Note: This chapter is more of a brief interlude. I've been aching to bring these characters back in for more screen time. They're a fusion of elements from Baum, Wicked and Disney's Oz movie. Since OUAT is Disney I used those names but screwed with just about everything else.
Vivien should have been happy when she stepped back onto the chilly street of Storybrooke. She'd been friendly to Emma Swan, useful to Regina and had even made amends to Belle and the library. All in all, that was a lot of points in the Win column and she should have felt positively lighter than air. Except that she didn't believe in the word 'should,' it implied obligation. It forced you to do or feel things that you wouldn't otherwise. She believed in 'can,' 'want,' 'need,' 'choose,' and 'must.' Never, ever should.
Eliminating that word from the formula only left her with what she genuinely did feel; and that was uncomfortable. She felt like someone was watching her from a distance but also breathing right over her shoulder. She felt the hairs of her neck and spine tingling but the hollows of her bones ached. All in all, she felt bad. Bad as only a master of magic can feel.
You never did trust your instincts. Probably because they've always given you such terrible advice.
It had to be the spell. She was still feeling some of the negative effects of what she absorbed from Regina the other night. Lord knows it was a bitch of a spell.
Rationalizing. That's supposed to be a human tendency.
Lake made her way to the hospital. She was still sweaty from the night of hallucinatory sleep coupled with deliberate insomnia. Now that had been augmented with a fine film of the dust from the library. What was it about book dust that made it more cloying than any other kind? She needed a shower. A shower and a change of clothes and she'd feel right again. No one could feel the world was right in sweaty, dirty clothes no matter how damn jolly they pretended to be.
The longer she walked down the street the more oppressive the air felt. Was it cloudy? Why did it feel dark? She could clearly see the sun, bright in the sky. So why didn't it seem to penetrate the haze that was shrouding everything? It was an overreaction of some kind. Compensation. Exhaustion. Something. Except it felt like it was getting worse with every breath.
Not quite so rational now, are we?
Vivien bolted for the hospital. She ran as though the city were threatened with an airborne toxin and the only safe haven was that drab building where she'd spent the last 28 years. Even inside the doors she didn't stop. She raced past patients in the waiting room and the nursing staff (eliciting shouts of concern amidst the cursing) to burst through the personnel doors. She didn't stop until she hit the slick tile floor and then the momentum carried her clear to the shower wall. The water was on and running before she realized she'd touched the handle. The ice cold water sprayed over her while she gasped for breath, wondering why none would come.
Really, child. I taught you to be more dignified than this.
This was irrational. She was terrified for no reason. The cold water felt like shards of ice biting into her skin (and brought back unpleasant flashes of that shared memory of Regina's). She stripped off the wet, dirty clothes and flung them out of the shower, not caring (for a change) who saw the black lace of her underwear.
Breathing better now. Unencumbered. It was just her in her own skin under the cold spray. She leaned her head against the tile wall, spreading her fingers wide over the cool surface to ground herself with as much of reality as was possible.
You always run for water. It's your first inclination, your true nature. Anytime life got hard or scary or simply real you tried to escape.
Vivien's hands spasmed but her fingers were fanned out and forced flat, unable to curl into fists.
All those times fishing you out of the river. Were you trying to run away? Or did you foolishly hope you could drown and leave everything behind? Silly child, not even death is that simple.
Bloody hell she was loud! When did she get so loud?! Normally the voice haunting her thoughts was little more than a subdued commentator, a personal critic for everything in her life. How did she suddenly become the narrator? Most of the words were memorized quotes, real conversations and abuses. Today that part of her brain had apparently developed its own independent creativity; frighteningly accurate.
Vivien wanted to sink to the floor and curl into a ball and wait for the water to simply wash her away. If it could erode rock, it could eventually make her disappear. Instead, she spun around and pressed her back against the shower wall, forcing herself to remain standing as she practiced every deep breathing technique she'd ever taught her patients. She was not giving into this, whatever it was. She had work to do. There were patients to see. There were answers to find. There was someone standing in the showers watching her.
Vivien only then realized that she hadn't drawn the shower curtain when she fled to the stall and stripped. The young orderly who had followed her into the bathroom was just standing and staring. She couldn't have been more than nineteen. She had Vivien's bra in her hands and a massive wet spot across her shoulder and chest where the soaked projectile had landed. Vivien cursed internally. Of course Fauna would've sent someone after her. A display like that, tearing through the hallway like there were monsters on her heels!
Much closer than that, child.
"Sorry." Lake wrapped herself in a clean towel. The girl didn't move, just stood there with her mouth hanging open and the black lace dripping over her fingers. Vivien waited for a few seconds before realizing the young orderly was too shocked to react. Which meant she was going to be stuck there like a statue until someone gave her a way out.
"If you like it so much, I'll get you one of your own." Lake winked and gently took her bra back from the numb grip. The poor girl finally shook herself and snapped her mouth shut. She had either forgotten why she'd followed the PT into the bathroom or decided that her job as underwear catcher was over. Whatever the case, she turned and fled the showers without a word.
I'm going to catch hell for this from Fauna. Vivien sighed as she pulled out her clean clothes to dress. It would be worth it, so long as she could watch the orderly try to explain what happened.
The first few appointments of the afternoon were easy enough. Marco for the arthritis in his hands, Bashful for some bursitis in his shoulder, a woman who had trouble deciding whether she should be called Ava or Sam had torticollis in her neck; fairly ordinary. By 3 pm Vivien's appointment book took a turn for the weird. Lake was still writing out her notes on the last patient and wasn't sure if she should just put Sam or the full name Samaritana since the woman seemed so uncomfortable with it.
She should stick with Ava, particularly with that speech impediment she has on S's.
Loud bickering disrupted her thoughts as the sound echoed up the corridor and was clearly heading straight for her office.
"This is stupid!" A female voice, angry but trying not to be too loud.
"Why? Because it was my idea? Yours wasn't perfect!" A second female, higher pitched and making no effort whatsoever to be quiet. Familiar too.
"At least it was a start. This is pointless." Grumble, grumble, grumble.
"Just try. For me?" The higher pitched voice was cajoling. They were right outside the door. If Lake chose to she could yank the door open and surprise them both or bail out the open window before she got trapped with whatever crazy was about to walk in.
Please, when was the last time you jumped out a window? You'd hurt yourself.
Lake had to admit that the mocking voice had a point. She hadn't needed to make any emergency exits in a long time. So why was the urge so strong? All the old instincts were so strong today!
The door handle rattled and Vivien had only a moment to tear her eyes away from the beckoning escape route before the two women walked in. The first she didn't recognize at all, a brunette that looked equal parts angry and shy. The other came in behind and it took her a few seconds to identify. The fact that she bounced when she walked helped.
"Glinda?" Lake wasn't used to seeing the blonde out of pink. She was wearing a fairly subdued cream dress. No sparkles in sight.
"Vivien, hi! You remember Thea?" she smiled and gestured to her companion.
"Do I?" Lake hesitated to agree. She was fairly sure she had never seen the woman before.
"At the Rabbit Hole. You were just leaving when I arrived. Theodora." The brunette elaborated.
"Oh," Vivien shook hands automatically as she racked her brain for the memory, "Oh. OH! Right! You're Glinda's friend."
Stunning observation, darling; particularly since they're standing together in front of you. Would you care to point out any other glaringly obvious facts? She has a nose.
Lake was concentrating on not staring now. The woman she was looking at bore no resemblance whatsoever to the one she'd seen briefly that night. She needed to think of something to say. It was starting to feel awkward; just shaking hands, unable to rip her eyes away.
"I take it you're responsible for her being more subdued?" Vivien nodded to Glinda, specifically her less atrociously colored clothing.
"I can rein in the pink – not the hyper." Thea's smile towards the blonde was long-suffering but amused. Glinda was watching them with a massive smile, standing still yet almost vibrating on a molecular level. Even her blonde curls looked excited. She just needed permission to explode. Vivien could feel herself starting to twitch in sympathy with the repression. Theodora mercifully relented and poked Glinda in the ribs.
"You're some kind of magical healer?" the blonde erupted, grabbing hold of Vivien and pushing her into her own office chair.
"I'm a Physical Therapist." Lake felt like she'd had to make that clarification a lot lately.
"We need your help." Glinda announced and maneuvered Theodora to sit on the exam table. The exuberance had taken control of the office; both of the other occupants wisely surrendered.
"Therapy?" Vivien could think of several treatments – all involving electricity – that might fix Glinda.
The good witch ignored her sarcasm. Instead of answering, she took hold of a necklace Theodora was wearing and unfastened the chain. There was an instant transformation, like a screen changing pictures and Lake found herself once again regarding an absolutely inhuman green.
"That is quite the parlor trick." Vivien whistled, studying how even the woman's face had changed. Theodora stared fixedly at her hands, accepting the scrutiny like a martyr. Lake carefully raised her head up for examination.
Interesting.
One thing hadn't changed: her eyes. That was good. Even medicine in this world had determined that eyes could be windows to what was going on inside the body. The humans here just hadn't gotten much beyond the physical and emotional layers.
"The necklace was her sister's. We found it at Gold's shop." Glinda held the accessory out. When she pressed it to Thea's skin it transformed back to a sun-bronzed tan. The moment it left: green. Lake took the jewelry in her hand, feeling the weight of the emerald.
"A bit ostentatious for me," she picked at the setting of the jewel, "And this isn't the original stone. It's been replaced?"
Glinda and Theodora exchanged a pointed look, a little guilty around the edges. Apparently they'd hoped to not tell the full story. Lake had seen that look a hundred times. Magical medicine had much in common with its less fantastical cousin; everyone always wanted treatment without disclosing all the facts. The truth never came out until Vivien found the signs.
It took half an hour for the two women to tell the story, sometimes in tandem but mostly at odds. In Glinda's version Theodora was tricked and manipulated by her sister whereas Theodora placed more of the blame on a man who'd been in the picture. There was a long argument about music boxes before the tale got back on track.
Poisoned apple. Regina would just love to know about that one!
Vivien tuned out for another argument about unjustified attacks, warfare and debased trickery. She might actually prefer to not have people tell her the whole story after this.
"I had always kept the necklace and over the years worked on repairing it. I thought it might undo whatever Evanora did to Thea but it's just a mask." Glinda gazed sadly at the gem. Theodora closed one green hand over the pale one, squeezing reassuringly. Vivien was hypnotized by the play of color as green interlaced with white.
And enemies become friends become lovers. Just like friends become lovers become enemies.
"What did you have to give Gold to get it back?"
"He admitted that his contract was broken. Our agreement had clearly been that he could keep the necklace so long as I didn't need it." Thea shrugged. Perhaps the nasty old con man had a soft spot for people with deformed appearances? Or maybe it was professional courtesy to a fellow villain?
Unlikely on both counts. When did you become such an optimist?
"So it's actually to his advantage to have you restored to normal because then he'll get the necklace back." Vivien drummed her fingers on the desk. She couldn't clearly see his end game but obviously he wanted to keep that charm.
"He just suggested we come see you." Glinda showed no interest whatsoever in examining Gold's motives. She was staunchly fixated on the problem at hand. Theodora was simply resigned.
Vivien frowned. Why would Gold send them to her? It was plain as day that the problem wasn't anything physical. It wasn't even a curse. Theodora had clearly said that the poison given her attacked her heart and Gold had to know there was only one . . .expert . . .on hearts.
She would've slapped herself for being stupid if there weren't two people watching her. Gold knew who they needed to see but he knew she'd never deal with them on his recommendation. If, however, they showed up on Vivien's reference it'd be completely different.
Clever bastard.
"I'm afraid Gold was mistaken. I'm out of my depths with this sort of problem but there is someone that I think can help," she watched both women hold their breath, "You need to see the Mayor."
"Ms. Mills? The one that blew up town hall?" Glinda recoiled a little.
"She didn't blow it up, she shot one fireball." Thea corrected. It took more than fireballs to impress her. But there was a glimmer of respect in her tone.
"If anyone in this town can figure out what happened to your heart, it's her. I'll give her a call so she knows you're coming."
Otherwise she's likely to blow you both off her property. Vivien didn't want to imagine how Regina would react to Glinda if she weren't warned.
The blonde still looked reluctant at the thought but Theodora was already eagerly on her feet. She put the necklace back on and returned to the beautiful version of herself. Fresh face, creamy complexion and youthful innocence yet – Vivien noticed again – the eyes stayed the same. Whatever scars and baggage she carried stayed with her, no matter her form. Not evil, just pained.
"Thank you." The brunette gave her a dignified nod and smile.
"Yes, thank you!" Glinda recovered herself and hugged Vivien so hard she wheezed. Thea peeled her friend off the gasping therapist and pulled her to the door.
"Just leave out that part about it being an apple!" Lake finally got her breath back and shouted down the hall at their retreating backs.