The bell rang brightly singling the entrance of Belle and Gold into Granny's for their afternoon meal. The little diner bustled with activity as Belle waved to Ruby and they made their way to an empty booth. The whole town seemed to be buzzing about the upcoming town hall meeting, and Granny's Diner was no exception. Each table they passed on their way to their booth seemed to have a different conversation going on, but the topic was the same.

What was Emma Swan going to say about Regina Mills, and was the rumor true that Emma had moved in with the Evil Queen and taken Henry with her?

As they slide into their respective places at the booth, Belle rolled her eyes. "I wish everyone would follow Emma's lead and give Regina a chance."

"Why would they do that?" Gold's jaw flexed. "They have no reason to forgive her for the things she's done to them."

"Rumple," Belle's voice held an edge of disappointment to it, "if Regina is trying to redeem herself, I think we should support her."

"Support her? Belle, you make it sound as if we owe her something. We owe her nothing, and she's…"

"Trying. She's trying, and don't sit there and tell me she's not worth trying to save." She gave him a hard look. "She has people who love her, and you know what that means."

He raised his eye brows in surprise. "Who?"

Trying to hold back a frustrated sigh, she said with a patient voice, "Henry loves her. It's clear every time he's around her that he wants it to be okay that he loves her, and it's up to us to show him that it is." She smiled gently. "He's still a child. He's got to be taught what it means to forgive and accept, but he wants to, and I think that's a good thing."

Gold rolled his eyes. "Of course he still loves her. She raised him; it should go without saying that there's some kind of attachment there, but that doesn't mean she deserves any help from us. Besides, Henry has his birth mother and her parents to support him. You said it yourself. He's a child." He made a motion with his hand to indicate that Henry's thoughts were not important to this conversation.

Belle tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. "Emma loves her."

"What?" The old man sat up straighter in his seat. "How do you know that? Did she tell you that?"

"Not in so many words, but anyone who is willing to do what Emma is about to do today at the town hall meeting has to care about Regina in some way." At this, she did sigh. "Is it so wrong to want to see Regina happy, Rumple? Why can't we all end this pointless feud and try to start getting along with each other? You know I believe everyone has some good in them." She reached over to place her hand atop his where it rested on the table. "Would it be so wrong to encourage Regina's good side?"

"Regina's what?" Ruby stepped up to the table, notepad in hand.

Belle gave her a bright smile. "We were just talking about the town hall meeting this afternoon."

"Like everyone else here," the curvy brunette said with a roll of her eyes. "I don't know what the big deal is. Frankly, I think Emma might be onto something. I mean, it'd be nice to get the potholes fixed on Main Street, and the last time any maintenance was done on the actual town was when Regina was Mayor, so…" she trialed off to let them fill in the blank.

"I was telling Rumple that I think we should encourage Regina in her attempt to redeem herself. I think it would be good for her, Henry, and the town." Belle glanced across the table to her companion. "Right?"

Gold grumbled under his breath for a second. "Yes, I suppose you do have a point. It would be nice to stop having to worry about random fights in the middle of town."

Ruby's smile widened just a touch. "Those are kind of fun to watch as long as nothing gets destroyed. The last time you two had a showdown, I won 20 bucks."

"You've been placing bets on me?" Gold's eyes grew hostile. "Why you would think that's a good idea?"

"Because I was about 90% sure you'd win, so I placed it on you." Ruby shrugged. "I'm going to miss the fighting. I won enough money to buy a new outfit." She shrugged. "Oh well, I'd rather you and Regina were getting along than win the money anyway."

He rolled his eyes. "May I have a cup of coffee, please?"

"Oh, and a glass of tea for me," Belle said with a gracious smile.

Ruby nodded and turned away to tend to their orders and check on the other tables.

"Don't be so huffy," Belle said with a light touch of amusement in her voice. "At least you won the fight that time."

"I win the fight every time," he snapped back.

"Rumple," Belle's voice was serious yet cautious, "if you don't want to support Emma's attempts to help Regina, promise me you at least won't get in the way."

His eyes grew wide with surprise. "What would make you think I care either way?"

"Please," she asked in stern tone. "I mean it. Promise me that you'll either help or you'll leave it alone, but you won't try to make it worse."

He grunted and pulled his hand away from hers. "Belle, I don't care what Emma or Regina do so long as they don't bother me or you. But," his hard look softened a bit, "if it means that much to you, fine. I promise I won't interfere with Regina's attempts to play nice with the good people of Storybrooke."

Belle was quiet for a long time as she tried to gauge his level of sincerity and what his promise actually entailed. "And you won't help anyone else get in the way of her attempts to be a better person either."

"Belle!" Gold was clearly growing more agitated by the second.

"Rumple," her voice was growing more serious by the second. "Promise me."

"Oh, this is ridiculous. I'm done with this conversation. Now, can we please just order our food and talk about something else?" He looked around for Ruby to flag her.

"Promise me." Belle's eyes drilled into him.

"Yes, fine, I promise." He rolled his eyes. "I won't interfere in anyway. There. Are you satisfied?"

She smiled and nodded her head. "Yes, thank you. Would you like to split a burger?"

With a heavy sigh, Gold leaned back in his seat and picked up the menu. "Maybe…"


"Leroy," Archie's eyebrows rose in surprise, "to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You got a second?" The smaller man stood at the psychiatrist's doorway but was clearly torn about whether he should step inside.

"Of course, come in. I don't have anyone else scheduled for today." He smiled. "I wanted to make sure I could make the town hall meeting this afternoon."

"Yeah, about that," Leroy grumbled a bit. "I don't like this whole idea of letting Regina run the town again, and I was thinking you might be willing to step up during the meeting and back us up on it."

"Us?" Archie tilted his head in question. "Who would that be?"

"Well, me and the other guys, and Mary Margaret and David, Marco, and Granny," Leroy grunted. "Ruby's not with us, but I'm sure Granny'll change her mind soon enough."

Hopper sat back in his office chair and stared up at the other man with a look somewhere between confusion and pity. "You want me to testify in front of the town that Regina isn't mentally fit to be the mayor? Is that it?"

"Well she's not." Crossing his arms, Leroy's glare bore down at the doctor. "We all know she can't be trusted. She's a pathological liar. We all know she's a sociopath. How can we let her run our town again?"

Archie's frown deepened and he ran a hand across his chin in thought. "I'm sorry, Leroy, but I won't do that."

"What do mean you won't do that? You won't stand up with the rest of us to keep Regina from taking the town over again?" The miner was clearly shocked. "Why not?"

"Because I don't believe it." Doctor Hopper stood from his chair and crossed over to his filing cabinet. He dug through his files until he found a photo, which he held up to the other man. "Do you see this picture?"

Leroy squinted at it. "It's a picture of Henry and Regina. So what?"

Archie bobbed his head. "A person who would choose to adopt and raise a son alone at least has the potential for more than destruction, especially given how Henry's been raised." He returned the photograph and closed the drawer. "The fact that Henry is a good boy who is neither destructive nor what we might classify as 'evil' indicates that Regina not only knows and understands the difference between the concepts of 'good' and 'evil' but she can differentiate between them well enough to act in a manner that would teach Henry how to be a good person. If such is the case, then that means Regina still has the capacity to, herself, be a good person."

Shaking his head, Archie made his way back to his office chair. "I feel the only way for her to reach that potential is to encourage it and to encourage the things that would help her stay away from the things that tempt her to be less than a good role model for Henry." He sat down again, and the chair squeaked a bit as he settled into it. "Frankly, I think it would be a good idea to allow Regina to take the role of mayor back."

"You've got to be kidding me," Leroy roared. "How can you believe that? You know everything she's done. How can you possibly trust her at this point?"

"I believe Regina is honestly trying to change, and I believe that trust is something to be earned." Archie's face was resolute. "The only way for Regina to start building trust is to give her a chance, and, with a transparent government in place, which I'm fairly certain Emma will propose, Regina has the perfect opportunity to begin building those bridges and establishing herself as someone we can all start to potentially trust again, and vice versa."

"First Emma and Henry, then Ruby, and now you?" Leroy threw his hands up in the air. "This whole town is going insane." Slapping his arms down against his sides, he turned and stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him.

Archie raised an eyebrow and glanced down at his dog. "That went well, don't you think?"

Pongo lifted his head and gave a little whine.


Frankly, my favorite relationship on the show is the one between Regina and Pongo. Just throwing that out there...