He was aware of the situation in town today surrounding the werewolf. Not because he cared about the she-wolf, but because of the relationship that she had with Belle. Thanks to Dove, he knew about what was going on in town, that some tow truck driver had been killed, supposedly last night by the wolf, and that the town was now all riled up though that had more to do with Albert Spencer than it did with the wolf. He'd been standing in the front of his shop, watching the library across the street obsessively since he received the news after lunch. The first thing he'd done was use his magic to confirm that Belle was indeed safe inside. With that knowledge he waited and watched determined to keep his distance and only to go if it was absolutely necessary. He wanted to give Belle her space, but it would be difficult to keep space if she was killed by a monster.

He'd panicked when the townspeople had begun to hunt the wolf, and Granny, David, and Ruby sought shelter inside the library, throwing nervous glances over their shoulders as if afraid to be seen. He'd panicked, but he'd stayed where he was at that window, simply watching as time passed; too much time for his own comfort. He'd nearly gone over himself when David and Granny emerged but left Ruby behind. The sun began to go down, the minutes until moonrise ticked closer and closer together. They'd taken chains into the library, as the time got closer, he had a sickening feeling that he knew what their plan had been, and he'd let Belle go through with it over his immortal dead body. But before he could go over and make sure Ruby was removed and Belle was safe, he saw Ruby slip out a side door.

His heart nearly stopped again when he saw the crowd gather in front of the library. He raised his hand from his shop, intent on sealing the doors and protecting the library and Belle from all of them, but when a howl could be heard off in the distance, coming from behind his shop, they all turned, and followed the sounds. Belle was alone in the library and wolves couldn't open doors. She would be fine. Still, he stayed in that front room and watched and waited.

An hour passed, and he never heard from the crowd again. The howl of a wolf could be heard in the distance. And the sight of a couple casually walking down the street together, chatting idly without panic or fear, told him all that he needed. How everything had resolved he wasn't sure. He sent a message to Dove, but seeing as he was also a shifter, and it was a full moon, he was unlikely to answer his phone until morning. He'd just have to live with knowing…

The bell to his front door rang and when he glanced up, he was shocked at the woman who stood before him; the woman who hadn't stood alone before him in decades.

"Widow Lucus…" he breathed, trying to settle his nerves, but that was impossible. There were so few people in this world that could intimidate him, that he allowed to intimidate him, but Granny was one of the few. He wouldn't say there was bad blood between them, though she might, after the way their first encounter had ended. He respected her. He saw strength and might in her that had nothing to do with magic or the wolf that was once just under her skin. And because of that, she was one of the few people who could give him chills just by looking at him from beneath her glasses.

"Shouldn't you be with your granddaughter?" he questioned as she stared at him.

Granny shrugged. "She can take care of herself. She's gone out for a run as a matter of fact."

"Ah…the mob has dispersed then," he assumed, suddenly hoping that maybe she could answer a few of his questions.

"Turns out Ruby didn't do anything. Albert Spencer on the other hand…he has his own choices to answer to. Just as you do."

So, then she would certainly say there was bad blood between them. And smart as she was, she'd never give him the answers that he wanted. Why would she? She'd never even show signs of wanting to talk to him, after the Curse had broken. Which begged the question, why was she here now?

"Is there something I can help you with?"

The old woman sighed and wandered over to another counter to examine some trinket or other he had out. "No…no, I'm only here to return a favor."

"Favor? What favor?"

"Confused? That's probably because all you ever did for me was trick me into killing that man for you."

He didn't feel guilty. At least, he wouldn't call what he felt "guilt." It was more like the sensation he'd had once when his aunts had told him not to eat the cookies that were cooling and they'd pointed out at dinner that three of those cookies had been missing. It set his stomach into knots.

"If it eases your conscience, I didn't lie to you. He was a bad man."

"And I told you 'no'," she stated with a cool anger that made him feel seven years old again. "But…you did give me the cloak. And without that incident, I would never have met my husband, never had my daughter, and never raised my granddaughter with that cloak you left me. Who knows what would have become of me?"

"You're a strong woman. I have no doubt you would have found yourself eventually."

"Maybe." That word, that one single second it took her to utter it, that might have been the least confident he'd ever seen the old woman, and he'd been keeping an eye on her since she was a girl of no more than sixteen. He didn't like the way it looked on her.

"So…now that we've covered the fact that you owe me no debts, I am curious. How did you wish to repay it?"

"Oh, well…" she breathed in, straightening her back and turning back to the object she was examining with all the confidence she'd ever had. "I never said I was returning a favor owed to you."

Returning a favor by being here but not one owed to him?

"Then who-"

"Belle was willing to hide Ruby tonight when the entire world was against her," she explained casually, keeping her gaze off him. "The plan was to chain Ruby up and keep her hidden in the library, but she managed to escape. David just called me. He informed me that to free herself, Ruby left the new librarian in the chains instead, and I don't have the key. If only I knew someone with magic who might be able to help her…"

He felt as though his heart had just stopped. Belle. Chained up. On a full moon when magic had returned. A sitting duck for anyone that happened to stop by! No. He didn't stop to ask questions. He forgot about the former werewolf standing in his shop. He was out the door like a rocket, his eyes set on the lights on in the library. He wasn't sure he'd ever moved so fast in his entire life. Yet somehow in what seemed like the blink of an eye he was across the street and pulling open the door to the library.

"Belle!" he shouted nervously when he didn't see her. He felt like ice had just run through his veins. This was why he'd wanted her at home, where she was safe, and where he could be sure she would be okay! What if she was hurt? What if she was gone? What if she was…

"Here!" her cry came out from one of the back rooms. He moved around, automatically looking around corners, hoping that when he found her she'd be whole and not broken, not like that image that he'd carried around in his head of her body burned and bruised, cold and lifeless, at the bottom of some high tower.

There!

There she was, perched against the wall. She scrambled to her feet when she finally saw him and he looked her over. Whole. Healthy. Maybe a bit worried and chained to the wall, but safe and alive. He reached for her hand, willed the lock on the heavy cuff to break, and the metal popped off and fell to the floor with a heavy thud revealing…

Almost whole. With the iron gone from her wrist he saw the exact opposite of what he wanted to see. Bruises. Purple and painful looking, already blooming at the place where the too small cuff had pinched the soft skin against her bone.

"Ruby," Belle gasped suddenly. "Is she okay? Is she alright?"

He glanced up at her, angry. She'd helped the wolf, and she'd repaid her by chaining her up! And Belle was still worried about her?! What the hell kind of so called "friend" did that? What kind of person?!

"She won't be when I'm done with her," he vowed, turning on his heel, anger driving him out to find the immoral bitch and…

"No!"

Suddenly in front of him again, her hands pressed against his chest as her eyes pled with him for something he couldn't fathom.

"No," she cried again, "she did it to protect me otherwise I would have run off after her. She didn't hurt me."

Didn't hurt her?! Was she crazy! She'd been kept prisoner too long, scarred for too long and now someone she counted as a friend had betrayed her! And left physical scars! Didn't she see that?!

He reached for her hand one last time and held it up carefully in front of her face so that she couldn't miss purple there. Her face fell for a moment, then she shook her head and placed the hand she'd removed against his cheek.

"She didn't want to hurt me, she didn't mean to," she corrected, "and I'm not. I'm fine!"

And then her arms were around his neck, her body placed against his. And then the world stopped in a way it hadn't since she'd left. The frenzy in his mind calmed, drawing him into this moment and this moment only. His arms came around her and he pulled her as close as he could.

I'm back, baby! And we're celebrating by diving right into the second half of this fiction! I hope you enjoy this chapter. Personally, I'm a little uneasy about it. Fun fact, this was a chapter that I actually wrote years ago when I was writing Moments because I wanted to know what it would look like for Rumple to go over and rescue Belle at the end of the episode. However, it is not, as others are, an "intact practice chapter" because it's got one huge change to it: the person who comes to tell him about Belle. The first time I wrote this chapter, it was David. David arrived at the shop, not to return a favor but to do Rumple a favor in telling him about Belle. But, as I approached this chapter this time around, I realized that I didn't like David for this conversation anymore. First, for technical reasons. Henry is having dream issues by this point, and when Ruby confesses to David that she's left Belle in the library, it's "bedtime," and Henry is left alone with David. I didn't like him leaving Henry alone so he could go talk to Rumple. Second, Granny and Rumple's story has just sort of been left hanging ever since "The Dark Curse". There was some reference to it a few chapters back in the 2x04 chapters, but it was never really settled, so I loved giving them this opportunity to come to terms with what happened, for her to say, "yeah, that was a shitty thing you did, but good came from it. It's still shitty, but thanks I guess."

Thank you to Alarda and Grace, who continued to leave me beautiful reviews while I was away. I'm really excited to hear what you think of this chapter and how it turned out now that Granny is the one delivering the news. I sort of liked in the end that she delivers it not as a favor to him but really to Belle. The implications of "sending you over to her is something she needs" makes me smile. Granny as a secret Rumbelle shipper? Yeah, I can picture it. Peace and Happy Reading!