A/N: Warning that there are some spoilers from 3x01 in here. I didn't do things exactly the same, but there's still plenty of it incorporated in this chapter. If you've seen the episode, you'll see it. If you haven't, read at your own risk. This is how I'm going to move forward with this story: integrating my ideas with what actually happens on Once. Just a friendly warning. Enjoy. :)
Emma and Regina hurried toward Charming with Henry protectively placed between them as they moved.
"Remember what I taught you about conjuring," Regina asked Emma as they briskly headed toward Charming.
"You've been teaching Emma magic," Henry asked as he looked up at both Emma and Regina.
"Yeah," Emma ignored Henry and looked solely at Regina.
"Yes, Henry. We can talk about it later," Regina answered before she looked at Emma and continued. "Can you at least handle a baseball bat? You wanted a weapon and that's the only thing I think might help right now."
"What about a gun?! Those are the Lost Boys, right? They're human and humans can be hurt and killed with bullets."
Regina didn't respond with anything more than a contemplative look and a huffed out sigh.
"It'll be faster if you conjure one for me," Emma said.
"If I give you a gun, you'll run out of bullets."
"I can conjure more, right?"
"Can you?"
"Just let me have my gun," Emma seriously said with a hint of frustration.
Regina rolled her eyes.
Hook lashed out any and all aggression he could at some of the Lost Boys with his sword. He stood a few feet away in a heavy sparing match with one of the Boys. When he gained the upper hand after he noticed wild blond hair in his peripheral vision, Hook looked over his shoulder and called out to her.
"Emma!"
She instinctively placed a protective hand on Henry's shoulder and looked in the pirate's direction.
"Here," Hook said as he reached down and pulled a second sword from the belt of his outfit. "Take this."
He held the hilt of the sword in his hook and tossed it at Emma as best he could. The sword fell short, but Emma let go of Henry and stepped forward to swipe it up from the dirt covered ground.
"It was Baelfire's. I think you could use it," Hook briefly explained.
Emma knitted her brow and stared at him with a quizzical expression that begged for a little more story behind why and how he had Neal's sword, but a Lost Boy ran at her with his own raised sword.
Regina saw the boy and yanked Henry away from the fight. She wrapped her arms around his chest and pulled his back almost flush against her stomach and chest.
Emma hadn't questioned Hook like she wanted to and instead, she swung Neal's sword at the Lost Boy without thinking. Instinct took over once again and even though she wasn't extremely skilled with a sword, she did what she had to so she could protect herself in that moment. And above all else, to ultimately protect Henry.
Regina and Henry stared at Emma as she fought, though they both knew they should have joined the fight instead of gawked.
Henry internally praised the way Emma moved. She struggled to keep the sword from slipping out of her grasp after each swing, but the rest of her body moved almost majestically to support her sword wielding arm.
Regina gazed a little too openly at Emma with more focus on her legs and arms.
Emma's biceps rippled and tensed between and during each separate swoop, swipe, and jab of the sword. Her thighs displayed tone definition through tight denim whenever she turned her body to strike.
Regina hadn't, maybe even couldn't have, taken her eyes off the tough blonde. If she'd had more time, she would have thought about how truly amazing Emma was. But she didn't have more than a few moments so she pulled herself out of it to return to the trouble at hand.
Emma's head snapped to the side and she stumbled back a few feet before she charged at the teen boy with more force.
During Emma's recovery time, Regina tightened her hold on Henry. With him so close to her, she realized she had to find a way to keep Henry safe and away from whoever it was that wanted him – whoever it was Rumple insisted they should all fear.
"Come on, Henry," Regina said in his ear as she pulled him even further away from the group.
"What about Emma," Henry asked.
"She's fine. It's you we have to worry about," Regina said as she continued to usher him toward the shore where they had anchored the Jolly Roger.
"I didn't let her leave you. I'm not going to let you leave her."
"Henry, we need to get you away from all this," Regina started as she picked up her pace. "I can't watch you and fight alongside the others. Neither could Emma."
"Then allow me, dearie."
Regina scrambled to a stop, startled by the man she had least expected to see in the middle of the battle.
"Absolutely not," Regina shook her head and shot the imp a fiery glare.
"It appears you have no other choice," Rumple said with a small flourish of his hands.
His eyes knowingly shifted to Emma, Hook, and Charming with a suppressed yet still noticeable grin.
Regina curiously followed his gaze in time to see Hook breaking an immense sweat, Charming getting clocked in the jaw, and Emma being thrown onto the ground.
A one-handed pirate, a beaten up hero, and a trapped Savior. All were being surrounded by more boys.
It didn't look good.
Regina sighed in defeat and pulled Henry to her again as she looked back at Rumple.
"Fine. You take him back to the ship and don't let him out of your sight," Regina warned with a pointed finger directed at Rumple's chest.
"Yes, yes, he's very important to you. I understand," Rumple dismissed Regina's commanding tone. "He's my grandson after all. Do you really believe I'd let anything happen to him?"
Regina opened her mouth to answer his rhetorical question, but he cut off her and looked down at eleven year old.
"Come along, Henry."
Regina begrudgingly let go of Henry, but something hit her hard in the pit of her stomach the moment her hand left his body, something unsettling. She stared after him for a few more seconds as he walked beside Rumple toward the ship beyond the trees in the far off distance. She tried to tamp down the gut-wrenching feeling and turned away from Henry to rejoin the fight. She took a deep breath and allowed herself to feel angry, to feel what easily got her magic to flow through her.
She created a fireball in the palm of her hand and sent it toward one of the trees a Lost Boy stood under as he slowly approached the fighting trio. It set the tree ablaze, but it took five more fireballs consecutively sent at the same spot before the branch she aimed for fell. It fell slow enough that the boy had moved out of the way before it could hit him.
That fact disappointed Regina, but she knew she should have expected it. Part of her had, but she still felt disappointed all the same. She shook it off though when she glanced around at the three people unable to defend themselves with magic. She conjured more fireballs and threw them out at the surrounding trees two at a time.
Rumple limped toward the ship, true to his word.
But when he saw Greg and Tamara still trying to get away – with Snow White in their grasp of all things – he couldn't deny his vengeance any longer. He guided Henry toward the couple and focused an angry, intent glare at Tamara.
"Wh-Where are we going," Henry asked with a nervous stutter.
"Helping your grandmother," Rumple answered before the two of them stopped in front of Greg and Tamara. "And just where do you think you're going."
It was a statement and directed more at Tamara than Greg.
Henry looked between Rumple and the couple. He tensed and feared the worst.
"Getting what we came for," Greg replied.
"By taking her," Rumple asked and pointed to a kicking and growling Snow White.
"We figured since we didn't have Henry, splitting up the family and getting some leverage would help get us what we want," Greg answered.
Rumple seemed to have distracted the pair just long enough to give Snow the chance to elbow both Greg and Tamara. She wrangled herself free from them, but cringed as she reached out for Henry. It hadn't kept her from doing it though.
"Henry, are you okay," Snow asked with a great deal of concern as she ran her hands down either of Henry's arms.
He nodded.
Then, without warning, the Shadow shot down and sliced itself through Greg's body.
Everyone except Rumpelstiltskin gasped in horror and watched Greg's shadow get ripped from his body in a flash.
The Shadow pulled Greg's shadow along with it and disappeared.
Tamara started to whimper in short, panted breaths as though she was about to cry.
Henry trembled in fear.
Rumple didn't even get to start in on Tamara about her wrong doings before a cocky voice spoke up from behind a few bushes in front of him.
"She wouldn't have helped," came an accented voice as a young blond boy appeared with a sinister grin plastered on his face. "You let him escape."
Tamara's breathing was shallow at that point. She hadn't believed what she'd seen. The man she'd loved and had agreed to marry laid completely still, eyes closed, face down in the dirt before her.
"It wasn't our fault," Tamara slowly, cautiously started to explain. "Your...boys or whatever, were there too. They were closer to him than we were. Please, just...let us go home. We did as you asked. You can destroy magic here with him now that you have Henry back, right?"
"Oh, you're not going home," the boy smugly replied. "And who said I wanted to destroy magic?"
Tamara stood speechless with wide eyes while Henry and Rumple just watched the scene unfold.
"You've done all I needed you to. You actually proved to be less useful than I imagined after you brought the boy to Neverland."
Those were the last words Tamara heard before an arrow shot through the air and struck into her chest.
Snow started to pull Henry away from the scene with a fist clenched around the back of his coat, but the marksman who shot the arrow appeared beside the shorter sandy blond boy.
"I wouldn't be in a rush," the boy held out a halting hand and kept his eyes on Snow until she stopped at his request.
When she stopped, his gaze slid to his left and he locked eyes with the Dark One.
"I didn't expect you to come back," the boy said he took a few tentative steps toward Rumple.
"Neither did I," Rumple responded with a hint of a smirk, though not enough to make anyone believe he was pleased with the situation.
"Stay as long as you'd like," the boy shrugged. "But...your presence in my land comes at price. How you respond to the deal I'm about to make you will determine whether you and I are still enemies."
"Of course...Peter," Rumple disdainfully growled out his name.
"Y-you're Peter Pan," Henry asked in shock. "I thought you might be another Lost Boy."
The boy chuckled under his breath and flashed an evil grin.
"I am," he answered before he focused on Rumple again. "I'll spare your life...if you give me the boy."
Snow pulled Henry closer to her just as Emma and Regina had earlier.
"You will not take my grandson," Snow growled as she tried to muster up all the strength she had to keep Henry safe even though she was terrified.
The boy snickered as he looked between Rumple and Snow. His eyes landed on Rumple and settled there to wait for the Dark One's reply after a few glances.
Rumple looked over his shoulder, his body slightly turned to take in Henry's frightened appearance. He stood like that for a long moment before he sighed and made a decision.
"Fine," Rumple callously, casually, shrugged like Henry meant nothing to him.
"What," Henry exclaimed his question with a scared and incredulous tone.
"No," Snow boldly argued as she stepped in front of Henry.
Rumple dismissively waved a hand and Snow disappeared in a cloud of red smoke.
"Grandma!"
Henry's eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights as he looked from the place Snow once stood to Rumple and Peter. He shook his head in disbelief that he would so effortlessly be traded.
"If you can guarantee I live," Rumple said. "The boy is yours."
"You want me to sign a contract," Peter asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It's the only way I can guarantee I get what I want."
Henry took the conversation between the two as his way out. He bolted from the area before he could remember the Lost Boy with a bow and arrow.
After he jumped through a set of bushes, he felt a sharp pain shoot through his calve. He stumbled onto his knee with a yelp followed by a hiss. His heart raced when he attempted to stand, but the moment he got to his feet, he no longer felt the ground beneath him.
A swirl of red smoke filled his vision as he felt a pair of hands startlingly grab him from behind.
And then he was gone.
Snow reappeared in another cloud of red smoke behind Charming before her husband lifted his sword above his head and jumped away from a Lost Boy.
Charming collided with something and clumsily fell backward. He landed on whatever caused his descent to the ground and heard a familiar groan.
Before Charming could investigate, he defensively raised his sword to counter the boy's unrelenting attack. He violently shifted from side to side as he tried to avoid the boy's sword until he managed to roll off what he'd fallen on.
His focus remained on the boy as he took a stab at the teen. His first attempt failed, but he finally drew blood by faking left then spinning around before he swiped his sword across the boy's torso.
The boy bent partially at the waist before Charming successfully ran his sword straight through the twisted teen.
"Charming," Snow weakly called out in a broken voice from the ground.
When Charming pulled his sword out of the Lost Boy, he turned at the sound of his name. For the first time, he realized what he'd quite literally stumbled upon only moments ago.
"Snow," Charming immediately got down on his knees beside her, his voice laced with an abundance of concern.
Charming brushed some of Snow's hair off her forehead and felt the wetness underneath the pad of his thumb as well as an unusual warmth and frowned.
"Snow, what happened? What's wrong?
Snow tried to breathe, her breath shallow and words hard to form, before she eventually spoke.
"Arrow," Snow quietly said and looked to her left shoulder.
Charming looked at her shoulder and suddenly saw the blood as well as a broken off arrow tip that had been embedded in his wife's pale skin.
"No," Charming breathed out, sad and panicked. "It's okay. You'll make it."
"Henry. Rum- Rumpelstiltskin," Snow tried to warn him.
"Rumpelstiltskin...has Henry?"
Snow nodded.
"Made a de-deal...with...Pan."
"What kind of deal?"
"A trade."
Charming's eyes widened.
"He gave Henry to Pan?"
"Yes."
"Okay, uh, I'm going to get you out of here."
Snow shook her head.
"Get Henry," she said.
Charming took Snow's hand and squeezed. He looked at her with so much love and both knew from his tear-filled expression he didn't want to leave her. He tore his eyes away from Snow and scanned the area.
Hook, Emma, and Regina were all occupied by one Lost Boy or another. Regina even managed to face off against two at one time, though her magic allotted her an easy win.
"Regina," Charming loudly started to call out to her, though he went unheard. "Regina!"
Regina waved her hands and swept both Lost Boys off the ground. She bound them both to the high half of a tree and instantly tightened the grip of the vines.
The boys squirmed beneath the crushing vines until she shocked them with a strong dose of electricity. They convulsed for a few seconds before they went limp when Regina relented.
Regina kept them pressed roughly to the tree before she decided to end things. With a good sense of finality, she made the boys arrows float before she hurled several straight at them. A couple of them pierced each boys' arms, but she landed two kill shots in both boys with ease. One to the heart, the other to a vital organ. She left them bound to the tree to bleed out before she turned and saw Charming's distress.
"Regina! Regina, you have to help," Charming yelled, pleading her to come to him.
She surprisingly looked as concerned as Charming had when he first spotted Snow in her newly injured state. She looked over to see Emma oblivious and bleeding while still at war with a Lost Boy. Trickling red streaks marred her pale face and stuck to wisps of blonde hair.
Regina took her eyes off Emma as she approached the fallen couple, Snow and Charming. She sank to her knees on the other side of Snow opposite Charming and touched the woman's uninjured shoulder. She looked over her former stepdaughter from head to toe, but her eyes didn't make it past her collarbone. She quickly noticed the problem and snapped her eyes up to meet Charming's worried gaze.
"She needs healing," Regina plainly stated, her voice tinged with a small amount of sympathy.
"Yes, but...there's something else," Charming warily said.
"We don't have time to waste. Out with it," she demanded, though not in her usual commanding Queen voice.
"Rumple took Henry."
"I know. I gave him to Rumple so he would take Henry back to the ship," Regina explained with an apprehensive expression.
"He didn't take Henry to the ship," was all Charming stated and shook his head.
"If that's true then where... Where is my son," Regina growled, but both she and Charming heard her fear and self-loathing.
Charming explained in a few words, terse and contrite. His tone, however, did not help calm Regina. Though in all honesty, he never expected it too.
Regina vehemently shook her head.
"I'll kill him! Where's Rumple?"
Snow pointed to the area off to the side where they once were and Regina pushed herself onto her feet, the fastest she'd ever moved in her life and gracelessly unlike the chin-held-high Queen she once had been.
Charming just as quickly shot out a hand and gripped Regina's wrist to stop her from leaving.
"Please," he begged. "I'll do my best to find him if you stay and heal her."
Regina heavily sighed and nodded. When Charming let go of her wrist, she lowered herself down onto her knees again.
Charming stood when she knelt down and the two had changed positions.
"Thank you," Charming said before his eyes went from Regina to Snow.
"Just bring him back to me," Regina sadly said, her eyes trained on Charming. "And...be careful."
Charming looked back at Regina with confusion, but he hadn't stayed much longer to ask why she had said such a thing to him. Instead, he jogged off to find Henry.
Regina turned her attention to Snow and sympathetically winced before she started to explain.
"I may be able to use magic for this, but I still need to take out the arrow. It won't be pleasant," Regina warned.
"Okay," Snow breathlessly replied.
"Ready?"
Snow nodded and rapidly blinked as she did.
Regina moved her hand to hover over the wound and slowly started to lift the arrow from Snow. A faint purple light glowed between her hand and Snow's shoulder. With a subtle, slow, and graceful wave of Regina's hand, the arrow extraction went a little faster.
Snow's eyes widened before she squeezed them shut and gritted her teeth. She began to squirm as Regina pulled out the broken end of the arrow half an inch. Just before the arrow head started to rip at the surface of her skin, the arrow almost but still a bit of way from being completely removed, she groaned.
Regina watched Snow writhe in the dirt and managed to show sympathy, but didn't wince or cringe. She listened to Snow's pain as the younger woman's groan turned into rough, drawn out yell.
Emma kicked the Lost Boy that dared fight her in the stomach and knocked him flat on his ass. She hurried to place her booted foot on his chest to hold him down then raised Neal's sword above her head in front of her with both hands, ready to plunge down into the boy. She stopped mid-plummet when she heard Snow yell. She looked away from the boy to see Regina using magic on Snow. She saw something being pulled from her mother, but she couldn't tell what she really saw from her distance.
A hollow knock echoed through the jungle and the boy grabbed Emma by the ankle and threw the distracted blonde off of himself. He scrambled to his feet when Emma faltered and landed on her tailbone on the ground a couple feet away from where she had pinned down the boy. He took off into the depths of the island jungle, which noticeably confused Emma, but she heard Snow cry out and chose to let the boy go.
Regina tried to pull the arrow out faster, but it only hurt Snow more.
Snow cried out and shockingly grabbed Regina's free hand. She tightly squeezed it and dug her nails into the back of the other woman's hand.
"Mom," Emma exclaimed as she ran over to Snow and Regina.
"I'm going to do this like ripping off a band-aid, okay," Regina asked to ensure Snow accepted her plans.
"Okay," Snow agreed a tight, strained voice.
Just as Emma fell to her knees on the side of her mother where Charming once knelt, Regina rapidly yanked the arrow out of Snow and sent it flying across the island.
Snow screamed and curled inward as she turned toward her daughter and clawed at Regina's hand.
Regina squeezed Snow's hand and rested her other hand, the one she'd used to remove the arrow, on Snow's stomach. She held her down on her back to limit her movement.
"Lay still," Regina said.
"Mom," Emma breathed out with a sad expression and reached down for her mother's unoccupied hand.
Mother and daughter held hands, but Snow refused to let go of Regina's. In fact, she used the former Queen's hand to fight through her pain while she refrained from hurting Emma and delicately held the blonde's hand.
Emma hadn't noticed that small detail, but Regina did. She looked from Snow to the object of her sole attention: Emma. She took in Emma's bloodied face and frowned.
"You're okay, right," Emma asked Snow.
Snow faintly smiled at her.
"Yes, honey. I still need healing, but I'll be fine," Snow answered.
Regina slowly reached out, her hand tantalizingly close to Emma's face, when the blonde looked to Regina.
Emma pulled away before Regina could touch her.
"I can heal you," Regina said.
"I know," Emma quickly said as she looked down at the ground.
"Then let me-"
"It's fine. I'm fine. I don't need healing. She does," Emma said and motioned to her mother.
Regina sadly stared at Emma when Hook grunted and came toward them looking fairly beaten himself, though his injuries seemed to be anywhere but his face.
All three women looked over at Hook before he cleared his throat and spoke.
"The Lost Boys seemed to have fled. If I remember correctly, that knocking sound is Pan's call."
Then there was a rustling behind them and someone emerged from the brush.
"Dad," Emma frowned as she took in his appearance.
Charming coughed with a hand pressed to his side under his right arm.
"Henry's gone," he announced on his way to the group. "Rumple too."
"What," Emma loudly asked, confused and angered.
"And what of Pan," Regina asked with concern etched deeply on her face.
"He was there. One of the Lost Boys was with him and took a shot at me. Grazed my side," he lifted his arm slightly and dropped his hand to reveal the wound he spoke of. "Pan knocked on a tree and told the boy to help him find Rumpelstiltskin. From the sound of it, I think Rumple took Henry and ran."
"So long as he doesn't give Henry to Pan, he better have taken him," Regina growled.
"Wait, you knew about this," Emma asked as she turned all her heated attention on Regina.
Regina turned to Emma.
"I couldn't keep him with me while I fought," she explained.
"I'd hate to interrupt another family feud," Hook sarcastically cut in. "But may we discuss this some other time? Pan's still out there and so is his shadow. We need to find a safe haven and I'm not sure my ship counts as such any more."
"Hook's right," Charming conceded with the pirate.
"Well, where the hell else can we go," Emma exasperatedly asked.
Seemingly in response to Emma's question, a twinkling gold light fluttered around Regina. It flew past Regina's nose and caused the brunette to scrunch up her face and sneeze.
When she sneezed, Regina let go of Snow's hand then used it to shoo the light away.
"Damn you," Regina cursed the light.
The light giggled then drifted a few feet beside Emma. The light flickered a few times before the tiny ball of yellow grew into an average sized blonde woman in a short green dress lined with golden swirled accents.
Everyone stared at her. Hook and Regina seemed unaffected by the metamorphosis, but Snow, Charming, and Emma were shocked.
"Must you do that, Tink," Regina asked with eyes darkened by mild and nonthreatening anger.
She giggled again.
"Only when you look distraught or upset," Tink shrugged.
"Tink," Emma asked as she slowly started to form a conclusion. "As in Tinkerbell?"
"Yes, dear," Regina answered as she looked at Emma. "We're in Neverland and you didn't think she exists?"
Tinkerbell curiously tilted her head to take in the way Regina looked at the other blonde. She pouted and took a single step toward Regina, prevented by Snow's body on the ground from taking any more than that.
"Pan will hurt you," Tinkerbell gravely warned Regina. "Come with me to the caves. It's the one place on the island he can't get to thanks to you."
Snow groaned and scrunched up her face in pain.
"Take me anywhere just as long as someone heals me," Snow said.
Regina snapped to attention as if just remembering Snow still needed aid. She waved her hand over Snow's injury and a cloth appeared. She looked at Emma then.
"Keep pressure on that. I can't heal her here. We need to move her somewhere we can prevent infection. I also need to see how deep the wound is," Regina instructed her.
"So you'll come to the caves," Tinkerbell hopefully asked with a smile.
"It's our best chance at surviving until we can find Henry again," Regina said. "So yes."
"Henry," Tinkerbell asked with a frown.
"My son," Emma reflexively answered as she and Charming helped Snow to her feet.
Tinkerbell looked at Regina while the former Queen kept her focus on Emma to correct the woman.
"Our son."
Tinkerbell crossed her arms over her chest and huffed.
"You two share a son," she asked Regina, though it sounded more like a statement.
"I'll explain once we get to the caves," Regina said after she looked over Tinkerbell's less than pleased expression.
Tinkerbell hesitated as she glared at Regina for a moment longer. Finally, she uncrossed her arms and started to lead the group toward the caves in her full height.
"Wait," Emma piped up after several steps and stunted their forward momentum. "Where's Jack?"
Everyone except Tinkerbell looked around only to see they were the only ones there.
"Better yet," Hook asked after they all came to notice Jack's absence and looked Regina up and down several times. "Where's his compass?"
"Are you talking about that pirate with the hat," Tinkerbell asked.
Regina didn't hesitate to look at Tinkerbell.
"Do you know where he is," Regina asked the pixie.
"He ran into me on my way to find you," Tinkerbell started to explain. "He seemed frightened by me and tried to run away, but I got him to tell me where you were. I asked him why he was here and when he told me he wanted to get home, I sent him on his way with a solution."
"You let him go," Regina furiously asked.
Tinkerbell flinched at Regina's raised voice.
"Did you need him?"
"We were using his compass to find Henry," Regina yelled.
"Whoa, hey. Relax, alright," Emma tried to calm Regina. "So what if he got away? His compass didn't seem to help anyway. You came to me instead of Henry."
Snow's eyes widened as she looked at Regina, more pieces of the puzzle completed for her.
Regina gulped, but quickly tried to mask her embarrassment and nervousness about her feelings being discovered, especially before she herself had time to process them.
"He shouldn't have left us so selfishly," Regina redirected the attention of Emma's claim onto the missing pirate.
"We are talking about a man who's spent most of his life at sea, no one to care for but himself," Hook said. "Did you really expect him to care about how we get out of here?"
"Whatever," Emma shook them all off. "He's gone now and we have more important things to worry about than some stupid compass."
"Yes," Snow spoke up as she kept her eyes on Regina.
Regina looked at Snow and saw the curiosity in the woman's eyes.
"We should get to the caves and figure out how we're going to get Henry back," Snow continued with her eyes still on Regina.
Regina knew by the stare down Snow involved her in that the other woman knew something. She kept her expression as neutral as she could and nodded.
"Right. So...Tinkerbell," Emma addressed the pixie, her unease completely obvious to everyone about being in Neverland with an evil Peter Pan and his demented Lost Boys and a hot-headed Tinkerbell. "Take us to the caves."
Red smoke cleared and Henry lurched forward onto his knees in the dirt. He grunted when he landed and rolled onto his backside in a sitting position. He hissed and contorted his face in pain as he reached down but didn't touch the arrow in his calve.
"Easy, Henry," a familiar and thickly accented voice warned with a somewhat fatherly concern. "I'll heal you, but you'll need to stay still and it will hurt."
"Get away from me," Henry growled and glared at Rumple. "You were going to give me to Peter Pan!"
"But I didn't," Rumple raised his index finger like his point carried good weight in his defense.
"Only because I got away."
"On the contrary, dear boy. I'd hoped you would run. In fact, I had counted on it. I just needed to make it seem as though I was on his side so we could get away. This is good."
"How is us being no the lam good?"
"Because Pan doesn't expect me to keep you safe. He expects me to hand you over, not to hide you away in the one part of the island he can't touch."
"But...isn't this his island? How come he can't get here?"
"Your mother made an alliance with a particular pixie years ago."
"Regina became friends with a pixie?"
Rumple nodded as he knelt beside Henry and turned him onto his side to inspect the arrow's damage.
"Wait, pixie like...fairies?"
Rumple nodded again.
"Particular," Henry slowly repeated the word as he tried to figure out the story for himself. "You mean Tinkerbell?"
"That very one."
Rumple started to gently squeeze Henry's calve around the arrow.
Henry jerked and yelped when Rumple's fingers put pressure on the areas too close to the wound.
"Just listen to the story about your mother and Tinkerbell," Rumple said. "Focus on that and this shouldn't be too painful."
Henry took several shallow breaths before he said, "Okay."
"Tinkerbell visited the Enchanted Forest before Regina married the King. Regina was suspicious about her, but listened to her problems anyway."
As Rumple told the story, he did what Regina had done to remove the arrow from Snow except he chose not to use magic. Another difference between Rumple and Regina's actions was that Henry squirmed and cried much more than Snow had. Though that may have had something to do with the age difference and the fact that Henry had never felt a pain such as that caused by an arrow buried in his leg.
"Tinkerbell needed protection from Peter Pan because his shadow had split from him and he'd started to deny the Lost Boys a chance to go home when they started to miss their families."
Rumple gave a good tug to the arrow and Henry mewled as Rumple ripped the weapon out of his calve. The man may have had a dark heart, but Rumple soothingly rubbed Henry's back and brushed light brown hair away his forehead.
"The hard part's over," Rumple said in tone as warm and comforting as hot cocoa on a cold day.
Henry tried to slow his breathing and regulate the rushed beating of his heart as he cried and sniffled.
"Regina offered her services and used a protection spell – with my help of course – that shielded the island caves from those with ill-intent. Though I'm not sure what your mother got out of it, I retrieved one of her tears for my assistance."
With some time, Henry calmed down, but his calve burned and bled.
Rumple conjured a cloth and dabbed at the wound before he figured out the extent of the damage.
"So...we're in the caves," Henry asked before he felt a warmth where his pain resonated.
"No, but the caves aren't the only thing protected by her spell. There's a good portion of land surrounding the caves. That's where we are."
Rumple held his hand over the wound and began to repair torn tissue and tender muscles.
"For now, we're safe," Rumple told him. "So long as we don't step outside the boundary of the spell or Peter Pan doesn't find a way to break it, we need not worry."
Henry took deep breaths and tiredly laid his head down on the ground. He closed his eyes and drifted until the shock from his previous pain overwhelmed him and he blacked out.
Snow laid in one of two beds in Tinkerbell's lightly furnished cabin hidden behind several trees near the caves with only the blood on her clothes as evidence she'd ever been attacked.
Charming sat beside the cot she rested in with their hands joined and fingers laced.
Emma, Tinkerbell, and Regina stood close by in the middle of a discussion about Regina's cliff notes version of her and Emma's history.
"Henry is your son, but she gave birth to him," Tinkerbell asked as she pointed at Regina then Emma, her eyes never leaving Regina's.
"Yes, but-" Regina started only to be cut off by Emma.
"I'm not just the woman who gave birth to him," Emma corrected Tinkerbell with a voice that dripped with venom. "I'm his mother too."
"Ten years is a long time to be out of the picture, especially the first ten years of his life," Tinkerbell spat with her arms crossed over her chest, the most defiant she'd even been.
"Pretty sure that's better than being the worse mother in the world for those ten years. Better than keeping him when I couldn't even take care of myself at the time," Emma continued to argue.
"Regina is his mother."
Emma stepped closer to Tinkerbell and growled from the back of her throat with a death glare trained on the human sized pixie.
"We both are. I've been here for him, fighting for him for about two years now."
"Two, eleven," Tinkerbell held out her hands like a scale and pretended to weight the different numbers.
Emma shot her arms out and grabbed Tinkerbell's arms. She shoved the other blonde backward and moved forward to follow the pixie's trajectory, but Regina stepped in front of her and blocked her with an arm to her chest.
"Enough," Regina exclaimed and looked at Emma then turned to Tinkerbell. "Are you alright?"
Tinkerbell shot a fiery look at Emma then softened when her eyes found Regina's and nodded.
Emma suspiciously narrowed her eyes at Tinkerbell for her bipolar behavior, but she knew the mood changes had nothing to do with her mental stability.
"Wow, they really had you down to a T in the Peter Pan movie, didn't they," Emma rhetorically asked as she started to talk her way toward an answer to a question she had only internally asked herself. "Bitchy, nosy...and insanely jealous."
Emma's eyes widened in epiphany when she said "jealous." Then a huge smile spread widely across her face and she couldn't control her laughter.
"Oh, okay. I get it," Emma laughed and grabbed Regina's arm.
Tinkerbell's eyes immediately fell onto Emma's hold on Regina and watched the other blonde lower Regina's arm away from her chest.
Emma dropped Regina's arm at the brunette's side and grinned when she saw Tinkerbell's focus on her hand the entire time. Tinkerbell didn't look up until Emma released Regina's arm and Emma slowly nodded at the pixie with her ever present grin.
"It's been a long day," Regina interrupted whatever had started to transpire between Emma and Tinkerbell. "We need to find Henry...again. And it would help to have a way home when we do."
"I can help get you home," Tinkerbell offered. "You wish to return to the Enchanted Forest?"
"No, I don't live there anymore," Regina answered.
"Since when?"
Regina flashed a nervous smile, unsure of how Tinkerbell would take her answer.
"Twenty-eight years?"
She said it like a question even though she knew it to be the truth, but she didn't know if Tinkerbell would accept the truth.
"Oh, it's been much too long, Regina," Tinkerbell said as she walked up to the brunette and took one of her hands in her own.
Regina nodded and slipped her hand out of Tinkerbell's. She closed her fist as she pulled her hand away from Tinkerbell and crossed her arms over her chest, that hand hidden under her other arm.
"Why don't you live there anymore," Tinkerbell asked as she sadly looked down at the hand Regina took away from her before she looked into Regina's eyes again.
"I cast a curse. I wasn't happy and I wanted Snow White to suffer."
"But..." Tinkerbell turned to look at Snow White, confused, then looked at Regina. "You healed her."
"I did."
"You hate her. Why would you heal her?"
Regina opened and closed her mouth several times, but never once voiced an answer.
Emma quizzically looked at Regina then stepped up to stand by her side.
"Yeah, why did you heal my mom?"
"You- You're Snow White's daughter," Tinkerbell asked with obvious surprise.
"Yeah," Emma coolly answered.
"You share a son with your enemy's daughter," Tinkerbell asked Regina with a bit of hurt in her voice.
"It's not like I chose to do so," Regina said.
"Actually, you kind of did," Emma spoke up. "You could decide not to share him and then we'd go back to the arrangement we have in Storybrooke right now."
"I will not let you keep him from me," Regina snapped.
"That's what I thought. See, that's the choice you made. You know not having Henry around is much worse than having to put up with me."
"Some choice," Regina rolled her eyes.
"Lesser of two evils," Emma supplied with a shrug.
"Fancy place you have," Hook said as he emerged from the cabin entrance. "Where's a Captain to sleep though? I see only two beds and there are six of us."
"You need somewhere to sleep," Emma asked, her tone unamused and somewhat frustrated with his interruption. "Pick a spot on the ground and make friends with it."
"You can have my cot," Tinkerbell quietly said to Regina.
"The ground is fine," Regina smiled. "But thank you."
"I think the Savior should get a cot," Hook smirked as he responded to what he overheard between Tinkerbell and Regina.
"Who is the Savior," Tinkerbell asked.
Emma raised her hand like a child in class.
"That would be me, but I know not to ask for luxury," Emma said. "The ground is fine."
"What makes you a savior?"
"She broke the Queen's curse," Hook explained to her as though Tinkerbell should have known that already.
Hook walked closer to Emma.
"How did she break your curse," Tinkerbell asked Regina.
"Henry," Emma sadly said, lost in her thoughts by the concentrated look on her face.
Hook faltered in his movement and dropped his teasing attitude for a brief moment before he decided to continue.
"Would you like me to pick a spot on the ground close to you," Hook suggestively raised an eyebrow.
Emma held out her arm and pushed her hand against Hook's chest to keep him from getting too close to her.
"No, thank you," Emma replied with a serious tone to match her stern expression.
She moved past him and looked down at her parents as she approached them.
"You guys okay," she asked.
Charming and Snow smiled up at her and nodded.
"I'm just a little tired," Snow answered. "Some rest would be nice."
Emma smiled.
"I think I'm gonna get some air," Emma said as she hitched her thumb toward the cabin entrance.
"Are you okay," Charming frowned and got to his feet, concerned.
Charming touched Emma's arm and looked closely at her as she nodded with a smaller smile than before.
"Yeah, I'm just restless."
"We'll find him, Emma," Charming said as he refused to lose eye contact with her.
"We found him before, didn't we," Emma forced her smile to widen. "I know we'll find him again."
"You shouldn't be alone right now," Charming said and started to rub Emma's arm.
"That's exactly what I should be right now."
"You've been through a lot," Snow spoke up. "Just lay down and-"
Emma shook her head.
"I'll be right outside. I'm twenty-eight, not five. Remember?"
"Twenty-eight," Tinkerbell asked no one in particular. "You enacted the curse when she was born."
"Yes," Regina quietly admitted.
"I'll only be out there for a little while," Emma said.
"Fine," Charming reluctantly said. "But take this with you."
He bent down and grabbed his sword from the ground beside Snow's cot then stood up and handed it to his daughter.
"Okay," Emma said as she took the sword.
Emma stepped forward toward the cabin entrance and tried to get around Charming, but he only moved to impede her.
Charming placed a hand on the back of Emma's neck and pulled her closer. He kissed the top of her head where her forehead met her hairline. Only after he kissed her did he let her go.
Emma didn't look at anyone else as she walked toward the entrance and squeezed the sword the closer she got to the front door.
Snow scooted over to allow Charming room on the cot just barely big enough for two people. When he joined her, she wedged herself snugly between the wall and her husband.
Hook looked around until his eyes focused on a place against the far wall and shrugged to himself. He walked over to it and braced himself on the wall as he lowered himself onto the ground.
Tinkerbell wordlessly took Regina's hand and led the brunette into another room. She let go of Regina's hand and turned to the door frame that split the main area from the smaller room she had taken Regina to. She grabbed an end of a blanket nailed to the wall and lifted it to cover the door frame like a room divider. She stuck the other end of the blanket to a wad of gum that held nicely to the wall then turned back to Regina.
"You look different," Tinkerbell said after she looked Regina over.
"Good different or bad?"
"Good," Tinkerbell smiled. "Although, I think I prefer you with long hair. There's just not as much to run my fingers through."
Regina smiled and slowly sat down on the edge of Tinkerbell's bed with a worried expression.
"You're thinking too much," Tinkerbell dropped the playfulness in her tone and made her way to the bed.
"How can I be thinking too much when my son is out there somewhere with Rumpelstiltskin."
Tinkerbell sat down beside Regina and ran a hand up and down Regina's back.
"I'm going to help you. Tell me everything that happened from what led you to Neverland up until now."
Emma sat with her back against the front of the cabin and dragged the tip of her father's sword through the dirt. She made lines, shapes, and finally letters using the edge of the sword to clear the carved dirt away in a clean slate effect. At first, she formed an "H" then continued to spell out "Henry" before it caused her to frown. She quickly swiped the edge of the sword over his name and made it disappear – just like he had when she left him to fight. She dropped the sword in front of her and cradled her head in her hands.
After a moment of listening to the nighttime bugs during the later part of sunset in the nearby flora, she slid her hands away from her head and brought her knees to her chest. She wrapped her arms around her shins and held herself before she rested her forehead on her knees and cried into her jeans.
Note: This story has my focus to keep up with the show. My two other fan fics will be updated much slower, but there will be updates! For those of you that read Settling the Score, the next chapter should be finished and updated by Monday. Masquerade, unfortunately, is still probably another week away.
PLEASE review this chapter and let me know what you think. I always appreciate your feedback. Also, thank you once again for all the follows, favorites, and reviews so far. I can't tell you how happy seeing your response to this makes me. :)
