You'll understand why I'm doing what I'm doing at the end of this chapter.

Disclaimer: you know it.

Father figure.

"How do you like your meat?"

Lily watched with anxiety as both her fathers stood by the barbecue. She was almost expecting one of them to attack the other with the tongs.

"I like to see some red," Killian answered.

Marco forced a smile. "Ahh, so that's where Tayler gets her carnivorous tendencies from."

"I eat vegetables, too," she called. "Sometimes."

Her fathers laughed without really feeling it. Lily grimaced and tugged Wendy, who was just placing the glasses on the table, to sit by her side.

"This is awful," she hissed. "I could go there with a chainsaw and cut whole chunks of awkward from around them. You can even see it floating around!"

Wendy seemed far too amused for Lily's taste. "Why don't you get them talking?" she suggested. "Find something they have in common."

"I'm the only thing they have in common."

"Well, then, use that. Or find something else."

Lily glared at her now retreating sister. "Thanks!" she said dryly. "That helped a lot!"

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Wendy, thankfully, decided to give Lily a hand during lunch. She domineered most of the conversation with some help of Jim and Lily.

"So, you know, we kept flirting for like months and on New Year's he helped m-" Wendy glanced at her father and cleared her throat. "We were together at the same party," she said instead.

Lily hid her smile behind her glass of water and very resolutely refused to look at her cousin. Her father, the pirate one, exchanged a look with her and smiled with amusement.

"So we were at the same party and the next day he brought me a milkshake from Granny's. And we went for a walk around the park."

"I tried to show her how to skate, but she wasn't any good," Jim said.

Lily snorted. "You can say that again."

Wendy glared at them both.

Lily patted her hand. "You have other talents," she said.

Jim and her fathers laughed. It was a genuine laugh, too, and Lily felt lighter for a moment. She looked at her fathers, the builder and the sailor, and something sparkled on her mind.

"So, Papa," she turned to the pirate. "Did you know that Dad is a carpenter?"

"Aye, you told me that," he said somewhat perplexed.

Lily just smiled bigger. "And did you know he has built a boat?"

That sparked some interest on her father's eyes as he turned to the other man. "What kind of boat?"

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"That was quick thinking," Jim complimented her.

They were watching the two men fawning over the boat and talking with energy. Marco patted the wood on the side and gestured towards the sails. Killian answered with grand movements of his hand and arms, probably explaining the best way to put the sails.

"So now they have two things to bond about," Jim told her. "You and boats," he added when he saw her confused expression.

Lily sighed. "Well, at least it didn't end with a food fight."

Jim laughed, recalling what he had told her of Grace's parents and their first meeting. "Come on! It has been great. No fights of any kind, no arguments, no threatening anybody with a knife or a hook, no shouting..."

"Yeah, well, I think they both are two scared that I'll leave them for the other one if they behave improperly."

They went back to look at the men. "Are you going to tell them it's never going to happen?" he asked.

"I should, shouldn't I?"

"That would be the right thing."

Lily smiled unabashed. "But they are being so nice!"

He chortled. "Let's get inside, you little devil!" he grabbed her nape and dragged her along.

Meanwhile the conversation near the boat had changed.

"-decided to go sailing on the worst storm of the year!"

Killian laughed. "You'd think she would have tried to discover what the weather would be before setting sail. The gods only know how many times I made her do it. She could even spot a storm only with her nose."

Marco seemed impressed. "Well, maybe she did, but she is still reckless. And proud. She probably thought she could beat it."

"Aye, that's Lily."

They fell silent, their bonding over their daughter bringing back the elephant in the room.

"Look," Marco sighed. "I know... I know you want to be with Tayler," he said. "And I understand. But she has a home, here, you can't go... marauding the seas with your great boat."

Killian raised one eyebrow at his choice of words. "What makes you believe I have any wishes to maraud this world?"

"You're a pirate."

"So is she," he pointed out. "And so is Jim," he added. "My crew has settled rather nicely on this town and I do have some business to attend to here. And when I have finished them maybe I can settle down for a bit. It seems this Storybrooke of yours offers quite a share of opportunities."

"What kind of business?"

He laughed darkly. "Oh, just something that started a long time ago. I would have taken care of it these past days but I was... busy," he finished with a grimace.

They both knew that 'busy' meant drowning in a pit of self-hatred, despair and alcohol.

Marco cleared his throat. "So I was thinking... Tayler can switch. Keep one week with one of us, the next one with the other and so on."

Killian cocked his head to the side. "That's fair."

"Will you be living in your ship?"

"The Jolly Roger has been our home for centuries. I am not willing to change that, and I would bet my hand that neither does Lily."

Marco nodded. "You will have to make a place for that wolf of hers."

Both men turned to look at Silver, who napped by the door. As if feeling their glances on him, he raised his head, his unsettling red and black eyes staring deep into them.

"At least it will keep the thieves away."

"The right ones, you mean," said Marco with a pointed look.

Killian laughed, almost surprised. "Right, the not-pirate ones."

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

"It hasn't changed a bit," Lily muttered with awe.

Her cabin was what had once been the Lieutenant's quarters. She almost had expected someone to move in, seeing that it had been thirty years and they thought her dead. But everything was still the same way she had left it; a bit tidier but essentially the same.

"That's my sword!" she said with glee.

One of the new additions was a sword on the shelf above her bed. Her sword. A pile with her sketchbooks also rested on the trunk by the food of her bed, instead of being on the shelf or sprawled on her desk like they usually had been.

Her ceiling and her walls still had the constellations of the Neverland skies painted in them and her big map of Neverland still hung by her desk. She had spent over a decade painting that map, so it was meticulously done, each tiny detail had been given an absurd amount of attention.

"You kept it."

Killian noted her teary eyes and choked voice so he tugged her close to his side with a one armed hug. "Of course I kept it. You made it."

"I just thought maybe you would have wanted to erase any memory of Neverland."

"My memories of you were the only thing that kept me alive," he said solemnly. "I didn't care if they were good or bad as long as they were from you."

Lily sniffled. "Well, you have me now."

They shared a long look and he smiled with softness. "So, care to explain me why you are wearing that ridiculous thing once again?"

Lily had put on her bright pink swimsuit that morning. She had a plan.

It was the beginning of her week with her Papa. She had filled a suitcase with some clothes and things she needed and Killian walked with her to where he had left the Jolly. Because the docks were to mainstream for him.

And being an invisible ship it would have been quite difficult for Lily to find on her own.

"I want to show you one of my favourite things from this realm," she said.

He raised an eyebrow, still not impressed with her attire. "Oh?"

"Let me introduce you to the wonders of surfing!"

It was a good day for surfing, with some waves and a slightly overcast sky. She left her father on the shore and showed off with her board.

He wasn't as impressed as she had hoped.

"It doesn't seem that difficult," he huffed.

"Well, you try it then."

And he did. And he fell twice into the sea before deciding to get rid of his heavy leather coat and vest. And still with less clothes he fell quite some more before he could successfully stand up in the board.

Lily laughed at him all the while form the shore, recording everything with her phone.

"What are you doing with that tiny box?" he asked her.

He was more amazed than offended at the videos of himself, asking her to replay them again and again.

"But this is amazing!" he said with twinkling eyes. "The likeness of this!" he looked at her. "Are you sure this is the Realm Without Magic?"

Lily just laughed at him.

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

Lily tugged at the knot to make sure it was secure and gave Grace a thumbs up.

"Can you see anything?" the blonde girl asked.

Finn threw a couple of punches in Henry's direction, stopping inches away from his face. The boy didn't even flinch.

"He's good," said Finn.

Henry huffed. "Why am I blindfolded again?"

"It's a surprise," the three of them chorused.

He scowled. "I told you I didn't want any surprises."

"Shut up, Honeybunch."

It was August 15th, Henry's birthday. While the whole town was in a bit of a tense situation because of Cora, Henry wasn't really in a party mood. His mother, the adoptive one, had disappeared off the face of the earth to join her own mother on her evil plans.

"I really thought she could change," he'd said.

But Lily couldn't really blame Regina. After everybody had blamed her for Archie's death, she had gone to the one person who still believed in her. Given that Cora had been the one to set her up for killing Archie it was to be expected she believed in her daughter.

"Where are you taking me?"

"That would ruin the whole point of the surprise and the blindfold, wouldn't it?" Lily smirked at him.

"We have to disorient him a bit," said Grace.

"Eleven years, eleven turns!" and Finn happily went on to turning Henry like a spinning top and counting loudly.

They took good care on making him trip in the sidewalk and crash with lampposts and cars. Henry grumbled at them the whole time but they were having a lot of fun and he wouldn't dampen their spirits.

Their destination was the beach, close to where his castle had once been, where the rest of his family and friends were waiting for him. Henry tripped on the sand, not expecting the different ground, and his nose wrinkled at the smell of seawater.

Lily freed him of the blindfold and the boy blinked at the sudden light.

"SURPRISE!" everybody screamed while he was still trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

There were tables full of food and a couple of balloons. A banner with 'Happy Birthday, Henry!" hung from the two parasols by the tables. Emma, Snow, David, Granny and the dwarves were taking advantage of the shade, Ruby and Belle were by the drink section while Wendy and Jim and Marco and Archie tried to keep Pongo away from the food.

"We're on the beach," said Henry.

Lily pushed him towards the tables. "Great job, genius!"

And even if Henry had been complaining the whole time an elated smile appeared on his face as he took everything in.

"You did all this for me?"

Lily shared an eye roll with Finn. "Oh my God, he is slow today."

Henry pushed her, still smiling.

.

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For a kid's birthday party, there weren't many kids. Still, Lily and Grace didn't let that become a deterrent.

They made everybody sit in a circle on the sand, internally laughing at the faces some of them made. Then Lily looked at Henry and winked.

"So," she called. "We're going to play Spin the Bottle!"

There was a shocked silence while everybody processed her words. Lily burst out laughing at their faces while Grace, sniggering, calmed them down.

"She's kidding. We're going to play Truth or Dare."

There was a collective sigh of relief as everybody deflated a bit. It only made Lily laugh harder and Grace had to punch her shoulder to get her to quiet down.

But still everybody was laughing in the end. As the game dragged on the adults kept drowning the beer supplies and the dares became wilder and wilder. Lily didn't believe she could ever get the image of David running around them in circles with Archie ridding piggyback.

The game fizzed out once people started to go home. In the end there was only Lily, Red, Snow and Emma left to clean the tables and take the leftover food home. David had taken Henry out for a ride with that horse of his, Skywalker.

"It seems he had fun," Snow told Emma while they put the bowls in plastic bags.

Emma's smile was soft. "Yeah, and he loved his gifts," she glanced at Lily. "Did he tell you anything-?"

"He said he's sad he hasn't gotten a Hogwarts letter."

The three women laughed at that but then Emma winced. "Please, don't tell me you have met Harry freaking Potter in one of your trips."

"Well..." Lily grinned at her. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding!" she added quickly seeing her face. "No, I don't think he is real," she said sadly.

The four of them mourned the non-existence of the magical world for a moment.

"I saw Grace taking a lot of pictures," noted Snow. "Do you think she would like to share them?"

"Oh, sure! She's probably going to say how all of them are awful and mutter things about lightning and stuff but I can get her to send them to you. Well," she smiled sheepishly. "The good ones. Finn and I stole her camera for a while and I don't think you need to see over twenty selfies of the two of us."

Red laughed. "Oh! I photobombed quite of those!"

Lily smirked. "We know."

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Lily helped them carry everything in the truck and then waved goodbye as they drove off. She took of her shoes and started walking along the shore, the waves brushing her feet.

The Jolly Roger was a ten minute walk from where they had the party, in a half hidden bay. Lily had left a stick deep in the sand to mark where the stairs where supposed to be if the Jolly hadn't moved.

They were there, her bare feet recognizing the invisible wood after years and years of use.

Her father was reading leaning against the mast. Lily had told him they could go shopping for some new furniture and he could read on more comfortable places but he had refused.

"How was the party? Did the lad like it?"

Lily sat at his side and without a second thought he passed an arm over her shoulders. "Aye," she said. "Everybody had lots of fun."

He hummed to himself his gaze going back to the book. Lily would have been happy to sit in silence and soak in the moment, but there was a more pressing matter.

"I told you that you could have come if you had wanted. You would have had fun, too."

Her father sighed. "I would only have made everybody tense and ruined the party. People don't trust me, Flower," he closed the book. "And they are right not to. I could still be working for Cora, for all they know."

"But you aren't!"

"But they don't know that."

She fumed. "So tell them!" she said. "Stop hiding and make them see you are a good person inside."

"It's not that easy, Flower," he said sadly. "It is never that easy."

X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X

The last tendril of ash floated in circles over the table before going down and joining the rest. The pile was now complete.

He fought for his hand to remain steady as he grabbed the vial and poured the tiniest amount of liquid over it. The potion was an electric blue and, as it touched the ash, it turned it the same exact color, slowly spreading from the top to the bottom.

His breath sped up. It had taken him far too long to make that potion for it to go wrong at the last moment.

After a minute every last single fragment of the ash had turned bright blue. He had to turn his head away as the brightness intensified. The pulse of magic fluttered his clothes and his hair.

He prayed internally though he didn't believe in any gods and it had been centuries since he had last prayed. With a power like his, how could he believe in deities? He was a considered a god, a devil, among men. And gods don't pray.

But that one time he did.

He opened his eyes.

The shawl looked the same as it had been all those weeks ago. The same shape and color, the same stains... His heart lifted.

A knock on the door.

"Come in," he called.

Belle had a tray with a couple of cups and a teapot. She smiled at him when she saw the shawl on the table and rushed towards him.

Rumplestiltskin grabbed the tray from her hands and no sooner he had set it down on the table she was hugging him. "You did it, you did it!" she cheered. "It worked."

He looked back at the shawl. Yes, it had worked.

He was getting his son back.

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So, now you know why I needed all that angst and Killian running away from Lily. Since OUAT's timeline is a mess I needed something so that when Neal asks Henry 'How old are you?' Henry can answer 'ELEVEN! I'M ELEVEN' and it being actually true.

Also, the angst.

What did you think? There was a lot here. Marco vs. Killian, Killian and Lily, Henry's party, some Rumple in the end.

Review?

MW.