Disclaimer: I forgot to mention this in the last chapter, but the image I provided for this story is from Doll Divine's 'Neptune's Daughter' dress-up game. This is more or less how I picture Andrina. In Disney, Andrina is actually a blonde, but like I've stated previously, I think it's a bit odd for Triton's daughter's hair-colors to range from blonde to black and with the one red-head when both Triton and his wife seemed to have Auburn hair.

Disclaimer 2: Song included in this chapter is Blurry by Puddle of Mudd.

A/n: I think this chapter will more or less take place around episode 14 (Manhattan) and 15 (The Queen is Dead). As promised, Andrina will finally be making her long awaited reappearance. Enjoy!

Special thanks to TeamTHEFT, Iroquois and Glitter4Ever. I'm glad you continue to read and enjoy my story and take the time to review.

Only a couple days had passed since Ariel's grand revelation to Attina, igniting a great sense of anticipation in Attina, not to mention a feeling of foreboding.

Rumpelstiltskin. The name kept repeating itself over and over in her head, igniting the synapses in her brain, trying to communicate something to her.

The heavy weight she always carried with her in the form of an envelope, seemed now more pressing than ever upon her. The questions were all there, as well as the connections. But the possibility that she was contemplating seemed too absurd to her. She didn't think it could be possible. The idea of her beautiful, strong, little sister had possibly been in love with him... it just seemed too ludicrous. The possibility that Andrina's fate was tied to such a man... a creature, was too unfair to bear.

Of course, Attina knew there were two ways to answer the questions burning in her mind. One was to go against all her instincts that told her to stay away from this man and confront him, or alternately, to invade her sister's privacy and read her letter.

Somehow, the former was more appealing than the latter, in spite of knowing that the former was dangerous and would probably be fruitless. After all, she doubted the man would offer up any information unless compelled, and asking him would simply open herself and possibly her family to retribution form this powerful man. Besides, she couldn't exactly ask the man if her sister had ever admitted to him to being in love with him, and doing so would only reveal to the man that he had the most powerful hold of all over Andrina.

And yet, despite all that she knew, Attina tried to rationalize her seeking him out. She told herself that she would only go to him for clarification where Ariel was concerned. However, it was all for naught. Mr. Gold was not to be found at his shop, and after a brief visit to Granny's, she gleaned from Ruby that Mr. Gold had just gone out of town with the Sheriff and her son.

Though this news baffled her, and though it was the first time she had been face to face with Ruby in over a week, Attina had no time to stay and chat even if for once, Ruby finally seemed to be recalling the fact that she had a girlfriend and should make time for her. Attina was not presently in any mood to pretend with her girlfriend that everything was peachy, and rushed home for the privacy to do the one thing that she'd been dreading for weeks. But she found that she couldn't wait any longer. She had to know.

Sitting heavily on her bed, holding the envelope blank but for the R, she opened the letter with a sense of shame. Pulling out the two sheets of paper, she carefully unfolded them and gasped when she saw what was at the top of the first page.

Dear Tina,

Do not be so surprised sister, I knew that things would not be so simple for you and that you'd have to resort to this. I'm not angry or displeased, so you stop feeling ashamed. I told you, I trust your judgement and if you had to resort to opening this letter, than I trust to that you shall continue to keep the contents of my letters a secret, as well as to who the other letter is addressed to.

I trust you not to read the contents of the letter not disclosed to you, and to simply stick to the finding of the name. His name.

I'm sorry you had to resort to this Attina, I know that it goes against your nature to trespass even on another person's privacy, but I know your intentions are only pure and good.

Who my heart sang to might come a surprise to you, but I know you'll understand when you find out his identity, why I kept it a secret from everyone. Loving such a man is not remotely the same as Ariel's love for Eric, or your own love for Ruby. I did not fall in love with a prince, or a heroine. That is not who fate destined for me, but I'm all right with that. Despite the heartache I feel as I write these letters, I would not trade a single moment that I spent at his side in order to spare myself this suffering.

I only hope that you do not hate me for it and that you can find it it your heart not to hate him.

With all the love I never properly expressed,

Rina

Breathing heavily, with her hands shaking and tears blurring her sight while pouring down her cheeks, Attina pressed her letter to her chest. Brushing her tears on the back of the hand that held her letter, she tried to focus on the second. Ignoring the contents, she moved to the bottom and felt her heart nearly stop. Closing her eyes at the unpleasant truth starting up at her, she shut her eyes against the name that flashed before her closed lids and would not cease to repeat in her mind.

Rumpelstiltskin.

XX

"Pre-occupied without you, I cannot live at all. My whole world surrounds you, I stumble then I crawl. You could be my someone, you could be my scene. You know that I'll protect you from all of the obscene. I wonder what you're doing, wonder where you are. 'Cause oceans in between us, but that's not very far."

Triton lingered in the doorway, staring at Andrina's back as she lay curled on her left side, her head barely propped up on her arm as she reclined in her giant, clam bed. Her long hair was lose and semi floated, semi fell around her like a cloak, blocking her from view. She was curled around a giant pearl, the size of a watermelon, her tail periodically whipping back and forth.

Her voice carried over the room, its melodic beauty soothing his heart as he watched his black-haired beauty. It was almost enough to soothe away the pain he felt at the knowledge that most of their people had been killed as a result of the curse, leaving only those that were in his family, part of the castle and a scant few that lived in the shallows as all that survived of their race.

Shifting from where he stood, even though it pained him to make her stop and interrupt her peace, he knew that it was time they had this discussion. Swimming over cautiously so as not the startled the fiercely territorial Andrina, he gently cleared his throat.

Slowly, Andrina turned and looked him over her shoulder and quieted. "Yes daddy?" she asked, though she did not move to receive him. She hadn't moved for weeks, though he knew that was normal for their kind. His eyes softened slightly at his daughter.

"I think it's time we have this discussion, Andrina. Soon it will be time for us to return to Storybrooke, and I think it is for the best you finally tell me who the father is," he stated gravely as he came only close enough so that he stood in her line of vision, but far enough away that she did not feel as though her egg were threatened. Mermaids guarded their eggs viciously and in spite of their rational minds, took any presence but their own that was too close to their egg as a threat.

"I know... I was thinking it might be for the best if I tell you as well, but only you must know daddy," Andrina replied softly, staring adoringly at the egg that had saved her from devolving. However, that was not the reason that she adored it. She hardly even cared the pain it caused her to expel the egg from her body.

Mermaids tended to expel all fertilized eggs between a week or two of their becoming fertilized, resulting in eggs roughly the size of a golfball which were expelled with no more than mild discomfort to the mermaid. Andrina, as she'd been trapped in her human form and was unaware of being pregnant, had expelled an egg the size of a tennis ball as soon as she had come across the portal and turned into her original form. It had been a painful and bloody experience, but Andrina and her family had wept tears of joy as they watched the pink pearl slowly become white.

Andrina had been roughly about three or four weeks along when the egg had come. Now, five weeks later, the gestation period for her egg was almost finished. Andrina couldn't help being happy. She wasn't sure if she could have waited nine months like a human to see her baby and was happy that her people developed so exponentially quickly in the first weeks of life.

"Where is everyone else?" Andrina asked, still not looking away form her eggs as she continued to move her arm so as to drizzle sand around the top of her egg and soothing it away with a wave of her hand. It was a process necessary in order to soften the shell of the egg, so that when the time came the merbaby would be able to crack the egg open with ease. The sand helped erode away the hard layer that was the pearl-like essence of a mermaid's egg.

"Your sisters and the guard have gathered the last of our people into the Great Hall. They are telling them of Storybrooke and what to expect if they chose to make the journey. They will not come this way," he stated, wondering for perhaps the millionth time why all the secrecy.

After they had discovered that the seas were mostly empty of their people, the family had felt a blow to their beings that was beyond grief and pain. The rest of the girls had wanted to return the Storybrooke as soon as they discovered there was almost nothing for them in their world, but it was impossible. Once the egg had been expelled from Andrina's body, there was no putting it back. And no one knew if the egg would survive the journey to Storybrooke, and no one was willing to take that chance when it could cost them both Andrina and the baby's life. After all, the egg was all that anchored Andrina.

"No one but you must know, daddy. If anyone else were to find out, they might use her to hurt him, or come after me. Our lives depend on no one knowing, and my little girl being protected and kept away from anyone who isn't us," Andrina said quietly but fiercely, trying to convey her message as she met her father's eyes with her own green ones.

"Her? Is it a girl?" her father asked, distracted by knowing the gender of his first grandchild. For a moment, he turned away from Andrina to stare at the egg, which shifted slight and swayed softly. It was a large, oval shape with the sheen of a pearl. However, there were places where the shell was starting to become thin, but the shape of the baby was still mostly hidden by the milky surface. But every now and again, when the baby shifted, he could see a silhouette of a little fin that made his heart fill with joy.

"That's what I feel," Andrina smiled, turning her gentle smile towards the egg. In that moment, his hard little princess resembled her sweet mother so much, that he felt his heart breaking and tears filling his eyes. However, it was a bittersweet feeling that left him feeling broken and complete simultaneously.

"Who is the father, Andrina?" Triton asked soberly.

Andrina found the strength to say his name, reveal her heart's greatest secret, only for her egg. She knew that her baby's protection would rely most on her father, and he had to know what he was up against.

"Rumpelstiltskin," she said, as light crack drew her gaze away for a moment, "Better known by Storybrooke residents as Mr. Gold."

TBC...