For a few seconds after the earth tremor, it seemed as though nothing had really happened. The street that Lydia was standing in remained silent afterwards for those seconds, but of course that didn't last long as front doors were eventually opened, breaking the silence as people came out of their houses and started chattering with their neighbors. The questions of what that was and why it had happened fell into a chatter of continuous talking between neighbors.

Eventually it seemed that people knew where to go as they all fell into a large mob walking one way, Lydia followed close behind them to find out what was going on. The large group eventually led her to the old mines on the edge of town that had been abandoned long ago but for some reason never really dealt with as a dangerous situation.

The authorities soon started arriving to handle the situation, Lydia meanwhile making short work of not being all that noticeable in the crowd as she saw the familiar outline of Sheriff Graham walking around. Mayor Mills also arrived accordingly, giving a quick speech to the mob on how she was going to deal with the safety situation of the mines by bulldozing it and cementing it away, though she was interrupted in the middle of her speech by Henry of all people.

Lydia didn't raise that much of a surprised eyebrow at this, remembering back to when she had been his babysitter and how he was somehow convinced, thanks to a fairy tale book that his teacher had given him, that his mother was an Evil Queen and that she had placed the town under some kind of curse. And that was only the beginning of it; since Henry's strange belief went on to incorporate everyone in the town as a fairy tale character.

At the time, the teenager was well aware that Henry didn't really have friends, which Lydia guessed was the reason why his teacher had given him the book, so she followed through with his imaginative belief, listening and nodding all the way despite of how out of the box it seemed to her. Lydia also guessed that it was mostly because of her not trying to muffle and silence Henry's imagination that led to her being fired as his babysitter by his mother.

Well, that and the fact that at the time Lydia had named her pet after the Mayor. But then again the teenager just couldn't seem to find a better name for the female dog. After this occasion of her being fired, the dog was taken to the pound and given away, Mr. Gold muttering something about how the Mayor felt that she had not being taking better care of it or something. Because for some reason the woman had the power to take the dog from someone else's home and impound the poor creature.

The collaboration of letting go of that dog that Lydia had actually genuinely cared about and being fired as Henry's babysitter, again something that she cared more about than she ever let on, really hurt. Since just like the boy at the time, Lydia felt as though she didn't have any friends or anyone to really talk to about how she felt about anything.

So those actions really ticked her off as a whole, but Lydia was not stupid enough to outright attack the Mayor when it happened, so she instead just waited and bided her time to let her anger at being left alone grew and evolved over the next year or so. The teenager always had the feeling that someday Miss Mills would not have the foothold she had now, so that was the day Lydia decided to wait for that moment, and then she would have her moment.

Henry was sent back to his mother's car to wait as she continued on to order the Sheriff and Miss Swann around to cover the dangerous situation in lines of the ever familiar police tape so that none of the crowd that was at least now starting to dissipate, would walk into trouble. Lydia was about to leave herself, guessing that there really wasn't anything interesting going on, when she noticed Henry quietly calling out to her, gesturing for her to come closer.

Deciding that there was no harm in going and seeing what he needed, Lydia carefully walked her way to Henry, watching all the while that his mother or the Sheriff couldn't see her even in the corner of their eyes. When she finally got there, the teenager quickly noticed that she wasn't alone in being called over. The well known town therapist, Henry's therapist even, Dr Hopper and Miss Swann, whom Lydia noticed quickly, had a Deputy badge on her belt.

That promotion to the police force must have only happened recently, as in just a few hours ago, since Lydia remembered clearly that earlier today Miss Swann never stated anything about being a part of the police, and certainly she did not have a badge on her at the time. Lydia knew she would have noticed it before, what with her familiarity with the Sheriff of Storybrooke, who had been the only evidence of law in the town before this point, that wasn't the Mayor.

"This requires all of Operation Cobra, all three of you," Lydia, feeling somewhat stupid at that moment, raised her hand for attention, which only made her feel worse since it reminded her of being in school and asking for the teacher's attention.

"Sorry to be the rookie at the moment, but what's Operation Cobra?" Dr Hopper and Emma seemed somewhat bothered, but didn't say anything, and just from their expression of awkwardness alone, Lydia picked up on the fact that it was apparently part of Henry's imagination, which she could see was still running quite rampant without her 'corruption' as Mayor Mills had so nicely described when Lydia had been fired.

"It's the plan to stop the Evil Queen," Henry answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, but instead of breathing a sigh of exhaustion as the two adults did, Lydia instead knew that it was better to just nod with understanding and follow along with what he was saying, though she couldn't help but ask one more question.

"Erm, why am I part of Operation Cobra now?"

"You helped us with Operation Pumpkin," The teenager gave a quick look to Emma for assistance, which was thankfully not missed in the small period of silence as she got her answer.

"Ashley," Lydia nodded again in understanding, happy to have finally caught up in what was going on so she wasn't completely lost in all of this. Henry seemed satisfied that the teenager finally knew what was happening and quickly explain to the group as a whole that the his mother, the 'Evil Queen' needed to be stopped since she was obviously hiding something about the mines and they needed to discover what it was.

However before Henry could go any further into what he was planning, their little get together was interrupted as Mayor Mills appeared, telling off Henry to go into the back of her car and wait for her. The boy gave his rag tag team one last desperate look, apparently not understanding that most of his Operation Cobra was composed of adults that believed more that there was something mentally wrong with him, than in his belief of a curse.

When he was gone, the Mayor of course started tearing into the three that were left behind, ordering the now Deputy Swann to continue taping off the area and making sure that it was safe for anyone that was still foolish enough to go any closer to the collapsing mines. The older blonde looked as though she wanted to argue with Regina for some reason, but instead decided to settle on a glare before leaving. Lydia watched this all transpire, before guessing that she should try and make a break for it before it was her turn for the Mayor's wrath.

Unfortunately she wasn't that lucky, as just as she was about to turn and leave, she was interrupted by the sound of the Mayor grounding out the teenager's last name in much of the way that she used to when Lydia was her son's babysitter. Taking a deep breath for whatever was going to happen next since Lydia was well aware she was going to need all of her deep breathing anger management skills for whatever the Mayor was going to dish out.

"Miss Gold I believe I made it quite clear when I fired you, that you were going to stay completely away from my son." The woman was immediately on the attack, which wasn't all that surprising, if anything it was practically the only thing that Lydia hadn't missed after not babysitting Henry for so long. But, instead of immediately being on the attack as well, as Miss Swann had apparently done, Lydia instead went on the defensive in the moments when it was necessary and just watched as the Mayor's nostrils flared.

"Yes indeed you did Madam Mayor," Lydia didn't feel the need, nor really the energy to fight back against her, and so instead just stood there like a solid wall, waiting for the storm to blow over. She tried to make herself impassive as well, not wanting to allow this woman's spitting words of anger and vile to get to her, since Lydia wasn't thirteen anymore, so she wasn't going to allow herself to be as easily effected as she was back then.

"Well you seem to be having trouble remembering that, perhaps some time in the holding cells would help to clear your memory better in the future," There was a pause, which was usually done when Mayor Mills knew that she had something to hold over her prey, before she continued, "But you can't afford to be arrested again, can you? So I'll let this occasion go, but if I hear that you've been in contact with my son behind my back again Miss Gold, you're out of Storybrooke and into Juvie for good. Do you understand?"

"Yes Madam Mayor," Just saying yes seemed to get the teenager out of being shouted at any more as instead of throwing any more acid words at Lydia, the Mayor instead just turned away, giving the sign that she could now leave. A signal that Lydia immediately took advantage upon, as she walked off and out of the mining area, being still wary of keeping out of the Sherriff's sight. Taking a look back before she left completely however, Lydia saw that now she was gone, the woman was now having a go at Dr. Hopper.

The teenager gritted her teeth in sympathy, wondering for a moment what it was that the local therapist could have done to annoy the Mayor, before turning and continuing to leave. As much as this whole slight earthquake/Operation Cobra thing had managed to be a distraction for Lydia, it failed in leaving any lasting impact as the teenager noticed at the moment that she had left the mining area, her mind was straight back onto what had happened beforehand with Mr. Gold.

Her first thought was a wondering if he was at the mining area too, and then if he had seen her here as well. Not that Lydia felt that he would care all that much, mostly because it just didn't seem to be in his nature to care, but at the same time she didn't want to get into trouble with him or the police if he dragged them into it. Trouble was something she was trying to avoid at this point, instead of chasing after it like the adrenaline junkie she had been before. Constantly trying to get that life threatening frightened feeling that cleared her mind and always seemed to momentarily fill that empty hole in her that she could never understand.

Well, now she knew what the hole meant, and because of that it seemed to just grow bigger and harder to ignore to the point where no amount of base jumping as going to make it go away for even a minute. She would need help if she wanted to finally sow that hole shut, and the teenager knew that that mostly wasn't going to happen since it was her 'father' that she would need assistance from, and she was sure he would rather cut his own hand off than use it to help someone for nothing in return.

And that was who she had to go back home to, since she didn't want to get into any more trouble. The teenager wondered again, an activity she seemed rather fond of, if she could manage to scale the wall on the side of her house that held her bedroom window, the same one she had previously jumped out of, and climb back inside and act as though she had never left. But there were a few reasons as to why that wouldn't exactly work, the first being that there wasn't any trees on that side of the house that she could use to help her climb up.

The second reason that this wouldn't work was because just as she was thinking about sneaking in through the back door or something like that, her father's car pulled up next to her. At first the teenager just looked at the black tinted windows, thinking on how much she wanted to just keep on walking, since as much as she would like to have this hole in her heart fixed up, Lydia did not want to talk to her 'father' just yet.

But then again Lydia knew she couldn't always have what she wanted in this life, so she climbed into the backseat of the car, and did her best to remain silent as she could feel the gaze of her adoptive father in the review mirror, Lydia's own sights being on the window next to her. The car drove off again, enduring the two of its occupants into yet another deadly silent drive. It was almost like nothing over the past few hours had really happened, which something that Lydia wished was possible to happen, but then again knew that wasn't possible.

Everything was different now, it was all changed and on a different playing field between the two of them, and all because of a single page document that created so many questions that had yet to be answered. It was those questions that drove her into silence, since asking them seemed to hurt too much. And so because she wasn't talking, he remained silent for the most part. Which lead them back to the beginning of being in a silent car ride and wishing that the past few days for the most part, didn't happen.

They reached the house eventually, in as much a complete silence as always, and Lydia made every opportunity as she climbed out of the car and walked through the house to her room, that she was not interested in talking just yet. What she was interested in however, was exactly where she kept her suitcases, the ones she had always in the hopes that maybe one day she could leave this reached town behind her.

It was only when Lydia was almost finished with her quick essential only packing that Mr. Gold actually entered her room, without knocking first as the teenager noted since that was a strange occurrence. But then again that could be understandable sine there was another strange occurrence of her packing her bags going on at the same time.

Ever since she was thirteen and had started acting out after being fired by Mayor Mills, Lydia had always threatened to leave. How she was going to do that, where she was going to go next, or even why was always different on these occasions, but what always stayed the same was that she would threaten to do it, but never followed through on it. No matter what Mr. Gold did to her at the time, whether it be leaving her in the holding cell at the police station for more than a day, or failing to pick her up one night so she had to walk home alone in the dark.

Apparently this disagreement in their usual pattern of non-communicational relationship was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back and spurred the teenager into action. Since in all the threats to leave in the past were never followed by the actual action of packing bags. Lydia didn't even really make verbal threat to leave on this occasion, which was only further evidence that she was serious about this now.

"Where are you going to stay?" He wasn't really fighting against it, since he knew Lydia enough to see that if he pushed too much on this occasion, the backlash could be more than enough to much too really handle. For a moment Lydia continued to pack her bags, pretending as though she was too busy to answer, while she tried to think of something to say, a place to go. Eventually she went for the obvious that she knew would work.

"Granny's has a room that just became vacant, no doubt because of Regina. I'll be staying there for a while," It was a more solid plan than what Lydia originally had, which as to just go off into her favorite part of the forest and never leave, which didn't sound all that realistic. At least with Granny's she could pay the rent for a time with her earnings from her time at the pawnshop. This logical reply seemed to be enough for Mr. Gold on that point, but of course he was never one to leave a conversation without having his last word.

"It's going to be a full moon tomorrow night,"

With that, he left the room, symbolically just letting her leave. He didn't give any more of a fight at that time, since he seemed to know that his last word would to be enough to cause her to falter. Which it certainly did as the items that were in her hands fell to the floor thanks to being held by a suddenly loosened grip as Lydia was given a moment of thought through the falter. There was a part of her that wanted to throw something rather heavy at him while he walked off down the hallway for daring to mention it, but at the same time the other part of her knew that if he hadn't of brought it up she wouldn't of thought about it at all.

For a single moment Lydia wondered whether or not she should really leave, before the teenager shook her head and picked the items off the floor, stuffing them in the bag. This was a game to him, it was always a game with him. And part of the game of the usual routine of him holding things over her head to stop her taking any kind of action. If Lydia wanted to end the game, she had to stop playing by his rules, in fact all she had to do was just walk out in order to end it.

So that was exactly what Lydia did, after she was finished packing her bag she left the room and made to the front door, going to open it to finally leave. However she was interrupted in that action by something blocking the door before she could open it. It only look to see that it was Mr. Gold's cane stopping her from leaving, and to know that he was standing behind her.

"I'm leaving and that's the end of it," Lydia didn't bother to turn around as she spoke, since at that moment she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing what expression she was wearing. This was happening and nothing was going to convince her to do otherwise, there was nothing else he could say to change her mind. The teenager's hand pushed away the cane, and opened the door. And yet again he didn't fail to try and stop her, though by this point Lydia guessed that he was getting rather desperate, as his hand landed on her shoulder.

Really Lydia was mystified as to why he would care so much about her leaving, since he never really cared even this much about anything else she ever did before. If this was supposed to make her feel wanted, than obviously he was going about this the wrong way since all it did was remind her of all the times that he wasn't there for her and leave only one thought in her mind, that it was too late to change, the damage was done.

"But what about-"

"I can deal with tomorrow night by myself, it's not as if you ever cared about that anyway. Not as if you ever cared at all about me actually. I'm nothing to you, which is why I don't understand…" She broke her own rule, and turned to face him like she told herself she wouldn't. Perhaps it was so he could see the pain in her face that this issue had brought her, again she knew he overall didn't care, but maybe there would be some flicker of guilt at least.

"Why would you adopt me, if you don't even care about me at all?" There wasn't an answer, which probably wasn't for the best since Lydia turned it in on herself, much like any child would in her situation, and thought that obviously it had to have been something that she did or said one day, that somehow would cause him to not care about her in the least.

"What did I do, to make you hate me?" Mr. Gold seemed to finally find his words after Lydia had asked this rather painful question, and of course used it to instead deny what he could. But she, by this point was sick of denials and excuses, and instead opted to just interrupt him so he couldn't give her any kind of false hope that things weren't as she thought them to be.

"I don't hate you-"

"No you're right, you don't care about me enough to hate me. Sorry, I got that wrong, but then again I've been getting a lot of things wrong apparently," It usually took quite a bit to agitate Mr. Gold, especially when it came to Lydia and her actions since as previously stated, he seemed to barely ever care to notice that she even existed. However this was apparently no longer the case as he became very tense at this instance, an action that confused the teenager more than she would like to admit.

"This will count as a behavioral incident-" And yet again she interrupted him, because apparently being angry openly gave her some courage that in the past she wouldn't have even dreamed of utilizing against him. Still, Lydia guessed that it was better to use it now, than to hold it inside forever without any relief. It just wasn't healthy.

"Fine, call the Sheriff and have me arrested, because I honestly don't care anymore. Being in Juvie sounds so much better for my mental health rather than sticking around in this time-stuck, stupid little town, and being stuck with you and your mind games. At least there, I know where I stand with the inmates in that place, but you, you just like to keep people guessing. Now, if you don't mind, I'm in the process of clearing off,"

Before Lydia could properly process that she was done talking, the teenager had already got herself out of the doorway and down the pathway that would lead her to front gates, then to the streets of Storybrooke beyond that. What she also took a little while to be aware of was the tear tracks that seemed to freely flow down her face, and that her knees wanted nothing more than to buckle and let her fall, to stop herself from walking away from the only person that she might have left.

Nevertheless she kept walking, because Lydia knew that even if he was the last person that might care for her, she deserved more than the sliver of care that he gave. She deserved to feel like she was wanted, like she belonged somewhere and wasn't just waiting for something to happen to change her current situation. Nothing good ever came out just waiting and doing nothing. If Lydia wanted change, then she would have to do it herself.

"Clearing off? You're going to Granny's aren't you?" His voice called out from the doorway, since he didn't seem all that concerned enough to run after her, not that he really could since Lydia would be much faster than him anyway thanks to his injured leg. But still, apparently he was invested enough to call out to her in the least, to question her decisions yet again, to try and give her doubt in what she wanted to do.

"For a few days, then I'm leaving Storybrooke for good. And I don't care if that leads me to Juvie or an early grave, because anywhere sounds like paradise compared to living with you!"

That sounded a little more dramatic than Lydia had originally meant for it to be, and was certainly not helped by the rumbles in the distance that spoke of oncoming rain, but still it seemed to make its mark as Mr. Gold fell finally silent. This was symbolic enough of the fact that he had stop his already weak attempts at stopping her from leaving, so she left.

As she walked off into the darkness of the night, her adoptive father watched her from the doorway. And even though she eventually disappeared completely from his sight, he didn't close the door once.

When Goldilocks walked into the main dining room where she usually would receive her new task in thievery by Rumpelstiltskin, she had to stop herself in the doorway when she noticed that on this occasion he actually wasn't there. This was absolutely not a regular occurrence, in fact this was the first time this had ever happened. The Dark One usually, no matter what the time in the morning, mid-day or night it was, he would always be awake and spinning his straw, his gaze usually staying on the wheel in his hands rather than at the girl he was talking to.

"Hello?" It was a bit surprising that she had lived in this household for some time, and yet only now figured out that this room, the one room she stood in the most, echoed a bit. Perhaps she knew about it now because there was no one else in the room for the first time that she had been in there. Nevertheless the room was now empty and echoed back every small footstep that she took as she walked, in looking about for even the smallest of hints that he was still around here somewhere, and she wasn't completely on her own.

Eventually it became obvious to her that he wasn't anywhere in the main room, so he young thief decided to hold onto whatever measly bits of courage she had in her, and went to look for him in other parts of this regal place. Again it was odd that after all this time she had never bothered, or rather was somewhat afraid to, look about the other parts of this obviously large palace, not even to just have a grasp of her real surroundings.

The hallways were of course familiar, well a few of them at least though that wasn't all that much of an issue since they all looked pretty much the same. Goldilocks did notice however that the further she walked through the same yet unfamiliar hallways, the more they seemed uncared for, a large layer of dust beginning to collect over everything as it became obvious that Rumpelstiltskin did not care much for this part of the palace. Therefore, the girl noted as she had walked a little too far into the hallways and now didn't know where she was, that he was unlikely to be here.

Deciding that since either going back or going forwards would only result in her continuing to be lost, Goldilocks took the chance and kept going forwards, since there was obviously nothing much else to lose going either way. The hallways that led her forwards grew darker and darker, which was quite the achievement since it wasn't as if Rumpelstiltskin enjoyed the light in the first place.

It wasn't long before the darkness took its toll and Goldilocks found that she was now stumbling through the hallways, hands slightly held out in front of her to make sure she didn't suddenly walk into walls or otherwise. Which was why the young thief was thankful when she saw the slightest sliver of light at the end of one of the hallways she had started to walk slowly down. It was only as she got closer to the light, that she found that its source was from an open door.

Perhaps she shouldn't have gone inside the room that lay on the other side of that door, and perhaps she also shouldn't have closed that door behind her as she walked in, since it created a rather loud creak before shutting. The thief winced at the loud creak, and made her footsteps lighter, mostly in the hopes that that would somehow be enough for her not to get caught in a room that she wasn't all that sure whether or not she was actually allowed to be in.

So with lighter footsteps and bated breath, Goldilocks moved closer to the primary source of the light, which was a rather old candle, old in that the blackened wick spoke of being used for some time, the liquid wax that pooled rather substantially in the small dish that the candle was seated on being a further testament to that. However it was no longer what the light source was that had the thief's attention piqued, rather it was now what that light now illuminated through the darkness for her to see.

On the wall behind the well-used candle, was a painting. And unlike the rest of the room, which was of course empty of any kind of furniture apart from the table that the candle sat on, it was not covered in one speck of dust in any way whatsoever. Clearly a sign that Rumpelstiltskin held this painting to a great importance, and yet at the same time mustn't allow himself to see it all that much on account of the artwork being in a clearly abandoned part of the castle.

The paining was of a boy, his hair was a rather dark shade of brown that covered most of his forehead, his clothes were only somewhat ragged yet at the same time looked clean and comfortable, a sign that this boy's family was steadily climbing the wealth ladder, and might eventually be seen in fancier attire.

The facial structure told the girl that at the time of this painting he must have been around an age of very soon being treated as an adult. There was also something about his eyes, that were light brown and rounded, that told her adulthood was something that the boy could not wait to be a part of. And yet at the same time, those eyes told her he was in some kind of trouble, perhaps unsure of himself or at the same time of being excited at what his future held, he was also afraid.

Of course this was a lot to read just in the eyes of a painting, but then again Goldilocks remembered from her time when she lived amongst her clan of the Beorn, the lessons they had taught her in the ways of humans, how to read their expressions like an open book so as to know their motives before they even bothered to act. And while it might have been some time since her last lesson, the thief still seemed to have that well versed knowledge for reading the language of the facial movements.

This boy had been excited, but in the same breath, afraid of growing up for one reason or another, and it didn't take much for Goldilocks to guess that it somehow had a connection to Rumpelstiltskin, something that the Dark One regretted since this painting was well cared for, yet barely seen. Thinking that she had gotten all the information she could out of looking directly at the painting, she averted her gaze away from the never ending one in the painting and instead looked elsewhere.

What the thief got an a reward, was her eye catching sight of a small gold plague that was just under the painting, attached to its well adorned silver and ruby encrusted frame. The plague of course was engraved with writing, but only one small word. Goldilocks walked a little closer to get a better look at what the plague read, saying the word accidentally aloud when she finally figured out what the word was.

"Baelfire,"

The moment the last syllable left her lips, the candle's long lasting flame finally went out, plunging the entire room in complete darkness, the staring eyes of the painting disappearing into the shadows. Goldilocks startlingly jumped back in reaction, her back suddenly making contact with a solid surface behind her. An since the thief knew that the wall was a lot further away than that, it was obvious that there was someone behind her, and she had just bumped into them.

"I didn't peg you for an art admirer dearie," Of course it would Rumpelstiltskin, because it wasn't bad enough that the girl was caught red handed in a place that she obviously wasn't meant to be in, but also to be discovered by the last person that would let her get away with it. The Dark One looked down at her as she turned to face him, a shamefaced expression on her face as she tried to explain herself to him.

"I'm sorry… I was looking for you because you weren't in the main dining room and got lost so I decided to keep walking and it was really dark so I went for the first light I could see-" Before the thief knew it, she was rambling to try and explain herself, wanting to give every detail in the hopes that one part of the information that she might have otherwise accidentally glanced over would be something that would stop him from voiding their contract and ordering her to leave.

Eventually Rumpelstiltskin held up a hand for her to stop talking, an action that Goldilocks answered to immediately. But, instead of saying anything he instead flicked his wrist, a familiar red smoke enveloping them both as it teleported them both back to the main room. Goldilocks watched the Dark One as he walked back to his spinning wheel, taking a seat as he went back to his usual routine of spinning the wheel and pulling out the gold string on the other side. However before falling back into silence, he left one last remark before the thief could ask anything of what had happened.

"If I catch you looking through things that don't concern you again, I will change the contract, and not to your benefit. Understand?"

"I didn't mean to-"

He gives her a look from his spinning wheel, one that causes a shiver through her bones and understand that there was no arguing with the Dark One. So instead of trying to push it any further she nods her head in agreement and awaits for him to tell her what she was going to steal that day. Nevertheless the memory of that painting stayed in her mind. The eyes of that boy, and everything she could read in them only caused her to be more curious.

Who was Baelfire to the Dark One? And what happened to him?

Checking into Granny's rooms thankfully wasn't too much of a triathlon of effort, since Ruby and Ashley were there at the time and managed to convince the old woman that Lydia wasn't going to be a menace, and that it would only be for a few days. The teenager all the while knowing that it was best to shut her trap and not say anything as Granny eventually handed over the key, a careful guarded expression on the woman's face as she handed it over.

The room was very comfortable and warm, though it would seem that way since the teenager had walked through quite a bit of rain without an umbrella, having been too upset when she left her house to know that she had forgotten it. So after a well need warm bath and change of clothes, Lydia settled herself into the bed that she would be using for a few days. While lying in the soft sheets, the teenager pulled out the large map of America she had also taken with her, her finger following the lines of the roads, looking it over to plan where she was going to go first.

Perhaps her 'father' thought that Lydia wasn't serious when the teenager said that she was going to leave Storybrooke, but she knew when she made a statement as severe as that, she was going to go through with it. In a few days she would finally leave Storybrooke, leave the one place that seemed to give her nothing but the feelings of rejection and never fitting in, no matter how good she had tried to be for them, or Mr. Gold.

And yet before this point she had allowed herself to stay. Though maybe that was because in the past she had wanted to keep trying to prove her worth to them all, to show that she wasn't like her father and could be a good person. Which of course went downhill fast with the added factors of her attempts to be good not leaving an impact on the people, or getting her father's attention whatsoever. Couple that with being fired as Henry's babysitter and eventually Lydia found herself from ages thirteen to now egging houses and getting arrested for behavioral incidents.

Still that did nothing, so after all that she was back to the beginning. Being seen as just like her father, a trouble maker, and having nothing to prove that she was any better since all her other good acts were of course over shadowed by her acting out. So instead of continuing this cycle once ore until the sun finally expanded, Lydia decided that just walking out would be the better decision to make. No one would be bothered by her anymore, and she would no longer feel this need to prove her worth to anyone but herself.

The chances that her father would call her in before she could leave Storybrooke, in her belief (since she liked to think that he was someone she knew at least in the regard as a daughter and someone that had lived in his house for seventeen years), was very unlikely. And even if that did happen, Lydia had it in good faith that she would be able to run for long enough that she would too old to go to Juvie, and going to prison on a simple charge of running away from a home like the one she had would seem ridiculous. Still, the teenager decided until that time that she should avoid major cities and big towns, try not to recognizable so she couldn't be caught earlier than she wanted to be.

Lydia fell asleep that night with the map in her hands, her true dreams that existed outside of her mind, of being free from the town that had trapped her here for so long, being just within her grasp.

The next morning she was filled with real excitement for the first time, at the prospect of finally leaving and living her own life without the people that were always holding her down. Though of course the teenager knew better than to talk about it with Ruby or Granny when she woke in the morning, the two also not bothering to ask her why she was staying for a few days anyway, so they instead all ate breakfast in a comfortable silence.

When breakfast was over, Lydia quickly left to make her rounds around town, to ready herself with everything she would need when she would leave Storybrooke. The bank was of course first on her list of things she needed to do, to withdraw as much money as she could before her father closed her account. Then she went from shop to shop, looking for the things she could buy that would not have her looking too suspicious, but at the same time would be helpful to her cause.

It was after she had dropped her newly bought items back in her room at Granny's and had gone out to take what Lydia wanted to think was her one last walk around the town, visiting the places she used to hang out at when she was younger, the whole time keeping an eye out for her father and Sheriff Graham. The memories that were revisited at nearly every place she visited weren't good ones mostly, which only served as a reminder of how much happier she would be when she finally left this town.

However at the very last place she visited on her secret goodbye tour, which was a broken down old playground that was near what could be described as a beach, Lydia was interrupted in her walk by the sight of someone sitting on the highest point in the playground. There was a sudden spike of fear in her stomach that Lydia didn't expect, a fear that she couldn't really explain why she had it but knew what it felt like, it was a fear that this person had seen her and was going to stop her from leaving Storybrooke.

Why she felt like that the teenager had no idea, still for some reason it felt right to see who this person was, just to prove her fear wrong.

"Hey!" Her voice didn't sound as confrontational as the teenage would have like, nevertheless it seemed to be loud enough as the person made themselves more visible to her, though of course that only served to make Lydia feel worse since it turned out that this person was more familiar than she would have liked, and on top of that they looked very upset already so she probably wasn't helping anything by shouting at them.

"Henry, are you okay?" The Mills boy shook his head slowly, rubbing his eyes so she wouldn't see any tears but then again Lydia knew what it looked like to try and hide tears from everyone else, so well that she knew that it never really worked. The teenager climbed up the old wooden playground and sat next to Henry. For a short amount of time he didn't say anything, instead just keeping to himself, though of course he had to talk eventually and did so.

"Archie says that the curse isn't real. That it's a psychosis… and people are going to take me away if I keep talking about it," Lydia frowned at this new information, thinking to herself that it sounded nothing like the person she had expected Dr. Hopper to be, though still knew that she should comfort the boy first and so gently patted Henry on the back. The teenager didn't do much else since Lydia was never any good at physically comforting people, so she stuck to mostly talking to him to try and make him feel better.

"No one is going to take you away Henry, Archie didn't mean that. I'm sure he was just… scared," Well certainly Lydia guessed that there was a certain Mayor that had scared the therapist into saying such things that would upset the boy. After all, Lydia did remember distinctly seeing the man being metaphorically ripped apart by Regina just after the Mayor was done talking to her, so it was most likely that he bowed to her orders and tried to frighten Henry to stop talking about the curse. Which was the only thing that Henry did that ever seemed to really get on her nerves.

"Scared of my mom, right. But still… he doesn't believe me, no one believes me. But I'll prove that I'm right," This was going somewhere that Lydia didn't like the sound of, and so followed Henry as he climb down from the wooden playground, though it was hard to keep up with him since he was moving pretty fast, apparently sure of where it was he was going. Lydia called out to him several times to slow down before eventually accepting that he wasn't going to listen and instead kept up the pace, making sure that he was always where she could see him.

What made her stop in speedily chase after the boy however, was when she saw him running into the entrance of the old mines, the mines that were so dangerous and falling apart to the point that it caused an earth tremor only yesterday. Lydia paused just as she herself reached the entrance of the mines, looking into the darkness that was just beyond the twisted metal opening for a short time as she thought over her current choices.

For some reason there was a large part of her that told telling the teenager not to go in, to not put herself in danger like that. To walk away, and let someone else, possibly Mayor Mills or the Sheriff to deal with this as it seemed more like their problem than her own. However the rest of her feared for Henry's life, and so she finally decided that was going to go in after him and make sure that he would stay safe. But of course not without calling someone beforehand.

"Hello this is the Mayor's office," True Regina Mills was the last person in all of Storybrooke that Lydia wanted to talk to at that moment, but at the same time Henry was her son so she deserved to know that he was in danger. Also informing her that she was with his son was not technically going behind her back, so she wasn't going to be in Juvie any time soon because of this phone call at least, though then again there was a chance that when she went in there, she would never come out.

But then again neither might Henry, so she had to go in.

"Madam Mayor, this is Lydia Gold and I have to inform out that I just saw your son running into the entrance of the mines," There was a pause on the other side of the line, possibly Regina trying to figure out whether or not Lydia was lying to her. Sadly enough this was something that Lydia did not blame her for, since prank calls was something that the teenager had done more than once after she was let go as the babysitter. But then again there was the fact that no matter how many tricks she had played, Lydia had always left the boy out of it.

"Please Regina, I'm not lying and this is most certainly not a trick. Your son is in danger in those mines, and I'm going to end this call in a few seconds to go after him and make sure that he is alright," Saying that finally seemed to be enough to convince her that the teenager was telling the truth about her son. Of course there was the typical reply that Lydia was expecting to happen since it was her and Henry was in danger, but nevertheless Lydia didn't let it phase her in what she was going to do.

"Leave this to the professionals Miss Gold, they will keep my son safe until he is home with me again,"

"Oh yeah he's so safe there…" Lydia hadn't meant to say that out loud, but at least the teenager had mumbled it softly enough that Regina didn't hear her completely, and had to ask what it was that she had said.

"I said I'm going to protect your son, and I'd suggest that instead of complaining, you should be grateful that someone is willing to do that for him, goodbye Madam Mayor." Lydia hung up directly after she was finished, mostly because she didn't want to hear the Mayor's angry shouts of being insulted and how the teenager was going to pay for that. Shoving the phone into her pocket, Lydia looked back to the mines. That spark of fear that had been in her stomach back at the playground returning with a vengeance at the thought of going in.

Nevertheless, Lydia entered the mines, calling out for Henry all the way.

Please review constructive criticism always welcome.