A/N: Thanks for all the continuing reviews, favorites, and follows! I really love hearing what you guys have to say about this story.

Last chapter before the story jumps ahead in time.

"Now," Maleficent said, holding out a glass of wine to her visitor. "What do you want?"

Rumplestiltskin took the offered glass and sat down, grinning at the blonde sorceress across from him. "I can't just drop in and visit an old friend?" he asked.

Maleficent arched an eyebrow. "Don't waste my time, Rumple."

"You always see right through me," he replied melodramatically, pulling a small scroll from his pocket with a flourish. "I'm here on business. I seem to recall you asking for a sleeping curse."

Her eyes gleamed, zeroing in on the scroll. "Finally. Your price?"

"I need you to protect something for me." He grinned. "Or someone, rather."

"I'm not much of a babysitter."

"It seems to me," Rumplestiltskin replied, waggling the curse back and forth, "that a certain princess's sixteenth birthday is only a few months away. It wouldn't look good if you didn't follow through on your threat, Maleficent."

The blonde rolled her eyes, but couldn't quite argue. "Fine. Who is it and how long is it going to take?"

He snapped his fingers and Regina appeared beside him, looking around herself in bewilderment. "This is King Leopold's Queen, Regina," he said, tossing the curse to Maleficent before standing up and placing a possessive hand over Regina's stomach. "And you'll keep her until she pops. How far along are you, dearie?"

Regina pulled his hand away from her, glaring at him. "She might belong to you, but I don't. Keep your hands off me."

Maleficent grinned wickedly. "I like her already."

Snow stood apart, watching carefully as her captors-turned-rescuers set up camp for the night. Despite their help, she couldn't trust them after they'd ignored her fears and sent her home. She would stay among them only to find out where Regina was, and then she'd go the rest of the way alone.

Red suddenly stopped and dropped her armful of firewood when she passed David on his left side. "You're hurt!" She leaned in to inspect his bloodied sleeve and the ugly gash beneath it. "David, you're bleeding. Why didn't you tell me?"

"There were more important things to attend to," he said in a low voice, glancing towards the Princess. The last thing he wanted was for her to think him weak, but it was growing harder and harder to ignore the searing pain.

Belle took over building the fire as Red forced David to sit down and peeled off his shirt. The wound was deep, and she stared at it in horror, not sure what she could possibly do. She looked desperately over her shoulder at Belle, who shrugged in response, knowing even less about healing than Red did.

Snow felt little sympathy for the young man who had taken her from Regina and returned her to her father, but she always hated when anyone around her was suffering. She glanced around, her eyes lighting on a familiar plant. She grabbed a handful of leaves, the same leaves that the Huntsman had used to numb the pain in Regina's ankle, and crushed them between her palms, reluctantly stepping forward to join the others.

"Try this," she said to Red, who was ripping a strip of fabric from David's ruined shirt. Snow applied the leaves and helped Red tie the bandage over them. "I hope this eases the pain."

David turned to look at the Princess, smiling as though he didn't hurt. "Thank you," he said softly, his eyes brimming with emotion, and Snow looked away.

Belle finished with the fire and sat down beside Red. "We are so very sorry, Princess. We should have listened to you."

Snow didn't offer any sign of forgiveness, just stiffly responded, "Call me Snow." She didn't feel like much of a princess anymore. She turned her gaze on Red. "Where did you leave my stepmother? I want to find her."

Red was silent for a moment, studying her bloodstained hands. "I didn't leave her, Princess. Snow." She lifted her eyes to meet Snow's. "We needed help to find you, and a man offered to lead us to you in exchange for the Queen. He took her."

Snow took a moment to process before springing to her feet. "You let someone take her?" she asked, her voice angrier than she'd ever heard it. Her head spun with thoughts of the reasons why a strange man would want Regina, none of them good. "What gives you the right to interfere in our lives like this? What is wrong with you?" The tears rising in her eyes lessened the force of her anger, but she didn't care.

Red covered her face with her hands, and David slowly rose to his feet, biting back the pain. "If you'll let us," he said, "we'll help you find her. We owe you at least that much."

Snow didn't respond, just storming off towards the horses, putting her arms around Rocinante's neck and trying to find some sort of comfort there. David watched her helplessly, leaning on a tree to keep himself upright.

Belle coaxed Red's hands away from her face and uncorked the skin of water the other girl carried, using a little to clean David's blood from her fingers. "It's not too late," she whispered, slipping a tentative arm around Red's waist. "We can do the right thing."

Leopold stormed back up to his chambers, ignoring the dead and injured guards and wolves he stepped over. The fight had been a massacre, costing him many of his finest men. No one was quite sure how many wolves had attacked, and there were rumors of a man who led them, but no such man was found among the casualties and the wolves left behind were relatively few.

The King turned to the advisor who'd followed him to his chambers, glaring at him as though he was responsible. "Call in the army and the local militias. I want every able-bodied man in the kingdom to take part in the search."

The advisor bit back his reservations, knowing better than to challenge the King when he was so desperately angry. "We'll put every man we can spare on the hunt for the Princess, Your Majesty."

"And the Queen," Leopold added. "But change the notices. I want Regina as soon as possible, and I want her dead."