Regina did not bother answering her call she knew would be from Doctor Whale. She turned off her phone and proceeded out the door. She wanted answers and whenever something unusual occurred in town, she knew the one person who would know the answers; Mr. Gold or as he was known in the Enchanted Forest, Rumplestiltskin.

In Storybrooke, Mr. Gold was a wealthy man who owned many estates. He also ran a pawnshop called 'Mr. Gold Pawnshop & Antiquities Dealer'. The bells at the top of the door jingled as Regina entered the shop.

The dimly lit store carried treasures collected from many deals made over hundreds of years as well as lost possessions from people living in the small town. The brunette looked around, Gold was not at the front of the shop.

“Gold?” she called out.

The mayor waited for the owner to come out from the back room. There didn’t seem to be any indication that anybody would be coming out to meet her anytime soon. Regina was growing impatient.

Figuring that the older man probably didn’t hear her come in, she decided to go to the back to look for him. She huffed as she started her stride to the back room, normally out of bounds to everybody who had no business being there.

“Regina.” Mr. Gold said as he entered the room, startling the mayor.

“Gold.” the brunette greeted as she adjusted her coat subconsciously, collecting herself from her momentary fright.

“Is there something that you are looking for?”

The old man’s grin was sinister with a glint in his eye that should make Regina shiver but she was all too familiar with the Dark One and kept her poker face on.

“There is something strange happening in town and I believe you know something about it.”

“As mayor of Storybrooke, Regina, shouldn’t you be the one to know all that is going on in this little town” Gold stated as a matter of fact.

“Cut the crap Rumple! I know you are behind this!” The mayor was not in the business of playing games.

“Whatever do you mean… dearie?” the shop owner said through gritted teeth.

Regina decided to move the conversation along. Her patience wearing thin.

“Time seems to repeat itself, Rumple, and I want to know why!”

Mr. Gold snickered.

“Having a little case of the déjà vu are we?” the corners of his lips curled up. His smile was so wide that the gold tooth on the bottom row of his teeth could be seen.

The brunette had just about had it with the imp! Even in his human form, he had the ability to get on her nerves. She stormed to the counter where Gold was standing behind and slammed her hands onto the countertop.

“You’re behind this, aren’t you?!” Regina did not have to wait for the answer as the stupid grin plastered onto his face said it all. “Why?!” she demanded.

“Regina, there is someone that I want you to meet.” Mr. Gold turned his head to the entrance of the back room. The brunette followed his gaze and finally spotted the young woman that had been lurking behind the curtains separating the two parts of the store, eavesdropping their conversation this whole time.

The jig was up. The woman Regina had held captive all those years in the tower of her castle in the Enchanted Forest and in the Psychiatric Ward in Storybrooke Hospital had returned back to her master turned lover, Rumplestiltskin.

The brunette kept her poker face on.

“You remember Belle don’t you, Regina?”

The older woman backed a couple of steps slowly, preparing herself for whatever was to come. Although magic was in Storybrooke, she seemed incapable of channelling her powers. She wasn’t sure if it was the same for the Dark One.

“How did you find her? I thought she was dead?” Regina kept up the farce. She did not know if Belle had told Rumple that it was her who had kept the redhead imprisoned while he thought that she was dead.

As powerful as Rumple was, he couldn’t have possibly found her on his own as he believed she had died more than thirty years ago.

“She found her way back to me.”

“Oh.” the mayor averted her eyes.

The list of people who could have double-crossed her was not that long but she swore if she found the person responsible, they would have to pay.

“Imagine my surprise when I found out where she had been all these years.”

Rumplestiltskin walked around his counter and moved menacingly towards the mayor.

“I did not hurt her.”

“No dearie,” the old man closing the space between them, “What you did was far worst. That is why I’ve built a special prison just for you, one where you have to relive the tragedy that is the death of your son, over and over again!” He was now mere inches away from Regina’s face.

Belle gasped. The brunette swallowed hard. She could feel the tears building. She clenched her fists, willing the tears to remain at bay.

The mayor turned on her heels and ran out of the store.

                                                           *****

It had been three hours since Emma Swan had brought Henry to the hospital. Her son had since been stabilized but had not shown any signs of improvements.

“I’m sorry I doubted you, kid.” The blonde’s eyes had been stinging from hours of crying. She had loved her son deeply over the past few months of meeting him.

Emma whipped out her phone again, sending yet another text to Regina Mills.

Where the hell are you?!

She scrolled through the messages she had sent to the brunette that night. Her initial texts had been threats directed at the older woman. It then moved on to be apologetic with pleads of asking the adoptive mother to see her son and then it moved on to concern of the brunette’s whereabouts and finally frustration altogether.

Several attempts at calling the mayor had been futile as her phone had been off the entire night. The blonde had attempted to call the mayoral mansion a few times but Regina had not answered.

The sheriff sighed at the failed attempt to contact Henry’s other mother. She placed the phone back into her back jeans pocket before blanketing her body with the red pleather jacket and closing her eyes for a short nap.

                                                             *****

Regina Mills massaged her temples. She was nose deep in magic books, flipping through pages after pages. All of them telling her the same thing; there was no way to break this spell.

Without True Love’s Kiss, there was no way of waking Henry up and breaking the cycle. Regina channeled her old nemesis, Snow White, whom time and time again managed to defeat her plan with hope. If the insufferable princess could do it, so could she.

Realizing that she had been cooped up in her vault for hours, she decided to turn on her phone to check the time.

Her phone beeped several times as her notification informed her of the many missed calls from the hospital and Emma and texts messages from the blonde.

She tapped on the messages icon to read the texts she had accumulated.

[08:32 p.m.] Regina! Come to the hospital now! Henry ate the apple turnover you poisoned!

[08:51 p.m.] If Henry does not survive this, I swear to god, I’m coming after you!

[09:12 p.m.] Why do you have your phone turned off?! This is an emergency! Come here when you see this!

[09:36 p.m.] What the hell did you poison him with? Dr. Whale does not believe that Henry is poisoned but I know you did something.

[09:58 p.m.] Henry is stable but his condition is deteriorating.

[10:20 p.m.] Let’s set aside our differences. Henry needs you. Please come.

The brunette’s heart ached. She knew what would happen if she did not find a way to break the curse. She ignored the rest of the unread messages from the blonde that were a mixture of inquiring of her whereabouts and pleas to call her back.

She opted to turn off her phone again and continued her search for a solution. She did not want to get distracted by some angry blonde nor did she want reminders of her son’s impending doom.

Regina gathered up more books from her trunks and piled them onto the table top. She cracked open the one that was sitting on top of the pile and started flipping through the pages.

                                                          *****

Belle walked through the dark hallway in Mr. Gold’s house which was a lot cozier as compared to his dark castle but equally as lonely. Not wanting to rush their relationship too fast, Rumplestiltskin had offered the guest room for Belle to sleep in. The redhead was thankful that she was not affected by the curse and therefore did not have to wake up in the psych ward every single night. Unable to fall asleep after encountering Regina at the shop, Belle decided to talk to Rumple about it.

The guest bedroom was on the first floor while Rumple’s room was in the master bedroom upstairs. She climbed the stairs carefully. The stairway was illuminated by soft nightlight along the walls. Belle was careful to not make too much noise so that she did not alarm the older man. She did not want Rumple to mistaken her for an intruder. She had seen how the Dark One dealt with intruders.

At the top of the stairs, she could see Rumple’s room door was ajar at the end of the hallway. She slowly walked over and peered through the open door. She didn’t need to turn on the lights to see that Rumple was not in bed. She wondered where he could be.

Belle remembered that sometimes back in the Enchanted Forest, when Rumple did not go to bed, he would be in his study, spinning straw into gold. He claimed that he did that to help him forget. The young woman had not had a chance to explore the whole house but she had noted that Rumple would probably spin somewhere where people would not see him.

She climbed back down the stairs and walked out of the front door and circled to the back of the house. She could see light seeping out of the basement window. She knelt down and took a closer look. Rumple had been spinning but the straw he spun turned into a normal thread. He looked very focus he did not even notice Belle watching him.

Rumplestiltskin fed more straws into the machine, his concentration on the output of string from the spinning wheel. Never once did he break his focus from the string. The redhead stayed a while longer, watching her lover.

Moments later, Rumple stopped the wheel. He took a closer look at the thread in his hand. He had successfully spun straw into gold. Belle gasped. The older man snipped the ordinary thread from the gold and carried on with his straw spinning with a huge smile on his face.

The younger woman knew what this meant. Rumplestiltskin was now able to use his power. This would not be good news to anybody. She got off the ground and went back to her room. She had no idea what the man was planning but she knew that she will find out soon enough.