Author's Note: Hello! I have finally decided to put all of my "miscellaneous" Once Upon a Downton crossover drabbles in one place, to make things more organized and easier to find. Each "chapter" will contain different pairings and stories, but I'll try to keep things as organized as I can. Hope you enjoy!
"So…just where exactly is this…Storybrooke?" the girl—Edith—asked suddenly. She blinked at him, her hazel eyes wide as she waited for August's response, and he realizeD that her eyes were streaked with tears. Poor kid really doesn't have a clue where she is. No wonder she looked at him as if he and his motorcycle were about to eat her alive. The bike had been abandoned in the woods where he'd found her, standing sentinel until he came to reclaim it again. He'd offered to give her a lift into town on it—God knows it would have been quicker—but she'd looked so frightened that he'd finally given in and agreed to walk. Thankfully, they weren't too far from town at this point—August didn't even want to know how bad it would be if he'd found her deeper into the woods.
"Judging from your accent—" something in the girl's tone told August she was judging a lot more than just his accent—"I take it…we're somewhere in America? That is, assuming this isn't some sort of a hallucination. Or a dream. But your accent…am I wrong in assuming that this, whether it is real or not, is America?"
"You're right, although I can't make any promises about the whole hallucination thing. We're in Maine."
"Maine," Edith repeated. A little crinkle had formed between her eyebrows, as if she were concentrating on a map of the United States in her mind. "That's…north of New York?"
"Sweetheart, we're basically as far north as you can get without stepping into Canada."
"I hardly think we know each other well enough for you to call me sweetheart," she bristled in response.
"Apologies. So, Edith, do you believe in fairytales?"
She stared at him, picking up her hem to keep it out of reach of the forest floor. "What sort of a question is that?"
"Humor me."
"You certainly are pushy, for someone in a dream. I don't even think Alice in Wonderland had these sort of problems."
He bit back a chuckle. This girl was a handful, but he couldn't deny she was entertaining.
A twig snapped somewhere behind them, but he ignored it.
"What kind of a town is Storybrooke?" Edith asked, ignoring his previous question.
"What do you care? You think you're dreaming anyway."
"It can hardly hurt to be prepared."
"Fair point. I haven't been in Storybrooke long myself, but from what I can tell, it's a nice enough town. Small. Quiet. Not without it's fair share of drama, though. Don't get on the bad side of the wrong people, or you'll regret it. And…well…"
"What?"
"Remember how I asked you if you believed in fairytales?"
"Yes, of course."
"If you think you don't, you might want to re-evaluate that. Just some advice."
"Whyever would you tell me that?"
"Because for all intents and purposes, sweetheart, you're in a fairytale now."