Chapter 4
The plot has Regina's big old fingerprints all over it. He realizes that the moment he finishes writing out the list of stolen items; he knows both the who's and the why's. Moe wants revenge for Gold and Dove having repoed the delivery van, and an ignorant job he's made of it too; half the stolen pieces aren't worth the price of the brown paper it would take to wrap them. One of the items is even broken. But then, the theft isn't really about the objects. It's about Regina forcing Gold's hand.
He doesn't disappoint her. He and Dove are lurking in the shadows when Moe arrives home after work, the day after the break-in. They make no actual threats, as a puzzled Moe will admit to Emma later; their very presence is sufficient to elicit a confession and surrender of the stolen loot–all except the object Gold most cares about.
Belle phones him. Her words come in spurts; she's ashamed and concerned he'll blame her. After all, she has a key for the pink house and knows better than anyone where the valuables are.
In an explanation that reminds him of her husband, she pleads, "Mr. Gold, I promise you, I've never told my father anything about your house. I keep your key on a ring with my keys. He never had access to it–"
"It's not your fault," Gold assures her. "Moe smashed a window and got in that way."
"Believe me, I've never spoken to Dad about working for you." He realizes she's afraid she's lost his trust and that matters to her more than the possibility of losing her job. "I assume he knows–everyone seems to–but I. . . Mr. Gold, I wouldn't betray you."
Her choice of words cuts him deeper than the loss of their chipped cup. "It's all right, Belinda. I know you didn't have anything to do with the burglary. I trust you completely. I, of all people, know how wrong it is to blame the child for the parent's crimes." It's a good thing she called instead of coming by; if she were here, he'd embrace her.
"Are we okay, you and me?"
"More than okay. Hey, how about your specialty tomorrow night? We both could use a pick-me-up."
"Sure, glad to." She laughs in relief. "Chocolate souffle it is. Thanks, Mr. Gold."
He goes alone that night to Regina's mansion, waiting until the light in Henry's bedroom goes out. He would rather have Dove with him, but he's not sure if that's because of what Regina might do or because of what he might do. But he has a pretty good idea that things will be said that Dove isn't ready to hear. After all, it's Belle's chipped cup that Regina ordered Moe to steal.
He manages to rein in his temper; it's the only way to keep–not the upper hand, for he's sure now one of his biggest secrets is out, but an even hand. He reminds himself that she could have withheld the revelation of her knowledge of his secret: clearly, she's scared, and that's why she forced this showdown. "Well, you really wanted that little chat, didn't you?"
"Apparently this is the only way I could do it."
Yes, it was. If he'd had his say, he would have stayed undercover as Mr. Gold until Emma broke the curse. But when Regina demands his name in exchange for the cup, he reveals it. Some instinct tells him that this cup is the key to Belle's recovery after the curse breaks: his possession of it, his fight to protect it, will show her, as nothing else can, that his love for her has always been true. And she's going to need to hang onto that thought when his role in the creation of the curse becomes known.
So Regina gets the information she wants, but he notices a tremble in her perfectly painted lips when he speaks his true name aloud for the first time in twenty-nine years. Her nervousness brings some balance of power back; he supposes, in a way, he's won the showdown, because she's certain now the curse is broken for him and he will, most certainly, seek to destroy her for what she did to Belle. The only questions are when and how he'll take his revenge.
It's always good to keep the enemy guessing, he thinks as he sets the cup in a velvet-lined box and carries it to his car.
He could almost feel sorry for Regina, for her only hope of a protector when the lynch mob comes for her is Sidney. She must be ruing the day she decided to attack the people Rumplestiltskin loves, but it's too late for apologies now, much too late.
But he will throw her off-balance before he throws her under the savior's bus: he comes to her, a few days later, and offers a plan for getting rid of Mary Margaret, a murder rap, and Regina bites. It's going to require a lot of heavy lifting on Gold's part, and with his bum ankle and twenty-nine years of soft living it will be a literal pain, but it will expose Regina's vendetta in such a way that Emma can no longer excuse it. Once Emma knows that Regina will do anything to destroy Mary Margaret, the sheriff will rise up, become the savior she's destined to be, and at last break the curse.
Taking the Evil Queen down along with it, of course.
It all begins with staging a murder.
"What do you think will happen to Mary Margaret?" Belle's eyes are red-rimmed as she glances up from the salmon she's taking out of the oven. She doesn't know the teacher all that well, but the whole town's in shock with the first murder in its entire memory (or so they think. Soon they'll know the truth about Ms. Nolan, but will they ever learn the truth about Graham's heart attack?).
"I can't discuss specifics of the case." He sets his briefcase on the kitchen counter. Inside are photocopies of records he's obtained from the sheriff, and tonight he will pretend to study them as they listen to the London Symphony Orchestra: but his pretense is only to assure Belle. "But I can say I have every confidence in her innocence."
Her mouth twists into a sad smile, and as he's skimming a finger across the icing of her Boston cream pie, she grasps his sleeve, leans into him and kisses his cheek. He blinks at her in surprise, then looks away quickly so she won't see his longing for more. "Thank you," she says, "for defending her."
He mumbles something about everyone's Constitutional right to a trial, then quickly changes the subject. But it's not because of attorney-client privilege, as Belle thinks; it's because of his own guilt. Soon Ms. Nolan's and Ms. Blanchard's suffering will be over, and soon the town will wheel on Regina like a mother mongoose after a cobra. They may never take the time to find out who's really behind this frame up.
Gold knows better than anyone that everything comes with a price. He'll have his revenge; better still, he'll protect Belle and Adelena from future attacks by the Queen; but he'll have to pay a steep price for it. He just hopes the price won't include Bae.
Yesterday the savior asked Gold for his help in rescuing Mary Margaret from a murder charge.
In his morning chores, Gold spends extra time sharpening Charming's sword.
In the evening, he stands over the sink to eat a can of ravioli, because it's Thursday. He rushes through the meal and makes his way down to his basement, where Belinda's never been. There are certain books there that he doesn't want anyone to see. Some men stash porn away; Gold stashes books about magic.
It's time to brush up. Just as soon as the savior's finished breaking the curse, she's going to rescue magic (unwittingly, of course) and then, between his magic and her bondswoman superpowers, they're going to find Bae.
He hopes the baby will be born before then. A pregnant woman shouldn't fly in her last trimester (Gold spends his alone nights reading about such things. He's always been a planner.)
He begins researching the spells he figures he'll need, including some defensive and offensive moves against pickpockets, muggers, TSA agents and Regina, who's going to pose a problem once she sniffs the magic in the air. He intends to strike first: prepared, he will gain control of his faculties before she does. He may be able to disarm her quickly, exact his revenge, then leave the rest for the Charmings.
There are a few ways to drain a sorceress of her magic–not many, and requiring rare materials that may not exist in this world, but he came well supplied. Along with his traveling spells, he begins to research those ways.
Belle will fuss when he takes revenge, even though it's on her behalf, and the baby's; he will strike fast, strike once, so Belle will have no time to intervene. But stripping Regina of her magic, surely Belle will see the good in that. As much damage in this world as she's done with only her money and her clout, surely Belle will see that a magic Regina would be catastrophic. And this town is full of innocents, soon to include two babies. Belle won't interfere when he takes Regina down, will she?
And he will have to. Despite Ms. Swan's assurance that she'll go "as far as it takes," he knows better than to expect her to disregard her scruples. She is, after all, the daughter of two heroes; that's why he elected her sheriff–and savior.
He waits for a Friday night, so there's no chance of running into the Doves, or much of anyone, for that matter: it's 3 a.m. and even the Rabbit Hole is closed. The engine of the RAV4 EV he's "appropriated" from Aladdin Toyota makes no sound as he rolls through town to the back of the public library. He enters the library through a side door hidden behind a mural, enters an elevator that really does function with the push of a button, arrives at the basement and walks along the rim of the cavern where Malificent slumbers, using only a flashlight to guide him. The path leads him into a chamber that resembles a storage area for mining supplies, but that's an illusion of the curse: no mining was ever done here. It took him five trips and cost him a day laid up in bed with his throbbing ankle, but he furnished this chamber, some weeks ago in the dead of winter, with a space heater, a generator, a cot, blankets, books, canned food and bottled water, and a pair of electric lanterns, all in preparation for his unwilling guest. She's been living here, chained by the ankle to the ground, for three days while the town searched for her, then another three days after she was pronounced dead.
He cuts off the generator before he enters the chamber. The lanterns go out and his guest calls, "Hello? Who's there?"
He shoots her thigh with a tranquilizer gun and waits. He knows the exact dosage for her weight, so it doesn't take long before Kathryn Nolan staggers to the cot and conks out.
Now comes the hard part: he lifts her in a fireman's carry and hauls her into the elevator. Once outside, he makes a dash for the SUV and nearly drops her when he pushes her into the back seat. Exhausted, he slides behind the steering wheel.
Next kidnapping, he's going to hire away one of Regina's goons, someone he can assign the dirty work to. Gold is just too old for this sort of thing.
He drives out into the woods–well away from anything identifiable, especially his cabin. He spreads out a blanket on the ground (it's still early spring and a bit chilly), drags Kathryn from the car and lays her onto the blanket. He leaves a bottle of water and a granola bar beside her. He's halfway back to the highway when he remembers he forgot something she'll need, so he goes back to slip a compass into her coat pocket. He's marked a big X at due east: he hopes she'll figure the rest out for herself.
By the time he makes it back to his pink house, it's five o'clock and his ankle's killing him. He can't climb the stairs to the porch, so he stretches out in the backseat of his Caddy and dozes until sunrise. He drives to the shop for a wash, a shave and a change of clothes, and at 7:15 drags himself into the diner for his usual. It's only after he seats himself on the wobbly round stool that he notices he's wearing mismatched socks.
A shriek pierces the morning quiet. People around him scramble; he stirs Sweet 'n' Low into his coffee and waits. He merely raises an eyebrow and continues to munch his dry toast when Granny runs in, shouting at the wait staff, "Ruby just found Kathryn! Alive!"
Mr. Gold checks his pocket watch. 7:32. Any minute now, the ambulance will arrive to take Ms. Nolan to the hospital. Emma will run to the jailhouse to release Mary Margaret. And Regina will be storming the pawnshop, demanding to know why Kathryn's alive and Snow White isn't being hauled out of town on a murder rap–across the town line, where the curse will do something horrible to her.
Gold sighs wearily. Ms. Swan had better get her curse-breaking rear in gear fast. He can't take much more of this excitement.
Not with a baby due in four months.