Ruby was plainly exhausted but incredibly happy when Emma arrived at Granny's the next morning, hoping to score some onion rings. When she succeeded, Emma sat at a booth and inhaled with gumption then dove eagerly into her "meal".

"You look pretty happy," she commented.

"Oh, yeah. Had a nice night. Got to run and play and be a wolf."

"Wish my spirits were as good as yours, but I'm still waiting on the blood test."

"You can quit your whining," griped Regina, appearing at Emma's shoulder so silently and suddenly that Emma's heart jumped so hard it felt like she was having a heart attack.

Regina noticed but the only form of acknowledgment she gave was a subtle smirk. The Wraith Scare had returned her magic to its zenith, so she no longer had to choose between five small spells and one big one on a daily basis. Now, she was able to do all the magic she wanted.

Regina went on briskly, thrusting her palm under Emma's nose, "It was Jefferson."

Squinting at the mark, Emma asked, "Do you need a doctor?"

"Certainly not a Whale who received his degree from a curse," scoffed Regina. Ruby was now waiting on Grumpy as the door swung open.

"Speak of the devil."

Shaking her wrist in front of Emma's nose, Regina snarled, "I'm doomed. Jefferson stole my book to summon the Wraith so he could brand me and it would suck my soul out."

"And this is the house that Jack built," Emma finished automatically. Then she raised her brow. "So you're looking for an exorcist? Does Storybrooke have one? Which fairy tale creature was an exorcist? Dryads?"

Regina's eyeroll could not be more prominent. "No, dummy. I might as well write a will because I'm dead as Pongo's family." Regina glared with spite. "If an exorcist would work, do you honestly believe I'd be standing here in your company?"

"Regina, are you okay? I've never seen you so pleasant or appreciative."

Regina fluttered her lashes. "Well, if it isn't Little Miss Blonde Twit getting sarcastic on me." Snootily, she informed, "I'm so proud of you I could spit."

"No one taught you being a d*** to people willing to help gets you shot," Emma rebuffed. "At least, in this world versus your idyllic be-the-devil-and-roses-will-bloom-at-your-feet world. I was trying to say, as nicely as I could, it's a miracle you weren't assassinated if you treated your guards like that. I'd imagine a maid would have decided to murder you after putting up with," she swooped her hand, "that. And your bodyguard would hold the door wide for her. At the very least, I'm impressed you failed to anger someone into disfiguring your face so she could smirk proudly every time you talked. Sounds like the Enchanted Forest was full of doormats who lacked raw, real human emotions." She folded her arms over her chest and glared pointedly at Regina.

"One act of insolence led to death," enlightened Regina. "That's how I weeded out the bad apples. Obviously, Jefferson was different, being my peach puff."

Emma made a face and reached for another onion ring. "Guess it really was a fairy tale world then," she remarked dryly. "That attitude here gets you beheaded." She stuffed her cheeks full of the one thing that never failed to temporarily raise her spirits.

"I had magic," reminded Regina jubilantly. "If you tried to behead me, your own head went missing from your neck. People did try and vaguely succeeded but it's not like I had a power-hungry sister who shoved me into an antelope stampede after rasping, 'Long live the queen.'"

Emma rolled her eyes. "If only Mufasa had half your luck. I suppose the fact you aren't dead from townsfolk remembering who you really are, you're probably not going to die until you're well over three hundred."

"Haven't you been listening? Jefferson wants me dead. He freed the bimbo, but for some unforeseen reason, the imp won't do it, so he resorted to the next best thing to murder because he lacks the gall to try—and fail."

"The bimbo?" repeated Emma confusedly.

Enjoying Emma being in the dark, all Regina said was, "Her," then left in a cloud of purple smoke.

Emma waved the smoke energetically. Strutting by, Ruby remarked, "That's not real smoke."

"Worse. It carries the poison of second-hand smugness."

Dryly, Ruby vouched, "Oh yeah, that's what killed my sister."

Snatching up some darts, Emma grouched as she flung one bullseye, "I don't know where she gets off talking to people like that."

"Oh, in her defense, I'd only rip her throat out in my dreams," Ruby opined. "She knows we're not actually going to do anything to her. Then again, she hasn't really targeted me, so I guess she manages to sidestep the truly dangerous people and only treat people she's more powerful than like welcome mats to wipe her nasty feet on."

"So?" challenged Emma. "At the end of the day, we don't have to put up with her very long." Seething, she flung another dart, but her aim was off. It bounced off Thomas' glass of orange juice. "She does. If I talked to people like that, I'd want to crush my own heart. What the hell is her problem, enjoying this? I'm guarded and tense with people because letting my walls down led to pain. She's an open gloat…because it's fun for her? What? I don't enjoy being guarded, but I'm not ashamed either. And…" she leaned over a table, "thinking of her talking to countless people like that makes me wish she'd bitch-slap me again so I could gladly reiterate."

Ruby giggled. "Emma, I used to be just like you. It's cute! But I don't know, I started to accept Regina is what she is. A mass-murdering rapist who tried a tattletale for murder instead of the murderess. Honestly though…Regina is what she is. She was much nastier in the Enchanted Forest, and I'm bamboozled your mother didn't let her be killed for her crimes. Indisputably, saving Regina's life cost innocent people their lives. It's like letting a dog live who kills every other dog he comes in contact with because euthanasia is animal cruelty. In that case, I'd say the dog deserves it, and Regina deserved it. Not for the past but for the future.

"Here…far as I know," Ruby asserted earnestly, "she murdered one person. I'm not afraid of her here; I just find her annoying. But still, if Snow hadn't prevented it, and Blue hadn't been swift with that wand of hers after condemning Tink's wings off for 'helping' Regina before she went evil…there'd be no more murders from Regina. Not here, there, or anywhere."

Picturing Regina's face on the dartboard, Emma launched another dart. "I'm not afraid of her either," she growled as the dart buried itself where Emma visualized Regina's eye. "I hate her."

"I don't," Ruby asserted, "but she's not picking on me. She has it out for you. Like a six-times champion pageant queen feasting her eyes on new talent. A fresh-faced natural who is sure to dethrone her."

Accepting the second round of onion rings Ruby offered, Emma grumbled, "If she keeps going for my throat, I'll get her in a vice grip. Then I'll fling her in a dragon's lair."

"I'll cheer you on," promised Ruby. She took an ice-cold beverage to Dr. Whale and gave him a flirty smile and hair flip.

When she returned to Emma after taking care of a few more customers, Ruby asked conversationally, "Any progress on the plan to seize custody of Henry out from under our Evil Queen's nose?"

"Not really," Emma admitted dejectedly, trying to poke a hole in her own ire. Then she forgot herself for half a second and tore up her current dart with a frustrated grunt. Staring numbly at the remains, she reminded herself Regina was merely an irritant. "Much as I know I shouldn't think like this because I promised Henry nothing bad would happen to her, if Jefferson is successful, our job will be easy."

"Too easy," Ruby shivered. "I don't trust handouts."

Emma didn't want to admit it, but Ruby was right. "Well," she uttered waspishly after dumping the rest of her onion rings in her mouth and swallowing, "every time I try to show her compassion, she makes me rue that I didn't hit her harder when I had the chance."

"I meant, I'm afraid if you wait to seize Henry until then, he might end up in foster care."

"Oh, hell no!" Emma breathed, her nostrils feeling like they were exhuming thick smoke. Abigail entered the building with Frederick on her arm. Abigail's cheeks were glowing. "I guess I will have to stop the Dementor from kissing her."

"What are we chatting about?" Abigail wondered, raising her brow in confusion.

Emma felt like too many people were getting the details. She didn't want gossip about something serious to spread through the small town in the way of a wildfire. Crisply, she answered, "It's a long story, and the day is young, so…"

Nodding with empathy, Abigail paraphrased, "You don't want the town to spread it like a sinfully contagious virus. Got it." She was the opposite of offended and didn't incline to attempt to persuade Emma to volunteer the information. Instead, she gave Ruby her and Frederick's orders.

Emma muttered, "Guess I'd better call the blood test place and cancel. Kid, shouldn't you be in school?"

Henry wrinkled his nose at her, having basically Apparated in front of her. "Mom, it's summer vacation."

"I know that," she'd actually forgotten and fumbled out an explanation, "but my mother told me…today you are supposed to make up the finals you missed during your coma."

Henry's complexion went green. "That was yesterday."

Feeling his forehead, Emma asked, "Are you coming down with something?"

"No. I-I…I may have flunked the math part." He rubbed the crease at the bottom of his left eye that touched his nose. "I know I aced English," he muttered defensively, "but…I did my best on math, and…"

"Don't worry about it," Emma coaxed breathlessly. "What's done is done. All we can ever do is our best…but what are you doing here?"

"Felt like doing some reading." He pulled the brown hardcover book out of his bag. "Snow—er, Grandma?—might meet me here later. When Mom is occupied." He massaged his forehead with one hand.

"I have a feeling your mom is going to be very occupied."

"How so?"

Emma didn't like keeping secrets from him (except the dad one), and he hadn't inherited his grandmother's aptitude for secret-spilling. Lowering her voice so only Henry was capable of hearing, she enlightened, "Jefferson sicced a Dementor on her."

Henry jerked his head in five small, tight circles. As if he'd gotten his head caught in a costume-sized bell and was trying to rid his head of the echoy rings. "Ah. A Qui Shen, or a Wraith."

Emma didn't admit it, but her heart skipped a beat with tension when he said that. Nevertheless, she couldn't conceal she was stone-faced when she asked, "You know how to defeat it?"

"Nothing conventional would work." Henry selected an empty table and flipped to the right page. He pointed. "It's not like you can drive a stake in its heart. It's an undead demon." Cupping his chin in his hand, he stroked it with moving fingers while muttering, "The only person to defeat it threw a magic bean at it. Which, if you ask me, unless you have a few, is a waste of a bean. Plus another world will have to deal with it…"

Emma read the text he was pointing to and felt her heart rise. She didn't want to confess this to Henry, but after all Regina had put her through the last year, she didn't want to save her. The woman thrived on other people's misery. She was a mass murderess, a rapist, a tyrannical terrorist who smirked smugly when she uprooted lives.

But Emma had promised Henry no harm would come to the demonic woman…

Placing a dart between her teeth, Emma dropped her elbows to the table. "So if you ship the demon to another world, won't they have to deal with it?"

"In a manner of speaking," replied Henry vaguely. He was still reading the book. "Someone has to touch its medallion and be branded. But if no one does, it goes back to the world of demons. It's meant to suck the branded soul from the body then return home, and its quest never lasts more than a week. This demon gets homesick easily."

Emma's lips puckered. "Now I feel less bad that I seem to lack the homesickness gene."

"You've never been homesick?"

"If longing to lay on a cozy rug by a fireplace when it's freezing outside counts…but nah. That's wishing for warmth, not homesickness."

Raising his brow, no longer poring his eyes over the book, Henry commented, "Must be because you never had a permanent home. I've been homesick and sometimes just wanted to cut school to lay in bed…and I grew up under the roof of the unloving Evil Queen. I guess homesickness is a perk of having a long-term home."

"Yeah, probably…I don't miss my home in Boston. It was lonely. And come on, the guys I bailed out of jail repayed their wives' kindness by cheating on them. I'm not sure I can say what I did was 'living' or 'rewarding'. You, kid…you made life more real than bailing some empty-hearted perv out of jail. I love you."

"I love you too. And I know you love me anyway. I know you didn't want to give me up, but you thought you'd be an awful mother. Regina could've been worse, but I refuse to lie. She is not a loving mother. Kids need to feel loved to be mentally healthy, and the fact is I never felt she loves me….like you should if someone does. I can feel your love. Not because you're my birth mom but because it radiates from you like sunrays. Also, Mary Margaret—er, Grandma—kinda loves me too. Not as strongly as you do, but I still sense it sometimes when we're having a good conversation."

Emma had never considered asking Henry's input; she'd assumed he'd be elated to be removed from the mayor's home. As he dropped his gaze to the book, she saw she needed to ask. "How would you like to legally be removed from her home?"

"I'd be a jumble of emotions if you succeed, but it might be amazing in the…wait." He retreated his gaze from the book and gave Emma full eye contact. "Wow." He smiled dazedly.

Emma cautioned, "We might fail. This isn't an idyllic universe but her queendom. But we're trying."

"We? Of course, Snow and Charming would help this quest. But who else?" he mused, stroking his chin. Tilting his head, he asked, "Archie?"

Remembering what Dr. Hopper said about stolen credit cards and Henry skipping school, Emma wasn't sure how willing he'd be. "I don't know, kid. I'll ask him." Thinking of what Abigail said about only making deliverable promises, she felt guilt treading. "Kid, I can't promise if we succeed, I'll be your legal guardian."

"We'll see," Henry replied, returning his attention to the book.

Emma took that as her cue to leave. As she strode out, a man with a red cap entered Granny's Diner. He selected a vacant booth.

No one noticed this man but Ruby, and he made her uneasy. Her instincts screamed he was bad news.

Certain he wouldn't do anything in plain sight, she strode up to ask if he wanted coffee.

"You're Ruby?" he asked instead of answering.

She smiled warmly, putting her foot down to suffocate her disquiet. "In the flesh…and short, tight skirt," she laughed affably.

He whipped out a tiny brown bag so quickly she didn't have time to react, to grip his arm, to bite him. The bag sucked her up.

He left Granny's Diner with his prize, no one the wiser. Ruby trapped in the tiny bag, magically shrunken. Her teeth aching to clamp on his throat, her voice box magically silenced.