Henry left the shop without knowing the hope he'd just obliterated inside of his grandfather. The door had been opened, and the lock was tampered with. And sure, he'd found that there had been magic tied to it, but without the information Henry provided, he might have been happy enough to simply assume that whoever had stopped by hadn't gotten through his defenses and it was Henry who broke the lock. Now that he knew it wasn't Henry, it left him with an entirely new set of questions and an unnerving feeling in the pit of his stomach at letting Belle go into the back room by herself before he'd had time to make sure she was safe.

Henry had barely left the shop, the little bell was still ringing, when he set a protection spell over him that would get him home safe and sound before he turned his attention to Belle in the back room.

"What was that all about?" she questioned innocently the second he stepped into the back room. She had a small gathering of candles already out on the table, but none had been lit yet despite the ample time she'd had to do it. Likely, she'd listened to the entire conversation he'd had with Henry; likely, she was only asking about what it was about for his own benefit, but just in case…

"Oh, that was nothing, just a bit of typical teenage angst we can expect in the years to come from our young grandson." But meaningful as the conversation had been, it wasn't the most important thing at the moment, not given the state of things. "You were right to bring us back here, though," he muttered, going to a shelf she couldn't reach and fetching more candles down. "Henry wasn't the one to break the lock. Someone else has been here."

Perhaps she hadn't been listening, or perhaps if she had, then she hadn't believed Henry when he'd said the words because now, she looked downright shocked.

"Who? Why? Would they have been looking for something?"

"I won't know until I've poked around." And he wasn't going to be content doing that until he knew that nothing like this could happen again. With a wave of his hand, he lit the candles on the table. "Let's get some light in here. I'm going to reset the protection spells and see if anything has been taken."

She nodded as he left the room and stepped into the front of the shop. He summoned his magic and cast a final glance at the door and the strange magic that lingered there from whoever had come by. When he was finished, the store would be so coated in his own magic it would be difficult to sense on the door. He hated to rid the shop of it, but it wasn't as though that door was the only place he'd felt it. Whoever that magic belonged to had permeated the air with it. Once the shop and Belle were protected, if he wanted to investigate further, all he had to do was step outside. With that in mind, he'd covered the property in his magic again, recharging old barriers, resurrecting weakened spells from the brink of death, raising a new wall of protection that would hopefully keep evil intentions out of the back room. This was a public store; he didn't want to stop people from coming in, but there was no need for any of those individuals to ever pass behind that curtain. And now, at least, there was a protected space for Belle if anything bad were to happen.

Magic active once more, he took to looking around the shop, scrutinizing it, and seeking out any items that weren't where they were supposed to be. There was only one problem. Nothing was where it was supposed to be.

He'd once known this shop like he'd known the back of his hand. He could find anything he needed within seconds and had his own system for where things belonged and how they were placed. But looking around it now reminded him that it wasn't the same store he'd left over a year ago. Belle had been here. Her scent overwhelmed his own. Evidence of her organization and knack for cleaning was on every shelf, all over the walls, and within the cabinets. Everything within the shop was familiar, and some of it was where he'd left it, but for the most part, things had been moved around. That was going to make this particular task rather difficult.

"Is anything missing?" Belle asked, appearing in the front room as if on cue.

He shook his head. "Not obviously, but it's hard to say for certain when nothing is where I remember putting it…"

"It's not all that bad," she urged as if she was talking to a child. He did have to admit, something about the store being moved around did make him upset in a childish sort of way. It made him want to snatch up every item and scream "mine!" as a toddler might. Or as Zelena might have, which was a thought that forced him to take a breath and agree with Belle just for the sole reason that he didn't want to be anything like that witch.

"No, it's…it's certainly cleaner than usual…" he confessed, looking around. "Not to mention logical and well-thought-out."

He could see that things were no longer organized in a way that worked only for him, but for a human mind. Clocks were gathered together. Toys were in one place and games another. What belonged behind glass and lock and key was locked away. Items that were bulky and difficult to steal, or items that wouldn't be missed if stolen where out and easy to find for all. Except him.

"But, fortunately for the pair of us, Mr. Gold is an excellent businessman and does have a way to identify inventory…"

And when he turned to collect the box of notecards for each item in the store, he found that she already had her back to him and was fetching it off the shelf he'd never thought to place it upon. He took a deep breath as she looked back at him with innocent eyes, which made him want to do something not so innocent with her.

"Perhaps I should just change the name of the store to "Mrs. Gold's," he conceded as she moved to stand next to him.

As she set the box down, a smile broke over her face. "Mr. and Mrs. will do just fine," she compromised before standing on tiptoe and kissing his cheek.

He caught her before she could pull away and kissed her deeply as his own smile grew. He was going to order a sign that said just that.

"Are we investigating or honeymooning?" she questioned against his mouth after one kiss had led to another.

"Until someone else comes in that door, a little bit of both."

"That's what I thought," she smiled, kissing him once more before opening the box and-

Heaven help him…she'd reorganized his inventory box.

Nothing was safe.

Friendly reminder I've given in every Chronicles fiction from the beginning: just because Moments and Chronicles are companion series doesn't mean their chapters match up perfectly. Rumple and Belle are their own people experiencing life in the middle of their own unique and individual stories that just so happen to cross in significant ways. This means that while some of their chapters cover the exact same thing, other chapters are broken up or even combined. This chapter, for example, when you read it from Belle's perspective, is connected to another chapter. But from Rumple's perspective, I decided it was better to separate the chapters. Why? Because what serves one purpose in Belle's tale serves two purposes in Rumple's. It's as simple as that.

Thank you, Rsbeall12, for your review of the last chapter. I'm so glad that you enjoyed it! I'm sorry that this chapter is so short, but I hope that you'll enjoy it all the same. Rumple and Belle are cute together, are they not?! Peace and Happy Reading!