Hello, darlings! It's been for-freaking-ever since I've updated with a chapter, and I just finished this one so I figured I would go ahead and get it up for you guys! I've been super busy studying for my comprehensive exam, which I did not pass. No worries, though. I'm not upset about it at all. I figured I wasn't going to pass so I just accepted my fate and moved on. I will be taking it again in November or December. I'm not sure. Anyways, thank you everyone for reading. I truly appreciate it. Speaking of thanking people, here are some super special people who followed/favorited/reviewed: BrizeldaLeon, Psycho17, lovinurbuks, xenocanaan, and grumpypirate. You guys are amazing, and I love you lots! Now onto the chapter!
Neverland - Present - The Jolly Roger
It was hell trying to control the ship in the portal, and Killian feared they would lose the entire thing before they arrived in Neverland. The whirlpool shook them about, knocking the ship from side to side. His ragtag crew of non-sailors did all they could to keep the ship from giving in to the temptation to sink. A rather large wave was about to bounce them to the other side when he finally saw the stars appear above them. Barking for them to brace themselves for a rather bumpy resurfacing, Killian steadied the wheel with Isabel's help. No matter what, she hadn't left his side. Just as he asked. He would never tell her, but had one of the others been lost in the portal, he wouldn't have cared all that much. If Isabel had fallen overboard, he would have done everything he could to save her, find her if she got sucked under. It wasn't that she was pertinent to getting Peter and the rest of the children back. That had very little to do with it. Killian was determined that, while he had her, he wasn't going to lose her. When Terence managed to pull her away, it would be different. For the time being, she was his again; completely forgiven or not.
With a sickening jerk, the Jolly Roger managed its way out of the portal just in time to escape the wave. Everyone let out a sigh of relief as they steadied themselves. Isabel let out an uneasy laugh as she looked up at Killian. "Well, we made it."
There was no denying they had arrive. The magic of Neverland made the air thick. For an adult, it was almost stifling. Well, for human adults. As far as Killian could tell, Isabel didn't seem too bogged down by it. Of course, the fairy part of her would help her feel light. Children felt light in Neverland, but as their minds matured, they felt the weight of adulthood bearing down on them. It was part of why adults needed to find it with a portal. Children could just get there. It was in their hearts. They could find their way to Neverland through sheer will.
"What part of Neverland is this?" Emma asked as she approached Isabel and Killian, looking at their surroundings.
They opened their mouths to answer, but Neal beat them to it. "Just outside of Mermaid Lagoon."
Emma's head snapped in his direction. "You've been here before?"
"Aye," Killian nodded.
"How-when?" she stuttered.
"Peter," Isabel answered.
"The stories left someone out when Peter brought the Darlings here," Neal answered, "but I didn't make it to the lost boys' camp like they did."
He said no more, and Isabel understood why. She couldn't necessarily pretend she didn't know who he was exactly. She knew his connection to Killian, and she certainly knew enough about his time in Neverland to understand his silence. He hadn't had a stellar experience. Neal, or Baelfire at the time, could be yet another person left disappointed because she allowed Peter to turn into the forgetful little imp he was while there.
"We should find a place to dock," Regina spoke up.
"We'll have to sail around a bit. Mermaid Lagoon is full of rocks," Isabel told her. "As good of a sailor as Killian is, the rocks would destroy the ship."
"Then by all means," David looked up at Killian with nothing but pure annoyance in his eyes. "Find us a safe place."
Killian rolled his eyes at David's tone. If the prince was one of Killian's crew, he'd tell him to mind his manners or find himself fed to the creatures in Neverland's waters. "Perhaps while we all patiently wait we should talk strategy."
"Strategy is we kick Terence's ass and get the children back," Emma told him.
"Not that simple," Isabel shook her head. Everyone turned their attention on her. Their judgment bore into her, and she almost wanted to clam up. She couldn't do that. If they were going to get the children back, then Isabel needed to be strong even though she knew exactly how everything was going to end. Taking a deep breath, she tried to figure out how to word everything exactly. It was probably beyond her, but she was going to try her best. "Terence doesn't care about the children. If I cooperate, then they'll all be returned safely. Knowing him, he probably won't even kill them at all. He just said that to get my attention. He also said he would only harm them if we wasted time getting here. Obviously we didn't. I think the only people he intends on hurting are Killian and myself. Possibly Peter."
"So why take them at all?" David asked.
Killian looked over at Isabel to see if she possibly had an answer. He had one, but he wasn't sure how correct of an assumption it was. Still, Isabel looked as if that was something perplexed her. While it didn't show on her face with the others, it definitely showed for him. "For Peter. Like he said and she just reiterated, he did it to get her attention. He's always been a jealous little snot, and his letter stated that I'd taken all her attention. Of course, how could I not?" He started to smirk but it faded when everyone just stared back at him blankly. "He took the children because Peter and Isabel have been focusing their attention elsewhere. Taking the children was just to win Peter into his favor."
"And what does this exactly have to do with you?" Snow asked.
"Peter's always wanted a family," Isabel answered. "He's been trying to spend time with his father. To get to know the man, not the monster basically."
Killian looked down at that comment. As precise and true as it was, it still hurt to hear. "And I haven't stopped him so all of the attention I guess that used to be given to Terence has been taken away."
"This is all just some petty vendetta to get her back?" Regina asked.
"Aye," Killian nodded. "And to get me out of the way, permanently."
"Then how are we going to get the children back and have everyone win?" Snow's eyebrows furrowed.
We don't, Isabel thought. Surely it was all so obvious. The children were just a distraction while Terence played whatever game he was planning. Glancing up at Killian, she could see her thoughts reflected in his eyes. They didn't have a lot of time together, and they weren't going to get to spend it together really. Instead, they would have to come up with some sort of a plan for everyone else to get out of Neverland with the boys. Then they would have to accept what was going to happen to them. Isabel would have to choose: live unhappily with Terence and Peter in Neverland or sacrifice herself and hope Killian and Peter got away safely. Either way, it meant she would have to give in to Terence. Not everyone was going to win. Everyone was just going to have to accept it because Isabel had already, as had Killian.
Snow must have taken the silence as her answer, and Isabel excused herself below deck to get away from any other questions. She wasn't going to beat herself up anymore over what was inevitably a lost cause. She wasn't going to beat herself up over what brought on the whole situation in the first place. She refused to apologize to anyone for choosing her husband. Isabel loved Killian. That's the way it always had been. Even when she tried to push her feelings aside when they were all in Neverland, she loved him more than anything. She had always kept him just as safe there as she had Peter. Terence read what he wanted into their friendship, and only the curse saw them together. Sure, she actually had grown to care for him somehow during the curse. Those feelings were proven rather flimsy as soon as Killian arrived. In retrospect, she should have ended it with Terence. Some part of her knew she would never ever choose him, and waiting for Killian to fully forgive her was just the excuse she needed because not wanting to end up alone sounded so bad. Isabel was just angry enough to see what she'd been denying for the past couple of weeks. It was amazing to think it hadn't even been that long. The days dragged on, but the amount of time that had actually passed was no more than three weeks at best.
"You know, things always seem to work out for Charming and Snow White," Regina's voice told her. "No matter what anyone does to them, they always find a way."
"I think they would find it rather insulting to compare Killian and myself to them," Isabel muttered.
"You two are true love, correct?" Regina moved around so Isabel could look at her. She leaned against the wall in front of the fairy.
Isabel nodded. "Well…yeah. We are."
"Then there's no doubt you'll win." The queen sighed as she looked around. "It would seem that you two have been through so much, yet you still found each other in Storybrooke. Of course, my mother played a hand in it. For some reason, I don't see that as a coincidence."
"Yeah, but I don't think she would have been rooting for a fairy and a pirate just for giggles." Cora didn't seem like the type to have done something for no reason. "I'm sorry for your loss by the way."
"Thank you," Regina said sadly. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you fake your death?"
Isabel shook her head. "I don't mind at all. Most of my magic is inborn, but some of it I had to inherit, which made me powerful. Incredibly so. When my mother passed, she told me that I needed to leave the human world in order to save myself and my family because humans would undoubtedly try to use me for evil. I believed her and ended up faking my death because of that."
"Your mother told you?" Regina's eyebrow raised.
"My mother faked her own death. Apparently, it's a family tradition," Isabel grumbled. "I grew up without her because she believed my father and I wouldn't be safe if she stayed supposedly. I unfortunately followed in her footsteps. I lost my husband and my child just in different ways."
"You know I had nothing to do with you and Terence ending up together." The queen almost seemed a little worried that Isabel would think that in the first place.
"I know. Unfortunately, Terence somehow always ends up being a part of my life. My mother placed him there, and he's never left." She chuckled at the thought. He was like a stray she'd fed and then had to take in because it wouldn't leave. "But I would never think you had anything to do with it."
Standing at the helm, Killian watched everyone move about the ship. The island made him feel as if he were unwelcome there. Perhaps he wasn't welcome. It wouldn't surprise him. He'd felt it when he was there before. Malice wasn't allowed. Unhappy thoughts were banned. Neverland was not a place made for him. He and his crew always felt its unwillingness to embrace him. It only eased up a little in his three centuries there. The clawing he felt at the back of his mind was only an itch after a time. He figured it may have been Isabel's doing. They'd only ben there a matter of minutes, and he was starting to feel its affects already.
"You never mentioned you had a wife," Neal spoke up. He leaned against the half wall in front of him.
"Didn't seem all that important," Killian shrugged.
"Why not?" Neal asked.
"Because I wanted to believe I was over her completely. Because I loved your mother and hated your father. I thought she was dead, Baelfire. Nothing more to it than that." Killian's jaw clenched as he fought to keep his mouth shut.
"Did you know Peter is your son? Even a little?" Neal tone was not an accusing one. For that, Killian was thankful. "He never seemed to know you."
"No. He thought he was alone. Isabel unfortunately had to allow him to forget her or that he had a father at all, everything he knew about having a family. She didn't want him to ever know what I had become." Killian looked down. He felt rather ashamed of what he had become. Instead of accepting what supposedly happened to her, he let his penchant for revenge overtake him. The same could be said for Milah's death. He was unworthy of a family, and he knew that.
"And what about my mother?" Neal's arms crossed in front of his cheat.
The pirate swallowed thickly at the question. "I loved her. Everything I told you before I loosed you to the island to fend for yourself. It was all true. We were going to be a family. She wanted that more than anything."
"To replace the one you lost." Now Neal sounded a tad accusing.
Truthfully, he never saw it that way. Isabel was gone. She'd been dead a few years, his thirst for revenge mostly sated, and his heart mended just enough to let someone else in. Milah wasn't a replacement for Isabel. Baelfire wasn't a replacement for Peter. Killian wanted to feel joy again. She gave him so much joy that he felt as if life was finally giving him a break. He felt light again after years of being bogged down. He still loved Isabel, and Milah did remind him over her just a bit. He never saw her as replacement option, though. Simply, he believed he had moved on.
"I never said that," he muttered.
Neal stayed silent for a moment, and Killian welcomed it. He didn't have time to rehash everything he'd done in the past. There was a man somewhere on Neverland looking to take Isabel and Peter from him, probably hoping Killian would die in the process. Whatever Neal wanted to get off his chest would just have to wait until everything was sorted. If he wanted to duke it out over something that happened centuries prior, then they could after they returned to Storybrooke. He eased the ship closer to shore, careful to hit any of the rocks that littered the water. Heeding Isabel's advice, he sailed around Mermaid's Lagoon until her found a little alcove they could keep the ship. The hair on the back of his neck raised as the feeling of being watched overtook him. While he was sure it wasn't Terence spying on them, he didn't like the feeling any more than he had when he first arrived in Neverland. The entire place kept tabs on him.
"You ready for this?" Neal asked.
"Not in the slightest, but I suppose that doesn't matter," Killian admitted.
