Henry realized now, as he sat in the locked oversized dog cage, that he should have been more careful, but he had just been so excited that he had found The Sandman's hideout before any of the grownups. None of them would have thought to look at the school. He probably wouldn't have either had he not spent several afternoons after school a few years ago exploring the school and the grounds.

When he had first stumbled upon the storm doors on the backside of the school he really hadn't thought much of it, especially since it had been secured with a padlock. He knew that most of the houses in Storybrook had similar doors leading down into basements. It wasn't until he discovered the nearly hidden, unlocked grate at the edge of the property beyond the playground that he began to get curious about what lies below the school. It wouldn't have even caught his attention if it hadn't been for the lights shining out.

He had waited until school was over and he was sure that all of the teachers had gone home for the day before returning to the school in investigate. At that time he didn't know anything about the possibilities of hidden evils in Storybrook and so had no fears about climbing down into a secret passageway under the ground. He had been hoping to find something mysterious and exciting, but had instead discovered an underground maintenance tunnel leading to the schools sub-basement. The most interesting thing that he discovered in there was the closed off room with the cot and the TV. All of the students heard rumors about the cantankerous janitor living in the basement of the school, and didn't think much of it at the time.

It wasn't until Henry had seen the torn fabric that his mother had found at Dr. Hopper's house that he had made the connection. The few times that the school janitor had been seen around the school when classes were in session, he always wore dirty dark blue uniform pants.

He knew that he shouldn't have got alone to check it out, but he also knew that if he had told his mother and grandfather about his suspicions they would have insisted that he stay behind. Instead he snuck out of his house and made his way to the maintenance tunnel and into the sub-basement to check the situation out for himself.

He had been careful to be as quiet as he could as he creeped into the tunnel and through the door leaded into the sub-basement. Unfortunately he had been so excited at seeing Leroy and Dr. Hopper in the locked cages that he forgot to keep his voice down when he called his mother. The minute that the door he knew had been being used as a bedroom flew open, he realized his mistake. He fought as hard as he could, but was quickly forced into the cage and forced to watch as the padlock was placed on it to prevent him from escaping. Now he could only sit and hope now that his family had a way of finding where they were before things get any worse.


For all of the steps that Henry had taken to sneak out of his house undetected by his adopted mother, Regina was thankful that he hadn't thought to hide the bike that he had ridden to the school. Parked next to the open grate behind the school, she was easily able to determine where it was that he had ran to and she almost wished that she hadn't wasted so much time making the potion.

As soon as David arrived with Hook in tow, all three of them carefully made their way down into the tunnel that led to the sub-basement. Using her magically produced flame, the three of them were able to make their way through the dark to the metal door at the end of the walkway. Carefully opening the door, first Hook, then David and finally Regina slipped through into the dark.

Standing quietly trying to allow her eyes adjust to the dark, Regina tried to get a feel for the room. She could tell that it was a large room, but wasn't able to tell much else. She walked carefully with her arm touching the wall until her foot clanged against something metal.

"Who's there?" A voice whispered frantically.

"Is that you Cricket?" Regina whispered back as she bent down and lit a small flame in her hand. She saw through the cage the battered form of Dr. Hopper as he shielded his eyes from the light. "Where is Henry?"

"I've got him over here," David whispered. "There is a lock on this thing though. I'm gonna need help getting him out."

Working quickly on the lock securing Dr. Hopper's cage, Regina quickly worked her way over to where David was crouched down in front of another one. A short blast of magic released the lock and Henry came scrambling out to embrace his mother.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered in her ear. "I just wanted to help."

"You did help, Henry," she replied softly to him. "Just next time try letting us know before you act on anything. Are you ok?"

Feeling him nod against her shoulder she pushed him back and helped him to his feet. "Where's the dwarf?" she asked in a low voice.

"Over here, sister," came the growl from across the room.

Still holding her small flame Regina made her way across to the much smaller cage that Leroy was folded up into. After releasing him, she stood and took a look around. The darkened room was mostly empty with the exception of some mechanical boxes and something that could have a water heater or something along those lines. There were two more large cages sitting against the wall as if waiting to be filled with the next unlikely victims.

There were two other doors in the room besides the one they entered in from the tunnel. Opening the one nearest to where they stood, Regina could tell that that it led to the upper basement and most likely into the school from there. The other was at the far side of the room from where they were standing.

"Hey…Where is Hook?" David asked suddenly.

"I think he went into there," Leroy said pointing at the door on the opposite side of the room. "That's where the creep that put us in these cages keeps disappearing to."

Regina and David exchanged a look before both of them took off running towards the door. As they burst into the room, they saw Hook holding a battered looking older man in a dressing gown, by the throat against the wall. The man had bright white hair streaked with blood from a wound on the side of his head. His lip was bloodied, his eye already almost swollen shut and his gown was torn.

"HOOK!" David shouted. "Stop! Put him down!"

Without taking his eyes off of the man he replied in a low dangerous voice, "I will put him down once I gut him like a fish for what he's done to Emma." He raised his hook to the man's midsection and jabbed at him with its point.

"I like the way you think, Pirate," Regina replied with an evil grin.

David ignored her and said, "This is not the way we do things here! You need to let go of him."

Turning his head to look at the prince, "This bastard is the reason that your daughter had to be cut out of that metal death trap and lashed up on a plank to be transport your hospital! Yet, you expect me to just let him go?!"

"No. I expect you to carry on as you have in your past, plundering and killing without mercy," David said. "But Emma would expect far better of you. She sees how far you have come already and insists that you aren't that man anymore. This isn't what she would want, Killian," he continued as he put a hand on Hook's shoulder. "Let me see what she sees. Put him down and together we can make sure that justice is done. The right way."

With a determined glare at the man being held in his hand, Hook threw him to the ground and turned away from him. David rushed over to the man, forced him arms behind his back and forced him into a sitting position and began talking to him a low voice.

Regina looked at Hook who was facing the wall and breathing heavily still obviously upset. "I can't believe you didn't just snap his neck when you had the chance," she muttered to him.

When he didn't respond, Regina turned from him and began to search the room. It didn't take her long to locate the burlap sack filled with the magical sand. With a quick wave of her hand the bag glowed blue before returning to normal. She turned to face the man as she dumped the contents on the floor.

"Now you can't torture anyone else with this dust," she drawled. "I'm assuming Emma was successful at permanently expelling you from her mind, but this way you won't be able to harass anyone ever again."

To her surprise the man started to laugh. Before she would even ask him what he thought was so funny he said in a raspy voice, "Ms. Swan wasn't able to finish your little spell thanks to the pirate. And now, thanks to his little temper tantrum she will never wake again!"