What the hell was wrong with him? He'd heard of a seven-year itch, and despite Milah's lack of attention after those first seven years of his marriage, he had not once managed a stray thought. But here he was, a hundred years after he'd first been married, making a deal and all he could focus on was the women in the tavern. He was eager to hear the information that his client was spewing, and yet every time the barmaid leaned over to pour more ale into his client's mug…

"Is that all you need? It is all I know."

He tore his eyes away from the barmaid's chest and glanced back at the man before him. Don, he went by the name Don, and the information in his head was worthless to others, merely the invention of a wild dream, or so his parents had told him. But he was eager to hear all of it. It was the answer to a mystery he'd been dying to find answers for since he'd acquired his foresight.

"So…you say he goes by the name Hook, now."

"Captain Hook, yes."

He smirked as he conjured an image of the Captain using Don's description as well as his own memories. "A fitting moniker for a man with a hook for a hand."

"Yes, but…you must understand…he's not the evil in that world! It's-"

"Peter Pan, yes, I know…

That was a sweet thought. He'd seen images of Jones in his mind's eye ages ago when he'd first taken on the Seer's power. Those images had not yet come to pass, and several of them, it was clear to him, did not take place in this realm judging from the clothes he'd seen. It had to mean that Jones was alive. But he was nearly as old as he was and didn't look a day over the age he'd seen him last in his visions. He'd wondered how he'd managed to survive with his youth this long. His side investigation had led him to Don Juan. A man willing to make a deal for the information he contained. It wasn't much, but it was enough to answer his questions.

Hook had used that bean that belonged to him to go to Neverland. Like his father, Hook had never grown old. He was probably there now! And as for the hand that was missing from his body, a hand that was currently resting in a jar of preserves in his castle tower, he was known to tell tales of losing it to a Crocodile that he would one day slay. In the hand's place, he now used a hook, earning him the name Captain Hook. Odd. It was a perfect fit for the man he pictured, a man now doomed to deal for an eternity in the service of his father for staying in Neverland. It was…hilarious. And it was all he needed to be prepared for the day that he returned to exact his revenge. It was perfect.

"You know…most little boys see Pan as the hero, enticing."

"I suppose…I didn't, but there were some boys there who had. The Shadow, he goes between worlds, he takes the boys who want to stay, and Pan makes them his Lost Boys. I fought back, the jungle made me eager for my own bed again, I ran right into Hook who was prepared to take me to Pan to save his own ship…I was happy to wake up from that nightmare again!"

"I can only imagine…"

And he would have been happy to imagine that, if one of the other barmaids across the way hadn't just giggled and sat down in a patron's lap. He felt an emotion he'd once recognized as envy stir within him and recalled the way other women had looked at him with the look that woman was giving that man right now. Not the look of fear, the look of desire. He'd never taken any woman up on their offers, there was Baelfire to consider after all, but at the moment he was suddenly aware of just how long it had been since he'd touched a woman, or any human being really. Perhaps he'd been wrong in turning away so many. What was that saying…would it have been better to "let some steam out of the pot"? Maybe then he might not feel as though he were surrounded by breasts.

"Please…Sir…our deal…" Don commented, his accent drawing his attention back to him. "My son needs a mother, and I am…woefully inadequate, you said you would help."

Yes, he did, and he intended to. For it wasn't just magic that came with a price, but all things, and that included women. Memories of Milah in the hovel reminded him of that high cost. Tempted as he was, he was certain that wasn't worth it. Don, however, had simpler requests. The cost of information had been helpful. He was shy, nothing but a tanner, he made a very small wage, had only one son who was too small to help him, and needed the very thing that he just so happened to be craving at the moment. A woman. He needed a woman to be his wife, to be a mother for his child, to help him in the shop. But in addition to his shyness, previous history, and lack of fortune, he was also a foreigner, which made most distrusting of him. No woman would willingly marry him, not without help, at least.

"But of course!" he stated with a smile and a tone he was certain would show old Don Juan he was eager to please. From within his jacket, he pulled out a small vial of potion he'd made himself, but wouldn't want, under any circumstances, to drink for himself. In addition to a small tonic of confidence, mixed in with this potion was a concoction to attract lust. Disgusting potion really. All that was really required for it was the mingled sweat of two lovers, which he'd fetched from an inn of questionable morals. It had been easy, nothing like figuring out the recipe for True Love, which he was determined to create one day. The thought of drinking a lust potion made his insides feel queasy…but at least it wasn't he who would be taking it.

"Drink this. It's sure to fetch you more than one woman to wife. Ah-ah!" he cried, snapping it away before he could take it. "Be warned, this potion has no reverse, the only way to stop it will be a kiss of True Love and…I rather doubt this will attract that flavor of individual."

The floor was shaking. Beneath the table, Don's foot was jerking up and down, up and down as he looked his prize over.

The barmaid at the table behind him had returned with more drinks, and this time it wasn't her breasts or curves that caught his attention but her face. She looked familiar somehow…

"I have no choice, Sir," Don Juan finally decided, taking the potion from his hand. "I do not care what attention it attracts. So long as my son has a mother, it will be worth it."

"Be gone then! Find…all your heart desires!" he answered with a sing-song voice.

He'd moved on before Don even opened the door to leave. The woman. He studied her, examining her face, her movements, looking for what was important, for something that might help to identify who she was.

"Cora!" the door slammed open nearly as soon as Don left, and though it was a chilly day out, it wasn't the air that gave him shivers. The name helped, but the angle of her face after her name had been called confirmed it. The dark-haired woman from his vision…Cora, the princess he needed to bear the child who would cast his curse, who would get him back the Baelfire! Oh, he could have cried or jumped with happiness at this development! Finding out about Hook was one thing, finding Cora, on the other hand and so easily she'd practically just fallen into his lap…he was speechless! He felt like his heart was about to burst out of his chest with excitement! It was finally a hint that could give him a timeline! If she only knew how long he'd been waiting for her already!

But he wasn't the only one who had been looking for her.

The man who had pushed the door open with such force was now framed in the doorway, his eyes scanning the suddenly quiet tavern until he laid eye on her. Unlike him, she, as well as everyone else, had seen him come in, but she had a much different reaction to making eye contact with him. He moved forward, towards her. She moved immediately away.

"Where's my flour, girl?!" he exclaimed as she began pouring more ale into mugs, as if she was paying no attention to him at all.

"Why don't you try looking at the bakery. You should know better than I where your flour is kept."

"Don't talk back to me, child!"

She gasped as he grabbed her arm and swung her back around to face him before she could move away. He had the urge to stand up and pull her away, to put himself between the two of them. What stopped him was a sudden realization as he looked at the brazen way he'd touched her. The prophecy stated the child he needed was the firstborn of Princess Cora. So what was she doing here, serving beer in a tavern, with a baker asking her about flour and squeezing her arm so tight he'd probably leave bruises? This was the Cora he'd been waiting for, he was confident about that, the face he'd seen matched the name, but it still didn't make any sense.

"How am I to know where my flour is if it never makes it to the bakery. Your father was to have it to me this morning, it never arrived. I've cakes and pastries to make for the ball tonight. How am I to do that without flour?"

His temper suddenly got the better of him as the baker threw her across the room. She fell to the floor with a shriek. He was halfway to his feet when the tavern owner came to her aide. He didn't chastise the man as he so desperately wanted to; instead, he exchanged a few quiet words with Cora before he helped her to her feet. All around some had begun to ignore the pair. They'd turned back to the meals as if it was nothing, something that happened all the time. There were only a few left who, like him, continued to watch the scene unfold.

Cora scowled at the man, and she held her head up high as she narrowed her gaze and reached around to her back to untie her apron. Wordlessly she pushed it into the hands of the owner before marching to the door and gathering a cloak and gloves. Her eyes were challenging. She never removed them from the baker, but she never said anything either. She was daring him to say something more to him. So he did.

"Run along, Delivery Girl. And if you don't have that flour to me in the next hour-"

"You'll get your flour, Ivan!" she finally screamed, stepping up to him as she raised her hood. "You will have your precious flour for the King's ball, and you won't dare deduct a single cent! I need that money!"

A smile broke over Ivan's face. "Well, then perhaps you should have taken better care to watch that lazy father of yours!"

"I'm not my father's keeper!"

"If the royals don't eat, I don't eat, and if I don't eat-"

"Then I won't be fed either. So give me an hour, I'll fix it! Pig!" she called as she turned on her heel and left the tavern. But her insult wasn't lost on Ivan.

"What did you call me-e?!" He was on his way outside to follow Cora when he slammed his hand over his mouth after letting out a very loud inhuman squeal that stopped him in his tracks and allowed Cora to make her escape.

Well now, that was an interesting development. He glanced around the tavern to see if anyone had just noticed what he had. It appeared that most hadn't even realized Ivan had squealed, except, of course Ivan. But even then, he was positive no one had sensed what he had before that noise…it was magic.

Cora had magic.

Now all he needed was to make a Princess out of her.

Welcome to section two in The Dark Curse. I have appropriately named this section "The Cora Section". I have to be honest with you; when I first started writing The Dark Curse (heck, when I first started prompting for The Dark Curse) I was not looking forward to this section at all. What can I say...I'm a die-hard Rumbelle fan and I was less than enthusiastic about writing for Cora and Rumple's relationship. But, as I went through this section, I found myself pleasantly surprised, and I think you will be too. Yes, of course, it is heavy on the Golden Heart, but there is also a lot of set up for future chapters and fictions that happens that I think will keep you interested even through the Golden Heart stuff, especially in the next few chapters! And hey, if it reassures you at all, this section is just about as long as the last one, maybe a few chapters shorter, so just remember, we won't be here forever! And, if you need incentives, it ends with an awesome battle we never saw that answers a couple more unanswered questions!

Thank you Grace5231973, Jennifer Baratta, and Enomisje for your reviews on the last chapter, I'm so happy you liked The Beginning Section, Granny's story, and how the dolls are going to be used. There was a lot in that section that initially seemed uninteresting or random, but I'm happy with the way it turned out! I hope that will be a good omen for the rest of the sections because we're just getting started! Peace and Happy Reading!