Chapter 3
One year from now
"What are you doing?" asks Matt as he looks at Lilly walking beside him. After hitting Granny's diner for a quick breakfast, Matt is walking back to his truck. As he walks down the street, Matt cannot help but smile. It reminds him of Mystic Fall: People walking down the street, shop owners sweeping their sidewalk. People waving to him or saying good morning. The sky is a nice blue with fluffy clouds.
All a person had to do is ignore the fact that Mr. Hyde is causing so many problems, Storybrooke would be a Norman Rockwell painting.
Leave it to Lilly to interrupt his thoughts by skipping beside him.
"I am making sure that you get to your truck in one piece. We live in a very violent society. You never know who could try to run up behind you and mug you." Matt recognizes her tone. Something is up.
"I already have my breakfast, Lilly. I am not buying you coffee." said Matt since that was Lilly go to favor.
"I don't want any coffee. I want my shift to be over so I can go to bed." Lilly yawns for effect. "I am just killing time before the end of my shift. Beside, I worry about you. You are such a delicate flower that I don't want anyone think that you were easy prey."
"What is up, Lilly?" asks Matt the same question in another way.
"Fine. I heard that someone wants to ask you out." asks Lilly with a chuckle.
"Are you kidding me?" Matt had to see her face.
Her expression is giddy. She can barely contain her excitement. It is like she is in high school and she wants to tell everyone the juicy gossip.
"Nope. Someone thinks you're cute." giggles Lilly. Matt shakes his head. He cannot believe that she is taking joy in this. Of course, he did not advertises his dating life. To be fair, Matt's dating life did take a backseat. Storybrooke is not boring in a Wild West type of way.
"Who is it?" asks Matt, knowing that if he did not ask, Lilly will simply explodes.
"Tink."
"Tink?" asks Matt trying to hide the tense in his shoulder.
"Tinkerbell." Lilly looks at Matt's face, only to see that he is still confused. "Sister Green or whatever she wants to call herself?"
"What?" Matt could feel the tension in his shoulder. Hoping that Lilly would drop the subject, Matt fakes his confusion.
"Yeah. I heard from Cinderella, who heard it from Aurora, who heard it from Granny, that Tinkerbell was talking to the Blue Fairy about finding a loophole about dating. I think she got the ok."
"You really have no idea how a nun works?" Matt had to shake his head in disbelief at the obvious lie. He really want this subject to be drop, but Lilly may not let go of this.
"What?" asks Lilly.
"Matthew!" yells out a male voice interrupting the conversation. Matt thanks whatever gods exists in the world. They stop walking and look around. They see the voice of a man dressed in black. He is pale, skinny and has long stringy hair. He has not shaved for days and he is hiding behind a dumpster in the alleyway.
"Walter?" said Lilly. She seems confused by his presence in her day.
"Ugh...not you.." said Walter as he notices Lilly. He did not hide his disappointment over Lilly's existence.
"Yes, me." said Lilly, who looks like she just wanted to hit Walter.
"I just want to talk to Matthew." said Walter as he gives the stink eye to Lilly.
"What do you want, Walter?" asks Matt with frustration slowly building over the conversation. Matt knows what is coming if he did not keep the conversation on focus. Lilly and Walter had a history with each other, which neither one ever told. Whatever it is, they had a dislike only found in werewolves and vampires between each other. He makes his way to get closer to Walter.
"I got a deal for you." said Walter with a smile.
"Walter! You know that this is a deal free making town. We don't make deals." said Lilly.
"Trust me, you want to make this deal."
"What do you thinks this is? The Wire. Here is a deal: How about I introduce you to my mom if you don't talk." said Lilly.
"Jeez, who wants that trouble?" said Walter as he backs away from Lilly. Matt sighs in frustration.
"Walter, I got a twenty and you don't meet her mom. Good enough for you to talk?" asks Matt.
"Good enough." agrees Walter. Matt reaches in his pocket and take out the twenty and gives it to Walter. Walter snatches it out of Matt's hand and put the twenty in his pocket.
"Hyde is up to something." said Walter. Lilly sighs in her frustration.
"Like what?" asks Lilly as she places her profession face on.
"I don't know. I did not ask. What I do know is that he needed a couple of his people out of town for a few days. He came to me because I know a way around that barrier that the Dark One put up a while back." explains Walter.
"Walter, you know if Regina finds out what you did, I can't help you." mentions Matt. The barrier keeps the outside world from finding out about the existence of StoryBrooke. The problem is that when someone leaves town, they can never come back.
"I made a deal with the Dark One back in the day." said Walter.
"Seriously, if the Dark One comes to collect, we can't help you." said Lilly.
"Look, the deal was I needed a way around this barrier. You know come in and out. I have my own deals to work on. Anyway, the Dark One was able to get me some "passes." I got about ten passes. I use one, they go up in flames. The problem was that I need to use one to get out and one to get in."
"The Dark One screwing you over. Imagine that." said Lilly.
"What did the Dark One get out of your deal?" asks Matt.
"I had to get some items for him from the outside world. Nothing big. So, he is paid in full."
"Wait, you gave these passes to Hyde's people?" guesses Lilly.
"Yep."
"Do you know where they went?" ask Lilly.
"No clue, other than they were building something."
"How do you know if you don't know what they are up to."
"I might have been keeping an eye on them when they got back. You know, to make sure they didn't bring in something really bad. One of them dropped a box and it spilled out. It had some weird things in it that screams bad news." said Walter.
"Crap!" said Lilly.
"Walter. Tell me you got a name." said Matt.
"Jenny and Johnny Smith."
"Really?" ask Matt wondering how no one paid attention to the obvious fake name.
"No lie. I have their address on a piece of paper." Walter places a piece of paper on the dumpster. "You didn't hear any of this from me."
Walter runs away from the deputies signaling the end of their conversation.
"If I ignore this, I can go home and sleep." said Lilly.
"If you ignore this, Mr. Hyde is going to do something bad." said Matt as he walks over to the dumpster.
"I can give it to Emma." points out Lilly.
"Emma has her hands full and you know it. If Walter is telling the truth, I am willing to bet that Mr. Hyde is planning all sort of problems to distract everyone today." said Matt, knowing how the literate character work just on his experience with him. He looks at the address.
"Crap. I am not going to get any sleep today." said Lilly.
"You can. I can look into this." said Matt.
"I don't think so. If something happens to you, I will never hear the end of it." said Lilly. "Give me a minute, I am going to need the cup of coffee."
Present
Matt turns off his truck and breathe a sigh of relief.
His trip to Storybrooke was not fun. He got a flat tire, encountered a traffic jam, got pulled over by the local law enforcement, and ran out of his motel room that he tried to sleep in because the motel caught on fire. This drive was definitely a trip that Matt did not want to repeat.
Yep….he feels like crap and he is pretty sure that he looks like it.
He steps out of his truck, stretch, and locks his truck. Matt takes a good look at the town. People are walking in and out of the small shops that is on the main street of the town. He see that the town had a clock tower along with a library underneath. A man is walking his dalmatian, which put a smile on Matt's face. Various people are stopping to take the time to talk each other.
Matt is trying to figure out if this town is Norman Rockwell or Stephen King.
As Matt starts to get on the sidewalk, he bumps into someone, who drops what she was carry.
"Not again." said the lady as she looks down on the ground at what was spilled.
Matt look down and saw a bag filled with egg carton.
"I am so sorry." apologizes Matt. "I didn't see you."
He looks at the woman that he crashed into. She is wearing a dark blue dress. It is buttoned up. It is not a dress to impress men but to be modest. Matt swallows in saliva when he actually see her face. While she is a cute blonde, she is more importantly a sister in the religious sense.
His karma is messing with him now.
"I am so sorry, Sister." apologizes Matt.
"Blu….Mother Superior is going to have my head." said the nun.
"Please, let me pay you for that." said Matt. "It was my fault. I should have been watching where I was going."
"Thankfully, I did not buy all the eggs at the store." rambles the nun. "I appreciate that. We are getting ready for the annual bake sale and I need those eggs to get the cakes started."
She turns to look at Matt.
"Oh."
"What?" asks Matt as he reaches in his pocket to take out his wallet.
"Nothing…" The nun simply stares at Matt for a second longer she likes. "I do not recognizes you."
"I am not around here." Matt opens up his wallet and is relieve to see that he had some cash in it. He takes out the hundred dollar bill and hands it to the nun.
"Where are you from?" asks the nun.
"Mystic Falls." said Matt as he take a good look at the nun, longer then he would like. "Is a hundred enough?"
"Oh, Yes!" said the nun with relief as she takes the bill. "That is more than enough. I should give you your change back."
"Don't worry about it. It was only going for pizza. The change can be a donation for your church." Matt figures that a donation to the local church could balances out the weird karma that insists on putting Matt through a bad trip.
"Thank you, so much. You really have no idea how much this means to me." said the sister. Matt gives her a look. Definitely too pretty to be a nun. "I am not in good standing with Mother Superior. If I don't bring back the eggs, I am pretty sure that I will be cleaning bathroom. Again."
"Nuns get into trouble?" asks Matt as he get on his right knee to pick up the bag of broken eggs.
"Yep." said the sister who cannot hide her embarrassment.
"Well, I will be in town for a few days. If you need someone to vouch for you that it was my fault, just find me." said Matt as he stands up as he picks up the bag. He looks around to find the trash can. "By the way, I'm Matt."
"Tin...Sister Green." said the woman known to everyone in town as Tinkerbell. Mother Superior told Tinkerbell to adopt a new name in the new world. "I would not worry about it. As long as I have the eggs, I should be fine. So, why are you in Storybrooke?"
Matt sees a trash can and walks over.
"Job offer." Matt shoves the bag in the trash can.
"Really?"
"Yeah. The Mayor offered me a job."
"Regina?!"
"You know her?"
"A bit."
"How is she?"
"Difficult."
"Really?"
"Stubborn too. A bit of a...witch." said Tinkerbell. The two ladies had patch things up over the true love incident. Tinkerbell, although, wishes that things worked out differently. She knew that Regina is still dealing with the loss of Robin.
"One of my friend is a witch." said Matt. "I can deal with that."
"Not like Regina." comments Tinkerbell. "What job is she offering?"
"Sheriff. Guess the department is shorthanded."
"I guess." said Tinkerbell. "Are you going to take it?"
"I don't know. That is why I am here. Trying to figure out what I am going to do."
"Well, this town is...something else." said Tinkerbell, wondering how much she should share with the outsider and how an outsider was able to come into the town.
"Nothing I can't handle. The question is do I want to." said Matt. Tinkerbell looks at Matt and see that he is mentally going somewhere.
"I got to get going." said Tinkerbell realizing that she is on a schedule. She had to help out at the school. Not her favorite part of the day. She had to watch over the kids that were staying after school in the daycare. Tinkerbell hate to admit it but she was not a kid person.
She also did not want it to be too obvious that she is staring at Matt way too long. She did not know why. After all, he is not really her type.
"Sorry. I have been driving by myself. Guess I have been doing that for too long."
"Understand." Tinkerbell starts to walk back to the store. "Thanks again for the donation."
"Hey."
"Yeah." Tinkerbell stops, hoping that he is not going to ask her out.
"Where can I get something to eat?"
"Best food would be Granny's diner." answer Tinkerbell. "Go a block turn to your left. It will be on your left. You cannot miss it."
"Thanks, Sister Green." Matt turns to the opposite direction. "Hope you don't get into any more trouble.
"Thanks." said Tinkerbell, slightly disappointed that he did not ask her out. "I do hope you take that job."
Tinkerbell start walk away, hoping that Matt did not see her face turning fifty shades of red.
Matt watches the nun walk away and shakes his head.
"Why do you have to be a nun?" whispers Matt to himself. He starts to follow the nun's direction to find the diner.
The nun's directions did lead Matt to Granny's diner. He walks past the patio and walk right in.
"You look like crap." said Granny as she looks over at Matt as he walk in the diner. He smiles at the remark as if he was expecting it.
"I feel like it." said Matt. "Tell me that you have coffee."
"Just the regular stuff, not any of that fancy whipped cream stuff." said Granny.
"Perfect. I take some with some milk in it." answers Matt.
Granny nods with a smile. Matt sits down at the counter and look around. It is the classic Americana diner. He takes a menu that is being held up by the holder. The menu had everything that scream diner: Hamburger, fries, milkshakes, beer and pancakes.
Granny put the cup of coffee down and Matt did not hesitate in drinking it.
"Thank you." said Matt as he slowly feel like he had some common sense. Trying to flirt with a nun. That would definitely give him bad karma. "Maybe you can do me a favor."
"Depends what that is."
"Place to sleep that will not catch on fire." asks Matt.
"My diner is part B&B. You can rent out a room here." said Granny.
"Can I rent one for the weekend?" said Matt.
"Sure." said the older woman with a smile. Matt smiles back. Matt take out two hundred dollars bills and place it in front of Granny.
"If you can get me a hamburger and fries, I would appreciate it."
"Certainly." said Granny with a smile as she take the bills. "Hamburger will be up in a few minutes. And I will give you the keys to the room."
"Thank you." reply Matt. Granny walks away to get Matt's order. For the first time in a long time, Matt let himself catch his breath and relax.
"Seriously, we are going to talk about this?" said a female voice behind Matt as he hear a bell ringing on the entrance of the diner.
"What? It is never too early to talk about baby's name." Said a woman beside her. Matt sip the coffee, not realizing that a smile is forming. "Alexander is a perfect name for a child."
"Mom. I love you, but I am not pregnant. I have no intention of getting pregnant. Before you asked, no. I am not looking. And yes, Alexander is a good name." Matt could see at the corner of his eyes the two ladies talking to each other. He wonder if he is imagining it but, they looks like the same age. Although, they did dress very differently. One woman is wearing jean and a tshirt while the other look like she came out of a 1920 silent movie complete with the hat.
"Thank you. I just wanting you to think of such matter." Matt figures that the well dressed woman is the mother. Matt could not help but notices a couple at the corner of the diner. The lady is holding her child while her husband is eating something. Both individuals are giving the women talking about babies name a death stare.
"I love you, Mom but the only thing I am thinking about is getting job. I love you but I do not want to live with you forever." said the lady, who is oblivious to the couple's hatred.
"Is something wrong with our arrangement?" said the lady with the hat. Matt could hear a little hurt in her voice.
"No, mom. I love getting to know you. In fact, I actually love it." Matt smiles at the daughter. There is sincere behind it. "But, I am pretty sure at some point, we will want to have lives outside of each other."
"You want to have a guy over without your mother interfering." deducts the lady with the hat.
"That and the fact that my mom looks like she is the same age as me. Do you know how creepy guys can get?"
"Actually, I do." said the woman with the hat.
"It is not going to be soon, Mom. I still need to get all of this mastered before I even think about anything else. But, I do need to start thinking about it."
Matt could not help but chuckles as he notices Granny bringing him a plate of his burger and fries. The two ladies reminds him of his sister and mom except with a better ending.
"Here you are." Granny places the plate in front of Matt and laid the keys down. "Your room is on the second floor. First door on the right. Room 3."
"Thank you." Said Matt as he drinks his coffee.
