He was going to kill Snow White's Prince Charming if it was the last thing he did.
He regretted making a deal with him to run this investigation "his way." Some part of him had known he would from the very moment he'd felt the magic binding them in their accord, but still, he'd made the deal out of desperation. And where had it gotten him? A front-row seat to observation after observation of people who didn't want to help, didn't know anything, or couldn't be bothered. David was nearly as useless as Maurice had been, just on a larger scale.
He approached everyone who owned a business on Main Street, starting with his shop, since he assumed that's where she would have been most comfortable, and working his way down. Sarah Fischer, formerly known as the Ice Queen, in the shop closest to his, hadn't seen her, though the pair of them stared at each other with a sort of understanding that promised to stay out of one another's business. Enemy or not, he felt oddly comfortable in the resolution that she was not the one who had taken his Belle. They tried others. The people in Mary Margaret's flat, the garden center, the mechanic, the vet who worked at David's shelter, half the staff at La Tandoor, all the staff at Modern Fashion. So far, there was no luck, though he wasn't always allowed to make that judgment for himself.
Oh, he let David do the talking, just as their deal required, but when he was able, he stayed close, listened to the conversations, watched the faces of those who were interviewed. There were more than a few times though, when people eyed him suspiciously or told David they wouldn't talk with him around. In those cases, David ended up sending him elsewhere, behind a wall, outside a store, or even across the street…as he was standing now.
David was making inquiries with a man, a young man, who appeared to have gotten a flat on Main Street and was just now repairing it. He wasn't a store owner, but the repairs meant he'd been there for long enough to see something, and David had asked before he looked between the pair of them. "I'm not talking to you, man," he stated before he'd barely gotten a question out. He knew the tone well enough by now, and without being asked, he turned to walk across the street.
He hated these interviews. Mostly because they were useless and because each time this happened, it made him nervous and excited and anxious all over again. Were these people sending him away because they'd seen something, and they didn't want him to retaliate? So far, the answer was no. But he couldn't help the thought from passing each time it happened.
Finally, David appeared to say goodbye to the individual, crossed the street, and approached him again. He held his breath in anticipation. Was this the one? Had the boy seen something? Belle?
"Do you remember turning a butcher into a pig?" David asked with frustration. The question caught him off guard. It wasn't something he'd expected in the midst of this. Turning a butcher into a pig certainly sounded like something he might have done, but the memory didn't particularly stick out. And he didn't see why it would have been important now. Unless, of course, that man had intelligence that the butcher was now human again, and they'd taken Belle as revenge! Belle alone with a butcher and a sharp blade…his stomach churned at the thought.
"Can't say that I do. Why?"
"Well, he does. Apparently, it was his father!" he snapped, pushing the drawing of Belle into his chest and taking off down Main Street. "I'm beginning to understand why nobody wants to help you."
He understood now. The boy wasn't a witness; he was an enemy, someone who hated him even if he couldn't remember hurting him or his butcher-father. This was why he didn't want Belle out here alone. In his long life, he'd made too many enemies; they were lurking around every damn corner, it seemed!
"W-well has he seen Belle?" he asked as he struggled to keep up with him.
"Afraid not."
"Okay, so what's next?"
"Granny's," he answered. "We can see who else you terrorized there."
Many people. He suspected the answer would be nearly all of them, including Widow Lucas herself. Oh, he hated the idea that Belle was out here around these people, that they might figure out who she was, what she meant to him. He hated that they might tell her about his past before he did. Not that he made any progress on that. He'd liked to believe he would have told her about Bae when they went to the cabin next weekend, but…he couldn't even tell her when she'd asked this morning.
He glanced at David. His secret that he was David and not James, how had he managed to get up the courage to tell Snow when it would have put so much on the line for him, risked so much! How did he do it?
"Look, uh…can I ask you a question? A-about you and Mary Margaret?" The words were out of his mouth before he'd given them permission to be. David stopped and turned to him. "H-how…how does that work?"
The look on his face was suspicious, and he instantly regretted the question. Suddenly he wondered why the truth about Bae couldn't have done that too. If it had, then maybe he and Belle could be at home right now enjoying an honest conversation over breakfast.
"Are you asking dating advice?"
"Dating Advice"?! Him?! Hell no. He and Belle were so far beyond "dating," and this…this had nothing to do with dating or wooing. Though, now that he thought about it, he wasn't entirely sure what it was about either. It was a stupid question.
"Course not, no."
David took a breath, looked around, and then sighed as he turned back to him. "Honesty," he answered with a shrug as if it were all obvious. "That's how we did it. Hard work and being honest with one another."
"Well…" he huffed to himself as David, and he turned to stride down the sidewalk again. "I don't lie."
He hadn't meant to respond to David so much as he'd thought the words out loud. But David heard them. Every word.
"There's a difference between literal truth and honesty of the heart. Nothing taught me that more than this curse…"
He opened his mouth to respond, but just like with Belle, nothing seemed to want to come out. It was understandable. David hadn't told him anything he didn't already know, and he certainly didn't give him an answer. He wanted to be honest with Belle, truly he did. He just didn't understand how to make the words come out, where the courage to say it all came from. Maybe he should have taken the deal she'd proposed weeks ago, left the entire thing up to magic. Maybe he should take a truth serum still in his pocket when he found her and let her question him. It might be easier than finding the courage he'd never been able to summon up even when he'd been human.
The moment they came through the diner door, Granny's sharp eyes were on him as they hadn't been in years. It was a reminder that he hadn't been back to this place since before the Curse had broken, and this was the first time they were face to face since he'd banished her away to deal with Regina. The history of their first and only encounter lay between them, yet another thing that Belle didn't know, and he doubted she'd want to hear. He suspected that was why it was so difficult to tell her things, if she knew about his past, about what he'd done to dear Granny, for instance, she'd have left him anyway.
"What can I get you?" Ruby asked cautiously, her eyes moving between him and her grandmother.
David ignored the look as Granny disappeared into the back. He pulled the picture he'd been holding free from his hands and gave it to the she-wolf.
"We're looking for this girl, goes by the name Belle. Maybe you saw her in here or out on the street…?"
Ruby looked over at the picture, and he grew giddy as he heard her heart suddenly beat faster. That was the first time that had happened since they started questioning people. Why, he wondered.
"Belle, huh?" the girl smiled awkwardly, glancing back and forth between David and him. It made his chest squeeze as he heard her heart begin to beat even faster than before. "Sorry, doesn't ring a bell."
Lie. But despite the fact that he wanted to step forward and say something about it, magic wrapped around him and kept him in place. Damn the deal they'd made. He wanted to snarl, yell, and use magic to do what he did best and call her out for her lies. But he remained where he was. And David…
Fortunately for him, David caught Ruby's apprehension. He could tell by the way he glanced back over his shoulder at him before stepping closer to the she-wolf. She-wolf…the full moon would be coming up soon, the thought of Belle out in the world alone when a creature like Ruby would have her magic back…her cloak had once been in his store. He'd sold it when he'd been Mr. Gold. Who had bought it? If returning it to her meant Belle was kept safe, he'd buy it back in a heartbeat. Better yet, he'd happily trade it to her or make a brand new one if it meant she'd exchange the information she had for it.
"Ruby, listen to me," David whispered, lowering his voice so that a human would have had trouble hearing. But he was the Dark One, a simple turn of the head and a bit of magic had him listening to their every word.
"If you've come across her, you've got to tell me. I'll make sure nothing bad happens."
"Yeah, but what about him?"
"I've got him! Trust me."
A pause had him holding his breath. "She was in earlier," the girl finally admitted. He moved his eyes back to her immediately. Belle was here. She'd been in this diner. With someone or by herself? "She was looking for a job. I pointed her in the direction of the library."
He swallowed. She'd been looking for a job? The library was right across the street from his shop. It was perfect for her, he'd thought so himself the first time he'd beheld it after his eyes had been opened. And Belle…she'd find it hard to resist the temptation of a book. But they'd been in that direction, and they hadn't seen her.
"Well, you think she went there?"
"Don't know," Ruby answered. "But, when you find her…" the girl walked back around the counter and pulled something from the back, setting it on the counter between them, "give her this. She left it in her booth."
"Well, that's mine," he swallowed, reaching for it.
"This" was a gray sweater that he recognized. It was one of the items that his magic had made for Belle up in the cabin. He'd liked it because it was warm; she'd liked it because it was soft. She was fond of wearing it outside. But apparently, in her haste to go to the library, she'd…
Suddenly he was aware of Ruby and David looking at him, aware of how solemn he must have looked staring down at it.
"She didn't have anything for the cold," he explained needlessly. He tried to pretend that wasn't the reason they were staring and focused his energy instead on keeping his blush at bay.
"You sure you'll watch out for her?" Ruby asked David after a moment of sheer awkwardness, at least on his part.
"Yes. Why?"
"I think…I think I can find her."
He glanced up at Ruby to find her eyes lingering on him for far longer than they ever had. The sympathy he saw in them made the Dark Ones in his mind frenzy and the beast in his chest claw to the surface. But the part of him that loved Belle, the human part of him…it crushed all of those to the side. Though her look made him feel naked before her, he felt hope. She could find her? Ruby could get him back to Belle? He'd do anything for that.
"Lately, since things changed, I've been, uh, a little more sensitive to odors."
"What, you can smell her?" he translated with shock and horror.
The girl didn't answer, not directly. Instead, she held out her hand for the sweater in his hand. Automatically he handed it over to her once more, and Ruby smirked.
"I guess it's cause of the wolf thing," she explained. Then she brought the sweater to her nose and inhaled.
Just like I sometimes separate two scenes because they are distinct conversations, I get to do the opposite. Sometimes I get to combine scenes because while they are presented as being different, they are actually quite similar. With this chapter, I realized that there was really no reason to separate the scene on the street and Rumple's conversation with David from the pair of them talking to Ruby. While the conversation with David does deviate a bit, at the heart of it all is finding Belle, and that means that both scenes could be combined in one happy little chapter!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Grace5231973 and Alarda, for continuing to review! I hope that you'll like my interpretation of this chapter. Similar to finding a reason for Rumple to go to David and Moe, I had to find a reason to begin the "Honesty of the Heart" conversation with David as well. I hope that you'll find my approach makes sense! Peace and Happy Reading!