A/n: This chapter begins during Episode 12 & 13 (In the Name of the Brother, and Tiny, respectively).

Special thanks to everyone else who reviewed the last chapter. So sorry for the long wait for this chapter. For those of you wondering when Andrina will make her reappearance, it might just happen in the next chapter. And for those of you who I made with the last chapter with the Regina/Attina interactions, mission accomplished! ;-P

"Hello Rumpel."

An unbidden gasp escaped from his throat as he spun around. He knew that voice. Even through all the years that had passed, and everything that had come to pass, he'd know that voice anywhere, and it was highly unwelcome.

Getting over his initial shock, he felt a wave of frustration suddenly rising in him like a tidal wave as with resignation he dropped his hand over the top of his cane. After everything had happened in the course of the last several weeks, Cora's presence was the least welcome sight in all the world.

"Well I expected this was just a matter of time. Had hoped you were dead, but disappointment is part of life. I'm sure we can agree on that," he exhaled, wishing nothing more than to rush over to the woman smirking at him and throttle her. Now wasn't the best time, especially not with Belle laid up in a hospital at the present with all her memories gone. And it wasn't as though he'd been in the best of moods in the course of the last several weeks, even despite his breakthrough with the potion that would help him cross the town line.

Ever since he found out that Andrina was gone from their world, he could barely function. The anger and despair were boiling beneath the surface, that he could barely manage to keep his facade up for the rest of the world. It was only through focusing on his task to find his son, and knowing in his heart that Andrina was alive in their world, that kept him going.

He was quite sure that wherever Andrina was, she was still his Andrina. He was quite sure that if she were gone, he would have felt it. No doubt on the matter was allowed to cross his mind.

"Aw, the crocodile snaps at the little bird. And after I brought you a gift," Cora said with that damnable smirk still in place and with the slightest shakes of the head.

"Yeah, did you bring the antidote too?" he asked in snipe, storing away that bit about the crocodile as it became clear just how Cora had come into town and who she was in league with. Of course, it made sense now. After all, he highly doubted Hook would have made his way over on his own. Hook was altogether another matter. Oh how he wanted to get his hands on that man and kill him for what he had done to Belle.

In spite of never having clarified things with Belle before, and in spite of having only platonic feelings for her, he still wanted revenge on that pirate. Never-mind the fact that it could have all been avoided if he'd simply been honest about his feelings for Belle. For a moment, he felt the guilt niggle at him as he thought about the fact that in a way, he'd meant for this or something like it, to happen. He'd kept up the farce of loving Belle around the Charmings and all the rest, because it conveniently hid the true identity of the woman he truly loved.

"Oh Rumpel," Cora said in a near giggle as she grinned, showing off all her pearly whites. But to Rumpelstiltskin, Cora held no charms. "It's a peace offering."

"And what do you want for this...uh," he briefly turned to consider the box that had appeared moments before out of nowhere on his counter before turning to look at Cora. "This peace offering?"

Suddenly the coy and cocky Cora was gone. In an instant, she became deadly serious with a gleam of sadness in her eye, but Rumpelstiltskin didn't trust it. Cora was after all, a master manipulator.

"My daughter," she answered simply, causing him to narrow his eyes for a moment, his eyebrows contracting a micro-fraction. "You were so clever to get her to lay the curse so you can come here. You don't need her anymore. Let me try to get her back and let us live."

He took in the glassy red eyes for a moment, having patiently listened to what she wanted. Hi tilted his head as a slight sneer came over his face. He'd never truly believed that Cora loved her daughter and he wasn't about to. "And what do I get for my troubles."

"Your son," Cora replied softly. The smirk was wiped away as he narrowed his eyes on Cora. However, she merely shifted her eyes to the box. Turning his attention towards it, he momentarily debated whether or not to open it, but at last decided to do so.

He felt his heart jump as he took in what was inside.

"You know what that is, of course," Cora's voice came to him, as if form far away.

"It'll find him," he replied, for the moment staring at the globe with it's pearly sheen to it while his heart continued to soar. However, he was quick to clamp down on his hopes. This was Cora after all, and it would simply not do to show her any weakness. "If this one truly is it."

"Oh darling, I have no reason to cheat you," Cora said as he turned, taking a few steps closer to him.

"Anymore," he replied through gritted teeth. He didn't like to recall that Cora was one of the rare few to cheat her way of out one of his deals. Though in the end, he'd still won that one.

"I want you... to find the one person in this universe that might still love you," she replied. Rumpelstiltskin looked away as he felt his heart pulse as that doubt came over him. Did she still love him? Could she still remember him? Was she even still alive, but he shoved these all away. He needed to focus on the present after all. " After all I'm doing the same thing."

"Do you have any spells to return memories?" he asked, slowly turning his attention back to Cora. He was asking for Belle's sake. The only thing he could really think up would involve using the tea cup, and even he knew it wouldn't work. Just like the kiss. Because the truth was written in both his and Belle's hearts, and they knew that what they had was not true love, even if Belle wasn't aware of this.

"I only know what you taught me... master," Cora replied, at her utmost conniving. Rumpelstiltskin felt disgusted at her attempts to ingratiate herself with him. "So will you accept my offer of a truce?"

Rumpelstiltskin turned away for a moment, thinking about it. However, after a few seconds pause, he started to extend his hand. A truce he could afford, at least for the moment. He didn't really expected Cora to honor it, and he knew he could just as easily break it at any moment. Though, he expected Cora would break it first.

"Truce."

Cora put her hand in his, a sparkle coming into her eyes suddenly. "Let's seal it like we used to," she offered and though he knew what she meant, he was powerless to really stop it as she stepped closer to him. The revulsion wasn't enough. His longing after Andrina wasn't enough. Cora must not know he was at all different, she mustn't get even an inkling of where his heart was.

XX

It had been days since Attina had last spoken to Ruby, unless one counted very short text message conversations throughout the days. According to Ruby, she'd been too busy lately, and who could really blame her? From discovering Archie Hopper dead in his office, to attending his funeral, to discovering he was still alive, and then that whole mishap where a stranger drove into town and crashed... Attina could understand Ruby not having time to see her or even to have a proper conversation with her.

However, that wasn't the only reason that Attina didn't really mind. She had far too much on her plate on her own, and since the night she spent at Regina's, she wasn't even sure she could bear to face Ruby.

That night was a huge blur for the most part, but it still made Attina's heart clench to thick of a a wave of nausea to overwhelm her whenever she thought about it. Despite Regina's insistence in the pale dawn light of the morning after, that nothing had occurred between them, Attina still felt unsure and the uncertainty made her feel sick. Something told her that the night hadn't been solely innocent.

However, with Regina nowhere to be found after being accused of Archie Hopper's death, Attina had no way to confirm or refute her beliefs. So instead, she hung in this limbo of only suspicion and Attina found she could barely think straight.

Staring at her phone, where it rested next to her left arm, she sighed. There was something else to be concerned about. As if she didn't have enough on her plate, Eric had called her that morning. He was worried about Ariel, said that for the last few days she'd been looking particularly wan and she wouldn't tell him what or even if anything was wrong when he would ask her.

Getting up from her desk as she realized it was about time for lunch anyway, she decided it was time she paid a visit to her youngest sister. She just hoped that getting whatever was troubling Ariel out of her, would prove much easier than getting Andrina to ever admit to anything.

Not twenty minutes later, Attina was standing outside of Eric and Ariel's apartment. After knocking briskly, it took Ariel more than a couple minutes to answer the door. It was starting to make Attina nervous, as she found herself having to knock more than once. Her worry only increased further when she found herself looking at Ariel.

Her beautiful little sister was looking rather pale, and there were dark bags beneath her eyes that made it quite evident to Attina that the red-head hadn't been sleeping well of late. Her figure too, seemed somehow thinner than when last she saw her.

"Attina, what are you doing here?" Ariel asked in surprise, her bright eyes shifting warily where she stood clutching at the door tightly now.

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" Attina asked as lightly as she could muster, not ready yet to give way to what her visit was for. She felt a rising feeling of shame as she realized that she hadn't been playing as close attention lately as she deserved. Was she that wrapped up in her own life that she had missed it?

"Oh, yes, of course. Come in," Ariel said distractedly, looking down for a moment as she opened the door wider and stood aside. Attina was quick to step inside and have a quick glance around. Well, at least whatever is troubling her hasn't caused the hoarder dormant within her to emerge, Attina thought dryly as she looked around the neat little apartment. "Do you want something to eat, or drink?"

"No thank you," Attina responded, wondering why even after the curse, their high sense courtesy had been so deeply ingrained in them that even in moments of high stress, they still didn't let go of those habits which were clearly out of place in moments such as these. Attina took a seat on one of the couches, barely conscious of her sister shutting the door and moving to join her in the living room. "So are you going to tell me what's bothering you?"

Ariel flinched. For a moment she looked guilty before she covered it with a look of innocence and confusion that had never fooled anyone. "What are you-"

"Eric called me and he told me he is very worried about you," Attina started gently. "Please just tell me what it is, Ariel. I don't think I can stand anymore dancing around the subjects and no one ever admitting to the truth and what is wrong. I'm tired of all the secrets and I just want for once, some plain-speaking!"

Ariel sat back, wide eyed as she watched Attina lose her proper decorum. For a long moment, she remained silent as Attina seemed to slowly calm down. However as Attina opened her eyes and lock them on Ariel, Ariel could see the hard steel look in them, and the pain that was just shielded behind that.

Feeling her throat closing up and tears building in her eyes, Ariel looked down in her lap. She wasn't sure where exactly she should start off, but she expected that the easiest part was to tell her about the baby.

"I'm pregnant," Ariel breathed out quietly, not sure if Attina had heard her. However, when she looked up a moment later and found Attina looking at her with a mildly dumbstruck look, she knew that she had.

"Is that all?" Attina asked, almost ready to breathe a sigh of relief. "I thought it would be something much worse," Attina breathed with a long sigh as a smile started to overtake her face. Ariel wrung her hands together and swiftly got up.

"Oh Attina, don't smile! It's horrible! It's so horrible that I haven't even been able to tell Eric yet," Ariel stated, pacing back and forth in front so quickly that she was almost like a red blur.

"Why is it horrible?" Attina asked, her confusion very clearly evident in her voice as she watched her sister pacing with increasing worry. She felt her nerves being pulled taut like violin strings as she watched Ariel continue to ring her hands together before her belly which was still very flat.

Ariel paused for a moment in her pacing, still not looking at Attina while she debated on whether or not she should come clean. About everything. It didn't really take long for her to decide. Ever since Rumpelstiltskin's visit, she had felt a great weight pressing down on her chest and Ariel wasn't sure how much longer she could take it. She had to tell somebody and somehow... Attina was the best option, even if she knew that Attina might condemn her more than Eric ever would.

Turning towards Attina, she resumed her seat on the armchair and slowly met her sister's eyes. "Andrina probably never told you this, but she was the one that helped me get to the ship," Ariel started.

Attina furrowed her brow. "What ship?"

"When Ursula turned me human, back in our world, I could no longer swim. It took me time to even learn to walk, so learning to swim with a human body was completely out of the question. And on the last day I had to fulfill the price for the contract with Ursula, Eric had taken off on one of his ships where he was going to marry her. I had no way to get to the ship from where I was stranded on land... and... I did something horrible, Attina," Ariel stated as tears poured down her face. She had to take a moment in order to breathe, as she had been speaking so quickly that Attina barely kept up.

"What is it, Ariel?" Attina asked gently, handing her sister tissue paper to dry her eyes, her brow furrowed in concern unsure how Andrina fit in all this and how it was relevant to the topic they'd previously been having about Ariel's pregnancy. Ariel took it without really noticing.

"Rumpelstiltskin came to me. And... I... I asked him to bring Andrina to me. I didn't know who else to ask for... Andrina was always the one... she's always taken responsibility for me and I happened to have something of hers. But Rumpelstiltskin only does things for a price, like Ursula. And I agreed to do a favor for him, if he brought me Andrina. I didn't understand the price, Attina."

Attina stared owlishly for a moment, unsure what she was supposed to make of this. "I'm sorry... did you say Rumpelstiltskin? As in... the little man from that story about the Miller's Daughter?"

"I don't think it was anything like that, Tina," Ariel said, shaking her head and looking very worried. "In our world... his skin was a sickly color, it looked bumpy and rough and like... dirty, gritty gold. And his eyes... they were like the eyes of a reptile, and the same, sickly yellow-green of his skin," Ariel described with a faint look of horror on her face. "He came to me here, in Storybrooke. He found me and he wanted me to pay the price I owe him..."

"Who are you talking about. Who is Rumpelstiltskin?" Attina asked, as Ariel had started speaking in a low voice, filled with fear.

"Mr. Gold," Ariel stated, knowing it was the only name that would truly mean anything to Attina. She saw the moment it happened of course. The understanding dawning in her eyes. The tensing of all of her muscles. Her lips pulling into a taut, distressed line.

"What did he want for a price?" Attina asked, her voice now properly severe. While she did not know the character of Rumpelstiltskin or why Ariel should be so concerned, she did know about Mr. Gold. Though she had never met the man or had any reason to deal with him, she knew he was a man to be feared by all of the town and had heard about many of his deeds. He was certainly not the type of man one wanted to owe anything to.

Ariel looked down. This was the hardest part of her confession. Taking a breath to fortify her courage, she very slowly looked up to meet her eldest sister's eyes. "Andrina," she whispered, as another tear slipped form her eye.

"She's beyond his reach," Attina said after a moment after swallowing the lump in her throat. There tears sprouting in her eyes eyes, while her heart remained clenched at the thought of her sister's fate.

"I know. He's going to come after my baby, Attina," Ariel cried, her voice finally breaking as tears started rushing down her cheeks. "He said if I didn't give him Andrina, he'd take my baby. He can't have Andrina, so he's going to take my baby!"

Attina moved over to where her sister sat crying and took her in her arms, attempting to soothe her. However, there was a cold that had settled all over her, and she wasn't sure if there was anything that she could say that would make any of this better.

TBC...

A/n: I'm sorry for any mistakes. I just wanted to get this posted and not make you guys wait any longer. As always, please review. I appreciate them all so much!