Waves crashed against the side of the ship as the sky slowly grew darker around them. Emma grabbed on to the rope nearest to her in an attempt to steady herself. Charming clung to a rope next to her holding Snow tight against him; Regina was on the other side of Emma looking none-too-pleased with this whole ordeal, and Mr. Gold was on the opposite side of the ship having a suspiciously easy time remaining standing. The water had been rough ever since they'd arrived in Neverland and Emma's arms were getting tired from trying to keep herself steady.
She was surprised they'd all managed to be civil and, so far, no fights had broken out. Although it would be hard to fight and hang on all at the same time, she supposed.
"Charming?" Emma heard her mother's worried voice and looked to see Snow looking up at her husband in worry. "Are you okay?"
He didn't answer at first. He had been battling sea-sickness ever since he'd set foot on the Jolly Roger and judging by the look on his face, he wasn't getting any better. "Ye..." he was cut off suddenly as a giant wave rocked the boat and he lost his grip on Snow. Emma didn't have time to react before she felt her mother crash into her. Her own rope slipped out of her fingertips and she felt herself falling backwards.
"Emma!" Snow exclaimed from where she had landed on the deck.
Emma braced herself for an impact but was surprised when she felt an arm around her waist that stopped her from landing on the deck.
Regina stumbled a little under the force of Emma's weight but managed to keep standing. "Grab on!" the older woman yelled above the roar of the waves.
Emma didn't hesitate but grabbed tightly on to Regina.
"Not to me, Miss Swan. To the ship!" Regina said tersely. Emma could almost feel her rolling her eyes.
Emma felt her face flush red with embarrassment as she removed her hands to reach for the rope Regina was currently holding. Of course she'd meant to the ship. Emma had no idea why she'd thought to grab on to Regina. Normally she did anything she could to avoid her son's other mother and here she was practically hugging her.
Although lately, though she would never admit it even to herself, Emma had found herself actually enjoying her time with Regina. Most of it was spent bickering but that was just the way they were with each other. She even sensed that secretly Regina enjoyed their banter as well.
"I don't know how much more of this I can take," Snow said as she climbed back to her feet, Charming was already heaving over the side of the ship.
"Well if Captain useless up there would avoid at least one wave," Regina yelled up toward Hook, beyond annoyed at the whole thing. "We'll never find my son if we end up at the bottom of the ocean!"
"I'd like to see you do better," Hook grumbled. "At least we are still alive. You should be thanking me."
Emma turned toward Regina and the motion brought their faces within inches of each other. She hesitated at the unexpected closeness and Regina's dark brown eyes glanced unintentionally down toward Emma's mouth and then quickly back up again. A nervous fluttering began in Emma's stomach but she pushed it aside. "He's right, Regina. It's not his fault we got caught in this storm."
"Thank you! At least someone has some sense on this ship," Hook called down just as a fresh wave slammed into the ship causing him to nearly go flying over the wheel and Regina to clamp a hand on Emma's arm to stop herself from smacking into the other woman.
"Well as fun as this is," Mr. Gold interrupted them. He waved a hand casually and instantly the sea began to calm down, the waves giving way to an expanse of smooth water as far as the eye could see. Which wasn't far considering how fast the darkness was setting in.
For a moment they all looked around in confusion, still clutching tightly to the ropes and railings and Hook to the ship's wheel. Emma and Regina both looked down at Regina's hand still gripping Emma's arm and Regina quickly let go. She reached up to brush her hair back behind her ear, "Well, that's better."
"Thank goodness!" Charming exclaimed.
"What took you so long?" Hook said angrily.
"Well, it was rather amusing watching you all," Gold said snidely. Emma rolled her eyes. "I can also do this," he waved his hand again and everyone braced themselves, looking around for whatever it was he had conjured up.
"What the..." Hook exclaimed and let go of the wheel as it continued turning without him.
"Okay..." Emma said slowly. "So that takes care of that then...what do we do now?"
"We should get some rest," Charming offered. "We need to be at full strength if we are going to have to face Pan and whatever he throws at us and get Henry back."
"I agree with Charming," Snow chimed in.
"Of course you do," Regina remarked dryly.
"Well I don't know about you all, but I wouldn't want to be sleeping if Pan comes to pay us a visit," Hook said. "We should take turns standing watch."
"Hook's right," Emma agreed and ignored Hook's grin in her direction.
"Let's split into pairs," Snow said decisively. "That way we'll have three groups to rotate watches."
"Works for me," Emma agreed, glancing at Regina but the brunette's eyes remained fixed on Snow. "How are we gonna pick pairs?" she asked.
"Well, since there are three of you who are able to use magic I suggest we have one magic-user in each pair."
Emma tried to tell herself she wasn't disappointed that she would not be paired with Regina. "I barely can use magic, I don't think that even counts."
"I can teach you," Emma was surprised that it was Regina who had volunteered. "I know what he is capable of," she shot Rumplestiltskin a black look. "Trust me, you don't want him to teach you anything."
Emma stared for a moment, "Uh, sure." She saw Snow and Charming exchange a worried glance but they must have decided that Regina was the better option because they remained silent.
"So, I guess I'll go with Mr. Gold," Charming said, not looking all too thrilled with the option but better him than Hook. No one wanted to have Gold and Hook going after each other 24/7. And he wasn't too keen on leaving his wife alone with the man either.
"Oh great, I get stuck with the Prince of sea-sickness," Gold quipped, but no one paid him any attention.
"Well, I call Emma," Hook winked in Emma's direction and Emma rolled her eyes. Regina clenched her jaw.
"I'll go with Emma," Snow shot Hook a disapproving look. "You can go with Regina."
Hook huffed. "Yeah, 'cause we have such a great history together."
"Would you rather go with him?" Regina asked dryly and gestured to Rumplestiltskin who grimaced at the pirate.
Hook didn't answer, but grumbled something unintelligible under his breath.
"I didn't think so," she turned toward the rest of the group, "We'll take the first watch. I can't sleep while my son is out there in danger."
"Bloody hell," Hook mumbled.
"We'll take the second watch then," Charming offered.
"Great, so where do we sleep on this thing?" Emma asked.
"The ship has four cabins so a couple of us are going to have to share," Hook offered. "I'm assuming you two will share a room," he nodded toward Snow and Charming and Emma saw a black look cross quickly over Regina's face, "so that leaves the four of us," he looked at Emma, Regina, and Gold.
"I'll share with Regina," Emma volunteered. Everyone looked at her in shock, Regina most of all. "Split up the guys and girls," she explained.
"So it's not okay for me and the crocodile to be on the same watch but you're going to make us sleep in the same room?" Hook complained.
"Afraid are we, dearie?" Gold teased.
"Well I wouldn't put it past you to try and slit my throat in the middle of the night, that's for sure."
"Oh, I could do much more than that," Gold threatened.
"That's enough!" Emma interrupted. "Everyone will behave themselves while we are on this ship. There will be no fighting and certainly no throat-slitting. We need to find my son. Our son," she amended with a glance at Regina, "and we can't do that if we are too busy fighting each other instead of whatever Pan throws at us."
Gold and Hook remained silent, chastised.
"Okay, then. Well, lets get some sleep I guess." Emma said, leaving Regina and Hook on the deck and heading below with Mr. Gold and her parents. Heading to a room she was going to share with Regina of all people. She knew whatever happened on this trip, she and Regina would either end up closer from this or at each other's throats even more than they had been in the beginning.
She drifted off to sleep imagining how it would be like to go to sleep every night just feet away from the former evil queen.