Hi, so here is another chapter, this one is admittedly a lot shorter than the last so i apologise.
For those of you wondering where Robin is i predict he will show up in about two more chapters.
Disclaimer-None of this is mine i'm just playing around with the characters.
Please Read and Review.
Old Scars, Future Hearts.
Chapter 5-Careful What You Wish For.
Hook and Roland share a moment as they go back to the Jolly Rodger. Regina contemplates motherhood and the deepest desires within her as the gang finally find a way to escape Neverland.
The Lost Boys were marching all in a straight line with their head's held down and their little feet plodding along in the tramp, tramp motions of the utterly defeated and Hook who was keeping one eye on Felix (who had not gone quietly) was walking behind them taking a little flicker of pleasure at their defeat. Tink was walking in front and Felix who had been difficult to contain was floating alongside. Regina had had enough of his wining and had knocked him unconscious with a wave of her hand and then had rigged him up so that he looked like a floating puppet. He'd get on the ship no problem and that way he could not terrorise anyone, or warn Pan what the plan was in the meantime. The Charming's had not liked her methods but Killian who knew all about Felix and what he was capable off had thought that a very good way to deal with him. Especially considering the Dark One was there and he was about as gentle as a giant dreamshade drenched pointy stick.
Children though the Lost Boys may be (or might have been depending on how long they had been on this island) they were nothing short of a bloody menace and they had been responsible for the deaths of a few good sailors not to mention propping up their leader who had made good on his promise to cause chaos and carnage and who had taken away the one good thing in Killian's life. His brother. Liam.
There was a pattering next to him and he tore his eyes away from Felix who had been the worst of them to the boy next to him. The Queen after much convincing had agreed to entrust the lad to him and had gone off with Neal and Swan in search of the boy they shared and he was forced to take the boys back to the ship and hope like hell they got Henry and they could get out preferably with Pan trapped in that dangerously small but powerful box.
He slid backwards a little bit an eye on Roland. The lad was doing a lot better than Killian would have been doing if he was five and trapped on this place. But the boy was five and he had been doing a mountain of walking and he was still in a very muddy nightgown and dirt encrusted boots.
"Are you alright?" he asked gently. He was not completely hopeless or heartless when it came to children but then again it wasn't like he knew what to do with them…Bae had been nearly fourteen when he had been on his ship, and Milah had been adamant about not having children even though he personally had wanted them. He had wanted children but she had been adamant on not having them to the point that she would walk away whenever he broached the subject. Actually now he was thinking about it a lot of their relationships had been about that. But because he had never had children he had no idea how to deal with them.
Roland Hood turned to look a him his face shining with a thin layer of sweat and a coated in dirt. Even Killian who knew dirt came with the job thought that the boy needed to be thrown in a hot bath and scrubbed until his skin was red. Actually that was what he was going to do when he got back himself.
"I'm fine Mr Hook" he said cheerfully. "Now were going to someplace safe."
"Yes…it's a town I suppose called Storybrooke" and then because he knew that all the modern intricacies that even Regina had gotten used to would be lost on this boy he thought that perhaps it might be best for him to forewarn the lad what he was in for.
"Storybrooke is a very different town to the Enchanted Forest Roland" he said finally. "There will be many different things. For example they have these things that are called…cars…not sure what they do myself but apparently they are like a faster version of a horse and carriage…sans horse. And there are other things too. Several other things that I still do not understand like what is the point of those mobile talky things and what is the chatsnap app or—" he looked down and caught Roland's confused expression and then forced himself away from that conversation and back to the one he had started with the child. Goodness he didn't know how Swan and the Queen did it. Conversing with children was a lot harder than it looked.
They walked in silence together and then Roland asked his voice impossibly small again when he spoke.
"Do you think they'll come back?"
"Yes" Killian said, even if he did believe in lying to the child (and he did not) he would have given that answer anyway. He knew Swan, he knew the Queen and he knew Bae. He knew all three of them individually and had seen them working together in a cohesive group. He knew that they could overcome anything if it was to get their boy back.
He suspected deep down even Pan knew that he was on borrowed time.
"Do you think they can find my Papa?" he asked again. Killian considered weather or not the lie was the kindest form of communication and then again decided to go with the truth as best as he could see it. He found that he did not want to look this boy in the face and lie to him—he had lied to Bae in the beginning, about Milah, about his father, about his role in the destruction of his family and it had both haunted him and hurt him for a long time.
He was not going to do that again.
"I don't know" he said truthfully. "But I know Regina and I know Emma and I know with or without magic they will put their heads together and do all they can to find him and bring him back to you. The most important thing that we can do in the meantime though is make sure the ship is ready to sail. Have you ever been on one?"
"No" Roland said truthfully and suddenly on better and surer footing that when dealing with emotions Killian launched into a conversation about masks, riggings and the other attachments to his dear ship as they walked through the forest the Lost Boys in front of them to what he hoped was freedom for them all.
It was a calculated colossal fuck up from the start. They had lost Henry and then she and Emma had gone in search of her little boy's heart as Neal had carried the body of their limp son back to the boat. She had felt something close up inside of her at the sight, the nightmare of the last time she had allowed magic to rule her emotions flashing before her eyes. She had lost Henry that day, she had lost him long before that but it had been the final nail in a coffin she had been too stubborn to see. She'd had to fight and crawl and kick and scream her way back into his life and she was not about to let that go now.
Pan was talking, gloating really, teasing Emma and Snow about their failures as a mother, teasing her. Regina looked at him, at Rumple's father and for the first time felt a fleeting stab of pity. Rumple's father may have started out as a good man (Regina didn't know—her mentor had never so much as hinted he'd even had parents before today after all) but he had never understood the love of a child. He had never understood that the boys in his care were just that, children. He had never understood that she wasn't just thinking of Henry as he taunted her but of Roland and that warmth in her belly that had flared up when she had held him on her hip.
She couldn't tell anyone that she mourned what she had lost with Henry when she was with Roland. She could not tell anyone (certainly not Snow or Emma) that she was seriously debating weather or not a trip to the Enchanted Forest was worth it. She wanted to take Roland to her house and tuck him into bed and make him apple pie for dinner, teach him how to use the microwave and what ice cream was. She wanted all of what she had squandered again and yet…
And yet it wasn't just about that. She had truly come to love Roland. He was an endearing little boy. He made something inside of her remember what it was to love. And right now she had two boys, Henry and Roland depending on her not falling to pieces. To stay dry eyed and out of the past and she smiled because Pan might have thought he knew how to play Snow and Emma but he did not know how to play her and she told him as much as she reached forwards and took what was hers.
Her son's heart.
And then finally, they got away with the most precious thing in the world. Something worth more than it's weight in gold. Something strong and beating and alive.
Henry's heart.
The heart of the Truest Believer.
And somehow Regina found it in herself to trust that it was all going to be alright.
Roland had been stood near the wheel when Neal had come back on board. Hook having seen the Lost Boys to the side where Tinkerbelle was giving them bread, water and blankets. He had been inspecting the markings on the ship with the line crossed through them and Hook looking at him with that strange way that made Roland think of him less like a pirate and more like a man like Papa without his bow and arrow. He had been enjoying learning about the ship and how it worked especially when Hook assured him that his ship would never sink. Roland had never been on a ship before. Actually there was a lot of things he was doing today that he had never done before.
Neal came on board then with the body of a boy who was older than Roland but younger than the meanest of the Lost Boys. He had a whispered conversation with Hook as David and the Dark One appeared the Dark One looking rather ruffled and brushing down his coat. There was the pounding of footsteps and Roland took a step backwards watching with wide and careful eyes as Regina, Emma and Snow White came pounding up the deck. Regina didn't look at him, all her attention was focused on the boy in front of her and Roland watched as the glowing thing in her hand was thrust into what he knew was Henry's chest. He watched for a second and then the boy opened his eyes and Roland who didn't know him, who didn't know much about what was happening found he was sighing in relief.
He knew what this meant though and it made him sigh in relief. If they had saved Henry then they could go home and going home right now not only meant Papa but it meant a hot bath, a bed, a change of clothes and some hot food and Roland thought he had done rather well pretending that he was coping like a grown up. Regina helped the boy to his feet and Hook saw him to the cabin and then she was reaching without looking at him for Neal and the coconut shell he seemed to clutching between his hands and then she caught his expression and came over crouching down her boots clacking on the wood of Hook's ship.
"Were nearly home Roland" she said touching his shoulder. "And then I will find your Papa. Thank you for being brave"
Roland nodded to all of that and she smiled at him. He wasn't sure what to do so instead he sat down on the deck and leaned his head against the ship's wall and watched as the green shadow was released and Regina used her magic to pull it towards the direction of the middle of the tea. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the wood and breathed in the scent of wood and salt and dirt and knew that even if he wasn't going home they were getting away from the danger.
As Papa would say, that was all that mattered.
And there you go, i hope you enjoyed, and i will bring the next chapter too you as soon as i have written it.
Next Chapter-Everyone returns to Storybrooke. Roland adjusts to the modern day world. Regina adjusts to another child in her house. Short chapter set the night before the new curse.