"Thanks for the ride," Tom said as he climbed into the tow truck.

The driver, Billy, gave him a warm smile. "No problem, how'd you crash it out here?"

"Long story." He tried to think what he could say that wouldn't be a complete lie but wouldn't drag him into long explanations about what he was and how he got here. "Doing a favor. It involved Gold."

Billy's eyes widened slightly; and Tom bet that, if he'd had Silver's sense of smell, the stench of fear would be rolling off of him. "Don't worry about it," Tom told him. "He's not the one who burned the RV. That happened when that shadow thing attacked. He's not mad at me," Gold was holding off on being mad to see if Siri came back with his son in one piece. After that, all bets were off. "And he won't be mad at you giving me a tow."

Billy licked his lips nervously. "You sure about that?"

Tom shrugged. "He was there when Prince Charming called you and didn't seem to care. I think he had other things on his mind."

"Right," Billy said. "Other stuff. I'm not asking. So, uh, that shadow thing, it got all the way out here? Do you know what it was?"

"Seemed kind of like a shade demon, not that I got a good look. If you meet one of those, they don't like light or fire – and this one backed off when the Winnebago blew up." He wondered if he should mention the rest. But, if that thing – or anything like it – was wandering around Storybrooke, best give Billy a heads up. "Smelled kind of undead, so I'm guessing it feeds off life force or souls in some way."

"Wait a second, you can smell undead?"

"Uh, yeah. Doesn't come up often," Change subject, change subject, change subject. "You got any strange talents coming back?"

Billy looked embarrassed. "Some. I can smell things – but normal things. Plants. Crackers. Cheese."

"Sounds a lot more useful. Were you a werewolf or something?" No, bad question. Most werewolves were pretty self-conscious about it. Or anti-social in that whole, give-into-the-wolf, let's-show-sharks-what-a-feeding-frenzy-should-really-look-like kind of way that real wolves never went for.

"Uh, no," Billy said. "Mouse."

"Excuse me?"

"Mouse. I was a mouse. I lived in Cinderella's cupboard. I ate cheese. I was a mouse."

"Oh," Tom said. So, Disney got something right. He wondered if Cinderella was a witch (or something) and didn't know it. When witches hung out with animals with potential as familiars, the animals started absorbing magic and gaining intelligence. Or they did if Silver's dad was any guide to go by. But maybe he shouldn't mention his girlfriend the cat and her family. Fortunately, that wasn't the only animal person he'd met. "I knew a guy who was a mouse, once. At least, I'm pretty sure he started as a mouse. Instead of getting turned into one. He could still turn into one when he needed." OK, could he sound any stupider? He needed coffee. Fast. "Mauzhrin, that was his name. Ever heard of him?" Not likely, since Mauzhrin lived in New York, but it was something to talk about.

"Don't think so. There are a lot of mice. He could turn human? Without a fairy godmother or anything?"

Tom shrugged. "He worked for a wizard. That guy might have given him the ability. I never heard. But, if the wizard gave it to him, it was still a permanent gift. Mauzhrin didn't need spells or charms or anything to do it."

"Rumplestiltskin, was that the wizard?"

"No, another guy. Lucian." Should he even be mentioning Uncle Lucian here, given the way his luck was going?

"Never heard of him."

Tom shrugged. "He didn't get out much. He'd given Mauzhrin a job to watch over some things he'd left buried and then forgot about him." He hoped Uncle Lucian wouldn't mind character assassination by half-truth. Probably not, given how much worse the truth was. "So, you were a mouse. Then, the curse turned you into a man. How's that working for you?"

"It's good. I like being bigger than cats. And there's a girl . . . ." he trailed off. "I'm glad, when the curse broke, I didn't get turned back into a mouse. You know, I got turned into a horse once. By Rumplestiltskin. I'd be willing to make a deal with him not to be a mouse again."

"Uh . . . ." Not till he knows if his son is safe, you wouldn't. And maybe not after, depending how the reunion goes. "He seemed kind of edgy – mostly about something the shadow monster had done," he added hastily, not wanting to make Billy think he'd be safer letting Tom walk to town. And it was true. Sort of. The shadow was the reason Siri jumped ship for the Gloaming, after all, Bae in tow. "Give him a while to calm down. And have a lawyer look over any contract he gives you before you sign."

When they got to town, Billy had plenty more cars to rescue. Tom thanked him for the lift and went in search of food. Billy had recommended Granny's, a place Tom remembered from his last visit. He hoped Granny's bed and breakfast wasn't going to be full of people whose homes had been damaged by the shadow monster, or he might find himself camping in the woods. Oh, well, food first.

There was a small horde of stressed out people at Granny's, none of them very interested in food, which was good because it didn't look like any was getting cooked. They were talking about the curse and everything that had happened since it was broken maybe 24 hours before.

Wow, Tom thought, Looks like I caught Gold just at the right moment.

Or just the wrong one. Maybe the worst one.

Oh, well, at least he hadn't been turned into a frog.

Yet.

Given the chaos, he didn't even try to order a hot meal, settling for a stale cinnamon roll, leftover from the day before and industrial strength coffee that had probably been brewing since at least yesterday.

He wondered if he was going to need a pot of the stuff to get through today.

And his weapons. They'd survived the little fireball the exploding gas tank had put them through (Siri's work, Tom thought. It had seemed more her style even at the time. Since then, he'd seen the damage to the town. No fireballs), but Charming had confiscated them. And his armor.

Oh, yeah, one of those days.

Ruby came over and poured him some more coffee. "You all right?" she asked. "You're the only one not talking to anyone."

So much for blending in. The others all were talking. "Have you seen my son?" "My daughter, what happened to my daughter?" "The Queen, can she attack us?" "What about Rumplestiltskin?"

Not like Tom had anything to add, but it was no wonder Ruby had noticed.

She'd changed since the last time he saw her. The makeup was no longer plastered on and, as to her clothes, there were more of them and they no longer looked two sizes too small.

Still a lot of red in them.

Ruby. Red. Granny. He'd had that much figured out at the beginning.

Silver had been the one to tell him what her (much more useful than his) sense of smell had to say: wolf.

Amazing the things that got edited out of children's fairy tales, wasn't it?

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just up all night. How about you?"

"Coping. We're trying to get people organized, find out who needs what and where."

Ah, Siri's idea of paradise, organizing people and bossing them around. He'd have to point her at Ruby when she got back. Not that that was an excuse to slouch off (as Siri would no doubt tell him when she showed up). "Anything I can do? I've got some experience in crisis situations."

Ruby looked at him and his hands, trying to place who and what he was – and, probably, how trustworthy. Right, don't put man-eating monsters in charge of babysitting. That would be bad.

Ruby frowned. "I know you, but not from the forest. You're not a Child of the Moon, but your claws . . . ."

"From my grandfather. He wasn't human. But, I'm house-broken. The claws showed up again this morning."

But, she'd placed him. "I know you! You're not –"

"No, I'm not," he cut her off quickly, keeping his voice down and looking to see if anyone had noticed Ruby's outburst. "Look, your Prince Charming knows all about it, OK? What I said is true. My grandfather . . . came over to this world before your town was even built. But, I didn't know there was anything weird here till the first time I visited. Guess it drew me. Blood to blood, Gramps would say. Guess that's what drew me in this time, too, since this is the first I've been back."

Ruby wasn't buying it, but at least she kept her voice to a whisper. "The last time you were here, the town was still under a curse. How would you know about who we are?"

"I was looking for my girlfriend, remember?" Who had been staying at Granny's B&B before apparently taking off in the middle of the night, bills unpaid (Tom had taken care of those before leaving). "She's . . . kind of like me. Regina had her. I got a general idea what was going on by the time I busted her out. And, then, I ran."

Ruby still wasn't entirely buying it, but he could see something else click in her expression. "Your grandfather came here. Did he know a way back? Do you know the way back?"

Next time he was hungry, he was raiding a vending machine. In an abandoned building. After phoning in a fake bomb scare to evacuate the neighborhood. "I'm not a Way Walker. Or whatever you guys call it. If there's a way back to your world, Grandfather didn't know it."

"Then why are you here?"

Tom managed a weak grin. "I have the gift of really bad timing."

OK, he thought. Run for the nearest exit. But finish the coffee, first.

o0o0o0o

Tom finished his cinnamon roll, too, before beating a hasty retreat, trying to think over his next move. Stay alive till Siri showed up, that was his current plan. It didn't seem like it should be too hard, but who knew? Find some place to get a little sleep, that also seemed like a good idea. Except he hadn't asked Ruby or her grandmother about a room. And he wasn't going back to ask them, now.

Besides, maybe he should have thought about sleep before having two cups of coffee. At least he'd stopped short of three. His thoughts weren't quite as fuzzy as they had been, and being knocked out by a shadow monster counted as a nap, didn't it? Maybe –

That was when the man who'd followed him out of the diner pushed him into the alley where his friends were waiting. Two had guns, the other had a knife. So did the man who'd shoved him in.

He'd just walked into this one.

Obviously, he should have had more coffee.