"Gold!" Regina called as she stormed into the pawn shop. "Gold! Where the hell are you?"

She scanned the room as she heard some rustling coming from the back of the shop, and moments later someone popped out from the doorway.

"Belle?" Regina said, taken by surprise at the sight of her.

The brunette behind the counter narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Uh, Lacey," she corrected with a nervous laugh, before her eyes widen. "Oh, wait! Sorry, did you mean you're looking for a bell? A gold one?"

"What?" Regina asked, shaking her head. "No, I'm looking for… you work here?"

"Um, I own this shop," Lacey said, laughing again. "Mayor Mills, are you alright?"

Regina nodded quickly. "Yes. Fine. I'm sorry, I was just… nevermind."

Without another word, Regina turned on her heel and left the shop. After this morning, and now this, it was quite evident that something was very, very wrong with her curse. Belle wasn't supposed to be here; she was supposed to be locked in a mental institution. And Seth wasn't supposed to be awake. Emma was.

Regina was fuming as she got back into her Mercedes and took off in the direction of Storybrooke's hospital. If she were right, Rumple would have taken Belle's place there, and she really needed to see him.

And sure enough, once she got there and stormed past Nurse Ratched without even a second glance, that's where she found him.

"Gold!" Regina barked, slamming her hand against the door as she watched him through the tiny window.

"Can you not?" Nurse Ratched ask, walking up behind her.

"Open this door. I need to speak to Gold."

Nurse Ratched raised an eyebrow. "You know, a little manners go a long way, Madam Mayor."

Regina stiffened and clenched her teeth, before forcing a smile. "Will you please open the door?"

"Was that so hard?" Nurse Ratched asked, smiling sweetly, before retrieving her keyring from her pocket and selecting a key. She paused before putting it in the lock, and turned back to Regina. "Poor Mr. Gold's been out of sorts, lately, I'm afraid. We've been restricting his visitors. You have five minutes."

Regina let out an annoyed sigh and pushed the door open the second it was unlocked. Inside the small cell, she saw Rumple sitting on a cot, staring blankly at the wall before him. She jumped slightly as the door shut behind her, but she shook it off. Rumple didn't have his magic here. She had nothing to be afraid of.

Without wasting another moment, she made her way over to Rumple, and crouched down in front of him, meeting his eye level.

"Rumple," she said, simply.

If he knew who she was, or who he was himself, he didn't let on, as he stared right through her as though she wasn't there.

"Rumple!" Regina said again, sharper this time, as she snapped her fingers in front of his face. This seemed to draw him out of whatever stupor he was in, as she blinked a few times and his eyes seemed to focus on her.

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked quietly, slurring his words slightly in a way that made Regina think he must be on some sort of sedative medication.

"Rumple, I need your help. Something's wrong with your curse."

At this, Rumple let out a small laugh. "Who's Rumple, dearie?"

"I know you know who you are. You wouldn't have let me cast this curse if it were really going to put you to sleep. I can get you out of this cell, but I need you to focus and help me."

Rumple looked around the room he was in, as though he were taking it in for the very first time. "It's not a cell. This isn't a prison."

"Yes, it is. It's meant to be, anyway. But something went wrong. I think the curse went sour, and I don't know why. Nothing is as it should be. Was my father's heart not the key? After he was…" Regina's voice trailed off as it hit her. The heart of the thing she loved most was the key to casting the curse. At the time she'd killed her father, he most certainly had been the thing she loved most, but that was before Emma.

"Shit," she whispered to herself, as it all started to make sense. The curse had been practically expired, that had to be the problem. She hadn't thought her plan through, but she hadn't really had time to either.

"Is there something I can help you with, dearie?" Rumple asked, and Regina didn't detect a hint of malice in his voice. Maybe he really was asleep, and whether he'd planned it that way or that had been another flaw in the curse, it didn't matter anymore.

"No," Regina said, shaking her head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come here. I'll figure this out on my own. I just have to figure out a way to wake Emma up, and everything will be fine."

"Emma?" Rumple repeated, a strange glint in his eye as he tilted his head to the side.

"Time's up!" Nurse Ratched announced as she swung the door open again. "Sorry, Mayor Mills, you need to go."

Regina nodded and stood. There wasn't anything Rumple could do for her anyway.

"Wait! Wait!" she heard Gold cry from behind her as she made her way to the door. "Wait, come back, Your M-"

Regina jumped as the door slammed shut again, cutting Rumple off. She shuddered, knowing exactly what was about to come out of his mouth, but she shook it off. She had more important things to deal with now.

Regina ran a hand through her hair, smoothing out any strays, before knocking on the door of the Nolan loft. She'd spent the afternoon in her vault, working on a potion, and it was time to put it to use. It was only a few moments before the door swung open and Seth blinked at her, looking much less sure of himself than he had went he'd confronted her at her office earlier.

"So glad you made it home safely, Seth," Regina said with a cold smile.

"My father will be home from work soon, so you should leave," Seth said, straightening him stance.

"Oh, well I won't be here long. Are your mother and sister home?" Having just seen them at the diner, where they'd assured her Seth was home safely, she already knew the answer.

"They uh, they're uh…"

"Seth, I'm not here to hurt you. Even if I wanted to, we're in a different world now and I would never get away with it. You don't need to be afraid," Regina said. Truthfully, she really did have no desire to hurt Seth, but she needed to find a way around him and what he knew.

"Then why are you here?"

"I'd like to offer you a compromise. Do you know what that means?"

Seth shook his head. "Not really."

"Can I come in for a moment?"

Seth bit his lip as he stepped back, and allowed Regina inside. "Seth," Regina started, and nearly reached out to touch his face before she realized that would be a bad idea. "I'm really not as terrible as you think I am."

"You stole my heart!"

Regina shrugged. "A gave you a family, didn't I?"

"Yes, but-"

Regina put up a hand to stop him. "When I found you, you were half starved, wandering alone in the cold, in the dark. You were a child with no means to take care of yourself. How long do you think you could have survived out there on your own?"

Seth shrugged. "I would have found a way."

"Not likely. Yes, I took something from you, but I gave you something in return. If I hadn't have sent you to the White Palace, you never would have had a home, a family, safety."

"So what do you want now?"

"I want you to keep my secret."

Seth crossed his arms in front of him. "And I want you to stay away from my sister."

"Well, that's not going to happen, but I have a deal to offer you instead."

"What deal?"

"You've retained your memories of the old world, but you know nothing of realm. It won't take long for everyone to realize that. I can help you with that."

"Well, I figured out how to find you on my own," Seth pointed out.

"Do you know how to work a television? How to ride a bike? What a car is?"

Seth shifted his weight from one foot to the other, before shaking his head, no.

"That's what I thought." Regina reached into her pocket and pulled out a small vial.

"What's that?" Seth asked, instinctively taking a step back.

"It's a potion," Regina said, holding it up for him to see. "It will give you all the knowledge of this world, but it will take away all your memories of the Enchanted Forest."

"I won't drink it. You can't make me."

"Well, I could, but I'm not here to force you. I'm here to make a peace offering."

"I don't want it. I don't want to lose my memories."

"Just hear me out. Your memories will be replaced with new ones. Ones where you were never on your own. You'll have the same memories your parents and sister do now, where they took you in as a baby and you grew up happily in this home. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Seth bit his lip again, considering the idea. "But… what about my sister? If I forget, you'll take her away."

Regina sighed. "Emma doesn't remember me, Seth. She doesn't remember anything of her old life. All I am to her is the Mayor she barely knows. There's nothing left for Emma and me. Not together, anyway."

Seth swallowed, nodding. "And how do I know that potion is really what you say it is? How do I know it's not a trick?"

"Because, Emma may not remember me, but I remember her, and I would never hurt her. Therefore I can't hurt you. She loves you too much. It's up to you, Seth."

Seth let out a long sigh, and finally held out his hand for the vial. "Okay. I'll do it."

"That's a good boy," Regina said, handing him the vial. "Drink it quick, and it will only take a few moments to start working."

Seth pulled the cork out of the top and drank it all at once. A confused look washed over his face as he handed the empty vial back to Regina.

"Wait, I thought you said this was a deal? What do you get out of it?"

Regina smiled. "You, out of my way," she said, as he patted his cheek. "Now, how do you feel?"

Seth blinked a few times, looking lost. "Uh, Mayor Mills? What are you doing here?"

"I just stopped by to see if your sister was home."

"Oh, no, she's at the diner, I think."

"Well, alright. I'll try there."

"Yeah, cool."

Regina smiled. "Cool indeed."