"Hi Norah! Eliana skips over the Locksley's threshold and hugs her cousin, using the greeting as a legitimate opportunity to whisper in Norah's ear. "I got it!"

When she starts to pat the jewel encrusted cross-body tote she wears across her torso over her ballerina's calf-length tutu and her fairy wings, Norah grabs her hand, concealing the action, and declares happily. "Come on, Elia." She trots away quickly, pulling her redheaded cousin along with her as she announces, "We're gonna go play in my room, Papa."

With the winged feet of youth, they are halfway across the great room before Henry even has a chance to say hello.

Shaking his head at their enthusiasm, the king addresses Zelena with a smile. "Oh, to have their energy again, just for 20 minutes out of the day."

Zelena nods. "Don't I know it! Thanks for this. Sorry for the last-minute notice."

Henry waves the apology aside. "I hope everything is alright."

"Well, it is nothing earth shattering. It's just, I have to take Theo to see the pediatrician. And it's hard enough to get his sister to sit still for two hours when she has an entire house full of toys to entertain her. In the doctor's office, forget it. She gets bored."

"You have to take the little guy to the doctor? That's a surprise. I thought he'd be immune to common bugs."

Zelena rolls her eyes in annoyance but shrugs anyway. "Well, you would think. Wouldn't you? He's not seriously ill. He just has allergies… As odd as that sounds. But then, he is only ¾ deity. The same thing happened about this time last year. He got itchy, watery eyes, and he started sneezing. The pediatrician says he has hay fever. Hay fever! Of all the ridiculous…"

Cutting her off, Henry offers her a handkerchief from the pocket of his waistcoat and discreetly points to the runny nose of the toddler in her arms.

Zelena's sighs as she tries to wipe her son's nose and has to forcibly move his hands out of the way as he shakes his head 'no' and then continues to resist her efforts by placing his small hands on her chest and pushing his upper body as far away from hers as he possibly can while still held in her arms. "Unfortunately, there's a new development. This year every time he starts sneezing, he lights up – both, the crown of his head and his nostrils. I swear he's going to burn the bloody house down if I don't go get him some medicine. Not to mention the fact that people are likely to think he's a dragon. Never mind the fact that they don't breathe fire in human form. So," she sighs. "I'm off!" She gives Henry his used handkerchief back and disappears in a cloud of swirling green smoke taking her son with her and leaving Henry standing there in the doorway; one corner of his soiled handkerchief pinched between thumb and forefinger and held cautiously away from his personage.

On the off chance the kid has something more virulent than hay fever, the old monarch heads straight for the kitchen at the back of the house. As he listens to the sound of his granddaughter and her cousin running noisily through the upstairs hallway, he relegates the monogrammed swatch of cloth with its glittering and slightly iridescent mucus stains to the flames already burning in the kitchen fireplace.

Upstairs, in her bedroom, Norah closes the door and pauses to make certain that it latches tightly before she crosses the room and flops down on the cushioned window seat.

Eliana deposits her small jeweled tote on her cousin's bed before also shedding her slightly heavier shoulder pack and her wings. Crossing her ankles, she sinks to the floor and tucks one knee, and then the other, under her chin as she loosens the laces on her point shoes and then leaves both the shoes and her tutu lying momentarily in a discarded heap on the rug. Down to nothing but her leotard, she opens her shoulder pack, extracting not only a difference skirt and a pair of sparkly red flats but a lightweight ruby-colored cardigan as well. She quickly swaps one set of apparel for the other, putting the new on over her leotard, and cramming the discarded clothing sloppily into the shoulder bag. As she hangs her wings on the closet doorknob by their shoulder straps, Norah offers, "You can hang your skirt in my closet if you want to, so it won't get so smooshed."

Eliana shrugs. "Why do you care if my skirt gets smooshed? You don't even have clothes like that."

Norah shrugs. "Do too. I don't have as much as you, that's all. Mama always hangs mine up really carefully. She says it's, because if I do it, it will get all wrinkle-y."

"Mum just magics the wrinkles away."

"When we send stuff away using magic, where do you think it all goes?"

The redhead shrugs. "Norah, I don't care. And anyway, don't ask me questions like that, they just make my head hurt thinking about them."

Norah chuckles at her own thoughts. "Probably to the same place socks go when they get lost in the dryer… Wherever that is."

Eliana frowns curiously. "What's a dryer?"

Norah's eyes widen only marginally in surprise. She's used to such questions from her cousin. "It's the big machine in the mud room that blows hot air. You put your wet clothes inside after you get them out of the washing machine, and it tumbles them around and makes them dry again. Daddy hates ours. He always says it makes his socks disappear and Mama always rolls her eyes when she tells him that if he wants his socks hand-washed, he has to wash them himself, or he has to let her hire a housekeeper."

"Norah your parents are weird. I wish you'd come to dance class with me."

"I know. So are yours. But, I don't think I want to go to dance class. Daddy says I don't have to if I don't want to. I'm still thinking about it."

"You are?" Eliana's face brightens instantly.

Norah shrugs. "Maybe. Mama said she would get me some pretty dancing clothes if I want to go."

"You should. It's so much fun."

Norah repeats. "Maybe."

Eliana nods wordlessly as she opens her small tote and slowly removes a carefully folded ivy green pashmina scarf. Laying it in the center of Norah's bed with exaggerated care, she silently opens its folds to reveal the two jagged halves of the dull and lifeless Olympian crystal.

Standing six inches away from the bed, Norah clasps her hands behind her back and observes it with skepticism. "I thought your dad said it was dangerous."

Her blue eyes going big, Eliana nods emphatically, "He did."

"It doesn't look very dangerous. It just looks like a really old broken crystal. It's not even shiny. It's sort of looks dirty, or maybe burned. Where did you find it?"

"In one of daddy's hiding places. I know where all of them are. I know the combination too."

"He put this in a safe?"

Eliana shrugs. It's a little metal box in the wall behind Mum's painting. it has a combination. You have to punch the buttons in the right order."

Norah nods. "It's called a safe. And if that thing is really very dangerous, then that's not a very good hiding place for it."

"Huh, why not?"

"Because Elia, you're only in kindergarten. You found it, and you stole it. So, too easy. He needs better hiding places. You should show him some. Uh, you know, after you give it back."

"Hey! I did not steal it!"

"Did you take it without asking permission?"

"Yes."

"Then you stole it."

Not liking the idea at all, Eliana shakes her head insistently. "When we're done using it, I am going to put it back."

Norah giggles. "Doesn't matter. You still stole it."

"You told me too!" She crosses her arms over her chest. Besides, I am not a thief! My dad says your dad is one, and he doesn't sound very nice when he says it either."

Norah shrugs. "El, your dad doesn't sound very nice most of the time he's talking. And anyway, I don't care if you stole it. You need it. You're trying to help your parents, remember. I'm just saying, if you are gonna do something, at least know what it's called."

"I tried putting the two pieces together, but they won't stay together."

"Huh?"

"I used the spell Mum taught me for tying my hair up the way I like it, but every time I try something weird happens."

"Weird like what?"

"Here, watch." Eliana lifts her hands. On the verge of summoning magic, she suddenly stops and grabs Norah by the arm. "Well, don't stand there with the sharp end pointing at you. Come over here beside me."

Moving over slightly, Norah complains, "El, I'm way far away from the bed."

Eliana shakes her head emphatically. "Not far enough. You come stand over here by me. I'll show you why."

Grimacing slightly because she doesn't understand what the big deal is, Norah steps to Eliana's side and waits.

Eliana closes her eyes and concentrates on binding the two broken halves of the crystal together. Particles of green and pink magical energy emerge from her outstretched palm and flow through the air coming into contact with the pieces of crystal. Momentarily, the small gap between the two pieces closes. They thunk together softly and, for an instant, both halves glow an iridescent blue-white with the greatest brilliance concentrated at the split. Both halves of the crystal rise and levitate 6 inches off Norah's bedspread shaking slightly in the air. For one brief moment, Norah thinks it's going to work. She's certain the two pieces are going to merge and become one when, all of a sudden, violent cobalt blue sparks shoot out in all directions and the two broken pieces of crystal burst apart and jettison in opposite directions as if each half of the crystal were trying to repel the other. One piece flies off the bed, and slices through the air only to crash land on one of Norah's bookshelves; sending a small collection of her books tumbling to the floor. The other glides through the air with no less velocity and soars through the open closet doorway and violently stabs into the plush belly of Roland's old toy monkey. For one horrifying moment, the thing begins to transform into its former self. It grows larger and more lifelike and begins to sprout ugly gray leathery wings. Then, the burst of power dies and the toy transmutes back into itself.

Both girls stare-wide eyed. Norah's mouth stretches into a grim line and turns down at the corners rather comically and Eliana stomps her feet as though running in place and ducks slightly as though she might dive under the bed before she whispers, "Boy, it never did that before. All it did was fly around the room and crash into my stuff.

Norah whispers back, "That's Roland's monkey. The one that tried to get him, but Mama changed it to a toy before it could grab him.

"A monkey tried to grab Roland?"

"Yeah, it was a long time ago… Before you and me were born. It was one of your mom's flying monkeys. Mama did magic on it and it changed into a toy and fell out of the sky. Roland still loves the toy even though he says he's too big for it now. He calls her Reggie."

"Mum doesn't have any monkeys here now, only in Oz… And they are uuuggg-ly!" How come Roland's monkey is in your closet?"

"Sometimes I hide her from him."

"Why?"

Norah stares at her cousin as if it should be obvious. "So, he can come find her and take her back to his room."

"Why?" Eliana repeats querulously

"It's a game we play."

"For fun?" Eliana squints at this foreign concept.

"Well yeah. Don't you ever play with Theo?"

"Uh-uh! Not unless they make me."

Knowing better than to argue with her, Norah places her palm against her forehead. Shaking her head woefully, she chooses not to reply. Changing the subject instead, she says, you just need the pieces to stick together long enough for your magic to work. And… Maybe you need stronger magic."

"Nor-rah! I am a goddess. I have stronger magic than all of the witches and magical creatures in this town."

Norah holds up her hands defensively, expecting more of an argument when she says, "El, don't get mad. You are only ¾. And you are six. Your mom is only half goddess and she is stronger than you because she's older and bigger. So, maybe you have to be a grownup goddess to make it stick for keeps."

"Well then, what am I supposed to do? No grown-up is gonna help us do that Norah. They will just take it away from us and tell us that we are too little to mess with such things - and you know it!"

Norah grimaces. Her cousin is right. She stares at the broken crystal pieces lying on her floor with what Eliana already knows is her 'thinking' face.

She stares at the crystal for so long that Eliana is just about to poke her on the arm to make sure she didn't freeze that way when Norah says suddenly, "Stay here. I'll be right back and pick that thing up. Hide it somewhere in case Papa comes upstairs." She's out the door, and a few steps away when she turns back.

Knowing what she will find, Norah whispers, "And Eliana, hide it someplace better than behind your back. Don't be standing there like a doofus with your hands behind your back if Papa comes in."

Departing once more, she races downstairs, and out the backdoor.

Catching sight of her as she runs at top speed through the kitchen, Henry calls out, "Hey bumblebee, where's the fire?"

She calls out as the door slams behind her, "I'm just going to get something I left outside. I'll be right back."

Henry chuckles and talks to no one but himself. "That girl moves faster than lightning."

Outside, she makes a beeline for the old carriage house on the property were Robin stores his tools. Then, hoping that her grandfather is still seated in the kitchen, she rounds the house and reenters through the front door, allowing it to slam no less quietly than the back door had less than 5 minutes before.

Back upstairs again, Norah stops by her room to store her pilfered items under her bed and races out again leaving her cousin, who is 10 months older staring after her in confusion and mild exasperation. Racing up to the third floor, she visits her parents' bedroom, where she stands on tiptoe and borrows something from deep in the back of one of her mother's lingerie drawers.

Trotting back down to the second floor, she stops long enough to peer cautiously down the hallway and make sure that the coast is clear all the way around her bedroom.

Dashing in again, she pauses long enough to make sure that the bedroom door is locked before depositing a small wooden box on her bed, and lifting the dust ruffle to reclaim a half used roll of duct tape and some curious looking metal thing that Eliana is not the slightest bit familiar with.

Hissing in quiet confusion, Eliana doesn't know whether to be curious or worried as she asks, "Norah, what in the ham sandwich are you on about now?"

Norah opens her mouth to speak but then finds her thought process interrupted. "Eliana, you should stop saying that. It doesn't make any sense – and, it confuses me. And anyway, look here, just wait and watch.

Eliana scowls but shrugs. "The crystal is under your pillow."

Norah helps herself to the two broken halves of the crystal. Using her teeth to tear off a long piece of duct tape from the purloined roll, she draws another scowl from her cousin.

"Don't do it like that. Norah, princesses do not tear things with their teeth. Use scissors."

Norah rolls her eyes. "Mama says I'm not allowed to use scissors unless an adult is watching me." She holds the two broken ends of the crystal together in one hand, and winds the tape around their middle multiple times until the entire length of tape is used and she's reasonably certain that it will hold tight. Then, she lowers herself to the floor and crosses her legs Indian style.

Eliana shakes her head. "Norah… If my magic can't hold that thing together, then what makes you think your daddy's ugly old tape is going to do it?"

Norah rolls her eyes. "This is just for extra 'sticky' until the binding spell starts to work better so the pieces won't fly apart. Plus, I brought more stuff. Just wait."

She lays the metal C-shaped clamp down flat on the floor and moves to face Eliana before placing it between the two of them. She makes quick easy adjustments, tightening the vice clamps firmly down against either end of the crystal. Next, she informs her cousin, "Give me your hand." When Eliana complies without reservation, Norah holds tight, and quick as a hiccup, before Eliana has time to question or complain, Norah opens the small wooden box from her mother's bureau and draws out a very sharp dagger. She neatly and swiftly pierces the center of the redhead's palm with the point of the ceremonial blade.

While Eliana whispers loudly, "Oww! Hey! That's not nice! What did you do that for?" Norah shushes her and subjects her own tender palm to the same treatment. Without bothering to answer, she clasps her cousin's hand in hers, smashing the minuscule bleeding punctures together as she says simply, "My blood. Your blood. Our blood." Then she bobs her chin once for emphasis, and says, "Do it again, Goddess." Then, just before Eliana starts again, Norah says with quiet excitement, "Wait, wait, wait! Let's get off the rug first. If it starts doing that sparkler thing again, only worse because it's stuck together, I don't wanna leave a mark on the carpet. Mom will have a cow!"

Eliana nods with a comical grimace and the two girls scoot off the rug onto bare floor where they make certain that the two ends of the crystal run parallel between their knees and that, if it should break apart again, it will not travel in either of their directions. Curious, Eliana asks, "What is that metal thing?"

Norah shrugs. "Daddy uses it to hold pieces of wood together while he waits for the special glue to dry. It works. It holds stuff really tight. I just hope we don't break it."

Eliana shrugs as well and inspects the speck of blood still present in the center of her palm again before joining hands with her cousin.

Once more she turns her focus inward, closes her eyes and concentrates as hard as she can on the only binding spell she knows or has any practice with.

Slowly, and growing in brilliance, the ends of the crystal not covered by gray tape began to glow a spectacular blue-white. The crystal begins to tremble harshly, causing the metal vice on the floor to rock noisily. Norah reaches down with her free hand and touches it. Her intent is to hold it in place, so that it will not make noise, but she jerks away quickly, causing Eliana to open her eyes curiously as both the crystal pieces and the vice grip go completely still and lifeless once more.

"Sorry." Norah shakes her hand about in the air. "It's hot. It almost burned me."

"Then don't touch it!" Eliana sighs and tries again.

The exact same process begins anew. Only this time, because the ends cannot repel each other, the crystal and the clamp glow white hot, start to shimmy against the floor and then slowly begin to rise into the air as if the entire ensemble is being pulled straight up in the air; rising and bobbing gently as if the metal clamp were tied to the end of a string on an invisible red helium-filled balloon.

The two girls rise with it, coming ever so slowly to their feet and watching in wonder as the shared power they possess wells from deep inside and begins to mingle between them.

It takes several long seconds of utter silence but just when it feels like their magic might overflow, the metal C-shaped clamp and the crystal it holds thump softly against Norah's bedroom ceiling; 15 feet overhead. The crystal begins to admit a low frequency hum and the sparkler effect has stopped. Instead of shooting off sparks in every direction, the power emanating from the crystal is a white starburst of steadily pulsing light that is so pure it makes their eyes hurt to look at it. Then, in the next instant, the light is completely extinguished, and the clamp is overtaken once more by gravity. It plummets for the floor with both girls reaching out to catch it just in time to avoid a loud crash. They release it just as quickly because of the heat that is still fading, but sitting on their knees, they stare at it wordlessly for several long seconds before Norah finally dares to use the sleeves of her shirt to protect her hands as she quickly releases the clamps while being careful not to hold the plastic coated release knobs too tightly, or for too long. When they no longer need the clamp, she leaves it where it lies and waits.

She stares at Eliana and Eliana stares at her.

When Norah can hold her hand over the taped crystal while barely wincing, she wraps it in the numerous folds of the green pashmina scarf again and, hurrying to unlock the bedroom door, she pokes her head out and make sure the coast is clear before motioning to Eliana.

Eliana follows dutifully, but without comprehension as Norah dashes across the hall to the bathroom and turns on the cold water tap in the tub. She drops the stopper into place and waits until the bathtub contains enough water to completely submerge the crystal. Then she drops the crystal in and shuts off the tap as steam instantly hisses, pops, and begins to rise from the tub to fog the bathroom mirror.

Then Norah closes and locks the bathroom door and returns to the bathtub where she sits down on the tub's edge and makes herself comfortable,

Eliana squints. "What do we do now?"

We wait. I'm not touching that thing again until I can get the tape off without getting my hands hot. When it cools, we'll take the tape off and see if it worked."

In the carriage house that sits on the eastern side of the Locksley property, Norah and Eliana sit on the lid of the large rectangular Kenmore freezer eating homemade frozen fruit juice bars flavored with raspberry and pineapple amid the type of things one usually finds in a garage.

"You need the chocolate and banana flavored ones. I'm gonna tell your mum to get you some."

Norah shakes her head emphatically. "We have those at your house! Mama says they have too much sugar. She makes these herself. If you tell her that we have chocolate and banana at your house she will tell your mom to stop buying them."

Eliana suddenly looks horror stricken. "You don't think Mum would really do that, do you?"

Norah shrugs. "I'd rather not find out. These are okay, they aren't the same, but they still taste good. Just be happy we get to have the others when we're at your house."

Eliana nods numbly as if the very thought traumatizes her. Suddenly pineapple and raspberry doesn't seem so bad. After a silent moment, she cocks her head to one side and asks a question that has been on her mind for the better part of two hours. "Norah… Why did you hide my dad's crystal under the baby cabbages in the freezer?"

"I'm not hiding it. I'm freezing it."

"I thought that was why you put it in the bathtub with the cold water."

"No. I put it in the bathtub water to make it not be hot anymore. So, it wouldn't burn us. Now I'm freezing it."

"Why? It's not hot anymore, Norah."

"Cause that's what Daddy did when Roland put the same tape all over his new boots."

Eliana squints and shakes her head in confusion. "I don't understand."

"See, Mama got Roland some new boots. His old ones were too small. He hadn't had the new ones for very long when he got a great big ink stain all over one of them. He didn't want Mama to know. He thought she would be mad at him because he was using the ink for her fountain pens again, and she tells him not to do that. She's told him a bunch of times. So, he tried to hide the stain by using half the roll of Daddy's tape on his boots. He put so much that Daddy couldn't get it off without messing up the boots. I didn't understand either, but Daddy put Roland's boots in the freezer and left them there all night long. The next morning, when Daddy tried to take it off the boots the tape almost fell off. I guess the cold from the freezer made the tape not stick so good anymore. I don't want the tape to leave sticky stuff all over your dad's crystal. So, I put it in the freezer. Get it?"

"Norah! I cannot leave that thing here all night!"

"Calm down! It's okay! Don't yell. Daddy said the boots only had to be in there for a couple of hours. He only left them in there all night, because he put them in the freezer at bedtime, and he had to go to work."

"Oh. So, we can take it out soon?"

"You'll have it back before you go home. Eat your fruit bar before it melts. You're dripping it on your sweater."

Eliana grimaces but then shrugs and she pats the stain dry. "How do you know it's been almost two hours?"

"Because, we watched two shows on TV. Papa said that was almost an hour. Then we played Guess Who and Candyland. Now we're having a snack. The has to be almost two hours, doesn't it?"

Eliana shrugs. "I don't know. Sounds good to me. In a little while, we can get it out, take the tape off, go back to your room, and see if it works."

Norah shakes her head. "We are not going back to my room to see if that thing works. We are going to the woods. We are going to the wishing well where magic is strongest in town."

Eliana sighs dramatically. "I don't mind the wishing well, but do we have to go to the woods?"

"Eliana, that's where the wishing well is. Even if it wasn't, you are not going to use that thing in my bedroom."

"Why not?"

"Because you said you wanted to bring the Underworld to Storybrooke."

"Yeah, so?"

"Elia, I do not want dead people in my bedroom! Especially not the entire underworld full of them! What if they are all ugly and rotten like zombies?"

"They aren't. They just look like people. They're not scary."

"Well how am I supposed to know that. I've never been to the underworld!"

"Because I just told you."

"Okay but…" Norah shakes her head. "It doesn't matter. I still don't want dead people in my bedroom."