Dr. Hopper's Friday appointment with Henry went a little different than usual, Henry noticed. Instead of trying to explore Henry's need to believe in the curse and forcing him to sift back through years of childhood grief, he was asking him surface questions about his own memories and the curse itself.

"Tell me everything you remember about the last time you saw your biological parents."

"The last thing that my mother said to me was that a monster named Cora was going to cast a curse that only I could break. Then my father took baby Helena, put her in a basket with a stuffed animal and some apples, and told me to go find somewhere to hide with her."

"And the place that you chose to hide was the tree behind the diner where you and your sister were found?"

"No," said Henry. "We climbed into a wardrobe. The tree is where we came through later." He felt silly even saying this. The doctor couldn't believe him.

"What was the last thing you saw before you came through the wardrobe?"

"I saw the witch come through the front door and knock my grandfather unconscious. I don't remember how, but there must have been magic involved because it happened so quickly. Then she turned to go into my parents' room and I climbed into the wardrobe with Helena to stay safe."

"Are you sure that you remember her coming through the front door from the outside?" said the doctor.

"Yes," said Henry. "I remember seeing thick purple smoke out the door behind her that looked like it was going to swallow everything up."

Dr. Hopper's face fell. "Are you sure it was purple?"

"Yes. Trust me. Everything that happened that day was too disturbing to forget."

Dr. Hopper remembered that Eleanor had said in their session just a couple of days ago that all magic produced purple smoke. He'd managed to read most of the book that Helena had loaned him, and it didn't say anything about purple smoke.

"Sorry, but I need to ask you something off topic. How much time did you spend with Princess Aurora before you were brought down here?"

"Quite a bit, over the course of a few days," said Henry.

"Tell me about that."

"I found her lost in the woods and gave her a ride back to town. I told her about the curse that ripped everyone from The Enchanted Forest. She didn't know about it because she was under her sleeping curse when it was cast."

"And what did she tell you?"

"She told me who she was and how Maleficent destroyed her family and then cursed her when she was sixteen."

Dr. Hopper nodded. The storybook had a brief anecdote about Sleeping Beauty. Like all the stories in the book, it had been somewhat unconventional.

"Did Aurora read the same book that you and Kayla read?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Did you ever talk to her about the book?"

"No."

The doctor nodded again. "What about the day that you held Mayor Mills up at gunpoint? What was Eleanor-Aurora's role in that?"

"She didn't do anything wrong or illegal," said Henry. "I only asked her to take Kayla and Helena as far away from City Hall as possible. So that they would all be safe."

"Safe from what?"

"Mayor Mills, of course. I wasn't sure what breaking the curse would involve, or what dark magic she would use to try to stop me."

"Ah. I see."

Henry straightened up. "You're not having Eleanor locked down here too, are you?"

Dr. Hopper shook his head. "No, of course not." If it were up to him, Henry and Daniel wouldn't be locked down here either. Maximum security was one thing, but the level of isolation these patients were experiencing wasn't exactly conducive to improving their mental health.

The man's name wasn't Daniel, though. Hopper tried to remind himself, even though the patient now thought of himself as Daniel because of Henry. And because of the "hypnosis" he'd experienced.

"We're almost out of time," said Dr. Hopper. "But before Daniel's session, I need to know how much if at all he discussed the outcome of his last session with you."

"He told me that you hypnotized him and he saw Regina," Henry answered truthfully. "When he asked me to tell him more about his past, I told him you'd asked me not to discuss it with him."

"Thank you," said Dr. Hopper. "It's even more important that you refrain from talking to him about these things now, because I have reason to believe that his "memory" is a false construct."

"What reason is that?" asked Henry.

"Well, I know that you didn't tell him about magic, the curse, or the fact that you think you're his son, but you have talked to him about horses and told him he had a wife named Regina with the same characteristics he described to me."

"But other than that, how did it seem like it was a false memory to you?" asked Henry. "Is there a specific way for you to tell whether a hypnosis is 'false' or not?"

Dr. Hopper sighed. "I'm afraid I can't discuss this with you further, Henry. It would be a breach of confidentiality."

"That's fine. I see how it is."

Dr. Hopper tapped on the door of the cell, where two male nurses had been waiting to switch Daniel and Henry's places. Once the doctor was alone in the cell with Daniel, he calmly explained that he was concerned that the last memory he recovered might be false.

"I'm not saying that Henry was lying to you or anything," said the doctor carefully. "But the fact that you remembered the things he told you about, and only the things he told you about, is suspicious."

"But it felt so real," said Daniel. "I saw her. It felt like…"

"Like a memory?"

"No. Like…a flashback. "

"I understand. But perhaps I should have told you going in that hypnosis isn't a hundred percent reliable. You wouldn't be the first person to have a flashback of something that didn't exist. Now if it's alright with you, I'm going to hypnotize you again. Just try to keep in mind that this session and the last session may result in completely different or conflicting memories."

Daniel was still convinced that the first session was so vivid it had to have actually happened, but he resolved to obey the doctor's orders.

"Can you hear me, sir?"

"Yeah," the patient said from his position on his bed, eyes closed and head back.

"Good. I would like you to go back to the very last place you were before you were in this hospital room."

The very last place…the very last place…the very last place…

Daniel turned the button over in his hand. It was brown and wooden. He wasn't sure where he'd gotten it from. He looked around the room. Dark walls and floorboards with a red tint. Out the window, billowy purple clouds swallowed up the forest surrounding them. Beside him was Regina, pale and unsteady. The only other person in the room was a brown-haired woman encased in elegant black velvet. Her vindictive eyes and smile showed all the concern and compassion of a rock.

"Don't worry. In a few minutes you won't even be able to remember that you knew them, let alone had them."

Daniel turned to face her and heard himself say, "What did we ever do to you? What did your daughter ever do to make you want to give her a life where she would always have to be afraid? What right do you think you have to separate her from everyone she ever loved?"

The woman's smile faded. "You still don't understand, do you, stable boy? Love is weakness." She approached him and easily slid her hand into his chest. He felt her cold, bony fingers clench his heart.

"Mother!" screamed Regina.

"Wake up!"

Daniel gasped and shuddered as his eyes flew open.

"Easy," said the doctor gently. "Sit up. Just breathe. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let you get in that deep again." After a moment, the doctor asked Daniel what happened.

"You're not gonna believe what I saw."

At around 6:00 p.m. that night, most people were out and about or at home enjoying themselves and kickstarting their weekends while Dr. Hopper sat in his office, brain aching with confusion. He felt as if he were trying to assemble a sadistic jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces too big to possibly fit with the other half but all alike in design. And the most disturbing part wasn't that the pieces that should have fit together didn't. It was that the pieces that shouldn't have fit together did.

Henry.

Daniel.

Aurora.

Once Upon A Time.

The therapy notes from his last sessions with the three patients in question were spread out all over his desk, and the book was open in his lap.

"How can this be?"

According to Henry, Daniel should have known nothing about the curse, magic, or anything else. Every ounce of intuition Dr. Hopper possessed inclined him to believe Henry. The reasons he'd given for not discussing these things with his "father" made perfect sense, both logically and with Henry's view of the world. And yet Daniel had just "remembered" something magical that had happened to his counterpart in the storybook that he'd never read. Something that involved Regina and the witch, and from Daniel's description the witch in his "memory" strongly resembled the one in the book, who strongly resembled Mayor Mills.

And all three of them-Daniel, Henry, and Eleanor-had mentioned that damn purple smoke.

When there was no purple smoke in the damn book.

The book did have a picture of the room that both Henry and Daniel had described being in, though, with the little boy who looked like Henry carrying his baby sister in a basket of apples. According to the book, Daniel had proved to the witch that she was wrong about his love for Regina moments before the curse took hold of them. It didn't say anything about her grabbing his heart. But it was mentioned numerous times throughout the book that the witch ripped people's hearts out and crushed them. And if this storybook was factually accurate-which obviously it wasn't, because that was impossible-the version of events Daniel had experienced under hypnosis could have easily been the last thing that happened before he found himself in the maximum security ward of the hospital. Except for the fact that obviously the witch hadn't ripped his heart out and crushed it, because he wasn't dead. But besides that.

The most logical explanation the doctor could think of was also the most illogical; namely, that Henry and Daniel had planned this all out in advance to play mind games with him. Dr. Hopper was generally fairly adept at figuring out when someone was messing with him. And these men had never for a moment seemed like they would. Henry seemed to know that the doctor would see through his lies if he ever told any and had a very firm grasp on what the rest of the world considered reality to be. And Daniel was clearly a lost soul with far more interest in discovering himself than tricking his therapist into believing in fairytales.

And even if every single observation Dr. Hopper had made about Henry or Daniel was wrong, and they'd intentionally created a web of lies for him to ruin his Friday night, Eleanor was saying some of the same things they were. And she hadn't even been able to contact Henry since he was institutionalized!

Suddenly, the doctor remembered that Kayla knew Eleanor. And Henry had talked to both of them about the curse. Was it possible that Kayla was still talking to Eleanor and telling her information that she'd gotten from Henry? It was a long shot, but it made sense. Kayla had spent a lot more time with Henry than Eleanor had.

It wasn't that Dr. Hopper was actually starting to think the curse could be real. That would be ridiculous, he reminded himself as he put the storybook on a shelf, donned his coat, and locked up his practice. But all things considered, he would feel a lot better if he could see some proof that it wasn't.

Mayor Mills stood on the outside of Granny's, looking at all of the customers through the glass window. Ruby and Graham were sitting at the counter together telling Granny a story about their day while she laughed. Jefferson was there with Paige on his lap, teaching her how to use a fork and knife. Michael Zimmer was there with the twins, both well-behaved and drawing quietly as they waited for their food. Sister Astrid was giving Leroy a kiss on the cheek, which caused his face to light up with wonder. Astrid was no longer wearing her habit, the mayor noticed. Apparently, she had left the convent. And as evidenced by the warm looks she got from everyone she was speaking to, she had left with her dignity intact. The mayor was glaring at nothing in particular when Granny caught her eye and she took off, as she'd been told that she wasn't welcome near the establishment.

But not before she caught a glimpse of the table where Helena, Mrs. Gold, Kayla and Virginia were sitting. Virginia looked so happy in there with all those commoners. So disgustingly happy. All of them.

I don't remember giving all these people permission to be happy, the mayor thought.

She stopped on the sidewalk a few blocks later to observe David and Mary Margret through the window of their apartment. He was helping her adjust to a sitting position on the couch. Both had lovesick smiles on their faces. To the astonishment of both his beloved and the mayor, David knelt down before Mary Margret and presented her with a diamond ring. Mary Margret squealed, and within moments she had the ring on her finger and her fiance's lips on hers.

I didn't separate all the royals from their spouses in the casting of the curse so that they could find new ones.

The mayor stepped off the sidewalk and hid behind a shrub when she heard familiar voices coming from a few feet away. She stayed hidden so that she could eavesdrop discreetly.

"Now's really not a good time, Dr. Hopper," said Mrs. Gold. "Kayla's already terribly worried about her father at the moment. I don't want her to start worrying about Henry, too."

"Is there a good time tomorrow afternoon, perhaps? Please, Mrs. Gold. I wouldn't be asking you to do this if it wasn't important."

There was a pause. "We're going on a picnic in the woods for lunch tomorrow. You should join us."

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to interrupt family time."

"It's fine. Kayla already invited Helena and Virginia to come with us. And I don't know if Mr. Gold will be there. No one has seen him since yesterday morning."

Dr. Hopper then politely expressed his concerns, but Mayor Mills was already halfway down the block. If Dr. Hopper was resorting to going to an eleven-year-old for help to treat her until-recently-estranged birth father, something must be very wrong. At least the mayor hoped that was the case.

The mayor looked around to make sure no one was watching her, then extracted her huge keychain from her purse and unlocked Dr. Hopper's office. She slipped inside and turned on the light to his office. She found his desk cluttered with notes, all having to do with three patients: Henry, Eleanor, and John Doe. At least John Doe was what it said on the top of each paper and on the tab of his file folder. In the actual notes, Dr. Hopper was referring to the man as Daniel.

Second attempt at hypnosis on patient.

Patient alleges he was in a wooden house-described wood as brownish-reddish, furniture as old-fashioned and meager, mentioned seeing purple smoke through window. Allegedly saw "Regina" again and had an argument with her mother that ended with Regina's mother trying to rip Daniel's heart out with her bare hand.

The mayor's heart began to pound with fury (or at least it would have if she had one). She carefully picked through the notes, making sure to leave their positions intact when she backed away so that there was no evidence that she'd been in the practice. She could have sworn her blood was boiling by the time she was pulling out her keychain again to unlock the door of the building where she anticipated she would find her former master. The lights in the sheriff station were all off, but when the mayor flipped the switch she saw Mr. Gold sitting up, alert and expectant.

"I want her dead."

"Lovely to see you too, Madam Mayor."

"I can't believe you got yourself arrested. What did you do?" When Mr. Gold didn't respond, the mayor snatched his file off of Graham's desk and read it. "Well, well. Property damage. Battery. Assaulting a nun. Your wife and daughter must be so proud."

"Actually, I'd rather they not find out. One of many reasons why I don't relish the thought of time locked up in a cage."

"Whatever. You and I have a much greater crisis on our hands. Dr. Hopper has been treating the stable boy's amnesia. Daniel is beginning to regain his memories. His real memories."

Mr. Gold smiled nonchalantly. "I fail to see how this in any way concerns me."

"Don't you see? Dr. Hopper already had two patients whom he was treating for the sole reason that they believed in the curse. If he somehow manages to uncover the truth, it's only a matter of time before he hypnotizes everyone in Storybrooke. They'll remember who they are. They'll realize they're cursed. And then they'll come after us. And it's all because of her. Dr. Hopper wouldn't even know Daniel exists if she hadn't persuaded him to treat Henry."

"You mean Helena? She's the person you want dead?"

"Yes. If you agree to kill her tomorrow, I'll find the sheriff, bail you out of jail tonight, and see to it that the charges Mother Superior has pressed against you are dropped."

"And what about the murder charges after you have me kill Ms. Stable?"

"Find a quiet way. Make it look like an accident."

"There's no quiet way to kill someone in this town, dearie. Especially not someone as popular as Helena. Too many people would be angry if she died. They would demand answers, and it would be mere hours before people came to the realization that the only enemy she's made since she arrived in town is…you. Everyone in Storybrooke would call for your imprisonment, and don't you just know that your darling Virginia would be leading the charge?"

Mayor Mills didn't respond, because he was right.

"Surely there must be some way you could kill her without arousing anyone's suspicions."

"I'm afraid not."

"This was a waste of my time." The mayor turned around to leave the sheriff station and raised her hand to flick the lights off.

"On the other hand…" the mayor froze when she heard the prisoner talking. "If something tragic were to happen to Dr. Hopper, and Ms. Stable were to be found at fault, the citizens of our fair town might not love her so much anymore. In fact, after a few weeks of seeing her publicly ostracized for murder, I'd be willing to bet that very few would become concerned if she were to just…disappear."

The mayor turned around, her face slowly lighting up like a sunrise. She approached the cell. He stood up when he saw her coming. Her hand curled around one of the green iron bars.

"I like the way you think, Mr. Gold."

"Do we have a deal?"

"Deal," whispered the mayor. She rested her face evenly between two bars, leaving her forehead inches away from his. "Let's seal it like we used to, shall we?"

"I'm a married man now, Cora."

"Need I remind you that you got your marriage certificate from a curse?"

"I believe you said something about having a word with the sheriff concerning my captivity." He smiled amicably and held out his hand for her to shake.