Ok no way am I getting this finished before the premiere. But I will keep trying to post twice a week until it is done!

Once again I am overwhelming grateful for all of the lovely reviews. I hope I can come up with an ending that does you all justice.

The next few days were hard on everyone. Dr Hopper had come past and spoken to Regina at length. She was functionally normally, if not a little robotically, but Dr Whale's initial assessment had been correct. Regina had no memory of who she was nor of anyone else that had been by to see her. Henry took her lack of response to him particularly hard, kissing her in the hopes that true love would restore her memories. Emma had a hard time consoling him when it didn't work. David did a little better reminding Henry that true love's kiss didn't work on Snow either when she didn't have her memories. This cheered Henry a little, though disappointed Robin who had plans to sneak in as soon as Regina was alone and try himself.

The first twenty-four hours had passed with no change to her condition. Dr Whale had let each of them visit with her, one at a time so as not to overwhelm her. She was polite and courteous, thanking each one of them for their visit but she didn't remember any of them. More disturbingly, she didn't appear interested in learning who they were or who she was from any of them. Her vivid blue eyes startled each of them but they tried their best not to react too obviously.

When Dr Whale informed them that her latest test results remained the same Snow finally asked him about Regina's eye colour. Victor looked confused, "What about her eyes?"

"They've changed colour. They used to be brown and now they are blue," Snow explained patiently.

"Huh, I never noticed. Hmm…" Dr Whale paused. "Well it's not natural, unless she is wearing coloured contacts? No? Then I would theorise that it is a magical symptom."

"We need Gold," David said. "Maybe he has seen something like this before."

"I'll get him," Emma volunteered, shooting to her feet quickly eager to do something.

"Bring Belle too," Snow suggested. "She might have read something somewhere."

Emma nodded and headed out. The rest of them remained in vigil.

"So her eyes just turned blue after she collapsed, right? I assume it would be too big of a coincidence that her eyes changed colour and then a few days later she collapsed catatonic?" Victor asked.

"I saw her eyes flash blue a month or two ago," Snow said thinking back. "But it was just a barest flash."

"I think I may have seen her eyes flash blue for a second as well, though it too was some weeks ago," Little John said, having overheard the last part of their conversation. He had Roland up on his shoulders and flipped him down in front of Robin. "Sorry, Rob, but the lad has been asking for you. When he found out Gina was sick he wanted to come and see her too. It seemed easier to bring him for a visit than hear him scream his little lungs out." He looked pointedly at the child, who squirmed a little but didn't deny it.

"I missed you, Papa," he said winsomely. Robin hugged him a little tighter.

"So maybe this has been a gradual process for Regina and finally culminated in an event that became the stressor that caused her break," Whale began pacing and theorising out loud. "Damn it! If the stubborn woman had just let me run some damn tests I might have been able to pick up on it," Whale cursed.

John clears his throat and Whale looks at him expectantly. John shrugs self-consciously and doesn't say anything. Internally, he debates about the morality of keeping Regina's secret when she is so clearly lost to them but he truly does not want to betray her trust. He continues weighing up the pros and cons whilst Robin introduces Roland to fugue state Regina. He watches the three of them from outside her room and his heart aches at what he sees. Robin is stoic, trying so hard to be strong and Roland is clambering all over Regina, completely unaffected by her demeanour. It is Regina that makes John sad. She is still and lifeless though he can he see that she responds at the right moment, giving all her attention to the child on her lap. But the spark of joy that Roland could always bring out in her is missing.

Whilst John was deliberating internally, Emma returned with Belle and Rumpelstiltskin. "I've told them what we know so far," Emma said as they came up to Regina's room.

"Which wasn't much, dearie. You haven't told me what caused our dear Queen to lose her mind," Rumple said scathingly. Belle gently hit him on the arm, explaining that "he is just worried about her and this is the only way he knows how to show it."

Rumple ignored his wife's words and strode into Regina's room, waiting impatiently for Roland to say his goodbyes. As soon as they were alone he spoke, "Well, dearie, this is a right pickle you have gotten yourself into."

She looked up at him questioningly, but without fear, without anger, without understanding. She was completely devoid of response. Rumple hadn't seen her look like this in all his years of knowing her. Taken aback, though determined not to let it show he continued, "I understand that you have no knowledge of who you are?" She nodded. "And you don't remember me?" She shook her head. "Cora?" he asked hoping to get a reaction.

"I beg your pardon?" Regina finally spoke but Gold couldn't detect any recognition in her face.

"Never mind." He sat on the bed next to her lifting his hands to glide over and around her, never touching but reaching out with his magic to scan her.

This seemed to amuse her as she raised an eyebrow questioning.

"Local shaman?" she asked with a hint of sarcasm.

Rumple was delighted though again he didn't show it. Sarcasm was a key trait in Regina and it reassured him that in essentials, Regina was as she ever had been. He continued scanning her with his magic until he came to her chest. He dropped his hands suddenly as though burnt.

"Well, dearie, I will leave you to get some rest," he said patting her hand awkwardly. She looked at him curiously but said nothing.

He strode back into the waiting room furiously. "Where's Henry?" he asked immediately.

"He's taken Roland down to the hospital play room," Emma said. "Why?"

"It's better that he doesn't hear this. And the good doctor?"

"Seeing other patients. What have you learned?"

Rumple paused for effect and then stated, "Regina's heart is missing."

"What? God damn it!" Robin asked shocked. "That bloody stubborn woman! I knew something was different about her, I knew that something was off. Why the hell can't she keep her bloody heart inside her bloody body? Is that was has caused the memory loss?"

Rumple shrugged, "Given no other evidence I would suggest that it might have something to do with it. But you say you noticed something was off with Regina? Then she had to have removed it before she collapsed. How long has she seemed different to you?"

"I don't know, a few weeks maybe?" Robin guessed.

"Well, we need to find it ASAP and stuff it back in her. Maybe that will jog her memory," Emma stated.

"It might not be that simple," Rumple sighed. "Regina will have hidden it where we would never think to find it."

"Her heart," John began stuttering. "You think it might help her get her memories back?"

"Yes," Rumple said impatiently. "That is exactly what we are saying."

"What if there was something wrong with it? What if it was… damaged?"

"John, what do you know?" Robin asked, a demanding tone sneaking into his voice.

John sighed heavily. "She made me promise never to tell you. She never wanted you to be burdened by it. A few weeks ago Regina figured out if she removed her heart she could conjure her light magic at will. What she also discovered was that her heart was… damaged."

"Damaged?" Rumple and Robin asked at the same time.

"Broken." John clarified. "She thought putting it back in would be dangerous. That if something else happened to… upset her… it would break entirely. She was looking for a way to fix it last I spoke to her."

"John, how do you know all this?" Robin asked.

"I've been keeping an eye on her since Marian returned. She's been running through the forest most mornings, I think as a way to distract herself. She runs for miles and miles and me and couple of the Merry Men take it in turns to shadow her, you know, just to make sure she is okay. She caught me doing it a month or so back." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out Regina's heart, wrapped in a linen cloth. "When she discovered what had happened to her heart, she asked me to keep it safe. I don't think she wanted it near her."

He peeled back the linen to show them all her heart. Rumple inhaled sharply at the sight. "It was hanging on just in the middle here, but you can see it has slightly healed here and here," John gestured trying to remain factual in response to this latest bombshell. "She was doing better since it was out of her chest and you can see here where it is pulsating white. A week ago it was weeping white light. We assumed it was love that was cascading out of the heart but thankfully now it is just glowing."

Robin looked at her heart in horrified shock. "It… it didn't look like that a few months ago," he stuttered.

"A lot has happened in the last few months," John said gently. Robin held out his hands for the heart and John gently handed it over. Robin started to gently stroke it as if it were a baby bird. "Shh," he whispered to it. "It's going to be okay."

David looked at him as if he had lost his mind but Robin didn't have eyes for anything other than Regina's heart. Emma looked like she was going to be sick, her guilt written all over her face.

Belle had moved to stand next to Rumple, rubbing his arm gently. He hadn't moved or spoken since John had unveiled the heart. His mind was racing… disassociate fugue… magical loss of memories… heart literally broken by love… physical manifestation of emotional pain… Rumple was stunned.

"I have never seen nor heard of a heart looking like this before," he began looking at Belle questioningly. "No, nor me," she said.

"The only thing I can think of, and believe me when I say it is wild supposition, is that Regina most likely disassociated from herself because of the very equal and yet opposite facets of her life." He paused, trying to gather his thoughts. "In Neverland she said that she didn't regret any of her choices because they led her to Henry but now it seems that those same choices meant that she was the one to kill her soul mate's wife and therefore end up losing him. Look at heart! It's literally broken for the loss of her soul mate but also pulsating, overflowing with love. How does one reconcile the dichotomy of these feelings?"

Rumple paused still staring at the heart in Robin's hands with undisguised fascination. "Clearly, something happened on the day she collapsed that pushed her over the edge. She couldn't reconcile the outcomes of her choices so she snapped and protected herself by forgetting… everything," Rumple said with genuine pity in his voice. "Regina has always had the courage of her convictions," he said sadly. "It appears likely that those convictions were at war with each other and her mind was the battle ground."

"But how do we fix her?" Snow asked desperately at the same time Robin begged," But how do we help her regain who she was?"

"I don't know, dearies, I truly don't know." Rumple seemed saddened by his own lack of answers.

"Well, let's get Doctor Whale back," David said. "The problem may be magical but it has physical symptoms. It can't hurt to get his input." Snow smiled at him gratefully.

They paged Victor and brought him up to speed. "If what you say is true then this could complicate Regina's recover exponentially. If Regina's figurative broken heart actually translated into a literal breaking of her physical heart then her memory loss might not be so short term. If her magic is able to interfere at an emotional level and cause physical side effects on mental or emotional problems then her memories might be gone forever." Victor sighed. "This is of course all just speculation. Maybe Mr Gold and I can sit down together and try and come up with something. I can suggest what we would normally do medically in these circumstances and Mr Gold can walk me through the possible magical ramifications. Perhaps together we can come up with a treatment plan."

Rumple bowed very slightly.

"What about?" Belle asked gesturing to Regina's heart cradled in Robin's hands.

"I would agree with Regina that putting it back in, given its current state, might not be the soundest plan. I assume the outlaw won't be relinquishing it any time soon?" Robin's face hardened and he tightened his grip imperceptibly.

"Then I leave it to him, he who clearly broke it, to try and mend it. Or at least get into shape enough so that we can put it back in without causing further damage." Robin glared at Rumpelstiltskin but gently wrapped up her heart and tucked it away. The imp was right, he had broken her heart. But now he had a way to undo the misery of the last few months and prove that he loved only Regina. He would heal her broken heart.

And so begins Robin's redemption – next up Robin and Regina spend some time together.