CHAPTER TEN
"Mother, what are you doing?"
Emma stared at Peter for a full moment, he didn't sound petulant, or challenging, he sounded like a frightened child tied up with his friends at the mercy of Pirates sailing out into mermaid infested waters.
"Yes Mother." Hook smirked, "What are you doing?" he was stood arms crossed leaning against the side of the ship, eyeing the children like they were going to bite. Having spent time with them she was certain they probably would... and that he'd need a Tetanus shot he wasn't going to get in Neverland.
"Please don't rile them up, they'll start chanting." Emma muttered, "You really don't want to get them going on 101 bottles of beer on the wall."
Hook's smirk only widened. "And I wonder where they learnt that delightful little diddy from."
"Mother. Please I'm scared." Tootles was nearly close to tears and Emma relented. She knelt down next to him careful to keep out of biting range; she'd not forgotten this was the little brat that had aimed an arrow at her heart and they could all put on the waterworks when they wanted something.
"Look kid. I'm taking you home. So there's nothing to be scared of." Not her most maternal, but then what else was she supposed to say, they couldn't stay here alone, what kind of a mother, or human being would she be if she let them just continue running wild, alone. She'd already had to perform CPR on one of the twins because he'd accidentally drowned... the other boys never had admitted who'd strapped the rocks to him and thrown him in. Or the time when she and Tink had needed to find an antidote to the mushrooms Slightly had ingested. Leaving them here was wrong, taking them away was cruel. Welcome to adulthood. Life sucked, no more so than the crappy decisions you had to make in it.
"Pirate." Peter hissed; looking heartbroken he didn't even seem to have the will to struggle with his ropes anymore. "How could you do this to us Wendy, you were Mother?"
Emma sighed, feeling wretched. "No, I'm someone's mother, but he's not here. He's back there, in that world you're so afraid of that you ran all the way here to this dark little part of the imagination to live out a pointless existence. Never changing, never learning, never experiencing anything real." She caught his chin with her hand, forcing his darkened eyes on hers. "I'm doing you a favour Peter." The use of his name made him flinch but she didn't relent. "I was abandoned too. I had no mother, no father, I grew up in hell completely alone, just like you and the Lost Boys." His lips were pressed firmly together but she could feel him shaking, either out of fear, emotion or the simple attempt to tear her head off. "But I had to grow up, I had people that needed me to grow up. You can't stay this way forever... what would be the point?"
"We're happy, leave us alone!" he raged and Emma dropped his chin.
Her patience snapped. "No you're not. You're as miserable as everyone else is in Neverland because that's how you got here, that's the thought you carried with you into this nasty little land; 'you didn't want to be alone'. He was stony as he stared firmly at anything but her, but she didn't need his confirmation to know the truth.
"There are children there Pan." She conceded slightly, "Lots of them. Parents too, parents who would be happy to take in a lost little boy because the people there, they lost everything that was theirs too." Although she imagined that feral boys with serious abandonment and authority issues were going to be a hard sell anywhere.
"Shut up Pirate." He mumbled, blinking away tears, Emma turned away, she couldn't face the accusatory looks. She'd tucked them into bed, told them stories, bandaged the scrapes. Hell she'd been more of a mother to them than she had ever been to her own son, and she couldn't seem to find it in herself to really care. All she did care about was the idiot Pirate with the stupid smirk stood beside her, gently running his hand up and down her spine.
"I hate Neverland." She hissed with feeling, hearing him chuckle behind her.
"Oh I don't know, it has its moments." He pulled her back lightly against him, letting her draw comfort and strength for the few seconds they had. "We're nearly there Love. Hold your nerve. Besides, I think they're adorable, like wolf cubs, all bark and no bite."
Emma nodded. "Trust me, the barking is enough." She eased out of his grasp, touching him was too difficult right now, just breathing the same air as him seemed to be making everything hazy, she barely remembered where they were sailing too right now.
"Mermaids Love." Hook informed her quietly. "We're here for the sunken city surrounded by mermaids." Emma gave him a look; he knew, damn him for knowing exactly what was going through her head... or what had slipped right out. She turned back, raising her hand to his face and stroking her palm across the stubble before her thumb rose to brush over his lips, why did he have to remember it now, just when she needed him to. He pressed a kiss to her thumb and she withdrew it wearily.
"We don't have to go." He reminded her just as quietly, following her gaze out to where the ruins of the city still rose above the water in places. "Can still turn this ship around, forget about all this, forget about going anywhere. Just stay here, sailing the oceans, together." He sounded sincere she stared into his eyes, trying to understand where he was coming from, but she couldn't see beyond the wall he'd put up in this moment between them. He wanted this to be her decision.
"We do have to go Killian. This place is killing everything that we are supposed to be." She sighed. "It's time to go home. Time to face what this place has made us avoid and allowed us to forget." Hook grasped her hand, kissing her palm before dropping it and stalking towards the wheel, he spun it violently giving her what they needed... direction.
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The water had turned into a squall. Emma clung to the wheel beside Hook as they tried to steer the ship over the central spot.
"This is as close as we're gonna get it Love!" Hook roared over the sound of the waves, clearly this was why Pan had always flown over this area, sailing it was suicide. Emma had to agree. She left the safety of the wheel, stumbling and slipping across the deck and shoving sailors out of her way as she went until she was in front of the soaked and terrified looking Lost Boys.
"Now would be an excellent time for that plan." Hook had joined her as he grasped her wrist, and sunk his hook into the central mast, keeping them both stable as the ship pitched violently to the left.
"We need stardust." Emma shouted back, reaching for Peter, the restrained boy struggled as she grasped him by the shoulder, her hand sweeping through his hair. He was coated in the stuff, whatever it was and whatever he was, it was unique. Emma watched it glisten in her fingers lifting it to her face to stare at the grains as they flashed like sunlight. "Help me." She instructed Hook, shoving his hand into the boys hair, returning it as caked as hers had been. "Run your hand all around the ships edge. Coat it in a thin layer."
"What are you going to do?" he pressed, staring with mild disgust at his now shimmering hand.
"Figure out how to fly this thing." Emma called back, already sprinting up to the helm and rubbing her sparkling hands all over the damn wheel. She half heard Hook muttering something under his breath, but he was doing as she'd instructed, his fingers running featherlight all around the edge trying to keep his balance as the waves attempted to pitch them all once more into the deep.
"My Lady!" Jukes snarled, grabbing the wheel in an attempt to remain upright as he almost crashed into her. "Whatever you're going to do, do it fast, we're taking on water."
Emma watched Hook grasp the central mast securing himself with his hook in place as he stared up at her. "Do it!" he roared, she needed no further encouragement. Although instructions would have been useful.
Henry. It was the thought she needed. It was the memory she needed. A thought had send her spiralling into Neverland, cursed; a thought would send her hurtling out, free.
Emma's hands gripped the wheel, pushing every ounce of feeling she had into the image of a boy she only half remembered. The ship creaked and shook, but slowly it rose up out of the water accompanied by the shouts and shrieks of both jubilation and fear.
But with the feelings coursing through her like a freight train, the magic rattling along behind it like some supercharged payload she just wasn't able to keep it on track.
Killian. The thought was like wildfire, and it spread like poison, corrupting whatever the pulsating magic that lived inside of her was, with Neverland's own tainted variety. The ship fell heavily back to the water, sinking down low enough that water rushed over the sides and it bobbed back up like a cork sending men sprawling and clinging on for dear life.
"Emma." Hook grasped her wrist with his hook, his hand coming down over hers on the wheel.
"It's no good." Emma spun, panic beginning to take hold as the sky turned an inky black and lightening struck the water inches away from the ship. "Neverland's not letting us go!"
Hook kissed her hard, his expression fiercer than she had ever remembered seeing it. "It will." He insisted, turning her back to the wheel and placing her hands over the wooden spokes and covering her right with his own. "Think of home Emma of your family."
"I'm trying." She insisted as the lightening struck again, this time hitting the ship square on the front, the fire trying to take hold and only failing because of the soaked wood. They didn't have long.
"Emma listen to me." He lips were pressed against her ear, his body crushing hers to the wheel from behind as he tried to hold her still against the impossible pitching of the ship as it was tossed from wave to wave. They were going to be torn apart or burnt to ashes, there were only two ways this was going to end, she was certain. "Emma!" he bit her ear sharply, drawing her focus back to him and away from the maelstrom gathering speed all around. "This is Neverland's last gasp. You are stronger than it. Your magic is stronger than it, that blasted boy has stardust in his hair... anything is possible, you just have to want it badly enough Love." Emma felt her hand curl tighter against the wheels spoke, flexing beneath his. He wanted her to think of everything that was drifting away with every touch of his skin to hers... it was impossible. The very thing she needed to escape Neverland was the very thing Neverland stole.
"I can't." She almost sobbed, sagging against the wheel as lightening finally struck true, hitting the central mast and setting the sails ablaze, bathing them all in an eerie golden glow that would surely end them. "I can't remember why I want to go there." Tears fell and she curled her hands tighter around the wheel, despair spreading, "I can't remember." She pleaded with him, begging him for something, anything to shake loose the memory.
"You're doing it for love Emma." She felt him press a kiss to the back of her head. "You love your son, your family."
"I love you." Emma bit out the words like they were the poison she'd always feared they would be. The ship was burning now, the fire licking in at them from all sides as the squall tried to suck them under. But Hook was still, a calm in the chaos.
"So take us to a place where we can be together Love." His hooked hand slid around her waist and his hand over hers on the wheel tightened, turning her attention back to the ship, to the stardust... to the magic pulsing through her veins.
The ship rose.
The tempest raged and the fire raced along every inch of the ship the storm wasn't dousing, nature itself doing battle to keep them. But Emma felt like she had launched an anchor out to some distant shore, a bright blazing beacon that was reeling her in. The ship rose higher and higher, until the water and the squall fell away, the fire extinguished on deck as they rose through the soaking clouds. Every inch of the ship protested, Emma could feel the wood bowing, the stress as the ropes frayed, it was like an extension of her now, and she had to hold.
"Second star to the right, and straight on till morning." Emma declared, her eyes fixed on a point she was certain only she could see as she aimed the crumbling vessel for the tear in the very fabric of Neverland itself.
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"What is it, what's happening?" Henry grasped his grandmother's hand tightly, watching with a growing sense of fear as the sky all over Storybrooke began to darken.
"Look, there." David pointed, "There's some sort of electrical storm over the harbour."
"Henry!" Regina's voice startled him and he turned seeing his mother... his other mother, as Mary Margaret made him call her, running towards them.
Mary Margaret put her hand out stopping Regina from reaching Henry. "Do you know what's happening, what this is?" he asked her, hoping that she wouldn't lie, he could always tell and he hated it.
Regina gave him a pained look, but kept back, "It's magic, I can feel it."
"It's Emma." Henry told them bluntly, he had never been more certain of anything in his life.
The adults all seemed to pause, each one of them sharing a look before they turned pitying expressions on him. He hated it when they did that to.
"Henry," Mary Margaret spoke first, clutching his hand tightly. "I know how badly you want anything strange that happens in this town to be a sign that your mother's still alive, or that she's coming home. But it's been over a year."
"She is alive!" Henry tore his hand out of hers, furious with her, with all of them for giving up so easily. He was twelve, he didn't need to be mollycoddled all the time like some sort of child anymore.
"Henry." David's hand went down on his shoulder, but his tone had that sharp quality he got when he gave an order he expected obeyed. "I believe you, I will never give up on Emma. Never." He leant down so they could meet eyelines, which given as Henry was showing signs of his growth spurt, meant he wouldn't have to do that for very much longer. "And nor will Snow, you know we're still looking for her, still trying everything, but she isn't in the Enchanted Forest anymore. You just have to be patient. We will find her one day."
"You aren't looking right now. Does that look normal to you, it could be her!" he snapped.
Regina sighed heavily coming to stand beside David, "Henry, this is an enchanted town, you can't keep getting your hopes up like this at every sign of magic. Running towards things like this," Regina was speaking softly and calmly to him and he hated that it worked far better than when his grandparents tried to calm him down. "It will just end up getting you hurt, and I don't just mean emotionally."
"You would say that," he pointed at her accusingly. "You want Emma to stay gone."
"Henry!" her tone grew sharp and Mary Margaret allowed it when she moved closer and grasped him by the chin, forcing him to look at her. "Don't ever let me hear you say that again. You think I want you to be miserable, to be unhappy like this. If I could bring Emma back to you I would."
"I hate to interrupt this touching moment Dearie's. But there seems to be a ship emerging from a portal in the harbour." Henry turned, his eyes going wide as he took in what Gold had said, he was stood there his cane in his hand, casual as you like but when their gazes met, Henry knew... the little smirk told him everything.
"Mom." Henry bolted, leaving them behind as he ran as fast as his legs would carry him towards the harbour, not caring as he flew past people that attempted to slow him, or stop him as David tried to chase him down. They were all coming, his flight towards the magic that seemed to be tearing apart the dark sky illuminated only by the dangerous arc of electricity seemed to be spurring other people into motion. Ruby appeared beside him, her wolf form easily outstripping him as she kept pace. He heard David yell at her to stop him. "Ruby it's my Mom, I just know it is. Please." He panted, struggling to talk and breath at the same time, but Ruby didn't stop him, she kept pace as they ran down to the dock, his eyes fixed on the impossible sight as a pirate ship, with billowing black sails seemed to be rising from a maelstrom.
The squeal of tires surprised him and he turned just in time to see Gold, Regina and Mary Margaret all pile out of Regina's car and come after him. But Henry wasn't an idiot, he stopped at the harbours edge, watching in open mouthed fascination as the enormous vessel rose through the storm, lightening dancing off its black as night sails. His eyes drew immediately to the helm, to the figure with blonde flowing locks of hair that had to be hers... they just had to be.
David caught up with him, his hand going down hard on his shoulder to stop him doing anything ridiculous like throwing himself into the water in some vain attempt to reach the ship faster.
"My god." Regina was beside him now, her hand on his other shoulder, he felt Mary Margaret behind him, his family, and he didn't care, it wasn't a family unless Emma was there. "Gold, is that ship flying." Regina turned the two of them sharing a guarded look that Henry couldn't read, but he couldn't keep his attention on them, he couldn't take his eyes from the rising ship. It looked beat up, on fire, but it was the most magnificent sight he'd ever seen as the water poured out of it as it began to turn in mid air.
"Look." Mary Margaret pointed, although in Henry's opinion there was so much to watch that he wasn't sure what she was getting at. "The vortex is closing." Henry watched as the water began to grow still and the floating ship, slowly but surely lowered itself back towards the water. Touching down gently, with barely a splash. The storm blew itself out like it had never been there, the dark skies dissipating to reveal the grey dreary sunlight that had been there before as the last rumble of thunder trailed off into the distance.
Everyone held their breath, the silence after the roar of the storm seemed almost deafening.
Then there was a wall of human noise from the ship that startled Henry, the ship drifted into the side of the harbour wall and simply stopped alongside it, perfectly aligned, as he craned his neck, staring at every inch of the ship this new angle revealed. He wanted to get on board the vessel it was so close he could have jumped, but David's and Regina's hands were firm. His eyes scanned every inch of the ship, taking in the sight of the burly weather roughened men with swords who were celebrating. His eyes fell on the small group of children tied up to the central mast and he paused, they seemed somewhere between happy and sad.
But his smile split his face so hard, it actually sort of hurt, as his eyes followed the long haired blonde as she stepped down from the helm and approached the side of the deck, giving him his first look at her face. His breath stopped.
"Mom." He managed weakly. All that faith and belief, and right now with her standing there in front of him, with leather pants, long leather jacket and her very own sword... he couldn't seem to make himself believe she was real. Or that the man stood on deck beside her really had a hook for a hand. His eyes left Emma for just a moment to travel the length of the ship, the name of the vessel emblazoned there undamaged as he took in the tattered remnants of what were clearly black sails.
The Jolly Roger.
His mother was home.
And she was a Pirate?
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Thank you very much all of you for your reviews, I'm glad your enjoying the story.
I have Re-uploaded this Chapter for a small edit: I realised Henry was 10 in series 1, likely 11 at the start of s2, I meant to make him 12, so that ~just over a year has passed since Emma went to the Enchanted Forest from Storybrooke's perspective.