My original plan had been to make this about ten chapters long but as I continued outlining this story, I realized there were some characters and scenarios that I needed to further elaborate to make a lot of what is going on be cohesive where it meant I needed to expand the story.

My apologies :)

Chapter II

Rumpelstiltskin looked back and forth from the hospital corridor, thrilled to see the entire wing had been placed in darkness. Gathering his monitor, the sorcerer crept through the corridors leaving into the recreational grounds of the hospital in the dead of night.

The sight of the recently immaculate gardens caused Rumpelstiltskin to laugh over how the hospital looked more presentable than the supposed renovated areas of the city.

He breathed the night air feeling the magic coursing through his veins. Rumpelstiltskin stared at his monitor moving at a distance from it, raising his hand, concentrating onto the monitor where seconds after he had wanted, the monitor began to change its numbers in a rapid pace nearly malfunctioning until he transformed the monitor into a chestnut tree.

The sorcerer grazed at the night sky, ecstatic about regaining both his memories and magical abilities.

The last 48 hours, Rumpelstiltskin became convinced the observation had been the real curse and not the creation of Hyperion Heights.

Each minute he would turn his back, the nurses would come to his room non-stop and check his status or continue reassuring him he needed to get better to leave when it was clear to anyone his vitals were perfectly fine. He started getting the impression no one in the hospital has ever seen anyone live through a bullet even though Hyperion Heights has been suffering though a high crime rate due to the displacement of Mayor Belfrey's expansion.

At least these those were the memories the townspeople had been given when the curse had been placed.

Rumpelstiltskin couldn't think how long they had been curse, perhaps a year or two if he could make a good estimate. He had to give Lady Tremaine credit; she covered her tracks better than Regina where had Alice refused to take her medication, they all would still have been cursed an there might have been a good chance he would have been sitting in a jail cell for underestimating Belfrey in her blackmail attempts.

He immediately began to think about Henry, his grandson had now grown up and he realized just how closely the boy resembled Bae.

Regina was lying about Henry's whereabouts after all. At least she got the townsfolk's admiration while unable to remember her own son and husband.

Although based on their previous encounter, Rumpelstiltskin quickly deduced it was unlikely the author was awake as well and it meant he would have needed to begin looking over his files once again.

A twig snapping caused the sorcerer to divulge his attention to his back seeing he had been alone but he was hearing two people coming towards his corner. He quickly transformed himself into a lizard blending hiding behind one of the leaves on the chestnut tree.

As he began to teleport himself back into his room, Rumpelstiltskin got a better glimpse into the unwanted visitors seeing it to be Dr. Lilley but her companion proved to be more interesting as it was Ivy Belfrey conversing with the physician in close confidence which the sorcerer was given the impression this was more than just a visit for medical advice.

It appears Alice was mistaken about Ivy, the girl can leave her room for anything else other than a shopping trip. With all of Victoria's wealth and power, surely she could acquire better informants who are not her daughters.

Rumpelstiltskin quickly teleported back into his hospital room replacing the monitor and began to spend the remainder of the night going over the memories he began to easily sort out but had little luck in coming to terms with.

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Misthaven: 12 years before the original curse

Regina woke up wearing a fresh nightgown and finding she had been tucked into bed with several covers along with an empty birthing room and a broken heart. She wasn't surprised; the midwives and the clerics must have taken one look at the baby and realized it wasn't Leopold's then went to all the trouble in making sure the baby would be buried somewhere while Leopold would break the news to Snow she would no longer have sibling and he was the heartbroken father while the poor queen sat behind the memory of the previous queen. They at least had the consideration to tell her it was a stillbirth before Regina had passed out from the exhaustion due to labor pain.

She turned to her nightstand finding a card given to her by Snow White. Regina smiled at the hand drawn creation showing herself Snow and Leopold along with the new baby behind the castle gardens with the inscription "From your big sister" along with a smiley face and a heart.

Regina threw the card into the floor along with the contents of the nightstand before throwing herself back into the bed and began to sob hysterically into her pillows. She loved that child the second she realized her state but regretted never having a chance to tell Daniel he was going to be a father before her mother crushed his heart with the help of her stepdaughter. Regina did everything possible to hide her condition before the wedding letting everyone know one month after the nuptials the she was pregnant. She read about some cases with children being born prematurely in which a simple case of bribing the right people would have easily led her to keep the charade when the time came. Touching her stomach, Regina quickly recoiled back disgusted herself it was all for nothing. She needed that baby more than life itself, her only link left to Daniel and she will never get to know whether it was a boy or girl.

"I suppose congratulations are in order" Regina opened her eyes to seeing the owner of the obnoxious pitched voice sitting on the table eating from the grapes left in the fruit bowl for her. Rumpelstiltskin grabbed a goblet of wine taking a swig at it.

"You aren't suppose to be here Rumpel." Regina couldn't yelled any louder for fear someone might be standing guard while wishing her teacher would leave her alone.

"Unlike your father and all the non-holy men in which those rules are specifically made for, I'm not a man dearie." He got up having another glass of wine looking around the room flicking a speck of dust from the fire place when he noticed Regina sat back down on the bed refusing to look at him. "Although another rule you royals have is that the baby would normally be close to its mother after its recently born."

"The baby is dead, stillborn" she said placing a hand over arm still refusing to look at her guest. Regina noticed Rumpelstiltskin's arms towards her shoulder as he moved closer to her when she moved to him leaving her to sob into his shoulders.

"I'm sorry" he said in a lower tone that Regina hadn't recognized from her teacher. "I know how much she meant to you". He sounded like he had meant it.

"S-she?" Regina became confused looking at Rumpelstiltskin in the eye until she remembered Rumpelstiltskin had inspected her when she first told him the news. "The clerics took her away before I had a chance to ask."

Regina wiped her eyes holding her breath followed by looking at her mentor seeing his expression. He looked concerned! She couldn't believe he would care at all as Rumpelstiltskin spent months mocking her or berating her from her punctuality to her daily comments regarding her stepdaughter. She lowered her head down crying once again into Rumpelstiltskin's chest as he held her close with his hands patting down her back.

Hyperion Heights: Present Day

Traffic is hell, will be there soon

Rumpelstiltskin became convinced should he receive another text from Jones, traffic will have been the least of the pirate's problems. He was glad to be leaving after becoming bored for nearly two days with only encrypted texts from Alice to pass the time. He gathered his clothes getting dressed when he noticed his shirt still had the blood stained bullet mark.

He couldn't text Jones for a shirt and Alice was probably on the other side of town during this time of day. Frustrated, he threw the chair next to him deciding to discharge himself.

"Looks like you will be getting out of here now." The sorcerer noticed Dr. Lilley playfully knocked the door walking in getting her clipboard to write her notes. "Excited to leave?"

He still couldn't understand this woman, she wasn't a projection nor had there been anything magical about her to raise suspicion. Rumpelstiltskin thought about torturing the truth out of her regarding to what he saw the previous night but it was clear she might have been as cursed as the rest of the town. A sudden thought came to Rumpelstiltskin, touching the lower part of his face focusing on his stubble. "I could be, except I haven't had a shave yet."

"You are getting discharged."

"In 45 minutes."

She looked towards the clock annoyed. "Okay, I will get a nurse to shave you then."

"No dearie, I want you to do it." Smiling back at her

She raised an eyebrow at him believing him to be mad. "You must be joking." The physician started tapping her feet freeing the banes from her face when she excused herself for a second to gather the items he needed.

Dr. Lilley returned a few minutes later tapping her foot with the sorcerer biding his time enjoying the physician annoyed as she showed him several razors, towel and shaving cream.

"Take a seat and we will get started." The physician hid her annoyance behind a grin getting the chair back into its proper placing pointing towards the sorcerer who happily sitting down hearing Dr. Lilley turning on the faucet; she placed the hot towel over his face followed by the shaving cream. "Will you be driving home?

"Detective Roger is one his way, traffic."

"I'm glad; several of the patients within the wing were making some complaints about strange occurrences. In which your name kept popping up." She finished half of his face. He stared at her while she wiped the residue cream off where he detected a glance from her leaving the physician flushed.

"You don't say" he acted surprised recalling seeing a few stares when he tried to control in magic in a few occasions. "Would this have anything to do with why you would check up on me whilst I slept after instructing the nurses to report to you after they concluded their reports in their visits?"

Dr. Lilley dropped the razor looking back at Rumpelstiltskin who appeared so smug at catching her in a lie. She got the razor placing it in the trash getting a fresh one from the sink and resumed shaving the latter part of Rumpelstiltskin's face.

"I only wanted to check the well-being of my patients, nothing more." Stating rapidly that she felt herself getting tongue tied.

He moved upwards placing his face closer to hers getting the razor away from her hand into the sink. Rumpelstiltskin moved closer to her placing his mouth to her ear. "I think you are lying to me." He whispered while catching a faint rose scent from her hair even noticing a few dark roots tucked behind her ear.

Dr. Lilley bent her knees staring at Weaver straight in the eye that she nearly wept, her heart thumping as she placed her hand over his cheek slowly shaving the next part of his face in an effort not to focus so much on him. "You aren't exactly a beacon of truth yourself. I know you lied to protect that girl." Wiping the remaining of his face she leaned closer with their lips nearly touching, "it proves you are not as a terrible as you make yourself to be."

A throat clearing causing the pair to turn finding Detective Rogers standing over the door raising his eyebrow at them. "Have I arrived early?" Rumpelstiltskin wanted to get that grin out of Jones' face when he turned his attention back to the physician who gladly ignored their unwanted guest picking up her items and getting the discharge paperwork ready.

"Just in time" Rumpelstiltskin snarled.

Rumpelstiltskin got out of his chair seeing the wardrobe containing his jacket in which Rumpelstiltskin got upset with himself over not thinking to look there sooner. He looked at the hospital room one last time before following Rogers out of the wing when he saw Dr. Lilley talking to several nurses in the station. She glanced back at him and smiled back crinkling her nose for a split second before turning back to the conversation she had with the nurses.

Quickly Rumpelstiltskin followed Rogers who started telling him he would be on paid leave for another week following a meeting with the captain regarding the events that occurred where he needed to follow up on Alice over the matter of the tapes. Rumpelstiltskin was only half paying attention to what his partner said as all he began to think about was getting home to look over his files and get in touch with Alice as soon as possible.

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Rumpelstiltskin walked out of the Charger walking past the gate of Elysium Cemetery, clinging onto this jacket as the clouds began to form. He got annoyed at his cell phone hearing the same ring tone when he placed it on silent since he knew it must have been the third text from Jones regarding their meet up later that night at Roni's. Knowing he had little time, Rumpelstiltskin continued walking towards the cemetery seeing the gravestones where he was too exhausted in wondering whether they met their fates in the Enchanted Realm or at Hyperion Heights. Many appeared recently visited as some of the markers had flowers and photos where it would have been too elaborate for even Lady Tremaine to have come up with when building this new land. The cemetery led him a winding road in which he took the right spotting some trees that were hovering over a twin set of gravestone allowing him to head further into that direction when he spotted Belfrey dressed in black covered by a black umbrella looking over a gravestone with a clear reflection of the sun.

"I thought you wanted to see me alone." He pointed out to her but Belfrey continued turning her back towards him placing the bouquet of orchids onto the marker which he got a clear view of the inscriptions.

Anna Belfrey

Beloved Daughter and Sister

1995-2016

"Come now Detective Weaver, a man of your intelligence doesn't really believe in spirits having nothing better to that eavesdrop" She turned around laughing at him. "I suppose a near death experience can make anyone become superstitious."

"I did not drive all the way from the station after being spending a week being interrogated by Internal Affairs just to have a theological discussion."

She sneered at him placing her umbrella down. "Yes I heard it was a very thorough investigation." Leaning to the detective continuing to keep his composure, "I was surprised. For an entire week, I had expected to receive a call from the Police Commissioner regarding any paper trails that would lead back to your more colorful activities but nothing. Not a call or even shred of evidence to incriminate you. There is nothing suspicious or corrupt about you."

He could see she was losing her composure. Her hands were shaking in barely holding the umbrella handle where the combination of the cold air and light rain had not been helping matters. He hoped the next stroke of luck would arrive in lightening striking Madam Belfrey getting rid of an unnecessary eyesore once and for all. "Exactly what the Internal Affairs concluded."

Belfrey continued smiling at him pacing back and forth, "about that. I blackmail you to find that destructive monster of yours or I release those tapes. You get shot practically telling me the tapes no longer matter and then two days later, the tapes are now missing along with any evidence my office had been broken into." She placed her hand over his chest leaving Rumpelstiltskin to scoff back at her giving him the same grin he remembered Regina and Cora would to him when they believed they had the upper hand.

"We have known each other a long time Detective, I would hate to see someone as decorated and brilliant as you be placed in the same league with the more dangerous criminals you helped put away. Swear fealty to me and you can go about your merry away, enjoy your freedom until I will need of your assistance."

He blinked taking her hand off of him showing disgust towards her. "I serve no one."

"Alright, I will be seeing you soon. People like you never change and you will need a backer when the eventual slip up occurs."

Rumpelstiltskin stepped back grinning at her knowing she had nothing over him even outside his cursed and true persona. She gathered her umbrella and handbag ready to leave. "She was a beautiful girl, your Anna"

The mention of the name left Belfrey motionless.

"Horrible death, heart attack wasn't it?" He continued. "I can imagine how horrible it must have been for you. All those plans you had for her, the dreams and aspirations all gone. One day your think everything is under control and the world is at your feet then moments occurs when you least expect them." He knew she must have been shocked hearing about Anastasia which didn't surprise him in the least.

"You know nothing." refusing to turn back to answer Rumpelstiltskin in the eye.

He started walking away from her before turning to her. "You are right, my apologies. I can imagine Ivy's guilt; she is a lovely girl, spitting image of her mother with every passing day."

Leaving Belfrey dumbfounded, Rumpelstiltskin wished her a good evening and walked off the cemetery getting into the Charger before rain increased.