Thank you everyone who pointed out that I goofed and posted the wrong chapter. You're amazing, and I'm a moron :P

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Emma observed. She was very good at it, she supposed it was part of her superpower. It was probably something to do with being 'The Saviour' - a title she was sure she'd never fully get over – to help her find people's true intentions. Tilla, the new woman in Storybrooke, was currently the one under her scrutiny.

Snow had suggested they took her to Granny's for something to eat, something Tilla seemed to react rather happily to. She'd probably not eaten for a while. She had taken the modern-ish town and diner in with an intrigue rather than fear, showing that she was used to being in new places. She had let Snow direct to her a booth, which was a sign she was used to taking orders from people. She could see a lot of herself when she was in the foster system. She'd learnt when to defy people, and when to keep her head down and just do what she was told. This was definitely what Tilla was doing.

Granny brought her over a meal and she shot the older woman a big grin. Snow was talking animatedly – ever the Queen – whilst bouncing her baby brother on her lap. Emma was sat at the bar, coffee in hand, Tink and Hook with her as they watched on.

"Well, at least she's not scared by your mother's overt friendliness," Hook commented. "She'll probably fit in quite well here."

"She never did answer the question," Emma replied and he shot her a confused look. "She was trapped in that bottle by Gold. Why? What did she do?"

"I wouldn't try and place a reason on his behaviour, Swan," he said. "You know as much as I that everything he does comes from his own selfishness. She probably just forgot to pay her dues."

"Her dues for what, though?" she pressed.

Tink looked between them, knowing that her work was done and she could leave the strange woman in the hands of the heroes who tended to fix all the town's problems. "I'm going to head back," she told the pair.

"Of course, thanks for bringing her to us," Emma told her. "If you think of anything else strange, let us know."

"Stranger than a woman coming out of a bottle?" Tink joked as she turned to leave. She then did pause, turning back. "Actually, there was something a bit odd. She recognised here as not being on Neverland, and I swear she knew who I was."

"But you didn't?" Emma asked and she shook her head. "What about you?" she asked Hook.

"I've never seen her before in my life," he commented. Emma frowned, deep in thought as she turned back to the woman.

"I stole the bottle from Pan," Tink explained to Hook. "He must have known I had it, but he never came for it. He wanted me to keep hold of it."

"There is no way he wouldn't have known she was in there," he replied, which the women agreed with. "Why would he have wanted you to have her?"

"I don't know. Whatever the reason, it can't be good."

Tink left, bottle in hand, as Hook turned to Emma. "What are you thinking, Sheriff? Is she good, or bad?"

"I don't know," Emma muttered in reply before standing up off her stool. "I think it's time we asked her."

She walked over and slid into the booth next to her father, cup of coffee still in hand. "So, why did Gold trap you in the bottle?" she asked.

Till frowned. "Gold?"

"Rumplestiltskin," Emma clarified. "The town was under a curse, it's a whole thing. What did you do?"

Tilla looked around the table, up at Hook who was stood next to Emma, before turning back to the other woman. "He was punishing me," she explained. "I got away from him, and made him go to Neverland to get me back."

"You were his prisoner?" Charming asked and she shook her head.

"I'm kind of a part of him," Tilla replied. She was expecting the confused looks sent her way, so she barely paused. "When I was a child he met me in the woods outside my cottage. He told me that he could help me make everyone happy, and he passed on a part of his magic to me. All his regret and guilt at his bad choices was tied up in the light magic that all magical beings possess, he decided to get rid of it."

"Into a child?" Snow breathed, horrified and Tilla nodded.

"I travelled for a while, then one day I saw some boys being enchanted by a magical being I'd never heard of. I broke the spell, Pan wasn't happy, and he swept me off to Neverland. I was there until Rumplestiltskin decided to trap me back in the bottle."

Emma leant forward onto her elbows, staring intently at Tilla as she tried to determine whether she was telling the truth or not. Everyone around her waited silently for her judgement, almost as if they were expecting Emma to declare that she was lying. Instead all the Emma sensed what that she was holding some things back, but ultimately what she was saying didn't make her any more suspicious than she was with most people.

She leant back into the seat. "Well, Gold isn't here anymore, so you don't have to worry about him," she explained, giving her verdict. "I'm sure that Granny can find you a room for now."

Tilla guessed that the lady who brought her the food was Granny, and also was who the diner was named after. She just nodded and picked up whatever was in front of her, giving it another bite. She wasn't sure what it was, it appeared to be some meat between bread, but whatever was on it made it taste delicious and she was definitely going to have to try it again when she could afford to buy another.

She paused, and looked down at it, before swallowing her mouthful. "I don't have any money to pay for this," she stated. "Does anyone have any coins I could borrow until I find myself some work?"

"Don't worry about it," Charming brushed off. "Just focus on getting settled."

~0~0~0~

Emma sat back down with her family after showing Tilla off to the room Granny had kindly let them use on the promise of payment to come. "So, what do we think?" she asked. "Should we be worried?"

"I don't know," Snow replied with a thoughtful frown on her face. "She doesn't seem to be evil."

"If Gold really did trap her in that bottle, then maybe we can trust her," Charming offered, although he didn't sound completely convinced himself. "After all, being an enemy of Rumplestiltskin isn't exactly a bad thing."

"It's not necessarily a good thing, either," Emma pointed out. She looked up at Hook. "She was on Neverland, but you and Tink don't have any memories of her. That seems a bit strange, doesn't it?"

"With Pan in charge of her fate, I wouldn't be surprised about anything," Hook replied.

"We could keep her close until we know more," Charming suggested. "Give her some busy work at the station and try and find out more."

Emma nodded. "She's hiding something, I can tell you that," she stated. "I'm just not sure what, and that worries me."

~0~0~0~

Tilla sighed to herself as she shut the door behind her. She was glad to finally be on her own after being whisked from one place to another by the very enthusiastic townsfolk Tink had introduced her to.

She'd heard of lands without magic before, but for some reason she hadn't expected them to be so bright and so loud. There had been music playing from nowhere down in the main part of the café below, which had been a little startling, and the strange carriages that had gone past them as they'd walked down the street had been rather noisy as well. Even this room, when Emma had turned on the light, had seemed brighter than it should have been. It was going to take her a while to get used to.

It wasn't the only thing either. She walked over to the bed, sweeping the skirt of her dress out of the way as she sat down on it. It bounced strangely underneath her, but it wasn't unpleasant. She hadn't expected to be let out of the bottle at all, so she'd been ready to come out into a fight. Apparently, though, no one remembered she was in there. Rumplestiltskin had been right, she thought, as she looked down at the ring on her middle finger. She slowly twisted it backwards and forwards to watch it glitter in the light. The world had forgotten her when she'd been locked away.

She rubbed her face with both hands, feeling the tears appear in her eyes as she started crying to herself. She had known it was going to happen, but seeing Hook stare straight at her with no recognition was a pain she'd never felt before. Killian had truly forgotten her, and she had no idea what to do.

~0~0~0~

The night was dark, but the sea was calm, which Tilla had to be thankful for as she tried her hardest to sweep up the dirt that seemed to have accumulated on the ship's flooring. Most of the men had retired for the evening, leaving only a bare bones crew that were watching for the night. They didn't bother her, and she didn't bother them. She just wanted to get on with cleaning by the ship's wheel so that she could head off to bed herself.

She paused, leaning on the broom as she looked upwards. Not that she didn't like the night sky, of course. Stars were so wonderful, and Neverland wasn't exactly lacking in them. The clear sky and the bright moon just added to the beauty and she had yet to grow tired of it. She had always liked the night sky. When she was a little kid, she would look out of her bedroom window at night and watch the stars twinkle, believing them to be fairies.

She had since met fairies, and while they were not stars as she had once thought, they were as magical as her younger self wanted them to be.

She looked around, wondering the best way to get rid of the dirt she had swept up, before shrugging and brushing it over the side. Not that she wanted to anger the mermaids that swan the waters of Neverland, but they'd not notice a little dirt. She grimaced as she looked at the mop; for some reason it was the task she hated most.

She looked around again but this time to see if she was being watched. Most of the crew were on deck, except for the guy at the helm – she was still learning names, but she thought his name was Christopher. And, if she was honest, she wasn't entirely convinced he was awake. He hadn't seemed to notice her sweeping around him at any rate.

She grinned to herself and hitched up her skirt before running to the very back of the ship and jumping onto the back. She dangled her legs over the side and looked upwards happily. Oh, she did love the sky.

"You know, that could be quite dangerous," Hook's voice called from the behind her. She jumped, startled, and quickly turned around in time to see him smack his crewman on the arm with his hook to jolt him awake. She quickly jumped down.

"Sorry, I was just…" she started before coming to the quick conclusion that she couldn't really explain herself. "Sorry. I was just about to mop the floor."

"It looked like you were more likely to fall off into the dark waters than use them to clean my ship," Hook replied as he walked over to stand in front of her. "Getting bored already, are you? Perhaps I could help you pass your time."

She tried not to cringe slightly. He didn't mean it, obviously, but she still didn't appreciate the joke. "I'm just happy not to be on land," she told him bluntly. "I'll mop any surface to not have to go back to Pan."

He paused for a moment before nodded. "Aye, I can understand that," he told her. "I'm not sure jumping to your death is the best way to go about it, though." He motioned to the floor. "Finish up here."

"I wasn't jumping," she said as he turned away. "I was looking at the stars."

"The stars?"

She nodded. "I don't know a lot about them," she admitted. "I just like them a lot."

Something Captain Hook had come to notice over the short while she had been on his ship was that she was rather good at following orders. Once she had been shown her duties, she had kept them up with no complaint, no whining, but most importantly with no magic. "If you're looking for a bit of a break, there is a quicker way for you to do so."

She had starting mopping, with a mop that had definitely seen better days. "You mean why don't I just use magic to clean?" she replied as if she had been able to tell his thoughts. "My magic is like a homing beacon. If I use it, there is a chance that someone will see and know it's me. Can't have that, can we?"

"Ah, you're worried about alerting Pan to your whereabouts," he stated and she shook her head.

"No, Captain, someone else. Someone you're very familiar with," she paused and met his gaze. "I'm not hiding from Pan. I'm hiding from the Dark One."

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Thanks everyone for being so kind. This is quite a new fandom for me to dive in, so apologies if everything isn't fantastic. And this is still a plot bunny, so I can't promise frequent uploads.

Oh, and this is set near the end of the six weeks after Gold is banished from Storybrooke in the middle of Season 4. I'm thinking that I might diverge from the main plot (mainly because I hate what they do to Snow and Charming in that season), but we shall see.