Like every morning before, Teddy Mishra woke up well before dawn. He showered, shaved, and dressed himself. Careful not to wake his mother and aunt, who both like to sleep in, he prepared breakfast for the three of them and wolfed down his meal. Dressed in flannel, work jeans, and his reliable old boots, he hopped into his truck and drove to work.

Teddy lived on edge of Storybrooke, near the northern border of the forest, his home a farm house that longer housed a farmer. Only a serpentine dirt road connected it to town. The distance supplied a quiet and solitude he'd been missing since... He didn't know how long he'd been missing it, just that he had. His aunt might complain about not being to walk to store when she needed something, but Teddy prefer things that way. The sun had rose above the horizon when he reached the docks. Its rays danced across the ocean waves, blinding yellow-white surrounded by blue.

The sight almost made up for the pungent odor of oil and dead fish.

Ashley Bao strolled down the sidewalk to work, same as always, her large pregnant belly stretching out her uniform. Despite the dark circles under her eyes, Teddy noticed for the first time apparently how beautiful she looked. Something about her - whether the curve of her nose or the shape of her cheekbones - reeled him in like a fish on a line. When she caught him staring, he looked away. There was no use getting distracted by a pretty mom-to-be, especially not when he had work to do.

The clock-tower chimed. Teddy thought he'd just imagined it when he heard it again.

"Did you hear that too?" Ashley called to him, her haggard but lovely face scrunched up in confusion.

Teddy shrugged, "Looks like Marco finally got around to fixing the old clock-tower."

"I guess he'll be fixing the town sign next." Ashley observed.

"Why's that?"

"You didn't hear?" Ashley gestured southwest, where the highway connect to Main Street, "Some woman from out of town crashed into the sign a few nights ago. She's been staying at Granny's."

Teddy laughed. Who'd ever want to come to Storybrooke? He figured most people didn't even know the town existed. "Yeah? What's she like?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen her yet." Ashley glanced again at the clock-tower, "I better get going. I can't be late to work again."

"Right," Teddy nodded, "It was nice talking to you."

Ashley, blushing a gentle shade of rose pink, smiled so sweetly Teddy's insides did somersaults.


Despite the fact the she preferred the indoors, Snow White loved few things more than riding her beloved steed, Thorn. The fine grey mare may have snapped at everyone else who came near her, but she obeyed her rider without question. The winter palace, which stood in a large meadow deep in the forest, had more space for her to roam than the summer palace. She rode Thorn along the long, twisted garden paths, her long braid flapping in the wind behind her.

As morning turned to afternoon, her younger sister Rose Red rode toward Snow on her own horse, a bay gelding named Sammy.

"Snow, Father says you've gone to far," Red told her. "He wants you back at the palace as soon as possible."

"He never lets us do anything fun," Snow complained. "C'mon, let's enjoy ourselves a little longer and tell him we got lost coming home."

Red rolled her eyes. Everyone could see that King Leopold doted on his eldest daughter far more than he ought to. Everyone but Snow herself, of course. Red knew her sister had a good heart, but she could be laughably spoiled and selfish. Father might forgive her for acting out, but Mother wouldn't. "Well, if you want to disobey him and get your riding privileges revoked, be my guest, but don't drag me into this." She steered Sammy back to the palace.

Given the choice between returning to the palace and letting Red tattle, Snow scowled and followed her sister.

"He wouldn't have believed us anyway." Red said after they'd been riding for in silence for several minutes. "We know the palace grounds better than anyone."

Snow rolled her eyes. She knew Red was right, but didn't want to admit it. At thirteen, Snow White was blossoming into a beautiful young woman. Her silky, black hair contrasted beautiful with her milky skin, framing bright red lips and twinkling green eyes. But in many ways she was still a little girl.

The sisters rode through the palace's tall iron gate. The trees, naked but for the falling snow, rose up from the ground like grasping, misshaped hands. Snow dusted the evergreens like the white lace Mother had wore over her emerald green gown. Some berry thrives despite the cold, like little rubies all in a bunch. Above them, the white-grey cloud encroached the pale blue sky, bringing with it the threat of heavy snowfall.

A twig snapped somewhere to their left. "Did you hear that?" Snow asked her sister.

"No." Red replied, then continued on.

Snow paused and searched her surroundings. In the corner of her eye, she saw something brown and furry move behind a bush. "There!" she pointed.

"Hurry up or I'm leaving you behind." Red threatened.

Snow and Red led their horses into the warm glow of the stables. A pair of grooms helped the little princesses from their horses. Widow Lucas met them at the side entrance, a rush of warmth from the kitchens enveloping the girls as they stepped inside. Their caretaker helped them wash and dress for dinner.

As was normally the case, Father sat at the head of the long table and Mother beside him, with the girls seated together across from her. The family ate in an uncomfortable silence. Father took measured bites and asked the girls about their day in between them. Mother took quick, presence bites, clearing her plate before anyone else had finished half their meal. She washed it down with a long, deep sip of wine and prepared to excuse herself.

"Not yet, my dear." Father piped up.

Mother glared at him. "I'm tired, your Majesty. I need to retire for the evening."

"Really now, the day's far from over." Father rolled his eyes, "We hardly ever get to spent time as a family. Why don't you bond with the girls, since we're all here?"

"I spent plenty of time with them yesterday, didn't I girls?" Mother turned her sharp gaze to Snow and Red, almost daring them to contradict her.

"She did." Snow lied. Red nodded silently.

Father did not look convinced. "King George invited us to a ball celebrating the betrothal of his son, James. He's invited nobles from everywhere, even far off lands."

"A ball!" Snow lit up like a candle, "That sound absolutely amazing. I'll outshine everyone, even the prince's betrothed. Who is the prince betrothed to anyway?"

Father shook his head at her fondly, "Princess Abigail of Chrysanthe, daughter of King Midas."

"I thought she had turned to gold." Mother frowned.

"Ah, so you do care to participate in this family." Father teased, "Yes, but Prince James broke the curse with True Love's kiss."

"How fortunate for King George," Mother sneered, "His son will marry the wealthiest princess in the realm."

Snow smiled haughtily, "I don't care how rich she is. I'm more beautiful."

"Indeed you are," Father reached over and patted her hair. "Just don't say so in front of anyone else."

Mother held back a disgusted snort.


Assertive knocking on the front door of her rented room woke Emma from her fitful sleep. In her dreams, she's been locked away in the tiny cell, forgotten by the world, with nothing to do but watch her stomach grow larger and large with an unborn child. But when her water broke, she had to give birth all alone, in the filth, as the guards ignored her desperate screams. Her child emerged blue and cold and silent.

Emma shook those bleak thoughts from her head as she got up and answered the door. The mayor stood on the other side holding a large wicker basket of apples and wearing an uncharacteristically cheerful smile.

"Good morning. I'm glad to see you slept well."

"Good...morning?" Emma couldn't tell if she were looking at the same woman from the day before.

"Did you know the honeycrisp tree is the most vigorous and hardy of all apple trees? It can survive temperatures as low as forty below and keep growing. It can weather any storm." Regina handed the basket of apples to Emma, "I thought you'd enjoy these on your trip home. They came from a tree I've tended to since I was a little girl."

Emma accepted the basket, but eyed Regina with suspicious. "That's very thoughtful of you, but I'm actually going to stick around for a while."

"Oh?" Regina's smile flaked like cheap paint, "I don't see any reason for you to do that."

"You don't need to." Emma replied as she set the apples down on the desk.

Regina stepped into the room and get closer than Emma felt comfortable with, "As mayor, I have to a right to know. Have to keep the town safe, after all."

"You think I'm dangerous?"

At last Regina dropped the pretense, "I think you're unpredictable and I like knowing what to expect from people."

"Well, that's your problem, not mine." Emma shrugged.

Regina gave Emma an deepening glare, "Is this about Henry? I'm sure even you know how it looks when a complete stranger keeps trying to spend time with a child they have no business being around."

Emma faltered. Regina had a point. "I-I just want to make sure he's alright."

"He has me for that. I thought we'd already established that you don't know anything about children."

"No," Emma countered, "We established that I've never been a parent. That doesn't mean I don't know anything about kids."

Regina shook her head, "I don't know how many time I have to repeat myself: your expertise aren't needed. I've got everything taken care of."

Emma narrowed her eyes, "What does that mean?"

"It means I've got him in therapy. It's all under control." Regina smirked.


When she caught up to sister, Red grabbed Snow by the elbow and hissed, "What are you doing?"

Snow jumped when she felt a hand on her. "Red?"

"You're going to get us in trouble. Come back to bed."

Ignoring Red, Snow retraced her steps from earlier that day by the light of the full moon. As Red debated whether she should talk her sister out of this or return to bed, Snow grabbed her hand and yanked her to the bush she'd seen earlier.

"There," she told Red.

Behind the bush, laying on its side, was a bear. From the gash at his side and its labored breathing, the girls could tell the creature didn't have much time left. Snow moved forward. The bear opened one golden eye and studied her, but made no movement.

"You poor thing." Snow cooed as she knelt beside him. She stroked his fur, a thick, dark brown mess that smelled like smoke despite being covered in snow.

Red sighed, "I wish there was something we could for him."

Snow knelt beside him. "Maybe there is. Mother has a sorts of healing charms and potions."

"She'll never let us use them." Red warned.

"Who says she has to know?" Snow argued. "If we don't do something, he might not survive the night."

"Okay," Red squared her shoulders, "Do you know where Mother keeps her magical items?"

"In the vault...in the summer palace." Snow wailed.

"Maybe she brought something along?"

"We'd have to sneak into her bedroom to find it." Snow grasped for a solution and inspiration struck her, "You can wake her up and tell them I've run off. Everyone will be so distracted looking for me, I'll be able to sneak in."

"But you'll get caught!"

Snow's eyes shone with tears, "Not if we moved him somewhere private. Remember that cave we found last winter? I don't think anyone else knows about it. We can hide him there and I'll run back to that spot once I've taken what we need."

"And you're sure that'll work?" Red asked.

"No, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. Please Red, we can't just leave him here." Snow begged.

"But how will we even get him over there?"

Before Snow could answer, the bear let out a deep groan and, with difficulty, lifted himself to his feet.

The girls gaped, wide-eyed. "You can understand us?" Snow breathed. Awe dripped from her voice like honey.

The bear replied with a weak nod.

"Okay, there's no time to lose. I'll take him to the cave, you tell everyone I'm missing and make sure they don't come near us." Snow instructed her sister. "We have to hurry." Leaving no room for her sister to argue, she placed on hand on the bear's shoulder and led him away.

Red hesitated. Nothing good would come of helping Snow with this reckless plan, but the bear's struggle to walk as Snow led him to safety filled her empathy. The little eleven year old steeled herself for what was to come, and walked back into the castle as her sister told her to.


Mary arrived at school just as Henry arrived with Emma, the two of the appearing to have an important conversation.

"Hi Miss Blanchard!" Henry smiled brightly when he saw her. As he walked into the school, he said, "We can talk more about Operation Cobra after school. Bye Emma!"

The two women watched Henry disappear in the school building, then Mary turned to Emma, "It's nice to have his smile back. Thank you."

Emma looked embarrassed, "I didn't do anything."

"You stayed," Mary stated, "And that's a big deal to him."

"Has he mentioned anything about fairy tales to you?"

Mary chuckled. She'd been wondering when Emma would bring that up. "Only every day since I gave him his book."

"That was from you?" Emma's eyebrows flew up.

"I found it in a box of old things while I was cleaning out my attic. Henry," she took a deep breath, "Henry is such a bright child, but he's lonely. I figured that book would give him some hope of things getting better. But I might have made them worse."

A shadow fell over Emma's face. "Right. He thinks the fairy tales are real now. He told me you were Snow White."

Mary shook her head, "And that my pet birds are the Seven Dwarfs, and his mom is the Evil Queen, and the sheriff is the Huntsman. He even thinks Ruby Lucas is my sister."

"What about Prince Charming?"

"He's still looking for him," Mary replied. "Who does he think you are?"

Emma shrugged, "I'm not in the book, but he seems to think I'm important for reason."

The shrill ringing bell put an end to their conversation. "I need to get going." Mary told her, "Maybe you can help him through this."

Emma's mouth opened to say something, but she stopped herself and only gave Mary an uncertain smile.


Regina stood by her window, staring out at the clock-tower longer than she planned, fixated on the ever-going movement of its hands and gears. Dread soaked her to the skin as she imagined how Emma Swan would tear through her happiness and destroy ever good thing she had left. She had to remove the threat.

Sidney opened the door, holding up that morning's copy of The Daily Mirror. "What do you think, Madam Mayor? I even added in a bit about her being a drunk-driver."

"Hmm?" She ran her fingers through her gray and black hair.

"You seem distracted." Sidney noted.

Regina snorted, "Did you get information on that woman who's being hanging around my son?" she asked, pointedly ignoring his previous statement.

"Not much you can work with." Sidney admitted. "She's moved around a lot, seven cities in the past ten years, but nothing out of the ordinary. But I did get these."

He reached into his coat pocket and presented to Regina four pictures of Emma and Henry from earlier that day. The first picture showed them inside Granny's, with Emma sitting by the counter and Henry standing next to her. The next three had been taken outside, as she walked him to school. Regina resisted the urge to tear them to pieces. How dare that woman breeze in and act like she was Henry's mother!

"Is that it?" Regina demanded.

"I-I thought that was plenty." Sidney stammered.

Taking a sip of her coffee, she glared at him, "You're useless, you know that Sidney?"

"I'm sorry, Madam Mayor. Maybe we can do another piece about her breaking the town sign."

"Come on Sidney, you know running the same story twice is beneath you. And nobody ever cared about that sign anyway." Regina sneered. "I'm just lucky I was smart enough to think of something without you."

"If you have something, why did you need me?"

Regina closed her eyes, "Must you question me?" She reached into her desk drawer and slapped a folder onto the top. "Spin this the ugliest way you can."

Sidney picked up the folder and reach through its content. His throat seemed to close up, "Um, Madam Mayor, this is...are you sure you need to show this is everyone?"

"Get out." Regina barked, so harshly and abruptly that Sidney flinched, "Stay out of my sight until you're ready to be the reporter I need you to be."

"Regina-"

"Out."

Sidney retreated, his head hanging low.

Once alone, Regina took of her reading glasses and sat in her chair mulling over what to do about Emma Swan. She couldn't kill her, because then the curse the break. And she didn't have the option of using magic to force Miss Swan out. If the public-shaming didn't work, Regina would have to something of something else before Emma Swan ruined her happy ending.

Before long, it was nearly time to pick Henry up from school, but Doctor Hopper hadn't called yet. Regina decided to call him first. He hadn't received any visits that day, which meant Emma Swan hadn't taken the bait.

Time for a new plan.


When school let out for the day, Henry run out the front door hoping to see Emma, but his mother stood there waiting for him instead.

"Hello sweetheart." Regina extended her hand toward him, "How was school?"

"Fine." Henry muttered. He walked past her, not seeing the crushing look on her face as he rejected her greeting. They rode the rest of the way home in silence, until they had almost reached the mansion.

"I've invited Miss Swan over for dinner." Regina announced.

Henry glared at her, "No you didn't. You're just saying that so when she doesn't come, I'll think she doesn't care about me. But I know she does."

Regina sighed. "Henry, you don't really think I'd do something like that, do you? It's obvious you and Miss Swan are close and since she'll be in town for a while, I though it'd best for all to get to know each other and set up appropriate boundaries. Then I'll take you to see Dr. Hopper."

"I don't believe you." Henry insisted, "The Evil Queen always lies!"

"I'm not the Evil Queen." Regina's voice became higher, "I'm your mother, not your arch-nemesis."

"Who says you can't be both?" Henry argued.

Regina pulled into the driveway, but as Henry tried to leap out of the car, she held him back. "That is enough young man," she hissed, "I will not tolerate being disrespected like that. You'll fix that attitude right now or you're grounded for a month."

Henry scowled but nodded.

"Go upstairs and do your homework," Regina ordered, loosening her grip on his sleeve.

Henry sulked the rest of the afternoon. Being the Evil Queen's son meant having to take orders from the same woman who had tried to kill Snow White and so many others; the same woman who terrorized the Enchanted Forest, freed the Dark One, and cast a curse to destroy everyone's happy endings. He tried to concentrate on his homework, but he kept worrying about Emma. He had thought the Savior would be ready to save people, but Emma didn't even believe in magic.

But she stayed, and that meant some part of her knew the town needed her.

Part of him still latched on the chance that Emma was his birth mother after all. He wanted so badly to get out from under the Evil Queen's thumb and finally have a mother who loved him. But he'd made a mistake. Emma wasn't his mother. It stung at first, but now it didn't bother as much; breaking the curse was more important anyway.

At 5:30, Regina called from downstairs, "Get ready for dinner. Miss Swan's almost here."

After putting his books away, Henry changed out of his school uniform and went to the bathroom to wash up. When he finished, he heard Regina and Emma talking in the living room, though he couldn't make out what they were saying. Regina told the truth? He raced down the staircase to see Emma.

"I know, right?" Emma said. She sat across from Regina, her back to Henry. "It's crazy."

Henry's stomach dropped. Emma didn't just have trouble accepting that the curse was real, she thought he was crazy like everyone else did. The one person he thought he could convince-

"You think I'm crazy?" he accused.

Emma spun around, her blonde hair flying behind her like a halo. Eyes wide, she cried, "Henry?"