It was too quiet in her office in the newspaper and it gave Dagian far too much time to think in between job interviews for the reporters that she was going to need.

She was a pawn her whole life. Even when she thought her life was hers, it wasn't. And now that had a bit of her memory…and she knew the way the pirate looked at her and that he had put his hands on her and everything else was a blank…she felt like she was going insane with not knowing.

"Pirates were notorious for what they did to women prisoners and while there was a part of her that was desperate to get her own memories back, there was another part of her that didn't want to know. That didn't want to remember in case the things that she'd heard happened to other women prisoners had happened to her.

She shuddered just thinking about that vicious way he'd grinned at her.

Someone knocked on the door and she jumped, without waiting for her to tell them to come in, the door opened and Jefferson strolled through, "I got the call that you wanted to talk to me."

Dagian swallowed. She knew that while he was happy right now, he could still be unstable. And what she was about to tell him might send him into a rage, "I'm not going to be your pawn anymore."

Jefferson looked at her and she saw that he really did look confused, "What are you talking about?"

"I'm not going to let you use me to expose Regina and get your little…revenge or whatever agenda it is that you're trying to achieve."

"You must be mistaken," he said and if she didn't know any better, she could hear something in his voice that sounded like she'd hurt him, "I'm not trying to use you, I thought that we were partners in this."

She studied him, did he honestly mean that or was he just trying to prevent her from completely turning against what he wanted to turn this paper into?

He reached for her hand and she tensed and pulled it away. Jefferson stared at her withdrawn hand and then at her, "What's happened?"

Dagian averted her gaze, "Nothing."

"You're lying."

"It's none of your business," she snapped.

"I'm concerned for you," he argued, "You may not believe it because of whatever thoughts you have in your mind that says that I'm just using you but I honestly am. Did Rumpelstiltskin do something to you?"

She glanced up at the anger in his tone, "No, no he didn't. At least not the human part of him anyway."

She studied him, she wanted to talk. She wanted to talk to someone that wasn't her ex or her therapist but she wasn't sure that there was anyone here that could understand what she'd went through. Oh sure everyone in this town probably knew what it was like to be a pawn because they all knew Rumpelstiltskin but not like this…

And really, who would Jefferson tell?

She drew a breath and wrapped her arms around herself when she shivered, "I just remembered how it felt…to try and atone and to try and make yourself happy and…and to have it ripped away by outside forces."

And then the story came spilling out. How she and Rumpelstiltskin had met and how she'd made the biggest mistake in her life when she'd left him and how they'd met again fourteen years later and he was drastically different physically, mentally, and emotionally. And she told him how they'd started trying to work on their relationship for Bae and how it'd come crashing down when she had watched her husband release their son down a vortex that was supposed to take them all to a place that could strip him of his magic.

She told him how she'd promised him that she would've leave, but she'd found a loophole and taken a sleeping curse because she didn't want to spend hundreds of years with him after he figured out a way to make it so that time and age never touched her. She would've awakened or so she thought. She believed that Rumpelstiltskin would've done it when he found a way to get to Bae because both of them honestly believed they were true loves due to the way their lives were bound together. However, her true love had been someone that she continually pushed away those fourteen years and was killed and his true love hadn't even been born yet.

And then she told him about how she woke up in this world, not knowing what was going on and heavily pregnant.

And now she told him what she'd learned today. She told him the guilt that she felt all her life because she had never wanted to return home and now that she knew that wasn't the case.

Jefferson listened, Dagian was crying and she wasn't sure how much of it he actually understood but he listened. And when Dagian was done, she felt some of the burden lift from her chest and shoulders, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pulled you in on this."

He gave a wry smile, "I pulled you into my world first, I suppose we're even now."

Dagian wiped her eyes, well that was a total waste of makeup.

He leaned forward, "I'll tell you what, why don't you get washed up and come to lunch with me?"

Dagian shook her head, "I have interviews."

"You've been conducting interviews all morning, come on, you need a change of scenery anyway…besides I'm hungry and I don't want to come home so it would nice to have the company of the one woman that I interact with that hasn't attacked me or backstabbed me."

Dagian thought about it, she hadn't had anything to eat this morning and now that she mentioned it, she was hungry. And spending time with her friend or…acquaintance or whatever he was now was certainly far more inviting than screening even more people that didn't know what they were doing, "I'll grab my purse."

She crossed the hallway where she kept her purse locked up and checked her phone to make sure she didn't miss any calls. There were five from her ex.

She sighed, dialed his number and put it to her ear, she didn't understand why he couldn't just come over and tell her what he wanted. Or better yet, leave a phone message.

"Where have you been?" he demanded

"Hello to you too," she muttered, "I've been working, darling. I can't come to your beck and call every time you need me to."

"Have you seen Belle?" he asked.

"This morning I did, she was at our…your house," Dagian corrected herself. She wanted to ask if Belle confronted him over him using magic but wasn't sure if she should reveal that she knew about that yet, "Something happen?"

"We had a fight, and she's gone."

Imagine that.

Jefferson peeked his head in the door and Dagian looked at him with a finger raised, "She probably went for a walk."

"She doesn't know the town Dagian, she doesn't know where the borders are and she doesn't know what'll happen if she crosses them."

"I doubt Belle went all the way out there," Dagian said, "Maybe you should just leave her alone."

"You also know about my enemies," he reminded her, "I just want to make sure that she's alright. Dagian, please."

"I honestly haven't seen her," Dagian told him, "But I've reestablished a friendship with some of my old sources, I can see if they've seen anything."

"Thank you," he said.

"But if she wants to walk away, Rumpelstiltskin, you're going to have to let her, you know that, right?"

Please don't do to her what you did to me.

She heard him sigh, "I'm not going to. I have learned from how much I hurt you."

"Alright," Dagian said but she honestly doubted he'd suddenly reformed, "I'll let you know if I find anything."

"What was that about?" Jefferson asked curiously.

"His girlfriend problems," Dagian muttered, "I hope you don't mind, but I have a few phone calls to make on the way to Granny's."

He shrugged, "Okay."

Dagian pocketed her phone and walked next to him.

He nudged her with his elbow as they walked down the stairs outside, "Want to hold hands and freak people out? Maybe keep any other men looking to kidnap you at bay?"

Dagian laughed, probably the first real one that she'd had in a while, "Sure, why not?"