Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon a Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 15, Chapter 6

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND

Fawn remained unconscious throughout the night and no one knew when she would wake up. Queen Clarion, after hearing what happened through Vidia ordered that all fairies were now grounded to conserve pixie dust. Mouse carts became modes of public transportation. If flight was necessary to cover long distances doves provided the means.

Everyone was ordered back to work, but without their precious dust very little could be done effectively. Queen Clarion told them to do their best. The snake which still wrapped itself around the Pixie Dust Tree slept on the second night. The trapped dust keepers silently escaped their prison and brought as much pixie dust as they could carry.

At least one situation had been alleviated. No more hostages, but the tree was still a prisoner to the infiltrator and the all-important dust was still beyond their grasp. The queen's residence was within the giant maple at the center of Pixie Hollow. For the time being Clarion had found herself evicted. Her close friend and confidant Fairy Mary took her in.

Despite the tense situation that continued at the heart of their world, Mary and Clarion still managed to carry on like a pair of old roommates. They laughed, joked and swapped old stories. Most they had each heard before, but hearing them again made the night pass less painfully.

~O~

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

The wolf howled in the night. Granny and Mary walked towards the sound. "You knew?" Mary asked.

As it turned out, Peter was not the beast that stalked the night. Red was the wolf and Peter was tied up like a meal laid out as a sacrifice.

Granny herself had been a werewolf, although with age her transformations stopped. However, she was still able to track like a wolf, which was how she was able to locate her granddaughter.

"I had hoped that Red would be spared the curse. She wasn't. I paid a wizard a handsome fee for that cloak to keep her from turning every full moon."

Mary was frightened by all of this, but she continued on with the elder woman. Red, wolf or not, was still a friend. As they got closer to where Peter was chained up to a tree, Granny raised a crossbow with a silver tipped arrow. The only weapon that could stop Red in her wolf form.

By the time Granny and Mary reached the tree where Peter was chained up it was too late. Peter was dead and the wolf was devouring his body, tearing flesh from his bones and leaving only pools of blood and a few uneaten body parts.

The wolf heard Mary approaching and attacked. Granny fired her crossbow striking the ferocious creature in the chest. It felled the beast just as she said. Mary draped the cloak over the motionless form of the wolf and it quickly returned to Red's human form. When she awoke Mary took up the awful task to inform Red of her tragic mistake.

"Peter wasn't the wolf," she said with great sorrow.

"Me?" Then it dawned on her what might have happened. A glance at the tree and she knew. Red had indeed murdered the only man she had ever loved. Killing him like the predator she was. She broke down crying at the revelation.

In the distance, another wolf hunting party grew near. Their voices got closer. Granny instructed the two girls to disappear into the woods. "I'll take care of them," she said as Mary and Red made their escape through the trees.

~O~

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

They reached their destination where Ruby and Jo began searching the banks of the shallow river that ran under the Toll Bridge. Jo took one side while Ruby took the other.

"What are we looking for again?" Jo asked.

"Something that doesn't fit in," was Ruby's best guess. She called up Sheriff Swan to get some clarification. With Emma's help Ruby started tracking down something. Ruby didn't know how or why she could do this, only that she was doing it and very well.

"I think I found something!" the new sheriff's assistant called out to Jo. The young Latina female ran across the clear, flowing waters to join her friend. Ruby informed Emma of what she was doing. A few yards from the water's edge was an old piece of driftwood, partially concealed by dirt and rocks. It should have gone unnoticed but for some reason Ruby was able to spot it with great ease.

With Jo hovering over her Ruby lifted the plywood and found a shallow hole that had been dug out. Inside was an ornate jewelry case. Ruby put the phone down explaining to Emma what she had found.

"What are you going to do?" Jo asked. Ruby didn't answer with words. Instead she pulled the box from the hole and lifted the lid. What was inside so horrified her that she screamed. Jo didn't utter a sound. Instead she ran to the nearby wooded area and vomited violently before bursting into tears.

~O~

Back at the Sheriff's Office, Emma examined the contents of the jewelry box. It was a human heart, cut out of its victim and carefully placed inside that box. She told Ruby she had done a good job finding it, though it was clear Ruby didn't care to have ever found such a horrific thing. She quit her job as Emma's assistant and returned to the diner, contritely asking for her old employment back.

"What about lemurs?" Granny asked.

"Emma was my lemur," Ruby noted. "I don't want a job where having a good day means ruining someone else's." The young girl was forced to apologize for what she had said earlier. Her fear wasn't that she would turn into her grandmother, but that she didn't know how to be the same strong, capable and driven person as her grandmother.

"Well that's why I wanted you to work weekends," Granny told her. Granny knew she couldn't work at the diner forever and now she wanted to prepare her granddaughter for the day when she passed it on to her.

Ruby was stunned by this announcement. "Me?"

"Well who else am I going to hand it over to but someone I trust. Someone who loves this place as much as I do," Granny said, offering a subtle compliment.

Ruby was flattered by her grandmother's faith in her. She smiled and gratefully returned to her work as a waitress and business owner in waiting.

~O~

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND

It was days before Fawn woke from her second head trauma. The nurse said that the accumulation of two in such a short span of time contributed to her longer recovery. When the little animal talent finally did open her eyes the pain in her head was intense. Her head pounded, as if a tinker fairy was bashing it with a hammer nonstop.

Fawn could not think clearly. Her thoughts and memories were muddled. Bright lights hurt her eyes, sounds pierced her eardrums and made her aching head feel like it was about to explode. She noticed that her whole body hurt, in some places more than others. The left arm was in a sling while her right hand was outfitted with a splint on two fingers.

She had never felt worse. The doctors and nurses kept a close watch on her recovery. Queen Clarion visited with Fawn briefly to ascertain when she could deal with the snake that was still wrapped around the Pixie Dust Tree.

"A snake, huh? Uh…, yeah, I can take care of it for you," Fawn replied cheerfully.

Clarion spoke with the doctors to find out when Fawn could be moved. It would be a few more days. They were well aware just how desperate the fairies were, but Fawn's life and long term mental health were at stake. "Move her too soon, Your Highness, and she won't be able to do a thing to alleviate your current difficulty."

"Understood," she answered. When Clarion returned to Fawn's bedside she told the young girl to take her time. "But please do hurry. I don't know how much longer we can live with that snake in the Pixie Dust Tree."

Fawn was surprised. "There's a snake in the Pixie Dust Tree? When did this happen?"

Clearly she was not yet ready to perform this duty.

~O~

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

That afternoon Chester arrived home. The day was grey and overcast which made the intense Maine winter all that much colder. He noticed not a single critter in their cages. When he went inside he found Jo sitting in the center of a darkened living room. The shades had been pulled closed, the lights had been turned off and not even the television set was on. There was only Jo and the shadows which surrounded her.

"Jo? Are you okay?"

Chester clicked on the lights in the room and found his possessions stacked in the center of the space. "What's going on?"

"It's not going to work out," she told him, not even bothering to look his way. "It's best you leave now."

Chester was greatly confused by this. "Not going to work out?" He sputtered out incoherent mutterings before finally asking, "This isn't about the animals, is it?"

Jo remained oddly silent.

"Say something." Chester sat down on the sofa next to her. He took her hand and found it cold as ice. The look on her face was of stark terror. "What happened?"

"The animals are all gone," she finally managed to mutter. "Emma said I had to get rid of them."

Chester was most concerned. Her voice was almost a monotone, as if she were in shock. Her body was stiff and almost lifeless as she spoke her words.

"I'm so sorry," Chester said with much empathy. He knew how much those animals meant to her. They were like an extended family. "Couldn't you reason with her?"

"No." Tears began to well up in her eyes and then slowly crawled down one cheek and then the other. He assumed it was all about giving up her precious animals. But he felt that there was something more to this.

"What's going on? What are you not telling me?"

"I can't say," was all she could offer him in response. It was obvious she wanted to tell him, even with her cold stare and emotionless facial expression.

"You can't say? Not a word?"

"The sheriff said I couldn't?" For the first time her voice began to break up.

"Because of the animals in our yard?"

"No. Something else. Something much worse."

He pleaded and begged for her to tell him, but she was too stricken with grief and shock to say anything. And Jo adamantly repeated that Sheriff Swan didn't want her to say anything. The only clue she gave him was that it involved Ruby.

Then, quite suddenly, she grasped him in her arms throwing them around his torso. "Hold me," she whimpered. "Don't go." Chester could feel her trembling. Jo, a normally fearless and stubborn woman was frightened. Scared out of her wits. It caused Chester so much alarm. Despite all of his possessions standing in the middle of the room, leaving Jo was not an option.

~O~

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND

Fawn woke from a deep sleep. She kept dreaming about a large and ravenous snake which gobbled up Queen Clarion and then the other fairies of Pixie Hollow one by one. Fawn couldn't let that happen. When no one was looking she slid out of her bed, changed into her usual attire and snuck out of the hospital. "I have to talk with that snake," she muttered to herself. "Before something very bad happens."

The pain in her head still throbbed and her body ached everywhere. The sling on her arm slowed her while dressing and the two fingers in the splint stung if too much pressure was applied. None of that mattered. Fawn was the only one who could successfully talk with the invader.

Among each talent are a variety of specialties. Almost like talents within the talent. Each fairy tends to excel at one or more of these specialties. Among the tinkers inventiveness is an admired special ability within the talent. With animal talents linguistics is a valued ability. All animal fairies can communicate with every animal in Never Land. They know the languages of each creature, can understand each one perfectly and every animal fairy is capable of speaking the varied languages perfectly and without an accent.

Fawn could empathize, care for, teach and nurture as well as anyone, but she was especially gifted when animal linguistics were involved. She had the ability to learn and grasp new languages better than any fairy within her own guild. This was why Queen Clarion sought her out when the snake was initially reported. Other animal talent fairies tried to speak with and learn the snake's unusual speech, but all eventually failed, giving up after not making any headway or from the constant threats of being eaten alive.

~O~

"What's she doing?!" Rosetta asked when she spotted her friend winging towards the Pixie Dust Tree. "Oh no, she's going to get herself killed! Just like before!"

"Quickly, stop her!" Clarion ordered her scouts to capture Fawn and return her to the hospital, but they were too late. Fawn alighted to a tree branch, barely a safe distance from the snake. It saw her and spit its fury at the little fairy.

"Fly or be eaten," he hissed.

"I don't feel like being eaten today," she answered him. Fawn's head throbbed so badly. The shine from the pixie dust combined with the bright sunlight only made it worse. She could barely think, but she was determined to press on. Pixie Hollow and every fairy living there were depending on her.

Thanks for reading.