"Grace asleep?" Heather asked as she trotted down the stairs. Jefferson was sitting on a sofa, idly sharpening a pair of scissors with his boots on the coffee table and a cup of tea on the arm next to him.

"Yeah. She wouldn't stop talking about how excited she is that you're here to stay with us."

Heather dropped casually on the other end of the sofa and copied his position, putting her boots up on the table. She picked up the cup of tea he'd left on it for her and took a nice long drink. "I hope she doesn't think I'm replacing her mother. Because there's no way I could do that. Rosemary… she could juggle the world if she wanted to. She could handle anything. I'm just the little sister."

"She doesn't think you're replacing her mother," Jefferson reassured her. "She just got really excited when I said you'd do your nails together and stuff." Heather smirked and took a sip of her tea as he drank some of his own. For a moment the Hatter wondered if he should tell his sister-in-law the other part that he hadn't mentioned—that Grace kind of hoped Heather would become his happy ending. He decided he didn't know the young woman well enough yet to tell her. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable living in the same house as him even if he made it clear that he had no intentions to make her his "happy ending".

Though he did steal a quick glance at her out of the corner of his eye.

She wasn't his Rosemary, but she was beautiful.

"I'm glad. I'm excited to be part of her life too."

Jefferson set his tea and the scissors down on the coffee table, turning to look at Heather properly. Her green jacket had slipped off one of her shoulders, revealing her bare skin. Like most everyone else in Storybrooke, she was pale from the perpetual overcast and dreary Maine weather. "Would you like to watch something on the TV?" he offered. Her brown eyes flicked to the large flat-screen mounted on the wall and back to him.

"If you'd like. I don't mind. But it's getting late and I should probably get to sleep. It's been a long day for all of us."

"Have a good night, then," Jefferson remarked.

Heather finished off her tea, stood up, and took the cup into the kitchen. She rinsed it, set it in the dishwasher, and departed to her new room. Glancing around at her now-organized things, she heaved a sigh, changed into her pajamas, brushed her teeth in the "girls' bathroom" at the end of the hall, and went back into the bedroom. Yawning, she turned down the sheets and climbed into them, raising her eyebrows at how soft they were. Her own back in her apartment had always been mostly comfortable—but they couldn't even hold a candle to the ones she ran her feet through as she settled in.

She put her iPod earbuds in her ears, turned on her "Sleep Music" and closed her eyes.

It was around midnight when the hall light eased through Heather's doorway as someone opened it. She wasn't quite asleep yet so she peeled one eye open and pulled her headphones out.

Jefferson was peering through the crack in the doorway.

"Are you checking on me?" she asked amusedly, grinning and lifting her head to see him.

A tiny shade of red tinted his cheekbones. "I was just checking in on Grace and thought I'd make sure you were settling in," he replied.

She chuckled. "That's awfully kind of you. Thank you."

Her brother-in-law smiled. "You're welcome. Have a good sleep."

"You too!"

The beam of light across her eyes narrowed until the door was shut again. Heather plopped back down onto her pillow and relaxed, putting her earbuds back in. Her mind was still on the Mad Hatter. No one had bothered to check on her since she was a very young child. It was kind of cute—or sweet—that he'd thought of her. He'd always been a pretty good man—a bit strange or eccentric at times, sure—who'd put his family first as much as possible.

She just hadn't expected to fall into that category.

As Heather drifted off to sleep, there was a smile on her face.

Until about four hours later when she had a nightmare.

She woke up panting and fighting down a scream—it turned into a frightened yelp that Grace wouldn't hear two rooms away but might have woken Jefferson. She closed her eyes as she wiped the sweat off her face on the sleeve of her pajama top and tried to calm her breathing.

A light knock echoed off the door. "Heather? Are you alright?" Jefferson asked.

"Bad dream. I'm fine. Go back to sleep," she replied.

The door opened. "Wanna talk about it?"

She shrugged. "Not particularly."

He raised one eyebrow. "Tell me."

Blowing a raspberry past her lips, she sighed. "Two lives in my head," she started simply. "Sage and Heather. False memories and real ones. They're fighting each other. It's nothing major but it is distressing when I'm asleep. I've gotten them every week or so since the curse was broken. Go back to sleep."

Jefferson folded his arms, still standing in the doorway. "Your name was Sage under the curse," he commented. It wasn't a question.

"Yup."

He took a single step into her room to be friendly and comforting but not threatening or uncomfortable. "It's enough to drive me mad, two lives warring inside my mind. What makes you think it's nothing major?" he asked gently.

She shrugged again. "It's not. They're just dreams. Bad ones. But just dreams. Go back to sleep."

How many times did she have to repeat those four words before he got the message?

After a few moments of tense silence, he was the one to shrug. "Alright. Sleep better."

"I'll try," she muttered.

The door closed.

Heather couldn't help it—she was touched that he would come make sure she was okay even though it was four in the morning. She grinned at the door and plopped back down onto the pillow, staring at the ceiling until sleep claimed her once more.

She couldn't remember the next morning if she'd dreamt any more.

End Note: Jefferson deserves like a whole season of OUaT! How he got the hat, how he learned to use it, some of his insane travels between realms, meeting his wife, wooing her and marrying her and such, how she was lost, Grace's early life (though the pre-Grace Jefferson in that one episode of season 2 was totally awesome and hilarious and I want more of that).

To "SarahSmith95": Really? All your favorites? I'm super happy you like my writing style! I definitely will keep it up! It's reviews like these that make me want to keep writing! Thank you!

By the way, to those who have read some of my other stories, Yes! I have a slight Sebastian Stan problem.

Thanks for reading! Leave a comment or question if you have one!