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"Finally, some water out here," said Emma motioning down to the valley.

"Where?" asked Mary Margret from the other side of the vehicle.

The drive through the desert had been ridiculously long, so the two women decided to look for water as a way to kill time. The men thought their game was a little ridiculous, but is was proving to be quite the challenge.

"Down there. There's some sort of river thing," Emma said.

"There is no- Oh, now I see it," Mary Margret.

"We are headed to the Grand Canyon, where there are two rivers. We were bound to see some water eventually," Neal said from the passenger's seat.

"Tell that to the miles of desert we just drove through," Emma remarked.

"It can't be that dry. There's cacti and shrubs," David said.

"Cacti have adapted to live in dry climates. They can store water for a long time," Mary Margret said in her school teacher voice.

Before David could defend his case, Henry asked, "Are we there yet?"

Emma stifled her laugh, and said, "We're gonna stop for lunch soon, we just need to find some sign of civilization."

"Good, because it's kind of crowded siting in the middle," Henry said.


"There's a Subway up ahead," Emma said to David.

She turned her head from the window to discover that her son had fallen asleep.

"You should wake him up if we're stopping," Mary Margret said.

Emma hesitated, and then gently tapped her son. Henry's eyes fluttered awake, and he mumbled.

"Hey sleepy head," Neal said. "We're stopping for lunch soon."

Henry perked up at the thought of food, "Where are we going?"

"There's a truck stop up ahead with a Subway and a McDonald's," said David.

"Plus they probably sell gummy worms," Neal said. This earned him an annoyed look from Emma. "I promise I will pay for them."

"What?" David and Mary Margret exclaimed in confusion.

"Neal and I used to steal gummy worms back when we were thieves. It started as a joke, and then it became a tradition, and now Neal's just trying to annoy me," Emma explained.

Neal feigned shock at the accusation, and said, "Me? Annoy you? Emma, I'm shocked!"

Emma rolled her eyes, and turned back to the window.

"Can we get gummy worms?" asked Henry.


After stopping for lunch (and buying some gummy worms), it was time to switch drivers. Mary Margret climbed in the drivers seat, and handed Emma a map that the group had bought. Emma found herself no longer trusting the GPS, and made the group leave it at the hotel and use maps instead.

"Which way do I go?" Emma asked.

"We're turning onto a highway. We can go the direction we came from, or we can go the right way," Neal said from the back, still marginally annoyed with her sense of direction... Or rather, lack there of.

"Turn right," Mary Margret suggested.

"Thank you," Emma said. "At least someone doesn't want us getting lost in the middle of the desert."

"Well, if we do get lost, we have gummy worms," Henry chimed in.

"Kid, how long can the five of us last on a bag of gummy worms?" Emma asked.

"Not to mention the fact that he and Neal are eating them all," Mary Margret said.


Neal, Emma, Henry, Mary Margret, David, Gold, and Belle were weighed, and then piled into a helicopter for a ride over the Grand Canyon. They suffered through painfully complicated introductions to the pilot, including Emma and Neal having to clarify that they were not a couple. Eventually, they were up in the air.

"So, the condensed version of how the Grand Canyon was formed was... Actually, there's an acronym: It's DU-" the pilot started before being interrupted by Mary Margret.

"DUDE: Deposition, Uplift, Down Cutting, and Erosion." The pilot flew in stunned silence, and Mary Margret explained, "I was a school teacher for a while."

Emma sat in the back, and moved her mic away from her face so she could laugh without being heard.

"That's correct, deposition, uplift, down cutting, and erosion," the pilot said recovering from Mary Margret's interruption. "That's how the Grand Canyon was formed."

The pilot stopped talking again, allowing for his music to play through the headsets.

You lost faith in the human spirit/You walk around like a ghost/Your star-spangled heart/Took a train for the coast

"How far are we from Las Vegas?" Emma asked.

"Why are you asking that?" Mary Margret said.

"The Killers are playing, and they're from Vegas. It just seemed like a logical question to ask," Emma defended.

"Over two hundred and fifty miles away, or about four hundred fifty kilometres," the pilot said.

"We are not driving there!" Mary Margret said reminiscing about the long drive they took just to get to the canyon.


I'm pretty sure my facts are accurate... If they're not, feel free to let me know.