It took all day to create the framework for her backstory, and Christy anticipated a three day marathon during her computer time to get it done. It was something Mystique could do in one day and Sage did for people in 4 hours.

She was just getting the framework today, but she still wasn't sure what to use to lure Regina in. If she picked something too small it wouldn't be enough, and too big it would mean she'd just go to Emma with it and have Christy arrested or something. Christy was going to take an extra day to plan that part out. Regina had to think she had the ability to get Christy thrown out of her 'apartment' and to drive customers away.

While she debated about how to hand ammunition over to Regina that she could also prove false if need be, Christy created a fake education and job history. She went with being thirty-six, because she needed a long enough job history. It was still younger than she was now, but it gave her more time than a twenty-eight year old had to develop a life. She'd said she had ten years of travel, so she couldn't be any younger than 28, but she was going to add 8 years to that to fit in an education in psychology and counseling and some job history in that. It might come in handy.

Christy had the computer warn her when it was almost time for her appointment with Mary Margaret because she was really focused. She erased her web browser history and set the computer to play music a half hour before she needed it to. She lit candles and prepared the table with sheets for her only appointment for the day. She'd wait until the end of the week to hit marketing hard, because she really needed the time on the computer now.

The knock on the door was timid sounding and Christy smiled as she opened the door to Mary Margaret. "Well, well, if it isn't Snow White." Christy teased and held the door opened wider so Mary Margaret could come in. The names, real names, were a part of Christy's plan for after the curse. She wanted each of the people she talked to like this to realize all on their own that Christy knew about the curse ahead of time. It seemed like a good way to get invited before this queen to explain herself later.

"Please, I'm no Snow White." Mary Margaret blushed and Christy closed the door behind the teacher as she made her way inside.

"I don't know, you have that pretty pale skin. If you aren't Snow White, maybe you're Alice Cullen?" Christy moved closer as if studying her and watched the woman blush. "Nope, not a vampire."

"Just Mary Margaret Blanchard here." Snow's light weight alter-ego told her with a hint of a smile.

The teasing seemed to help the teacher relax, which was a nice side effect. Christy explained the process and stepped outside to wait for permission to enter again.

"Is anything in particular sore?" Christy asked when she was let back in and she was putting the pillows in place to make the teacher more comfortable.

"My lower back has been a bit sore lately."

"Okay, I'll work on that a bit longer." Christy gently folded the sheet off of a leg to get started from the foot up with her. She seemed more skittish about massage, so Christy was going to start slower than with Red. "Do you want me to massage your buttocks? That often helps with low back pain." After a moment where she seemed to tense up more than relax Christy spoke more softly. "I do it through the sheet, I don't uncover you for it."

"And that's a part of massage?"

"Only for those that want it. I only touch what you want me to, and you can tell me if I'm doing it too hard or too soft." Christy started to warm up Mary Margaret's foot with some slow firm touches. "The point of this is for you. I do what you want or need, nothing more or less."

"I'm being silly, aren't I?" Mary Margaret sounded a bit embarrassed.

"Not really, I was pretty nervous at my first massage. It's not knowing what you signed up for." Christy continued to softly explain all the various types of massage there were, and focused on the few she could do, or pretend to do. One good thing is no one here had massage before, or didn't seem to have a place for it at least. Christy would be able to claim anything and no one could prove her wrong. Still she had been somewhat trained.

"Oh, I thought, well you hear about massage parlors." The teacher stammered and Christy found it hard to stop smirking, as she realized in spite of that misconception, Mary Margaret came for her appointment. She kept that amusement out of her voice though when she answered the woman.

"Those places usually don't have trained people working there. Not trained in regular massage and not trained in Tantric either. It's good enough for men, they aren't hard to please, but a woman wanting something closer to sensual massage would want a real Tantric massage therapist." Christy moved to work on Mary Margaret's other leg and foot. "That type of massage has its place. It isn't merely about 'getting off', it's about healing and getting in touch with your own sexuality. I talked with a Tantric Massage therapist who said it was good for helping women overcome traumas from the past and reclaiming their own sexuality. That it often led to an emotional healing. She really believed in what she did and considered herself a healer, not a prostitute."

"Really, and women went to her for that?" Mary Margaret flexed her food a bit in Christy's hand and Christy made her touch a bit more firm to avoid tickling her.

"Most Tantric Massage therapists are women. It's less threatening, and women are better about keeping the boundaries between a massage, even that kind, and sex. There is a difference."

"Have you ever?" Mary Margaret's words trailed off. "No, nevermind, I shouldn't have asked."

"I've had it done." Christy admitted quietly. She'd been undercover at the time and the woman she was pretending to be already had it scheduled. It had been a bit of a surprise in her day. She did not know what kind of massage she was in for until it started, and the woman had been there before so Christy had to act like she hadn't been shocked for the first time in years. Now it made her seem more 'worldly' than she felt she was, because she wouldn't have made that appointment for herself. "And I've read up a bit on it, tried it out with a lover, but it isn't something I market myself as. There are laws about taking money for that, but it is kind of amazing."

"Oh wow."

"Yes, definitely. Women are rarely able to just receive pleasure without pressure. It's a good thing to learn. I'm sure it helps them learn to relax during real intercourse." Christy finished up with the leg she was working on and recovered it with the sheet. "We never got to an answer about your buttocks."

"Sure, go ahead." Mary Margaret whispered and Christy pressed her thumbs a bit more firmly into those large muscles in the back, through the sheet.

Christy was waiting outside her room waiting for Mary Margaret after the massage when Red came up the stairs. "Finishing up?"

"Yes."

"I was thinking after the foot rub, we could have dinner. Maybe Mary Margaret will join us." Ruby spoke up and added Mary Margaret in once the door opened. "You up for dinner?"

"Oh, dinner." The teacher looked a little flustered by the question.

"Yeah, 007 owes me a foot rub and then we could get some dinner at the diner."

"Owes you?" The teacher was clearly trying to catch up on the conversation and Christy smiled at her.

"Red lets me borrow her computer while she's at work and she's helped me with some online purchases, because I don't have a credit card. I pay for what I buy and I give her a foot massage after work." She explained their deal. "I'm not above bartering services."

"Wow. Ruby has it good, you staying here." Mary Margaret smiled.

"I know she does." Christy teased and then slipped into her room. Mary Margaret stayed and Ruby moved into the room and plopped heavily down in the chair. "And you just have a cop at your place, how unfair for you."

"I like Emma just fine, thank you." Mary Margaret smiled and moved to sit on the bed, just a little awkwardly.

"Yeah, but she doesn't rub you until you question your sexuality does she?" Red teased and even Christy blushed, knowing more about that story than they did.

"I think it's better Emma doesn't do that." Christy muttered and sat down on the floor after Red took her shoes off. "And would it kill you to get shoes that don't hurt your poor feet?"

Christy took Red's right foot into her hand and started a long firm stroke of it. "God, I'm keeping you in this small nothing town forever, you know that." Red muttered and there was a murmur of agreement from the bed.

"Won't hear any argument from me. Do you see the women I get to touch?" Christy winked at a blushing and grinning Mary Margaret.

After the massage, Mary Margaret actually bowed out of dinner, saying she wanted to be home for Emma. Emma was still having some trouble with the Sheriff's death and apparently she tended to break things in the kitchen when she was upset. Christy noticed that no one was talking about Emma being sheriff yet or running for it. She remembered enough about that episode to know the process of becoming Sheriff was going to be a bumpy one for Emma.

….

The next two days Christy spent every minute she had with the computer working on her back story. She was pretty sure she had something that would work. The disappointing thing was that she didn't have any time to watch the DVD's and definitely no time to start work on the room downstairs. Granny came for her 'trial massage' on the second day, and Christy risked having the computer running the uploads to the Federal Government while she did that massage. It wasn't like even if she got caught, outsiders could get into Storybrooke, but still she was a little tense until the a glimpse at the computer showed it was done. Granny never caught on that Christy's attention was split at that time.

The last day of her deal with Ruby for the computer, Marco was available late afternoon only, he'd called Granny to reschedule and Christy almost let out a sigh of relief at a day alone with the computer, after her work on her identity was over. She had time to watch several episodes.

She did her best not to pause too much, to get as much info at possible. She could watch these again later if need be. As she put in the last one she could fit into her day, she already had a 'hit list' going, and seeing what King George tried to do to Red, and what he had done to Snow, Christy found herself focusing on how to get away with a murder before the curse broke. It would have to look like a complete accident, something with no fault at all, but Christy decided that it would have to happen. She had time, but that man was not going to become an issue. His attitude was too familiar to her to let it survive.

One bit of good news in those episodes was that Christy felt more positive about her decision to see if she could help Regina change, and with the repercussions of the curse breaking. The Regina in season two was a sad, pathetic figure that showed promise of growth, but Christy was not at all happy with what Henry did to her and what people like Rumplestilskin did to her in the past and in sending the wraith after her.

Magic was a part of her, and Henry was telling her to cut it out. Her powers were something to control, like mutant powers, not ignore. It felt like he wanted her to 'pass as normal' and yet he wanted her to solve the magical problem of getting Emma and Snow back. There may be reason to cut out magic, but others weren't being asked to stop, just those that did bad things with it. Christy wasn't sure if magic was really inherently bad or not, but it was uncomfortably close to mutant powers in her mind and she bristled at the thought of being told not to use her own, so why should others stop with theirs?

He was destroying Regina with his black and white mentality and his insensitivity. It put a child on her 'hit list' of someone that she has to do something about, and in spite of how long she'd been in the 'dirty deeds' business, she hadn't ever had to go up against an eleven year old. She expected it would be a different kind of battle, she just needed to wake that kid up and make him grow up a bit. Underneath her tough exterior, Regina was incredibly fragile and her son was going to hurt her badly if he wasn't stopped.

The knock on the door pulled Christy out of her thoughts and she quickly ejected the DVD and put it, and the others, back in their hiding place inside of her, before moving to open the door.

An older man with his hat in his hand stood at her doorway. "Ms. Darkholme? Granny told me you needed my opinion on the extra suite? I'm Marco."

"Well, I'm Christy." She smiled and stepped out of her room. "I think I have a good grasp of what to do, but we're running it by you to see if you have better ideas." She led him back downstairs while doing the polite chit chat, and they discussed the work that needed to be done. He agreed with most of her plans, gave her alternatives, and took measurements for a screen in front of the bedroom half. He also took measurements to make a matching screen that could be pulled over the French doors if needed.

What was really nice was that he gave Christy a ride to the store to pick up supplies, helped her pick them, and drove her back. It was sweet of him and saved her a huge headache since she didn't have a car.

…..

Henry pov

Henry watched for a while as Christy and Marco unloaded Marco's truck. It looked like they had paint and other things. When he saw Ms. Blanchard leaving the diner he was standing outside of he moved to catch up with her. "Ms. Blanchard."

"Oh hey Henry." She looked a bit nervous and glanced back behind him. Henry looked back to see David leaving the diner and heading toward his truck across the street. "What are you up to?"

"Do you think it's possible to do bad things for good reasons?" he asked her, thinking about the comments online about Christy Darkholme.

"Why, what have you heard?" His teacher's eyes stared into him and he was startled by the demanding tone of voice. "oh nevermind, what do you mean?" She seemed to relax.

"Well, can good people do bad things for good reasons?"

She looked a little stumped for a moment, before she nodded, "Yes, yes, I think they can. And who's to say they are 'bad', if it's really for the right reason. I mean love isn't bad, it's never bad."

It didn't feel quite like an answer, but he could see that she was in a hurry and she was walking away from Christy so he just thanked her and moved back to watch Christy and Marco take things inside the in.

"Hey kid, what you doing?" Emma's voice startled him and he turned to see her glancing at Christy and then back at him. The slight frown on her lips was all the warning he had she wasn't happy. "I heard you called her the Queen of Death. She wasn't too happy with that. You have to be careful how you talk to people."

"But she is the Queen of Death." He told her, his words faster than normal. "She's really,"

"Look kid, it's a bit rude to walk up to a stranger and tell them they are evil." Emma scolded him and Henry was a bit surprised at it and the sting in his eyes. "Sometimes it's better to just know something and not say anything about it." Emma paused. "And comic book characters? I thought we were all Fairy Tale characters."

"She just appeared in the middle of town."

"She probably took the bus in." Emma told him, and it was all he could do not to yell that Christy really had just 'appeared' in the middle of town. He looked over towards Christy and was startled to see her staring at him for a tense moment, before she reached into the truck and picked something else up.

"Yeah, yeah." He muttered to Emma, a bit nervous about what the woman would do if she saw him talking about her 'appearing'.

"Want some hot chocolate? On me." Emma rested a hand on his shoulder and he let her lead him into the diner.

He chose a seat near the window, so he could continue to watch what Christy was doing if he wanted to. He saw the post office truck pull up and Christ got good size box. "What did she get?" He asked, wondering if it was guns or poison, or something evil.

"What?" Emma glanced back behind her through the window. "Henry, don't go pestering Christy. What she got is none of your business."

"But she's the Queen of Death, she could have gotten something illegal. Shouldn't you check it out?" He wanted Emma to go out there and demand to see in the box, she was the Deputy after all, the only cop in town now.

"It doesn't work that way Henry. There is such a thing as a warrant and the right not to be searched randomly like that." Emma told him and Henry just glowered at her.

Christy wander into the dinner, her box still in her hand and Henry stared at it, until he noticed it coming closer to him and then his eyes shot up to see Christy smirking at him. "Hey Emma, Henry."

"Hey Christy, what you doing here?" Emma smiled at her and Henry didn't try to hide his frown at that. She should have asked about that box.

"I eat all my meals here, that's the deal I got on my room." Christy smiled and rested the edge of that box on the table, as if taunting Henry with it.

"It's a little early for dinner."

"No, it's actually incredibly late for lunch." Christy smiled at them both, but Henry didn't even know what to do until Emma nudged him under the table. He nodded a brief, unfelt, greeting. "I'll see you guys later."

"Why don't you sit with us?" Emma asked, even though Henry shook his head no at her when Christy wasn't looking. He wanted to ask Emma about if Christy could possibly be good, even though she did bad things. He couldn't ask that with Christy right there.

"Ah," Christy grimaced. "I'm waiting to see if Regina's forgiven me for the last time I was near Henry. I'm not going to push it."

"What happened?" Emma turned to look at Henry and then back at Christy.

"Did you ever get your answer Henry?"

"Yeah," He stared down at the table. "Being a lesbian means you like girls the way other girls like boys."

"Kid overheard something walking past Red and I, and I ended up sticking Regina with explaining that one." Christy chuckled just a little.

"Oh, I see." Emma seemed to be smiling a bit much at that and Henry didn't understand their amusement. He watched Christy walk over to the counter and sit down right at it.

"She doesn't seem all that evil to me."

"Do you really think so? I mean she isn't lying and pretending to be good is she?" He asked her and waited desperately for Emma's answer.

"No, I think she's probably a pretty nice woman. Still, you shouldn't spend time hanging around strangers Henry, that's just not safe." Emma told him.

"But what if she did bad things in her past, what if she killed people?"

"We don't know that." Emma sighed heavily. "Look Henry, you can't accuse her of murder without proof."

"I didn't," His words trailed off and he frowned as he considered what to say. "Is it possible to do bad things for good reasons and still be a good person?"

"Henry," Emma leaned closer and stared at him a moment. "Everyone runs into a situation like that in their life, where they don't have a 'good and right' solution to a problem. You just have to do the best you can with the hand you're dealt." She stared even harder. "Have you done something you're ashamed of Henry?"

"No, no," He shook his head firmly and she seemed to relax. "I just read something and I wondered."

They were finishing up their hot chocolate when Emma got a call. Henry told her he could walk home on his own, and waited until she'd left the diner, before getting up and moving toward the counter.

"What's in the box?" He asked from behind her and watched as she slowly turned to look him in the eyes.

"Comics, apparently my comics." Christy spoke softly and he glanced around to see that Ruby was waiting on someone across the diner and no one else was sitting at the counter. "I wanted to see how wrong they were, because there are always several sides of a story and the writer picks who gets to tell theirs." Christy turned on her chair and stared at him. "I want to see how much they left out, how they painted me, because when the curse breaks I have to deal with that and if this," Christy patted the box, "is an unfair telling I have to know."

"You think it has lies?" He frowned, thinking she was trying to make him not believe.

"I think it's probably incomplete. You like spiderman right?" He nodded, confused at where she was going with that. "Okay did you read how he started off as Spiderman, before he was a hero? What if you only got to read about his using his powers to make money as a wrestler? He isn't a hero there, but if the writer only chose to tell you that part he seems like a jerk."

"But the writer has to tell the full story."

"No, the writer only has to tell what parts of the story they want to in order to make the reader feel and think what they want them to. I want to know what the writers wanted people to think about me."

Christy glanced behind him. "Hey Ruby, got my box." Christy pointed at her box.

"You want me to see your box?" Ruby gave Christy a teasing grin that made no sense as she walked towards them. Adults were strange at times.

"You know it." Christy shoved her glass closer to Ruby and got a refill of her water.

"Henry, shouldn't you be heading home? Your mother will be off work soon." Ruby warned him and he nodded, but it was very hard to turn around and leave. Christy believed him, and she knew more than she should, he was sure of it now. He rushed back to her before getting halfway through the diner, just as Ruby walked away.

"So you think the curse is going to break." Henry's eyes widened and he whispered while getting closer.

"Yes, I do."

"I want you in Operation Cobra." He told her, making up his mind in that moment.

"Let me hold off on answering you on that one, but if I do join, I've got to be the super secret member. No one else could ever know." She gave him a hint of a smile and he beamed back at her, before rushing out of the diner. He'd have to arrange a time to meet with her privately, to explain what was happening, but after the past week, he felt a bit more hopeful that something was going to go right. Maybe good couldn't fight evil right, because they fought fair, but Christy was a gray hat and maybe he needed that.

….

Christy didn't even try to stop the tears from trailing down her face as she set the comic on the bedside table. Breathing was a little hard, so she did stop doing that. The cover of the Origins comic stared up at her. She'd started at the beginning, but found it was the most painful part.

In a comic you could see what you weren't there for, and you could see into people's minds and Christy was shaken by it. She was both feared and loved more than she'd known.

It was two in the morning, and Christy didn't think it would be a good idea to try and sleep after revisiting that dark part of her past. There was so much missing from the story, but the core of it, the pain of it, remained. She didn't want to even think about the nightmares she'd have. She also didn't feel strong enough to open another graphic novel at the moment, and the second of the origins series stared at her.

Finally she had to get away, and so Christy made up her mind to do something constructive. She slipped downstairs and she opened the door to the new suite she was working on. In the middle of the night she'd have to keep the noise down, but she pushed all the furniture away from the walls and she taped up the trim, before she worked on painting.

She didn't have a ladder, so she made sure the windows were covered and she lengthened her legs, because she needed to keep in motion. By six in the morning she was done with the second coat and she was tearing up the carpeting, as they were replacing it. She'd moved the furniture in the room from one side to the other while she worked and she didn't bother with the tools Marco bought for cutting, she used her own claws for it. Some parts of the carpet were shredded to confetti, as there were a few times she just needed to destroy something.

When Granny slowly slipped into the room Christy was stacking the carpet pieces near the French doors so she could take them out to the garbage. "Oh my."

"I couldn't sleep." Christy told her while tossing the last of the carpet into the pile.

"You did all this in one night?" Granny asked her with wide eyes. Christy gave her a weak smile.

"I still need to lay the flooring, and paint the trim." She looked around the room. "And I'm creating a hollow wall that the screen will slide into." The job was looking a lot smaller now though. "The most time consumer part will be working out the furniture, repairing what I can. Marco said he'd help when I get in over my head on those." She glanced back at the older woman. "What hours can I make noise?"

"Ten to five." Granny told her softly, still looking around at the order Christy had made of the chaos already. "Good job so far." She shook her head from side to side and turned for the door. "I've got to get to the diner, but if you have any questions, just come by or call over."

"Will do." Christy nodded and then paused for a moment. "Where is the dumpster? I have to toss the carpet."

"It's on the side." Granny pointed in a direction. "You can pull it out of the door here and on the fence you'll see the lock." Granny pulled out a large keychain and handed over one of the keys. "To the fence." She explained and then she was off to work.

After dumping the carpet Christy made her way over to the diner for breakfast. She had to wait until ten before she could do anything else. The wall had to go up before the flooring. She should have put it up before painting, but at that hour she just did what she could and she'd paint the rest after it was up and ready.

…

Regina sat down at her desk and stared at Sydney. "Tell me you have something."

"I have something." He smiled at her, looking like a pathetic and desperate puppy eager for love. He wouldn't be getting it. He took a few timid steps forward and put a file on her desk.

"Is there anything you need to add to this?" She asked as she held the folder up.

"She's got a checkered past that would be great front page news." He told her and it peeked her interest. Regina opened the file and started to go through the pages of research herself, rather than listen to his simpering as he told her the details.

Oh, this was good information, she thought and slowly she started to smile. "No, hold the presses on this Sydney. I want to talk to her first."

"And what about that other story, about Emma?" He asked.

"Oh, run that one." Regina said with a large smile. "She thought she could run for Sheriff, she deserves the publicity." She tapped a finger on the file on her desk. "I'll hold onto this until it proves useful."

She laughed as he left, it was proving to be a really good morning. Tomorrow's headline would be Emma's jail time and she had a massage to schedule for later that day after the news broke.

….

Christy gave Ashley a small smile as she was handed the menu. It wasn't really necessary to read it anymore, but Christy looked it over for any new inspirations for breakfast. She was going to take a while just sitting here, and then she'd force herself to read yet another graphic novel before starting on the walls. She had to do it, but it wasn't easy. At least she could say it was fair and balanced. It showed her pain at the decisions she had been forced to make, she wasn't a villain in that first book, but she was able to sit outside of herself and see how she ended up becoming what she was now. That sort of self-reflection didn't really belong in a comic book, in Christy's opinion, but she couldn't say she was surprised to find she'd gone full circle, from using them for inspiration to keep moving to becoming them.

Her plate was brought to her as Mary Margaret slipped into the diner. Christy was about to call her over, but she watched the slightly nervous movements of the brunette and the way she sat at a table facing the door. Christy ate slowly as she watched the sad debacle that was David coming in to get some coffee and Mary Margaret saying a few awkward words with him as he waited for his order. Christy watched him slip outside to the car with a blonde woman in it and she knew that must be Katherine, the woman that the curse had given him as a wife, instead of his real true love, Snow White. Christy sighed and picked up her plate and moved to walk slowly over to the table that held a depressed looking teacher.

Christy spoke quietly and sat down across from her. "You okay?"

"What, oh, nothing's wrong." Mary Margaret muttered, but she wasn't looking at Christy's face.

With a small hint of a smile, Christy leaned forward. "Love hurts like hell, doesn't it?" She couldn't really identify as well as she'd like to, but she gave the woman a small friendly smile. "I'm not judging, I won't."

"Oh God." Mary Margaret let out a heavy breath and leaned her forehead on her hands, propping herself up. "I'm sad, a sad pathetic, immoral,"

"I didn't mean that since I wasn't judging you should do your own." Christy reached out to take one of the teacher's hands off of her face, so she could see her. "You're a passionate woman under all the meek exterior and you're smart, caring, and I'm sure if your back is to a wall you could be fierce. You're in a bad situation, it doesn't make you a bad person."

"You don't think so?" Mary opened her eyes and stared into Christy's. "He's married, you got that didn't you?"

"Yeah, I figured that one out, even if I hadn't read all the latest newspapers, I would have caught that one." Christy pointed at her plate. "Bacon? I got a bit more than I can eat. No, okay." Christy leaned forward, keeping her voice quiet. "He doesn't remember her, and you didn't know about her when you fell for him did you?"

"No, how did you know? The newspaper didn't say anything,"

Christy cut her off with a wave of her hand and a smile. "I'm a student of human behavior, filling in blanks was practically my job for years." She sighed as a pause. "But the point is, you didn't see a married man and go after him. You had lousy luck and neither of you knew about that problem in the start. It's what you do now that matters though."

"I should leave him alone, I know that." She spoke quickly.

"No, that's not what I'm saying." Christy shook her head from side to side. "You need to take care of yourself and if he decides to come back, great, but you aren't eating any breakfast that I see. Did you eat at home?" Mary Margaret looked a little lost and Christy smiled. "You need to stay sexy babe, eat right, get exercise, do things that make you happy. A sad, depressed woman isn't going to tempt someone into having 'that talk' with their wife."

"You want me to steal him?" She gave her an odd look, as if unable to believe what she was hearing.

"No, nothing underhanded. I want you to continue to live your life and if he changes his to fit into yours, great." Christy's smile faded a little. "I'm not normally the one giving love advice, but I do help people put their lives together after it has been devastated. I understand grief in a way few have to and you are grieving. Fake it til you make it White, make yourself live and do things that used to make you happy and it'll come."

"White?"

"Hey, my first friend here is Red, so if you're my friend too, White."

"Because I'm Snow White?" Mary Margaret looked a little disturbed by that.

"Yep, you're the Princess. I could call you that, or will you take White?" Christy teased.

"White it is." Mary Margaret sighed heavily. "Fake it? That works?"

"It does for me." Christy told her and noticed the raised eyebrow she got in response. "Finding other things to get involved in helps, for you it might be a new hobby, learning a new skill or a new person." Seeing the look of horror on the teachers face Christy smiled a little. "Not a lover, a friend would do. You just need something to keep you from having too much time to dwell on what you don't have. Dwelling on pain never helps, never once." It was also why Christy didn't like that she had comics to read, she'd done her best with the last ten years not to dwell on things, but having to research what this world knew about her brought it all up again and made it fresh.

"What do you do?"

"Honestly," Christy made a face and sighed. "I tend to get all up in other people's business like I'm doing right now."

"Really, you become a counselor?" Mary Margaret chuckled.

"Among other things." Christy rolled her eyes and smiled. "I also tend to swoop in to save the day. If I can't be happy I want to at least help other people be happy."

"That's, well, that's really nice." A hand moved to rest over Christy's on the table. "You're a good person."

"Thanks. So are you." Christy spoke firmly those last three words.

"Everything felt so 'real' with him." The teacher started to confide in her and Christy let her. "Like it was meant to be, but then we found out he was married and he doesn't want to leave her. He's still remembering who he is."

"That is a problem." Christy frowned. "Until someone knows themselves, they can't share themselves with others completely. It's hard to love in that situation. Have you thought about waiting for him to regain enough of himself to start a relationship?"

"I feel like the history is just that, and who he is, inside, shines through regardless." Christy looked at the Queen of another land and wondered if that could be true. She didn't see it here. "It's like he is my one and only."

"Okay, that isn't healthy." Christy muttered more out of habit, but then froze as she wondered if she'd found the one world that really had just one possible, perfect love for a person. She felt a little like she'd stuck her foot in her mouth, but instead of freezing, she continued with what she normally said to that kind of comment rather than draw attention to the fact that Mary Margaret could be right, for herself at least. "If people only have one love, the one and only, the chances of finding that person are astronomical in the world. I think of it like we're all puzzle pieces and we fit differently with different people, but there are people that just 'click in'. It isn't limited in number, and there are different pictures created, but any of those puzzle pieces could be A ONE, and that is enough. Otherwise no widow should look for love again, and some people lose their ONE before they even meet them, because they've died. I can't believe in the one, because if someone planned it out that way, if every world has just one fit I'll never find mine."

"Why?"

Christy grimaced as she thought of the fact that she was the sole survivor, or that she landed in a world where her counterpart existed already. "I've been over half the world, I've seen more than probably 99.9% of people ever do, if not everyone. If I'm still alone, and I am, chances aren't good for THE ONE. However if I just need A ONE, I could find that here."

She sighed and felt White's hand over her own squeeze. "I've learned to be pretty free with my love. There is no reason to hoard it like money."

"Do you mean you sleep around?" Mary Margaret whispered and Christy smiled at the way she asked that as if it were a huge secret.

"Some, but what I really mean is that I don't fight caring about people. When they're gone, that's the first thing you'll regret, never sharing that you cared." Christy was a little surprised her voice cracked on those last words. She gritted her teeth and rode out the pain of that thought. It hurt more because she'd just read about Mark's death that night and the thoughts he'd had right before he went. That man loved her and he knew how much shooting him had hurt her, he forgave her and even thanked her in his last thoughts for keeping him from being captured.

The scrape of the chair legs drew her attention to the fact that Mary Margaret was moving in closer and she pulled Christy into a quick hug. "You've lost someone."

"Yeah, you could say that." Christy managed and pulled back. She'd lost everyone. "Sorry, didn't mean to,"

"No, no, you're human and it isn't weakness to feel pain."

Christy looked into Mary Margaret's eyes. "Thanks." The woman gave her a small smile and one last pat on the leg. "So do you think you're the helping others kind of a griever?"

"Maybe." The teacher glanced at the clock over the door and her face fell. "Oh, I have to get to class."

"You have a good day."

"I hate leaving you like this."

"It's fine." Christy reassured her.

"I'll see you later."

Christy watched her leave and then returned to eating, while pulling her newspaper out. Her vulnerability hurt, and she hoped that the other comics didn't hurt as much to read. She was in a new world and she needed to be able to focus to stay on top of things or she'd have to see yet another.

She noticed that Emma was running for Sheriff now, it was front page news. Things should start to move along faster once that was done. Christy studied the blonde in the picture and smiled a little. It was tempting to help her out, but she knew that Emma had a very powerful ally in this election and it was better to stay out of the way for now. Once Emma had the job, maybe Christy could start getting some things done, but she wanted Emma as Sheriff. It gave Emma the power to stand up to others when the curse broke. That was something Regina and Christy might both need her to be able to do.

…..

It didn't look like it was going to rain so Christy had moved several pieces of furniture out the French doors and into the yard so that she didn't have to move them around as she laid the flooring. Her and Marco had selected a nice tiled carpet and it shouldn't be too hard to install. The new walls were up, not nicely and completely done, but they were to the point that the floor could be done and Christy wanted to do that on a nice day. It was Fall, nearly Winter, so the fact that there wasn't a cloud in the sky now had to be capitalized on. The furniture outside would be fine and if Christy could get all of the flooring done she'd be able to avoid moving it back and forth across the room anymore.

This project was perfect for her right now. She'd read the comic about her arrival in this world after breakfast and it hadn't hurt as much as the first. Her 'character' was now being trained by Mystique and those were good times, good memories. She'd actually laughed a few times at the comedy that was her training at times. It still made her miss her mentor and occasional lover, but it was a good sting in comparison.

"Knock knock." A confident feminine voice called out and Christy looked up at the opened door to the hallway to see Regina standing there with a smile on her face. There was a confidence in her stance and Christy let her amusement show, knowing it would be misinterpreted. It looks like Sydney got Regina that information she wanted this morning.

"Well, hello." She smiled at the mayor and stood up from where she'd been kneeling and opening packages of carpet tiles.

"Looks like you're settling in alright." Regina glanced around the room and frowned just a little.

"Not too badly. Granny is pretty generous." Christy motioned for the woman to come in. "I'm helping her do a little remodeling in here, just cosmetic stuff." She pointed at the fireplace. "This will be a really nice suite once it's done."

"I thought you were becoming a masseuse." Regina asked, while looking around at the paint supplies in the corner and the boxes of carpet.

"That's the good things, I fix this room and I get a reduced rate on it." Christy pointed out the windowless corner of the room. "Bed over there, and over here." Christy pointed right in front of her, "massage table in front of fireplace. This will be better than most of the spas I've seen."

"You're certainly settling in." Regina had lost her smile for a moment.

"I got the impression Mr. Gold was the main landlord in the area and he hinted that I wasn't going to find an apartment." Christy grimaced. "I'll probably be here a while, until he gets over that."

"I wouldn't count on him getting 'over' that." Regina told her.

"Well, I'm not giving up." Christy smiled at the woman. "The ladies here are very sexy." She made a point of checking the mayor out a little obviously.

"Thank you." Regina's eyebrow was a little higher than it had been. "I heard you have started taking appointments for massages."

"oh," Christy stood up a little straighter. "You want an appointment?" Her voice was a little more professional, even though she knew this was part of some plan the mayor had.

"I was wondering if I could get an appointment for tomorrow, around four. Henry has an appointment with his therapist at that time, so it would be a good time to get a massage."

"Sure," Christy hadn't planned to work on massage tomorrow, but she was making time for this. "How long?"

"An hour should do." There was clearly a hidden meaning to that and Christy just smiled at the mayor and nodded. She'd book Regina for two, because there was a very good chance Regina was wrong about that.

"Good luck with the remodel." Regina looked around as if unable to envision that room being anything worth having.

"You'll have to come back for a massage once I have this done. In the winter, with the fire, it'll be downright romantic." Christy gave the mayor a challenging smile that had Regina pause in her escape from the room.

"We'll see." Was all the mayor said as she left the room.

Once Regina was gone, Christy bothered to look at the time and decided she could take a break for lunch, but she wasn't taking a long one. On her way back from lunch she grabbed one graphic novel to read in the room. She was using her powers to speed things up, but because of that she needed to be in the room longer to cover that up. She'd forgotten taking breaks or slowing down during the night and she'd startled Granny too much with her progress. She needed to watch out for that. Dealing with these comics would be a good use of her time.