Sydney Glass groaned as he sent tomorrow's paper to the printers.
The issue was mundane and stocked with forgettable stories. In fact, their front page story was about a high schooler who won first place in the district-wide poetry contest.
It was soft, digestible news that was just satisfying enough to keep Storybrooke's readers sated…
If woefully unsatisfied.
Glass refused to cave however. Keeping Pan away for a week would do the paper, as well as the whole town, some good. Hell, he should have forced the little shit to take a vacation years ago.
Soon enough the chaos from the past week would simmer down and everyone would put their pitchforks away.
Still, the place was awfully quiet without him and Wendy yelling at each other every five seconds.
He glanced out his office window where Felix was working on his computer. The photographer had stayed under the radar since the incident with Mother Superior, being a silent partner as Tink grieved.
Glass still wasn't sure what he had expected him to do. He and Pan had always had this inaudible communication, always being joined at the hip without really being fused together.
The senior reporter decided not to dwell too much on his suspicion. As long as his work was complete, what harm could Felix's communication with Pan do?
"Lock up when you're done, would ya?" he called to the photographer as he put on his coat and hat.
Felix gave an absent nod as his answer and Glass left with a clean conscience.
The blond paused his faux typing and listened with earnest as the door to the exit clanged behind him.
He swirled in his chair and sent a quick text. Pan was bustling through the doors a second later.
"Took him damn long enough," he cursed as he unraveled his scarf.
Felix didn't feed into his irritation. He didn't want to prolong their meeting just in case Glass or another staff member suddenly showed up.
"Here," he said, handing Pan several thick files. "This was all they had. The Boston station hasn't responded to my request yet."
Pan nodded and flipped through the top file quickly, grinning like he had the biggest scoop of all time.
"This will work for now," he clucked, hiding the files in his bag.
As Felix had expected, Pan didn't immediately leave now that the task was complete. He was never one for small-talk unless he knew—despite frequent denying—that he had done something wrong.
It was amusing to the older blonde, to see the rawer parts of his wild friend. He had the inability to admit he was human, but he'd allow glimpses of that mortality to show, only to be buried again.
"Tink's fine," Felix offered when Pan didn't speak.
"I didn't ask about her," Pan growled immediately.
"But you were thinking about her," he countered, his heart skipping a bit. She didn't know about tonight, about him gathering the files for Pan behind her and Glass's back. But Felix had always had a time saying no to Pan about anything. Maybe it was because of how quickly he gained the power within their little circle, or perhaps it was because he had brought him back to life after his parents died, and somehow kept him alive after each and every seizure ever since. Peter Pan had a strange power over his heart and mind that not even the fear of losing Tink could break.
But…that was also his girl…and Pan needed to hear bitching from him now.
"You really hurt her," he added.
"She'll get over it," Pan whined. "It's not like that bitch would have been a mother to her anyway."
"That's not it," Felix said. "She's hurt because you drug her through the dirt like this. If it were Wendy, it would be one thing—we haven't known her that long. You, we have history. You should be one of the only people in the world who would think twice about harming her in any way."
Pan rolled his eyes, but he tilted his head away so Felix couldn't see his face.
That's why she was still mad? What the hell! He was Peter Pan for Christ's sake! She should expect this from him!
Oh God…
She expected this from him and still got hurt.
He had struggled to rebury the trauma from his investigative rendezvous with Jekyll in the past few weeks, especially with Tink's recent rage bringing back a serious case of déjà vu.
He would have never put her in the danger he had all those years ago, but the chance had literally presented itself before him. Jekyll's target had been blondes with minor injuries—so minor that they could have easily walked out of the hospital without suspicion.
Tink fit the mold perfectly, and had he not been absolutely terrified for what was about to happen, he would have let her in on his plan.
That had been his biggest mistake.
Maybe she would have said yes, or maybe she would have called Graham in on it and ruined two months' worth of work, but she had been kept in the dark. Because of him.
Tink wasn't like Felix. She wasn't pulled into the dark hole of his madness. She didn't look at him, mesmerized, like a fly in the final moments before a spider sucks it dry. She was harder, less willing to put her faith and trust into anyone.
She never went along with anything he needed. She always tried to outright defy him at every turn. She had throttled any plan or suggestion he had made during their high school days, and had assisted Wendy during her first story just because she knew it would piss him off. It was a game he liked to play, because even if she was the opponent, she was never quite an enemy.
She was like him. Hard, very careful of who to let in. But Tink loved life more than he did, and had found a way to love those in it.
Including him.
And that was her biggest mistake.
She wasn't hurt because of what he had done. She was hurt because he had done it.
"Are you listening?"
"No," Pan muttered. "I stopped long ago,"
Felix's gaze hammered into his spine until he was out of the building, hiding his face in the collar of his jacket.
It didn't matter. It shouldn't matter. So what if Tink hated him for the rest of their natural lives? He didn't need friends…he didn't need companionship…or talks over coffee…or chaste remarks after his rashness got him hurt…or random conversations that filled the bouts of silence that threatened to swallow him whole.
He didn't want them, but damn it he needed some kind of socializing in his life.
Felix's loyalty. Wendy's determination. Tink's reasonability.
He messed up. He felt it down to the marrow of his bones. But he didn't want to feel it, didn't want to admit it.
He sped up to get to his apartment, pushing down anything he felt to the very ends of his soul.
He wouldn't make this right. He couldn't.
Because unlike Tink, Pan didn't know how to use his heart.