Neverland

A groan left Neal's throat as Felix smiled menacingly at the men, stepping forward from the cover of the woods.

"I gotta say, Baelfire, I'd hoped to never see you again."

"The feeling is mutual," the resentment in Neal's voice didn't go unnoticed by Dean.

The teenager smirked as he held out some rope for the two men to take. "Come on, let's go say hi—"

"You're kidding, right?" Dean furrowed his brow as he looked at the rope in the boy's hands. "You expect us to turn ourselves in? Without a fight?"

"Oh, I'm expecting a fight," Felix smiled, lifting up his hands to call out into the air for back-up—

— until he was hit over the head and fell to the ground. Unconscious.

Neal threw down the large stick in his hand and nodded, "Thanks for being the distraction. Would have gotten nasty if he'd been able to make that call."

"You think others know we landed and will come back this way?" Dean asked, bending down immediately to tie Felix's hands and legs together with the rope he'd intended for the two of them. Neal looked around to try and make sure they were clear of their surroundings, or if more were out there waiting for them.

Neal shrugged. "Probably. This place isn't like any other – there's definitely some kind of twisted magic happening that Pan and his Lost Boys are somehow tapped into. It's better if we keep moving."

Dean followed Neal as he made his way through the trees.

Throughout his life, Dean had been taught both directly and indirectly the art of survival. Since the moment his father scooped up he and Sam and threw them in the Impala to begin their crusade, he'd continuously developed certain rules to live by:

Never get too personal with the people you're trying to help.

Never hit the same town twice.

Always keep some kind of authoritative badge on you.

Never give out your real name.

Try not to leave too much of a mess, but if you do always leave before the clean-up.

Always check out for security.

Clean up any fingerprints.

Use cash whenever you can.

Make sure you're not being followed.

And never tell anyone about the real world unless you absolutely must.

Of course there were a lot more, and he'd be lying if he didn't think that over the years they'd changed or evolved as they learned new things about the world they were trying to protect. But most rules gave Dean and Sam the ability to travel across the country and survive the life they'd decided to live.

And right now, Dean knew that his best chance of survival in this strange world, was to follow Neal – despite how he felt about the guy. He could tell by the way Neal was tracking their surroundings that he knew, for the most part, what he was doing and where he was going. And in that moment, he was actually relieved to be here with him instead of having to go about all this alone.

All he wanted was to see Emma and Henry safe again – even if that meant Neal was their best chance.

Not that he'd tell him that any time soon.

Neal could sense the change in Dean's mood as he looked over at him a couple times as they moved. He grew a little suspicious. "What, you're not going to fight with me? No clever nickname or violent threat to punch me in the face?"

"Nope," Dean shook his head, continuing to follow him as he checked their surroundings again to make sure they weren't being followed.

"Well, that's refreshing."

Dean breathed out a short laugh, "I'm not your enemy, Neal. And you're not mine. We both want the same thing – to find Emma and Henry and their family and make sure they're safe."

"Good," Neal responded, still a little suspicious, but Dean could tell his shoulders had loosened up slightly. "Because I—"

Dean stopped, holding up his hand for silence as if he'd heard something in the distance. When nothing else was heard, they continued forward, Dean one step behind Neal.

He kept waiting for Neal to continue with his thought, but when he didn't, he decided to ask something he'd been curious about since he learned about this ridiculous place.

"So," Dean started, still trying to keep his voice low as they went, "how exactly did you end up here before?"

Neal chuckled, "What, you didn't get the chance to read my story in Henry's book?"

Dean hummed sarcastically. "Um, no. Between the curses, dragon, Enchanted Forest trip, the devil, the apocalypse, losing my brother, flying to Manhattan find you, and oh yeah, literally flying to freakin' Neverland – I didn't get a chance to check out Henry's story book," he replied with a little bite in his voice. "I know the gist – mainly the stuff with your dad, but I must have missed the Neverland episode."

Neal's brow rose at a couple of those points Dean made, though he tried to keep his head forward. Dean imagined Henry would have filled his father in on some of their adventures over the last few days. But maybe not, Dean realized. Perhaps Henry didn't care enough to share these things with his father.

Dean felt a little hurt at that, in a very selfish kind of way that immediately made him feel like a terrible person. He would have thought getting caught by a demon after hiding in the back of the Impala would have been at least one exciting story to tell.

"Fair point," Neal finally responded, pulling Dean out of his train of thought and back to his original question.

"It was after your father became evil, right?"

"He wasn't always bad, ya'know. I mean even after he became the Dark One," Neal said honestly, stealing a quick glance over his shoulder before he continued forward enough for Dean to grimace at himself for using the word. "The only reason he became the Dark One in the first place was to protect me. I remember the feeling I had and the look on his face the day he marched from the battle fields with all the town's children who'd been forced to take up arms at his side after he'd ended the Ogre Wars. The war that'd killed so many of our people and my friends – that I was about to be drafted in. That feeling – that's the only thing that keeps me through some of the truly awful things that he's done."

He stopped for a second, taking a small breath before he looked up at the stars and turned left as he kept going. Dean stayed silent, waiting for him to continue his story and hoping that he knew where he was going.

Neal cleared his throat, "But soon, like all magic, it began to consume him. Each threat was met with harsher and harsher punishments, and he started to see everyone as a potential threat. It got so bad that everyone was even beginning to become afraid of me just at the off-chance of offending my father and losing their life. I had only one friend left who would even dare to speak to me and I told her my issues. She told me about the Blue Fairy. That night I called out to her and she told me about a land without magic where my father couldn't hurt anyone ever again. Then she gave me a magic bean – the last in the land – that could open a portal and take us both there. And well, you know the rest."

"Well, that fills in the daddy abandonment issues," Dean said with a slight chuckle.

Neal shot him a look over his shoulder, "Takes one to know one."

Dean choked on his chuckle, sobering up as he nodded, "Fine. But it also explains your dad's guilt. And the whole fountain of youth offer he tried to pull in New York."

"Yep," Neal nodded. "I opened the portal and I was sucked in, holding on to his hand while his other held onto the dagger plunged into the ground, refusing to let go and give up the power he had. I fell through, he stayed behind."

"So that's how you ended up here? Not so much the land without magic Big Blue promised, huh?"

Neal chuckled, "Actually, it did work. I landed on Earth – in England, to be more precise. Lucky for me, English turns out to be the universal language of the Enchanted Forest AND luckier still, I landed somewhere they spoke the language. Looking back, I would have lost my mind if I'd landed somewhere like China or something. But I guess magic works in mysterious ways.

"I met the Darling family – the one from the Peter Pan story – who took me in as one of their own. It was the first time –" he paused, taking a second to swallow back whatever it was he was going to say.

Dean watched the back of Neal's shoulders - he could tell he was contemplating completing the thought.

He didn't.

"One night, Pan's shadow showed up at the window. It took Wendy to Neverland before I could stop her and warn her about the dangers of magic. When she came back distraught, she explained that the shadow wanted her brothers instead and for them to come back permanently. So we tried to set up a trap, but the shadow still tried to take them, and I jumped in between. It grabbed me, flew me to Neverland, and left me here. I was captured by pirates, then they gave me over to the Lost Boys. After a while, I managed to escape and I found a hide out where I stayed until I could figure out a way off the island. When I finally did, I made it back to Earth, which had changed dramatically over the centuries—"

Dean stopped, grabbing Neal's arm, signaling for him to quiet. There were hushed voices in the air, coming from their left.

Lost Boys, Neal mouthed out as the voices grew a little louder.

"Stop! By order of Peter Pan—" they heard one of the boys say loudly. They could tell it wasn't directed at them, but they couldn't see yet who the victim was. Suddenly the voice halted, and they heard two bodies thud to the ground.

Before Dean could stop him, Neal jolted forward, muttering about how they might have Henry.

"Son of a bitch," Dean huffed before he ran after him, thinking about how they were about to confront something strong enough to take down a couple of Lost Boys.

"What the hell's going on?!" Dean heard Neal shout as he ran closer.

"You're a vision, just like Belle!"

Rumple? Dean thought as he heard the second voice.

"No, no, hey. Listen to me – it's me! We were shot, okay. But I survived. See. I'm alive—"

"My son is dead!"

"Hey!" Dean shouted as he finally made it to the clearing to see Rumpelstiltskin with his hand around Neal's throat pushed against a tree. "Put the spear down!"

"Dean?" Rumple turned around to see the hunter, confusion painted across his face as he mumbled something about reminders and weaknesses. "No! You're both not real. You're here to question my resolve – but you won't succeed! I will sacrifice my life for Henry! And nothing will stand in my way!"

"Please, Papa," Neal whispered as the spear continued to threaten his life.

Rumple softened his grip and looked back at Dean, then back to his son. "Is that really you? I thought I'd lost you forever." He dropped the spear and let go of his son.

Dean began to look at the scene around them. Hook was laying on the ground close by, his arms tied together and head drooped forward, knocked out.

"How are you both here?" Rumple asked his son as he took a step back.

Neal began to catch his breath as he shook his head. "It's kind of a long story. Let's just say that the debt Robin Hood owes you has been paid."

"You were back in our land?"

"Yeah, but we made it here."

"Hey, uh, what's going on?" Dean asked, interrupting the reunion to ask about the unconscious pirate.

Rumple shrugged, "He was like that when I got here, obviously captured."

"Which side is he on this time?" Dean asked, remembering how he'd been working with Cora, and then the anti-magic duo.

"He brought us all here on his ship," Rumple replied, furrowing his brow. "So on our side for now, I suppose. Although I didn't stop to dwell on the sea urchin's true intentions."

"Well, can you do something then?" Dean suggested, "You know, like something magic to wake him up."

Rolling his eyes, Rumple waved his hand and magic awoke him. He scoffed, "Bested by a couple Lost Boys, pirate?"

"You bastard – you just left us!" Hook shouted when he saw who woke him before turning to the others. "Dean? Bealfire? They said you two were—"

"Nope, not dead. Just shot," Dean responded as he helped remove the ropes from around his wrists and stand up. "You were with Emma? Rump said you guys came here on your ship, but what happened? After we fell through the portal—"

"Greg and Tamara tried to blow up the town, our typical heroes saved said town, but not before the dastardly duo kidnapped Henry and brought him here, which we all followed," Hook summarized.

"Where is Emma now?" Neal asked his father.

"I left her and the rest of them aboard Hook's ship," Rumple answered, with a slight bore to his voice. "As noble as their intentions may be, they don't have the stomach to do what needs to be done." Hook scoffed as he rubbed his now free wrists, gaining Rumple's attention. "And how did you get captured?"

"We were looking for a fairy to help us find a way to Pan's camp. They caught me when I was alone."

Dean scoffed out a chuckle, "Please tell me it's Tinkerbelle."

"Aye, you know the lass?"

Dean shook his head, "Let's just always assume that everything I know of this," he waved his hands half hazardously, "I've heard from a book or movie or whatever. How long ago did you get captured?" he asked, looking around at where they could have came from.

Hook shrugged, "I'm not positive. Not too long, I suppose."

"They couldn't have dragged you far," Dean reasoned. "Two teenagers carrying an unconscious grown man. I bet we can track our way back—"

"Didn't you hear what I just said?" Rumple interrupted. "I left them for a reason. I must do what needs to be done – and I must do it alone."

"So I take it you have a plan?" Neal asked "I thought the whole 'sacrificing your life' thing was just you being dramatic."

Rumple shrugged, "Well, it's the only way. Pan's too powerful. You can only beat him if you're willing to die, which I am."

Dean's brow furrowed, "So if Greg and Tamara were the ones who brought Henry here, what does Pan have to do with it?"

"Well, he's obviously their leader," Rumple responded, less assured with this explanation than any others he'd offered.

"Obviously," Dean scoffed. "And that's so obvious because? Did they tell you this? Have you seen them yet?"

Rumple's eyes darted between Dean and Neal's, mouth clamped tight together. "Aye," he answered softly, his eyes finally fixating on Neal's. "They're both dead."

Dean's own gaze seemed to seek Neal's, who only took in a deep breath and stared down at the ground between them. Dean wasn't sure what he expected - this whole time he'd been digging into Neal that it was his fiancée who'd done this to them.

And now that she was gone - that she was dead - he couldn't decide if it made any difference. She'd still done what she did. She was still who she'd been. She still lied, deceived, kidnapped, attempted to kill. He was dying to know what Neal was thinking.

Instead, he changed the subject.

"Neal," Dean called to get his attention. "The Lost Boys who captured Hook, there could have been more of them. We don't know if Emma and them are safe. I want to go find them."

"Aye, mate. I agree," Hook nodded toward Dean. "I can help you find your way back. I at least know where they were going and we can circle back to the campsite."

"You two go," Neal looked between Dean and his father. "I'm going to go with my father so he doesn't try and kill any more Lost Boys."

"They're not dead," Rumple clarified. "They're just sleeping, for now."

"Find Emma," Neal ignored his father and continued to talk to Dean. He handed him a small sword one of the Lost Boys had been carrying to defend himself as he swung the quiver of arrows over his shoulder. "Tell her we're going after Henry."

Dean nodded, turning around to follow Hook back through the forest.

"What is this place?" Emma asked, her eyes searching around the darkness of the cave. "What are we doing here?"

Tink flashed her flint stones together and ignited one of the torches against the wall, lighting up the cave enough for Emma to finally understand.

"Neal," she breathed out. "This is where he lived."

She scanned across the parameter of the walls, noting each of the chalk drawings and writing, trying to make any kind of sense of it as Tinkerbelle explained that Baelfire spent some time in Neverland, something Emma hadn't completely wrapped her head around until she saw it with her own two eyes.

Mary Margaret queried whether he left some kind of clue as to how he escaped, and they all began to search.

Emma started with the drawings, trying to force herself to focus on each one at a time and slow her mind from racing.

She thought she'd known Neal. Even though she now realized just how small the ratio of time they'd spent in each other's lives (especially her in his life), she always had this pride that she'd been the only one who actually knew him. Like really knew him. Knew how he thought, predict his actions. Even after he'd let her go to jail, and after she found out he'd kept his past from her and never came back from — hell, even after she found out that he was engaged to another woman — she still thought that all the intimacy they'd once shared made her someone special in his life.

And here, again, she was discovering that there was so much more than she ever knew.

"I didn't even know he could draw," she mused, somewhat to herself as she tried to see if any of the drawings held any kind of clues or a map. She turned toward David and asked him to hand her the candle in front of him that sat in a broken half of a coconut shell.

She used the candle to look on the other side of the cave, but still nothing stood out. Flashes of all the times she sat in the corner of some foster bedroom, coloring in one of her books because it was the only thing that could pass the time came to mind.

Taking a deep breath, she wiped the single tear from her eye and turned back to Mary Margaret. She gestured to the items they'd stacked on the make-shift table, "What's all this?"

"Just some cups and bowls he fashioned from things he found here," Mary Margaret replied.

David held up one of them, "I don't know how great a cup this coconut can make, it's filled with holes."

"Uh, maybe it's a tiny colander?" his wife tried to reason.

Emma noticed the edges of the coconut David held were similar to the one in her hand.

"Yes, because pre-teen Baelfire probably made lots of pasta," Regina quipped as Emma grabbed the other half and examined them both together.

"Hold on. Tink, snuff out that torch." After she did and the cave became dark again, Emma dropped the second half on top of the bottom and watched as the candle lit up the holes.

Regina's brow furrowed. "Am I supposed to be impressed that he made a night light?"

Emma followed the light through the holes, "Look up."

The ceiling of the cave was peppered with dots of light.

"Stars."

"A map."

"How can you be sure?"

Tink cleared her throat. "Baelfire spent some time with Hook on his ship. He taught him how to navigate using the stars. If you have any luck reading this map, you'll need to find Hook. And even then, if I know pirates, he probably taught him to how to code his maps."

"So the only person who can truly read the map is Neal?" Mary Margaret reasoned.

Emma turned away from the group. "Which means the only person who can read it is dead."

A wave of emotions bubbled inside of her as she bolted out of the cave. Behind her, David and Mary Margaret shouted for her to wait.

"Now is not the time."

Mary Margaret rounded on her, "I can't even imagine the sadness you must be feeling—"

"I'm not sad," Emma countered, "I'm pissed. Yes, Neal just died, but I lost him years ago. All that time thinking he didn't love me. Only to find out he did and it was too late. I can't even tell him how angry that makes me, or how much it hurt when he left, or how terrified I was when he came back. And then," her voice began to break as the tears began to well up, "and then, between all that chaos, I met Dean and I finally thought that this could be someone, you know? Someone who I—" her voice faltered, breath shaky as she tried to catch it and the tears finally began to fall down her cheeks. "And now he's gone too! I have all of these feelings for these two people, and I didn't even have enough time to figure it all out before they were both taken away from me. And now it's too late."

She pushed past her parents and went into the clearing.

"She's going to be okay," David tried to reassure his wife as she tried to go after Emma.

"Really?"

"We've done everything we can."

"That's the problem," she shook her head. "I have no idea how to comfort my own daughter. It's the first thing a mother learns, and I don't know how."

"I know, I feel the same way. But she is so upset—"

"How can we even blame her? If you died, I would not be able to move on."

David shook his head, "You must. I don't know, I'm just saying, every day we're here, something bad could happen. And if it did, to me, I'd want you to move on. To continue, to be happy."

Mary Margaret gave him a sad smile as she moved her hands to the side of his face. "That's really sweet. But nothing is going to happen to you." She pulled him into a hug. "Not while I'm here."

David swallowed, the poison in his side a constant painful reminder of his sure awaited fate and his family's future pain.

"What the hell was he talking about?" Neal asked his father as he laid a recently rescued sleepy Henry to the ground. "He said you were gonna murder Henry!"

His plan had worked — Rumple's magic had put the Lost Boys to sleep and the squid ink stopped Pan's powers long enough for them to grab Henry. The bit about Pan revealing Rumple's prophecy that he was here to murder Henry was unexpected.

"He plays games," Rumple shrugged, "mind games. The important thing is we got the boy and we got away."

Neal looked around, "Where are we?"

"The other side of the island. We're safe here for the time being."

He bent down tried to wake up his son. "Hey, Henry, it's me. It's your dad."

"He can't hear you."

"Then wake him up!"

"Pulling him out of the spell could be dangerous. He'll wake naturally in a few hours, he'll be fine."

Neal stood up, "Alright then, you can explain to me what the hell Pan meant. Which prophecy was he talking about? Why would he say that you'd kill Henry?"

Rumple shook his head as he paced on the other side of the camp fire. "Oh I don't know, to create a wedge between us."

"That's not a denial," Neal countered. "No, this has to do with what happened when Dean and I found you. You thought I was a hallucination. You said that you had to do the right thing and save Henry. What did that really mean?"

"Baelfire—"

"It's Neal! Now stop dodging and tell me what's going on!"

A few beats of time passed and Rumple's resolve finally died, a sad look washing over him as he began to explain. "There was a seer. And she told me of a prophecy that a boy would help reunite me with you. And that boy," he paused, "would be my undoing."

"Henry?"

Rumple took a step closer, "I didn't know it was gonna be my own grandson until I found you in New York and discovered you were his father."

"You were planning on getting rid of him, whoever he was, weren't you? To try and cheat fate. To get around the prophecy. You cold-blooded son of a bitch. You were gonna kill him."

"Yes," Rumple breathed out.

Neal took a step backwards, pointing forward. "Get back. Stay away from him!—"

"That was then!" Rumple pleaded. "Things have changed. I didn't come here to Neverland to hurt Henry. I came here to save him!"

"After what you just told me, I'm supposed to believe you?"

"I won't lie to you, Bae. Self-preservation has always been a nasty habit I've had my whole life. But I came here to break it! To do the right thing and to save your son, even if it meant sacrificing my own life. You have to trust me."

"How can I?"

"Tell me what I have to do to gain your trust, and I will."

Neal stared at his father as he contemplated his question. But he knew the only answer that would satisfy. "Give me the Dark One dagger. I know you, I know you wouldn't come all the way to a Neverland without it. It's the only thing that can control you. It's the only thing that can stop you. You wouldn't take any chances with it."

"I don't have it."

"Why are you lying?"

"I'm not lying to you, Bae. I hid it so Pan couldn't get it. So he couldn't stop me."

"So un-hide it!"

"My shadow took it."

Neal let out a laugh of unbelief, "Your shadow— Man, you got an answer for everything, don't you?"

"I'm telling you the truth, I swear!"

"You know what, maybe you did hide it. Maybe you do want to do the right thing. But that's today. What about tomorrow?—"

"I've changed."

"Have you? The prophecy still stands. You save him, he's still your undoing."

"I'm still willing to die for him."

"What happens if we get back and you're reunited with Belle, and you realize that the only thing standing between you and your happy ending is my son? And suddenly 'undoing' doesn't sound so great."

Rumple shook his head, his eyes watering as he held out his hands, "You're my happy ending. This is. Because it's my redemption. I can be strong, son, if you have faith in me."

Neal swallowed, squeezing his hand into a fist before he used it to grab his father's hand, pulling it up to their chests and he pulled him in. "You know, when I was living here and sleeping in a cave, I used to dream of you coming to rescue me. But then I'd wake up and remember how you left me behind. You left your own son behind for the power of that dagger. How can I think that things would ever be any different?"

Neal released his hand and took a step back. Rumple opened his hand to the leaf Neal had left behind, shaking it off to reveal the smudged squid ink left on his palm.

"Neal?" he said softly as blue magic began to encompass his body, leaving him just as frozen as it had Pan moments ago. "What are you doing?"

Neal lifted Henry from the ground and tossed him over his shoulder. "I'm gonna find Emma and Dean and the others, then get the hell off this island. And I'm gonna get my family back home—"

"You can't go into the jungle alone!" Rumple shouted as Neal began to walk away. "Without my power to protect you, Pan will capture you both!"

Neal stopped, "I'm sorry, I've got no choice. We're safer without you. Goodbye Papa."

Dean really wished he had his gun. Although he did admit, he was becoming quite good at wielding a sword by now. But he missed the safety that came with the distance a gun granted you. On the other hand, the blade was convenient for cutting through the thick jungle.

He thought about how different Neverland was to Earth and the Enchanted Forest. He tried not to think about it for too long because it opened up a can of other musings — like if all these places existed in the same universe, or if it was parallel dimensions, as Sam had once thought. He began to wonder about Heaven and Hell, and if each of these places had their own versions.

Cas seemed to imply that theory, especially when it came to his own angelic powers up against this world's magic. Like there was a difference in the DNA of mystical powers versus magical ones that offset each other. It made him think about the supernatural and magical beings on Earth, and if Earth was supposed to be a world where magic didn't exist, then how did they get there? Was it an accident, cracks in the weird sub-plane of existence where stuff like portals could be created? Or were some creatures or magic brought there on purpose from a being of greater power? Was god with a capital "G" behind all of these different worlds? Was it the same God who orchestrated Dean as Michael's vessel and Sam as Lucifer's the same god who made Emma the savior and Rumple the Dark One?

And if Dean died here, in Neverland, would he be greeted by the same Death he'd met in Chicago just a short time ago?

They were questions far too grand for his pay grade.

If he ever ran into Cas again, maybe he'd ask more. Or God, if the son of a bitch ever came out of hiding.

"Are you listening to me, mate?"

Hook rose a brow as he looked behind him at Dean. The hunter's mind finally snapped back to the present. "Hmm?"

"The campsite. I was suggesting we try there first in case they've already returned with the Lady Bell. We can back track from there."

"Oh, yeah. Sounds good," Dean nodded.

Hook's brow furrowed. "You still don't trust me, do you?"

A chuckle left Dean's throat at the question. "Honestly, I don't think much about you, Hook. I do find it curious seeing as the last time I saw you, you were helping Greg and Tamara torture Regina—"

"I didn't do any torturing," Hook corrected, stopping to face Dean and look him in the eye. "That's not what I'd signed up for. Once I realized their true plan, I left and joined up with Emma and her family. When I heard of Henry's theft, I offered my vessel at their behest."

"But why? What happened to your life's mission to kill Rump? Or your whole 'save yourself' shtick?"

Hook took a deep breath. "When Greg and Tamara made it clear that they were sacrificing their lives to rid your world of magic and everyone in Storybrooke, I had a revelation of sorts. I realized that it wasn't worth my life to destroy everyone else's, even if the Dark One's life was included. And then Emma, she—"

The pirate paused, looking twice up to meet Dean's eyes and the hunter immediately knew that look. He rolled his eyes, "What the hell — is that woman like cat nip to any eligible guy or something?"

"It's, it's not like that, mate. She just — she made me realize that for so long I'd been out looking for myself. That for once maybe I could be a part of something. Be something to someone again."

Dean scoffed, "Like someone to Emma?"

"No!" Hook shouted, frustrated. "I mean, maybe a little. I thought for a moment there'd been something between us up on the beanstalk. But it was clear that her heart already belonged to another, even then." He lifted his brow, a knowing smirk beginning to rise.

Dean closed his mouth quickly, straightening his back at the implication. "I wouldn't go that far."

"Aye, but I would. I know what love looks like when I see it. I told her so then as well."

He wiped his hand over his face, taking a deep breath out of discomfort. "Again with the 'L' word. What is it with you fairy tale people that makes you think love is this thing that happens at first sight, or just after a few days knowing someone? That's not how it works in the real world. You don't know how Emma feels! Hell, I bet she doesn't even know how she feels, especially with—"

Hook's brow rose again, the smirk put away, knowing what, or rather who, the 'especially' was in reference to.

"It doesn't matter. Henry matters. If this Pan guy is as bad as Neal said he was, then getting the kid safe is the only thing i want to focus on."

Neal found her.

Well, he found their campsite at least. Gently, he laid Henry on the ground and checked the extinguished fire pit to see how long it'd been out. He smiled when he felt it was still warm. "Emma."

"You were so close to finding her."

Neal spun upright and faced Pan. Lost Boys emerged from behind him, arrows at the ready.

"You disappoint me. I taught you better than that - never break in somewhere unless you know the way out."

"I'll remember that for next time."

"There isn't going to be a next time. Don't blame yourself," Pan chuckled, condescendingly as Felix lifted a still sleeping Henry from the ground. "Your father could have protected you out here, sure, but then who would have protected Henry from him? Talk about a rock and a hard place."

"I will get my son back. No matter what it takes."

Pan shook his head, "You're not getting it. That's not the problem. You got him. I got him back! It's the game! No, my boy, the real problem for you is that there is no escaping Neverland. No one gets off this island without my permission."

"I've done it before."

"Did you?" Pan asked, cocking his head to the side. "Look where you are now. It's like you never left."

Neal's brow furrowed, "You saying you let me go?"

"I'm saying everyone's where I want them. Something to chew on." He gestured to the Lost Boys. "You know where to take him."

The Boys began to grab Neal as Felix walked out of the clearing with Henry. Neal shouted for his son.

"Oh don't worry. It won't be for very long. Just until I reset the board and adjust for our unexpected guest. You see, the game is about to change."

Henry stared into the fire. The dreams of his father being alive and his mother coming to find him swimming through his mind as he thought about Pan's words.

He can bring back the magic.

Pan began to play his pipe, and Henry could hear the music this time. He stood up, grabbing two sticks as he began to dance around the fire with the others.

Pan smiled, his plan falling right into place.

Hook and Dean continued to walk in silence after their awkward discussion. After a while, Dean realized the pirate had never really explained himself.

"If this isn't about being someone for Emma," he started, perking Hook to turn back toward him, "then what did you mean before? When you said be a part of something — be something to someone?"

Hook reached behind his ear with his good hand and scratched. He took a deep breath and faced him. "I spent so much of my life drowned in revenge, thinking that the only way for me to find peace again was through my vengeance, that I never stopped to think about what life awaited on the other side. Do you know what that's like?"

Dean hummed thinking about yellow eyes, "Yeah, I get that. Nearly thirty years of my life has been rooted in revenge."

"And were you ever sated?"

"I killed the son of a bitch, if that's what you're asking."

Hook shook his head, "You know that's not what I'm asking."

Dean paused, looking back up at Hook to finally meet his eyes. What he found surprised him — the pirate was quite genuine, truly curious as to what Dean's answer was and slightly nervous for it.

It made him swallow hard before continuing. "It depends on how you look at it, I guess. Hunting was my life. It was my father's crusade to find the creature who killed my mom - then it even became my brother's after the same thing killed his girlfriend - but I was just a kid when he started. Yeah I wanted to seek justice, but I realized later that it became more than that to me. I knew about this secret world, I knew how to fight the evil from that world — hell, it was all I knew to be honest — which meant I had a responsibility to protect those who didn't. Great power comes great responsibility and all that Spider-Man jazz. In my mind, there's never been an option for a life after this. That's why even after we killed the thing that killed her, even after all the death and torture and literal hell along the way, it always comes back to protecting those who can't protect themselves — the lives we saved makes it all worth it."

Hook nodded, "And that's the difference. You found your life's purpose amongst your revenge and have carried it on. The last few centuries of my life have been in pursuit of revenge against the Dark One for killing the woman I love. But realizing that I wasn't willing to sacrifice my own life for that revenge changed me. It made me think about another time in my life, when I had purpose and passion for an honorable cause, and someone who had my back. That's why I offered my ship to Emma and her family, even if that included my long-time enemy and going back to a place I loathed."

"Who was the someone before?" Dean asked, moving aside a branch as Hook motioned for them to walk further up onto a plateau to get their bearings.

Hook chuckled, "My—" He paused, his eyes catching something below them in the distance. "Dean, down there. Look."

Dean followed where he was pointing to the bottom of a nearby valley. A body laid alone on the ground.

"David!"

My apologies for the suuuuper delay in updating this story. The last few years have been very very busy and unfortunately this is a story that has been very neglected. But I promise you this story is not abandoned, it does have an end planned out, and I look forward to sharing it with all you kind and patient folks. I'm going to try and do better, I promise. In other news, I'd been having technical difficulties uploading this chapter to this site, so I ended up adding this story to ao3 as well if you'd like to follow it there as well or instead of. As I've been uploading these old chapters there, I've been updating them a little to fix typos and errors since both shows are completed now.