Another reference to the one-shot to come, again. Chapter's slightly shorter, but full of some moments before the next chapter where we take a turn. Dun, dun, dun.

DoggyPocky: Damn, you raise some points. Pixies Inc definitely has this feel of capitalism and socialism that I think even the show creators had in mind when creating the pixies. About how harmful it is. Honestly, the way in which the fantasy worlds are created in terms of the territory and foreign aspect is definitely something only a creator of the show could explain cuz I have no idea. I'm definitely giving Wanda some dangerous moves in this one. Even if she's looking out for Cosmo, her worry about hurting him more is making her make some questionable decisions out of desperation. We'll have to wait and see how that turns outttttt. And Laz, lol, he's getting kinda hot-headed every time something goes slightly wrong.

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Wanda stared at the front door of their house with her pale beige shoulder purse slung around her shoulder containing H.P.'s stolen information. The ones of which she stole from Calico. Since Cosmo hadn't changed his moping habits at all last night, Wanda figured she might was well continue her search on this Calico situation she'd already stumbled upon. Doing research from their home computer could only get her so far after finding private information, so she'd taken a trip to the city's archives, doing research on both Calico and some of the poser fairies' names that came up on the system. Calico's past really had been covered to the point that Wanda thought maybe he didn't want to be found. But, a part of her logically knew that if he was involved somehow with top-secret work, his information was covered up for good reason.

The pink fairy still couldn't find it in her to tell Cosmo, and that's what kept her in place staring at the door in worry. She just didn't want to enter this house if Cosmo was going to continue to be a lost hope. It broke her heart every time he'd enter a room. She can tell when he'd slept too long, she can tell when he'd been crying but desperately tried to hide it from her. She just couldn't take it anymore.

Deciding against it, she turned from the front door and floated down the side path that led to the left of their house, aiming towards the garage. She entered the side door and flicked the lights on to look at the dusty interior. The place could use a cleaning and a definite decluttering. Wanda's first thought anytime she'd enter anywhere, and she almost ridiculed herself for thinking of cleaning at a time like this. She didn't want to go into the house but figured there was one place she could recollect her overly stressed mind.

In the center of the garage, a car covered by its grey cover remained. Coming around to the front of the car, Wanda leaned down to unhinge the material and began to draw it back over the remainder of the car. Taking off the rest in a swipe as it powdered more dust and Wanda waved it away before looking at the vehicle underneath.

Cosmo's old white mustang convertible that he had for centuries. The thing was old and had a few chippings, but it still worked beautifully. It's not like they bothered to get a new car since they were living on earth every few years or so, and a decade at a time with each child approximately.

Wanda unlocked it with her magic and opened the door to crawl into the front seat, throwing her purse to the passenger's. She slammed it shut as she sat there and ran her hands over the steering wheel as her eyes trailed the interior. Thinking of the many suns and moons spent in this thing. When either she or Cosmo both needed a getaway and a drive along with it. They'd fold back the roof and just drive. Across rainbow highways of endless destinations to other places. If they weren't seeking adventure in godparenting down on earth, they were seeking it in their own world. Or the nights when they drove up to their old hill overlooking the city and parked there, especially in thier earlier days. Making out like any younglings with a vehicle would, the car had been where they explored quite a lot. And having the best of laughs parked atop their cliff ledge, or gaze at the stars until night became morning.

So many memories, that's what their marriage had. And the bad ones came too and they always overcame them. Wanda had no doubt they could come over this trek and she was determined to. They always had faith in one another when something bad came over them, and that's what scared her here. Because she felt like Cosmo simply didn't have faith in her nor himself. She tried to push back that possibility, as she knew they would get past this like everything. But, it was harder than she'd experienced in a long time, and she just didn't know if she had the strength in her when the sight of Cosmo so weak made her weak.

Wanda pulled her feet onto the seat, ringing her arms around her legs as her chin rested to her knees. She'd give everything she had if she could make Cosmo happy again. She'd give anything to find his father. She knew how much this meant to him, she couldn't deny it was as important to him as her mother was to her. The only difference was that Cosmo actually had the opportunity to meet his father when Wanda's mother was gone. But if she were alive, she would take the chance too. Continuing to grow up after losing her mother to a rare disease for a fairy had been more than a burden. For her father had coldheartedly mistreated both Wanda and in some ways her sister, too. Wanda was the one who came more 'difficult' to Big Daddy though. Considering she wanted to pursue godparenting, and dating Cosmo was no more help. With the Fairywinkles, men had always been somewhat more demeaning to women, awfully enough. And it didn't go any different to how Mrs. Fairywinkle was treated by Big Daddy, nor how he treated his daughters. Both Cosmo and Wanda left behind their families for each other, it was that much a difference for a small sacrifice that was meaningless. After meeting each other, there was a guarantee that they had no family to begin with.

Cosmo's father though, could be real family. He could be different.

There was no other way but to find out, and Wanda lowered her head to her knees wishing somehow that all she found could lead her to one answer as to what it all meant. It didn't help that Calico worked so secretly. Maybe she could return to the shop, but she couldn't be the one to face Calico before Cosmo. Maybe she could tell Cosmo about the shop, but after finding out all this info on Calico already, maybe it would mean Cosmo getting wrapped up in something dangerous. What else could there possibly be...

Wanda lifted her head from her knees as she remembered. There was one place she had not checked yet.

But, could she go there without Cosmo?

They already tried once, and it had resulted in a terrible truth about his father already. Even if that truth was gone now, it was still a chance for something that could give Wanda a yes or no on all of this. Feeling her heart soar at the possibility, Wanda lowered her feet from the seat as she clutched the steering wheel in revelation.

She needed to take the chance. For Cosmo.

And a long drive there instead of a poof might do her some good, too.

Starting the ignition and opening the garage door with a flick of her wand, Wanda began to reverse the car back.

Calico sat in the low light of his office. Not the one decked behind the record shop, but one of his real office. Back at HQ. In the dark of the room with only his desk lamp supporting what he could see, Calico kept one side of his face in his hand as his elbow propped against the desk. In the hand he stared at, he flipped a rusted old beer bottle opener. It's sharp loop end made of old steel, and it's polished wooden handle a deep scarlet.

A lump built in his throat, as a memory rose to the surface. He closed his eyes and clenched the opener in his hand, hoping to stray his mind away though he was only pulled deeper into what he'd always wished to forget.

. . .

Millennials earlier, while Calico had been working the same job, he'd been in and out of work as of lately. His boss and co-workers were courteous enough to give him the time to work on himself while he was fighting a battle that had almost won over him multiple times. Actually, at this point, it seemed like they wouldn't really let him come back until he picked things up again at all.

He'd been hospitalized twice for heart problems. Diagnosed once for anxiety, then depression. And soon after when he thought things couldn't get any worse, fairsubo cardiofairypathy. His heart darkened and his mind fogged when he thought of what had happened months before though it felt like it just happened yesterday. Every time he turned the corner he was jumped by nothing but bad reminders that ringed his throat until he'd choke and find himself in another panic attack without knowing. Shoot, he'd sometimes come to have a panic attack and not realize just how much he'd spiraled beforehand. Making a mess of himself only to come to and realize the racing of his heart and trembling of his hands as if he'd blacked out and left for another world in between.

It would always be his shadow of a reminder. There to brutalize him for something he could not fix. And his hope had been so high before it all came to a startling crash. He'd actually thought there would be a chance after waiting for the right time.

The marked dot of his son's eighteenth birthday.

An illegal adult. A day that not only celebrated his only son's sendoff into adulthood but the day Calico was reminded by himself in the few years making that the restraining order Mama Cosma had filed would expire since Cosmo could no longer be legally held by her custody. It was Calico's chance whether Cosmo was still living at home or not.

Using his trusted bottle opener on a beer from the icebox, Calico let the cap fall however it pleased as he lazily let the bottle opener go clatter against the marble counter of the kitchen. Arching his head back as he began to down what was not his first beer of that early afternoon. Taking a breath from his swig he wiped the beer foam off his lip, twirling his drink as another hand slapped against the counter to retrieve the opener and drag it off to shove into his pocket. May be useful if he needed another. When he needed another.

Rounding about the air unsteadily, he got to the living room as he tasted the bitterness of his mouth as the only thing he'd thought of for months continued to punch his gut.

What an undeniable idiot he was. Treating this whole thing like there would be a deadline to it. It was his own fault he had stopped trying after a few years to meet his son while he was growing. But his ex-wife had literally done everything within her power to prevent it from nothing but selfish, high-horse, cruddy, spite of her ex-husband. And his Magna tried to help by suggesting that maybe wait for his ex-wife to come around and agree on terms of letting Calico see Cosmo once more. Enough exhaustion had been wasted on it already, and Calico thought he'd be better off doing it when Mama Cosma legally could not keep him away anymore. How she was even able to get a restraining order in the first place was beyond him. Probably scolded the ear off of several judges before they reluctantly let her. Or spread lies about Calico to do so.

And he'd stopped? He'd actually stopped trying to just wait it out. Like some stupid freaking time away was going to change anything. There was never a time Calico had been more an idiot than he knew himself to be, having wanted to just be with his son. Was he even worthy to have a son now, just to return when he's eighteen?

Apparently not, since Cosmo wanted nothing to do with him.

Hearing it through the mouth of Mama Cosma had made Calico think his heart stopped on the front porch of his old home. Bit by something he wouldn't have known, but should have. Did he really think Cosmo would wait for him? He should have tried harder! He should have fought until the end! Risk arrest if he had to! Now his son hated him and wanted nothing to do with the likes of him as a new adult, and there was nothing Calico could do. Nada! Zip!

"Nada...zip.." Calico slurred, drinking his beer as he reached into his pocket for the bottle opener.

Looking at the tool, he'd remembered when a close friend gave it to him as a side-present at the baby shower for his son. Along the lines of a joke when 'the future kid gives you a headache, pop a cold one.' At the time, new-parent-Calico would have denied such a joke. But hey, his own son wanting crapola to do with him now, so here's a freaking drink to that instead.

He took a swig, still eyeing the tool in making a mockery of it. The alcohol racing straight to his head and sliding him from the constriction that was building in his chest and the clamminess in his palms. He balled the tool in his hand and the beer in his other slipped away as it crashed against the floor.

The bottle opener was thrown with such high-sped force across the room that it darted towards a see-through glass vase and shattered it as it made impact. Right for Magna to enter through the front door and scream as Calico fell to the floor and clutched his chest with a choking inhale in the event of another heart attack.

. . .

As he was pulled away from the memory, Calico removed his spectacles and tossed them onto the desk to mask his damp eyes with his hand. Holding it stiff as he fought the memory away like poison running through his veins. Something near impossible to remove once injected.

Years wasted away on a lie, and now the truth was unmasked. Ready to be snatched before someone took it away again.

Was he brave enough to even take it?

Unable to resist year-old feelings rise up again, Calico let a tearful whimper loose. Right in time for a knock at his office door to ensue.

The green fairy quickly wiped his eyes. "Uh...come in." He called, a slight hoarse in his voice.

Flo entered. "The rally's in a few hours. Laz and I are ready to take your side if you're still up to..."

She drifted off from the tears she could swear were lining her head operative's eyes.

"Cal?" She asked.

"Yes...what about the rally?" He tried to stay on subject, shielding his face from her.

She neared the front of his desk. "Calico."

It was very off-putting for him to be so quiet of his pain like this that both Laz and Flo could obviously see lately. Flo had been working exclusively with him for about five thousand years or so, as had Laz. Though they hadn't seen him with much emotional vulnerability, they did know he had a history of depression revolving around his past.

Calico lifted his face from his hands, though he kept it narrowed to his desk as he picked up his spectacles and began to wipe them with a cleaning cloth.

"I got a call a few days ago..." he said finally. "..about my son."

Flo parted her lips in gentle shock. "Your son..?"

Calico rubbed a hand to his eyes again. "..my dreams have been all out of sorts.." he said. "He's been a part of them...a lot. And, getting this call has made me worried, that's all."

"What're you worried for?" Flo asked.

"That he may be in trouble," Calico squeaked, unable to hide his emotion that brought up old wounds in his heart from centuries back.

Flo worried for her co-worker, reaching a hand across his desk to clutch his shoulder. "Cal, have you ran into him or something?"

He shook his head in uncovering his face again. "No.."

Flo hated to be the one to ask. "..do you, want to run into him?"

Calico sniffed. "Truthfully, Flo, I've wanted to run into him even when I was diagnosed.."

His co-worker removed her hand in pity for Calico. Unable to state much on part of not knowing his son any more than he did.

The green fairy pushed a thick stack of file assortments aside, weighing the bottle opener down on top of them as he changed the subject to a more important task at hand. "Any updates on the pink fairy who took the login?"

Great, more bad news. "Not that we know of.." Flo said. "The agency is scouring everything they could find with co-workers and clients, there isn't anything. She has to be a part of a different union."

"You're right," Calico agreed. "I'm not saying for sure, but try to see if her face has been associated with H.P.'s contracts."

"I'll see what I can find." Flo said. "It's too bad we don't know her name."

"Yeah, too bad.."

"Someone named Wanda. Wanda Fairywinkle."

Belinda spoke into her pixie phone as she levitated before the grey van's door on the public streets, keeping clear of her surroundings. After all the protests against H.P. in Fairy World, it wouldn't be smart for any pixie to be on their own around these parts.

"Doesn't sound familiar." Sanderson replied on the other end.

"We'll pull up some research," Belinda said. "Our team's never failed a basic name search before."

"Wait, was that name Fairywinkle?"

"Fairywinkle." She confirmed in return.

"As in, the Mr. Big Daddy Fairywinkle?"

Belinda's mind drew a blank. "Possibly, if I knew who that was."

"CEO of Big Daddy's Trash Removal, incredibly high in the corporate world." Sanderson said. "We've had run-ins with him at executive dinners and conferences. I'm pretty sure he's even sold to us."

"So, what would some Wanda Fairywinkle be doing with Calico?"

"I'm trying to think who it would be in relation to Big Daddy. Maybe a cousin or daughter."

"Could Calico have re-married?"

"It's always likely." Sanderson said. "Whomever, they're under no right to have taken what they have."

"No, indeed." Belinda agreed.

As the two conversing pixies both pondered over the situation, one thing was mutual between them. Right now, it didn't matter to figuring out who the offender was. But a matter of finding them right away.

"I presume you know what to do." Sanderson proposed.

The brunette pixie nodded against the phone. "Unless they show a badge, it's our control."

"Thank you, Belinda. Find this Fairywinkle and place her under arrest for her crime. We'll be waiting."

Welcome to Glimmerock!

Wanda turned in on the next exit off the rainbow freeway shortly after the welcome sign, heading for the right neighborhood she knew was not too far along from there. Off the place of rushing cars, she began to drive smoothly as it transitioned into a slow-driving area. The assortment of neighborly housing and beautiful scenery came into view soon enough as she drove by, and Wanda breathed in the fresh air and change of scene. Thinking that maybe this trip wouldn't be as bad as she feared. A poof over to the town may have been a little quicker, but the drive had softened the headache of worry she was feeling much more than a magic appearance could.

Soon enough she'd found the neighborhood, soon enough she'd found the street, and not too long the house came into view and she came to a slow stop in front of it and turned off the ignition. Looking to her far-right from the driver's seat at the house's pathway leading to its porch.

Wanda again stared forward, thinking carefully about her actions before she left the car. That last they had been here things took a turn for the worse and she did not want to deepen the wound on her husband's heart all over again. She could not allow the same thing that had happened when they came here only weeks before they were married.

Wanda sighed anxiously, wiping away the tears that were dwelling. She'd hated how Cosmo became all those years ago after finding out about his father's diagnosis. It didn't matter how much either Wanda or Cosmo had grown in strength, sometimes they fall weak. And right now Cosmo seemed to be at one of his weakest points. Wanda just wished she still had the strength she always had to help that had vanished without her knowing.

There was nothing left but to go. And she'd already lied to Cosmo to protect him, she couldn't stop after driving all this way. Reaching for her purse, she unhinged it and took out the documents. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she exited the car and closed it behind her while locking it.

Her fingers gripped the papers to her chest, threatening to tear holes in them out of nervousness. She floated up the path wearily as she came up to the porch. No collection in mind of what she was going to say at all, but there was no other choice but to let it speak for itself. Doing just that, she rang the doorbell.

Moments later, a tangerine fairy answered the door. Wanda smiled politely.

"Hi, Magna. I suppose you don't remember me.."

To be continued...

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Can immortal creatures have heart attacks? Probably not. Did I decide to ignore this? Yeah. I tried to add more because this chapter is short enough already. Compared to the next one that is much longer. Stay tuned for the big events! (I'm still posting during the holidays!)

~McSgwizzle