Hello, friends! I'm here with yet another late update. Honestly, I don't understand why you guys stillllllll put up with me. Maybe because we're so close to the end, huh? Only two or three more chapters left! I can't believe it...
0o0o0o0o0o
It must have been no later than six in the morning when Emma Swan called Rumpelstiltskin the following day. He was fast asleep, exhausted from the previous night, having stayed up for most of it with Belle, holding her until she had finally fallen asleep.
He heard the cruel blaring of his phone and groaned. When he opened his eyes, the room was nearly pitch-black, the fire having gone out a couple of hours ago, leaving an uncomfortable chill in the air, one that made his injured leg ache. Rumpelstiltskin let the infernal ringing continue for a couple more second, and then he heard Belle sleepily ask if he was going to answer it – she didn't sound too pleased about it either, and he grudgingly removed his arm from where it had been encircled around her waist, and reached into his pocket and answered the phone.
"This had better be good, whoever this is," he growled roughly. Belle tapped his shoulder lightly as a sign to lighten his tone and be as friendly as possible. He silently rolled his eyes and waited for an answer from the other end of the line.
"Gold," he instantly recognized the voice as Emma's, "We've got a big problem on our hands." That one statement was enough to wake him and Gold sat up straight, fully alert. Belle followed suit and stared at him hard, trying to listen to whatever conversation was taking place.
He tried to stay calm. "Define 'problem', Miss Swan, because I don't like dealing with problems this early in the morning." He glanced over and saw Belle's eyes widen in fear at the word 'problem'. He tried to give her a reassuring look. "Is it Rose?" They both held their breaths for an answer.
"Well, yes and no. It has to do with her."
"Then spit it out please, Sheriff." Rumpelstiltskin ordered curtly.
Emma sighed in irritation. "Don't get your panties in a twist with me, Dark One. Now-" she took another sigh to gather her thoughts. "-I had to get a warrant for Garrett Stone's arrest this morning, you know, Belle's handicapped ex-boyfriend."
"Yes, I am quite aware of who Mr. Stone is, Miss Swan. Why did you have to arrest him?"
"Because apparently he's the one who kidnapped Rose."
"What?!" He shouted before he looked at Belle's concerned face and tried to remain calm for her sake. "What do you mean Garrett Stone kidnapped Rose?" Belle looked about ready to pass out at the mention of her old flame. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "I thought we both agreed Regina did it." Again, Belle's eyes widened, and Gold winced. He hadn't meant to reveal that little bit of information. Damn. "You heard the recording."
"I know, Gold, and I still believe what I heard. Regina's guilty, but...the evidence against Garrett is just as incriminating as that recording."
Rumpelstiltskin closed his eyes at the new complication and stood up, wincing as the muscles in his legs tightened. "What kind of evidence?"
"Well, for one, Garrett hasn't been seen in three days. He disappeared the same day as Rose. Hasn't showed up for work, the neighbors haven't seen him come home, nothing, Gold."
He shrugged. "That can easily be explained. Regina could've taken him too, so that he would be the perfect cover for her royal self."
"That's absolutely a possibility, but there's more. Rumpelstiltskin -" the use of his real name startled him and fear gripped his heart. This couldn't be good. "- Jefferson found Rose's blanket down by the docks last night; the one that she was taken in. I ran the prints. There is no doubt that those are Garrett Stone's prints on that blanket. How do you explain that?"
"Regina could have easily planted the blanket after she kidnapped Stone. Garrett Stone may be a rude and unintelligent specimen, but he's not so stupid as to leave behind the blanket of the child he stole away. It seems too easy."
"Almost as if it was meant to be found?"
"Exactly," he said with a nod. "I'm telling you, I don't believe one word of this. Regina took Rose, she admitted it herself."
Emma sighed. "Then, that makes this even more complicated, unfortunately, because we have a very good kidnapping suspect with his fingerprints all over the crime, quite literally. We'll need proof of what you're saying."
"I know."
"And how do you expect to get that proof?"
"Garrett's probably being held in the same place as Rose. So, if we find Mr. Stone, we find Rose. Sheriff...I think it's time we get the town together. This is officially a manhunt." And then he put the phone back in his pocket, rubbed his temples, and sighed. When he looked down at Belle, he saw that she was once again crying. He frowned and grabbed one of her hands, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb. "We'll find her, sweetheart. Emma's going to get the whole town to help look for her."
Belle looked up at him and there was hurt and betrayal clearly displayed in her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me that Regina kidnapped my baby? Why did you lie to me?"
"I didn't want to, sweetheart, but you were in shock last night, you were irrational, and grieving. I lied about Regina because I was afraid that you would do something rash if you found out that Regina stole our baby."
She shook her head. "You still lied to me. I deserved to know, Rum." Again, the nickname took him aback, and in that moment, she pulled her hand out of his grasp, and walked away from him and up the stairs. "I deserved to know." She called back and he knew that she was angry. But there were more important things to deal with right now, and he had to get his daughter back. It was time to find Mr. Stone and Rose, and bring her home.
0o0o0o0o0o
When Mr. Gold pulled up and parked his car on the curb of Granny's Diner it seemed that the entire town had showed up for the manhunt. A crowd of people was standing inside the small diner, many people were standing outside the door. The building simply couldn't accommodate all those people; it took him surprise. He hadn't expected this many people to show up to look for the missing baby. Rumpelstiltskin couldn't deny that it warmed his heart just a bit. He scoffed at the very idea. Warm his heart? Since when did the Dark One's heart get warmed by anything besides Belle and Rose?
He got out of the car and pushed his way through the door and passed the sea of people. He spotted the paisley of Jefferson's vest and made his way over to where Jefferson was standing beside Emma Swan. Scratch that. The man was practically stepping on her toes and breathing on her neck, he was so close.
Mr. Gold walked up to them and grabbed Jefferson's arm to signal his presence. The Mad Hatter turned and grinned despite the situation.
"About time you showed up, Rumple."
Mr. Gold grit his teeth. "Don't test me, Hatter. Not today."
Jefferson nodded and the grin vanished. He was all of the sudden very serious. "How's Belle?"
"As well as can be expected. She's still at the house."
"I'm surprised she didn't fight you to come down and help look for Rose."
That's when Mr. Gold suddenly looked sheepish, and his cheeks turned red. "I may have slipped something special into her cup of tea before I left. She's asleep."
Jefferson smirked, and for a nanosecond actually looked impressed. "You've been spending too much time with me, apparently. You're picking up all my bad habits."
"I'm not proud of it," Rumpelstiltskin responded with a groan. Jefferson chuckled and then winced when Emma elbowed him in his side.
"This isn't the time for jokes, Jefferson," she reprimanded in a harsh tone. "We've got a baby to find." Mr. Gold turned his head to see that the townsfolk had been dismissed, and were now leaving to search the certain sectors of town that they had been assigned. Emma followed his gaze and nodded. "I've split them all into groups, and sent them anywhere I could think of. To the docks, the library, the east side of town, the toll bridge, I sent a large party into the woods, and several are staying back here to search the buildings."
Rumpelstiltskin dipped his head in appreciation. "Well done, Miss Swan."
Her eyes widened in surprise of his unusual act of praise. "Where should we go then?"
"The cemetery."
"Cemetery?" Jefferson echoed. "That's a bit morbid, don't you think?
He rolled his eyes. "Regina has a crypt there where she keeps her father."
"So you think she's keeping the baby inside a crypt? I thought we were trying to stay positive here, Dark One?"
"Will you just shut up, Hatter? I just want to check. Might as well. Sheriff?" He turned his head to Emma and the woman nodded.
"Let's go then." She slipped her leather jacket onto her shoulders, but before she could manage to pull her hair out from underneath the collar, Jefferson's fingers were at her neck, removing her blonde hair for her. Emma's eyebrows slanted just slightly and she pulled away the second his fingers lingered on her bare skin. She stalked out the door, leaving a very amused Mr. Gold.
He looked sideways at Jefferson. "Coming off a little strong, don't you think?"
Jefferson shrugged. "Don't be fooled. She likes it."
Rumpelstiltskin scoffed. "You're delusional, Hatter."
The man only smirked as they both followed the Sheriff out the door.
0o0o0o0o0o
"Remind me again why we're traipsing around Regina's dead father's crypt?" Emma asked as she bashed open the lock on the door with her firearm and walked inside.
"What better place to hide two missing people than in a crypt? You never even thought to look here, did you, Sheriff?"
Emma said nothing and worked on shining her flashlight around the small rectangular shaped building. "Unless she's got some secret room somewhere, there's no way she's hiding a grown man in a wheelchair and a screaming baby here, Gold."
"A secret room, Miss Swan, is exactly what we're looking for," he explained as he began to feel around for a lever or a button.
Emma shot a glance at Jefferson. Apparently, they both agreed that Gold had officially gone mental.
"Are you two going to continue making cow's eyes at each other or are you going to actually come and help me?" He growled, thoroughly annoyed with them. He continued to feel around the entire room. His hand was cold from the stone, his knee ached, his cane thumped against the stone floor as he walked around and around the encased casket of Regina's father.
"Regina's father's name was Henry Mills," Emma said as she ran her fingers across the epitaph. She was surprised. "I suppose now we know who Henry was named after."
Jefferson frowned. "How sentimental of our Evil Queen." His fingers ran across the epitaph and landed on Emma's. Just as she had in the diner, she pulled away forcefully.
"What is your problem?" She whispered fiercely. She whirled around and faced him, her eyes flashing with annoyance.
"What's wrong?" His face was smug.
"If you're not careful, this is going to go from strange to creepy really quick."
They both heard Gold interject with, "It hasn't gotten that way yet?" Jefferson and Emma ignored him and glared at each other. Well, Emma glared. Jefferson smirked.
"Admit it, you like the attention."
She rolled her eyes. "What could possibly make you assume that?"
"Goosebumps," he said in a sing-song voice, and Emma quickly looked down at her arm. She cursed when she saw tiny bumps all along her forearm.
"They don't mean anything," she argued with a sniff, "It's cold in here."
"Want my jacket?" He quipped. She shook her head, but he had already removed his overcoat and placed it on her shoulders. Emma seemed surprised by his actions. She would never admit it, but she found it suddenly very hard to resist the urge to bury her noise in his lapels and smell him. He smelled so good, it nearly took her breath away. Instead, she swallowed and nodded her head in thanks.
Neither one could say anything else. The moment was broken when Rumpelstiltskin hit the right button. They heard a click and suddenly the stone-encased casket shifted. Rumpelstiltskin called them over to help him, and the three of them worked to push the casket away from a large opening in the floor.
Emma and Jefferson both stared down into the blackness, wearing nearly identical expressions of shock across their faces.
"I don't believe it," Emma whispered before she removed her gun from her holster and unclicked the safety. "I'll go first."
Jefferson and Rumpelstiltskin followed after her as they descended down the stairs, their three flashlights were the only lights around, and even then, it was still difficult to see through the blinding darkness.
They reached the final step and then their feet were on solid ground once again. Emma peered around the corner of a corridor, and then they continued to follow after her. Rumpelstiltskin could only see the stone walls on either side of him, and it seemed like they were walking forever before they finally heard movement.
Emma held out a hand, motioning them to stop, and then she held a finger to her lips. They crept forward as silently as was possible. Gold refused to use his cane for fear that it's thumping would alert whoever was down there. His leg ached with each step. He grit his teeth to keep from shouting in pain. Emma reached a door and pointed to it. She held her gun up and prepared to kick the door down.
"One...
"Shouldn't we come up with some kind of plan first?" Jefferson whispered into her ear. He couldn't deny that even in this tense moment, he absolutely loved the sight of her in his overcoat.
Emma just ignored him. "Two...Three..." And then she kicked down the door and stepped into the room. All three were momentarily blinded by the sudden amount of light that hit their eyes. They blinked violently until they could see the sight before them. Gold first caught sight of Rose and he felt sudden relief. She was being held by Garrett Stone, who's entire face showed fear. Rumpelstiltskin nearly keeled over laughing when he saw that the only thing standing between him and his daughter was none other than Sydney Glass, the bumbling reporter. He thought he had disappeared for good. Apparently not. Rumpelstiltskin took a step forward, but suddenly, Sydney ripped out a gun from his side and pointed it at them.
"Stay there. Or I'll shoot!"