"Well, well, look who it is," Milah smiled as she sat down next to Neal who was eating pancakes in a booth at Granny's. "Mind if I sit?"

Neal nearly spit out his coffee as the smell of her perfume made him gag. "What is it you want?" He asked. "Aren't you supposed to be in jail? How did you get out?"

"Let's just say I got time off for good behavior," she giggled. "You know, Zelena really was right. Just act sorry, pretend to cry and they'll let you out of anything, won't they?" She pushed the plate toward him. "Now eat your breakfast before it gets cold."

"Don't you talk to me," Neal breathed. "You have no right to talk to me like that." He stood up. "I'm taking you back. It's the right thing to do."

"Oh, now really, Baelfire," Milah clicked her tongue. "Is that the right way to talk to your mother?"

"You can't call yourself my mother," Neal replied. "I know you weren't in my life for long, but I'm not without memories of you. How when you did take care of me, you were angry and sullen. Resentful. How as soon as Papa came home, you'd run off to the tavern and I wouldn't see you again until Papa begged you to come back, and even then it was only reluctantly. I know our lives were hard, but…it wasn't right for you to take it out on me. I was just a kid."

Milah sighed, her expression much softer than she'd probably intended. "My quarrel was never with you," she said. "I know I hurt you. But it was always your father I was angry at. How he was a coward. How we were poor. How everyone in town thought we were terrible people, all because of him."

"Yes, and I bet your drinking and hanging around with men you weren't married to at the tavern didn't help much with the family reputation either," Neal pointed out. "Don't get me wrong. I know where you're coming from. I've had troubles with Papa too, along with the good times. I lived with him when he was just beginning to be the Dark One, remember? He let me fall through a portal alone because he was too scared to come with me, and for years, just like you, I resented him for it. But then you know what happened?"

"What?" Milah asked.

"I got over it," Neal said. "I got over it, gave him a chance, talked to him, and since then, we've had the best relationship we've ever had. Now, I'm not saying you should have done that because clearly it wasn't something that you had the patience for, and in fact it was probably better for everyone that you left, but…you really missed out. That's all I'm gonna say."

"I know what you mean," Milah told him. "Things were good for your father and me at one point. Before he went off to war, before you were born…then he ruined everything and things changed."

"So now you're scolding him for wanting to be home with his family," Neal sighed. "I'm glad he did that. Cause if he'd died and I'd been left in your care, who knows what would have happened to me? You probably would have sold me off to the highest bidder and run off with the first ship that came into port. So if you expect me to feel bad for you, or feel the same way about Papa that you do, you'll be disappointed. Now, if you don't mind, go away. I'm eating." He scooped a forkful of cold eggs in his mouth and swallowed, trying not to wince and let on how disgusting they were.

"Well, what a shame our little family reunion has to end," Milah said. "I only ever wanted to be friends with you, son. But now it can't be that way. You made the wrong choice. You're going to regret it."

"No, I don't think I will," Neal replied firmly. "Good day."

Milah scoffed at him and strode from the diner, mumbling curses under her breath.

"Well, she's a piece of work," Ruby remarked as she brought over the coffee pot. "Is that really your mother?"

"I think that's a generous term for her," Neal replied. "But she is the woman who gave birth to me, yes."

"Wow, I'm sorry," Ruby apologized. "My mother had issues too. That's why Granny raised me."

"Well, you got really lucky," Neal told her.

"Yeah," Ruby nodded and looked at Granny, who'd just come through the door of the diner with a tub of raw meat and what looked to be a bloody cleaver on top of it, and was shouting at her to come help make the day's batch of meatloaf. "I'm really lucky." She left then and after Neal finished his breakfast and left a tip on the table, he had a decision to make: should he report the conversation with his mother to his father first, or Emma? He mulled it over, and finally picked Emma. He just had to ask why she'd been foolish enough to let his mother out of jail. Cause that didn't seem like her at all.

But when he reached the police station, Emma wasn't at the desk at all. Instead, her mother was there, and she smiled brightly at him as he came in. "Hello!" She said, a big smile on her lips. "Emma's out on a job with David. What can I do for you?"

"Were you the one who let my mother out of jail?" Neal asked.

"Why yes I was," Snow nodded. "We talked about what she did and why she did it, and she apologized. She told me she was very sorry, and that if I let her out of jail, she would never do anything bad again. I had no reason not to believe her, so I took the keys and let her out."

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Neal cried and tried to get the pictures of him strangling her out of his head. "How could you just believe her? She's trying to ruin my father's life! She's using magic to rob people! And I'm pretty sure she has something worse up her sleeve which, now that she's been released, will be very easy to carry out."

"Oh," Snow flushed. "Sorry, I didn't think of that."

"Well, that's fine," Neal told her trying not to sound curt. "I know it's not normally your job to manage stuff like this and that's probably a good thing. Now, where did Emma and her father go?"

"Oh, I don't know exactly," Snow sighed. "You'll probably reach her quicker if you just call her. You know her number, right?"

"Yes," Neal nodded. "Lucky for you and everyone else, I do."

"What do you mean your mother got out of jail and is now running free around Storybrooke, Neal?" Emma asked. "How did that happen? Who did it?"

"Your mother," Neal replied. "Someone needs to tell her not to be so trusting. It'll be the death of her someday. What do you think we should do about it?"

"Well, first thing's first, go to the library and tell your father," Emma told him firmly. "Have you done that yet?"

"No," Neal said. "But I will now."

"All right, good," Emma replied. "I'll get things taken care of here, and then David and I will meet you and your dad back at my house to talk about this, okay?"

"Okay," Neal replied. So he headed to the library to see his father, who was just helping Belle get ready for the day. "Bad news," he said. "It's about my mom. Emma's mother let her out of jail."

"So now she's running around free?" Rumple sighed. "Of course she is. They're all a bunch of fools, except Emma. Can't really count on them to do what needs doing because they're always too worried about being seen as evil." He sighed. "What do you think your mother is up to?"

"Well, she tried to get me to side with her at the diner while I was having breakfast," Neal told him. "I said that my loyalty was to you and always would be. That upset her and she ran off, threatening to do to me whatever she and her lawyer have planned for you."

Rumple smiled, grabbed Neal's hand, and gave it a squeeze. "Thank you for your loyalty, son. That means a lot to me, especially at a time like this."

"No problem," Neal replied. "I wouldn't let you deal with something like this alone. Especially in the state you're in now. When you're available, Emma wants you and me to meet her and her father at her house to talk about what to do next. Will that work for you?"

"Of course," Rumple nodded. "That's what I'll do during my lunch break. Come pick me up around one?"

"You got it," Neal nodded. "See you then."

"Would you like to go to Granny's over lunch and have a burger with me?" Belle asked Rumple as she set a new stack of library cards by his station. "I think it would be nice."

"You know, I would love to," Rumple told her. "It's always nice when we do that every day. But something's come up. It's a complicated family matter, so I'll have to skip it. But I will definitely meet you tomorrow."

"Can I ask what's going on?" Belle questioned. "Or is it too personal? If it's too personal, you don't have to say anything."

"You're so sweet, but it's nothing that bad," Rumple told her. "Just some issues with my ex-wife. She's causing more trouble for me and now she's drawn my son into it all."

"I'm sorry," Belle took his hand and then gave him a hug. "I know this whole thing has just been miserable for you. I hope it all gets better soon."

"Oh, but it has," Rumple assured her. "A lot. And you've been a big part of that."

"Well it's nothing, really," Belle smiled. "I do what I can. And if there's anything I can do to help you, let me know."

"Thank you," Rumple told her as some patrons approached the desk. "I'll see if I can think of something."

After Neal came to pick Rumple up, they arrived at Emma's house, and were all sitting around to talk, Neal said, "I think I might have a solution to the problem. It's kind of shifty, and normally I wouldn't even suggest it, but desperate times call for desperate measures."

"What is it?" Emma asked. "Just how shifty are we talking? Cause I have magic, you know. We could just use mine, if you're thinking of something along that line."

"That's part of it," Neal said. "But there's another thing we need to consider: It's all well and good to capture my mother and her cohort, but…what will we do with them once we have them? That's the problem I think I can solve."

"How?" David asked. "It's not anything that will put the entire town in danger, is it? Cause it's not worth putting a town full of people's lives at risk, whatever it is."

"No," Neal shook his head. "The only people this will endanger are the people it's supposed to. Remember the lamp I told Henry about? We can trap Mother and Zelena in there and seal it up."

"Really? That's your plan?" Emma asked. "Put them in a genie lamp?"

"I don't see you giving any suggestions," Neal told her. "What do you think we should do?"

"What about the genie?" Emma asked. "We have to get rid of the old genie before we put your mom and Zelena in the bottle, right?"

"Easy," Neal shrugged. "We make the first two wishes, use the third to set the genie free, and then we stick them in it in when it's empty."

David looked at Rumple. "What do you think?" She asked. "Do you think this could work?"

"We'll be dealing with a very powerful magical object, so we'll have to be careful," Rumple replied. "But as long as we're careful and use the wishes wisely, I think this could be successful." He smiled at Neal. "Good job, son."

"Thank you," Neal replied. Then he looked at Emma. "Would you mind if I picked Henry up from school one day soon and took him with me to the storage room to get the lamp? He was so intrigued by it that I think it would disappoint him a lot if he knew I'd gone to get it and he didn't get to come."

"We'll both go," Emma replied. "Not that I don't trust you, but you can never have too much backup."

"She's right, you know," Rumple told Neal. "She's a smart woman, that Miss Swan."

"Well, thank you," Emma replied. "I do my best. So…when do you want to get the lamp?"

"What about the day after tomorrow?" Neal asked. "Give Mother and Zelena time to think they've come out ahead and then surprise them with our secret weapon?"

"All right," Emma nodded. "Friday it is. That'll be a good start to the weekend for Henry."

"Yeah," Neal nodded, looking at the clock before saying to his father, "You still have some of your lunch hour left. Wanna go get a burger?"

"Of course," Rumple nodded and stood up. "I think I'd like that."