Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon A Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 9, Chapter 8
STORYBROOKE, MAINE
Claire found that the work Hartley promised was more than sufficient. She had to hire out to Paul and Ben for extra help. At the first house, a separate circuit breaker had to be added right off the city breaker just for the HVAC unit. In the second, a furr down was required in two rooms. This house was built before forced heat and air units. The furr down was essentially a small wall or enclosure to hide the ducts that would otherwise be exposed.
The work Claire and her crew did went beyond minimum code. Mrs. Kensington was a fan of a television show on HGTV called Holmes Inspection, in which General Contractor and host Michael Holmes inspected recently purchased houses that were having severe problems despite receiving high marks on their city inspections. These houses had terrible problems which the local inspectors missed or ignored. During the remodeling phase with his crew, he would typically advocate doing more than what minimum code required for the safety of the homeowners and the longevity of the house.
Claire took this advice to heart and put her best effort into both jobs. She was rewarded with pay that bordered on generous. Hartley was so impressed that he immediately contracted her out for another home. A new job that Ned secured when the aging HVAC unit conked out and could no longer supply proper heat. This helped to alleviate some of Claire's short term money problems.
It was enough that one night she gathered up her two girls and went shopping for a Christmas tree. Tina was excited. Vidia, was less so, but went along without incident. "Well? What do you think?" Claire asked while the salesman held up one specimen.
"It looks a little lopsided, Mom," Tina said.
At the next tree Vidia commented that there was a large empty space where no branches had grown. For the third everyone agreed it was too small for their home. Another tree was too narrow, while another was too fat and disproportionate. Claire and her girls made the poor salesman show them several more until they found just the right one. It wasn't too narrow or too fat. It was full all around and it was just the right height for the house.
While the man put the tree through a machine that carefully netted it for the drive home, Vidia walked out of the lot and looked around at the lights and decorations. The mood of the passersby was festive. Across the street, a group of nuns stood by a storefront singing songs while ringing a bell. People dropped money into a bucket the put out. She later learned that the nuns were collecting donations to support their private school.
It was as she was taking in these scene that a hawk landed just a few yards away from her. It was almost as if it could sense who she was. It squawked at Vidia who, upon seeing it, panicked and tried to run away. The raptor unfurled its wings to mammoth lengths and chased Vidia. She ran as fast as she could back into the tree lot looking for cover.
Then it dawned on her. "Hey, I'm not a fairy anymore. I'm bigger than he is." Vidia stopped in her tracks and turned around. She spread out her arms in majestic glory to imitate a raptor spreading its wings. She squawked loudly, going for a predatory fervor. "BRAAWWWK!" she yelled. "I… am not… afraid… of you!"
Now it was Vidia who was doing the chasing. The hawk turned tail and ran, lifting up into the air. Vidia ran after it yelling, "And don't come back!"
After so many years of being chased by the Hawks of Pixie Hollow, it felt SOOO good to turn the tables and be the bully rather than the bullied. Vidia, smug with confidence, strutted back to the truck where the tree was being tied down for the trip home.
"What was that noise?" Claire asked her.
"Just a little well-earned payback," she replied.
"Payback? To whom?" Claire asked with great concern.
"Uh…, the hawk," Vidia said. "It used to scare us in Pixie Hollow. I lost some of my friends to those blasted predators. This time I scared it away."
Claire gave her a funny look before saying, "Okay, dear," with that voice that said "I have no idea what you are talking about, but I'm sure I'll be getting a phone call about it later."
~O~
The tall stranger spent his time driving around the city of Storybrooke acclimating himself to the community. He recognized so many faces even though this was his first visit to the city. He parked in front of the clock shop and looked inside at Marco, the older man who worked there. The stranger knew him best. The old man was his father. Yet the stranger could not go inside to talk with him. Not just yet. Soon, perhaps, when he could finally gather the courage to do so.
~O~
When not working for Hartley, Claire put time in at the school gymnasium coordinating the Christmas Festival. Her work was entirely voluntary, but she insisted on doing her best and demanding it from the other volunteers. The gym was a flurry of activity as dozens of volunteers stretched out garland, hung mistletoe and placed empty boxes wrapped in decorative foil paper around the large space. Strings of blinking colored lights were strung along all the booths to enhance the holiday atmosphere. Fully decorated artificial trees sat by the wayside along with wire frame reindeer lawn ornaments. They would be set out on the floor the night before the festival.
The basketball hoop on one end of the floor was covered up with a papier-mâché chimney. A laughing Santa Clause figure stuck out of it as if he were preparing to descend the chimney to deliver presents. The other hoop was disguised with a wreath and silver bells as an insert. Bags of artificial snow were delivered and put aside. This would be carefully dropped into corners and around booths to resemble a winter wonderland. Finally, Claire asked Paul and Ben to run electrical extension cords all over the gymnasium floor and cover them up with duct tape for safety purposes. Each booth was also allotted one surge protector with six plugs. The work was cleared by the city inspectors who gave Claire's efforts high marks.
The festival itself consisted of a pageant celebrating the Nativity, followed by Clarence's band playing Christmas carols. Food would be served and booths were provided so local businesses and artisans could peddle their wares. Additional booths were also being erected for games such as Fish Pond, Ring Toss and Search for Gold which would entertain the visitors.
A silent auction was to be held in the adjacent school cafeteria simultaneously with several rounds of Bingo and it all concluded with a drawing where twenty fully cooked Christmas hams were to be given away as well as a grand prize of a fifty inch, High Definition LED television made by Samsung.
Despite all the time away from home Claire still managed to set aside enough to be with her two girls while they trimmed the tree with decorations. Tina settled into a good mood. Vidia was just pleased to not be yelled at even when she made small mistakes.
They were halfway through decorating the tree when the three women had to stop for the night. Tina had school the next morning and Claire needed to meet up with Hartley for her third contract with him. While preparing for bed, Claire remembered what Tina had said a few days earlier when she punished the girl for going behind her back to go on a date with Blake.
"You ruined Christmas," the young girl accused. Claire felt badly, especially in the shadow of Dr. Hopper's advice. She knocked on the bedroom door and spoke with her youngest.
"Tina, I want you to know that I was mad at you the other day for going behind my back to date that young man," she started. "This is my house and I have the authority to set down rules. But I have to come to terms with the fact that you're growing up. You can start to make a few decisions of your own. But remember, everything you do has a responsibility attached to it. That's not my rule, it's a fact of life."
Tina, who had been lying in her bed silently rolling her eyes when Claire began talking, now sat up and listened intently to her mother.
"I'm going to give you a bit more leeway to be an adult," Claire said to her. "You are sixteen, soon to be seventeen, and you need to learn how to be mature. I had no intention of ruining Christmas for you. So why don't we just call it time served and leave it at that?"
"Yeah, Mom. I'd like that," Tina replied.
"And remember, if you get into a bind don't hesitate to come to me," Claire told Tina. "I've been there before. I know it can be hard to imagine it, but I was your age once. I can offer advice and guidance. I'm a mother, it's what we do."
"Okay."
Claire grabbed up her youngest into a motherly hug, "Oh come here, you little muskrat," she said.
"Awe, Mom! You haven't called me that in ages."
"Actually, your dad called you his little muskrat," she said. "I always thought it was kind of weird."
"So why did you call me muskrat?"
"I don't know," Claire answered. "I guess it doesn't seem so weird anymore."
Claire put a matronly kiss on her girl's forehead. The pair then spent more than an hour together talking as Tina asked questions about when Claire was a teenager. It was an evening of mother / daughter bonding that Claire had never done before and she relished the moment. In doing so she learned more about her little girl than she ever had in sixteen years. She gained a new respect for her little one and Tina in turn understood her mother better.
"Goodnight, my darling," Claire said as she turned out the light. Tina was tired and sleepy. Claire had pulled the sheets over her and tucked the girl in for a good night's rest. When the mother checked on her other girl, Vidia was already asleep for the night. She seemed so peaceful, almost as if her Valerie had never left. It brought back so many memories.
"Goodnight, sweetheart," Claire whispered to the older girl.
After a moment, Claire went to bed. She never slept better.
~O~
FAIRIE HAVEN, NEVER LAND (The Book Verse)
Vidia watched from a distance as two men spoke with the dragon Kyto. The little fairy was too far away to hear what was said. Moments later she was stunned to see the fearsome creature turned into a sparrow man. A fairy dressed in purple. One of the men, humans but fairy size, spun a hat on the ground. It turned into a whirlwind where all three disappeared.
"Humph, good riddance," the fast flyer sneered. When she returned to the Hawthorne Tree, Vidia reported what she saw.
"Are you certain?" Ree asked. "No power in the universe could steal away Kyto."
"I'm afraid it is true, Your Highness," Mother Dove interjected. "Never Land can sense that the dark magic is gone and Kyto with it."
"Well that's good isn't it?" Rani asked. She was perched upon Brother Dove. Rani, a water fairy, had cut off her beautiful wings to help repair Mother Dove's egg which kept everyone on Never Land from aging. Brother Dove now dutifully acted as her wings, flying her to wherever she needed.
"No, it is not," Mother Dove replied. "Kyto is part of our world. I cannot guess what will happen now that he is gone. Only time will tell."
"Is it bad?" Tinker Bell asked.
"I do not know," Mother Dove replied. "Never Land does not know. Nothing may happen, or something terrible may happen. We can only wait."
This news did not sit well with Queen Ree. "I believe something terrible has already happened." She still remembered that painful day when the dragon was captured the second time. So many of her fairies died in his fiery breath. "Vidia, tell us how these men disappeared with Kyto."
"One of them tossed his hat on the ground. It spun and became a giant swirling vortex. I could have done better."
Queen Ree became even more unsettled. "That was how our visitor arrived, wasn't it? A swirling vortex from the ocean?"
"Yes," Tinker Bell replied. "What was her name again?"
~O~
Queen Ree visited the Memorial Garden. It was here that those who lost their lives capturing Kyto were remembered. Names and paintings for each fairy who perished were on display in this serene place. One of these markers stood out from the others. It listed a fairy from another realm.
It seems that whatever dark magic brought you to us has taken our most fearful enemy, Ree thought to herself. To what end has this happened? If only you were alive to provide us with answers.
Ree stood in front of the marker for this lone fairy. This visitor. Her name, as the plaque read, was Periwinkle.
So what happened to Periwinkle in the book verse? Sorry, you'll just have to wait until season 2 to find out.