Captain Swan sat in the window seat of her cabin aboard The Dark Swan and watched the sea disappear behind her ship, rolling gently, waves barely big enough to crest and crash. It was a rare, unguarded moment where her masks—figurative and literal—were set aside and she just was.

The door opened and her hand shot out for the literal mask—none of the crew had seen her face in years. Some of the newer crew members assumed she was hiding a face covered in scars.

"Mom, it's just me," Henry said as she shut the door behind him.

Captain Swan smiled and let the cloth slip through her fingers and off the bench. "Good evening, pumpkin. All's well?"

Henry scurried across the cabin and around his cradle to sit with his mother. "Yes. Sam asked me to tell you that the night watches are all covered and you don't have to worry about it."

"I told him—"

"He said you'd say that," Henry said, grinning. "He also said he didn't care because unlike every other sailor aboard The Dark Swan, you have a seven-year-old."

Captain Swan huffed. "You know, he only uses you as an excuse to make me rest when he catches me sneezing. I'm not sick!"

Henry laughed. "He also said you'd say that." He nudged his old cradle with his foot. "So, Mom? You already told me I'm not getting any brothers or sisters, so why do we still have this?"

Captain Swan smiled at her son. "We still have it because it's bolted to the floor. I can't exactly have that many holes in the floor, can I?"

"But you could move your desk over here."

"And then there would be holes in the floor by your bed, Henry."

"But your lamp wouldn't keep me up at night."

Captain Swan sighed and blew a blond curl out of her face. "I'm sorry. Take my bed next time."

Henry grinned.

"Was there anything else Sam asked you to tell me?"

Just then there was a single wrap on the door before it opened. The captain dove for her mask in the floor and tugged it out of from under Henry's foot.

"Just that he'd be here soon for the heading," Henry said glumly.

The captain snorted as she rose with her back to her first mate to tie the mask around her face. "Nice try, kid."

"Sorry, Uncle Sam," Henry said, looking down at his worn-out leather boots. "I tried."

Sam was grimacing when she turned around.

"Henry?" she asked. "Would you go ask Cook about dinner for me please? I'm starving."

Henry shot out the door. "Okay, Mom!" He loved going to see Cook. She always gave him something sweet, which was why he wasn't allowed to just stay down there. The Dark Swan was small for a pirate ship and the crew had begged for the limitation after his last sugar rush.

"Swan, I swear I didn't ask him—"

"I know. It's just…he doesn't understand why the other kids he's met have two parents and he only has one—even Frieda's remarried and has been for as long as he can remember. I think he thinks that I wear the mask so that I won't have men falling in love with me, thus keeping him from getting a new father. Apparently he wants you for the job, never mind that you're the closest I've ever had to a father, too." She walked over to her desk and sat, toying with one of her many paper weights. It was a cast of Henry's footprints in the sand. She was sure that no other pirate captain would have anything like it and she guarded it jealously, not that they would want it for any other reason than that.

"You mean that isn't why you wear it?" Sam asked.

Swan put her head in her hands. "Don't mess with me, first mate. You know exactly why I wear it."

Sam raised his hands in surrender. "Alright, but you may want to explain it to your son."

"I don't want to talk about this right now." She pulled out her most relevant sea chart. "Henry said you wanted to confirm our heading. The weather has been fairly consistent and we've remained on course, which is a minor miracle given the way Henry loves to play at the helm. Keep the current heading and we should arrive in time for a late lunch in the tavern, give Cook the afternoon off."

"Aye, ma'am," he said and paused. "Captain?"

"Yes?"

"I'm not sure if you remember the sails we saw cresting the horizon this morning?"

"What of them?"

"They fly no flag."

Captain Swan groaned. Other pirates on the sea were beginning to hate her and the crew of The Dark Swan as much as the evil queen did.

"Maybe we should lay low for a while, winter early," Swan mused. "We've had enough success since our last vacation that everyone should have enough to live on for a while, surely."

"I seem to recall a young lad begging for a sword and his overprotective mother promising to teach him the next time we made port."

"On second thought, I think we could outrun them. You may have noticed the modifications I've made to the safe room. It's much lighter; we're not nearly as low in the water as we were before."

Sam laughed. "You haven't made that many improvements. But if you lost the mask, at least they wouldn't know who you are."

"Nice try. Be content with your memories of my pretty face, Sam. You know it could be much worse for the rest of us if I removed it outside this cabin, let alone in town so close to Frieda's tavern."

"Knock knock!"

Captain Swan looked up to see Cook carrying a tray in one hand and holding Henry's in the other.

"You didn't have to bring that all the way up here, Cookie. I just wanted Henry to tell me when to come down."

"It's quite all right, Swan dear. I wanted a breath of fresh air anyway."

"Mom, did you see it?" Henry asked through a mouthful of cookie.

"Swallow, sweetheart. See what?"

Henry did as he was asked. "There's another pirate ship heading for Frieda's port. I think it's the Jolly Roger!"

Swan walked around her desk and knelt before her son, brushing the hair out of his eyes. She'd have to cut it soon. It was already starting to curl and as much as he was her little boy, he didn't appreciate being cute as much as he used to.

"Henry, you think every other pirate ship we come across is the Jolly Roger, but I've heard that Captain Hook isn't a very nice man. Why do you want to meet him so badly?

"He's been to Neverland, Mom," he said, as if it should have been obvious.

"I'm sure those are just stories." Swan, for one, didn't believe any of the nonsense she'd heard about a semi-immortal pirate with a hook for a left hand. She was certain the name had just been handed down for a few centuries, much more successfully than the more recent Dread Pirate Roberts. She'd met the original of that dynasty and had been less than impressed.

"How can you use magic but not believe in—"

Swan put her finger over his lips. "Henry, if we keep going back and forth then Cookie's delicious food is going to get cold. We don't want that, do we?"

Henry shook his head.

"That's what I thought. Go get your cup and I'll pull down the table."

The sun set behind them an hour later and Swan watched it disappear behind the water as she sipped her wine. Henry was yawning in the window seat beside her, playing with her mask in his lap.

"Mommy, will you tell me a story?"

"What story do you want to hear?"

"Tell me my favorite."

"You have a lot of favorites, pumpkin."

"Princess Pirate," Henry said.

Swan smiled. "Alright. Do you want to get in bed first?"

Henry stood with a little wobble and padded across the room, pulling off his day clothes as he went in favor of the overlarge shirt he wore for bed, the one that had belonged to his father. Swan approached just in time to lift his covers so he could climb under. She smoothed the bed clothes and sat.

"Once upon a time," she began as she brushed his hair with her fingertips. "in a land far, far way, there was a princess who lived in a castle that seemed to float on the waves. She lived there with her loving mother and her adoring grandfather. She had everything she could ever want—horses to ride, balls to dance at, cake to eat until she couldn't eat anymore—" Swan poked Henry's belly and made him giggle, "—but one day her mother said it was time for the princess to start learning magic, and that night her grandfather told the princess a secret. 'My dear, I'm sorry to have deceived you,' he said. 'My daughter isn't actually your mother. She stole your parents' crown and locked them up far away so she could turn you into a Dark witch like her, but I love you and I won't let her do it.' So her grandfather gave her a book of Light Magic and returned the stolen heart of a soldier so that the soldier could protect the princess, and together the two fled. The princess and her protector scoured the land and found nary a trace of the real king and queen, so when they had no luck on the land, they stole a ship of the false queen's navy and became pirates. Some say that when the wind is still and the moon is mirrored on the water, you can still hear the princess and her protector, calling for her parents as they search the high seas."

Henry smiled, tilting his head to the side as though he were listening for Princess Pirate. He wiggled under his blankets. "I think I hear her, Mommy. She sounds a lot like you."

Swan bent forward and kissed his forehead.

"If Princess Pirate can find her parents, do you think we can find my dad?"

"I don't know, baby," Swan whispered. "He's been missing for a long, long time. He knew you were coming. I'm sure if he could be found, then he would have found us by now."

"Do you think Princess Pirate has a kid?"

"If she's lucky—" Swan's voice cracked and she cleared her throat. "If Princess Pirate is lucky, then I bet she has a little boy just as special as you." She tapped the end of his nose before she kissed it. "I love you, Henry. Good night."

"I love you, too," he said as she dimmed the lamp and tiptoed toward the deck.