Mary Margaret was just cleaning up her desk when she heard the tell tale clicks of high heels coming down the hallway. Looking up, she saw Regina walking into the classroom.
"Mayor Mills," She stood up quickly, pushing her skirt down. "Are you supposed to be picking up Henry? He didn't tell me. I sent him home."
Regina shook her head. "I'm not here for Henry."
"Oh. Um, then is there something I can help you with?" Mary Margaret asked, twisting the ring on her finger.
"Yes." Regina watched as the ring slid around on the teacher's finger. She had cursed the entire town with amnesia and now Emma's amnesia was a curse all her own. "I wanted to know if you had heard from Miss Swan since she left town?"
"Emma?" Mary Margaret sounded surprised and skeptical. "Why do you care if I've heard from her? I mean -" The teacher blushed slightly. "I know you weren't her biggest fan."
"Regardless, she is Henry's birth mother and he has been sullen and withdrawn since she left."
Mary Margaret nodded slowly. "Yes. I told Henry all that I know, which is that Emma texted me when she reached Boston safely. But I haven't heard from her again since then."
"So you have her phone number?" Regina asked, moving closer, so that she was just on the other side of the desk.
"Um, yes."
"The one that I have from her appears to have been disconnected." Regina admitted. Then she swallowed and forced herself to ask the next question. "Would you give me her phone number, Miss Blanchard?"
Mary Margaret frowned. "I -" She turned and pulled her cell phone out of her bag. Regina watched as she scrolled through the contacts - and passed the name David - before hitting the send button over the name Emma. The phone rang one time before an automated voice picked up.
"The number you have dialed has been disconnected or is no longer in service." It chimed.
"That's the only number you have for her?"
Mary Margaret nodded, still frowning. "I didn't think that she'd disconnect her number." She mumbled to herself.
"Obviously Miss Swan wanted to cut all ties to us here in Storybrooke." Regina muttered darkly before turning on her heel and leaving the classroom.
Mary Margaret breathed a sigh of relief when she was gone, but still felt the acute ache when she looked down at her phone.
The bell tinkled as the door to his shop opened. Mr. Gold grinned as he addressed the new occupant of his store, never once looking up from the item he was cleaning.
"Ah, Mayor Mills. I was wondering when you would come to see me."
Regina said nothing, just stared at him with contempt.
"I can feel your anger from across the room." He taunted. "You must be awfully desperate to seek me out, dearie."
"I am not desperate." She hissed, turning as though to leave.
"Ah ah." He called out to her back. "If you leave, how will you ever get the information you seek?"
Regina turned back, her eyes narrowed. "How do you know what I seek?"
Gold's smile was down right sinister, and it sent a slight shiver down her back. "Because I know you, Regina. You wouldn't come to me unless it was a last resort. Now, come, tell me what it is you need." He paused, looking up to meet her eyes before he uttered the word. "Please."
Regina moved closer, almost involuntarily. "Damn you." She whispered fiercely.
"Now," Gold laughed, "is that any way to talk to the man who can help you find what you're looking for? And you are looking for something, aren't you, Regina? Or rather, someone?"
"I don't know why I came here." She spat out, but found that she couldn't make herself leave the shop.
"Yes, you do, dearie." He smiled again. "You know exactly why you came to me now. Just like when you came to me all those years ago, looking for a baby."
"What do you want?"
"It isn't about what I want. It's about what you want." Gold stood and moved out from behind the counter, clutching the item he had been holding in his hand.
"Emma Swan." He said her name, unfurling his hand and revealing the circle pendant that Emma had always worn around her neck.
"Where did you get that?" Regina demanded, immediately recognizing the piece.
"I found it on my land, next to my tree that was destroyed when Miss Swan's car took that nasty spill into it." Gold smirked. "Pity such a horrible accident had to happen to such a lovely girl." He clicked his tongue. "The brakes in her car cut. Who would do such a thing?"
"Stop the games, Gold." She said, her eyes still on the pendant.
"I'm not playing games, my dear. Merely discussing our dearly departed sheriff. The town just isn't the same without her." His eyes moved beyond Regina, to the window in his door and the clock tower beyond it. "It feels almost like time stopped when she left, doesn't it?"
Regina said nothing, her mind spinning. He couldn't recognize that time had stopped, couldn't know. If he did, that meant -
"Or maybe it's just me." Gold closed his hand around the circle. "I do find myself missing the sheriff, though. Don't you?"
"Where is she?" Regina moved toward him.
"What makes you think that I know, dearie? If you can't find her, surely I, a humble shop keeper -"
"Where. Is. She?" The words were ground out.
"What is she worth to you? That's the real question."
"Nothing."
Gold laughed at her answer. "You don't expect me to believe that, do you, Madam Mayor? If she was worth nothing, you wouldn't have come to me."
Regina's eyes flashed. "She is worth nothing to me. My son however -"
"Don't you mean her son?" Gold smirked. "And we both know that you may care about the boy, but not enough to go looking for Miss Swan. No, your interest in her is personal. So again I ask, Madam Mayor, what is it that she is worth to you?"
"What is your price?"
Gold moved around her, sizing her up. Regina kept still, standing tall. She had never flinched before him - not even when he held all the power of the Dark One - and she would not flinch before him now when he was just a cripple who was no longer in control.
"I want your apple tree." He said finally, coming to stand in front of her.
"No." The reply was out of her lips before she even had time to think about it. No one would take her apple tree. Emma Swan could stay gone, she could stay haunted, but she would not give up the tree.
"Pity." Gold clucked. "Such a lovely tree."
"What else do you want?"
"I'm afraid the tree is it, dearie. You have nothing else of value to me."
Regina turned. "Then we're done here."
"Unless." Gold's voice stopped her from leaving once again. "There is one other thing you possess that I want."
Everything inside of her told her to continue walking, to find another way to find Emma, but she found herself turning back instead. "What?"
"Your job."
"What?" Disbelief colored her voice.
He smiled at her. "I'll even go easy on you. I won't make you just hand over the title to me. But come November, you must hold an official election. And you must allow a candidate to run against you."
"And you plan to be that candidate?" She raised one eyebrow.
"The citizens of Storybrooke don't trust you anymore, Madam Mayor. They blame you for Emma's accident and for her leaving. They might not act like it, but they see you now for what you really are. And given the choice between you or me," Gold's laughter was more a cackle, "I think that they'll choose me in a heartbeat. As long as they still have one."
Regina swallowed. She would deal with Gold and his power plays and what he may or may not know later. For now, this was a deal she could make. "Fine. I'll hold an open election. Now tell me where she is."
Gold circled her again. "Interesting. Miss Swan doesn't mean more to you than your precious apple tree, but she does mean more than your position here in Storybrooke. Very, very interesting indeed."
"Tell me where she is."
He moved back behind the counter, plucking a card from his Rolodex and handing it over to Regina. "It seems our Miss Swan has decided to try her luck in sunny California. I hope you're prepared to hop on a plane, Regina, as I only have an address. Telephones apparently made Miss Swan feel too connected so she disconnected herself from them entirely."
Regina grabbed the card from his hand and glanced down at it, making sure that there actually was an address written on it. There was nothing to guarantee that this was truly Emma's address, but Regina didn't doubt that it was. Gold may have been many things, but he always made good on his deals. It was those who didn't read the fine print who suffered.
"One more thing before you go." Gold said. "I thought perhaps your boy might like to have a token of his mother." He held up the circular pendant. "Shame about the chain being broken, but I think I have just the thing."
Reaching down he lifted out a long, thin gold chain that he slipped the pendant on to before clasping it. It was thin enough that it could've been mistaken for thread. Regina's eyes never left it.
He held the necklace out to her, letting it sway slightly in his hands. "Please. Take it."
Regina's right hand grasped the necklace. Gold smiled again. "You have a good day, Madam Mayor."
This time Regina did leave the shop, never once looking back.