"I appreciate the offer, but I don't think it's such a good idea," Gold replied. He was going to be a bit stubborn on the issue.

"Fine. Your loss." Tina looked out the window again, already starting to sort through what memories she had and what Gold had just told her, trying to piece things together more satisfactorily.

Gold didn't respond to that. He knew she wasn't quite ready to see how the town tended to deal with him. So for now, staying in the shop was best.

Tina stayed there for a while longer, cleaning up after lunch and managing to poke a bit of fun at him before she decided she'd better go check on Rachel and see how things were going for her.

Rachel was sitting on a bench outside the diner at this point, just watching people go by and absently playing with the end of her braid. She was trying to straighten out things in her head, and it wasn't going too well.

Tina plopped down next to her, curling her knees to her chest. "How're you holding up?" she asked quietly. "Okay so far?"

"I guess so," Rachel said softly. She looked at her friend. "I talked with Red a bit, she pretty much just confirmed everything I asked."

"Yeah. I talked with Gold, but still, it came to just about the same end." Tina sighed. "There's still so much I don't know, though."

"Same here," Rachel agreed. "There are just so many blank spots..." She sighed as well.

"Well, it seems like we keep getting more, so maybe if we just stay here we'll regain our memories," Tina suggested rather hopefully. "I mean running into people here seems to help, right? And there are things here that were in our other lives."

"Apparently the only way to get them back completely is true-love's kiss," Rachel said. "According to Red, that'll break the curse the rest of the way."

"Well. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how it goes." Tina sighed. Yeah, like they were somehow going to magically find true love here. Riiiiiight.

"I figure I'm just screwed," Rachel said. "At least you supposedly have suitors."

"Yeah, I've met one of them. He scares the crap out of me. I'd rather not stick around long enough for him to actually try and kiss me." Tina made a face.

Rachel snickered.

"You'll have to find someone better, then," she said.

"Definitely," Tina agreed with a grin. "Well, for now, how about we go hole up in the library and read for a few hours? Maybe the world will look a bit better when we come out again."

"That's a good plan," Rachel said, "I like that plan." Getting up from the bench, she stretched a little. "Maybe we'll find something helpful in the stacks while we're there."

"Maybe," Tina agreed, getting up and starting to walk over to the library. "We'll see, I guess." She glanced at Belle when they entered the library, but since she'd never known Belle she just nodded to the librarian and headed for the back.

Rachel glanced at Belle as well, and she seemed a little familiar now, but Rachel still didn't have any memories of her aside from just seeing her in town, so she nodded in greeting and followed Tina.

"So what are you going to look for?" she asked her friend. "Mindless fun reading, or more information?"

"I think I'm going to do some informational reading. Get as many fairy tales as I can and start comparing them to what I remember. Who knows what'll jog my memory, after all." Tina shrugged and picked out a book of Anderson, settling down with it.

Rachel nodded.

"That's a good idea," she said. Going into the stacks, she found the collected Brothers Grimm works and sat down next to her friend. Time to do some heavy reading.

Tina didn't move for several hours, and when she did she groaned quietly and stretched.

"Okay, I'm thinking late dinner, then back to our rooms." She paused for a moment. "You know, if we're actually going to stay here and try to get our memory back, we should probably try and find someplace. Like an apartment. Rather than staying in the hotel."

"I was thinking about that earlier," Rachel admitted. "Briefly. It'll get expensive real fast to stay at the hotel the whole time. Think there are apartment vacancies listed in the local paper?"

"Maybe. We can check. Maybe Gold knows of something..." Tina shrugged. "I'll see if I can snag a paper, and I'll go see him tomorrow."

"There should be a few newspapers near the circulation counter," Rachel said as she put her book away. "Libraries usually have them for free, although I'm not sure just how closely this library will follow conventional ideas."