Aiden Gold let out a sigh as he sipped at the tea in front of him. He normally hated coming to Granny's, but Gideon had insisted on it upon bringing home the confirmation of his acceptance into Storybrooke's accelerated science program, which was led by Dr. Hyde… which frankly worried Aiden more than the freshness of Granny's lasagna, but if it made Gideon happy, well, he couldn't resist.

"So Gideon, are you excited to start your science program?" he asked weakly as the boy practically inhaled his dinner.

The boy nodded eagerly, licking a bit of beef from his lip. "Yeah, sure am! It'll be great. And I'm really glad Roderick got accepted too!"

"That worries me," Belle said with an amused shake of her head. "You'll actually pay attention to what Dr. Hyde is saying, right?"

Gideon's eyes nearly rolled, but stopped as Aiden shot him a look. "Yeah, I will," the boy grumbled, poking at his chili with a spoon.

Aiden smiled as he watched his wife and son, but there was still pain behind his smile. His elder son, Neal, should have been here with them, celebrating, but that horrible woman he'd first been married to had spirited his son out of Storybrooke in the dead of night with her bastard of a new husband, and Aiden hadn't seen him since, despite Aiden's exhaustive efforts. His fingers gripped the tea cup just a bit harder as he glanced up at an unfamiliar face who had just entered the diner.

"Who is that?" he asked with a small frown.

"Oh, that's the new firefighter. I overheard him talking to Emma last week when mom and I were here," Gideon explained with a shrug. "Don't know what his name is though."

Aiden frowned slightly, looking over at the firefighter, feeling some sort of odd connection to him. But why? He'd never seen the man before in his life.

"Aiden? Are you okay?" Belle asked with a tilt of her head.

He blinked, turning to his wife and smiling. "Yes darling, I'm just fine. Sorry. My head was in the clouds for a moment."

Belle smiled and turned back to her sandwich. Aiden returned the smile, but he still felt a strange pull toward the stranger that was dashing out the door with greasy bags in his hand… and whenever Aiden Gold set his mind on something, he always got his answers.

When he parted ways with his wife and son after lunch, Aiden made his way back to the pawn shop, flipping the sign back to open and making his way into the back room as he pulled out his cell phone, dialing the familiar number.

"Hello, Zelena? It's Aiden. I would like you to start looking into some files for me again," he said when the woman picked up on the other line.

"The ones about your son?" Zelena replied with a sigh. "Aiden, we've been over this with so many people. Lawyers, private investigators… you even harassed Mother Superior about it!"

"Because that blue-dressed woman knows more than what she's admitting to," Aiden thought bitterly, before speaking into the phone. "Zelena, please. I need you to look into the files again It's my son's disappearance. I just want an answer."

Zelena exhaled on the other end, and Aiden could see her leaning back against her high-back leather chair, pinching her forehead in annoyance. "Okay. Fine. I'll have the investigators open the case again. I'll call you if anything new comes up."

"That's all I ask, dearie. That's all I ask…" he said, ending the call and smirking, sitting back in his chair. Whoever that man was, Aiden Gold would get his answers.

Though the only photograph Neal had seen of his father had been from a decade ago, he recognized the man anywhere, even without the help of seeing his step-mother and half-brother. He'd felt a cold chill go down his spine at the quick look he'd gotten of the man, even though he knew this was exactly why he had wanted to come to Storybrooke. So many things had whirled through his mind: did his father recognize him? What would the man's reaction even be to seeing his long-missing son again? Hell, even how he would react to seeing his father again wasn't something Neal was sure of.

He forced himself not to shiver as he made his way back to the firehouse, clutching the bags of takeout in his hands. Being the delivery boy for lunch wasn't something he'd thought he'd be doing as a firefighter, but he supposed that, being the low man on the totem pole meant running around doing these errands when there was downtime.

"Cassidy! Well done! And you got back in the time allotted," Chief Hood said with a wide smile as he took the bags out of Neal's hands.

"Thank you sir," Neal replied with a smile.

Being hired in as a firefighter had been one thing, but it was another thing entirely once he'd actually gotten started at work. Then the real test began – impressing the boss in person, and quite frankly, that was more terrifying than finding out information he didn't want to know about his father, because Chief Hood could fire him if he wasn't careful.

"Now go on and enjoy the rest of your lunch," Robin told him with a squeeze of his shoulder.

Neal nodded and made his way over to one of the free seats in the dining room, taking a bite of the club sandwich he'd ordered.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

He almost choked, looking at the source of the voice. "Did you just quote Alice in Wonderland to me?"

"On the contrary, I quoted The Mad Hatter to you," the man replied with a smug look on his face. "So, rookie, do you have any guesses as to why a raven is like a writing desk?"

Neal blinked in disbelief. Was this guy serious?

"Jefferson, are you torturing the new guy with your stupid riddles again?" another voice cut in, the man taking a seat next to Neal. "You don't have to answer him. He just does this to try to freak out the rookies."

The first man – Jefferson – rolled his eyes. "Do you have to ruin my fun every time there's a new person? It's not like we get them very often! So what do you think, new guy?"

"Uh… I don't know. Raven wings could be used to make a quill that someone uses to write with at their desk?" he suggested weakly.

Jefferson's eyes widened, seemingly impressed. "Wow. That's actually a good one. The going theory has something to do with Edgar Alan Poe, but I like your guess better. I'm Jefferson. Welcome to the department."

"Ali," the second man said, holding out his hand. "We heard about you. You're Neal, right?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I just started today."

"It's nice to have a new face around here. Just stick by us and you'll be perfectly fine," Ali said with a grin that suggested Neal was instead in for a wild ride with those two. "So if there's anything you wanna know about our charming little town, just let us know."

He had no idea what he got himself into, but he smiled anyway. He should probably make friends in this town, right? He was far from New Orleans and the friends he had there after all… and he was here for answers. Maybe these guys could help him out with those answers.

"Hey, do you guys know anything about Mr. Gold?"

The two men's faces changed in an instant, dropping in surprise and… was that a bit of fear Neal noted on Jefferson's?

"Why do you want to know about Mr. Gold?" Jefferson asked.

Neal paused, taking the time to chew and swallow a bite of his sandwich before answering. "I saw him staring at me when I was picking up the lunch orders today. Does he… do that a lot to people?"

Jefferson and Ali exchanged another look, but it was Ali who finally spoke up. "Well… he is a bit of a suspicious guy. He always has been as far as I know. Apparently his kid went missing years ago, so every time someone comes to town he's immediately on alert. At least, that's what they say around town. I was only a baby when it happened. But there's probably some information on it in the library."

"Which just so happens to be run by his wife," Jefferson added. "But Mr. Gold's been suspicious way before his kid was taken. It's just sort of his thing, you know? Gold is the big bad brooding shopkeeper, Mrs. Nolan is the principal who can go from either giving you a unicorn sticker to kicking your ass in the parking lot after school. You know, normal small town things, right?"

"Uh… I guess? I came from New Orleans though so I'm not sure. This is the smallest town I've ever been in. But from what I've seen in movies I guess that sounds right?" He'd never heard of the ass-kicking principal before, but he knew he should probably try to avoid her if he could.

"The Big Easy? And you came to a little dump town like this?" Ali asked, staring at Neal as if he'd grown a second head.

He shrugged. "Peace and quiet. And after a while the humidity in New Orleans got to be a bit much."

"You went from one extreme to the other. The winters here are awful," Ali said, shivering a little at the thought. "And it's already late summer. Ugh, I can feel the cold already!"

Jefferson rolled his eyes. "And I'm the dramatic one? God Ali. Ignore him, Neal. He just wasn't made for the cold. It can get bad here, but you'll grow to love it."

Ali let out a snort before the alarm began to screech over their heads, causing them to jump from their seats and run for the truck as they pulled on their equipment. Neal had to admit, he didn't think that his first fire in a small town like Storybrooke would happen on his first day on the job.

"There's been a cave-in at the old mines. Some teenagers were down there and the roof caved in around them," the dispatcher said over the radio as Jefferson and Ali both swore loudly as Jefferson silently climbed in the back. Whatever this was, it was obvious that it had happened before and seemed to be a major thorn in the sides of his superiors.

The bright red truck streaked down the road, causing the few pedestrians to turn their heads in alarm. A few of them had their eyes widening when they realized what direction the truck was heading in.

"Alright men, you know what we have to do," Chief Hood said with a small sigh as they stood in front of the mine, the sheriff and a few other officers already trying to block people from getting too close.

"Who goes down this time, Chief?" Jefferson asked. "I went last time."

Chief Hood looked conflicted as he glanced at the men surrounding him, before finally sighing. "Ali. This time it's on you."

Neal noted irritation on the man's face as he silently nodded as walked off to get ready. Biting his lip, Neal carefully made his way over to the chief, who was already looking as done with the day as someone could possibly be.

"Is this common? Teenagers going into those mines?" he asked.

The older man pressed his lips together, thinking. "It happens more often than I'd like it to, I'll say that. But I wouldn't say it's extraordinarily common. But every time we go down to rescue them, I think this will be the last time and it never is. Teenagers never learn."

He nodded slowly. "Well, I just hope that with this cave-in, it won't be possible for them to get down there anymore," Neal said.

"Start hoping that everyone down there is alive instead," the older man snapped before walking off to Neal's confusion.

"Don't worry. That wasn't personal. Last time we were called to go into the mines, his son, Roland, was part of the group we pulled out of there. He's worried that Roland will be down there again," Jefferson said from behind him.

Neal winced. "I'm sorry I asked about people going down there then."

The other man waved him off, leading him in the direction of the opening of the mine. "Don't apologize. It's not like you know this town like the rest of us do. I bet Chief Hood's already forgotten about it. Besides, all that we need to focus on is saving the kids and not dropping Ali down there with them and running the other way. Now come on. Let's go see if we can make contact with them."

Neal and Jefferson managed to clear a free spot to lower Ali down, Neal shining a light down to one of the frantic teens below. They seemed to be standing on some sort of elevator. How did they even get down there?

"Oi! How many of you are down there?" he yelled to a blonde boy who was shielding his eyes from the light from the sun and the camera Neal was slowly lowering down into the dungeon.

"T-there's only two of us! Please hurry!" the boy replied, coughing as dust rose into the air from some unstable rocks around them.

Two was way too many in Neal's opinion, but he nodded. "Okay, just hold on. We're going to get you guys out of there!" he called down to them before looking at Chief Hood. "There's two of them sir!"

Chief Hood approached them. "Sir, we're all ready," Ali said, tugging anxiously at the harness around his waist and looking uneasily at the hole.

"Good. Let's start then."

Neal watched on a video screen as Ali was lowered down into the mines, repressing a shiver. How could people be so stupid to go down into an abandoned mine? And not just once, but repeatedly? He had a feeling that this was going to be what the majority of his calls were going to be for.

"Okay Ali, we're right on target. You're about ten feet out," he said into the walkie-talkie on his shoulder. He could hear the anxious whispers of the gathered public, chancing a glance at them and spotting his father almost instantly. He tore his eyes away, looking at the camera screen again.

"I've got one of the kids, pull us up!" Ali's voice said. "And make sure there's a paramedic nearby. He's going to need some help."

He stood, waving over the paramedics as a woman dressed in a black business suit walked up to the sheriff, her lips pulled down into a frown.

Ali emerged with one of the teenagers a few moments later and the paramedics wasted no time in lifting the boy onto the stretcher and running back to the ambulance, hiding themselves from the prying eyes of the crowd as Ali went back down into the mine to get the other teenager, Neal continuing to monitor the cameras.

Something inside the mine suddenly creaked, the sound of the metal groaning sending a collective chill down everyone's spines. Neal saw Chief Hood's eyes widen as his hand reached for the walkie-talkie on his shoulder.

"Ali, get the kid as quick as you can. That elevator is going to go at any minute!" Chief Hood shouted.

"Chief, you're not going to like this. It's Bobby," Ali said on the other end of the line. "And he doesn't look like he's doing so good. I've got him hooked up, so bring us up."

Neal knew that the kid being named by Ali wasn't a good thing, and he was worried as the rest of the squad seemed to freeze for a moment before working frantically to get the duo up and out of the mine.

There was another crash, this one much louder, and caused the ground to rumble beneath their feet before Ali and Bobby were pulled up, and Neal's eyes widened in fear, but the machine kept pulling. Something was coming up, but what?

"Someone grab him, now!" Ali's voice shouted from the cavern before his black hair and the blonde hair of the teenager peeked through the smaller opening of the mine. The paramedics wasted no time in snatching the teenager up and running to the second ambulance they had on the scene. The first ambulance's doors opened and the teenager stepped out, having gotten a clearance from the paramedics inside, while the second ambulance sped away.

"Who was the other kid we rescued?" Neal asked Ali as he watched Chief Hood's somber form go over to the sheriff and the woman in the black pantsuit.

"Robert Nolan," Ali explained as the sheriff's car went speeding down the street, "he's the sheriff's son."