I keep forgetting to add these comments!
The T rating is for language.
Also, I do appreciate reviews. I have an idea in my head of where things are going and what has to happen, but feedback helps feed new thoughts so its much appreciated. I'm actually surprised anyone is reading this.
Chapter Five
The rest of that day was chaos. It was actually comforting to have it outside of her head for a change. She'd gone to help at the disaster shelter; treating injuries and distributing medicines, moving from person to person in a role that was mechanical and comfortable. It was only when the sun began to set that Vivien remembered the dangers held in the night. The streets emptied rapidly as citizens fled the terror of the coming wraith. No matter that they knew the unstoppable Sheriff Swan and her parents (a tidbit Vivien had picked up from moving through the crowd) had a plan; they were natives of an enchanted world and they knew, in their very bones, that magic in any form was dangerous.
Vivien couldn't face going home. Her feet instinctively retraced her steps from the night before and she didn't even pretend to be surprised when she looked up at the sign of the bar. Rabbit Hole, guess I was reading it wrong last night. She frowned before stepping in. Maybe it had just been wishful thinking that had made her think of the watering hole as the White Rabbit. After all, the bartender did wear a waistcoat.
Sliding into a seat at the bar Vivien noticed she wasn't the only StoryBrooke denizen hesitant to go home. The place was fairly full. Not a single face that she'd seen at the shelters though. Those had all been refugees from the enchanted forest. Here, this was a crowd a bit more jagged around the edges.
She recognized Absolem in the corner. He'd been her dealer on the rare occasion when she couldn't forge a script in time. He had hands in so many different shady dealings that people called him Caterpillar. You'd never think of him as a kingpin, sitting back and puffing a pipe like some jovial grandfather. With him were his enforcers, two brothers dumber than a sack of hammers and given to quarreling. Gods, she'd hated having to ask Dee or his brother to see Absolem, the answer took longer than the visit. The Caterpillar spotted her watching him and nodded affably. Apparently there were no enemies here tonight.
The bartender slid her over a glass of whiskey, the same she'd been drinking last night. She didn't want to drink it. Not the way someone wants to drink but she did want to be drunk. She wanted the quiet that could go with an alcohol haze. She even wanted the throbbing pain that would muddy all her thoughts next morning.
"Hey, there, feeling better?" a familiar voice broke her thoughts and her vision went pink. Glinda had paused at the bar, fetching drinks. She was wearing different pink but still enough to sear a cornea.
"Yeah, thanks," Lake nodded, "And you? How'd the rest of your night go?"
"Great!" Glinda almost glowed with enthusiasm, "You were so right! I found her and we had a long talk and everything is going to be great. She's meeting me here later. Are you here alone?"
"I guess." With all the voices yelling in her head she couldn't always tell.
"Well join us! The band isn't on tonight so they're just chilling." She nodded to the table of three men, all waiting impatiently for their drinks.
Vivien hesitated. She urgently wanted to numb her brain and pass out but she also hated the idea of being the lone drinker at the bar. She might be loath to admit it but she came here not just to avoid going home but to avoid being alone. Alone was too crowded in her head.
Before she could answer Glinda had grabbed her arm and was dragging her over – which was amazing since she was still carrying a tray of drinks as well.
"Guys, this is Vivien. I dragged her in last night." She announced and pushed the PT into an empty chair.
"I saw. You stayed for the whole set. Up until that banshee thing." Marshall greeted and grabbed his beer before Glinda could get distracted again. She was watching the door like a puppy waiting for treats.
"I thought it was a tornado." Leo said wistfully.
"It wasn't. Ok? There are no tornadoes in freaking Maine!" Marshall rounded sharply, making the tattooed man flinch. Glinda was so right, total scaredy-cat.
"You know we could write to her." Toothpick offered hesitantly. It was the first time Vivien had ever seen him not twitching. Maybe his old self wasn't a tweaker?
"Right. C'mon, use your brain, if you have it! We can't just write to every Dorothy in Kansas!" Marshall, the obvious leader, growled.
"Be nice! They just miss her. Have a heart." Glinda slapped his arm, almost making him spill beer.
"It's been 28 years, Glin. I'm pretty sure she's moved on. We should too."
Wait. Heart? Brain? DOROTHY?
"You're from OZ?!" Vivien jerked forward in her chair so fast she nearly fell out of it.
"You know it?" Leo looked up in surprise.
"I, I read it. Or, I remember reading it. Thinking I read it." Vivien hesitated, trying to sort out the fact and fiction in her head. Harder to do when she was sitting and talking to fictional characters. Except they weren't. No one really was. I spent half the day tending to panicked people from fairytale land alongside Snow Freaking White and a blue fairy!
"Me too. The book didn't really do anyone justice." Glinda rested a consoling hand on Lake's, calming her confusion.
"No one ever gets the story right," Toothpi-Scarecrow shook his head, "Look at that bunch in the corner. They look like anything Alice would've enjoyed meeting?"
Vivien regarded Absolem's crew and covered her mouth to keep from laughing. Books. They were all in books! Was that the connection? It couldn't be that simple.
"So Regina's curse just pulled everyone out of their story?" she looked around at the Ozzies and noticed the men were all studiously avoiding her gaze. Only Glinda seemed willing to answer.
"No. We ended up here because these three missed Dorothy so desperately that they struck a deal with someone they thought was the wizard." She explained, giving her ashamed friends a patient and pitying glance. She obviously loved them, idiocy and all.
"Deals. That sounds like Gold." Vivien had been in hock to the pawn broker herself once. She'd vowed to never let it happen again. That had been part of what motivated her to give up the pills.
"He did magic like a wizard." Marshall – wait,'Marshall' for Tinman? Vivien needed a moment to mull that one over. Wasn't that what cops on TV called badges: tins? This curse has a sense of humor.
"At least we're better than the Wonderland bunch. They're still working for him." Leo growled at the far table but then cringed when they looked up.
"So the books don't matter." Vivien sighed, sagging back into her chair. No closer to an answer then.
"Books always matter. They may not be direct portals to another world but they can show us anything. Take it from a good witch, they are every bit as magical as mirrors." Glinda assured her with the strength and conviction of an entire cheerleading squad. The woman was insufferably encouraging.
"The only book that matters is the one the kid has. I heard them talking about it in the café a couple weeks ago. All of this is in it; the curse, the Queen, the savior, everything." Tinman contradicted, earning him a venomous glare from the queen of pink.
Vivien knew exactly what 'kid' he meant. There was only one child at the center of everything. Jeez. Son of the Savior AND the Evil Queen? That's a custody battle made in hell. Poor Henry. It was fortunate he had as indomitably sunny a disposition as Glinda. He was probably going to need it.
Lake contemplated her drink as a small argument resumed between Tinman and Scarecrow with Glinda trying to officiate. Books were magic; that wasn't news to her. In her experience most magic started with books. Everyone in StoryBrooke was a piece of a story, many stories, all woven together and tied up in a big cursed bow. Which meant that she was too.
She'd been avoiding that particular thought like a broken tooth in her mouth. She knew her story was out there. She'd been trying not to think of all the ways her world had been represented here. Old friends, lovers and enemies had all made cameos. They hadn't just been left on pages but brought to life on TV and movie screens. And she'd watched them for 28 years without a clue that she was watching a travesty of her life.
I wasn't in the movies. The thought was electrifying when it seared across her mind. Her role hadn't been brought to light, which meant it was still lurking on a musty page somewhere. Someone had to have told her story or at least a version of it. It might be just as trite and full of holes as Ruby's version of Regina's crimes but it would have to hold some clue, some explanation of how she got here.
"Oh good! She's here!" Glinda shot to her feet and waved to someone just walking in. Vivien shook herself from the swell of thoughts and excitement that had engulfed her. She looked to the door and saw a dark haired woman taking off her jacket.
"Wow." That was all she could manage. She really is green!
"This is so wrong." Tinman muttered as Glinda went and hugged the new arrival hello.
"Yeah. You know, it's late. I have to go." Vivien was on her feet and tossing money on the table before Glinda's effusive enthusiasm could stop her. She had only a moment to exchange glances with the newcomer as she passed. She looked like she wanted to be running away too.
"Good luck." Lake muttered before escaping the bar. Even the dream of being drunk had lost its appeal. She needed to get on the laptop and get to work. Home no longer held any fears. The sooner she got there the sooner she could begin.
Vivien woke the next morning with the sunrise. She'd fallen asleep with her face buried in her notebook and a fair amount of ink smeared her cheek as she blearily lifted her head. She looked at the pages of notes and smiled. She had lists of everyone she knew in StoryBrooke. She had diagrams of biographical connections as she knew them thus far. She had notes on key characteristics of the 50 best known fairytale characters, thanks to the one book in her house that wasn't a medical or anatomical reference work.
She thumbed the pages affectionately. It had been a gift from August when he'd first come to town a few years before. He'd barely stayed more than a day, the chilling welcome of a town unacquainted to visitors allowed nothing else. He'd said he was looking for something, just passing through. That was perfect for Vivien when they met that evening by chance. She'd found it unnerving that in his sleep he called for his father and was fairly relieved when she woke the next morning and he was already gone.
He'd left the massive soft cover book behind. The inscription in the front said he liked to leave books with everyone he met. Until now she'd accepted that at face value. Now as she leafed through the pages she wondered if he'd chosen it on purpose. Maybe he'd been trying to give her a hint? Impossible. He of all people wouldn't have a clue about who she was. Pinocchio. Ruby had explained him in the drama of breaking the curse. Vivien almost snorted at the thought that any tangential causality could have had her life intersecting with Geppetto's puppet. Besides that one night, of course.
The huge book was an encyclopedia of fairy tale characters. From Disney movies to Zulu folk tales they were all there in alphabetic order and grouped according to origin. It would take weeks to read the whole thing so she'd focused first on all the stories she recognized. She'd also decided it was safe to skip the Urban Legends section.
She rose and cursed her desk chair as she felt the stiffness in her joints. Her mind drifted as she went through her morning stretching routine. Of all the fairytales she'd read not a single one had connected with her or her people. It would be a fun exercise to try matching them with their counterparts in StoryBrooke. She smacked herself for her stupidity when she read the Little Mermaid and realized why Lille's feet always hurt. No therapy for that. Others were more mysterious. Was Sleeping Beauty here? She hadn't come across any narcoleptics. The handful of identified characters was nothing compared to the mountain she didn't know.
Noise drew her to the window and she saw people were starting to rise and trying to put the town back together. A fair number were heading back to the town center where the disaster relief zone was still set up. Some of them were limping. Vivien didn't even pause to think before throwing on clothes and jogging down to the emergency aid area in the square.
There were still a lot of people confused, injured, homeless and in almost every case, despondent. The town might as well have been hit by a hurricane. The wraith's second appearance hadn't done as much damage but they were still reeling from its first attack. Rescue teams had been doing a systematic search of the all the houses and were bringing the victims here since the hospital wasn't functioning. Most likely because Whale still hadn't pulled his head out of his ass.
With that new found compendium of characters still rolling around in her head Vivien found herself scrutinizing every person she saw. Maybe that was Cinderella? Some of the men had beards but none of them were blue. Was Peter Pan more likely to be that teenager running around or the grown man flirting with Ruby? After reading the Pied Piper and picking up some pedophilic undertones Vivien genuinely hoped he wasn't in StoryBrooke. What about Aladdin; should she genuinely expect him to be Arabic or could he be anyone of humble means?
"Oh good, I hoped you'd come back today." The Mother Superior who was handling first aid smiled gratefully as Vivien approached. Lake tried to think of her as Blue the fairy but it just wouldn't stick. Especially when she was still wearing the habit and crucifix.
"Is it just me or does everyone look even worse?" Lake looked at the crowd. The curse had been broken for two days now and apparently the excitement was fading.
"Well, they're just worried about Emma and Snow. It's hard for a people to be reunited with their leaders and then lose them so suddenly." the nun's smile turned sad.
"The sheriff and her mom? What happened?" Vivien felt a fist of ice clench around her stomach. She'd told them. Just yesterday she'd assured them that the Wraith couldn't hurt them. Emma had used Vivien's information to justify her decision. Had she really been wrong?
"They got pulled through the same portal as the wraith. They're back in the Enchanted Forest. If there's anything there." The woman's words rattled bitterly as she fought tears.
"Yeah, convenient for Regina." Ruby appeared beside them with another crate of supplies. Vivien began assembling a kit for her rounds.
"We don't know what happened, Ruby." Mother Superior chastised but her heart obviously wasn't in it.
"At least she doesn't benefit. Henry is staying with David. The Queen can go savor her victory in her big empty mansion." The waitress growled and stomped off with a sheaf of papers.
Vivien numbly grabbed her equipment and began moving along the rows of injured. Fortunately she could do first aid work on autopilot; her hands and mouth worked independently of her mind as it whirred away. Swan and Snow gone? That wasn't good. They seemed to be the linchpin that was holding the whole town together. Everyone wanted to blame Regina. It was easy, like a habit. Curse? Blame Regina. Disaster? Blame Regina. Burnt soufflé? There had to be a way to blame Regina.
No one seemed to understand that wraiths couldn't be manipulated. Soul Eaters couldn't be fooled, bought or bargained with. If Regina was the target she wasn't going to be able to trick it into taking Emma instead. It had to have been an accident. Not that anyone else could see it that way. Vivien could hear the angry murmurs and muttering as she walked along the ranks. She realized her fingers clenched a little each time she heard someone curse Regina. Every time the word 'evil' was thrown about so easily as a label she felt the urge to stab someone. Easy. I don't do that anymore.
"That evil bitch deserved to die." The man Lake was bandaging spat. She dropped the roll of bandage and tape. Clenching her fists she stilled the shaking.
"Wraiths don't kill. What they do, no one deserves." Vivien fixed him with a hard glare. She didn't need to get a reputation as defender of the hated Queen but she wasn't going to let anyone shoot off their mouths about things they didn't understand. Besides, isn't she suffering enough? Vivien thought of Henry being with David. That probably came closer to killing Regina than any monster or weapon ever could.
She pulled herself from those thoughts when she heard Henry's familiar voice. He and David were talking to Mother Superior about trees and fairy dust. Vivien rapidly finished her patient and moved closer to listen. Tree? A tree brought Emma here? Isn't that interesting. She gazed at her fingers, wondering if the old magic was still festering dormant beneath her skin.
Then Leroy's gang burst into the scene full of panic and shouts. She had trouble thinking of them as dwarves. Maybe just vertically deprived. They were talking about the town line and being unable to cross it. Everyone stared at Tom (Sneezy?) as if he was the personification of their worst nightmare. Lake just felt a little jealous. He was back to a simpler life. He knew who he was and where he was. He might not understand why everyone else was acting crazy but he certainly seemed content with the reality he knew. No more having to reconcile two identities. No more having to pick sides.
As everyone fell back into loud, worrisome conversation Vivien watched David stride away. He moved with tremendous purpose but Vivien could see the worry in Ruby's eyes when she turned back. The man had no clue what he was doing. Well, someone did say that public speaking was 90% how you look and sound. What you said wouldn't matter.
"Scuse me." A small voice accompanied a light tug on Vivien's sleeve. She looked down and found a little blonde haired girl who looked like she'd been recently crying.
"Uh-oh, are you hurt?" Vivien dropped to her knees to begin examining the child. She received an emotional nod and the girl lifted her pants leg to show her injured calf. There was definitely quite a bit of bruising and a lot of gravel and dirt stuck to the skin. Lake gently palpated and found no swelling or heat. There was one nasty looking gash below the knee.
"Oh, ouch, honey! Here, sit down. Did you fall?"
"I was trying to catch my teddy bear!" the girl hugged her stuffed animal even tighter. Vivien couldn't help smiling. It was the least of all the injuries she'd seen today but to her it was the most important she could treat.
"I would have done that too. You just give him a nice big hug while I clean off your leg, ok?"
"K." the tiny voice was muffled behind the teddy bear that she was already squeezing as tight as she could. The kid couldn't have been more than five. Where the hell was her mother? Did she seriously just wander over here on her own? Vivien briefly scanned the crowd as she poured some antiseptic onto cotton and began wiping all the dirt away. The girl flinched a little when she brushed the cut or a bruise but otherwise was quiet.
"Very good! Your bear must make you very brave. What's his name?" Lake asked as she brushed some antibacterial ointment over the cut.
"Baby." She answered with all the pride and simplicity of a child who thinks such things are self-evident. It's a bear, duh; Baby!
"Ok. Well, now I'm just going to wrap some bandage around your cut so it can't get infected." Vivien grabbed the roll of bandages and began working.
"That's too tight!" the girl complained on the third pass. Vivien nodded and apologized. She hadn't thought she was pulling too tight but children could be more sensitive. She pulled some slack into the wrap and loosened it.
"Now it's too loose." The second complaint bordered on petulant and ordinarily Lake found unjustified criticism annoying. In this child's pouting expressing it was just funny. She unwound the bandage and began again, pausing at each pass to be sure she didn't hear any complaints. When she finally finished and taped it in place the girl rose and tested it out.
"Just right?" Vivien couldn't stop herself from asking, no other words would work at this moment. The little blonde grinned up at her and nodded.
"Gilda! There you are! How many times have I told you not to wander off!" a blonde woman raced over to them and caught the girl by her shoulders, quickly examining her for injuries and immediately zoning in on the bandaged leg.
"I'm Nurse Lake," Vivien quickly leapt to explain and rose to her feet, "She came to me with a cut on her knee so I cleaned it up."
"Thank you!" the woman smiled gratefully, "Gilda, did you thank the nurse?"
Gilda shook her head and then immediately threw both arms around Vivien's legs in a massive hug. The therapist bent over to hug back and chalked up the sting behind her eyes to sleep deprivation.
"How on earth did she get a cut on her knee?" the woman wondered as she took her daughter's hand to keep her from vanishing again.
"She said she was chasing her teddy bear." Vivien shrugged.
"Of course she was. I swear, child, you and bears!" the woman rolled her eyes in exasperation. Lake felt something scratching in the back of her mind. Something important.
"Does it happen a lot?" she finally managed to ask as mother and daughter were walking away.
"The stories I could tell you!" the mother called back over her shoulder. Gilda turned back as well and gave her a final grin. When the sunlight caught her at that angle was when Vivien realized: her hair wasn't blonde, it was gold.