It feels like a while since I've updated but here is chapter eleven! It was originally supposed to be chapter twelve but my chapter eleven got sort of complicated. O.o

I Do Not Own Once Upon A Time!

That Mischievous Grin

Chapter Eleven

By LoveMeNever

"The Cheshire Cat..." It was all Jaime heard Henry say from the back of the diner but it struck a nerve. In her dream she had been the Cheshire Cat, what could he possibly be saying over there? Was it just a weird coincident? Yeah, she settled on weird coincident.

"Did you think about my offer about working at the school?" Mary Margaret smiled at Jaime, who returned the smile.

"Err, yeah about that... I sort of, no offense intended, would kill myself working with that many kids." She smirked signalling the brunette that she was being serious but joking at the same time. Hopefully, Mary Margaret wouldn't take offense to her remark. Jaime was pleased when she heard Mary Margaret laugh.

"I don't blame you! They can be a handful at times. Did you find another job?"

Crap, I almost forgot.

"Speaking of that... I need to talk with Granny. She hired me two weeks ago but I, uh, got into some trouble and couldn't ever start working." Jaime rubbed her neck absentmindedly.

Mary Margaret nodded and watched as the woman made her way to Granny who was cleaning the counter.

Jaime wondered what she was going to say to Mrs. Lucas. Hey you know how ya hired me and I never showed up for work? That was totally a crazy coincident and I have a perfectly good explanation that I'm not willing to share so please hire me again?

Yeah, no.

"Ahem... Mrs. Lucas, you're looking lovely as usual today!" Jaime started but the look on Granny's face shut her down completely.

Granny looked up glaring at the brunette from over the top of her glasses, she was quite menacing Jaime realized. She shuddered. Mrs. Lucas didn't say anything in response and just started to wipe the counter top off.

Jaime glanced around awkwardly. "Right-o... I suppose I should explain myself."

"I suppose you should." Granny retorted.

"...Okay." Jaime shifted nervously at the few people who stared at the interesting interaction. Did people have nothing better to do? "I have a good reason for... getting distracted."

Mrs. Lucas seemed unconvinced but stayed quiet.

"The, uh, investigation of my case is what distracted me. I totally lost track of time and the days..." She wasn't buying it. Jaime had to do some quick thinking and her victim was Emma. "...Emma can vouch for me!"

A very confused Emma was dragged in front of Granny while she was trying to make her way back to Mary Margaret's booth. "What?"

Jaime elbowed the blonde in the side. "Wasn't I helping you investigate my case?" She gave Emma a look that screamed 'Help me out here'.

"Uh, right."

"See?" Jaime grinned at Granny in high hopes and gave the old woman her best charms. Please buy it, please buy it! She continuously chanted in her head.

Granny sighed heavily at puppy dog excitement in Jaime. The did tell her to give Jaime a chance, and that chance technically never started. "This is your absolute final chance. You start tomorrow at seven in the morning."

Jaime practically squealed but cleared her throat when the sound came out. "Thank you so much! I won't be late!"

Granny rolled her eyes and walked into the back to get someone's food.

She couldn't believe it worked. She grinned at Emma who was about to make her way back to the booth. Thanks were definitely in order after that.

"Hey Emma, thanks for going along with all that." Jaime smirked and held out her hand.

Emma rolled her eyes playfully but shook the woman's hand. "Yeah, just don't make me lie for you again, okay?"

"It technically wasn't a lie, I did try to investigate my own case." There was a smug expression across Jaime's face, she knew she was clever.

Jaime grinned mischievously as she caught Ruby glancing at her. "See something ya like, love?" She winked at her.

Clumsily, Ruby dropped the tray holding a drink and spills it all over a male customer. "Oh God, I'm so sorry! Let me help you!" Ruby wiped the table and the man's shirt off with the napkin in her apron. She gaped at Jaime.

Jaime tried her hardest to stifle her laughter. She was failing at that because Ruby gave her the scariest glare she's ever seen.

That just made it even funnier.

Ruby finished helping the man and walked up to Jaime, intent to kill was present in her eyes.

"What? You have to admit that was pretty great." Jaime chuckled, calming down from the waitresses hilarious scene.

"Great?!" Ruby balled her fists and waved them dramatically in Jaime's face like she was physically fighting with herself on whether or not to actually hit the woman. And Emma, the Sheriff, was sitting just feet away.

Ruby decided against it and let out a huff before storming off into the kitchen. She had nothing to say to the infuriating woman.

Jaime sighed and was about to walk out of the diner but the conversation Emma and Mary Margaret were having reached her ears.

"Mary Margaret I'm sure she'll turn up eventually, okay? It hasn't even been a whole day yet." Jaime heard Emma telling Mary Margaret. She was curious about what they were talking about so she eavesdropped.

Curiosity killed the cat... She thought humorously.

"I know but after the... scene at school what if she was so upset that she got herself hurt or worse?" Mary Margaret touched her cheek, a small red spot there, Jaime didn't know how she missed it earlier.

She must have been hit by someone, Jaime guessed. Who'd hit such a nice person though?

"Look, I don't really agree with what you and David did... so can you imagine what Kathryn's going through? She just needs time to cool off, don't immediately jump to conclusions." Emma tried to reason and comfort Mary Margaret, it came across awkwardly though.

At least I'm not the only one bad with sappy moments. Jaime smirked.

She felt like she got a good gist of what was upsetting Mary Margaret. She must have had an affair with a married man and now is wife is missing. Boy, was she reevaluating her assessment of the school teacher now.

Jaime didn't want to get involved so she left the diner.

Outside there was a man staring into the diner from his motorcycle, he appeared to be watching someone, Jaime followed his gaze. Emma was his target. She wasn't sure whether or not to ask him what he was doing or just walk away.

Her better 'conscience' chose to ask. "Hey, what are you doing?"

The man quickly looked to her, a questioning eyebrow raised. "What do you mean?"

She rolled her eyes. "Staring is rude, ya know, especially when you're doing it in a creepy stalker way."

He smirked, "I'm sorry, I'm a friend of Emma's... I have to make her remember..." He trailed off leaving Jaime confused.

"...What?" She blinked. Why was everyone saying strange things lately? First Henry now this guy?

The man put on his helmet and started the motorcycle before Jaime could protest and interrogate him, he sped off.

Odd.

She shook her head as if to clear her thoughts and walked around the corner to get into her car. She dug her keys out from her pocket when she bumped into someone. "Hey watch it-" It was the Mayor. "Oh... Regina! Hi."

"It seems I have run ins with you all the time now." Regina smirked. "I was just going for a meeting with Sydney at the diner."

"The newspaper guy?"

"Yes."

"Cool... well." Jaime couldn't focus herself, the mayor was once again standing right in front of her and all she could think about was how much she wanted to... show her affection. If that was even the right word for it. More like appreciation of her beauty.

Geez, when did I become such a perv?

Suddenly, her brain felt a shock, she squeezed her eyes shut for a second. It didn't hurt, it just tingled. When she opened them she was not standing outside the diner and she was that strange cat again.

"Don't go getting a big head now... it wouldn't suit you." She heard herself say.

Regina was there in her elegant clothes grinning wickedly. "I knew you wouldn't let me down."

Pride surged through her body and she changed... she was herself again, a human. Or similar to herself, she was dressed in a tight corset type blouse and a skirt with leggings and boots. "Do I ever displease you?"

Her voice became low and seductive. Her eyebrow quirked in amusement as Regina blushed lightly.

She took a step forward closing the distance between them, wrapping her arm around Regina's waist, the Queen let out a gasp at the action. She smirked in response.

Then Jaime, or the Cheshire Cat, shoved Regina up against the wall. Their faces inching closer every second.

The flash ended and Jaime gasped like she had been holding her breath. Regina's hand was lightly touching her arm and a worry flashed in her eyes. "Jaime? Are you alright?" She asked.

Jaime cleared her throat and breathed a longer breath of air to calm her rapidly beating heart. "Uh... yeah, just fine."

Regina disagreed, it looked like the woman had seen a ghost or something equally terrifying.

Jaime felt the blush on her face, she tried to will it away but it didn't leave. Whatever... that was, flustered her quite a bit. She couldn't even look at Regina without seeing that scene playing in her head.

"I-uh, gotta go!" She walked quickly to her car and drove away. Not giving Regina time to protest.

Okay I'm going nuts, completely bonkers! Mad I say!

She wasn't sure where she was driving and realized that she was going the total wrong way from her house. She stopped the car and looked out the window. She laughed at what she saw.

She had inadvertently driven to Dr. Hopper's. If that wasn't a sign she didn't know what was.

Maybe next time.

This could just be a stress thing and it might go away, if not then she'd consider Dr. Hopper's help. Jaime didn't think she was at the stage of needing therapy just yet.

Give her a week though.

Regina blinked as Jaime frantically drove away. What just happened?

She couldn't figure out what happened in the short conversation she had with the woman. At first everything was fine, they were talking, and then Jaime squeezed her eyes shut like she was in pain.

They stayed shut for a minute before she opened then and seemed confused about where she was.

Was something going on with the curse? Was Jaime starting to remember certain things? Regina wondered if it was Emma's influence, the blonde had effected Graham in a similar way. The only main difference was Graham had dreams about his past life. As far as Regina knew, they hadn't happened to him while he was awake.

Her heart sank, was the curse lifting?

No one else in town seemed to be having dreams or hallucinations about their past though.

Regina was torn. She didn't want the curse to lift but all it was doing was making her unhappy. She had finally won over Snow White and Prince Charming and now they were trapped here but they still found a way to be together. What was even more frustrating is she couldn't be with Cheshire the one person, besides Henry, she wanted to be with.

In her own curse she couldn't even have that.

Anger boiled in her chest, this was not how this curse was supposed to be, she needed to put a stop to it. She needed to be in control again.

Starting with turning Mary Margaret and David on one another.

She heard about the fighting between Kathryn, David, and Mary Margaret so it would be the perfect set up. All she had to do was make Kathryn disappear and make everyone think Mary Margaret was the one to blame.

That would definitely make them miserable.

For now, she would continue playing politics with Emma.

Short chapter, I know, I'm very sorry! Next one will be longer and set in FTL! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed/favorited/followed this story, it means so so so much to me! If you have any questions feel free to PM or leave a review and I'll get back to ya! ;)

Ta ta for now!