"I just got a text from Mal," Evie says as the entire group finishes breakfast in the dining room. "She says we're going to have to meet at the clock tower on Main Street."
"Why there?" Doug asks.
"Apparently, Belle wants to do a little more research on the book Crystal found. The book that had the recipe that created the portal that brought you here." Regina says, beginning to clean up the dishes. "She wants to read a book about a book... I always knew she was the book worm. And meanwhile, I am tasked with gathering the ingredients to recreate the product that caused this disaster."
While Evie had yet to become used to her alternate mother's sarcasm, she did feel a little hurt by the words. Was it really a disaster if they got to know each other? The mother she always wanted and apparently the daughter she always wanted. The smile faded from her face a bit, but she puts on a calm demeanour, helping gather the breakfast dishes.
"Are you going to need help?" Doug asks.
"I appreciate the offer, but the place to get these components is extremely private to me, so I am going to do it alone. But what you kids can do is try to get Ursula's guppy to tell you how she made it. If the ingredients used were not the same, that could complicate things."
"I really don't want to go near Uma," Dizzy says, immediately rushing to the sink to begin doing dishes. This surprised Evie immensely that the granddaughter of Lady Tremaine would be so eager to do chores, especially after her own "Cinderella" treatment on the Isle, but seeing the anxiety on the young girl's face at the prospect of going near Uma who is a bully and a ruthless villain that after her mother in every way, she could understand why. She wanted to stall for as long as possible. However, the daughter of the Evil Queen's mind begins to wonder about this "private" place Regina mentioned. Was it family-related? Would she be able to access it since she was technically her daughter? The curiosity was getting to her and the desire to learn more about her mother suddenly rises up inside her stomach. She's unsure of all these feelings inside of herself... they were all relatively new... ones that made her want to feel loved and to have someone to look up to. A person she could run to if she had problems and who could impart wisdom. While Mal was always her number one confidante, the two of them were the same age, Regina had much more experience when it comes to feelings, emotions, and especially true love. Mal was only starting to figure out this concept with Ben herself... if they ever got back together.
"Evie and I could do it," Jay says, pulling Evie from her thoughts. "And we'll try to find Carlos on the way."
"We... we can?"
"Yeah, no offence to you, Doug, and Robbie, but we've grown up with Uma, we know how to handle her more than anyone."
"That's perfectly fine," Doug says, secretly relieved that he would not have to confront such a vicious VK.
"I'm okay with that," Robbie agrees. "I guess we can help Dizzy with the dishes."
"You kids don't have to worry about that," Regina says, going over to shut the water in the sink off as Dizzy had already started to fill it.
"It's the least we can do for your kind hospitality," Robbie says in a very formal voice.
Regina swallows a lump in her, sensing a little bit of her Robin shining through this boy. She does her best to fight back her tears, wondering what the outlaw would think if he'd been able to meet his "polite" alternate son. The blue eyes are there and the crooked smile, but he did have more red hair, likely coming from his real father or mother. Even after such a long time, just the mere thought of her soulmate still manages to bring the tears. Snow said that this was normal, but obviously the Evil Queen was not going to take advice from the lovey-dovey princess who's technically never lost her true love for a very long time and who blissfully ignores the trauma that she and her mother had forced upon the seemingly dainty woman. She doesn't want to start crying in front of the teenagers.
"E-Excuse me," she says, before going upstairs to deal with her emotions alone.
"Is she okay?" Evie asks, having noticed the shift in the Evil Queen's demeanour and sensed the sadness.
Jay puts his hand her shoulder and gives it a squeeze.
"She'll be okay, it looks like she needs some space..."
The kitchen falls quiet for a moment before the son of Jafar turns to his best friend.
"Want to shower and then head out?"
"S-Sure," Evie nods, still staring upwards to where her mother had vanished in distress.
...
When the duo are set to go, now dressed in fresh clothes provided by Regina and "hand-me-downs" from her son Henry, they prepare to head out into town.
"Feels weird doesn't it?" Evie asks. While the clothes were comfortable, they certainly were not her style.
"Good, it's not just me," he jokes.
"I'll see you at the clock tower," Regina says, having recovered and put on a better face. She follows the two VKs out the front door of her mansion and makes sure to shut it behind her.
"But where should we go to find Uma?"
"Well, based on what Rumple did, my guess is that she's with her mother," the former villain calculates in her head. "If you want to find her, go to Maleficent's house. The two of them are such good friends... it might also be a good place to pick up Mal if she's there." She gets out a sheet of paper and writes down the address. "Just take a left on the next street over and keep going. Her place is pretty far out there."
"By design?" Jay inquires.
"Possibly, she and I don't exactly have the best history. I'll see you guys soon."
The Evil Queen then gets in her car to drive in the opposite direction. She opted not to use her magic to avoid spooking the children, besides if she needed to carry a bunch of stuff, her car was a good means of transportation.
Grabbing her heart purse, both VKs begin heading down the street according to the directions given. However, Evie's mind is completely elsewhere. The itching to know what was happening in this secret place, whether she could really gain access to it, and to generally create a deeper connection with her mother began eating her insides. The further she walked away from where Regina had gone, the more desperate she became. She couldn't explain these feelings, but she just had this desire to know more. Her mind begins to formulate a plan to scratch these itches and feed the burning curiosity.
After they turn the corner, she puts her plan into action.
She pretends to stop and search through her purse.
"Oh no..."
"What's wrong?"
"I left my phone back at the house. Do you mind if I go back and get it?"
"Uh, sure do you want me to wait?"
"N-No, it's okay, you go on ahead, I'll catch up."
"But how will you know where you're going?"
After a quick pause.
"Mal will text me the address," she says in relief for her quick thinking.
"Okay, I'll go see if we can find Uma and evidently Ursula," he says shrugging.
A great wave of relief washes over Evie as she slowly goes back the way they had come but waiting until Jay was completely out of sight before going in the direction that Regina had gone. If she couldn't find the car, she'd ask any of the locals if they'd seen her. Hopefully, Jay doesn't suspect anything as she attempts to discover more about her mother.
...
Jay continues down the road, hands casually shoved into his pockets, his long hair picked up every so often by the cool Maine air. While the town was too quiet for his taste, he did enjoy the cheerful atmosphere. He actually enjoyed this moment of peace considering the chaos of the past two days.
He decides to text Carlos and see if he can find him, wondering why he never came back. He figured out that his friend had lied to him and had probably snuck out because when he came downstairs, the TV off and Carlos nowhere in the place. This did hurt the son of Jafar a lot. He loved Carlos like his brother, and it felt as if the puppy-lover was betraying their bond of trust by lying. Was he hiding something? Did Evie and Mal know about this? When he found him, he'd have to confront the son of Cruella De Vil.
While looking down at his phone, Jay doesn't notice the rustling in the bushes and he barely sees a figure leap out just as he's walking by.
The two bodies collide with one another, causing Jay to drop his phone. He becomes angry and anxious, praying that the pavement did not crack the screen, but becomes even more so when he sees who he bumped into.
Harry Hook stands there in the road, trying to recover from their collision. The two VKs look at one another, tension immediately growing with each passing second.
"What the hell Harry?" Jay barks.
"Sorry, mate didn't mean tae do that..."
"To do what? Give me a heart attack?!" It's after a few more moments that Jay realizes that Harry had actually apologized; something that has never happened before considering the pirate's past. Pigs must be flying somewhere. After collecting himself a bit more, he asks:
"What do you want Harry?"
"I a'm needin' yer help."
"Help?" Jay asks, completely flabbergasted. Had the entire world flipped? Hell must have also frozen over because the pirate that he'd sword fought more than a year ago and dropped his precious hook into shark-invested waters as a way to taunt him, wanted his help. Not to have a rematch, not to fight... but for help. "Why do you need my help?"
"Yer the' mainly guy ah think would hae expertise in this area."
"What area? What are you talking about?"
Harry takes in a deep breath. "I want to impress a woman."
Jay nearly falls over in shock, but also from the absurdity of it all. Harry Hook, the son of Captain Hook, one of the most famous womanizers in history, wanted to impress a woman... not women, a woman. While the son of Jafar already had an idea of who this might be, he decided to hear this, if not for the sheer humour of it all.
"Really?"
"Aye."
"And why is that?"
Harry's blue eyes seem to shine for a moment, and he tries to gather his thoughts.
"Ah don't really know why, but I just can't get this girl out of my head. She's like no other woman I've ever met... (which is saying something since he grew up on the Isle). She takes flack from nobody; is very strong, smart, and... I can't seem to find the word for it..."
Jay is genuinely surprised by the actual emotion in Harry's voice. His eyes are soft, compared to the usual imbalance and hints of insanity in there. He's not threatening the son of Jafar, nor is he mocking him. It seems absolutely bizarre... was he in some kind of Twilight Zone?
"Loving?" he suggests.
"YES!" Harry says. "Exactly! But the lass is guarded and says she won't even consider me courting her until I make meself... dateable. Trouble is... I don't know what that means."
"Why should I help you?" Jay says skeptically.
Harry sighs, having already assumed that none of the Auradon VKs would actually want to help him, considering their history. He decides to answer honestly.
"Don't really have an answer te that. I'd understand if ye don't want to help, ye got no reason to. But I assure ye, that it isn't a trick."
The VK bites his lip again, not trusting a single word the pirate said.
"And why me of all people? I'm not saying I believe you at all, I really don't but if what you're saying is true, why not talk to Mal or Evie or Carlos, or anybody else in a committed relationship? Mal and Ben are true love after all."
"I've heard te stories. Seen it on the telly too, ye got yer way wit the lasses. Besides... after what Ben told me after we nicked him, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of hope there wit Mal right now."
Jay nods, not entirely sure what happened between Ben and Mal. He'd hoped that they had at least talked by now, but his best friend had been hurt very badly by what happened back at Auradon. Jay hated seeing Mal in pain so much that he'd actually wanted to kill the king for making her feel that way. That is until Uma kind of did it for him. He did feel sort of caught in the middle, especially considering Ben was one of his friends, and the tension that was felt after their night in the hospital could have been cut with a knife.
"Plus, Mal and I, we got our history..."
"So why not Evie or Carlos?"
"Well, neither liked that I threatened their partners 'nd pupper would definitely be hatin' me after I hit on his girl before the battle."
Jay sort of nods, understanding his logic.
"Plus, no kid from Auradon let me within ten feet of them,"
There's a pause while Jay muses this over in his head. Alarm bells were still going off in his head and his stomach had turned a few times since the two had encountered one another. Of course, he was extremely skeptical, wondering if the pirate was just putting on an act like it was some kind of sick twisted prank to humiliate him or something. Or maybe it was a way to suck up and gain full access to Auradon? Had Uma put him up to this? He was still wondering why Harry would still come to him. Sure, Jay had a way with the ladies, but he was constantly dating, he hadn't had a secure relationship in a while.
At the same time, there was something different in Harry's demeanour, he seemed less aggressive and almost genuine in his words. His voice is softer and all around, he's calmer than before. It was clear that something had shifted within him; it seemed completely bizarre and other-worldly.
He weighs the pros and cons of trusting this pirate VK... it wasn't like Jay had anything better to do in his spare time, the town was pretty much a bust in that department, but this could be interesting, and the second he feels something is off, he can back out. Plus, if he could get Harry to come along and get Uma to talk about the portal potion, that would be a bonus.
"O...kay... if I help you... and that's a big IF, you have to help me get Uma to talk about how she made her portal juice."
Harry raises his eyebrow, actually expecting more demands from the son of Jafar. Perhaps Auradon really had changed him.
"Awright," he says. "I can do that."
"Good, and just so we're clear, this does not make us friends. I'm just going to give you some advice, that's it and if you use this to hurt this girl or try to get to Auradon, I will personally hurt you."
Both were surprised by the sheer aggression in his voice, but Jay had morals and he would not do anything if it ended up hurting another person.
Harry swallows nervously. "U-Understood."
"Okay...we're actually heading to find Ursula right now, so why don't you tell me what this girl said would make you 'dateable'"
"Well, she doesn't like it when you enter her lodgings...