Dean

"No."

The word is as sharp as a blade of a knife and the finality impossible to miss coming from Snow's lips. It makes his stomach drop to the ground from such shock at her lack of hesitation when it came to answer and her reaction. It's just the freakin' Enchanted Forest! What the hell could go wrong? Other than the ogre issue, I think I'd be fine.

"But Snow, you don't understand. I have to save Sam—" Dean begins as he leans on the counter of the small apartment.

"And you are," she interrupts as she hastily pours cold cocoa into a cup and setting it down roughly before leaving it alone. "But you're not going to go through the Enchanted Forest. It's too dangerous."

Then she moves her attention to a saltshaker that is slightly misplaced from its spot on the counter and she pushes it neatly back in its place. Then she switches the salt and pepper's places and switches them back. Dean knows what she's doing all too well. She's trying to keep herself busy to keep herself from listening to any reason or logic.

"But Mary Margaret, you would do the same. I got through there one time, I can do it again. Maybe I could even have Aurora and Mulan help me," Emma says, stepping closer to the counter, next to Dean. He turns at her curiously. Certainly she couldn't mean she-warrior Mulan…. could she?

"You did but you had me with you. I know about the Enchanted Forest. I've lived there for crying out loud!" Snow says, fiddling with her fingers. "And who knows where you would've been if I didn't jump into the hat with you. For all I know, Mulan and Aurora wouldn't have let you live and you could be dead by now," Snow says, her voice cracking and turning to them. Dean could see tears welling up in her eyes. In the midst of his confusion and thoughts of the fairytales that he's trying to piece out in his head is the lingering observation that she really cares about her daughter—which is almost her age.

It stays quiet and a lone tear runs down Snow's cheek, making her squeeze her eyes shut and look to the ground, her shoulder's shaking in silent sobs. David slowly reaches for her, tugging her by the sleeve and making her sit on his lap as she sobs gently into his shoulder. Dean stands there awkwardly, not knowing what to do in this situation. He just rocks on the back of his heels, attempting to look away from the couple but he needs information about the Enchanted Forest. If he is gonna get through it—no matter how much he hates to admit it—he's gonna need help, even if the help is from Snow White.

Emma approaches Snow slowly. She reaches her hand out to her and places it tentatively on her shoulder. She spreads her hand out and gently rubs Snow's back. Dean just stands there awkwardly.

Emma looks up at Dean, making eye contact. "I think that you should let us talk for a bit. Go talk to Henry. He's been missing you these past days."

Dean nods, all too happy to jump at the opportunity to get away from the scene unraveling before his eyes. As he walks down the hall to what he assumes if Henry's room, he suddenly remembers about the little guy and realizes what a jackass he is for not missing him. He genuinely liked the kid but he's been busy with the issues he's dealing with at the moment. He gently knocks on the door with his knuckles and hears shuffling in the room as a small pitter-patter of footsteps approach the door. It swings open to reveal Henry in pajamas, barefoot. Henry's expression brightens as he sees that Dean is at the doorway. Dean smiles in return, spreading his palm wide so that he could high five the kid.

"Hey, kid. How're you doing?" he greets, stepping into the small room.

Henry high fives his hand, wrapping an arm around Dean in a one-armed hug. "I'm doing great! How did you heal so fast? I thought your leg was broken?"

Dean sits down on Henry's bed as Henry jumps on, settling next to Dean with his legs crossed.

"Well, my angel-buddy helped out a lot," Dean says, smiling at the kid.

"An angel?" Henry asks. Dean nods. "Cool!"

Dean nods, giving Henry a fist bump. "Oh trust me kid, it is not what it's cut out to be," Dean mutters under his breath. Henry doesn't seem to notice. "Hey, listen kid. I was wondering if I could…borrow the book or just read your book about the characters?"

Henry's brows furrow, confused. "But…I thought that you would know since you were there? In the Enchanted Forest?"

"No, I wasn't there for the events but I was…there," Dean says. "Look, can I just borrow it? I'm sorta lost with what's going on right now and I don't like to be lost."

Henry nods. "Sure. You can read it, but the last pages are missing. I bet you already know what happened there," he says as he reaches over to his nightstand and takes the book. He hands it to Dean and Dean takes it, feeling the texture of the leather. He takes a deep breath. This thing seriously held Storybrooke's history. It shouldn't surprise Dean as much as it does that all the occurrences that have happened in this book are real since he's friends with an angel, died twice and stopped an apocalypse from burdening earth. Really, how hard is it to accept that Prince Charming and Snow White exist?

Very hard, actually, he admits to himself.

"Do you want to read it now?" Henry asks.

Dean draws his gaze from the book to Henry. "You mean now?" Henry nods. Dean shakes his head, setting the book down on his lap. "Nah. I came here to hang with my best bud." He says, playfully punching Henry's shoulder.

"So, what were you guys talking about out there?" he asks.

Dean looks at the closed door then back at Henry. "Well, y'know how my brother disappeared?" Henry nods, listening intently. "Well, turns out that the creature I might be dealing with is a Jabberwocky."

Henry's eyes widen and his mouth parts a bit in subtle shock. He looks speechless for a second, then he shakes his head, looking at Dean for confirmation at his next words. "You mean…Jabberwocky Jabberwocky? Alice in Wonderland Jabberwocky?!"

Dean nods, snapping his finger at the kid. "Yep, that's the one."

"B-but how?!" he asks.

"Well…you know Jefferson?" Dean asks.

"The Mad Hatter?" Henry questions, his head tilting to the side.

Dean nods. "Yeah, he…he opened a portal to bring it in."

Henry's expression falls and he looks at his bed sheets, looking confused. "But…but why? Why did he do it? Does he hate you in the Enchanted Forest or something?"

Dean shakes his head. "No. It's just that…someone forced him to do it. They threatened his kid."

"Paige?" Henry asks.

Dean's brows furrow. "No. Grace, I think."

"Well, her name here is Paige but Grace is her storybook name," Henry quickly explains.

"Oh, well back to the story. Someone forced him to send the Jabberwocky here. I don't know why the heck a person has a Jabberwocky to do their dirty work in taking my brother but…it happened and Emma and I are possibly going to the Enchanted Forest," Dean says, leaning his elbows to his knees and looks at Henry intently.

"You are?" he asks.

"Quite possibly," he says, propping his head up with his hands. "We just need Snow's permission. Apparently, we might need some information about what to do when we fight creatures over there or something."

"Oh, well…I'm sure she'll help you. She always ends up doing what's right," Henry says with a small, confident smile.

Dean grins at him, ruffling up his hair. "You have a lot of optimism. That's what I love about you so much."

Henry grins, swatting his hand away when the door opens. David stands at the doorway, nodding the both of them a greeting. Henry waves at him, looking at his grandfather expectantly while Dean just stares at him, already knowing why he's here.

"Dean," David says, leaning forward. "You could…join the conversation again. Sorry Henry."

Henry slouches in disappointment as Dean rises to his feet. Henry waves a goodbye to him as Dean nods a farewell. "G'night Henry."

As Dean closes the door, he follows David back to the kitchen where Snow stands at the counter and Emma sits at a stool. They both turn to Dean when he enters the room and, by the way that Snow's expression looks grim, they are going to have to prepare for a trip to the Enchanted Forest.

"I am…allowing you to go to the Enchanted Forest," Snow announces, not looking at Emma or him but Dean doesn't care. He just wants the information he needs. "I'll be teaching you some things you'll need to learn to survive the Enchanted Forest. Emma, Dean, you'll both be learning sword-fighting and archery from David and I. After the training, I'll be telling you everything that I know about the dangerous creatures there and possible ones from Wonderland. Some of them don't go down easy; you can't just kill them with a jab of a sword. Therefore, I'll tell you ways to subdue the ones I know."

Dean nods, perfectly content with the plan. "Alright but…is the sword-fighting and archery necessary? I mean, I'm fine with a gun and a knife."

"And if you fire a gun, it'll attract other things and I'll guarantee that one of them will be an ogre so, yes, the training is necessary," Snow snaps.

David comes to her side and puts a hand to her shoulder. "Hey, cut 'im some slack. He just found out about us last night."

Snow closes her eyes, clearly stressed and takes a shaky breath. She opens her eyes again and looks at Emma. "Just…be careful there. You're lucky that I decided to let you accompany him," she tips her head to Dean and he furrows his brows. He didn't think that he was that bad of company. Snow looks him up and down and her lips turn downward. "But I can still change my mind."

Dean grins, taking a deep breath through the nose. "I can feel the love."

He could see Emma tilt her head and he could imagine her roll her eyes. She turns to him and sighs. "Well, I think I'll call it a day. G'night guys."

She stands up and heads to the stairs. Snow walks to the bed that sits in next to the kitchen, which Dean finds very odd, and David heads to the door, as does Dean.

"Alright, I assume you've got a place here," he says as he opens the door and Dean steps out, turning around with the book in hand.

"Yep. Got a room in the inn, if that's what you mean," he says, nodding. David's eyes turn to look at the book in Dean's hand and he nods.

"You gonna try to catch up to whatever the hell's going on?" he asks.

Dean nods. "As best as I can."

David chuckles. "Yeah, you'll need that and a bit more information from the townsfolk."

Dean nods. "I'll keep that in mind."

David finally closes the door after a final farewell and Dean turns on his heel, walking away from the apartment and down the sidewalk. He hurries as he turns the corner, trying to be quick in his steps just so he can get to the room and read the damn book already. He looks down at it, seeing the leather bound book in his hand.

Soon, he sees Granny's and heads to the inn. He greets Red and gives her granny a nod and heads to his room. He fumbles while he tries to unlock the door.

He bursts in, closing the door with his foot and not bothering to lock it. He just shrugs off his sweater and drops the book on the bed, turning around to hang his sweater on the hanger and turning back to see Cas sitting on the bed, Henry's book in his hand and eyes skimming over the title over and over again.

Dean jumps, cursing at his sudden appearance. "What the hell, Cas?"

"Who gave you this?" he asks.

Dean sighs, running a hand down his face as he leans his head back. "Henry."

"Emma's son?" Castiel asks.

Dean nods. "Yeah, why?"

Castiel turns the book in his hands, looking at it curiously. "It has not trace of anything supernatural or magical yet it holds all of these people's past. How is that?"

Dean shrugs, taking the book from his grasp. "I don't know. Maybe someone gave it to him as a gift. I'll ask Emma tomorrow."

Castiel nods. "I'll meet up with you guys tomorrow as well. As for right now, I came to deliver a warning. Stay away from Rumplestiltskin. Only come to him when it is of dire need."

Then he's gone. Dean sighs, letting himself fall on the bed, making the springs groan in protest. He's starting to wonder if the angel is and real help or not.

He groans, sitting up and letting out a breath, shaking the sleep out of his eyes. He needs to read the book right now because his curiosity is gnawing at him.

He lays it face up, reading over the title. He stares at it for a moment, contemplating whether or not he really needs to read about Snow White and Prince Charming and other fairytale crap. Then, finally, after getting sick of reading 'Once Upon a Time' over and over again, he flips the cover, turning to the first page only to read the words again. Once upon a time…

Boy, this is gonna get old quick, thinks Dean as he reads the next rest. And that's how he spent the night, reading and reading and reading until finally, exhaustion took over and he falls asleep over the open book after reading it for the tenth time.