"Rumpelstiltskin!"
He whipped his head around. "Emma. What can I do for you?"
"You can explain why you tricked me into bringing magic to this town." She did her best to contain the fury inside of her.
"I didn't trick you, Emma, I had no idea what that potion would do. I thought it might break the curse. I was wrong."
"Yeah, and now there's magic here and a town full of people freaked out about a magical cloud."
"Ah, well, that I can fix."
"Can you?"
"Indeed. I have my magic now; I can brew up a quick forgetting potion so nobody remembers that the cloud happened."
"Okay, but that doesn't solve the magic problem."
"No, it doesn't. But I have my own problems."
"Such as?"
"Such as, Regina has the magic to go after me, my son won't speak to me, and the woman I love is cursed and was recently broken out of an asylum."
"The woman you love? Belle?"
He nodded. "I fell in love with her back in my land, but I drove her away when I found out that her love was getting rid of the darkness in me. I couldn't risk losing my powers... not when they were the only way to get back to Bae."
"And why was she in the asylum?"
There was pure fury in his eyes. "Because Regina locked her up. I believed her when she said Belle was dead... I was a fool to do so. Of course she wanted leverage against me."
"And Regina... is the Evil Queen. The one who cast the curse."
"Yes. She's also the mayor of Storybrooke."
"Is she the key to breaking the curse, then?"
"It's a possibility. But the likelihood of her agreeing to help you... she doesn't care about anything or anyone, Emma. Except for her son."
"She has a son?"
"She adopted a son a while back. He's actually named Henry too. They're even about the same age."
"Well, that's weird."
"It's weird that you named your son Henry. It was her father's name."
"Okay. So what, if I get her son to convince her to break the curse, she'll do it?"
"I suppose anything is worth a shot. If you'll excuse me, I have to work on that memory spell for the town."
"Right."
"Mommy, what's happening?" Maryn asked, sitting next to her mother on the couch.
"There's some magical things happening... I don't really understand it myself."
"Are we in danger?" Nella asked from her other side.
Emma pulled both of her daughters close. "No. We're all going to be just fine."
"Mom," Henry said, coming out of the bathroom. "I have an idea."
"What is it, Henry?"
"Well, these people are all fairy tales, right?"
"Yeah." It was still hard to believe, but she had pretty incontrovertible evidence now.
"So, if we knew who was who, it might help us figure out what to do. Even better if we knew their real stories."
"That's a good idea, Henry, but how are we going to figure that out? Rumpelstiltskin probably doesn't know everyone in town."
"No, but your mom does."
"What?"
"She's a teacher who volunteers at the hospital. She's a pretty popular person in town. Has a lot of friends. We should ask her."
Emma raised her eyebrows. "Nice plan, kid."
Henry grinned. "Thank you."
"Thank you again for paying for my room at Granny's," Belle said, blushing slightly.
"No problem," Neal replied with a smile. He knew what it was like to not have any place to stay, and he was happy to help someone else in that predicament. "So, you don't remember anything?"
Belle shook her head. "Just my name. I've been locked up in there as long as I can remember. Then Emma broke me out."
"And now you're free."
"Yeah, until they find me and put me back in. One thing I do remember is that the mayor liked to come and check on me, just to make sure I hadn't got out. I'm not sure why, but I think it's important to her that I'm in there."
"Well... I might know somebody who can help you," Neal said, debating internally whether he really wanted to do this.
"Who?" Belle asked.
"My father."