Prologue: The Arrival

The Doctor had many places to go and many people to see before his imminent death on the shores of Lake Silencio, Utah. After a brief trip through the Ood Sphere, the Doctor was looking forward to seeing his old friend Craig Owens and then finally be reunited with the Ponds in Utah. Setting the TARDIS coordinates for Colchester, England for the year 2011, the Doctor was ready to say one last goodbye to Craig and then leave as soon as possible, not wanting to waste any valuable time that could be spent on visiting other places and times. Once the Doctor and the TARDIS arrived at the primary destination, the Doctor moved away from the controls and headed to the doors, immediately stepping out through them.

Of course, the location that the Doctor arrived in was not quite what he expected. Where he expected to be was outside Craig Owens's flat where he was just a year ago when he was Craig's lodger; instead, he found himself in a small American town (presumably in Maine). The TARDIS had emerged perfectly on a street corner, just the perfect, unsuspecting place for a police box – its exterior disguise – to be. He had arrived in this little town in the morning, judging from the clear sunny sky. The arrival left the Doctor scratching his head in great confusion; he could have sworn that the readout said Colchester, England on April 18th, 2011.

As the Doctor looked over the street corner that he emerged in, he spotted a place called "Granny's Diner" just across the street. This sounded like the perfect place to get answers, as strange as that sounded to the Doctor. After locking the door to the TARDIS, the Doctor dashed his away across the street and stepped inside of the diner, the bell just above the entrance ringing as he opened the door. Hardly anyone was inside of the diner with the notable exception of a ten-year-old boy who was having a bowl of cereal at the time.

"Welcome, stranger." The Doctor heard and saw the person behind the voice that had addressed him almost immediately; he swallowed hard when he realized it was an attractive teenage brunette wearing extremely provocative clothing. At first glance, the Doctor would not have suspected that she was a waitress. "Can I help you with anything?" She asked this question whilst standing very close to the Doctor, almost looking as if she was trying to lip lock with him.

Nervously adjusting his bowtie, the Doctor stammered a response. "I…um…I'll take the, uh…I'll just have some tea, thank you."

The brunette, whose name was Ruby (according to her nametag), smiled at him as she turned away, her body brushing up against the Doctor's, making him even more nervous. While Ruby went to the counter to get the tea prepared, the Doctor realized that he needed to focus on his task, which was finding out where he was and how he got there. Apparently, the only person who could have provided the answers he was looking for was the little boy sitting to the left of the diner; he seemed to be the most intelligent person in the room…that and Ruby made the Doctor uncomfortable already.

The Doctor quickly moved to the booth that the boy was sitting in and sat right in front of him, wasting no time in speaking out his inquiries. "Alright, little boy, I'm going to ask you two questions. One of these questions will seem very strange to you, but I promise that I'm not a madman or a creepy stranger or anything like that. I'm just a very lost and very concerned gentleman."

Smiling, the boy remarked, "It's okay. This place is full of strange and creepy. Gimme your best shot."

The Doctor gave a confident nod. "Alright. First question: where I am?"

"You're in Storybrooke. A town full of generally nice people, except for Mr. Gold and my mother, the mayor."

"Right. Excellent. That's one question down and one more to go. Now then, second question: is the date April 18th, 2011?"

The Doctor's question did in fact puzzle the boy, but he managed to give a direct answer. Shaking his head, he answered, "No…the date is January 14th, 2012."

Moving his fingers through his long dark hair with a hint of frustration, the Doctor mumbled to himself, "Arrived eight months and three days after the time of your death. Brilliant."

"I'm sorry if it's not the answer you were looking for, sir." The boy sincerely said.

"Oh, no. It's not your fault." The Doctor clarified. "It's merely a fault in the dimensions of time and space, possibly some sort of rift. I should check in with Jack on that one."

"I think I know what you're talking about." The boy stated. "See, I've been trying to tell the people in this town that they're not really in Storybrooke. This is all part of a curse that the Evil Queen put on everyone. Everyone here used to be fairy tale characters, but they don't know it because of the curse."

Listening to the boy, the Doctor gazed upon him with a questioning look.

The boy, of course, had recognized that particular look and sighed in disappointment. "You don't believe me, do you?"

The Doctor quickly shook his head negatively. "No, no, no. I believe every word you've just told me. In fact, it could be the reason why I'm here. This…curse, as you've intelligently described it."

As the Doctor pondered over the boy's story, Ruby approached the booth with the tea that the Doctor ordered, setting it down gently in front of him. The Doctor tried not to let his eyes connect with hers, but they unfortunately did, leaving himself open to receive a seductive wink from the flirty waitress. After she walked away from the booth, the boy smiled and whispered to the Doctor, "She's Little Red Riding Hood."

"Of course she is," said a somewhat mesmerized Doctor, still staring over Ruby before refocusing on the boy. "And which fairy tale character are you, if I may ask?"

"I'm not any of them. I'm just Henry."

The Doctor smiled, extending his hand out to the boy. "Well, it's a pleasure meeting you, Henry." Henry accepted the Doctor's handshake. "You've been such a marvelous help to me that I'll try and help you with your problem."

"You will?" Henry excitedly exclaimed.

"Sure. Why not? There's nowhere else I have to be now…except for this nice lake in Utah, but that's in the past…for now."

The bell above the entrance dinged again as another customer entered; this one was a young blonde wearing a red leather jacket and a sheriff's badge clipped to her blue jeans. The blonde walked right up to the booth that the Doctor and Henry were sitting in and said to Henry, "Mornin', kid. Got any 'Operation Cobra' assignments for me today?"

"I might just have a big one, thanks to my new friend here." Henry then gestured to the Doctor and introduced him to the blonde. "Emma, this is…uh…I'm sorry, sir, but I never got your name."

The Doctor stood up from the booth and extended his hand to Emma. "My friends call me 'The Doctor.'"

Emma was a bit lost on the name. "Doctor…what?"

"Just 'The Doctor.' I tend not to tell my actual name unless I really need to." He then spotted the badge clipped to Emma's waist and smiled. "Ah! A sheriff! Just the person we need to get to the bottom of Henry's little situation."

Emma slightly rolled her eyes with a grin. "Henry told you about the 'curse,' eh?"

"Indeed he did. And if there's anyone who knows about curses, it's me…The Doctor." Confidently, the Doctor took his cup of tea and took a large gulp of it. However, he quickly spat the liquid back into the cup, much to the surprise and disgust of Emma and Henry. The Doctor then picked a three-inch strip of paper out from his mouth, which he soon realized was a phone number left in the tea. It did not take long for him to deduce that the number came from no other than Ruby, who he glanced over at the counter just as she smiled and waved at him. Nervously smiling back to her, the Doctor afterwards turned to Henry and Emma and whispered, "Let's get out of here, before she asks to meet me at my place."