Rumplestiltskin and Belle tried to ask Lily about her dream the following morning, but Lily couldn't say anything. Every day was miserable because every night the same story unfolded in her dreams. She didn't understand what was happening to her. Not only was the dream mad, it was driving her mad. She felt afraid to say anything because she was afraid that nobody would believe her. As a result, Lily's classwork and health suffered. After a few phone calls home from concerned teachers, both Rumplestiltskin and Belle decided it best to remove her from school until she was well enough to attend again.

One day, Gold came home from work to find Belle at their daughter's locked bedroom door in complete distraught. "Honey, how can I help you? Please, let me in," Belle begged. "Let us help you. We don't know what's wrong unless you say something."

Gold, after recognizing the issue, immediately came by Belle's side and offered, "Let me try something." He tucked a composition notebook that was in his hand under his armpit and reached into his coat pocket pulling out picking pins. With finesse he lowered his body to view the keyhole better and used the two small pins to unlock the door. He opened the door and in a smooth fluid motion he sat down at the edge of Lily's bed. The room was dark but with the light from the open door he could see her body remain still beneath the comforters. Belle watched from the door's threshold as she watched her husband attempt to communicate. Rumple appeared hesitant on what to say and instead sighed. With a calm delicate voice he said to Lily, "Lily, I have something for you."

Lily was lying sideways and away from her father on her bed, but when she heard her father's voice she turned around to face him. "You know, before you were born I used to have these persistent dreams… and I never stopped having these dreams until I told your mother about them. You know what my dreams were about?"

Lily shook her head silently.

"They were about you. I literally dreamt about you every night and… since then, I've regretted not having told your mother sooner."

He scooted closer to his daughter and placed a caring hand on her ankles. "I know that… what you're going through right now isn't easy. I know that whatever it is that you're dreaming about is the reason you haven't been sleeping. And… since you feel you can't tell your mother or myself what these dreams are, the next best thing to do is to silently purge these dreams out of your system."

Intrigued, she sat up in bed and asked, "How do we do that?"

"I'm glad you asked," he replied with a smirk as he handed his daughter the notebook that was underneath his arm. "I brought you this, so that you can record what's been frightening you. It doesn't have to be words. It can be drawings or doodles… whatever you like. The point of this book is for you to get rid of whatever it is by writing them down. Push and write it out into these pages. You don't have to show it to me or your mother. In fact, when you're done writing down the nightmare we can destroy the book together. I'm serious. We can take this book, stick in a pail, bring it to the rooftop and burn it. But the most important thing is that you write this dream down because when you write it down you face your fear. And when you can do that… you can finally let it go. Can you do that for me?"

"I can," nodded Lily.

"Good," said Gold as he leaned forward kissing her on her head. "Your mother and I love you very much. All we want is your happiness and to see you get better."

… …

Ever since Rumple gave Lily the notebook she couldn't stop pouring what she saw from her dreams into the blank notebook. In a fervent and intense manner, she filled page after page with as much detail of the dream as possible. She wrote every word down, even words that were beyond her vocabulary, as if her life depended on it. Writing the dream down reinforced her belief that it actually happened. She believed in it so whole-heartedly that her dedication to the novelette took a week to complete the dream story. She started her writing with her kidnapping in New York. She wrote the retelling of Henry's seven years and his discovery of the Sorcerer's hat. She wrote down her interactions with Neal and her parents' interaction with the other townsfolk of Storybrooke. However confusing it was, it wasn't until she fleshed out Merlin that she realized who Merlin truly was and the context of it all. Merlin was her father from the future. In the story, she included Merlin's tale and his dilemma with telling his past self about the dangers of the hat until finally she concluded the story with her father destroying the hat.

After writing the final touches to her dream's story, Lily threw her pencil down and instantly felt unburdened. Her father was right. She felt loads better. After much deliberation, Lily finally felt confident enough to confront her parents about her dream and so that night at the dinner table…

"Mama… Papa… I want to ask you something…" said Lily hesitantly.

"What about?" Belle asked as she placed her fork down to wipe her face with the napkin in front of her. Rumple took a quick bite of his steak before glancing over at Lily.

"Uh… is, um… is magic real?"

Belle's mouth fell open, but she quickly caught herself and closed it. She looked over at Rumple who had stopped mid-chew to decide on how to respond.

"Of course it is," said Rumple decidedly, confirming quickly as he swallowed what was in his mouth. He resumed his focus on the plate before him and began cutting off another piece to consume. To Lily, his response was suspiciously quick and it made her conclude that they both had different interpretations of the word, 'magic'. Lily believed in her story and if what she had learned about her father from the story was true, then her father knew exactly what she meant by magic. It was important for Lily to know that magic truly existed. If she could confirm the existence of magic, then she could believe that she wasn't crazy.

"No. I mean, not like sunsets or sunrises like you've shown me, Papa. I mean real magic." Lily took another brave breath and continued, "Could it… perhaps… exist in other places? I mean, besides New York?"

"What other places, sweetheart?" Belle wondered as she folded her hands under her chin to listen to her daughter more intently.

"Like… in a place called… Storybrooke?"

At the word Rumple immediately started choking. After hearing the town's name unexpectedly, one that should have never come out of her mouth, he suddenly gasped mid-chew from surprise. He lifted the wine glass that was in front of him and downed the rest of it contents into his mouth, trying but failing to recover from his overreaction. When he was finally able to speak again, he fumbled with his words as he replied with a constricted stutter, "How… Where… What on Earth is this Storybrooke?"

He was obviously hiding something from her. Why else would he act this way unless he knew something about Storybrooke? Intrigued by how her father was reacting to her questions, Lily carried on curiously, "It's… it's a small town in Maine."

Belle looked over at her husband over the undeniable knowledge of the town and saw to her dismay his reluctance over the manner. This would have been the perfect time to finally tell their daughter the truth, but instead he shied away from the opportunity and she shook her head disappointedly. What was he so afraid of? She wondered. Had they finally gotten to the point where their own complacency trumped their identities; forgetting who they once were and where they had come from? Belle knew who she was and she felt that by denying her heritage she was insulting herself because her experiences and life's story was what made her, her. Whatever his reasons were for his reluctance, Lily knew about Storybrooke, and Belle needed Rumple to be on board with her when they explained their life's origins to her. The matter definitely warranted further discussion, but his reaction made it so that Belle couldn't tell her daughter right then and there like she had wanted to and it was frustrating. They were on different sides of the subject and it was apparent how complacent he had become whilst living this world. Seeing that Rumple was slightly flummoxed, Belle inquired, "Lily, is this… is this about the dreams you've been having?"

"Yes," Lily replied honestly. "In my dreams, Storybro-"

"-is obviously only a dream," said Rumple dismissively, cutting off Lily's sentence and abruptly undermining her words. "That's why magic exists there. It was only a dream."

"But it can't be just a dream, Papa!" said Lily raising her voice and pleading her case. "It has to be real! It feels too real!"

"You just had a ridiculous dream," snapped Rumple.

"Rumple!" said Belle defending Lily over Rumple's careless remark.

"No, Belle! This is our reality! This is the world we live in now! And in this world, there is no… there is no…!" Rumple wanted to say that there was no "magic" but trailed off as he caught a glimpse at his daughter's face. He couldn't bring himself to completely deny its existence. He gave Belle a frustrated look and realized how quickly his own voice escalated. Seeing that he wasn't going to get any support from his wife, he tried to calm down and resume focus on the dinner before him.

"But I know that it exists!" fought Lily stubbornly, "And I know where to find it! Papa, that's what you said to me on the rooftop. Please believe me, I understand magic now!"

"You know nothing of magic! I don't want to hear another word of this ever again. Do I make myself clear?!"

After hearing her father's loud and discouraging words, Lily became disheartened. Of all people she expected to not believe in her, she didn't expect her father to be one of those people. Her own father didn't believe her, at least not in the way that she wanted him to. Her lips quivered and her eyes watered over her father's harsh undermining.

Rumple knew he was wrong to have raised his own voice at his daughter. So to save his pride, he angrily attacked the rest of his steak that was on his plate.

"Lily…" said Belle as she reached out her hand to console her daughter, but before she could touch her Lily shirked away from her grasp and stormed off into her bedroom crying as she slammed the door.

It was then that Belle understood why Rumple fought so hard to discredit Lily's knowledge of Storybrooke. Confirming Storybrooke would involve explaining his past and explaining his past would not be as easy as explaining hers. Explaining his past would stir up painful memories; memories in which he would have soon liked to have forgotten. He was ashamed of his past and he would be blissfully happy to simply forget who he once was. He was fighting to protect the image he had of himself for his daughter. He wasn't ready to explain who he was or what he had done. Belle couldn't understand his reservation. When he confessed to her of his past transgressions years ago, Belle was able to forgive him. She was able to see past his flaws and knew deep down that if he had told the truth to Lily then she would too. Belle saw the situation for what it was and for him to hurt their daughter like that so he could save his own pride was just simply wrong. An unsettling anger brewed in her belly. Lily deserved better. "Rumple?!" scolded Belle as she gave him a disapproving look.

"What?" barked Rumple.

"Our daughter has finally opened up to us after weeks of her not sleeping well, and what do you do? You immediately debase her and make her believe she's crazy. How are we to protect our daughter from the demons that haunt her at night when she's too afraid to even tell us what they are?!" Belle's voice began to tremble as she realized her own distress. "What kind of mother am I, when my own child comes to me for help and there's nothing I can do to help her? Something else is going on here and we owe it to her as her parents to be as supportive as possible. She's not one of your clients where you can convince them to think or believe whatever it is that you want. She's our daughter and she deserves to know who we are," Belle pointed out angrily.

"We are not," said Rumple authoritatively, choosing his next words carefully, "prepared to explain the reality of our situation!"

"It's called the truth, Rumple, and the only person not prepared to explain it is you," said Belle as she removed her and her daughter's dinner plates from the table and walked them over to the kitchen sink. Disgusted, Belle quickly threw the two dishes and silverware into the dishwasher and left the room for Rumple to sulk in by himself.

… …

Lily couldn't sleep that night. She waited till the wee hours of the morning to leave her bedroom. She skulked over to her parent's bedroom and craned her head inside. Seeing how they were both asleep she strode over to her mother's personal library. She took out her flashlight and did as she always had to keep her mind preoccupied and pulled out a book. She scanned the bookshelf for something related to the topics of Arthur or Merlin. The light to her flashlight shone over the various spines of the books when she noticed a small book with a giant letter 'M' lay flat against the shelf's back wall. If it wasn't for the other large books in front dwarfing the little novel in the back, she might not have noticed it but she did and her curiosity begged her to investigate.

Lily pulled out the various tomes to get at the sequestered mystery book in the back and in no time at all was finally able unearth the mini novel from its dusty tomb. The little book had accumulated quite the fair amount of dust, but the title of it was still very legible. The font appeared playful which meant that it was obviously meant for children to read. Lily took a loose portion of her night-shirt and dusted off the cover. Seeing that it wasn't a very thick book and was probably going to be a quick read anyways, Lily saw no harm in reading it and returning it to its peculiar hiding spot.

She took the book and walked over to the bay window to unlock the window's hinges. With the windows opened just a crack, a nice cool breeze entered the room and fresh air flowed throughout the condo. While sitting on the cushions of the bay window, she steadied a flashlight in one hand and cradled the open book in the other. When she opened the front cover, she noticed a small parchment inside and pulled it out. Curious, she held it in front of her torch's light to read. 'Ticket' was the only word she was able to make out before the breeze from the open window snatched it from her hand and carried it outside.

"Oh!" gasped Lily as her hands fumbled after it, but it was too late. The paper was gone. "Man!" Lily whispered to herself as she grimaced, "Mom is gonna kill me." Lily knew how her mother valued books, even the disheveled ones. She hoped that the parchment she lost was trivial. As she thought about it, Lily assumed that it had to be. The book had a lot of dust on it. It couldn't have been that important. As long as Lily returned the book, her mother probably wouldn't even notice the missing page. Lily dismissed the absurd notion of her mother being upset over the missing paper and started reading the book.

Reading the book was just what she needed to distract her from the argument she had had with her father only hours ago. After finishing the book, she realized how fatigued she was and she fell asleep by the bay window. As she slipped into unconsciousness, the Mary Poppins book she was reading fell out of her hands and onto the living room floor.

Thank you Imusicluver23, ladybugsmomma, NatalieMosherRumbelle, Grace5231973 and Montreat11 for your reviews and hanging in there with me through the twist! I love reading you questions and comments. Currently writing the last chapter to this story as we speak. Should be posting more soon. Til' then, see you next chapter!