~ Curiosity and Kat ~

Bae was on all their minds at the restaurant and though Henry wished his father was there with them, having his grandfather there was all he needed at the moment.

The server had just brought their pizza to the table, when a brown-haired woman with glasses in her early forties walked into the restaurant. Astonishment colored her features when she caught sight of Robert and Henry. "Mr. Gold! Fancy meeting you here!"

Henry smirked at his grandfather, suspecting this was the 'Kat' he talked about.

She walked over to them, slightly shy. "Hello. I'm Kat, Rob-err Mr. Gold's secretary. And you must be his grandson he's told me so much about. Pleased to meet you." She held out her hand to Henry.

He shook it eagerly. "He's told us so much about you too," he greeted with a grin. "This is Archie...my ummm...adopted dad."

"A pleasure, Archie," she shook his hand with a bright unpretentious smile. "Is this your first time here in New York?"

"Mine, yes but Henry's been here before...with his father."

She slid her eyes to Mr. Gold. "You never mentioned that."

"It was before...he was...he passed away."

Her face immediately grew sympathetic. "Did he live here? I'm sorry, I'm being nosy."

"Most of his adult life...we'd had a falling out and...had only recently started making amends when..."

She went and squeezed his hand unconsciously.

Henry elbowed Archie in the ribs under the table. He barely knew his grandfather's secretary but he sensed she was the complete opposite of Belle, a woman willing to accept everything his grandfather was and could be.

For a moment Robert found himself thinking about the woman he'd placed so many of his hopes in back in Storybrooke and how she'd taken them and shattered them like that mirror that brought out the worst in everyone in that town. He knew he should be wary of Kat since she was a stranger to him but she had demonstrated several times in the course of their professional relationship that she could be trusted.

"Hey Kat, you want to join us for pizza? We have plenty," Henry invited.

"I . . . well, if you don't mind? I wouldn't want to intrude upon your time with your family, Mr. Gold," she said, knowing how rare it was for him to even have family to spend time with.

"My grandson has no objections," Robert chuckled and pulled out the empty chair beside him and he secretly hoped Kat would stay. Her presence was comforting to him.

"Now all we need is Jeanna here," Henry teased.

"Thank you," murmured Kat and sat down.

"You'll be pleased to know, Kat, we've discussed custody and Archie and I are going to share custody of Henry. I'll have him on the weekends and he will stay with Archie during the week. We'll need to draw up the papers and sign them in the morning."

"I'll have them ready, Mr. Gold." She assured him. "I'm glad to hear that. You need family, everyone does. Whether it's blood or not."

"And he's going to have sessions with me over...what happened," Archie added.

She looked relieved. "Good. You can help him better than I can, since I'm not trained in that type of thing, and maybe then he can get some peace and happiness in his life. He deserves that too."

"You've helped him some since he's been here," Henry pointed out.

"Only a little. But then, my mom always said a little kindness helps a lot."

"Do you believe in magic?"

His grandfather and adopted father nearly choked on their pizzas.

But Kat didn't bat an eye. "If you promise not to have me taken away by the men in the white coats I'll give you a straight answer."

"Go for it."

"Henry, what are you doing?" Archie whispered frantically.

"Then my answer is yes. I think that magic does exist or has existed her for longer than any of us remember. Many of the native peoples-the Indians, the Africans, used it. And still do. But then people began to fear it and people destroy what they fear and can't understand. And magic is somewhat like faith, if you can't wield it, you can't see it, except for the results of it. Jesus performed miracles in the Bible, so did many of his prophets. What's that if not a form of magic-divine magic? And yes, I'd probably be kicked out of the Catholic Church for daring to say such a thing, but . . . magic is all around us. You simply need to be able to sense it . . .and for a few lucky people, to use it."

"If you met someone magical...what would you do?"

"Henry, lad..." Robert began nervously. "This isn't the place for this..."

"I would probably talk their ear off," she replied. "I mean, wouldn't you?"

"If one was cursed...would you ignore them or try to help them?"

"Henry, enough..."

"Grandpa, I think she might be able to help you..."

"It would depend on why they had been cursed. If it were to teach them a lesson . . .I would have to make sure they'd learned it before I would help, but if they had been cursed for another reason, then yes, I would try to help." Then she stared at the two Gold men. "Wait . . .are you saying . . .?"

"Nothing!" Robert said quickly.

"My grandpa is a sorcerer under a curse!" Henry whispered.

Archie dropped the pizza he was holding. Robert nearly spilled his soda.

Kat gaped at him. She looked from one to the other, noting that the others' reactions were too spontaneous to be faked. Then she looked at Mr. Gold. "You . . .are?"

The teenager wasn't in the least bit frightened. His instincts were telling him that this woman was one that could be trusted with their secret.

Robert sighed deeply. "In our world I am known as the Dark One, the most powerful sorcerer in all the realms but my magic came at a price...I lost my boy..."

"And who cursed you? This bitch of a wife of yours?"

"No. Perhaps we should take this discussion back to my apartment."

"Yes . . .before someone calls the cops," she joked. "Crazies eating the pepperoni pie over there are talking about becoming Jedi and using the Force."

"Good idea," Archie mumbled and asked the server to bring them boxes for their pizza and appetizers.

Kat accompanied them out of the pizza parlor, after trying to pay for some of the pizza. But her boss refused to take a dime from her.

Once they were back at his apartment and sitting around the kitchen table, Robert began his story. "I was once a spinner and weaver. My true name is Rumplestiltskin. I'm sure the name is familiar to you, Kat."

"Like the imp of the fairytales," she said. "But . . .you're human."

"In this world yes, but in ours I look...different because of my curse. My skin is greyish green with scales, my eyes are amber."

"And are you tiny, like the stories say?"

"No. I am this height, could spin straw into gold and made deals with desperate souls."

"It wasn't always your fault if they went bad," Henry argued.

"My situation being the perfect example," Archie added.

"How were you cursed?" she asked fascinated.

"I took this burden because at one time I was one of those desperate souls. I was raising my son alone after my wife deserted us for a bloody pirate and our land was being invaded by the ogres. Many were dying. I myself served in the first Ogre War but I was told by a Seer that my wife was having our child...and I didn't want my son growing up without a father as I did." He gestured to his ankle. "I injured myself and branded myself a coward forever...for my boy. . ."

Anyone else would have thought they were certifiably nuts to be talking like this, and she was just as bad because she believed their lies. But she had known liars and she could tell they were not lying . . or delusional.

"Then the wars came again. Men were still dying and the duke of our lands started drafting children into the wars when they turned fourteen. Children! My Baelfire...he was approaching the age to be drafted and I didn't want that to happen so we ran...and encountered a man on the road named Zoso. He spoke of how the duke controlled the Dark One with a magical Kris dagger. He suggested I take the dagger, control the Dark One, and my Bae would never have to fight."

His eyes filled with tears as he remembered those early days. "I went to the duke's castle and set it afire so that I could take the dagger but when I summoned the Dark One I discovered Zoso was the Dark One...and he only wanted one thing...for someone else to take his burden from him."

He could see that terrible night again his mind, plunging the dagger into the other man's heart, Zoso's cruel taunts that he'd made a deal he didn't understand. "He tricked me...claimed Bae wasn't mine and I killed him...thus taking the curse myself."

"He passed the curse to you?" Kat guessed, her heart aching for the man he had been, the man that she sensed he still was.

"It burrowed itself into my soul like a parasite, feeding on my insecurities, draining me of my humanity but I did honor my promise to my boy that I would end the wars and send the children home."

"So this curse is like-possession by a demon or an evil spirit?"

"Yes. It changed me...so much that my own son feared me. He wanted us to go somewhere I could be free of my curse...here. But when the portal opened...it took control of me, made me let go of my son's hand and he fell into this world alone. My one fatal mistake...the one I spent most of my life trying to fix."

"But . . .you found him again, didn't you?"

"He had to create a curse that took everyone from their world out of it to here but he couldn't cast it. My mom did."

"Why? Why couldn't you use a portal and just come here?"

"Everything that could make a portal was hidden from me."

"I see. And who was your mother?" she asked Henry.

"The Evil Queen from Snow White...she's my adopted mother. My birth mother is Snow White's daughter Emma and Bae is my dad but he was called Neal here."

"The Evil Queen . . .are you telling me this is like-a parallel universe where all the characters from books are alive?" she said.

"Yes. That's what we're saying. Some are still in our old world, the others in a town called Storybrooke but Grandpa and Archie are the only ones here in New York."

"And we're not all like what you've seen and read about as is this case with me," Robert said.

"You're a fairy tale character too? Which one?" she asked Archie.

"Jiminy Cricket," he answered.

As she took in all that they were saying to her, she had a sudden realization about just who Robert's 'bitch wife' was. "It seems that Belle is not the way the movies depict her if she knows of your curse and has done nothing to break it," she said bitterly.

"She tried once with true love's kiss...but it didn't work..." Robert began.

"A kiss can't break a soul possession, Robert, as I'm sure you know."

"We need to find out what can," Henry insisted.

"This curse that brought you all here...Robert, did you find your son with it?"

"Not until Henry's mother broke it. We came here and found him but he was still angry with me for abandoning him. It wasn't until we went to Neverland to rescue Henry that he forgave me."

"Neverland? It's real too?"

"Yeah but it's not the happy place you know, Kat, and Peter Pan was evil..." Henry cringed. "He wanted to take my heart and use it to make himself immortal."

"Just like he abandoned his son to remain young forever," Robert sneered.

"Who was...his son...oh God...Robert...was it you?!"

He nodded.

"He took control of Henry's body and crossed over to this world with us. He planned to cast the curse that would freeze time and make everyone forget who they were all over again. Stopping him required a price...and this price was my life...and his."

Kat gasped. "You...died?! But you're alive now...how?"

"My son...was tricked into trading his life for mine by the Wicked Witch of the West...the Evil Queen's sister Zelena...a former pupil of mine who was obsessed with me."

"She held you captive..." Kat reached across the table and took his hands in hers. "Why did she do it?"

"She needed my mind...Snow White's baby, Regina's heart, and Prince Charming's courage to cast a time travel spell. She was going to change all of our fates to create her own happy ending."

"But time travel...only happens in movies and when it does, something is always screwed up! That's why it shouldn't be done!"

"Oh I agree, dearie, and I tried to prevent that. I killed her when the others would have allowed her to live."

"She killed your son! She imprisoned and tortured you! She was too dangerous to be kept alive!"

"Heroes don't kill was their argument," Robert said.

Kat scoffed. "They do when the safety of others is at risk. If our troops honored such a messed up moral code we'd be the mercy of every terrorist group in the world...or be under the control of the Nazis."

Then he and Archie talked about the wedding but when they repeated the vows Belle had spoken Kat wished she had the so called Beauty in the room with her so that she could chip her into a million pieces like that cup.

"Who the hell had the bright idea that telling a man what she doesn't like about him is a proper wedding vow? As if she hasn't done anything wrong? I would have told her off then and there...but I can understand why you didn't. You loved her and you believed in her far more than she believed in you. And she was crazy enough to carry the dagger around in her PURSE? Why not put up a large sign saying: Get Your Dark One Dagger here!"

Her name should be Dumbbelle, Kat thought angrily.

"When Mom and Hook went through time and came back everything started getting worse because they brought back Robin Hood's wife and Elsa from Frozen," Henry said. "The Snow Queen was already here and she was the one who cast the curse that brought out everyone's dark sides. When Belle found out Grandpa switched the daggers and was trying to free himself from his curse the only way he believed he could, she used it to order him to leave Storybrooke."

"She actually used the dagger to control you?"

Robert nodded sadly. "That wasn't the first time she tried."

"More than once?"

"Yes. So that she could 'help' the heroes."

"Help them do what?"

"Stop me...they thought I was in league with the Snow Queen but Ingrid had her own agenda. She always did. All I wanted was to leave and escape both her curse and my own but I was sent over the town line alone—without a coat, or my cane, or any money in the dead of a winter's night . . . she didn't care if it led to my death...but I had prepared for it."

"She didn't talk to you, try and find out what was going on? That's crazy! If you love someone, you talk to them."

"She knew I was cursed and I wasn't comfortable talking about what Zelena had done nor did she ask. I endured my pain in silence."

Kat shook her head. "Name of God! If I had my husband harmed the way you were . . I would have needed to be restrained from strangling the bitch and I'd be right in therapy with you, so I could understand what had gone on and be there for you. Because that's what a good wife does, supports her husband through times of trouble. What was she doing while you were going through this? Filing her damned nails? Reading?"

"She did read quite a bit. The rest of the time she was trying to find Elsa's sister because she believed the girl's disappearance was her fault."

"Why was that more important than helping her husband? Was this sister a good friend of hers?"

"No. She didn't know her. But her theory was that a hero helped strangers if I remember correctly."

Kat rolled her eyes. "Who died and made her Wonder Woman? So she was more concerned over this stranger than the husband who had been missing for over a year, presumed dead, and yet when she finally gets you back, she doesn't even spend time with you? Retarded! I mean, it wasn't like you didn't have other people looking for this sister, right?"

"Oh yes the rest of the town was."

"Then she should have let them look and her concern should have been you. Considering what had happened to you! Your son murdered, you hurt and tortured and having PTSD . . .what in HELL, Robert?"

"Now I've been told she's seeing someone else...a married man in fact and is now friends with the pirate that ran off with my first wife and tried to kill Belle many times."

"And tortured me," Archie said angrily.

Kat gaped at him. "You're kidding me? She's cheating on you with some scumbag and is friends with some attempted murderer."

"Yes," they all answered.

"Oh my God! This Belle sounds like a total idiot! Why would she ever want another man when she had someone like you? I-I mean . . ." Kat trailed off, blushing.

"I'm a difficult man to love..."

Henry smiled at her. "So you don't think my grandpa is evil?"

"No . . .that's like saying someone possessed by a demon is evil. From what I can tell, you sacrificed your soul for your son and your life for everyone, including your worthless beauty of a wife, and no one appreciated it. Now what's bad about that? Hmm? Nothing! They all seem like ungrateful bastards to me. Did anyone ever offer you condolences on your son's loss?"

"The Charmings named their son Neal in my son's honor so they said but his name was BAE!"

"They sound like as big twits as your wife if they can't even get your son's name right," she snorted. "And what kind of rude ignorant people don't offer a man condolences on his loss?"

"They only gave me a thought when they needed something."

"Sounds like typical selfish idiots. There's a lot of them in the world, and it looks like the so-called heroes weren't heroes but normal everyday idiots who had a perfectionist complex. Ugh! I hate those kind of people!"

"It's funny...I used to be an adviser to Snow White but no one seemed to need a conscience anymore." Archie frowned.

"Sounds like all they needed was their egos stroked and to be told they were the best thing since sliced bread! Ha! I'd have given them a good kick in the pants."

"You sound like Jeanna," Henry laughed.

"Well, I would have," Kat asserted. "Sanctimonious twits have always made me want to take a bat and beat them till they learn sense."

"Then you would have a long and hard task ahead of you, dearie."

"Well, if you want something done right . . ." she chuckled wickedly.

"Grandpa's curse is inactive here but we still need to break it."

"And how do we do that? If it's a curse of possession-do we need to do something like an exorcism? Banish it to hell or something?"

"That's what I am trying to figure out. Every method I have used has failed."

"Is there some . . . legend we can take a look at? Maybe someone has gone through something like this here? Or is there a book you can look at in your shop?"

"I can't get into my shop...I can't return to the town because of another curse...only Henry can."

"Oh. But could . . someone else get in? Like someone who wasn't cursed?"

"Someone like you or Jeanna could," Henry spoke up.

"The people in Storybrooke aren't very trusting of outsiders so you would have to sneak in." Archie added.

"I would go but . . .I have depositions and things to get ready for cases for Mr. Gold," Kat said regretfully. "Besides, I think your private eye is better at the cloak and dagger stuff . . .umm . . ."

"And we have to get the dagger, Grandpa."

"Shouldn't be too hard if she still carries it in her purse?"

"I doubt she does now. They probably buried it. That's what I did with it during the first curse."

"Any idea where she'd put it?"

"Out in the woods. Probably in one of the same spots I buried it. You would probably need a metal detector to find it."

"Now that's something I wouldn't have access to."

"In the meantime my 'wife' is going to find out that she will no longer be enjoying the fruits of my labors."

Robert grabbed his briefcase off his desk and opened it, taking out a notepad with some lists on it. "Kat, along with the custody papers I would like you to have an eviction notice served on Belle giving her thirty days to vacate all of my properties."

"With pleasure, Mr. Gold!"

"These properties are my house, my shop, and the library building."

He handed her a piece of paper with three addresses on it.

She took it. "This is one eviction notice I'll be glad to get ready for you. If she's gonna throw you out, then she ought to be big enough to stand on her own two feet and not mooch off your stuff like a leech."

"I will also need the contract Belle signed. It's in my safe and can only be opened by a drop of my blood. Once I tear up that contract...regardless of whether I have magic or not...all of the buildings will vanish and their contents will return to me."

"Then I suppose we should call Jeanna although I don't think she'll be as willing to believe us as Kat is, Rumple," Archie sighed.

"She may surprise us, Archie." Henry said.

"I know this is a lot of work I'm putting on you, dearie, but once it's done, I owe you a vacation."

"I don't think I would know what to do with myself," she laughed. "Except veg out in front of the TV and watch reruns of Hamish MacBeth and The Full Monty."

"Oh come now! Surely there is somewhere you want to go!"

"Umm . . . I always did want to go to Europe . . .and see Italy and Scotland and that kind of thing. But . . ." she shrugged. "I could never afford it. And I'm afraid of traveling alone."

"Well, you will be able to afford it now...do you have family that could travel with you?"

She shook her head. "Not anymore. My parents passed away years ago and my sister is too busy working."

"We could take you!" Henry offered.

"Henry, will you stop..." Archie groaned.

But Henry was bound and determined that his grandfather would get his own happy ending, even if it had to be without Belle.

"You're sweet," Kat smiled. "But we can plan that later . . .right now we need to help your grandpa free himself from his curse and his do-gooder holier-than-thou wife."

Archie pulled out his cellphone. "Rumple, I hope you have deep pockets because Jeanna is going to want a raise after this..."

"Dearie, I came into this world with all the money I had from my spinning gold for centuries, so it's not an object."

"If you'll all excuse me for a few minutes..."

Archie got up and walked into the other room to make his phone call.

Meanwhile Kat began to eat some of the food they'd brought home.

"Kat, you're not married, are you? Seeing anybody?" Henry quizzed.

"No. I never found anyone I loved enough to marry and I'm not seeing anyone."

"Good." He leaned forward. "You like my grandpa...don't you?" he whispered.

"I . . .I . . .do . . ." she admitted blushing. "But . . .I'm nobody special. Just a secretary and a paralegal. Not some woman out of a tale."

"So what? He needs someone who can like him for who he is, not who she wants him to be and I think you can be that person."

"You do? I would never hurt him . . .not ever . . .not like her, promising him forever and then running off at the first sign of trouble . . . a good woman stays and fights, she doesn't turn tail and skedaddle when the going gets rough. My mom and dad were married over fifty years and they had their share of problems in the beginning but my mom stuck it out and helped my dad with his gambling and his temper. She could have left him . . .she didn't."

"See. That's what he needs. All this time he's thought no one could love him...and every other woman who has left him...but you wouldn't...because your mother taught you how to take the good with the bad and make the best of it."

"Yes. Because a marriage is for better for worse . . .and when you really truly love someone, you love them as they are, warts and all."

Secretly Henry was hoping his grandfather overheard this conversation and realized the same thing: Kat was the woman he'd been looking for.

She smiled sadly. "My mom used to say, "No one can change you, but you . . .and if you love someone you help them through the rough times because when you do, what waits on the other side is ten times the sweeter for enduring all the trouble beforehand. And you help someone best not by telling them what they should do, but by being patient and understanding and being there. Rome wasn't built in a day and neither are people's problems."

She smiled reminiscently. "My dad always said: ye who are without sin, cast the first stone. Because no one is so you shouldn't sit in judgment upon people, because you haven't lived their life."

"My mom Regina...I thought she was trying to be better but she wants the easy path to her happy ending."

Kat smiled sadly. "I know a lot of people like that. They think that if they need to work it's not worth it. Or that it's easier to blame other people for screwing yourself over and not take responsibility for your own actions. People love to say so-and-so made me do it. When the truth is only you can make yourself do something, unless you're being held hostage with a gun to your head."

"They think there's an author who is writing their stories but they're writing them themselves."

"Like everyone else."

"Yeah. Grandpa died a real hero but everyone forgot that...and my dad."

"How sad. That these people are so hypocritical."

"It's gotten worse since they came back here the second time. I don't know if that has to do with the fact that my other grandfather had to give up his heart to have it done or not."

Henry still couldn't believe Snow White had been able to cast the second curse that returned them all to Maine. He assumed only another magician could cast it.

Archie returned to the room. "Better brace yourselves. The Texas Tornado is on her way over."

A/N: Again, a huge thank you to everyone who has been reading and supporting this story! We hope you'll enjoy what happens next. How do you think Jeanna will react to the news? What did you think of a woman who finds out that Rumple has magic fascinating and awesome instead of being terrified of him?