( continues...) do.

After the game, home win, lots of high fives and hugging and cheering later, Dean waves at a lean, scruffy boy his own height and jogs over to his family.

"Good work out there, son. What you've learned shows a lot of promise."

"It was cool, " Sammy admits, abashed. The whole spectacle had him riveted, and once it was established he couldn't get Dean into a skirt, the teasing dropped off dramatically.

The scruffy boy runs over and it's easier to tell he's the winning QB. He plants a wet smack of a kiss on Dean's cheek and slings a happy carefree arm around his shoulders.

"Hi, I'm Castiel..." he starts, pulled up short by the incisive stare of the elder Winchester.

"Uh, about under the the radar thing, Dad, Sir, I think we are still kind of okay?" Dean volunteers.

"It's true John—if the most talented cheerleader didn't date the quarterback, something would be up." burred Bobby.

Sam is agape at how he'd been played for something way more important than teasing about skirts and John is clearly rehearsing his "There are going to have to be RULES. SO MANY RULES." for the drive home.

"Nice to meet you, Castiel." John knows exactly how much pressure to apply to stop just short of intense discomfort, and Castiel doesn't blink an eyelid. Well, at least he's got that going for him, John mutters to himself.

It's Already Here

Chapter 1.

Emma stamped her feet and wrapped her arms around herself, pacing nervously to keep her toes from going numb. The storm keeping the Snow Palace in place sent wind and ice howling through the woods and down through Storybrooke. The walls of Zelena's barn kept the worst of the wind out, but the chill swept through the cracks and right on through gloves and boots and coat.

Or at least through mine, Emma thought as she glanced at the barn's other occupant. "Any progress?"

"Slightly more than the last time you asked," said Regina, pacing a slow circle around the edge of the portal design on the floor, and seemingly oblivious to the biting cold. "And as I told you then - "

"It'll go faster if I stop interrupting you, I know. I just - Nnngh!" The foot-stamping seemed to be less and less effective. "Do you have magical heaters in those boots, or something?"

Regina rolled her eyes, before focussing on the perimeter of the portal again. "This is a very delicate reconfiguration of the design. Any extraneous magical energy could cause a dangerous and unpredictable reaction." She shot Emma a sharp warning glance.

"So, I shouldn't try that either. Gotcha." She hadn't been seriously considering it, anyway. Regina didn't respond, bending over to carefully burn a rune into the floor of the barn, just outside the existing pattern. It flickered with purple light for a moment, then faded to a carved hole in the stone. She ignored Emma's hopeful look, and slowly continued around.

If she's not using magic, she's got to be as cold as I am, but look at her. The (continued...)

( continues...) days Regina could make her feel lesser with a glance were long gone, but seeing her like this, seemingly as untouched by the cold as the Snow Queen, Emma still felt vaguely intimidated. Maybe Mom wasn't totally wrong.....

• ****

"...I guess I just assumed Hook would be going with you." Snow was fiddling with the ties on a rough-looking backpack, not meeting Emma's eyes.

Emma shrugged. "I was too, until I actually mentioned it, and he pointed out that having a former pirate captain along - excuse me, infamous pirate captain", Snow snorted at her imitation of Hook's offended tone, "is a bad idea when you're trying to book passage."

The two of them were in Snow's room, waiting for David to return. He'd insisted on escorting Henry from school to the apartment, and Henry had insisted they pick up Regina from the pawn shop along the way. There'd been a brief glaring match last night, which mostly made Snow and Emma snicker at the family resemblance, but David had given in without much argument. Emma thought he'd realized the same thing she had, that Henry wanted a chance to say goodbye to both his mothers.

"I know you've worked together before, but ", Snow broke off and gave Emma a pleading look, " you understand I can't be happy about the two of you going off together?" Emma considered pointing out that made it sound like she and Regina were sneaking out to the junkyard to smoke and get drunk, not heading off on a genuine quest to save Storybrooke, but the look on Snow's face made her pause and try a different tack.

"Well, " she counted off a finger, "Either her or Rumpel has to stay and maintain the shield, or the town will freeze over completely. If rumors of what happened between him and Elsa have reached Arendelle, they might throw us out on sight, or worse. Even if they haven't, his reputation would still do more harm than good."

( continues...)

Snow sighed. "So we can't send him with you instead, yes." Emma nodded and counted off a second finger.

"We need someone with magic, since we don't know what we're going to find in Arendelle. I've got magic, but I'm still pretty new to using it. The fairies don't want to risk returning, and maybe losing their human forms if they cast a spell, and everyone else with magic is unreliable at best." A third finger.

"It needs to be someone who can project some kind of authority. You and Abigail are out, since she's pretty sure the Council will fall apart without both of you here. David doesn't think he has the reputation we need, and George is, well....."

Snow snorted. "Not the sort who works well with others." She sighed, then looked at Emma thoughtfully. "You've really thought this through, haven't you?"

"Er...." A familiar feeling of being caught out settled into her stomach. "Actually, I had this exact conversation with Regina a couple days ago, except I was...." She pointed to where Snow was sitting.

"Oh."

"We had that shouting match last week - about Robin, of course - so when Henry said she wanted to come along, I thought...I don't know." Emma shrugged. "That she was up to something anyway. But she really sold it."

"Oh". Snow contemplated that for an excruciatingly long moment, then shrugged. "Well, in any case, " she lifted the pack off the floor and offered it to Emma, "I got a few things ready for you."

( continues...) "Uh....Thanks." Emma winced. Being taken care of was still something that threw her, no matter who it came from. She grabbed the pack awkwardly and poked through it. "So this is...."

"Just some things I found useful when I was...on my own in the Enchanted Forest. Extra canteens, rope,..."

"And a grappling hook?" Emma studied it dubiously.

"I found it very useful, " Snow said primly. "You never know when you're going to need to make an unexpected entrance."

"I guess." Emma shrugged and buckled the pack closed. "Hopefully, all we need to do is head up to Arendelle and convince this sister Rumpel mentioned to come get Elsa off our backs-" She broke off at Snow's look. "I know, right? When has anything gone that easy for us?"

"Even if you get there OK, there's no guarantee she'll just agree to come with you. If she's been ruling there for the past thirty years or more...."

"Well, hopefully Regina has some-" the noise of the door opening and voices in the main room cut her off. "And, speak of the devil and she shows up with the guys."

David was just shutting the front door as they came out, and he smiled at Emma before walking over to Snow like he'd been away weeks. "Hey."

"Hey."

( continues...) Emma rolled her eyes at them before reaching out to ruffle Henry's hair, "Hey,"(he snorted and gave her a one-armed hug) and look at Regina. "How'd it go?"

Regina sighed, and spared a moment to scowl at Snow, David, and the slush tracked across the floor. "Assuming this information is accurate, I should be able to modify the portal the way we need. I suggest we get started right away, we should have enough time before sundown. Henry?"

"Oh yeah. Check it out!" Emma blinked as she realized he was brandishing a sheathed sword in his other hand. "Rumpel said to give it to you to help out."

Emma eyed it dubiously. "'Give'?"

"Henry?" Regina's voice had the you're-being-a-slow-pupil tone Emma had come to hate over the past year. "When dealing with Rumpelstiltskin-"

"I know, I know." He held up his hands defensively. "You have to pay attention to his exact words. Which were," he turned to Emma and recited carefully, "I'm lending this to her so she can protect my investment." He paused and added, "And then Belle rolled her eyes at him for putting it that way."

"Huh." Emma studied the sword as Henry handed it over. It seemed to be a straight, one-handed blade with a hand-guard on the hilt. The sheath was plain black leather, with a short set of runes on one side. She felt a faint tingle in her fingers. "Is it....."

Henry frowned. "He said it was called...Tsau...um....," he gave Regina a pleading look.

( continues...)

"Zauberflotte. It means "Flute of Magic."

"A flute?" Emma drew the sword a foot or so and peered at it. "It looks like it's just-"

An exaggerated sigh interrupted her. "It's a metaphor, Miss Swan. The blade is enchanted so the wielder can cast spells like it's a wand."

"Hah!" She sheathed the sword and looked at Regina. "So once we're through the portal..."

"You can use that to cast the return spell, yes. Now are you ready to go, Miss Swan? Miss Swan!"

• ****

Emma blinked and stared at Regina, who was staring at her from much too short a distance. "Uh, what?"

"I said, the portal is ready. If you've quite done daydreaming...."

"I wasn't - never mind." She strode over to the portal and peered at it dubiously. "So, no more time travel?"

"It seems to be reacting to the extra runes the way we expected, so," Regina nodded as she came up next to Emma. "We'll arrive on the other side within a few minutes of the time we enter the portal here. The time-warp effect has been modified to cause a sort of 'time differential'. Spending a day over there should (continued...)

( continues...) only cause an hour or so to pass here."

"So we can spend as much time as we need to, and not worry about folks here freezing to death." Emma thought for a moment about what effect a stable portal back to the Enchanted Forest might have on the town, then shrugged and hefted her pack. "You ready?"

Regina gave her a dry look as she raised her hands. "I wasn't the one complaining about the cold, but yes. Shall we be off?" Dark tendrils of magic began curling through the portal design. The air took on the familiar tension of a gate about to open.

Emma nodded and braced herself. "Go for it. And hang onto your hat, if it's anything like last-"

A hole in the air opened with a CRACK and sucked them both through before she could finish.

TBC

Intriguing, chris. Looking forward to more.

Thanks!