Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon A Time, or its characters, nor am I making any money off of this. So please don't sue, all I own is a laptop, a rather extensive library and DVD collection, and a badly behaved Labrador mutt named Midnight, so you'll rack up more in lawyers' bills than my entire net worth. Please and thank you, with a cherry on top.

A/N: If you haven't already, I recommend reading my story "Stress Relief" before starting this one as I do make reference to it in later chapters. It's only one chapter long and is full of smutty goodness, if you're reading this, I'm fairly certain you'd like that one too!

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Since the incident with Jefferson a week ago, Emma found herself turning her gaze on the clump of trees that obscured his house from sight more and more frequently. Every once in a while she thought she would see the glint of a telescope lense through the branches, but it wouldn't happen again and Emma's attention would be drawn back to whatever it was she had been doing in the first place.

When Mary Margaret had returned home after being released from all charges, Emma has questioned her about their eccentric captor.

"Had you never met him before?" Emma asked.

"No," Mary Margaret replied. "I didn't even know that house was out there."

"You're sure? You'd never seen him around town? He wasn't in the least bit familiar?"

"No! Emma, I don't know everyone in Storybrooke. The town isn't that small!"

Emma frowned.

"Sometimes it feels that way." She muttered to herself.

Eventually Emma's curiosity had grown so great that she'd relented and gone to the Town Hall, to the records room, and dug herself into the mystery that was Jefferson Lake.

The files didn't tell her much she hadn't already suspected.

Jefferson Lake was a sick man; a recluse, and prone to bouts of insanity that made him a danger to society. Newspaper articles from several years back mentioned large donations to Regina's father's memorial foundation which gave money to the schools and hospital in the dead man's name. Emma suspected that this was what had spared him from being locked in the mental ward at the hospital.

However, Jefferson's police records were pristine. They never mentioned anything about him hurting anyone, or even anything so trivial as property damage, or the neighbors calling in a domestic disturbance, nothing that would merit the hospital records that claimed him a danger to himself and others.

Emma looked at the records again; they were signed by Dr. Whale.

Emma frowned.

"Sheriff Swan, what a pleasant surprise, I didn't expect to meet you here." Regina's overly sweet voice cut through Emma's musings, and she slammed Jefferson's file shut.

Regina's eyebrows rose.

"I hope I'm not interrupting anything." She said.

"No," Emma replied. "I was just about done here."

Emma stood from the desk and pulled on her jacket.

"Working on a case?" Regina asked amicably.

"More like personal research." Emma replied, gathering up the file and handing it to the book-keeper.

"Not on government hours I hope…"

"I'm on my lunch break."

Emma breezed past Regina and out the door without another word.

Regina's eyes narrowed and she stepped up to the book keeper's desk.

"Can I help you, Ms. Mayor?" the man asked, adjusting his square glasses on his nose.

Regina sniffed; this man's purpose in life hadn't been much affected by the curse. He'd gone from being the Kingdom's librarian in the Royal Archives, to the book keeper in the town's Record Room. Still, his happiness was inconsequential to Regina's plots.

"I'd like to see the file Sheriff Swan was just reading if you don't mind." She said.

The man hmmm-ed appreciatively.

"Sheriff Swan wanted to know about Jefferson Lake, ma'am."

He picked the files up off of the "returns" shelf and slid them closer to Regina through the partition, files that Regina had co-authored herself.

"Has he done something?" the man said, "If you don't mind me asking."

Regina frowned and turned to leave.

"Not that I know of." She said.

"Don't you want the files, your majesty?"

Regina stopped dead in her tracks.

"Excuse me?" Regina's voice was perilously calm.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't know why I said that." The man stuttered.

Regina visibly shaken by this slip, left the Town Hall in a hurry and made her way towards a house hidden on the outskirts of town where the Mad Hatter held his tea.

Emma really shouldn't have been so surprised when she quite literally ran into Jefferson after spending most of the day reading about him.

"Oh god!" she cried, after pushing the door to the diner open right into someone's face. "I'm so sorry! Are you alright?"

She didn't realize who it was right away, but eventually his coifed hair and impeccable state of dress gave him away.

"Jefferson!" she cried. "What are you doing here?"

"I was taking a walk, Emma. Is that a crime?" He said, dabbing at the cut on his forehead with his sleeve.

"For you? Very likely." Emma retorted, and Jefferson rolled his eyes.

"Here, let me see that." Emma said, batting his hands away from the cut, to poke at it herself.

Jefferson hissed in pain. "Watch it!"

"Oh, shut it! We better get some antiseptic on that, come with me."

Even Jefferson looked confused at this logic.

"I thought you just said I was dangerous?"

"You are, but I am perfectly aware of that fact, and I'm also aware that I've got a Taser that will be in my hand the entire time."

Jefferson was still too confused to argue, so he followed her down the street and to her yellow bug without more complaint.

Upon entering her apartment the first thing Jefferson noticed was that Mary Margaret was not in.

"She's at work." Emma said, and Jefferson realized he'd made that observation out loud. Speaking his thoughts had been a habit he'd developed from so many years on his own, after he once discovered his voice hoarse from disuse.

"She wouldn't like it if she knew I were here." Jefferson commented.

"Probably not," Emma replied, placing the remains of her lunch in the fridge. "You did kidnap her."

"I didn't kidnap her, I held her hostage, there's a difference."

Emma rolled her eyes. "Still a felony."

Jefferson followed her down the hall into the bathroom where the first-aid kit was kept. As Emma pulled the bottle of rubbing alcohol out and the cotton balls Jefferson eyes his surroundings.

"It suits her." He spoke his thoughts aloud again.

"Sorry?" Emma asked, as she pressed an alcohol-soaked ball of wool to his cut. "What suits who?"

"This apartment, it suits Snow White. It reminds me of her cottage."

Emma rolled her eyes again, and Jefferson's temper snapped.

"I didn't ask for you to help me!" He shouted. "I'm your guest, so maybe treat me with a little more hospitality!"

Emma set down the cotton ball and the bottle of alcohol so hard that the bottle wobbled on the edge of the sink.

"If you hadn't been stalking me I wouldn't have opened the door into your face!" Emma shouted back.

"I wasn't stalking you!"

"Oh right," Emma huffed incredulously, "Then what were you doing?"

"I was going to see Grace!" he yelled, and the air around them crackled with tension at the mention of her name.

Emma eyed him warily.

"Jefferson, I'm sorry, I really am, but that little girl is not your daughter." She said slowly.

Jefferson raised his hands as if to grab her and Emma braced herself, but a look of acute pain crossed his face and he resisted, instead scrubbing his hands through his hair. After a moment or two, he calmed himself enough to glare at her and bite out the words:

"She is."

Then he stormed out of the room, to violently pull on his coat.

"Jefferson," Emma called after him. "Where are you going?"

"Home!" he said spitefully, and he slammed the door, leaving Emma staring after him.

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Jefferson muttered to himself angrily as he walked, finally reaching home as the sun set.

The moment his hand touched the door knob he knew something was wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he turned on his heel.

Regina stood at the foot of the stairs and Jefferson scowled at her. This is just what he needed.

"What do you want?"

"Is that any way to greet an old friend?" Regina gave an exaggerated pout.

"You're no friend of mine." He snarled. "Now get off of my property, before I call the police and have them make you leave."

Regina shifted, folding her arms across her chest.

"Actually that's what I wanted to talk to you about." She said. "Sheriff Swan has taken and interest in you, she was at Town Hall today looking into your records… Any reason why she would be doing that? In fact, how the hell does she even know about you at all?"

Jefferson didn't say a word, just stared at her.

"Why should I tell you?" He growled after she cocked an eyebrow at him.

Regina climbed the stairs so she could stand toe-to-toe with him and whispered:

"Because if you don't, I'll make sure that little girl of yours' life isn't worth living…"

A muscle in Jefferson's jaw twitched.

"She was looking for a friend of hers in the woods one night a few weeks ago." He said. "She nearly hit me with her car; I invited her back to my house for tea. She's the savior, as I'm sure you're aware, and I held her hostage so that she could fix my hat, and I could go home… She got loose, freed her mother, and they pushed me out a window. I haven't seen them since…"

Regina's face betrayed the fear she felt, and that gave Jefferson a small amount of pleasure.

"Did she succeed?" Regina urged.

Jefferson took a moment to think about his answer.

"What do you think?" He sneered.

He allowed Regina to draw her own conclusions based on whatever would make her feel the most comfortable, and Jefferson didn't have to lie, but he didn't bother to correct her either.

"No, of course not." She said, after searching his blank expression for a few moments. "I would have known if she had."

"Is that all?" Jefferson asked. "Because I'd really like it if you'd leave now."

"Yes, that's – no! Where have you been today? You're not allowed to leave this house…"

The corner of Jefferson's mouth twitched up into a humorless smile.

"I guess your iron laws aren't as strong as they used to be…" He said, opening the front door. "Good night, Regina."

He closed it again in her face.

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Regina sat in her office nervously chewing on her bottom lip. Suddenly Mary Margaret's failed escape attempt made so much more sense. But there were suddenly more pressing matters than Regina's personal revenge. The spell was weakening, barely enough to matter, but still… Eventually many small cracks could fracture the whole damn thing. Jefferson remembered everything, his madness had saved him from that aspect of the curse, or perhaps the curse had known that remembering was the more perfect hell in his case. Either way the fact that he was no longer confined to his house was troubling. The fact that he had been in contact with Emma was even more so.

Regina lifted the receiver on her phone and entered the three digit code that called Dr. Whale.

"Mayor Mills," Dr. Whale answered sleepily, after a few rings. "What a pleasant surprise to hear from you at this hour…"

"Jonah, I need a favor."

There was a pause.

"What does that entail exactly?" the doctor asked cautiously.

"I need you to reopen the Jefferson Lake case… I have reason to believe that he has been harassing my voters."

"Oh?" Dr. Whale sounded intrigued. "And can I expect any… compensation, for my pains?"

"If an anonymous donation was to find its way to your hospital, would that suffice?"

"That depends, Mr. Lake is bound to resist."

"It will be a very large donation; I can assure you of that."

"Very well, Madame Mayor, I will have a van sent to his residence to collect him for observation in the morning."

"Very good," replied Regina, "I'll keep in touch."

Regina hung up, and drummed her fingers on the desk top. It was the hatter's move.

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A/N: Thanks for reading, please take a second to review! Anything as simple as "liked it," will be equally welcome as anything longer. And yes, I gave Dr. Whale the first name Jonah. That is my head cannon until show cannon tells me otherwise…