It should not have come as a surprise, she suspected, that the little wench had won out, in the end. With her pretended innocence, and tragic penchant for using her perfection in appearance to her own devices, the reality of the current situation was, unfortunately, unavoidable. Every piece of the plan had been in place. Perfectly so, if she were being honest. And yet, the prince, and his obnoxious little wife had thwarted her once again. The princess was gone; and the curse, while still suitable, would not have quite the effect she had desired since its inception.

This was not how everything was supposed to end—

Resisting the urge to hurl the goblet of wine she held against a nearby wall in evidence of her frustration and anger, the woman instead opted for striding across the room, and out onto the balcony beyond; the coolness of the breeze that wafted against her skin hardly doing a thing to assuage her current temperament. Darkened clouds were speeding towards the castle from the east; ahead of a strong wind that already was bending the boughs of the trees in the forest beyond the castle borders. The curse she had so desired was almost in effect. And she knew, above all, that she ought to be happy that her end-game had been achieved; and not bitter that she did not have every last thing that she wanted.

After all, she was about to receive her very own happy ending. It was close enough to taste, now; at least in a metaphorical sense. And suddenly, she was unable to avoid the reality that was now laid out so plainly before her. A reality she had hardly dared to dream of, in the midst of the immediate aggravation that had so nearly overwhelmed her at the initial discovery of the partial failure of her plan. She still stood one chance at a happy ending, even with the presumed threat of twenty-eight years being the maximum duration of just such a thing. There was another girl she desired; in addition to the end of the princess. Another girl who was rightfully her own; although a foolish deal had served to part them.

With such a thought in mind, she turned away from the balcony, in favor of heading inside once again; her steps taking her towards the staircase, this time, instead of towards the table that housed more wine. She knew what to do now. In truth, she had known it ever since learning of the princess' mysterious disappearance. After all, it was his fault, she believed, that the curse had not worked properly before the princess was even born…

What better vengeance could she exact upon him; save for taking the daughter he loved so dearly for her own?

…

(Storybrooke, present day)

"Did you read it yet?" Henry piped up; shouldering past Kat as she attempted to navigate through the doorway of her bedroom, and into the hallway beyond, so that he could dart over towards her bed, and flop down on the soft mattress with quite the air of dramatic effect "The book, I mean."

"Not yet, kiddo. I was a bit busy studying last night."

"Studying what? Not those awful old, smelly books of Mister Gold's—"

"I'll have you know, they're very interesting" Kat protested; laughing at Henry's look of abject horror, and abandoning her attempt at exiting her room to move towards the beckoning smell of coffee wafting up to them both from the downstairs kitchen so that she could ruffle his hair affectionately before going on "And besides, shouldn't you be studying, too? I thought you had a science test today."

"It's going to be easy. Like all the other tests in the class" Henry replied; shrugging as though that fact, in and of itself ought to have been apparent already, and squirming a bit on the mattress to make himself more comfortable "I'm basically a genius."

"Oh. Forgive me for doubting your prowess, Einstein" Kat quipped; making a rather exaggerated attempt at a bow, before moving towards the bed with fingers outstretched to tickle at Henry's sides "I must have forgotten you stole all the brains in this family."

"Except I'm not really a part of this family."

"Henry—"

"Well? I'm not" The boy pressed; shifting back just a bit from Kat as she moved to perch on the edge of the bed beside him, and shrugging once again before going on "But you'll never guess what I decided to do!"

"Oh? What's that?" Kat questioned; quirking a brow at Henry, and nudging him in the shoulder as he gave her yet another look that indicated she ought to have caught on to what he was thinking already. In truth, she had already suspected what he was about to say; particularly after having witnessed how determined he appeared to be about getting her to read the book he was so obsessed with. But even with that suspicion, Kat could not entirely suppress the reluctant expression that crossed her features at Henry's eagerly upturned face; the manner in which his eyes were shining their excitement prompting her to chew idly at her lower lip while he elected to fill her in on the apparent genius of his plan.

"I'm going to find my mom, Kat. My real mom. And I want you to help me."

Not for the first time, Kat found herself silently cursing the hold Henry's hazel eyes had over her; and the extent of trouble they more often than not got her into as a result of not wanting to see him upset…

…

Well hello there, dearies! And welcome to a rather unexpected new story! I seem to keep finding new shows to watch; and consequently, new story muses to write for. And, as such, I can only hope that my endeavors in that regard are at least somewhat enjoyable; because I certainly seem powerless to stop them!

As I always do with my stories, I absolutely implore everyone that feels so moved to leave at least some manner of feedback on this small initial chapter. I have more ideas to follow, that will of course result in longer chapters; but before I went all out I wanted to post this little guy, and see how well it was received! I truly do appreciate everyone that has taken the time to read this initial posting; and I hope that you all enjoyed what you found!

Before I close, I do have one final question; namely as it pertains to a pairing for Kat, going forward. I've only just started watching the show, so my main leanings are Graham/Huntsman versus August/Pinnochio. So, in opening the floor to you all for voting, I'd also like to say that any other ideas you have are fair game! I would absolutely love to hear them all!

Until next time, then? (I hope!)

MJR