Hidden Treasures Chapter 66, an once upon a time fanfic

A bit more plot unfolding along with some pool fun.

As always please review

Enjoy

Emma laughed to herself as she glanced back across the table to see Hook sitting with his eyes closed obviously trying to calm himself down.

"What is wrong with Papa?" Junior suddenly asked bringing his little hand up to his chest and suddenly Emma wasn't laughing anymore... Oh my God, she hadn't thought about the kid picking up on THAT!

"Nothing, he's just a bit hot... and he is excited about going in the pool" she blurted out going slightly red

"Yeah right, the pool! OK" Henry snorted

Emma was suddenly blazing hot as she looked at her Son who was grinning at her like he knew EXACTLY what they had been talking about. She looked back to Hook who was now laughing too... this was his fault, make no mistake.

But Junior seemed to be over the whole thing already as he wolfed down his cake and shoved the plate to the side before hauling himself from the chair and running around to Henry to tug his arm

"Come on Henry I would like to swim now" he gave another tug looking at Hook "Come on Papa, come on Rapha... let's go"

David laughed and took hold of the wheelchair "Come on Pirate before the kid bursts with excitement"

He pulled the chair back and swung Hook around pushing him quickly back outside followed by the three boys

"Are you swimming too Grandpa?" Junior yelled as he dashed out onto the patio running around to the diving board.

"You bet, I'm just gonna help Papa in to the pool then I'll get changed although I'm pretty wet already thanks to you" he laughed wheeling Hook to the top end of the pool.

Emma followed behind them thinking that once she'd helped her Dad with her Pirate she would sit on the edge of the pool for a while and watch. She had put shorts on knowing that she would more than likely get wet in the balloon fight and she wasn't wrong, someone had hit her in her ass and Junior's hit pretty much had her drenched in water right down her front right through to her bra but the sun would dry her out and the fight had been fun so she didn't care.

"Momma watch me" Junior yelled and Emma found herself grinning as she looked over to see him getting ready to jump in.

"I'm watching" she yelled back and with that he was bouncing wildly on the diving board and throwing himself into the water

Emma clapped as he surfaced giving her a huge grin but then he was spinning in the water and yelling "Your turn Henry"

Emma was distracted after that as her Dad stopped the wheelchair at the top of the steps and put on the brakes.

"OK, you ready for this?" David asked coming to Hook's right hand side as Emma came up to his left.

"Aye Mate" Hook grinned "I have been waiting for this day since I first laid eyes on this pool, get me in there."

"We can get your hair washed after this too" Emma suddenly said making him grin wider but then they were moving and he was clenching his teeth as they slowly walked down the steps.

He got about half way down with the water coming up to his belly when he stopped "You can let me go now, I'll take it from here"

With that he slipped from Emma's grasp and disappeared beneath the water only to surface quite close to Junior who squealed in delight and launched himself forward to grab hold of Hook's neck slinging himself around onto her Pirate's back.

"Junior be careful." Emma yelled as panic hit her when she remembered what had happened when she had touched Hook's neck back in the hospital pool.

"He is fine for the moment Love" Hook shouted back swimming across the pool with the kid on his back and Emma sighed in relief.

"I'll keep Junior in check, don't worry Emma" her Dad suddenly said next to her "I just need to get changed first and grab something for old peg leg"

"Thanks Dad" she replied with a smile then he was jogging his way back across the patio past Mary-Margaret who was just coming out of the house in her swim suit with Neal hitched on her hip and his swim seat in her other hand. Emma sat herself on the edge of the pool dangling her feet in the water as her boys played happily near by.

Mary-Margaret handed her Brother over to Emma as she came up to the pool "Here, take this little man until I get in" she tossed the swim seat in then made her way around to the diving board and climbed up grinning widely.

"Go Grandma" Henry yelled swimming out of the way.

Emma laughed as her Mom did a perfect dive straight into the pool coming up not far from the swim seat to hook it with her arm and swim over to where Emma sat holding a now very excited Neal who was bouncing wildly obviously wanting to get in the water.

"Calm down Kid... you'll get in in a second" Emma giggled as her Mom swam up to stop in front of her "I think he likes the water"

"Hand him over then" Mary-Margaret said with a smile reaching up and taking Neal all the while talking to him in a silly voice "Are you excited? Are you happy? Are you going to Swim with Uncle Henry and Uncle Junior?"

"I AM AN UNCLE?!" Junior suddenly cried out and shoved himself from Hook's back swimming over quickly to grin at Neal and talk to him in the same silly voice as her Mom had just used "Hello Neal, do you like to swim too?"

"He likes it even more with you guys in the pool, I've never seen him so excited before" Mary-Margaret giggled as Neal splashed about.

Emma was suddenly regretting not joining in as Hook swam over too and smiled up at her then asked "You are sure you do not want to join us Love?"

"Actually" she suddenly said pulling herself up "I will, this looks like way too much fun to be missing out on"

But she didn't go and get changed she just launched herself off the side of the pool into a cannon ball sending water everywhere. The minute she surfaced she was hit by Junior as he grabbed her and came around onto her back with a squeal of delight. She wiped her hair from her face and laughed loudly, this day was turning into the best day ever.

They all bobbed around chatting for a few minutes until David suddenly reappeared and tossed a beach ball into the pool which had the boys all scrambling to get it leaving Emma Junior free again. She laughed again as Henry tried to grab the ball but missed and disappeared beneath the water but her attention was drawn back to the poolside when her Dad shouted.

"Here Peg Leg... I got you this" throwing a water noodle into the water.

"What the bloody hell am I supposed to do with that?" Hook called back plucking the blue foam noodle from the water causing him to dip slightly as he tried to tread water without the use of his one hand

"Let me show you" Emma said quickly taking it from him. She tucked it around her back and under her arms allowing herself to float without effort "It means you can stay in longer, I can see you're tiring already so use it"

Hook nodded "Can you help me Love? I'm not sure I can do that and stay afloat"

She just nodded and got to work and in seconds he was bobbing in the water totally relaxed and grinning from ear to ear "This is the life Swan"

"Yip... I agree, this day is pretty damn near perfect"

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Belle practically flew down Main Street cursing her choice of heals for the day and just hoping that Rumple had gone back to the shop but when she threw open the door it was to find utter carnage. She gasped bringing her hands up to her mouth.

"Rumple, what have you done?" she whispered stepping through the door to look around in total disbelief.

Every display cabinet had been smashed and there was just no comprehending the damage. Suddenly tears were falling along with her hands which now just swung by her sides as she stood dumbstruck.

How could he have done this?

But suddenly his voice was behind her as he too stepped through the doorway looking around at the mess.

"Belle?" he gasped coming up to her and pulling her into his arms "What happened? Are you alright?"

This hadn't been Rumple? Suddenly she felt scared, if it hadn't been him who had done this?

"I don't know, I came in looking for you, I'm fine, I just got here"

"I stopped by the house first to change" he replied stepping forward pulling her with him by one hand.

His feet crunched their way over the floor towards the back room where he tugged the curtain and peered through before giving a heavy sigh.

"There's no one here" he grit out letting go of her hand and walking forward dropping to his knees by the remains of the bookcase and suddenly his face was a picture of fury.

"Rumple?" she cried out stepping forward "Talk to me. What is going on?"

He stood and spun on the spot to face her before storming past "NOTHING is going on Belle. I will sort this, do not worry yourself with such things"

She's had enough though, she NEEDED to know what was going on in that head of his so she yelled "DO NOT LIE TO ME RUMPLE"

He spun around and suddenly she could see the pain in his eyes and her anger disappeared, who was she kidding? She loved this man, she needed to help him, he was obviously caught up in something. Maybe she could help

"Please Rumple" she begged surging forward "Don't shut me out. TELL me. I promise that I won't get mad I just need to know what is going on otherwise... otherwise I won't be here when you get back, I can't do this anymore"

He again tried to deny it "Belle... there is nothing to tell"

"Oh no?" she exclaimed eyebrows shooting up "I know you know more about what happened to Killian than you said you did. I heard you... YOU said that you should send Junior away and that it was the only way to break the link. How could you know that? You said that you didn't know what had happened!" He suddenly looked lost and her heart clenched at the sight of him "PLEASE Rumple, talk to me, we can fix this"

"I'm not so sure we can" he sighed out pulling out a chair and sitting down heavily "Belle, you have to believe me. When I started this I was trying to do a good thing, I was trying to rid myself of the darkness that has plagued us all these years but I have failed. You see the gem that the Pirate found was half of..."

"The Jewel of Duplicity" she cut in "I know that already and I also know that you had the other half I just don't know why"

"I should have known you would figure it out" he chuckled looking up at her as she slid into another chair at the small table.

"What were you trying to do Rumple?"

He gave a heavy sigh "I planned to duplicate myself..."

"WHAT? How is that doing good?" Belle cried out in shock

"Just hear me out" he said raising his hands and motioning for her to calm down "When Hook was duplicated something went wrong and the copy manifested itself as a younger version of the Pirate. This was caused by both Regina's and the Savior's magic. I found a way to replicate the spells. My plan was to duplicate myself but to also add in a twist. I was going to send all the darkness into the boy then send him and that band of Lost Ones back to Neverland where they would not be able to cause any harm to any body ever again... I would have been free Belle, we would have been free"

Belle's heart broke at his face, he really had been trying to make their lives better but like every other time he came up with a plan he didn't consider anybody else.

"Oh Rumple..." she simply said "How could you think that that was a good idea? How could you guarantee that the darkness would not have gone into you instead of the boy?"

"I wasn't thinking Belle, I don't know what came over me and it is all irrelevant now anyway... I have lost the other gem." he pointed to the broken bookcase "It was in there"

"Devin" Belle suddenly realized who had damaged the shop "Oh Rumple this is all my fault. I knew you were up to something and when I found the Blue Fairy's heart in the safe I took it and blamed it on Devin. This is his way of showing us that this was definitely him this time."

He suddenly stood and came to her "NONE of this is your fault Belle... this is my doing."

"Not really" she said lifting her eyebrows and giving a little smile at his confused face "I know that the gem stone influences Dark Magic and yours is the Darkest of all... you couldn't help it, it was the stone making you do it"

Something in his face changed and he suddenly burst out "I should have tried, I should have fought it for you but I was weak"

She surged up from her seat and hugged him "It's OK... but before we do anything I need to know one thing"

"Anything, just ask" he replied pulling her back to look at her

"Did you kill Tootles on purpose?"

"What? No Belle... of course not." he gasped out "You were there, you saw, he came from nowhere"

It was all she needed, he may have done some bad things but he hadn't done what she had feared and the gem had MADE him do the rest. She hugged him back into herself.

"It's alright, we can still fix this"

"How?" he asked stepping back

"By helping" she said with a smile "We need to find a way to break the link between Killian and Junior"

"Belle" he sighed "There isn't a way. I couldn't help even if I wanted to. I studied the Jewel for centuries and found nothing"

But she just grinned "Yes but back then you were missing one thing... the Nevengers"

Rumple smiled to himself over Belle's shoulder as she hugged him tightly, she obviously didn't know that the gem could not affect his magic but that was alright it meant that he could play the victim and she would stay.

How had this gone so badly?

How had it got out of hand?

He pulled back and smiled at her tucking a lock of hair behind her ear "You are too good to me Belle, I do not deserve you"

"Yes you do" she smiled back "and thank you for trusting me"

He stepped back out of her embrace and took up her hands "I trust you with my life you know that"

She gave a little laugh "Yeah..." she then looked a little nervous "but I doubted you and for that I am truly sorry. I very nearly used your dagger to get to the truth when I should have just asked"

Rumple took a gulp, she had nearly used his dagger!

"No matter, it is done and we must move forward"

"Right" she suddenly said standing up straighter and digging into her purse that was on the table

"What are you doing?" he asked with a frown

"Calling David" she said in a tone that meant there was no arguing "We NEED to tell him what is going on and that Devin now has the other half of the gem"

"He cannot use it Belle, it is useless without magic" and if Rumple had his way the boy would not have the gem for long

"I know but it doesn't mean that we don't need to get it back... those gems are the key to helping Killian and Junior, I will NOT let that wretched Lost One do anything to it that will stop us."

With that she held her cell up to her ear and made her way through to the front shop. Rumple was in shock. Belle had known so much of his plan already and he had thought that good for nothing bunch of do gooders had been clueless! How wrong had he been?! Without thought he reached into the lining of his jacket and pulled out his dagger just staring at it. She had nearly resorted to using this against him, he couldn't have that... ever.

The thought of not being in control was the only thing that brought true fear to his very being and as he tucked it back into his jacket he took a mental note to hide it somewhere new... somewhere no one would ever find it.

Belle came back through the curtain a few minutes later and popped her cell back into her purse "David will be here shortly... Don't worry, I explained about the gem and how now that it's gone from the shop you are no longer controlled by it's power and want to help."

He gave her a fake thankful smile before acting nervous "I... they are all going to think the worst of me. I was so hell bent on getting what I wanted that I said some terrible things to the boy"

"Rumple if I have learned one thing over the years about this town it's that they are usually quite willing to forgive IF you prove that you are truly sorry for what you have done. You know how the saying goes... the ball is in your court"

She was right, these people were as easily fooled as Belle was. He could get them back on side then get them to help him get the gems back... he would not be beaten.

He would rid himself of this darkness if it was the last thing he did and now thanks to Belle he could blame it all on the gem stones when he "lost control" again... he would be blame free.