Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon a Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 11, Chapter 3

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

"You're late," David told Mary Margaret. She met him near the old toll bridge. He was obviously agitated.

"David, you're scaring me," she answered him. He brought her across the bridge and down towards the water that ran through the creek. She was more concerned than ever. "Late for what?"

Her answer was as plain as day. David had laid out a picnic along the banks of the creek, the same place where they had met after he woke up from his coma. It was a truly romantic gesture. One that warmed her heart like nothing before.

~O~

Emma met him inside a drainage pipe. Sydney was dressed in a trench coat and hat, she was wrapped in her Sheriff's jacket and knit hat. The cold winter air was made all the worse by the recent storm and pervasive humidity.

"Fifty thousand dollars," he told her. Sydney Glass had found evidence that Mayor Regina Mills had taken fifty thousand dollars from city funds for seemed to be personal reasons. Essentially, Sydney was implicating her in a crime.

Emma was not impressed. She needed more than that to go on. Sydney tried to push Emma into continuing the investigation. "Use your bag of bail bonds' tricks," he told her. "Follow her, plant a bug, something."

"I can't," she answered him. "I'm the sheriff now, I have to be more responsible."

Sydney pleaded with her. "This will finally show the townspeople who she really is, Emma."

"Tell me Sydney, if Regina is such a bad person, how did you get mixed up with her in the first place?"

"I used to think she was a different person."

~O~

THE ENCHANTED FOREST

The young Queen Regina sat at the table while her husband, King Leopold extoled all manner of compliments upon his daughter, Snow during the girl's birthday celebration. He called her his greatest gift and described her as the fairest of them all, much like his dear departed wife.

Those words hurt. The queen quietly slipped from the room and went to the courtyard where she stood next to her beloved apple tree. A place where she came for solitude and escape. What she did not know was that someone had followed her.

Genie.

"I didn't think anyone would notice," Regina said when she saw him standing there.

"I noticed," he replied. He could see how pained she was. Regina finally admitted that as good as the king was to her, Leopold could never stop loving his dead wife. Regina would forever live in someone else's shadow and it left her feeling unloved and unwanted.

Genie could not believe this. He presented Regina with a small gift, a beautiful mirror so, as he told her, she could see herself as he saw her, the loveliest woman in all the land.

~O~

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

Emma and Sydney brought mounds of paperwork to the house that she shared with Mary Margaret, much to the surprise of Ms. Blanchard. There they poured over every page, every word from every box. And there were dozens of boxes with files from the city archives. What they were looking for was proof that Regina had indeed stolen that money.

Unfortunately, the file they needed was missing. Emma wanted to give up. Without that file her investigation would go nowhere. Sydney, however, refused to relent. He wanted Emma to go further, to go beyond the law. She refused him once more.

Then Mary Margaret chimed in, saying that if they were doing the wrong thing for the right reason it was still okay. Something that Sydney agreed with. Emma called it equivocating. Sydney pushed even further. "This is what she does to people, Emma. Regina destroys their lives. What she has done to you she does to everyone. She does to your son. If we get that file we can free this city from her grip, make it safe for people to live their lives. Safe for you to live with Henry without her getting in the way."

Just the mention of Henry in Regina's awful care was enough to push her over the edge, "Alright Sydney. You've convinced me. We'll do things your way."

The two went back to the archives and asked to see the missing file. What they discovered was that the file had been checked out by the mayor three weeks ago. When Emma and Sydney confronted her about it Regina all but mocked them.

"You checked out that file three weeks ago," Emma declared.

"Which I do from time to time, seeing as I'm the mayor. And if it was three weeks ago then it was destroyed..., in a fire..., which got you elected sheriff as I recall. Now Ms. Swan why don't you stop associating with this disgraced ex-reporter and get back to doing your job."

Sydney was convinced that this would turn Emma into a mad person, ready to do anything and everything to wring the information out of Regina. Instead, she simply left.

"Okay, that's it." Emma turned and left the office.

"Okay? That's it? You aren't going to do anything?"

"I did," Emma responded confidently. "I planted a bug."

~O~

Claire and her brood met with Hartley at Dave's Fish and Chips for lunch with Penny in tow. The Kensington family almost didn't make it today. Tina woke up feeling sick. Fortunately, her nausea cleared up by the time they left for the restaurant.

Vidia wasn't too keen on eating fish for lunch, or for any other meal for that matter. Although she had recently taken up eating other meats like beef, chicken and pork, she had been able to get passed her objections because those animals were not native to Pixie Hollow. Fish were a different story. They were the friends of every animal and water talent on the island. She could still picture Silvermist happily cuddling the baby fish as they learned to swim upstream.

As if that wasn't enough, Claire had become most excited about some contest called a "Super Bowl." She had remembered the term from her trial, but she never bothered to find out what it was. Now it was all Claire could talk about.

According to Tina, Claire was extra excited this year because the New England Patriots were back in the big game. She explained how four years earlier the Patriots had acquired wide receiver phenom Randy Moss from the Oakland Raiders and paired him with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. During the season Brady threw for a record fifty touchdowns leading the team to a perfect regular season and a berth in Super Bowl XVII.

Their opponent was the New York Giants led by quarterback Eli Manning, brother of Peyton Manning. The Giants had backed into the playoffs and won two stunning upsets over teams with better records to get to the Super Bowl. The 2007 New England Patriots were billed as the greatest team in NFL history and were picked as the overwhelming favorites to win the championship game, becoming only the second team in NFL history to complete a perfect season with a win in the Super Bowl. Only the 1972 Miami Dolphins had achieved that same feat albeit with a fourteen game regular season instead of a sixteen game season that was in use today.

The actual game was much tighter than expected as the defensive front four of the Giants put constant pressure on Tom Brady and disrupted New England's potent offense. With two minutes and thirty nine seconds remaining in the game the Patriots led 14 – 10. Starting from their own seventeen yard line the Giants needed a small miracle if they were going to drive for the winning score. They got it when, from their own 44 yard line on 3rd down and five, Manning threw a tall pass to receiver David Tyree who out jumped his defender and somehow grabbed the ball with one hand and lodged it between his hand and his helmet when he came down.

The catch netted New York 32 yards and soon after Eli Manning drove the team down the field, throwing a pass to receiver Plaxico Burress for what ended up being the game winning touchdown. The victory turned the NFL world upside down while New England Patriot fans were beside themselves in agony that a perfect season had come up short on the NFL's biggest stage against a team few thought deserved to win.

Now they were going to get a rematch. Both New England and New York were in Super Bowl XLVI. Receiver David Tyree was no longer with the Giants and this fact was repeated ad infinitum by Patriot fans who were still seething over his part in their improbable win four years ago.

Today, however, Claire was on a lunch date with Hartley and she promised not to bring up the subject of the Super Bowl unless he mentioned it. Vidia couldn't believe what she was seeing from the woman who was her queen. The anxiety, excitement, jitters and all around playful behavior was so at odds with what she knew of the Clarion. If the queen in Pixie Hollow was a sports fan she didn't let it show. While not perfectly stoic, Clarion always maintained her composer.

Claire, however, would sometimes grab Vidia or Tina, hug them tightly and squeal. "We're back in the Super Bowl. EEEEEE! Isn't that incredible?" she would say. "And this time we won't lose to some second rate quarterback or his Velcro headed wide receiver!"

Clearly she was still upset at the loss four years ago. If Vidia didn't know better, she might have assumed that Claire was out for blood.

~O~

Dave's restaurant was busy for lunch and the small group had to wait for what the hostess said would be about twenty minutes for a table. While waiting Vidia unintentionally heard some of the idle chatter from the other diners. Most of the talk was about the upcoming Super Bowl game. "These people are obsessed," she muttered to herself.

"You would be, too, if you were a football fan," Tina advised.

"How are you feeling?" Vidia asked. She was in the hallway when she heard Tina in the bathroom throwing up.

"I'm fine. Probably just something I ate."

"Okay. But if it happens in here, I don't know you."

Tina rolled her eyes and then shook her head at her sister's joke. At least, she thought it was a joke. Vidia looked quite serious. Valerie's personality may have changed since the motorcycle accident, but her snippy one liners were still intact.

"You were sick?" Penny asked.

"Yeah, but it's gone. A non-story," Tina told her closest friend.

At just after fifteen minutes a table was ready. Claire, Hartley and the three girls sat for lunch. Vidia perused the menu looking for something that wouldn't make her feel bad for ordering it. None of the species of fish listed were familiar to her, but she would still be able to picture their happy, smiling faces as if she were still in Never Land. Ultimately, she settled on a Caesar Salad with grilled chicken. If Vidia developed any qualms about the chicken she could just pretend it was the hawk on her plate.

Serves him right, too, she thought with a wry smile.

Claire and Hartley carried on a running conversation which she somehow managed to steer towards the upcoming Super Bowl game and then made it look like it was all his idea. Hartley was willing to talk about it, but it was obvious he wasn't a fan of American Football.

"I prefer what you Americans call soccer," he told Claire.

That one sentence nearly killed Claire. She stopped speaking with him most abruptly.

"Uh oh," Tina muttered.

"What?" Vidia asked.

"Mom doesn't know much about soccer," Tina answered. "She's pretty indifferent about it."

"So?"

"So…, she can't talk to him about something she doesn't know anything about," Tina replied.

"Mom can learn, can't she?"

"Not that easy. Mom has a passion for American sports. But soccer doesn't hold her attention. As far as she's concerned it's boring."

"And Hartley enjoys it."

"Exactly. This can't be good."

"So…, who do you think will win come Super Bowl Sunday?" Hartley asked Claire, trying not to offend her.

"New England, of course," Claire responded, almost indignantly.

Hartley nodded and smiled. "Yes, of course. How foolish of me to suggest otherwise. Do you intend to watch the game at home?"

"Absolutely," she replied. "Care to join us?"

"Oh, I think I would only be a distraction," he told her. "I do hope this won't dampen our lunch?"

"No… no, of course not," Claire answered with a bright smile. She turned to her girls and mouthed the words nobody's perfect to them.

Tina was forced to hide her laugh behind the menu. Penny smiled. Vidia was just relieved that the courtship of Claire and Hartley didn't come to an ignominious end over something as silly as this game.

During this conversation, a waiter had placed a basket of breadsticks on the table. Vidia took one and began to nibble on it. Then a thought struck her. Did Mom say "us?" As in her and Tina and me? I'm going to have to watch the Super Bowl?

Vidia wanted to ask if she could stay with Hartley during the game. However, it would only disappoint Claire further. The two of them had been trying to forge some kind of a relationship. Claire, who wanted to repair a damaged one with her daughter; and Vidia, who felt a contentment she had never known before.

She sighed. I guess it won't be that bad, Vidia thought. How long could it be, anyway? An hour? Ninety minutes? That's what families in the human world do, right? Make sacrifices for each other?

Another waiter came and took their order. When Vidia handed her menu to the young man she spied a woman with long, black hair staring longingly at the fish tank. She was there for just a moment. Then she disappeared into the kitchen. Yet it was long enough for Vidia to see a reflection of the woman's face in the glass. She couldn't be certain, but it easily could have been her.

"Silvermist?"

I hope you enjoyed this new chapter. Thank you for reading and thanks to everyone who has made this story a favorite or who is following it.