"Emma is on her way," David explained to Belle. "She was just down the street with Mary Margaret and Neal when I called her. Hey, Henry, that's...a different look...!"
Emma was on the way. David was already here. Belle and Henry were safe even though he still felt the Queen's Ice Magic over in the library. Only moments later, when Emma turned up and brought Hook and Elsa with her, did it leave him convinced that he'd mistaken the Snow Queen for her niece. A mistake he couldn't afford to make if Ingrid was going to have absolutely no sense of respect for a deal they had in place.
"Last I checked, my permits stated this was a place of business, not a meeting house."
"Rumple!"
"It's okay, we're gonna go get her and get out of your hair," Emma declared.
"You know what you have to do?" David asked her.
"Yeah, I got this…" she stated, holding the candle in her hands but sounding utterly unconvinced. It made him grit his teeth in frustration. If it was him, he'd have this done by now.
"Just remember," Belle impressed upon Emma, "you have to believe in yourself. That's the key."
Emma nodded as her heart beat out a nervous rhythm that told him she didn't exactly "believe" as Belle suggested. "All right, let's go catch an Ice Queen."
He rolled his eyes as Emma, her parents, and Hook left the shop and headed for the library. "Just believe in yourself" was the key not just to the Elemental Candles but to magic in its simplest form. The first step in making all magic work was to simply believe that you had the power to make it happen. That was how it had always been, which was why he was always so great at it. Coward as he'd been, confidence had always come easily to him, with magic at least.
But Emma was not him. And while the Savior had a tendency to exude confidence it was not something that was present in every aspect of her life. She was confident she could tell truth from fiction, confident she could locate people on the run, confident she could keep the pirate barbarian in check, but when it came to magic…he could still see her shaking in her boots.
She lacked confidence in every way where magic was concerned. Power she might have had, but believing that she could do it…that would be her downfall.
Which was why he wasn't shocked that Belle seemed nervous as the four of them marched into the library with a candle as her only defense. Belle might believe in people, but she read them well enough to know that Emma's ability to believe in herself and properly control her magic was lacking.
With an arm protectively around Henry, the pair of them watched an empty street and an unchanging building. He stayed behind the counter and watched them, mainly to make sure he didn't need to intervene if the Snow Queen got any ideas about coming to find his wife outside of the library, but also because he was curious about what would happen.
An Elemental with moderate control over her water element matched against a Savior who was easily more powerful but lacked the confidence and control to properly use the tool she'd been given. Hell, if Belle and Henry weren't standing right there, he'd have been trying to conjure the image through a window to watch the spectacle himself!
"There!" Henry pointed out suddenly. "They're coming out! They've…they've got her! Look, Mom's got her! The woman in white! That has to be her! Is it her?"
"That's her…" Belle mumbled next to Henry.
And indeed it was. The magic that left the library the second she was gone told him it could be no one besides Ingrid. No trick, no illusion. It was fast, too. Almost too fast. They'd been over there for no more than five minutes, at least two of which they would have needed for the elevator. And Ingrid…she'd actually allowed Emma to put handcuffs on her! David ran down the street and pulled the yellow bug closer to the curb, but before they set the Ice Queen in the backseat, he could see those cuffs on her wrist clear as day, glittering right along with the rest of her wardrobe. The effects of the candle shouldn't be so strong that they would overpower her now, so the only conclusion was that she had allowed herself to be captured. She'd wanted it. But why? What was her game?
And why were the others standing in front of the library, casting nervous glances up to the clocktower, chatting instead of doing something about the assumed menace they'd just captured? Something didn't feel right.
"I uh…I think the fun's over. You better get back to your chores," Belle announced as Emma suddenly got in the car and drove away. David was on his way back to the shop, but Hook…Hook stayed right by those library doors as if he was standing sentry. A poor choice of guard, in his opinion, but he was more curious about what he felt he needed to guard to care.
"Work, not chores," Henry corrected, turning his attention back to the shop.
Belle suddenly joined him behind the counter, where he'd watched the perplexing scene unfold. "I'll call you if I learn something," she promised before kissing him quickly and leaving the shop to intercept David. Henry went right back to work, but he didn't. He couldn't. There was something more happening right before his eyes, and he could feel it in every magical bone in his body. The way that Belle and David stood there talking to each other, the way David kept glancing around the street to make sure no one was listening, even the way that Hook kept casting wayward glances up the length of the library. He didn't like it.
Nor did he like the way that, after a quick briefing, David and Belle walked across the street and back into the library with Hook.
Short chapter. I did warn you that nothing during this scene wanted to divide out nicely. Still, I'll comfort myself knowing that there are some of you who really like the shorter chapters. There's nothing too exciting in this chapter, it really just serves to reiterate what we've been saying about Rumpel for most of this episode's chapters. He has succeeded in being on the outside and looking in. I guess the real question now is does he really enjoy this place he's put himself.
Thank you to Grace5231973 and Rsbeall12 for your reviews. Let me know what you think of this one and we'll be back again on Monday. The next chapters do start to even out a little bit better. Not perfectly, but certainly better. Peace and Happy Reading!