He didn't particularly want to leave the shop that day. He had hardly left at all in the week since Belle had been gone. He'd made his stop at home for a shower and fresh change of clothes, but given that it was the second night of the full moon, he had no plans to be far away from the library. Night one had gone well, but he never made assumptions when it came to safety. He wanted to be close by if Belle needed him.

But then, that morning, before lunch, he received a call from Regina on his cell phone. He ignored it. He had no interest in speaking to the woman, at least not until she called back again. He sighed as he looked down at the screen of his phone, irritation and curiosity rising. Once was an inquiry. Twice was either desperation or an emergency. Damn his curiosity.

"You have one sentence to convince me this is worth my while," he threatened.

"Just hear me out…I know I'm the last person that should be asking this of you, but…I need a favor."

"A favor…those are expensive, Your Majesty."

"I'm aware," she snapped back quietly. Her voice was hushed, as if she was trying to be secretive about something, which meant that she was not, for once, hiding out alone in her home. What on earth had dragged her out into the town? "But this is for Henry."

Ah, yes…that might get her out of her house.

"Henry?"

"Listen…I'm at Mary Margaret's apartment-"

"As a guest or as an intruder?"

He heard her huff angrily on the other end. "Not that it's any of your business, but for your information, David asked me to be here," she drawled. "He had to leave early to take care of some business, Henry was still asleep, and…he's having nightmares," her voice got even quieter then. Henry must have been nearby. She must not have wanted to panic him.

"Well, if you'll forgive me, your Majesty, it sounds like you need to be calling Archie Hopper for nightmares. Not me."

"This isn't something for Dr. Hopper. David warned me about them before he left, but Henry just woke up screaming and after seeing them myself…I don't think they're nightmares. And I'd like an expert opinion."

"An expert in what, exactly?"

"Magic."

"And if I recall, you are rather exceptional in that field yourself, are you not?"

"But not as good as you, as you so keenly like to remind me," she sighed unhappily. "I need your help on this one, Rumple. It's for Henry, and if these are nightmares, then…there are side effects I've never seen in any parenting book I've ever read."

He took a deep breath as he scowled. His jaw was so tight suddenly it was giving him a headache. He didn't want to leave the shop today. He wanted to be here, ready in case something went wrong on the full moon, in case Belle needed him. But…he supposed that there was no danger until the moon came up after dark. And he was trying to be on his best behavior, knowing full well that little jobs like this might get back to Belle, that she might see he was trying to work some good in the world and take that step to come back to him. This helpful deed, in particular, could be good for that. Do something good for Henry, and word would get to David, David would tell Ruby, Ruby would tell Belle…he had more to gain from going than he did from staying. Fine.

"I'll be over," he growled before hanging up.

He summoned his black bag into his hand, appreciating for the first time just how much it looked like a doctor's bag, one that might make house calls just like this. He imagined that a doctor using this sort of bag might be a bit more thrilled at getting to use it. It wasn't that he didn't like Henry; he did. In fact, if it wasn't for Henry, he probably would have hung up the phone after Regina's first sentence. No, what had him irritated before he even knocked on the door was Regina. It was the first time he was seeing her since he'd marked her in the jail cell, since he'd gotten Belle back and tried to kill her for it. He still hadn't forgotten what she'd done to him and was more than happy to punish her for it, but not using Henry. Besides, if this was what he suspected it was, then he owed it to the boy to go.

But it was smart of Regina to send him to answer the door when he knocked.

"Morning, Henry," he smiled down at the boy who was still in his pajamas, hair messy and unkempt as if he'd just woken up. Regina, on the other hand, was dressed as if she was planning on going to work after all this was over. Odd, considering he didn't think she had a job at the moment. Last he'd heard, she'd been asked to leave as mayor.

"Hello, Mr…" Henry paused mid-sentence and glanced over at Regina, who was standing at the sink, then looked back to him. "What do I call you? Now?"

He let out a small huff and smiled at the implications of that question. Rumpelstiltskin or Mr. Gold. The only person in town at the moment who wasn't from the Enchanted Forest, and even he knew who he was. He rather liked that.

"How about you call me whatever you are comfortable with. Now, your mother mentioned that you were having Nightmares."

Henry nodded as he closed the door and went to sit down opposite the sink next to Regina. "Yeah, just one nightmare. It's a red room with fire all around it. No windows, no doors."

He glanced at Regina. That sounded familiar, very familiar. Too familiar and obvious for it to need an "expert opinion." She didn't know what this was?

"Well, nightmares are normal for a boy your age. But your mother mentioned some other side effects, perhaps something more up my alley?" he prompted.

Henry looked at Regina. She nodded. "You can show him, Henry. He's here to help."

Henry held his hand up for him to see, and there it was, stretching from his pinking finger down toward his wrist; it was a burn. Not a terrible one, probably only first or second degree, not nearly as bad as actually putting one's hand inside a flame, but bad enough. And it would get worse if not taken care of. Regina should have known what it was, what it meant, but even if she did, he doubted she was strong enough to do what needed to be done to fix it. Lucky for her, there had been a time when he'd worried about someone else potentially suffering from these "side effects" and had prepared for a potential deal. That deal had never come to fruition, but he still had what he needed in his black bag.

"Oh, yes. You were quite right to call me," he confirmed easily.

"So y-you can help?" Henry asked tentatively. "It was just a dream."

"Well, what you're describing's certainly not a dream," he informed the boy, who seemed just as scared as he'd sounded insistent. That was understandable. The unknown could have that effect on children…just as much as parents.

"Then, what was it?" Regina snapped beside him.

"A side effect," he snapped back, using her own word. She might not have known what caused this, but he had a feeling that she suspected what it was, or at least what it might have been. It wasn't the side effect of a nightmare, but rather something she had done. "You know, it's remarkable you'd cast a curse you know so little about."

"My victims are not supposed to wake up," she sneered, catching onto his train of thought so quickly that she confirmed his theory. She knew what caused this. And he turned back to his bag, so he didn't have to hear any more of her excuses for her poor choices. "That's why I certainly never cared what happened to them after…until now."

He sighed as he searched through his bag, pulling out the various items he needed and working his magic as he explained.

"When people fall under a sleeping curse…"

A fabric purse with a special necklace, a talisman, inside of it, capable of holding onto a potion. The talisman was an extraordinary enchanted object with the ability to channel whatever potion it held into the person wearing it. Quite useful.

"The soul travels to a Netherworld, where it resides until awoken…"

Conscious Awareness Potion, to help the mind retain focus, to keep it from thinking that it was in a dream and realize the reality. Once the reality was acknowledged, the fear should disappear. Henry should be able to control the reality, fight the fire…until the aftereffects of the Sleeping Curse wore off.

"Now, this world is between life and death, and it's very real."

With a dropper, he filled the empty space of the necklace with the Awareness potion.

"However, even when the curse is broken, sometimes, in sleep, the victims find their way back to that world. Victims like you."

Henry appeared at his side, watching him work, and Regina soon made her way over as well. "This other world is tormenting my son every time he sleeps. I want you to give him something that will keep him from going there," she insisted.

"Well, I'm afraid that's not possible," he answered, fighting back an irritated eye roll. It was one more reason she should have studied up on exactly what she'd created before actually creating it, but he held that particular stray thought in by sealing the necklace and putting his potion back in his bag. "I can, however, provide you with something that will allow him to control his actions whilst in that world. And once one controls something, one no longer need fear it."

He held the necklace out to Henry, whose gaze shifted from curiosity and uncertainty to boyish disgust. "A necklace?"

"You wear this while you're sleeping. Once you control the journey, fear will stop. And then, you can come and go as you please."

Henry reached out to take it, but Regina quickly stepped forward and stopped him.

"Everything comes at a price with you. What do you want for this?"

"For a house call? You couldn't afford it. But this is for Henry," he urged, looking down at the boy and offering him the pendant again. "This one's on me."

In a manner of speaking, at least. In truth, the spell was bought and paid for because he remembered his deals and honored them. No, he couldn't actually locate August Booth at the moment, the boy who could take him to his Baelfire, but before Booth had gone missing, they'd made a deal. When Booth had called Henry and told him to go see Emma, knowing full well that the boy might come out under a Sleeping Curse, he'd promised that he'd do everything he could for the boy to see that he woke up and recovered if Booth would take him to his son. The way he saw it, this fell under making sure Henry recovered. When he managed to break through whatever spell or magic Booth was using to protect him, he wanted there to be no doubt that he owed him the information he possessed.

The boy pulled it out of his hand and looked it over. There was still a bit of that boyish disgust there, but now there was also curiosity as well. Good.

"Be sure to get lots of rest, Henry. One of the side effects of this potion can be feeling a bit tired. When the mind is denied restfulness, there's always that risk."

"Thank you…Mr. Gold."

He nodded. "I'll see myself out."

"Be careful out there, Rumple!" Regina called when he stood outside the apartment. Her arm was around Henry's shoulders, the necklace already around his neck. "There's a wolf running around if you haven't heard. Wouldn't want you or someone you love to become puppy chow."

He smirked at her from the door. The words came out sinisterly, but he could hear the intended warning in them. Unfortunately for her, it wasn't enough to salvage their relationship, to make him forget what she'd tried to do to Belle.

"I'm well aware of the cycle of the moon, Your Majesty. Be sure to keep you and yours safe," he warned back.

And here we have a scene that we saw before with a bit of an added twist. Or maybe it's "twists". I hope that by now, you've got enough backstory on this that the scene seems less of a filler scene (as it felt in the episode) and more a deeper chapter. We're back to talking about August and the deal that never came about and how Rumple feels that he owes Henry despite Regina's presence. We still, of course, have that tension between the two of them after what happened to Belle, but most important of all in this chapter...the magic. Because you see, there is something special about the magic in this chapter, something that's going to give Rumple an idea for moving forward in his quest to get over the town line. Did you catch it?

Thank you so much for your comments on the last chapter, Grace5231973. I really appreciate the comments and all the love! I'm glad that you are liking this version of 2A thus far and I hope that you'll really like what I've got in store for the second half. Honestly, I'm not saying I excuse it, but once I finished this story there was a part of me that understood why they separated them at the end of 2x11. They get so far in these next few episodes, it's easy to see how they might have easily continued on to a HEA if not for that intervention. Peace and Happy Reading!