A small scowl sat on Dani's lips as she sat in a chair beside her mother.
"Would you stop being so pouty? Dr.S says this will help you with expressing your emotions," Michelle said from Dani's right, making the girl roll her eyes as she sank further into the chair.
"I didn't need any help. I was fine handling it on my own," she lied through gritted teeth.
A snort of amusement from her left caused Dani to narrow her eyes at the source of it.
"You keep telling yourself that, Dani...maybe it'll come true," David said as he sat down in his chair after informing the receptionist of their arrival.
Dani rolled her eyes again and folded her arms, not at all liking the situation she was forced to be in by her parents and doctor.
As it turned out, her parents actually had been aware of her change in attitude recently and had spoken with Dr.S about it. They had already planned for her to see a therapist after she had come back to life since they had figured an event like that would surely mess her brain up, and yesterday's ordeal was just the icing on the cake. Luckily, they had made the call just in time as a therapist had an opening spot early in the morning, thus sending them to where they currently waited.
With Henry's threat still fresh in her mind, Dani hadn't felt comfortable with getting help anymore. Of course, she had still wanted it...she needed it...she just didn't feel safe receiving it.
The ticking of the clock ringing in her ears caused the girl to groan as her patience had slowly reached its maximum. "Where the hell is she so I can get this over with already?!" she asked with a scowl.
Michelle sent her daughter a scolding look as she hit the girl on the shoulder and said, "Will you stop it, Dani? Aren't you twenty years old? Act like it."
Dani rolled her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time just as a woman walked up to the front, and Dani's eyes narrowed as she took in her features: Blonde hair and grayish-blue eyes. Another groan left her mouth as she realized who her new therapist was.
An amused smile curved on Mrs.Lock's lips as she said, "Well. It's nice to see you too, Dani."
Dani gave the woman a fake smile back as she slowly rose from her chair. "The feeling is not mutual," she mumbled before pouting as she felt someone hit her back.
"Be nice," David scolded as Michelle gave her an encouraging smile.
"Good luck, honey! Remember, she's just trying to help, okay?" she said.
Dani frowned, knowing she'd been defeated as she turned her head towards her mother and said, "I know Momma...I'll try, okay?... For you."
Michelle's smile brightened as she stood up to kiss her daughter's head. "That's my girl," she whispered while giving Dani a light squeeze.
Dani smiled in her mother's embrace before raising an eyebrow as another voice caught her attention.
"Hey, what about me?" David questioned in mock offense.
Dani snorted. "Sorry, but she gave birth to me," she said with a shrug and smirked as he rolled his eyes.
"That's not even fair," David muttered as he sank into his chair with his arms crossed.
Dani shook her head in amusement before turning her attention back to her new therapist as she walked towards her, and she was completely aware of her mother playfully scolding the grown manchild she'd married behind her as she walked away.
"Good morning, Dani. How are you feeling today?" Mrs.Locks asked as she guided Dani down the hallway.
"I'm fine," Dani mumbled while taking in her surroundings.
Mrs.Locks nodded as they reached the door to her office. "That's good. I'm glad to see you up and walking again," she said and gave Dani a smile that the girl slightly returned with a hum. "You can just take a seat on that couch right there."
Walking towards the cream-colored couch, Dani glanced around the small, lightly decorated office and immediately took notice of the scent of cinnamon that lingered in the air from a lit candle, and the smell reminded her heavily of a certain Locks child.
"So Dani, your parents have informed me that they're worried about how you're coping with all that has happened to you...Do you have any idea as to why they would be so worried about you?" Mrs.Locks asked as she sat in the chair in front of Dani.
A slight frown made its way onto Dani's features as she suddenly grew nervous at the question before masking it with the one thing she knew best as she shrugged and said, "Well, I died and came back to life so...that could be a reason."
Mrs.Locks narrowed her eyes a little at the tone in the girl's voice before she wrote something down on her clipboard. "I see...Can you tell me about that experience?" she asked as she looked back up.
Dani raised an eyebrow and asked, "What, you mean dying?"
Mrs.Locks nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what I mean. How did you feel once the initial shock of coming back to life wore off? Do you remember what happened before you woke up in the hospital?" she asked, and that time, Dani really did frown as she thought about the question.
Did she remember what happened to her?
Of course, she had.
But did she want to have to relive it all over again to a semi-stranger?
Absolutely not.
"No, I...I don't actually," Dani said as her eyebrows furrowed. "The last thing I remember is walking outside with my dad..and hugging my mom and brother and then everything just went...black."
Seemingly believing Dani's words, Mrs.Locks nodded again and wrote in her notebook again. "I see...So you don't remember what happened in the old McDonald Barn at all?" she further pushed, which made Dani clench her jaw a little as she shook her head in answer, not trusting herself enough to speak.
Who knew you could be such an excellent liar, Little Red?
Immediately, Dani stiffened at the sound of Henry's voice in her head.
Oh, that's right...I knew...because you lied to me and used my old feelings for you against me, he then said in a bitter tone that made her flinch.
"Are you alright?" Mrs.Locks asked with a small frown.
Dani swallowed before reluctantly nodding her head as she mumbled, "Mhm...peachy."
Mrs.Locks frowned at the answer. "Dani, this is a safe place, sweetheart. You don't have to be afraid to tell me what's wrong," she softly said.
Tell her, and I gut your mother.
Dani's jaw clenched at the threat as her eyes glistened with unshed tears before she quickly blinked them away. "I'm not crazy," she mumbled to herself, but Mrs.Locks seemed to have heard her as her frown deepened.
"I know you're not crazy, honey. You've been through a lot of hardships that no one your age should have to go through. It's perfectly understandable that you'd have some sort of psychological trauma from it," she said while placing a comforting hand over Dani's.
Dani's eyes narrowed slightly. "Psychological trauma? Is that your way of saying I have gone crazy? Are you going to place me in a trashy mental home like they did to Hans?" she asked in a bitter tone, feeling a tug on her heart at the thought of her other best friend.
Mrs.Locks sighed and gave the girl a sad smile. "No, Dani. I'm not calling you crazy, and we will not put you in a mental institution like your friend...I'm afraid Hans received help a little too late," she said while sitting back in her chair.
Dani's lip quivered at the talk of her friend, but she pushed down the tears as she stared down at the floor and said, "I miss him, you know...Hans? He always treated me like I was another little sister to him."
"Ella, be careful!! You might fall!!"
An eight-year-old Hans called out as he stared up at his seven-year-old friend in worry. His other friend and twin sister had already made their way to the top of the tree, but given Dani's short stature, the little girl had a lot more trouble making her way up to where the others were.
"I can do it, Hansel!! Gretel taught me how to-ah!!" Dani started to say before she screamed as she suddenly lost her footing on the tree branch, which caused her to fly from the giant oak tree.
"Dani!!" Greta and Mikey called out in worry from the top branch.
"Don't worry, Ella!! I've got you!!" Hans said as he rushed over and reached the tree just in time to catch the scared child in his arms.
Dani instantly wrapped her arms around his neck and opened her eyes to look at him with a smile.
"You caught me!!" she happily exclaimed, which caused Hans to smile as he set her down safely onto the ground.
"Of course, I did!! Couldn't have my favorite little sister getting hurt!" he said in a playful tone, earning an offended whine from his actual sister who climbed down the tree with their best friend in tow.
"You're my hero Hansel," Dani mumbled before she reached up to hug him tightly.
Hans grinned widely as he hugged her back just as tight.
"Sounds like you two had quite the friendship," Mrs.Locks said with a smile.
"Yeah...yeah, we did. I mean we...we do. Hans is still my friend just as much as Mikey and Greta are," Dani said before frowning as she felt a pang of sadness at the mention of them.
Mrs.Locks hummed in acknowledgment as she wrote again.
"Of course...Mikey and Greta...Are you three still as close as you were when you were younger? I remember Goldi telling me about how you and Mikey made Greta feel very welcomed on her first day of school," she said with a smile.
Dani smiled at the memory before letting out a sigh. "We were...It seems like with everything that's happened over these past few months, I've managed to turn everything upside down," she said and scowled as she felt a teardrop fall down her cheek and rubbed harshly at it.
"Why do you say that?" Mrs.Locks asked as she handed Dani a box of tissue.
Dani smiled lightly as she kindly took it from her hands.
"I...I uh...Mikey and I...we took a break from our relationship because...even after I had promised him I wouldn't keep anything from him again...I did. I refused to tell him about a letter I had received from my dad...my biological dad, and I don't even know why," she said and laughed bitterly while rubbing her eyes again.
"The first time I chose to keep something from him...from everyone for that matter, I ended up dying and coming back to life. I was so caught up in trying not to lose anyone else I loved, that I didn't even notice I was causing myself to lose them anyway."
Dani then sniffed and said, "We've made up for it, though...Well...sort of...I don't really know where our relationship stands as of right now.."
Mrs.Locks frowned at the statement as she wrote down another note and asked, "What makes it so troubling?"
"Before he left, Mikey came to visit me in the hospital...That's when we made up with each other and kissed each other Goodbye, but we haven't really spoken about where our relationship stands as of right now," Dani said before shrugging. "I mean we talked on the phone last night...but it was sort of like a catching-up-with-the-other's-life kind of thing."
That seemed to pique Mrs.Locks' interest as her eyebrows raised a little while she asked, "Really?"
A small smile curved upon Dani's lips as she nodded.
The sound of his phone ringing caused Mikey to groan awake and slowly sit up in bed. He had spent practically the whole night thinking of Dani since Greta had visited him earlier in the day in a state of distress to tell him about their fight with each other that had been bugging her since it happened. In all honesty, Mikey felt heartbroken for them both...so being the caring boy his mother had raised him to be, he held his childhood friend in his arms and let her cry out her pain freely.
Mikey sighed as he slid his finger across the phone and brought it up to his ear, not at all paying attention to the name that appeared on the screen.
"Hello?" he groaned, his voice sounding raspy due to being forced out of his slumber.
On the other line, a tearful Dani sat on her bed as her heartbeat was immediately sent into a frenzy at the sound of his voice.
She had missed it.
She had missed him.
"M...Mikey?"
And there it was. The voice Mikey had been longing to hear since he'd left her a few weeks prior to better himself.
He had missed it.
He had missed her.
"Dans?" he said before shuffling around so that he was sitting up all the way.
"Hi," Dani said with a smile, unknowing that the sound of her voice had sent a tingling sensation down Mikey's arms to the tips of his fingers.
"Hey," he said with a crooked grin on his lips.
"How are you?... Wait...Dans, it's 3 AM. Are you okay? What's wrong?" Mikey then asked as it clicked in his mind what time he was receiving the call, which immediately caused a rush of worry to flood in his system.
If something was wrong, he had to find a way to get to her.
Dani, on the other hand, was trying to contain her happiness at the amount of worry that was held in his voice. "No...nothing's wrong, I just...I just missed your voice," she said in a soft tone as she fiddled with the ring on her finger.
Mikey sighed as he felt a wave of relief at knowing she was okay before his own heartbeat began to increase as her words registered in his brain.
"Oh...Well that's good because I kinda missed yours too," he said in a playful tone, and a strange feeling grew in his chest when the sound of her laughter blessed his ears.
"At least we know your playfulness is still intact, Darling," Dani said, and a wide grin spread across Mikey's features as he could easily detect the one on his girlfriend's face from her tone of voice.
"Glad you could catch it, Richards," he replied before they were both sent into laughter.
"We talked for hours...well, at least until the sun came up, but it still felt good," Dani said as the smile on her face grew.
Mrs. Locks smiled softly as she said, "Sounds like you two have quite the close-knit relationship."
Dani nodded. "Yeah...we always have. Our moms practically planned us to be best friends when they were in high school," she said with a laugh.
"Ahh, Michelle and Mary...the M&Ms," Mrs.Locks said with a reminiscent smile on her features.
"The M&Ms?" Dani asked with a snort, which made Mrs.Locks laugh as she nodded.
"Yep. You could never catch one without the other when we were all growing up," she said with a shake of her head.
Dani smiled at the thought of it before that familiar pang of sadness came back as her mother's relationship with Mikey's mother had reminded her heavily of her relationship with Greta.
"It sounds like me and Greta," she answered the silent question as she tried desperately to hold back her tears.
Mrs.Locks nodded in understanding and said, "I'm guessing that making up between you two hasn't happened so easily as it did with Mikey?"
Dani nodded as a single tear fell down her cheek. "I...I did something...called her something that I knew would bring back hurtful memories for her," she said and shook her head. "I don't even know why I did it!"
"Sometimes, when our anger gets the best of us, we tend to act it out on others we'd otherwise not want to cause any kind of harm to," Mrs.Locks said. "I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that the name you called her...was her own?"
Dani nodded her head in shame. Of course, the guess had been right, everyone in StoryBrooke knew never to call Greta and Hans by their given names.
Dani then sighed and said, "I still can't believe I did it...I'm the one who helped her with creating a new one."
"Gretel?" an eight-year-old Dani softly called out as she made her way to her best friend's bedroom. "Gretel, are you okay? Your dad said you were-"
Dani's sentence was stopped with a frown as she opened the door to see her best friend sitting in a corner with her knees pulled up to her chest. "Gretel?"
"Go away," nine-year-old Gretel said in a soft but raspy voice, which could only be due to her crying that hadn't stopped since she'd returned home.
Dani's frown deepened at her words as she continued to walk towards her friend anyway, shutting the door behind her. "No. I'm not going anywhere," she said with a shake of her head. "Because best friends are supposed to help each other when they feel sad."
Dani sat down beside the heartbroken little girl, who looked at her through teary lashes.
"I don't deserve to be your best friend," Gretel said with a sniff, and a sad look formed on Dani's face at her words. "I don't deserve to be Mikey's best friend either... and I especially don't deserve to be Hansel's twin sister anymore.
"Don't say that, Gretel!!" Dani said as she shook her head.
The girl then frowned as she noticed the wince on Gretel's face.
"What?... What is it?" she asked before a look of realization flashed across her features. "Do you not like your name anymore?"
The older girl sniffed before nodding her head. "That name gives me bad luck...I don't like it anymore," she mumbled with a frown.
"Well...How about we give you a new one!!" Dani suggested and watched the blonde's eyes widen in surprise.
"I...I can do that?" Gretel asked.
Dani shrugged and said, "Well, of course, you can! It's your name, right? So you get to decide what you want people to call you!"
The older girl nodded as her features slowly began to lighten up. "Yeah...yeah, okay! We can do that!!" she said as her excitement increased.
"Okay!!...Hmm...What should your new name be?" Dani said as she tilted her head in thought.
A wide grin spread across her features as she then exclaimed, "Oo, I know! How about Belle?! Like the princess!!"
Gretel laughed before shaking her head. "I don't think I like that one too much," she said, causing the younger girl to giggle.
"You come up with one! It is your name we're changing," Dani said with a smile, and Gretel stared ahead of her as she thought of a new name for herself.
"How about," her lips curved into a small smile at the name that popped into her mind, "Greta.."
She turned her head towards her best friend, who looked at her with furrowed eyebrows.
"Greta," Dani said, trying the new name on her tongue.
Her features then brightened as a wide smile grew on her face and she said, "I like it!!"
Greta's smile brightened at the approval of her best friend before she launched herself into the girl's arms.
"I've tried calling her and everything, but she doesn't want anything to do with me anymore," Dani said with a sniff and wiped her eyes.
"Well...in situations such as yours...maybe it's best to speak about this in person," Mrs.Locks said.
"But what if she doesn't want to see me?" Dani asked with a frown as the thought of her best friend hating her weighed heavily on her chest.
"You can't think like that, sweetheart. Coming from a parent of a child who's seen your friendship firsthand, I'd say you two have a solid bond that even this wouldn't break. You'll never know if you don't try," Mrs.Locks said with a soft smile on her features.
Dani huffed as she sat back in the chair and mumbled, "Maybe..."
"Thank you for making me feel better, Dani," Greta mumbled into the girl's shoulder.
Dani's smile grew as she hugged her best friend tightly and said, "That's what best friends are for."
Greta pulled back with a thoughtful yet timid expression across her features. "Dani?" she questioned softly, causing the girl in question to tilt her head to the side with a hum. "Can we...Are we gonna be best friends forever?"
Dani's features fell into a stoic expression as she shook her head and said, "No."
The older girl's features immediately fell as she looked down to the floor and mumbled, "Oh.."
"But," Dani suddenly said, making the slightly heartbroken girl's head pop up.
"We can be sisters forever!!" she continued with a wide grin on her face and watched as Greta's features lightened up again.
"You got a deal, baby!!" Greta said before she pulled the girl into another bone-crushing hug.
Dani giggled as she hugged her sister back tightly.
Greta then pulled away to hold two fingers out with a smile as she said, "Sister's forever?"
Dani smiled back as she held out two of her fingers and hooked them with Greta's. "Sisters Forever!"