Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairy's / Once Upon a Time Crossover
Season 1, between episodes 7 and 8

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

Vidia watched her queen shuffle back to her side of the curtain and sit in a chair. She seemed disheartened. As if old wounds had been reopened.

"Are you okay?" she asked the queen.

"I'm fine, sweetheart," Clarion answered. "You just rest." After a pause, Clarion stated that she and Tina would be gone tomorrow most of the day, but would return in the evening. "We have to get back to work."

"What work?" Vidia asked. The only job the queen ever had was being a head of state. Leading Pixie Hollow and all the fairies that lived within its borders. She settled disputes, made law, gave new fairy's their names and talents and on rare occasions even enforced the laws.

"Mowing lawns, fixing pipes, general house repairs. What we've always done."

"It sounds like you're a…, a tinker."

Clarion laughed a bit. "Oh we are more than simple tinkers," she replied. "I'm a contractor. You and Tina are my workers. And anyone else I can get to help when I need them."

"But you're a queen. You don't get your hands dirty. Everyone else does the work of you," Vidia told her.

"Oh, honey," Clarion appeared even worse, as if a shell of herself. "I'm no queen. We're a middle class family living in Maine. Hopefully, we can stay middle class. If all these bills don't kill us."

"Bills?"

Clarion sighed. "Yes, dear. Bills. Bills for water, electricity, gas, garbage pickup, internet services, television, home phones, cell phones, insurances, food bills, and now bills for this…" She cut herself off.

"For what?"

"Nothing for you to worry about," was all her queen would say. Her voice was soft and weak. Vidia almost interpreted it as being weary.

"What about your ministers? Can't they help?"

"Ministers? What does the Church have to do with this?"

"Church? No, your ministers. They give you advice so you can make better decisions."

Clarion looked lost for a second or two. "You mean advisors." She sighed. "Sweetie, a head of state has advisors. The CEO of a major corporation has advisors. I'm just a housewife who had to take over her husband's business when he passed away. And I'm not doing a very good job of it, either."

This was a first for Vidia. She had rarely, if ever seen her queen appear so publicly vulnerable. Queen Clarion had always radiated a certain amount of confidence. It maintained strong morale among the fairies of Pixie Hollow, even when the situation seemed most dire. The women sitting beside her at this moment seemed beaten. Defeated. Almost as if waiting for the inevitable end to come and swallow her whole.

"I don't know what we're going to do," Clarion whispered.

~O~

Claire Kensington couldn't believe she just uttered those words in front of her own daughter. Valerie may believe she was another person entirely, but it was the wrong thing for a mother to show weakness in front of her own children. They relied on her for strength and support. What Claire needed desperately was someone she could rely on for that same strength and support. Tina had been that for her after Charlie died, but it was a terrible burden for a child to bear. Now, though, she required someone like her husband again.

Ever since Charlie died, Claire had been going it alone. It was nice to have Hartley in her life, but they were just dating. Charlie never abandoned her side when something catastrophic happened. And he could always make a bad situation seem less desperate. It was his gift to find a silver lining in anything or put things into better perspective. Claire, on the other hand, just didn't seem to know how to do that.

Her worries were twofold and both of them were crushing. First, her oldest daughter was sitting in a hospital and could not remember who she was anymore. Worse yet, Claire had yelled to her that she didn't even want the girl in the first place. An awful admission for any parent to make.

Second, those bills she was telling Valerie about. She still owed a considerable sum of money to Mr. Gold. A debt in which she had put up the house as collateral. The monthly payments were high, but she could always find a way to meet them while providing for herself and her two girls. Valerie's hospital stay was going to wipe them out.

A couple of years ago, in an effort to save money and cut a few low priority corners, Claire changed the health insurance she had on herself and the two girls. She altered the policies so that instead of a fifteen hundred dollar deductible, each person had a five thousand dollar deductible. The amount she would owe before the insurance would pay for anything. It lowered her monthly premiums and saved on funds.

Valerie's considerable hospital bills would most certainly consume most or even exceed that five thousand dollar deductible in one fell swoop. She might be able to work out a payment plan, but another considerable monthly bill on top of all the ones she already had would sink her sooner than later. While she allowed Valerie and Tina to live in blissful ignorance, Claire was already picturing the three of them losing their home to Mr. Gold and being forced to live under a bridge like some of those poor day laborers she hires on occasion.

Claire was pulled from her inner thoughts by the calls of her oldest. "Your Highness? Your Majesty! Queen Clarion!"

"Hunh! Oh, yes, sweetheart, what is it?"

"Why would someone call Rosetta a female dog?"

Claire furrowed her brow. "Who is a female dog?"

"Rosetta. The person on the other side. You remember her, don't you?"

"Yes. Her name is Desiree Collingsworth. What does a female dog have to do with her?"

"I overheard one of the nurses call her that," Valerie said. "They said she was a real bitch."

"WHAT!?" Desiree shrieked. "Who called me a bitch? I'll sue this cruddy hospital right into the ground!"

Claire glared at her girl. "Don't you dare use that kind of language, young lady."

"Why? What is so wrong with calling someone a-."

"Yes, I know what that word really means," she said, frustration in her voice. Claire had to reign herself in, remembering that Valerie wasn't Valerie anymore. At least, not right now. She took in a few deep breaths. "I know that when properly used, 'bitch' means a female dog. But many people today have turned it into a crude and profane insult. It's a mean and terrible thing to call someone a bitch. So please don't say it. Even in its proper context. I doubt many people even know what it actually means these days."

Valerie paused. Then she looked back at Claire. "Have you ever used it that way? The wrong way?"

Claire slumped back into her chair. "Yes. Yes, I think I have. But no more. A parent should set a good example for her children. I'm sorry for not being a better mother to you or Tina."

"You've always been a good queen," Valerie said. "You have no reason to apologize."

Claire sighed. That was probably the nicest thing Valerie had said to her in years. Unfortunately, it didn't come from her, but from this other personality that possessed her. It hurt Claire so much to hear these things from Valerie, yet not from her daughter.

"I should go," Claire said. "We have to get up very early tomorrow. Goodnight, sweetheart." She leaned over and gave her Valerie, wherever she was inside, a peck on the forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Okay," Valerie answered. "Before you go, is there something I can write on?"

Claire pulled a notepad from the nightstand and placed it on the rolling table. She laid a pencil next to it and rolled the table over Valerie's bed. She then ran her fingers through her daughter's hair and give the girl a smile before leaving.

~O~

Vidia watched as her queen left her hospital room. She looked very weary and distressed. Much more so than she did earlier. The flyer knew she had much work ahead of her. Taking the pencil and pad, she began to write down the names of her friends and who they were in Storybrooke.

Queen Clarion = Claire Kensington

Tinker Bell = Tina Kensington (sister?)

Rosetta = Desiree Coll

She stopped. Vidia stopped writing when something dawned on her. She had been so preoccupied with waking up in this strange land that it never occurred to her before. The words she had been writing were in English, not Fairy as expected. The humans who spoke to her could understand her when she talked to them. They shouldn't be able to do that. Fairies speak a language that sounds like a jingling of bells to a human. Only those versed in it could understand their unique method of verbal communication.

Vidia willed herself to write something in Fairy script. It was spelled out in English. She tried again, it still was spelled out in English. She tried to speak in her native tongue. English is what she heard. No matter how hard she tried, Vidia could never reproduce her own language either verbally or in writing.

"What's happened to me?" she asked herself. She knew her own history. Remembered her own life from arriving in Pixie Hollow to just before whatever brought them here. Yet, for some reason she could not write or speak in her native language.

The magic. The magic that brought them here must have done this to her, she deduced. But why? She could picture fairy books written in Fairy. She could see memories of herself writing words in Fairy. Yet she could not duplicate even a single letter at this very moment.

Vidia tossed the pencil and notepad off the table and then shoved it aside, too. Her frustrations with this land of humans were compounding rapidly. No wings, her body pierced, mutilated and inked in strange ways, no one remembered her or their true selves, everyone she knew turned into a humans. Now she could not even write the fairy language she knew as well as anyone from Pixie Hollow.

"You okay over there, Shug?" Rosetta asked.

Vidia, tears welling up in her eyes, decided to talk her old friend. "Do you remember the time we had to rescue Tinker Bell from the little girl who put her in a cage?"

Nothing.

"Rosetta. Are you listening?"

"Tinker Bell? You mean like in Peter Pan?"

"Yes. Like Peter Pan. Do you remember that summer on the mainland? Tinker Bell got too close to a human house and got trapped. I trapped her… by accident. Then you and I along with Silvermist, Clank, Bobble, Fawn and Iridessa, we had to build a boat out of tree bark because it was raining. We sailed towards the human house to rescue Tinker Bell. Do you remember that?"

Again, nothing.

"Rosetta? Rosetta?"

After a few seconds of silence, Vidia heard another voice. "Yes, this is the nurse's station. Can I help you?" It came from the other side of the curtain. It sounded strange, though. Almost shrill, like it was coming through a pipe. It sounded…, tiny. If a voice could sound tiny.

"Yes, this is Ms. Collingsworth. Is that private room ready yet? I'm sittin' next to a crazy person!"

"I am not crazy! Rosetta you have to remember."

"Oh, of course, you're not, Shug," she said to Vidia. Then in a loud whisper, "Get me out of here!"

She had found another friend, yet she was still alone. Laying back into bed, Vidia wondered if every person from Pixie Hollow would treat her this way if she tried to tell them about their past. Maybe I shouldn't tell them anymore, she thought. But if I don't, then how will I get them to remember?

~O~

Vidia didn't know it, but the one person who could get them all to remember was sitting in his bedroom finishing his homework. His name was Henry Mills, a ten year old boy who knew the truth. The only person in town who did. Other than his own mother, though she had her own plans. Regina was in her home office downstairs watching a children's movie. A film about a cute little fairy in a green dress who desperately wanted to visit the mainland.

I hope everyone is enjoy the story so far. Thank you for reading.