Thank you to all the readers who have checked this out so far! I want to apologise for how bad these first couple of chapters are - I'm really bad at setting the scene, but I promise you when it gets going properly it will be much better :) ALSO, I'm sorry for the confusion, for those of you who thought this was Captain Swan, I apologise - I'm new to the site and didn't realise the character tags indicated pairings - I just thought it was for the most prominant characters. Enjoy! :)


Emma woke with a slight headache not knowing where she was. She sat up and saw that she was led on the ground of the harbour in Storybrooke. She attempted to sit up but the pain in her head increased.

"I thought you weren't going to wake up," Emma turned her head and came face-to-face, or face-to-shoe, with a pair of bright purple boots, "Thought I was going to have to give you mouth to mouth or something."

"How am I dry?" Emma groaned, sitting up slightly, "And how are you walking with legs?"

"Magic," The mermaid said, she offered her hand which Emma took to pull herself up, "I'm Ariel by the way."

"I probably could have guessed that," Emma said, motioning to the colour of her hair, "Thank you for getting me home."

"It's not a problem," Ariel smiled, "Couldn't leave the saviour stranded in the Enchanted Forest now, could I?"

"You know who I am?" Emma asked, brushing her jeans off.

"Of course I know who you are," Ariel replied, "There were stories in the lagoon as to whether you actually existed though."

"And you were going to leave me there?" Emma was slightly furious for a moment.

"I had to be sure it was you, I've been hoping something would happen to make you come to me – I've needed to come to Storybrooke for a while."

"Why?" Emma asked.

"You'll see in due time, I'm sure." Ariel smirked.

"Do you have a place to stay?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, I got myself a room at Granny's."

"Well, why don't you come with me to meet my parents?" Emma offered, "They'll feed you I'm sure, it's the least they could do."

Ariel nodded and followed Emma – she was eager to get from the harbour, there was something quite eerie about the place, even though it was full of ships. She felt like there was something that didn't quite meet the eye and in a place where she didn't know anything, it was quite an unnerving feeling to have.

Emma's apartment wasn't that far from the harbour. Ariel shifted from foot to foot as Emma knocked on the front door and waited. As soon as the door opened there was a high-pitched screech and Emma was immediately pulled into a hug by a small woman who Ariel knew as Snow White. She waited a moment before a taller man came to join and hugged Emma along with Snow White. Prince Charming. Finally, a small boy came running to the front door and Emma let go of her parents to hug the small boy. So this must be her son.

"How did you get home?" Snow asked, holding Emma's face, inspecting to make sure she wasn't hurt, "We'd lost all hope, Mr Gold wouldn't help us and we'd been busy protecting Henry that we thought we'd lost all hope of seeing you again."

"A mermaid helped me home." Emma smiled and stepped aside, revealing Ariel to her family, Snow and Charming looked less than impressed but Henry seemed fascinated.

"You didn't agree to anything she wanted, did you?" Snow enquired, glaring at Ariel.

"I didn't ask for anything."

"Mermaid's always ask for something." Charming stated.

"All I wanted was to come here to settle some unfinished business, by the sounds of it, you might need my help, so I would get down off that high horse of yours, Charming."

"What help could a mermaid possibly give to us?" Snow asked.

"Wait and see." Was the simple response before Ariel turned on her heel and walked away.


Ariel had been back to the harbour to collect a glass of water and was currently knelt in a dirty alley with the cup of water in front of her.

"Come on," She whispered to herself, "You can do this."

She stood up and took a few steps back from the cup and raised out her left arm. She opened her hand as far as it would go and tightened. All of a sudden, the water in the glass in front of her turned to ice. Ariel smiled to herself, but wasn't done, still tightening her hand, she closed it a little bit and almost immediately the water turned from ice to boiling water. Finally, she dropped her hand to let the water cool a little, before bring her arm back up again, her hand was in the same position as it was when she boiled the water, just a little more loose, she twisted her hand a little and all of a sudden, some of the water in the cup lifted up. Ariel pushed the water into the wall and picked up her glass. Thoroughly satisfied that this time, she would win.


Ariel was sitting on her bed in her room at Granny's when there was a loud knock on the door. She sighed, but got up anyway. Opening the door to find Emma and Henry, who was clutching a large book in his arms.

"He was adamant that he wanted to talk to you," Emma spoke, her eyes slightly apologetic, "We brought food though!" She held up two paper bags.

Ariel smiled slightly and moved to let the two in. Henry immediately perched himself at the end of the bed while Emma put the food bags on the table and began unpacking what she'd bought.

"So, you're a mermaid, huh?" Henry asked, looking at her.

"That I am," She smiled, sitting next to him, "What's this?" She asked, pointing to his book.

"That's what I'm here to ask about," He said, "This is my book of fairy tales, everyone in this town is in here, apart from you, why is that? I thought everyone knew about The Little Mermaid."

"Everything thinks they know about The Little Mermaid," She began, "My story is a bit more complicated than people seem to think and one day, I will tell you, but for now, let's eat!"