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

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

The doors to the elevator opened and both patient and doctor stepped into the small space. Dr. Hopper pushed the button to the first floor. When the car moved he noticed that Valerie, or at least the Vidia personality that seemed to be dominant at the moment, appeared to savor the vertical movement they both felt. This made sense as Vidia had told him she wanted to fly, but she was without her wings. The descent of the elevator car must have triggered a sensation she must have known all too well. One that she clearly missed.

At least, that is how it appeared to Archie, providing that the Vidia personality was a true persona and not just an elaborate trick by Valerie Kensington to avoid jail time, as Regina had concluded. When the doors opened, Archie led her down the hallway to the hospital's rear entry. He pushed open the door and the sounds of nature replaced the sounds of the air conditioner and the elevator cars and the clanking of dishes from the commissary.

Vidia instantly looked more comfortable in this setting. In the hospital she looked a bit lost, almost overwhelmed by the technology. Out here, Archie surmised, her reaction was of coming into her natural habitat. She stopped and let the breeze blow across of her face and through her hair. Her head turned as she listened to the tweeting of the birds and the chirping of the crickets. In the distance was the honking of geese and quacking of ducks. Water fowl that lived in the small pond on the hospital grounds.

The pond was a place where hospital patients and staff could go to relax. A great smile played across Valerie's face and Archie thought she might want to cry with joy. She opened her eyes again and looked around. She studied the trees of the woods and the insects flying through the air. A bird flew overhead and she stared at it intently.

"It's so small," she said absent mindedly.

"I beg your pardon?" he asked.

"The bird, it's so small," she repeated. "In Pixie Hollow, doves are huge. We can ride on their backs to conserve our pixie dust when flying to the mainland."

"Of course, because fairies are only six inches tall," he clarified to himself.

"Yes."

"The birds here are the same size, but as a human you're much bigger."

The smile faded from her mouth. "Right." Her eye caught a dragonfly darting through the air close by.

"I used to race dragonflies through the pine forest," she told him. Valerie put her hand out, extending her fingers. It was as if she were beckoning the dragonfly to her. Momentarily, the insect approached her and landed on the outstretched finger. She studied it thoroughly.

"You don't look much different," she said to it. "Just smaller."

The dragonfly lit off from her finger and zipped through the air. Valerie watched it. Then she tore after it. Running, trying to stay by its side. "Valerie!" Archie called to her. "Valerie, come back!"

Each time the dragonfly stopped, Valerie stopped with it. When the dragonfly lurched forward again, she ran alongside it. The smile returned to her face and Archie thought he heard a laugh from the girl. Finally, the dragonfly flew where she could not follow. Valerie stopped at the edge of the woods and watched the winged insect disappear into the trees.

"Valerie, what are you doing?" Archie cried out. He ran to catch up to her, the man was out of breath where she was not.

"Racing the dragonfly," she replied, a huge smirk across her face.

"You were enjoying that, weren't you?" he asked, still gulping air

"Yeah. Not quite as much fun as when I was a fairy, but still entertaining."

"Well don't run off like that again," Archie advised her. "The security guards might think you're trying to escape."

"Oh, I won't run away," she said defiantly. "The mayor threw down a challenge and I intend to fight back."

"What challenge?"

Vidia explained to him what was said when Mayor Mills visited her. "She threatened me, Tinker Bell and my queen. I don't take threats very well. If she wants a fight, she'll get one. What do you humans say? Lick her ass?"

"Kick," Archie corrected. "Kick her…, wait, do you intend to do violence against her?"

"Only if she starts it," Valerie answered.

"Why not let Emma take care of that," he told her. "She seems to be on your side. I'll inform her of this in the morning. She needs to know."

"If the mayor is out to get me, why should I trust the law enforcement? Isn't this Emma just a puppet?"

"No. Actually, Emma Swan and Mayor Mills are at odds about quite a few things," Archie said. "Deputy Swan won't roll over for Regina. She'll fight for you if she thinks you're telling the truth about who you are."

"Does she? Does she actually believe me?"

"That's why I'm here, to find out," he replied.

"Do you believe me?"

"I'm still working on that," he said truthfully. "Why don't we go to the pond?"

Valerie followed him down the path to the water. Foot high posts with lights illuminated the walkway to the pond and encircled the pond itself. The sky was still bright with reddish and orange hues. Moths and other insects quickly began to circle the posts, staying close to the bright, white illumination.

The two sat on a park bench near the water's edge. Swans, geese and ducks glided across the surface of the pond. She listened to their honking and quacking. "They'll be going to bed soon," she told him.

Archie smiled and had to stifle a laugh. "Well then, we should get started." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a clear bag with two pieces of bread. Archie took out one and tore it into small pieces. He handed them to Valerie saying, "Try feeding one of them."

Valerie, or rather Vidia, waited for one of the birds to swim towards them. She then tossed out one of the pieces. It landed in the water and floated on the top. The water fowl paddled up next to it, inspected the bread floating in the water and then seconds later the duck plucked it from the water and swallowed it. Valerie then tossed a second piece. The duck snapped it up, gulping it down instantly.

She was about to toss a third piece when a second duck joined the first. Valerie tossed the next piece of bread into the water. Both ducks tried to grab the piece at the same time. One managed to snag it from the other.

"Be nice," Valerie told the two birds. "There is plenty more for each of you."

Surprisingly, the ducks appeared to respond to her. Valerie tossed another, towards the duck on the left. It took the bread and ate it while the other duck waited patiently. Valerie tossed a piece of bread to the duck on the right. That duck snapped up his piece of bread while the first one watched and waited for his turn again.

Archie wasn't sure if the two birds could actually understand her or they simply didn't attempt to take bread that was too far out of their reach. The events he watched were ambiguous enough to be interpreted either way. He assumed that latter, unwilling to accept that the birds could understand what they were being told.

Vidia emptied her hand of the bread and Archie handed her the second slice, which she promptly tore it into pieces. Before she could toss any more food, a goose then arrived and tried to push aside one of the birds that was feeding. "If you can't play nice, leave them alone," Valerie, or rather Vidia, scolded the goose.

The interloper just honked at her, as if angrily telling her off.

"No! You don't get any. Not with that attitude, mister." She tossed a bread piece at one of the ducks. Just as it tried to snatch it up, the newcomer dove in and grabbed it. The goose honked at Vidia once again. Archie watched this strange exchange. It seemed as if the goose was a bully and demanded more from the girl.

"Bad goose! Bad goose! If you can't be nice go away," she told it angrily. The goose flapped its wings at her and squawked even louder. It came ashore and waddled to her, nipping at the air in front of her. The girl jumped from her seat and made and aggressive move towards the goose. Instantly, the bully goose turned and flapped away, his webbed feet running across the surface of the water as it landed on the other side of the pond.

The two ducks Vidia had been feeding had also fled. "It's okay. You can come back now," she told them. However, they did not make any attempt to return. She sighed. "Stupid ducks." Vidia dumped the bread right at the water's edge and went back to the bench. A few moments later birds from the trees flew down and grabbed the pieces of bread, taking their treasure back to their nests in the trees.

"Their loss," she sneered.

"It's getting late," he told her.

The sky, which had been a beautiful array of crimson and orange streaks, was now turning dark. The daylight faded into the distance. Vidia stood and watched the light fade behind the trees. "Iridessa would love this," she mumbled.

"Why don't we go back inside," Archie said. The two returned to the hospital. They engaged in idle chatter, but Archie's mind was fascinated by how this Vidia personality seemed to think she could talk to animals. The goose, which demanded food, had done it before with others who fed the water fowl. But this was the first time he had seen or heard of anyone actually scold the animal as if it could understand what was being said.

Not one moment of what he had seen thus far seemed artificial or rehearsed. This Vidia personality, if that was indeed what he was dealing with, acted completely sincere when dealing with the birds at the pond. Everything he saw and heard felt completely spontaneous.

They stopped at the commissary. He asked her if she was thirsty. "Yeah, I could use something to drink," she answered. He walked up to soda vending machine and put a few coins into the slot.

"What would you like?"

"Well, they keep bringing me this drink they call Mr. Pibb," she said. "I like the taste."

He smiled. Archie pressed the button for Mr. Pibb and seconds later, with a loud thunk, a can dropped out of the dispenser near the bottom.

"How did you do that?" she exclaimed. Vidia quickly fell to her knees and peered into the opening. "Where did that come from?"

"It came from inside," Archie told her. The Vidia personality was truly stunned to see the drink fall out of the vending machine. He explained, in general terms, how a vending machine worked. She listened intently, but seemed somewhat at a loss. As if she understood only some of what he was telling her.

Archie then purchased a bottle of water for himself. It dropped out of the dispenser was well. Vidia was still confused and fascinated by what she saw. He motioned to her to sit at one of the tables.

"So who is Iridessa?" he asked.

Vidia did not immediately respond. Instead she was utterly perplexed by the cold can she held in her hands. "How do you open this?"

"Oh, you pull the tab on top," he instructed. "Pull it forward until the can opens fully, then push it back."

Vidia studied the top of the can. She must have seen the ring and the cutout in the metal. Carefully, she tried to pull the ring tab. Her motions were rather herky jerky. Unpracticed. When persons repeat a specific task over and over again it forms muscle memory. A type of habit which can be later repeated with little or no conscious, or intellectual involvement. A part of the brain called the basil ganglia remembers how to perform those actions and they can be repeated much as when a person walks or writes their name.

It took the Vidia personality a while, but she did manage to insert her finger under the ring and pry it upward. The can hissed and popped. "Whoa!" She jumped back in her chair, taken by surprise. She recovered and Vidia then pulled the ring completely towards her, fully opening the can. "Now what do I do again?"

"Push the ring back down."

She did as instructed. Carefully, she then raised the can to her mouth and sipped it. At first she dribbled some of the soda on her robe. He handed her some napkins to sop up the dribbles. She tried it again, this time properly forming a seal with her lips to draw in the soda. Within a minute or two, she had managed to figure out how to drink from the can properly.

"How did you… how did you do that?" Dr. Hopper asked her, forgetting his previous question. "What you did with the ducks and the goose?"

"Fawn taught me a little of their language," she told him.

"A fawn? A baby dear?"

She turned and give him a quizzical look. "No, Fawn. She is an animal talent fairy."

"Of course," he said, remembering the Latina looking fairy he had read about.

"Animal talents can speak with all animals and insects in their native languages," she explained. "And they can do it without an accent."

"I see, but you were speaking in English," he asked her. "Did they understand?"

"Uh huh. They hear you talking all the time and picked up a few words here and there."

"Kind of like dogs?" he replied. "My Dalmatian, Pongo, has learned a few words, commands that I speak to him."

"Yeah, it's kind of like that," she answered. "But these aren't commands. We just talk to them." The Vidia personality explained that as fairies they were friends with all the creatures of the forest, except for The Hawk. A predatory bird that could make a meal out of an inattentive fairy or sparrow man. Mice, doves, squirrels, chipmunks, fish, frogs, spiders, bees and just about every living thing great and small were treated warmly, as equals by the fairies. "We care for them, teach them to climb trees, fly through the air or swim in the water."

"Don't they know how to do that already?" he asked her. "Shouldn't that be instinctive?"

"Not every animal knows how to walk or crawl or fly right out of the nest," she said. "Baby birds have to learn to fly just as baby squirrels have to be taught to scamper across the ground and climb tree trunks."

Archie nodded. He remembered his younger days when he would spend evenings watching nature programs that focused on baby animals. A foal had to learn to stand on its own, struggling to its feet and slowly learning balance. In another show, tiger cubs were shown engaging in play fighting as a way of learning hunting and stalking. Those skills might have been instinctive, but they still required development. Apparently that was what the Vidia personality was talking about. In her imaginative world, these fairies acted like teachers or coaches and helped to develop innate skills in the animals they tended.

"What else do these other fairies do?" he asked her.

Vidia went on to describe much of what her friends did. Rosetta and the garden fairies grew flowers, trees and other plants. They painted blossoms and leaves the correct colors for each season. Garden talents also gathered up all the seeds and sproutlings to take to the mainland every spring. Animal fairies helped to birth and train animals and insects. They even painted butterfly wings, the backs of ladybugs and put the stripes on bees.

Water talents, like her friend Silvermist, could manipulate water, but they also trained fish to swim, frogs to croak and kept the polliwogs safe until they matured. They also drizzled rain onto the gardens to help them grow. Light fairies, such as Iridessa, could bend light, capture the evening glow from the sun and gave fireflies their "fire." They also aided the garden fairies by focusing much needed light when it wasn't readily available, like on a cloudy day.

This reminded Archie of his previous question and gave him the answer he was seeking.

Fast flyers, of course, created breezes and winds and gathered pollen for the seasons. Garden fairies used some of that pollen to grow new sproutlings. Tinker fairies crafted bird satchels, bags, baskets and other containers to ferry the seeds, insects and pollen to the mainland. They also wove large baskets for the winter fairies so that the Snowy Owls could transport snowflakes when bringing winter to the mainland.

"Snowflakes?"

"Yes. Snowflake fairies make them," she said. "Tinker Bell's sister Periwinkle and her friends Gliss and Spike are frost fairies. Rosetta's boyfriend Sled is a winter animal fairy. Slush is a glacier fairy who can freeze water into ice and form icebergs and glaciers."

"How does Lord Milori fit into all of this?" he asked her.

"He rules over the Winter Woods, making sure all the work is done properly and on time so that winter arrives on the mainland on schedule."

"Have you seen any of these other fairies in Storybrooke? Beyond the ones you've already identified?"

"No, but Storybrooke looks like a good sized town. They might be here. If they are, I just have to find them."

Archie and the Vidia personality talked at greater length about Pixie Hollow and some of the other talents found there, including some very specialized talents like butterfly wranglers, far seeing and far hearing talents, scouts who protected their world and even cooking talents.

"The queen has helpers," she said. "They attend to her every need, like keeping her clothes clean and laying them out each morning, drawing her bath and maintaining her bed chamber."

This sounded like a typical monarchy to Dr. Hopper in which the king or queen had attendants who did all such menial work for them. The irony that her "queen," Claire Kensington was a contractor and construction worker was not lost on him.

Then Archie chose a different subject.

"Do you ever talk with Valerie?" she asked the Vidia personality. "Or are you even aware of her?"

"I don't even know who she is," Vidia replied. "But everyone I know acts like I'm supposed to be this person."

"What was your last memory?" he asked her. "Before waking up in Storybrooke."

She thought for a good while. "I want to say it was seeing Tinker Bell returning to Pixie Hollow."

"Returning?"

"Yeah, she left Pixie Hollow with Peter Pan a few years ago," Vidia answered. "Very suddenly, in fact. It hurt all of us when she did, but Periwinkle suffered the most."

"Periwinkle? Oh, right. Because she is Tinker Bell's sister."

"Uh hmm." Vidia took another sip of her drink. She then recounted in extreme detail how it affected every one of her friends. It nearly tore up the small group that Tinker Bell had belonged to. But it was Periwinkle's story that seemed the most heartbreaking. "She took it very personally. I mean, that was her sister. How could she not at least say something to her before leaving?"

"Why did Tinker Bell leave in the first place?"

"She felt unwanted, I think. Tink is very curious and imaginative, but she had designed and built everything she could. There were no new challenges left for her, no fun. Peter Pan must have seemed like a chance at a new life. Where every day was different and fun."

"So why did she come back?"

"I don't know. I don't…, I don't remember."

"So something erased your memory?"

"I don't know. Seeing her flutter back into Pixie Hollow is the last thing I remember before waking up in your hospital."

He nodded his head. They talked a little more, this time about idle things as he explained a few questions she had about his world. When they finished their beverages, he escorted the girl back to her hospital room.

Afterwards, Archie went to the receptionist desk where Janice worked so he could finish those requests. The station was dark. Everyone there had gone home, but a clipboard was waiting for him. He signed off on each page and left the documents on the desk. When the morning shift returned they would send the MRI images to his email account. Archie left the hospital and went home, taking his dog for his nightly walk before going to bed.

~O~

When morning came, Dr. Hopper checked his email. The scans had not yet arrived. He showered, dressed and went to work, walking with his dog Pongo as he did every weekday morning. At his office, he checked the email again and once again nothing had arrived.

He called up the hospital and asked what the delay was.

"I'm sorry, Doctor Hopper," a nice lady said over the phone, her voice clearly distressed, "we've lost those images."

"What do you mean you lost the images? How could you lose them? They are on your computers."

"Our network was hacked last night," the distressed lady said. "It's a nightmare over here. We've lost thousands of files, including the ones you requested."

Archie was worried. Without those images he would have a hard time proving competency, or lack thereof, should Regina push for a trial or a hearing. Although not fully convinced, Dr. Hopper wanted those scans to understand the nature of Valerie's injury, both physically and psychologically.

He also worried about all the patients in the hospital. If Valerie's files were erased then surely many others were lost, as well. He wondered if lifesaving surgeries had to be postponed. Would medicines be delivered on time, or at all? Maybe the wrong medicine would be administered. The entire hospital must have been in convulsions.

Dr. Hopper was incensed. Whoever this hacker was, he or she didn't care that their actions might lead to the deaths of innocents. If caught, he wanted this person to be held accountable for every life lost.

In spite of his anger, he just hoped that Storybrooke General could recover their files soon. That was the most pressing issue.

He hung up and waited for his first session. Not long after the phone rang. "Dr. Hopper, this is Mayor Mills. I hope you and Valerie Kensington had a good talk last night."

"Yes, Regina, we did." Regina Mills always knew what was going on in Storybrooke. She had eyes and ears everywhere.

"Good. I managed to get her pretrial hearing on the docket for next Monday. I do hope you'll be ready."

Regina doesn't mess around, does she? Well, another chapter in this ongoing story. Maybe I should have named this Disney's Vidia in Storybrooke, instead.

Please leave a review. I love to hear what you think of this story.

BTW, for all you Frozen fans out there, ABC has been floating the idea of a Once Upon A Time spinoff based on the Disney film Frozen.

Nothing is confirmed, but if done right it could have loads of potential.