I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. I am thrilled at the response I've recently been getting. Knowing that people are reading and actually enjoying this little alternative universe I've created is a real pleasure and I hope to continue to amaze you guys with my ideas.

Disclaimer: I do not own OUAT or any of its characters and dialogue. But if I did, Hook would have fallen off the beanstalk so that this love triangle never happened. As a character I like him but the moment he became a potential lover for Emma was the moment he crossed the line.

Neal entered the dark, almost empty bar. The smell of smoke, stale popcorn and beer hung in the air like fog.

Sitting down on an available stool he got the bartender's attention.

"What'll you'll have?" he asked, leaning against the bar counter.

"Just give me a Budweiser" nodding the bartender walked over to the fridge to get the requested beverage.

While waiting for his drink Neal looked around at the other patrons of the bar. There was a young couple, a man and a woman playing pool and laughing, an elderly man sitting in a booth nursing a glass of whiskey and an attractive barfly that was eyeing him with interest.

He looked away. He wasn't interested in a quick lay, especially with a complete stranger. Emma was the only woman he wanted and his chances of earning her trust back was slim enough and he was likely even further away from being in a position to earn her love back and he wasn't going to jeopardize that.

The bottle of beer was placed in front of him and the bartender told him the drink was $3.50, Neal gave him a five and accepted the change in return.

He brought the bottle to his lips and took a long drag and while he was drinking he almost choked on the overwhelming stench of flowers and lemons that entered his senses. He didn't have to look to know that it was the barfly, and she was on the prowl.

"Hey there, my name's Alexis. What's your name?" she sent him what was supposed to be a seductive smile but it only made Neal cringe in disgust.

"I'm not really in the mood for company" he pointedly angled his body away from her and took another drink.

Not taking the hint 'Alexis" moved around to the other stool beside him and started to rub his arms, probably trying to excite him, but when he continued to ignore her advances she became more daring and moved her hand down to his thigh. Jumping at the unwelcome touch he angrily gripped her hand and shoved the appendage back at her.

"Get the hint lady, I'm not interested! Now leave me the hell alone!" his outburst caught the attention of the few inhabitants of the bar and each look was filled with judgment and some even had disdain.

"You don't have to be such an asshole!" in a huff she stood up from the stool and stomped off to the other side of the bar.

Growing annoyed at the continuing looks and tension in the air Neal rose from the stool and stalked out of the bar.

~Break~

Emma and Snow were almost to the library when Snow suddenly stopped and reached out to Emma and pulled her back.

"What is it?" she was slightly annoyed that she had been halted like a dog.

"I found Neal" following her pointed finger Emma saw Neal walking down the sidewalk and right in their direction.

Without thinking Emma took off, shouting his name.

Hearing his name being called and a familiar scent approaching Neal looked up and saw Emma running towards him with Mary Margaret keeping pace.

"Emma?" continuing to walk he stopped when they met in front of the town pharmacy.

Emma looked him over and stopped when she saw the bruises forming around his wrists. He was surprised when she suddenly grabbed his hands and brought them closer to her face for inspection.

"Emma, what are you doing?" he looked to Mary Margaret for answers but was met with a question of her own.

"Where have you been?" Emma was still examining the bruises.

"I was getting a drink at the Rabbit Hole. Now will you please tell me what's going on?" he asked, secretly enjoying the feel of Emma's hands against his skin.

"What happened to your wrists?" Emma asked, ignoring his questions.

Neal was silent. He didn't know how to answer that because he didn't have an answer. He was about to answer as such when he spied Mr. Gold exiting his shop.

His fury from earlier came back and he completely ignored Emma and Mary Margaret and stalked towards the bastard.

Mr. Gold didn't have enough time to prepare himself when Neal gripped his shoulder, turned him around and punched him across the face.

Gold was stunned as his son forcibly hauled him up from the ground and slammed him against a wall.

"What did you do to me?" he growled, aware that his fury was riling up his wolf.

"Bae-"

"Stop calling me that! Now tell me what the hell you did to me or I'm going to beat you so bad that you won't remember your own name!" the wolf managed to come up for air and as a result Neal's eyes glowed and a growl reverberated between the two bodies.

Gold's eyes widened at the wolf characteristics that were showing in his son and he couldn't muster a single word to express his shock.

Neal didn't notice when Emma and Mary Margaret finally came out of their shock they ran over to Neal and tried to pull him away from Gold but he resisted and pushed them both away.

"Neal, why are you attacking Gold?!" Emma knew that the man had a lot of enemies that wanted to beat him up, including Neal and her own family, but what had provoked this attack?

"This bastard tried to erase my memories!" he accused, accentuating his anger by punching Gold in the gut. The man groaned and bent over, wheezing in pain.

"Neal!" Emma shouted, finally managing to reach Neal through his fury.

But the moment only lasted enough for him to release enough of his hold on Gold for the man to straighten out some.

Emma stepped forward, ignoring the warnings from her mother. She wasn't afraid of the erratic man before her, and not even the glowing eyes deterred her from continuing her attempt at reaching the rational and calm part of Neal.

Reaching out she placed her hands on his cheeks and gently stroked his cheekbones.

"You need to calm down and let Gold go" she stated, maintaining eye contact with Neal.

Neal shook his head, "he did something to me Emma, I know it! He can't be trusted!" he urged, an almost maniacal look in his eyes.

Neal's wolf had taken control of his emotions and he was unable to rise above the dominating power of the wolf.

With Neal's attention occupied Gold was able to right himself and catch his breath.

A somewhat hesitant Snow was standing to the side, her focus switching from Emma and Neal to Gold.

Something was wrong with his son. He knew that Bae was still angry and hurting but he didn't believe that he would physically attack him and as for Gold "erasing his memories" it was true that that had been his initial plan when he reunited with Baelfire in Manhattan but he now saw that the very idea was selfish and wrong.

The only other person who was powerful enough to take away a person's memory was Regina. Rage swept through him at the thought of the Evil Queen laying a hand on his son and the need to hunt her down and make her pay for hurting his son was all consuming.

But first he had to do something that he knew would make his non-existent relationship with his son even further from developing into a somewhat healthy one. With a heavy heart Gold raised his hand and Neal was showered in red dust.

As soon as the dust made contact with Neal he fell to the ground, asleep.

Panicked Emma dropped to her knees and Snow clipped an arrow and aimed the sharpened point at the imp.

"What did you do?" Emma demanded, her hand resting on Neal's shoulder.

"He's all right, it was only a sleeping spell" he assured, raising his hands in a non-threatening manner.

On closer inspection Emma saw that Neal's chest was moving up and down. He was still alive.

"Why did you do this and how long will he be asleep?" Emma added, her hand still on Neal's shoulder and Snow still had her arrow aimed at Gold's dark heart.

"I believe he may be under some sort of spell cast by Regina and the spell should only last a few hours at the most. Now, will you be so kind as to help carry my son to my shop?" after a moment of thought Snow lowered her bow and re-sheethed the arrow.

Emma rose from the ground then bent over and with Snow's help hefted Neal up off the ground and followed Gold to his shop.

~Break~

Henry was trekking through the woods, his goal: the mausoleum. Like Emma he knew that the last place Regina would hide Neal would be her house and that only left the mausoleum.

He didn't know about the cave below the library but if he had that would have been his next stop.

In the distance he could see the mausoleum and the drops of rain that were starting to fall urged him on and by the time the small drops had turned to the size of quarters he was standing at the doors.

Pulling the doors open he stepped inside and did his best to shake the rain off his clothing and hair.

Even with the heavy doors closed behind him he could still hear the pattering of rain landing on the roof and a low grumble of thunder.

He had only been here one other time and that had been when he was trying to find a way to get Emma and Mary Margaret back home and it hadn't been a pleasant one, especially when he had almost been attacked by ravenous snakes if not for David showing up in time.

Taking his flashlight out he turned the high power beam on and started his search for Neal.

He didn't know what he was expecting to find but he hoped that whatever it was, it would end with him having his dad back.

~Break~

Entering the shop Gold led Emma and Snow to the backroom where they laid Neal down on the couch in the corner.

"Start talking Gold. What spell?" Emma asked, and he better not be playing her.

"I don't know the specific spell, but it would seem that Regina was trying to erase Neal's memories of some event or such that took place"

"Why would Regina want to erase Neal's memories?" Snow asked, standing beside the sleeping figure of Neal.

Gold frowned and walked over to his sleeping son. Snow stepped aside for him but she kept an eye on his movements. She knew that Rumple would never physically harm his son but she had just witnessed him cast a sleeping spell on him so she was still a little wary.

"There could be several reasons. She didn't want the added competition or she is trying to use him to get to Henry, the list goes on but I can tell you that the spell she used was for a specific memory. If her intention had been to make him completely forget his reason for being here I'm sure we would be dealing with a completely different situation but whatever memory she took it was because she didn't want him to reveal her plans. The problem is that I would have to know the exact spell she used in order to undo what's she's done so we won't be finding out from him"

But that wouldn't stop him from trying. He noticed the bruises that went around his wrists and he internally snarled. Regina would definitely pay for this. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that she was responsible for this.

He walked over to a cabinet and searched around the contents until he found what he was looking for. Taking the jar he walked back over to the group and handed the seemingly empty jar to Emma who took it with suspicion.

"Now reach into the jar and take out the lone object that it contains" he requested, turning his head in order to watch her perform the task.

She gave him a questioning look.

"There's nothing in here. See" she shook the jar but was surprised when something rattled around inside the container.

Giving her a knowing look she frowned in puzzlement and reached inside and felt around until she came into contact with a short thick object. Closing her hands around the item she pulled it out and held what appeared to be three inches of nothing in her hand for all to see.

"What is it?" Emma asked, a huge part of her wondered why the thing was invisible.

"That is magic chalk. Whatever you drawn a line around or in front of will produce an invisible shield that prevents anything from passing through" he explained.

Emma eyed the apparent "chalk" with some doubt.

"A piece of chalk is supposed to do all that?"

"Ms. Swan not everything magical has to be covered in dust and have shiny rubies all over it. The simplest things can have the greatest magical impact, all you have to do is look close enough. Now please, use the chalk and draw a line in front of the doorway to this room" he instructed.

Still having some doubts she walked over to the doorway and started drawing a thick line.

"So tell me, for what purpose am I doing this and why am I doing it and not you?" she inquired as she continued to scribble.

"I'm unsure how Neal is going to react once he wakes up and I don't want him trying to escape before I can properly examine him. And as for you doing this deed, it's because my leg is not as good as it used to be and kneeling down isn't a good idea for me" he tapped his cane for emphasis.

Emma was sure that the last part wasn't entirely true but she didn't feel like calling him on that so she finished up and watched in awe as a white ripple shot up from the floor and traveled up to the ceiling then vanished.

While Emma and Snow had been watching the shield enact itself Gold had moved back to Neal's side.

He noticed the bruises that went around his wrists and he internally snarled. Regina would definitely pay for this. There wasn't a doubt in his mind that she was responsible for this. Waving his hand over the visible bruises around his wrist he watched as purple mist showered down from his palm but he was perplexed when the lesions didn't heal. His gut clenching with dread he moved on to the scratches on his face but was met with the same results. Neal's injuries were not healing.

There was something else wrong with Neal. A picture was starting to form in his mind and the clench in his gut turned to a piercing stab. Regina hadn't just erased his memories, no, she had come up with a backup plan in the likely hood that her first plan didn't go smoothly. With anxiety and anger boiling in his heart he reached out and felt for a pulse; There wasn't one.

His heart was gone.

Taken by Regina.

Emma noticed him with his fingers pressing into Neal's pulse point.

"What are you doing?" though she clearly knew that that was one way to check a pulse she was unsure as to why Gold was doing that to Neal. Clearly he was still alive.

Then it hit her.

"His heart is gone, isn't it" though it was meant to be a question it came out as a statement.

Her fears were confirmed when Gold nodded.

"I can't heal him without his heart. Without it the magic doesn't work because it's not connecting with his very essence. It's like he's a car with no battery, there's nothing to charge and so the jumper cables are useless." Gold looked down at his sleeping son and ran his fingers through his tousled hair, his eyes filled with sorrow and rimmed with rage at the person responsible for this.

Emma and Snow were silent, the shock of the news that Neal's heart had been taken was enough to make them momentarily speechless.

How could this be happening?

It seemed like every day something horrible happened and the people Emma cared for were put in danger yet again and now that the person in serious trouble was Neal she found that her own eyes were flaring with rage as well along with fear that Regina could take him away from her.

They may not be on the best of terms right now but she wasn't going to allow Regina to do anything that could take Neal out of her life or Henry's for good, as much as she wanted to deny she had to admit that she cared for Neal and she knew with great certainty that Henry would be inconsolable if Neal was lost to them.

She could picture Neal in her mind as he assaulted Gold. She had known that something wasn't right with him the moment he took the first swing at his father. As he confronted Gold she heard growls rumble from him, his lips quivering with the action and his eyes were as hard as steel but that wasn't all, there was something undeniably animalistic about him in that moment. The image she had reconstructed of Neal was on pause in her mind and concentrating closer she happened upon an observation that she hadn't fully acknowledged until now.

Neal's eyes had been glowing

"What about his eyes? They were glowing" she remembered the way they shined around his irises. The color had been a haunting gold.

At hearing this Snow's eyes widened.

"What color were they?" Snow asked, having not seen for herself.

Emma wasn't too surprised at the question, but what did surprise her was that it had come from Mary Margaret.

"Gold, why? What does that mean?" she watched as Snow and Gold shared a look, one that said they knew something that she didn't.

Growing annoyed at the drawn out silence Emma burst, "tell me what's going on!" she exclaimed, hating that they were obviously keeping something from her.

Biting the proverbial bullet Snow sighed and spoke, "I've only ever heard of a person's eyes glowing gold in one curse: a werewolf. But that doesn't mean that that's necessarily what's happened to Neal. Besides, you have to be either bitten or born that way" Snow explained, almost positive that Neal wasn't a werewolf.

Behind her Gold had been looking Neal over again and he came across a white material sticking up from his shirt collar. Investigating further Gold pulled the material back and found gauze bandaging with spots of blood seeping through taped on his collarbone.

Emma had been watching and she found herself moving and unceremoniously pushed Gold to the side.

Snow didn't know what prompted her daughter to move so fast until she turned in time to see her beginning to peel the bandaging back.

She took a sharp inhale of breath at was revealed. Two deep punctures that started at the top of his right collarbone with two jagged bloody lines that went down to his chest. The wound was still fresh meaning that it had been inflicted recently.

Emma looked up at her mother, the fear evident in her eyes. All were silent as they digested this new piece of information.

Both Emma and Snow didn't want to give in to the idea that Neal had been bitten by a werewolf because the only active werewolf in town was Red and the thought that she could have done this was too much to bare.

Trying to hold on to the belief that it wasn't the bite of a werewolf Snow spoke, "we don't know for a fact that Neal was bitten, for all we know he could have gotten that before he came to town" no one needed to speak to know that that wasn't likely because the wound was too fresh. Neal had been here for two days.

The bite coming from a werewolf explained the glowing eyes and the other wolf like characteristics that Neal had displayed.

Gold gritted his teeth and his hand gripped the handle of his cane so hard that it was in danger of denting.

That meddling werewolf waitress had attacked his son and that was infuriating enough but the fact that she had infected his only child with the curse of the werewolf was enough of a reason for Gold to declare full out war.

Snow saw the fire in Gold's eyes and stepped forward, blocking his path.

"Don't even think about it. We don't know what happened" there was no way in hell that she was going to let the man hurt one of her dearest friends.

"And what would you have me do 'your highness?' stay here and allow that woman to attack and curse another soul? What if next time its David, Emma or maybe even young Henry? That woman must pay for her crime!" with an angry snarl he used magic to toss Snow out of his way and she collided into the bookshelf beside the door.

The bookshelf collapsed on top of her and knocked her unconscious. Gold only managed one step before he felt the pressure of Emma's gun against the back of his skull.

"One more move and I won't hesitate to blow your head off" she threatened, her finger hovering over the trigger.

"Don't be so hasty deary, you still need me" he knew that Emma could and was willing to kill him, especially after what he had just done her to mother but he was also well aware that without him Regina would be the most powerful person in town and she would be sure to take full advantage of his absence.

"That's true but that doesn't mean I can't do this" before he could ask what she meant Emma pistol whipped him in the back of the head and he was out like a light.

Rushing over to Snow she dug her out from the books and carefully turned her on her back.

There was a small cut on her forehead that was slowly weeping blood and for the moment that was the only injury she saw. Her main concern though, was that she was unconscious.

"Mary Margaret, Mary Margaret wake up! Wake up!" she had to restrain herself from shaking her when she received no response.

With shaking hands she checked for a pulse and breathed a sigh of relief when she found one and that she was definitely breathing.

Snatching a nearby pillow she carefully picked up Snow's head and laid it down on the cushion.

For a long moment she just sat there. The only conscious one among the group of four people. Looking over at Neal then Snow, Emma found herself at a loss.

The one person who came to mind first that could help her was David, her father. For the longest time she had wanted a father that she could turn to when things became hard and tell her that everything was going to be okay. But now that she had that she found that actually going through with the act was much harder. Asking for help was not something that she did easily, for the longest time showing weakness meant that you were easy prey and therefore in danger of being beaten up or shipped off to another foster home because the foster parents didn't want to deal with a whiny brat.

She had made that mistaken once. When she was seven she had asked her foster father to help her with her math homework and at first he helped her, rather dismissive like, but when she continued to pester him he lost it and told her to shut the hell up and figure it out for herself!

After that she never did ask him or his wife for help in anything ever again.

It was only three days later that they had had enough of her and they shipped her off to the next home. The income they had made off her having dried up.

Emma was still very wary when it came to showing vulnerability but she knew that she couldn't do this on her own.

With Mary Margaret hurt and unconscious and Neal under a sleeping spell and possibly a werewolf along with the revenge seeking Gold unconscious she needed guidance and the little girl in her wanted her father to swoop in and save the day.

Getting her phone out she hit speed dial for David and brought the speaker to her ear.

"Dad, I need help"

A/N: There it is, I hope you enjoyed this update. I did a lot changing on this chapter from its original version so you can expect more drama in the future based on the changes I've made. I'm not going to tell you what but beware that there will be major Neal whumpage in future chapters.

Please continue to review, I really need to see that people are in fact liking this story.