Meetings

D and August walked into the Charmings' residence, and Emma closed the door behind them. "What's up?" she asked.

"It's Mendell," D said, turning to Emma. "He called Alice. We have two days at most."

"Who's Alice?"

"His portal jumper wife," August replied.

"Doesn't that mean she's on our side?" Charming asked.

"She smokes funny things, takes her meds with alcohol, and works as a prostitute in her off time. Her husband is obsessed with proving magic is real and making tourist attractions out of people like us. He's also a really good actor. That or you're a bad lie detector," D said.

Emma regarded D with narrow eyes. Snow asked, "What do we do?"

"We have two options," August said. "We close the town off to outsiders, or we break the Barrier and skip town before anything really bad happens."

"Where would we go?"

"That's where we come in," D said. "We're part of a network, and our job is to make sure people from other realms can get where they need to be."

"You mean we can go home."

"In theory."

"So what's the problem? If we can get out of here let's do it," Charming said.

"I see where she gets her ability to read people from," August muttered.

"The problem," D said, "is a witch from Oz, but if she can be bypassed, then that's okay."

"That should be no problem," Charming replied.

"But it is. The entire trod system is at her disposal now, even though she can't leave unless I open a door."

"The quake," Emma said.

"Yeah, and we're lucky it was that creepazoid that followed the Merry Men and not the witch. We're really lucky."

"There's more than one wicked witch?" Henry asked from behind D.

She turned and nodded. "Yeah, kid. There's more than one wicked witch."

"So if we can get around her, we can go home?" Charming asked.

"Trods are a last resort, regardless of who's in them, and we have to deal with the Barrier first, anyway. Question is, how?"

"I hate to say it, but we have to go to Rumpelstiltskin," Snow said.

"Let me talk to him," D replied.

"Are you crazy?" Emma asked. "Don't you know who he is?"

"Of course I know. Why do you think I'm going?"

"You're sure about this?" Snow asked. D nodded. She looked at Emma.

"We have to do something, and they're the only ones with a plan," Emma said.

"How do we know this isn't a trap."

"It's our job to help refugees and exiles from other realms," D said, "willing or otherwise."

"Tricking people that way isn't what we do," August added. Emma glared at him. "If we're helping you as jumpers, we're helping you as jumpers." Emma looked at Snow, who finally, reluctantly nodded. She nodded to August and D.

"Okay," D said with a reciprocating nod.

OUAT

Red walked into Victor's apartment and then stopped and blinked. The man sitting on the couch had a thick scar on his neck and an arm that looked like it was run through a shredder and sewn back together again. He smelled slightly of corpse. "I'd like to introduce you to my brother, Gerhardt, Gerhardt, this is Red," Victor said, gesturing to the man on the sofa. Gerhardt stood and extended his neater hand, which Red shook. He nodded and stepped back. "Please, have a seat." Red sat on the recliner, and the brothers Frankenstein sat on the sofa.

"So, what do you need to explain that was too long for the phone?" Red asked. Victor sighed and began recounting the long, strange day he hand. It began when he was called by the Sheriff and told he was needed at the well in case it was an emergency. Red found herself listening on the edge of her seat, increasingly unable to believe the details he presented but somehow firmly convinced they were all true, so it was no wonder that she couldn't speak when he finished his tale. Finally, she managed, "Oh, wow." Her mind filled with visions of worlds she couldn't recognize, much as it did when she talked to him on the pier and he told her his life story in a land without color, but now it was unfathomable. She felt like she was staring into an abyss, and she had to pull back, lest she fall in and never return, but on some level, the abyss was irresistible. "We can go...anywhere," she said. "And...anyone from anywhere can be in Storybrooke. This curse..." When it came to finishing the thought, words failed her.

"It's more prolific than we realized," Victor said. Red nodded mutely. The brothers looked at each other. Victor snapped his gaze back to Red and repeated himself, and then he stood and started pacing about his apartment, speaking in rapid-fire German and Dutch.

"What is he saying?" Red asked Gerhardt.

"He's rambling about headless horsemen and witches and hags and...I think he said twins."

"Cora and Regina, and Hansel and Gretel."

"There's also something in all that about Rapunzel. And the Brothers Grimm. Now he's just rambling on."

"What happened to the Brothers Grimm?"

"They disappeared into the trods while working on their collection of fairy tales. The collection survived, but so far as we know, they didn't."

"Their book...What was it called?"

"I remember the title 'Once Upon a Time' being tossed about between them, though I think they would've settled on something else."

"Oh, my God. That's Henry's book."

"We have bigger problems right now," Victor said when he finally stopped pacing and ranting. "We're trapped, and anyone and everyone can come into Storybrooke. My God," he whispered, running his hands through his hair. "What have I done?"

Gerhardt stood and walked around the sofa, and he placed his hands on Victor's shoulders. Victor lowered his hands and stared at his brother. "You saved a man's life," Gerhardt whispered. "What he does with his second chance isn't your fault. It's his."

"He's right," Red said. "Maybe enough sense can be talked into him to call Alice off."

"If he can talk sense into her," Victor replied.

"It's worth a shot, isn't it? I mean, we have to do something before this all goes straight to hell."

"Alright," he said with a curt nod. "Let's do it."