Belle still wasn't sure she was ready to confront Regina with the truth of her crimes. She wanted to, of course. She'd wanted to as long as she'd known the woman – the queen seemed to have a personal vendetta against happiness in all its forms (including, ironically, her own). Belle didn't know what had happened to turn the woman into this but she had learned to pity Regina almost as much as she hated her. It didn't stop her from doing whatever she could to undermine the other woman's plans, but Belle had learned long ago that monsters were made by hurt.
Regardless of Belle's curiosity as to Regina's motivations for her evil, the queen had done things that Belle couldn't forgive because it wasn't her place to forgive them – and Regina was even now attempting to add to her own crimes. Belle was the only one who would stop her, or even knew to try.
She was waiting in Regina's office when the queen-mayor arrived home, the little notebook Emma Swan had given her clutched in one hand and a pen in the other. She'd seated herself at Regina's desk, hoping for to draw some strength from this position of power, even though she was so scared that her fingers were shaking and it took all her strength to hold the pen still enough to write with.
Do the brave thing, she reminded herself. Bravery had to follow.
To Regina's credit, she only paused momentarily on noticing Belle before narrowing her eyes and seating herself opposite Belle in one of the armchairs.
"Well," the queen cooed. "This should be interesting. To what do I owe this intrusion?"
Belle gritted her teeth before setting pen to paper and carefully writing out her first message. It had taken her hours to plan this, and she had been hoping to set Regina on edge by making her wait, but now she wished she'd just been prepared with a letter. This was going to be torture.
I know what you did to Graham.
Belle tore out the sheet of paper before sliding it across the table. Regina read it calmly, a smile quirking the edge of her mouth.
"And what, exactly, did I do to the sheriff?"
You raped him, and when he tried to escape you murdered him.
"Don't be ridiculous," Regina scoffed. "Sheriff Humbert died in front of Emma Swan. I was nowhere near either when it happened. As for your other allegation, I won't even dignify that with a response."
I can prove it. I've been to your vault.
This was Belle's trump card. Regina so far seemed to think that she was being recorded, otherwise she had no reason at all to lie to Belle. This note, however, had finally cracked Regina's polished façade. Belle could see the queen's mind working as she tried to determine what Belle could have found there, and how she could talk her way out of this one.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
So lying it would be, apparently.
I took pictures. And your ring.
Regina's face paled, and she was now staring at Belle with an anger that so far she'd only ever seen directed towards Emma Swan, and having the full force of the evil queen's fury inches away from her suddenly robbed Belle of whatever courage she'd summoned, leaving her wondering if perhaps this hadn't been such a good idea after all.
"What did you do with that ring?" Regina said in a low voice that had Belle on the verge of bolting out of the room.
It's safe. I hid it with the pictures someplace where you'll never find them. As long as I'm okay so is the ring. I've told the location to a few other people, and as long as nothing happens to me none of them will check my hiding place.
She was only half-bluffing. She'd dropped a note through the mail slot of Rumple's house on her way back from the cemetery advising him that she wasn't entirely sure she'd survive the day, but if he never saw her again to please make use of the camera and trinkets she'd stuffed into a manila envelope and hidden in the library. She told him that he'd find it in the section related to the item he had collected from the thief who had stolen his wand. She hoped that was enough information, and also that Regina really didn't know he was awake yet or else this would prove to be a fairly simple scavenger hunt for Regina and a spectacularly stupid idea for Belle.
"Tell me where it is," Regina replied evenly. "And I might even let you say goodbye to Henry before I rip your heart out."
You don't have magic here, Belle scribbled quickly. This was escalating faster than she'd expected and not at all in the way she'd thought it would. The ring that had been an afterthought to Belle seemed to be a fixation to Regina. You can't rip out a heart without magic.
"Then I will carve it from your chest," Regina shouted, rising up to loom over the table at her. "And you'll never see Henry or your father or your precious Rumplestiltskin ever again!"
Rumplestiltskin knows I'm here. If I disappear he'll look for me and you know it.
"Rumplestiltskin kicked you out," Regina yelled. "He doesn't care if you're alive or dead."
That's not true. He loves me.
Regina balled the last note up and threw it across the room and Belle had only a moment to prepare before the queen grabbed for her.
Belle leapt to her feet, knocking the chair over and moving as far away from Regina as she could. The queen stood between her and the door, but Belle had no choice but to try to run. Regina was still regaining her balance from her failed attempt at capture, and if Belle was going to have a chance at escape it was now. She made it out into the living room and almost to the door before the queen tackled her from behind and pinned her to the carpet. Belle struggled, but Regina was stronger and apparently more experienced in this sort of thing – or at least more desperate to regain her lost property than Belle was to save her own life. Still, Belle would make her work for it.
In the end, it took Regina the better part of half an hour to force Belle down into the basement, and cost her a nasty scratch across the cheek from Belle's fingernails. The basement locked from the outside and the only window was too small to climb out of. Belle felt her panic begin to rise as she realized she was trapped in yet another dungeon. Death she had been prepared for, captivity not so much.
Belle would have screamed if the option was available to her, but instead she flung herself at the door until her body gave out and she simply didn't have the strength left to keep fighting and she curled up at the base of the door and cried.
Rumplestiltskin wasn't entirely sure what he'd done to deserve Regina's company when she walked in the door of the pawn shop, but her cold demeanor and the steely look in her eyes (offset nicely by a set of scratch marks on her cheek and a slightly swollen lip) told him this wasn't a social call.
"Madam Mayor," he said as calmly as he could. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Have you been talking to my maid?" Regina said sharply, slamming a handful of notebook paper down on the counter.
"I don't think your maid has been talking to anyone," he replied. "Least of all me."
"The girl has gotten it into her head that I murdered the sheriff," Regina replied. "I think the poor thing has finally snapped from the isolation. She attacked me!"
He felt the back of his neck prickle from the danger he knew they were both in now as he glanced down at the papers on the counter. He recognized Belle's handwriting and saw the words 'murder' and 'Rumplestiltskin' in the stack and he felt his stomach sink like lead. What the hell had Belle gotten herself into?
"And why would you think that has anything to do with me?" he snapped. "Unless she named me in these notes, that is."
"I know she comes here for hours at a time," Regina replied. "And she went to get you at the mineshaft. I know you're friendly with her, and I have to ask myself why. Why would you be spending so much time with a poor mute girl? Unless, of course, there's something else going on I should know about."
"My clientele is none of your concern."
"She's hardly clientele, Gold," Regina said. "She can't afford a damn thing in here and we both know it. So unless she's paying you in trade…"
He was gripping the edge of the counter hard enough that he was afraid he might break the glass, but he could feel his fingers wanting to twitch when they couldn't, because he needed to be completely unaffected by what Regina was telling him when all he wanted to do was strangle her and go find Belle. Not yet, though. He didn't know where she was and until then he needed Regina. But only until then, and not a second longer.
"So what exactly do you have planned?" he said, proud of how steady he'd kept his voice as he asked. "And why tell me this?"
Regina was glaring at him harshly and he knew she was angry he'd not fallen into her trap yet and revealed himself. He also knew it was only a matter of time before he did.
"There's an asylum in town," she replied. "A place for people who can't handle polite society for a little while. They're far more equipped to deal with her than I am."
"So you've locked her away, then?"
"She'll be there in the morning," Regina said as casually as if they were discussing the weather. "As soon as the doctors can come collect her."
So he had time, then. She wasn't lost yet and he could still save her from this fate, he just had to get Regina to leave so he could put his plan into motion.
"I imagine Henry will be distraught at losing his nanny," Rumplestiltskin said at last. "Where is the boy, by the way?"
"Henry is in school," Regina said sharply.
"It's half-past four," he replied. "And with your nanny locked up my guess would be he's with his birth mother."
Regina looked up at the clock quickly and he was relieved at the shock that he saw on her face. Belle hadn't been lying about having raised the child alone, had she?
"That isn't any of your business," Regina replied darkly, turning and stalking out of the shop, forgetting her papers on the counter.
He didn't waste any time once Regina was out of sight, grabbing the shop phone and dialing a number he'd committed to memory.
"Sheriff Swan?" he said into the receiver. "It's Mr. Gold. About that favor you owe me…"
As far as plans went, this one wasn't too bad. The Sheriff had only needed a little cajoling to be talked into waylaying the mayor, and once Henry had heard that Belle was in trouble the boy had rushed home to meet the man he'd known as Mr. Gold on the sidewalk.
"Are you sure my mom has her inside?" Henry asked, unlocking the door and letting both in.
"It's my only guess," Rumplestiltskin admitted. "I don't know where else she'd have left her."
"If she's here," Henry said thoughtfully, taking in the knocked over lamps and other signs of a struggle. "Then she has to be somewhere my mom thinks she can't get away."
"Are there any doors here that lock from the outside?"
"Just the basement," Henry said with a strange combination of relief and horror on his face as he took off towards the kitchen. "Belle hates it down there, she says it reminds her of a dungeon."
Henry slammed open the door to what turned out to be a laundry room and turned towards a small door painted to match the wall.
"Belle?" Henry called through the door, yanking the handle hard despite the lock. "Are you in there? We're coming for you!"
There was a pounding on the door in reply, and Rumpelstiltskin breathed a sigh of relief.
"Where's the key?" he asked Henry.
"My mom has it!" Henry exclaimed. "There's only one."
Henry was still yanking on the handle and Belle was still hitting it hard enough that Rumplestiltskin suspected she must have been throwing herself against the door, but still it held firm. Henry was becoming panic stricken and he could only imagine the terror Belle was feeling right now and he'd come so far for this woman and he couldn't be stalled at the last minute by a door.
"What the hell is going on here?" Regina's voice rang through the room and Rumplestiltskin cursed silently – he had run out of time.
Henry plastered himself against the basement door protectively and the banging from Belle quieted to a thumping of hands against wood.
"Henry Daniel Mills," Regina demanded. "You come away from that door right now."
"I'm not going to let you lock her up," Henry exclaimed. "You know why she hates it."
"That woman is dangerous," Regina replied, reaching for Henry who darted behind Rumplestiltskin. "I'm not going to let her keep filling your head with these lies about me!"
"They're not lies!" Henry was near to sobbing now. "You're the liar!"
Regina made a frustrated noise before turning her attention back to Rumplestiltskin, who was currently as much Mr. Gold as it was possible to be.
"Is this really a battle you want to have with your son?" he interrupted. "About locking the nanny in the basement?"
"This is none of your concern, Gold," Regina snarled. "And you should never have brought him into this."
"Be that as it may," he replied. "We have other things to discuss, Regina."
"Do we?" she said suspiciously. "And what might that be?"
"Something I think you'd like to discuss away from your son," he said. "Unless, of course, you want him to hear what I have to say?"
Regina nodded and began to walk away.
"Let her out first," he called after the queen. "You and I both know that whatever happens next she won't be staying in that basement."
Regina looked conflicted, but she finally gave a curt nod and unlocked the door, letting Belle spill out into the room. She glanced around like a hunted animal before her gaze settled on Henry and she grabbed the boy and shoved him behind her.
"Cut the theatrics," Regina scoffed. "I'm not going to hurt him and we both know it."
Belle gave Regina a look that said she knew no such thing, but Regina just rolled her eyes and walked away with Rumplestiltskin following close behind. After twenty-eight years, the Dark One and the Evil Queen would be dealing again at last.