Chapter 25: New Kid on the Block
There is noise downstairs. I figure that Tiana would be here sooner or later.
"Who's that?" Alisa asks.
"Tiana..."
"Who's she?"
"She's a friend I met here. I'm helping her open her own restaurant," I explain.
"Is that where all that crap came from?" She asks. "I thought they might've been your stuff, but then again your kitchen wasn't that big."
"Well, Tiana's is. She's a good cook."
"So why are you helping her?" Lisa asks.
"You know that kid I mentioned back after the mailbox explosion? The new kid?"
"Vaguely..." she mutters.
"Well...that kid is her son."
"So what is she doing here if he son's in New York?"
"He was adopted after he was born,"
"Does she know that?" Lis asks.
"Yes, it's a long story, Lis...Let's just say she didn't want to give him up,"
"So who...?"
"Crystal are you up?" Tiana calls.
"Uh...yeah just getting dressed," I answer.
"I've got the cheque here for the land."
"Cool thanks. I'll be right down," I say. I look at Alisa. "You want the shower first?"
"Go ahead, I'll shower later."
The familiar uneasiness in my stomach comes back. I rush to the bathroom throwing up into the toilet. Alisa holds my hair as I do so.
"Damn morning sickness!" I mutter. I lean back I'd forgotten to take my prenatal vitamins prescribed by Dr. Whale.
Alisa doesn't say anything, just helps me to the sink and I wash the acidic taste from my mouth. I brush my teeth after and feel hungry again. I look down at my flat stomach.
"I'll eat soon I promise." I moan.
"At least, you know you're pregnant and not assuming it's the flu. Did you take a test?"
"No... I was a little early for a test. My uh... ability had me sense the energy growing inside of me and I went to the ultrasound two weeks ago."
"That's the weirdest way to prove pregnancy I've ever heard."
"Only in Storybrooke," I joke. "Now will you please allow me to get cleaned up, I have a client downstairs."
Alisa leaves me to it and I clean myself, feeling much better with the running hot water over my skin. I'm still slightly shaky after throwing up last night's grilled cheese. Part of me wishes I had my mom to call for remedies for morning sickness. My heart drops when I think about my mom. She'll never be the grandmother she always wanted to be. She'll never see my baby's first steps and I can't go to her for parenting advice. I do have Snow, Regina, and all the other mothers in Storybrooke to help me out, but there is still a small void that no one can fill. A girl will always her mother, no matter what. I guess Snow and Regina can fill some of the space, but Lillian Miller will never fully be replaced.
I get out of the shower and change. I comb my hair and head down to see Tiana, bright and sunny, wearing a lime green dress with matching heels. I can see the excitement in her face as she holds the envelope with all the paperwork inside it.
"This is it huh?" Tiana says.
"I guess it is," I say.
We make a table out of Tiana's boxes and I start going through the paperwork. Tiana really out did herself, going to city hall to acclaim the deeds for the land, learn its history and doing everything else necessary to make sure this building became her dream restaurant. I decided that we'd become part owners of the land since we pretty much get half and a half.
I read through everything and I sign on the dotted line.
"There you are..." I say with a smile. "Tiana's Restaurant is now officially on the road."
Tiana gets up and hugs me.
"Thank you so much!" she says. I can hear she's crying a bit too.
"It's my pleasure and I promise, I'll bring your son home."
I swallow hard. I really don't want to make an empty promise.
"Cris?" I hear Alisa comes down the stairs.
Tiana stands up and smooths out her dress with her apron.
"Uh, Tiana this is Alisa, my friend from New York."
Alisa comes down the stairs, holding out her hand and Tiana takes it.
"So what fairy tale are you from?" Alisa blurts.
I moan and slap my hand against my head. "Lis...!"
"If what you told me is true, Crystal, I'd like to know who you made friends with."
"I'm from The Frog Prince or the Princess and the Frog if you saw the Disney version."
"So where's your frog prince?"
"LISA!" I bark in embarrassment.
Tiana's fists clench up and I can hear her grind her teeth.
"He's a frog alright, but he's not my prince...not anymore."
"What..."
I grab Alisa and drag her to the stairs.
"Lis, why don't you go shower and get dressed and I'll take you to Granny's"
I don't give her much choice and she obeys what I say.
I turn to Tiana. "Sorry Tia, she came into town unexpectedly and I told her everything."
"Everything?"
"Everything. And she's also impulsive sometimes, so she rarely thinks before she speaks. I haven't exactly gone into detail about who's who in town yet."
"I can understand if I found out that I was staying in a town with all the fairy tales we grew up with, I'd be asking a lot of questions too."
"Of course there, you guys just called them tales," I smirk.
Tiana laughs.
"But I was more concerned about the mention of Naveen."
She sighs and shrugs. "If we're going to get Brendan back, I'm going to have to tolerate his company."
I smile at Tiana. "That's the mature thing to do and you won't have to go and marry him for this to work."
Tiana looks down at her shoes. She lets out a long sigh.
"What?" I ask.
"It's nothing, It's just... I was just thinking about back when I was with Naveen...I actually thought he was my Prince Charming and I thought...you know, we'd get married and have a family."
I try to smile at her, but my love life is no better than hers, maybe even worse." We all dream about it at some point, we always think about the future even on the first date and you hope the first love lasts to that point. Having a happy life..."
"And to have that happy ending,"
"Well I saw nothing, but ends to most of my relationships."
"Really?"
"Oh yeah..." I begin to tell Tiana about the infamous exes. She tries to look concerned, but she ends up laughing at the mention of Billy and his "craft."
"Wow!" she laughs
"I know right..." I laugh when I hear Alisa coming down the stairs.
"Hey, Lis..." I say.
"Hi, what were you guys talking about?"
"The infamous exes."
"You don't know how many times she called me up about a breakup. You kind of become numb to it after awhile."
"You should've kept a log." Tiana jokes. "Anyway, I have to go and do some errands, I'll be by later to do some reorganizing. Nice to meet you, Alisa."
"Bye," Alisa says and we watch Tiana go out the door.
I turn to my best friend.
"Hungry?"
...
I take Alisa to Granny's for brunch. We sit down at a booth and order coffee, well she does. I introduce Alisa to Ruby and then she takes our order. Once we have our drinks, I turn to Alisa.
"Listen, Lis I know you want me to come back, but I'm so comfortable here."
"But I miss you."
"I miss you too, but I'm happy here, I was never fully happy in New York. Here I have a family and lots of friends."
"Aren't I your friend?"
"The best, but I don't belong in this world even," I say.
"I know that and apparently everyone here is from that same world?"
"Yes."
"In a world where all our fairy tales come true?"
"Yes."
"Then why can't I come?"
"Weren't you born in Colorado?" I ask.
"So what, I want a happy ending too."
"Everyone wants a happy ending Lis, but you know I don't belong here. If someone knew I had those powers, they'd take me away and experiment on me. I'd probably be used as a weapon in the military."
"Would that be so bad?"
I give Lisa a kick under the table.
"I promise I will sort out the landlord and job stuff, We're going to have to back to New York anyway." I mutter.
"We?"
"Remember when I told you Tiana's kid was in New York?"
"Yeah..."
I begin explaining Tiana's heartache of a story to Alisa. Ruby brings us our food and we eat as I tell her the need to get her son back. I also tell about using Raymond to get us a good lawyer.
"And that's why we might need Raymond," I finish and take a sip of juice. My stomach has settled a bit, enough for me to eat. I'm assuming that the baby is hungry. "I was hoping you could get in contact with him sometime soon."
"I don't know Cris..." Alisa says. "Raymond and I are taking our time apart remember."
"This could bring you back together," I say optimistically. "Besides, isn't he studying to be a lawyer?"
"Yeah, but he's an intern right now. he's pushing paperwork and crap like that"
"This could be his opportunity to move up."
"Dream on Cris, this isn't some daytime television special, it's real life."
I raise my eyebrow. "You really want to lecture me about real life?"
"Fine, but I still won't do it," Alisa says. "It's because of you that we're apart."
"I know and I'm sorry. What if I talked to him and apologized for putting so much pressure on your relationship?"
"That still wouldn't put me back in his arms."
"How about if we win the case, he'll be a big shot lawyer and make lots of money, enough for you guys to get married?"
Alisa goes red in the face. Her mouth opens and then closes again. She really does love Raymond. They've been together for three years, high school sweethearts and all that. before she met Raymond, Alisa was a serial dater who had her fair share of broken hearts. Raymond changed all that.
He swept her off her feet and they never looked back. They seem compatible with each other and both can't keep their hands off one another. They have a deep bond of mutual respect too and they hardly ever fight. They always had plans to get married someday, after Raymond put himself through law school and got a six-figure job. The dreams were partially far fetched and partially realistic. I envy them a lot, after my tornado of romances and my latest leaving me pregnant and alone.
"Fine, but you owe me big!" Alisa caves. I take another sip of my juice and smile at her.
"I love you, best friend in the whole wide world."
Alisa pretends to be annoyed and kicks me under the table.
We pay for our meals and head out into the street, I give Alisa the grand tour. I point out all the interesting things to see in Storybrooke. Alisa tries to look bored, but I can tell she's interested, at least a little bit. We pass a few people who stare at the new face a, but Lisa does her best to ignore them. I re-assure her that it'll get better soon.
We stop under the clock tower and Alisa peers inside. Emma walks up to us.
"Uh...Crystal..." she says. "Who's this?"
"Sorry Emma this is my best friend from New York, Alisa?"
Alisa holds her hand out. "Nice to meet you."
Emma reluctantly shakes it. She shoots me a glance. "Pleasure's all mine."
"I told her everything Emma, I'm sorry, but I had to..."
Emma shakes her head disappointed in me.
"Don't worry I can keep a secret..." Alisa says trying to reassure Emma.
I look up at Emma. "It's a trust thing. She had to deal with a lot of crap back at home, so I owed her, at least, the truth."
"Do you think she can...?"
"She got most of the shock out of her system last night, besides, I didn't invite her here, she found me."
"Really?" Emma says.
"I'm very good at finding people," Alisa says proudly. "So which fairy tale are you from?"
"She's not," I answer for her. "She's the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming."
"I didn't know they had kids!" Alisa says, tipping her head to the side.
"It a lot more complicated than that," I say. "They've got two, actually."
"Really?"
"Uh...yes." Emma swallows hard.
I pull Alisa close and bring my voice to a whisper. "It's a really long story Alisa, I'll give you the book later on."
Hook walks up to us. "New face in two months, that hardly ever happens." He raises an eyebrow at Alisa.
"Hook, this is my friend Alisa, she's from New York."
"Hook?" Alisa says. "As in Captain Hook?" She takes a step back.
"It's okay Lis, he's dating Emma," I explain. "Peter Pan was kind of backward, you see Hook was actually an okay guy and Peter Pan was the evil one." I left out the part that he was actually my grandfather as well. Timing is key in a situation like this.
Alisa looks wide-eyed at Hook. I can see the googly love eyes on her like I had when I met him. She'll have to accept the fact that he's taken and go back to Raymond. Hook pulls his left-hand replacement out of his pocket and lets his hook glow in the sunlight. Alisa takes another step back.
I motion to Hook to put it away, it's a bit much for right now. He does so.
"My preferred name is Killian," He says and he holds his right hand out for her to shake.
Alisa looks at me reluctantly and I nod, saying it's okay. She takes Hook's hand and shakes it. He gives her is half-smile and I can see her blush.
"Welcome to Storybrooke." he says.
"T-Thank you." Alisa gushes, keeping his hand in her grasp. I nudge her and she lets go of his hand.
"What brings her to town?" Hook asks.
"She came to find me and try to convince me to go back to New York," I say.
"And is it working?"
I look at Alisa. She shakes her head.
"She's pretty sold on the small town." Alisa answers.
"Most of us are," Emma says. "It may not be much, but it grows on you."
"It does have nostalgia charm," Lis admits. "But what do you guys do for fun?"
I can't help but roll my eyes. Fun is always on Alisa's to do list. She thinks it's more important than food sometimes. I'll admit I like the spontaneity of her actions, Alisa will always think of something fun for us to do together, especially when I've had a bad day and planned to spend the night vegging on the couch. I think part of the reason she moved to New York in the first place was to never have a dull moment. She hits the clubs, the bars, the casinos and anywhere else with glowing or flashing lights.
"We...fight dark ones, slay dragons, stop underworld guardians, fight queens of darkness..." Emma smiles. "Or were you looking for something more exciting like playing pool or darts?"
I can't help, but laugh at Emma's sarcasm and it shuts Alisa up for a little while.
"Crystal," Rumple says hobbling up to us with his cane.
"Hi...dad." I wince. Alisa takes a step back.
"Might I ask who this is?" he says in his thick accent.
"Dad...this is Alisa, one of my few friends from New York."
Rumple looks at Alisa up and down, as if to get a full idea of who she is just by looking at her. I can tell Alisa is nervous, especially by the fact that she knows who he is and how powerful he can be. Yet, she looks at him with some kind of awe and fascination. She'd never heard anything about my dad previously, mostly because I never knew anything either.
He holds out his hand to her.
"Rumpelstiltskin..." he says.
"Alisa Reynolds." she squeaks.
"Dad, she's aware of everything that is going on here. She's going to keep the secret and she's going to help me eventually."
Rumple continues to look Alisa up and down, trying to get a sense of who she is. His stern eyes seem to burrow into her soul and I can see she swallows hard. She takes a step back and shifts behind me for protection.
"How's Belle?" I ask, trying to break the awkward silence.
"She's fine, extremely ecstatic about the news."
"Any morning sickness yet?"
"She's only a month, so not yet."
"Meanwhile, your daughter has been vomiting consistently in the toilet," Alisa blurts. I shoot her a look.
"Speaking of that... I never learned the name of the father or was it a one night stand where several others were involved? Were you paid at the end of it?"
I glare at him and with a flick of my wrist, I pull his cane out from under him in anger. He goes to the ground, face hugging the pavement. I can feel acid crawling up my throat and tears in my eyes. I want so badly to kick gravel in his face, but he is my father and I need to show some restraint and patience with him. He's a scum bag...plain and simple. But those kinds of comments about someone I loved cut a lot deeper than anything else he says.
"Think so lowly of your own daughter do you?" I words roll off my tongue like acid.
"Well, your record with the law is not exactly clean," he grunts, attempting to pull himself up.
"Since when do you have a code of ethics?" I snap. "How many murders have you committed?"
I hear Alisa suck in a sharp breath and back up even further. She goes towards Granny's, ready to flee the scene. I turn to her.
"Don't worry Lis, this is just standard family disputes. You should've seen us when we first met, I lifted a fricken car into the air."
I try to sound in good humor, covering up about how serious this might get. My dad and I are just so different. I've only known him for about a month and he already knows how to get under my skin.
He conjures a fireball.
A loud growl rips through the air, startling us all. Rumple takes a step back.
Bounding out from a back alleyway comes a wolf...no...the wolf, the one that's been following me around. His fur is matted and covered in mud and twigs. My heart goes into my throat as he approaches us, his fierce blue eyes filled with madness. Rumple tries to launch the fireball at the wolf, but he easily dodges it. Before my father can attack again, the wolf lands between us.
The wolf snarls at Rumpelstiltskin and growls. He takes a protective stance in front of me. He scrapes his paw against the pavement, challenging my father to make a move.
Rumple is stunned and extremely shaken by this creature's sudden appearance. He attempts to brush himself off and regain composure, but he's too stunned for words.
I can't believe it. All, this time, I thought he was stalking me, hoping to pick me off as something to eat...but he was watching over me.
I see those eyes...those piercing blue eyes, ones I have not seen in a long time...
"Oh, my..."