Chapter Eight—"The Truth"

"You've reached Mr. Gold," the familiar voice said. "Leave a message."

Sighing, Lacey hung up the phone. Again. She knew that he would have recognized her number, and after three calls during the last hour, Gold would certainly have been near his cell phone for one of them. He was probably in the shop, too, but that didn't help when he wouldn't talk to her. Gold had said that he needed her to be safe, and that Lacey had to stay away from him for that reason, but she didn't understand any of that. He'd started avoiding her—and hanging up on her—over a week ago (nine days, now, actually)—and Lacey was going to go mad if he didn't stop. She missed him. Gold was irritable, sharp-edged, and downright nasty at times, but she loved him. Lacey didn't always know why, but she loved him more than almost anything in the world.

"Mama?" a small voice asked, and Lacey bent down to pick up her daughter as Renee toddled towards her.

"Hello, angel," she said with a smile, banishing her loneliness and her worries from her expression. Renee was just old enough that she was starting to pick up on such things, and Lacey didn't want to have to explain why one of Renee's favorite people was ignoring them both.

"Bake?"

Lacey almost said no, but big brown eyes were fixated on her, round and hopeful, and how could any mother ignore that? Renee's favorite purple stuffed crocodile still dangled from one hand, but the three year old used her other hand to pull gently on Belle's hair, still looking at her intently.

"Oh, all right," she sighed. "Cookies or brownies?"

Renee had a serious sweet tooth, though where she'd gotten it, Lacey didn't know. Lacey tried to limit her daughter's intake of sugar and sweets, but sometimes she just gave in. Bad days were always the hardest for her to resist on, and today was extra bad.

"Cookies!" Renee said cheerfully, and Lacey managed to smile. Gold was being a jerk—or paranoid and frightened, more likely—but she still had the most perfect little girl in the known universe.

"Cookies it is," she agreed. "I'll make 'em, you decorate them, okay?"

"Okay! Can I have sprinkles?"

"Of course you can."

So, Lacey got out the cookie dough and sprinkles, and together they started making chocolate chip cookies complete with rainbow-colored sprinkles. Usually, she would have used sugar cookies, but she'd run out of those last week and hadn't managed to buy any more. Besides, she knew that Renee would like them regardless. Lacey had yet to find a type of sweet that her daughter didn't like, although her absolute favorite was probably the expensive chocolates that Gold imported from England. Now he had a sweet tooth to match Renee's; Lacey couldn't hold a candle to either of them when it came to eating junk, and she really did like chocolate and candy herself. But the pair of them were in another category entirely.

Renee was almost done decorating the cookies when a knocking came on their apartment door. Immediately, Renee looked up at her mother with hopeful eyes. "Gold?" she asked.

"I don't think so, angel," Lacey answered regretfully, a painful fist wrapping around her heart. She pasted on a happy smile. "But we should go see who it is, right?"

At least Renee was a cheerful child, and she liked most people that came to the library. Lacey couldn't afford daycare for her beautiful little girl, so she usually brought her down to work with her, although they didn't get a lot of visitors at the apartment. "Right!"

Wiping off her hands, Lacey picked Renee up again and balanced her on one hip. Renee was getting a bit too big to haul around all the time, but she still liked carrying her baby around. Besides, Lacey hauled boxes of books around most days, and some of them were every bit as heavy as Renee, or worse. Lacey might have been slight, but she was pretty strong for her size, and carrying her daughter was worth the effort. And it allowed Renee to use both her hands to open the door, which made Lacey smile.

The man on the other side of the door, however, did not.

"Tony," she greeted the strapping dark haired man with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to see if you wanted to go see a movie, Lace. Just the two of us, have some time out, y'know? I haven't seen you all week," Tony Rose replied.

She sighed. "You know I can't just drop everything on a moment's notice," Lacey tried to say as reasonably as she could. It was an ongoing argument between them; Tony never seemed to understand the responsibilities inherent in being a parent, and he didn't want to spend time with Renee, either. Everyone in town seemed to think that he had to be Renee's father, but Lacey knew better. Her memories on that front were rather foggy, but Lacey knew that Renee was nothing like Tony. "Besides, Renee and I have plans for tonight."

"We're making cookies!" the toddler volunteered, but without the invitation that she would have issued if Tony had been someone she liked.

Renee was a good judge of character, after all, and although Tony had been Lacey's friend for as long as she could remember, she rather thought her daughter was right about him. Even if Dad did want me to marry him, how could I marry someone so superficial?

"How…exciting," he replied dryly.

Lacey smiled her brightest smile, glancing down at Renee. "It is, isn't it, sweetheart?"

"Yes. But boys aren't allowed," her daughter replied solemnly, and Lacey had to bite back a laugh.

"I'm sorry, Tony, but the princess has spoken," she said, trying to look a little regretful for his sake. "We've got plans."

"Of course. I'll call you later, then," Tony said, as if he was expecting her to be excited about that. Of course, he'd always been a bit of an egotistical jock, but there were times Lacey wondered how he never got the message.

Then again, she never came out and actually told him that she didn't want to see him, so she supposed that was partially her fault.

"Sure," she replied, and closed the door before he could invite himself in. Thankfully, her three year old shield usually scared him off, so Lacey was able to go back to making cookies without any further interruptions.

3 Months Before the Curse

"Where's Papa?" the small voice asked as Belle sat helplessly at the spinning wheel, running her fingers over the wood.

Turning, she spotted her daughter as she toddled into the room, clad in a purple nightgown and soft blue slippers. Gabrielle was only three, and barely that, and explaining to her why her father had had to go away for several months had been one of the hardest things her parents had ever done. She was used to having her papa leave for a few days at a time, as was Belle, but now Rumplestiltskin had been gone for a week and they were both starting to get lonely. The Dark Castle was far too quiet without him.

"Hey, you," she said, standing up and going over to pick her daughter up. Gabrielle snuggled up to her immediately, sleepily sucking on her thumb. "Aren't you supposed to be in bed, Gabi?"

"Don't want do," Gabrielle muttered, pressing her face into Belle's shoulder. "Want Papa."

"Me, too," Belle whispered before she could stop herself. "But Papa explained why he had to go, remember? We'll see him again before you know it."

"Want him now," their daughter insisted, and Belle's heart melted as she carried Gabrielle upstairs towards the spacious nursery she and Rumplestiltskin had meticulously put together for their child before she was born. She was just glad that Rumple had managed not to get himself thrown in prison before their daughter's birthday. Explaining his absence on that special day would have been impossible.

"How about I tell you a story instead?" she suggested.

"Want Papa's stories. Papa's stories better."

"I miss him, too, sweetie," Belle admitted, swallowing back her own pain when she looked down to see tears glistening in her baby's eyes. "But we'll see him soon."

This had better be worth it, Rumple, she thought to herself. I am not facing twenty-eight years of the curse without you there, and I'm definitely not facing the aftermath without you. Belle knew that their current situation was necessary, and in the grand scheme of things, missing Rumple for three months while he let the Charmings think they had locked him up was nothing. They would have the rest of their lives together after he woke her in the Land Without Magic, and everything would turn out all right.

She had to believe that, or she would go insane.

"Your mother is crazy," Emma growled across the kitchen table. Mary Margaret was busy with parent-teacher conferences, which gave her a chance to talk with Regina and Henry without having to explain Henry's crazy theories to the woman she'd moved in with all of four days ago. "I mean absolutely certifiable. I've only been a deputy sheriff for three days and I already want to kill her."

Regina shrugged. "This is hardly news."

"She's the Evil Queen. What do you expect?" Henry put in, and Emma scowled.

"Kid, your grandmother doesn't have to be evil to be crazy," she pointed out, wishing that every conversation with Henry didn't somehow come around to his theory about this curse.

"What'd she do this time?" Regina asked, sounding tired of it all. And Emma could hardly blame her—after all, what must it have been like to be raised by a woman like Cora Mills? Thinking like that made Emma a little glad that she hadn't been adopted. Someone crazy might have grabbed her instead of someone like Regina.

"She wanted me to arrest Doctor Whale for being drunk and disorderly."

"That's not a surprise," Regina replied with an eye roll as Henry asked curiously:

"Was he?"

"Drunk, sure. Not terribly disorderly. Though he was flirting like mad with that librarian, what's-her-name?"

"Lacey French," Regina supplied.

"She's Beauty from Beauty and the Beast," Henry added, and Emma sighed.

"Is it always fairy tales with you, kid?" she asked before she could stop herself.

She was expecting some sort of explosion, expecting Henry to be hurt by her words. She wasn't anticipating the intensity of his response, however. "Of course it is," Henry said hotly. "This is important, Emma. Everyone here is depending on you to break the curse. They don't know it, but their lives were stolen from them, and you're the only chance they have to get them back!"

The outburst left Emma speechless for a moment, and she could only stare at the stubborn and imaginative child she had given birth to. He believed this so strongly that even after almost two weeks in Storybrooke, he could utterly astound her with his faith. Henry was so absolutely certain that everyone in his hometown was under a curse, but that was utterly impossible. Magic didn't exist in the real world. People couldn't cast curses. As odd as Storybrooke was—and Emma did have to admit that the town was weird—what Henry believed flat out wasn't possible.

"Henry…" she started, trying to say this as gently as she could, all the while remembering what Regina had said Henry's therapist believed. Should she humor him instead of trying to be the voice of reason? Regina seemed to be trying that tact, and maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.

"You don't believe me," Henry cut in. "That's okay. You haven't been here very long. You'll see."

Helplessly, Emma looked at Regina, but the dark haired woman (or semi-evil princess, according to Henry) just shrugged. But then she said something that rocked Emma's entire world. "Henry's right, you know. It isn't just a storybook."

Emma's jaw almost dropped off her face, and a long moment passed before she could find her voice.

"What?"

"I wasn't wholly truthful with you before, Emma, but it's time that you knew everything," the mayor's daughter said bluntly. "Henry's book may tell stories, but it tells true stories. It tells all of our stories. Even yours."

Wide eyed, all Emma could do was stare as Regina took the book from Henry, opening it to the story at the end that Henry always tried to use to convince Emma that he was right. There was a picture on the page Regina chose, one of a mother with her newborn child. Emma knew that picture, knew that the man at the woman's side was supposedly her father (who was supposedly David Nolan, which was just plain strange), and that the baby was supposed to be her. There was another woman in the picture, however, one with long dark hair who stood on the other side of the bed, and it was that woman Regina pointed at.

"This is me," Regina told her. "I was there. I remember everything about that life, and I have since you arrive. My mother cast this horrible curse to enact revenge on my stepsister—your mother—and on everyone else she believed had slighted her. And you are the only one who can break it."

Emma gulped. "Look, I'm just a foster kid from the system. I don't have any fairy tale beginning. I'm no Savior. I'm just…me."

"And that's what we need." Regina grabbed her arm when Emma started to pull away, and the other woman's grip was surprisingly strong. "Look, I'm not asking you for belief right now. Just…keep an open mind."

Was everyone in this town crazy? Henry believing in this was one thing, but the fact that his mother—who Emma had figured to be the sane woman in that family—also believed was just too much. Emma's first instinct told her to run, told her to put as much distance between herself and this crazy town as she could, but Henry was staring at her with huge brown eyes, and how could she do that to him? Besides, she'd just started a new job four days ago, and although Emma had held some jobs for really short periods, none of those had been honest. It would hardly look good on her resume to quit this one so early, and her stuff had just arrived yesterday.

"Do you have any idea how crazy you sound?" she finally demanded, out of diplomatic ways to say that.

"Do you have any idea how hard it was not telling you that for the last two weeks?" Regina countered, rolling her eyes. "And if you think I sound crazy, you should try having two lives rolling around in your head. Sometimes I think it's a wonder I haven't gone insane."

"Are you sure about that?" Emma couldn't help asking drily.

Henry looked horrified, but Regina snorted wryly. "You have no idea."

They stared at one another in silence for a long moment, and Regina finally shrugged.

"I know this sounds insane to you," she continued. "It would sound insane to me if I hadn't lived it. But I did, and you're going to, whether you like it or not. The curse won't let you leave for good, so you're stuck here like the rest of us."

"I swerved into a street sign to avoid hitting a wolf," Emma objected. "That's not some mythical curse keeping me from leaving town."

"Fine. Then try again." There was something fed up, something I-know-better-than-you-know, in Regina's expression that just got under Emma's skin, and before she knew it, she was snapping:

"I will!"

"Go ahead. Just try not to total your car this time."

Emma scowled. "I didn't total it last time. And it's fine now."

"Go on then," Regina goaded her. "Try to leave, and then we'll talk again."

Regina took Henry home after Emma stormed out of the apartment she shared with Snow—err, Mary Margaret. Henry protested, of course, but Regina reassured him that Emma would be back. Her niece was just so hard-headed that she needed to see this for herself, and the curse would prove it to her when it wouldn't let her leave. Or at least it will if Rumple's right, she thought to herself as they settled in at the kitchen table for homework time. He'd better be right. Then again, he's been right about everything else so far. Snow used to tell Regina that she shouldn't trust Rumplestiltskin the way she did, but she had a different relationship with the imp than her sister did. Snow didn't really know Rumple, whereas Regina did, and she knew how many brains he used to hide behind that scaly exterior. He wasn't a 'good guy' by any stretch of the imagination, but then again, Regina wasn't really one, either. But they had been in this together from the beginning.

Noticing that Henry was flipping through the Book again broke her out of her reverie. "Aren't you supposed to be doing your math homework?" she asked her son.

"Sorry. I just had a thought about Jane Doe in the hospital," Henry said brightly. "What if she's Sleeping Beauty?"

"You can look it up later," Regina reminded him. "Homework now."

The sound of the front door opening interrupted before Henry could respond, so he called out: "We're in the kitchen!"

It was a little early for David to be home—one of his assistants at the animal shelter had called in sick, so he was working the late shift and feeding the animals—but Regina thought nothing of it until a familiar voice asked: "What are you reading, Henry?"

They both froze; son's eyes met mother's, and Henry answered quickly:

"Just a book, Grandma. Nothing important."

Regina picked up immediately: "And you need to be doing your homework. Why don't you take it upstairs?"

"Good idea," Henry agreed, probably a little too fast. Immediately, he started gathering up his school supplies—and the book—while Regina turned to look at Cora.

"What brings you by so late, Mother?" she asked as mildly as she could manage. "Not that it isn't wonderful to see you, but this is unexpected."

Something flashed in Cora's eyes, and Regina kicked herself mentally. She had to be careful. Her cursed self probably would not have questioned Cora at all, even such an inoffensive question as that one.

"Can't I visit my family like any loving grandmother?" Cora asked with a viper's smile, leaning over to kiss Henry on the cheek. The affectionate gesture was out of character for her, however, and Regina realized with a sinking heart what Cora was doing without being able to stop her. One manicured hand landed on the Book, turning it towards her, and Cora frowned. "Once Upon a Time," she read aloud. "Aren't you a little too old for fairy tales, dear?"

Henry frowned. "I'm only ten."

"I thought you'd be interested in more exciting tales by now. Something like those comic books you used to like."

"I still like comic books. I can like both," Regina's adopted son replied stoically, one hand gripping the Book protectively.

But Cora was older and stronger, and Henry couldn't yank the Book away without drawing even more attention to it. Regina knew that she had never been particularly pleased with Regina and David's desire to adopt a child. Oh, she'd been caring enough with Henry over the years (barely), but now that Regina was awake, she realized how her mother had always viewed Henry: the consequence of allowing her daughter and son-in-law a little bit of growth within the curse. Cora hadn't appreciated the idea of no time moving at all, so she'd allowed some people to change a little. Regina's cursed self, of course, had wanted a child desperately, though that had probably been Cora's doing, too. But since the curse would not allow for a pregnancy, the only answer had been adoption.

Still smiling, Cora pulled the Book from Henry's hands and flipped it open. "How quaint," she said softly, her eyes flicking rapidly over the first few pages. "And rather battered. Regina, darling, surely you can afford better books for Henry if he insists on reading such children's tales."

"She didn't buy it for me," Henry scowled. "I got it from the library."

"Oh, did you now?" Cora purred.

"Mother, I think it's time for Henry to do homework, don't you?" Regina cut in, trying her hardest to sound like Cora's well behaved and cursed daughter.

"Of course. May I borrow your book, Henry? Just for a few minutes." The smile was dangerous, but what could Henry say? There was no way to argue with Cora without giving the game away, so he had to nod.

"I'll be upstairs, I guess," the ten year old replied uneasily, but he did glance over his shoulder at Regina with pleading eyes. She tried to give him a reassuring look in return, but could say nothing as Henry tromped up the stairs, shoulders hunched and angry.

Cora waited until he was gone to say: "I don't approve of this, Regina."

"Approve of what, Mother?" Slowly, Regina rose to look her mother in the eye, trying to still act meek and well-behaved. "It's only stories. He'll grow out of them soon enough."

"I would hope so," Cora looked up at her, eyes dark and unreadable, yet still dangerous. "Nevertheless, you'll put a stop to this. I will return the book to the library."

Taking a deep breath, Regina said cautiously. "That might not be the best idea. Henry is at the age where he will only get more interested if you take the book away."

"Are you questioning my good judgment, darling?"

Impossible to miss the warning in that tone. It would have made Regina's cursed self turn to jelly.

"Of course not, Mother," she replied quickly. "I only…well, if you want him to lose interest…" She trailed off, hoping that Cora would connect the dots herself. And not take the book.

"I will handle this, since you are clearly incapable of doing so," her mother told her, and Regina knew that fighting would be foolish. Hopefully, Cora would return the book, and Regina would be able to get it back. If not, well, she remembered what had happened well enough, and Rumplestiltskin could undoubtedly fill in anything she missed.

"As you wish. I don't mean to argue."

"Good girl," Cora praised her, leaning in to kiss Regina on the cheek before she gathered the Book up. "I will see you at the office tomorrow."

"Good night, Mother," she said tonelessly, and showed Cora to the door.

12 ½ Years Before the Curse

He didn't expect her to show up for her lesson in tears.

Rumplestiltskin had enchanted one of Regina's necklaces to give her a one-way transport to the Dark Castle for lessons—he couldn't exactly show up anywhere near the Summer Palace to teach her, lest Cora notice, and he wasn't going to play chauffer every time she needed a ride before she learned to teleport for herself. Besides, when and if Regina could get away from her overbearing mother was always hard to predict, so it was easier to give her a way to bring herself to him when she was ready to learn. The spells he used always gave him enough warning to be ready to greet her, which meant Rumplestiltskin was waiting in the great hall when she arrived, but he still hadn't expected her to be crying.

Oh, it wasn't full-blown sobs or anything quiet so disappointing as that, but Regina's eyes were definitely glistening with tears and there were suspicious wet tracks gleaming on her cheeks. One look at him made her gulp, and Regina immediately turned away, wrapping her arms around herself. Several minutes passed in silence—what was he supposed to do with a crying princess?—while Rumplestiltskin racked his brain for something appropriate to say. He wasn't the comforting sort, and he certainly wasn't her father, even though he very well could have been if things had worked out differently. He was the Dark One! If a princess was in tears, she should be there because he made her cry, not because he was apparently the one she went to when she was crying.

"I don't know if I want to do this," she whispered raggedly.

"Uh…do what, exactly?" he asked her back, shifting nervously. Crying princesses were not his specialty, unless it was mocking them. And instinct told him that mocking her would probably not turn out well right now.

After all, he was trying to turn Regina into something of a wildcard. She was never going to cast his curse, and a long time would pass before she escaped the hold her mother had on her, but once she did, the still-weeping princess was bound to be extraordinary. He would need her against her mother in the long run, would use her as a means with which to ensure the Dark Curse—almost completed now, save for a few key components and a few twists that Cora casting it would necessitate he include—was eventually broken. But that meant they would have to work together, and that necessitated a certain degree of trust between them. And despite himself, after a half year of teaching Regina, he was growing…fond of her.

"Magic!" Regina spat as if it was a dirty word.

"Wh—What?" Surprise jerked that response out of him. She couldn't do that! He was going to need her, and without magic, Regina was never going to feel strong enough to stand up to her mother.

"It's all darkness!" She whirled on him, tears streaming faster down her face. "I don't want to be evil. I don't care about power. I just want to protect those I love."

Rumplestiltskin blinked. That was the key, wasn't it? Cora wanted Regina to embrace darkness and power, because that was all Cora cared about. Regina, however, was much more her father's daughter. Regina wanted love. After all, Prince Henry had tried to love even Cora, had been loyal to her no matter what she had done to him, and had made his daughter the center of his world when Cora proved time and again she would not love him back. Possibilities flashed through Rumplestiltskin's mind, and he knew what he had to do. Be a counter to Cora, he told himself. Show her how to embrace the strengths Cora doesn't know she has.

Slowly, as cautiously as he would approach a wounded animal, Rumplestiltskin stepped forward. "Who says magic cannot do that, dearie?" he asked softly.

"What do you mean?" She peered at him suspiciously.

"Magic isn't only darkness, Regina," Rumplestiltskin replied seriously, reaching out to touch her arm gently. "Magic can protect as well as it can destroy, heal as well as it can hurt."

"I'm not sure I believe you."

A slight smile touched his lips. "What did she make you do?"

"Rip a servant's heart out. Like she did with Daniel," Regina whispered brokenly. "And then she made me crush it."

"Tsk, tsk," he giggled shortly. "Your mother's a fool. There's much more to magic than that."

Regina swallowed her tears. "Like what?"

"She's teaching you to hurt people, yes?" he asked, and she nodded. "Well, then, I shall show you how to heal them."

Her nod was hesitant, but a little hopeful, and soon enough Regina's tears dried. She threw herself into learning, and Rumplestiltskin made sure to teach her well. Had he been crafting her to cast the curse, he would never have encouraged her to embrace emotions like love and the need to protect people, but that ship had sailed. Regina was never going to cast his curse; Cora was the only option remaining. For a while, he had thought that Zelena might be another option—he'd taught her when she'd shown up in the Enchanted Forest, but by the time she'd left for Oz in a huff, he'd been glad to see her go. She'd been less sane than her mother and almost as unpredictable, and having his own heart used to cast the curse had not been any part of Rumplestiltskin's plans. Zelena would have been less dangerous than Cora and far easier to manipulate, but he couldn't take that chance.

That left him with Regina as a student while Zelena wreaked havoc in Oz, slowly exiling her "sister" witches and establishing her own rule over the place. He had no doubt that she'd eventually return to the Enchanted Forest, undoubtedly to seek her mother out, but he'd given Zelena enough warnings about Cora to ensure she'd not do so until she felt she could impress the woman who had given her up. Regina didn't know about her real sister, however, and Rumplestiltskin had no intention of telling her. That was Cora's problem, and Cora was not likely to want her bastard daughter united with her legitimate one. Meanwhile, he would continue to teach Regina, help her recover from Cora's wrath, and plan for the future.

Well. She had always known that any curse Rumplestiltskin created had to be tricky, so Cora supposed that she should not be surprised. It was something of a miracle that the first wrinkle had waited so long to show up, and that it was as minor as a book full of so-called 'fairy tales' that were poorly disguised stories from their world. Flipping through the book told her that the stories were slightly skewed versions of the truth, ones that built up her foolish stepdaughter as a hero and Cora as a villain. As children's stories, Cora supposed they served well enough, but she would not have her grandson reading such filth. Henry was impressionable enough as it was, particularly with his indecisive father and cursed mother.

Hm. Regina had been acting out a little more lately; was that another sign of time moving, or was this something else? Cora would need to study her daughter further to determine what was happening, but if there was anything she had a plethora of in Storybrooke, it was time. She had not expected Regina to act like this, however, so she would have to decide if it was time to tweak the curse slightly. Perhaps she would turn a school bully on Henry, one whom the administrators there could not stop, forcing Regina to remember that her mother did indeed have the answers to her problems. Or perhaps she should just further encourage David to discipline Henry, pulling the boy away from foolish books that he need not be interested in.

Upon walking into her own mansion, Cora dropped the fairy tale book on the front table. She didn't need to read the entire book to know what was in there, and had no desire to. She remembered well enough. In the morning, she would take it back to the library and give it back to the promiscuous librarian.

Belle, her memory supplied. The girl was one of those whom Cora had known nothing about prior to casting the curse; the daughter of a minor knight was hardly worth a queen's attention. But here in Storybrooke she had grown much more interesting. Somehow Lacey French had managed to catch Gold's eye, and Cora had watched their illicit relationship with much amusement over the years. The more she hurt Gold, the more quickly he turned to Lacey, and they both thought they were hiding it from her, the fools.

Still, Lacey was easy enough to intimidate, and she'd make sure the foolish librarian kept unsuitable books away from Henry in the future. That would be a simple task to accomplish come tomorrow.

Author's Note: Thank you again to everyone who has left a review—particularly to the guest reviewers who I can't respond to with a PM. However, for the reviewer who was concerned that Jefferson is raping Mary Margaret, no, he isn't. He's just stalking her and being creepy. Their relationship started consensual (or at least as consensual as it can get when they're cursed), but nothing like that has happened since she dumped him.

For the other guest who asked about David's age, I've put him about two years older than Snow. He's too young for Regina back when Cora first tries to set them up in the Enchanted Forest, but Cora doesn't care. Also, for anyone who is confused - Keith Law is the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Next up is Chapter Nine: "Hope Amidst Darkness", in which Cora tries to bully Lacey, Henry tries to get the Book back, and Ashley Boyd maces Gold. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Rumplestiltskin and Belle plan to get married, and he takes her someplace utterly magical.