A few months later, Emma woke up and noticed something different about her wife. "Regina, wake up," she nudged her.
"What?" Regina groaned and rolled over.
"Oh my God!"
"What's wrong?"
Emma conjured up a mirror and handed it to Regina, "look."
Regina gasped, "what the hell happened?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out."
Emma got up and began to get ready. When she walked back into the bedroom, she noticed Regina struggling to stand, "Emma, I need help."
The sheriff walked over to lend her strength to her wife, "I'll help you."
Emma helped Regina get ready and after, the two slowly made their way to the living room. Emma called Cora and explained everything. Cora rushed over so Emma could go to the one person they could think of who could be responsible for this.
Emma charged into Gold's shop, "Miss Swan, what can I do for you?"
Emma showed Gold a picture of Regina she had taken that morning. "What the hell happened?" Emma asked angrily.
"It appears that someone has placed an aging spell on Regina," Gold said.
Emma glared at the man, "why would you do that?"
"Why do you assume it's me?"
"Who else could it be?"
"That, my dear, is what you will have to figure out."
"Don't ever call me 'dear' again."
Emma returned home and the first person she saw was her mother-in-law. "Well, what did he say?" she asked.
"He said it wasn't him and that he doesn't know who it is."
"Do you believe him?"
"I don't know. How is she?"
"She's asleep," Cora said.
"Is she just asleep?"
"Yes," she answered, "she told me to not use magic on her."
"How long do you think you can hold out?"
"Not very long, so we better find out how to fix this."
"I don't even know where to begin."
"Get everyone over here and we'll figure out something."
"I'm sorry I rushed out of here earlier. I should have given you a moment."
"It was a shock, but you needed to go. I understand completely. I've already warned everyone else."
David, Snow, Cora, Henry Sr., Ruth, Robert, Eva, Belle, Leopold, and Emma sat around the Mills living room trying to find a solution.
"If we can find out who else has magic here then this will be a lot easier," David said.
"Well, one of us has to stay here. She can't be alone," Cora said.
"We'll take shifts," Snow said. "Cora, you've been with her all day. I can stay while you and Emma search Regina's vault."
The two disappeared from the room. "If our parents ask people about having magic then it won't be as suspicious," David said.
"We can do that," Ruth responded. Ruth, Leopold, Robert, Eva, and Henry Sr. left.
"Let's pick up Ruby and search the town," Belle said.
Everyone left and Snow sat in the room trying to figure out who could have done this. She found the book that had a list of every resident in Storybrooke, "what are you doing?"
Snow looked up and saw Regina bracing herself in the doorway, "just trying to figure out who could have done this."
"Well, anyone in that book, actually."
Snow stood and walked over to Regina. She took the woman's arm with one hand and placed the other arm around her. Once Regina was seated, Snow continued her search. "Do you happen to know if anyone besides you, Gold, Emma, Cora, and the fairies would have magic?"
"There's an asterisk next to the names of everyone in town with magic. I also kept a list of magical beings who visited the town." Regina looked around, "where's my mother?"
"She and Emma are at your vault looking for a cure. Everyone else is searching the town and questioning others." Snow startled when Regina began to cough. She got a glass of water and brought it back to the mayor.
"I hate just sitting around."
"I know, but there isn't much you can do right now."
"I can sit in my vault and look through books."
"You can't use your magic, there are stairs and there's no place to sit. Plus, you can hardly walk."
"If someone would dig my cane out then I would be able to walk more easily."
"And more often," Snow came back with. "Regina, I would hate being laid up, but you really need to take it easy."
"I know," she said softly, "doesn't make it any easier."
Snow tried her best to comfort Regina while continuing to look through the town registrar.
Everyone met back at the Mills home. "Well, we figured out how to reverse the spell," Emma said.
"By the look on your face and the tone of your voice I would say we can't," Regina said.
"The person who placed the curse has to stop and reverse it," Cora said.
"We don't know who that is," Snow said.
"There's more," Emma said.
"Aging curses have timers on them. The person who casts it decides beforehand how long the curse will last," Cora said.
"What happens when the timer stops?" David asked.
"Her time will be up," Cora answered.