Hi hi. This is a rather long chapter so I'll keep this brief. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy!


Peter's POV

His eyes shoot open and suddenly he's alert, feeling around for him frantically while his eyes adjusted to the room's lack of lighting. His cheek registers as cold from resting on the frigid floor, and as his vision rejoins him he sees that the floor wasn't the only reason he's cold. In front of him is an open window, although a curtain blocks most of the light it billows into the room, pushed by wind.

To the left of him is a musty couch, and he realizes he's in a beat up apartment. Just as he pushes himself up more than an inch from the ground, something jumps down in front of him and causes him to widen his eyes. A cat, orange and familiar looking. "I was wondering when you'd wake up. It's so hard to tell with poppy." A voice says and Peter tenses up.

"What is this?" Peter asks with a groan, standing up and searching the room.

His eyes land on a figure to the right, lounging on the kitchen counter in between him and the door, back against the wall and hands behind the head. "A cat." The boy says, and Peter growls darkly, beginning to surge forward.

"What have you don-!?" Before he can get two steps forward the cat spikes its fur and launches itself onto Peter. He must still be weak because the force of the cat pushes him back until he stumbles over the couch.

He hears a childish laughter as Peter and the feline go head over heels and roll on the floor. Disgruntled, Peter shoves the cat away from him and it lands gracefully on the couch, arching its back and hissing. "Speaking of the cat, he doesn't like aggression very much, so let's keep this calm, shall we?" The boy's smug tone makes Peter clench his fist as he regains his stance, keeping one eye on the orange puffball.

"I'd say it likes aggression very much." Peter grumbles before narrowing his eyes at the boy, still watching him from a distance. "Alright, laddie, what did you do with Trinity?" Peter asks through gritted teeth, and the boy snorts as though it's nothing.

"Oh I could care less about her, for now at least. I think someone came to get her, although I wonder how that woman would react if she knew your girlfriend could use magic in this land. I'd say she stunned everyone within sight. That should go down well with this town." He laughs again, annoying Peter. "No, you're the reason as to why I am here." The boy jumps down from his leisurely perch and traipses over.

Peter raises an eyebrow and notches his chin up. "You've been watching, spying on, Trinity and the lad for so long and you expect me to believe that?" Peter accuses and the boy waves it off.

"We were waiting for you to show up, the witch was certain you'd come to her. Consider it reconnaissance, not spying." The boy shrugs and Peter grits his teeth, knowing immediately who 'the witch' was. The cat meows loudly out of nowhere, and the boy rolls his eyes and groans. "Fine, I suppose you're right." He responds and Peter hardly breaks his thoughts away from Zelena long enough to address that the boy talked to the cat.

The boy walks closer to him, holding up a bottle. Peter furrows his eyebrows before grinning incredulously. "Your pet will be mincemeat before you make me drink that, laddie." Peter warns and the cat hisses once more, digging its claws into the couch.

"I'm afraid you've got it backwards." The boy laughs like he's sharing an inside joke, but lightly tosses the bottle into the air and snatches it again casually. "But, you will drink this, the witch explicitly said she went through so much work to make it just right." The boy drones on, before grinning and twisting the bottle in between his fingers. "You see if you don't, your girlfriend will be a monkey's meal by tonight. Before you could even make it back in time to help her, or contact anyone, I'd say."

Peter raises his eyebrows and snags a pillows, thwacking the cat away with it before grabbing ahold of the young man's throat and shoving him back against the wall. The cat scrambles over to attack again but the boy only smirks and holds up a hand. "Sorry." He says with difficulty as Peter presses on his windpipe. "But only us conferring with our partner will stop her from being ripped to pieces, or, perhaps even worse, becoming Zelena's servant herself. You know about her monkey servants." Peter loosens his hold and the boy grins darkly, holding up the bottle again. "Come on, it won't kill you or anything. Zelena just needs you to keep your mouth shut about her."

"What does it do?" Peter asks, a queasy feeling rising in his stomach. The boy gestures for Peter to move away and he does, only for the cat to growl and move to stand in front of the boy. The boy tosses Peter the bottle and it hits his palm smoothly.

The boy shrugs. "All she said was that it would impair you from talking about her. Something boring, blur your memories maybe? I don't listen much to her spiels." The boy leans against the wall casually and Peter grips the bottle hard, racking his brain for a way out of this. Leverage, maybe? Peter got around while he was searching for truest believer, maybe he has something on the fool in front of him.

"Who are you, what's in this for you?" Peter asks and the boy's face goes slack for the first time. His eyelids droop and seems to get lost in thought. Peter shifts his eyebrows in response, and the boy shrugs, light and genuine this time.

"Me? Mark's the name. As for why..." Peter notices the boy's fingers playing with a chain around his left wrist, some type of jeweled charm hanging from it. "We all have those we want to protect, yeah?" Is all Peter's opposer reveals. The cat meows again and thrust its head upward, as if telling Peter to hurry up.

Peter looks hesitantly at the vial, then back up at Mark. "If you understand, then you wouldn't hurt Trinity." He says inquisitively, with a twitch of his eyebrow. Another cold breeze pushes itself around in the apartment and Peter resists a shiver.

Mark's eyes darken and a look of regret passes across his eyes before he looks incredibly seriously at Peter. "We don't have that choice, but, if you drink that, I swear on my own love that I'll keep yours from harm." Peter was usually a pretty good judge of character, and the boy's tone rang with a sincerity that indicates he was once a good person.

Peter pops the vial and downs it in one gulp, apologizes mentally to Trinity incase he's made a huge mistake. Nothing happens at first, and then his left knee hits the floor as he collapses in pain.


Trinity's POV

My senses slowly drift toward me, and I grapple for them, pulling myself to consciousness. I roll to the left, feeling around and trying to push myself up on the sidewalk. Sidewalk? That's where I am...right? "Peter?" I whisper-call, he should be next to me...

No, that's where I was. This is different, soft and warm. Maybe too warm. I squint, taking in the light and see a shadowed figure above me. Shit! Is it that boy!? What boy? Memories pull in and out like a tide, making me question what kind of reality I'm in. A deep breath and a hard bite on my tongue later and I jolt upon the image of a man clearing in front of me.

I pat around and grab a pillow that was behind my head. "Ah there she is. Don't worry lass it's-" The man breaks off his sentence as I fling the pillow into his face and push myself up and over the back of the couch. My butt lands ungracefully on the ground and I wince, the world coming sharply into focus.

My apartment? "You never lose that, do you?" The man mutters behind me, slightly disgruntled, and I stare confused at our kitchen, two people sitting at the table.

"Sis!" Henry exclaims and jumps up from his seat at the table, rushing and throwing his arms around me. "I was worried!" He insists and I hug him back, severely confused. Henry helps me stand up and he next person to put their arms around me is mom.

"Thank goodness." She breathes out and I let my chin rest on her shoulder. "You must've been so scared, come on kid, I made you some tea." She guides me to a chair at the table, and I catch her send a look to the man behind me. That's right! I spin around and snag a random spoon from the table, holding it out as if it's a weapon.

"Mom, don't trust him! He's been looking for you and planning something strange!" I proclaim and she sighs. The man scratches the back of his head with a guilty grin and Emma gently takes the spoon from my hands and replaces it with a mug of tea.

She gains an awkward look as she begins to try and explain, and I sit down with an eyebrow raised. Henry and I share a look, and he shrugs ever so slightly. "Take it easy for a bit, alright? He's...an old family friend. Who...did his best to contact me." Mom seemed to struggle around her words and I widen my eyes mid sip.

"What about Peter, he should be with you, right!?" I demand and turn around in my chair to look at the man. "We met at the breakfast joint, by coincidence, and when I left he came with...but..." I put a hand on my head and struggle to remember. "There was a boy...did he.." I glance back at Henry, apprehensive of talking about it in front of him. I turn to mom and mouth, 'drug us?'

"No, lass, Peter's fine." The man intervenes before mom can say anything. "He brought you back here before leaving, he's back at our place." He explains and I blink in confusion. "He said you just collapsed on your way down the street." Did that happen? I could've sworn.

My memories swirl hazily in a pot of thick confusion, honestly, they could say just about anything and I'd believe it. Well, almost anything. I let my elbow rest on the table and put my head in my hand. "Weird." Is all I say and mom reaches over and rubs my back for a few moments. Henry jumps up and runs into the bathroom, and I resist a chuckle, wondering how long he'd been waiting for me to wake up.

"So. What's with taking the drug dealer in tow?" I ask blatantly and mom widens her eyes while the man only laughs.

He raises an eyebrow at me. "Do you always assume things have something to do with drugs?" The man asks and I shrug.

"You said something about 'only having enough for her,' so yes, I assumed drugs."

"Swan you should look into what Trinity does after school."

"I never told you my name."

Mom stands up and gestures to the man with her hand. "I did. He uh, his name is-"

"Hook." The man says and I take a long drink of my tea.

Henry reenters the room and I turn to him, poking him playfully in the side. He squirms on the way to the seat and I poke him again. This time he turns and pokes me back and I laugh. "Did you have fun studying today?" I ask while Emma and Hook move to the other side of the room to talk.

Henry gives me a sour look. "First, no. Second, it was kinda hard to focus when my sis was fainting on the street." I cuff him on the head lightly before jolting as I remember Racheal and Carlie. I pat around my pockets for my phone, digging it out to find it blown up with messages. None of them seem to be about me collapsing, or whatever happened, so I slip it back in my pocket and drink some more, my throat endlessly dry.

Henry and I talk for a little bit, him demanding I fill him in on the events involving Hook and Peter. Mom points over to us as we discuss it in hushed voices, "You two better not be plotting something!" She says and Henry's eyes widen as he realizes something.

"Oh no." He dons a panicked expression and turns to look at the door. "I may have plotted something this morning." He admits. "I told Walsh to come over for dinner." Dinner? I check the time and sure enough it's late enough. Emma cringes and takes deep breath, reaching for her phone as Hook begins to question her, interrupted by a knock on the door.

"I'll get it!" The four of us all say at the same time, and mildly shocked and humorous looks are exchanged before Emma beats everyone to the door. Whoops, it's Walsh. I muffle a laugh and glance around the apartment casually, until my eyes settle on the window.

The window...before...my mind works like a net, connecting things together and following the threads. The window that the cat came through, and didn't the boy have a cat with him? The image of him flashes in and out of my mind, so quick that its forgotten again and I can't recall what I was even on about. Unconsciously, my hand had moved to rub my head.

"Are both Henry and Trinity here?" Walsh's voice drips in from Emma's conversation at the door, trying to push Walsh out but he apparently wasn't taking the hint. I lean so that I can see him better in the doorway, and he makes eye contact with me. He looks nice tonight, maybe he's hoping Emma will accept his proposal. Actually, something creates a knot in my stomach, and the look he gives me before checking his phone slyly as Emma succeeds in ushering out sends shiver down my spine.

I look down to see my hand clutching the tea mug, and slowly let go of it while Henry starts peppering Hook with questions. I stand, dying for a moment alone, and slip into my room. The knot remains, twisting and tightening, and I open a drawer to snag a long, thin slip of paper. I begin folding it, and by the end it makes a nice paper star. I drop it in the bottle, as a mark of the afternoon's incident.

Was it really just me fainting? Most of me doubts it. I hear the door open and stretch a bit, calming myself for a moment before strolling out of my room again. "Is Trinity here?" Peter demands, striding through the kitchen towards the rooms. He spots me and stops in his tracks, seemingly relieved.

"Of course I'm here...where else would I be?" I ask, he brought me here. Still, his presence instantly comforts me, and the knot in my gut relaxes. Upon peering closer at his face, I tilt my head and ask, "Are those scratches? Stalk a far meaner girl, did you?" I ask and he knits his eyebrows together before releasing them and grinning.

"You wish." He quips and Hook puts a hand on his shoulder. They share a silent conversation and I put a hand over my stomach. I must have been asleep all day...wouldn't you normally take someone to the hospital in that case? Suspicion rises in me as I nab some peanut butter from the cabinet. If anything, I know just the person to ask about suspicious incidents.

Peter looks over at me, as if he sensed my thoughts, and I ungracefully shove a spoonful of peanut butter in my mouth while looking away. What? I'm hungry after sleeping all day. "So..." Henry says and looks at Peter. "You know Trin?" Peter raises an eyebrow and doesn't look away from me when answering.

"Yes, but not very well."


Henry pulled me out of bed the next morning, declaring that if I slept a minute later we wouldn't make to school in time for lunch. I found that a bit of an exaggeration, but none the less I got dressed and now produce a weighted yawn at the table. "You're hurting the eggs, mom." Henry says and she jumps.

"Right." She responds and I rest my forehead on the table. "Trin, are you alright?" She asks, one hand stirring the eggs.

"Mm, just a small headache." I look up and see her worried gaze, instantly feeling like I've done something wrong. She shouldn't be worrying about me, not when she and Walsh ended so badly. To think she just, told him goodbye. There's something more to it, there always is. "What about you?" I dare to ask, and her eyes turn into a knowing grin.

"Walsh was bad news, end of story. Sometimes you can't really tell who a person is until the moments it really matters." Mom says, looking us both in the eyes as her words sink in. "However, we can always move forward." She gives the eggs another stir on the hot skillet, then takes them off and sets a plate down in front of each of us.

"Is that why there are suitcases packed in your room? Are you going somewhere?" I ask with half a mouth full of eggs. She narrows her eyes at me and shakes the rubber spatula in my direction.

"Actually there are several suitcases, for mom, me, and you." Henry chirps in and Emma alternates the spatula pointing to him.

"I can't win against you two, you got me." She says and appraises the look I share with Henry. "There's a case in Maine, my old friends from last night came to tell me about it personally. Do you two want to come?" She asks carefully and Henry thinks for a moment before agreeing happily. I bite my lip.

The beach trip is coming up. "How long will this case last, do you know?"

"That depends on a lot of things, I can't say. We'd leave in a few minutes though." Mom replies with an awkward crack to her voice, but I disregard it. Carlie and Racheal have to understand. Besides, I might be back in time. I shovel some more eggs in my mouth and nod.

"Sounds like a blast. Can I help with the case?" I ask slyly and she shakes her head with a grin that's slightly strained.

"Not this one. Unless you're willing to dig through a library for extremely obscure things." She starts moving around the kitchen, putting things away to prepare to go. I hop from the table bounce on the balls of my feet.

"I am always willing to dig through a library for obscure stuff." I answer and she chuckles before pointing to her room.

"Go on and pack, then."


Everything is loaded in the yellow bug, and just as we prepare to jump in, a motorcycle pulls into the apartment's parking near us. Peter pops off the helmet and responds to my dubious look with a grin. "Ah, there's the lad." Hook- or Killian as mom told me to call him- greets Peter and I roll my eyes as the boy steps up to me.

"You're really gonna drive eight hours to Maine on a motorcycle." I scrutinize with my arms crossed and he looks down at me with a smirk, as if he's sharing some inside joke with someone. "You didn't have twenty bucks the other day, how do you plan to pay for gas?"

Peter doesn't respond to me, and instead gestures for Killian to talk to him. They share a whispered conversation, and I roll my eyes before getting into the car, taking the other back seat. Henry looks across at me and grins. "This is gonna be great, I mean this can't just be any old case right? Mom wouldn't pull us out of school and travel for something small." He says and I curl my legs up onto the seat, getting comfortable.


"Is this it?" I ask softly, as Henry's light snores indicate he's still sleeping. Emma almost jolts when I speak, as if she wasn't expecting it. Killian looks back at me with a curiously serious face as I examine the sign 'Welcome to Storybrooke.' It's so late that when I stretch myself around to look at it once we've past, it's lost in the pitch black night.

"You bet kiddo." She answers and I shift around, impatient to finally be out of the car. "Peter probably beat us there, what with the break we took near the border." Mom comments and I frown slightly upon recalling what Mom's reaction was when she came back from dealing with Walsh, last night, and she saw Peter.

She said before that he was an old friend like Killian, but I get the feeling she was less than happy to see him. After what happened on the street... a knot still sits in my chest. Somehow, though, as we drive into the town, I feel happy regardless. Seeing new places is always fun, I'll bet that's it.

Mom parks the car on the edge of a street and I jump out eagerly. Street lamps light the sidewalk, littered with shops and other cars. "They really do have a clock tower! Sweet!" I exclaim once the car doors are shut, and Henry won't be woken. I reach up my arms and stretch, taking a deep breath.

Mom chuckles as I look widely around the town, but then looks down the street with a wistful, almost regretful expression. "Trin, stay here with Killian, watch Henry, I'm going to uh...greet some old friends." She says and I recall the little inn...or bed and breakfast...? A place with a sign up for openings.

As mom walks off I turn to Killian and widen my eyes and he clicks on a strange, metal hook to his left hand. "...What is that?" I ask and he laughs.

"Call it a personal prosthetic." He explains and I lean against the buggy.

"Huh."