Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 1, Chapter 3

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

Emma woke to the sound of whistling. When she opened her eyes she was in a jail cell. In the cell next to her was a short, stout man who was the source of the whistling. He wore a work shirt with the name "Leroy" embroidered on it. He gave off the distinct odor of alcohol. Outside of the jail cell was an older man in a work uniform. He spoke with a distinct European accent. His name was Marco she learned from the conversation he had with her and Leroy. Then the sheriff came into the stationhouse with a girl in hand.

"Okay, sit down," the sheriff told her with his distinct Irish brogue. "I've already called your mother and she'll be here any minute to pick you up."

The girl, Emma judged, was probably in her late teens or early 20's, her raven hair was pulled back in a ponytail that hung down to her shoulder blades. She was dressed entirely in black. She also sported several piercings in her nose, lips, cheeks, eyebrows and ears. When told that her mother was coming over to pick her up the girl just huffed at him and crossed her arms in disgust.

Emma didn't understand why the mother was being called to the station. This girl was over eighteen and parents were no longer legally responsible. Maybe that is just how things are in this town, Emma thought. Family just stuck close together. It reminded her how much she hated her own parents. They had left her on the side of the highway as an infant, like a piece of trash to be thrown away.

"You don't know how lucky you are to have a mother who still cares about you," Emma told the girl.

"Oh please," she replied cynically in a smoky voice. Emma saw another piercing on her tongue.

"Good, you're awake," the sheriff said when he heard Emma's voice. "Regina's drinks are stronger than you thought," he continued with the explanation that she had crashed into the town's historic sign as a result of drinking and driving. Emma told him that she had seen a wolf in the road, but the sheriff didn't believe her, wolves didn't live in or near Storybrooke.

Regina stormed into the Sheriff's Office, "Graham?" She caught site of Emma in the jail cell. "What is she doing here?"

Regina refocused on what was important, Henry had run away again. Emma asked if he had any friends who might have taken him in. She was pained to learn that Henry had no friends. He was a lonely child. In her job as a bail bondswoman she had become particularly adept at finding people who didn't want to be found. Emma offered to help find him in exchange being let out of the jail cell.

Just as the trio were about to leave the Sheriff's Office, a woman that Emma judged to be in her mid-forties came into the jailhouse. She was rather tall, had honey brown hair and fair skin with eyes as blue as sapphires. Dressed in work jeans and a plaid flannel shirt, the woman wore a ball cap that read Kensington General Contracting. She was accompanied by a blonde, teenaged girl with a cherubic face and who also possessed the same blue eyes as her mother.

"There you are," the woman said to the young, dark haired girl Graham had brought in earlier. "I'm sorry, Sheriff. I just don't know what's gotten into her lately."

"That's okay, Mrs. Kensington, just don't let it happen again," Graham told her.

"How much is bail?" the Kensington woman asked, looking terribly worried.

"Valerie's not under arrest, The Rabbit Hole just asked me to remove her from the premises," Graham answered. "She was hustling pool players for money. I thought I should let you know."

Mrs. Kensington glared at the raven haired girl as Graham spoke. "Thank you, Sheriff. It won't happen again."

"Your daughter can't seem to keep herself out of trouble, Claire," Mayor Mills growled. "Maybe you need to keep a closer eye on her."

The bitter irony was not lost on Emma.

"Valerie is an adult, Madam Mayor," Sheriff Graham informed her.

"Well, it seems like you did a bang up job raising her," Regina snarled at Claire. She looked at the little blonde girl standing behind her mother. "I hope your other one doesn't turn out the same way."

"Yes, Mayor Mills, I mean, no, Mayor Mills, Tina won't. What I mean is…" Claire tried to answer, looking every bit cowed by the glaring Regina.

"Well, what do you mean?" Regina said angrily.

"Valeria hasn't been the same since her father died," Claire answered. "She's taken it very hard."

That's when Regina went nose to nose with the mother. "Her father died eight years ago, she needs to get over herself. Now the next time Valerie pulls that kind of stunt I'll have the Sheriff throw her in jail. Maybe then she'll straighten up."

"I understand," Claire said, her eyes looking down at the floor.

As Emma, Sheriff Graham and Regina left the station, Ms. Swan watched as the visibly shaken widowed mother of two took her daughters to an old, weather beaten work truck. Its bed was filled with tools for home construction and repair. The company name which was stenciled on the door had faded badly, but it was still readable. She could see Claire practically having to drag Valerie by the arm to the truck and then beg her to get in.

"You were pretty harsh with her, weren't you?" Emma asked Regina.

"I've been a mother for ten years, how long have you been a mother? Oh, that's right, none," Regina answered hotly. "I know a bad mother when I see one, Ms. Swan, and Claire isn't going to win any awards in this lifetime."

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVERLAND

Queen Clarion and Fairy Mary were busy overseeing the coordination and preparations for the evacuation of Pixie Hollow. Problems arose almost from the start. Once word got out what was to happen, every guild started bucking to be the first off the island. Each one tried to make an argument for why their guild should be first.

The dust keepers insisted that pixie dust had to be delivered to the new site for the colony so everyone could fly and use their talents properly. The cooking and baking talents insisted that food would be necessary to feed everyone who was to establish the new colony, so they should go first. The animal fairies argued that saving their animal friends was most important, while the garden fairies wanted to move their seeds as soon as possible to start new gardens right away. The fast flyers wanted to move their pollen off the island swiftly. The water fairies claimed it was necessary to establish water resources for cooking, bathing and drinking. These were all strong and legitimate arguments.

The queen and Fairy Mary started out by setting priorities based on need. First, a new Pixie Dust Tree had to be established. Zarina explained that while the existing maple could not be converted, a new Pixie Dust Tree could be grown on site. She and her alchemy students and a few garden fairies were given top priority.

Second, a governmental body needed to be formed to ensure chaos and anarchy did not ensue. Sunflower, the Minister of Summer was tapped along with her staff to do just that.

Third, food and water would be needed to feed everyone who would be working to receive shipments. The cooking and baking guild was split into three groups, one to stay and cook here, a second to pack up their guild for transport and a third group would go to the mainland to erect a new kitchen to feed the fairies working there. A contingent of water fairies was to accompany them to design an aqueduct system that would transport the needed water to the kitchens, baths, and to the new Pixie Dust Depot.

Lastly, a small group from each major talent group would go an ahead to receive shipments from their respective guilds. A new colony could not be built in a day; much of what was to be airlifted would quickly go into storage for the time being. However, everything being shipped was sensitive and had to be handled by those who were familiar with it so nothing would be lost.

The massive airlift operation was being staged by the shore in Springtime Square. Doves were readied with satchels and knapsacks. The first fairies in the group quickly loaded down the birds with all the essentials to perform their assigned duties on the mainland. The first of the balloon carriers arrived and were filled with as much pixie dust as was currently available. Any bird or carrier with room to spare was given the task of taking much needed food, seeds or pollen as could be added. All they lacked was a destination.

~O~

THE WINTER WOODS, NEVER LAND

Lord Milori was busy making the same kinds of evacuation preparations with the assistance of Snowflake, the Minister of Winter. Two of his dust keepers were students of Zarina's school of Pixie Dust Alchemy and left immediately to establish a new Pixie Dust Tree.

It was decided that the Faroe Islands north of Ireland was the best compromise between a cold weather settlement and nearness to England. The Faroe Islands had a subarctic climate, just cold enough for the Winter Fairies to survive if they found a place high atop a mountain where the air was cooler. Milori and Snowflake still had the responsibility of bringing the winter season to the mainland and the Faroe Islands would be close enough for them to do that. Furthermore, the Shetland Islands lay in between which could be used as an emergency landing spot if it were ever necessary.

Milori couldn't visit Queen Clarion from there, but perhaps the Minister of Winter could deliver letters to her whenever the winter fairies traveled to the England. As he thought about this possibility, he remembered all the grand moments he had here with his beloved Ree. Their first date occurred by the shores of the frozen lake. The couple took many owl rides over the mountains. It was atop one of them where he showed his love the luminous Aurora Borealis. And then there was the Lord of Winter's retreat where he once took the queen. It was there that they shared a more intimate moment.

He sighed, this was his home and he would miss it terribly. He would miss Clarion even more.

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

To find Henry's trail Emma checked his computer, but the boy was smart. He cleared out the email inbox and deleted his browsing history. Regina thought this was another dead end, but Emma was smarter than a ten year old. She resorted to her thumb drive. She plugged it into the USB port on Henry's computer and let the recovery utility on the portable drive work its magic.

Whenever a Windows based operating system saves data to a hard drive it breaks it up into small blocks and stores them where ever it can find free space. To remember where of these blocks are located, the OS creates a file table pointing to every block on the drive. When a user deletes a file, Windows simply deletes the pointers in the file table, but it does not erase the actual data. It remains in blocks marked as free space until they are over written by new data. Emma's data recovery utility searched for that kind of "erased" information.

Searching through Henry's browsing history she found a website he had visited which helped adopted children find their birth mothers. It was pretty expensive, too.

"Henry has a credit card?" Emma asked Regina.

"He's ten," the woman replied coldly.

"Well, he used one." Emma opened the payment receipt and found that the card Henry used was issued to one Mary Margaret Blanchard. Ms. Blanchard was Henry's school teacher.

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND

A streak of pixie dust shot through the trees and crash landed on the ground at the queen's feet. It broke Clarion from her worries and guilt laden self-loathing. The figure that emerged from the dirt and dust was Vidia, her fastest fast flyer. She was coughing and gasping for breath. Two of the queen's helpers assisted Vidia to a place free from the dust and where she could sit to regain her breath. The queen looked at the fast flyer with apprehension. Vidia gave her queen a smile and an affirming nod, nothing else needed to be said. The Griffiths had offered their summer home to the fairies.

When Tinker Bell made accidental First Contact with the girl, Lizzy Griffiths, Vidia was sure it would be disaster for the fairies of Never Land. Instead it proved to be a wonderfully beneficial friendship that was now paying off in unexpected ways. Clarion flew up into the air to gather the attention of those who were working to evacuate the island.

"Fairies!" Clarion shouted over the racket they made. "Fairies please!"

Quickly the chatter died down.

"Vidia has returned with joyous news," Clarion announced. "The Griffiths have graciously opened their doors to us. We have a new home."

The crowd cheered with a reinvigorating sense of hope. At the queen's signal the first squadron of doves laden with food and pixie dust launched into the air. They made their bearing for the mainland, the Minister of Summer leading the way. Joining the doves were hundreds of fairies taking wing. They all carried at least something needed. Several balloon carriers loaded to their max capacity were right behind. Queen Clarion smiled a bit when the birds took flight. She smiled until she realized that soon they were all to become refugees from their own home. Yet another reminder of her mistakes come back to haunt her.

~O~

When Vidia had recovered from her journey she flew inland to rejoin her guild. Flying over she noticed, as expected, that all the guilds were working feverishly to evacuate the island. What struck her as odd was that members of other guilds were mixed in with the Tinkers, Garden, Animal, Light and Water talents. Pixie Hollow was home to several major and minor talent guilds. Some talents like the spiderweb-untanglers, tree bark grading, fern spotting, dandelion fluffing, hole-in-cheese punching and the fairies who tucked you in at night and read stories to help you get to sleep had little or nothing to do. They were assigned to help with other guilds who had too much work and not enough manpower.

Members of more than two dozen minor talents were seen at Tinker's Nook helping to build balloon carriers or deliver newly made baskets, satchels and knapsacks to the staging area. The garden fairies also benefited with extra hands to lighten their own heavy load as they gathered seeds and collected materials for Tinker Bell's balloon carriers and ice gondolas.

When Vidia arrived at the pollen gardens, she found every available member of her talent guild gathering as much pollen as they could. On the paths below, members of minor guilds were loading up mouse carts with the filled pollen pots. It was all so disconcerting to her, but nothing slowed her down. She zipped right into place and started gathering pollen with the rest of her guild mates.

STOREYBROOK, MAINE

Ms. Blanchard was teaching her class how to build birdhouses. She told them that they were free and that the houses were for the birds to nest.

"They're loyal creatures," she said releasing a bluebird back out into the yard where it happily entered a birdhouse hanging in the nearby tree. "If you love them and they love you, they will always find you."

Just as class was letting out, Mayor Mills stormed into the room and confronted Mary Margaret Blanchard.

"Did you give Henry your credit card so he can find the woman who gave him up for adoption?" Regina asked in a shrill voice, motioning to Emma.

Ms. Blanchard had no idea what the mayor was talking about. She checked her pocket book and found that her credit card was missing. Henry had stolen it from her when she wasn't looking. "Clever boy," Ms. Blanchard whispered to herself. "I should never have given him that book."

"What in the hell is this book I keep hearing about?" Regina asked harshly.

The book was a collection of fairy tales. Henry was a smart and creative boy who was very lonely. Ms. Blanchard felt he needed it. Regina answered that what Henry needed was a firm grip on reality. The mayor turned and walked out, angry. "Have a nice trip back to Boston," she snapped to Emma while knocked some books off a table.

Helping Ms. Blanchard, Emma was told that this book helped give Henry a sense of hope for the future. A belief in happy endings that he desperately needed. As an adopted child, Ms. Blanchard said, he wrestled with the question of why his parents gave him up.

"I'm so sorry," Mary Margaret gasped, as it dawned on her to whom she was speaking. "I don't mean to judge."

Actually, Emma could relate, it was a question she had asked herself nearly every day.

"You know where he is, don't you?" Emma asked.

Mary Margaret had a good idea. Henry could probably be found at his "castle."

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND

Throughout the day and well into the night, a steady stream of doves, fairies and balloon carriers shipped every bit of Pixie Hollow, piece by piece from Never Land Island to the meadow in front of the Griffiths' summer home. Dr. Griffiths took a few sick days to help the fairies arrive and settle in. He even provided a nice surprise, two tables full of sweets, bread and fruit so that the fairies could eat and keep up their strength. Lizzy provided fairy sized servings of tea. The black tea normally consumed by the English had the added benefit of caffeine, a stimulant that kept fairy wings flying and their minds sharp.

~O~

Early the next morning, with the sun just peeking out over the horizon, more doves were ready to take to the skies from Springtime Square. They had worked long hours throughout the day and night to deliver as much as they possibly could to the mainland in the short time they had. Now the birds would take animal carriers.

"Here you go," Fawn said leading one of the mice into the carrier which had been made from a hollowed out gourd. The mouse, named Cheese by the fairies, hopped in and Fawn secured the door behind him. "There, all safe and sound." Fawn nuzzled the frightened little mouse for comfort. She did the same at the next animal carrier where Cheese's close friend, Cheddar was being loaded. The two saw each other and squeaked. See you on the other side, they were saying.

At the signal, the birds launched into the air. Most of the animals were not particularly worried, they had made this trek several times before, usually during the summer season when they went to camp. Cheese, however, was very nervous. These birds were not rested, they were exhausted. And rumors spread that some of the doves were dying mid-flight from that exhaustion.

Cheddar, who was close by wasn't worried at all. He gave an approving nod to Cheese and even seemed to be enjoying the ride. Cheese was worried for his friend, his bird looked particularly frazzled. Then the little heart that beat within the bird carrying Cheese burst. It was dead instantly. Cheddar, who had been carefree during the flight watched in horror as his best friend plummeted into the unforgiving waters below. Cheddar made it to the mainland, but he was inconsolable after that.

~O~

Word got back to the queen that some of the doves had fallen out of the sky with their cargo. The birds were dying from being overworked through the day and night, flying back and forth nonstop with only very short breaks for food and water. One report said that a bird with an animal carrier fell into the waters not far from Never Land. No survivors were found.

Queen Clarion acknowledged this and mourned the loss of the poor animals. "Please, say nothing to the animal fairies. They do not need the distraction," she told the scout who made the report.

The queen never once looked worried, she maintained a veneer of calm and regal composure. She was the very model of strength and self-control. Clarion knew that if the queen remained confident so would everyone else.

Inside, though, her stomach twisted in knots. How could she possibly know that a small error in judgment made so long ago would lead to this catastrophe? With most of her fairies either on the mainland or in transit, Clarion took a moment to return to the Pixie Dust Tree claiming she needed to gather her own things for when she left that evening.

In truth, Clarion could no longer maintain the artifice of a strong and confident leader when she was tormented by so much guilt. She went into her bedchamber and closed the door. Clarion looked into the mirror at her own reflection, but what she actually saw was a queen who had failed miserably to protect her people. Pixie Hollow was at an end, Never Land would likely be destroyed, and the Indians, Lost Boys, pirates and the cannibals who all lived on the island were displaced. And she had lost her lover, Lord Milori, forever. She stared into the mirror and told herself, "This is all my fault."

Her face twisted from the shame of it all, tears streamed down her cheeks, her mouth crinkled into a frown and she fell onto the floor, sobbing at what she had wrought.

Well now you've gotten a quick glimpse of some of the Disney Fairies in their Storybrooke identities. For those keeping score:

Claire Kensington = Queen Clarion

Valerie Kensington = Vidia

Tina Kensington = Tinker Bell

I chose the name Kensington because of its importance in the Peter Pan mythology. I hope you liked that little touch.

I'll introduce a few more Disney Fairies later. I'm working on Chapter four which will be the last for episode one. I hope you have been enjoying this "episode" so far, please leave a review letting me know what you think.

Thank you for reading.