Finding Happy Endings

“It’s not like they’re gonna find anything, right?

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She recalled a cocky, arrogant prince snatching her from comfort and stability. She hadn't seen the woman she called her mother ever again after that day. For all she knew, the woman died of heartbreak. Stranger things happened back in the old land. She never thought the Forget-me-Not prince had an obsession with humans, but it made sense given how close he had come to the windowsill at the seaside garden. Cherise couldn't grab a can of mace or try to use her keys to swipe at her ex. She wanted to use her tote bag and slam the contents against his knees, but that wouldn't be enough to express her rage. Somehow she knew he wasn't lying. This wouldn't make for a funny joke and the fae had a particular sense of humor. Even the nuns of Storybrooke had their own way of being funny. She scowled. Her eyes flashed. Betrayal flashed through her. "How long did you know? How long? Did you know the entire time?!" Cherise struggled and somehow managed to keep her voice low as she hissed out her query. "What, now that he's not a cricket, you recognize some fucking family portrait?! You're a selfish fucking bastard, you know that?!" Cherise trembled as the anger continued to threaten a kettle-like effect. "Do you know what he thinks? I wish you knew what his childhood was like. Those things that raised him. I won't dignify them with names... Fuck, he'd like to know someone cared about him unconditionally!" Freeing her thoughts and inhibitions, the tote bag finally swung at Roderick. "I don't want anything to do with this shit. You and them don't want to even care about him. After all he went through without any of you! That is so unfair to Archie!" Cherise had pulled her tote bag to swing a second time but stopped herself. "Shit, he's so close to having people who care about him, then this? Fuck the Veil. Fuck you too, your highness. Respectfully."

"You said you'd stay out of it, so stay out of it. Just keep him safe. Keep him far away from us where he can't be hurt. Alright?"

Sure. If only he saw how Jiminy got her out that night. It was chaotic. She's probably been person non grata for a long time, but whatever made it worse would give them a better reason. "My room? Who do you think is going to blab? The first grade teacher? She's a nun!" Cherise flung her bag over her shoulder. "They're on my side. Or i'm on their side. I don't know how to explain it now that we're not exactly oozing with magic, but they're not the same groups." She made for the door and rested her hand on the door knob. "Why would you really care that much about protecting me? Or Archie? Technically we both ruined any kind of wedding night or whatever the Veil had planned. I bounced and he helped. So why would you want to help either of us?"

"Now will you just keep the stupid card and call me if he gets into trouble?"

It was serious, then. "So we've pissed off the entire Veil of Fairies." Easy to do if you're Thumbelina. When you're Jiminy Cricket, she suspected that had to be a little more difficult. The question remained, why? What did they want? "You sound-" Cherise sucked at her teeth for a moment. She spun in her chair to lower it and landed just as gracefully as she once did when she would hop from flower petal to a blade of grass. "...You sound like you could use therapy." For a moment she had seemed willing to call a truce but as always, Cherise chose the option to bite. She raised her eyebrows and wrinkled her nose in faux innocence. She knew exactly what she was doing. "As appetizing as it sounds to have you never blight my visual field again, it's never that easy. Not then. Certainly not now." Cherise pulled open a drawer, causing it to clank as a tote bag was revealed. "I'm heading to dialysis. I don't buy it. Knowledge is what helps protect us. If you're not going to tell Archie, then tell me." Her eyes widened. "You sort of owe me, don't you think?"

"If you simply must put yourself in danger, fine, but I won't tell you in hallways where anyone could overhear."

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Had he lied? By omission, perhaps. He hadn't disclosed much. He hadn't mentioned how the fairy world operated and how complicated it was. He didn't mention it wasn't all wish granting. If only it was wish granting. That was the easy part. Those types of fairies were more favorable to her nature, but she didn't belong to them either. Her nature was more spiteful. No wings. Spite. Though she did feel driven to herd the children of Storybrooke as if something terrible was going to happen again while whispering expletives at the mayor and flipping a few gestures towards the pawn shop. No one was to be trusted. That must have been some kind of fae behavior. She must have matched some sort of nomenclature. "It's Cherise. Get it through your head. My name is Cherise." Thumbelina hadn't suited her. Neither had Maia. Cherise felt like a nice compromise. Her tulip had been a lovely shade of deep pink. At least she could hold onto that. "When your world gets involved, everything goes wrong. It always has. Why not tell Archie? Why make me your little sniveling errand bitch?" She waved the card through the air as her anger bubbled up. "He'd hear you out, you know that? Because I never told him half the things all of you and what they did to me." She finally tucked the card away, still fuming. "How did you figure out I worked here? What, you looked up my personal information at the bank? You're a real freak, you know that?"

He didn't bother answering just how easy it was to figure out where she was. Fairies knew everything. They knew Archibald Hopper existed. They just didn't know what Argentum had found out. They didn't pay enough attention to humans. That was likely the only reason Archibald had been safe for this long.

Cherise raised a stapler threateningly. "Fuck you." No children in sight. No parents to gasp. She wasn't on bus duty. Rage burned behind her eyes as she clicked the stapler to send a stapler flying past Roderick's shoulder. "You've got some fucking nerve. Some real fucking nerve." Three more staplers flew. Cherise was, however, entirely harmless. She didn't have anything from Geppetto's workshop. She didn't have her paper weaponry. She didn't have her sewing needles that she had sharpened to a fine point. She wasn't Thumbelina anymore. She was Cherise, the kindergarten teacher. This was her colorful escape from a world she didn't belong in. The stapler clattered to the desk. Trembling hands snatched up the business card as she glowered at Roderick. "What do they want with him and why should I trust you? Is it about me leaving again?" She was about to tear up the card. "Yeah you know how to make a girl feel welcome. I think we'll both be fine without you..." Roderick. At least the curse had seemingly made amends by giving her some sort of companionship. She had failed at being a nun, but she had found some sort of belonging... Her old self would have been happy enough for that.

"And this is the easiest thing in the world for you, Thumbelina. If you don't feel threatened, all you have to do is keep that card in your wallet. Easy! You can forget we ever had this conversation. That is just an emergency number to call if something goes wrong. Because trust me, Thumbelina. If the council comes for him, the human police department won't be able to do a single thing."

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Which, he knew, might be a moot point considering what constituted as 'familiar' for Leo might be conflicting and confusing, but Archie felt it worth asking all the same.

"Thank you so much, Dr. Hopper. I'm grateful for everything you're doing." He was determined to do well and prove to Dr. Hopper that moving him to a nicer place was the right decision.

"I do! I do want to. I mean, I have to. We've got an appointment together and it's going to look really weird if I cancel it. The curse breaks and one of your patients cancel? He's gonna come looking for me..." Either way, Archie was going to find out. She still looked very similar to how she used to be. Even the short stature was a give away, although that had a much more ironic and upsetting explanation. "I just need to figure out how not to make this weird. He's been my therapist. He used to walk you home from the bus sometimes." Something something, ships in the night... There was probably something to describe the situation but Cherise didn't have the capacity to dredge it to the front of her mind. It was finger paints and clean up songs, even if now she was melding that with a life that had just been awakened. Cherise rubbed at her knuckles and let out a defeated sigh. "I see a little too much of Dr. Whale, honestly... It's adult stuff, Henry. This is why I like staying in my classroom. I don't have to think for a little while."

"Just think like you do in class, but while talking to Archie. Archie likes talking about kid stuff. We talk about Star Trek and comic books all the time. So maybe not quite kindergarten, but still! Just don't think too hard. Think like a kid."

PRINCE CHARMING IN EVERY EPISODE 1.01, Pilot

HENRY MILLS IN EVERY EPISODE 1.02, The Thing You Love Most

She was exhausted. Every day of the curse had been exhaustion with the bright spot of having the children there. Despite needing to drag herself back and forth for dialysis, teaching was all she had. Then she'd head back to the shabby, one room apartment that had once been storage near the docks. Next door was Game of Thorn's only true competition, Monsieur Madeline's flowers. "Don't... don't do that. That's embarrassing." Cherise patted Henry's hand. "It's been twenty-eight years. And uh... well I was seeing him as my therapist. It's extra embarrassing now." Friends was one way to talk about it. It was true, much as Henry had described them. The few illustrations that captured them together in the book had the two of them advising at the council table or looking after Pinocchio. The full picture was something much more... "...Oh Henry, if magic could have fixed me, it would have before we came here. But maybe... maybe there's a chance I can be fixed. Just have a little faith in me... and trust in your heart. Impossible things can happen if you trust in your heart, Henry. You trusted the curse could be broken, right? And before that, you knew there was something more to all of us? Nothing is truly impossible."

Still, things didn't feel right. "I ... don't understand why you don't want to find Archie. He makes everything better. And you're his friend! That means he should make them extra better for you! Emotionally, I mean. I don't think he knows what to do with illness, but I'm sure Dr. Whale will keep helping you!" If only she could see Dr. Ein. Henry liked him better, but that was probably only because he was good with children. He didn't seem to get along as well with adults.