David stepped over a fallen tree trunk with the Merry Men spread out across the forest. Emma stopped behind them and waved at her father to keep going forward.

"What exactly are you doing?" Regina asked on the other end, frowning into a test tube whose contents weren't the color she was hoping for. She heard a branch snap in the background. "Are you in the woods?"

"Yeah." She looked around, no sign of even a bird in the area. "First one of the dwarves, possibly Neal, definitely Hook …and now one of the Merry Men. It's very weird. I just met Robin Hood."

"Your true love is the Evil Queen why do things still surprise you?"

"Formerly the Evil Queen-"

"Guys!"

"Okay, I gotta go," Emma said, "I think David found something."

"Be careful. Whatever beast is out there snatching people … I don't want it to take you too."

"I promise I'll be fine. I love you."

"I love you, too."

"Emma," David called. She hung up the phone and walked over to rejoin the search party. "Look at this."

A bloodied leaf.

"Kidnapped and injured. The day just keeps getting better," she said. She looked at the leaf and back down to the ground. Just under Robin's foot was a bit more blood. "Under your foot."

Robin stepped back and looked down at the crimson staining the dirt and his boot. Emma glanced around for the rest of the trail and when she found it not a second later, she stood up from squatting over the first drop of blood. She pointed behind Robin, making a point to speak before everyone rushed off. This wasn't looking to good for their friend.

"Either we find him injured or …dead," Emma said. Robin frowned, already refusing to believe that would be true. "Listen, I know it's the last thing you want to think about but I want you to be prepared. Just in case."

"I won't think like that."

"I understand."

"We hope he's alright too. Whatever attacked him has our friends," David said. Robin nodded and gestured for his men to start following the trail to find Little John. Once he was out of earshot, he turned to Emma who was looking worried. "We'll find Hook and Neal."

"Yeah." Emma sighed. She started to walk forward to not lose the search party. "Just when I thought I had enough to worry about."

"Something tells me part of that is me and your mother," he said, looking almost apologetic. "The baby."

"No-"

"Emma, I know we're not the best parents. We're still learning and we're trying."

"I didn't say you were bad parents."

"I know but we don't have the best track record."

"You mean the wardrobe thing?" Emma questioned, stepping over another fallen tree. "I'm over it."

"I may not seem like the brightest but I'm a bit less clouded than your mother. I knew with Regina and I noticed with the announcement of the baby …it upset you. Whenever you're ready to talk about that with us, we'll be here."

"There's nothing to talk about, Dad."

"Well, then we will continue to stress that this baby was never meant or going to replace you, Emma." She paused and he touched her shoulder gently, kissing the top of her head. "Nothing has been more fulfilling to me than being your father and getting to know who you are. I promise you that."

Emma stayed silent and watched David keep walking ahead. It all sounded sincere and he was being genuine but she couldn't help the hurt. 28 years of it is a lot to let go of.

"Here!" Robin shouted, breaking her out of her train of thought. She sprinted ahead to catch up with them as Robin assessed his wounds as David checked for a pulse. "John, we're here. We've got you."

"Is he okay?" Emma asked. "Alive?"

"Yeah, but he'll need a hospital though," David answered. "I've never seen a bite like this before."

"If it's not a dog bite then neither have I. I'm calling an ambulance," Emma said fishing out her phone.

They got John back to the road, met with the ambulance. He was rushed inside the vehicle, Robin adamant about staying with him. David offered the rest of the Merry Men a ride there but some of them refused, choosing to keep watch over their camp. Emma decided to drive to the hospital as well to see if he'd be okay enough to tell them what attacked him soon.

Not even ten minutes later, they were all bursting through the doors of the ER. Nurses swarmed them insisting not everyone could follow the doctors inside. David, Emma, and Robin managed to slip through at Whale's behest.

"B.P. dropping fast!"

"What does that mean?" Robin asked, looking at Emma for answers.

"Nothing good," she admitted following behind the nurse and Whale through the emergency wing.

"What did this to him?" Whale asked.

"Don't know. Never seen it before," Emma answered. "Can you help him?"

"As best I can without knowing what happened." Emma's retort was interrupted by John starting to convulse on the gurney. Robin launched forward in reaction, but David held him back at the nurses held on to him in attempt to keep him still. "We need to sedate him. 15 milligrams of lorazepam."

"Why? What is that?" Robin asked, suspicious of the syringe he was being handed. "What's happening to him?"

"He's going into shock," Whale said. He grabbed John's arm and started to inject the sedative but hesitated when a pained and panicked cry erupted from him. Whale recoiled, and Emma pushed one of the male nurses aside to see what was happening. She flinched away as a snake like tail appeared.

"What the hell …" Emma muttered.

It whipped around striking whoever was close. Emma dodged the first swing only to be hit a second time when the strange transformation finally took place. She was knocked back into a shelf of supplies. For several minutes, trapped under the shelf all she could hear was the screeching of the monkey creature Little John had turned into and things being shattered.

"What the hell was that?" Whale questioned.

Robin and David lifted the shelf from on top of Emma. "Emma? Are you okay?" David asked. She didn't immediately get up but put her arm over her head, too tired to move.

"I'm okay. But I'm going to need a drink after this."

"You and I both," Robin murmured still staring in disbelief at the broken window where the flying monkey – his former friend – escaped.


"Explain it to me again," Regina said.

Emma cringed as Regina dabbed a cotton ball against her cheek. She had come out of the monkey incident at the hospital mostly unscathed, aside from a few scratches. She was fine otherwise, but a bleeding cut wasn't going to convince Regina.

"Little John was bitten by what I'm assuming was a flying monkey and now he's a flying monkey," Emma said. She sighed and finished the rest of her scotch. Regina frowned. "Forget that. How is the potion going?"

Regina pursed her lips and finished putting the band aid on her face before turning to the potion making that was happening on the table of her office. She picked up glass flask with a brown liquid inside. "I have something."

"Did it work?"

"We'll see. Hopefully, we'll be one step closer to putting this nightmare behind us."

"I know this has been hard on you. I want to figure this out as fast as possible, too."

"I have you and Henry. You remember me. I suppose, I don't have much to complain about."

"You haven't been outside in days. You can't actually go anywhere. It sucks."

"That's one way to put it. Fingers crossed." Emma crossed her fingers and grinned just to amuse her girlfriend. It did at least get a smile out of her.

She looked at the flask and then drunk some of the brown liquid. They both waited in silence for a second. Emma was hopeful after seeing the hint of a smile on her face that quickly vanished. Although, that could've meant anything.

"Do you remember?" Emma asked.

Regina threw the flask into the mirror in response, clinching her fist to resist grabbing something else to throw. Emma stood up and rounded the table, gently taking her wrists. "I guessing it didn't work. Unless you and your office had a big fight in the last year?"

"I must have missed an ingredient," Regina muttered.

"You can just try again?"

"That was the last drop of that potion. There's nothing left."

"Calm down. There's another way. There's always another way."

"I can't remember anything and neither can anyone else."

"Except for the person who cursed the town." Regina looked up when Emma paused. "Of course …why didn't I think of that before? The monkeys."

"What are you talking about?"

"Flying monkeys," she whispered. She grabbed Regina and kissed her before pulling away. "Flying monkeys!"

"You're not making any sense, Emma."

"I was thinking maybe there were multiple threats. Whoever was kidnapping people at the line and whoever cast the curse but they're the same person. Who else uses flying monkeys?"

"The Wicked Witch."

"Yes." Emma stopped pacing around her and paused at her shoulder. "She's real, right?"

"Yes. Oz is a realm somewhere just like the Enchanted Forest is. But why would the Wicked Witch curse us?"

"I don't know. Did you ever go to Oz? Did my parents?"

"Oz was the least of my worries. I can't speak for your parents."

"But this is good. You don't have to make anything. Because now we have a person to catch."

"How?" Regina frowned. "We don't even know who the Wicked Witch is."

"All of this. Hiding you has been a con."

"Making the potion is useless now."

"Yeah but this is the wrong con."

"Emma, I love you, really…but you're speaking as if I'm well versed in cons. And you know I'm not. Is this a prison thing?"

"No. It's an old trick. Bail bonds, undercover ops. Practically basic 'to catch a criminal' play." She leaned against Regina's desk, making sure this fit the situation, which it fit almost any situation similar to this. "You smoke out the perp by making them think you're onto them. If the person who cast the curse thought we were about to make a memory potion …"

"They'd want to stop us."

"And we set a trap for them when they do. So, all we need is a way to get the word out to everyone in town so they hear it and then we wait for them."

"Leroy?" Regina smirked.

"You read my mind."


She kept her eyes trained on the window to her office as best she could but they'd been sitting there for hours in an unfamiliar car – because for once they both agreed the Bug wasn't the stealthiest of colors. Wrappers littered the dash and the cold January air wasn't doing them much good in the car that was completely turned off. Being bundled in a coat, sitting in a car in silence really made her sleepy.

Her eyes slipped closed and her head bobbed forward a bit before she forced herself to wake up. Emma was still very much alert and on her third snack in the last hour. Nearly elbow deep in a Cracker Jack box with a cup of coffee trapped between her thighs. The sight at least reminded her she still had some left in her own cup.

"Are we really going to sit here all night?" She asked, putting her now empty cup back into the cupholder.

"Nope. Just until the person who cursed you guys shows up."

"Is this what you do for a living?"

"Yeah," Emma answered with a mouthful of caramel popcorn. "It's called a stakeout."

"I know you, Emma Swan. You can't sit still in silence for very long. Don't you get …bored?"

"I don't know …sometimes? I find ways to pass the time. Eat, talk …mostly watch. Eat some more."

Regina chuckled, "Always ruled by your stomach." Emma rolled her eyes and closed the now empty box. A pause settled over them and Emma thought maybe Regina had given up on the conversation method to not be bored until she asked, "Does he have friends?"

"Who? Henry?" Emma asked.

"Yes. Does he …in New York?"

"A lot of friends. No girlfriend …or boyfriend yet – at least not that I know about. Why? What is this about?"

"I just …I'm curious. I've avoided asking and Henry would rather talk about anything else than New York. He was happy there? Is?"

"Yeah. If you didn't mean so much to the both of us, I probably wouldn't have come back at all. But you mean too much, and Henry would never be okay with me choosing to ignore what I know is here. It's not what heroes do. Especially not to family. The people they love."

"I definitely hear him saying that."

Emma opened her mouth to say something until she spotted someone moving in the window of Regina's office. "We have a lot to talk about still but the witch is here," Emma said, "Ready?"

"Something tells me this witch won't make it easy," Regina said exiting the car with her.

They made it up to the door to the office. Emma instinctively walked in front of Regina even though she knew a magic fight might erupt if three witches end up in a confrontation. She would be the least experienced of the three. But she was handy with gun and hadn't missed yet.

"You sure whoever's in there can't escape?" she asked.

"I sealed the room with a blood lock. It can keep you out or it can keep you in."

"It's that strong?"

"For me? Yes."

"What does that mean?"

"I means I know what I'm doing," Regina replied and Emma exhaled, hoping she was right. The coffee was already wearing off. She waved her hand over the door handle causing it to simmer. She pushed through the door with Emma on her heels, barrel of her gun at the ready.

The room was trashed and almost thought vacant until a figure in the corner caught their eyes.

"Don't move!" Emma commanded.

"There's nowhere for you to go."

A blast of magic shot out at them from a gloved hand, sending them back into the chairs they had been planted in the day before. Regina recovered in enough time to see only a cloaked figure and Emma got up to see the green smoke engulfing the witch as she poofed away.

"Dammit," Regina muttered, brushing her dress and coat of the glass shards that littered the floor. She reached down to Emma to help her up, her gun forgotten behind them.

"I thought you said they couldn't do that."

"No one can break through blood magic, no matter how powerful they are."

"Then the Wicked Witch is definitely more trouble than I was expecting."


The storm clouds had been looming for days but that didn't mean much. It wouldn't deter him. The situation could be worse. Given it was already bad, at least having his wallet was just pure luck on his part. If it weren't for the friendship with Regina he had, being screwed would've sounded nice.

But still he was trapped outside of the town with no way of communicating with anyone on the other side of the barrier keeping him out.

Now in the pouring rain, Killian reached out to the town line. The barrier shimmered green and firmly kept him there in the outside world. A land with no fairy tales wasn't terrible but for once their were people to miss and people that, maybe, missed him.

He looked down at his phone and sighed seeing that his call made to Regina wouldn't go through. Everyday since he fell out. It never went through just as he could never get back into Storybrooke.