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

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

"What are you two doing?" Valerie asked before announcing her presence in the kitchen.

Instantly Tina shut the laptop cover. "Nothing. We were just looking at… uh… art… art supplies."

"Yeah, art supplies," Clarence agreed.

Valerie didn't buy one word of it. "Uh huh. Art supplies in nasty positions? You two aren't looking at sex stuff, are you?"

"Don't tell your mother, Val," Clarence said. "We were just studying for one of Tina's classes."

Valerie quirked a suspicious eyebrow. "She doesn't have Sex Ed this year."

"How would you know?" Tina asked.

"Because I had the same classes on the same schedule as you and as I recall Sex Ed was taught when I was fourteen, not sixteen," Valerie said.

"Oh, right," Tina replied. "Please don't tell Mom what we're doing. Please?"

"Hey, if you want to go and get yourself knocked up and preggers, why should I care," Val responded.

"I'm not going to get pregnant!" Tina shouted. "Oops."

"Yeah, 'oops' is right," Val said. "Don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I'm just loving the fact that you aren't the perfect little angel Mom always says you are. She's always comparing me to you. You're her paragon of virtue and sweetness. I'm her biggest disappointment for not being you. I wish Dad were still alive. He always understood me. Mom doesn't even try."

"Yeah, I know how you feel," Tina replied.

Valerie just stood there, utterly perplexed. "Wait, what?"

"She doesn't understand me, either." Tina explained how she felt about her mother using her as a crutch when times got too stressful, how it made her feel and why she thought it was necessary to start growing up. "I feel like I'm being smothered, stunted. I want to be an adult. I'm a person not a support beam."

"You want what I want, little sister," Val replied. "You want out of this hell hole. Sometimes I feel like the Chief at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Smash the window and run."

"Oh great, you just spoiled the ending for me," Tina complained. "Thanks a lot."

Clarence gave her a strange look.

"I've been wanting to watch that film, but Mom won't let me," Tina complained. "I'm not allowed to view any movie with a PG-13 rating or above."

"Don't worry, Sis, I didn't spoil anything," Valerie said. "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is one of those movies where the journey is more important than the destination."

Valerie went to the fridge and grabbed some fruit. "By the way, where is Mom?"

"She's at the old mine just outside of town," Tina replied. "The Mayor's son and Dr. Hopper got trapped down there. That new woman in town, Emma something got them out. Mom went to help."

"Whoa, I spend one day mowing lawns and I miss all the good stuff," Valerie said. "Well, I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

"Promise you won't tell!" Tina pleaded.

"Me? Tell her? Why should I? First, Mom would never believe me. Second, when she finds out, and she will eventually find out, her head will explode. She won't be able to reconcile your actions and her image of you. Her head will explode and I am going to enjoy watching every minute of it. Have fun having your 'revenge sex' against Mom."

The swinging door to the kitchen swept back and forth briefly after Valerie's exit. Tina's mind seemed to be in a similar state. She had been so dead set on doing this to prove she was growing up that it never occurred to her she might be seeking revenge instead. Now her mind was swinging back and forth between conviction and doubt. She stared at the closed laptop for a moment.

"Am I doing this for the right reasons?" she asked her beau.

"I can't answer that," Clarence replied. "Only you can, but if it is for all the wrong reasons you'll only be hurting yourself."

Tina sighed. That wasn't the answer she was looking for. Why did men have to be so indecisive?

"I'm not in your head to know the precise reasons," he continued. "But from what you've told me, it does sound like you're more focused on your mother seeing you as a child rather than on you wanting to grow up."

This did seem to give her some clarity, but she would have to give it considerably more thought. "Why don't we wait until I know what I want?"

Clarence reached over and kissed the lovely girl on the forehead. "Okay. It's good you're thinking this through, Tina. I'm proud of you."

~O~

When Claire arrived home late, she had the slightest smell of beer on her. And a more overpowering odor of dirt and dust from the mine. She checked on her two girls, both were sound asleep in their beds. It hurt Claire that she had missed another bed time story with Tina. She was already stepping up to help earn money for the family. They stay little only so long.

Stepping into her bedroom, Claire turned on the water for a quick shower. While disrobing she noticed a pile of money and receipts. They were from the lawns Valerie had cut today. She smiled. Thank goodness she's coming around, Claire thought happily.

By the time she was ready for bed Mrs. Kensington was too tired to stay awake. Yet she couldn't sleep. The invitation by Hartley to go on a date was a tantalizing one. But her heart still belonged to Charlie. How could she just push him aside like nothing happened? Something did happen, Claire, she told herself. He died. Remember?

Eight years ago Charlie was driving home late. He had stopped to buy a few little things for his "best girls." During the drive, he called home to let Claire know where he was and to expect him. He never arrived. A phone call from the hospital sent her into a frenzy of crying and panic. Charlie had a massive heart attack on the drive home and collapsed in the vehicle. Her husband would die a few hours later at the hospital, his wife and two girls by his side.

"Why can't I just move on?" she grumbled. After a frustrating hour or so of rolling and turning in the bed, she finally managed to fall asleep. Claire remembered, through her dreams, a vivid memory of when Charlie was alive. He would walk through the front door and cheerfully announce "Where are my best girls?" and waited for all three to run up and into his arms for a giant bear hug.

Then he would greet each individually, starting with the youngest. "Hi, Munchkin," he would say to Tina.

"Hi, Daddy," the little one replied cheerily.

Charlie would give her a hug and a kiss, all the while sneaking her a small box of chocolates. Tina squealed and darted off to enjoy her treat.

He moved to Valerie, "How's my future pilot?"

"Ready for takeoff," she said. Again, another hug and kiss.

"Here, I picked this out just for you." Charlie handed her a model airplane kit to build.

"Alright! Thanks, Dad!"

Valerie hugged him in gratitude, then went to her room to start working on it.

"What nothing for me," Claire playfully complained.

"I saved this for my favorite love." Charlie reached into his chest pocket and brought out two tickets to a local production of The Music Man. A musical Claire adored.

"How did you get these?!" It was her moment to have a cheery smile on her face. "I thought it was sold out."

"I know someone."

"You always know someone," she replied.

"Anything for you," Charlie said. "You are my queen."

"And don't you forget it," Claire answered.

"You're supposed to say I'm your hero," Charlie told her.

"HA! Not in this lifetime, buster." Then she kissed him.

~O~

The alarm sounded, waking Claire to a new morning. The bright sunbeam shot through her window, bathing her room in a warm and yellow light. It should have been a cheerful moment for her. Several years ago when Charlie was still alive it was. She woke up every day now in an empty bed. The other side perpetually cold. As always, while getting ready Claire opened a bottle of cologne. It was Charlie's favorite.

Every day after work he would come home, greet his family and then go upstairs to shower. Afterwards, he would apply a little bit of the cologne. Claire could smell the enticing aroma whenever he wrapped his arms around her, which was often. Charlie liked touching and hugging his wife. She liked it, too. It formed and perpetuated a strong bong between them. One of love, affection and intimacy.

Every night when they went to bed, that was the scent she inhaled as she drifted off to sleep. She was greeted by it each morning, as well. Ever since his passing Claire opened that bottle to take a tiny whiff. It brought back so many wonderful memories.

Her dream last night had upset her, though. As much as she adored Charlie, whenever he said "You are my queen" she never once reciprocated with "You're my hero." And whenever he asked, she always replied with "Not in this lifetime." How was she to know that his "lifetime" would be so short?

Then she remembered Hartley. Last night he asked her out on a date. She refused him. She felt that to say "yes" would betray Charlie. She would be cheating on him. But he was long gone. Passed away from a heart attack. Her bed was always cold from that day forward. Someone like Hartley could fill it and make each morning warm and wonderful again.

But Charlie was still there in that bed. Not physically, but through her memories. Some mornings Claire believed that she could still whiff that elegant cologne. Yet all she had were memories now. She clung to them the way a drowning person clings to driftwood.

Am I drowning? Claire asked herself. She hardly had time to answer.

The sound of shattering glass pulled her back into reality. She looked down and saw that the glass bottle of cologne had slipped from her fingers and smashed into the basin of her sink.

"NO! No, no, no, no…." she pleaded. It was too late. The last drops of the fragrance had slipped down the drain and into the sewers. The once heady aroma was now overwhelming and smothering. Claire tried to save some of the liquid by blotting it with tissue, but all she could save were the shards of the broken bottle. With no other choice, Claire turned on the water and flushed the remaining shards down the drain. Her newest memory of Charlie was of more loss.

The bottle and the cologne were replaceable. But this bottle she had bought for him just days before he passed away. Her last physical connection to Charlie was gone. That was not replaceable.

Without it she felt lost.

~O~

At the end of the workday, Claire drove home. Tina was with Clarence again studying and Valerie drove around town on her bike to get away and think, something Dr. Hopper said she needed. The counseling sessions she and Val were undergoing seemed to be helping. Yet none of this new stability could undo the tempest of emotions she was feeling right now. Hartley was exactly the man she wanted in her life, but she could not set aside her attachment to Charlie.

During the drive she passed one of the local junior high schools. Its mascot was a knight in shining armor. It reminded Claire of the story she had read to Tina the other night. The one with the heroic knight that freed a princess. Their love was ill fated, though. She found someone new to love, but he didn't. He could not let go of his feelings for the princess. He never could make room in his heart to love another the way he loved that princess.

She felt so lucky to have met Charlie. They were perfect for each other, even though at first it seemed like they were entirely incompatible. Just like the princess and the knight. She was amazed at how things can turnout. Same situation, different results. She was the princess. Charlie was the heroic knight, even if his shiny armor was little more than coveralls caked in dirt and grease.

Then that sour feeling in her stomach hit again.

"You were supposed to say I'm your hero."

"Not in this lifetime, buster."

That exchange kept replying in her head. Charlie always made this look so easy. She never appreciated how hard he worked, the sacrifices he made or the time he spent away from his family just to make sure they had everything they needed and much of what they wanted.

Claire was barely holding on where Charlie succeed effortlessly. Or at least he made it look effortless.

Was that it? She asked. Is that what is holding me back?

Claire turned around and headed for the town's cemetery. She bought a few flowers and set them at Charlie's headstone. It was a wide stone intended to for two people. A husband and wife. They both expected to grow old together when they bought this double sized plot.

What if she took another man? Then what?

It seemed so strange that this spot was the mirror opposite of her bed. For each, one side was empty. His side on the bed, her side in the burial plot. Both incomplete. Both waiting for…, for what?

For someone to fill the void. If she filled the emptiness of her bed with another man, then would this spot next to Charlie go empty forever? He had such a big heart. The man loved without condition. Was it betrayal to be with another man? Charlie had done so much for her, Tina and Valerie.

Her eyes swelled with tears. Her mouth and lips trembled with pain, regret and fear. "I'm so sorry," she told his gravestone. Claire began to open up to the headstone about her feelings for Hartley. She cried as she spoke to her dead husband.

"I'm so alone now," she said. "I miss you so very much. Hartley is a good man. He is a lot like you. Loving, giving and willing to sacrifice for others."

She stopped, as if waiting for him to reply.

"The girls need a father figure around the house now more than ever," she continued. "All they have are memories. Memories that are eight years old. They need someone to give them the guidance and counseling they are going to need as they become adults."

Again, Claire stopped talking, waiting for her husband to answer.

"You did so much for us, Charlie," Claire began to cry even harder. "I never said this to you before and I wish I had. You were always my hero."

~O~

Leaving the cemetery Claire took one last look at the double sized plot where her husband lay. She wiped away a few tears before saying, "Goodbye, my love."

This time she felt it deeply. Her confession and catharsis left her feeling better now. She bore many burdens since Charlie's death. Now it felt like one of them had been removed.

Driving home she kept thinking about Hartley and his offer. Claire took her phone and dialed the number. After two rings someone picked up.

"Hello?" a man's voice answered.

"Hello, Hartley? This is Claire. Listen, I was thinking about what you…" she took a deep breath. "I would like to go out on a date with you."

Okay, this brings a close to events related to Episode 5.

Yay, this entry has eclipsed the 100 review mark. My first story to ever do that. Thank you!

Remember folks, this story will soon be in the crossover section.

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