...Flashback… seven years ago… Storybrooke Hospital…

Neal Cassidy, his father and Belle all stood outside Lily's hospital room and explained Lily's circumstance to Dr. Bouquet. Dr. Bouquet knew the situation to be delicate so she allowed the parents to speak their piece first on what they thought pertinent for her to know of Lily's situation and took it with stride. Bouquet was a curious person and naturally had questions for the family, but none were pertinent to Lily's predicament so she decided it best to put aside her own personal questions for later. Although Bouquet still had doubts on how they were going to keep magic a secret from Lily, the doctor respected the gravity of the situation and decided it best to refrain from sharing her opinion. Bouquet stuck to what she knew best and that was medicine. Never once did the doctor's face flinch to indicate prejudice or judgement as she listened. Instead, her face froze stoically with concern listening intensely for only the pertinent details that may help indicate Lily's personal condition.

The family was nearly done with their explanation when Rumplestiltskin noticed Neal Nolan leave his daughter's examination room. It caught him by surprise to have had an intruder sneak into a place without his knowledge so it begged investigation. Rumple was still within earshot of the dialogue as he left the group to check in on his daughter. He craned his head around the door's frame to inspect his daughter as well as the young boy who left her room, who by then had already disappeared from view. Rumple stepped further into the room and upon seeing the confused and disturbed look on Lily's face he inquired, "Is everything alright?"

He glanced back at the Nolan boy's shadow again which indicated to Lily that he knew of Neal Nolan's visit to see her. Lily was staring at the door where Neal's body once stood and then snapped back to reality. She blinked her eyes and shook her head with confusion as she replied hesitantly, "uh… yeah."

"Are you sure?" Gold pressed again, but before Lily could respond the rest of the family including Dr. Bouquet entered room. The doctor entered the room first followed by Belle then Neal. The first to speak was Dr. Bouquet who immediately crossed the room to talk with Lily, "I take it you were hungry."

Both Lily and the doctor glanced back to the private picnic and noticed how everything was quickly devoured. Sheepishly, Lily nodded her head up and down. The rest of the family stood back and watched as Lily carried on her interview with Dr. Bouquet. "It's alright. We can clean up the mess later," the doctor said as she came closer to Lily. When Bouquet notice Lily's retraction, she comforted the girl and explained, "I'm just going to check your vitals and inspect your body, ok?" Lily nodded, giving the doctor permission to do her job and continued, "As I do so, I want to talk about what happened out there in the woods." The doctor took out her stethoscope and began placing it around Lily's body. As she did so she questioned, "Your family told me that they found you there. Can you tell me the last thing you remember?"

"I…" began Lily timidly. She struggled in thought as she reflected. "I-I remember waking up in my father's arms. We-we were lying on the ground in the forest."

"And do you remember how you got to the forest?" questioned Bouquet.

"I…" This was the toughest question. Everything that had happened that day was all a fog and it frustrated her to no end. It felt like part of her life had been stolen from her, and yet somehow it was all her fault. "…I don't remember. It's all my fault!"

"It's not your fault, my love," defended Belle. Lily looked over to her mother's face which indicated something else, like regret. Rumple stepped slightly closer to his daughter and agreed, "You can't blame yourself for what you don't know."

"Can you remember this morning?" asked the doctor as she felt Lily's throat to check on her lymph nodes. Lily shook her head. The doctor withdrew a flashlight from her pocket and began checking Lily's vision. "Yesterday morning?"

Lily's face twisted as she focused when suddenly her face relaxed and exclaimed, "I remember yesterday morning!"

"You do?" Rumple said doubtfully. The doctor paused briefly in her examination to let Lily share her memory.

"I had cereal for breakfast… I went to see Henry, I think." Rumple's face relaxed as he recalled what happened yesterday. He was also at Henry's shop when Henry succumbed to a mysterious rash. He put two and two together and realized who had given him that rash from Lily's confession. Lily continued, "I remember riding my bike back home for lunch and then… and then… I don't remember."

Lily's excitement for the few memories she had faded quickly the moment she realized how foggy the rest of her memories were. Belle stepped forward toward her daughter and asked, "Do you remember New York?" Lily nodded encouragingly. Belle questioned, "Do you remember why we moved to Storybrooke?"

Lily paused at the thought. With all this questioning Lily was beginning to see a pattern and sensed that annoying fog roll back into her thoughts. Lily stared at the floor as she tried to extrapolate a reason to answer her mother's question. "I think… because of family. Our family lives here."

"That's right, sweetheart," said Rumple to his daughter encouragingly.

"Aargh! But that's not it!" exclaimed Lily in frustration as she slapped her hand on the mattress beside her. A headache was formulating in her head. "I mean, that's not the entire reason!"

It became quickly apparent to Dr. Bouquet that Lily was getting agitated with the questions and decided to end the inquisition. The doctor intervened, "Don't worry about it, Lily. It will come back to you."

"When? When will they come back?" Lily asked desperately, she couldn't stand not remembering.

"You have to let your mind relax. Besides, you can't continue living if you dwell too much on the past."

No matter what the doctor said, it didn't settle Lily's anger which seemed to swell within her. She looked to her parents for assurance but saw something in their micro-expressions. They cared about her, there wasn't a doubt in her mind about that, but it was in the question that her mother had asked her. She may have forgotten the specifics, but she remembered the feelings that were associated to those missing memories. When they moved to Storybrooke, she felt like she was finally coming home like she belonged there, but if they were living in New York then why was she feeling like her parents were withholding information about Storybrooke from her? Why were her memories of New York stronger than that of Storybrooke's? Why were they living in New York to begin with if Storybrooke was really their home? Lily couldn't explain it, but she knew right then that her parents were hiding something from her and that was what upset her the most.

"As a doctor, I recommend you all go home. It's obvious that Lily's suffered a lot of trauma which, in combination to hypothermia, may have been the culprit to your amnesia. Other than that, I don't see anything physically wrong with you. I would also like to give you a referral to see Dr. Hopper-"

"-We've," interrupted Rumple, "already made arrangements with him."

"Wow," the doctor remarked fully impressed, "You certainly are ahead of the game."

"Before we go," interrupted Neal Cassidy, who was still in the room observing all of this, "I would like to ask Lily one question." Both Rumple and Belle were about to protest when Neal blurted out his question before they could stop him, "Do you know who I am, Lily?!" The adults in the room turned to Lily and waited eagerly for her response with bated breath.

Lily stared into the man's eyes and her feelings of him were pure. With warm recognition, she smiled and answered, "Of course I do. You're… Neal Cassidy. You're my brother. I think-I think I ran away but you-you found me... I love you."

"Love you too, kiddo," smiled Neal as he affectionately ruffled the top of her head.

As a group, there seemed to have been a collective sigh of relief. Rumple had hoped that she had remembered, but then speculated that she had probably extracted that information when Neal first introduced himself to Bouquet at the hospital's entrance. Belle turned to Neal, giving him a rightful scowl to which he caught sight of and replied defensively, "What? I had to know! And besides, it would have been incredibly awkward if she had thought I was a complete stranger that was following her around this entire time."

Neal's point was fair, but it was also incredibly risky. Everyone reacted as though they had just dodged a bullet, but they all knew that it was only the beginning. There was no telling the extent of Lily's amnesia, and with a town full of believers in the supernatural, the Gold family was sorely unprepared as to how to protect Lily from it. Neal Cassidy's question and Neal Nolan's interaction with Lily was a test; not only of how much she remembered, but of how much her mind would reject magic and connect the dots to fill in the missing gaps.

"As I was saying…" started out the doctor, drawing the focus of attention back to her. "If you want my professional opinion, which is of course is why you all came here, give Lily some time." The group around the doctor took a breath to reflect as the doctor continued, "With amnesia cases, its best to just let the patients discover their memories on their own in their own time. Just go about your business as usual, and support her should there be a breakthrough in her memories. Other than that, there's really nothing else I can do for her. She's physically healthy."

The family drove back together from the hospital to the pink Victorian house. It was getting late in the evening and upon arriving Belle carried their daughter directly from the car to her bedroom to rest. Both Neal and Gold got out of the car slowly, unsure as to how to approach one another. Gold turned to his son and waited for Neal to say something. Awkwardly, yet boldly, Neal blurted out, "I'll uh, I'll just get a cab and see if Granny has a room open for me."

"Nonsense. You may be my son from another universe, but you're still my son. I love you no matter what."

"Thanks… Papa." Neal was hesitant at first to call him 'Papa', but then quickly admitted to himself that if he were to continue existing in this universe he would have to get used to accepting that this Gold was his father as well. After all, there was nothing different about this Rumplestiltskin from the one that was his from his universe, except the fact that this one wasn't traumatized as long from his imprisonment. Neal Cassidy anxiously combed through his slightly greying hair with his fingers and admitted, "That, really means a lot."

"Of course." Rumplestiltskin scanned his son quickly up and down and saw how nervous Neal was about this arrangement. The last thing Rumple wanted was to force Neal to do something he didn't want to do, so he waited for Neal to make the next move. Neal started to make his way to the steps, to which Rumple thought was promising. Rumple followed his son to the front stoop when Neal stopped. Neal turned to his father and said, "Look, just so you know, I… don't want to impose on you and your family. I'll look for my own place as soon as possible."

Rumple looked sincerely into Neal's eyes and said, "Whatever you want to do I won't try to stop you. You are welcome here any time." Neal bit his bottom lip as Rumple approached him again and continued, "I understand that although this isn't home for you, I would certainly hope that you would consider it as such. I've lost my son and I've mourned him for a very long time. Seeing you here again has given me hope, like I've been given a second chance, and I'd be a fool to squander it. Despite everything that's happened today, I am really glad to see you again, son."

Neal smiled bashfully and fidgeted. "Me too. For what it's worth, I really am happy for you. It's comforting to know that at least in one universe," he said as he looked around and pointed everywhere, "you were able to find happiness." He sighed heavily and added sarcastically, "And to think, all it took was my counterpart's heroic death." Neal meant it to be a joke, but knew it had come out awkwardly. He looked down to the ground apprehensively. It was odd to compare himself to himself, but the truth was he felt inadequate to the legend he was here. It wasn't the fact that he had big shoes to fill, but the expectations everyone had of him to be this hero he never knew himself to be that seemed foreboding. That alone, made it seem even more hopeless and that much harder to live up to.

"That's exactly what it was... a heroic death," remarked Rumple matter-of-factly. At Rumple's words Neal's shoulders slumped even lower. After taking notice of this, Rumple continued, "but that doesn't have to be your fate if you don't want it to be."

"That's just it though, what if I fail to meet everybody's expectations? What if, when the time comes and I have to make the same choice -the hero's choice- and I can't?"

"I still wouldn't think any less of you. You wanna know why?" Neal nodded, needing desperately some words of encouragement. "Because you're my son and I know you. You have always defied expectations. Even in the Enchanted Forest, that has always been who you were." Neal teared up at his father's words and smiled away his tears. Rumple made his way up the stairs with Neal following after. Suddenly, Neal paused. He looked up at the Victorian home anxiously and recalled memories from his alternate life and admitted, "Look, uh..."

Neal's interruption caused Rumple to stop at the front door and he turned to listen to his son. "I don't want to be a pain or anything, but.. in-uh, in my universe, this... house was my home. I just… have a lot of bad memories here that I'd soon like to forget. You know?"

Rumple got even closer to his doppelganger son and placed a loving, comforting hand on his shoulder. "Well, if it makes you feel better. We'll look for other accommodations for you, but… let's look in the morning," suggested Rumplestiltskin. "For now, let us all just get some rest. It's been a long day."

Gold gestured for Neal to enter the house first and he followed after his son with a happy smile. For the first time in a very long time, Gold felt truly happy because in the oddest of circumstances he had both of his children staying with him under the same roof; a dream he never thought possible.

The evening should have gone well, but a few family members just couldn't sleep. Neal crept out of his guest room making sure nothing, not even a floorboard would creak from his departure. Since the house from this universe was exactly like the house from his, he knew exactly how to maneuver in the darkness with ease. With complete knowledge of the house's layout, he crept down the hallway with exact precision avoiding all the notorious floorboards that creaked and moaned when succumbed to pressure. He managed to make his way all the way down the stairs when suddenly a fire's light from the living room flickered on.

"Can't sleep?" called out the voice from the room. Neal paused in his steps realizing that he wasn't as inconspicuous as he had thought. When he didn't reply his father beckoned him. "Come… have a seat."

Neal glanced at the front door and then at the warm crackling fire his father had magically conjured for him. Neal couldn't tell whether it was the fire or if it was the magic that summoned him forward, but either way he slowly came forward to the light. As he approached his father he noticed a small glass of bourbon already half-drunk in his hand. Apparently, he couldn't sleep either and based off of the open bottle in front of him from where he sat on the couch he had been awake for quite some time. Perhaps none at all.

"I couldn't sleep," justified Neal.

"That makes two of us," replied Gold as he gestured for his son to sit down next to him on the couch. Neal obliged and had a seat. Neal squinted at the second empty glass beside the bottle and asked, "May I… uh?"

"Of course," said Gold almost insistently. He went ahead and poured a little bit of the hard liquor into the empty glass for him and continued, "You're not a little boy anymore and besides, it's not every day I get to share a glass with my own son."

Neal snorted as he took the glass from his father and smirked. Neal took a fairly large gulp. After the alcohol quickly singed and cooled his throat in a pleasant way, Gold asked, "So, what ails you, son?"

Neal continued sipping and pretended to have ignored the question. "Hmm?" Neal replied.

"Why are you restless? You found out that the love of your life still lives, your son… still lives, and you have a family who still loves you. What else could you ask for that would keep you up at night?"

The implication that he should be happy was kind of insulting to Neal, but at the same time Rumplestiltskin did have a point. "It's not that…" started out Neal.

"Then what is it?" asked his father bluntly as he took a swig from his own glass. The fire continued to crackle away as Neal contemplated his next answer.

"It's… it's complicated."

"What in our lives isn't?"

Neal stared at the liquid as it swirled inside the glass he was holding. "I know I should be happy, but I'm not. I-I never thought I would ever see Emma or Henry alive and now that I'm in this world, seeing them alive... and where they are at in their lives… I guess I'm just still in disbelief."

Neal finished his glass and placed it on the table in front of them. Gold immediately took the bottle and poured him another glass. As he poured he asked casually, "So why were you about to run away?"

"Isn't it obvious?" retorted Neal back sarcastically. Suddenly his heart fell as he finally admitted with a defeated sigh, "I don't belong here."

"Son, when have we ever belonged? We're like two square pegs trying to fit into round holes, when really, it should be the other way around."

"Yeah, well, in this hole that I've dug for myself..." Neal took another sip from his cup. "I have a son who's grownup now, who I barely even know due to the exorbitant amount of time that has elapsed. There's his mother who's pregnant with someone else's kid who's so distraught over the loss of her husband that I… I can't even begin to know how to help, let alone console her. And then there's me..." Neal sighed and then shook his head fervently. "What the hell I was thinking coming here?"

"One thing's for certain, as a family we certainly know how to live in chaos," stated Gold matter-of-factly as he took a smaller sip from his beverage. Neal smiled and even laughed at the remark as he concurred, "You got that right."

Silence filled the room as the two men both sipped their beverages and stared reflectively into the fire. Gold glanced over at Neal and caught sight of the Author's pen still in his front shirt pocket. The temptation was strong and it's power tugged at every nerve in his body. Gold fought hard to restrain himself. Gold was about to ask Neal about it when Neal interrupted, "-I don't even know why I'm here."

Gold blinked at the distraction and refocused to the conversation at hand. He disguised his lust for power through his statement by saying, "I would have thought it already obvious." Neal turned to Gold with hopeful eyes. Gold continued, "You're still in love with Emma."

Neal blushed and smiled as he turned away from his father. Sheepishly, he replied, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Look, I may look like I have all the answers, but the truth is, none of us really do. All I know is that love is powerful magic. It can compel us to perform the most unthinkable acts. I suppose in this instance, you and I are both alike. For me, I wanted to find you and it took a curse to find you in another realm. For you, it took my daughter to help you travel into another universe." Neal allowed his father's words to sink it, but it didn't seem to make him feel any better in his decision. Gold continued, "You took a risk coming here, but that's the price you pay for love. Whatever faith you had that led you here, have faith that something good will come of this too. I know that it has for me."

Gold sat his glass down on the table in front of them and patted Neal's knee encouragingly. He stood up and tightened the tie around his bathrobe and suggested, "If I were you, I'd try to get some sleep. You're going to need it for whatever tomorrow brings."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" wondered Neal curiously. Gold smirked mischievously and answered assuredly, "I mean that anything is possible. In this town, events and fortunes are notorious for changing in an instant. I won't stop you from leaving if that's what you feel you must do. G'night, son. See you in the morning."

Gold gave Neal a loving pat on the shoulder before leaving the living room. The fire remained lit, though without Gold's magical presence it seemed to have dimmed the moment he left. Neal turned to the fire and stared at it some more. He poured himself another glass and continued staring at the fire. He remembered and reflected back to his youth and how he would stare at the mesmerizing flames to fall asleep. As the flames lowered, so did his eyelids and suddenly Neal didn't feel the need to leave the premises anymore.

… …