A/N: Uh yeah this chapter... don't even get me started. I'm kinda reversing the character developement for Hook and writing my own. Although after seeing the new episodes, I'm not too convinced there was much developement to begin with. So now I am even more determined to make him care about someone other than Emma and himself and that someone is going to be Ariel.

PS. Snow finally makes an appearance, never written her before, so fingers crossed I got her right. Oh and I'm not sure whether or not I'm supposed to warn people about when the violence occurs, but if so, it starts in this chapter.

Practising her archery had become one of Snow's favorite things to do when stressed. Her days as a bandit had been lonely and dangerous, but the one good thing that had come out of it was that it had taught her a great deal about survival. Survival was essential here in Neverland, she had found that out before all of them had even reached the shores of this place.

Flexing the bow as far is it would go, she took aim and released the arrow. Right in that instant a dark figure stepped directly into her line of fire. She gasped and no sooner let out a sigh of relief when she saw the arrow bury itself into the tree only inches away from the figure.

The figure drew his sword, probably expecting to find Lost Boys that were trying to do him in. As soon as he marched in the direction the arrow had come from, Snow could see it was in fact Hook who was wandering the area.

"Sorry!" she called out to him, with an apologetic smile on her face. She couldn't suppress a grin when she saw him coming at her with a scowl on his face.

"I would appreciate it if you didn't use me as target practice milady. I know you're trying to keep me away from your daughter, but killing me might be a bit drastic."

"Hey I resent that. If I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't have missed." She flashed him a complacent smile and retrieved a new arrow from her quiver. "Gotta say, for a second there I thought you were Charming."

"I am charming love," he winked at her.

The statement sounded so comical to Snow that she let a short laugh while rolling her eyes, effectively making the slight shakiness she was feeling at the thought of almost shooting her true love disappear. Stretching the string of her weapon once again, she got back into position.

"More training?" Hook asked, while striding over to her. He moved behind her and caressed the bow until he reached her fingers. "Aren't you quite... skilled already?" An involuntary shiver ran down Snow's spine, her breath caught in her throat. Then she snapped back to reality and elbowed him in the ribs. "You are unbelievable," she exclaimed, baffled by his audacity.

"Aye, that I am," he winked at her. Snow turned around to face him.

"What are you doing out here anyway?" she decided to change the subject.

"Collecting some wood for a fire, though I found myself, distracted." An eyebrow was raised for emphasis on the last word; dashing grin in place.

Undoubtably 'distracted' was a euphemism for 'drinking'. The pirate had seemed a little out of it the past few days, more so than usual. She had noticed it that day when she found him talking to Tinkerbell. They had history obviously, Hook had spent hundreds of years in this place after all. Snow could hardly stomach one week here, let alone a couple of centuries. Perhaps his return affected him more than he tried to let on.

"Well alright let me help," she offered.

Hook spread his arm out, wordlessly inviting her to do just that. The bow was slung over her shoulder as she walked past him and took the path ahead of him. Hook trailed behind her, not able to resist taking a gander up and down her body. Old habits do die hard.

After a little while they had enough branches and small logs to keep a good fire going through the night. Snow placed her share of the firewood down on the ground to take a breather. Hook looked back at her expectantly.

"You're not coming?"

Snow looked around her. "Actually, I think I might stay and practise some more. You go on ahead." Although reluctant to stray too far from the group, she opted for a more remote spot this time. "Unless you wanna stay too and act as my target," she brightly offered.

"Had quite enough of that, thank you milady," Hook declared and with an exaggerated bow he took his leave.

She just couldn't make up her mind about the pirate. Yes he was helping them, helping Emma, but she still didn't fully trust him. Were his advances on her daughter true or was it merely a game to him? She wouldn't stand for Emma being a pawn in anyone's game. She wouldn't allow anyone to use her like that. Not Hook and not Neal.

She liked Neal, she really did, his heart was in the right place, that much was clear, but not unlike his father he too had made some bad choices in the past. Now, she knew that neither of them was perfect. In fact the entire rescue party consisted of people who had made regrettable mistakes in the past. However, that didn't mean she wasn't wary of the men trying to woo her daughter. Their intentions had to be sincere, she deserved that much. Snow just wanted the best for her daughter. Emma hadn't had that for such a long time.

It was an odd occurrence, the mermaid's fear of Felix. However, seeing her actually recoil from him was something even more odd; Pan hadn't expected that kind of reaction from the creature before him at all. He'd never known a mermaid to cower away from human beings before. This was very intriguing indeed.

"You better start talking Ariel. Felix here hates your kind. Can't say I blame him, look at what they did to him." He placed his hand on Felix's shoulder, gesturing towards the boy's face with the other.

"So unless you'd like to get carved up like the fish you are..." he trailed off studying her. He knelt down next to her and as he did so his eye fell upon a jagged scar, an inch or two below her color bone. He traced his finger over it which elicited a shiver from the mermaid. "Looks like someone beat us to it."

Ariel turned her head away from him. "Got snared on a hook once...," she said quietly.

Pan raised his eyebrows sharply, "Really? This hook, wouldn't happen to have been attached to a pirate now would it?" Her head snapped back to face him as soon as he'd uttered his suspicions. What he then saw in her eyes told him all he needed to know.

"Seems he wasn't too gentle with you." His voice was compassionate, yet his eyes betrayed the malignity he was actually feeling.

Not too gentle. With those three simple words, Ariel found herself right back in that moment. She lowered her head trying to fight back the tears. There had indeed been a pirate once, a man she had mistaken for a mere sailor. She had rescued him from other mermaids and the scar... the scar had been her repayment. Till this day she never regretted saving the pirate's life, though she did steer clear of any humans for a while after that.

"It's a reminder that all people are worth saving," she replied with conviction. She truly did believe that. The man may have hurt her, however, she'd seen something in his eyes moments before that. Those beautiful blue eyes that reminded her of the very waters she made her home in. There had been kindness and gratitude in them, until...

"Hm is that so?" Pan inquired, looking as though he was truly pondering over her statement. He rose to his feet again and started pacing back and forth. "You would risk your pretty neck to save me too then would you?" The corner of his lip curled up derisively as he placed before her the deceptive dilemma.

"You're not a person. You're a monster."

Her contempt amused him greatly. "So that's a 'no' then?"

"I would let you drown."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm so skilled at surviving then. If I had to rely on the likes of you..."

He let the sentence hang in the air as he realised what she had been doing. Making him think he had her cooperating because she was talking, however, she wasn't talking about anything he wanted to know about. Admittedly her connection to the pirate might come in handy, but he was done with pleasant chats. He wanted answers.

He turned around to face her. "Oh you are a clever little one. You've been wasting time, stalling in case anyone goes looking for you isn't that right? Well no one knows I have you here and even if they did, why would they care?"

Ariel appeared worried about the answer to this question. Surely Snow White would care for her, even if it had been years since they last saw each other. Suddenly she felt the ropes binding her to the tree loosening. A dull ache in her shoulders made its presence known, causing her to wince in pain. She looked around and saw that two boys were untying her, they grabbed her by the arms and dragged her out of the small little pool of water onto the dry soil close to the unlit campfire.

Instantly she rolled over onto her stomach and started to crawl away, clawing with her hands at the earth beneath her. It really was no use whatsoever, but she simply couldn't not try. Not trying would be giving up. And she was nothing if not determined.

No sooner an agonizing scream reverberated throughout the forest. It was Ariel herself. She looked back and was confronted with the source of her unbearable pain. Felix had taken the dagger and stabbed it into the end of her fin, effectively pinning her to the ground. The delicate veins had burst open and now blood was trickling out. Her screams were something out of this world. Lost Boys who happened to be within the immediate vicinity of her, cringed at the sound of it. Except Peter and Felix. They felt their souls liven at the excruciating tones.

"Now," Pan continued, "what did Rumpelstiltskin send you to get?"

Additional A/N: Ok next chapter there's gonna be some Hookrielness, I promise. Thanks for sticking with me so far you guys.