I'm like… just gonna leave this here and run away before you all can start yelling at me for taking too long.

Looking for home.

"Somebody asked for some Granny's specials?" Lily shook the bag.

David was the one to come from the backroom of Gold's shop with a relieved smile on his face. "Tiger Lily! What are you doing here?"

Lily raised the brown bags full of food. "I was there having lunch with my Dad when you called Granny with your order. Since they were flirting really gross I thought I would come by and see how you were doing."

"Not that good," David made a face. "Do you know about Henry's nightmares, right? It turns out he can talk to Princess Aurora-"

"The Sleeping Beauty?"

David smiled. "I guess so. Anyway, they're communicating, but it's a risk for Henry's life since the room full of flames, well, it burns him in reality, too. And I know Snow is the one who's going into the room next. I know she will find a way and she will be waiting for Henry. Though we can't send Henry because it's too dang-"

Lily cut his rambling with a sharp motion of her hand. "So you're going instead? Can you do that?"

"Regina and Henry are making a sleeping curse on the backroom," David explained. "And Mr. Gold is out with Belle, I believe."

Lily's whole stance relaxed, even though she hadn't noticed until now she had been so guarded. "Good. So how can I help?"

"You've done enough. Is that grilled cheese I smell?"

Lily grinned. "Maybe? Granny thought Henry would like it better than her special."

.

.

"I see you made the most of our precious little time by littering my shop."

Lily almost jumped out the stool she had claimed in the backroom. Gold's eyes found her and his eyes flashed for a second. David saw that and nonchalantly crossed the room to stand between them.

"We were hungry," David said. "And, after all, you decided to go on a date."

"A date Our Majesty here gleefully interrupted some days ago," Rumplestiltskin noted. "Now, is it finished?"

Regina squeezed Henry's shoulder. "It is."

Lily eyed David's back with worry. "Are you sure you want to do this? I'm still not sure you going under the sleeping curse is the best idea ever."

David turned around. "You're right," he said with a smirk. "Maybe we should put you under it. That way you would get some sleep."

Lily huffed and glared at him. "You know what? I've changed my mind. Go eat your apple or whatever."

"Actually," Gold spoke up making all the eyes turn towards him. "We're going to have to do this the old-fashioned way."

The Prince's gaze became wary. "What do you mean 'the old fashioned way'?"

"You are about to join a quite distinguished club, Mr. Nolan. Before such innovations as the apple-"

Lily scoffed. "Hasn't the apple been there since the beginning of time? Or at least for a very long time?"

The Dark One ignored her. "-back when the Sleeping Curse first came to be, a more direct method was required: through blood," he showed them the long, thick needle on his hand. "By pricking one's finger on the needle of a spinning wheel, one falls under the spell."

Lily wondered to herself why such precision, wouldn't it work with the needle but without the spinning wheel? What difference did it make?

"Your Majesty," Gold turned towards Regina. "you did his wife. I'm sure you'd like the honor."

Lily snorted at the unintended innuendo. The adults glared at her while Henry just stared in confusion.

"I think I better go," she said. "I have a date with a certain cricket that I don't want to miss," she turned to look at Regina and bowed mockingly. "Your Majesty," her eyes fell on Rumplestiltskin, who was already looking at her with hatred. "Crocodile," she nodded at him.

Regina's eyes widened infinitesimally and she looked at Lily like she'd never seen her before. Surprise flickered in her eyes and she nodded to herself, it made sense.

Lily beamed at Henry. "See you later. We can get some ice cream?"

Henry grinned back. "Yeah, it'd be cool."

She saluted at David and turned towards the door. Before she could start walking he grabbed her shoulder, a soft, pleading expression on his face.

"Hey… If anything goes wrong can you…" his eyes flitted to Henry.

"Don't worry," Lily smiled softly. "I'll take care of him," her face turned grave. "Just don't let anything go wrong."

He squeezed her shoulder once. "I' won't," he promised.

.

.

"So much for nothing going wrong."

Henry looked up from the storybook he was reading to his asleep grandfather. "Ty…"

Lily handed him the cup of ice cream she had picked up from him. Regina had called her after she left her session with Archie (Lily had been really shocked when the unknown number turned out to be the Queen) and explained her the situation. She suggested she brought some ice cream to cheer Henry up. And Lily had complied.

"Your mum told me you might need some cheering up," she said sitting down beside him. "Where is she by the way?"

"She and Mr. Gold have gone to make sure the portal and everything goes okay," he said.

"They'll fix this," Lily assured him. "They have to. Now," she grabbed a pack of cards from her pocked. "do you know how to play poker?"

"No…?"

"Do you want to learn?"

.

.

They were on their second game when Ruby burst into the room.

"Where are they?" Red demanded. "Regina and Gold?"

Henry shared a confused look with Lily as the dwarves piled in behind the werewolf. "What's going on?"

"All the magic has been drained from the mines," Ruby was furious.

Henry furrowed his brows. "They stole it?"

"They snuck in after our shift and took everything," Grumpy declared. "Nobody steals from a dwarf!" he exclaimed angrily.

Lily snorted. "I had a bet with Snow to see who could steal from you without noticing."

"We noticed," Doc said.

Lily winked at him. "Not always."

But Henry wasn't listening to them. "If they're not helping Emma and Mary Margaret, that… that means my mom lied to me," he lowered his gaze.

Red kneeled in front of him, draping her hand over the armrest. "I'm sorry, Henry," she told him sincerely.

"We need to find her," the kid said. "We need to stop them. We need to help Emma and Mary Margaret."

Grumpy, unsurprisingly, scowled. "Yeah, but where are they? We thought they would be here."

Lily looked at Red, still kneeling in front of the armchair. "Can you track them?" she asked her. "There's lot of things from Gold here."

She made a face. "They could have used magic to poof anywhere. I can't sniff the whole town."

Lily smiled. "Don't worry. I know of someone who can help you."

Grabbing one of Rumplestilskin's best shirts, she ran out of the door towards her home. She knew Silver was probably sleeping in her bed and she was in need of his help.

And if her wolf destroyed the shirt while he was tracking, well, shame.

.

.

She was around Regina's mansion, seeing if Silver caught something, when her phone rang. Unknown number.

Not that Lily had that many saved, but, still…

"Hello?"

"Ty!"

She blinked. "Henry? Since when do you have a phone?"

"It's not mine," he said. "It's Emma's."

It took a few seconds for the statement to set in. "Wait! Does that mean…?"

"Yeah. My mom stopped the magic in time and they got through the well safely."

She frowned. "Well? What well? And what magic?"

Henry just laughed happily. "I'll tell you tomorrow," he said. "There's a party at Granny's tomorrow night. Will you come?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world," she assured. "Dad and Wendy will come too. And I'll call Grace to tell her."

"And Finn?"

She huffed. "I wouldn't leave him out!"

"I don't know. You seemed pretty angry at him some weeks ago."

"We've made up!" she argued. "We watched Star Wars together, remember?"

Henry hummed, not at all convinced.

"I'll go tell Finn, too," she told him. "Now go reunite with your family," and she hung up before she could say anything else.

Lily eyed the phone and quickly went to her contacts list.

"Hey, P! What are you doing tomorrow night?"

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

"Uuuh! Lasagna!" Lily bounced to the counter. "Smells good. Can I have some?"

Regina seemed surprised by her sudden appearance. "You don't think it's poisoned?" and her eyes flittered to Grumpy, who was dissecting his piece with a knife.

"Nah!" Lily beamed. "You're not stupid. Besides, I have immunity to most poisons."

Finn and Grace, who were behind her, and Henry on the counter, gaped at her. "You do?" Finn asked. "How?"

"I've been taking small doses of poison through the years to make myself immune," she explained. "What? Neverland is a very dangerous place, alright?"

"Your father was always a careful man," Regina said off-handedly.

Lily lost her grip on her fork. "You knew my father? Do you know where he is?"

"We had some deals long ago, but I haven't seen him since years before the curse."

"How did you even know who my father is?"

The Queen raised an unamused eyebrow. "Rumplestiltskin is the crocodile? It was all too easy to fit the pieces together."

"I thought Marco was your real father," said Grace.

Henry was still staring at her. "But you poisoned yourself?!" he was asking the important questions.

Emma appeared behind her kid with her mother by her side. "Who poisoned whom?"

"Tayler poisoned herself so she could be immune," Grace explained.

The two women sputtered. "Why would you do that?"

Lily made a face. "Safety?" she suggested. "Anyway, how was the Enchanted Forest?"

Emma grimaced. "Awful."

"It wasn't so bad!" Snow argued.

"Two words," Emma said. "No showers."

The kids all made a disgusted face. Snow, on the other hand, looked amused. "But you've grown up without showers."

"Yeah, but…" Grace struggled. "Now that we know they exist…"

Emma seemed pretty happy they agreed with her. "And there were also ogres-"

"Oh! Awful things. Pretty scary, too," Lily nodded.

"-and Cora had some zombies following us. That was scary."

Finn leaned in, interested. "Zombies like real zombies? With 'braaaaains' and everything?"

The Sheriff looked at him, amused and disturbed. Snow answered for her. "No, they were people that Cora had killed and taken their hearts," she glanced at Regina surreptitiously. "So they looked, you know, like normal people. With holes on their chests."

"I once met some zombies in another realm," Lily commented. "Though, admittedly, people told us not to go that far north. Bloody white walkers almost took half of our crew."

Emma looked at Lily with wide eyes, then she narrowed them and shook her head. "Nope," she said to herself. "I don't even want to know," and she left muttering to herself about fucking Game of Thrones being fucking real too.

Snow didn't even have time to scold her for her language for she was already chatting happily with Red.

Henry laughed. "I think you broke her."

Finn rested on his elbows. "So…" he started looking far more interested. "White walkers?"

Lily let out a mix between a snort and a huff. "Last time I try to help someone called Stark."

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

"This is so weird," Wendy muttered shaking her head.

Lily looked up from the notes she was tiding up. "What?"

"You're good at Math now," she said. "You're good at advanced Math. You could do my homework if you wanted to."

Lily winked at her. "But I don't want to. Besides, today was the last day of school," she beamed. "We don't have homework anymore!"

Wendy rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. It's just…"

"I'm over two centuries old," Lily reminded her. "I know a lot of things."

Wendy pursed her lips. "I'm over two centuries old, too and I don't know all that stuff."

Lily's gaze turned pitying. "You spent most of that time locked up in a cage," she said. "I had –have– a father who was in the Navy. It's not the same."

Speaking of fathers… their other one entered the kitchen at that same moment, his face strangely numb. It made dread pool on Lily's stomach.

"Dad," she called. "Dad, is something wrong?"

Her father took a deep, bracing breath. "Archie's dead," he announced.

Lily dropped her pen. "Wha-what?"

"How?"

"Regina killed him yesterday night," he explained. "I…" his face crumbled.

Wendy jumped to her feet and helped him sit on a chair. "He can't be… he's really dead?"

Lily felt her heart tightening in her chest. Archie had been an old family friend since the beginning of the curse. He was like family. The news of his death…

She dropped her head on her hands and breathed in deep.

.

.

The funeral wasn't a very crowded affair, not like Uncle Graham's had been. The dwarves were there, and Snow, David, Emma and Henry with Pongo. Granny looked at the coffin stoically and Ruby hid her teary eyes behind huge sunglasses. Even Blue had attended looking quite sad as did Belle, Rumplestiltskin's paramour.

Lily hadn't even known Belle and Archie were friends, but the woman looked quite heartbroken.

Grace had asked her if she wanted her to come but Lily had told her it wasn't necessary. Archie wouldn't have wanted that many people to mourn him.

Snow gave a speech while they all crowded around the coffin and Lily struggled to breathe, her hand clasping her father's. The queen's speech ended abruptly with her turning to hug her husband and everybody started embracing each other.

Marco broke away from her grasp to go stand next to the tombstone. There he put Archie's iconic umbrella and Lily had to turn away from the scene because it was just too much.

Wendy hugged her far more tightly than it was needed, but Lily thanked it just the same. Her sister took in a ragged breath and kissed the crown of her head.

"It will be alright," whispered Wendy. "It will be fine, okay?"

Lily nodded but kept her arms clasped around the other girl. "Since we're here," her voice came out muffled for she was speaking against Wendy's coat. "Can we go see Uncle Graham?"

Wendy sniffled. "Yes, we can."

"Thanks, Obama."

Wendy cuffed her on the head.

.

.

Lily's eyes flew back to Henry, broodingly looking at the window from Snow's bed. She sighed and her eyes caught Emma's.

"I don't know what to do," the woman whispered once she was by her side. "He won't talk, or eat or anything."

She made a face. "Give him a couple of days," Lily told her. "Right now it's too soon. He's still trying to wrap his mind around it. I know I am."

"But you're taking it better than he is."

"I've lost a lot of people in my life," she said. "I know how to deal with the pain. Henry on the other hand…" she smiled sadly. "Archie was his first friend, before me or Finn or Grace. The first one who cared. It will take him some time to come to terms with everything. All we can do right now is show him he's not alone."

Emma eyed her, impressed. "Sometimes you don't talk like a ten year old."

Lily's eyes twinkled. "First of all, I should be eleven, if anything. You missed my birthday while you were in the Enchanted Forest," her sad smile told her she didn't blame them. "And secondly," she leaned in, lowering her voice as if she was going to tell her the biggest secret ever. "I'm older than I look."

The Sheriff made a face. "Right, the curse," she grimaced. "You're technically older than me."

Lily debated telling her she was technically the oldest person in the room, aside from Wendy. She winked at her instead. "Technically you're the second youngest person here. How does that make you feel?"

Emma looked at her and then at Wendy, the ones who seemed the youngest. "Maybe I should start buying anti-aging creams."

Lily snorted. Snow walked towards them and squeezed her daughter's arm. "I don't know what you two are talking about but keep it up," she said. "It's nice to see some sort of happiness today."

"Henry's not taking it well," Emma told Snow.

"You're doing all you can do," her eyes were sad.

Emma crossed her arms. "That's what makes me feel awful."

Snow's retort was cut short by Leroy. "Ladies," he approached slowly. "The dwarves have been thinking. We have to ask," he took a steadying breath. "When do we go back?"

"Back where?" Emma bit out.

"The Enchanted Forest," the dwarf articulated. "Our home."

Even Snow seemed surprised. "You want to go back?"

"We fought really hard to get here," Emma added.

Grumpy let out a laugh conceding her the point. "But with what Regina did to Archie," he pressed on. "Storybrooke ain't as safe as we thought."

Lily blinked. "And what makes you think the Enchanted Forest is any better," she furrowed her brows. "Cora's there and the ogres are back."

"And we're going to find Regina," Emma assured. "There's only so many places she can hide."

Snow was with her daughter. "We've dealt with her before, we'll do it again."

"But it's not just her," Leroy said. "The curse is broken. There's a whole world full of people beyond the town line that don't know who or what we are. Ever think of what might happen if one of them were to come pay us a visit?"

"Well, technically they do know who we are," Lily muttered. "Though they may not exactly believe us."

Marco glared warningly at her. She closed her mouth.

"He's right," Ruby said. "What if they see, you know, magic? Like a girl turning into a wolf, for example. Folks weren't exactly understanding back in our world."

"Okay, let's not worry about what-ifs," Emma gestured. "No one is here."

Grumpy wasn't about to leave it like that. "Yet," he noted. "Maybe they come, maybe they don't," he had his arms crossed in defiance. "But that doesn't change the fact that while we might enjoy things like penicillin, we're a bit homesick."

"I'm sure you'll feel homesick of Storybrooke when an ogre smashes you to pieces," Lily said. "The thing is," she raised her voice. "We all lived in a castle. We didn't have to work, the wars were over, we had easy access to food…" she let her gaze travel to the disgruntled mourners. "But a lot of people had it hard. Most of Storybrooke's habitants struggled to survive. And you want to ask them to go back?" her eyebrows climbed on their own accord.

"We don't…" Grumpy started to say.

But she cut him off. "Exactly," she said harshly. "You don't know. I travelled the Enchanted Forest when everything was good. And sure, people were content but there's a reason why the mortality rate is much lower here. And you want to send people back to die because you're homesick?"

Lily pressed her lips together feeling their gazes on her and huffed. Clenching her fists she swallowed back the poisoned words trying to leave her mouth.

"I'm going to the beach," she announced, mainly to her father, before turning on her heel and marching towards the door.

.

.

.

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So Archie is "dead"… you know what that means, right?

YEES! Killian is close! Now they just have to find each other.

How are you liking the new Season?

MW.