I am really trying to write slightly longer chapters now than what was common for An Unexpected Journey, so I hope you enjoy that :)

Monday morning came around much faster than those with morning lessons would have liked, but only three inhabitants at the Tiger Mansion were among these people so the house remained reasonably quiet early in the morning. Jade had planned on staying in bed until about noon, then have breakfast/lunch and then head outside to host her first lesson with June at 1pm. However that was not to be the case as just before nine her phone went off. Disoriented she sat up in her bed and blinked at the pale golden walls around her until she figured out what was making that annoying sound, at which point she sunk back against the pillows with a groan and picked up the still ringing phone.

"Hello?" she groggily said after pressing the answering button.

"Did I wake you up, young one?" a familiarly accented voice asked her. In an instant she was wide awake and tried to get out of bed, but managed to get herself tangled up in the covers and fell down onto the floor with a grunt.

"Jade? Jade, are you alright?"

"Since when do you use a phone?" Jade asked in return while massaging her hip, which she had managed to land on.

"I figured I should try it, seeing that they do seem very handy in this land", the man replied. "Rowan gave me your number; I ran into him at the grocery store yesterday."

"Wow, you go shopping at the store as well?" Jade asked. "Sounds like you've completely abandoned the way of the outlaws. Are you learning to drive, too?"

"That is not something I can see myself doing. Those machines are..."

"Let me guess; horrendous?"

"Not the word I would have used but yes, if you like; horrendous."

Jade laughed.

"So, Robin Hood, why are you waking me up at this godforsaken hour?" she then asked.

"I wonder how you would have survived if you had been raised in the Enchanted Forest", Robin mused. "As of now I was simply wondering if you would like to join me and my family for breakfast."

Jade stopped herself in the last moment from asking if Regina would be there, if he now counted her as family. Now he was doubtlessly referring to another woman, the woman Jade remembered as a captive of the Evil Queen in the past. Lady Marian.

"Sure", she said after a while. "At the camp?"

"We were thinking of going to Granny's", Robin replied. "Roland hasn't been there in some time and... Marian wanted to try having breakfast there instead."
Jade did not fail to notice the small hesitation before he said the name of his returned wife.

"I'll meet you there. See you soon, Robin!"

Then she hung up and tried to decide what to wear. The good thing about sharing her room with June was that the room was always clean; June had some need to always make sure that it was before walking out and thus the clothes were always neatly folded or hung up in the wardrobe.

"Jade?" Arianne asked through the door while she was trying to untangle her hair. "You up already?"

"Yeah", Jade replied, then cursed as her hairbrush got stuck in her brown tresses. She really needed to cut it off, preferably right now.

"You want some breakfast?" Arianne asked. "I could..."

"No, I'm meeting Robin at Granny's", Jade replied while pulling out a drawer in search of a pair of scissors.

"You want me to drive you, then?" Arianne asked. "I'm going to see Regina."

"Sure, that'd be great", Jade said while pulling out the scissors in question. "I'll be down in fifteen minutes!"

Then she started running the scissors through the thick brown strands of hair.

Arianne gaped at her as she came down the stairs.

"You cut off your hair?" she exclaimed.

"It's been a long time coming", Jade replied and grinned. The long tresses were gone and even though the cut was probably not the best in the history of the world (courtesy of bad scissors, of course) it was much better than what she had previously had going on.

"You just cut it off?" Indira asked, coming out from the library.

"Yeah. What do you think?"

"I think Robin's going to have a field day", Arianne replied. "You might give him a heart attack."

"Oh, stop it", Jade huffed. "Snow's got even shorter hair here in Storybrooke and he didn't freak out about that, now did he?"

She cast a glance into the kitchen and waved at Victor and Josh, who simply stared back at her in surprise.

"You're going to cause more talk than Clarissa did with her red hair", Arianne remarked as they drove into town.

"Maybe", Jade replied, "but I really don't care. I like it."

"It looks good on you", Arianne agreed, "but it's going to take some time for people to get used to that change."

"Then they'll get that time. Main thing is that I'm happy with it."

Arianne let her off at Granny's a couple of minutes later, before driving off down the road towards Regina's house. Jade tried to spy in through the blinds of the diner to see if her friend was already there but in the end decided that the only way to really know was to head inside.

The first one to greet her was Ruby, who gave an excited scream as she saw her.

"Oh my God, you cut your hair off!"

"Yep, I did", Jade replied with a grin.

"It looks awesome", Ruby said. "What can I get you?"

"A cup of coffee would be good at this time of the day. Oh, and one of those bacon sandwiches your grandmother makes."

"You got it", Ruby replied just as the door chimed again. The diner seemed to quiet down at once, which prompted Jade to turn around to see why this was happening. She was greeted by three faces, all of them familiar. The young boy with dark hair and equally dark eyes was standing in front of his mother, whose dark hair and eyes he had apparently inherited. The woman in question was looking around the diner with a slightly nervous expression. A doting husband should probably, at this point, comfort her or at least show that there was nothing she needed to fear. The husband in question did neither of these; he was staring at Jade.

"If you're going to have a heart attack because of my hair I owe Arianne", Jade remarked. Robin Hood blinked in surprise, before a familiar grin spread across his face as he marched into the diner.

"Jade, you never cease to surprise me", he chuckled as he gave her a hug.

"Glad to be of service", Jade said with a grin, before something ran into her leg.

"Jade!" Roland screamed and displayed the same wide grin and dimples as his father. "You're back! You're back! You're back!"

"Yep, I am", Jade said and hoisted the little boy up in her arms. "Have you grown since I last saw you?"

"Two inches!" Roland proudly announced. Jade was not sure if he was kidding, was absolutely serious or had no idea just how much two inches really meant. The boy's smile caused her to ignore that, though.

"At this rate you'll be taller than me when you're ten."

Roland laughed, before jumping down and running over to the woman in the doorway.

"Jade", he said, suddenly sounding very serious and grown-up, "this is my Mama."

The woman came forward and held out her hand towards Jade.

"It's nice to meet you", she said.

"Likewise", Jade replied and shook her hand.

"Have you let that man out of the mirror yet?" Arianne asked and shot the object in question a glance.

"Not yet", Regina replied and sat down on the couch. Arianne's attention immediately shifted to the pile of comics that she had in her lap.

"You know, I never saw you as someone who read Thor as a past-time thing."

"They're for Henry", Regina said. "He used to love reading comics as a kid, but I didn't know which ones he still read. So I bought one of every kind."

Just then the door to the house opened and the boy in question entered. Regina got up with a smile and embraced him.

"These are for you", she then said and handed him the comics. Henry's jaw fell down in surprise.

"Seriously?" he asked. "Thanks, mum! This is so much better than algebra."

Then he looked up at her with a quizzical face.

"Why did you do this, though?" he asked. "I thought you always said that I should read more books and study and..."

"Well, I wanted to", Regina replied and sat down on the couch again, "but don't get used to it. I'll soon be back to pestering you about your maths homework."

Henry grinned and grabbed the Thor magazine on top of the pile, flipping it open in his lap to read it.

"Isn't it funny, though, that these are just ink and paper, but everything in your storybook is real?" Regina suddenly asked. Arianne's eyebrows shot up in surprise, as did Henry's.

"It does make you wonder who wrote it, doesn't it?" Regina continued.

"This is about whoever wrote the storybook?" Arianne asked.

"No one knows that", Henry said and put the magazine down again.

"Oh, come on", Regina said, "you're an expert on all of this. You've read that book cover to cover who knows how many times and there's nothing in that book that gives even a clue?"

Arianne and Henry shared a glance, before Arianne put her cup of tea back on the table.

"Regina", she said, "what are you up to? This is me and your son; whatever it is you're doing you can involve us in it."

Regina hesitated slightly, then sighed and nodded.

"Sorry. Of course I can. It's just..."

She paused and pushed a stray strand of her dark hair out of her face.

"These... stories about me in the book... I was written as a villain and things never work out for the villains, so... I want to find who wrote this book and make them... ask them to write me a happy ending."

Silence enveloped the trio in the room as Arianne and Henry took in Regina's words. When neither of them replied Regina cringed.

"Is that crazy?"

"No", Henry said and grinned, "this is the best idea you've ever had!"

Regina blinked in surprise.

"Yeah, Henry's right", Arianne agreed. "The book's wrong about you, so we have to change it."

"We just have to find some clues", Henry said.

"Wait", Regina said, "you two will help me?"

"Of course we will", Arianne said. "Did you really think we'd let you do this alone? You're my friend..."

"And you're my mother", Henry filled in. "This will be our own secret mission."

"Like that Operation Viper that you had with Emma?" Regina asked.

"Operation Cobra", Henry said with a nod, "and yeah, but this one we'll call..."

"Eagle?" Arianne suggested. Henry shook his head.

"No, too common."

"Mongoose", Regina said. Henry grinned at her.

"Perfect. Operation Mongoose it is."

After breakfast Roland wanted to show his mother one of his favourite things about Storybrooke; the small shop that lay right next to Granny's Diner. Its name was Any Given Sundae and it was an ice cream shop run by a woman named Sarah Fischer. The moment they walked in through the door she recognized Roland and waved at him from behind the counter.

"I was beginning to miss my favourite little customer", she said and scooped up some chocolate chip ice cream in a cone. She then brought it around the counter, knelt before the boy and handed it to him.

"Rocky Road for the little man."

"Thank you!" Roland said and beamed at her.

"You're welcome", Sarah said with a smile, before looking up at the three others.

"The same for his father, I guess?" she asked.

"Yes, thank you", Robin said. "This is Jade and my wife, Marian."

"Oh, I've seen you before", Sarah said and looked at Jade. "You are one of the magicians who helped defeat the Wicked Witch."

"Which is the main reason why I never got to come here", Jade replied. "That Rocky Road ice cream looks delicious."

"It's my specialty", Sarah said with a smile as she rose. "The same for Roland's beautiful mother as well?"

"I... don't know", Marian admitted.

"In our world the flavours of ice were dirt or mud", Robin said with a smile, causing Marian to laugh.

"Well", Sarah said, "in this world we've made some improvements. Trust me; there's no problem that can't be solved with a bit of ice cream."

She scooped up two more cones of Rocky Road and handed them to Jade and Robin, before studying Marian intently.

"I think I know what flavour you might like", she said, then turned towards the freezer behind her and pulled out a jar. "I had to make some new types after the blackout on Friday and this turned out to be quite extraordinary."

She scooped up a good amount of white ice cream in a cone and then put some lemon sprinkles on it, before turning back towards them and handing Marian the cone across the counter.

"Thank you", Robin said. "How much do we owe?"

"Oh, it's on the house", Sarah said. "It's not every day that I get to introduce someone to ice cream. And it really warms my heart to see such a happy family."