It's been a month. Paige and Henry stop by the shop almost every day now, whether Bast is there or not (she usually is). Gold has indulged and purchased a second "Kitty condo", larger and more elaborate than the last, to put in the shop, if only to keep Bast from shedding all over the antique furniture (it doesn't really work). It seems now that Regina is the only person in town who doesn't know about Bast, and Gold intends to keep it that way.

He soon finds out just how meaningless intent is.

"A cat?"

"Aye."

Regina blinks, staring down at the sinewy orange creature rubbing its back against her calf (the traitor), and laughs. "Oh, Gold, this is too precious."

"Yes, she is, isn't she? My precious little thing." He addresses these last words to Bast, who has now flopped herself gracelessly on the ground, exposing her belly in the hope that Regina will oblige and pet her.

Regina looks for a moment as though she's about to vomit. "How... charming."

Gold bares his teeth in a pleasant smile. "Hardly."

Regina opens her mouth to respond, but she's interrupted by the bell above the shop door ringing as Paige bursts into the shop, a fat wad of dollar bills clutched in her fist. She pauses, breathless, at the sight of Regina.

"Oh."

"Good afternoon."

"Um..." Her eyes dart between Regina and Gold. "Afternoon. I..." She glances down at her hand and again at Regina, a frown creasing the folds of her pretty little forehead. "I was just... um... looking."

"Ah," says Gold, and stretches his arms wide to gesture to the interior of the shop. "Feel free to peruse at your leisure."

Paige nods and, with yet another glance at Regina, turns to the tea set she's been saving up for this past month.

"Well," says Regina in an unusually chipper voice. "Nice chatting with you, Gold," and she sweeps out of his pawn shop. Paige waits a few moments after Regina's gone before rushing to the counter and smacking the bundle of cash in her palm down onto the countertop.

"I saved up. Twenty-five whole dollars," she exclaims, breathless.

"So you did." He motions for her to retrieve the teapot, and she does, and Gold sorts out the money to count. "Twenty-two, -three, -four, -five... -six? Twenty-six?"

"Oh!" Paige grins and swipes the last dollar bill out from under Gold's fingers. "That's for bus fare."

Gold frowns. "You've been taking the bus?"

"Mm-hmm."

He opens his mouth to protest this - because she is, after all, only ten years old - but Paige has pushed the teapot forward on the counter and raised her eyebrows at him expectantly. "Well?"

Gold smiles and, with painstakingly slow movements - he can almost see the frustration in Paige's eyes - places the money into the cash register. Paige grins again and reaches for the teapot, but he stops her by pulling it out of her reach.

Her mouth opens in protest, but Gold cuts in before she can speak.

"Would you like a bag?"

A/N: Wow, guys, I'm so sorry it took so long for such a crap chapter, and with so little Bast, too! I'm sad to say I'll only be updating one more chapter after this, as I can't really keep this up for much longer, and rather than keeping all your hopes up by not declaring this complete, I'm going to do us all a favor and just try to end with a bang.

I'll be incorporating the season finale into the next and final chapter, but seeing as we don't exactly know what happens to Storybrooke and all the citizens therein yet, I'll be giving it my own little twist.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed, and thank you for all of your kind words. :