Stephen

Stephen was a kind and simple man who lived in the woods with his wife, Stephen, and his young son, Geppetto. One night, Stephen and her wife were unfortunate enough to provide shelter and food to a family of scheming thieves who conned them for their worthy possessions. Ultimately, Stephen and Donna were turned into a pair of wooden puppets by accident, when they swallowed the potion Rumplestiltskin made for Jiminy to give his parents.

Before the Curse
Jiminy, Martin and Myrna step out of their wagon and approach a small cottage, the loud chirping of crickets is heard. As they approach the door, Jiminy turns to his parents in an attempt to reason with them, "Look, can't we just skip this tonight? We don't need the money.", Jiminy tries, his parents groan, "Everything isn't about money, Jiminy. It's about the principal.", Myrna tells him, "A commitment to excellence.", Martin adds. "Excellence at stealing money.", "Now go ahead and take the elf tonic, Jiminy.", his father tells him and both his parents laugh to each other. Myrna knocks on the cottage's door and a couple answer it, "Ooh, such beautiful young people.", Myrna says, putting her act on, "Excuse me, do you have a place in your hearts for an honest man and his... elderly parents?", Jiminy asks them. "Of course, come in.", the husband beckons and the three of them walk inside. The wife tells them that she'll heat up some broth and Martin compliments their home. The door closes.

Soon, Jiminy and his parents are being served broth by the married couple and Jiminy thanks them, making Myrna scowl before returning to her act, "I just can't get it out of my mind, that family.", she says, "Terrible way to go.", Martin adds, his wife shrieks. "What? What happened?", the wife asks, Martin and Myrna look at each other and then back to the couple, "Plague.", they say simultaneously. The couple gasp and Myran tells them that it's in the next town over and that they just passed through, "The plague?", the wife asks, "Well, a plague, certainly.", Mynra tells her. "Could be coming here.", Martin warns her, "Are you two okay?", the husband asks, "Oh, no, we're immune.", says Martin, "We have elf tonic.", his wife adds, "Made by elves, from elves.", "Four out of five court positions recommend it.", "Fifth one died before he could try it.", Martin says, the two of them laugh. "Well you have it, right? Smart folks like you?", Myrna asks, "We've never heard of it.", the wife says, "Oh no!", Myrna exclaims, "Oh, dear God!", Martin adds, "Oh, no, you're going to die. You need elf tonic.", Jiminy says in a clearly rehearsed and unconvincing way. "I wish we had extra!", "We don't have extra!", Jiminy's parents say before he reports in a monotone, "There is no extra.". The wife suggests that they could pay for it, Martin says that they have a tiny bottle but Myrna points out that they need that for themselves. "What can we give you?", the husband asks, "Surely there must be something here you could want?", the wife offers. Jiminy hangs his head. "I'm sure we could come up with something.", Myrna says as her and her husband look around at the contents of the cottage.

Martin and Myrna are soon accepting a pile of gold coins from the couple before taking them and wrapping up a whole load of their goods in a blanket. Jiminy says nothing. "Well, I guess we should get loading up.", Myrna says, Martin hangs the sack of goods over his shoulder as heand his wife leave. Jiminy approaches the couple and hands them the bottle, "Here you go.", he says humbly, "Thank you.", the husband says in all sincerity, accepting the vile of "elf tonic", "Thank you.", the wife says as well, Jiminy smiles before walking away and feeling guilty, he closes the door. Otside, his parents are loading up, "Those are good people, they would never hurt us like that!", Jiminy exclaims to his parents, "That's where they went wrong.", Myrna says, "It's better to be the kinda people who take.", Martin says, "Instead of those that are taken from.", Myrna finishes. Jiminy contemplates something before retrieving a vile from his pocket, the one that Rumplestiltskin gave him. He holds the vile and stares at it as his parents continue to load up the wagon, "...I'm sorry...", he tells them. His mother looks at him in shock, "You've given me no other choice.", he explains, clearly saddened by the situation. Jiminy throws the contents of the vile over his parents who scream in horror, however, nothing happens, Jiminy is surprised but his parents just smile. "How frail do you think we are, son?", Myrna asks, "Rain water won't hurt us.", Martin says, Jiminy is confused. His father tells him that he's pretty good at a swtch of the hand, and Jiminy realizes that the viles were switched. He turns to the house, "But this was the elf tonic.", he says. "Oh, my, we must've given whatever you had to that family.", his father says, unconvincingly, "Oh, I hope it wasn't dangerous!", his mother lies. They giggle as Jiminy runs back to the cottage's door. Jiminy opens the door and walks in, there are no signs of people but he picks up an opened bottle of potion from the floor. Jiminy looks past the door, realizing that the potion's been drunk, to see two dolls, man and woman. Jiminy gasps, noticing that this is the couple that drank the potion. He looks at their wooden faces and their holding hands, they seem to be screaming, Jiminy sits down in a panic and his parents walk in. "Ah, look at that.",his father says, "New puppets for the act.", his mother laughs. "Mama! Papa!", a young boy exclaims, running up to the house with a pale of water. The boy becomes confused, wondering who's in his house, he then sees his parents in their doll form and is distraught, "What did you do to them? What did you do to them?!", he asks Jiminy.