I had a lot of guests, so the way I did it is from top to bottom in the review page.
Guest1: thank you for giving me your opinion, I've pretty much decided to let him live :)
Skylark: thanks for the review, I'm planning on letting him live. I'm glad you like how she's unfolding, and finally making a decision - there's another piece to that choice in this chapter, showing another reason why it's hard for her. And I hope you enjoy all the Cami and Felix moments in this one, cause I want them together too.
Guest2: I know I was upset too, and he looked so confused when he figured out it was him. And thank you, I'm glad you liked the chapter, I had a lot of fun writing her finally making a choice. Although there's more of the reason why it took so long in this chapter.
ihaveagoodreview: thank you for your opinion. I knew it was coming, I knew when they started showing him more that he was gonna die. Didn't make it easier when he did.
lola: thanks for telling me!
Hannah: thanks the review. I kind of want to keep him alive that way I can play some things a little bit more; and because I like writing him and her.
Guest3: I've done a lot of stories that have had sad endings, so I'd like to make this one have a happy one (thought it stays true to the show in that it doesn't happen how you expect.)
Guest4: His death would just ruin her, cause after over 200 years she couldn't live in a world he didn't. And I'm glad you caught that, cause that's one of the reasons she wants to leave now. When she first left Neverland it was mostly because she wasn't happy there, and it was too dark, and she didn't really trust Pan anymore. But after being in Storybrook is when she started wanting to grow up and have a family, which is where she is now. She wants Felix to come back with her.
David and Hook quickly walked back to the others after having circled a large portion of the area Cami had been in. "Did you find her?" Mary Margaret asked when she saw David's face, knowing something was wrong.
He shook his head. "We found her tracks but she wasn't there."
"We circled around and found another set of tracks leading to where she'd been," Hook cut in, knowing what had happened. "There was only one set of footprints leaving and they weren't hers."
"So then where is she?" Regina asked growing more and more concerned. "She wouldn't have left, she wasn't happy here. She didn't want to,"
"Hey," Emma said interrupting her, "I know. But if we can't find her, I mean," she shrugged, "there's not much else we can do but continue looking for Henry and either find her or she finds us." She wasn't any happier about Cami being missing than Regina, knowing she hadn't just wandered off – especially not with how broken up she had been the past two days.
"So we're just going to leave her out there, to deal with god knows what?" Regina demanded unsatisfied with Emma's response.
Mary Margaret stepped forward. "She's right," she said in defense of her daughter, "Cami didn't want to stay here, we all saw that. But if she's gone then that means Pan has her. She's in the same place as Henry, we'll get her when he get him."
Emma placed a hand on Regina's shoulder before pulling it back to her side. "I gave her my word," she told Regina, "we're not leaving her here."
…
Cami woke to a vicious pounding in her head, a throbbing that pulsed behind her eyes and in her ears. Her first thought was ow, but her second was that she was getting real sick of being knocked out. This was the third time in less than a week, and after opening her eyes and blinking through a swirling haze, it was getting old.
"I was wondering when you'd wake up," Felix said, his voice a sarcastic knife cutting through her ears painfully.
She made to sit up and that was when she noticed the wooden bars around her. "What the hell," she said, the first thing that came to her fuddled mind. She didn't know if Pan had had cages for awhile or if this had been made specifically for her – but she wouldn't put it past Pan to have had these longer than her.
Felix smirked as he stepped closer. "This is what happens when you go against Pan," he told her, "I told you to stop talking."
"Stop talking about what?" Pan asked coming through the thick trees to stop in front of her cage. "Felix won't tell me what you said."
She looked to Felix in surprise, seeing his still arrogant face as he stood behind Pan watching her closely. He saw the look in her eye, watched as it softened slightly before looking back to Pan.
"I guess you made your choice," he said kneeling down to be eye level with her, having known Felix would only hurt her if it was to protect her. "You should be thanking him, if he didn't care so much about you I might have it in mind to kill you now. I won't of course," he assured her when he watched her eyes widen startled, Felix stiffening behind him, "you're our lost girl." He stared hard at her, seeing her small body curled against the side of the cage, not feeling an ounce of forgiveness for her. If he had it his way he'd drop her cage in the ocean and let her drown, he'd never trust her again, he'd never look at her and want her anywhere near Neverland ever again. But if he didn't show her mercy, if he didn't offer forgiveness then Felix might actually leave him. He honestly didn't know what Felix would do if left with the choice she'd had, and he certainly didn't want to find out – there was no one he trusted more, no one who was more loyal. And she really had ruined him. "But that's all for later, we still have to deal with your group. How long do you think it'll take them to realize they'll never win?" He was goading her, trying to get a rise out of her so she'd admit to him what she had to Felix; but she kept her mouth shut, proving he had taught her well. "It will give me enough time to think over an apt punishment for you," he said smiling pleasantly before standing. "And make no mistake, Rapunzel," he told her, a malicious glint in his eye, "it will be severe."
Felix watched Pan walk back through the trees, a terrible feeling washing over him that her staying would be a horrible mistake. He got down on his knees beside the cage, grabbing the small edge his fingers could slip through. "Say nothing," he urged her. "As far as anyone's concerned you're still with Pan, your judgement was just clouded and now you see what's right." She looked away from him, doubt filling her eyes. "I'm not asking you to believe it," he told her shortly, "I'm asking you, Rapunzel I am begging you to just go with it. Please," he said when she still looked at him unconvinced.
"He wants me dead," she said softly.
Felix shook his head. "He won't kill you," he told her firmly.
"He wants me dead," she said again, not thinking he was so blind as to believe Pan was really giving her a second chance on this.
He wasn't. "I am the reason you'll stay alive. If you want anything more than that you need to apologize and you need to mean it." He sat on his knees waiting for her to say something, to agree or disagree but to just say something. He felt a brush of her fingers over his own, seeing she was still not looking at him.
"You love me," she whispered, "that's why you're doing this."
The feel of her fingers wasn't enough, he wanted to hold her again, to feel her pressed against him so that he knew she was safe. "Yeah," he breathed, coming as close to admitting he loved her as he ever had.
She nodded before pulling away. "It was twenty-eight years, I didn't remember you or anyone else here. I had a whole new set of memories."
He looked at her desperately, not understanding what she was saying or if she was telling him that she wouldn't because of the life the curse had given her.
For several seconds she hesitated before continuing, taking deep breaths as reality settled around her. "It's enough to make anyone have doubts." She heard him heave a sigh of relief, wishing she believed any of what she was saying if it was only for him. But she didn't, she knew Emma and Regina would find a way to get Henry and she knew they wouldn't leave her. But he smiled slightly when she looked back to him, obviously happy she was listening to him. And so she nodded reluctantly, taking a deep breath before letting it out. "Will you visit me while I'm in here?" she asked.
He smiled before standing. "I'll see what I can do," he offered caustically before pulling on the rope attached to her cage so that she'd be lifted beside the other two.
She leaned back unhappily in her wobbly cage, letting exhaustion settle over her as she listened to him walking away.
"Hey," a voice whispered hushed from beside her.
She turned to the cage to her right and her heart thudded to a stop at who she saw. "Neal?"
…
Felix didn't get far before he was stopped by Pan. "She'll come back to us," he said assuredly, "she'll see it was a mistake."
Pan smiled less than amused. "You're so sure?" he asked, not thinking Felix was stupid enough to believe that. "I bet Neal's said hello by now, shall we see what she says then?"
He wanted to say no, because he knew she probably would confess everything to that stupid boy like she always had. But there no offering of refusal in Pan's eyes and so he stepped aside and let Pan walk back to the cages before following him, keeping quiet like he knew he had to if the two wouldn't know they were there.
"You were dead," they heard her say, her voice thick with tears at seeing he was in fact very much alive.
"That's a long story," Neal told her. "You really go against Pan?"
This was it, this would change everything and Felix crouched down beside Pan waiting a painfully long amount of time before she finally answered.
"It was a mistake," she said, the two almost not catching her soft voice from where they were.
Any other time he would have smiled or even laughed shortly in relief; but he didn't then, he stayed still and quiet as he waited for what Pan would do. Pan stayed where he was a few minutes longer, hearing Neal question her and then as she repeated herself.
"I told you," Felix said offhandedly when they'd walked away, "she'll come back."
Pan looked at him closely, searching for any sign of a lie and finding none on Felix's blank face. And so he smiled. "I suppose we'll have to see," he said before making to walk away.
But Felix called him back. "You sure it's a good idea to leave her by Neal, what if he convinces her to help him again?"
This was the Felix Pan knew, and this time when he smiled he actually meant it. "Don't worry Felix, he won't be there for too long. Though it wouldn't hurt if you visited her while he was there to keep her mind off him."
Felix nodded before travelling back to the camp, wondering if this would actually make a difference in the long run; whatever punishment Pan had in store for her it would end in her getting hurt. What other option did he have but to stomach it– she was so convinced her small little group would succeed, but Pan never failed. All he could was keep her out of it until it blew over.
…
There were so many questions Neal wanted to ask her, so many things he needed to know. But there was hardly a moment Felix wasn't there, guarding her from him it seemed. Neal only knew that Emma and Regina and her parents and Hook were here to get Henry back, and that she hadn't been apart of any of their plans so she didn't have much to offer him. She didn't say much else, at least not unless he spoke first. Other than that she sat against a corner of the cage curled up waiting for when Felix would come back and lower her to the ground so he could talk to her.
He sat against the wooden box staring up at the trees and the small twinkling of the stars he could just barely make out between the leaves. "So this," he paused as though the word put a bad taste in his mouth, "Storybrook, what was it like?"
She pressed herself against the place he was sitting, searching for his warmth which she could only just barely feel. "I don't really remember a whole lot before Emma came, it was kind of just a dull blur," she answered shrugging.
"Where'd you live?" he asked, trying to piece together why she was fighting for them.
"In a girl's home," she told him. "I wasn't very happy there."
He turned to her. "Didn't like all the girls?" he asked sarcastically. He saw the look in her eye, saw the sadness that had been there for years. "You were alone the entire time."
She leaned her head against the wood sighing, feeling his fingers running along the bars as though to stroke her hair. "I had Mother Superior, she took care of me. And Granny gave me free meals sometimes and let me stay in the diner until curfew. It wasn't all bad, I was just," she looked up at him, "lonely."
He looked closer at her to see her face was softer than he'd thought, almost content to be sitting there with him. "Did you miss me?" he asked, his mouth curving into a smirk.
She saw the mischief in his eyes and she looked away smiling. "A little bit," she said softly.
"Hmm," he hummed disbelieving, "you dreamed of me for twenty-eight years, I'd say that qualifies as more than a little," he said teasing, his eyes hot when she turned back to him.
She felt something in her stomach churn at the way he was looking at her and she bit her lip at the turn her thoughts took. "You know," she said looking around at the inside of her cage, "there's enough room for two in here."
His brow rose in surprise at her words and he looked to see her bottom lip between her teeth as she smiled at him. "Naughty girl," he said deeply, smiling at her in return before moving around to the front and undoing the latch.
She laid back as he crawled in to settle on top of her, pulling the cloak from his shoulders so she could better see his face. "Hi there," she whispered looking up at him, feeling the feather in his hair tickling her neck.
He looked from her mouth to her eyes and back again. "Hi," he said in return with a grin at the sight of her burning eyes. All the proof he needed that she'd missed him was here, in her eyes staring up at him waiting and her legs wrapped around him. She never had been very patient and he'd always loved to tease her, and it left her to grab his face and pull his mouth to hers, covering his smile with her lips as his hands moved around her waist.
Neal sat in his cage glaring at the wood above him, his hands pressed against his ears to muffle every gasp she made or Felix's occasional grunt. How many times he'd stumbled upon them like this, had been told to get Felix and found them with their pants down. He didn't know how long he waited until Felix crawled back out of the cage, pulling his pants up and tying them before latching her cage again. He waited silently until Felix hoisted her cage up beside his, and then until the other boy left. "Did you seriously have to do that now?" he asked irritably, hearing her faint laughter. "I'm serious, I was right here the whole time." He sat up and looked over at her cage, seeing from the shadow that she was laying down still, and she was still laughing. "This isn't funny Rapunzel," he told her though he was not fighting not to smile.
"I'm sorry," she tried to say, having forgot about him being up there for how quiet he was – and even if she had remembered him, she wouldn't have stopped.
"Liar," he said making her laugh all over again though this time he chuckled with her. It was good to hear her laugh, something he honestly hadn't thought he'd hear her do again. But after a short while she settled into silence and he knew she was trying to push all the thoughts of what was going to happen out of her mind. "What are you gonna do?" he asked, knowing that whatever calm pleasantness had left when Felix did.
"I don't wanna think about that," she said with a finality in her voice. No matter what way she looked at it anything that happened would hurt her in some way – and if they did take down Pan she didn't know what Felix would do, what they would do with Felix.
He looked over her at feeling nothing but sympathy for her, this wasn't something she should have to worry about; these weren't choices she should have to make. He understood how impossible this was for her, that she was invested in both sides. "You're gonna have to soon, because if they are coming then you know what'll happen."
"I know, Bae," she said cutting him short. "I'm just, I'm scared."
He looked hard at her cage, seeing she was curled against the side of it again though now she had her back to him. "I have no doubt Emma's gonna get Henry back. And I know," he paused a moment before continuing. "I know you." All she ever said when he asked was that she had chosen Pan, but he knew she hadn't.
She shook her head, too unhappy with everything to think clearly. "I know they will," she said, admitting aloud for anyone to hear that she knew Pan would lose. "But what then? What about Pan, how will they stop him?" she demanded turning to him, seeing him shake his head shrugging. "They're gonna kill him."
He stared at her for a minute confused, having been startled at hearing her confession, though he didn't see what was troubling her. "And?" he asked finally.
She stared at him appalled, wondering if at any point in the time he'd been here he'd actually enjoyed it. "What if I don't want him dead?"
"What?" Neal asked completely not understanding, having thought that's what she would have wanted.
But it wasn't. "He's Peter Pan," she said as a means of defense, "the first person to ever introduce themselves to me." She looked at him helplessly and shrugged. "I just don't wanna think about it."
Felix stood beside Pan hidden behind the trees, wondering what would happen now that Pan had heard her betrayal first hand. He knew keeping her near Neal had been a bad idea, now he worried it would get her killed.
"I was right the first time," Pan said quietly as he stared up at the part of her cage he could see through the leaves, "she's still ours."
Felix watched him go, hearing his footsteps until they suddenly stopped – and when he went to look he found Pan had gone, leaving him to deal with everything. He cast a last look toward her cage before returning to the camp, seeing now why she couldn't decide – no matter what happened she was going to lose.
The two were gone when Neal next spoke, though neither of them knew they'd been overheard. "What about Felix?" he asked. "What is it you're doing with him?"
She was quiet for several moments before she answered. "You called me Rapunzel."
His brows knitted in confusion until he realized she was right, he had, twice. "You called me Bae." Those names were so natural in this place, the names they went by sounding foreign and wrong. It was like old times. That was when he realized what she was doing, she was getting Felix back to when they'd been happy – she was making him love her as he had then. Because she knew Pan was going to lose, and she knew that meant he was going to die. And Felix had already twice now gone against what Pan wanted to keep her safe. She was trying to make sure that if given a choice Felix would choose her.
Thanks so much for the reviews guys and your personal opinions. It's pretty much the consensus that Felix live, so that's what I'm gonna do. But I'm gonna try to do in a way that still sticks with what the show did - and that's all I'll say cause I'm not giving anything away. Thanks again, it really does mean a lot to me that you guys review. They really make my day.