Chapter 1: Fresh Wounds

They had decided to split up. It wasn't a good idea, but they had to anyway. Emma and Charming stayed at the ship, Regina and her mother went towards the thick forests follow their lead on Henry, and Hook and Rumplestilskin headed towards the mermaid's lair. This was definitely the most ironic pairing that seemed to take place that day. And funnily enough, it had happened naturally.

When Charming decided to stay with Emma, Regina offered to help Snow and well, Hook didn't exactly have a choice. But they'd received information the previous night (just a few hours in Storybrooke time according to Rumplestilskin and Hook) about Henry's whereabouts. So they'd decided to split up, just in case it was a trap.

The attack had happened right after the forest, where Snow and Regina were stationed, blazed with fire. The ship seemed to be protecting Emma and Charming from whatever the forest fire and the Neverland magic were doing to their surroundings. The whole ship felt like an ironclad in boiling lava.

The only weapons they'd had were armory collected by the Captain, from one of his travels to different Realms. The sword Emma held was curved in the edge, it looked like an ancient sword used by either Egyptian kings or an Indian sword; right now she didn't care where it was from, as long as it could do some damage. Charming held his old fashioned broadsword, conjured to the ship by Rumplestilskin himself from Storybrooke; they now looked prepared enough to fend off whatever was to come.

From underneath the ship, flew one of the boys, who looked about 15 and he went straight up to Emma and started to clang his sword against hers. It was a tough battle. Emma looked around to see how her father was doing, and it didn't look good for him either. He was handling three lost ones at the same time, while trying not to fall off the ship.

Emma, spun three sixty degrees and hit the boy with the back of her sword, and knocked him out cold. He lay at the edge of the ship and she was tempted to throw him off, but she saw Charming having his own problems and ran to help him.

"Need a hand?" – Asked Emma and she charged at the boy with the brown hair and blue eyes. Her sword hit the back of his neck and he too, crumpled next to the first boy she'd knocked out.

It took charming all his strength to hold off the two other boys and throw them backwards.

"Thanks. It's been quite some time since I've had to fight such an army." –he spoke of the four boys as if they were some legion, hard to fend off.

The clouds of Neverland covered the ship and all the light from the ship disappeared. It was getting cold and hard to breathe. Emma couldn't believe it; just a few minutes back it was hot as lava and the weather turned frosty cold. She nearly dropped her sword. Charming was holding his throat, finding it hard to breathe. The feeling was familiar, oxygen being sucked out of the air. But Neverland was a magical land, so magic was being sucked out of the air.

A shadow flew above them, and all the Lost Ones began trembling. "He's here and you're done for, you filthy Prince. He'll teach you what happens to those who enter this land and disobey Peter Pan's orders to stay away from him." – Not waiting for the two unconscious boys, the couple jumped on the small boat and sailed south.

The shadow cornered her father and stretched his hand. Suddenly she could feel all the energy going away from her lungs, the atmosphere turned cold and all she could see was the red liquid that was oozing out of her father's chest. She realized that magic wasn't being sucked out of the air; the shadow was taking all the magic away; somehow absorbing it.

The shadow hadn't even touched him, and she could hear him scream. She then realized that she couldn't move, it wasn't fear, it was the shadow's presence, he'd done something to make sure she'd stay put.

She couldn't see him losing, he was her father, he couldn't lose, she couldn't see him weak and begging for mercy when she stood there trembling.

They say magic is expression and feelings, Rumplestilskin himself told her not to think when she conjured the smallest of magic. She didn't know what happened after she raised her hand. A white blast hit the deck of the ship and the shadow scrambled looking for a dark place to retreat. She was feeling angry, someone had tried to attack her family, maybe it ran in her blood; the protectiveness towards her loved ones came at the unexpected times.

The shadow took along the clouds with him. Emma didn't know what she had done, but it sure sent him away for a while, before coming back with reinforcements; maybe collected more shadows of innocents.

She dropped her sword and half walked-half dragged herself to Charming. His eyes were barely open and his breathing was alarmingly slow. She tried to heal him by using some magic again, the wounds healed a bit as if it were stitching itself, she tried again and it didn't work, she couldn't focus and he didn't have much time.

The wounds in his chest became deeper despite her attempts to heal and the darker it got, the uglier it looked. He was gasping for air, coughing out blood and she couldn't do anything.

A clatter of footsteps brought Emma to her senses and she realized the boys gained consciousness and were charging towards an unarmed Emma.

She groped for her sword in fear but was too late as one of the boys held her by her hair and dragged her towards the edge of the ship.

"This is it" she thought to herself, this is how she was going to die. One of the boys slashed her cheek and laughed as she cried out in pain. "That's what everyone gets if they anger a lost boy huh?" She was going to die, and she only thought about how her father was lying there, all beaten up and gasping for blood. Her eyes filled with tears as she waited for the final blow from her enemy. She closed her eyes. I love you Henry, Mom and you too Dad… I'll always love you. She didn't have the energy to say it but she looked over to her father. Their eyes met, and there was a proud smile etched on Prince Charming's face as he took his last breath.

Clang! The boys were shoved off by a heavy weighted person in a black leather coat.

Hook!

That was her last thought before her vision turned dark.

"…We came as soon as the shadow was retreating, and that's when we realized something bad had happened." –Gold's voice echoed a bit too loud for Emma's liking as she opened her eyes, only to be greeted by her mother's rib cracking hug.

"What happened? Where am I, and… NO! David, where's David?" –cried Emma, as she hurriedly got up and searched for her father.

"He's resting, needs it, took a bad beating." –came the pirate's voice from the corner of the small room.

"I need to see him." –pleaded Emma.

"You need your rest Emma, and so does your father. There'll be enough time for all this once you're all healed and ready for battle. Please honey, I don't… think it'll be wise to visit him in his…condition." –Snow spoke gently, which calmed Emma's hyperactive nerves.

"No, I need to-" –Emma's voice broke as she sat down on the bed and stared at the wall in front of her. She'd almost lost him. He was bleeding, and the gashes looked ugly. How was he ever going to get any better? Her hand reached her left cheek where one of those boys had gashed her. It was deep and it hurt.

"I'm glad you're alright Emma, We were so worried about you." –snow said.

"I'm fine, I just… need to be alone for a while… mom, please? I'll be down in a while." –begged Emma

"I understand. See you in a bit."

She walked out of the room sobbing silently.

"You know, you could be a bit thankful for the concern your mother shows towards you." –spoke Hook.

"I am, in fact I'm grateful. But I just need some time alone." –replied Emma.

"What you witnessed, people like me have only heard about the shadow's doings… we've never angered him so much before. Trying to break into the lockout where Henry was… that must have put him off immensely."

"…Thank you Killian." –Emma replied after sometime.

"All I did was save you love and you'd have done the same for me. Besides, if we're all going to be working together, we might as well look out for each other." –he smiled and sat beside her. He dabbed a cloth in a brown color liquid which smelt suspiciously like Rum to Emma.

He placed the cool cloth on her cheek and waited. Emma shouted out in pain but it subsided as the liquid seeped into her skin. He let the cloth stay there for a while and then removed it.

Hook got up and offered his good hand to her. Without questioning she took it and got up. After about a few minutes, he spoke –"Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"We're breaking your mother's rules and going to your father's room." – said a smiling Hook.

She was puzzled by the way this pirate was behaving. He'd never been so friendly before, neither had he cared to be a part of her life, especially in her very 'personal' part of her life. The bigger problem Emma faced was that she was letting him in. She never did that to anybody. Her walls were always so high, that even her parents had to always scrape through every inch, to find another big layer waiting for them.

But they had been in search for Henry for weeks now. And without anyone realizing it, for the first time, everyone was willing to talk, and have a laugh with each other. Another thing that bothered her was her 'scars'. She was worried about how she would face them. The physical scars would heal, maybe in a week's time. She had her mental scars to think about, one of them being today's event. She would keep telling herself that she could handle it, but she knew that she would crumble before finding Henry if she didn't handle it. But she didn't know how to.

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't hear her father shout out in pain when Snow was applying some medicine to the gash on the chest. Yes, Rumplestilskin had done some healing, but it wasn't as simple as it seemed. The Shadow drew power from the victim's fears and the stronger the fears, the stronger the gash. And the gash could only heal completely if the victim wanted it to heal, she found that part a bit awkward but she let it be.

She looked at Charming's bare chest and was shocked to see the amount of scars he'd acquired through time. Her first thought was to run away, but it was a bit too late for that, she had to at least be by his side to know that he was going to be alright.

He was her father, and she'd better start acting like his daughter. She was working on that, and right now it was going okay or her.

She walked towards him, while he mumbled to Snow about not applying too much pressure on the wound.

"I'm fine Snow." – charming mumbled as Snow fussed over the other scrapes and cuts on his hand.

"… you were nearly dead when I saw you, do you understand that Charming? So I will fuss over your wounds, until they are completely healed." – Snow choked back a sob and spoke softly.

They both looked up as Emma sat beside the bed on a small individual chair.

"Emma." – whispered Charming. "What are you doing here?"

A/N: HIYA! So this is my second OUAT fanfiction. This is the first part of the two parts I'll be writing. So yeah, just a small Captain Swan moment. But I promise you, the next Chapter will be all Charming and Emma. So get ready to FEEL! My captain Swan and CharmingxEmma; father daughter feels aren't about to disappear any time soon. Sooo if you enjoyed this first part; please review. I love them just like I love you all!

Love,
A.R. Claire

P.S.: I'll be posting the next Chapter in a couple of days, so please be patient. 3