A/N: sorry this update took so long. I've been busy waiting in line to return the winter finale of Once Upon A Time because I'm pretty sure it's defective.

The following morning, Helena was in her bedroom lazily sipping a cup of coffee when she heard a great deal of commotion coming from outside. Seconds later, Virginia knocked on her door.

"What's going on?" Helena called out. Virginia came in.

"Something's happened to David and Mary Margret. His mother got a frantic phone call from them a few minutes ago; the connection was terrible so all she managed to catch was something about them being trapped in his car. No one has been able to get a hold of them since. Graham's organizing a search party right now."

"Are you going?" asked Helena.

"Only if you're going."

Helena was ready in minutes. By the time they got down to the sheriff station, Graham had given everyone specific instructions for where to go and what to do if they found the missing couple. Because neither Helena or Virginia had a car to drive, Graham offered to take them along in the police car. Ruby used her own car and took Leroy and Billy, Dr. Hopper and Granny went in her car, and some volunteers from the shelter went in the animal rescue van.

"Which car do I ride in?"

Helena turned around and saw Kayla was standing behind her.

"Honey, I don't think it's safe for you to come with us," said Helena gently. "Why don't you go tell your parents what happened so they can let other people know, okay?"

"But I know the real reason Mary Margret wanted to run away with David!" Kayla insisted. "She doesn't want to end up like her stepmother."

"Kayla, Mary Margret doesn't have a stepmother," said Helena.

"She did back when she was Snow White."

"This really isn't a good time to talk about Operation Zebra," Helena half-insisted, half-pleaded. "Would you just go home?"

"It's too far to walk," said Kayla with an unsuppressed mischievous smile.

"Why don't I stay with her?" Virginia finally offered. "We'll wait at the sheriff station and explain the situation to anyone who asks, and we'll be ready to help when you get back."

Kayla hesitated. "Okay."

"If anyone else comes and wants to help search for them, give them these instructions," said Graham as he tore a piece of paper with words scribbled on it out of his notepad and handed it to Virginia. "Come on, Helena. Looks like it's just us."

Once again, Helena climbed into the shotgun seat of the police car and buckled up. "Where are we going?"

"We'll take the woods near the stable. You're familiar with that area, correct?" Helena nodded as Graham started the engine. "Are you friends with David and Mary Margret?"

"Not really. I've spoken to them a few times."

"You seem terribly concerned about them," Graham remarked.

"I spoke to Mary Margret just last night," Helena explained. "She and David are having problems…Well, more like her father is having problems with her and David…and I'm afraid they may have tried to run away together."

"Why would they have to run away?" asked Graham. "Mary Margret's a grown woman."

"I don't know. She still lives with her father."

"If she doesn't want to live with him anymore, then why wouldn't she just look for an apartment or book a room at Granny's?"

Helena shrugged. "Maybe they decided to leave Storybrooke." Graham gave her a look that suggested the idea was ridiculous. "What?"

"No one wants to leave Storybrooke. Even you don't seem to want to leave anymore, and from what Henry told me the last time I saw him you couldn't wait to get out of here."

"For your information, Henry is the only reason I stopped trying to leave. He's the only family I have and I'm not going anywhere without him."

The thought that Helena would probably be waiting a very long time entered Graham's mind instantly, but all he said was, "I'm not close with any of my family. You and Henry are lucky you have that with each other." Actually, come to think of it, Graham couldn't even remember his family. The curse prevented him from realizing how bizarre that was.

"We used to have it, anyway," Helena said. "Ever since the day we came to Storybrooke, I've felt like I don't know him anymore."

Graham glanced at her with sympathetic eyes. "And then he had his breakdown."

Helena nodded. "Can we talk about something else?"

"Of course," said Graham. He let an awkward pause go by. "So…there's not much to do in Storybrooke compared to Boston, is there?"

"There's more to do here than I expected there to be," Helena admitted. "There's the library and Granny's and The Rabbit Hole and…" she struggled to find something to fill in the blank with, but all she could come up with was "the pharmacy." That caused both of them to laugh.

"But no, really," Helena continued. "It's actually nice having full days of not being able to do anything but relax for once in my life. My job causes me to put a lot of pressure on myself most of the time. Sometimes I have to take sleeping pills at night because I can't stop thinking about the children on my caseload."

"Wow. That actually sounds more stressful that my job," said Graham. "Storybrooke has never had very much going on. I usually spend my days checking traffic lights and helping people find lost pets. Come to think of it, the most eventful stretch this town has ever had began…a few days after you showed up."

"And in the past month you've had to deal with an abandoned mine exploding, the deputy holding the mayor up at the gunpoint, and now two nineteen-year-olds disappearing and getting trapped in a car."

Graham smiled. "Pretty much. You really did come to our town at just the wrong time, didn't you?"

Helena shrugged. "Either that or the trouble followed me here."

"Somehow I don't see you as a troublemaker."

Their conversation was interrupted by the crackling of Graham's walkie-talkie. He picked it up in his right hand and turned it on. "Hello?" said Graham. "Can you hear me?"

"Graham, it's Ruby," said the young assistant breathlessly. "How far are you from the Toll Bridge?"

"Not very far. Why?"

"We need you here. Now!"

"What's going on?" asked Graham. But Ruby ended the call instead of replying.

"Does this mean she found them?" asked Helena.

"Either that or something even worse."

Virgina sat behind the sheriff's desk and starred apprehensively at the telephone. She still wasn't very used to talking to strangers, and it was difficult enough when she could see their expressions. She hoped if anyone called it would at least have something to do with the search for David and Mary Margret. What if someone called and they actually needed help she had no way to give them? And worse, what if her mother called for some reason?

"Oh good, there they are," Kayla mumbled.

Virginia turned around when she heard the clang of a filing cabinet drawer being bumped. "What are you doing?"

"As long as we're here, I figured I'd look through some of the police records."

"What?"

"I'm gathering intel for Operation Zebra." Kayla scooped a stack of files out of the open drawer and plunked them on an endtable. "Helena told you what Operation Zebra is, didn't she?"

"She did, but Kayla, you have to put those back."

"I promise I'll put them back as soon as I'm done looking."

Virginia stood up. "No, no, I mean you have to put them back right now."

"Everyone's out looking for David and Mary Margret. I'm not gonna get caught." Kayla started flipping through folders with the residents' names on them. Most of them contained nothing but a picture of their drivers' license.

"Kayla…" Virginia struggled. "It's wrong to go through Graham's files. They contain a lot of private information about people."

"Oh, I won't tell anyone anything I find out. Except Helena. And my parents, even though my dad probably knows everything in here already, and Henry when I finally get to see him again, and you. You can look at the files with me if you want."

"No, thank you. I don't want to look at the files with you. I want you to…"

Kayla turned around and held out a file folder. "Not even…this one?" Virginia froze when she saw the name written on the label, and then she noticed that the folder itself wasn't as thin as she'd have thought it would be. "That's your mother, isn't it?"

"Kayla, we really shouldn't be doing this…" But of course, the child ignored her and opened up the file. The paper in the front of the folder was a Xerox of the mayor's driver's license.

"Cora Mills," Kayla said out loud. "That's not a very pretty name, is it? It sounds like something breaking."

"Alright, that's enough!" Virginia finally snapped. "Give me that." She yanked the file folder away from Kayla. "Put the rest of those back exactly where you got them, right now!"

Kayla blinked her round green eyes. "But we have to look through your mother's file. She's the evil witch."

"I'll look at it while you put the rest of those folders away," said Virginia daringly, telling herself that she was doing it more to give Kayla an incentive to behave than to satisfy her own curiosity.

Kayla picked up about half of the folders she'd pulled out and slowly began placing them back in the drawer, then paused to look at Virginia.

"You have to open it to look through it."

"I know that." Virginia hesitated, and then re-opened the folder and moved the front page out of the way. Her eyes scanned the page she was looking at. "Oh my god."

"What?"

"Nothing. Just…let me keep reading."

About a quarter of a mile from the Toll Bridge, Helena and Graham were waved to the side of the road by a frantic Leroy.

"Ruby told me to stop you before you got any closer. The road ain't safe to drive on up there."

"Thanks," said Graham, exiting the car and motioning for Helena to join him. "What exactly happened? Did you find David and Mary Margret?"

"Come see for yourselves."

Graham and Helena jogged up the muddy path after Leroy, bracing themselves for a horrific sight. When they arrived on the scene, Helena froze. She saw a low bridge over a creek with a massive hole in it, and under the bridge was David's now upside-down vehicle.

Between them, Graham, Ruby, Helena, and Billy were able to help David climb out of the car fairly easily. Mary Margret was injured and couldn't move. Keeping David from having a heart attack while his girlfriend was being pulled out of the vehicle proved the more difficult task.

"David, please sit down," pleaded Billy. "You're hurt too, man." Helena turned to look at David. He had a small but nasty looking cut on his chin that he was cupping in his hand.

"I had no idea that the roads would be so slippery!" yelled David. "There shouldn't be mud here…it hasn't rained in days! I couldn't slow down…couldn't stop…by the time I saw the hole…"

Helena turned around and grabbed David by the shoulders. "David, look at me. All of this freaking out isn't going to help you or Mary Margret. Get ahold of yourself." David looked at Helena with wild terrified eyes. "She'll probably be fine. We found you guys fairly quickly."

"That was all to do with Ruby," Billy admitted. "Once we were out in the woods she just somehow…knew where to go. She said she was following their voices, but there's no way she could have heard them from all the way back there."

"Oh my god," mumbled David. Helena glanced over her shoulder and let out a sigh of relief she hadn't known she was holding in when she saw Graham carrying Mary Margret to shore. Ruby was standing next to him helping him hold her steady.

"Helena, clear off the backseat of my car," Graham instructed. "Billy and Leroy, take David over to the hospital and let them know we're coming." David opened his mouth to protest, but Graham shook his head.

"I'll be okay, David," Mary Margret assured him.

"Shhh," said Ruby. "Don't talk."

Graham drove his police car to Storybrooke's hospital very slowly and carefully with Mary Margret lying across the backseat and Ruby crouched in the tiny space in front of it keeping her steady. In front of the hospital, they were met with a stretcher. Mary Margret was brought inside the building by doctors. Graham sent Ruby back to watch the sheriff station and stayed behind long enough to take down David and Mary Margret's statements about the accident. At Mary Margret's request, Helena stayed with her in her hospital room while David was getting his wounds treated and then talking to Ruby.

"Don't worry, it's nothing as serious as you've probably been imagining," Dr. Whale assured Mary Margret. "Just a couple of fractured ribs. You can go home tonight, but I'm recommending three days of bedrest and three weeks off of work. I've already called the pharmacy. Dr. Clark says your painkillers are ready for you to pick up at any time. Did you want me to call your father as well?"

"No," said Mary Margret quickly.

"Mary Margret," said Dr. Whale softly. "About the other night…"

Mary Margret let out an exasperated groan-and not because of the ache in her side. Moments later, David burst into the hospital room with Kayla on his heels and sighed with relief when he saw his girlfriend. "Thank God you're alright."

"You, too," Mary Margret whispered. David sat down on the side of her bed as close to her as possible. She reached up and touched his cheek, just above the freshly cleaned wound.

"That's gonna leave a scar," she remarked.

He shrugged. "Lots of people have scars. All that matters is that we're safe and together."

"Kayla, how did you get here?" asked Helena.

"Virginia dropped me off. She said she needs to go talk to someone. What happened to you, Miss Blanchard?"

"I'll be fine, honey," said Mary Margret. "But you'll have a substitute teacher for a little while."

"That's too bad," said Kayla. "School was just getting interesting with you not teaching the same lessons over and over."

Mary Margret and Helena both gave Kayla a puzzled look. "How long do you think you'll be out of commission?" asked David.

"The doctor said three days of bedrest for starters," said Mary Margret. "That's three days I'll have nothing to do but lay around listening to my father yell at me about us and that I won't be able to see you, David." David looked horrified for a moment. "Maybe you can come over tomorrow while he's at church," Mary Margret added quickly.

"Are you sure you want to go back to your father's house after everything?" asked David.

"I have to. Where else do I have to go?"

David took a deep breath and looked up at his girlfriend with hopeful puppy dog eyes. "Mary Margret, I know we've only been seeing each other a few weeks, but I think what we have is really special and I don't want to lose it. Come live with me. We can stay at my mother's house until you feel better, and then we'll get our own…"

"Yes," Mary Margret interrupted him. She pulled him down into a kiss. Helena looked away. Kayla said nothing and hoped that Princess Abigail wouldn't be too angry about this when the curse broke.

"Congratulations," said Helena after a moment. "We'd better get going."

"Thank you," said Mary Margret. "I'll talk to you later."

"Thanks so much for everything," said David.

The mayor was pleasantly surprised for a split second when she saw her daughter standing in the entrance to her office. That is until she saw the disturbing almost-scowl that marked her face.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" said the mayor sarcastically.

"Is it true that you beat me up when I was a kid?" asked Virginia.

The mayor's eyes widened with surprise for perhaps the first time in her daughter's real or fake memory. "No. What are you talking about?"

"I found paperwork saying that when I was four, I was brought into the hospital with questionable bruises on my chest, and records of you hiring Mr. Gold to convince a judge to let you keep me."

"I have never hit you, Virginia," said the mayor truthfully. "Mr. Gold had very little to do with the fact that you weren't taken away from me."

"Then how did I get hurt?" asked Virginia.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try me," Virginia pushed. Her mother just shook her head. "Wow. And you wonder why I don't trust you anymore."

The mayor sighed. "Virginia…"

"All those years that I lived with you that you never said a kind word to me, never told me you loved me, never even touched me, I thought it was because I wasn't good enough. And now I know it was never my fault. It was yours."

As the mayor's daughter's footsteps echoed through the hallways of City Hall, she thought back to Virginia's real childhood. She had almost never laid a hand on her daughter. Not technically. She'd used magic to restrain her or to inflict pain at times, but never enough to leave bruises. There was exactly one moment that could have translated to the events on the records here in Storybrooke.

Fifty-one years ago, The Enchanted Forest

"Mother, whenth Daddy gonna be home?"

"Regina, when ladies are having tea, they do not ask rude questions like that," said Cora sternly. "They make pleasant conversation about subjects like the weather and everybody's health."

Little Regina starred up at her mother a long beat.

"I hope Daddy ith feeling well and the weather ith good enough tho that he can come home for thupper."

"I hope so too," said Cora grudgingly. The child was the only thing she and Henry had in common anymore. And truthfully, the only thing that kept Cora from staging a little accident for Henry at this point was the fact that his connection to the late King Xavier could prove useful when it came time to select a husband for Regina.

"Mother, can I pleathe go play now?"

"No, you cannot," snapped Cora. "We're having teatime. A lady never misses her teatime."

"I'm not a lady. I'm a kid."

"You're a girl. Which means you're a lady-in-training."

Regina tilted her head slightly to the side. "Why?"

"Because one day, you're going to be a lady. Just like me."

Regina shook her head. "No, thank you. I don't want to be like you. You're mean."

That did it. Cora stood up, reached across the table, slid her hand into her daughter's chest, and closed her fingers around the four-year-old's live organ. She pulled it out and held it in front of her.

"You see this, Regina?" Cora hissed at the child sitting in front of her, shaking uncontrollably. "This is your heart beating in my hand. As long as I'm holding your heart, I control you, just like I control all the people in my fireplace." Regina gulped. "If you don't believe me, go stand by it and listen sometime. They're all in there. And they all have to do whatever I want. If you don't start behaving like a good little girl, I can put you in there and make you behave. Is that what you want? I don't think so." Then she leaned over and shoved Regina's heart back into her chest. Regina folded her arms across her chest and began to whimper. Cora smiled down at her daughter. "Let's finish our tea now, shall we?"

Regina shook her head. "I want Daddy," she whispered.

"I told you, stop…" Cora froze when she realized that as soon as Regina saw Henry again, she would probably tell him what she'd just done. And even if Henry didn't believe her, it was only a matter of time before he noticed the sound of the beating hearts coming from the fireplace, and if he discovered what Cora was capable of doing…

"Regina, stop crying for a second," Cora whispered. "I'll fix it."

Regina looked up at her mother, eyes glazed over with pure terror. Cora closed her eyes for a moment. What was that memory charm Rumpelstiltskin had taught her again? Cora had to pull her book out to figure it out. A little bit of ink from the pages and Regina was sitting up and smiling again.

"Mother, whenth teatime over?"

"In twenty minutes, love," said Cora. "Sit up straight like a lady with your feet on the floor or you're not getting any more cookies."

"I don't understand how this is even possible!" yelled Mayor Mills from the flipside of the counter at the pawn shop. "I wiped Regina's memory…she didn't even know that it happened. When I was deciding who and what I wanted in Storybrooke, I never said anything about records of my past mistakes."

"Nor did I, Madam Mayor," said Mr. Gold. "It's an unfortunate fact of life that the past has a way of staying with us no matter how far we try to run from it."

"That's easy for you to say, Rumpel. You have everything you've ever wanted here."

The pawnbroker looked away. "No, dearie. Not everything."

"What more could you possibly want? Another mansion?"

"It's a long story, Madam Mayor. One that I don't think you'd particularly care to listen to. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm quite busy. I have a new rental agreement to draw up for an apartment in town."

"What? Don't tell me anyone else has arrived in Storybrooke!"

"Of course not. This is for Mr. Nolan and Ms. Blanchard. Didn't you hear the news? The happy couple is safe and sound and making future plans together." The look on Mayor Mills's face told her former teacher that this was exactly the opposite of what she had hoped to hear.