AN: This is my Lieutenant Duckling (sort of) story. I started to write it after 3x05, so it's AU after that. It will be 3 chapters long, and chapter 2 is already written, with chapter 3 in the works. Title and song quotes at the start of the chapter comes from "Recover" by The Eli Young Band.
One. Blue skies fade to a gray sky dawn
Heartache hurts and you can't move on
Blue skies fade to a gray sky dawn
Trying to find a place in this town
Where you don't feel six feet underground
You're so tired, you're so scared
Defeated by the troubles you can't repair
Hook had told them about Baelfire.
And didn't that just irritate the hell out of Pan? The pirate was meant to keep it to himself. In the years Captain Hook had spent in Neverland, Pan had come to know the man well. He was selfish. He would sell his own mother's soul, if the prices was right. So why the hell had he played the noble man and told Emma about her lost love not being so lost?
Now, thanks to a successful rescue, Pan was down a piece of very valuable leverage and though things were awkward between the pirate and the saviour, the trust was stronger than ever. The last thing Pan needed was those two coming together. He had the secret to reawakening the waning magic of all the worlds in Henry, but all his plans would be ruined if the power of the saviour's true love managed to make that magic pure. Pan didn't want pure. He wanted the latent magic Henry could unleash to be as twisted and vile as he himself had become. He needed to twist Henry, make him a lost boy, in order to do that… but for Henry to remain a lost boy, then the saviour, the woman Henry looked up to and worshipped as a hero, needed to be lost as well.
Those with true love in their corner? They were never lost.
Still, Pan wasn't completely out of ideas. He had one card left to play. One last move to bring an end to the budding romance between Emma and her pirate suitor.
Killian Jones may be meant to be Emma Swan's true love, but not even the saviour could love Captain Hook in his darkest time.
RECOVER
Neal was trying to talk to her again.
Emma knew she should give him a chance to talk to her. To get whatever it is he needed to say to her so badly off his chest… but Emma had a feeling she knew what the issue was. It was the desperate "I love yous" spoken out of desperation and the knowledge of impending loss.
Emma didn't have time to analyze what she felt for her ex-love. Not with Henry missing, and not with Hook shooting her those intimate looks that said all too clearly that he knew how she tasted, and would very much like to do it again.
Emma had been avoiding Hook as well. Mostly because when she looked at him, all she thought about was that kiss.
You can't handle it.
And hadn't she been so damn cocky, saying those words? Because she'd pulled him into her, had pressed her lips to his, and then her world had turned upside down. Kissing Killian Jones had been a revelation. When Hook kissed, he kissed. He put his whole body into it, he made sure that a girl would think of the imprint of his mouth on her for days afterward.
Emma could attest to that.
So, Emma avoided Hook, because otherwise she was afraid she would go for second helpings, despite her assertion that it was a one-time thing. She avoided Neal, because talking to him meant confronting ten years of pain and anger and a love that she could never quite shake, because that seventeen year old in her had never managed to quite believe the man she loved had been able to let her go so damn easily. Neverland wasn't the place to confront the man who had cemented her title as lost girl.
"You look tired, Swan," Hook said, falling back to walk next to her as their little group cut their way through the jungle. For the past several days since they had rescued Neal, he had allowed her to have her space, choosing to spend most of his time with David. Emma wasn't entirely sure what had happened between them on their journey to find the sextant, but whatever it was had left the pair with some sort of odd understanding and an even odder friendship.
"My son has been with Pan for over two weeks, and the only contact we've had was a ten second conversation I'm not sure he thinks is real. My ex, who I thought was dead, has been miraculously resurrected, and my parents are entirely too fond of PDA. Yeah, I'm tired, Hook," Emma replied, trying to inject the right amount of irritation into her voice. Sadly, Hook hadn't been lying when he called her an open book, at least to him, and his raised brows told her that he wasn't buying her excuses.
Emma sighed and gave a shrug.
"And maybe Neal wants to have a heart-to-heart I'm pretty sure I don't want to have here," she admitted after a moment.
Hook didn't respond to that for a long moment, and Emma thought that perhaps speaking to the man she had made out with (rather passionately) just a few days prior about the man who had fathered her child was a bad idea.
"He wishes a second chance with you," Hook said after they had walked in silence for several minutes. His voice was neutral, but a quick look at his face showed Emma that, inside, he was in turmoil. "I know how it is, to want a second chance."
Emma had to give the pirate props. His response was very telling; he would not hinder her, should she want to reconcile with Neal, but he also wasn't going to help the other man in his pursuit. What it didn't tell her, however, was if he was going to be pursuing her himself.
And Emma needed to stop thinking about that kiss, and about Hook and romance and how very kissable the man looked now. She needed to concentrate on Henry and getting home. Once they got back to Storybrooke, then she could allow herself to worry about her personal life.
"Thank-you," she said to Hook after another few minutes of silent walking.
"What for?" Hook replied, looking genuinely surprised.
"Everything," Emma replied. "For telling me about Neal, for saving David. For getting us here, and helping. It couldn't have been easy. Pan is a little shit. I don't know that I would've offered my help, if I'd been in your shoes. I would have probably tossed over the bean and put as much space between myself and the portal as possible."
"Well, I can't say that my motives were completely selfless," Hook replied, his voice light and easy. "I wasn't lying when I said I fancied you."
"Be serious, Hook," Emma responded with rolled eyes. "A fancy isn't a good reason for risking your life in returning to a place you must hate."
"No," Hook agreed, and while his voice was still light, tension had entered his posture and permeated the air. "It isn't."
Suddenly, the conversation had veered towards topics Emma didn't want to face, in a direction that she wasn't yet ready to go. She had to find Henry, she had to talk to Neal. She couldn't acknowledge this… whatever this was with Hook. Not yet, not here. Neverland brought out the worst in Emma. Any choice she made here would be tainted by her abandonment issues, but her burning desire to once, just once, be enough to make someone stay.
But to Hook she was an open book, and the man snapped to attention and tilted his head as if he heard something.
"I think your father may be trying to lead us astray once more. I best take the lead again, if we don't want to be lead into a nasty swamp. It's been a pleasure, as always, Swan. I do hope we might do this again… you know, once you've decided to stop avoiding me."
Hook gave a half bow and a smirk that made his blue eyes sparkle with amusement. He looked so tempting in that moment that Emma almost threw caution to the wind and kissed him again, but before she could act on the wild thought Hook was moving through the forest to catch up to David. She watched him go with a small smirk of her own, a smirk she only seemed able to muster around Hook these days, before she followed him herself.
Behind her, Neal stepped out from behind the tree he had been observing the duo from and frowned after her retreating form.
RECOVER
"It has to hurt a little," Pan said, stepping from his own hiding place. "Watching her watch him. That look on her face… that's a woman who is falling in love."
"She doesn't love Hook," Neal responded quickly and then mentally cursed himself. He knew Pan, he knew the games the boy liked to play. This was just another one. Another way to get under his skin, to try and stop them from finding Henry.
"I said falling, Baelfire. She's not there yet… but she will be. Our pirate has her utterly convinced he's a good man. You and I, though? We know better, don't we?"
"We don't know anything," Neal shot back. "It's been three hundred years. Maybe Hook is genuine in this desire he has to be a good guy. I know you like to mess with people's heads and break the bonds between them anyway you can, so his sincerity seems to be more and more real the more you say it isn't."
"Come on, Baelfire. You've seen this act a hundred times before. The man who claims to change, only to turn around and prove it's impossible. You saw it with Hook himself, when he handed you right over to me. You've seen it time and time again with dear old Rumple. But I won't lie, I do have my reasons for wishing the pirate and the saviour separated. I merely thought we could perhaps help on another out, just like old times." Pan shrugged and moved to pull one of his disappearing acts. Neal wanted to let him. He wanted to stand back and watch Pan leave, and continue onto camp… but then he remembered the scene he had stumbled onto. Emma and Hook, looking so damn close.
Neal had seen that same look in Emma's eyes before – ten years ago, and didn't it just wound him that he saw it now when she looked at Hook, when all he saw when she looked at him, the father of her son, was pain?
"Wait," Neal called out before Pan could leave, and he cursed himself for a hundred different kinds of fool and coward for doing this, for not being able to step back and let Emma make her choice. Pan didn't turn around at first, and Neal felt a moment of relief, thinking that the leader of the Lost Boys hadn't heard his shout, but then Pan was in front of him, raising one of those damn eyebrows at him, and Neal found himself saying the words he knew he would regret, because no deal with Pan came without regret.
"What do you have in mind?"
RECOVER
Hook was once again watching Emma when Baelfire returned to camp. Bae paused as he entered the camp, looking at Hook, then following his gaze towards the blonde saviour. His brow furrowed, and Hook immediately averted his eyes, feeling a brief flare of guilt. He knew that it hadn't truly been his fault that the boy had lost his mother. After all, Hook had hardly kidnapped Milah… but that didn't eliminate the fact that simply looking at Bae made him feel a stab of guilt for giving in and taking Milah away from a son who needed her.
Still, Hook wasn't going to give up on Emma simply because Baelfire looked at her and saw the seventeen year old lass he had loved. If Emma eventually chose Bae, then Hook would step back, but until that decision was made, the pirate would be at Swan's side.
Baelfire still stood, watching the saviour. There was an odd expression in his eyes as he took in the blonde; a mix of torment and longing. Hook wondered if the other man was regretting his choice to leave her all those years ago. God knew that if he was in Bae's shoes, regret would be all that filled his mind. Emma was one hell of a woman, and Hook didn't think there was a force in any realm that could make him leave her side as long as she allowed him to be there. Especially not since that kiss. Hook could still taste her on his lips, even days later.
"You still have rum?" Baelfire asked, turning his back on Emma and approaching Hook. "I could use some."
Considering the dark glares and avoidance tactics Bae had been using since his breakout, Hook decided to accept this small olive branch and held his flask to the younger man, who uncapped it and took a long swig. He coughed and Hook could see tears in his eyes, caused by the strength of the alcohol. His surprise at its strength caused him to drop the flask's cap, and he stooped down to grab it up, his expression hidden from Hook for the moment.
"What the hell is in that? Lighter fluid?" Baelfire asked when he straightened once more, offering Hook the flask, lid once more in place.
"Just a particularly potent rum," Hook replied, accepting the flask. "You get used to it, if you drink enough."
"Which I'm sure you have," Bae responded dryly. "Careful. That stuff will destroy your liver."
Hook chuckled at that, enjoying the moment of peace with the man he had once thought could be his family. He opened the flask and held it up to Bae in a toast.
"Look, Hook you should know…" Bae began, but his words trailed off weakly. Hook paused with the flask a few centimetres from his lips.
"I should know what, Bae?" he responded, and mentally winced when the old name fell so easily from his lips. He knew the younger man preferred Neal, these days. He knew he should respect that.
"It's Neal now," Bae, no, Neal, said, his voice growing chilly. "And you should know that I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that Emma is happy. Everything."
"I never thought you wouldn't," Hook replied, confused at the resolution in the other man's voice. He once again raised the flask to his lips and took a swig, swallowing it easily. "Not sure why you feel the need to assure me of it now."
"You will," was all Neal said.
Hook opened his mouth to question the odd remark, but Neal was already leaving him. Hook frowned after him. He had never been fond of cryptic remarks, and he trusted them and those who gave them even less in Neverland, where Pan ruled all and did his best to turn ally against ally.
"What was that about?" Emma asked, moving from where she had been watching his interaction with Neal to lean against a tree.
"I thought it was a truce, but I'm not so sure now," Hook replied. "I think he may have been warning me off you, though if he was he used a very roundabout way of doing it."
Emma gave an inelegant snort at that and held out her hand for the flask. Hook, ever the gentleman, set it in her hand with a smirk, which just made her roll her eyes. She opened the top and threw her head back, handling the burn of the rum far better than Neal had.
"Neal has no right to warn anyone off me. He lost it ten years ago. Now, if I tell you to go away, then you'll know it's what should be done."
Hook began to chuckle at that when he felt a burning sensation in his stomach. It radiated outward from there, running along his nerve endings to his arms, his legs, his head. His eyes met Neal's, who was standing just inside the tree line watching him. Hook felt his vision blurring and he wanted to shout at the other man for his underhanded tactics, but then he saw the stricken look on Neal's face, and Hook's eyes darted to his left, where Emma was taking a drink from the flask. Hook tried to reach out to her, to shout a warning or knock the flask away, but his arms were heavy and his tongue was numb.
He felt himself fall forward, darkness taking over. As he fell, he swore he heard Emma shout his name.
"Killian!"
RECOVER
Emma's shout drew Charming and Snow's attention. They came running, only to see Hook collapsed on the ground with Emma kneeling next to his prone form clutching her stomach. Neal was crouched next to her, his expression frantic.
"I'm sorry. God, Emma, I am so, so sorry. I was so stupid. But you weren't supposed to be affected. It was just Hook, but you had some of the rum. God, I'm so sorry."
"What exactly did you do?" Regina demanded, the noise having drawn her out of her tent and to the bodies lying unconscious on the ground. "Well? We can't undo it if don't tell us what you did!"
Neal looked at the other three. Charming knew his expression had to be murderous, and he saw Neal's throat work rapidly when they met eyes.
"Tell her," Charming hissed, wondering if Snow would be very disappointed if he grabbed his sword and ran it through Neal. Not only had the other man hurt his daughter in the past, but now both she and their best ally were out for the count because Neal had, apparently, done something stupid.
"It was Pan," Neal replied once he managed to drag his eyes away from Charming and swallow down his fear enough to speak. "He came to me, offered me a spell to show a person's true self. Emma wasn't supposed to drink the rum. It was just supposed to be Hook, so I could see if this new leaf of his was real, or if he was just lying to get close to Emma." His gaze spun back to Charming, and there was desperation there now. "You've seen the way he looks at her. You know what he is. Can't you understand why I need to be sure? I don't want her hurt again… not like… not like I hurt her before. She used to be so open, so happy and daring. You never saw her back then, but I did. She was hopeful and beautiful, and I know that her losing that is my fault. There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret listening to August… but I couldn't let it happen again. I know what Hook is capable of, I just wanted Emma to see too, before it was too late and she fell completely."
Neal was correct, Charming had seen the way Hook looks at Emma. Hadn't he spent the better part of the journey to Dead Man's Peak threatening the pirate away from her? But he was also the one whose life Hook had saved, and he knew that the other man hadn't expected acknowledgement for the good deed. He had thought what happened on the peak would stay there, but Hook hadn't wanted Emma to lose her father, so he had risked his life anyways, just for her happiness.
"You could have asked us," Charming snarled at Neal. "I could have told you the pirate was genuine. And now who knows what will happen? You played right into Pan's hands, and now we're out two members of our search party."
"David," Snow said, her hand grasping onto his shirt to hold him back when he began to get up, everything in him screaming for Neal's blood.
"Just a moment, Mary Margaret. I have a thief to deal with," Charming replied, trying to brush his wife's grip away.
"Charming, just look at your daughter," Regina interrupted with a snap. "This is a little more important."
The prince's eyes snapped to the ground, and for a moment he frowned, not knowing what he was supposed to be seeing. Then it registered.
Emma looked younger.
Charming snapped his sight to Hook, and in front of his eyes the other man's hair grew longer, and the Hook that had replaced his left hand fell away revealing a complete limb underneath. They were still dressed the same, Emma in her tank top and Hook in his leather pirate's gear, but there was no mistaking what had happened.
Whatever spell Pan had given Neal had de-aged the pair in front of them.
RECOVER
Emma awoke slowly. She was disoriented and confused when her eyes opened to a canopy of trees rather than the roof of the latest girl's home she had been calling home. What was she doing in a freaking forest? And it looked like a rainforest, at that. Emma couldn't be positive, but she didn't think there were rainforests in the American mid-west.
"They're waking up," called a voice, and Emma managed to fight her way into a sitting position. Hands reached out and helped her steady herself, and she saw that they belonged to a lovely young woman with short black hair, pale skin, and pretty hazel eyes. Those eyes seemed familiar, as if Emma had seen them before, but she couldn't for the life of her remember where.
"Are you alright, Emma?" the woman asked, her hands still resting on Emma's arm. Emma warily moved away from the touch, uncomfortable with this stranger being so familiar with her, no matter how kind she seemed to be.
"How do you know my name?" Emma asked, pushing herself back a foot to get away from the woman. The movement brought her form into contact with something else. Or, rather, someone else, she discovered when she reached back, hoping the object was a weapon, only to come in contact with a firm, warm forearm. "Jesus!"
Emma was left with nowhere to retreat to, so she rotated her body rapidly away from the form behind her, still keeping the dark haired woman in her line of sight. The woman had been joined by two more men, one a handsome blue-eyed blonde, the other a darker haired man, as well as another woman with black hair whose eyes were far colder than the first's. Emma eyed the foursome warily, but her gaze was drawn to the prone form that had been behind her when it gave a low groan.
"Hell, what happened?" the man asked, pushing himself to a sitting position with one hand while the other ran through his shoulder length black hair and came to rest on his forehead. Emma felt her breath catch when the man moved his hand to blink unfocused blue eyes that met hers.
He was the single most beautiful man Emma had ever seen. When their eyes met, he slowly lowered his hand from his face and looked right back. There was intensity to those eyes that took Emma's breath away, and she felt herself blushing, and wanted to hit herself for the response. She was no fainting virgin who couldn't handle a pretty face, but looking at him was like receiving a punch straight to the gut. He took her breath away.
"Hello," he said after a long moment of staring, and he had an accent that was like music to Emma's ears.
"I… uh… hi," she replied. "Are… are you okay?"
"I think so," he responded, and he still hadn't taken his eyes off of her. In fact, Emma didn't even think he realized there was anyone but the two of them in that jungle.
The thought reminded her that she wasn't alone with this handsome stranger, and eyes once again wheeled to the pretty woman and her companions. Seeing her panic, the man's eyes darted to them as well, and he shot to his feet, only to nearly fall again when the rapid movement threw his balance off.
"Easy there, Hook," the blonde man said, and he's at the handsome man's side, holding his arm to steady him. "Catch your bearings. We don't need you to get a concussion or something."
"Who the bloody hell is Hook?" he demanded, though he waited long enough to regain his balance before shoving the blonde's hand away. "I don't know who you think you are, but I will tell you that attacking a member of His Majesty's navy is a crime."
"His Majesty's N… you were an officer in the navy?" the cold woman asked, and there was obvious amusement in her expression. In fact, of the four strangers, only the blonde man doesn't seem surprised by this revelation, and Emma realized that he and the other man, Hook, must be friends, even if Hook doesn't remember it.
"I am an officer in the navy," Hook replied before motioning at his clothing. "I don't know what you lot are playing at, dressing me up like a pirate, but I will let you know my name is not Hook. It's Killian Jones, Lieutenant Killian Jones. And you can be sure that you will all be punished to the highest extent of the law when my brother and the crew catch up to us. Until then, the lady is under my protection and you are all in my custody."
Emma thought they were awfully big words, considering that Hoo… no, Killian, looked about as good as she felt, and she really, really wanted to throw up, but she also felt a little ball of warmth. No one had ever tried to protect her before, and she thought it awfully sweet that this man was doing it now. But she didn't know how she got to be here, but knowing herself, she can guess why she's there.
"Look guys," she spoke up, struggling to her feet. She steps away from the black haired woman's reach, as she tries to steady her and instead uses Killian's arm. "I don't know what I stole from you, but whatever it is, just let me know and I'll give it back. Then we can all go our separate ways, no harm no foul."
Killian shot a look down at her.
"You're a thief?" he demanded incredulously, obviously not prepared for that bombshell. Emma shrugged unapologetically.
"We all do what we must to survive," she said, and grinned up into his pretty blue eyes, feeling amused as she watched him struggle between the fact that thievery was obviously against his soldierly code of honour and the fact that Emma appeared to be a pretty damsel in distress he would obviously enjoy saving.
"Bloody hell," he muttered at last.
RECOVER
Under other circumstances, Snow would have found the utterly flabbergasted look on Hook's face amusing. He was staring at Emma with a look that was both utterly lost and disgruntled. Whoever Hook as the infamous captain, it was obviously very different from who he was as the straight-laced Lieutenant staring at her daughter now.
"Maybe we should all sit down," Snow suggested, motioning to the fire. "You didn't steal anything from us, Emma, and we didn't kidnap you Hook… sorry, Killian. Actually, you came with us willingly. We needed a way to get to this island, and you offered your ship."
"I don't have a ship," Hook replied, managing to drag his eyes from Emma to look at Snow in confusion. "I'm just a Lieutenant. The Jewel is the king's ship, under the command of my elder brother. Did Liam come with us as well?"
Snow doesn't know how to respond to that, as she hadn't realized Hook even had a brother. It was Charming who stepped up to respond to the pirate, no the naval officer's (and wasn't that just the weirdest thing), inquiry.
"That's a long story, Killian," he said. "I'm afraid I don't know all the details, as you don't like to talk about what happened to your brother, but I know enough. You, both of you, are under a spell right now, though. A spell that turned back the clock on you. As things stand now, your brother is dead, H – Killian. He has been for a long time."
"No," Hook responded, shaking his head in denial. "That's not possible. Liam is my Captain. He's all I have. If I lost him… I would be lost as well."
Charming just stared at the other man, and Hook looked down at what he had acknowledged as pirate's clothes. Snow saw his Adam's apple bob, as the pieces began to fall into place. After all, if they hadn't dressed him in the clothes, there is only one assumption that can be drawn.
"No," Hook whispered, looking at the group with wide, horrified eyes. "No. It can't be true. I won't believe it to be true. I wouldn't betray my King like that. I wouldn't betray Liam like that. You're lying. You have to be."
"Of course they are," Emma said, laying her hand on his arm, and looking at the rest of the group with something almost close to disgust. "And they should be ashamed of themselves for it. But think about it, Killian… they said we were under a spell. Seriously, magic? Don't you think they could have come up with a better story than that. Magic isn't real, you know that."
Hook stared at Emma with blank bemusement, and Snow can't really blame him. His last memories are of being an Lieutenant in a navy for a country that practically ran on magic, and here was Emma, telling him with a serious face that magic isn't real and duh, shouldn't he know that?
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Emma asked, and then looked at the others, all of whom avoided looking back at her. "What is going on here? Where are we? And how…" Emma stared hard at Snow for a long, long moment. "How the hell did you know my name?"
Snow didn't know how to respond, and an awkward silence descended upon the group. Finally, it was Regina who rolled her eyes and gave the explanation no one else could.
"Magic is very real, Miss Swan. It's how we got here, and it's how we'll get away from here as well. As for how Mary Margaret knows your name, that's simple. You've been living with her for the past several months as our son, my adoptive and your biological, worked to convince you that everyone in our town of Storybrooke was a fairy tale character, and that it was your job to end the curse because you were the saviour born of the true love between Snow White and her precious Prince Charming."
With the names, Regina motioned at Snow and Charming in turn, and Snow considered hitting her again, just as she had on Hook's boat. The Evil Queen has shoved too much impossible knowledge on Emma in too short of a time.
"That's not possible," Emma said, her voice sounding much as Hook's had as he denied his brother's death. "It's not. I was abandoned the side of the road seventeen years ago. Fairy tales aren't real, and even if they were, I wouldn't belong in them. Fairy tales don't abandon their children!"
"We had to," Charming interjected, trying desperately to make Emma calm down and understand. "It was a curse, and you were the only one who could save us. We had to send you here, or all hope would be lost for everyone."
"Everyone shouldn't have mattered!" Emma shouted in return. "Parents don't abandon their children… and I wouldn't have abandoned mine," she added in a snarl to Regina. "I wouldn't have done that, not when I know how it feels. I don't know what game you're playing, but it's cruel and twisted, and I'm leaving."
"Emma, wait-" Snow began, but Emma has already turned and fled from the group, shoving her way through the trees.
"Well, that didn't go very well," Hook pointed out, and he reached out a hand to stop Snow as she began to follow Emma. "Perhaps you should let her calm down. I don't know where she's from, but it's obvious she's not familiar with magic."
"You don't get it, Hook," Neal muttered, shoving past the other man to follow Emma. "This is Neverland. It's dangerous. There's poison and wicked creatures, and then there's Pan and his Lost boys. Emma out there alone is an easy target for them."
"I told you, it's Killian," Hook replied, releasing Snow's arm. "Lead the way, my lady. If your daughter is indeed in danger, we had best catch up to her. Meeting danger in her state would be disastrous."
"You believe us, then?" Snow asked, looking at Hook hopefully. Hook stared down at her, his face expressionless, but then he sighed.
"I don't know if I believe you about Liam, or about me… I don't particularly wish to think about it. But Emma has your eyes. It's clear that she is your daughter."
Snow smiled and grasped Hook's hand briefly in thanks before taking off after her daughter, the others following close behind.
RECOVER
Emma wasn't sure how long she ran before she finally collapsed against a tree, sobs wracking her body. Her whole life had been spent travelling from home to home, wishing that just once someone might love her, might want to be her parent. And then that beautiful woman and the handsome blonde man claimed they had been her parents, that they had abandoned her out of necessity. And didn't that make it hurt so much more? To hear that she had parents that loved her, but just not enough to keep her with them.
"You seem awfully upset."
Emma stood up rapidly, her gaze falling on a young man, no older than seventeen or eighteen, who was watching her from another tree.
"Who the hell are you?" Emma demanded, stooping to pick up a sturdy stick and holding it between them.
"You don't remember me?" the boy replied, and he disappeared, only to reappear right behind Emma. She gave a shriek, and whirled to face him, the stick still in the air. "I guess Baelfire must have accidentally hit you with the spell as well. Isn't that precious?"
"Stay away from me," Emma snarled, shaking the stick threateningly when the boy stepped toward her again.
"Oh, I won't harm you Emma. In fact, I'll even reintroduce myself. Peter Pan, at your service." And the boy gave a mocking bow.
"Peter Pan…?" Emma murmured, thinking of the stories she had read beneath covers in her foster homes by flashlight. Stories of Wendy Darling and boys who never grew up. The Lost Boys, who Emma had so identified with that she had often found herself wishing she could be one of them. "But if you're Peter Pan… they called Killian Hook. That doesn't make sense, though. Hook is so… Hook, and Killian isn't."
"Yes, that was unexpected," Pan admitted, as if Emma would have any clue what he meant. "Unpleasantly so. But you? Oh, you are definitely a revelation, Emma. A Lost Girl to your bones, aren't you?"
"You aren't nearly as much of an ass in the books," Emma muttered, but it was a lie. Pan was always an ass, but when he was just a character in a book it seemed charming. Not so much in person.
"Books rarely ever get the story right. You've been separated from your group. That's dangerous here in Neverland. I could let you continue to wander on your own. Chances are you would eventually stumble across something dangerous and end up dead, and that would solve all my problems." Emma gulped at Pan's words; it seemed off, that such a young, attractive boy could seem so threatening. "But there's no fun in that. So, I suppose I'll let you return to camp with me. You can even see Henry."
"Henry?" Emma asked, and the words cause Pan to laugh in delight. It was a pleasant sound with such unpleasant undertones.
"Oh, this is perfect. Two birds, one stone. The saviour and the key to having my newest lost boy, all wrapped up in one neat little package."
"I don't think I want to come with you," Emma said, backing away from Peter slowly. "First of all, you think you're Peter Pan. And that's crazy… because if you're Peter Pan, then that means I really am the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, and I'm really not princess material. But beyond that, you want to manipulate me, and to use me to manipulate this Henry. And I really don't like that."
"You don't really get a choice, Emma. This is Neverland, and Neverland is my land," Pan responds, and there is dark light in him that raised Emma's hackles.
"Screw that," Emma shot back, and she swung the branch, managing to hit Pan across the head and send him tumbling. Years of finely honed flight instinct send Emma running off, but she hears Pan's laughter follow behind her.
"Very nice, Emma! I have always loved a good game of hide and seek. Let's play!"
AN: And there's chapter 1. I tried to keep it as in character as possible, especially in regards to Neal. I didn't want him to seem like the bad guy, but Pan is a manipulative little bastard who knows the right strings to pull. Let me know what you thought, and the next chapter will be up in a week or so.