Chapter 38: Dizzy's Discourse
Meanwhile, back in the hospital while stuff was going down at the docks.
Snow hands a tired Neal to Charming, while Belle sits down, still feeding Gideon from a bottle and Gold stands by as well. All of them had heard the commotion with Regina and then Hook sword-fighting with one of the teenage pirates; in fact, it had been Snow and Charming's job to calm down the rest of patients after either Crystal or Regina made the fight disappear. They also had to deal with Whale's tirade about the chaos that this town brings.
Once everything has died down, Dude comes scampering out of his master's hospital room, bone still in his mouth and his tail wagging frantically. "Mmmmph," he says.
"What was that?" David asks, still a bit weirded out at the concept of this dog talking. He was a farmer and shepherd for the longest time and never once had he seen a talking animal… with the exception of Archie the cricket, of course.
The dog drops the bone onto the floor. "They're gone! Carlos, Jay, Evie, Mal, Harry, Ben, Jane, Doug, Crystal, Hook-man, Emma, and Evie's mom, they're all gone, vanished in a puff of gray smoke."
"Evie's mom?" Snow asks in confusion.
"Gray Smoke?" Gold questions.
"That dark-haired chick, Gina."
"Do you mean, Regina?" Belle offers.
"Yeah, that chick, the one who had a break down after meeting her daughter from another world… They all vanished in Gray Smoke."
"Are you sure it was gray smoke?" the Dark One inquires. He's puzzling over who of those with magic teleported with gray smoke. Regina and his daughter had purple, Emma had white. The only one who had the gray smoke for teleportation was him and that is because he is the Dark One.
"I'm a dog, I'm colour-blind I can't see colours, you old creepy man! Try and keep up here!"
Gold bites his lip at the insult but chooses to ignore it.
"But they're gone, they used magic and they're gone."
"Calm down Dude," Snow says gently. "I'm sure they're okay; I think either Emma, Regina, or Crystal just teleported them out of the hospital to avoid anyone getting hurt."
"But when will they be back?" the mutt asks.
"Not certain," Gold says. "Who knows how long that one-handed nuisance would like to wage a fight like that?"
Belle slaps her husband on the wrist and glares at him for the derivative comment. While Gold and Hook were likely never going to be considered friends, they still have a begrudging respect for one another despite their long history. Gideon has begun to fall asleep in his mother's arms again, clinging to a ringlet of her hair.
Dude hops up on the chair next to Belle and begins sniffing the baby's head. "This one smells different than Neal," he observes, giving the toddler's light brown hair a quick lick. Gideon twitches slightly at the odd feeling but sighs contently. Gold reaches down and forces the dog's nose and mouth away from his son's head, growling deep in his throat as he does so, to warn the animal away from licking his son again. Belle, however, is much more lenient, she holds her son a little bit closer for Dude to take another sniff. She personally adores animals of any kind and thought the presence of a talking dog to be fascinating and entertaining. She was debating the idea in her head that their family could someday get a pet, once her son was older that is. She'd seen the way David, Snow, and Neal interacted with animals at their farm whenever Snow had invited her over for tea, and to see the happy look on Neal's face as he ran around the yard with their dog Wilby was priceless.
"He smells like furniture polish and a hint of dusty old books," Dude says.
"Signatures of his parents," Snow smiles. She goes over and scratches the brown dog behind the ears.
"Oh yes, right there," Dude moans in delight, turning his head so that Snow White could scratch it more.
There is a long pause as the adults, and the dog, sit in relative silence in the waiting room for a long few minutes.
Gold clears his throat. "Should we be concerned about the fight that broke out between our pirate and another pirate?"
"They'll be fine," David says. "Emma, Regina, and Crystal are there in case things get out of hand."
"I think we have much more pressing matters to think about," Snow says.
"Like what?"
"Like how do we know whose child is whose and where are they going to stay until Crystal figures out how to fix this? I assume that Whale wants them out of the hospital as soon as possible."
"What about Granny's?" Belle suggests, rocking Gideon gently.
"I could talk to her about it, but there likely won't be enough room for everybody. How many kids were brought into the hospital?"
"I don't know," David says. "I didn't ask."
"Besides, it appears from the looks of it that not all of the children can be considered 'trustworthy,'" Gold mutters.
"What do you mean by that?" Snow asks.
Suddenly, a frightened voice shouts from one of the nearby rooms. "EVIE?!" The voice sounds panicky and very helpless. Almost immediately, Snow's teacher instincts take over and she goes towards the calling voice. Her husband promptly follows her.
"NO! NO! Stay away from me! Don't touch me! EVIE, MAL!"
Snow comes into the room to see a scared little girl with brown eyes filled with tears and her brown hair, which is streaked with many colours, is flying around wildly as she tries to avoid a nurse who came in to examine her.
"STOP IT!" she screeches, trying to shove the person who is supposed to be helping her away. "Don't touch me! Where am I? Who are you?!"
Snow puts her hand on the nurse's shoulder, pulling her away from the frightened child. "Just give her some space, let me talk to her and calm her down."
The medical professional who knew about the fair princesses' gentle nature merely nods and then leaves the room. Snow, David, and Neal are now in the room with this girl. She doesn't look much older than 13, and she wears an interesting blouse with puffy sleeves and a skirt made from scraps of cloth, patched together in a rainbow of assorted colours. She also wears wide glasses that seem to magnify her big brown eyes. She looks at them in fear; she curls up into a ball, pulling her legs to her chest and then holding the hospital blanket up to her face as if to protect herself.
"Please don't hurt me!" she whimpers, her voice muffled by the blanket.
"We're not going to hurt you," Snow says calmly. She takes two very slow steps towards this girl but does not attempt to get any closer. The girl flinches and curls up into a tighter ball in fear. David stays with Neal by the door, knowing it is best to let his wife handle children, after all, it had been her profession for 28 cursed years.
"How do I know that?"
"You don't, you're just going to have to trust your instincts."
"Where am I? Where's Evie? Where are my friends?"
Snow pauses and then talks in her softest voice. "You're in Storybrooke, Maine. Do you remember what happened to you?"
"Um…" she stammers. "We were on the beach… fighting Uma's crew and then there was this bright green light that appeared. Mal used her magic, and so did Uma to feed the hole… then people were getting sucked in. I remember trying to hold on… b-but the wind being too strong. I…I was pulled in and then everything went black…"
She shivers and does her best to wipe away the tears in her eyes. "What's Storybrooke? Where is it? Is it close to Auradon?"
Snow swallows, not entirely sure how to answer because she didn't have all the information that this girl desired to know.
"Um… No, it's not close to Auradon and to be honest… uh… sorry, darling but what is your name?"
"D-Dizzy," she answers, still curled up tightly. "Dizzy Tremaine."
Both David and Snow's eyebrows are raised at the mention of the last name. So this little girl was the daughter of one of Ella's step-sisters, the question is, which one? Clorinda or Tisbe? However, she doesn't seem to take after her namesake; she doesn't look cruel or villainous… she is just a frightened child. The couple has great sympathy for her and wants to help. There was no way that either of them are going to put the helpless girl in the hands of her cruel grandmother, Lady Tremaine, who is still serving time in prison for stabbing Ashley/Ella. But it was likely that she did have family here in the town. What about Ella, would she be willing to care for her step-niece until things were sorted out? Neither is sure how to tell the girl that she was in a completely new world.
"Okay… Dizzy. Storybrooke is in a place called The Land Without Magic, and it's in another realm."
"We're in another realm?" she squeaks. Her eyes are frightened, but also slightly curious.
"Y-yes," Snow answers. She takes another few steps closer; Dizzy is still scared, but not enough to get up and run away.
"How… how did we get here?"
"You know that big green thing you saw?"
Dizzy nods.
"Well, we think that was a portal that… Uma activated, and the power became so great that it pulled you all in. Our friend Crystal was experimenting with portals here and we think the two of them linked, bringing all of you here."
Dizzy's head is spinning by this new information. She'd never thought that there would be other places, let alone worlds, other than Auradon and the Isle. She shudders slightly and curls up further in the blanket. She's so scared about what was happening and wanted to know who these strangers were. They didn't seem mean and they likely wanted to help her, they even had a little baby with them, but the daughter of Drizella is not so sure she should trust them yet.
"When you came through, you were all unconscious so we all brought you to the hospital, so you could recover. The woman trying to help you was a nurse who works here," David explains.
Snow can tell that the girl just wanted some answers and to find people that she knew. The teacher decides to get a little closer to Dizzy by offering her some comfort. She'd dealt with this before with even shier and timider students and Snow knew she would have to approach carefully and never force the girl to do anything she didn't want to. She goes over to a nearby sink and fills a glass with water. She then slowly brings it to her, sets on the table next to her hospital bed and then steps back. Dizzy looks at Snow's kind face then at the water and back at Snow. She then reluctantly reaches over and takes the glass, drinking the water, which helps soothe her nerves just a tiny bit.
"Who are you?" Dizzy asks, still hesitant to trust these people.
Both Snow and Charming look at each other for a long moment before answering. Snow gives him a gentle nod and then turns to the teenager.
"I'm Mary Margret, and this is David, my husband and our son, Neal."
Both former royals decided that it is better not to overwhelm the little Tremaine girl with too much information too fast and so they used their old names to appear normal.
"Do you know where my friends are? Evie, she has blue hair and little braids, Mal, she has purple hair, Jay has long brown hair and Carlos has black and white hair."
"Uh, we've met your friend Mal, and we did see your other friends, the thing is… they disappeared outside, and we don't know where they went."
"Disappeared?" Dizzy squeaks. She suddenly throws off the blanket and tries to head towards the door. She stops as David still stands there with a sleeping Neal on his shoulder.
"It's okay Dizzy," Snow says. "They'll be back really soon."
"How do you know?" the teenager snaps back, her hands go to her hips.
David swallows. "We don't really know for sure Dizzy, there were some complicated factors that caused this and…"
"Mom? Dad?" a voice from the hall calls out.
"We're in here Emma," Snow calls.
The blonde Saviour's face appears at the doorway, followed closely behind by Killian's, Crystal's, Regina's, Mal's and…
"EVIE!" Dizzy shrieks, running towards her friend and wrapping her arms around her. The daughter of Drizella then releases some tears of relief, squeezing her best friend's waist tightly. "MAL!"
"Dizzy are you okay?" the blue-haired girl asks.
"I am now, I was scared when I couldn't find you, what's going on Evie? What's happening?"
"To be honest Diz, I'm still trying to figure that out too."
A/N: Please review, it really makes my day