A few days passed and Eilonwy found herself with a weekday off and unsure how to use it. She went to the wharf, and from there she found herself going up the steps to Jefferson's front porch. She would see how he was progressing with using her magical earring to find a way home to the Enchanted Forest. She rang the doorbell and after waiting for some time she turned to walk back down the walk up to his door. She was halfway to the gate when she heard his voice.

"Eilonwy?" he asked.

She turned and walked back towards him "I figured I would see how you were doing?" she explained. "Any progress with finding a portal home" He helped her inside and shook his head.

"There's magic, but not quite enough, it will spin, but it won't get large enough to let us through.

"Can I see?" she asked. He lead her up the stairs to the room where he had been working on the hat. She looked at the line of hats along the wall. "You did all these in the last few days?"

He shook his head with a morose chuckle "I've been doing this ever since we all got trapped in Storybrooke twenty-eight years ago."

"You've known this whole time?" she asked. He nodded and looked away. "Why did you never tell anyone?"

"Who would believe a madman in a lonely old mansion?" he asked bitterly. "Besides, I didn't want anyone to suffer like I've been, like I still do. With two worlds jammed inside my head, questioning where reality begins and ends. It's like when I was a jumper for a living, but feeling like I was constantly flickering between Storybrooke and the Enchanted Forest" he said disturbed by the pain talking about it awoke. She could see it on his face and chose to guide the conversation another direction. "So the hat you're working on to get us home?" she asked.

"Here it is" he said pulling it out and showing her. He set it on the floor and it began to spin but not to widen anymore than it had when Regina had sacrificed her ring to fuel it. Jefferson had released the sentient orb out of it's holding place in the dangle of the earring so it could return and not be lost. He didn't want to lose Eilonwy's magical jewel.

"What if I released this part of it too?" she asked pulling the single earing off of her ear and unclasping it. The two lights danced around and then merged becoming intensely bright. They scurried around the edge of the hat before finally going in and coming back out. She heard the voice in her head, we need more magic, it told her.

"He says we need more magic" she stated and watched Jefferson hide his face in his hands in despair.

"It's always that, why is there never enough magic?" he demanded, looking intensely down at her, almost frightening her. "Every time, time after time, this world, Wonderland, it's all the same, there is never enough magic to get it to work!" he shouted. She took a step back and the broadening of the space between them brought Jefferson back to himself. "I'm sorry" he said gently putting a hand on each of her shoulders "there's just been a lot that's happened with me and hats. As a jumper I used to love them, they were my job and it was fun, but things happened, and I hate the sight of them now. But if it gets us home, that's all I care about" he said sadly.

"Don't worry, magic is back in Storybrooke, we'll think of something, even if we have to go to Regina about it!" she declared.

"No!" he shouted, making Eilonwy start "I've been made to suffer too much at her hand, both in this world and in the Enchanted Forest, I would not trust her for anything, despite all of her claims of wanting to redeem herself!" She nodded.

"I'm sorry" he apologized again and he hugged her tight, almost more for his own support and comfort than hers. He had spent so many years alone that to have a friend again felt strange but he wanted to cling to it. "Thank you" he said letting go.

"For what?" she asked. She cared about him, but she also wondered if maybe he needed some help upstairs, his emotions were a roller coaster. Of course almost thirty years of watching the world go by while knowing it wasn't your own world, it could leave some damage.

"For caring" he said with a soft smile.

They sat and talked until it came time to pick Grace up from school. She offered to go with him and the two set out. At the edge of the schoolyard she caught sight of the two of them standing underneath the spread of an oak tree and ran to her papa, giving him a hug. Eilonwy smiled at the tender sight. There was so much devotion on both parties in the embrace. She was surprised to feel Grace's slim arms wrap around her for a hug after she had released her father. She chuckled and patted her hair.

"What have you got stuck in your hair?" she asked bending down and turning Grace around to extract some twigs from the girls hair. She chuckled as she eased the bit of tree from her hair without causing any pain to Grace's fair head.

"I climbed a tree at recess" she said proudly.

"Did you?" Jefferson asked and Grace eagerly poured forth an account of her adventure to her audience of two.

"Will you be coming to tea today?" Grace looked at Eilonwy.

"We'll see, I want to, but there's something I need to do" she said looking distracted as her eyes locked on young Henry Mills. "Save me a cookie" she said and impulively gave the top of Grace's head a kiss.

"See you later" she said taking her papa's hand as they headed back to the mansion.

"Goodbye your highness" Jefferson said with a little mischief in his smile.

"Bye you two!" she said waving before starting off across the schoolyard to see Henry who had a book open in his lap. She came up and sat beside him. "It's Henry right?" she asked as he looked up from his book.

"Yeah, that's right. Who are you?" he asked curiously.

"Well here I'm Ellyn, I worked at the jewelry shop, now I work at Granny's, but back in the Enchanted Forest I was a princess" she said wistfully.

"Cool! Which one?" he asked "did you know my grandmother Snow?"

"Princess Eilowny of Llyr, and yes I did, not well but I was invited to the parties at the palace and we knew one another well enough."

Henry looked sad.

"You miss her, and your mom, I mean Emma, don't you?" she asked gently. Henry nodded. "Is this the book about us?" she asked putting her hand on it.

"Yeah" he said "I was hoping there was something in it about some way of finding them or making it where we could get to the Enchanted Forest" he pursed his lips and almost frowned.

"Here, can I see?" she asked and he slipped it from his lap to hers. She looked through the pages. Some of it she remembered, she had been there for some events or heard of them, others were unknown. Her breath stopped for a moment as she came across the chapter for the Mad Hatter, for Jefferson. She rapaciously read it, turning the pages with a feverish need to know his story, she slowed as she neared the end, her eyes glistening over with tears at the final picture of him sitting alone, forced to make hats without magic, desperate to get back to his daughter. The tear fell onto the pages, followed by two more. She quickly wiped her eyes and closed the book, handing it back to Henry.

"Why are you crying?" he asked.

"It's a sad story" she said standing up.

"The Hatter's?" she nodded.

"But he found his daughter here, they're together again. It has a happy ending!" he said perkily.

"No it doesn't, I don't expect you to understand, you were born in this world, none of us were. We can survive, but we all want to go home. This is a nice place, but it's not home, and it's awful having two things shoved in your brain. Who know you are, and who you are forced to be" she said sadly. Henry just looked at her, he was going to look through his book for her when he had the chance, her name sounded vaguely familiar. "I hope you find a way to get to your mom and Snow" she said "but don't doubt with the curse lifted, you won't be the only one scouring this town for ways to the Enchanted Forest, we want to go home!" she said emotionally.