I let the radio play quietly as I gathered my things for school. My history book, math book, fantasy books, etc. I've never really paid attention to my teachers when I attend class. Who needs to know what they taught when you could look it up on your phone or a computer? Maybe basic math skills were actually helpful at the shop with dad's insistence on using an old register. Just because he owned a pawn shop doesn't mean he had to use the oldest machine he could find.

"Claire," I turned to see my dad standing in the doorway to my room. "Straight home after you're done watching Henry."

"Ok." I turned back to my things and zipped up my bag.

"And attend all your classes today," he said.

"I will," I sighed. "Besides if I cut too many classes then Regina will fire me and my limited social life will just die." He chuckled at my joke and let me through the doorway.

"I'll be home late tonight so you'll have to cook as well," he told me. As I walked outside I heard a noise I'd never heard before. The chiming of the clock on top of the library. I pushed some of my curly brown hair behind my ear and looked in the direction of the large clock. Sure enough, it wasn't on the usual 8:15 time. I was actually moving.

I stood at Granny's waiting on Henry where he'd asked me to meet him before school. I'd been taking care of Henry for a couple years now at the request of both Regina and my dad. Why? No idea, but it was honestly the best idea those two had.

"Claire!" I looked up from my phone to see Henry running up to me and I smiled at him.

"Hey, Henry," I greeted. "Want some hot chocolate?"

"Sure." We went inside and I ordered us some drinks. Hot chocolate for the ten-year-old and coffee for me.

"So, what's your big plan now that you bio mom is here?" I asked him.

"How do you know she's here? Did you remember something from your past?" he asked me excitedly.

"No," I laughed at his eagerness. "But you were missing yesterday and the day before that. Your mom wigged out and had me waiting at your house until dad made me go home."

"So that's why you weren't there when I got home." I nodded.

"Yeah, you know dad. When he says jump 90% of this town asks how high," I smiled at Ruby as she delivered our drinks. She just smirked at me before going to flirt with some guy. Everyone knows Ruby doesn't really work, she just skirts on by and Granny wouldn't fire her only granddaughter.

"Even you?" Henry asked with a knowing smile.

"He's my dad, I have to ask how high," I said.

"But he's not your real dad, Claire. I haven't found him yet, but when I do I'll show you," he told me and I shook my head at him.

"You do that kiddo." I ruffled up his hair and laughed when he swatted me away and tried to fix it.

"Hey look!" I turned to see Emma sit at the bar and open the paper.

"Shall we let her know we're here?" I asked him smiling. He nodded happily and I went to the bar to order his request for Emma.

Enchanted Forest - Past

I stood on my father's ship overlooking the ocean. This ocean was nothing compared to there, but it was home.

"Catherine." I turned my head to see my father making his way to me. "You're distracted."

"Just a wondering mind, that's all." I looked back out into the ocean. He stood beside me and I could feel his stare on my back. "What is it?"

"You're thinking about him, aren't you?" he asked me I stayed silent. He sighed. I know he was probably disappointed in me, but I wasn't about to lie to the only parent I had left. I never knew my mother because of the Crocodile and I'd given my word to father to help skin him, and a Jones never breaks their word. "We left that place to find a way to get to the Crocodile to get revenge for your mother. Should I have left you behind?"

"No!" I turned quickly to glare at him. "Rumors from land say that the Evil Queen is casting a Dark Curse to trap everyone. Take all the happy endings from the heroes of the Enchanted Forest. If we don't do this now, the minute she casts the curse we lose any chance we getting at killing the Dark One. You swore we'd do this together."

"Aye, I did. But if your heart is elsewhere when the deed goes down, then getting our revenge means nothing," he told me.

"But we'd still have it. It doesn't matter where my heart is. We will have our revenge and it won't mean nothing," I corrected him. "I may be distracted now, but when the time comes I won't be."

"Good, now! With this curse coming we best move our plans up. We get to the girl and convince her to help us kill the Dark One." he smirked at his plan while I looked back out to the ocean. This plan had to work. It may be our last shot at getting the dagger.

I waited at the docks for father to return with the girl and/or the information on the dagger. The crew was in a tavern getting drunk on rum and women while I waited on the ship. I stayed behind because (A) I was too young to drink inside the tavern and (B) someone had to stay behind and watch the ship. I turned at the sound of heels against wood and saw a woman in an elaborate dress, her dark hair pulled up on her head and an evil smirk on her face. She was incredibly beautiful and I was surprised to see someone like her here. It helped, I suppose, that she had black knights following her scaring the weakhearted away from their group. The black knights were a dead give away to her identity.

"Your majesty," I bowed to her, giving her the appearance of someone who cared about her position. Everyone knew she stole hearts from those who disrespected her and I was not looking to be on that list. "To what do I owe this honor?"

"I have a job that needs to be handled quickly and quietly," she told me and I raised a brow at her words.

"My father is away from the ship at the moment, but he should return shortly. If you wish to discuss business with him it will have to be at another time," I told her.

"Oh, I've already made the necessary arrangments for the job to be done. But this person requested one thing that only you can provide me," she told me, her smirk turning into an evil grin as she moved closer.

"And what would that be?" I asked.

"You." She waved her hand and this purple smoke swirled around me moving me from the ship to the forest.

Storybrooke - Present

"Ah, so you decided to stay," I heard Graham say in the booth next to ours as Emma approached him.

"Observant. Important for a cop," she said with her cocoa in hand.

"That's good news for our tourist business, bad for our local signage," he joked and she gave him a look. "It's-it's a joke... because you ran over our sign..."

"Look, the cocoa was a nice gesture, and I am impressed that you guessed that I like cinnamon in my chocolate, 'cause most people don't, but I am not here to flirt, so, thank you, but no thank you." She set the mug on the table and pushed it to him.

"I didn't send it," Graham told her.

"We did," Henry said revealing we were there. Emma looked up at us surprised. "I like cinnamon, too."

"Don't you two have school?" she asked us.

"Duh, I'm ten and she's seventeen. Walk me." I laughed lightly. Well, no one can say the kid doesn't know what he wants. The three of us left Granny's and walked to the bus stop just down the road.

"So, what's the deal with you and your mom?" Emma asked him.

"It's not about us, it's about her curse. We have to break it. Luckily, I have a plan. Step one: identification. I call it, "Operation Cobra"." Henry told us grinning.

"Cobra? That has nothing to do with fairytales," Emma pointed out.

"Unless we're talking about Aladdin being here too," I chimed in and Emma gave me a look.

"That's why it's perfect! We're talking about all the fairytales, it's a codename. It'll throw the Queen off the trail," Henry explained.

"So, everyone here is a fairytale character, they just don't know it," Emma said trying to make sense of the crazy. If you ask me we should just play along until he grows out of the fairytale phase.

"That's the curse. Time's been frozen.. Until you got here," Henry explained. Emma was about to take a bite of her apple when Henry spoke up. "Hey! Where'd you get that?"

"Your mom," she told him and he took it from her.

"Don't eat that!" he threw the apple over his shoulder and Emma and I both watched it roll away.

"That just makes me sad," I mumbled.

"Okay... Um, uh, alright. What about their pasts?" Emma asked him.

"They don't know. It's a haze to them. Ask anyone anything and you'll see," Henry told her. "Claire, how long have you had that ring?" I looked down at the necklace around my neck and the ring that was on the chain.

"Nice try kid, my dad gave this to me when I was younger. Not everyone has a perfect memory you know," I joked with him. The truth was I couldn't remember when I got it only that it was given to me by someone important. I'd taken it off once while I slept, but I couldn't sleep that night at all. The next morning, when I put my necklace back on, I felt calm. Needless to say, necklace stayed on from that point forward.

"See? She remembers that" Emma pointed out.

"She's lying and I can tell because I know her. Give it time, you'll see," Henry told her while giving me a look for lying. Damn, the kid knows me better than I thought.

"So... for decades, people have been walking around, in a haze, not aging, with screwed up memories, stuck in a cursed town that kept them oblivious," Emma summed up.

"I knew you'd get it! That's why we need you, you're the only one who can stop her Curse," Henry added.

"Because I'm the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming?" She asked him.

"Yes! And right now, we have the advantage. My mom doesn't know that." Henry moved his backpack from his back to his front and unzipped it, reaching for whatever he was looking for. "I took out the end," he took out the pages from his book and handed them to Emma. "The part with you in it." Emma looked at the pages and I leaned over to see an illustration of a man placing a baby in a wardrobe, the name "Emma" clearly visible on the baby blanket. "See? Your mom is Snow White!"

"Kid," Emma sighed looking at the pages.

"I know the hero never believes at first, if they did, it wouldn't be a very good story. If you need proof, take them, read them. But whatever you do, don't let her see these pages. They're dangerous. If she finds out who you are... then it would be bad," Henry told her.

All too soon, we arrived at the school.

"I gotta go, but I'll find you later and we can get started. I knew you'd believe me!" Henry called to her as he walked backwards into the school.

"I never said I did!" Emma corrected him.

"Why else would you be here?" he asked before running off to the school.

"It's good to see his smile back," Mary Margaret, Henry's teacher, and his Snow White character, said smiling at Emma.

"I didn't do anything," Emma insisted and I rolled my eyes.

"You stayed," I reminded her. "My mom abandoned me and my dad when I was a baby. As angry as I am about her leaving us alone, if she showed up and wanted to be part of my life then I'd let her and I'd be happy she stuck around." She seemed to think about that for a moment.

"So.. does the Mayor know you're still here?" Mary Margaret asked her.

"Oh, she knows. What is her deal? She's not a great people person, how did she get elected?" Emma asked us and I shrugged my shoulders.

"She's been Mayor as long as I can remember. No one's ever been brave enough to run against her. She inspires quite a bit of.. well, fear. I'm afraid I only made that worse by giving Henry that book and now he thinks she's the Evil Queen," Mary Margaret said with a sad smile on his face.

"Who does he think you two are?" Emma asked and the brunette scoffed.

"It's silly."

"And his fantasy world. Not really worth mentioning," I said.

"I just got five minutes of silly," Emma laughed. "Lay it on me."

"Catherine Jones. No idea who that is," I told her.

"And I'm Snow White." Emma looked slightly stunned at the brunette as the school bell rang. "Who does he think you are?"

"I'm not in the book," Emma said breathlessly. I looked down to hide my smile. "Can I ask you a favor? Regina mentioned the kid's in therapy; do you know where I can find the doctor?"

"Archie's the only psych doc in town," I told her.

School is such a bore! Who decided it was against the law to not attend school? Or blow it up? Something so I wouldn't have to go anymore. I'm willing to accept Henry's fantasy world and go wherever it is I'm supposedly from because, hey, no school!

"Claire!" I turned my head and saw Henry and Mary Margaret walking to me. Well, this was odd.

"Hey, ready to go home?" I asked him.

"We have something we have to do first," he told me with a smile on his face.

"This have something to do with Operation Cobra?" I asked him.

"Sort of."

To say I was surprised to see us at the police station would have been a HUGE understatement. How did this have anything to do with him convincing Emma she was a fairytale character's kid?"

"Well, she's the Mayor. She has her hands in everything," I heard Graham say when as we rounded the corner.

"Including the police force?" I heard Emma ask and I shook my head. This didn't have anything to do with Operations Cobra, but everything to do with Henry wanting his bio mom around.

"HEY!" Henry shouted once he saw Emma.

"Henry! Henry, what are you doing here?" Graham asked him while giving me a look.

"Don't look at me. I didn't even know we were coming here," I told him raising my hands in surrender.

"His mother told him what happened," Mary Margaret told him.

"Of course she did!" Emma said before looking at Henry. "Henry, I don't know what she said-"

"You're a genius!" Henry interrupted her and she looked at him confused.

"What?"

"I know what you were up to." Emma still looked at him confused by his words. "You were gathering intel. For "Operation Cobra"," he nearly whispered the last part to her and I shrugged when she looked up at me.

"I'm sorry, I'm a bit lost," Graham told us.

"It's need to know, Sheriff, and all you need to know is that Miss Blanchard's gonna bail her out," Henry told him.

"You are? Why?" Emma asked her confused.

"I-uh—trust you.," Mary Margaret told her seeming confused by her words.

"Well. If you could uncuff me..." Emma said extending her cuffed wrists to Graham. "...I have something to do."

I sat at the dining room table at Henry's house working on my homework as he did the same next to me. Another reason to like Henry's theory about this all being a curse. Homework. Maybe I should make a list of the pros and cons if his fantasy world vs reality.

"What do you think Emma had to do?" Henry asked me, pulling me from my Science assignment.

"Well, she was in jail for a small part of the day. Shower maybe?" I offered and he just gave me a look. "Hey, that place does not look clean. It'd be the first thing I do.

"Do you think she'd go after my mom?" I looked into his innocent eyes and sighed.

"I think in order to protect you they'll both do things they might look back on and laugh in the years to come, but right now Emma's angry and your mom is scared she'll lose you. Especially with all this talk of a curse and her being the Evil Queen," I told him. "Besides you know what they say, revenge is a dish best served cold."

The Enchanted Forest - Past

I wandered around the forest I was in for a couple hours before yelling and hitting a tree hard enough to hurt my hand. I held my hand close to my chest and groaned in pain and frustration before sitting on the ground.

"You can't just leave me here, you bitch!" I screamed into the air. "I'll find my way back to my father and when I do we'll be coming back for you!"

"Who are you yelling at?" I quickly stood and stared at the woman staring at me. Her outfit was simple: white blouse, red skirt, red gloves, black corset with gold and red flower designs on it, and a red cape with a hood.

"What's it to you?" I asked her.

"Well, seeing as how you're obviously lost, I could help you. If you answer my question,"

"The Evil Queen," I told her after a moment.

"You're enemies with the Queen?" she asked me.

"I wasn't before a few hours ago. Now? I want her head on a pike," I told her.

"My name's Red and I think I know someone who can help you get back to where you're from."

I stared up at the grand castle and scoffed.

"Yeah, me and royals don't get along very well, Red," I told her.

"Don't worry, Snow and Charming will be able to help you. No matter what your background is," Red assured me.

"Snow and Charming? Interesting names," I mumbled.

"You haven't heard about Snow White and her husband banishing the Evil Queen from our lands?" she asked me.

"Heard the tale. Didn't really care because it didn't have anything to do with me and mine," I told.

"I would think that the Evil Queen being banished was a good thing for everyone," she commented.

"She never bothered us before doing this to me. I don't even know why she did this," I said to no one in particular.

"She didn't say why she was doing this?" Red as confused.

"I'm part of a deal she made to ensure a job was done," I answered looking around the castle courtyard we'd just entered. This was the closest I'd been to actually being invited to these places before. Normally, if we came across a castle while on the ship, we'd sneak in and take what we wanted.

"Do you know with whom?" she asked me curiously.

"I can only think of one person who'd want to hurt me or my father, but according to the rumors I've heard you have the Dark One all locked away," I said. I wanted the answer to this rumor. If he was locked away then I knew who'd be getting a visit next.

"Rumplestiltskin? He's locked away in the dungeon below Snow and Charming's castle," she told me and I smirked. If it was going to be this easy to get answers from these people then I might have to stick around and just send letters to my father. "Why would he want to hurt you and your family?"

"It's just me and my father, and you know what they say. The best revenge is served cold," I told her. "This King and Queen..."

"Prince and Princess," she corrected me and I gave her a look.

"Seriously?" I asked her. "They rule a kingdom and they haven't been crowned King and Queen yet?"

"Well when they got married they were threatened by the Evil Queen," Red explained. "Things have taken a bit of a turn in what we all thought would happen once she was gone."

"Even my father and I heard about the curse," I said thoughtfully. "What is this curse supposed to do exactly?"

"According to Rumplestiltskin, it's going to trap us all and take away all the happy endings we've worked so hard to get."

"Not all of us have that happy ending," I corrected her.

"What would your happy ending be?" she asked me and I stopped walking as a brief memory flashed before my eyes. A boy laughing as his family danced around him.

"Going home." Red placed her hand on my arm gently.

"Don't worry. We'll help you get home," she told me offering me a smile before I followed her into the castle.

Storybrooke - Present

"So... what do you want to do before your dinner with your mom?" I asked Henry. It was Thursday which meant I'd be dropping Henry off with his mom at 5 so they could go to dinner before he met with Archie.

"We could try and get you to remember your past in the Enchanted Forest," he told me grinning and I just gave him a look.

"As fun as that world sounds, from the looks of it I'm not even in the book," I said.

"I just have to find you, that's all," I sighed at his insistence.

"Or we can just say I'm not in the book, but I know you won't do that so..."

"You're right, I won't. But I've looked through this book so many times and I just can't find you. I've looked everywhere," he told me.

"Maybe my story isn't ready to be told yet," I said and he thought about it for a moment.

"Maybe... but then why are you here?" he asked me.

"Well in the book it said the Queen made one last deal before she enacted her curse. Maybe my character was part of that deal?" I suggested.

"Brilliant! In order to succeed with her curse, she'd have to make a deal with the person they call 'The Dark One' so she could find out how her curse had gone wrong," he explained the story to me and I nodded next to him.

"Do you know who this Dark One is supposed to be?" I asked him curiously before sitting at one of the dining room chairs out front at Granny's.

"Not yet, but I will," he told me confidently making me chuckle at him.

"You do that." I leaned back in my chair and stared at the table for a time.

"Claire? You okay?" he asked me and I smiled at him.

"Yeah, come on. Let's go find something to do for the next hour." We walked side by side down the road finding something to do as we waited for me to take Henry to Regina.

Henry and I were walking up the stairs to Regina's office when I heard voices talking from the cracked door. I put my finger to my mouth to silence Henry as we quietly moved closer to hear what was being said.

"You think he's troubled?" I heard Regina ask.

"Well, he's in therapy, and I only got through a couple pages of his shrink's notes before you had me arrested," I heard Emma remind her. "But putting all that aside—he thinks everyone in this town is a fairytale character."

"And you don't?" Regina asked her. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. Regina knew we were coming here and was being careful with her words giving Emma just enough rope to hang herself with.

"How can I? The poor kid can't even tell the difference between fantasy and reality and it's only getting worse. It's crazy," Emma said and I sighed while shaking my head at her words.

"You think I'm crazy?" Henry asked from the doorway. Emma quickly turned to look at the two of us in the doorway.

"Henry..." he quickly ran out of the office from all of us.

"Good going you two," I said harshly before rushing out to find him. "Henry!" I ran after him to his castle and sighed when I saw him staring into the dirt. I moved to him and sat down. "You should try out for track in high school, you've got quite the run," I tried joking with him, but he wouldn't say anything to me. "Henry, you don't know if what Emma said was true."

"She thinks I'm crazy," he whispered.

"Maybe she was just telling your mom what she wanted to hear," I offered. When he didn't say anything I ran my hands through my long hair. "Come on, let's go get something to eat then I'll take you to Archie." I jumped off the small ledge and helped him down before we walked to Granny's.

Enchanted Forest - Past

I stood in front of the Prince and his, very pregnant, Princess as Red told them what little she knew about me.

"The Evil Queen took her from her family as a price for some deal made with the Dark One. I thought we could help her back home."

"If the Queen went to Rumplestiltskin and made a deal it can only mean one thing," The Prince said looking at his wife.

"Her curse is coming," the Princess placed a protective hand on her extended abdomen.

"We've prepared for this for a year," Red reminded the couple. "We're ready."

"No one's really ready for a curse," I said offhandedly drawing their eyes to me. "No one's ready to be ripped away from their families. The home's they've broken their backs to build and defend. You went to war with King George and the Evil Queen to reclaim your homes and you think your people are prepared to lose theirs? Are you fools?"

"Catherine!" Red warned with her look and voice, but my eyes were only for the Prince and Princess.

"It's fine, Red," the Princess told her. "She's right. No one's ready to lose what they have."

"But Emma will be able to break the curse. We have to have faith in her," the Prince reminded her taking her hands in his.

"Who's Emma?" I asked curiously. The couple shared another look and I looked at the Princess' womb. "I see. And how will a babe defend us from a curse?"

"Why is it you want to know?" the Prince asked.

"If I'm to be sucked up in this curse then I should know how I'm going to be saved," I told him. "This curse is being put on us all because of the Queen need for revenge on you, not us. You're not the only ones with love being ripped away from them."

"Your father."

"Among others."

"The Dark One gave us a prediction that our child will be the one to break the curse. Before it happens Snow and our daughter will be going through a wardrobe to safety."

"So while your wife sits in safety the rest of us will suffer. How wonderful," I said with a sarcastic smile.

"I will send Emma to save everyone when the time is right," Snow told me. "When she is ready, we will wake everyone."

Storybrooke - Present

I sat at my desk staring outside with my homework open in front of me. Henry was at his appointment with Archie and would be picked up by Regina. I heard a knocking on my door and stood up to answer it. When I opened it I saw my dad on the other side.

"Hey, dad," I greeted going back to my homework.

"How was your day?" he asked me sitting on my bed.

"It was okay," I shrugged my shoulders.

"Everything alright, dear?"

"Henry walked in on Regina and Emma talking about him. Regina chose her words carefully and made sure Henry heard her say he thought he was crazy for believing everyone in town was a fairytale character," I explained.

"Everyone?" he asked.

"Yea," I laughed. "You, me, his mom, everyone."

"Does he know who we all are?" he asked me and I shook my head.

"He's still working that out, but he's an imaginative kid so he'll link us all to a fairytale character from his book eventually. Well, everyone except Emma."

"You truly love the boy, don't you?"

"Of course I do. How can I not?" I asked him. He just watched me for a moment before standing up and moving to me. He placed his hand on my cheek and kissed the top of my head.

"Get your homework done, dear. I'll be home later." He walked out of my room and left me alone in my room and my thoughts.

The Enchanted Forest - Past

I watched the purple smoke come closer to the castle and took a deep breath. I pulled out my sword when I saw the men coming with the Queen's carriage behind them and went to join the others in protecting the unborn princess.

"You sure you're ready for this?" I asked Red when I found her.

"You were right, I'm not ready to lose everything to her," Red told me.

"At least you have your family with you. I lost my father and now I'm losing all of my memories of the only two people I've ever loved," I sighed as the Queen's men appeared.

"We can at least take out as many of these creeps as possible before the curse hits us," she told me and I grinned.

"From the mouths of babes." I attacked with her at my side killing as many as we could before we were swept up in the curse.

Neverland - Past

I stood on the beach looking out into the ocean and my father's ship. I sensed a presence behind me before arms wrapped around my waist. I smiled and ran my hands down his arms while leaning back into his chest."What are you doing here?" I asked him.

"It's my island, shouldn't I be asking you that?" he asked me with a smirk on his face.

"My father said we're leaving at sunrise to go back to the Enchanted Forest. Get our revenge on the crocodile," I told him before turning to him and looking into his green eyes.

"Don't leave, stay here with me."

"The Dark One killed my mother and trapped you here. He has to pay," I told him.

"And he will, I swear. Stay with me. Don't leave me alone here," he begged and I smiled at him.

"But you're not alone," I reminded him. "You have the Lost Boys."

"They aren't you." I smiled at him before kissing him gently.

"I have to do this," I said again. "I have to kill the Dark One for my parents. For you."

"No one can kill the Dark One, Catherine!" he shouted, his anger getting the best of him.

"Peter..."

"He will kill you just for trying to go after him. I lost my parents to that monster. Don't make me lose you too," he wrapped his hands around my upper arms, trying to make me see his point.

"I'll be okay," I told him smiling. "I promise."

"You can't guarantee that with him," he told me. "Look at what he did to your mother just for choosing your father over him."

"I'll come back once this is all over, you'll see." I kissed him and he pulled me closer to him.

"You'll always be welcome in Neverland," he kissed me again and I smiled up at him when we parted.

"I'll see you once this is done." I went back to the rowboat and took myself back to the Jolly Rodger.