Helena took a deep breath and pulled back the cover of the tiny window on the door to Henry's hospital room. It was so dark and dull it more closely resembled a prison cell, she thought. Two blue eyes met hers. For a split second she thought they were Henry's, but they weren't. The guy staring at her blankly was sitting on the bed. He tilted his head to the side, studying her face like a baby seeing himself in the mirror for the first time. It felt a little disturbing to be gazed at so intently by a complete stranger, but Helena was already maxed out on discomfort for the moment. She put her face closer to the window and peered around the room. Her brother was lying stiffly on a cot, to all the world a corpse, arms pressed to his sides. She stayed for a minute and watched until she was satisfied that she could see his chest rise and fall, then let the window slap shut and left, disappointed and relieved that she hadn't actually been able to talk to Henry.

The next time Henry awoke, Daniel's empty breakfast dishes were by the door. He had missed the fifth meal since he'd gotten here. He was beginning to wonder if these peoples' plan was to starve him to death.

"Try and keep yourself awake now," Daniel suggested when he saw Henry looking around. "The doctor usually comes by at around this time."

Henry groaned in response. He retraced his mental steps while he lay there. Yesterday, he'd met his father for the first time in twenty-eight years. No, actually, that was Thursday. A whole day had gone by. He wasn't sure how. It felt like he'd been brought down here five minutes and forever ago at the same time. He'd been brought down here right after his confrontation with the mayor, which was right after he had unsuccessfully attempted to get Helena and Kayla to safety…

That fact was enough to make him tense up, a tiny bit. Helena and Kayla were still in Storybrooke. Helena didn't know how dangerous the mayor was, Kayla was living with Rumpelstiltskin and didn't know it, his mother was living with the witch and she didn't know it…

A few minutes later, a middle-aged smiling man in a white coat entered the room accompanied by their usual nurse. The doctor approached Daniel first. "Good morning, Mr. Doe. How are you feeling?"

"The usual. Never better."

Henry wondered how much of Daniel's calm, cheerful nature was his actual personality, how much of it was part of the curse, and how much of it was a result of him being routinely medicated. It made him fear for his own future in this prison.

"And you…how are you feeling?" asked the doctor, coming over to his bedside.

Henry studied the doctor's face for a minute. He almost blurted out that he recognized him from the book as King Midas.

"Is it true that you think that everyone in town is a fairy tale character from a book and that we're all cursed so we don't remember who we are?"

Henry didn't say anything for a moment. The doctor scribbled some notes on a notepad. Meanwhile, Daniel was looking at him very strangely.

"I know I need help, okay?" mumbled Henry. "Can you please just start giving me pills instead of shots? The shots hurt and make me fall asleep all the time."

"Because you haven't had any outbursts since you got here, we'll try holding off on your morning shot today," said the doctor. "You'll still get one before bedtime, and if you prove that you can be awake all day off the shots without causing any fuss, we'll start letting you take pills instead."

Henry forced a grateful smile. "And how long before I, you know, get out of here?"

The doctor and nurse exchanged amused glances. The nurse had collected Daniel's breakfast tray and was watching from the door.

"I'll see you guys later today," said the nurse. The doctor and nurse exited the room. Henry felt himself succumbing to sleep again and tried to stay awake long enough to have another conversation with Daniel, but fatigue quickly pulled him under.

"Hey, Helena? You ready to go?"

Helena looked up from the book she was reading with a start. "Yeah. Sure."

Virginia noticed that Helena was reading the book of fairytales that Henry had had with him. "If you don't mind me asking…why are you reading that?"

"I'm trying to understand how his mind works. He went through this entire thing and profiled a bunch of the fairy tale characters as people in Storybrooke." Virginia looked confused. "For example, he thinks that Granny and Ruby are Red Riding Hood and her grandmother."

"Interesting," remarked Virginia. "Who does he think I am, then? Cinderella?"

Helena shook her head and looked away. "You're not in the book," she lied. "And I don't think he had anyone in town specifically in mind for Cinderella." Helena looked at Henry's drawing of the Cinderella from the book again. He'd drawn her so that she looked more like a real person than the watercolor picture, but at the bottom he'd simply written, "Cinderella". No name for a Storybrooke counterpart. "And she looks like she's only a young teenager. There's nothing in it about her meeting a prince or getting a happy ending, though. Just the abusive stepmother and stepsisters bit."

"What kind of a fairytale is that?"

Helena shrugged. "The kind that's closer to reality than most fairy tales are?"

"Just like the fact that my mother is apparently an evil witch no one can defeat. Can't really argue with that one." Helena looked up and smiled, but the way Virginia's eyes were glued to a spot on the wall suggested she found the element of truth in his analogy painful.

"If it makes you feel better, I haven't even seen my parents since the day I was born. No matter how evil your mother is, at least you have one."

Virginia didn't say anything. Now it was her turn to rush them out the door so she wouldn't have to keep talking about her family.

"I have an open apartment just waiting for you, Miss Mills," said Mr. Gold. He pulled a small envelope out of his pocket and set it down. It had the apartment's address written on the front. "You're free to go take a look at it. Come back when you want to sign the lease. Ordinarily I charge the first two months' rent up front, but because you're the mayor's daughter, I should be able to give you some extra time just this once."

Helena discreetly gave the pawnbroker a look and wondered just how much he despised the mayor.

"That won't be necessary," said Virginia. She then took her diamond earrings and handed them to Mr. Gold. He happily measured and accepted them as payment even though their net worth was less than he would have asked for in cash.

The apartment Mr. Gold had offered Virginia was small, but more than enough for one person. On the inside it actually looked like a glorified loft. The wall that was connected to the hallway was made of brick, white paint peeled off of everything else resembling a wall, and most of the furniture looked like it had been built in the seventies. But the place was fully furnished and cozy, and it felt more like home than the mayor's habitable exhibit of wealth and power ever would.

Virginia and Helena arrived back at the pawn shop after less than an hour.

"I'll take it."

Mr. Gold smiled and retrieved a contract from under his desk, already drawn up and specific to the situation.

"Of course, I'll require a co-signer on the lease," said Mr. Gold. Virginia's face fell. "Standard procedure," he explained.

"Is there a way around that?" she asked, knowing that no one else in town would be brave enough to help her defy her mother, even if she were close to anyone.

"I'm afraid not, dearie."

A few seconds went by. Defeated, Virginia set the pen she'd been about to use down on the pawnbroker's counter.

"You know what?" Helena cut in. "Why don't I do it?"

Virginia's brown eyes widened with surprise. "Really? You'd do that?" They'd known each other less than a week.

"I just…" Helena fumbled. "I trust you, okay?"

Virginia smiled warmly and handed Helena the pen. Both of them signed the lease.

"When do you want to come back to Granny's and get your stuff?" asked Helena as they walked out.

"Right now," said Virginia. "Why don't we get your stuff, too?" Helena raised her eyebrows. "I mean it. You should come stay with me while you're sorting this whole thing with Henry out. It's the least I can do."

Helena was distracted for a moment by the realization that Mr. Gold hadn't so much as mentioned Henry while she was in there. Hopefully out of tact.

"Yes," Helena finally said. "I'd love to stay with you." If there was any conflict, she could always go back to Granny's. The place didn't get very much business, she'd noticed, so it wasn't likely to fill up in the meantime.

"So...want to tell me how he is?"

Helena glanced back at her new friend. "Henry? He was asleep when I was there. Which is odd, because he's always been an early riser. Maybe he's losing sleep due to stress. Or maybe they're just keeping him heavily medicated. Which is completely unnecessary."

"Are you sure?" asked Virginia cautiously.

"Absolutely. Whatever's going on with my brother, I don't think he's hallucinating or anything. We were abandoned by our birth parents just before he turned five, and he's spent twenty-eight years convincing himself that there was some evil witch involved and he brought me to earth in a magic wardrobe so we wouldn't be cursed."

"It's understandable that he came up with that," said Virginia gently as they crossed a street. "No one should have to face the reality that their parent doesn't love them enough."

Helena didn't say anything for a moment as she wondered whether or not to comment on the fact that Virginia was obviously talking about her own mother. "I think the fact that this came back so strongly this week has a lot to do with meeting Kayla," Helena finally said. "If he'd known she existed from the beginning, he would have raised her himself and he would have done anything for her. Our whole lives he's been so protective of me, like it was his personal responsibility to make sure nothing bad ever happened to me, so I can't imagine how he must feel about his daughter. The fact that he never got to do any of it makes him feel like he failed, and the fact that she's yet another family member he never got to develop a relationship with…it's too much for him."

A short while later, Helena and Virginia were walking past the school and noticed a gaggle of middle schoolers standing outside and chatting. Helena glanced around and saw Kayla chatting with a couple of other kids. She waved; the girl waved back.

"I wonder why they're not in class," Helena remarked.

"It's Saturday," said Virginia. "They're probably having a dance or something."

"Hi, Helena!"

Helena turned around and saw thirteen-year-old Ashley Boyd standing behind her, dressed in blue jeans and a silky blue top. "Hi! How are you doing?"

"Much better," Ashley assured her. "I've been staying at Sister Catherine's house since Monday, and I started going to school on Wednesday."

"That's wonderful. I'm glad things are going better for you."

"Yeah, she's really nice. We went clothes shopping on Tuesday, and I got a whole bunch of stuff. See my new shoes?"

Helena looked down at the sleek transparent flats decorated with plastic rhinestones and smiled approvingly. Then Ashley was distracted by the commotion when the doors to the school opened and Mary Margret hollered for everyone to line up and have their tickets out. "Bye, Helena!" she called. She ran off in the direction of the line, losing one of her new shoes in the process. Helena was about to go over and help her get it back when a young boy, maybe fourteen or so, picked it up. He looked around for a minute, then spotted Ashley in line wearing the matching shoe. He walked over to her, gave her shoe back, and then chatted with her for a few minutes. Then she took his arm, and the two of them entered the school together. That was when Helena suddenly realized that Ashley actually looked a lot like Henry's version of Cinderella.

"That did not just happen."

"Everything okay?" Virginia asked Helena.

"Wha…yeah. Of course. Just my mind playing tricks on me. Come on, let's go get our stuff from the hotel." She marched on ahead, not leaving room for conversation.

"So, how often do you see the doctor?" asked Henry. "Doesn't he take you out of the room for sessions or something?"

"Never," said Daniel. "He never talks to me except about my medication."

"And he never questions why a completely harmless guy with amnesia has been trapped in a maximum security cell for twe…however long you've been in here?" Henry barely caught himself midsentence.

"I guess that's just the way things are," said Daniel simply.

"Sorry, but that guy sounds like the most terrible shrink I've ever met," mumbled Henry as he attempted to stretch his heavy limbs. "And that's saying something."

"I'll bet it is," said Daniel. "Fairy tales? Really?"

"That part's not true. Everyone knows that magical no-strings-attached happy endings are bullshit." He paused for a moment. "You and your family came as close to having one as anyone I ever met." Daniel looked at Henry. "And look what happened to you. You can't even remember any of it." Henry looked away, bitter. Everything was ruined. He was supposed to fix it. He hadn't.

Meanwhile, the man who was just barely getting used to calling himself Daniel in his head wondered if there was, in fact, some truth to what Henry was saying. If there was even a chance that this stranger could help him remember who he was, he'd be a fool not to take it. But maybe he'd be just as much of a fool to trust a man who'd been deemed so dangerous that, thus far, the doctors had been drugging him constantly.

"So what are you doing in here?" Daniel finally asked.

Henry continued staring up at a crack in the ceiling. "I got into a confrontation with the mayor of this town. During which I may or may not have called her an evil witch several times. That's why they think I'm crazy."

"What kind of confrontation was it?"

"It was about your wife. Her mother is the mayor and some…stuff has been going down. She's kept her from looking for you for so long that she doesn't even realize she's looking anymore." Henry hoped that he wasn't twisting the facts any more than necessary. "But she still loves you. I know it and deep down, she knows it, too."

"Why would my wife's mother try to keep her from finding me? Did I do something to her?"

"No, no, you didn't do anything. All you ever did was love Regina. Her mother decided you were beneath her." Henry searched Daniel's face for some sign of recognition, and he found none. Henry started to feel dizzy again and lay back down on the cot. He had been able to sit up and eat lunch this time and didn't feel like he was about to fall back asleep yet, but he was still somewhat incoherent.

"Tell me about Regina," Daniel finally said. Henry turned his head so quickly it hurt. Mostly out of surprise.

"She has beautiful brown eyes and long, thick black hair. Actually she's gotten it cut since the last time you saw her. But if you can manage to remember her, you would remember her hair as long. She loved everything about horses, and horseback riding, and apples. And you. Sometimes she would have nightmares about experiences she had as a child. You would just wake her up and lay with her for a few minutes." He was about to blurt out that on the last night that happened he'd crawled into bed with them, but fortunately he didn't. "Sometimes she called you her stable boy."

Henry leaned back his head and closed his eyes for a few minutes. Daniel took in everything Henry had just said. He had no way of knowing how much, if anything, of what Henry was saying was true. He didn't even have a way of knowing if Henry was really sane enough to tell the truth. But so far, even in his medicated stupor, there were absolutely no holes in anything Henry had told him

"Tell me more when you feel up to it, okay?"

"Okay."