agreeing. And he was old; he knew how to give away the essential parts while holding the truly important details close. For Belle, to get her back and make sure she was alright, he'd do what he had to.

"A Princess."

"She's royalty!" David balked. "Do I know her?!"

"Doubtful. She's the daughter of King Maurice," he clarified matter-of-factly.

He watched as David's eyes went glassy for a moment in thought, then widened in realization. "Moe French? The owner of Game of Thorns?"

He gave only a single, curt nod. "Yes."

"He has a daughter?!" David's eyes wandered down to the picture he'd given him on her.

"She was gone by the time you entered into that society. When his land was invaded with ogres, she made a deal with me that I'd rid her land of them, and she'd come to live with me as a maid. We fell in love."

David watched him from under his eyes, suspicion and judgment flashing in front of them before he picked his head up to observe him again. "You thought she was dead. Was that a lie?"

"No. After I dismissed her from my service, Regina informed me that she'd returned to her father and had died, but it turns out Regina had kidnapped her and was holding her against her will without my knowledge."

"Regina? That's believable enough, but where's she been all these years."

"Regina put her in an asylum, I suspect to bide her time until she could use her against me. Belle's curse was no memories, no family, no name, nothing. She was freed just before the Curse broke and found me. She got her memories back when the rest of you did. We've been together ever since."

"Okay…is there any reason to suspect Regina did something to her then?"

"No," he answered with little hesitation. "Regina has many flaws, but she's intelligent. She knows that if she dared to try something like that again, I'd kill her."

David huffed. "'Your business'…this is why you sent the Wraith after her after the Curse broke. You found out what she did to Belle."

He nodded.

"Against better judgment, or maybe because of it, I'll assume you already talked to Moe French."

"He claims that he hasn't seen her."

"Why can't you just use magic to find her?"

"In order to keep her safe, I put certain spells over her."

"Let me guess. Those spells make it difficult for even you to find her."

"Unfortunately," he growled.

"Okay, so you last saw her this morning. What happened before that?"

"We fought," he admitted tapping his cane nervously against the floor. It wasn't really a "fight." A fight implied two people arguing when in fact, she'd asked questions, and he'd refused to answer them, but he knew what David was searching for. Motive. He was looking for a reason she might have left. "Fight" was the best way he could think to describe it, even if it did chaff his soul a bit. "We argued over my use of magic. She got frustrated with me, I went downstairs, she went upstairs, when I went to find her, she was gone."

"Look…if she left-"

"Then I'll leave her be, Sheriff," he assured him. "But she has no knowledge of this town. Since she got her memories back, she's either been at my house, the shop, or the woods, aside from a few hours when she was out on her own when magic came back, she's never been anywhere else, hasn't met another soul for twenty-eight years, probably longer with how Regina kept her. I just need to know that she's safe, that no one has taken her, and she's left of her own accord."

"I was going to say, 'if she left, you might just want to wait for her to come back."

"If I had any confidence she'd be safe on her own, I would."

David took a deep breath, then folded up the paper he'd given him and stuck it in his pocket. "Fine," he muttered, moving toward to grab a leather jacket that was reminiscent of Emma's, only black instead of red. "We'll start on Main Street. If she's not been captured, then we have to assume she…wandered off," David explained as they left the apartment. His hesitation told him that he wanted to say "ran away" but had managed to stop himself in time. "If she's lost, then she'll likely go somewhere familiar, and it sounds like the closest, most familiar place is Main Street."

"And you what…just intend to start asking questions?"

David shrugged, slipping his keys into his pocket. "Let's see where it gets us."

The man moved to lead him from the apartment landing, but he reached a hand out and stopped him, unhappy with his plan of action. Belle could be anywhere, and he just wanted to start asking questions?

"Look, let's get this straight," David began with an attitude that suggested he had properly interpreted his frustration. "If we do this, then we do things my way. I do all the talking. If you can't agree to that, then you are more than welcome to find someone else to help you."

He wanted to strike back, to offer a quick comment about his way being slow and inferior to what he could do. He wanted to tell him that he didn't want his help nor need it. He wanted to remind him that it was only because of "his way" that he had everything he'd ever needed in life and more.

But he couldn't. And David knew it. He couldn't because the truth was that he wouldn't have been here if he didn't need David to help him with this. He had no other options, no other choice.

"If that's the way it must be," he muttered. But as he turned, it was David's turn to put his hands on him and stop him.

"Agree," he demanded. "No loopholes or tricks, agree."

Sometimes the False Prince was a damn bit too smart for his own good. But he had no time observations or arguments. Belle was out there somewhere, and David was leaving him with very little room to play with words. A younger Dark One, one who hadn't learned to love power and control as he did, wouldn't have seen any of what he offered. Fortunately, he did. He knew that there was a difference between "very little room" and "no room at all."

"If you help me, then I agree to do things your way until we've discovered who took Belle or where she's gone too. Happy?"

David crossed his arms and thought for a second before slowly nodded his head. "Despite the wiggle room you allowed yourself…yes."

David moved around him and descended the stairs leaving him shaking his head at the boy he'd watched turn into a man.

Too damn smart…

This chapter is like the last in the sense that I really had to think hard to find a reason that Rumple would go to David when asking for help is so out of character for him. This chapter is really why I had him place those spells on her in the beginning and never remove them. Otherwise, why doesn't he just find her like he found people in the Enchanted Forest, picture them in his mind's eye, and appear beside her? This way, he really has no source of magic that he can lean back on. And, when it comes to finding people he loves, David is really good at it. This chapter is not like the last one because it didn't just require framing on either end to get us in and out of the scene. This chapter actually contains two scenes that we saw due to either commercial break or flashback (I honestly can't really remember). So not only did it need framing, but it also needed a conversation in the middle to link the two pieces together. That part I enjoyed. Actually, I enjoyed a lot of this chapter. Rumple v. David is a fascinating dynamic sometimes.

Thank you, Grace5231973 and Alarda, for your faithful continued reviews. Thanks so much for all your encouragement as I continue on in this series. I don't say enough how very much appreciated it is! Peace and Happy Reading!