He was aware that home was supposed to be their time. He was aware that they'd only been married a few days, and he should want to spend every night by her side. He was aware that he should be counting down the minutes until it was time for bed.

But he was also aware that the sand in his pocket was a ticking time bomb that was going to have to demand his attention. And when he'd explained that to Belle the second they stepped into the house, she seemed to understand and willingly allowed him to go into the basement, where he promptly removed the vial from his pocket, examined it for cracks and flaws, and then quickly began to search the room.

Nickel. He needed nickel. A nickel flask, or a nickel beaker, or…anything! What he ended up finding was small, a box of Regina's that he used to sneak away and store a small rock imbued with her power long ago in the Enchanted Forest. At the rate the dust was expanding, he wasn't sure that it would hold for more than twenty-four hours unless, miraculously, the dust began to stabilize. Once it was stabilized and the magic within it settled, he could store it in anything, but for now…for now, he was curious. Just how powerful was this magic he was dealing with?

After seeing that Belle had eaten and gone to sleep on her own, a sight that nearly broke his heart, he took advantage of the situation and left. He took the box of Regina's he'd found and the dust with him. The pawn shop was his ultimate destination, but first, there was somewhere else he had to go.

The last place he ever wanted to be again.

The barn. He'd only taken a few scoops of the dust earlier, but there was more here, more to be mined, and though the bit he had was already causing him trouble on its own, he wasn't about to risk anyone else stumbling upon this little secret. He had to act now. Still, it was a difficult process. Ordinarily, to get every last grain infected, he'd have used his magic to sift through the dirt by calling the dust to him. But since these particles didn't react to magic…

He had to do it the other way around.

It took a massive amount of power, the power that required the dagger in his hand to slowly lift every unaffected grain of sand into the air until he hit the foundation. The grains that he was left with, the ones that didn't budge for him no matter how hard he tried, those were what he was after. He enchanted a broom to sweep those magical, non-magic grains into a dustpan, then delivered it to him so he could set the floor back down where it belonged. Now he was confident; every grain of that urn was now in his possession. With that in mind, he moved back to the pawn shop.

There, he collected two clocks that he had lying around. He removed their batteries and enchanted them both to work only with magic, then set them both for the same time before setting them side by side. With the dust, he drew a circle around one. The second the circle was complete, the clock within it…struggled. The other clock continued ticking on without a problem, but this clock…it didn't stop, not completely, but it did struggle to continue working, slowing down, significantly hindered by the circle around it.

Intrigued, he broke the circle with a pen, pulled the clock free, where it began working once more, and tied a string to it. Delicately, he reestablished the circle it had been in, and when it began to slow once more, he pulled on the string. The clock in the circle moved…until it was met with an invisible golden wall. Then it didn't budge.

Interesting. Very interesting.

He left the clocks there and stepped away. It wouldn't be perfect, but when the dust wore off, if the dust wore off, the clocks within would begin working again. And then he could use the time difference between them to roughly figure out how long the dust would hold. Of course, it would never be a sure thing. The type of magic it was asked to contain, the amount used, and the strength of the caster would all have an effect on how long until the magic it shielded was spent. But working with his own powerful magic would at least give him a general idea.

Situation handled for the moment, he put the dust aside and began to think back to the books in his basement library. As much as he'd love to go to bed, Belle was already asleep without him. He may as well make good use of the time she wasn't hovering over his shoulder and get to work on that to-do list. He could go back, grab a few books that might tell him more about the hat, about how it worked-

As if it was timed, his phone rang just as he had arrived back in his basement and pulled a particular tomb. At this hour…

Dove.

"I thought you were going to call me later."

"By definition, Mr. Dove, any time I choose to call you would, in fact, be 'later.'"

"Yeah, well, it's late; I want to get to bed."

"Did you get a name?" he questioned, glancing over at the cylinder that was poised on his table.

"Didn't need to," he answered. "I've collected rent from people in this town for decades, I know him on sight. Guy you are looking for goes by the name Yen Sid."

"Yen Sid," he clarified instead. "You're sure?"

"Positive…I saw him coming out of the ice cream store just as you told me he would, cone in hand…serving him was the last thing Sarah Fisher did before she closed early for the day to go sharpen her pitchfork with the other villagers."

There was bait in that information; he could hear it in Dove's voice. But he didn't care. Ingrid had told him that she'd wanted to get close to Elsa first, and he'd had the thought when she turned up in his shop with Hook rather than Emma that it was all part of her plan. There was no news to him.

"You have an address?"

"I do, but Sir…here's the strange thing. This guy used to live in a shack; it was a little like a gardener's cabin, out in the middle of nowhere, cliffs of Storybrooke. The shack wasn't much to look at but at least he had a great view."

"You don't need to sell it to me, Dove. I already own it."

"That's the thing, Sir…when you were still away, and the rent was due, I went out to that cabin to collect rent only…there's a building there now."

"Excuse me."

"Yeah…the cottage is still there, but now there's this huge mansion in the way of that view."

"A mansion on the cliffs…it looks over the ocean."

"Yes…and the cottage in the back, it was there, but it looked abandoned. It was just the same as it always was, it just looks like Yen Sid stepped away and didn't come back. Honestly, I'd have assumed that he was one of the dead in the missing year if you hadn't had me sit there and see him with my own two eyes. I'd have followed him home, but he was on foot, and with everything going on in town…I'll drive up there tomorrow, see if I can catch him at home-"

"No, I'll take it from here, Mr. Dove. Nice work."

A mysterious mansion on the cliffs of Storybrooke.

So, it had been the Apprentice's…so then where was he when he and Belle had been there? And where was the owner? There were more questions than he had answers but a name and an address for the Apprentice…he'd never felt Nimue so giddy in his head.

"Sir, not to cut in, but…are you aware of what's going on around town?"

He sighed. There was that bait again. "With the Arendelle princess, yes, I'm very aware, Mr. Dove. Why do you ask?"

"Well, it's only that keeping tabs on that sort of thing is usually more like what you have me spend my time doing rather than identifying people buying ice cream."

"That's because I'm managing to keep a grasp on the situation all on my own, Mr. Dove, though I do thank you for your insinuation. If it pleases you, I'll endeavor to be more curious in the future."

"No insinuation made Sir, just making sure I'm doing the job you want me to be doing. Especially since your information is out of date."

Bait. Again.

But this bait he found he really had no particular love for. His information was wrong?

"My information?"

"The Arendelle Princess, Elsa…she's not the biggest problem in town. At least she's not if you believe Emma Swan. There's another. The Ice Queen, they're calling her."

"You don't say…" he drawled.

"Yeah, you'd think that Elsa was just lying about the encounter to save her own skin, but apparently, the whole family saw her. Well…Emma and David did, maybe Hook too; I'm still trying to get the story straight…"

"Wait, wait…Emma saw her…you are sure about that?"

"Yeah, that seems to be consistent every time. She and David are personally putting the information out there after Elsa was accused of attempting to freeze Robin Hood's wife to death. Regina stopped it somehow, but they're trying to get the town on their side to face the right monster."

He had to hand it to Dove; he was worth every penny he was offering him for that raise. He knew what to look for even when he didn't know what to look for.

Emma had seen Ingrid. Already? Before she could get Elsa on her side as she'd planned? And now the entire family and Elsa as well were spreading rumors of a monster…that seemed like a very big departure from Ingrid's original plan.

"Emma saw her…so we know who this woman, this…Ice Queen, is?"

"Unclear, Sir. When I have a name, I can get it for you."

Emma saw her but no word on a name yet…was that because Dove was missing information or because the memory magic that Ingrid had used on Emma was holding. Given his experience with Dove he was inclined to believe the former, but that was unproven. It was interesting. Very interesting.

"Well, Mr. Dove, it's not often I find myself corrected, but here I stand. As discussed earlier, you'll be handsomely rewarded for this information."

"I'll keep my ears open, as always."

"And don't forget, rent collection-"

"It's coming up on the calendar, Sir, just like every month."

"Good lad, I trust you to handle that on your own, just as you have been in my absence. But why don't you skip our new friend Yen Sid…I'll handle his debts personally from now on."

And with an unquestioningly "you've got it, boss," Dove hung up the phone.

Oh, Dove, I hope you enjoy him and have enjoyed him thus far because, I have to be honest with you, I don't think you'll see him around much longer, at least not for a while. I promise that's not by choice. I've really enjoyed writing Dove's character, and if I could use him more, I would. Hell, if I'm wrong and in the future, the opportunity presents itself to use him more, I totally will. But what I'm finding in writing 4B is that Rumple comes with lackeys of his own and really doesn't need Dove, in 5A there's really not much opportunity for Rumple to use Dove, 5B Rumple is definitely on his own, and then general sense that I get about 6A is that Rumple's going to be doing most of his villaining on his own. We know, of course, from Moments that Dove will be back for 6B and that is, I think, where he and Rumple will be reunited and, I hope, work through some of the issues that have come up. I say that "I hope" because I'm not ready to be done with Dove yet. I like the relationship for a number of reasons, one of which is that when they talk to each other, all the "Sirs" and "Mr. Dove" and "Mr. Gold" make it sound like it's out of a Jane Austen novel.

Thank you, Rsbeall12, for you review on the previous chapter. I'm sorry this one isn't terribly interesting, it's definitely a filler chapter. We're doing a lot of the little odds and end things here we need to close out some of the storylines, like Rumple fetching the dust from the barn and experimenting, and open up others, like prepping him to find the Apprentice and letting him know that Emma saw Ingrid. I know Fillers aren't always the most interesting, but they are necessary! Peace and Happy Reading!