Title: to endlessly wonder whatever happened to the night, the dark and mastered air

Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Diane Lockward

Warnings: AUish; references to violence

Pairings: Jefferson/Grace's mother

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 610

Point of view: third

Prompt: any, any, "You can't just build a boat and hope darkness magically sails away in it."

Rochelle dies in Regina's realm and it is a warning that Jefferson heeds. Their daughter cries as Jefferson carries her away, and the hatbox is heavier than it should be on his back.

He swears as he walks to never use it again.

.

Grace doesn't understand why all her toys are gone, why her mother's jewelry is no longer there, why they can't live in their manor anymore. Most of all, she doesn't understand where Rochelle is. She sobs herself to sleep because Jefferson doesn't sing the songs right, doesn't have her very favorite story memorized quite the way Rochelle did, and cannot cook Grace's breakfast pastries the same way.

He does his best and he knows it is not enough.

.

Rumplestiltskin tries to hire him for a job. Jefferson says no.

Regina sends word that she has a task for him. Jefferson grabs Grace and runs again.

.

He wishes he could bury the hat and forget the location but he knows that would be unsafe. Things that are hidden are always found, and the rules are simple, unbreakable.

So no matter where they go, he brings with him the hat and he keeps the vow to never use it.

.

Grace stops asking for her mother.

Regina stops seeking him.

.

For seven years, Jefferson lives the life of a pauper, happy with his daughter. He forages for mushrooms, which Grace knows about, and pickpockets travelers, which she doesn't. He was a thief long before he mastered the hat.

But Regina knows how to strike where it hurts, and his weakest points, as she always did.

.

The Queen of Hearts is evil in a way Regina isn't.

There are a dozen people Jefferson actively hates, and he dreams of tearing them all apart while he makes hat after hat after hat.

.

It never works in Wonderland, of course. Jefferson's magic never has there.

But he wakes up in a land called Maine with the memories of two lives in his head, and he watches every year as the odd technology grows ever more intricate. He learns much, studies the town and all its inhabitants, and he sleeps.

.

With hindsight, he figures it all out.

He should have used the hat one last time and gone to a world no one else could reach. The rules are simple. Unbreakable. He broke them and this is his punishment.

.

Rochelle died, and with her Jefferson's will to fight. Meeting her had changed him from a rogue into a good man, and losing her… Regina tells him he doesn't have it in him to kill. He did, once. He did terrible things. Regina knew him as a thief, and so did Rumplestiltskin. The Queen of Hearts knew him as a hatter.

He's done nothing for over thirty years.

.

"Papa!" Grace shouts and he scoops her up, holds her as tight as he can.

There is magic again, and the rules are both unbreakable and simple.

.

There once was a boy who found a magic hat haunted by a ghost; the ghost told him the rules and guided him through the first few jumps. The ghost warned him, too, about what would happen if the rules were broken.

Jefferson has spent long enough doing nothing.

.

Regina once told him he didn't have the strength to kill. The Queen of Hearts called him a fool and a coward.

He has his daughter back and now the Queen of Hearts is in the same world as her, and that is unacceptable.

.

"Magic has a price," the ghost tells the broken man who was once a laughing boy.

"I've already paid it," the man replies, flipping the hat onto his head.