It had to be something related to the hat. It had to be. He knew that it had been almost too easy when she'd offered the Apprentice up to him on a silver platter. At least, that's what he would have thought if he hadn't, at that point, had the hat in his possession. What did she think that she had, then? Was it simply her own lack of knowledge that she thought the Apprentice was keeping it somewhere safe or that she didn't realize that he'd already used her own niece's tear to grant him access to it? Was there something more he was missing to the deal that they'd made? His silence for the hat…she'd expected that it would keep him busy and out of her way, motivated not to interfere, all because she hadn't realized that she had it yet. She'd already given away her highest card…but with a potential deal still on the table, what exactly did she have, or think that she had, that would be a suitable trade for that? And how could he get her to tell him? Even if he didn't need the information she thought she had, he didn't like knowing that there might be something she wasn't telling him. And he didn't like being unprepared for a deal.

He knew Belle was at the shop; he could feel her presence there even before he reappeared on the street outside. As soon as she left, he was going home. He was going to comb through the chronicles, not just Zoso's notes on the hat, every last bit of evidence that he had in order to figure out what exactly-

He expected Belle to be in the shop. He'd known she was there ever since she set foot on the property, his magic always let him know. But he'd expected she'd gone to the back room to find a book or maybe just needed a break away from the visitor in the library she clearly hadn't wanted. He hadn't anticipated walking in the front door and finding her in the front room with a rope and pick axe in her hand and determination in her eyes.

"Belle? Where are you headed?"

Not back over to the library, surely. But that only gave him another thing to worry about. If she had it in her head that she was going to go out there and face Ingrid alone-

"To the North Woods," she spat out. "Where the Snow Queen's hiding."

Fuck.

"And what business do you have with her?"

He didn't need to ask why she was doing this; Belle longed to be a hero and do brave things. But where this had suddenly come from, why she'd emerged from her place in the library to suddenly go hunting the Ice Queen herself when he could still feel Elsa's snow magic over in the library, that was a mystery to him. What the fuck had come over her?

"I have to fix a mistake I made a long time ago."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you. You wouldn't understand."

Those words slapped him in the face. He hadn't been prepared for words like that from her. "I can't tell you" and "you wouldn't understand"…those were his lines. Not Belle's. Not good, sweet Belle, who always told him he could tell her anything and promised she'd always understand. What mistake had she made that would make her think he couldn't return the favor? And how was going to look for Ingrid herself going to fix whatever this mysterious mistake was? And, for that matter, why was she telling him all this to begin with? She had to know that he wasn't going to let her go anywhere near that witch on her own. Was she saying all this with the hope that he would stop her?

"Whether or not that's true, the fact remains that she defeated both Emma and Regina. She is far more dangerous than you realize!"

"I know. That's why I was…I was hoping you'd come with me."

On a mission that he didn't understand and she wouldn't tell him about. How in the hell had she gotten so far out of her mind in such a short period of time?!

"I'm sorry, Belle, that's out of the question!" he shook his head, moving away from her. "I won't let you anywhere near her!"

"I was worried you were going to say that…"

A quiver in Belle's voice made him stop and turn to glance at her once more, only to find her digging around in her purse, as if looking for something.

"Because uh…I really, really didn't want to do this."

She was practically crying as she held the dagger in her fist, out in front of him as she had when Elsa and David had been by only now…

Now, it shook in her hand. It was a thin scrap of metal by comparison, but he couldn't help but feel like she was using it as a shield. And him?

He was stuck. A thousand thoughts erupted in his mind. His own and those of the Dark Ones.

Belle was using the dagger against him. Of course, that dagger had absolutely no power over him, the real one was safely hidden away and frankly, given their situation, he was certain he'd never place the real one in her fingers again after this. But the fact that she didn't hold the real dagger right this second was not a fact that was known to her. She was using it! Using it in an attempt to overpower his own wishes and fulfill her own.

Shameful! Nimue spat. It was smart not to trust her. Maybe you'll see now that we can't trust anyone!

Maybe. But…now?! The fact that Belle wasn't holding the real dagger was suddenly at the forefront of his mind. He didn't have to do what she was asking, but not to do it would arouse suspicion. Was he ready to have her realize that the dagger she held wasn't real? He'd already used the thing as an alibi far more often than he had wanted to. Was he prepared to have those alibis come crashing down?

The cost of that ran deeper than he wanted to acknowledge. He'd be under suspicion of working with the Ice Queen. The timid deal he had with Hook would unravel. They'd know about the Apprentice. Security would be tightened. It would make his chances of true freedom from the dagger harder. And Belle…she'd be devastated.

The Dark Ones scoffed in his head at that thought with the image of her standing before him using his one weakness against him, but…

No, this…this wasn't his Belle. She'd been acting odd all week, ever since they'd returned from their honeymoon. Something had been off with her, and this was just part of it. There was a reason she was doing this. And yes, it held the potential for devastation, and it left him feeling hurt and betrayed and angry, so very angry.

But he knew his Belle, his anger was going to be nothing compared to her own when she came to her senses and realized what she'd done.

When she came to her senses…he was between a rock and a hard place. He wasn't going to take Belle to meet Ingrid, but if she didn't lower that dagger and make that decision on her own, he might not have a choice. Fuck!

"Belle…I gave you that dagger because I trusted you. Because I thought you'd never want to control me."

"I know!" she shrieked, her voice breaking in a way that tightened his nerves. Oh, she was never going to forgive herself for this. And what was he to do about her insistence? If he couldn't get her to drop it? "I know, and I'm so, so sorry, Rumple, but if you won't come with me willingly…what choice do I have?"

He swallowed hard. He'd come back too late. While he'd been with the Snow Queen, somehow, in the time between the pair of them leaving the police station and now something had happened to work her up to this. She'd already thought everything through, already justified it, and given him the option of helping her. Desperation was driving her. He just wished he understood what she was desperate for.

But as she curled her fingers tighter against the blade between them, he let those musings go. He didn't have time to think about that right now, he only had time to think about how he was going to fix this, how he could get out of this without revealing all his darkest secrets and lose the one person in the world that he still had in his corner.

"Take me to the Snow Queen," she commanded. "To the place in the North Woods where she's hiding."

He didn't know if he should feel relief or anguish. It was a command. And unless he intended to confess to her here and now, there was no fighting it. But the correction she'd made, the addendum to the command that he take her to the hiding place. There was potentially something he could work with in that.

So, he let his magic stretch out, encompass the pair of them, and led her on a wild goose chase.

Okay, so I know this chapter, this scene, hell, this entire episode, is really hard. But I think I ended up really liking this chapter just because I really got to dive into Rumple's psyche for it. This is the beauty of having a wonderfully layered and complex character to write. He isn't just feeling one thing throughout this, he's feeling literally all the things! And because we get this peek inside his head we get to see them all. We get to see the panic he has that he might be caught in his plan if he isn't careful, we get to see him plotting, which is always a favorite. But when it comes to Belle we get to see that he's disappointed and angry, yes, but he's also still incredibly loyal and loving toward her. He's worried. He knows that she's not behaving in character and so angry as he is he has a lot of compassion for her. There's a reason why the Civil Wars "I Don't Love You (But I Always Will)" is on my Rumbelle playlist. And when it comes to Rumple, this is certainly one of those moments.

Thank you, Rsbeall12 and Grace5231973, for your reviews on the previous chapters! I feel like it's too much to say that I hope you'll like this chapter and even some of those to come, but I feel like it might be more appropriate to say that I hope you'll appreciate these chapters as I do think they have some value to them. And I am sorry that some of them are so short, that's just the way the scenes split up. Peace and Happy Reading!