Disclaimer: I own nothing of Once Upon a Time. ABC owns the rights to everything. No profit is being made from this story.

Elizabeth 'Ellie' Major wasn't anything special. She lived a secluded life, just the way she liked it. Not being comfortable around people, she loved being alone; just her, and her kitten, a tabby she named Thumper. He was all the company she needed. Not that she hated all people. Ellie loved her family dearly, but because of her history, they treated her like a child instead of the adult she need to become. She also had a few close friends, or more specifically two friends, Chantal, who had been her best friend since kindergarten, and Jamie, a girl she met at work fifteen months earlier, who pushed Elizabeth to live life in ways she hadn't known she was capable of, and quickly became her other best friend.

Ellie was a twenty-nine-year-old who had finally decided she wanted something more in life for herself than the afternoon job she had as a school janitor, so she decided she would go to college to become an office administrator. Being able to speak French, she decided to go to College Boreal because the classes were so small.

She knew she would have to be around people instead of working alone, but once she finished school and started her career, at least she could spend her nights at home reading or watching tv, instead of having to download everything and avoid Facebook until she watched the episodes she had missed while at work.

She didn't like school at all, mainly because it was full of people, but it was part of the course. 'It's practice for when I work with people,' she kept reminding herself. Her grades were almost perfect, but her anxiety often got the better of her while she did her assignments or tests. Today was no different.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a test or an assignment that caused Elizabeth's anxiety to flare up. It was a conference. The second years of her program had to organise a three-day conference for the entire program for all the campuses across the province, which totalled forty-three people. She worried she would loose her mind being around so many people, even the amount of people who were bound to want to get together after the days' activities were completed.

She had to share a hotel room with another girl from her program, Danielle, who was eleven years Elizabeth's junior, and fresh out of high school. Danielle wasn't bad for an eight-teen year old; she was mature enough, but there were times where she acted more like a child than a college student. If Elizabeth had to choose anyone in her class to room with, however, Danielle was the better choice compared to the six other first years at her college campus.

If she had a choice, Elizabeth would have backed out of the conference back when the program coordinator first announced it, but unfortunately, there would be a report to write on the conference once it was over, and it was worth thirty five percent of her final grade for one of her core program classes.

So, like the (somewhat) brave person Jamie had turned her into, Ellie stepped out of her car, grabbed her school bag and purse, and closed the door, leaving her suitcase in the backseat, and used her auto-lock to lock the car. She had two classes before the meet and greats started that would precede the three full days ahead of her, and she was hoping to get a lot of homework so she could do it while (she hoped) Danielle would leave her behind to mingle with the other conference participants.

On her way to the front doors of the school, she lit her cigarette, and took deep breaths to calm her nerves. 'I can do this,' she repeated silently to herself, while ignoring the other voices in her head that she should give up and go home to Thumper, amongst other things they were saying. 'Jay would kick my ass if I backed out. So would Tal, for that matter.'

Chantal, Tal to Ellie, hated the fact that her friend hadn't gone to college straight out of high school. She had wanted them to attend school together, even if it was a different program. Elizabeth didn't know what she wanted to do with her life at the time, and didn't want to spend the money to go to school when she didn't know what she wanted to be. It was something that always bothered Tal, but she loved her friend, and supported her anyways.

Ellie was having a hard time in her life back then. She had been lucky to finish high school without being admitted into a mental institution. She hadn't wanted to push her luck any further, and hid behind that excuse to avoid making decisions and truly living her life. It took Jay pushing her for Ellie to start living, and part of living her life was finally doing something with it, rather than watching it go by from the sidelines.

Ellie put out her smoke, and went to her classes for the day. It was boring. Her first class, a bookkeeping class, was only an hour that day, and they only corrected an assignment that had been due the Friday before, and a three-hour French class. Luckily, she had been assigned homework there, so she would have something to do after conference hours.

Finally, it was time to head to the school pub, where the meet and greet was being held, and students from different campuses were arriving. They would have dinner catered by the school's Chefs program, then they would head to the hotel, where they would do anything they wanted until the next morning, when the conference would officially start.

Going against her instincts, Ellie made her way to the pub, found a small empty table in a corner, and sat down, facing the growing crowd, and took out a book to read until dinner. She may be forced to physically be around people, but she couldn't be forced to interact with them.

The program coordinator, whom they called MC (short for Marie-Claude), eventually noticed her, and tried to convince her to join the crowd, but had no success.

"I get nervous around people until I get a feel for them. The last thing I need is to throw up on them before this even starts," Ellie told her teacher.

"You won't get a feel for them hiding in a corner, you know."

"Maybe, but I'm trying to be as comfortable as possible right now. I'll talk to them when it's time for dinner. I can't hide around a bunch of round tables, now can I?"

"I know you have a hard time with people, but try with one person. Consider it part of your grade," MC joked, knowing she couldn't grade Ellie differently from the others.

Ellie, knowing what her teacher was trying to do, smiled. "It's not on the assignment page, nice try. You'll know for future students though."

MC knew she wouldn't get Ellie socializing until she had no other choice, so she decided to go to Danielle, and asked if she could try to help. Danielle, who was the closest person to what Ellie would call a friend from the program, agreed, and went up to her older classmate.

"You looked like you need a smoke. When was the last time you had one?" she asked.

Ellie glanced at her phone, checking the time. "Over two hours ago. Does this mean you want to come to?" She knew Danielle didn't smoke, but her parents did, so she didn't care if she was around smokers as much as others in the class.

When Danielle nodded, she put down her book, and grabbed her coat. It was the last week of October in Northern Ontario, and while they were lucky they hadn't had snow yet, it was still cold. They couldn't go outside without one, no matter how used to the cold they got being here.

Once outside and the smoke lit, Danielle asked what she wanted to do that night once they got to the hotel.

"Stay in, maybe watch some tv. I have shows on my laptop I can watch, and I have headphones, so I wont bother you if you want to do anything."

"I forgot shampoo. We can go to Wal-Mart and get some if you want. I know you're taking your car. Do you mind? We can get snacks too, for later. Or for tomorrow night. You can still go out with us to the movies and shopping if you want."

"Nah, I'm good, thanks. We can hit Wal-Mart, but I want to take it easy. Full day for the next few days. I wanna be well rested."

"You sure? You can always come, if you change your mind."

"I'm sure, thanks."

That's how Ellie was with everyone, always making excuses avoid socializing. Had Jamie been there, she'd call Ellie out on it, and make her go anyways. They were opposites, and that's why Ellie supposed they hit it off so well. Unfortunately, because of school and Jay's work schedule, they hadn't hung out in a while, so Ellie was starting to resort back to her old ways.

Eventually, the girls headed back inside, and soon enough, too soon for Ellie's liking, dinner time came around, and she was forced to talk to others. Thankfully, she was sitting with another girl from her class, Alexie, so at least she wasn't completely alone, but it didn't help calm her nerves. Ellie barely ate, even if she was hungry, because her stomach was so upset, and after an excruciating hour, dinner was over and the final instructions from MC were given to the students.

Finally, they could leave. Ellie picked up her things, and went to her car to go to the hotel. If she hadn't been so overwhelmed, she would have offered a ride to Danielle instead of her taking the bus with the out of town students, but she knew the ten-minute drive to the hotel was her last chance to be alone for twenty-four hours, and she wanted to take advantage of it.

Ellie focused on the road, but didn't notice the storm clouds forming overhead. The clouds were stranger than normal cloud, however: they were purple! They were quickly going in circles, faster and faster, not as if to form a tornado, but something else... Lightning came from in the clouds, lighting up the sky, and drew Ellie's attention, but before she could react, a lightning bolt hit her car. She felt pain everywhere.

'So much for rubber tires...' were her last thoughts before she backed out completely.

When Ellie woke up, she didn't feel pain, only confusion. She didn't know how she had gone from an established neighbourhood, surrounded by homes and streetlights, to a street surrounded by trees, but no orange, red and yellow leaves were on them, only green. It was also daylight out, and it only brought on more confusion. It had been dark when she left school, and she wondered how long she had been unconscious, and who would have taken her car to where she was, without moving her from the driver's seat. Not to mention, she hadn't crashed. She had passed out while driving, she should have crashed into something.

She unbuckled her seatbelt, and got out of the car to inspect the damage she couldn't see over the dash. Strange thing was, she found nothing! Her car was in the same condition it had been. 'How is that possible?' she asked herself.

'Get in the car and find out,' a voice in her head said.

"Shit!" escaped her lips, as she rushed back inside her car, and she rummaged through her purse for her medication. She had to have been unconscious longer than she thought, because she was late for her pills. She had to take them at the same time, every day, for the voices to remain at bay.

She quickly took her meds, closed her eyes, and leaned against the head rest, taking three deep breaths, opened her eyes, and lit a smoke, before looking for her phone to call for help. She dialed Jay's number, and pressed her cell against her ear.

"We're sorry. The number dialed is not in service. Please hang up, and try your call again," said an automated voice.

Ellie hung up, and tried Danielle, who's number she had saved in her phone because of a group project they had been paired to do for their Interpersonal Communications class. If she could get a hold of her classmate, at least MC wouldn't have to worry about where she was. Again, the automated voice came on the line.

She hung up again, and tried calling Tal. "We're sorry. The number dialed is not in service. Please hang up, and try your call again."

Now Ellie knew something was wrong. She had been there four days ago when Tal paid her bill. There was no way that number had been disconnected!

Ellie had no choice but to start her car, and drive. She hoped to find a place she could call from her land line, and figure out a way to get home. She had only been driving for three minutes before she reached a small town, and found the first public place she came across. She parked the car, and went inside a dinner, named Granny's.

Everyone stopped and looked at her, as if they had never had an outsider come in before. She went to the counter, where an old woman with glasses and grey hair, stood on the other side of the counter. She looked familiar to Ellie, but could place her. She approached Ellie slowly.

"Can I help you?" she asked.

"Would I be able to use your phone? I'm lost, and mine isn't working properly."

The old woman handed Ellie a cordless phone, where she dialed Tal's number again. Unfortunately for Ellie, she got the same automated message as before. "We're sorry. The number dialed is not in service. Please hang up, and try your call again."

Ellie hung up slowly, and looked at the old woman. "Well that was a bust. Can you tell me where I am?"

"Storybrooke," she replied.

Ellie knew she heard the name before, but she couldn't remember where at that moment."Storybrooke? Where's that?"

"Maine."

Ellie paled, and her jaw dropped. 'MAINE! How can I be in Maine? How can I be in the States? What the hell?! I don't even own a passport! How did get across the border?'

She closed her mouth and shook her head. "I'm sorry, did you say Maine?"

"That's right. You're in Storybrooke, Maine."

"Oh... Um... Thanks for your help," she stuttered, got up from the stool, and left. She didn't fully register every face in the dinner follow her out the door. She got back in her car, closed her eyes again, leaned back against the headrest, and proceeded to take three deep breaths again. Her panic wasn't going away this time. She took more deep breaths, but it didn't work. She took out another smoke and lit it, but even that didn't work.

How on earth had she made it to Maine? She didn't have a passport, so she knew she hadn't come legally, or on her own, so who had brought her here? Why did they leave her out, practically in the woods, in her car, without any harm coming to her? Not to mention, how had all the phone numbers she knew not worked when she called them? Nothing made sense...

Ellie knew there was only one way for her to get home: to go to the cops, and pray they believed her. She hadn't been big on praying over the last fifteen years or so, and the fact that she was willing to do it now, showed her just how desperate she felt to get home. She just hoped she wouldn't be thrown into Guantanamo Bay for being snuck into the country illegally.

She figured she would be considered more cooperative if she brought her vehicle and let them search it, not to mention they could find evidence of whoever did this to her, so she drove around the town's main street, and eventually found the police station. She went inside, and saw a blond woman in a red leather jacket sitting at a desk looking over files. Ellie cleared her throat.

"Um... excuse me. My name is Elizabeth Major. I'm in trouble and I need help to get home."

The woman turned to face her, but Ellie couldn't believe what she was seeing. 'Jennifer Morrison? Huh?'

The Jennifer Morrison look-alike got up from her desk, her sheriff's badge on her belt catching the light coming in through the window, and walked towards her. "Hey. I haven't seen you around before. Where are you from?"

"Well, you see, that's the part where I'm in trouble. I woke up on the road outside of town, no idea how I got there, and discovered I was here... " She paused and took a deep breath. "But I was in Ontario last I remember. I don't own a passport, so I know I got here illegally. But I don't know how, and I don't know who, or why."

Ellie was shaking in her skin, terrified of what the sheriff would do to her. The woman spent a few moments looking at one another. Ellie barely able to keep her gaze on her, she was so scared of whether she was going to be thrown in jail or thrown into a hospital and forced to stay there for the rest of her days for insanity.

Finally, the sheriff spoke. "I believe you. Now let's find out who did this and how to get you home."

Ellie felt tears come to her eyes. "Really? You believe me?"

The blond smiled. "I have this super power, and it tells me when someone's lying to me. You weren't, so I believe you."

Ellie let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding, but refused to let the tears fall. She was getting home, and she wasn't going to an institution or jail. She had never been more relieved in her life.

"Thank you. I know what I must sound like, coming in here saying I'm from Canada and I don't know how I got here without a passport. It sounds crazy. I swear I didn't know I was even out of Sudbury until someone at the dinner told me."

"We'll get you out of here before you know it. I'm Emma Swan," she said, holding out her hand.

Ellie couldn't control it anymore. Between her fear of getting locked up, her confusion over the whole circumstance, and now Jennifer Morrison saying her name was Emma Swan, exactly like a new (to her) show she was watching on Netflix called Once Upon a Time. She burst out laughing, and it turned into anger.

"Emma Swan? The Jennifer Morrison look-alike is a sheriff named Emma Swan. This is way more insane than what even I could come up with. I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid. What is this, part of some game? I know this is the real world. Once Upon a Time doesn't exist; it's a tv show. Even I know the difference between fiction and reality. Nice try. You did this to me, didn't you?" Then she remembered the old woman. "You're all a part of it. That's why that woman said I was in Storybrooke. You're all in this together! Real funny, kidnapping a crazy chick from off the street, pretending this is some make believe town, in another country. Why?"

Jennifer Morrison/Emma Swan looked at her in confusion, backing away a little. "Woah, calm down. I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know where this is coming from, but I promise you, this isn't a game, and I don't have any part of what's happened to you."

"Bull shit! I'm not staying here where you can turn me into some nut job!" Ellie turned and ran out the building, into her car, and took off as fast as she could, going in the direction she had come from to get into town.

She looked behind her to see if the "sheriff" was following her. Nothing was behind her except for trees and road. She sighed in relief, and turned to face forward, and slammed on the breaks, hard. There was a brunette woman standing in the middle of the road. She wanted to escape whatever was going on back in that town, but she didn't want to kill anyone along the way.

The brunette didn't move other than to raise her hand in a stop position, and Ellie realized she hadn't applied the breaks on time, so she had to swerve to avoid hitting the woman completely. She lost control of her car, and fell off the road, into the ditch. She hit her head hard on the steering wheel, and blanked out.

First time ever writing a story. Hope you're enjoying it so far. Give me constructive criticism, but don't be hateful about it. Still working out the kinks to this whole writing thing. See y'all next time!

Vic