August hadn't contacted him since he'd called him yesterday. But he knew that ultimately Emma Swan had gone to the puppet. He hadn't heard this from August but rather from Dove. After Sidney had been convicted, he'd recalled the bird from vacation and put him back to watching Emma. Last night, after the sun had gone down, he'd gotten a call from Dove he hadn't expected.

"Sir, I have a problem."

"What's happening, Mr. Dove?"

"Nothing with Emma that I can tell. She met up with Archie after you and then went to August. They left on his motorcycle, and they're heading out of town. I'm following them now, but Sir…I just got a call from my parent's nursing home. Something is wrong, and they need me to go in. Want me to keep following and call another one of my cousins to trade off?"

Fuck.

The damn Curse had struck again, it seemed; figuring out a way to keep Dove contained while an untouched Emma and August were free to go. The Curse was weakening, but apparently, that part of it hadn't weakened yet. Dammit! He'd really wanted to know where Booth was taking her, but if he'd sent another of Dove's cousin's out to replace him, next it would've been a car accident that kept him in town, and then he'd have been down a potential spy; the best of his spies. He had to live with letting them go and trust that Booth would fill him in when he could.

So he dismissed Dove, told him to go take care of his parents and check-in when he could. He expected it was nothing. The Curse had needed to pull him away from the town line, to haul him back to Storybrooke, probably it was simply an error or minor heart attack from his parents. He assumed he'd be back to work sometime the next day…just like he was.

There was always work to be done in the shop. It was almost a disappointment. With everything going on, with the Curse unraveling and threatening to shatter completely soon, it felt like a cruel punishment to have to do things like work ledger books and take inventory, to have to clean and polish unimportant items…

To tend to customers who didn't know anything about the battle that was being waged around them every day.

He looked up as the bell over his door chimed, expecting to see a customer, but hoping to see Emma or Booth, perhaps even Dove. Instead, Regina strode in. He knew just by the look on her face she was angry.

"Your Majesty. To what do I owe the pleasure?" he asked, bracing himself for whatever she needed to get off her chest.

"My tree is dying. Why?" she snapped, setting a rotten apple down in front of him.

Probably because with her and Emma finally wanting to kill each other properly and August working toward getting Emma to believe in the Curse, her Majesty's pretty world was beginning to crumble around her. Not that he was going to tell her that.

"Perhaps, it's your fertilizer," he joked with a smile.

"You think this is funny? Well, I'll tell you what I think. I think it's a sign of the curse weakening because of Emma. But do you care? No. You're content to just sit back and do…whatever it is you're doing while all my hard work burns."

Yes. He did think it was funny, in fact. Not the bit about her dying tree; he didn't give a rat's arse about that. It was more that the tree was the first she seemed to be aware of the fact that his Curse was dying. Too distracted with Emma and Henry and Mary Margaret…it was like she hadn't even paid attention to her own "hard work" as it had begun to collapse around her. It was hilarious. Except for the fact that if she only focused on the Curse breaking, she might stop focusing on Emma. Now that, he suspected, was the real trouble, especially with what he'd learned over the last few days in regards to the Savior wanting her son back.

"That's not all, is it? Come on. You might as well get everything off your chest," he encouraged, moving away from her. Angry as she was, they were still Cursed. If she decided to do something violent, as she had in the Enchanted Forest, he wasn't fit to defend himself.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she muttered. He nearly rolled his eyes. Nearly. Emma had needed a nudge. It stood to reason that she might as well.

"Henry," he stated easily. "Miss Swan wants him."

"She'll have that boy over my dead body."

"The Curse was meant to take away Snow White and Prince Charming's happiness. Perhaps, you giving up Henry is just the price to keep the Curse unbroken," he suggested knowing full well it would only rile her up. If it applied a bit more pressure to Emma, then that was exactly what he wanted.

"I think I'd rather just get rid of her."

Beautiful. Exactly what he wanted to hear.

"Well, well, you're going to have to be quite creative. We both know the repercussions in killing Miss Swan. The Curse will be-"

"The curse will be broken," Regina finished for him. "That's because you designed it that way. Undo it."

He laughed. She wasn't exactly wrong, but she wasn't right either. She still thought he'd made the Curse, designed it himself. She hadn't any idea it had actually come from his mother or that ensuring the Savior's death would break the Curse. Why she'd added that…he was clueless, it was probably a question he should have asked her that night they'd met if he hadn't been so stupidly overwhelmed. But what was done was done. The caveat was there, and given Regina's history of murder, he was almost grateful his mother had protected the Curse in that way. There was nothing he could do.

"You know…even if I wanted to, I couldn't. Magic…well…is in short supply around here and dwindling by the minute."

"You want the Curse broken," Regina breathed suddenly in astonishment. He felt his skin twitch and his blood boil. Sometimes he forgot how much they both knew each other. He had meant his comment as a joke, and he hadn't known she'd read him as well as she had. Fuck. "Why?"

"That's not something I care to discuss," he answered honestly.

"Don't bother. You can shove your reasons. I want to strike a new deal. One where I can get rid of Emma without shattering the Curse."

Typical Regina still not listening and never using the information she had wisely. "Unfortunately for you, a negotiation requires two interested parties, and I'm already planning a trip," he meant it to sound sarcastic as he walked away from her, meant it to scare and frighten her…he hoped that was what she'd take away from it.

"I'll give you anything."

"Oh," he sighed ominously, all the while pleased to hear that slight tremble in her voice.

She did know him well. She knew just how much he loved that word "anything." Any deal that had that was tempting, and yet here he stood…his heart didn't even flutter at the word. They were in the endgame now. As terrible a trick as it had been, Booth had helped to show him just how close they were getting. This was not and never had been about Regina, despite what she thought. And there was one thing in this world, this world specifically, that he loved more than "anything." That was his son. Nothing was going to distract him from that now. Especially not "anything."

"You no longer have anything I want, dearie. But I will give you a piece of advice, free of charge. I'd plan a trip of your own. Because, once people waken up and remember who you are and what you did to them…" he laughed menacingly and turned to a globe he had on the counter. He gave it a spin as he admired it as if considering the whole wide world already open to him. "They are going to be looking for blood…"

And if the way she stormed out of his shop suggested anything, she knew it too.

Simple chapter. We all knew it was coming. I had to do something to get Dove away from Emma and August, though, because he couldn't cross the town line like Henry could, even if he intended to come back. I just wasn't going to deal with that. So I had a nursing home call him away. It seemed easy enough to get the boy out of there.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Grace5231973, Alarda, and Spunkymouse, for your reviews! Up next we've got another familiar scene, but it leads so perfectly into the next chapter that I can't wait for you to read it! Peace and Happy Reading!