He hated the waiting. He hated the waiting more than anything else, but he was certain Regina presented him with little option. Now that he'd included her on the plan, she had some power over him. She'd told him herself that she didn't want to lie to Henry. If he disappeared before she was all right with it, Henry might get suspicious or start asking questions, and he could no longer be certain that she would lie for him. So, he waited. As much as he hated it, he waited. He counted the minutes until the clock struck noon, and Regina went with Henry to fetch some food at Granny's, and then he counted the seconds until they returned, and he could officially remind her it was "after lunch." Fortunately, she took that out of his hands for him.

When they returned from Granny's, Regina sent Henry into the back. They didn't say a word, merely exchanged glances as the sound of Henry's muted reading filled the space around them.

He raised an eyebrow. Are you ready?

With a sigh that projected a silent groan through the air, she nodded. Yes.

Regina disappeared into the back, presumably to talk to Henry about their departure, and as she did, he went to a case he'd gotten out and ready in preparation for this very moment. After the Curse broke, he'd hidden the fairy wands in his possession away; with people regaining their magical skills, those were items he wanted kept to himself. Now he retrieved them. He opened the box, pulled out the Gold Fairy's Wand, and pocketed it safely in his jacket. By the time Regina came back out to meet him, it was already out of sight.

Ordinarily, he might take her hand and use magic to get them where they were going to go. But magic worked differently in this world, and he was confident this would use a fair portion of what they had. In an effort to preserve that magic, he took out his keys and drove them both to the mines in his car.

Regina was silent most of the way, the only time she broke her silence was when he hit a pothole too hard, and she snapped "careful!" with a glaring stare. He hadn't responded to the comment, and she just continued to gaze out the window wistfully, obviously feeling guilty about what was about to occur. Still, he was all too happy to let her wrestle with those issues for now because when the time came, he would have no room for doubt or questioning.

"Do you know where it is?" he asked when they arrived in the mines.

She shook her head.

"No, bother, we'll just have to go by smell alone." He could feel the magic here now. He hadn't the last time he'd been here to search for Belle though he imaged that had more to do with the fact that his mind was occupied that last time. Now it was clear. Now he could sense the magic calling to him with that disconcerting tone that Fairy Magic often had. He suspected he'd always be able to smell fairies, and their dust, even if it was in its raw crystal form and he wasn't the Dark One. He focused on the noise and followed it, taking them into the mines and through turn after turn, choosing which direction to go at each fork in the road until Regina's curiosity finally got the best of her.

"How are you doing that?"

"Fairy Magic has a very particular feel to it," he explained. "I've felt it so often in my life, it's not hard to pick up on."

Annoying as the magic was, it was a trait he was grateful for at the moment, especially because sensing magic was never something Regina had mastered as her sister had. Even if she tried it right now, he knew how unhappy she was with this plan because she was just as unhappy with it as he was. But if she was unable to put that aside, she'd never be able to sus it out when her heart wasn't really into it.

"Oh…" she groaned without emotion or conviction. He was fine with that when it came to searching for the dust, but if she was to later give him a kernel of her magic, he was going to need a little bit more from her than simple "oh."

"I'm really glad you, uh, came to your senses," he commented as they continued forward, trying to engage her so her magic might rally.

"Let's just get this over with," she growled as a stronger wave of magic rolled into him. Oh, they had to be right on top of it. And Regina's attitude might not be what he wanted it to be at the moment, but he hoped that seeing a light at the end of the tunnel might help.

"It's right through here," he assumed, moving through what looked like a small hole in the wall.

Another wave of it crashed into him, threatening to knock him off his feet. He glanced up in the direction the power had come from. The crystals hung from the ceiling, shimming and glittering in the beam of Regina's flashlight, full of raw energy and power. Far more than he'd expected, but shockingly enough to satisfy. That much Light Magic…he wouldn't need Regina at all. Considering her attitude at the moment, he was rather pleased with that fact, though disappointed that he hadn't come to check on this last night himself to make that discovery. He could have had this over and done with by now if not for that. Oh, no, he'd never be able to use it for himself. There was far too much Light Magic for a being of Dark Magic to control. But the wand, however…

"Ah, yes. Should suit our purposes, no?"

"How much do we need?" she asked.

He huffed at her stupid question. How much to guard against Cora?

"All of it."

Regina balked at his answer, looked up at the ceiling, then back to him again. "How are we going to do that?"

"With a little help from a fairy," he muttered, taking the wand out of his jacket pocket. At her questioning glare, he glanced over at her and shrugged. "Dead one…believe me," he muttered, turning back to his work, "no one mourns her."

He was rusty, but he remembered the general way to work it was to have good intentions in mind. Good intentions…he lodged his determination to protect Storybrooke, protect Belle and Henry, from Cora, firmly in his mind. He drew breath, willed the magic of the wand to gather the crystals into dust. It worked. The wand glowed and warmed in his hand, and slowly the crystals started to dissolve into blackish-purple dust, which curled itself into white and blue haze and absorbed into the wand in his hand.

Excellent.

"Now, all we have to do is set the trap."

"And figure out where they're going to come through in order to set that trap," Regina corrected.

He smiled as his mind automatically went to the image of the upside-down magician's hat, which faded into the location he had in mind. "Oh, I have a good idea as to where that will be already. And if I'm right, we should already be seeing signs of their arrival."

"So, where might that be?"

He glanced up at her as he pocketed the wand once more. Given her current attitude and the fact that he no longer needed her as he once thought he did, he wasn't particularly ready to play that card. Not yet. He knew better than to reveal too much at one time.

So instead, he grinned at her, said, "You'll see," and led them back out the tunnels to his car.

I would have loved to attach some of these chapters to each other for this episode, but with the way the story went and the direction of the scenes, there was just no way to make that work. This scene was short, but attaching it to the last chapter or even the next ruined one or the other, so I just kept it here, in its own little chapter.

Thank you Grace5231973 for your comments on the last chapter. Sorry again for some of the short chapters you are going to get this week. But, Grammarly is currently telling me that the tone of this chapter is "disapproving" and "nervous," so...nailed it? Peace and Happy Reading!