It had been a week. One whole week since he'd last seen his Belle. And while he'd made progress in many ways since he'd last seen her, he also couldn't help but be damn near consumed by the lack of progress in simply seeing her.
He should be rejoicing right now, bouncing off the damn walls with excitement and satisfaction. He'd done something great throughout the night, truly, truly great! Early this morning, he managed to combine a Binding Spell with a Memory Enhancing Potion. It was powerful, powerful magic, and it had taken him several tries to get it right in the early morning hours. But this was it, the potion, or at least a piece of it, that would get him over the town line.
It was a feat, considering that brewing the damn Memory Enhancing Potion took a solid five hours, three of which were dedicated to simmering. But it was in those hours of waiting and watching that he'd begun to simmer himself. In thinking about how close he was to his victory, his mind had gotten away from him.
He'd started off thinking about the potion, about all the things he'd have to do to it to get it ready to go over the town line. It was powerful magic, and it was going to need masked somehow. His previous experiments should assist him with that. He was going to need to test it somehow. He wasn't stupid enough to leave this place and use it on himself. He'd need to find a way to make sure the magic he'd created worked. Most difficult of all, he would have to figure out a way to use it safely. A Binding Spell with a Memory Enhancer couldn't be taken orally. It would be too much for a single human mind to focus on; bad memories the mind had repressed could spring forth again, good, all-consuming memories could have a euphoric feeling that would be stronger than any drug. Not to mention that he was the Dark One. He had the minds of dozens of people inside of him. He was certain it would be best to keep them repressed, and a potion like what he'd concocted might make them stronger as well. He needed a conduit.
He'd started off thinking about the potion, but then other tasks on his to-do list crept in. Things like "find Bae's location", "break August Booth's protection spells", and it all came back to that final task of "wait for Emma to return." Fuck. He'd hoped he wouldn't have to wade into that disaster, but he knew that no one else knew more about realm travel in this town save for him. Jefferson might be a close second, but he had his knowledge of it from experience. If they wanted to know the magic behind it, he was the man, or Dark One, to help. Damn it. The more he'd thought about it, the more he'd given himself a headache.
So he'd forced himself to think about something happier, something far less mind-numbing…Belle. He'd tried to keep himself thinking about her, about the time they'd spent together, in his house, in his castle…but again, his mind had wandered. As he'd stared at the potion simmering in the cauldron, he'd gone back to thinking about what he was going to do with her when he left, when he wasn't right across the street. Last night was the first night of the full moon. She'd gone out last night to Granny's with Ruby but returned before the moon was up. At the first howl that came closest to town, he'd made sure to go to the library himself and tug on the doors, make sure they were locked; make sure she was safe. He didn't like the idea of leaving her here alone while he was out of town, but he was beginning to accept that it was looking increasingly more likely that was what was going to happen.
He'd made some preparations for her. He'd sent Dove out to fetch her a cell phone the other day. It was foolish. Wolf or not, Ruby seemed to be doing a good job with getting her acclimated. She'd probably already gotten her one. But sitting down and plugging his home, shop, and cell phone number into it for her made him feel good. Unfortunately, he hadn't found a single opportunity to give it to her yet. For now, it wasn't a terrible thing. He'd once told her that if she needed him, she could say his name three times, and it would summon him. While he was still here, that would work, but once he crossed the town line…
Belle wasn't the only thing he needed to consider when thinking about what he was going to leave behind. There was the dagger as well. Right now, it sat in his safe, protected by inches of iron and solid locks. But when he was gone…he didn't know if he should take it with him or leave it here. His gut told him to leave it here but to leave the shop so unprotected with it inside, with no way to get back if something happened…
Maybe he was paranoid. He'd had very few instances of people trying to take it since he'd become the Dark One. While the myths were out there, a lot of time had passed since anyone, namely the duke he'd stolen it from, had openly wielded the dagger. No one seemed to be searching for it, so there was always a chance that it would be fine. But he hated leaving things to chance. The last time he'd done that…
He didn't want to think what might have become of Belle if she hadn't had the good sense to get her former friend out of the castle. She'd protected him from a villain that he'd opened his home and Belle to. He hadn't thought to look for that boy since being here or any of the people he might have been working with, but if they'd tried something once, he had to believe they'd regroup and try again. And while he hadn't seen Belle in a week, she would be the first target. They'd assume that she'd be the one most likely to know about it and its location. Even if she didn't know, then she was in danger just because she was associated with him. She was his weakness. A piece of his own very sensitive heart up and walking around town in short skirts without a sense of the danger that could be waiting.
Maybe he needed to do something about that. Maybe he needed to tell her about the dagger. That would be useless, he knew. She'd found out about it in his castle. How she had, he still didn't know. Samuel hadn't told her about it, he'd been just as stumped over how she'd learned about it. And they'd never talked about it after that day he'd saved her. Maybe…maybe it was time to tell her, show it to her, and make a plan for it, for while he was away. Maybe he needed to include her in that plan.
There was an idea.
So far, in all his long life, he'd told only two people about the dagger: Baelfire and Cora. Cora had been a mistake. He'd never felt right about telling her and regretted it the second that he had. In her own defense, she'd not come after it and not appeared to speak a word of it to anyone since then, but she also wasn't in their world anymore either, and that was without the question of whether or not she was alive. She wasn't a danger. And Baelfire…he'd kept his secrets too. He'd also used it once, and the repercussions of that had caused a rift between them that still needed to be mended. But he'd been a boy then. And Belle…Belle was so different than either Cora or Baelfire.
She knew about the dagger, had defended it, and then never brought it up again. Admittedly, she'd been a maid then, he would have simply dismissed her questions, but now, even now that they hadn't seen each other in so long, they were so much more than what they'd been before. Telling her about it, willingly, might make up for not telling her about Baelfire when she'd given him the chance. It would give him an opportunity to be open with her as she wanted, to be honest with her. Entrusting any truth with her was important to her. Entrusting this truth with her could alter their relationship in a deep way. Besides, the last incident with the dagger had proven that she was at risk for anyone coming to look for it just because she was close to him. Telling her about it, making a plan for it, and including her in that plan…it would make her stronger when the time came.
Of course, it might also make her vulnerable. He would hope that knowing about it would enable her to craft a plan, be alert, participate in her ability to rescue herself from that situation. But this was Belle. While he envisioned her being able to evaluate the situation and run, he knew that wasn't like Belle. Once she knew about it, really knew what it could do, then he knew that she would fight for it if it was threatened.
That was a problem. That was a problem indeed. Did the threat of that problem, of what his beautiful, brave women might do for his dagger in a crisis, overwhelm the good that could come from it? He didn't know. He didn't have an answer yet. It was going to take some thought, a lot of analysis, and more planning.
Plan for the dagger, plan for the potion, plan for Baelfire, plan for testing, plan for Belle…
Belle…
He stood behind the counter in his shop, the morning sun leaking into his shop, dousing it in orange. In front of him, sitting on the counter, was a large vial of his Memory Enhanced Potion, laced with a Binding Spell, it was still cooling from its time in the cauldron. He wasn't looking at it. Instead, he glanced out the front of his shop to where the front door of the library opened, and Belle picked up her morning copy of the Daily Mirror before retreating back inside. He was making progress in some areas of his life. It wasn't nearly enough.
Ah...Rumple's constant and classic problems rear their ugly head...Belle and the dagger. Of course, if you have read the Moments version of this, you know where this thought process will go. But I loved writing it out from Rumple's perspective, getting him to that place of "I need to tell her and do this with her." I liked tackling all the reasons he wants to do it and why he doesn't want to do it. I like just how well he knows Belle, that he can see the potential danger in telling her about it but eventually pushes through to really tell her. It's not really a hardcore action chapter, but I feel like these are the kind of chapters where we get a lot of character development.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Grace5231973, for your review of the last chapter. I know this chapter sounds a lot like a filler chapter, but it's really not. I think of this chapter as more of an interlude, perhaps even an introduction. I feel like it, more than the two 2x05 chapters, really works to connect the back half of this fiction to the rest of what we've got coming. Rumple has finally designed a base for the potion he has to get over the town line. It's not a finished product, only a start, something to help him get started, and he's thinking through what the rest of it might be. There is also some foreshadowing here in talking about Cora and him starting to accept that he might have to wade into the Charmings business if he wants Emma back any time soon. And then, of course, there was Belle and the dagger to top it all off and really lead us into the second half! What I really love about this chapter is that it has a counter chapter coming to it. There is a moment coming, not too far off now, when Rumple can look back on the events in chapters like this, and he observes them with...let's call it, fresh eyes. I'm excited for us to get to that chapter, but first...on to 2x07. Peace and Happy Reading!