Not so Black and White - Once Upon a Time

By Princess Alexandria

Note: There is a series of stories with very similar prologues that end up in different fictional worlds. This story is for Once Upon a Time. They used to be in one posted story, and I'm pulling them apart for easier reading. I also plan to work on finishing a few of these now. I told myself I couldn't start a new Christy centered story until I finish some of these others up. - My Original Character, Christy Taylor, has been featured in a few different stories. Most in the Xmen universe, but also in others.

Prologue – In an Xmen World, far far away.

Christy took a form that was a good twenty years younger than what she was, because most of the people here were in their early twenties, but clearly not all. As a young college nerd, wearing dark glasses and an Xfiles tshirt she made her way into the convention.

"Miss the X on your clothes?" A blonde woman in her late twenties walked up beside her and spoke quietly, with a slight smirk on her lips. They both pretended to be looking over the list of upcoming panels. Christy took in the True Blood tshirt and tight jeans, before looking away again.

"Not too much." Christy glanced around subtly. The xmen turned on her, for the most part, when her dark past was revealed six months ago. "Which one are you?" She asked, but seeing the wicked tilt of the blonde's lips Christy followed it up with her guess, "Esme?"

"Not too bad shape shifter." Esme nodded and started to walk further into the convention, pretending to glance at the tables of materials. "We're all here. Annie has us guarding all the entrances." Esme picked up a Xena magnet and glanced at the price. "She's not happy with your idea."

"I don't have much holding me here anymore." Christy muttered and wandered away from the telepath on guard duty to try and work her way to the girl she'd taken in ten years ago. Her heart ached at the fact she had to call Annie for help, but Annie's luck power gave Christy the best chance she had to start over. It was Christy's own luck that even though Annie was shocked at the stories she'd heard, she was still loyal and caring.

A small group of people crowded up to look at the listed panels, interrupting their conversation. "Lana Parilla is here!" One excited woman dressed up as Snow White said. Esme and Christy left in separate directions.

Christy walked passed people dressed in Star Trek costumes, around tables selling Twilight materials, and around a lifesize mannequin of a Terminator as she made her way deeper into the convention. It was hard to appear happy and excited about the Fantasy and Science Fiction Convention she was walking through, but she did slow her pace near some tables to appear to belong. She caught the eye of another blonde, this one wearing an faded looking Team Alice Cullen tshirt and wondered briefly if that was Sophie or Phoebe, both were Annie's lovers, but when she just got a nod she moved on to try and find Annie herself.

Every where she looked another table sat, more people with costumes, and posters filled with characters from movies or shows. One table had a large collection of TV shows and Christy pretended to look them over, picking up a season of Once Upon a Time to read the back. She set it down when she heard Annie's voice nearby.

A woman with black hair falling in waves to her mid back started to walk alongside her. Christy glanced to the side and was a little surprised to see the light green skin, out in the open. "I blend in better as myself here." Annie explained and glanced down at her Star Trek costume. When Christy glanced at it she noticed Annie blushed for a moment, before her face became more controlled and her eyes trailed over the floor below, from the balcony they'd stopped at. "I don't want you to leave."

"It's hiding or prison for me here." Christy spoke softer, seeing the young girl she'd taken in, hidden in what had become a rather confident woman before her. "I can count the number of people who want me to stay here on one hand Annie, and none of them can be around me when I have such a target on my head." Christy was surprised Annie even asked, even cared, with the disgust so many had voiced about Christy's past. Christy had carefully kept her past to herself, not even letting Jean know about it, but that new mutant had the power to project her greatest secrets into the night sky and they'd all seen her at her worst. Maybe if she'd admitted to it before then, but she hadn't, and now the Xmen were out for her blood, as if she could bleed for them. "I can't win this battle here." She spoke softly to the woman next to her. "And I'm just so tired of defending myself from them, and the government they told about me. Even if they decided to stop this now, it's too late. Once Scott called the government on my crimes, it was over. I can't ever go back."

"Scott and the Professor called me to ask if I'd seen you." Annie told Christy as yet another blonde came toward them, this one in a Ravenclaw shirt. "I told them no."

"Christy," The telepath spoke softly and then shared a concerned look with Annie. "If you want there to be lots of proof you've left, the news crew will be set up in a few minutes to film the convention." Christy wanted the audience, so that the government wouldn't keep looking, because she knew how they'd work. She didn't want the few people she cared about captured to try and lure her to surrender, and if she weren't there to surrender it would be worse.

"That's perfect." Christy muttered and Annie grabbed her hand, squeezing it tightly.

"I want to try something." Annie's eyes seemed to plead for Christy to agree and Christy was startled when two people she didn't know started to come right toward them. "Raine can copy some powers and transfer it to another person, for a little while." Annie nodded to the redhead coming their way. "And Doug can boost peoples powers, he can boost hers." Annie turned to stare Christy in the eyes. "I want you to have some luck, bring it with you, to get you started in your new life. I want to give you that, so I don't have nightmares of what might be happening to you." Annie knew her too well, Christy thought, as the one argument she couldn't ignore was giving to her. "It's a longshot, but that's what I'm good at. Maybe this will help." Annie gave her a partial smile.

Christy wanted to hurry before they were caught, to make sure that the news caught her on tape leaving, and there were hundreds of witnesses to prove it, so that the new peace the mutants of this world had finally gotten from the American Government didn't end in the Governments greed for unlimited resources that Christy could give them. Still she nodded her head for a questionable experiment that might not even work on her, since her body makeup wasn't typical.

Raine held Annie and Christy's hand, and Doug stood behind Raine, apparently gripping her neck in a large hand from behind, resting on her vertebrae and hair. Christy didn't know these two, and wondered if Annie had hunted them down for her, because Annie didn't seem to hold that normal open expression she held near friends with them.

"Sophie." Annie spoke as the blonde's eyes widened.

"Military, coming in fast. We also sense the Xmen. This is going to be a battle if we don't move now." Sophie told them and Christy nodded, before giving Annie one last hug.

The scream of her power startled all the people on the floor below and Christy stood up on the railing, as the portal she could create to another world opened up above their heads. She waited until the cameras of the tv crews moved around to focus on the swirling light of her portal, and took one last look at the people of this world, dressed up as if from other worlds, and leapt at the portal, trusting the luck Annie filled her with to pick her destination. From a place like this, with reminders of so many different realities, which the people assumed were fictional worlds, Christy could end up almost anywhere.

As she passed through the portal, she saw twists and ribbons of light through the walls of her own portal and stared in shock as an uncountable number of portal tunnels became visible for just a moment, showing something she'd never seen the only other time she'd traveled like this, other Christy's heading to other worlds. How many realities were nearly the same as the one she'd just left? How many worlds were just a small decision apart from the next?

Christy didn't want to land in something nearly what she'd just been in, didn't want to stare into familiar faces and wonder if they'd hate her like these people had. Christy wanted a completely different world. No more mutants. Thoughts of all the possibilities filled her mind and for once, she appreciated what her power could offer her.

The light around her finally changed as the exit to her ride approached.

…..

Christy came shooting out of the tunnel, and the wood and sand were all that her conscious mind noticed as she twisted in the air to avoid a painful collision with a beam and she managed to hit the sand, her body skidding over it and breaking up the earth for several feet. She came to a rest and took a deep breath of now sandy air, before she turned back to stare at her glowing portal. It was with a heavy heart that she closed it and therefore her connection to her home, and her friends, from a world she wasn't welcome in anymore. When the small wavelike sound of her portal was no longer there she glanced around at the playground she'd managed to arrive at, and the silence in the early evening.

The boy staring at her with wide eyes was a surprise and Christy just stared back for a moment, a bit stunned that Annie's luck didn't at the very least guarantee her a private arrival. "I wouldn't mention what you just saw." She spoke softly. "People don't tend to believe, and it'll only cause you trouble."

She glanced around the quiet area and verified that kid was alone. If he talked it wouldn't be a huge deal.

"You just did magic, here." The boy whispered, but then he spoke more loudly. "You did magic here." The way he stressed the word here was odd and Christy turned to face the young boy again. That sounded like magic existed here, and magic was something new to Christy. It made her feel more cautious already.

"Magic?" She turned her body to face him fully, and took two steps closer. He had to be about ten, young, but the way he looked so excited was off.

"You did magic, I saw you. Did you come from Fairy Tale World?" His eyes were huge, and Christy frowned at not understanding him. Her own eyes widened as she remembered something.

"Storybrooke?" Christy asked reluctantly and glanced around before staring at him again.

"Yeah, Storybrooke Maine." He confirmed the bad news. She stared at the sand as she wondered about this new challenge. New people never came into Storybrooke, she'd stick out horribly, something a spy hated to do. Christy had landed in the town filled with fairy tale characters who didn't know who they were. "Annie, what were you thinking?" Christy muttered to herself, wondering how this could be considered lucky at all.

There had to be something, some reason, that being here was a good idea. Annie's luck power would have protected her plan to give Christy luck, so she landed where she was supposed to be, but Christy wasn't sure what she'd get out of living here. If she left Storybrooke she might not be able to get back, with the curse in place, so Christy had to just trust in Annie's power and find a way to stay here in spite of how conspicuous she'd be in any form.

"Kay kid, just remember talking about me will only earn you more appointments with the shrink." Christy told him gently and moved to head toward the road she could see.

"That came out with you." The boy spoke up after she'd taken a few steps and she turned to see him pointing at something. Christy moved toward the metal box and squatted down next to it. A carefully hidden shift of her finger and she picked the lock to find it was a cashbox for a dvd reseller and they'd had a good day. Somehow it ended up being sent through the portal with her.

"Thanks." She picked it up and took it with her. "Where can I get a room around here?"

"You're staying?" He stood up finally.

"Guess so."

The boy proved to be used to odd, and Christy appreciated it. She got some good directions to Granny's B&B and a warning that everyone was going to be staring at her.

"Who are you?" He asked hesitantly, yelling it across the playground at her as she just made it to the street.

"Name's Christy."

"Who are you really?" He pushed and Christy knew he expected a fairy tale character.

"Just call me Christy." She gave him a smile and left him for the town. The walk was not going to be long enough for her to come up with a plan, so she was going in on luck and hoping for the best.

….…..

Walking down the street was not the parade of staring she expected. Few people were out and about and Christy managed to get to the B&B without talking to anyone, or becoming an attraction to be stared at.

Once she was inside the building, she stood at the desk, and glanced around. No one was there, but then who ever actually rented a room here? They probably didn't man the desk often, Christy thought with a sigh and enhanced her hearing to see if anyone was around at all. There was some movement upstairs, and Christy decided to hit the bell on the table at that moment and see if Ruby or Granny would come down. It was possible they weren't here, as they both also worked at the diner attached to this place and it was the middle of the day.

"Just a minute, just a minute." A woman's voice called out, slightly annoyed sounding, from upstairs and Christy was relieved to hear it. She didn't want to wander around town just yet, she needed to sit and figure out how she was doing this, what her backstory needed to be. She'd seen the first season of this show, and she needed to think about it to figure out how she was going to fit in here. She'd need to determine 'when' she'd landed, because some serious shit was going to go down at some point and Christy needed to be ready for that too.

Before anyone started down to her Christy shifted so it looked like she had a backpack and a bag, because no one checked in without luggage. The footsteps on the stairs had Christy turning to see the older woman making her way down toward her. This had to be Granny, and her eyes widened when she saw Christy. "Oh my, another one?" was whispered from the older ladies lips. "You're new here." Her voice was louder. "Planning to stay long?"

"Any chance I could get a discount on a longer stay?" Christy asked, used to negotiating for rooms. Her job as a spy had her spending lots of time in hotels and dives. She didn't have a lot of money and her credit cards were useless in this world. That surprise tin of money was definitely the luck Annie gave her, perhaps Annie's powers would supply a job as well, because there wasn't much need for a spy in a tiny town.

"You plan to stay a while?"

"I think I'll need at least a month to get settled." Christy told the woman. "I'm moving here, but I have to work out a job and place to live."

Granny still looked a bit stunned, before a smile grew across her lips. "Yes, sure, I could even give you meals at my diner. Kind of like those all inclusive joints." They negotiated, and Christy wasn't ashamed to admit she used her knowledge that Granny rarely actually had a boarder at her place to drive that price down. Any money Granny made from her would be more than she'd have had, and until Christy had a job she needed to be careful with her money. She didn't want to use her skills to steal petty cash.

The room was nicer than she'd hoped, but more frilly than Christy would ever consider having in her own home. She glanced around at it, took in the view from the window of the town square, and then just decided to lay down and take a nap. She'd been in motion for weeks, trying to organize her escape from the last world and now she needed to think her next steps out carefully before bumping into anyone. She'd plan better after some sleep.

…..

It was probably the tail end of the dinner rush when Christy made her way into the diner. No small town she'd ever been in responded to her this way, and it was a bit unnerving. Eyes widened and it didn't take the entire trip to the counter before she felt just about everyone was looking at her. She took a seat at the bar and tried to ignore the instinct that hated to have her back to anyone.

A young, attractive, brunette waitress with red streaks in her hair and in a skimpy outfit smiled at her widely and moved closer. "Hey stranger, I guess you'll be wanting a menu." The nametag said Ruby, but Christy had already guessed that one correctly. Christy was meeting the one and only little red riding hood. It had been a few years since she'd had that strange spark of knowing someone a bit when meeting them for the first time, and it was just a little amusing to feel that again when it wasn't alarming and scary anymore. Christy gave her a smile and took the menu being offered.

"So what's good here?" Christy asked casually while barely glancing at the menu, giving Ruby a slightly flirtatious grin that had the brunette's grin growing, and added some amusement into her eyes.

"You mean food?" Ruby leaned closer, "Is that what you meant?"

Christy chuckled. "Sure, food." It was fun to flirt so blatantly again, and she remembered enough of the show to know Ruby appreciated flirting. "So Red, what would you recommend?" Christy could feel some eyes still on her back and ignored them.

"Names Ruby." Ruby ducked her head down a little.

"I like Red better." Christy spoke and pointed at the red streaks in Ruby's hair. It was Ruby's real name, and after the first restful sleep in months, Christy felt playful with her knowledge. "So little Red Riding Hood, what do you recommend out of that basket of yours?" Christy's eyes trailed down to take in the shorts obviously and smiled more genuinely when Red chuckled at her.

"You are a heart breaker, aren't you?" Ruby leaned over the counter, her cleavage on display quite on purpose. "So tonight's special is the Turkey Dinner. We only have it once a week."

"Sounds lovely." Christy stared into brown eyes even with the cleavage right there. "I'll take it."

"Good, and to drink?" Ruby leaned back and looked over Christy's shoulder at someone, before standing more properly.

"I'll just have water."

"Ruby." A familiar voice spoke behind Christy and Christy found Granny moved to stand beside her, giving Christy a searching look. "I'm sorry I didn't catch your last name." She asked Christy.

"Darkholme." Christy offered quietly. She had a fake id with that name, and names had power with magic, or at least it seemed so, so she wasn't using her real one here.

"Okay," Granny turned to Ruby, "Ms. Darkholme gets free meals while she stays with us." There almost seemed to be a warning in there that Christy could guess meant her granddaughter wasn't supposed to be 'free' as well.

"Call me Christy. That's way too formal." Christy smiled and ignored the warning about flirting going on.

"Alright, Christy." Ruby gave a less enthusiastic smile. "One water coming up." And it didn't take too long, but Granny was gone when Ruby slid it across the counter to her. "If you ever want a beer with a meal, just let me know." Ruby spoke softly to her. "We don't get a lot of strangers here."

"Small town gets a bit boring?" Christy pulled her glass to her, understanding that Ruby was a wanderer trapped in one town.

"So what are you doing here?" Ruby asked, but before Christy could answer the waitress was called away to another table.

A few people seemed to reluctantly leave while Christy sat sipping at her water. When Ruby came back with a plate and sat it down in front of Christy she didn't rush off to another table. She stood there.

"I'm moving here." Christy answered the question asked a good five or ten minutes ago.

"You might want to reconsider that one." Ruby sighed heavily and leaned on the counter, clearly not planning to leave just yet. "Boring doesn't even cover it."

"I have had more than enough excitement for five lifetimes. A little boring sounds like heaven to me now." Christy picked up her fork slowly. This place wouldn't be boring for long anyhow. Ruby had no idea how much was really going on, but Christy did. It wouldn't be boring for long at all.

"What do you do?" Ruby asked and Christy slowly slipped a small forkful of potatoes into her mouth.

"I travelled a lot, taking care of problems my, company," Christy stumbled on the word company a bit, "needed me to. I moved around so much I didn't have even an apartment of my own. I'm looking forward to setting down roots."

"So you don't work for them anymore?"

"Left that job, there were some ethical concerns I had." Like them thinking she didn't have any. "So I left rather that deal with questionable things." Like questions. "I'm still bound by the gag order, so I can't really talk about that job."

Ruby leaned forward and grinned at her. "You sound like a spy, a real 007."

Christy chuckled like that was funny. "No, nothing that exciting. It's just lawyer stuff, me not being able to talk about it, not national security."

"Well, I guess I'll let you eat. You need anything, tell me." Ruby smiled at her and then moved to grab another order off the heat lamps. "Back to the grind." The waitress did not look happy to have to get back to work at that moment, but a few looks towards where Granny was working explained it. Christy ate in silence and covertly looked around, taking in the people around her.

A beer appeared in front of her as she was finishing her meal and Christy looked up at Ruby. "Jerk claimed he ordered the Alaskan Ale instead, so I don't want to waste this one."

"Thanks." Christy took the drink and took a sip. It was a decent beer.

"Granny says you'll be staying with us a month. I live at the B&B too." Ruby smiled. "Just don't break the law. The last woman that was new around here had a little trouble and we're not allowed to rent to anyone that spends a night in our jail." Ruby made a face like that was a stupid rule and Christy just nodded that she understood the warning. It seemed like an offer of friendship and one that Christy wasn't willing or able to turn down. She needed a tour guide.

Three beers later Christy made her way back to her room while Ruby continued to work. With the black man that stared at her as she walked away, she wondered if Regina was going to hear about her tonight or tomorrow. She wasn't Emma, but Sidney was likely going to report her being here. Christy might warrant a visit of her own from a control freak mayor and ex-queen tomorrow. Christy was still unsure how she wanted to deal with Regina when she met her, she wasn't sure what she thought about that woman.

….

Christy gasped loudly in shock, her body arching up off the bed and her eyes opened suddenly as she stared up at the ceiling above her. Her body shook as she relaxed back onto the bed. "Oh my god." Christy whispered to herself as the aftereffects washed over her. There was a shine in the glass by her bed, and Christy sat up and moved toward the bathroom that was part of her room to stare at white, glowing eyes. "What the hell happened?" She muttered as her hand moved to touch her face. Fully recharged instantly, and in her sleep, she'd never done that before. What kind of a catastrophe would be required for that?

Christy was actually a little fearful as she moved to the window to see if the town still existed. Her mind was still fuzzy, so she forgave herself the wave of relief she felt when she saw nothing out of the ordinary outside. It became a puzzle and she thought back to her day here. The curse was still in effect, she was sure, or Ruby would have responded differently to Christy calling her by her real name.

She stood in the window, staring up at the sky and it was clear enough to see no asteroids, no destruction, no weird magical lights. The sound reached her and Christy looked back down as she could hear the sound of an ambulance fill the night. "One death, all that from one death?" She whispered, her jaw dropping as she started to put together what had happened.

She could hear Granny making her way down the hall and Christy shifted some sunglasses on as she continued to stare out the window as she saw Granny step out to look down the street wearing a heavy bathrobe. That one move proved this was a small town, that and the concern in the older woman's face. In a city someone might just grumble about being woken up, but these people wondered who of their own was in trouble.

Christy moved to sit back down on her bed as she wondered how it was possible that a single death did so much for her here. It did bode well that she'd be fine here, because she wouldn't need a city to power up, a city didn't even touch this unless it was a horrible, horrible day.

Experience told her that in a small town like this, based on Granny's reaction, Christy was not going to be the topic of discussion tomorrow. She hadn't lost so much of her humanity as to not wish she'd gotten the reprieve a different way.

It took a while to fall back to sleep, but when she woke up in the morning she noticed her eyes were fine again. When she slipped into the diner for breakfast she saw sad, shocked faces looking at newspapers. The blonde that came to serve her was surprised enough to see a stranger, but she wasn't smiling and Christy ordered her omelet softly. Enhanced eyes moved across the diner to see the headlines in the morning paper and she finally got her answer as to when she landed in the action. Sheriff Graham had passed away last night. They were calling it a heart attack. One death, the one man who was breaking free of the curse, was all it took to power up instantly.

Once she was done she got up to head out and find out more about the town, and the jobs. There was a new opening in the police department, but Christy wasn't touching that job with a ten foot pole. No, Emma was going to need that job, and she was going to have to fight for it. Christy was going to stay out of that as much as she could.

With the town basically mapped out in her mind, and one disappointing visit to the library that lead Christy to believe the library didn't have a budget at all. It had no useful books, and no public access computers. It wasn't too surprising that the only person in there was a librarian and no one else. That librarian was a little creepy in how she stared at Christy as Christy worked.

Christy gave up in disgust around three, having read hundreds of copies of the newspaper. The only useful thing she learned in that had nothing to do with the words and everything to do with the pictures. The news was clearly edited to favor Regina, but if anyone had ever actually looked at all the papers like Christy just did they should have noticed that the people that tended to be in the news hadn't physically aged in ten years. If the newspapers went back further they would have seen it was twenty eight years, but at least someone thought to not have a public record of it that long sitting around in the library. She headed back to the Diner for lunch, a very late lunch

"Hey Stranger." Ruby said as Christy stepped in the door and there was a welcoming smile in spite of the somber day. Christy returned the smile and moved toward a booth. It was a little amusing that Ruby sat down across from her to take her order.

"So what have you been up to?" Ruby asked as she continued to hold the menu and stood in front of Christy.

"Research. Your history of job openings aren't impressive in this town. And don't even get me started on the fact that there aren't any apartments listed in the last three weeks. I may end up living with you forever if that doesn't fix itself." That was another thing she'd learned in the library.

"Oh, well, good luck with that." Ruby told Christy, while giving her a flirtatious searching look. "But it wouldn't be horrible to keep you here."

Giving the waitress a knowing smirk, Christy took in the attractive brunette. "You're all bark, but do you bite too?" Christy asked teasingly.

The smile grew a little wicked on Ruby's face as she leaned down, setting the menu on the table almost dramatically. "Wouldn't you like to know?" Ruby was becoming rather fun to play with, and Christy couldn't deny she was curious. "Well 007, what would you like to drink?"

Christy chuckled at the nickname she'd earned, because it was eerily appropriate. Well, why not hide out in the open, she thought with some amusement. "Lemonade, you going to squeeze that for me Red?" Christy put as much innuendo into her words as possible and smiled when she made the waitress laugh.

"I'm not squeezing your lemons." Ruby walked away, chuckling, to get the drink.

Christy was busy watching the waitress and debating about making an offer, so when the young boy slipped into the seat across from her it startled her. Christy stared at the young boy as he stared back at her. "Who are you?" He whispered. "Are you here to help with the curse? You know about it don't you?"

She was unsure if she should admit to knowing anything, but given how she'd already acted with Red, it wasn't a lie she could keep up. "Kid, you act like she's the only villain in town and everyone else is innocent. It's not true. Don't go around trusting just about anyone else, because they aren't her. You're safe with her, and I can't say the same for other people."

Christy looked up to see Ruby giving her a surprised look as she was filling up a glass for Christy. Christy returned the look with a shrug, unable to explain why the kid sat with her. "You know about the curse."

"Yes." Christy spoke firmly, seeing the excitement growing in his eyes.

"There are some of us who are trying to stop the Evil Queen, I call it Operation Cobra." He spoke faster, his voice no longer a whisper. He was playing at spy and Christy sighed at the poor job he did. "We need all the help we can get. She killed Graham last night, I know she did."

"Kid," Christy interrupted. "You don't even know who I am. You act like there can only be one villain in this town. You need to be more cautious about who you trust. If you're handing out white hats and black hats, you'll find neither fit me." His face scrunched up in confusion and Christy softened her voice, recognizing he was much younger than she normally talked with. "You are picking out the heroes and the villains of this town, but most people are a mix of the two. I'm a mix, I'm a gray hat."

"Does your mother know you're sitting with strangers Henry?" Ruby asked as she sat the lemonade down in front of Christy and gave Henry a disapproving look. He was looking rather thoughtful and far less animated after her words. "How about I set you up with a hot chocolate at the counter?" Ruby offered.

"Kid, I'm not willing to face your mother if she sees you talking to a stranger she's never met. Go have your hot chocolate." Christy spoke up gently.

"You're not far off." Ruby spoke quietly as Henry gave Christy a long look, before moving to the counter. "Regina is already trying to run Emma out of town. She'd have no trouble expanding her efforts to include you. His mother," Ruby shook her head slowly. "What would you like to eat?"

Christy gave Ruby a teasingly long look, until the waitress' skin took on a hint of a blush. Once Christy got that she gave her real order.

Henry only kept his distance long enough for Christy to finish her burger and be halfway through with her fries when he looked around obviously and sat down across from her again. "Who are you?" He asked more firmly while staring at her.

"Christy Darkholme." She told him with a sigh, but she didn't expect his eyes to widen at her name. She stared intently at him when she got that odd response. His jaw had dropped and he stared at her in complete shock and she could see a hint of fear.

"The Queen of Death and Deception? The Cannibal Queen?" His words had her heart sinking. She'd like to deny it to herself, but he was clearly talking about her.

"What?" She asked in disbelief.

"You're the spy." He whispered in disbelief himself.

"Hey, leave my 007 alone." Ruby walked up and gave Henry a teasing smile, clearly having just heard the last words Henry said. "I believe I see Emma coming Henry, maybe she'll walk you home."

"007?" Henry asked while swallowing hard. Christy could see he wasn't sure of her at all anymore.

"Sure, she's my 007 and I'm her Red Riding Hood." Ruby joked, but that only had Henry's eyes getting bigger.

"You know?" He asked and Christy barely managed to not shake her head at his gullibility because he wanted people to believe him. Ruby had no idea what she'd walked into.

"They're just nicknames Henry." Christy muttered to the boy, giving him a subtle meaningful stare when Ruby wasn't looking at her.

"I should go." He stood up awkwardly. "Yes, I'll go." Christy wondered if she was done with that boy stalking her. She found she didn't like that he was stopping because she was 'scary'. She'd have to find the comic book store, or wherever he was getting his information, because clearly she'd made it into the comics in this world. As he left, she planned a whole new internet search she'd have to do to find out what he would know about her.