Sorry for the horribly delayed update for this chapter – I was away at camp and had some personal stuff to endure! Thank you for the wonderful feedback I received on the last chapter; hope you guys enjoy this update – and YAY all the awesome stuff from Comic Con, so much Captain Swan gold!

IV.

Discovery

He couldn't quite believe it. Yes, he had barely thought of his good friend in the past three hundred years because of his quest for revenge on Rumplestiltskin, but still, this was quite a turn of events. There was too much to think about in the second that he realised it was her, but more than anything he was grateful that somehow good fortune should favour him when he needed it. And well, it may have not been his most needy moment, but he was trying to come up with a plan to find Emma and Mary Margaret, and in his head there were no ideas except to dash headfirst into the forest of Neverland to find them.

More than that, he was actually glad he had one of his best friends back. She was his partner in crime; way back when all things were green and beautiful. She still looked pretty much the same as he remembered, bronze outfit and reddish highlights in her dark short hair, but if he was honest, she seemed stronger, more fearless than before. He could still remember his last moment seeing her, and he recalled how fragile she seemed then.

When he introduced his pixie-haired friend to David, he saw her lift an eyebrow, giving a contemplative look just the way he remembered. He grinned in return, glad that someone who knew Neverland was here to actually help – if she was really there to help, that was.

David stared at her, mouth slightly agape. It was as though he didn't quite believe that this was Tinkerbell, the fairy from the tales of Neverland, even though he was a man from some fantasy land himself.

"Tinkerbell," he voiced, more like stating it than greeting her. "You're Tinkerbell."

"Indeed I am," she returned, calm and observant. "You seem confused, dear Prince."

"How do you know who I am?" he asked, his guard still up.

She chuckled. "Give me some credit, James. I'm a fairy. We know of other people in other lands, even though we may not have met them personally before."

"You did always have such brilliant timing, Tink," Hook cut in, grinning. "We kind of need your help."

"Who said I'm here to help?" Tinkerbell instantly replied, flying between them to the other side of the ship. "I'm not about to align myself with trouble."

Hook rolled his eyes. "Trouble? Who says we're trouble? The last thing we're looking for is trouble."

Tinkerbell crossed her tanned arms and stared at him blatantly. "Have you seen yourself? Just you being here is trouble already."

"Then why did you show up? Why reveal yourself to us?" David pointed out.

Hook raised his hooked hand at that. "Exactly! Excellent point, my friend."

"I came here to warn you," Tinkerbell explained simply, her expression turning grim. "It's not going to be pretty. You should leave, for whatever reason you came back for – if you can find a way out, that is."

"We wouldn't have come unless it was really important, obviously," David responded. "My grandson, Henry, is on the island. We need to save him."

"Oh really?" Tinkerbell questioned sceptically. "Maybe you do, but I had an impression Killian was here because of something else. Or should I say, someone."

Hook's head snapped up at her statement, and he eyed her closely. "What are you referring to? This is no time to play games, Tink. We do need to save the lad."

"Think deep inside your heart," Tinkerbell motioned, flying directly in front of Hook. "As great of a friend as I believe you are, you have never done anything like this before."

"Done what?" Hook asked again, preferring to play dumb, narrowing his eyes.

"Helping," Tinkerbell uttered. "Without any reward."

Hook was briefly silent in response, to which Tinkerbell took as a way to prod further.

"I know you, Killian," she voiced, maturity lining her tone and posture. It was certainly rather odd to see a young fairy acting much more knowledgeable than an older, dashing pirate. It would have been amusing for David if not for his mounting curiosity at the backstory for this exchange between the other two.

He looked back at her, looking somewhat defiant. "I know you're just helping – really, the boy isn't nothing much to you; there's no relation. But there's someone else you actually feel for – she's the reason why you're doing this."

Right. Now I remember why I found her annoying before. She could freaking read my mind, all the time. And of course she would do this to me right now. Internally, Hook was gritting his teeth in irritation at how his fluttery friend tended to be right about most things relating to him.

"Enough," Hook finally found the courage to speak. "Barely a few minutes and you're already doing this to me?"

She then actually smiled, genuinely this time. "You know I'm not going to let you off the hook – well, literally now that you have that – for what happened before," she said. "At the very least, from the look on your face, I know I'm right."

"Can we please stop this catch-up session now? You two can continue this another time. We need to find Mary Margaret, Emma and Henry and get out of here as soon as possible," David launched himself between them, determination etched on his face. "Are you going to help us or not, Tinkerbell?"

The winged girl considered it carefully before answering. "First, what exactly did you need help with?"

David looked at Hook. "We need to find my wife and my daughter first."

"What happened to looking for your grandson?" Tinkerbell asked.

"Four people are better than two," David replied curtly.

"Are you helping us, or not?" Hook repeated, realising how ironic it was that it was now him asking a similar question he was faced with just about twenty-four hours ago. "Anyway we're doing this with or without you, so…"

Tinkerbell landed in front of them and sat herself on the edge of the Jolly Roger. "Fine," she agreed with a heavy sigh. "I suppose this one-time thing shouldn't hurt; for old times' sake."

Hook grinned. " Hah! I knew–"

"But," she continued, softly. "You cannot depend on me. I can't do everything even though I still have magic. Things are different around here now. So I'll do what I can. But you can't expect me to do the impossible."

"But you can help us find them, right?" David asked, looking hopeful for a change.

She turned to the blond prince, her bold demeanour returning. "That I can."

Emma was exhausted. It felt like hours since she and Mary Margaret had been hiking around since the mermaid left them back at the Mermaid Lagoon. The two of them had been creeping around in the forest, but because they had to keep stopping to hide behind large boulders or trees to check for beasts or cruel men or danger of any sort, it became incredibly tiring to have to constantly feel like something or someone was going to swoop down and eat them alive or capture them.

It was enough that she was still thinking about Henry and how he was hopefully still on the island somewhere, and hopefully alive. She had courage to believe that he was a strong boy, and one strong and smart enough, but her motherly instincts kept kicking in and she couldn't help but worry that if she wasn't fast enough to find him, he would be lost to her forever. It was odd that it was her mother assuring her that Henry would be okay, when normally she was the one who would be calming her mother down about things.

In addition to the thousand things swimming in her head, the new information given to her by the mermaid was disturbing in itself. How on earth was her son the main object of some prophecy that just had to relate to the most magical jewel in all the universe? And on top of that, why on earth did Peter Pan have to be part of this unsettling plot to retrieve this jewel? Why was Pan after this jewel in the first place?

Mary Margaret could see the questions in Emma's head as though she was thinking out loud. She knew that her daughter's mind was reeling about a lot of things. It was tough, and she knew there was nothing much she could say that would make her feel any more comforted than she was before. So Mary Margaret stayed silent as they hiked through the forest, their bodies as low down as they possibly could. If anything, the danger lurking around them was the best distraction from the countless questions that were prodding Emma's mind.

It was still daylight, but Emma knew it was already afternoon. It felt as though time passed quicker than she expected here in Neverland – that the sunshine was cut short, and the night was longer. She honestly had no sense of time there; and after all it was a magical land – anything could happen that wasn't normal, and she knew that.

"We need to find the jewel," Emma suddenly spoke, her voice silencing the noise of the forest surrounding them. They were walking between enormous growths of what looked like giant mushrooms towering over them, and lots of fungi surrounded the rocks and plants in this portion of the forest.

She stopped when she spoke, and Mary Margaret walked in front of her and turned around to face her, eyebrows lifted and eyes filled with concern.

"We can't," Mary Margaret simply said. "The mermaid told us that only a child can find it, remember? And that child is Henry."

"What if it's not true? What if she was just saying a bunch of nonsense stories to fool us? How would we know otherwise?" Emma challenged.

Mary Margaret sighed. "We don't. There's no way," she admitted. "But I doubt that she would lie to us. She seemed pretty eager not to tell us any of this at the start, and she seemed to know who Baelfire was, who I am… She wouldn't make a story up just to get rid of us. You could see how serious she was."

"I know," Emma breathed heavily. "But it's nearly impossible to find Henry without anyone helping us! At this rate it'll either take us forever, or we'll be killed before we can go any further."

"There's nothing else we can do. We'll see if we meet anyone else who may be able to help us, perhaps," Mary Margaret said hopefully.

"I doubt there's anyone here that can help us," Emma muttered. "Unless by some miracle, Hook and David are able to find us, or we find them."

"I wish they were here too," Mary Margaret acknowledged, smiling sadly.

Emma looked at her mother, strength returning. "Let's hope they find us," she said. "Otherwise, we'll just have to find Henry on our own – just promise me you'll slap me across the face if I start complaining with worry again, okay?"

Mary Margaret smiled at her daughter, proud that she had her father's fighting spirit inside her. More than anything, it was in times like these that she knew Emma was her father's daughter, and she was grateful for her.

"I promise."

"Are we even going the right way?" Hook asked as he, David and Tinkerbell walked on foot in between large trees and a startling variety of plants and flowers growing everywhere.

"Do you not trust me?" Tinkerbell asked, leading the way in front of the two men. "I still know Neverland better than you do."

"Of course you do," Hook answered. "But that doesn't mean you're right."

"You haven't answered my question," Tinkerbell repeated. "Do you trust me?"

They kept on walking, David second in formation behind the fairy and in front of the pirate. Hook let silence float between them as he thought of his answer to the question.

"Yes," he eventually said. "I do trust you. But I'll still question your direction."

Tinkerbell looked back at him and gave him a wary look, then sighed and shook her head. "You haven't changed much."

"Oh really?" Hook asked. "I'd like to think I have; at least since the last time we spoke."

"How is it that you two know each other again?" David asked, butting into the conversation. "From what I was told of stories written about Neverland in books, you two are meant to be enemies."

Hook laughed. "The human world never gets our stories right. You should know that by now – but actually, scratch that. No world knows our actual story."

"I do know that," David flicked a look of annoyance at Hook. "I'm just curious as to how this friendship originally developed."

"It's too long of a story," Tinkerbell said. "It's a long way back. All you need to know for now is that I'm not a bad person, I'm your ally, and when I say I'll look out for you, I will do the best I can."

"And she's our friend. But honestly, Tink, why don't you fly?" Hook teased. "Trying to disguise yourself as one of us? It's not going to help because your wings are far too obvious."

Tink gave him the evil eye. "I told you," she responded evenly. "My magic is limited now. I can never fly for too long, or I feel drained. Like I said, things are not the same around here. It's not what you remember of Neverland."

"Well, at the moment we're just walking in plain sight and I don't see anyone attacking us with some dark magic or anything," David commented.

"That's only because I've cast some sort of shield around us," Tinkerbell said with confidence.

David and Hook looked at each other, then at the pixie-haired fairy striding in front of them. "A shield? What happened to limited magic?" Hook asked.

"It is limited," Tinkerbell stressed. "This shield will only last so long as we don't accidentally walk into an enemy's camp ourselves. There's loopholes in this. And it's not going to last forever. This shield can be penetrated."

"Where are we headed to, exactly?" David asked, realising that they were headed deeper into the forest, where the trees were denser, leaves bigger, and branches wider.

"Somewhere in the forest of Neverland," Tinkerbell answered. "There are many hidden places on the island, but your friends aren't far."

"They'd better not be," Hook mumbled lowly, brushing the leaves of the trees and plants away from his face. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Being in Neverland, and now with Tinkerbell, reminded him of a past he didn't quite want to reminisce about at that point. It wasn't so much that it was a horrid past; it was more that it reminded him of his mistakes and the things he could have easily done differently. So he focused his mind on their mission at hand, and tried his best not to think about his fairy friend's words regarding his heart and a certain blond-haired woman.

Find them, get out. Chop, chop. No room for thinking about the past or the future. Forget it all.

Tinkerbell stopped in her tracks, David and Hook flanking her. They were in the middle of a clearing in the forest, and she heard what she recognised as footsteps that were not theirs.

"Stop," she voiced. "Just wait a moment."

"What?" David whispered. "Was that…"

"Someone," Hook finished. "Or something."

"Is it–"

But before David could finish, a thin rope was looped around his feet, and he was thrust to the ground very unexpectedly. Tinkerbell turned and instantly flew off the ground, but Hook was faster, and he launched himself in the direction of the attacker, who was supposedly hiding behind the tree that was right behind them.

He caught the arms of what felt like a human, and then fell to the ground together with the person, but he had soil thrown at him and he heard Tinkerbell shouting at him, telling him to stop fighting, and then he was lying on the earth, grass all around, and he finally rubbed the flecks of dirt from his eyes, and heard a familiar voice say his name.

"Hook?!" she let out breathlessly, seeing his form. "It's you!"

He saw it was her, and grinded his teeth in annoyance. "Swan. What on earth were you doing, throwing soil at me and attacking us?"

"I thought you were some magical creatures," she replied loudly, still on top of him. "You just changed your form!"

"What form? What are you talking about?"

"The shield causes us to look different to people who may come across us. It was meant to help us blend into the surroundings of Neverland as though we belong here," Tinkerbell interjected. "Well, I believe these are the people you were looking for?"

David dusted himself off the ground, turning to see Mary Margaret. "Snow," he called to her, and she ran into his arms, hugging him as tight as her strength would allow.

"You're here," she said, caressing his face lovingly.

"Now, are you going to let me sit up?" Hook asked, Emma still pinning him onto the earth beneath them.

"Oh," Emma said. "Yes, sorry." She stood, and the pirate captain stood up as well, rising to his full height in front of her.

"Well it's good to see you're all fine, Swan," he remarked.

Emma gazed at him, feeling hope rise in her spirit as she met his eyes. She looked away a moment too quick, but he knew she was relieved that he had found them.

"Never thought I'd say this, but it's good to see you too," she replied, sarcasm lining her voice.

He chuckled. "You know, you can admit that you missed me."

She lifted an eyebrow at him. "It's only been two days."

"So? You wanted me around and you know it."

"I never said that."

"But you thought that, when we got separated."

"Well of course, you promised to–"

"Ah, see, so you did miss me–"

"–especially since we have no idea what to expect–"

"–so you did want me around with you–"

"YES, I DID!"

The sudden loud proclamation surprised even Emma herself as it escaped from her lips. She wanted him around. She did. And she just said it out, in a very loud voice, in front of David, Mary Margaret and this unknown girl with wings.

Hook gazed at her, eyes wide at her statement. His eyes softened then, and he met her stare with an emotion she couldn't quite identify.

"I did want you around," Emma repeated quietly this time. "But don't let it get into your head."

He smiled, brushing the edge of her jaw with his hand, as she briefly edged her head away in automatic reflex to his touch.

"Don't worry, darling," he said to her, winking. "It won't."

Emma was then introduced to the foxy fairy, and although apprehensive at the start, she was grateful that they had someone who could do magic on their side.

Hook looked to Tinkerbell and thanked her, but the fairy only smirked back, observing Emma in particular. She knew there was something between them, but she also knew the two of them refused to acknowledge the connection they had. So she kept silent, because she wasn't one to reveal any much more than what she should.

Emma looked at David and Mary Margaret, glad that they had all found each other and were back together in a group. They could work together to find Henry, and it would be alright.

At the very least, for now, there was hope.

A lot of talking in this chapter. Hope it didn't bore you – our lovelies are back together! More stuff to be revealed next chapter. Review and let me know your thoughts? Cheers!