Henry was so absorbed in his stories that it took Emma a few attempts to get his attention. Finally she settled on making a paper airplane and throwing it at him. It landed perfectly on top of the page he was reading and he looked up, smiling. For a brief moment Emma got distracted, and couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if the boy smiling at her was hers. Really, legally hers. She put the thought out of her head. It was impossible. For now, she'd take what she could get. And that happened to be another few minutes with him. She'd treasure every second of it.

"Henry, I think I might have found something. There might be truth to what Jefferson told me. I looked up Jefferson's records, and nothing. No known relatives on file. But then, I thought I'd look up Paige, you know, your friend from school? That's who he claims is his daughter. And Henry -" She was suddenly very serious. "Swear on Operation Cobra that you won't tell anyone this; it has to stay strictly between you and me, understand?"

Henry nodded vigorously. "I swear."

"It says under her records that her parents aren't her birthparents. She was adopted, and her parents remain unknown."

Henry's eyes widened. He suddenly flipped a few pages in his book and pointed to a picture.

"Emma I think I found something too. That description you gave me, well, it looks an awful lots like it describes the Mad Hatter. Come look."

Emma walked over and peered over Henry's shoulder.

"You know, it does look a lot like him. Messier hair and weirder clothes but the same… intensity. Same features, right down to the dimpled chin. Henry this is seriously weird."

He looked up at her, grinning from ear to ear. He looked pleased with himself.

"I told you Emma, the people in Storybrooke are definitely the same characters from the book. The curse is real!"

Just then Emma noticed the clock. 4:56.

"Shoot, kid we gotta get back to the school! Your mom will be picking you up at any minute from your 'Drama Club'."

Thinking on her feet, Emma opened an old trunk beside her desk, pulled out the contents and dumped them into Henry's arms as he stared questioningly at her.

"Don't ask questions, I'll explain in the car."

Emma dropped Henry off at the back door of the school and took off toward home with a quick wave to Henry.

Panting, Henry arrived in the classroom to see his irate mother and poor Mary Margaret, who'd taken the brunt of her anger. He glanced at his watch: 5:02. Regina turned to face him as he ran up to Mary Margaret.

"Miss Blanchard, sorry that took so long. Miss Edgars said we could borrow her costume box in two weeks, once she's done with her class's performance. She gave us this for next week though, she said she didn't need it."

He dropped an old sheriff's uniform on her desk.

Catching on, Mary Margaret played along.

"Thank you for volunteering to ask her, Henry. I know the other kids were a bit nervous but she's really not that bad. Speaking of, I let them go a bit early once they chose parts because their parents were here already and they were hungry for dinner. I hope you're okay with playing the part of the travelling salesman?"

"Sounds great, I'll write up some lines for next week. Thanks Miss Blanchard, see you tomorrow!"

Regina scowled but couldn't think of anything to say, so took Henry's hand and lectured him about making her wait all the way to her car.

Mary Margaret sighed once they'd left the room. That had been unpleasant, but at least Mayor Mills hadn't seemed too suspicious once Henry had offered up an explanation as to his absence. She began to pack up her purse to head home when she noticed someone leaning against the doorway.

"Emma?"

"Don't worry, I circled around the neighbourhood until I was sure she'd be gone. She has no idea I was with Henry tonight."

"She better not. Emma, you have to be careful. If I'm going to cover for you to see Henry, you can't be late. She's bound to figure it out, we're just lucky she didn't this time."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry. It won't happen again. I'll set an alarm or something. Sometimes I just lose track of time when I'm with him. I don't get to see him that much and you know, time flies. I just came by to thank you, and ask you if you wanted to go out for dinner tonight."

She nodded; going behind the mayor's back was stressful and neither of them felt much like cooking tonight.

"But Emma, what was that all about?"

"What? Henry and I were just conducting a little investigation. It's not going to hurt anyone. He's just a curious kid and this happens to be perfectly innocent. No one would question it or care if they found out we'd been looking at his records."

"Jefferson might. He's dangerous Emma; I don't know why I even have to remind you of that, you were there! You know he's been watching you. What if he realized what you and Henry were doing tonight? You don't think he'd care?"

Emma shuddered. She'd forgotten about that. She knew one thing though: she had to talk to him soon. She just had opened up a whole new set of questions with her discovery.