Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 5, Chapter 1

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

A traveling group of entertainers operating under the name of Martin and Myrna's Marvelous Marionettes were putting on a show for the village locals. Using a covered wagon that converted into a stage, the audience stood around wagon to watch.

While the story plays out on the miniature stage, a comedy about a knight rescuing a princess from a dragon, the audience members are kept entertained and distracted. Distracted enough that they do not notice a young boy slipping his way into the crowd where he is quietly slitting purses, picking pockets and cutting into handbags thus relieving them of their gold, jewels and other personal belongings. When finished he silently slips into the wagon unseen.

The show was all part of a con. His parents, who run the show, are thieves, sleight of hand magicians and con artists. After leaving the village behind the trio stops to count their ill-gotten gains. The redheaded, freckle-faced boy, Jiminy, finds a cricket held in a tiny, wooden cage in the stash of stolen goods. He admires the creature because crickets are free to roam. Jiminy yearns to be free from his parent's unconscionable influences. He doesn't like to steal, he wants to be good.

"Good is another word for weak," his father instructs him.

"You are free," his mother says, "free to do what we want."

"You are who you are and there's no changing it, Jiminy," his father tells him. A mantra to keep him under their control. The boy feels trapped.

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

In Doctor Hopper's office, Archie is having an evening session with Henry.

"Were you always a cricket?" Henry asks him. Archie wanted to know why he thought that. Henry replied it was because he was a conscience. As a psychologist, Archibald Hopper helped others to understand right from wrong and act appropriately.

"So all the crickets in Storybrooke, they were people, too?" the good doctor asked.

Henry noted that he has never heard any crickets in Storybrooke and that Archie had simply never noticed. Archie asked if that was proof of his curse theory. Henry said it was, but he would look for more evidence.

"I asked you this before and you said you think about it. Why do you think it's so important that this is real?"

"It…, it just is," the boy replied.

"Keep thinking about that, Henry, I think there is something buried there."

~O~

In another part of town, Emma was at the Sheriff's Office to be formally deputized. But there were conditions. Graham presented her with a deputy's uniform which included pants, a shirt and a tie.

"Really? You know you don't have to dress a woman in a tie to give her authority," she told Graham. He asked to at least wear the badge, to make it official.

~O~

Claire was reading a bedtime story to her youngest. It concerned a heroic, old knight who rescued a beautiful, young princess from a fearsome dragon that had plagued her for a long time. She fell in love with him and him with her. But soon they discovered that love was not enough. Their ages were too different and they had so little in common. Her land was far away and she was of a different culture than his. As hard as they tried to be what the other needed, it wasn't enough.

Painful as it was, they had to go their separate ways. The lovely princess eventually found new love, married him and together they lived happily ever after. The foolish, old knight, however, lived the rest of his life lonely and heartbroken, holding tight to the memories of the young princess. Upon his deathbed he understood the folly of his actions and uttered these final words, How poorly I have lived, that I never made room in my heart to love another.

"The end."

"That's it?" Tina barked. "What a terrible story, Mom. What are you trying to do? Give me nightmares?"

"Oh no, dear," Claire laughed. "Nothing like that."

"But what about true love? Why wasn't that enough?"

"Sweetie, sometimes true love means letting go," Claire explained. "The foolish knight didn't understand that. It's why he died a lonely man."

"Hmph, if that had been a Disney movie true love would have conquered all," Tina said while crossing her arms.

Claire smiled. "Sweetheart, loss is a part of life. We can't cripple ourselves by holding on to what we can no longer have. We miss other opportunities for happiness. Now get some sleep, Tina." She leaned over and kissed her dear child on the forehead. "Goodnight."

Exiting the bedroom, Claire gently closed the door behind her. She went to the next bedroom, which was Valerie's and went inside, knocking quietly before entering. Val was sitting on her bed and watching television.

Before she could say anything, the house shook so violently Claire thought it was going to fall down around them. Then, just as suddenly, it stopped.

"What is that an earthquake?" Val yelled.

~O~

The instant Emma Swan tucked the deputy badge onto her belt, a violent explosion rocked the office and the entire town. The phones in the sheriff's office quickly started to ring. With no answers to offer the townspeople, Emma and Graham went outside to learn what had happened. In the distance they spotted a plume of smoke rising from the ground.

"There, let's go," Graham instructed his new deputy.

The column of smoke was coming from a wooded area just outside of town. When the sheriff and deputy arrived several townspeople had already gathered. The fire department was already on scene. Claire, with her two daughters, the youngest still in sleep pants and wearing a jacket, looked at the source of the violent shock wave. "What is that?" Claire asked Marco.

"Is that a crater?" Ruby added.

"No, its tunnels, a mine, it must have collapsed," he replied with his imperfect English and strong accent.

The mayor arrived and immediately began giving orders to Graham to keep everyone back. She then told Emma that this was town business and she could leave. When Ms. Swan told the mayor she now worked for the town as the new deputy, Regina put her to work.

Dr. Hopper and Henry arrived just in time to hear Mayor Mills give a little speech. She told everyone that it was one of several mines in the area and that she intended to make the area safe by filling it in and paving it over.

Henry was horrified. He thought she was trying to cover something up. He sensed that something important was down there and someone had to investigate. Regina, however, was not happy with his response and told him to wait in her car.

Regina then noticed a small piece of what looked like glass. It looked familiar to her and she put the debris in her coat pocket.

"What was that?" Henry asked Emma. Regina, however, did not want him near the collapsed tunnel, she insisted he go to the car. Moments later, though, Henry called a meeting of "Operation Cobra" with Emma and Archie. He told them something had to be down there.

"It's just a bunch of old tunnels," Emma told him.

"That just happened to collapse right after you got here?" he told her. "You're changing things, you're weakening the curse."

Emma denied it, but Henry told her it was so. "Did you do anything different today? Because something made this happen."

She fingered the deputy badge that hung from her belt. The tunnel collapse occurred at the exact moment when she slipped that badge on. Suddenly she was having doubts about her conviction.

Regina was furious that Henry had disobeyed her a third time. In short order, she put Henry back in the car, put Emma back to work running police tape around the area and pulled Dr. Hopper aside to dress him down. She was getting frustrated that Henry thought everything she was doing was all part of some grand conspiracy. Regina wanted a change in treatment to bring Henry back to reality.

Dr. Hopper didn't think it was appropriate to shatter his worldview that way. Regina, however, wasn't interested in his opinions, only his obedience. She reminded him that he worked for her.

"This is my town and you will lose everything." If Archie failed she would leave him with nothing more than his umbrella for a roof over his head.

"What would you have me do?" he asked her.

"I want you to take that delusion out of his head and you crush it!" she answered.

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

Jiminy, now a young man, and his parents pulled into an open air market where tents and tables were set up. His parents sized up the people and felt they had a little more money this year.

"You can tell by all the fat people," Martin said. Being overweight was a sign of prosperity in those days. It meant you had enough money to buy more food than you needed. Jiminy's mother and father decided to run the Elf Tonic scam on some poor, unsuspecting sucker.

Jiminy hated the idea. He was sick of stealing and wanted to go straight. Their travelling show earned more than enough money. But his parents justified their actions by telling him, "We steal from them, they steal from someone else. It's called an economy."

Their gross misinterpretation of an economy notwithstanding, Jiminy knew it was wrong and wanted to get out of the family business. But his parents used their typical ploys to keep him by making up complaints about pains and burning sensations. They had no conscience, but they knew he did and made good use of it to their own advantage. Essentially, they were scamming their own son and Martin and Myrna were enjoying every minute of it.

~O~

Jiminy was setting up the wagon when it started raining. A young boy came bounding up to him yelling "puppets!" He was very excited to see the show. The tyke, who wore a feathered hat and was holding an umbrella to keep off the rain, could see that Jiminy wasn't as excited about it. Every year it was the same shows and the same fairgrounds.

"Why don't you leave?" the boy asked.

After thinking about the answer Jiminy replied, "It's just who I am."

The boy just stood there. "Are you going to just stand there and watch me setup?" Jiminy asked him. The youngster replied that he also came to listen to the crickets. Jiminy hadn't taken the time to listen to the crickets in a good while. He visibly regretted it. Jiminy had become so wound up in his own emotions. Torn between his desire to escape his parents' influences and the weaknesses that kept him where he was.

Jiminy told the boy he should go home because he would get wet. The boy responded by giving Jiminy his umbrella to stay dry while he setup. An act of kindness that resonated quite deeply with Jiminy.

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

Early the next morning, the collapsed tunnel was the talk of the town. Desiree and her co-host, Cleo, an intelligent and talkative young woman with a fidgety laugh and short hair, kept the townspeople entertained with jokes and other nonsense about the mine collapse.

"You know what they say, Cleo," Desiree said.

"No, what do they say, Dee?"

"A mine is terrible thing to waste," she replied.

"Oooh, that was bad," Cleo said.

The audience seemed to agree as they booed the lame pun. Then Desiree used one of Johnny Carson's old comeback lines, albeit altered for the region. "Hmph. Well I hope you all find the toothbrushes of the entire New England Patriot's offensive line in your daughter's bathrooms tomorrow morning."

The audience snickered in response to that line. Those who remembered Johnny Carson cackled knowingly.

"Serves you right," she added.

~O~

"Ugh, that woman is such an airhead," Claire told her two girls who were at the breakfast table with her. They had been watching the show more intently today as Desiree and Cleo reported what little new information they had about the mine collapse. Though most of what they were saying was pure fluff.

Valerie seemed deep in a thought for a second before saying, "I wonder what would be more fun? One at a time? Or all at once?"

"Stop it!" Claire demanded. "You stop that right now and get those dirty thoughts out of your head, young lady."

"I wouldn't actually do it, I'm just asking a question," Val replied.

"Well, it's a nasty thing to think about," Claire answered. "Now eat your breakfast, we have a lot of work to do today."

After a brief pause Tina suddenly announced, "I think Valerie watches porn."

"I DO NOT WATCH PORN, YOU LITTLE MAGGOT!" Valerie yelled as she grabbed her younger sister and started punching her.

"OW! OW! MOM, SHE'S HITTING ME!" Tina yelled, looking for sympathy.

"THAT'S ENOUGH OUT OF BOTH YOU!" Claire screamed at them. She slammed the table with her fists and stood up as she shouted. It brought both girls a stop, with looks of complete terror on their faces.

"…oh crap," Val whimpered.

"…ditto," Tina mumbled back.

The two girls were so scared that they were actually holding on to each other for support and solidarity.

"You two stop acting like children and start acting like young ladies," Claire bellowed. "But if you insist on acting like children, then fine. Tina, you eat over there," she said pointing to one of the table. "Valerie, you eat over there," Claire added, pointing to the end of the table. "And I do not want to hear another peep out of either one of you!"

Mrs. Kensington sat back down to finish her breakfast. Outwardly she was furious at them. Inwardly she was relieved. For the first time in weeks Tina and Valerie were acting like sisters again.

Sisters who wanted to kill each other every chance they got, but at least it was progress.

~O~

At around lunchtime, Marco came to visit his best friend, Archie. They were to have lunch together, but Archie had to turn him down. Dr. Hopper was seeing a patient today. His patient was Henry. "Have a good session, my boy," Marco told him with a smile.

"Are you recruiting Geppetto for Operation Cobra?" Henry asked. Henry believed that since Geppetto and Jiminy Cricket were best of friends and he and Marco were best of friends, that Marco had to be Geppetto.

Archie was conflicted. He had to do what Regina told him, but he knew it would do harm to Henry which was against his ethics. Henry though, kept talking about the curse. Emma was here now and suddenly things were changing. He even showed Archie his backpack filled with candy bars and a flashlight. He was going to get more evidence by going down into the collapsed tunnel. Archie became frightened for the boy. He told him that he had to stop believing in this delusion. Something that was not real. Archie thought he might have outgrown this by now, but it was becoming a psychosis and that Henry would be put in the hospital if this nonsense didn't come to an end and soon.

Henry started to cry, he was so devastated that one of the persons had trusted had stopped believing in him and was now trying to convince him that this was all a fantasy. He ran out of the office, upset and made his way to Mary Margaret's place…, and Emma.

For Amanda (I Luv Milarion 1201)

Thank you for reading, please leave a review. Sorry it took a while, I lost my enthusiasm after I heard about I Luv Milarion 1201. She always brightened my day. She brightened everyone's day. I hope she can come back soon.

Scorecard:

Cleo = Chloe (A Garden Fairy)

Dr. Archie Hopper = Jiminy

Note: At the end of Episode 5, I will be moving this story to the crossover section (Tinker Bell / Once Upon A Time).