Author's note: Basic premise of the story-right after the whole Neverland thing, Emma and Hook started dating, got married, had a daughter named Ava. Now I'm telling the story of both Ava and Emma's adventures, taking place when Ava is 17. If this sounds familiar, it's because I basically described For the Love of Swan. Yes, this story is the official sequel to FTLS but you do not have to read that in order to read this. I repeat, you do not have to have read For the Love of Swan in order to read this story. You should be able to follow the plot of this story without having read anything else.

For people that have read For the Love of Swan, yes I know I wrote the epilogue as Ava being 22, but I decided to start this story as her being 17 because it fit the story a bit better.

So basically Ava is 17, Emma and Hook are married, Henry has moved out because he is an adult not, etc. And Ava is adventurous and wants to do the same stuff her family did (like go to Neverland) but was never allowed to.

Chapter 1

It started when she was about five. As soon as she'd taken her very first breath, her entire family, in particular her brother, had read to her from the now infamous book of fairytales. She knew her family's very complicated history by heart, fallen asleep with rich visions of how her mother had nearly allowed her father to be eaten by ogres, dreamed of sailing to another realm on the Jolly Roger, perhaps meeting a pirate captain of her own.

While most children (ones who didn't live in Storybrooke) grew up hearing about Cinderella and Snow White, dreaming of meeting them in real life, Ava Jones had lived with them, dined with them, celebrated holidays with them. Her fourth grade teacher had been Snow White, although she'd known her as grandma, and one of her best friends had been Roland, whose father was Robin Hood.

Yes, it was safe to say that Ava's life was far from normal. At least, in that aspect.

One of her first memories had been when she was about five, snuggled on the couch with her parents on either side. She remembered that she was sick (although she hadn't known it at the time), her nose heavy, her throat yucky and scratchy. She'd been miserable the entire day, wanting to do nothing but cry and hold her bear. Her mother had forced her to drink glass after glass of orange juice, which was normally her favorite, especially in her special Elmo cup, but that day she hadn't wanted any.

"I know it hurts, Ava." Her mom had said. "But you have to drink. It'll help you feel better."

"No!" Ava cried. "Don't wanna."

"You want to watch Peter Pan?" Her dad suggested, naming her favorite movie.

"No!"

Her dad sighed, running a hand over his face. They looked nearly as tired and uncomfortable as she had. (In fact, several days later her mother had caught her cold, causing her to stomp grouchily around the house, yelling at her father). "How about a nap?"

"No more naps."

"But you need to sleep to get better, Ava."

"No!"

Her dad threw a helpless look at her mom. "I don't know what else to do."

Her mom shrugged in response, her eyes flying around the room in search of something that would calm Ava down. Just then, her attention landed upon the book of fairytales that sat on the kitchen table. Henry had given it to Ava soon after she was born, saying that she needed to experience the magic of the book for herself too. Her mom brought the book over and opened it to a random page. "What about a story?"

Without waiting for a reply, her mom pointed a picture of Captain Hook, tied up against a tree with a blade pressed up against his neck. Both Hook and Emma looked annoyed as they stared daggers at each other.

"Want to hear about how I met Daddy?"

And then they weaved an incredible tale of ogres, giants, golden compasses, evil witches, pirate ships, and a realm called Neverland. Although Ava's throat still hurt and her nose was still clogged, she felt just the teensiest bit better. And she vowed that one day she'd go on an incredible adventure just like her parents had.

But her parents hadn't seemed to understand that she wanted to be just like them. Every time she'd brought up going on an adventure she'd just been shot down, distracted with something else. It had worked when she was younger but now she was 17. The time for adventure was now, and she was going to go on one, even if it killed her.

For several years now, Ava and Roland had a running bet to see who could outdo each other in a series of dares. Both Ava and Roland had descended from thieves, and it was almost as if they had inherited those particular genes. It had started small, from planting stink bombs to egging other people's houses to stealing tests, escalating to daring the other to steal something, anything, magical.

It was easy for Roland. His stepmother was Regina, who taught him about magic on a regular basis, taking him to her vault and showing him different potions and things. So it had been rather easy for him to slip a temporary body switching potion into a pot of Granny's coffee. That had been one of the funniest days Ava could remember, everyone running around screaming as they realized what had happened.

And now it was Ava's turn. She'd tried, unsuccessfully, to steal something from Gold's, as that would put her way, way ahead, since everyone knew that Gold's shop was perhaps the most formidable of them all. So now she decided to try the convent instead. Fairies possessed tons of magic items, right?

The first step, getting in, was easy enough. She went inside with the guise of visiting Tink, who she'd known ever since she was little. Since Tink had been busy, the fairies allowed her to hang back and wait. All she had to do was smile as innocently as possible; she'd always been given everything she wanted. From the day she was born she had been a bit of a celebrity in Storybrooke.

She waited until the coast was clear and then slipped into the Blue Fairy's room. The Blue Fairy was like the head of all the fairies, so if she took something from her it would put her at least even with Roland.

It was almost way too easy, Ava thought as she opened a trunk under the Blue Fairy's bed. Almost as if she'd been asking to be robbed. But oh well. One person's lost would be Ava's gain.

A gold lamp? Nahh. What about a sparkly looking potion? Ava had already taken tons of potions, most of them pilfered from Regina's vault, and had experienced tons of side effects, from having herself shrink down to the size of a thimble to her skin turning bright green. That had been a piece of work to explain to her parents. She'd muttered something about makeup for a school play before slamming the door to her room to call Roland, demanding that he find a cure immediately.

It was quite funny how neither of their parents had found out (yet) what they'd been up to, though Ava was sure that her mother had her suspicions.

Her hand brushed against a slim box and she grabbed it. Oooh, what was this? Ava shook the box. It was lightweight and made nearly no sound, and there was no clasp or any opening. That meant that it was valuable, to Blue and now Ava. Stuffing it into her bag, she quickly shoved the trunk back under the bed and slipped outside.

"Can you tell Tink that I just remembered that I have something important to do?" She lied easily to a random fairy passing by. Ava held up her phone as if she'd received an urgent text and shrugged apologetically, feeling the weight of the box in her bag as she walked outside. Of course, the fairy had bought her story hook, line, and sinker. Score.

She waited to open the box until she was safely in her room, with the door locked. It was Saturday, and her mom was at work, her dad out with her grandpa. Henry had moved out years ago.

The box was sealed. Probably with magic, Ava supposed. The better to hold valuable items with. Well, too bad, because if there was one thing Ava was known for, it was not giving up. That, and her ability to eat a hot dog in three seconds flat.

She tried all sorts of things, from matches to a sword her father kept hidden in the back of his closet to just throwing the damn thing against the wall. Nope, nope, and nope.

But then she had a thought. For her last birthday Mr. Gold had given her a knife that he claimed would allow her to cut through anything. Anything, he'd said, throwing her a meaningful look. Ava had just shrugged and tossed it aside. It was just a knife, and she didn't really need it.

Also she'd been a bit mad that out of all the magical items in his shop, he gave her a stupid knife. What was she supposed to do with it, cut her steak?

Until now. When he'd said anything, could he have meant that it could cut through magic? Why else would he have given it to her?

It took a while to find the knife (she'd inherited her mother's messy habits) but when she finally did, a wave of disappointment similar to the one she'd experienced when she'd received the knife passed through her again. It was just an ordinary knife, resembling one that she'd seen her dad use in the past.

Ava grasped the knife with one hand and stuck the tip into the box, tracing around it. At first, it appeared as if her efforts had been futile. Nothing happened.

But then, just then, the box began to glow, growing hot in her hands. And the top dissolved, revealing a small black object.

She stared at the knife, impressed. So it had been magical. Well thank you Mr. Gold. Ava threw it aside and tipped the box over. Could this be? The black fairy's wand, the one she'd only ever read about in the book?

There was only one way to find out. Aiming it at her bedside lamp, she flicked her wrist, and to her surprise the lamp turned on, glowing brighter than it ever had before.

No way. It worked. It really, truly worked! Wait until Roland heard about this. He'd pee his pants with jealousy.

Ava flicked her wrist again and again, aiming the wand at various objects in her room, making them dance and glow. Damn, this was fun. Why didn't her mother do this? Didn't she know how amazing magic felt? And more importantly, why had Ava waited so long to steal the wand?

Something occurred to her. This was the most powerful wand, like ever, right? Then could it create a portal? For the longest time all Ava wanted was to travel to another realm. She hadn't been able to find a magic bean or locate Jefferson's hat. But what about this wand?

The last thing she wanted was to ruin any of her stuff, so Ava pushed herself up and walked to the backyard. She closed her eyes and imagined a portal, waving her arm. Suddenly, a gust of wind appeared, causing her hair to stand up everywhere. She opened her eyes to find a swirling mass in the grass, identical to ones she'd seen in the storybook.

She'd done it!

"Ava?" There were footsteps behind her, followed by the sliding of the glass door. "What're you doing?"

Oh, shit shit shit. She'd forgotten that her mother left work early on Saturdays. Maybe there was a way she could close the portal. She frantically waved the wand around and around, willing the portal to disappear but it remained where it was.

Without waiting for a reply, Emma stomped over to where Ava stood. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Her eyes landed on the wand in Ava's hand. "Where did you get that?"

"Um," Ava stammered. "Hi Mom."

"AVA!" Emma cried. "Answer me now! Is this a portal? What did you do?"

"Alright, I'm sorry but-"

"Oh, you're gonna be." Emma interrupted.

"I just wanted to go on an adventure." Ava argued. "Like you and dad did."

"Don't start with that. I can't believe you'd go behind my back like this. Where did you even get that?"

There was a rumble, and before Ava could answer she felt the ground start to slide towards the portal, taking her with it. "I said I was sorry!"

"That's not enough."

A sudden flare of anger rose up inside her. Why did her mother never believe her? Why was it always her fault, when Ava was just mirroring what her parents had done in the past? "But it's not my fault!" She insisted.

"It's not, huh? And how, exactly?!"

"You're always talking about everything you did. Going to Neverland, fighting evil witches, using magic. When is it going to be my turn?"

"Ava, like I've told you before, none of those things were fun. They were life or death situations. If you had been there-"

"But I wasn't! And I never will, because you won't let me. Why don't you get it, Mom? You met Dad in the Enchanted Forest. You were the freaking savior and saved everybody in Storybrooke. What if I want to do that too? What's so wrong with that?" Ava faced the portal with a grim determination. She knew from the book that portals closed after a short time. It was now or never. "It's my turn now."

Emma realized what Ava was about to do seconds before it happened. She made a grab for her daughter but was too late; Ava leaped into the air.

"AVA!"

She disappeared into the depths of the portal.

"Why is it always me?" Emma muttered as she clenched her fists. She sighed deeply and then allowed herself to be sucked into the portal.

So much for her plans for a peaceful Saturday night.

Author's note: What did everyone think? Thoughts before you go?