In his head, he carried with him a list of the happiest, most breathtaking moments of his life. The day Baelfire was born topped them, the night that he'd held his son in his arms after Milah's departure and accepted he could be a single parent was another. He cherished the first time that Baelfire had told him he might want to be a spinner like he was, the first time his son had called him "Papa", the day he'd sent him to school, and the first time he'd learned to walk and came right to him.

Those moments, those happy fleeting moments, were few and far between since Baelfire had left, but this moment, this moment was one of them.

He arrived back in his foyer now, completely unaware of what was going on back in the cave with the Chernabog and unable to care because in his hand was a glass bauble with a scroll inside. And now that he had it out of that cavern, the full brunt of its magic was hitting him. Oh, he'd never felt so much power from a spell or potion or curse or…anything! Not since he'd become the Dark One, not in all his life. Inside of him, there was a shudder from every Dark One that had ever walked the face of the earth. Even Nimue was speechless. They'd never felt anything like this either. Ever. And the fact that it was made with Fairy Magic…

He closed his eyes as he breathed it in. It tingled. He felt the sensation from his arm to his shoulders and down to the soles of his feet. It was beautiful, truly beautiful! And it was easily one of the happiest moments in his long life. For in his hand, he held the key, the answer to all his problems. In his hand was finally the way back to Baelfire. He'd done it. He could have cried with joy.

"I'm coming, Bae," he whispered. "Just a bit longer. Just a bit-"

A noise, a small rustling, stopped him mid-sentence. It was coming from the Great Room. It was the sound of fabric rustling. Someone was in his home, moving around.

The Apprentice? Had he entered his home, gotten past his protective spells while he'd been away, and he just hadn't noticed because of the Natural Magic?

No. That wasn't it. He was here now, no Natural Magic in the way and he didn't feel an intruder was in his home. But if not the Apprentice…then who…

He glanced down at the glass ball in his hand. His first instinct was the send it to his Tower for safekeeping, but he didn't like the idea of leaving it anywhere he wasn't until it was properly warded and guarded. It would take only a second for it to be stolen, and he'd been too careful to let one careless decision change that. He could put it in his doorless vault but…

No. In one swift motion, he applied pressure to the glass. First, it cracked, then splintered, then shattered so that what he was left with was just the scroll in his hand. Now he knew why it had been in a bauble. It felt like the power doubled when it touched his bare skin. This Curse, Fairy magic or not, it was as though it called to him, as though it was his other half, like it had been made just for him and was rejoicing they were together. When he'd been with Cora and Margery and even Milah he'd had small brief moments where he'd felt powerful, when he'd moved inside of them and experienced a few moments of uninhibited bliss and ecstasy. If he continued to hold to his skin like this, it might just lead to that.

So he slipped it carefully into the pocket of his cloak. Until he could protect it and set things right, it wasn't going to leave his side.

He waved his hand at the door and hit it with a blast of magic so powerful they slammed open and hit the walls with a loud crack that told him he'd have to do some repairs after all this was done. He strode into his Great Room with confidence, prepared to face whatever foe had come after him…and found Regina.

She was sitting with her back to him in a chair by the fire, a long black gown falling over the legs that he knew had to be crossed one on top of the other. When he circled around the chair to meet her gaze, the firelight flickered over half her face so that in the shadow, she looked just like her mother. Her expression was cool. Her demeanor was calm as she sipped at a cup of tea and stared into the fireplace. But when she spoke, her voice…her voice would never be Cora's.

"Where have you been?!" she demanded in a low voice, as if she was a lover he returned to every night instead of a woman he'd only seen through glimpses in a mirror over the last few years. "I've been waiting for hours!"

"I'm sorry, did we have an appointment?" he snipped back with a smile. "It's hard to remember since when we last saw one another you decided you didn't need me to study magic." He was on the clock, he had things to do, and while he always had time for the Regina who would one day cast the curse in his pocket what he didn't have time for at the moment was her bullshit. Years of studying on her own, dedicating herself to hunting down her step-daughter, sleeping with a man who's heart she held captive…what did she need him for? And vise versa. When the time came, he'd be ready to engage in some kind of relationship with her again, but not at this very moment. At this moment, he had to hide his curse!

"You said I was welcome to drop by whenever I had questions."

"I said you could drop by; I never said I'd be here."

"I've been summoning you. You didn't come," she explained gracefully setting the teacup aside and lifting herself out of the chair. She made her way across the room to the mirror he had in the corner, the mirror that used to be his link to her. "And this used to be where I could contact you when I needed you."

He resisted the compulsion to nod at her words. The Natural Magic, it must have kept him from being summoned or even taking note of it. Interesting.

"There are some places not even I can be reached, dearie," he answered, following her steps and sneaking up behind her. "And this may come as quite a shock to you, but I'm a busy man! I don't exist to be at your beck and call. I've deals to make, things to steal…"

"Others to teach?" she questioned with a hint of something in her voice that made him shudder for a moment. It wasn't jealousy like her sister, thank goodness! He didn't think that he was prepared to go through that again. But what he actually heard might be just as bad. Suspicion. She was suspicious that he was teaching someone else? Or just suspicious that he was helping someone else? Or was it that she suspected he was involved with someone and wanted him for herself as her mother had led him to believe and her sister had. So many, many options. And so little, little interest in it as the curse burned a hole in his pocket.

"Now, I assume that what's brought you to my humble abode for the first time in so many years isn't tea and crumpets. What is it you need, Regina?"

Regina gazed into the mirror that connected him to her palace for a few seconds longer before finally sighing and turning away. He made a mental note to drape a blanket over the thing.

"I have a problem," she declared as she moved closer to the table.

He let out a high-pitched squeal of amusement. "Well, that's always been clear. The question is which problem would you like to discuss."

"My step-daughter."

"Ah! You mean the frilly little princess you let slip through your fingers and is slowly becoming one of the most notorious bandits your Kingdom has ever seen."

Regina stretched her fingers out on his table and hunched her shoulders as if his words had hit her with a whip. He pulled the chair at the end out and sat down just so that he could watch her nose wrinkle as if she'd smelled the foulest of trash.

"I don't know how she's still eluding capture."

"Oh, she's not eluding capture, dearie, she's just eluding you," he pointed out quickly.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"We both know what it means." It was just as he'd suspected. Bullshit. Dramatic bullshit. He didn't have time for it. He didn't have time to coddle her and rub her back and make her feel better about herself! And even if he did, he didn't want to do it. She was beginning to meet her end, his dear Regina. She was beginning to enter into the state of crazed single-mindedness that he needed for what he had in his pocket. But he wanted-no! He needed her to be worse than this! She was here because her hunter couldn't satisfy, because being queen couldn't satisfy, because being her father's daughter, his student, half a dozen other things that she was didn't satisfy! She just hadn't figured that out yet herself. It was good bullshit. But something he needed her to experience.

"Your guards have had her in their grip half a dozen times since she snuck away into the forest and your…plaything let her go."

She winced. Then turned her gaze back on him with wide fiery eyes. "Have you been spying on me?"

He let out another chuckle. How foolish of her to forget exactly who she was dealing with! "Only every year since you were born, dearie! And the way I see things you should have everything you've ever wanted! Snow White is a wanted criminal thanks to you. You've ordered her execution, yet she continues to elude you. Why?"

"Because she's clever."

"Because you're thinking like an ignorant girl!" he declared boldly. The look on her face told him she wasn't pleased with his choice of words, but he didn't particularly care. Let her be angry. It could only help him. "You let her escape by giving her time."

"I do no such thing!"

"Quiet!" he ordered, holding a hand up to silence her. It worked. The time for the casting of his curse wasn't now, he knew that already, but the way she closed her mouth and recoiled at his command confirmed it. The woman he needed wouldn't do such a thing. "Your guards capture her, they attempt to bring her to you, and she escapes, when there is no reason for any of that. There is no need for her to be brought back to you, just have her killed on the spot."

Regina's response was only to drop her gaze back down to the wood of the table in a huff.

"Oh…" he teased, finally ready to get to the issue at hand. "Unless that takes away all the fun for you."

"Fun?" Regina chuckled. "You think I'm having fun bringing that criminal to justice."

"But of course!" he declared rising from his seat and striding over to where she stood. "Because this isn't really about justice. Not anymore. This is about revenge and how good it would feel for you to take the heart of the woman who killed the love of your life and crush it in your own bare hands just as she crushed yours so long ago!" he spat through gritted teeth. "Now wouldn't that be so much more satisfying than hearing of her execution from your guards."

She didn't answer, not verbally, at least. But he watched as the breaths she took began to come deeper and quicker. Sometimes silence could be damning all on its own. And her silence…it spoke in volumes to what she wasn't ready to say out loud.

"How easily you forget, dearie…I see everything. Over these last few years, your sorcery skills have grown, they are second only to your ruthlessness."

"And that's a bad thing?!" she demanded.

"Oh! No, no, no! Quite the opposite! You've made me proud as a Papa!" he smiled at her. Here now, dressed in black with charcoal around her eyes and her hair all done up in a fancy bun atop her head…she was a far cry from the scared little girl he'd once encountered in a dark room before her wedding. He'd always known she would be. And now the rest of the realm was coming to discover it too.

"Kings and Queens from near and far all recognize the power you have, and I couldn't be more impressed with how far you've come."

"No!" she resisted suddenly, slapping her hand against the table before standing up tall and looking down on him. It was the look of a queen. "Power has nothing to do with this…I'm not trying to be ruthless I'm trying to be a Queen! To stop a murderer and thief that is terrorizing my Kingdom!"

"Only by proxy. Eh…you do realize she didn't kill her father, don't you? That was on you."

"She killed Danial."

"I repeat…only by proxy. And she's only thief because you've made her one. And as for terrorizing your Kingdom…I think if you looked harder at those you think you are protecting, you'll find quite a different story."

He felt victory swirl through him as her hard gaze challenged his own in a duel there was no sense in having. He'd won. She knew it. Her posturing for effect was pointless because whether she wanted to say it or not, she knew in her heart what she'd become and that everything he'd said had been the absolute truth. One day she would admit it. One day he'd get to see how the Seer's prediction of Regina and Robin of Locksley played out before him. One day she might be something very different than she was now. But for now, she was who she was. And who she was, was a Queen who wanted her step-daughter dead and nothing else.

"I need a spell," she stated emotionlessly, quickly changing the subject back to their original topic. "I need something to stop her from evading capture so I can get her back and make them see what I see. Make them see me as their Queen, just as they should."

He smiled, his mind thinking automatically of half a dozen different spells and at least two dozen potions that could do what she wanted. But that wouldn't get him what he wanted.

"Sorry, can't help you," he dismissed before turning his back on her and moving away. Behind him, he heard her dress ruffle and her heals clack and thud against carpet and stone in order to move around him and face him once more.

"What do you mean you can't help me?!" she asked, pushing a hand against his chest so he'd stop walking.

"I mean that while there are several different spells and potions that could be cast, it's not worth my time or effort to make them. They often require blood of the victim; you don't have that because you don't have her. Others require the victim to drink it themselves, and I don't see her submitting to that, nor do I see your thugs in black being able to trick her into it. Still, others require the cursing of locked doors, and there are simply too many for that. My time is more valuable than joining you on your wild goose chase."

Her chest heaved for a moment, and the sounds from the fire in the grate seemed far louder than they should have been as he saw angry tears gather in his student's eyes. "I don't believe you," she breathed. "All those times you promised to be by my side, to help me-"

"To help you learn magic, dearie!" he corrected. She shook her head and looked away, crossing her arms protectively over her chest. "If memory serves correctly, you've learned it! If you want to spend the rest of your life cursing locks or making enough potion to give to all the guards hunting her in all the lands, then be my guest. In the meantime, I'm going to focus on something that might actually help us one day."

Regina swallowed and looked back at him with a spark of hope reigniting. He had her interest once more. "Us…"

"You," he clarified with a nod. It was the only part of the "us" that she'd actually cared about.

"What are you working on?" she inquired, her voice lightening to that of a child all over again.

"Ah-h-h, dearie!" he exclaimed, wagging a finger in front of her. "That is for me to know and you to find out when the time is right."

Regina rolled her eyes dramatically and turned away from him, angry once more. "Fine. If you won't help me, I'll join the search for Snow White myself!"

If she only knew…

"Rest assured!" he called after her. "If what I am working on is as powerful as I think it is, then it has the power to make sure all your hopes and dreams come true. It will be a masterpiece!" His throat caught as he breathed out, a wave of emotion coming on unexpectedly as he suddenly felt the power of the scroll stir in his pocket.

Regina, however, rested her hand on the back of his chair and tapped her nails along the wood in obvious irritation at his lack of answers. More bullshit he wasn't going to deal with. He'd already dealt with more than he'd wanted to from her on this most special of nights.

"Now leave me," he insisted. "Come back when you actually have an idea instead of grasping at the air, hoping to get lucky and find a rope to cling to."

"You are…impossible. You know that?" she snapped before he felt her magic stir and carrying her away from him in a cloud of black.

Alone at last, he sighed and reached into his pocket. He pulled the scroll free and held it up to the firelight to admire it for just a few seconds before he had to get to work.

"Yes…yes, I do…"

So this was a scene that we never saw, one I came up with on my own and I felt that we needed it. While writing this fiction, it was about at this time that I started to realize we hadn't heard from or even about Regina for a while. And because I was beginning to contemplate the next section I was beginning to realize that the next time we see Rumple and Regina together there is a tension between them that wasn't there the last time we saw them together. So I inserted this chapter here to bridge the gap between the two. And in the end, I loved the irony of the fact that what she seeks is in his pocket, she just doesn't know it yet.

Thank you Grace5231973, Jennifer Baratta, and Alarda for your comments on the last chapter. I really do hope that you don't mind this chapter. I know that when a fiction is super long like this one is sometimes these unexpected chapters seem like torture. But I hope you'll see the need for this one. I hope you'll see the reason I put it in and maybe even enjoy it a bit. And hey, one last chapter in the Frozen section and you've made it! Kudos to you! I promised you would! Peace and Happy Reading!