The Accident Ch. 9

Finale Pt. 2


Fairy Gary followed Terence into the corridor. He found the boy leaning against the wall. Terence didn't look happy; instead, he looked like he had just committed a terrible sin. He slid down until he was sitting on the floor and started to cry.

"What's wrong, Lad?" Fairy Gary asked, very puzzled. "I thought you would be happy?"

"I am," Terence said. "Tink is awake and looks like she'll be just fine."

"Then why did you run out on her?"

"Because I gave up on her, Fairy Gary," Terence replied. "How can I claim to have loved her so much but still walk away from her like that? I'm a coward. I ran because it was easy."

"No, you're not," Fairy Gary said with a stern tone. "You had a crisis of confidence, that's all. It happens to the best of us, Lad. Don't sell yourself short, Terence. You did what you thought was best."

"No, I did what was best for me, not for her," Terence answered, still wallowing in his own failures.

"Terence, you were the only one who stayed by her side that entire first week." Fairy Gary reminded his charge. "We all thought she was going to die, so we gave up. Not you, you fought for her everyday and she lived. Now that's real love."

Terence didn't seem all too moved by Fairy Gary's little speech. The dust-keeping overseer decided on a different tactic to appeal to the boy.

"I overheard what you said in there," Gary started. "When Tinker Bell ruined the spring preparations she wanted to leave Pixie Hollow. What did you say to her that kept her here?"

"I convinced her that her talent was important and that she should be proud of it, like I was proud of mine," Terence replied.

"Did she need your help then?"

"Of course she did," Terence replied sharply.

"Has she needed your encouragement since?"

"Yeah, sure. Every time she works on the Pixie Dust Express, it doesn't work. She can get really down."

"You have to console her? Make her believe that it's worth pursuing?"

"Uh huh. Usually."

"Is that why you are by her side each time she tests a new version? Because you know she is going to need someone to pick up her spirits if she fails?"

Terence didn't reply instantly. He had to think about it for a while. "That never occurred to me."

"But Tinker Bell is them is the most talented tinker fairy in all of Pixie Hollow, isn't she?"

"Yeah, by a long shot."

"And she has a long list of inventions to her credit that have benefited us, doesn't she?"

"Sure. What are you getting at, Fairy Gary?"

"Well, its simple, my boy. If she is so great at what she does why does she need someone to give her encouragement?" Fairy Gary asked Terence directly. "Why does she take each failure so hard?"

Terence thought about it this for a while. "Well, a fairy's talent is her joy."

"Yes, but that is true of everyone here in Pixie Hollow," Fairy Gary said. "No one else gets as moody as Tinker Bell does when she fails. What makes her so different from the rest of us?"

Terence thought hard about this question. He knew Tinker Bell best, yet he couldn't come up with this simple answer.

"It's her talent level," Fairy Gary told him. "Every invention has to be a rousing success or it questions her ability as a tinker. I know because I've seen it before."

The young dust keeper looked at his mentor with a quizzical look on his face. "What do you mean? When? Who?"

"Me," Gary admitted. Fairy Gary explained that when he was new to Pixie Hollow he was the most talented Dust Keeper. Great things were expected of him by his direct supervisor and by Queen Clarion herself. He worked very hard to live up to these expectations and obsessed over every detail no matter how insignificant. It made him a great dust keeper in his day. However, there was a problem. Any mistake, no matter now tiny, was magnified a thousand times in his mind. If he was such a great dust keeping talent then why did he fail? Did that mean he could never live up to his potential? Was his talent glow a mistake? Was he not as good as he had been led to believe?

Failure, any failure, brought Gary crashing down into a deep depression for days or weeks at a time. It vexed his supervisor and worried the queen. Fortunately, he met someone who recognized the cause of his despairing mood and offered him help. A young tinker fairy named Mary was that person. She talked him through his lows and celebrated his highs. Soon they were watching out for each other, offering the other support and boosting the other's morale. Gary and Mary were often seen together at a favorite watering hole every week laughing and carrying on like old buddies. She helped him get through those early decades.

"Wait, you mean Fairy Mary? She helped you?"

"That's right! We picked each other up when the other needed it," Fairy Gary told him. "We've been close friends ever since."

"That's fascinating, Fairy Gary, but what does that have to do with Tink and me?"

"You see, Terence, Tinker Bell needs you," he told the boy. "The same way I needed Mary back in the day. You're love for her kept you devoted to her longer than any of us."

"Then why did I leave her?"

"Because you needed that someone who could offer support and encouragement in the same way you offer it to Tinker Bell," Gary told him. "Unfortunately, you never got it and became convinced that Tinker Bell was a lost cause. It doesn't mean you don't love her, or don't love her enough. It means you are like the rest of us. Sometimes you just need a friend."

It took several minutes for all of this to sink in, but when a small smile began to cross Terence's lips, Fairy Gary knew his advice worked. Terence stood up and walked back to the ward. He peered inside and saw the love of his life sitting up in bed. She was holding court with the girls and her sister. When Tinker Bell saw him, her face brightened instantly. Terence stood in the doorway, smiling proudly at his tinker fairy. She overcame so much because she didn't give up, because he wouldn't let her.

"What's wrong, Terence?" Tinker Bell asked him.

"I'm just glad you're well," he answered from the door.

"Well come over here so I we can talk," she bade him.

Terence didn't move right away. He still felt a bit foolish for running out on her. Fairy Gary gave him a gentle nudge from behind. "Go on, she won't bite," Fairy Gary told Terence.

The young, blonde dust keeper took a few tentative steps into the ward. He slowly made his way to her bedside. "Hi, Tink," was what squeaked through his lips. The girls chuckled. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Better than ever," she replied. "I heard I had a bad spill."

"A bad spill" wasn't enough to describe what happened, Terence said to himself.

"I also heard you were right there to bring here to the hospital. Thanks," she said taking and holding his hand.

Terence looked over at the other visitors. Rosetta nodded her head. Silvermist motioned her hands as if saying go ahead. Even Vidia looked impatient. Periwinkle had slid to the edge of her chair, waiting anxiously. Fairy Gary had joined them. He gave Terence a smile, which broadened his already large face. Fawn and Iridessa held each other's hands in anticipation.

"Yeah, that's kind of what happened," Terence said. He had put his free hand to the back of his neck and was rubbing it nervously.

For several seconds, neither he nor Tinker Bell said a word to each other. Then Terence sighed and tried to speak. He was doing this all over again. "Tink, I…, I want to tell you that…. I want you to know how I…"

"I love you, too, Terence," she announced. He looked stunned. How could she have known? She was unconscious when he told her.

"How…?"

"I heard you at the stream," she said. Terence looked very puzzled.

"If you were conscious then why…?"

"I wasn't conscious, Terence," she said. Tinker Bell arranged her pillows to sit more erect. "I was dead."

Terence was stunned by this announcement. She told him what happened.

~O~

After the accident, Tinker Bell stood up with a mild headache. She looked around for Terence. After a few moments, she found him sitting on the ground sobbing. He was holding her in his arms. If she was there watching this how could she be in his arms. Tinker Bell began to hear strange sounds. Voices that were beckoning her, voices that should have frightened her, but didn't. These were the sounds of fairies long since passed away calling her. They were going to take her to where a baby's first laugh goes after a fairy dies.

Tinker Bell felt a sense of joy, calm and serenity from those voices. It put her at great ease and began to fly towards them. That is when she heard Terence proclaim his love for her. Holding her dead body in his arms, and weeping terribly he told her how much he loved her. Tinker Bell stopped and listened intently as he spoke of how deeply he cared for her, what he had hoped for their future. It broke her heart to hear this. She had loved him, too. Tink didn't say anything to him because she was afraid it would ruin their friendship if he didn't love her back. Now she knew and it was too late.

Or was it? Tink weighed her options and realized that this place, which was calling to her, would always be there. When the time came, she would join that chorus of voices calling each recently dead fairy to this place of joy and contentment. That time wasn't today. Today, she decided she wanted to spend her life with Terence and give them a second chance.

~O~

"So was that your voice in my head? The one telling me to help you?" he asked her.

"Yes, it was," she told him. "Thank you. You saved my life."

Terence put his free hand around her waist and pulled her close to him. He kissed her, ever so lovingly, on her lips.

Rosetta leaned up to Fairy Gary and whispered, "So when are you going to tell him that she woke up this morning and that she heard everything he said."

"Later, if I don't forget," he said with a wicked smile.

"By the way, that was a great story you two cooked up," she added. "All that stuff about her being dead really sounded good."

"What? I thought that was something you and the girls made up," Fairy Gary replied. The realization hit both of them like a pound of pebbles.

"Oh dear," Rosetta gasped. "I had no idea."

"Same here," Fairy Gary said in agreement.


Thanks for reading. An epilogue is next.