Weeks passed, and Daniel kept getting better and better. He had been discharged from the hospital and now he was living with Regina. He spent the last week exploring and getting to know this new world he woke up in, with the help of Regina that almost never leaved his side.

They were sitting in the garden, on the little bench under her tree, enjoying the quietness of the cold afternoon when Daniel popped the question she had been afraid of for weeks:

"So… are you ever gonna tell me how did we all get here?"

Her heart sank in her chest. She knew this moment would come, he deserved to know the truth, but now the thought of losing him again terrified her.

"Daniel…"

Seeing the change in her expression Daniel started to worry, was it really THAT bad?

"…the reason we're all here, is because of me."

She thought her answer would startle him, at least confuse him, but he didn't flinch, he only smiled a little.

"I figured as much, especially from the fact that you don't want to talk about it. It's the "how" and "why" that I can't explain myself."

Regina took a deep breath: "I… I casted a curse on the enchanted forest."

"What!?"

"You heard me. After you… after your death, I discovered it was Snow who told everything to my mother, even after she promised me she wouldn't. With that betrayal she took everything from me. I was lost, forced to marry a man I had no feelings for, to be the mother of the girl that destroyed my life, kept imprisoned by my own mother. I felt as if my life was over, I had nothing to be happy for, nothing to live for. And it was all Snow's fault." She paused for a moment.

"Then I met Rumpelstiltskin, Mr. Gold, he was the one that brought magic to my mother, that made her like she was and he helped me banish her in another world. That was the first time I ever used magic. And I liked it so much that I was scared of it. Scared it would turn me into my mother. I tried to get rid of it, tried to ran away but the temptation, the idea that there was finally something that made my life better made me come back to it."As she kept telling her story her voice started breaking.

"I promised myself I would never have used magic for evil, that I'd never have become like Cora, I wanted to use magic for good, to try and bring you back. But when even the last desperate attempt failed, it was like my own heart was ripped from my chest. There was only emptiness, a darkness that consumed me for years as I learned the dark arts, my only task was to destroy Snow's happiness, like she destroyed mine."

As he listened to Regina's story, Daniel was speechless, how could it be true? The person he was looking at was NOT what she was telling him, he had looked in her eyes many times in these past weeks, not once he had seen a glimpse of evil in them.

Regina took a deep breath before continuing: "I caused… so much pain, so much death, I became worse than my mother. As the queen I could do everything, the realm was under my complete control. I took so many hearts Daniel, and not once I thought of the pain I was causing, the only thing that mattered was my anger, every single time I took a heart I was back in that stable, back to the memory of how everything was taken from me. And the thought made me more and more angry at the world."

Regina paused, her eyes wandered to Daniel, that was looking at her as if he had just seen a ghost.

"When… when even my ultimate attempt to get rid of Snow failed, I felt so lost that I asked Rumpelstiltskin's help one more time, and he gave me this curse, everyone would be banished to a world without magic, separated from the ones they loved, their happy ending would never arrive, like mine never did."

Daniel didn't know what to say. It was too much to process all at once.

Regina, his Regina couldn't have done all that, not the Regina he remembered, not the Regina that was sitting in front of him.

"Now the curse is broken, thanks to Emma, Snow's daughter... that's another story. The story I just told you, that is why we are all here Daniel. It's all my fault."

Tears were falling from Regina's eyes as she concluded her story, tears of relief for finally being able to open her heart to someone, tears of fear of losing Daniel all over again after what she just told him.

She looked at him and saw the confusion in his eyes, his mind slowly absorbing her tale.

"I'm so sorry Daniel… I'm so sorry."

There was no lie in her words, Daniel could tell. But it wasn't him she should have apologized to.

"It's not me you should apologize to Regina." he whispered, and Regina let out a small sigh of relief because she didn't hear any hate of repulsion towards her in his tone, but a sting of judgment was there anyway.

"Believe me Daniel, I'm trying" she said "but it's not gonna be an easy process. Most of the people in this town have lost a friend, or a relative because of me, and I'll understand if they'll never forgive me. They have all the right to. What I want right now is for the people I care about to try and understand why I did what I did and what I've been through that made me like this. And perhaps one day they'll even forgive me."

Daniel brought his hand to her shoulder and squeezed it gently: "Regina, I don't need to forgive you, because you did nothing to me that would require forgiveness…"

"But… you can't possibly say that what I did was right!"

"I don't! Regina, let me finish. You did nothing to me, that's right, but what you did wasn't right at all. And yes, it'll take a while for the people to start accepting you... But what matters now, to me, is that the person I see in front of me is not the person you told me about. At least not to my eyes. And now I've been with you in this town for more than a month, and I don't see evil in you right now, I haven't for this whole time." He brought his hand to her cheek, still wet from her tears, and made her look at him.

"…I have to admit though, your story shed some light on the weird looks we've been getting from the whole town."

Even in that moment he managed to get a soft chuckle out of her. And for a moment they shared a laugh together

"But, Regina… I think I'm going to need some time to completely absorb everything you told me…"

Her hand almost unconsciously went to his. She grasped it gently and removed it from her cheek to let it rest on his lap.

"Of course, take all the time you want." The tears were drying on her cheeks as she slowly raised her head to smile at him, and he awkwardly smiled back.

Their thoughts were interrupted by Regina's cell phone going off, both her and Daniel jumped a little.

Regina took her cell phone and looked at the screen:

"It's Mr. Gold, he needs to talk to me about Henry's nightmares…" Daniel didn't know all the details, but Regina had told him that she, Mr. Gold and David were looking for a way to bring back Snow and her daughter from the enchanted forest, and then something that had to do with a sleeping curse.

"He needs to see me at his shop…" Regina added.

"Go… don't worry about me, I think I'll take a walk. Possibly very long one." he said.

Regina abruptly raised her gaze from her cell phone, a worried expression forming on her face. But Daniel was quick to reassure her: "Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere, it'll just help me think."

Her expression relaxed a little, but Daniel could see how his simple sentence, almost meant as a joke, had affected her. She was so afraid she'd lose him, and this convinced him even more that he couldn't leave her.

She got up from the bench and straightened her skirt "Of course Daniel… so, see you later?"

"See you later Regina."

Daniel walked around Storybrooke for a couple of hours, thinking, analyzing anything that Regina told him, but finding himself more and more confused. His mind was racing so much that he walked without knowing where he was going. When he stopped to look around he found himself at the stables.

"…at least it's something familiar." He thought as he started walking towards them.

When he entered he realized he wasn't alone, he heard voices coming from a stall near him:

"So do you think I can ride him now?"

"Yeah… I think it's time kid."

Daniel's head poked from the door as David was ruffling Henry's hair. Seeing him David stopped laughing and looked at him:

"Hey…" David.

"Hello… I'm sorry I thought no one was here… I'll be going now." Daniel answered awkwardly, and was about to leave when David stopped him:

"No, wait! There's no need." He offered his hand to Daniel "I'm David… even if we already met…"

Daniel shook his hand "I'm… I'm so sorry about that… I wasn't myself…" he tried to apologize, Regina told him everything that happened while he was… well, crazy.

David was quick to reassure him "Don't worry... We know the whole story from Regina and Dr. Whale. It wasn't your fault." But for Daniel it wasn't enough.

"Nevertheless, I hurt you child" he said, referring to Henry "I really am sorry."

Henry, that until now had been quiet, silently following his grandfather's lead, reassured him too with a small smile.

"Don't worry about that. I'm okay now."

Having even Henry's approval Daniel relaxed a little, and his attention was captured by the beautiful pony Henry was brushing, he also noticed a strange burn on the boy's hand but didn't mention it.

"It's a beautiful horse you got there."

"Thank you" was Henry's quick answer "gramps says I'm ready to ride him!"

Daniel chuckled "It's a big step for a knight! Congratulations!"

"Thanks!" The smile of pure happiness on Henry's face faded quickly when David's cell phone rang. Both him and Daniel turned towards him.

"Yeah… okay, I'm on my way." David closed his phone.

"Kid, looks like we're gonna have to postpone our first lesson. Your mom called, she and Mr. Gold have news."

"No gramps! Come on I've been waiting for weeks! You promised!"

"I'm sorry Henry, but this is for Emma and Snow! You want them back too right?"

"Yes of course I do but you promised!"

"I know I know, I'm sorry Henry…"

"I could give him a lesson…" David and Henry were so engrossed in their argument that they almost forgot about Daniel, and when he spoke it startled both of them.

"Only if it's okay with you of course…" Daniel said, talking to David "I haven't rode a horse in 30 years according to Regina, but I think I'm still pretty good at it."

Seeing reopened the possibility of his wish coming true Henry started jumping on the spot with a smile forming on his face: "Yes gramps please! Please, please!"

David pretended to think about it for a moment but in the end he shook his head laughing softly:

"Okay kid… go get the saddle and get your horse ready like I showed you. I'll be back in a few hours to pick you up."

Henry sprinted down the stable to get his stuff, and David turned to Daniel: "Thank you. It's a tough time for him, he could really use something to get his mind off… things."

"You're welcome… I suppose these are tough times for everyone." The memory of what Regina told him suddenly returned to him and he couldn't help letting out a sigh.

"You okay?" David asked him.

"Yeah! Yeah, it's just… Regina told me everything that happened… with Snow and… I'm sorry..." before he could continue David interrupted him: "Don't! You don't have anything to apologize for. Your fiancée maybe…"

That last comment made Daniel chuckle, they never talked about the whole "engagement" thing after he woke up, so he really had no idea if he was to refer to Regina as "his fiancée".

"Gotta go, take care of my grandson!" David patted Daniel's shoulder before starting to walk towards his truck.

"Don't worry. He'll become the best knight!" Was Daniel's playful answer.

As he walked to the fence where Henry was waiting for him, a sense of strange calmness overcame him, and his problems slowly got smaller and smaller as he taught Henry how to mount on his horse, ad how to maintain balance. For the first time in weeks he almost felt at home.

Cora walked slowly towards Hook, chained to a stone wall by her spell. She took his hook and pointed it towards his heart.

"You know I have to kill you."

"You should try thanking me."

"Oh really!? Why is that?"

"Because I've brought you a gift, it's in the satchel."

Cora's evil smile faded from her face.

"What is it?"

"Customarily, surprise is part of the fun of gift giving. Open it."

Cora ripped the satchel from Hook's side, and slowly opened it. Her face was overcome by a rush of excitement as she realized what the content of the small bag was.

"Is that…"

"Indeed it is." Was Hook's short answer. "The way that you'll get everything you want…"

Cora couldn't hide her smirk, as she realized her quest for the compass had just been reopened.