Hello, hello, readers! I'm sorry again for it being such a long time since I last updated. I just finished my sophomore year of college, and it's very hard to find the time in there to write these stories I love so much. While I'm free for the summer, I'm going to try my very hardest to do better. Until then, enjoy!
Quite a Common Fairy
The group of heroes and villains trekked through the Dark Jungle with Mary Margaret leading the way. Emer and Killian were bringing up the rear, despite being the only two who knew their way around the dangerous woods.
Killian just couldn't make himself lead, not when he finally had his daughter back, and especially not since he knew that Pan would be coming after them even harder than ever. He wanted his Lost Girl back, no matter the cost.
Over Hook's dead body.
"Papa?" Emer asked softly, pulling the pirate from his thoughts quickly. "Are you okay?"
His expression softened quickly as he looked at his daughter, wild tangles of dark hair and bare, dirty feet as she hugged her star-mapping journal to her chest with her forearms, hands still in far too much pain to hold it as tightly as she wanted to. "I'm alright, Em. Just want to get you far away from this bloody island."
"I'm looking forward to it," she assured quickly, taking a half-step closer to Killian. "Especially if it means I get to be on the sea again with you."
He put an arm around her shoulder and smiled at her, kissing the top of her head through her mess of black hair. "Of course that's what it means. I've missed having my best first mate around."
Emer smiled up at him before Regina interrupted every ongoing conversation with, "How much further?"
Emma, who held the map to Henry, was naturally the one to answer. "Should be getting close to Pan's lair. Going in a straight line course…" Emma pulled the map out again, and the X over Pan's lair suddenly moved, behind the group's location. "But now it's behind us…?"
"How can that be?" Mary Margaret asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"You got us lost," Regina accused, dark eyes on the supposed Savior.
"No, she didn't," Hook answered simply as he moved his arm from around Emer to lift a lantern toward the map for a better look. "It's the camp. Pan's moving it."
"He didn't want it to be so easy to find," Emer said softly, looking at the adults. "Since I knew exactly where it was, and you had the map. Like he said before, that's cheating in his game."
Regina sighed, more like a breath to calm herself down than one of exasperation.
"He's playing tricks on us," David said, looking around slowly.
"He likes games," Emerlyn agreed softly. She knew all too well.
"If the camp keeps moving, how are we supposed to find Henry?" Emma asked, frowning deeply.
"So using this map has all been for nothing," Emma decided with a huff.
"I told you walking was idiotic," Regina snapped. "If we'd only used some magic we could materialize into camp and grab Henry."
"We don't know where the camp is," Mary Margaret argued. "Have you even been listening?"
Emer found herself sliding behind Killian. It had been a very long time since she had been near arguing adults, and it almost seemed more frightening than Pan. Or at least Pan at his calmest.
"And Pan most likely has shields against magic," Killian pointed out quickly. "So such attempts would most likely cause you death, and—more importantly—mine and my daughter's. Which is why we're walking."
"She uses magic," Regina defended.
"He always sent me away from camp when he wanted me to call Lost Ones," Emer added quietly.
Regina huffed. Again. "Well then what's your idea? How are we going to find it?"
"By using someone he trusts," Killian said simply.
Emer's blue eyes widened drastically. He couldn't have possibly been talking about her. Her own father wouldn't throw her back to the wolves like that. He couldn't.
Could he?
"Great," Regina said sharply. "So we're using your kid, right? We don't have anyone else he trusts."
"No," Hook said firmly, almost pushing Emer back behind him so he could protect her from the Evil Queen. "We are not using Emer."
"We just pulled her out of there, Regina," Snow White argued. "We can't toss her back in."
"Then who?" David asked, sounding more curious than like he was agreeing with regina. "Because I'd guess he certainly doesn't trust you."
Emer was shaking behind Killian, her injured hands fisted in his jacket so tightly they were almost bleeding again.
"A fairy that lived here when I was about," the pirate said simply. "She might still be here. She'd be an inside source. Knows all about the camp, can get us in." He thought for a moment. "He may even have some pixie dust left. We may even fly in."
The Lost Girl relaxed a little from her grip on Hook, her hands freshly throbbing.
"You mean fairy dust?" Emma corrected.
"No," David said, his blue eyes wide. "Pixie dust. It's… stronger. Like nuclear fairy dust."
Emerlyn had no idea what that meant, but it was obvious Emma did by her reaction, which then changed to one of disbelief. "Wait, a fairy… Tinkerbell?"
Emer noticed Regina look away, like she knew something the others didn't or like she'd had some bad experience with her in the past.
"You know her?" Killian asked in surprise.
Emma shook her head a little. "Every kid in the world knows her."
"It's a bad idea," Regina protested quickly.
Emma tilted her head in confusion.
"Mark my words," the Evil Queen continued. "This Tinkerbell is not going to save us."
Hook climbed into Tinkerbell's treehouse, calling down to the rest of the group that was searching for pixie dust, everyone but Regina. "No one's home. Come on up."
Emer popped in next. Even with her injured hands she could climb like a spider-monkey.
The sight made Hook smile. Some things never changed, and he hoped that was one thing that never did.
David was the next one up after Emerlyn, immediately starting his search. "Now, where would it be?"
"She wouldn't leave dust just lying around, mate," Killian pointed out as he circled the perimeter of the treehouse, lantern up like he was trying to catch a glitter or sparkle from pixie dust remnants. "It's not here. Sorry."
Emma pulled herself up from the ladder, looking around. "It's pretty bare. Reminds me of someplace."
Emer had no clue where she was talking about, circling back around to stand close to her father. She didn't trust these people. Not yet.
Mary Margaret was the last one up the ladder. "I thought a treehouse would be more cheery."
"Where I used to live," Emma said, almost suddenly as she answered her own question. "That's it."
David started turning some of the sparse objects in the treehouse upside down, hoping he could shake some pixie dust out of something.
Emer thought the almost methodical way he was shaking some of the objects was amusing.
"Because this is just a place to sleep," Mary Margaret mused as she looked around the treehouse, and Emma stepped outside onto the stretched wooden balcony.
Emma turned and stepped back inside, looking at the dark haired woman who was supposedly her mother out of the corner of her eye—though Emer still didn't understand how that was possible—the blonde's expression disbelieving and a little suspicious. "What would you know about that?"
Mary Margaret laughed a little, lifting her arm to brace it against the wall. "I didn't always have a canopy bed in a palace. I had a place like this, too, once."
"You did?" Emma asked in surprise.
"A tree stump," the woman with the quiver on her back confirmed, her tone as soft as it always seemed to be. "When I was running from the queen. Believe it or not, I understand this Tinkerbell. The real question is, why does she have a ladder? Fairies have wings."
"Maybe she doesn't," Emer mumbled, shrugging a little from where she stood beside Killian, looking around the treehouse. "Bad things happen, maybe she lost hers."
Mary Margaret hummed in thought at what the Lost Girl had suggested before David stepped forward, holding a small white cloth in his hand. "You guys, you need to take a look at this." He brandished it forward for them all to see. "I found something—it's a handkerchief."
Mary Margaret snatched it from her hand urgently as Killian stood from his chair to take a look, gently taking his daughter's hand to keep her close.
Mary Margaret's tone was equally shocked and urgent. "That's Regina's. How did it get here?"
"She was tracking us, watching Regina," Emma said, glancing up from the handkerchief to look at her parents.
"But if she's been watching her…" Snow White said slowly, carefully.
"Then we're in the wrong place," Killian said simply, his tone almost cold as he looked at the other adults, but he kept his grip careful and soft on Emer's injured hand. He wasn't letting her go anytime soon, but he wasn't going to add any extra pain to her throbbing palms.
"Regina," was all David had to say before they were all hustling back down the ladder, Emer trailing down last so her father could help her down, and hopefully keep her hands from getting any worse.
Killian was the first one to push from the brush, making sure Emer stayed hidden before the four adults lined up to cut off the green fairy from the cave she was exiting.
"Where's Regina?" Emma demanded, three swords and one arrow pointed at Tinkerbell as she raised her arms slowly.
"Who the hell are you?" Tinkerbell asked Emma, looking between all four of them.
"A pissed off mother," Emma retorted quickly, "now where is she?"
Killian had relaxed, sword back on his shoulder as he watched Emma, shifting back and forth from one foot to another.
Emer didn't stop to watch anymore, slipping through the brush near silently until she darted out, behind Tinkerbell without the distracted fairy noticing.
"Regina?" She called softly as she crept through the cave, careful of where she placed her perpetually bare feet. "Are you okay?"
"Emerlyn?" Regina said in surprise when she saw the tangled mess of a girl looking at her with blue eyes far too intelligent to belong to any normal fourteen year old. "What are you doing in here?"
"Well, while all of the adults threatened the fairy just because that seems to be how the swan solves problems, I thought someone should make sure she didn't actually hurt you," the Lost Girl said simply, looking the evil queen up and down. "And, please call me Emer. Makes me feel like I'm in trouble when an adult calls me Emerlyn."
Regina couldn't help but break into a smile at that, nodding slightly. "Okay, Emer. I like the way you think."
The dark haired teenager smiled a little smugly before motioning for the queen to follow her out. "We should probably go before any of them decide she'd look better as a pin cushion."
Regina smiled again, nodding as she followed out the Lost Girl that immediately swept past the fairy and went to her father's side, moving as light as a breeze on dirty bare feet.
"I'm fine," Regina assured as she bounced out behind the teen, stepping between Tinkerbell and the heroes.
"Would you mind lowering those?" Tinkerbell snapped at the three heroes that still pointed sharp weapons at her. "You might stick me, but I'll take you down with me."
Emer smiled a little at the statement. She didn't realize the fairy was quite that feisty.
Hook leaned down to her while the others were distracted. "Em," he said in a soft whisper. "Please don't do that again."
"Do what?" She asked, raising a dark eyebrow at her father.
"Go somewhere when I told you to stay put." His voice almost sounded shaky.
"I'm a teenager, Papa," she reminded softly. "I'm not supposed to listen to you."
Killian chuckled a little, smiling at her. "How about you listen to me until we're off this bloody island, and then you can do whatever you want. Deal?"
"Deal," Emerlyn whispered as Regina spoke again.
"She's not going to hurt us, so just… stand down."
"But is she going to help us?" Killian asked, turning his attention back to the evil queen and the fairy, sword still resting on his shoulder.
"Look who the queen dragged in," Tinkerbell said with a slightly raised eyebrow as she looked the leather clad pirate up and down. "Hello, Hook."
"Tinkerbell," Hook greeted in reply, nodding slightly as he placed his sword back in its sheath.
"She isn't going to help us," Regina answered simply.
"Why not?" Emma demanded, expression gone almost defensive.
"Tink," Killian tried, clearly trying to be convincing. "After all we've been through together—" He motioned to the full group, Emer included. If they didn't get Henry soon, it was going to make her be on this damned island even longer, and, even if he was with her, that was not something Killian wanted to prolong. "—a little assistance."
"She can't help us because she doesn't have any magic," Regina clarified, looking at Hook to answer as Tinkerbell looked Emma up and down.
"No pixie dust?" David asked, his tone sounding a little defeated.
Regina shook her head slightly. "Not even her wings."
"How?" Emma asked in shock.
"I guess people just stopped believing in me," Tinkerbell answered softly, but Regina looked at her with a surprised expression as the fairy kept talking. "And even if I wanted to help you, he's too powerful."
Mary Margaret tilted her head a little to the side as she looked at the fairy. "But you know where Pan is."
"Sure," Tinkerbell said simply, turning toward Mary Margaret with a slight nod. "But it won't do you a bit of good."
"Let us be the judge of that," Mary Margaret said simply, swaying where she stood with a bit of new confidence. "Does he trust you?"
"Can you get us inside his compound?" Emma asked almost anxiously.
The green fairy looked at the other blonde and crossed her arms. "Maybe. Why should I help you?"
"Because I believe in you," Mary Margaret said simply.
"Just get us inside and we'll take care of things from there," Emma said, her eyes pleading and hopeful.
"And what's in it for me?" Tinkerbell asked, arms still crossed as she turned back to the Savior. "Other than a death sentence from Pan when you're gone, with your children." Her eyes cut quickly to Emer before she looked back to Emma.
Killian took a slow step in front of his daughter.
"You can come with us," Emma bargained simply.
"That's right," Mary Margaret agreed quickly, smiling slightly. "A home. That is what you want, isn't it?"
There was a moment where Tinkerbell didn't answer, just looked at Snow White while she thought about the deal. She turned back to Emma. "Okay," she said finally, "listen closely. Pan trusts me, I can get you in. And maybe, just maybe, I'll leave a way open for you, but you've only got one shot. So you better have a good plan."
"Thank you," Emma said, her tone almost a whisper. "We will."
"Come with us to our camp," Mary Margaret offered, "we'll figure it out."
Tinkerbell looked at Hook as he turned to step behind his daughter and follow Emma toward their camp. The fairy fell in behind.
Snow and Charming closed up the rear.
They'd have a plan soon. They'd get Henry, and then Emer and Killian would never have to set foot on this bloody island ever again.