A/N: This story is based on spoilers released for upcoming episodes. Read at your own risk.

Chapter 1- Get the Bean

"Bae, I need you to take care of your father for me, okay sweetie?'" Milah bent down in front of her 5 year old son, Baelfire. "Where are you going Mama?" he asked, a slight whistle coming from the gap in his teeth. Milah smiled sadly. Bae was smart for his age, he could sense when something was wrong. "I'm going away for a while." she answered quietly. Bae screwed up his face, then relaxed it. Even as a baby, Bae was never one to cry. Without warning, he threw his short arms around his mother. "Bye Mama," he whispered into the folds of her dress. "Bye Bae"

12 years later

"We'll only be gone for a week, okay Neal?" Neal Cassady's foster parents told him.

Neal nodded. His latest foster parents, Joan and Luke Marcus, were always going away on trips, whether to the cold Tibetan mountains, or to sunny South African beaches. They smiled, then they were gone, like so many other time before. He sighed, letting the cold, empty feeling sink in before grabbing his backpack and heading out the door. It was a surprisingly cool day for June. In Florida, temperatures rose quickly with no decline, but today, it was only about 70 degrees and Neal was thankful. He loved going on these walks. This set him apart even further from kids in this city. Kids at his school, Tallahassee High, never went outside unless a football match was in progress. Neal was more of a soccer kid of person, to tell the truth. At 17, his senior year was supposed to be the best. It was, though he didn't have much to compare it with. Freshman year was awful. It involved much getting pushed into lockers and teasing about his predicament, which was having no parents. He was shifted around constantly from foster parent to foster parent, no one wanted him. He could still remember those long days where he would just sit by the telephone, wishing for it to ring, and someone on the other line to tell him it was all a dream and his father was coming to get him. That never happened. Sophomore year was slightly better, in the sense now instead of being the target, he'd simply faded into the background. Junior was his goth phase, meaning lots of black leather and depressing books. Truth be told, he found it all very tiresome. Nothing really sparked his interest anymore. Although, one thing throughout all of this amazed his teachers: his grades. They never varied, always A+. For him, school work was easy. Numbers and words all clicked for him, and he was the only one in the state who could hack a computer across the world.

This is what brought him his only friend: August W. Booth. August had traveled to Tallahassee with his "brother" Seth. Neal had seen an article in the paper about a free fantasy writing class offered at the Y. The day it started, he was five minutes late and there was only one seat left. That was next to the artificial black haired, blue eyed boy. Neal sat down awkwardly and started to get out his thing.

"I want you to write a story about anything you please, then exchange it with the person next to you." the teacher announced. Both Neal and August gave a half glance at each other, then started writing. Neal wrote about himself, his father, the Dark One, all the emotions he'd held since the day he was let go. August wrote about his father, the Dark One, Regina, Snow White and Prince James, everything from his childhood he remembered. When they exchanged, they found their stories surprisingly similar.

"You're from..." August said, his mouth dropped open in awe.

"Yes," Neal replied. "And you are too?" August nodded. From that moment on, a friendship was born. They spent countless hours looking for the place where everyone was cursed to. Neal made it clear he only wanted revenge, but August was ecstatic about seeing his father again. It was weird, to Neal, to see someone four years older than him be this excited. They were still working though, without any progress.

He continued walking, until he reached the cliff where he often sat. His foster parents owned most of this land, they were rich. They were nice enough, besides the fact that they were always gone. Oh well. he knew he had it better than a lot of foster kids, so there was no room to complain about anything, really. Neal sat down on the rocky ledge and fumbled with the little leather necklace with a pouch he always wore. He fingers reached in and pulled out a single bright blue bean. He stared at it, and felt hot tears brimming to the corners of his eyes. He swallowed them back. Only cowards cried, and Neal was not a coward. He and his father differed that way. Rumpelstiltskin was a coward, and ran away from about everything that moved. Or at least, he used to. Neal tossed the bean into the air and waited expectantly for it to fall back in his hands. The bean came down, alright, but Neal's shot was too wide, and it fell over the edge of the cliff. Neal's eyes widened. This was his last tie to his old home, he couldn't lose it. He dove forward without a thought in his head except "Get the bean."

He was falling, for the second time in his life. His dark hair whipped around him and he closed his eyes, not wanting to see the ground when he hit it. Except he didn't. He kept on falling and falling. About two minutes later, he hit the ground with a solid thunk. Neal sat up, groaning, feeling as if every bone in his body was broken. As he sat up, he could tell he hadn't landed at the bottom of the cliff as expected. A twig snapped in the lush vibrant forest next to him. Neal jumped up, and as he did so, he saw a blue bean lying on the ground. Saying a silent prayer, he picked it up. Thank god it was safe. Back to the snapping twig. Neal stood perfectly still, even going as far as holding his breath. The crunches and snaps got louder and louder and...

"Who are you?" A girl emerged out of the woods. She had long, black hair divided into two braids with a feather sticking out of her hair. She glared at him, drawing a knife out from her belt. "I said, who are you?" she asked again, more menace in her voice this time.

"I'm Neal. May I ask who you are? And while we're interrogating each other, where am I?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. The girl stuck out a hand and Neal took it. Before he knew what happened, he was up against a tree.

"What the hell?" he cursed trying to break free.

"Are you a spy, one of Peter's desperate lost boys? He's been dead four years now." she whispered in his ear.

"You killed Peter Pan?" Neal was squirming. "Fine, you really want to know my name? It's Baelfire, but I haven't gone by that for three years! I live in Florida. Now where the heck am I?" he shouted. The girl let go.

"What's Florida? That's in Earth, isn't it!" she said excitedly, "You live there?" Neal nodded slowly.

"Umm yeah. That's my stuff over there." he said, pointing to his backpack, which was still on the ground next to him. The girl quickly got off of him and started pawing through his stuff.

"What's this?" she asked, holding up his Walkman by the headphone cord. "My Walkman. It plays music. Now will you please tell me where I am." he said very impatiently. The girl waved him off.

"The name's Tigerlily. And you're in Neverland. Now how do you turn this on?" Neal sighed And flicked it on. A big grin spread on Tigerlily's face. "What else do you have in here?" She asked and proceeded to dump out the contents of the backpack. There were only two things Neal carried in his backpack, and that was his Walkman and tons and tons of books.

"Woah," she whispered, flipping through the famed titles of his collection. The Rumpelstiltskin Problem, Treasure Island, Peter Pan, The Jungle Books, To Kill a Mocking Bird, Harry Potter, and Inkheart all made their homes in his backpack.

"Tigerlily!" an accented voice called, just as she opened her mouth in awe at all the books.

"I'm up here with my friend!" she yelled back. Neal's mouth dropped open. A bad feeling was creeping up on him as he was starting to put two and two together. Who was Peter Pan's enemy... Hook. A man emerged from the brush. His short black hair was windblown and his piercing blue eyes were lit up from a smile. the smile faded a tad when he saw Neal, though, and all his stuff spread around him.

"Who's your friend, Tigerlily?" he asked, his voice was cold as ice. Neal glanced down at the man's hand and sure enough in its place, there was a large, shiny hook. Neal gulped. Tigerlily glanced up from the pile of books. "His name's Baelfire." she said looking up at him, as if seeing him properly for the first time. "But he goes by Neal. I don't why though, I like Baelfire much better." Hook glared. "Baelfire's a rather long name, do you go by anything else?" he asked, and Neal could here a double meaning in his voice. Neal shifted uncomfortably. "I go by Neal, but I used to go by Bae." he said shrugging.

"Bae, what an interesting name, I've heard it before though. You are the cause of my true love's death!" he growled, leaning in ever closer. Neal gulped, but he wasn't a coward. He took a step closer to Hook, so there were now almost nose to nose, but Neal was a tad shorter that Hook. "I don't know who your true love is, but I sure as heck didn't kill her." he growled. "You're the son of Rumpelstiltskin, are you not?" Hook said, cold malice in his voice. Neal looked warily at Hook. "And that matters why?" he said, "as far as I'm concerned, his defied the laws of nature and banned me as his son when he let me go." Hook blinked.

"What do you mean he let you go?" he said warily. Neal rolled his eyes.

"I mean I took this magic bean here, and I threw it on the ground. It opened up a portal. I started to go through it; holding his hand for support, then he let go." Neal scowled. To his enormous surprise, Hook smiled and dropped his weapon. Then he thrust out his good hand.

"Killian Jones, at your service." he grinned. Neal accepted it warily. "Can I ask, who was your true love?" Neal asked, studying the man. Killian gave him a sad smile.

"Milah, your mother." he said. "Eww!" Neal cried leaping back. "He said she was dead!" Killian nodded grimly. "Your father is a crocodile. A coward and a liar." he growled. "One person seeking to avenge is strong enough, but combine that with someone wanting revenge, they are very powerful indeed. Join me to skin a crocodile." Neal thought for a moment. He thought of the last almost 4 years. He thought about how he'd been shunned and beat up, hurt and left. "I'll help." Neal agreed. A deal was struck.

"Where is everyone?" Neal asked, looking around at the empty ship. Killian sighed. "They were taken by the curse." Killian nodded. "The evil queen Regina cast it, but Rumpelstiltskin created it." he said. Neal looked at the floor. His father really couldn't stop causing people despair, could he?

The week went by in a flash. It was the best time in his young life. He swam and got to swing on a rope above the ship. He read to Tigerlily and taught her how to play the guitar. He showed her every song he knew, and she said he had a nice voice. Neverland was beautiful, and Killian showed him everything there was to see. Most people were gone now, a product of the curse no doubt. Nevertheless, Neal thought it was all fantastic. He was sad when he had to go home, but he knew Joan and Luke would be worried if they were home before he was. The day he went back, Tigerlily came up to him. To Neal's enormous surprise, she gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Come visit soon!" she whispered, tears in her dark eyes. "I will," Neal promised. He took out his bean, and once again, made the trek back to Tallahassee.