Author's Note: Thank you to the many wonderful reviews who reviewed and messaged me privately to encourage me to continue this story. Your words me a lot to me, thank you so very much.

I'm really proud of this chapter as I think it really captures the intensity, and madness I was searching to create. Enjoy!

"I-I would never, ever abandon my family." Regina's hand had found its way to her throat as she watched the scene unfold before her. Roland and Apple, were standing ten feet from their father, accusing him of abandoning them as children, and abandoning her. It seemed so out of character to the man she'd come to love, but she'd been fooled before, and she found herself taking a step away from him, a movement that drew his attention immediately. "Regina," he started, unshielded pain on his features, "I couldn't—"

"You did," Roland proclaimed, drawing her attention to her huddling children. It all felt so impossible. Her sheer joy at knowing that someday she'd get her happy ending, complete with three children, and a daughter of her very own—one that didn't hate her, but loved her and spoke to her with such warmth—it had seemed almost impossible to fathom, and apparently it was.

"Why," Robin asked, swinging back to face his children. "Why would I do that? There must have been a reason!"

"What reason," Roland asked as Apple wiped away tears, "could ever be good enough? If I said you went to save the world, would that somehow absolve you of your guilt, somehow make our lives better?"

Her feet moved before she gave the command, and when Robin reached for her, she pulled her arm back as she walked past, right up to her two youngest children. "Tell me why he left us."

"Oh mom," Apple said softly, stepping away from her brother to wrap her arms around Regina's neck. But it was Roland that answered, as she knew it would be.

His hand settled on her shoulder, but slid down to softly cuff her arm supportively. "He heard tale that Marion was alive a few months before Apple was born. His obsession tore our family apart until only weeks after Apple was born, he found a single use portal back to the Enchanted Forest." Roland's eyes grew dark and dangerous as he looked at his father. "He abandoned us in the name of finding my real "mother" when I had a mother all along."

Roland's face dropped back to her own, and she struggled at his look when he saw the tears in her eyes. Finally he couldn't take it anymore, and pulled both she and Apple in against his solid chest. "You," Roland said, his chin grazing the top of her head as he talked, "were always the only mother I ever needed. The fact he couldn't understand that, just shows how little he deserved you in the first place."

Apple sniffled and pulled back, wanting to add some reason to this one sided issue. "That's not fair, Roland. If you're going to tell it, you have to tell the whole story." She turned to her father, stepping away from them so she could look at him directly. "You did come back. You would have come back sooner, but there was no way to return. But by the time you did, I was 4 and Roland was 12. You'd missed so much, and Roland," she paused to glance at her brother, "Roland hated you for leaving us. But it only got worse.

"You found out that Marion died on mom's gallows. It tore at you, it," she wiped again at her leaking tears, and Regina watched as Anna walked past her lover to comfort her friend with a gentle hand and tears in her eyes. "Nothing was the same," Apple continued, "You were so angry when you got back. You accused mom of knowing she'd had Marion killed, which was crazy, mom used to have everyone killed!" Apple's throat caught a sob, and Regina felt her heart shatter. "You and mom would fight constantly. Roland used to take any babysitting job he could so we didn't have to be in the house when you got home. We spent so much time at Anna's house or on the Jolly Roger, we practically lived there full time."

Roland picked up the tale, "The five of us," he indicated the out of time children of their future, "became a family when you decided a dream was more important than your real family. I listened to mom cry every night, watched you bully her for things she couldn't change in the past. You broke our family, you tore it apart."

"But you tried to fix it," Apple interrupted, compelled to take a step towards her father. "You and mom finally separated and—"

"And you tore our family apart again!" Roland's temper was boiling over. His face was flushed with anger, his fists clenched and his eyes danced with a desire to deliver retribution. "You ripped me from the only mother I had, tore me away from my sister, and moved me into the god damned woods!"

Wordlessly, Liam and Anna converged on their lover. They took each of his hands, Anna on his left, Liam on his right, and it was as if their very touch leached the pain and rage from his bones. His hard shaking muscles relaxed, his enraged eyes looked away from his father's to Liam's, and they held for only a moment before Roland was lifting his arms and sheltering both of them—though it seemed, they were offering more respite than he was to them.

Apple's soft voice continued, "Roland ran away. If it hadn't been for Killian and Emma taking Roland in, who knows what would have happened. But eventually, mom convinced you that Roland needed to stay with her—"

Robin's voice was pained, and spoken as a last effort of self-defense against a reality he was begining to understand, he'd created himself. "She, Regina, turned my son against me."

"You bastard!" Roland's body tensed and he moved to lunge at his father, but Liam was faster, stepping in front of him to block his path as Anna clutched at his hand.

Liam's voice was strong, and broached no arguments. "No. Not one time, never, did Regina ever issue a disparaging word against you. She felt just as responsible for the demise of her family having been the one to imprison Marion in the first place. She encouraged Roland to visit you, even making him go on trips with you. Anything and everything so he'd spend more time with you. Hopper had some fancy word for Roland's stubbornness, but it doesn't much matter." Liam turned to face Robin, "Apple's right, you did try, and so did Regina, but sometimes the damage done can't be undone. You left a child, broke him, and something like that never heals. Trust me," he said, looking back at Roland, "some betrayals can never be forgiven."

The room dropped into silence, stunned by the revelations described by their future children.

In her chest, Regina felt her hopes and dreams of a happy home and a loving husband shatter. There was solace in the fact that she had three, beautiful and happy children, but still the ache in her chest grew. That is, until Robin stated the most obviously overlooked piece of the entire puzzle.

"But I knew," he said, drawing the eyes of the room, both sympathetic and caustic, "I knew it was Regina's gallows that Marion was condemned too. Even if I thought she might somehow be alive, that doesn't explain why I would hold Regina responsible after having already accepted that truth and still chosen to be with her."

He spoke as he took the ten steps, "I am more aware of Regina's faults that most, and still I chose to love her." His hand reached for hers, and she gave it, because she loved him, and because she wanted his words to be real—she could admit that to herself. "I am more in love with her than any woman I have ever known. Only the love for my son," he looked up and Roland and then Apple, "and now my daughter, could ever rival what I feel for you." He took her other hand. "Leaving Storybrooke, going with Marion," he paused, "I feel guilty saying it, but not a day passed I didn't long for you, Regina. I made the impossible decision to go with Marion, but my heart stayed here with you."

The skeptical part of her mind reminded her that pretty words were only pretty until actions turned them to acid. But no one's words could sooth her heart like Robin's could. The sincerity in his eyes, the knowledge that such an admission hurt him to say against Marion, gave her hope that it was real, that it could last. And so she folded, the great Evil Queen, terror of the Enchanted Forest, allowed her genteel outlaw to enfold her in his embrace, and she breathed in the forest from his skin, and fell in love all over again.

"I told you," the room turned to look at Anna who was smiling softly at the embracing couple.

"Told us what," Apple asked.

Anna shrugged, "I told you the Sorcerer figured out my plan."

Neal stepped forward as Roland turned to face her. Neal's voice was earnest, "What do you mean, Anna? You haven't told us anything about the Sorcerer."

She sighed, "Yes I did! I told my mother. Didn't I, Papa?" She turned to scan the room for him, "Papa?"

But Rumplestiltskin was gone.

There was a sound magic made on the air that Belle had come to recognize. It sort of popped into existence and swirled around, like a child twirling, though usually not as joyful. This was no exception, as her husband appeared in the foyer and she rose from her place on the lounger by the window.

Judging his moods had been a game to her while she'd been his slave, something to amuse herself during the endless work of being the sole caretaker of such a large estate, but in Storybrooke he had fewer moods, though each one was more intense then the last. The most dangerous was the one she saw before her now, when he wore an expression of rage so pure it pulled his lips back in a snarl and his eyes danced with death.

It was an expression, Belle thought would never be directed at her, and her hand moved protectively to cover the growing child in her belly.

If it was possible, his look seemed to intensify and diminish in equal measures that contorted his face with pain. It was a look that broke her heart, and despite the danger, she took a step towards him, "Rumple—"

"You made a grave mistake coming here, Belle." His words were dark and deadly, but his voice was soft and radiated a throbbing agony.

She shook her head, "I had to see you; I had to explain."

"Explain," he said, turning away from her in disgust, "I can see quite clearly your explanation. I have spent the last several hours with her in fact, and your explanation," he bit the word at her, "is unnecessary. I have seen the damage you are capable of causing, Dearie."

Not 'wife' or 'sweetheart', no term of endearment as so often rolled off his tongue as he danced his scheming dance to keep her in the dark. Now he used his most contemptuous word on her, and it stung more than all the others.

But his words were also truthful, and as her fingers flexed protectively, and his eyes watched with a broken longing, she gathered her courage and took a step towards him. "I-I made a terrible, unforgivable mistake." She shook her head, trying to shake her thoughts into place in such a way that he would listen to her. "There-there can be no forgiveness for what I did, what I nearly did to our child." Confusion passed over his face, but she pushed on, "But I can fix it!"

Taking another step and then another, she moved to the archway. "In that room, I spoke to her, Anna, our daughter—our real daughter. She told me how to fix things. She," her voice broke and tears gathered in her eyes at the memory, "she told me that the Sorcerer had figured out her plan and bested her, that the life those children remember wasn't their real lives. He did something, changed something, and now everything is wrong."

Frustration had her tugging at her hair, a nervous habit she'd picked up after spending two decades in a mental facility. "Our daughter, our real daughter, told me that she grew up in a happy home, our home Rumple, with both of her parents. We raised her together, loving and kind, and she was so beautiful, Rumple." Her mind flashed back to the ethereal beauty she'd seen before the spell had fallen. "She was tall, with long sharp features that made her look like one from the legendary elven race. She looked perfect not," her mind struggled, "not broken, not deformed!"

She turned away, tugging at her hair again, "She was beautiful, and perfect, well-spoken and brave. She was everything this imposter isn't! Don't you see Rumple," she turned back towards him and advanced until she was directly in front of him. "I did this, I made that horrifying mockery of our real daughter, but we can fix it. We can fix my mistake and bring back our real daughter. We can be happy, we can be a family. We just have to fix this. And you want that don't you? I'm not the only one who's missed the other. Tell me that at least, tell me you've missed me too. Tell me you love me, that you forgive me for using the dagger against you. Here!"

She rushed back to the couch and riffled through her purse. But the bag was large, and in frustration, she tipped it out onto the coffee table, until the dagger, wrapped in a red scarf, became visible and she grabbed it before rushing back to him. "Here, Rumple, take it. I never wanted it in the first place. I never wanted to control you, just love you. Take it. Take it!"

But his eyes had left her, and she was startled when he stepped around her and walked to the coffee table. "Rumple?"

He bent at the waist, his long fingers, warm fingers that had so often smoothed her own from her tangled hair, brushed aside her makeup bag, and plucked the nearly empty bottle of Jack Daniels from the mess.

Holding it as if it were a snake, he turned his empty eyes at her.

She waved it away. "It doesn't matter—"

"Doesn't matter?" he repeated incredulously, turning fully to stare at her as if she'd gone mad.

"No, it doesn't." She continued, growing frustrated. "I've already ruined her. But she just has to be born, no matter how deformed. She's the product of true love, our true love, Rumple. Once she's born, those children will use her to go back in time and stop Emma and Killian from going back in time and then everything will right itself. You see, I told you, I know how to fix this!"

Taking a step forward she smiled at him. "We can have a second chance, we can start over. You and I, and when Anna is born, she'll be so perfect, so happy. She's already told me so, Rumple. So this child," she indicated her curved belly, and watched his eyes drop to it as well, "it doesn't matter. We need it to cast the time spell that's all. She won't even exist after it's done." She was before him now, her hand reaching out and taking his, "We can fix this together. Always together, Rumplestiltskin. I love you. I will always love you. We can be happy, tell me you see that, tell me you understand."

She was surprised to see an expression she had never seen on his face, and she struggled to figure out what it could mean for the full five seconds he stared at her with it. Then he took his hand from hers and rounding her, moved into the foyer before opening the door.

His voice was colder than she'd ever heard it. "I give you this one opportunity, Belle, for all that has passed between us," his eyes hardened even more, "Get out."

Panic coursed through her blood, "No! No Rumple, you have to listen to me!" She rushed forward, gripping the hand that wasn't holding the door, "Please you have to listen to me, we can fix this. I love you!"

He snapped his hand from hers, and once again, she heard magic though didn't see it. "The very idea that our daughter is anything less than perfect is an insult worthy of death for anyone that might speak it. The fact that the one who's actions have led to her condition, has the audacity to speak such words, deserves far worse than mere death."

Shaking her head, she felt her sudden tears fall. "Please Rumple, if you'd only seen her, the real Anna, you wouldn't say such things. You be working to help me. This thing," she pointed to her belly, "has to be born, but only as a means to gaining our real daughter. You have to believe me, you have to trust me."

"Trust you!" Rage caused his voice to rise louder than she'd ever heard it, and she would have backed away, but he caught her arm in a bruising grip and shook her violently until she cried out. "Trust you! I can barely look at you! How can you not see what you have done?"

A sob caught in her throat, "I know! I know I made a mistake! But I can't fix this now. Don't you understand, the only way to fix this is to cast the spell and stop Emma and Killian from ever going back in time in the first place. Rumple, we can fix this."

"To what end? So we can have our perfect child? A child not destroyed by your hatred for me? And what of us, are we supposed to pretend this betrayal never happened, that you are the perfect mother?"

"I will be! Anna's already told me that I am. And you, you're a perfect father, not caught up in power games. Being a father changes you, Rumple, it makes you a better man."

"Yes it does," he said with a finality that shocked her, "It has made me recall the lengths that I will go to to protect my child." He released her with a jerk, so she stumbled back a step. "I will protect her with my dying breath, from anyone who seeks to harm her. Anna, our Anna, the one you carry now, is my daughter, beautiful, and perfect in her own way, and it is this daughter, the one I can hold in my arms, that I will protect, even if I have to protect her from her own mother."

"Rumple—"

"Papa?" They turned to see Anna at the bottom of the porch stairs, a furious Roland and Liam flanking her. She looked so small and frightened between them, so pathetic and weak, not strong and brave, like their real daughter.

"Anna," Rumple began with sorrow and pain on his face, but Belle interrupted him.

"I'm sorry, Anna." Doe eyes turned to her with a look of hopeful longing that it tugged at her heart. "What I've done to you is unforgivable. I know that. But even if your Papa doesn't understand, know that I will do everything I can to give you your best chance. You're my daughter, and I love you, and because of that, I will make sure that you have the best life I could possibly give you." She glanced at Rumple before crossing the threshold and then the porch steps.

But as she passed, she made sure Anna knew how much she truly loved her, "No matter how much it costs all of us."