Of all the voices he'd once had in his head, he missed the Seer the most. He missed the way that she gave him hints, the way she sometimes filled in the blanks that she had created, the way she urged him to respond in certain ways to various situations.

This was one of those situations he missed her most.

He hadn't a clue what to do about the Dark-haired Stranger, August Booth. He'd been one of his very first visions outside of the original vision. He'd seen him clearly in his mind's eye just after Jiminy had become a cricket. That was what triggered the vision in the first place. Jiminy knew the Dark-Haired stranger somehow. Somewhere he had sketched his face into one of his Chronicles. Along with the image of his face, he'd gotten only one bit of information. The Dark-haired Stranger knew Baelfire. But how? The stranger had never triggered any memories for him of who he might be. He'd never in all his life seen him before that vision. He was positive he wasn't from their village, which only left one option. If the Stranger didn't know Baelfire from before he'd left, then he had to know him after he'd left. He knew Baelfire here, not there. But then…how?! How had he ended up here, and where was Baelfire?! Why was he here and Bae not?

After he'd left, he'd made only one call, and that was to Granny to inquire about Bed and Breakfast's only current occupant. She hadn't been pleased, but he'd reminded her that it was, in fact, his property, and he was entitled to know who was staying on it. Unfortunately, all he'd gotten from that conversation was exactly what he already knew. His name was August Wayne Booth. The woman hadn't asked to see a driver's license, and he'd been paying in cash, so she had nothing to the contrary. He tried to remember when he'd pulled out his wallet if he'd seen anything other than cash inside, but he'd been too busy staring at him to do such a thing. He'd place an inquiry later to do a proper background check, but with nothing more than a name and the knowledge that he had a motorcycle license, he hoped, he didn't think anything would come back.

He wanted the Seer. No…he needed the Seer. He needed information, more than he already had. He needed to understand who he was and where he'd come from…he just needed to understand him. Period.

The fact that he knew Baelfire was important, but at the moment, it wasn't everything. He'd been in the back. He was almost positive it wasn't an accident that he was there, and at the moment, he couldn't be sure if he'd been working with Henry either. He knew the pair of them had been around town, but he also knew that Booth had been spending a lot of time with Emma and lately, time with Emma seemed to automatically translate to time with Henry. Would he involve the boy in his plans? And what the hell were his plans to begin with?! Why had he been poking around in the back room?

Why had he been drawn to Baelfire's ball? Coincidence?

Booth was really all that he wanted to think about. But want wasn't need. And as he stood there behind his counter looking down at Bae's ball, he was suddenly reminded of other things he had to do when Regina Mills finally came storming into his shop.

"You owe me an explanation!" Regina yelled as she strode into the shop and marched up to him. With her angry stomping, he was happy that the counter was between them. "Your Majesty! I've been expecting you!" he smiled. It was a struggle, putting a smile on his face and acting as though he was excited to see her, but he managed.

"You broke our deal!" she stated, ignoring his comment.

He huffed at her accusation. If it hadn't been for Baelfire's ball between them, that comment might not have stung as it did. "I broke one deal in my life, dear," he corrected. "And it certainly wasn't this one."

"Kathryn was supposed to die! And Mary Margaret was to get the blame."

"Yeah, murder seems so much worse here, though, doesn't it? You can't just turn someone into a snail and then step on them, can you?" he commented with a wide smile. Back in the Enchanted Forest, he probably would have laughed it all away as he explained the flaw, the loophole to her deal that he'd exploited. Apparently, he was quite out of practice. Or maybe just distracted. Not that Regina seemed to notice. She was too busy glaring at him.

"You didn't say 'kill her,'" he pointed out. "We agreed that something tragic should happen to her. Now, abduction is tragic."

"The intent was perfectly clear!"

"Oh, let's not talk about intent," he interrupted. "Intent is meaningless."

"Intent is everything!"

"Please!" he snapped before she'd gone any further, invoking their former deal.

She could argue it all she wanted, but it was meaningless. Even after studying under him, she hadn't learned a damn thing. She hadn't learned to specify. She hadn't learned to cover every possibility and state, clearly and explicitly, what she wanted. If she had, they wouldn't be having this conversation right now. The truth was that she'd made a mistake, he'd taken advantage of it, and no matter what she said, there was no getting around that fact. He wasn't about to stand here and waste his time arguing with her when there were other things to be done. When he was so close to getting his Bae back that he could almost feel him in his arms!

"This is going to raise all kinds of questions about where she was and how the test results were fake."

He smiled. So…she'd finally stumbled onto the last phase of his master plan. An ordinary person might think that the end of the road would make himself a target. He knew better. All this anger, this fear, it would be directed onto the Savior. He was confident. She just needed a little push. Or perhaps a big one.

"Oh, yes," he laughed as he set Baelfire's ball back up on a shelf where it belonged. "And, um… And who put the key in her cell."

When he turned back to look at her, Regina had gone ashen gray. She groped for the necklace, the ring she'd taken to wearing around her neck lately. Someone was starting to get the picture.

"It's all going to lead to me, isn't it?" He didn't need to respond, only smile. "You bastard," she growled. "This doesn't make any sense. You and I – we've been in this, together, from the start."

"Oh, have we?"

"You created the Curse for me. The Curse that brought us here and built all this."

Not strictly true. He'd never used those words exactly, though something like them perhaps. In truth, it was more along the lines of the opposite. He'd created her, his monster, for this Curse. He'd seen a loophole, and he'd exploited it. And she never learned. He wasn't anyone's ally. This was all about Baelfire, which was why he wanted to find more information on Mr. Booth and leave Regina to her misery.

"Yes, it's about time you said 'thank you.'"

"Why did you do it?" she asked almost sadly.

He smiled. Why had he done this? Why had he gotten her to cast the Curse? Why had he hidden Kathryn away? Why had he conspired against her? "Well, you're a smart woman, Your Majesty," he growled, stepping closer. "Figure it out."

He didn't wait for a response. Just walked into the back room. A few seconds later, he heard the bell chime, indicating Regina had left. Good riddance, as far as he was concerned. He had other things to worry about.

Short but still fun. We get to see that Rumple is still reeling from August's visit, that he's starting to put two and two together to make four. The problem is that he isn't realizing just yet that it's not two and two but rather two and three, thus leading him to make wrong conclusions later on. Wrong and painful conclusions...

Thank you, Grace5231973 and Alarda, for your reviews on the last chapter. Yes, I understand some of the dread. This episode was always hard to watch, and then that made certain aspects of it harder to write. I mean, I get his reasoning, they check out on August's side, but it's a nasty little plan he has going here. I don't know; to hurt someone physically is awful. To hurt their heart, though, it just never really sits well with me. Anyway, thanks for going on this journey with me through this episode. There's another short chapter up next. That's just what happens when Rumple is at the forefront. We get lots of little snippets that add up instead of major scenes that make for stirring and wonderful chapters. Hopefully, you understand that by now. Peace and Happy Reading!