Chapter Three—"A World Unexpected"

Gold's cell phone rang as they were finishing up dessert. Cora hadn't cooked, of course, so the meal was delicious, little though Gold had any desire to share it with her. Storybrooke's mayor was very much the queen in her own little domain, and even pretend queens didn't cook. No, Cora Mills had a regular maid in Ms. Wells and an on-call cook who lived in a small guest house out back, which meant her mansion was always immaculate and the meals always exactly what she wanted. Gold found himself sharing those meals with depressing frequency, even though he never really wanted to. Cora seemed to have some sort of hold over him that he could never quite define, even though letting her touch him made his skin crawl.

"Excuse me," he said politely, rising with the help of his cane. Gold headed for the window while he fished his phone out; not too many people had his cell number, and if one of them was calling him this late at night, it was undoubtedly important. Doubly so if it was Dove, who was more than capable of solving most problems on his own.

But he happened to glance at the phone number before answering, and although it was one Gold recognized, he couldn't for the life of him imagine why Cora's daughter would be calling him at this hour. Particularly when he was here. Annoyance mixed with his already smoldering temper to make his voice sharp when he answered:

"I'm a little busy, dear. What do you want?"

"Good to hear your voice, too, Gold," Regina snapped on the other end of the line, but she sounded a little…off. Perhaps she was simply tired.

"Why are you calling me?"

"I had a visitor this evening," the mayor's daughter replied levelly. "By the name of Emma Swan."

"Did you indeed?" Gold asked automatically.

The world rocked under Rumplestiltskin's feet, and he had to lean heavily on his cane to keep from showing it. He had been prepared for this day—prepared for the onrushing memories, the sudden sense of self, the burst of knowledge filling his mind. But that had been twenty-eight years ago, and Rumplestiltskin had been very different then. Now it was a human mind filled with inhuman thoughts, with magic, with fury, with the soft voice of a deadly curse whispering in the back of his mind. In the span of a second, Mr. Gold was pushed into an unused corner of that very vast mind and Rumplestiltskin emerged, all teeth and claws and razor sharp wits. He never so much as twitched; Gold's iron self-control helped there, for Rumplestiltskin had no problem using his cursed self where he proved useful. Later, he would have to dig into that alter-ego, but at the moment, he had other problems to deal with.

Problems. What a mild word to describe his current situation.

"You do know what I'm saying, don't you?" Regina's voice interrupted his musings, sounding angry and desperate at the same time.

"Of course I do," he snapped. "But I'm a bit occupied at the moment."

That took a moment to sink in, and then she asked: "Are you at my mother's?"

Clearly, Regina was in full ownership of her memories as well, and had probably had a bit longer to swallow them than he currently possessed, because she sounded a little bit concerned. He snorted. "Right in one. I will talk to you tomorrow."

Rumplestiltskin—Gold, he supposed—hung up the phone before Regina could say anything else. He didn't want her pity, and he certainly didn't want to be here. Already the knowledge of what was happening had sunk in: he had insisted that Cora insert a caveat ("Please") in the curse for him, and clearly she had done the same for herself as well. Twice over, if he recalled correctly, and that realization set off a sinking feeling in his stomach. The Dark One lurking inside him wanted to snarl, wanted to rip the Evil Queen's lungs out and make her eat them. But he could not. Firstly, doing so would be, at a minimum, difficult without magic. Secondly, any attempt to harm Cora would undoubtedly tell her that Rumplestiltskin had indeed woken up, and her knowing this early had no place in any of his plans.

So. The Savior had arrived, and Gold had been pushed aside, having served his purpose. But now he would have to serve another purpose, to be a shield to hide behind whilst Rumplestiltskin went to work moving the proper pawns into place, making sure the curse was broken so that he could find his son. For now, that meant Rumplestiltskin would have to play along with this travesty, little though he wanted to. Even though he knew what that meant, and not letting his body turn into a ball of tension was hard. Gold didn't like her either, he realized dispassionately, making his way back to the table. At least my cursed self possessed some modicum of taste. That should make this easier.

"Who was that?" Cora asked as he slipped the phone back into his pocket and headed back for the table.

"No one important," Rumplestiltskin answered dismissively. "Nothing that cannot wait until tomorrow."

Cora didn't care about Gold's daily routine, he knew. She allowed him power in the town because she had power over him, and whatever matter had demanded his attention, however briefly, was just a minor annoyance for Cora. A distraction. I can use that, Rumplestiltskin thought, desperately trying to distract himself from the knowledge of what that "Tonight, dear," from earlier meant. Cora didn't want to control his life, fortunately; she reserved that overbearing domination for her daughter's daily life, not his. That freedom would be useful when it came time to break the curse—necessary, actually. Cora was too smart to let it happen easily, and he and Regina had always known that they would have to shield the Savior as best they could if they wanted the curse to be broken at all. After all, Regina knew from personal experience just how vicious Cora could be.

And so did Gold, actually, and it was all Rumplestiltskin could do to keep himself from shuddering at that thought.

"I'm glad to hear it," Cora purred. "Don't sit down. Let's go upstairs."

Upstairs. Upstairs was better than downstairs, because Cora's bag of nastier tricks lived downstairs. Upstairs usually meant she just wanted sex, and even if that was preferable to the alternative, it still made Rumplestiltskin's stomach roll. Looking at her smile made his eyes narrow, and Rumplestiltskin thanked his lucky stars that Gold hadn't liked this arrangement, either. Of course, Gold hadn't known about the magic that forced him to join her when he heard those particular words, but he'd known something made him keep coming back to her. Gold had thought it was just an unhealthy habit. Gold had been wrong.

Cora leaned forward to kiss him when he dug his heels in, her hands flat against his chest. "Don't be difficult," she murmured. "Now, if you please."

That magic hit hard, and almost made his feet start moving on his own. But Gold had been prone to resisting, too, even if Rumplestiltskin knew it was pointless. "And if I want to be difficult?" he asked tightly.

"Then we'll go downstairs," was the blunt reply.

"There's no need for that." He didn't like the way sudden fear made him shiver, but Cora clearly did; she licked her lips.

"Oh, but I think there is. You're in a mood tonight, aren't you?" The fingers of her left hand touched his face, feather light, while her right hand moved downwards, undoing his belt.

"Long day at the shop," Rumplestiltskin tried to deflect her, tensing.

"Hmm. What a pity. Downstairs it is."

"Cora—"

"Now."

The word tugged on the magic inherent in the curse itself, and forced his feet into motion. Rumplestiltskin gritted his teeth—Gold would have been furiously unhappy, too, thankfully—and headed down the stairs, hating Cora's basement haunt more than ever now that he was stuck with a lame leg for the first time in three centuries. She knew he hated that, of course, because Gold had, but she was patient enough, floating down the stairs behind him like they were about to meet for some sort of romantic if twisted tryst. Cora knew it was nothing of the sort, of course; she'd never been the sort to delude herself. No, she was reveling in her power, reveling in how she could force him to her will and even curtail his resistance. Her commands did not last too long—or at least the "now" one didn't; the other seemed to last the night, unfortunately—but they did the job well enough.

Briefly, Rumplestiltskin contemplated using his own caveat to get himself out of this situation, but he discarded the notion just as quickly. If he did, particularly now, Cora would begin to suspect. Gold had used a please on her once or twice by accident, but had never caught on to exactly what that word did; usually, he'd been too…out of sorts…when he'd used the word to notice anything else. But Gold hadn't been the type of man who asked for anything, and he certainly didn't enjoy pleading. Which meant any use of it now would only show Rumplestiltskin's hand far sooner than he wanted it to.

That meant he had to go along with this. No matter how painful it got.

4 Days Before the Curse:

Like mother, like daughter. Regina also chose to disguise herself as a rat, although at least she was less theatrical about appearing once the guards were gone. Rumplestiltskin left the tray of maggoty food on the ground where the guard had thrown it; his curse meant he didn't need to eat, and he certainly had no desire to eat that. Besides which, unexpected visitors were so much more interesting.

"I'm surprised you're still here," the "Dark Princess" said by way of greeting, flicking her eyes at the tray. "How appetizing."

"How nice of you to visit me, dearie," he giggled with perhaps too much madness. The time stuck in solitary confinement was really beginning to grate, particularly when he knew the end was so close. Cora was making her lists and tying things up, preparing to break Regina's heart once and for all. Regina didn't know that, of course, and Rumplestiltskin couldn't afford to tell her. So he laughed.

"Cut the crap, Rumple," his student snapped. "I don't have much time."

"Oh, of course you don't." He cocked his head at her. "Can't have your sister knowing that you're visiting the terrible prisoner."

"I still don't know why you got yourself locked up in the first place. I could have gotten Snow to tell me the name—I'm going to be Emma's aunt, after all. Why the theatrics?"

"Your mother, of course," he answered seriously. "Better for her to think me powerless, or at least…the enemy of her enemy. And best to leave you out of this completely, I think."

"It's your plan," she sighed. "I don't like it, though. Are you sure we can't just stop the curse? That would be a lot easier than making sure it's broken."

Rumplestiltskin shook his head. "The curse will be cast." I need it to be cast, he didn't say. "But wouldn't you rather it be under controlled circumstances? To knowwho can break it?"

Regina waved a dismissive hand. "Yes, yes. I know the arguments. Fine. I'm in. I'll even commit my niece's name to memory so that I can wake up from whatever nightmare Mother puts me in. Then what?"

"Then we talk," he answered seriously, all high-pitched and giggling mannerisms of the imp gone. "Find me when the Savior arrives. Waste no time."

Regina did not waste time. Aching and uncomfortable, never having even made it home the night before, Rumplestiltskin—Gold—opened his pawnshop the next morning with a scowl on his face. The mayor's daughter turned out to be his first customer, dressed immaculately for the job she was already late for. Regina, of course, was Storybrooke's chief administrative officer, or her mother's principal assistant. Cora would have accepted nothing less for her daughter when she built the curse, Rumplestiltskin reflected, just like she'd plunged her stepdaughter into misery and poverty while she married off Regina to the man she'd wanted her daughter to marry so many years before.

That marriage was twisted, even for Cora, and Rumplestiltskin didn't envy Regina for having woken up inside it. He was just grateful that he hadn't come to and found himself married to Cora, because that was the only thing he could think of that would be worse than the events of the previous night.

"You knew!" Regina snarled by way of greeting. "You could have told me!"

"Knew what, dear?" He cocked his head at her curiously, just to watch her fume. Sometimes poking the infamous Mills temper was amusing, and it was far safer to do it to the woman who didn't have such a hold over him.

"You knew that she was Henry's mother when you set that adoption up. You let me adopt my sister's grandson—David's grandson!—and didn't say a damn word. How could you?"

Perhaps he had stoked that temper enough for one day. "I hate to disappoint you, Regina, but I didn't know. I was as under the curse as much you were until last night."

"There's no way you didn't set this up. It's too perfect."

Rumplestiltskin shrugged. "Believe what you will, but as you say, it is rather perfect. I trust you convinced your unexpected houseguest to stay for a while?"

"David talked her into staying a few days so Henry could get to know her. Apparently she's a 'bail-bondswoman' or something, and her job lets her travel," Regina replied with a sigh. "But I doubt that'll be long enough."

"No, it won't," he agreed unhappily. "Your mother is far too clever for that."

"Says the man who spent the night at her house last night. Weren't you two over long before the curse?"

"Rather," Rumplestiltskin replied dryly, trying not to think about the night before. He'd tried not to anger Cora. Really, he had. But stopping himself from mouthing off to her had been hard. His only consolation was that apparently Gold had moments like that, too—Gold was him, after all, for all he was different—but that also meant that Cora was an expert at beating those moments out of him. Well, not beating per se, but she certainly knew how to cause pain that didn't leave lasting marks. Cora had discovered far too many 'toys' here in the Land Without Magic, and Rumplestiltskin was already beginning to regret letting her cast the curse. Regina would have been so much better.

"Then why the hell did David see your car there when he went for a run this morning?" Regina demanded pointedly.

"It's complicated, and that's all you need to know."

"Gee, that's helpful, Rumple. Sell me something else." She rolled her eyes. "Look, you can keep your damn secrets. I just want to know what your end goal is. Are you still on board with breaking the curse, or are you my mother's newest happy little boy toy?"

Quashing his temper took an effort, and even then his fury colored his tone: "Is that what you take me for? Do you know me so little as that?"

"I don't know. You're the one sleeping with my mother," Regina shot back.

"That was not my idea, dearie," Rumplestiltskin snapped before he could stop himself. "Your mother cast the curse. Storybrooke was made in accordance with her desires. She placed us all like pieces on a board—you married to your brother-in-law and me with her. Do you want to be married to David Nolan?"

"Of course not!"

"Well, there you have it then."

She glared; he glared. Yelling at one another had become a major part of their relationship, but that was hardly unexpected. Rumplestiltskin supposed that he should have expected some sort of reaction like this out of her, but truth be told, he hadn't really gotten past his own reactions. Rumplestiltskin didn't want to examine his own feelings on the matter, didn't want to think about how he felt after having been tied down to a bed in Cora's basement for the night and—

Don't think about it. Dwelling on it will not make things better.

He had to tell himself that. Otherwise he'd continue on the downward spiral Gold had already been in the midst of…and Rumplestiltskin would not allow himself to do that. Gold had been a mess inside, masking it with nastiness and sarcasm, damaged and frightened too often. Rumplestiltskin, however, was not human. He could deal with the worst Cora had to offer and come out of it on top.

He had to.

Her life had become seriously weird. First, the son she had almost (but never, not really, not for a single moment) forgotten she had shown up on her doorstep in Boston. On her birthday. Right after she'd wished not to spend the day alone. And then he had insisted that she take him home—saying that he'd say she kidnapped him if she tried to call the police, smart little bastard that he was—so that he could get to know her. Even worse, the kid claimed that he lived in a town full of fairy tale characters! And of course, his grandmother was the Evil Queen, right out of Snow White. Poisoned apples and all, apparently.

The only thing that would have been better than that would be if he claimed his adopted mother was the Evil Queen. Now that would have been ironic, particularly because the woman in question seemed to be perfectly nice, even taking her understandable freak out into account. Emma supposed that if she'd gotten a kid in a closed adoption, and then that kid's birth mother showed up with no warning, she'd probably have freaked out a little bit, too. Regina had recovered pretty damn quickly, all in all, and Emma found that she didn't even really dislike her kid's mother. She liked David better, of course—he was hard not to like, just an all around nice and friendly man—but it seemed like Henry had pretty good parents. She'd wondered from time to time who her son had wound up with, if he was happy, and Emma was glad to find out that she hadn't been lying to herself when she'd told herself he had to be.

The Nolans had even offered her a room to sleep in, and Emma always kept a change of clothes in her trunk of the bug. She could buy whatever else she needed, stay for a week or so to make sure Henry was really happy, get to know him a little, and then head back to Boston. Simple.

"Look!" Henry pointed, grabbing her hand. Emma was supposed to be walking him to the bus, but somehow she got the feeling that she was being dragged into a tour of the town instead.

"At what, kid?"

"At the clock tower!" Henry said, and Emma heard the duh in the ten year old voice.

Henry pointed, and Emma finally followed his gaze to look at the clock tower. It looked perfectly normal to her, ticking away every second like any other old-fashioned clock Emma had ever seen. She shrugged. "What's the big deal?"

"It's moving," the kid said as if that was somehow important.

"And? Clocks are supposed to move. That's how they work."

"Don't you see? It never has. Because of the curse, time wasn't moving in Storybrooke. I was the only one aging," Henry told her, his eyes wide with a mixture of surprise and joy. "But now time is finally moving, and all because you stayed."

His smile was infectious, and Emma hardly had the heart to tell him: "Don't put this on me, kiddo. I'm sure that the clock repairman finally just did his job."

"That's Marco, but he's really Geppetto. You know, from 'Pinocchio'. And he definitely hasn't been up there."

"You've got an answer for everything, don't you, kid?" she sighed.

"Yup!" Finally, Henry seemed to find his bus, and he rushed on board when it stopped, waving at Emma. "See you this afternoon, Emma!"

Waving back, she bit back the urge to just run away. She had no idea what she was doing here or where this was going to leave, but Emma had promised to stay for a week to get to know the boy she'd given up. She owned Henry at least that much, but then she was going to get out of his life and let his parents raise him. Oh, if Henry wanted, she'd exchange emails with him from time to time. Maybe she'd even get him birthday and Christmas gifts; now he had a face and he was real, so Emma supposed that was the least she could do. But no more. After this week, she was gone.

Then she could go back to Boston and stop listening to this insanity about curses, Evil Queens, and people without memories. Then life could get back to normal.

"What are you doing, darling?"

The familiar voice made Regina look up, and she almost snapped something very regrettable at her mother before she managed to remind herself that she was in Storybrooke, not the Enchanted Forest. Her mother had crafted herself the perfect, obedient daughter with the curse, one who helped Cora, never questioned her, and married who she had been told to marry. Maybe Rumple had a point. They had to keep pretending until it was too late. After all, Rumplestiltskin had never told Cora who could break the Dark Curse; he'd saved that tidbit for Snow, Charming, and Regina. Cora thought that Snow had lost her baby in the hours before the curse. Regina had made sure of that when she ran into Cora as her mother strode into the Charmings' castle ahead of the curse cloud to proclaim her victory.

"Are you happy, Mother?" Regina demanded, only half faking her heartbreak. If how her mother had cast the curse wasn't bad enough already, now everyone else was doomed to have their happy endings ripped away, too, including her beloved sister.

"Happy about what, dear?" Cora strode forward surrounded by guards, clad all in regal purple and red, looking every inch the queen.

"You've won! We've lost everything. Snow even lost the baby because of you!"

"Did she?" her mother purred, and part of Regina knew that Cora's smile was a victory for them. "I'll have to work that into her miserable fate."

"Isn't ruining everyone's lives enough?" she demanded. "Why the curse? Why can't you just leave us alone?"

"You're my daughter, Regina. I'll never leave you alone."

"I'm looking over the accounts so that we're prepared at the next city council meeting, of course," Regina answered her waiting mother. Cora was dressed as the Mayor, not the Evil Queen, but her suits still tended towards dark purples and grays. Or maroon. She did love red, Cora did.

"How lovely. Did you find any discrepancies?"

"Not since you took Mr. Dougal to court for embezzlement. No one dares," she said as dutifully as she could manage. Just looking at her mother made her want to scream. How could Cora stand there as if she was wholly innocent of making everyone miserable? Then again, knowing Mother, she's quite happy with what she's done to everyone, especially poor Snow. She probably thinks they all deserve it. Cora was probably happy to victimize even poor Old King Cole, or City Councilor Julian Dougal in Storybrooke, who had certainly not been guilty of embezzlement. He'd just annoyed Cora.

"Of course not. But that's not what I was asking about, Regina." The edge in Cora's voice was hard to miss, and Regina sat up straight.

"Then what is it?" she asked, trying for non-confrontational.

"You have a houseguest you didn't tell me about."

Regina blinked. "That was fast. Ms. Swan just came to town last night."

This can't be happening. How can she know already? This entire plan is going to go to pieces before we're even a day into breaking the curse. But no. She was overreacting, wasn't she? Cora was just being paranoid. As usual.

"We don't often get visitors here, darling. I'm simply curious about what she's doing here." Cora's fake smile had to be patented, didn't it?

Tell the truth or lie? Or use the truth to mask the more dangerous aspects of Emma's presence? Regina only had a split second to decide, and the words came out almost before she'd finished making up her mind. "She's Henry's mother."

"She's what?"

"Henry's birth mother," Regina said as nonchalantly as she could manage. Her mother was starting to sound possessive, which almost made Regina laugh out loud. Henry was her son, and Cora only showed interest in him when she felt that Regina was doing something wrong. "Henry tracked her down, and David and I decided that it would be good for Henry to get to know her. Ms. Swan isn't interested in raising him, but she promised to stay a week for Henry's sake."

"Did she? I'm not sure that's such a good idea." Under the curse, that hint in her mother's voice would have been enough to make Regina backpedal from any idea she had, but today she felt a little more independent.

So she smiled at her mother as innocently as she could. "It's only a week, Mama. What harm can she do?"

Author's Note: Thank you again for all the lovely reviews! As you're waiting for the next chapter, think on these questions: 1) How long will it take before Cora realizes that Emma is Snow's supposedly dead child and 2) What will Rumplestiltskin do now that he's awake?

Stay tuned for Chapter Four: "No More Happy Endings", where Lacey calls Gold, Regina and Henry try to make Emma believe, and Regina tells Henry a secret. Back in the past, Belle returns to the Dark Castle after Rumplestiltskin lets her go.