Neverlander: Wonderlander

Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time, Rufio, or whatever else I use.
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Gaining Bearings

Baelfire immediately knew that the only way out was in, as ironic as it sounded. He asked the captain if he knew anyone who might be able to offer assistance, and Peter immediately offered up a name: March. "Strange name," Bae said.

"It's a hare," Peter said flatly, reminding Bae of the cheshire cat.

"Still, it's a strange name."

"Where is he?" Hook asked.

"I don't know. Somewhere in the forest," Peter replied.

"So how do we find him?" Bae asked.

"Don't ask me."

"Someone else have a plan, because as far as I can tell, we're doomed," Rufio said.

"The mushrooms are houses," Hook said, "or they can be."

"What?" Bae asked, but Hook was already wandering off into the forest. The rest of the group caught up to him before they lost sight of him, which would've been before he was three feet from them, so thick was the fog. They wandered for almost an hour before coming upon a blue, speckled mushroom the size of a tree.

"Here it is," Hook said.

"Okay, I think I can see it now," Bae replied, taking in the door and windows carved into the stalk. The thing even had glass for its panes. Hook opened the door and let the group in. Almost a score of people, as they numbered at that moment, could fit comfortably in the living area. Bae was having trouble recovering the pieces of his blown mind.

Hook studied the area and for a moment wondered why nothing was taken by the soldiers. "How do you know they're not going to find us here?" Morraine asked.

"Actually, I don't," Hook replied. "I can guess, though, that they have to patch up the hole our good friends tore in the border."

"It seems to me that all of their citizens are soldiers. Surely managing such issues as this should be easy."

"She's panicking," Bae said. "That is, if you can call it that."

"Why should she panic?" Tinker Bell asked.

"She? Who's she?" Morraine asked.

"The Queen of Hearts."

"We got away," Hook added.

"Well, I know that, but isn't this a bit much?"

"I shot a man in the middle of his condenza."

"You're your own case."

"Is he?" Peter asked. All eyes turned to him. "He's more fey than I am. What makes him less other than me?"

Tink and Bae looked at each other, each asking the other with their eyes to explain this to the boy. Finally, Bae took a deep breath and said, "We know a halfie. Her name is Jesse. She's quite sane, by our standards, but her mother is a fey and she was considerably less so."

"Bearing this in mind, it can be concluded that something in your mind that inhibits fey behavior is either deficient or lacking," Hook said frankly, though it wasn't lost on either Bae or Peter that he failed to maintain eye contact with his son. Peter blinked. "Do you understand?" Hook asked after a moment.

"Is something missing?" he asked.

"One can look at it that way, yes."

"Can we find it and put it back?"

"Not in the way you think, Peter. It can be accounted for and its absence adapted to, but typically these things can't be put away like marbles or toys."

"Oh," Peter said softly.

"Peter's insanity aside," Bae said, "how do we get out of Wonderland with our heads on our shoulders?"

OUAT

Rumpelstiltskin chewed his lip. He'd been ruminating over the cloud on the horizon for almost half an hour, and Belle had noticed. She now stood beside him, staring at the same place he was but struggling to comprehend the significance. Finally, she asked, "Is it bad?"

"Very, very bad," he replied.

"What are we going to do?"

"You mean what are the Charmings going to do?"

"As long as someone can do something, it should be done. It doesn't much matter who or what."

"Sometimes it does."

"You can do anything, remember?"

Rumpelstiltskin smiled sadly to himself and turned his eyes toward the box on the shelf on the mantle. "I remember," he said.

She followed his gaze again. "What's in there?"

"Pieces."

"Of what?"

"An heirloom from bygone days. It was broken, and I can't put it back together. And I have no inclination to."

"But you picked up the pieces and put them all in a box together."

"Yes."

"Why?"

He turned toward her. "Because it represents my life."

She nodded. "I guess that makes sense." He smiled, and they both looked back at the cloud.