The act of going home and resetting for the day had been helpful. He wasn't like Belle, cleaning wasn't something that brought him comfort. But the act of going through things that didn't require him to think, doing chores on rote, was good for him in the sense that it freed up his brain to think through other things while his hands kept busy.

Initially unsure of what was going to happen, he prepared for anything. First and foremost, he prepared to wake Belle by putting things back in the house where they belonged. There was a part of him that didn't want to wake her, a part of him that considered keeping her asleep for the duration of the plan and then waking her in New York the next morning and telling her exactly what he was going to tell her all along: The Snow Queen's Curse worked, Storybrooke descended into chaos, and he'd just barely gotten her out of there with their lives. He'd, of course, would have to tell an even more sorrowful tale about losing Henry. That would have been the part that he'd regret. But to completely follow through as if the curse hadn't been broken and take Henry with him would have been to incur the wrath of his mothers, and when he stepped over that town line, he wanted no one to come looking for him, no one to search for him. He just wanted the world they'd known to let them go on in peace.

He'd almost followed through with that plan. But before he'd left Belle in the Shop, he'd removed her phone and taken it with him, more out of curiosity than anything. As the hours ticked on, the messages began to grow. He hadn't even known Belle knew this many people, yet they contacted her, wondering if she was okay, asking when the library would be open again, hoping she'd stayed out of trouble. He didn't write back, but the longer he ignored them, the more frantic and frequent the messages, particularly from Granny and David, began to grow. The latter even attempted to call at one point.

No matter what was going to happen with Belle, he had business to do today; business that required his presence in Storybrooke. Walking around as though nothing was bothering him while messages to Belle went unanswered would look suspicious. That was a sure way to get Emma to pay him a visit, and that was the last person he wanted nosing around him at the moment.

All this really meant was that he had no choice. He was going to have to wake Belle. Which was sure to add another complication to the day because it was clear to him that with the fairies gone and no intention of keeping Hook alive much longer, he had to get them out of Storybrooke. Once Hook turned up dead people, Emma in particular, were sure to begin putting two and two together, and there would be no hiding that from Belle, at least for long. The only option was to leave.

But how to get her to go with him without a fight?!

The question anguished him until he returned to his office to put some of the more expensive things away. His eyes landed on some brochures and maps that he'd had from when he intended to go out into the world to find Baelfire. Whether it was him or whether it was a Dark One, he suddenly had exactly the idea of getting Belle out of Storybrooke.

He was going to have to find a way to keep her out of Storybrooke, delete the messages on her phone, block the numbers of those who were left, hell, maybe just get her a new number. It wasn't a perfect answer, but it was something at least. It was step one. He could afford to figure out step two later.

He showered, finished resetting the house, and then made his way back into town, where he saw yet another headache that threatened to dampen his newly formed plan.

On the way back to the shop he saw Emma standing on the curb outside of Granny's. She was there with a large man dressed in gray as well as Elsa and Anna. He was about to wake his wife, and Anna was still running around Storybrooke…fuck, that wouldn't do.

Anger, and perhaps a bit of fear, pulsed within him as he parked the car. Why were the sisters still here? If they'd gotten Anna back, that meant there had to be a way back to Arendelle, back to their world; he would have thought the sisters would take it in a heartbeat. The same heartbeat that Belle would have decided to go find Anna in if he woke her while she was still in town.

Fuck.

After he got into the shop, deleted the messages from Belle's phone, and made sure she was right where he left her, he quickly summoned Hook. He hadn't seen him with Emma and the others outside of Granny's, but through the bond, he could sense that he was close by, the docks, on his ship perhaps. That in and of itself was odd. Lately Hook seemed more like Emma's sidekick than Henry did. And yes, he was, of course, willing him to keep silent about certain things, but he hadn't willed him to spend less time with her, which meant that being away from her on his last day was a choice that he was making. That was suspicious all on its own.

He knew something. Through the bond he could sense it. There was guilt inside of him, he was guilty and conflicted. He was staying away from Emma lest he learn something and have to report it.

But the pirate wasn't smart enough to put together a plan like that before it was necessary, which meant he had already been included when he shouldn't have. What was going on?

"Did my eyes deceive me…or was that the Arendelle royalty I saw talking to Emma mere minutes ago?" he questioned from behind the counter the second the pirate walked into his shop with a grimace on his face. "Determined as she's been all week, I expected the sisters would be halfway home by now."

"The Curse hasn't even been broken four hours, Crocodile, perhaps they wanted to see the sights," he responded with a look of disinterest. The pounding of his heart betrayed the exterior look of calm he displayed.

"Funny, I thought the sisters wanted to go back to Arendelle. Immediately."

"They had their plans, still do, to my knowledge. According to Anna, Arendelle has been conquered, and they mean to go back and save it as soon as possible," he explained. "Anna's fiancé, Kristoff, wants to go with them too by the way."

He fought the urge to roll his eyes at the Captain's implication that he hadn't cared about the third individual he'd seen. It was worthy of an eye roll. He didn't care, and the Hook should have been the first person to know that. He cared about why they were still here! Especially if there was an emergency of this magnitude.

"And why haven't they followed through with those plans?"

Hook swallowed. And stared him dead in the eye. But his jaw never even twitched. Well then, it seemed that he'd located the information that the pirate stumbled upon which removed him from Emma's presence.

Delightful as it would be to attempt to tease it out of him, he was on a time crunch he felt in every fiber of his being. This wasn't a time for games; it was a time for answers. He summoned Hook's heart into his hand and cut through the bullshit by applying only a slight amount of pressure. But Hook immediately tensed under it. His body went ridged with pain, and the one good hand he still had reached for his chest. As if that would do him any good.

"Time for some straight answers from you," he growled at him. "We'll begin again. Did my eyes deceive me, or was that the Arendelle royalty I saw talking to Emma mere minutes ago?"

"It was. They didn't leave," he choked out. "The Snow Queen mucked up the border. Once you cross, there's no c…coming back."

He eased his grip and heard a sound of relief from the Captain as he thought through his options. The bit about the border wasn't exactly the answer that he'd been looking for, nor did it apply to the visiting royals as far as he could tell. But it was certainly something important to know. Something that changed things.

He couldn't come this far only to fail now, in the final hours. Knowing what he knew now, it was all too tempting to just put Belle in the car and follow through with last night's plan. Hell, he wouldn't even have to use the memory potion, he could just say that their interaction when he fetched her was when he knew they had to leave and she'd resisted him. The townline would have been a great help to him in his plan, he didn't want to come back, they wouldn't need to come back. If he played it just right, then he could change her phone number, her only connection to Storybrooke, and get word last minute that while they'd been away, there had been another villain, another curse, and Storybrooke was no more. It would be easy.

If not for Emma.

He hadn't thought about it until now, but none of the plans he'd thought up thus far accounted for Emma's sense of justice and her incredibly lucky ability to triumph over magic. She was a bail bondsman. When she put two and two together, Hook's death, the fairies missing…she'd come to find them.

That knowledge did not change his mind about his plan. It simply was a problem for another day. Today's problem was how to make it to nightfall without exposing his precious plans in the meantime.

"If only the Snow Queen had succeeded…everything would be much simpler."

"Yes. Perfect cover for your exit. But everybody survived. Sorry for the inconvenience," Hook snarled although he'd never meant to say that out loud. He ignored him in favor of gaining more useful information, like the answers he'd actually brought him here for.

"What about our friends from Arendelle?"

"Well, they're still searching for a portal back."

Fuck. That was even worse than he thought. He'd assumed that Anna had gotten here through a portal in the first place and would be able to just take her sister back through it, he hadn't realized…

"Well, that is a problem. Can't have that Anna running around town."

If he woke Belle but Anna was out free to roam instead of out searching cliffs or a forest or somewhere she'd be predictable and contained, that certainly made things more difficult. It meant he'd have to keep a closer eye on Belle, a problem given the activities he meant to engage in when the sun fell. Or…

"She knows, doesn't she? She knows what you were doing, cleaving yourself from the dagger so you can leave with your power. Emma told me Belle confessed about knowing Anna."

"Still, quite the supposition," he accused. He'd guessed wrong. But not wrong enough. Anna didn't quite know the entire plan, not here, not as he was now, but she'd guessed enough of it back then easily enough to make him nervous.

"Why else would you care? Anna's a danger to you. You can't have your blissfully ignorant wife…"

"Lose either her bliss or ignorance. Watch Anna," he commanded out loud and down their bond. "Make sure she comes nowhere near this shop."

"But if I had the choice."

"Well, you don't. Your usefulness was unexpectedly extended. But tonight, when the stars in the sky align with the stars in the sorcerer's hat, I will finally do what I should have done so many years ago…I will crush your heart."

"And while I'm out doing your dirty work, what are you gonna do?"

He laughed. What he should have done by now, in the best, most careful way he knew how to do it. "I'm simply gonna wake my wife and prepare her for my greatest gift. She's gonna have the life she always wanted."

A life of travel and seeing the world. Hopefully, she'd never know that they were also running from Emma at the same time.

He's so freaking close here! It's not just a matter of taking an exit that appears on the side of the road, it's like he's driving right past his destination! I might not agree with the methods or secrets it would require, but if Rumple's entire hope here is to take Belle and get away from Stroybrooke, go out into the world where he can be free of magic, it's staring him dead in the eyes right now. He could so easily say "Screw the dagger!" put Belle in the car, and just go. They could have that life and no one would chase them. But he can't do it. Not because he doesn't want to, he's thought of it before, but those voices in his head just can't leave him alone, now can they? Wonder what we might do about that...

Thank you, Rsbeall12 and Grace5231973, for your reviews. A fun fact here, I had Rumple assuming Hook was on his ship because he sensed him at the docks. That wasn't an accident. I know Hook does not, at this moment, have his ship. I tried and tried throughout this fiction to find some time for Rumple to figure this out, even through the bond the pair share. But the moment just never revealed itself. So, as far as Rumple knows, Hook's ship is still at the dock, right where he left it before 3B. That's also the reason Rumple was working through the old season 2 Curse a few chapters ago. I've tried to find a way for him to find out about that part of the curse being broken, but there was just no way. So, for accuracy, without someone telling him that, he has to assume what he already knows is true. Does that make sense? Peace and Happy Reading!