Eilonwy called to decline tea, she needed time to think. She wasn't sure she could manage seeing Jefferson without bursting into tears and hugging him as tight as possible. The next day however, after work, she joined Grace and Jefferson for tea. She kept looking at him, wondering how anyone could have endured so much in both lives and still be as relatively sane as he was. He walked her home and they talked. All the while her resolve strengthening, that even if she had to sacrifice herself she would see him and Grace safely back in the Enchanted Forest, back home.

Two days later, after asking Ruby to cover for her for the rest of the day she went out. She felt furtive and dirty, but her mind was made up. She knocked on the door, rang the bell. There was no answer but she was determined to continue. She tried the handle, it wasn't locked. She went inside.

"What can I do for you?" came a voice from the shadows.

"Mr Gold" she said "rather I mean Rumplestiltskin" she corrected.

"Yes dearie?" he said with a smile.

"I need something" she spoke the words reluctantly, she could taste the bitter trace they left leaving her tongue.

His eyes went a little wide "you" he said looking straight at her and taking a step closer "want to make a bargain?" he asked incredulously though still speaking in his calm even voice.

"Yes" she said closing her eyes, steeling herself "I need some magic, not a lot, I have some of my own as you know, just a bit of something, and seeing as magic has returned to Storybrooke it would cost you no more than lighting some candles or that disappearing act, I just need a bit" she said.

"What for?" he asked.

"To help a friend" she answered.

"Any particular friend dearie?"

"One that needs help" she said looking pointedly back at him.

"I see" he said coming around the corner and looking at his collection of vials. "And what would you be giving me in return?"

"What do you want?" she asked.

"That depends on what you have to offer, I imagine you'll be keeping your magic bauble for whatever it is you need the extra magic for, so that's not on the table" he mused "even in the Enchanted Forest you and Taran had parted ways, so there's no true love's offspring to barter with" he said. "I really don't know as you have anything I want" he said, but he looked up and caught the blush in her cheeks fading from his mention of true love. "Ah, maybe true love isn't out of the question" he said smiling.

"Whether it is or isn't which I know he has no feelings of those kind for me, so it is out of the question, I'd never sacrifice my child, no matter the bargain" she said vehemently.

"Calm down dearie" he soothed "though with this little discovery we might be able to come to an arrangement" he said.

"Magic comes at a price, in your case it may not be too high of one. Just a little chip in that imposing dignity of yours, it should suffice" he expounded.

"What do you mean?" she demanded tersely.

"I mean, name the man you love and the magic of true love, bottled, might just be enough for whatever the job is you have to do with it" he said with a casual grin.

"Name him?" she asked. He nodded. "And this isn't some trick for you to have a secret to lord over my head in the future?"

"You'll just have to trust me" he said.

"That I could never do, but I suppose with no risk there comes no gain" she admitted.

"True enough."

"Can you at least agree never to tell him, do what you like to me with the information I give you, just don't ever tell him" she said.

"If you insist" he agreed amiably.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes and then opening them slowly, opening her mouth to say the dearest name to her heart "Jefferson!" she spoke as the bell on the door jingled and in stepped her friend. Mr. Gold bottled the essence that had came into the air when she had spoke the name. His face a mixture of expressions which he sought to compose. He was simultaneously, shocked, pleased, surprised and confused. It wasn't often that something occurred that he did not have an inkling about beforehand, but this had not been anything he had expected. First Eilonwy making a bargain with him, however lean it had been, second her having fallen for the Mad Hatter, the broken man in the big house. He rather regretted not having tried to make a deal for her child or something, because true love didn't seem as impossibly unrequited as she seemed to believe as he watched Jefferson come up to her.

"What are you doing?" he almost chastised.

"Your magic dearie" Gold said handing her the bottle.

"What did you do?" Jefferson asked appalled.

"I made a deal" she said taking his arm and stearing him out of the shop and down the street.

"What have you done?" he asked a little breathless from being drug at her brisk walk two blocks from Gold's shop.

"I got us a way home" she said showing him the phial of wispy magic of blue and red.

"At what cost?" he asked, his face nearly heartbroken. He hated to think of her sacrficing herself to enter into an arrangement with Gold. She was so noble, not sullied already like him.

"A secret" she said.

"What was it?"

"If I tell everyone it will cease to be a secret and the bargain might be nullified" she said and then seeing the panic and concern in his blue eyes she gently reached up and reassuringly touched his cheek "It wasn't anything important" she lied and let her hand drop.

"Are you sure?" he asked. She nodded and he took her arm and walked with her back to the mansion. They decided to wait to try it until Grace was home, in case it was a short window to get through. Jefferson picked her up from school and briefly explained what they were going to try and do while Eilonwy went and left a note at her home that she hadn't died, if they were reading this she had found a way out of Storybrooke and hoped they all could do the same. She grabbed her anchor pendant as something to remind her of her life here and then dashed back to Jefferson's. She was eager to go home. Her luminescent magical earrings bobbing and glowing in the sun and sharing their excitement via their mental link.

When she reached his house he had just come home with Grace and he got the door before Eilonwy reached it, his excitement showing in his eyes. He might be going home with Grace at long last. They went to the room where the hat was, she took off her earrings and realeased the sentient magic, the hat began to spin and the orb of magic bobbed in and out, she opened the phial and poured the mystic mist over the hat, it begain to spin faster and grow larger, Grace stood clutching her stuffed rabbit in her hand.

"Is this it?" Eilonwy shouted over the rushing noise.

"It's almost big enough" he said looking in, it broadened and reached it's climactic maximum size of portal and rate of speed. "Take my hand" he said and Grace took it trustingly. "You too" he shouted "we stay together, none of us gets lost, left or alone" he said as he grabbed the princess' hand, allowing the fear he dared not show Grace on his left to show in the deathgrip he gave Eilonwy. The three jumped in, clinging to each other's hands as tight as possible, and landing in the room of doors. Each leading to a different land.

The two girls looked around in wonder, they had never been before. But Jefferson simply looked around and spotted the door home to the Enchanted Forest.

"Do all of these go to different lands papa?" Grace asked.

"Yes" he said taking her hand again.

"Where does that one go?" she asked, pointing to the one that looked like a looking glass. His face went a little ashen and he moved to leave, but he had to get Eilonwy first. She was looking at the ceiling of the room, fascinated and also somewhat sad in expression.

"We should go" he urged.

"But where is he? where is my magic bauble?" she asked looking, waiting for it to come through.

"It may have been spent in getting us here" he said sympathetically. He went to her and took her hand in a comforting way and lead her through the door to the Enchanted Forest, her gaze on the room until the door took it out of her sight.