Hi, so here is another chapter, my thanks to all of you who have commented on the previous chapters and i hope you enjoy this one.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine just this chapter and the storyline.

Please Read and Review and let me know what you think and thank you all for your kind words so far.

Old Scars, Future Hearts.

Chapter 3-Every Second Counts.

Regina contemplates her decisions, Neal is found alive. Roland meets a real life mermaid and Rumple contemplates what a quiet life must look like.

She had not planned to help the boy—no Roland was his name—she had not planned to help Roland, indeed with all the crashing and the banging she had thought he was a lost boy. She had not expected to see a boy of about five in his nightshirt, his feet mud stained and his knee scraped running through the woods towards her screaming.

Actually it had been the screaming that had sealed it for her. The Lost Boys had become something of a bore for her now. She just waved her hand and they crumpled to the ground and she carried on. She had suspected (and was mostly proven right) that with the exception of the Saviour, the Dark One was also someone Pan wanted to watch and she took a great deal of delight in removing the obstacles in her way even if they had once been children. She was honestly not sure what was left of them now and she didn't want to think about it. She didn't want to have to draw comparisons to the boy that she was trying to save and what he might become.

Actually if she was being honest with herself she didn't want to draw the comparisons between the girl that she had once been and what she was now, what happened to a child when nobody stepped in front of the danger and the isolation and the neglect.

It was both terrible to think of and annoying because Regina knew that yet again it was another thing she had in common with Emma Swan.

Roland Hood had fallen asleep against her shoulder. His feet were digging painfully into her ribs and her arms were aching and her left side had been dragging downwards with the weight of him and yet she couldn't bring herself to wake him up. He was not her boy by any stretch of the imagination but she felt a surge of protectiveness that came from holding him, from carrying him, from saving him. He was here all alone and still in his nightclothes. He had more than likely been pulled from his bed by his father (whoever he was) and made to help Neal and Regina felt her teeth gnash together as she thought about it and more importantly how little she could get away with hurting the cretin who had put this child through hell. If Neal and Emma were off playing happy families in the forest while this child had been chasing down poisoned arrows she was going to set this island on fire and dance as the fuckers burned.

God what a delightful image that created.

And yet still she couldn't put the boy down. He wasn't her son, he was some other persons son but she found that as she was walking she wanted to hold him for that other mother out there, or that other father out there who couldn't hold their son because she had him. Regina would want someone to hold Henry if he was this age and scared and calling for her. Besides the way this boy talked it could be he didn't have a mother and instead had a father.

Why his father had allowed Neal to do this was beyond Regina. If it had been Henry…well that whole thing with a burning room was enough to bring her and David together in universal agreement which had meant…something.

It was just Roland's father as well she gathered, certainly every conversation she had, had with him (though that was not much) he had mentioned a Papa and not a mother. He had one parent, much like once upon (a somewhat happier time for her) Henry had had.

She righted herself after stumbling over a tree root and she shuddered as a wind blew through her, God knows only what it was doing to the child. If his parents were not in Storybrooke Regina herself was going to give him a hot bath and a few vaccinations. Last thing she needed was Henry getting some form of Enchanted Pestilence and then spreading it through his class. Actually come to think about did children get illness anymore?

Oh that was too hard a question to think about as she came to a stop.

Gold.

He was here.

So was Pan.

She could feel both the smugness and the magic coming off the small clearing in waves. Pan being Pan and Gold being Gold…well it could be either one of them. She checked at that thought—even their magic seemed familiar.

Regina shook her head. There was a time and a place to be worrying about that and this was not now. Gently she shook Roland awake and was rewarded with brown eyes opening sleepily and she knew he had a moment where he didn't know who he was or where he had been or what had happened to him. It reminded her so much of Henry that she had to look away least she be overcome by her emotions. Going into a fight with her heart on her sleeve did not help anyone. And Rumple was not what one would call sensitive about his emotions or the emotions of anyone else.

Roland stared at her. Regina smiled.

"I'm going to but you down now. And I want you to stay behind me. And if I tell you to run then you must alright?"

She waited until she got a nod and then she placed him on the floor. His bare feet sunk a little and Regina waved her hand. Roland looked down at his new boots and flashed her a grin.

"Fank you Regina" he said sleepily. Regina resisted the urge to sweep him up and hug him close. She was not the boy's mother. Her own boy needed her and if she was feeling unsettled then…then that was just the way Pan was running this place.

She walked into the clearing and stopped dead.

Belle.

For a second Regina was stunned. She had not thought the bookworm capable of such magical accomplishments, and then she heard herself think that and mentally chastised herself.

Belle with magic.

Belle with magic as powerful as Pan's?

Yeah like that would ever happen.

Trick.

She reached with instinct for Belle's throat. It didn't take much, only imagining what she would do to her if she was real. Reforming though she might be there were times when the bookworm made her teeth grit together. Imagining strangling her so that the thing…the shadow she was sure, would come out of the shell in order to survive was no skin of her nose.

Rumple lunged and Regina resisted the urge to roll her eyes heavenwards. Honestly the most feared practitioner of magic, her teacher, the man who had created a legacy of fear that had inspired generations and he was falling for this?

Good Lord she really was surrounded by morons.

The shadow twisted and then was gone and the thing in the blue dress was gone too. Rumple stared at it and then his eyes widened and Regina turned her attention to Roland who was watching with wide eyes. She took the opportunity to remove her jacket and get into her black coat which was warmer and then gently tousled the curls flashing him a smile. He managed a small one back and then he pressed her head into her legs and Regina picked him up again wincing as the booted feet now pressed into her ribs.

"What is this amateur hour?" she snapped. "Did you believe that was Belle?"

Rumple turned to look at her and then his eyes alighted on Roland in her arms, his head was on her shoulder and he was watching them his hands curled into Regina's coat lapels. Regina didn't blame him. Had she not been so used to (and being the subject) of the look on Rumple's face then she would have been slightly scared as well.

"Why are you here? And why do you have a child? Are you in the process of saving Lost Boys now Your Majesty?"

Regina ignored the jibe at the end. She'd find some way to make him pay another time.

"Well for starters it appears I'm saving your ass. I mean you were about to become Pan's lunch!"

Rumple did not look impressed. Then again Regina was not sure if that was just his fallback expression whenever something didn't go his way.

"Why do you care?"

"Because…" Because if she was being honest with herself there was a long history between the two of them. They had both had a hand in making the other. They had become the two most deadest people in all the realm and Regina knew Rumple well enough to know a smug teenager and some boys with pointy sticks were not going to take that off him without a fight. Because there was a sense of unity always underpinned by their enmity, because they could both turn to each and do what needed to be done when the Charming's refused. They were despite them both moving on, two halves of a coin that couldn't be changed.

But she couldn't say any of that even though she did…deep, deep down…think that Rumple understood. Instead she went with the safer option.

"Because I've been camping with the Charming's for a week and getting nowhere! To save Henry I need you. Rumplestilskin"

"You've never gone up against him"

Regina sighed. For something so simple he sure was making it complicated.

"You and I are the two most powerful practitioners of magic that have ever lived. I think between the two of us we can come up with a way to deal with one smug teenager and children with pointy sticks"

Rumple did not look convinced even as he launched into his idiotic story about how he was prepared to die which Regina doubted deep down he really was prepared to do, even for the son of his own son, his grandson. She'd known him too long. Regina sighed, as irritating as he might be he was better than the alternative. She couldn't help herself though when he said he was prepared to die in the process. God the change you went through when you were in love! The idea of Rumple putting any life before his own was laughable.

"Well, I could have told you that, that wasn't going to happen. I know all about your survival instincts"

"Yeah well—they've just kicked in"

"Good" Regina snapped. Roland shifted and she put him down again as Rumple went into full flow over Pandora's Box and how to get to it. Regina half listened, exasperated and resigned and then Rumple turned his attention to Roland who had found it appeared a rather stout stick.

"And who is this?"

"This is Roland" she said as Roland peeped out from behind her. "I assume you know Neal is alive?"

A muscle in Rumple's jaw twitched but he said nothing. Regina took that to mean he had known and that as per usual reunion between father and son had not been sweet.

"Well what I assume your son has failed to tell you is that he entrusted the help of this boy's, parents who used their son as bait for that shadowy thing. And then your son abandoned him halfway through"

Rumple raised an eyebrow but otherwise ignored her though she noticed that as he looked at Roland with something that could in the lighting be considered as sympathy.

"Oh" Regina said cheerfully. "And outlaws have ransacked your house. Shall we get going?"

The look on Rumple's face was priceless.

Roland had gripped a stick as he walked. He had told Regina that he was fine with walking and he was. She had given him some water and a bit of bread she had made the Dark One conjure for him. Roland didn't understand much of their conversation but he gathered that a man called Pan could track them if they used too much magic and that was why they were reluctant to do much. Either way he didn't mind. He had new boots and they fit perfectly and his feet were dry. He was warm now the weather had changed and he was apparently on his way to see a real life mermaid!

Roland had read about mermaids before. He had read about how they lured sailors to their death and how they caused storms and misery. He had read about them in books Papa had brought him and once in the local tavern and for that reason he was bringing a sturdy stick. Course it might not do much good but it was better than nothing.

Regina made the Dark One walk at a steady pace though it was clear he'd rather not. Roland liked Regina, he liked the fact that she had saved him and that she treated him like he was a grown up. He knew that they were looking for her son and even though he had not broached the subject he liked to think that once they had gotten her son back they could get him back to his Papa.

Roland's stomach twisted a little thinking about him. Papa must be so worried about him. Roland had no idea how long he had been gone but he knew it had been a long time. He wondered if Little John and Tuck were looking after him. Will had said once that his Papa was a disaster and couldn't look after himself and his Papa had just laughed and said that he had Roland to look after him.

Roland gripped his stick a little tighter as his heart thudded a little in pain at the thought. He bit his lip hard to stop his chin wobbling and was pleased when he did stop it. Regina needed his help to find her son but…

But…

Maybe she wouldn't mind.

He scooted a little bit closer to her and reached out taking one finger in his own. She looked down in surprise and then she tucked his hand into her own with a small smile. Roland sighed a little as they came upon a clearing filled with water. He wanted to drink and made half a step forwards but Regina touched him on the shoulder with a small shake of her head but before Roland could ask why he saw the water recoil and bubble and then came out the head and torso of a woman with red hair whose tail also came out of the water.

A mermaid.

She didn't look like a monster. She looked like a normal human being—minus the tail—she spoke to Regina and Roland tuned out the words because he didn't understand half of them but then she took a bracelet and was gone splashing her way under the water.

"We won't have much time" The Dark One said finally.

"No" Regina said with a smile. "But now we have a chance. And I promise you Roland that as soon as I have my son back and we are back in our home of Storybrooke, I will find your Papa for you"

He smiled at her unable to use the words he wanted to. He gave her hands a little squeeze and she smiled back and Roland thought that perhaps she understood.

And yeah the dialogue has not been 100 percent accurate but that is the way it is, let me know what you think and I will do my best to bring you the next chapter as soon as i can.

Next Chapter-Regina, Roland and Rumple join the rest of the gang on Neverland. A plan is formed to get Henry and get out. Regina contemplates what to do with Roland when they get back to Storybrooke.