Rumplestiltskin sat in the modest living room of Pip's apartment. The place was really quite tiny with two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a kitchenette attached to a living room. The furniture in it was all second hand and the only real decorations were drawings done by Grace.

"Really can't wait till this is over and Alice and Grace can move in with me," Jefferson said as they waited for Henry, Pip, and Grace to return from school, which had just let out.

"I admit even as one of my properties it leaves something to be desired. They do deserve better," agreed Rumple sipping tea. One wouldn't call this living in squalor. But Grace and Pip both ought to be living in a much more comfortable fashion. As Jefferson said it was simply one more reason to get the curse removed. The sound of the door unlocking broke up their conversation and the two children followed by Pip came through the door.

"Oh Mr. Gold!" Grace smiled. "And Jefferson!"

"I see you two helped yourselves." said Pip closing the door behind her.

"You did give me a key," said Jefferson "Hello Rabbit, Hello Henry."

"Hello," said Henry who was eyeing Rumple warily.

"What are you doing here Mr. Gold?" asked Grace curiously.

"Yes, rent week was last week," said Henry.

"And how would you know when rent week is Mr. Mills?" asked Rumple humorously. Henry shrugged.

"People complain more during rent week."

"An observant lad." chuckled Rumple. "However, I'm not here about the rent. I'm here because there's a little something Miss Belle, Mr. Madden and I wished to speak with you two about."

"Oh could you not be all enigmatic for once? They are kids. Not someone you need to make a deal with." scoffed Jefferson and Rumple rolled his eyes. Pip overrode both of them.

"What Mr. Gold was getting at was that we wanted to talk about your...theory Henry. The one about the town." Rumple watched as the boy's eyes widen.

"Wait! You remember?"

"Our lives in the Enchanted Forest? Yes. Though I question the moniker of MAD hatter." said Jefferson.

"Oh no I think despite all the inaccuracies this world got that one quite aptly." snarked Rumple.

"Well at least I didn't get portrayed at three feet tall," scoffed Jefferson.

"Boys!" said Pip clapping her hands and they both froze in their banter.

"So if your the Mad Hatter, then that makes Miss Belle your true love..." began Henry.

"The Pied Piper," said Pip with a bow.

"But then who are you Mr. Gold?"

"He's Rumplestiltskin! Aren't you?" said Grace.

"Well done. Though I'd expect nothing less from you," said Rumple inclining his head with a smile. Henry's look of wariness was back.

"You helped the Evil Queen cast the curse," he said.

"True," said Rumple. "Though I had my reasons. And now I want your mother to break it. I'm actually quite grateful for the work you two have done so far."

"If you three remember, can't you tell Emma it's real?" asked Henry eagerly. But Pip shook her head.

"Unfortunately, your mother is the type of woman that only believes what she sees. If she won't believe you even us saying the same won't do much. Especially considering between the three of us, Jefferson is the town hermit, she dislike's Rum here, and will quickly throw my acquaintance out the window if I start spouting things that don't match her reality."

"Then what can we do?" asked Henry.

"As far as breaking the curse? Keep working on your mother. That said there is something we could use your help with," said Rumple.

"Really?" said Grace eagerly. Rumple nodded.

"Currently Mayor Mills is in possession of someone I care about very deeply. My wife Belle. As long as she has her she has leverage over me. I need to be able to freely move against her. Not to mention I quite frankly don't like the idea of my wife in that woman's clutch's again."

"Beauty from Beauty and the Beast!" said Henry. "She's your true love!" Rumple nodded.

"Yes, and your adoptive mother likely has information on where she's keeping her."

"We were hoping to make a copy of your house key and to get some intel on your mother's security on her office." said Jefferson.

"Of course, it's up to you but we could really use your help here. What do you say? Let us in on Operation Cobra?" asked Pip. Henry considered them with his brown eyes, eyes that reminded Rumple a bit of Bae's as they rested on him and then sharing a glance with Grace he nodded.

"Ok. I'm in." Rumplestiltskin stood.

"Wonderful. In that case I should be going I'll leave you to it. Oh Pip. I might suggest also warning your friend Miss Swan away from Mr. Glass she's getting a bit to close to that former magic mirror and we all know where his loyalties lie." Pip gave a mock salute.

"As you wish your Darkness." Rumple rolled his eyes and limped to the door ruffling Grace's hair on the way affectionately.

OUAT

It was the day after the latest town council meeting that Pip and Jefferson came to see Rumple. According to Pip's intel on the sheriff she had apparently decided against trying to expose Regina at least not with the direct help of former magic mirror Sidney Glass.

Rumple was quite pleased the woman had listened to Pip's warning about the man. Apparently at the very least the Sheriff did find the fact that the documents were so easy to get rather suspicious and didn't want to risk losing credibility either in the eyes of the town or more importantly her son.

However, more important than the news on the Savior was what the Hatter and Pip had brought him in terms of information. With a copy of Henry's house key they'd accessed the house while Regina was out.

"Luckily the woman doesn't seem to have considered that she needed security camera's," said Jefferson with an eye roll.

"And what did you find?" said Rumple a tad impatiently though he couldn't help but be pleased that once again it appeared Regina's arrogance would prove her downfall.

"Patient files on Lacey French, who apparently despite the records at town hall is not dead but currently residing in the Storybrooke Asylum," said Pip.

"Since when did Storybrooke have an asylum?" said Rumple.

"That's what I thought." said Jefferson. "In which case I suppose the better question is where would you put an asylum in Storybrooke?"

"The hospital?" suggested Pip. Rumple went to his back room and rifled through a filing cabinet technically the only parts of town he didn't own were Regina's house and Jefferson's house. Meaning he had building schematics of all his properties. He pulled out the one for the hospital.

"If I were to guess I'd suggest the basement," he said indicating the area.

"Well there's nowhere else in the hospital to hide her. And nowhere else in town that could pass for an asylum. It would be a good way to keep her out of sight." Pip said.

"I'll call in a few favors to do some reconnaissance. Then if we're sure it's the place we'll break her out." said Rumple. Who didn't want to leave anything to chance. They needed to scout out the place if they were to make a plan. They couldn't just go barging in. That would simply end in disaster.

"Fair enough." said Jefferson.

"I suppose this is as far as I go in the knowing involvement?" said Pip.

"You guess right. The mayor's house was a little bit of a risk breaking Belle out is going to be a much bigger leap and we don't need elementary school music teacher turned criminal on the front page of the Mirror." said Rumple.

"Technically it's criminal turned music teacher," said Pip teasingly. "But I agree its not worth risking me losing custody of Grace."

"If there's any rescuing I can handle it," said Jefferson with a shrug. Pip nodded in agreement chewing her lip.

"Let's just hope recon doesn't take too long. I have a feeling we need to get Belle out of Regina's hands sooner rather than later."

"You and me both Pip." he replied. Now that Regina knew he was awake she was going to be on her guard even more. And who knew if what would happen if she suddenly decided to bring out Belle like a chess piece the way she had with Prince Charming.

He wanted to rescue Belle because he loved her. But that didn't mean he also didn't recognize the fact that her being in enemy hands also put him at a potential disadvantage in terms of his schemes. And being at a disadvantage was never a good thing. Especially when matters involved the Evil Queen.

OUAT

Lacey didn't know much. She didn't know how long she'd been inside the cell that the people in the white outfits forced her to call home. She didn't know who the woman with the terrifying dark eyes that peered through a slot in the door was. She didn't even know how she came to be in this place.

Her life was simply a continuous, foggy, drug-addled loop. But then something happened one day. Something changed. As the nurse came in to give Lacey her daily medicine, she normally simply accepted at this point something inside of her paused. Telling her not to take it. The nurse forced the pills into her hand and Lacey took them and pretended to swallow them. However as soon as the door closed, she spat them back out flushing them down her toilet.

She didn't know why but it was very important she stop taking those and clear her mind. Something had changed inside of Lacey. She was finally fighting back.

Author's Note: SO! We the kiddos are in on the plan and we get a little look at Lacey! I thought it would be interesting to have Henry in on everything. I should add the bit from Lacey's POV there is implied to have been the day Emma came to town. Sorry it's a bit short, let me know what you think in the comments below! Until next week in which Belle gets busted out!