Disney's Tinker Bell in Storybrooke
A Disney Fairies / Once Upon a Time Crossover
Season 1, Episode 11, Chapter 4

STORYBROOKE, MAINE

Henry was at Granny's hurriedly writing something. He was trying to write down all the stories from the book that was lost when his castle was torn down. Henry was so intent on trying to remember everything that he nearly blew off the tall stranger who was visiting town. The man admitted to being a writer himself, which was why he was in Storybrooke. He was looking for inspiration. The man grabbed a drink to go and left, but not before wishing the boy luck in finishing his writing.

~O~

Sydney Glass was bored to tears. The bug Emma planted in Regina's office picked up every conversation she had, but the business of running the city was not exactly scintillating. However, there was a telephone call of which he heard only her side in which Regina was to meet someone that evening to complete some sort of transaction. Emma was determined to be there and find out what it was all about.

~O~

Lunch ended on an upbeat note for Claire Kensington, who was willing to overlook Hartley's dislike of American Football. For Vidia the end of Claire's lunch date left her with more questions. She caught more glimpses of the woman who resembled Silvermist, but not enough to be certain. Fortunately, Vidia was no longer held hostage by her lack of driving ability.

Claire had been teaching her to drive and Vidia took every chance to practice. It wasn't exactly the same kind of freedom she enjoyed in Pixie Hollow, but it was better than nothing. Plus, she could listen to her favorite music while traveling, something no fairy could do back home. The only constraint to her "freedom" was that Claire insisted she have a licensed driver in the car until Claire felt safe to let her drive alone.

This meant Hartley, Penny or even Tina, though she only had a learner's permit, could accompany her. As they left, the former fast flyer was already scheming to come back and check on the woman she had seen working here.

~O~

Claire felt that her relationship with Hartley was moving forward well. They were now at the stage where she could comfortably bring her two girls along and not make either feel nervous. It was almost like they were becoming a family. Almost, but not quite.

Following their lunch date Claire and Hartley took a stroll down Main Street while Vidia drove Penny and Tina to do a bit of shopping at the local video game store. Vidia had no idea what to make of this store. One poster on the wall covered in posters showed an overly perfect looking women with impossibly huge bosoms toting an equally impossibly huge sword. Another had another perfectly formed female with giant bosoms in the skimpiest bikini possible trying to hit a volleyball.

Elsewhere were posters with insanely sculpted men wearing some kind of weird armor, or wielding massive guns that could not possibly be held with only one hand.

One in particular had a rather skinny, blonde male brandishing a massive blade that couldn't possibly be held with two hands much less one. And he was holding two of them. "That's Cloud," Penny told her.

"Who?"

"Cloud Strife," Penny explained, as if that made any kind of sense. "From Final Fantasy VII?"

"Valerie doesn't play video games," Tina remarked.

"Oh right, the accident," Penny recalled. "No memories."

"No, she never really played games even before that," Tina clarified.

"LOOK!" Penny gasped. She grabbed Tina by the arm and yanked her to a bulletin board on the far wall. "A comic and video game convention is being held next weekend. Want to come?"

"Yeah," Tina said, a huge smile stretching across her face. She then leaned in closer to Penny and confessed that she always wanted to play video games, but her sister never cared to join her and Claire resisted buying any consoles because she wanted Tina to put homework first. "Well, that and I was always trying to fix or build stuff."

Penny nearly shot out of her Converse All-Stars. "You should come to my place. We can play all day long! I have every game system ever made. I even have a copy of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial video game for the Atari 2600. And an Atari 2600 to play it on."

"Didn't that game kill Atari?" Tina asked. "Wasn't it buried in some trash pile somewhere?"

"Just a myth. In truth, Atari supersaturated their market and no one was buying new consoles," Penny informed her. "Plus, everyone wanted a game to promote their product or service or something and most of those were awful. That's what killed Atari and home gaming in the seventies."

Vidia strode up behind them. "What's 'GameCon Storybrooke'?"

"Oh nothing you would be interested in," Tina said with a sly grin.

"So, want to go in costume?" Penny asked her best friend.

"You mean 'cosplay'?" Tina asked, remembering the word used by Blake. "I don't know."

"It would be so awesome," Penny told her.

"Well, okay. But, just as long as it's not My Little Pony. I have issues with that one. Y'know, with boys dressing as little girl ponies."

"Yeah, I hate it when boys cosplay the ponies, too," Penny commented. "You would think they would grow up. Or at least realize they're boys and not girls."

"Right! Maybe their girl-boys?"

"Makes you wonder what they'll turn into when they get older."

Tina and Penny stared at each other, eyes big as both seemed to know what the other was thinking about that subject. "EEWWW!" they said together.

Then a wide smile cut across Penny's face. It was a mischievous smile with a daring twinkle in her eye. She nodded her head for Tina to follow her lead. Penny whispered, "Hey, let's see if we can get your sister to buy us one of those 'Adult' rated video games."

"Can't you buy them off the internet?" Tina asked.

"That's not the point. Let's have some fun with your sister."

"Oh, ri-ight!" Tina turned and slid up to Vidia who was trying to understand what a game about military conquest had to do with women in a chainmail bikini with gigantic breasts. "Val, could you help us with something?"

Vidia quirked a very suspicious eyebrow. "What?"

"Oh, nothing. I suppose it's too much to ask of someone like you."

"You're right. So don't ask."

"Hey, you don't even know what we're going to ask," Tina spat. "It could be perfectly harmless and you wouldn't even know."

Vidia squinted at Tina and Penny. "Two words. Downhill! Racer!"

"Oh! Right!" Tina said, remembering how Valerie nearly drove smack into a car. "Well, trust us, this isn't going to be dangerous. Not in the slightest."

"Yeah," Penny added. "And we can help you practice driving without needing another person in the car."

A grin widened Vidia's face. "Tell me more."

"Well, all we need you to do is buy this video game for us," Penny told her. "We'll give you the money, but you need to pay for it."

"Why?" Vidia asked most suspiciously.

"Well, you see, there's this bunch of nosy busybodies who like to prop themselves up as moral guardians of the world and they won't let anyone under the age of eighteen buy certain video games because they think it will make us 'anti-social' or some such nonsense."

"Yeah," Tina continued. "We're not anti-social. Those stuffy old people just don't want us having any fun."

"Exactly. They grew up without video games and they don't want us to enjoy them, either," Penny said, stating her opinion as though it were fact. "So, buying this game will help us to fight against a small group of people..."

"Very small group," Tina added for emphasis.

"Yes. A very small group of people who have way too much time on their hands and keep sticking their noses in other people's business where they don't belong all because they want all of us to grow up to be as sour and grumpy..."

"...and lonely..."

"...and lonely as they are."

Vidia was not fully convinced. "And how will this help me to practice driving?"

Tina started the answer. "There is this game...,"

"It has a steering wheel and pedals..." Penny continued.

"So it's just like driving a car," Tina added.

"Uh huh. You can practice all you want from the comfort of your sofa," Penny finished.

"Sounds boring," Vidia answered.

"No!" the two girls shrieked together.

"It's actually very exciting," Penny described.

"You can drive like a maniac," Tina continued.

"...practicing driving in hazardous situations...," Penny furthered.

"...without endangering life and limb." Tina finished.

"And how does that benefit me?" Vidia asked. She actually liked the idea of driving crazy. The downhill racer was a real thrill, simulating that should be almost as much fun. But something told her that these two together should not be trusted.

"Well..., uh," Tina began, trying to answer.

"If you find yourself driving in a dangerous situation for real you'll know what to do because you'll have practiced it in the game."

"Yeah. Yeah, exactly," Tina agreed enthusiastically.

Vidia thought this over for a second. "Okay. I'll buy your game. Where's the money?"

Tina and Penny shared a victorious smile before handing Vidia the eighty dollars for their game.

~O~

Claire and Hartley walked casually down the sidewalk. By the time the couple reached the end of the block they were holding hands. At the end of the second block, Claire had wrapped her arms around his and lay his head on his shoulder.

"Thank you for buying lunch for us today, Hartley" she told him.

"It was my pleasure," he answered. "Besides, it was a joy to have such lovely company."

"And my girls," Claire added.

"Claire, I have to confess something," he began.

She stiffened, fearing the worst.

"I never saw myself as a family man," he told her quite frankly. "Children have always scared me. I never know how to deal with them or talk to them. It was the reason why I never considered marriage as a viable choice in life. At least until I met you."

Claire listened intently to him. She was getting more nervous, wondering if he planned to break up with her. Was he scared of becoming a step father to her girls? Or was it something she did? Was it her love of American Football? Or that she was a rabid sports fan in general?

"Watching you and Charlie have a family made me question my earlier assessment," Hartley continued. "Today's lunch wasn't just about a good time out together. It was gaging whether…, whether I could see myself as a good father and family man. How I would react around your children taught me a great deal about how far I've come in the past several years."

"What did you learn?" she asked somewhat apprehensively.

"If I was frightened or nervous, I would have ended our relationship," he said.

Claire's heart nearly sunk.

"I arranged this luncheon so I could determine if I could be comfortable in a family setting. Claire, I was never uncomfortable around your two girls."

"That's good, right?"

"Yes, very much so. I dreaded being uncomfortable because I did not want to lose you. You are the love of my life."

The love of his life? He called me the love of his life. "I didn't want to lose you, either. But I wish you had told me sooner."

"I'm sorry, but I didn't want you to be uneasy throughout the luncheon," he told her. "It might have created anxiety and forced me away from you. Something I did not want."

"So, you wanted lunch to go smoothly?" she asked.

"Desperately so," he answered. "And I am most grateful that it did."

Claire smiled. Thank you, she told him in his thoughts.

~O~

PIXIE HOLLOW, NEVER LAND (The Late Georgian Era on the Mainland)

Silvermist knew she should have been carrying the water jugs up the hill to the fountain. She knew that if Marianna were to find her cuddling the cute little fish that lived in the stream she would get yelled at again. And more days of carrying water to the fountain would follow. But she couldn't help herself. These sweet little creatures were so cute and cuddly that Silvermist could not ignore them.

Fawn, an animal fairy and Silvermist's only friend at the moment, had offered to help Sil speak to the fish. "I can teach you their language," she told the water fairy one evening at dinner. They had met in the tea room one day. Fawn had seen Silvermist eating alone and looking depressed, so she decided to give the water fairy some company.

Fawn considered animal fairies a close kin to water fairies because both worked so closely with the animals of Never Land. The animal talents spent most of their time with the birds and bees and the furry critters of the forest while water talents were concerned with the frogs and fish and insects that lived in or near the waters.

"Really? You can team me?"

"Yup. No problem. Though you'll probably speak it with an accent," Fawn added. "Only an animal fairy can speak every animal language like a native."

"I don't mind. I just want to talk to them. Make them feel loved and needed."

"Aww…, that's so sweet. Sil, you don't mind if I call you 'Sil', you and I are going to get along just fine."

Fawn was a boundless bundle of energy when it came to animals. She was a bit of a tomboy and loved to work and play a bit rough. The two were the second unlikeliest pair of friends. Fawn's friendship with a certain prissy garden fairy was the most unlikely pairing of friends according to the gossip mongers of Pixie Hollow.

Right now Silvermist was talking to her fish friends. "Do you need help going up the stream?" she asked one of the tiny, finned creatures.

He nodded, a grateful smile across his face.

"Okay, hang on." Silvermist placed the tiny fish into the pond and with a wave of her arms formed a perfect bubble of water around the joyous creature. She pulled the water bubble out of the pond and lifted it into the air and over the shallow falls which impeded the progress of the small fish. Far enough from the rushing waters of the falls Silvermist carefully deposited her fish friend into the water and dispersed the bubble. The little creature breeched the water in thanks and then finned his way up stream to be with his friends.

"Bye," Silvermist said, waving her hand. A flood of tears poured from her eyes as she watched it glide away under the surface of the waters.

Silvermist then returned to the pond and found more fish lining up to be helped so they could continue their journey upstream. Sil laughed as they smiled and wagged their tailfins at her. Some did backflips in the water while one jumped right into her arms for a great big hug. "You are all so cute."

One by one Silvermist assisted the little creatures over the falls using her water fairy magic. Bubbles were formed and carefully guided through the air to the upper level of the flowing stream. Then Silvermist had the idea of gathering one giant sized bubble and putting all the fish inside of it.

The globe of water was the largest she had ever attempted. In fact, it was more than four times the size of anything she had ever tried before. The other water fairies watched her, convinced that the underachieving Silvermist would fail.

They were amazed when the trick worked perfectly. All eight tiny fish were helped over the falls in one giant blob of water. It never broke or sagged on either side. Silvermist handled it perfectly. She even lowered the huge bubble into the stream with precision and subtlety. Most thought it would pop and the fish would be unceremoniously dropped into the water below.

"Wow!" one fairy gasped.

"That was amazing," another said.

"Can you do that again?" someone asked.

"Of course," Silvermist replied. "Uh, what's wrong guys?"

The other water talents had snapped to attention. Silvermist didn't understand why until she turned around. Hovering behind her was none other than Queen Clarion herself. The same beautiful woman who had greeted Silvermist upon arriving to Pixie Hollow and helped her to learn her talent.

"Can you do that once more," the queen asked a second time, a sweet smile on her face.

Silvermist smiled so happily in return. "Yes, Your Highness. I would be happy to."

The young water talent waved her arms in the air and gathered up several tiny, grinning fish into another large bubble of water. This one was even larger than the last one. She held it perfectly steady and glided it up and over the shallow falls in the stream. Just as before Silvermist delicately returned the water and the fish to the upper level of the stream where the giddy fish did backflips and breeches in gratitude before swimming along.

"That is most impressive," the queen beamed. "You have progressed so wonderfully, Silvermist."

"Thank you, Your Highness. I can also do something even more impressive."

"Oh?"

Silvermist dipped her hands into the water and pulled up a wide column of water. At first, it seemed like any ordinary column that a first year water fairy could make. But then she added a twist. Silvermist arched the column so that it connected with the upper tier of the stream. Then she made the water flow from the lower level, over the falls to the upper level. Fish which were caught up in the column could swim their way through the arch, assisted by the flow. The entire pond of fish ascended the stream in this manner in only minutes.

"That is very impressive," Clarion gushed. "You must be nearing completion of your initiate training. And so soon. Your instructor must be very lucky to have such a wonderful and talented student as yourself."

Silvermist smiled, but it was a half fake one. She knew the truth in her heart. Marianna would never let her advance because Sil couldn't practice and perform that way the instructor wanted. She sighed and fluttered into the reeds in despair. While sitting there, one of the fish she helped swam up and nudged her foot which lay at the very edge of the water.

The little fish smiled at her. It then jumped from the water into her arms and cuddled up to the water talent as if giving her a great big hug. Silvermist responded by embracing it warmly until it was ready to go back. "Thank you," she told him. The tiny creature waved goodbye with a fin before swimming away. Disheartened as she was by the thoughts of Marianna, this small moment made Silvermist's heart burst with pride, joy and love. It was a wondrous feeling she hoped to experience again and again. Now if only Marianna could see how well she could perform.

Thank you for reading.