A/N: Sorry, it took longer than expected to churn this thing out but I'm still here and still working on this story. Thanks for all the new follows and reviews. Hopefully the next chapter won't take as long. Read and review. I love you guys! Enjoy.

Regina sighed as she rubbed her temples, she hadn't slept well the night before and it was now impacting her ability to work properly. Yesterday had been a disaster, and even though the day had barely begun she was already beginning to see the effects of her apparently bad choices. The morning was tense, Henry hadn't even so much as mumbled a good morning to her when she went to wake him, only to find that he was up and getting dressed, during breakfast he played with his food more than he ate it, and the entire ride to the school this morning was spent glaring out the window while he tried his hardest to ignore her existence. 'He practically flew out of the car when I pulled up to the school; the car hadn't even fully stopped…' A knock at the door, followed by it's opening, kept the Mayor from delving deeper into her thoughts. The sight of Sidney Glass batting away her secretary made her grind her teeth. After he had successfully shoved Carson passed the door he slammed it in his face. The look that he gave her as he confidently strode forward both sickened and angered her. "Madame Mayor." His voice was respectful, but didn't fool her in the slightest. Everything else about him screamed out his lust and wanting, from the way he stood to the glimmer in his eyes. 'It seems like whenever he isn't imprisoned he doesn't know how to control himself.' She inwardly chided. "Yes, Mister Glass, how may I help you?" A seemingly crazed smile made its way onto the reporter's face, "That's the most wondrous part; I am here to help you." He reached into his coat and pulled out a manila envelopethat was surprisingly thick. At Regina's raised eyebrow he continued "I took initiative these past few nights and happened upon some very intriguing events. Allow me to explain." He urged as he motioned to the envelope, Regina obliged and pulled the glossy photographs out. "This was the night of Henry and Riley's rescue, in my opinion and it may be because I'm a photographer, Ms. Mary Margret looked a little off. Too off for someone who found the missing persons in the first place." By then Regina was cycling through the photographs, "So you tailed her?" Sidney nodded, "Discreetly of course. She seemed to be anxious, waiting for something or someone." Regina had to agree, throughout the rest of the day the schoolteacher seemed strained, every picture had a sense of distress and urgency that could not be explained; but that was all the pictures possessed and they were hardly damming evidence.

"Is there a point to this candid camera Sidney?" Sidney glanced at the Mayor's place before once again reaching into his jacket and pulling out a small notepad. "You can skip ahead three photos that's when things started to pick up." Regina did as instructed and found herself looking at her nemesis staring out of a window of her flat, nervous energy seemed to be radiating off of it. "She had been pacing for about half an hour when that picture was taken, flip to the next one. She finally decided to leave the flat, but not without looking around for a minute or so before heading off in the direction of the plaza. Now what you see in the next photo is what this is really all about, I almost forgot to take the picture because I was so off guard." As Regina shuffled to the next picture she too felt a jolt of surprise, followed by a wave of suspicion. Gathering her thoughts she looked up to the reporter, "And just how long was she in there for?" "Only maybe twenty-five minutes, but you and I both know that's more than enough time." Regina couldn't argue with that as she took one last look at the image of Mary Margret entering Mr. Gold's shop after hours. She couldn't decide which of the questions circling around in her head was more important; what did she do inside that store, how was she able to get in after hours, and why had she chosen to seek out his shop in the first place. "Sidney, I need you to do something for me." "Yes of course Madame Mayor, anything for you."

Things were going better than he expected, his adoptive mother did not try to force him to have a meaningless conversation and he just learned that this week was going to have two field trips. 'Ms. Blanchard is the best!' Henry thought to himself happily, the only thing that worried him was the fact that he would have to get his permission slips signed. His mother had grounded him and he did not doubt that barred him from attending field trips as well, no matter how educational or helpful to the community they may be. He scowled, 'Of course anything that would help this town would be out of the question. Not to mention she's the Evil Queen, she lives to make people's lives miserable.' "Is everything alright Henry?" a sweet voice chimed, interrupting his thoughts. Looking up from his desk he finds Ms. Blanchard looking at him curiously. "Yeah, everything's fine." "Really? Because I couldn't help but notice that you were staring at your desk, even though the rest of the class has gone off to recess." Henry's gaze returned to his desk. "Oh…well, it's just…I mean.." Noticing his struggle Mary Margret places a hand on his shoulder. "It's alright Henry, you can tell me. You're safe here, you can trust me." Henry took a cleansing breath before gathering his thoughts, "I really want to go on the field trips you have planned; it's just that I got into some trouble at home and now I'm grounded." "And you're worried that your mother won't let you attend because of that?" Henry's only response was a solemn nod. "Well, you know Emma is my roommate, and your birthmother, so maybe I could get her to agree to sign the slip instead; how does that sound?" The smile Henry gave her was nearly blinding, "Seriously? You'd really do that?" Mary Margret chuckled and ruffles his hair, "Of course I would, neither of us want you to miss out on anything. Now how about we join the rest of the class outside?" Henry nodded enthusiastically before bolting out of the classroom to join his friends.

Mary Margret had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing as she slowly stood and headed to her desk. Opening her drawer she grabbed her cellphone and quickly scrolled through the contacts. After sending two separate messages she placed the phone back in its original place, she strolled out of the room with a confident stride that no one would recognize from the usually mousy teacher. 'It seems like everything is falling into place.' She thought smugly.

After his impromptu meeting with the Mayor, Sidney hustled out of the building determined to get a good start on his new task. However, in his haste he bumped into something, or rather someone. "Hey will you watch where you're…Sidney." The way the familiar voice said his name caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand at attention. Clearing his throat and taking a step back he replied, "Riley, how lovely to see you." The Mayor's sister gave him a once over before glancing at the building he had just exited, "What were you doing at town hall? Visiting my sister?" Shocked by the direction of the conversation he scrambled for a response, "Well, I uh..you—" "Never mind," Willow cut in, quickly pulling out her phone and sending a text, "be a gentleman and walk with me." Sidney was once again startled by the tattooed woman's behavior and could only nod dumbly in reply. The walk was long, and he had no idea where they were headed; not to mention the air was filled with some kind of foreboding tension that was making him nauseous. He had tried several times to muster up the courage to ask where they were headed, seeing as they were now walking on the side of the road having run out of sidewalk a ways back. The sound of tires rolling on asphalt took Sidney's mind away from the increasing frightening situation at hand. He glanced over his shoulder and could not describe the relief he felt rush through his body at the sight of the Sheriff's cruiser pulling up alongside them. "Hey there, mind if you tell me what it is you two are doing all the way out here?" Willow glanced to the side but kept walking, "You forget your Deputy at home Sheriff?" Graham snorted "Emma's a big girl, I'm sure she can look after the station all by herself." 'At the station alone, I wonder if that happens often…' the reporter pondered. "But seriously, what are you two doing out here?" "Last I checked taking a friendly stroll was completely legal, Sheriff." Graham cut the ignition and stepped out of the car, hands raised to show that he meant no harm, "It's usually not…but when it comes to you, I'd rather be safe than sorry." Sidney watched as a sneer quickly found home on Riley's face and take a menacing step toward the Sheriff in a morbid sort of fascination before everything around him went black.

Graham huffed, and placed his baton back in its holster. "Well, that was easier than I expected." As he looked down at the body of a now unconscious Sidney he grimaced, "You think I may have hit him too hard?" Willow raised an eyebrow at the growing puddle of blood and shrugged, "It's a head wound, they all bleed heavily no matter the amount of damage caused. You'd be surprised at how…durable the human body is when it comes to these sort of things." Graham nodded and looked around, "I'll take your word for it. You sure no one saw you two?" "Of course, I'm not an amateur." "Great, then let's get him in the car, I have a first aid kit in the trunk, you know how to dress a head wound?" "Well enough; you grab his legs." After successfully getting Sidney in the car Graham returned to the driver's seat while Willow slipped in the back after retrieving the first aid kit. "Now, where are we going to keep him until he comes to?" "I was thinking the old library." The Sheriff glanced at his companion through the rearview mirror, "The one that people think is haunted and that teens are constantly trying to break into to impress their friends, and seems to be ready to collapse if a speck of dust settles in the wrong place? That library?" Willow nodded, "The very one; we are dealing with an experiment that has numerous unknown variables and only three plausible outcomes: One, Sidney wakes up with memories of our world and we convince him none of us are crazy. Two, he wakes up with none of the memories, but all of the pain and confusion and will most likely yell for help, which could be blamed on the building's haunting at least for a little while. And three, you did hit him over the head too hard and he's going to die leaving us without a test subject and a lot of digging." Graham nodded, "The library it is. And just so we're clear I'm hoping for the first option." Willow had a faraway look in her eyes as she replied, "For all of our sakes, I do too."

It had been a rather odd work day in Emma's opinion; early on in the day Graham had gotten a call or something and took off. She had offered to join him but he declined and told her that she should familiarize herself with the case files that he left on her desk. She didn't really see the point in looking at them seeing that no matter how much things had picked up lately it was still a very sleepy town. And yet 30 minutes later she still found herself several pages deep in in her second file of the stations most frequent visitors: Leroy. 'Nothing too interesting, just dozens of drunken disorderly charges; not very surprising from the way MM talks about him…' she quickly glanced at the clock and noted the time. 'He's been gone for nearly 45 minutes, what could possibly be taking him so long, we were supposed to grab lunch.' She put down Leroy's file and grabbed the next one as she propped her feet up, as she read the name on the file her eyebrows jumped up. 'Riley Mills?' Scanning the page of various charges she had to be slightly impressed at the number of times she had been arrested, the charges ranging from joyriding to assault. As she skimmed across the descriptions of the altercations she noticed that while Riley was the only one to get arrested she was hardly the one to start it, there was also something strange about the prosecuting attorney. 'I knew that this was a small town but even Leroy had three different names on his file, the fact that Riley only had one…' The sound of hurried footsteps on linoleum broke her concentration. Graham walked in looking very frazzled, and didn't even speak to her as he walked passed her desk. Something was definitely off about that call, and Emma was determined to find out what it was about and why she wasn't allowed to accompany her boss.

~Later that night~

The buzzing of her phone woke her from her light nap, rubbing the sleep from her eyes she managed to grab the phone before it's vibrations caused it to fall off the coffee table. "Hello?" "Hey, those documents that you asked for are ready." "Wonderful, bring them up." "Actually, you're going to have to come with me to get them; He wants to see you." Hearing that, Mary Margret's heart skipped a beat, "Are you sure?" "Yes, he spoke to me personally, now hurry up. You don't want to be late." And with that the phone call was ended. Mary Margret sat on the couch for a few moments trying to calm down her racing heart 'He wants to see me? Why now?' She stood and as quickly and quietly as possible ascended the stairs, she didn't need to open the door to her roommate's room to know the blonde was fast asleep, her loud snoring was all the reassurance she needed. She practically flew down the stairs, her feet hardly touching them as she went, she grabbed a jacket on her way out and slipped it on as she got to the street. She looked to the right and then to the left, where she saw a man on a motorcycle under a streetlight a little ways down the street. Knowing the street was vacant she hurriedly made her way to the helmeted figure and slipped onto the bike behind him. The bike took off into the night just as she slipped on her helmet.

Her stomach was doing summersaults the entire ride, and as they traveled along the dirt path to their destination the galloping of her heart became concerning. Once the trees thinned out the dirt road curved and revealed a beautiful cabin. Mary Margret's hands were lightly shaking as she reached up to remove her helmet and set it on the back of the bike, one glance to her unmoving traveling companion told her that she would be entering alone, a prospect that both thrilled and terrified her. Steeling her nerves she strode up to the front door, she raised her fist to knock but the door was pulled open from the inside. Startled by the door's sudden motion she took a step back and nearly tumbled down the porch steps. Her decent, however, was halted when a hand quickly shot out and grasped her flailing arm and pulled the schoolteacher towards them. When Mary Margret softly collided with her savior she took a moment to calm her heart before gazing up at her rescuer, and as their eyes connected she found herself getting lost in smoky grey pools she felt her heart beat faster than it had been before.

Everything was hazy and he felt like his head was stuffed with steel wool and it was pounding louder than his heart. As his surroundings slowly came into focus he realized that he did not recognize them. This thought caused his heart to beat faster as his eyes searched around frantically for anything familiar, when his frenzied search proved futile he racked his brain for anything that might have explained how he ended up in his current predicament. 'Nothing, just a blank! The only thing I can recall is speaking with Regina, perhaps someone shattered my mirror?' Echoing footsteps and hushed bickering approaching him gained his attention. "Ah, so you didn't kill him after all, you must be relived." Sidney scoffed, "I should have known you had something to do with it, is this your idea of a practical joke?" Willow folded her arms across her chest, "What makes you think we did anything? Perhaps we're here to rescue you." Sidney rolled his eyes, "Don't be ridiculous, there's no way she would send both of you to find me." At this point Graham spoke up, "And who is she?" Sidney eyed him oddly before responding, "Regina, our—arrgh!" Sidney's head started throbbing as his mind was bombarded with conflicting images that rode on a loud roaring wave, and as the roaring faded away he tried to hold his head in his hands but when he felt the resistance of the rope on his arms he settled for hanging his head and trying to bear the pain. Graham looked to Willow before she nodded and exited the room. The scruffy man glanced at his watch before looking to Sidney once again. He watched as the reporter's breathing started to even out as he entered what Graham suspected to be a light doze. 'I truly hope this worked, Willow seemed optimistic about all this, but we haven't even discussed what we're going to do if things don't turn out the way we hope…' Graham rubbed his chin as he pondered their plan of action if the fact that he regained his old memories was merely a fluke. "How long has he been like this?" Graham jumped at the sound of Willow's voice as it pierced the eerie silence of the building. He composed himself quickly, "Only a few minutes at most…what was that sound?" "A motorcycle, probably some kids going to find a place to make out. Not our concern at the moment; has he passed out again?" Graham nodded, "I think so, but I was able to snag some smelling salts, so that won't be a problem for much longer; I was just waiting on you." Willow smirked and gestured to the once again unconscious Sidney "Then by all means, after you."

~The following morning~

Henry stared at his teacher in awe and disbelief; somehow his teacher had managed to convince his birthmother to sign both his permission slips for the upcoming field trips, he was beyond ecstatic. He gave his favorite teacher a megawatt smile, "Wow, thanks Ms. Blanchard! You're the best!" Mary Margret smiled down fondly before ruffling the young boy's hair garnering a scarlet blush from him. Chuckling she replied easily, "I wouldn't want my favorite student to be left behind; Emma felt much the same way. She really cares about you, you know?" Henry puffed out his chest at the mention of his blonde mother and nodded. Mary Margret's smile grew, "Of course you do, remember not to bring a lunch tomorrow, we'll be eating there." And with that Mary Margret turned and headed to the front of the class to begin the day's lesson. Henry tried to stay focused on the lesson but his mind kept wondering to his birthmother 'I knew she was going to stand up to the Evil Queen eventually, it's her destiny!' he thought as he squirmed in his seat excitedly. Mary Margret caught the movement from the corner of her eye before turning to write something else on the board, the glint in her eye taking away any innocence from the wide smile on her face, 'It's simply too easy.'

City hall archives only had a select few visitors, but in rare form it received two in the same day only a few minutes apart. Hidden by dusty almanacs, old blue prints, and mountains of paperwork the two visitors met. "You sure you weren't followed?" "Please, I follow people for a living, I know how to get somewhere without raising suspicion and I am also perfectly capable of giving someone the slip." Came the arrogant reply. "Alright, I believe you… It's going to be harder with just the two of us." Sidney turned to the Sheriff, "I have the utmost faith that we can handle this, which is why we're here; the most recent census is here it's extremely detailed and also has photos of everyone." Graham's eyebrows furrowed "What? That's not how a census works, how did everyone's picture…" His question was answered by the smug look on the reporter's face. "Oh…god that's creepy." Sidney rolled his eyes and turned to retrieve the aforementioned book, which was actually a monstrous binder. "We're here to find more potential candidates, but we also need to make sure that their professions in this life are useful and will help us if, no when it's needed." Graham eyed the large tome and scratched the back of his neck. "Well I could take a bunch of them with me, but I really need to get to the station." Sidney nodded, "Of course, I can stay here. Just make sure no one finds them, that includes your deputy, Sheriff." Graham nodded as Sidney unclipped a sizable portion of files from the binder and handed them off. "I can be in here all day without raising any flags, you should get going." With one final nod the Sheriff left. Sidney spent several hours poring over documents in an attempt to find the best possible subjects for their…'Actually we never did come up with a name for what we're doing…Revival? Awakening? Hmm, well there will be plenty of time to flesh out all the details later.' By lunch he had found five very promising candidates, the chirping of his phone took his mind off of his current progress, and one look at the name of the person calling had him answering immediately. "Madame Mayor, how may I be of service?" "Yes, yes of course. I'm currently in the archives looking through her financials to make sure she hasn't purchased anything out of the ordinary." "Nothing obvious, but if it's hidden it won't take me long to find it."

After a long day full of meetings and morons Regina headed home to make dinner, the ride home was short as her mind was on what she was going to make. When entered the house she was greeted by silence, which of late was an indicator of mischief. She hurriedly climbed the stairs and headed straight to Henry's room, opening the door she was shocked to see him actually in his room doing what appeared to be math homework. "Do you need any help with that?" Henry shook his head, not even bothering to look at her, "No thanks, Ms. Blanchard taught me a trick while we were doing worksheets in class today." Ire and loneliness battled within the Mayor, she was silent for several beats as she lingered in the doorway before speaking again, "Did your Aunt decide to have dinner elsewhere?" At this question Henry did pause to look at her, "No, she wasn't there to walk me home today…I thought she would have come over by now though.." "Who walked you home?" "Ms. Blanchard, don't worry though she said she didn't mind." He replied. Regina nodded and closed the door, she took a deep breath as both emotions fought even harder within her. While she wasn't surprised that Riley hadn't contacted her so they could meet up for lunch she was surprised that she shirked her ritual of walking Henry home, not to mention it gave that infuriating schoolteacher more time alone with her son. She knew she might be over thinking things, but the fact that Mr. Gold could be involved made her skin crawl. As she put the ziti in the oven to bake, she leaned against the counter in contemplation. One thing was for sure, she was going to be very busy these next few days.