Resolution Chapter 7
By the Winter Solstice the five people going to college outside of Storybrooke had returned, and the town had seven new residents. The new residents were friends of the returning college students. Like Lita they were student activists seeking sanctuary. Four of the seven came back with Nick Zimmer. The law student had driven them all the way from Madison, Wisconsin. One was his girlfriend Sarah and the other three were their friends Carl, Jana and Gian. Lita Williams' first Daily Mirror article was telling the stories of her fellow student refugees.
Nick Zimmer returned to Storybrooke the day after Davu. Like Davu he headed to the mayor's office, but he came armed with stacks of legal papers, prepared to have to argue the case for sanctuary.
"Madame Mayor?" Nick said politely as he led his friends in.
Regina glanced up from Henry's sweet handwritten note about Christmas dinner. This year the extended family would gather at Henry and Violet's house, instead of hers. He was assuring her they had everything ready, to just bring her lasagna and apple pie. Regina smiled about the note, then said to Nick "How can I help you?" The young man looked anxious and sleep deprived "Take a seat."
"It's not me, it's my friends." He looked back at the four people following him. They looked as anxious and sleep deprived as him.
Regina said gently, "Let's sit over there near the fire. Did you drive straight through?"
"Yeah." He scrubbed his hand across his face. "We switched off every few hours. I took the last ones, since I knew where the town was and had the pass."
Regina nodded. "I'm guessing your friends want sanctuary?"
Nick's eyes widened in surprise. "How did you know?"
"They're not the first; Davu brought someone back with him yesterday."
"So you'll grant it?" Nick said bluntly.
Regina nodded. "On the condition they know what this town is. Have you told them?"
"Nick told us that magic was real here, and some other stuff that sounded too crazy to believe, but it's Nick. He doesn't make up wild stories. Then when we got here, and the town sign just appeared out of nowhere..."
"Magic is real here. The 'crazy stuff' was it about the stories?" Regina prompted.
"Yeah, something about a spell that brought you here. That fairy tale characters are real, just from an alternative world. But the stories we know aren't quite what really happened, something like that. Said he was Hansel." Gian smiled. He knew Carl and Jana were very doubtful, even Sarah said it was difficult to believe. But he believed in alternate realities. He read theories speculating that stories, especially fantasy and science-fiction, were real people's stories in alternate universes. And that the stories of other realities were where they came in close contact. This could prove the theories might be true.
"He was Hansel." Regina replied. Nick had come a long way from the twelve year old boy who had attempted to shoplift snacks from a convenience store. Emma had reunited Nick and his sister Ava with their father. Their father, Michael Tilman, wasn't like the version in this world's fairy tale books. There was no stepmother. Their late mother, Dory Zimmer, who died a few years before the curse, was actually the only good parent. Their father had virtually abandoned them in the Enchanted Forest. When they came over with the curse, it interpreted that as a full abandonment, even listing their father as unknown on their birth certificates and giving them their mother's surname. Michael Tilman wasn't any better a father to them in Storybrooke. Emma kept up with their situation and eventually Stroybrooke's child protective services placed them with foster parents. Their father kept a haphazard contact with them. Luckily their foster parents gave them the stable home they hadn't had before. Ava became a school teacher and Nick was almost done with law school. Their generation was the first one in Storybrooke where their degrees were real not created by the curse. If they end up lacking a semester and an officially administered exam before they started working, no one in Storybrooke could really judge them. Regina thought. If anyone did, she'd remind the complainer how they'd come by their degrees.
"Who were you?" Sarah asked.
Regina looked surprised, "You didn't tell them?"
"No. You haven't been her for many years. And I know the story of how you were broken into becoming that person. No harm telling them I was Hansel, other than Carl asked if I wore lederhosen." Nick rolled his eyes.
Regina smiled briefly, but then sighed. "You'd hear it soon anyway. In the Enchanted Forest they called me 'the Evil Queen'."
"Like in Snow White?"
Regina grimaced "Yes."
"Nick just said you were broken into becoming the Evil Queen. What happened?" Sarah asked.
"It's difficult to speak of. I've had many years of therapy."
"I'm sorry, didn't mean to pry. I'm one semester from getting my doctorate in psychology."
"Archie will be glad to have help. He's the town therapist and was Jimny Cricket in the Enchanted Forest."
"Is he a-"
"Cricket, no. Everyone has a human form. We only have a few people who this world would call shape shifters."
"Still seems weird, but Nick said we'd be safe here." Jana replied. "Any openings for high school History teachers? I have my Masters; I finished up a semester early. I've been a teacher for five years in the Madison schools. I'm the old lady of this crew, I'm thirty. But my school's principal was pressuring me to stop my online activism and going to marches, even though I didn't do anything at school. I'm afraid they'd come up with something to fire me because of my politics."
"We do have one history teacher retiring at the end of this school year. Perhaps you could do teacher assistant work until then? Applying for jobs here is pretty old school. Go to the school office and fill out the forms. My son's an English teacher in the school."
"Yeah and my sister Ava is the drama teacher." Nick added.
"You'll go through a vetting process with three teachers and one administrator. If you've been teaching already you shouldn't have any problem."
By the beginning of March the new residents and returning students had settled in. Lita had sparked increased circulation and page hits for the Daily Mirror with her weekly profiles of Storybrooke citizens and sharp political reporting. Regina also helped Lita get a science lab set up, in exchange for regular reports on progress on her experiments, and reviewing access to any successful prototypes. Jana had passed the vetting process and was guaranteed the history teacher position when the next school year started. Nick was now Storybrooke's new defense lawyer. Sarah was assisting Archie. Carl, who although he was just a semester away from a degree in chemical engineering, expressed a strong desire to be a firefighter. He passed the physical exam and was now a firefighter. Davu was Regina's new Civil Engineer, assisting her on evaluating and designing building projects. Regina was worried her nephew Matthew might resent her hiring his ex-boyfriend. Matthew and Davu, though, had reached the point where they could be friends again. Plus Matthew had had a new boyfriend, Nick's friend Gian. Gian's utter fascination with this town, "a theory come to life" apparently was quite endearing to Matthew. Gian was helping Belle out in the Library.
Regina had spoken with the Dragon again this week.
"I think Gold will be making his big move soon. I can feel it." Regina grimaced
"Yes, we've felt him make small draws on the ley lines. We think he is testing to make sure he has connections to many of them."
"So we need to be on alert status."
"Yes."
Because of the alert status and the fact Roland didn't mind, Regina and Robin held the birthday party for both Hope and Roland on Hope's birthday, which was two weeks before Roland's. Regina's gut feeling was Gold might strike before Roland's birthday. The extended family gathered at Regina and Robin's house to celebrate Hope's twelfth birthday and Roland's eighteenth.
"I don't want to offend the sensibilities of my son-in-law or Mr. Gold's other family here, but I disagree with ruling out not killing that menace. Surely some magical weapon exists that will free us from that madman." Hank Morgan said when the birthday meal was done.
Regina was surprised at his restraint, but perhaps he had taken the young children's presence into account, or maybe it was the occasion. "It's an option but would unleash the dark energy inside him into looking for a new host, if someone killed him they would become the new host. If someone puts him into a coma then the dark energy goes on a killing spree and finds a new host."
Hank Morgan blanched "My apologies. I didn't know this."
"We found out the later the hard way. You weren't here in Storybrooke when it happened."
"Was that how Henry's other mother was both the Dark One and the dark savior for a while?"
"Yes." Regina looked pained, a reminder of all the awful things that followed, including almost losing Robin forever.
"Then stopping rather than killing him is right, after all. Is there a way to imprison him so he will never get out?"
"There are a few possibilities we've planned for."
"I hope you succeed."
"We do too."
Matthew was watching Hope flying her kite. It had been a birthday gift from Roland. "You're using air magic on that aren't you?"
"Just a little. How could you tell?"
"Not enough breeze for how well it's flying."
"Oh."
"Plus you still have that green glow issue on your fingers." Matthew chuckled.
"Ugh, I've been trying to minimize that when it's just little stuff like this. It should only be visible to non-magical users if it's stronger."
"I'm sure you'll get better. " Matthew patted her on the back. "And don't be too sad that Susie doesn't like you the same way."
"Roland told you." Hope said with irritation.
"Maybe. But it doesn't matter who I heard it from. You remember I was with Davu for a while-"
"Yeah, now he's with that blogger." She said with disgust.
"Lita's a good person. She didn't break us up. They didn't even meet until he went to college."
"Yeah, it was that snob, Tomoe."
"Tomoe is kind of snobby." Matthew laughed. "Didn't see what Davu thought was so awesome about her. She wasn't even interested in him."
"She's pretty and popular; her parents were dukes or something in the Enchanted Forest." Hope shrugged.
"Yeah there's that clique she is part of, the kids of Enchanted Forest nobles. I could have been part of that clique, but I thought they were boring."
"Your sister says that too."
"Big part of why I dislike them is how they treated Berta. They were scared of her because she has magic, and your mom is her aunt. Unlike most people, they're stuck on how things were in the Enchanted Forest. Whatever your family was there is how they see you here. It's stupid. Here my mom's an art teacher and my biological father is a part time park ranger and my stepdad's a warehouse clerk. I'm a college student. I don't care that my parents and I were nobles back in the Enchanted Forest. What matters is here and now."
Hope nodded. "I don't want people to judge me by whom my birth mom was. And to me my dad's the head park ranger and my mom's the mayor, not Robin Hood and the " Hope looked irritated "evil queen."
"Do you think that's why Susie-"
"No. She just doesn't like girls that way, she likes boys that way." Hope looked sad. "I wish I hadn't told her I liked her that way. I want to still be friends with her, but she's avoiding me now because I told her."
"That sucks."
"It does."
"Maybe she'll stop feeling weird about it after a while and you can be friends again."
"I hope so. She was my best friend since we were in kindergarten."
"Oh wow, didn't realize you'd been friends that long."
"Yeah."
"It took a while for Davu and me to be friends after we broke up. I think he mostly likes girls. I'm the only guy he's been with."
"You're nice like my dad. Anybody that even likes guys a little would like you."
"Wasn't so nice for a while after Davu and I broke up. Was kind of an ass."
Hope shrugged. "You were upset because you and Davu broke up."
"But I'm not proud of acting like a jerk for a while."
"You got better, even at your worst you weren't anywhere near as bad as Phillip Junior."
Matthew laughed. "Is anyone?"
"Not that I've seen. He might be a kid of a royal couple, but even the snobs in my class don't like him."
"He doesn't get it, being an ass to everyone means having no friends. His little sister Briony is nothing like him."
Hope shrugged, "Everyone knows Phillip Junior is his dad and mom's favorite. Briony was a 'surprise'. Plus there's a rumor she has magic. Probably not much, but enough she makes her mom and dad nervous. They won't allow Rebecka to look at her to see. They're one of the few that prefer Doctor Whale."
"Poor kid. Some parents are still scared of magic, think it's always bad."
"Yeah, since that stuff about the blue fairy, some people who used to at least trust light fairy magic, don't trust any."
Matthew nodded.
"Mom told me she has a feeling Mr. Gold will be coming for Bae soon." Roland, Eimi and Douglas were walking down by the lake. He sometimes called Regina by her name, sometimes called her mom when he talked about her to others. The closer he felt to them the more often he called her mom. As Regina had accepted Eimi and Douglas as part of the family, he mostly called her mom to them, now.
"So that's why the early birthday party with your sister on her birthday?" Douglas asked.
"Yeah. She's trying not to show it but she's really tense about it. "
"So your dad's not just being 'lovey-dovey' with all that hand holding and cuddling your mom?" Eimi grinned.
Roland chuckled "Oh that's real, but yeah he's also trying to help her feel less tense. "
"Seems to be working, she's looking happy."
"For today. We've made it through the party and everyone will be going home soon. So we've had one more good day." Roland replied.
"You think we can hold Mr. Gold off if he comes to the school?" Douglas looked worried.
"Shh. not so loud, someone might tell mom and dad we're planning on protecting Bae and my sister from Mr. Gold. I don't know but I'm not going to just sit in class knowing he's there in the building, going to the room Grace and Bae are in. They're little kids, no way they could stand up to him."
"Your mom and dad don't want any of us trying to, not even us, even though we're not kids anymore." Eimi frowned.
"We're not going to provoke anything, just protect Bae and my sister." Roland said defensively. "I bet Hope and Neal are going to try that too, and they're barely older than Grace and Bae. Their classrooms closer than ours, so they'll get there before us, unless we can sneak out faster. At least we're not kids; we've got more training than they do."
"Yeah, we know Roland, I'm no fighter, Eimi's the best of us three, but we're in this together."
