As they sat in Jefferson's moving carriage, Emma tried to figure out her next move. The imp didn't pursue them even though he could…Jefferson was in on the plan. She'd walked right into the trap in an attempt to escape and she knew full well that she probably wouldn't. The minute they ditched Jefferson, Rumpelstiltskin would be back and he'd drag them back to that castle to get answers.

So finding a way to ditch Jefferson was out of the question for now, but they couldn't keep him…he was going to be feeding Rumpelstiltskin information about them. He couldn't be trusted, she even recognized that. No matter how he played the wronged victim, she couldn't trust him. Sidney had done that and look how that had turned out.

So they were at a bit of an impasse. Emma would rather take her chances with the Hatter though. At least she knew from personal experience that she and her mother could take him down if he tried anything.

He was a spy. Did they think they were fooling her? Or were they aware that she knew they were working together and were watching her to see what she did?

It didn't matter, if they didn't think she knew, then she had a very slight advantage. She wasn't going to give that up by giving that away.

Jefferson pretended to be nervous until they were halfway off the mountain. Then he got bored and watched her with a curious gaze.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Alice," Emma lied and kept the knife clenched in her hand.

"You knew my name…have we met?"

"Not yet," Emma muttered and looked at Mary Margaret. Mary Margaret studied her face but Emma shook her head slightly; tell him nothing. The less he knew, the less he had to tell Rumpelstiltskin and the more freedom they had. The longer they kept the mystery, the more likely they were to get out of this.

Jefferson tilted his head curiously. Emma wasn't sure that he could look more eccentric than he did in Storybrooke where he looked like he was wearing wallpaper for a shirt but she was wrong. The eyeliner brought out his blue eyes even more over here and his swagger made him look far more egotistical and ruthless than the desperate father that was insane.

So how did he turn from this to what he'd be?

"Your attire is nothing like I've ever seen in my many travels…what are your pants made of?"

Emma glared and refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing, "Where is your hat?"

"Ah, Didn't bring it; usually don't when I'm heading off to dinner with Rumpelstiltskin."

Thus far, that was her only way to get home. She had to get her hands on it immediately.

"Take us to it."

He looked offended, "It's in my inn bedroom! What would the town say if I brought two women that I hardly knew up to my room?"

"Don't care," Emma snapped.

"Em-," Mary Margaret stopped, "Alice…what if it doesn't open up back to our world?"

"It has to," she said, "There's magic now. We can go home."

"Sorry, but you can't," Jefferson said and lazily crossed one leg over the other, "Three go into the hat, three come out. Now I'd be fine if you plan to bring me with you to see this strange new world but unless you plan to send two back then I can't get home…and where would that leave my clientele? With them disappointed and me poor."

Emma could think of a couple of people that he could have.

"Besides, no new world would just magically pop up in my hat, that isn't how it works. I have a set number of worlds I have access to and from there, and those have portals of their own to other worlds and those have portals too and it's all linked. The problem is finding the portals."

He was lying. He was just trying to find a way to stall them. They came here through the hat; the hat could get them back out.

But it wasn't the hat from this time period; it might not have a portal to the present because the present hadn't happened yet.

Oh, time travel was confusing.

But they had to get home, didn't they? Regina's curse had ripped people away from several worlds. If they were back in the past and hadn't gotten to Storybrooke by the time the curse hit, wouldn't they end up meeting older versions of themselves?

Or what if they were dead?

Or the curse didn't hit the world they were going to and they would end up trapped and she would never see her son again?

Well if they couldn't get home the way of the hat, then they'd find someone who could get them there. Actually, that was the perfect solution, they could make sure Jefferson didn't follow them and get another portal jumper to take them away so they couldn't be found. Rumpelstiltskin wouldn't know where to look and neither would the Hatter.

But how to keep the hatter from following…

While she was distracted with trying to come up with a plan, Jefferson rushed at her. Emma looked up, startled when he flung himself towards her. She drove the flat of her hand onto his nose but he grabbed her wrist and slammed it against the wall of the carriage. Mary Margaret punched him in the face but he shoved her backwards. With one painful movement, he wrenched the knife out of Emma's hands and held the knife toward Emma's mother when she made a movement to go for him again.

"Now," he turned to Emma and fully straddled her lap to keep her from kneeing him in a sensitive area, "Let's talk about who you are and how you know me."