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

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

Allen Carter, the hospital's network administrator, provided Mr. Gold with everything he knew about Penny Steveston as well as her qualifications. Ms. Steveston was using cutting edge and sometimes homemade software written and designed by the IT community to dig through the encryption and overwriting used to bury the information.

"This does not fill me with confidence, Mr. Carter," Gold replied. "Why should I trust this girl to do your job? A position I helped you acquire to protect my investment. You are more capable, aren't you?"

"Ms. Steveston possesses a genius level IQ. She even hacked my phone from hers in under a minute and reprogrammed the firmware to give me free minutes for life," Carter said.

"Not much of a favor since you will eventually replace your phone with a newer model sooner than later," Mr. Gold answered. "However, that does allay some of my fears. Might you be aware of the intruder's identity?"

"No, sir. But you might want to check with Deputy Swan, she seems to know more than she is letting on."

"Thank you, Mr. Carter," Gold replied, "please continue your efforts to secure my equipment."

~O~

Gold contacted Deputy Swan and questioned her point blank to find out whose information was so sensitive it had to be erased. Emma was not as forthcoming as Allen so he tried a different tactic. "Who recommended Penny Steveston?"

"How did you know she…? Never mind, you have your hands in everything in this town don't you?"

"You are quite correct, Ms. Swan. Now if you please?"

"Hartley Winter recommended her," Emma told him.

This of course led to the next question, why did Mr. Winter know about the cyber-attack.

"I'm conducting this investigation, Gold," Deputy Swan replied bitterly. "I don't need any more interference?"

"More?"

"First the mayor and now you." This was somewhat interesting to the pawn broker. The mayor would have good reason to look into a breach in the network security of the town's only hospital. Yet Regina was not the compassionate type. If she was there it was likely to ensure that hers and Henry's medical information was safe.

"What's it to you?" Emma asked him.

"I'm conducting my own investigation," he informed her, "I would like to know how Mr. Winter knew of the cyber-attack so quickly and why he recommended outside help. The man must have had very personal reasons to become so deeply involved."

Mr. Gold was the wealthiest man in town for a good reason. He wasn't just a pawn broker, his hands were in everything: property owner, landlord, money lender and financial backer. Gold was the majority owner of Storybrooke's largest insurer. Storybrooke General was its most prominent customer. If the hospital could not recover the erased data in a timely manner or at all, a class action lawsuit by all those affected would almost certainly follow. Gold would stand to lose a substantial amount of his fortune in insurance payouts.

"So you're only in this for the money?" she asked him.

"Does it matter why? We both want the same outcome: full recovery of the data and for the criminal to be put behind bars."

"I don't have any leads," Deputy Swan said, "but I have a few suspicions."

"And what would those be?"

"Just that, suspicions," Emma answered, avoiding his question.

Unfazed, the pawn broker went closer to the source calling up Hartley Winter himself. "Mr. Winter, Deputy Swan informed me that you recommended your friend Ms. Steveston to deal with the cyber break-in at the hospital. Do you honestly believe an outsider is more equipped to deal with this crime than the hospital's own personnel?"

"She is most qualified," Hartley said in his British accent. "I trust her with my business regularly. She has never failed even with the most difficult technical question."

"And what business do you have with the hospital?" Gold asked him. "Other than the obvious one that we all face?"

Hartley disliked Mr. Gold which was no secret, so it was to no surprise that Mr. Winter refused to divulge anything of importance. The pawn broker then used his financial power to force Hartley into revealing everything he knew. Mr. Gold was the landowner for Hartley's offices and small warehouse. If Gold were to revoke the lease, Winter's Heating would likely be forced out of business. The tactic worked and soon it became very clear to the pawn broker that Regina was directly involved in this matter. She might cost him a small fortune if her attempt to drive the Kensington family out of town succeeded. Mayor Mills had a nasty habit of using a broadsword when a scalpel was required.

Yet what caught Mr. Gold's attention was the news that Valerie Kensington had suffered an injury that caused her to think she was someone else entirely. And not just another person, but a fairy from a fictional place called Pixie Hollow. Although from Gold's perspective, it might not be so fictional.

~O~

"What was that all about?" Claire asked Hartley as he returned to the booth, slipping into his seat across from the lovely mother of two.

"It was just a business call," he told her. It was both a lie and the truth. "You know how it goes."

She nodded, with a knowing smile.

Vidia had to slide out of the booth to let him back in. She was about to sit down again when she accidentally knocked off the straw from the table. She leaned down to pick it up and spied Clarion's foot playfully sliding up and down Milori's leg. It was more than she needed to see. At the same time it meant that whatever forces had taken their memories, they were somehow still very attracted to each other. The magic that enthralled her friends couldn't overwhelm something as powerful as love.

The fast flyer sat back into her seat and mulled over the menu, though her mind was still distracted by the sights in the diner where they were to have dinner.

~O~

The drive from the hospital to the diner had been an experience for Vidia. The town was both familiar and different. Vidia and the other fairies had ventured to the mainland and London every warm season of every year. Roads and the buildings that lined them were a common feature of any city or town no matter the size or century.

Yet Storybrooke was different in so many ways. First were the red, yellow and green lamps which Tinker Bell, who still insisted on being called Tina, said were stop lights. "Green means go, yellow is a caution and red means stop." With some observation Vidia concluded that the yellow caution informed drivers that the red was about to light up and to be prepared to stop. The stop lights were meant to direct horseless carriages through heavily trafficked intersections in a manner meant to prevent accidents.

The buildings were different in their construction, as well. The architecture was almost nothing like what was seen in London. Both Tinker Bell and the queen told her about the styles of homes found here. Cape Cod, Tudor, Victorian, Queen Anne, Gothic, Greek Revival and others were among the older styles of homes and buildings while single story Ranch homes, Craftsman and Mediterranean styles dominated newer construction.

Vidia also learned that gaslight had long been replaced by electric light, just like the lights in the hospital. Gaslight was too dangerous compared to modern electric light. Tink and Queen Clarion started throwing words and phrases she couldn't understand like LED lighting, fluorescent bulbs and CCFL lights.

"What does all that mean?" she asked exasperated.

"Sorry, sweetie," the queen said with a sheepish look on her face. "We'll teach you."

Men were seen working all along the town's main road. When Vidia asked what they were doing, she was told they were decorating the city for Christmas. She was familiar with this human holiday, but rarely saw the city of London during winter. Warm weather fairies had always remained on Never Land Island during the winter season until Tinker Bell made friends with Lizzy and her father. Afterwards, she and her friends and Tink's sister, her real sister, Periwinkle, would regularly visit the Griffiths at their cottage outside London for the Christmas holiday.

The human house was decorated in a manner not very dissimilar to what the men were placing along the street. Fancy garlands, strings of lights, giant candy canes and wreaths with bows were hung from wires that stretched along the curb through the middle of town. Store fronts were also decorated as such, with colorful lights and strange looking mannequins of a fat man in a red coat and pants. Black boots, a cap with a puffball tail, warm mittens, a white beard and sometimes a bell rounded out the caricature.

"Who is that supposed to be?" she asked.

Shocked, both Tink and Queen Clarion responded. "That's Santa Clause!"

~O~

At the diner, Vidia was still taking in everything she saw. The funny box where paper napkins were stored, the clock with the blue glow, the shiny trim she learned was chrome and even the patrons, none of whom were familiar. Though one short, stout man did catch her attention. It was hard not to notice him. He possessed a grumpy disposition and made a fuss when two men asked if he could move over one stool so they could sit together. "Next time, get your slow asses here before I do," the stocky fellow chided them in a most hostile tone.

"Leroy, that's enough," an older women with white hair and glasses said, reprimanding him.

Leroy turned to face the other two and with a big, fake smile replied, "Next time, get your slow asses here before I do…, please."

Vidia rolled her eyes before preparing to take a sip of the tea she had ordered. She was about to take a drink when she noticed two things. First, it had ice. Second, there was a slice of lemon in it.

"Is it supposed to be this way?" she asked.

"Yes, dear. You always order iced tea at Granny's," her queen said. Vidia had ordered tea, but didn't ask for it iced. The waitress must have assumed iced because of Valerie's history.

Vidia sipped the tea. Its flavor was altered slightly by the presence of the lemon, but she recognized it as similar to what Lizzy served during Vidia's first "tea party." Then, it was hot, not cold and no lemon was present. In Pixie Hollow, the tea of choice was chamomile. A cup of that made a fairy feel calm and at peace. At night, it helped them sleep. The tea that Lizzy served, on the other hand, made Vidia energetic, almost jittery. She couldn't understand why.

Ruby, the young woman with the alarmingly short pants, arrived at their table to take their order. "What'll you have?" she asked with a charming smile. Not even Tink's little green dress was that revealing.

The queen ordered a hot sandwich made of turkey.

"Dinner is on me, order whatever your heart desires," Milori told her.

"The turkey sandwich will do, I have to watch my waistline," she answered. An obvious fib.

Lord Milori requested the same. Tinker Bell asked for a cheeseburger with bacon. Vidia, though couldn't really decide. Nearly every item listed had meat in it, a food every fairy in Pixie Hollow knew was immoral to eat. She sighed and asked for the egg salad sandwich. It was at least familiar and safe.

~O~

Penny tapped the keys of her laptop, putting the finishing touches on programming code to make use of outside resources, namely the computers of her IT friends in Storybrooke. Her entertainment laptop was playing an episode of Joss Whedon's short lived science fiction series Firefly. It was the episode where Captain Reynolds discovers he got married to a girl named Saffron on a planet he and his crew had just visited.

Penny was about to launch a test of the new code when her cell phone chirped. Any good network administrator always sets up their firewalls or servers to send an alert to the admin in case the network is being attacked by an outside source. It allows the administrator to respond in real time to the threat and prevent any damage.

Someone was trying to hack her private computer network at her house. "I think we're being watched," she told Allen.

"Why do you think that?"

"Because whoever is trying to hack my home network would only do it if they knew I wasn't home," she answered. "He or she knows I'm here. Probably the same person who attacked the hospital's system."

"That's a big leap of logic, don't you think?" Allen asked her.

"Not really," she answered. Allen never got an alert when the hospital's network security was breached. The intruder had ensured that no alert would reach him. At least that was Penny's conclusion. The hacker wanted Penny to know he (or she) was trying to gain access to her private computer network. It must have been a diversion. She wasn't going to fall for it. The target must be the hospital.

The young girl polled the logs of the hospital's firewall and noticed that select entries had been deleted. Most wouldn't even know what to look for, but Penny wasn't so easily fooled.

Next she scanned the incoming internet traffic. The missing firewall log entries were all for an unused internet port. Internet ports are, simply put, numbers that tell the computer what application, service or process to send the incoming traffic to. Each number is assigned to a specific service, application or process. Examples include incoming email on port 110, internet (http) on port 80 and secure internet (https) on port 443.

Some of these "logical" ports go unused. Firewalls shut them down to prevent unwanted access from an outside user, like a hacker. This time, though, the port was open when it shouldn't have been. The information being sent was intermittent, but it was at a constant interval. Now she knew for certain they were being watched.

"We should cut off internet access right away," Allen advised in a heightened state of flight or fight.

"No," she told him. "If we cut off internet access he'll know we are on to him. Let's leave things the way they are and see what his game is."

"Sounds dangerous," Allen commented.

"Danger is part of the job," Penny told him. "Like I always say, if you can't handle the stress get out of the server room."

Sorry this chapter took so long. I've been distracted by stuff at home and adding chapters to other stories. I do hope you enjoyed this installment.

Note: The episode of Firefly that Penny is watching featured Christina Hendricks as Saffron. Hendricks voiced Zarina in The Pirate Fairy.